C-SPAN: Investment Banks and the Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO

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C-SPAN
April 27, 2010

Investment Banks and the Financial Crisis, Directors

Current and former directors from Goldman Sachs testified about investment and trading activities of Goldman Sachs and other investment banks involving residential mortgage based securities and related products. Committee members asked several pointed questions about business practices at the firm, often referring to a large stack of electronic mail and other documents detailing communications about possible market manipulation and representations about products made to consumers. This hearing was the fourth in a series of subcommittee hearings examining some of the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis.

Michael Moore On Wall Street

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mmflint — April 28, 2010

“I’m happy the Obama administration brought these civil charges against them but I think there should be a criminal investigation. A lot of people’s money vaporized and I think when that happens — I’ll tell ya, we spend a lot of energy in our criminal justice system going after people that stick you up for a hundred bucks. I think the American people got stuck up for a hell of a lot more than that.” — Michael Moore on Larry King Live, Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

“I don’t understand Arizona, I mean, I didn’t think it would be possible for them to embarrass themselves more than they did twenty or so years ago when they were the only state that wouldn’t have Martin Luther King Day. This law of theirs, it’s — I don’t know what to say — it’s kind of like — I don’t know if you’ve read the language — my position usually is any time something sounds like dialogue from Hogan’s Heroes, it shouldn’t become law. They can just go up to anyone who looks Hispanic in a state that’s one third Hispanic and demand papers from them. This is not the American way and I can’t believe it will hold up constitutionally. … What is the problem really? Most of these immigrants who come here work very hard — illegal immigrants, they work very hard, they do the jobs Americans don’t want to do. Frankly, I think, I mean, personally, any illegal immigrant they catch in Arizona, they should let him keep doing his job because he’s adding to the economy. For every one they catch, they should send one Goldman Sachs guy to Mexico.” — Michael Moore on Larry King Live, Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

“The irony of their populist movement against the bailout and the banks and all that — here’s my question and if anybody in the control room, if you have some tape, you can roll it — show me one Tea Party demonstration that’s taken place on Wall Street or in front of a local bank or any financial institution. If they’re really so upset about that, why aren’t they demonstrating there? Instead what they’re doing, they’re running around with placards of Obama with a Hitler mustache on him. It’s a nutty, nutty movement. Here’s what I’d like to see. I’m gonna check this out, too. On Thursday of this week, a bunch of unions across the country have called for a massive rally and march on Wall Street. On this Thursday afternoon, they’re going to meet at City Hall Park and then they’re going to march down to Wall Street. I’d like to see if that gets as much attention as the six hundred, twelve hundred people Tea Party gatherings have received around the country.” — Michael Moore on Larry King Live, Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Help deport Wall Street at http://www.michaelmoore.co

Hammering Out a Contract: Exploiting Low-Paid Workers at a Vo-Tech School

by Walter Brasch and Rosemary R. Brasch
Featured Writers
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
April 27, 2010

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Art Welch, the in-school suspension supervisor at the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational Technical School (Vo-Tech) in Bloomsburg, Pa., earns $8 an hour, only 75 cents above minimum wage. In the six years he has been at Vo-Tech, he has never had a raise.

Mary Avery, who has worked in the cafeteria for 28 years, earns $9 an hour; some years, she only received a nickel an hour increase.

Wendy Zajac, who also works in the cafeteria, has been employed at Vo-Tech seven years; she is the only one of a bargaining unit of 25 workers who received a raise in four years. She now earns $7.25 an hour. The school’s management had no choice except to raise her salary so it would be in compliance with the federally-mandated minimum wage.

In Washington-Speak, “Palestinian State” Means “Fried Chicken” By Noam Chomsky

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By Noam Chomsky
TomDispatch
April 27, 2010

A Middle East Peace That Could Happen But Won’t

The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world’s conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized pre-June 1967 borders — with “minor and mutual modifications,” to adopt official U.S. terminology before Washington departed from the international community in the mid-1970s.

Inside the Stalin Archives by Daniel N. White

by Daniel N. White
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
April 27, 2010

Relatively new (2008) book by Jonathan Brent, professor at Yale, and leader of the Yale University project to publish declassified materials from the Soviet era archives.

Book is well worth a read.  Brent started the Yale project in 1992, and managed to make it work despite many obstacles in both Moscow and  New Haven.  Brent started off as Yale’s emissary to Russia and Russian scholars and scholarship and as time went on he equally or better became their emissary to Yale, as his involvement with the project, and involvement with Russia deepened.  Autobiographical account of his life in Russia from ’92 to 2007, and a valuable firsthand account of the changes in daily life in Russia during this period of great upheaval.  Brent’s own interest is Stalin, and his attempts to understand him are a most worthwhile part of the book.  Probably comes closer to explaining Stalin than anyone, certainly any non-Russian, ever did.

Carl Levin: How much of that shitty deal did you sell to your clients?

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Attention101

April 27, 2010 — Carl Levin questioning Daniel Sparks – Former Goldman Sachs Mortgages Department Head.

Police Captain Says Legalize ALL Drugs

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CopsSayLegalizeDrugs

April 27, 2010 — Retired police captain Peter Christ talks about the need to legalize and regulate all drugs in a live TV interview. Peter is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which any citizen can join for free at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com

Countdown: Texas Secession (2009)

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heathr456

May 15, 2009 — From Countdown May 14, 2009.