I’m Doing ‘God’s Work’; Meet Mr. Goldman Sachs
November 10th, 2009Via: Times:
It’s the site of the best cash-making machine that global capitalism has ever produced, and, some say, a political force more powerful than governments. The people who work behind the brass-trim glass doors make more money than some countries do. They are the rainmakers’ rainmakers, the biggest swinging dicks in the financial jungle. Their assets total $1 trillion, their annual revenues run into the tens of billions, and their profits are in the billions, which they distribute liberally among themselves. Average pay this recessionary year for the 30,000 staff is expected to be a record $700,000. Top earners will get tens of millions, several hundred thousand times more than a cleaner at the firm. When they have finished getting “filthy rich by 40”, as the company saying goes, these alpha dogs don’t put their feet up. They parachute into some of the most senior political posts in the US and beyond, prompting accusations that they “rule the world”. Number 85 Broad Street is the home of Goldman Sachs.
Research Credit: GP
Korean Naval Ships Clash at Sea
November 10th, 2009Via: BBC:
A South Korean warship has exchanged fire with a North Korean naval vessel, reports from both countries say.
Officials in Seoul say the South Korean vessel opened fire when the Northern ship crossed a disputed sea border. The North Korean vessel then fired back.
North Korea insists its ship did not cross the border, and has demanded an apology, according to news agency KCNA.
The two navies have engaged in deadly exchanges twice along their western sea border in the past decade.
The incident comes days before US President Barack Obama visits Asia, with North Korea seeking direct talks on its nuclear programme.
Hasan Known to U.S. Intelligence Agencies; Congressional Requests for Information Refused
November 10th, 2009Via: ABC News:
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan’s contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is “absolutely furious” that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan’s attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
“This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies—not the CIA—have the lead,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a response to ABC News. ” Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is incorrect.”
Investigators want to know if Hasan maintained contact with a radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen and runs a web site that promotes jihad around the world against the U.S.
In a blog posting early Monday titled “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,” Awlaki calls Hasan a “hero” and a “man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”
According to his site, Awlaki served as an imam in Denver, San Diego and Falls Church, Virginia.
Council On Foreign Relations Symposium on Pandemic Influenza: Science, Economics and Foreign Policy: Fake Scarcity of H1N1 Vaccine to Convince People to Take It (Laughter)
November 9th, 2009Lone Simonsen, Research Professor and Research Director, Department of Global Health, George Washington University:
I think what would work better would be to say that there was a shortage and people tend to buy more of something that’s in demand. (Laughter.) We saw that — there was one season where, really, people lined up all night to get a flu shot.
60 Minutes: Sabotaging The System
November 9th, 2009Israel Proposes Work Camps for Illegal Migrants
November 9th, 2009Via: Haaretz:
The government is considering establishing work camps in the south of the country, where illegal migrant workers will receive shelter, food and medical care, Army Radio reported Wednesday. In exchange, illegal migrants would perform manual labor outside the camps, but would not earn a salary.
They would stay at the camp until their asylum claims are decided, which could take months or years.
U.S. Citizens Are Joining Immigrants in Store Parking Lots Seeking Day Labor Jobs
November 9th, 2009Via: Las Vegas Sun:
It sounds like a George Lopez joke.
“Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”
Except it’s true.
In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.
Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.
“It’s the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression,” said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
And Now… Texas Army Killer Linked to September 11 Terrorists
November 8th, 2009Via: Telegraph:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Mexico: Three Doctors and a Nurse Sold Newborns, Told Mothers Their Babies had Died
November 8th, 2009Via: Telegraph:
Police uncovered the scheme after one of the women learned her baby was alive and had been sold to another woman for 15,000 pesos, said Luis Genaro, the capital’s deputy attorney general.
The woman gave birth to a girl through cesarean section at the Central West Hospital in a working-class district in October 2008, Mr Genaro said at a news conference.
He said she told authorities she heard her baby cry but when she asked to see the child, doctors told her she had to wait until the effects of the anesthetics wore off. Later, doctors told her the baby had been taken to another hospital. A day later, the woman was told her baby died and had been cremated, he said.
The woman learned the truth from an-email sent to her by a man believed to be the son of the hospital director, Mr Genaro said.
The woman accused of buying the newborn has been arrested. Three doctors, a nurse and a receptionist from the hospital are also in custody.
Mr Genaro said police believe the group sold several newborn babies but have not yet determined how many. They face charges of trafficking in minors, organised crime and falsifying documents.
He said a married couple has also been arrested for allegedly paying the hospital to falsify a birth certificate for a baby that the pair had been given.
In a report this year, the US State Department described Mexico as “a large source, transit and destination country” for human trafficking. The majority of victims are undocumented migrants and women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation, according to the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report, which studied the problem worldwide.
The report said that although Mexico was stepping up efforts to crack down, convictions against human traffickers remain rare. The report said no trafficking offenders were convicted in Mexico in 2008.
Profit ‘Not Satanic,’ Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus
November 8th, 2009Via: Bloomberg:
Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer John Varley stood at the wooden lectern in St. Martin-in-the- Fields on London’s Trafalgar Square last night and told the packed pews of the church that “profit is not satanic.”
The 53-year-old head of Britain’s second-biggest bank said banks are the “backbone” of the economy. Rewarding high- performing bankers with more pay doesn’t conflict with Christian values, he said. Varley was paid 1.08 million pounds ($1.77 million) and no bonus in 2008.
“Talent is highly mobile,” Varley, a Catholic, said. “If we fail to pay or are constrained from paying competitive rates then that talent will move to another employer.”
“Is Christianity and banking compatible? Yes,” he said in an interview after the speech in the 283-year-old church. “And is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”
Varley joins Goldman Sachs International adviser Brian Griffiths and Lazard International Chairman Ken Costa as London bankers who’ve gone into London churches in recent weeks and invoked Christianity to defend a banking system that critics say has created wealth and inequality in the U.K.
“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
