The Freedom Revolution Blog

SEC watchdog to be questioned about Madoff scandal

MARCY GORDON : AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - The heavy toll of the Bernard Madoff scandal is being brought before Congress Monday as a House panel tries to determine how, despite warnings over a decade to federal regulators, Madoff continued to operate his alleged Ponzi scheme.

"I am a human face on this tragedy," says Allan Goldstein, a retired New York textile distributor.

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Rulings target Internet sex stings : Appeals court says there must be an actual victim

Jon Murray : The Indianapolis Star

The Internet stings police consider key to protecting minors from sexual predators may lose some of their power after two recent Court of Appeals rulings.

The use of undercover investigators as bait in Internet chats has become routine in Central Indiana. But the attraction for law enforcement -- the lack of an actual victim -- also became the basis for the reversal of two convictions against a Shelbyville man Wednesday by the Indiana Court of Appeals. That leaves in place a third related conviction.

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Prez-Elect Makes New Pitch, Promises on Job Creation -- Including 600,000 New Government Employees

Jake Tapper : ABC News

In his radio address today, President-elect Obama uses some new language when discussing what he wants the stimulus package to achieve in terms of jobs. First off, he has a name for the package -- the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."

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Obama Eyes $300 Billion Tax Cut

JONATHAN WEISMAN and NAFTALI BENDAVID : Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts -- which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years -- is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated. It may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely more heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.

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Pakistanis reopen Khyber Pass for Afghan supplies

Ibrahim Shinwari : Reuters

JAMRUD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Trucks rumbled through Pakistan's Khyber Pass on Friday, resuming the transport of supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan three days after authorities suspended shipments to clear out militants.

Pakistani Taliban militants in the Khyber region have been trying for months to block vital supplies bound for landlocked Afghanistan, launching a string of attacks in which hundreds of trucks have been destroyed and several drivers killed.

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Treasury to mull Citi-style rescues

JEANNINE AVERSA : AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department opened the door Friday to using a Citigroup-style rescue package to help other troubled financial institutions.

The financial lifeline thrown to Citigroup Inc. (C) in late November involved backing billions in risky assets and providing the banking giant with a fresh capital infusion.

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U.S. governors seek $1 trillion federal assistance

Reuters : Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country's 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin -- all Democrats -- said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.

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Obama to talk stimulus with Hill leaders

Carol E. Lee : Politico

HONOLULU — President-elect Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders on Monday during his first full day back in Washington in an attempt to assuage rising concerns among Republicans and some Democrats that his economic stimulus plan is too costly and too rushed.

Obama will first sit down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss the scope and timing of a plan that could cost up to $775 billion, a Democratic source said Thursday.

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Burris sought death for innocent man

BEN PROTESS : ProPublica

Former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to replace Barack Obama in the Senate, is no stranger to controversy.

Public fury over the governor's alleged misconduct has masked the once lively debate over Burris' decision to continue to prosecute, despite the objections of one of his top prosecutors, the wrong man for a high-profile murder case.

While state attorney general in 1992, Burris aggressively sought the death penalty for Rolando Cruz, who twice was convicted of raping and murdering a 10-year-old girl in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. The crime took place in 1983.

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Steel Industry, in Slump, Looks to Federal Stimulus

LOUIS UCHITELLE : New York Times

The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy.

That maxim once applied to Detroit’s Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift.

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Gonzales Defends Role in Antiterror Policies

It's two days old now, but this incredible statement from Alberto Gonzales is too absurd not to highlight:

"What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?"

During a lunch meeting two blocks from the White House, where he served under his longtime friend, President George W. Bush, Mr. Gonzales said that "for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror."

Read the whole interview with poor, picked-on Gonzales here.

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Israeli warplanes destroy Gaza houses and mosque as air strikes continue

Rory McCarthy and David Batty : Guardian

Israeli warplanes struck around 20 targets in Gaza today, raising the death toll in the territory to at least 414 in seven days of intensive bombing.

The continued air strikes, which killed two Palestinians in a house and a mosque, and further rocket attacks by Hamas on the Israeli port of Ashkelon, dashed international hopes of a ceasefire.

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Russia Cuts All Gas Supplies To Ukraine

LYNN BERRY and MARIA DANILOVA : Huffington Post

MOSCOW — Russia made good on its threat to cut off all natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Thursday _ but the two uneasy neighbors took great pains to make sure their contract dispute would not leave Europe short of gas just as winter set in.

Overshadowing their confrontation was the specter of 2006, when a similar dispute interrupted gas shipments to many European countries for three days. But both Russia and Ukraine now have strong interests in proving to Europe they can be reliable energy partners, and they assured other European nations they would not be affected.

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As Clock Strikes 12, U.S. Hands Iraq Control of Green Zone

Ernesto Londoño : Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 -- The walls of the majestic Republican Palace in Baghdad's Green Zone have been stripped bare. The vaults that secured American cash and classified documents are gone, and the cement blast walls that protected the front entrance were taken down this week. The U.S. military dining facility inside what was once the American Embassy served its last meal New Year's Eve.

"This is the end of the world as we know it," said Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McDonald, 47, who co-authored a guide to historic sites in the Green Zone. "It's not like everyone is shredding documents and fleeing Saigon. But we are stepping away from a building."

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Cops accused of Toys for Tots thefts ‘tarnished’ police’s image, official says

Freeman Klopott : DC Examiner

The four District of Columbia police officers reportedly caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots “tarnished” the department’s image, a police official said.

Police confirmed that the four officers had been put on desk jobs as internal affairs investigates them for stealing toys. Officials said if the officers did take the toys intended for the city’s youth, they will be prosecuted.

On Christmas Day, the department’s community outreach director, Yvonne Smith, fired off a message to an e-mail network for residents of the Southeast D.C. neighborhood where the thefts allegedly occurred.

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Chief justice: Inflation outpacing pay for judges

MARK SHERMAN : AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday that Congress should be as generous to judges as it already has been to itself, by approving an inflation-related increase in their pay. "I must renew the judiciary's modest petition: Simply provide cost-of-living increases that have been unfairly denied," Roberts said in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary.

Alone among federal employees, judges will not receive a cost-of-living allowance in 2009. Members of Congress are getting a 2.8 percent boost, worth $4,700. But they refused before Christmas to give an identical increase to judges.

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Treasury Opens Door to Aid for Broad Array of Firms, Industries

Rebecca Christie : Bloomberg

 Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury threw the door open to taxpayer financing for a widening array of companies and industries by drafting broad guidelines on aid to the auto industry.

The Treasury’s guidelines, published yesterday, would let officials provide funds to any company they deem important to making or financing cars. That leaves room for the government to provide money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program beyond loans already committed to General Motors Corp., GMAC LLC and Chrysler LLC.

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US stocks suffer worst year since Great Depression

Alistair Gray : Financial Times

The worst annual performance for Wall Street stocks since the Great Depression ended with a modest rally on the final day of trading as the Federal Reserve pushed ahead with its plan to buy mortgage-backed securities.

The central bank’s plan to buy up to $500bn of mortgage bonds by the middle of 2009 helped spur a 1.4 per cent gain on the day for the S&P, which finished 2008 at 903.25.

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Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate

Robert MacMillan : Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut lawmaker Frank Nicastro sees saving the local newspaper as his duty. But others think he and his colleagues are setting a worrisome precedent for government involvement in the U.S. press.

Nicastro represents Connecticut's 79th assembly district, which includes Bristol, a city of about 61,000 people outside Hartford, the state capital. Its paper, The Bristol Press, may fold within days, along with The Herald in nearby New Britain.

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Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security

Kim Zetter : Wired

The profits of (conventional) war must not be as good as they used to be.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing have decided the next cash cow is cyber defense.

According to Bloomberg, both companies, "eager to capture a share of a market that may reach $11 billion in 2013," have formed new business units to attract money that the U.S. government will be spending to secure U.S. government computers and, no doubt, to break the security of enemy computer systems.

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Cafe ads draw $30,000 fine

AMY SHERMAN : Miami Herald

Candidate Jim Stork baked up more than ads for pie and coffee at his cafes when he aired commercials about his business during his bid for Congress in 2004, according to federal election officials.

Advertisements for Stork's Bakery and Café were essentially campaign pieces paid for with bakery dollars -- skirting federal rules that ban corporate donations in elections, the Federal Election Commission ruled.

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Turkish PM in Syria stresses 'dangerous situation' in Gaza

AFP

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday on the first stop of a regional tour focusing on Israel's deadly onslaught on Gaza.

Their meeting centered on "the dangerous situation in the Gaza Strip because of the Israeli aggression," Syria's official SANA news agency reported.

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Blagojevich snubs Senate, taps Burris for seat

Rick Pearson and Ray Long : Chicagobreakingnews.com

In a display of political bravado, disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich today appointed former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, challenging national Democratic leaders to reject the appointment of an African-American to the seat that propelled Barack Obama to the White House.

The defiant move tests the resolve of Senate Democrats who said they would not admit anyone appointed by Blagojevich, who is facing impeachment after being accused of trying to sell the Senate seat for personal gain. And it reveals to a nation celebrating Obama's victory the underbelly of Chicago's race-based political scene.

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Happy banniversary

Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz : Chicago Tribune

In the year since the Illinois smoking ban snuffed out cigarettes in bars, Jake Perry has drastically cut back--not on cigarettes, but on bars.

"It's just not fun anymore," said Perry, 34, who used to hit the bars every weekend and now rarely ventures out.

"You have to go outside, you can't drink your beer while you're smoking a cigarette," he said. "Even nonsmokers you're with get annoyed because suddenly a bunch of people decide to go outside to smoke, so they're left sitting by themselves."

Read More... (and thanks to Radley Balko for highlighting this article on his blog)

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The Washington Post has an informative article about U.S. Senator Jim Webb's plans for political reform. While Sen. Webb has some laudable goals, like focusing on incarcerating violent criminals rather than drug addicts and the mentally ill, it seems unlikely that the proposals will go anywhere, due to the 'law-and-order' (read: throw everyone in prison) mentality that seems so prevelant in Washington and elsewhere. For example, Virginia State Senator and candidate for attorney general Ken Cuccinelli said that Webb's values, at least on issues of crime and imprisonment, are out of line with the values of the people of Virginia and are more emotional than rational. Apparently, Mr. Cuccinelli has such a powerful grasp of the 'will of the people' of Virginia (a vague, collectivist notion) that he need not consider what the U.S. Constitution has to say on the matter, or, barring that, what commonsense and years of drug-war failures make abundantly clear. One would have to believe that a least some of the people of Virginia, perhaps those imprisoned for simple marijuana possession, would chafe at being considered part of Cuccinelli's 'people of Virginia.' Or maybe he doesn't consider them at all?

Read the whole article here.

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