Tsvangirai was detained again, the currency crash inflation problem is accelerating, the Mugabe government has banned opposition rallies, and the so called “war veterans” threatened to burn diplomats alive.
Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has called for President Thabo Mbeki to speak out over what is going on in Zimbabwe.
Won’t happen. Mbeki won’t ever say a word against Mugabe, for reasons that are not clear to me.
It appears that about 20,000 wealthy Americans have accounts at the Swiss Bank UBS, and US regulators are now turning the screws to get this information out of them.
Under pressure from the authorities, UBS is considering whether to divulge the names of 20,000 of its well-heeled U.S. clients, according to people close to the probe, a step that would have once been unthinkable to Swiss bankers, whose practice of secrecy dates back to the Middle Ages.
U.S. investigators believe some of these clients may have used offshore accounts at UBS to illegally hide as much as $20 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Doing so may have enabled these people to dodge $300 million or more in U.S. taxes, according to a government official connected with the investigation.
….
New revelations are likely to come Monday, when a former UBS banker is expected to testify in a Florida court about how he helped Olenicoff and other clients evade taxes. …..
The case could turn into an embarrassment for Marcel Rohner, the chief executive at UBS and the former head of its private bank, as well as for Phil Gramm, the former Republican senator from Texas who is now the vice chairman of UBS Securities, the Swiss bank’s investment-banking arm. It also comes at a difficult time for UBS, which is reeling from $37 billion in soured investments, many of them linked to risky U.S. subprime mortgages.
…
As the authorities zeroed in on UBS last January, the bank abruptly shut its three Swiss offices that sold undeclared offshore banking services to U.S. clients. Those offices catered to thousands of wealthy Americans, some of whom may now have their tax secrets put on public display.
(emphasis mine)
They are guilty as hell, and 90% of Americans know what it means to have a, “Swiss Bank Account”, and if Obama’s people don’t use this for Phil “Offshore Account” Gramm, John McCain’s economic guru, they are idiots.
Francis H. Powers is the Republican nominee for US Congress in New York’s 13th District, Staten Island. His son, Francis M. Powers, will be running against him on the Libertarian ticket.
Ouch. His own son.
*The title comes from King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is, To have a thankless child!
I just hope that the Obama’s choice is not some sort of DLC squish.
If you are invited, send me pictures of the blessed event, and I’ll post them.
It appears that there is evidence that Iranian intelligence operatives infiltrated the various Iraqi and Iranian exile groups that called for war against Iraq in 2002-2003.
The aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials’ contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA had labeled a “fabricator” in 1984. Those contacts were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading Iraq and overthrowing Iran’s Islamic regime.
According to the Senate report, the Pentagon’s Counterintelligence Field Activity unit concluded in 2003 that Ledeen “was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with Mr. Ghorbanifar.”
There is also Achmed Chalabi and the INC, though they are not mentioned in this article.
The Pentagon started an investigation of it, but Rumsfeld shut it down when he heard of it.
Read the complete article, including the hair brained scheme to overthrow the mullahs with ….. traffic jams.
4 Years ago, Matthew Yglesias suggested, tongue in cheek, that GW Bush was an Iranian mole…I now wonder how funny it really was….I’m just saying.
After 5 straight months of non-farm payroll job cuts, we are finally seeing an increase in the unemployment rate, ½% to 5.5%. It’s the biggest rise in 22 years, and it appears that the we’ve run out of discouraged workers, who are not counted as unemployed, to keep the rates low.
Oil, which had been trending down since May 22, reversed itself and hit a new record, peaking at $138.36/bbl. Retail gasoline, however, finally fell a bit (scroll down), down to $3.986 yesterday’s record of $3.989.
That’s the first time that gasoline prices have fallen in nearly a month.
Not surprisingly, all this has pummeled the dollar which has weakened to $1.5751 from $1.5592 yesterday to the Euro.
BTW, it’s not just monoliner insurers that are hurting, Fitch has downgraded mortgage insurers MGIC and PMI ratings, two of the larger mortgage insurers to to BBB+ from A.
If they go under, millions of people will technically be in default on their mortgage until they find another insurer.
Given all this, it’s no surprise that Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair is saying that we may see some failures of larger banks.
This bit of Senatorial theater is making the rounds now:
Returning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.
They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman – cordially – by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama’s speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.
The two spoke intensely for approximately five minutes, with no one able to hear their conversation. Reporters watched as Obama leaned closely in to Lieberman, whose back was literally up against the wall.
(emphasis mine)
A source said that it was, “a cordial and friendly discussion”, but I’m inclined to think that that depends on how you define those words, and this sounds just like how LBJ used to work people.
If it’s true, I’m favorably impressed.
Now that they have approval, perhaps someone should consider if they really want them to do this.
This deal, in which BoA hooks itself to a black hole of bad debt and corruption is not to their advantage. To quote the Rude pundit, it’s a “stupid mistake, akin to a family of lemurs inviting a boa constrictor over for dinner.”
On the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. He voted against investigations and aid to the Gulf coast.
It appears that the US is threatening the Iraqi government with the loss of $50 billion in reserves in US banks in order to make them sign Bush’s “Iraq Forever” deal:
The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.
US negotiators are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal, details of which were reported for the first time in this newspaper yesterday.
Iraq’s foreign reserves are currently protected by a presidential order giving them immunity from judicial attachment but the US side in the talks has suggested that if the UN mandate, under which the money is held, lapses and is not replaced by the new agreement, then Iraq’s funds would lose this immunity. The cost to Iraq of this happening would be the immediate loss of $20bn. The US is able to threaten Iraq with the loss of 40 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves because Iraq’s independence is still limited by the legacy of UN sanctions and restrictions imposed on Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in the 1990s. This means that Iraq is still considered a threat to international security and stability under Chapter Seven of the UN charter. The US negotiators say the price of Iraq escaping Chapter Seven is to sign up to a new “strategic alliance” with the United States.
This is why the Iraqis are looking at petitioning the UN Security Council to extend the current mandate, which expires in December.
If they were to extend this by 6 months or a year, it would be to their advantage, and I can’t see the Bush administration vetoing this, it would put them and the US, in an absolutely untenable position diplomatically.
Then again, you can’t go broke overestimating the stupidity and venality of Bush and His Evil Minions.™
This article has polls showing 8% in Georgia, and 6% in North Carolina, which might be enough to flip the states from McCain to Obama.
Heh.
That’s what the report translates to, “Policymakers’ statements did not accurately convey the intelligence assessments”.
Impeach Dick Cheney today. Impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.
Seeing as how the monoliner insurer’s business plan is essentially renting out their triple-A rating, this pretty much puts them out of business.
With the monoliners heading for the rocks, it means that all forms of bonds are going to be more expensive to issue, and more difficult to resell, so I expect the market to slow down a lot, and possibly freeze up.
General Michael Mosley and Secretary Michael Wynne have been forced to resign.
While the nominal reason given by SecDef Gates is mishandling of nuclear weapons by the USAF, I agree with Noah Shachtman’s take on it, that the USAF has been insubordinate on the F-22, and strongly resisting the supporting needs for more UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they were let go for this reason.
Gates pretty much said it himself, “For much of the past year I’ve been trying to concentrate the minds and energies of the defense establishment on the current needs and current conflicts,” he told the Heritage Foundation. “In short, to ensure that all parts of the Defense Department are, in fact, at war.”
Unfortunately, the USAF’s first priority has been a war with the rest of the DoD over the budget, in order to support their bloated spending priorities.
We know that Bush and His Evil Minions™ are determined to create immunity for the telecommunications companies that spied on Americans, probably to cover up the fact that they used the program to spy on political enemies, particularly Kerry in 2004, but the fact that they are now cutting Kit Bond (R-MO), the ranking ‘Phant on the Senate Intelligence Committee in their negotiations with the House indicates that they are getting a bit desperate.
Normally, they don’t want their finger prints on something like this.
The Bush administration is talking directly with Democrats over rewriting the nation’s surveillance laws and leaving the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee out of the debate, a senior Senate Democrat said Wednesday.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said that negotiations were occurring without Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the ranking Republican on the panel.
………
“You know, Bond, he’s just complicating things,” Rockefeller said. “And I’ve never talked to him about [his one-on-one talks with Hoyer], so I don’t understand it.”
The only reason that the Bushies are so intent on this is because this program involves something so awful that they would all go to jail, and the only thing I can think of that would do that is their use of the program for partisan electoral advantage.
I could be wrong on this. When ever I think that I’ve mined the depths of the Bush administration, it turns out that I’m insufficiently imaginative.
A majority of Iraq members of parliament have signed a letter to Congress rejecting Bush’s security agreement, which allows for 50 bases, control of Iraqi airspace, the right to arrest, immunity for US troops and contractors, and the ability to operate militarily without permission. (More details here)
Given how well US occupation has served the needs of the Iraqi people, this comes as no surprise, nor does Iranian rhetoric claiming that this deal is designed to enslave Iraqis.
Of particular interest is that Grand Ayatollah Sistani is not particularly supportive of the agreement, and appears to be demanding both parliamentary approval and a referendum, and there is no way that such a deal would pass on a referendum.
One shocker, to me at least, is that Ali Allawi, Ahmad Chalabi’s nephew, has written an article which appears to condemn the deal, making reference to the treaty with Britain in 1930.
One wonders if the Iraqis realize that Bush is a short-timer, and they are running out the clock in the hope of finding someone competent.
I haven’t formed an opinion on the Veepstakes, so I am not endorsing this line of reasoning, but I am certainly amused:
A Few Observations From Last Night’s Big Speech Threefer:
– No way, no how, not on this planet, not in this galaxy should Obama have Hillary Clinton on the ticket. That’s what Obama needs: a Vice President who believes she should be President, with the added bonus of having Bill Clinton wagging his pussy-ready finger at everyone whenever someone says something mean about his wife. It’d be a big, stupid mistake, akin to a family of lemurs inviting a boa constrictor over for dinner.
This guy is priceless.
Weekly initial unemployment claims were less than expected, though the 4 week moving average of people receiving unemployment benefits was up.
If there is a “wealth effect”, then this might be the side effect of the not wealth effect, as household net worth dropped by $1.7 trillion in 2Q of 2008.
A lot of this drop is due to the real estate market, where there were over a million homes in foreclosure in Q1 of 2008, 2.5% (one in 40 for the mathematically challenged) of all loans being serviced by the Mortgage Bankers Association, which explains why Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn expects to see more write-downs and losses for banks.
Another day, another record for retail gasoline, $3.989/gal, and oil rose to $125.05/bbl, largely on the European Central Bank holding its interest rate at 4%, and it’s president publicly worrying about inflation, which implies rate hikes and a weaker dollar, which tends to push oil prices up.
Finally, monoline insurers MBIA and Ambac are delaying attempts to try and raise capital because of the prospect of a rate cut by Moody’s.
Heard on the radio.
Should happen Saturday.