Tag: finance

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1cCh96Y Reggie Middleton

Moments ago, the Senate was supposed to vote through Debo Adegbile, Obama’s nominee for the civil rights division at the Department of Justice and who represented cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. It failed, when the Democrats in the Senate couldn’t get enough votes to pass a simple majority with 8 Democrats voted against Adegbile: Casey, Coons, Donnelly, Manchin, Walsh, Heitkamp, Pryor. Reid voted no in order to reconsider nom later.

WaPo reports:

Opponents of President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division prevailed in blocking his confirmation Wednesday, as he failed to clear a procedural hurdle.

Eight Senate Democrats joined with Republicans in voting against Debo Adegbile, whose nomination was adamantly and vocally opposed by conservatives due to his participation in an appeal filed on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal — an internationally-known prisoner convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

The vote was expected to be close — with Vice President Biden on hand to potentially cast a tie-breaking vote — but the final tally was 47-52 in opposition to the appointment.

 

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) initially voted for Adegbile, but switched his vote to no, giving him the right as Senate leader to bring up the nomination again at a later date.

 

Adegbile becomes the first Obama nominee rejected under the new Senate procedures approved in November that require just a majority of senators present to agree to proceed to a vote on most presidential nominees.

 

Other Democrats who voted against the Obama nominee were Chris Coons (Del.),Bob Casey (Pa.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), Joe Donnolly (Ind.), John Walsh (Montana).

 

Adegbile, 47, spent more than a decade working for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, where he served as the group’s in-house voting rights expert. The legal defense fund began its work on Abu-Jamal’s behalf well before Adegbile began working for it, however he did contribute to the filing of a 2009 court brief that argued that Abu-Jamal faced a discriminatory jury — an appeal later found to have merit by a judge.

 

But, that participation in Abu-Jamal’s appeals, opponents including Faulkner’s widow have argued, should disqualify him from holding any publicly appointed position in the justice system.

 

Several prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), took the floor Wednesday to speak in opposition to the nomination and in hopes of swaying vulnerable Democrats facing re-election in red states.

So while it is widely known that the GOP’s position in Congress is in shambles courtesy of the endless and by now pathetic, flipflopping of one John Boehner, are schisms starting to appear within the Democrats when not even a simple populist vote by the president was unable to pass the Senate?

In the meantime, without a person defending their “civil rights”, we fully expect Obama to continue growing the authority of the NSA and promoting even more boundless spying on Americans.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1fI2U0g Tyler Durden

When Canadian authorities scrapped their 'investor visa' scheme a month ago, we warned that the nation was removing a critical pillar of support for its real-estate bubble market. However, with an estimated 45,000 Chinese millionaires still in the queue, the wealthy hoping to get their cash out of China are not happy. As The South China Morning Post reports, a group of wealthy mainlanders has criticized the Canadian government for scrapping its investor visa scheme and are threatening legal action if the decision is not overturned – arguing "we had set aside a lot of money to meet the investment requirements and over the years passed up on many opportunities… A refund of our application fees will not make up for all the preparation put in."

The Canada real estate bubble is alive (and well enough for now)…

Deutsche Banks's house-price-to-rent index says Canada has the most expensive housing market in the world – 60% over-valued…

"Canada, for example, is very open to foreign investors, which means that in an age of unprecedented global liquidity cash-rich wealthy individuals who are looking for places to park their excess funds can do so in its housing market far more easily than in Japan, with its closed system. "

As it's home price index hardly missed a beat while the US plunged… (different scales but point is to illustrate drastic difference when financial crisis started – and where the liquidity went…)

But the scrapping of the visa scheme threatens to remove a key pillar from that:

The scheme has allowed nearly 100,000 wealthy Hongkongers and mainland Chinese to move across the Pacific since 1986.

But as The South China Morning Post reports, the Chinese are not happy,

A group of wealthy mainlanders has criticised the Canadian government for scrapping its investor visa scheme and are threatening legal action if the decision is not overturned.

 

More than 10 people who had applied for the visa met with reporters in Beijing yesterday to air their grievances. The group said they had wasted years of time, effort and money preparing to move to North America.

 

…

 

An estimated 45,500 Chinese millionaires who were still in the queue for visas will have their applications "eliminated" and their fees returned.

 

…

 

"We have set aside a lot of money to meet the investment requirements and over the years passed up on many opportunities," he said.

 

…

 

"Moving to Canada has been a dream of mine since witnessing what happened in 1989 as a student over there on this main thoroughfare," he said, pointing to a road passing Tiananmen Square where the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators took place.

 

"I thought Canada was a place that underpins justice, trust and democracy, but the abrupt, unilateral decision to scrap the scheme has left us very, very disappointed," he said. "A refund of our application fees will not make up for all the preparation put in."

 

Larry Wang, the president of the immigration consultancy firm that organised the meeting with reporters, said he would help applicants take legal action if the decision was not overturned.

 

…

 

"A sovereign country, of course, has the right to make such a move, but it's unfathomable how a democratic and human-rights-respecting country like Canada just cut off applications like that, without regard to those who've been preparing for the move for years,"

In other words, we want to get our money out of this controlled nation and are upset that we were not higher on the list… especially now that we see local authorities starting to tamp down the bubble of local real estate that we have previously speculated in…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/NwATCZ Tyler Durden

Courtesy of ITN reporter James Mates:

View of militia from inside coffee shop where UN envoy Robert Serry is blockaded inside http://ift.tt/P0Kcw1

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Robert Serry has now agreed to go straight to the airport and end his mission in #Crimea

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Crowd chant Russia Russia as UN envoy leaves coffee shop and scrambles into waiting car#Crimea

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Path of envoy’s car blocked by protesters chanting Putin Putin. #Crimea

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Car moves slowly off to cries of Crimea Russiia #Ukraine

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Robert Serry finally on his way to the airport, police having forced a way through an angry crowd. #crimea

— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1fHWZsm Tyler Durden

A devastating and secret report by the Senate Intelligence Committee documents in detail how the C.I.A.’s brutalization of terror suspects during the Bush years was unnecessary, ineffective, and deceptively sold to Congress, the White House, Justice Department, and the public.

The CIA has long fought to keep the report secret.

That's not surprising, given that torture is wholly illegal (and see this).

And that the CIA's torture program ended up deceiving the 9/11 Commission. Specifically, the 9/11 Commission Report was largely based on third-hand accounts of what tortured detainees said, with two of the three parties in the communication being government employees.  The 9/11 Commissioners were not allowed to speak with the detainees, or even their interrogators. Instead, they got their information third-hand.  The Commission itself didn’t really trust the interrogation testimony … yet published it as if it were Gospel.

New York Times investigative reporter Philip Shenon Newsweek noted in a 2009 essay in Newsweek that the 9/11 Commission Report was unreliable because most of the information was based on the statements of tortured detainees.

As NBC News reported:

• Much of the 9/11 Commission Report was based upon the testimony of people who were tortured

• At least four of the people whose interrogation figured in the 9/11 Commission Report have claimed that they told interrogators information as a way to stop being “tortured.”

• One of the Commission’s main sources of information was tortured until he agreed to sign a confession that he was NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO READ

• The 9/11 Commission itself doubted the accuracy of the torture confessions, and yet kept their doubts to themselves

Indeed, the type of torture used by the U.S. on the Guantanamo suspects was of a "special" type. Senator Levin revealed that the the U.S. used Communist torture techniques specifically aimed at creating false confessions. And see these important reports from McClatchy, New York Times, CNN and Huffington Post.

CIA Goes to Great Lengths to Cover Up Torture

The CIA has already gone to great lengths to cover up the torture … and the unreliability of the testimony published by the 9/11 Commission.

The CIA has blocked release of the Senate's torture report for years. But it has taken many other actions to try to keep the lid on the torture program.

For example, the CIA videotaped the interrogation of 9/11 suspects, but  falsely told the 9/11 Commission that there were no videotapes or other records of the interrogations, and then illegally destroyed all of the tapes and transcripts of the interrogations.

9/11 Commission co-chairs Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton wrote:

Those who knew about those videotapes — and did not tell us about them — obstructed our investigation.

 

***

 

Government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.

(And the chairs of both the 9/11 Commission and the Official Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 said that Soviet-style government “minders” obstructed the investigation into 9/11 by intimidating witnesses.  We believe that some of the minders were from the CIA.)

Spying On Its Overseers In Washington

In the last 24 hours, the New York Times and McClatchy have published stories revealing that the CIA is spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee, as part of its efforts to block release of its torture report.

Just Security points out:

The CIA Inspector General has reportedly requested the Justice Department to investigate the case as a criminal matter.

As Tech Dirt notes:

In many ways, the idea that the CIA is directly spying on the Senate Committee charged with its own oversight is a bigger potential scandal than many of the Snowden NSA revelations so far.

We partially agree … although we believe that the NSA has also been spying on – and blackmailing – its "overseers" in Washington.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hLxvzm George Washington

Just Bloomberg headlines for now which don’t mesh well with the whole “detente” narrative, supposedly unleashed by Putin’s conference yesterday in which he was said to “blink”, which he didn’t but algo-driven stocks are convinced he did and algos are always right:

• UN ENVOY KIDNAPPED IN SIMFEROPOL, IFX CITES UKRAINE FOREIGN MIN
• UN ENVOY SERRY’S CAR WAS STOPPED IN SIMFEROPOL: UKRAINE FOR.MIN

And the “confirmation”:

• UKRAINE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN CONFIRMS REPORT THAT UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE HELD IN CRIMEA

From Reuters:

Armed men seized Robert Serry, a special representative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Ukraine’s Crimea region on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.

 

Russian forces have taken control of Crimea in southern Ukraine. Serry was held in the region’s main city, Simferopol, a ministry spokeswoman said.

It is certainly not clear who the kidnappers were. So just another provocation, simple lie, or for once, the truth?  We hope to find out soon.

* * *

Update: and now we know the answer – lie and borderline provocation, once again by the Ukraine foreign ministry

• DEPUTY U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL ELIASSON DENIES REPORTS U.N.  REPRESENTATIVE SERRY WAS KIDNAPPED, SAYS SERRY WAS THREATENED

Just how much longer will the Ukraine keep pushing for a hot war before Russia finally responds?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1l1cu3K Tyler Durden

It was less than a month ago when Barclays announced it would fire 12,000 workers after posting abysmal earnings with Q4 banking income crashing 37% and overall income sliding 9%. So, one would think, its employees would be punished with lower pay – those that are lucky enough to keep their jobs of course. One would be wrong. Reuters just reported that 481 of Barclays employees were paid 1 million pounds ($1.7 million) or more last year, 53 more than in the year before, and most of them were based in the United States.

The headscratcher continues:

Barclays said 57 percent of those paid at least 1 million pounds were based in the United States and 27 percent were based in Britain.

 

The bank said in its annual report that Chief Executive Antony Jenkins could be paid up to 7.2 million pounds this year, down 1.4 million from his maximum pay under his previous pay structure, although more is now guaranteed.

 

Barclays provoked anger last month when the bank said it paid 2.4 billion pounds in bonuses last year, up 10 percent on the year despite profits tumbling by a third.

Surely, this latest announcement will not provoke much happiness either. More improtantly, news like this is why, despite generating massive losses, Barclays employees are generally richer than you, if not quite richer than Jamie Dimon. Because in the New Normal, all one needs to make a million is to keep losing money. Barcalys’ immutable rationale – fear of losing the traders to a better-paying competitor. Like who – is the Fed hiring again?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1l1csZF Tyler Durden

Minutes ago, the chief of police of the Donetsk regional state administration (in Eastern Ukraine and the home region of Yanukovych) explained how the situation was “stable” and “everything is under control”… So perhaps he better look out the window:

• *RUSSIAN-FLAG WAVING CROWD SAID TO STORM DONETSK BUILDING: AP
• *PRO-RUSSIAN PROTESTERS BREAK INTO DONETSK GOVT BUILDING: TV5
• *PRO-RUSSIAN PROTESTERS ON WAY TO STORM DONETSK TREASURY: TV5

So, apart from the protesters storming buildings and breaking into the Treasury, things are “under control.”

As NY Post reports,

Hundreds of demonstrators waving Russian flags have stormed a government building in Donetsk in the eastern Ukraine.

 

The region is the home area of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country after massive protests in Kiev.

 

An AP photographer, who was in Donetsk, said more than 2,000 people gathered in the square Wednesday afternoon outside the regional administrative building before groups of men broke through police ranks and smashed their way into the building.

 

Many of the protesters waved Russian and other flags. Many chanted “Russia! Russia!”

A large crowd of Russian flag-waving protesters is gathering…

LIVE: Crowd waving Russian flags storms government HQ in #Ukraine city of #Donetsk http://ift.tt/P0CF0e

— Anis (@TheBlogPirate) March 5, 2014

The anti-Russians are not pleased:

Donetsk today telling Putin to take a hike #euromaidan http://ift.tt/P0CG4h

— bruce springnote (@BSpringnote) March 4, 2014

And it appears the local police have woken up:

Ukrainian police officers stormed a govt building in Donetsk to forcibly remove pro-Russian protesters. Photo: AFP http://ift.tt/1e1KhVD

— Kety Shapazian (@KetyDC) March 5, 2014

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1l0ZDOV Tyler Durden