The real welfare queens are finally turning up in the sights of law enforcement.
UBS clients seek amnesty on U.S. taxes
Mon Nov 24, 2008
Reuters
Some wealthy clients of UBS AG are coming forward to make amends with U.S. tax authorities after a former UBS private banker was indicted, a sign that U.S. efforts to battle offshore tax evasion are having the desired effect, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website...
The UBS clients are hiring tax lawyers and pursuing amnesty through an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) voluntary disclosure program, the paper said.
Under the program, U.S. citizens would be allowed to avoid criminal prosecution if they acknowledge evasion and agree to pay taxes and penalties, the paper said...
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Blind woman threatened with loss of home over 1-cent bill
I'm wondering what percentage of human beings who work for public entities are so rigid that they would threaten someone with a $48 penalty for not paying a 1-cent bill.
Why wouldn't the worker simply pay the penny and then, if the worker felt this was an unacceptable financial loss, simply reimburse himself/herself the next time he/she passed by the spare-pennies container sitting out on the counter of a 7-11?
I doubt that the worker knew that the target of the threat was a 74-year-old blind woman. So that's not the point. The point is that it cost more to send the letter than to pay the bill, and it was gratuitously harmful to a citizen.
Mass. woman 1 cent debt to city paid by former city councilor she does not know
Associated Press
November 19, 2008
ATTLEBORO, Mass.
A 74-year-old blind woman's 1 cent debt to a Massachusetts city has been settled.
People from across the country called Attleboro City Hall on Tuesday offering to pay the 1 cent balance owed by Eileen Wilbur for an overdue water and sewer bill.
Antonio Viveiros, a former city councilor who does not know Wilbur, wrote a check for one penny. He says he was "irked" by the fact that the federal government can spend billions for bailouts, yet a senior citizen was threatened with a lien on her home over 1 cent.
Wilbur's daughter first noticed the letter that warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill was not paid by Dec. 10.
Mayor Kevin Dumas says the whole situation was blown out of proportion.
Why wouldn't the worker simply pay the penny and then, if the worker felt this was an unacceptable financial loss, simply reimburse himself/herself the next time he/she passed by the spare-pennies container sitting out on the counter of a 7-11?
I doubt that the worker knew that the target of the threat was a 74-year-old blind woman. So that's not the point. The point is that it cost more to send the letter than to pay the bill, and it was gratuitously harmful to a citizen.
Mass. woman 1 cent debt to city paid by former city councilor she does not know
Associated Press
November 19, 2008
ATTLEBORO, Mass.
A 74-year-old blind woman's 1 cent debt to a Massachusetts city has been settled.
People from across the country called Attleboro City Hall on Tuesday offering to pay the 1 cent balance owed by Eileen Wilbur for an overdue water and sewer bill.
Antonio Viveiros, a former city councilor who does not know Wilbur, wrote a check for one penny. He says he was "irked" by the fact that the federal government can spend billions for bailouts, yet a senior citizen was threatened with a lien on her home over 1 cent.
Wilbur's daughter first noticed the letter that warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill was not paid by Dec. 10.
Mayor Kevin Dumas says the whole situation was blown out of proportion.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
CEO bonuses: Will the people who caused the meltdown be rewarded in the bailout?
Ten percent of $700 rescue package may go to bonuses
Bloggingstocks
Oct 19th 2008
by Douglas McIntyre
Wall Street walked into the path of its own oncoming stupidity. Of the $700 billion in Treasury rescue money, as much as $70 billion could go to bank and brokerage bonuses.
According to The Guardian, "Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year." The paper goes on to say that the Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) pool is large enough to buy the entire company when its stock was at a recent low.
Although this information get filed under "things you can't make up," it will probably have such a severe backlash that Congress will run hearings until the bankers have exhausted the extra money they are making on legal fees.
The contrary argument to punishing the firms is that some of the people getting big pay-outs work in departments that actually contributed huge sums of money to their parents.
If the management at these firms has any sense at all, they will pay nothing to the staff who worked in operations that lost money and file with the SEC to show the amount of operating income made from the operations where people are getting an extra check...
From AOL Money and Finance
A Goldman Hotshot Doles Out the Money
Neel Kashkari, a 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs whiz kid who believes in free markets, is getting the job at the Treasury Department of dispersing the government's $700 billion rescue. Is he really the right person for the job? Lots of observers have wondered if a seasoned vet with a little more political experience might be a better fit for the task at hand.
Bloggingstocks
Oct 19th 2008
by Douglas McIntyre
Wall Street walked into the path of its own oncoming stupidity. Of the $700 billion in Treasury rescue money, as much as $70 billion could go to bank and brokerage bonuses.
According to The Guardian, "Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year." The paper goes on to say that the Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) pool is large enough to buy the entire company when its stock was at a recent low.
Although this information get filed under "things you can't make up," it will probably have such a severe backlash that Congress will run hearings until the bankers have exhausted the extra money they are making on legal fees.
The contrary argument to punishing the firms is that some of the people getting big pay-outs work in departments that actually contributed huge sums of money to their parents.
If the management at these firms has any sense at all, they will pay nothing to the staff who worked in operations that lost money and file with the SEC to show the amount of operating income made from the operations where people are getting an extra check...
From AOL Money and Finance
A Goldman Hotshot Doles Out the Money
Neel Kashkari, a 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs whiz kid who believes in free markets, is getting the job at the Treasury Department of dispersing the government's $700 billion rescue. Is he really the right person for the job? Lots of observers have wondered if a seasoned vet with a little more political experience might be a better fit for the task at hand.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
MA state senator Dianne Wilkerson accepted $23,500 in bribes
Politician Allegedly Stuffed Bribes in Bra
By GLEN JOHNSON and DENISE LAVOIE
AP
Oct. 29, 2008
A state senator who lost the Democratic primary last month was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes from undercover agents she believed were local businessmen.
Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was charged with attempted extortion as a public official and theft of honest services as a state senator. She did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance Tuesday.
On the Take?
Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was charged Tuesday with taking $23,500 in bribes from undercover FBI agents. This image made from video, which was included in an affidavit filed by the FBI, allegedly shows Wilkerson stuffing cash under her sweater and inside her bra on June 18, 2007.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
She faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count.
Wilkerson, 53, lost the Democratic primary in September to former teacher Sonia Chang-Diaz despite support from Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick. She is running a write-in campaign for the Nov. 4 election, in hopes of retaining the seat she has held since 1993.
Wilkerson was ordered Tuesday to have no contact with witnesses and retain any documents related to the extortion case or to her personal finances.
In asking for those conditions, Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil said Wilkerson has a "long history of acting as if she is above the law."
By GLEN JOHNSON and DENISE LAVOIE
AP
Oct. 29, 2008
A state senator who lost the Democratic primary last month was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes from undercover agents she believed were local businessmen.
Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was charged with attempted extortion as a public official and theft of honest services as a state senator. She did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance Tuesday.
On the Take?
Massachusetts state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was charged Tuesday with taking $23,500 in bribes from undercover FBI agents. This image made from video, which was included in an affidavit filed by the FBI, allegedly shows Wilkerson stuffing cash under her sweater and inside her bra on June 18, 2007.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
She faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each count.
Wilkerson, 53, lost the Democratic primary in September to former teacher Sonia Chang-Diaz despite support from Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick. She is running a write-in campaign for the Nov. 4 election, in hopes of retaining the seat she has held since 1993.
Wilkerson was ordered Tuesday to have no contact with witnesses and retain any documents related to the extortion case or to her personal finances.
In asking for those conditions, Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil said Wilkerson has a "long history of acting as if she is above the law."
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Code Pink rescues mother of Iraq casualty from foreclosure
How a Victim of the Housing Crisis Was Saved from the Brink of Eviction
By Linda Milazzo
AlterNet
October 20, 2008
video
Code Pink, American News Project, and community organizers worked together to save a woman's home from the auction block.
Jocelyn Voltaire is an émigré from Haiti who has lived in this country for 45 years. She's a United States citizen, a college graduate, and the mother of four. She recently suffered the unbearable loss of her eldest son -- a Marine who had served in the Gulf. Atop the unthinkable pain of losing a child, Jocelyne's Queens, New York home of twenty years was set to be auctioned on Friday (October 17th), due to a predatory lender scam.
But miracles do happen! Thanks to the brilliant work of independent media, American News Project (ANP), which captured Jocelyn's story in the video below, and Codepink Women For Peace, who after seeing ANP's video launched an appeal for funds to stop the auction, Jocelyn's home was saved. Miraculously, in one day, Codepink raised $30,000 from 650 patriots who stepped up to "spread their wealth." Below is the incredible video produced by American News Project that captured the "heart" of Codepink and inspired Jocelyne's patriotic "angels."
Needless to say, corporate media was much too busy camped out at the home of plumber Joe to pay Jocelyne Voltaire any mind. It took the efforts of independent media heroes ANP, generous spread-the-wealth patriots, and the inspired community organizing of Codepink to let humanity prevail. As Codepink says,
While our government has taken billions of our tax dollars to bail out the wealthy, we came together to bail out a desperate mother We modeled exactly what we want our government to do -- bail out families facing personal disaster, not financiers...
By Linda Milazzo
AlterNet
October 20, 2008
video
Code Pink, American News Project, and community organizers worked together to save a woman's home from the auction block.
Jocelyn Voltaire is an émigré from Haiti who has lived in this country for 45 years. She's a United States citizen, a college graduate, and the mother of four. She recently suffered the unbearable loss of her eldest son -- a Marine who had served in the Gulf. Atop the unthinkable pain of losing a child, Jocelyne's Queens, New York home of twenty years was set to be auctioned on Friday (October 17th), due to a predatory lender scam.
But miracles do happen! Thanks to the brilliant work of independent media, American News Project (ANP), which captured Jocelyn's story in the video below, and Codepink Women For Peace, who after seeing ANP's video launched an appeal for funds to stop the auction, Jocelyn's home was saved. Miraculously, in one day, Codepink raised $30,000 from 650 patriots who stepped up to "spread their wealth." Below is the incredible video produced by American News Project that captured the "heart" of Codepink and inspired Jocelyne's patriotic "angels."
Needless to say, corporate media was much too busy camped out at the home of plumber Joe to pay Jocelyne Voltaire any mind. It took the efforts of independent media heroes ANP, generous spread-the-wealth patriots, and the inspired community organizing of Codepink to let humanity prevail. As Codepink says,
While our government has taken billions of our tax dollars to bail out the wealthy, we came together to bail out a desperate mother We modeled exactly what we want our government to do -- bail out families facing personal disaster, not financiers...
Friday, October 10, 2008
But wasn't this exactly why Palin used Yahoo for state business in the first place?
There is some concern that vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's emails might have been erased, since she was using Yahoo email to conduct state business. This problem will have to be added to a long list of concerns about disappearing public records, since the George Bush White House has seen tens of thousands of emails disappear even though government email accounts were used.
AOL News
October 10, 2008
"...Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month. The hacking of Palin's private account was significant because it showed that using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business would be vulnerable to being exposed.
"It wasn't widely known that the governor and her staff were using private e-mail accounts until McLeod filed the first of several open records requests earlier this year that yielded some of the e-mail traffic — much of it redacted for what were deemed privacy reasons.
"'The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mails sent and received on those accounts. If the e-mails were destroyed when the accounts were deactivated, he directed state officials to have the companies attempt to resurrect the e-mails.
"'We shouldn't be in a position where public records have been lost because the governor didn't do what every other state employee knows to do, which is to use an official, secure state e-mail account to conduct state business," McLeod said after the 90-minute hearing.
"'It's a dereliction of the governor and her duties," she said."
AOL News
October 10, 2008
"...Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month. The hacking of Palin's private account was significant because it showed that using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business would be vulnerable to being exposed.
"It wasn't widely known that the governor and her staff were using private e-mail accounts until McLeod filed the first of several open records requests earlier this year that yielded some of the e-mail traffic — much of it redacted for what were deemed privacy reasons.
"'The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mails sent and received on those accounts. If the e-mails were destroyed when the accounts were deactivated, he directed state officials to have the companies attempt to resurrect the e-mails.
"'We shouldn't be in a position where public records have been lost because the governor didn't do what every other state employee knows to do, which is to use an official, secure state e-mail account to conduct state business," McLeod said after the 90-minute hearing.
"'It's a dereliction of the governor and her duties," she said."
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sarah Palin collected per diem allowance at home
Palin Collected Money For Staying Home
By Tommy Christopher
Sep 9th 2008 10:59AM
Filed Under:eRepublicans, Featured Stories, 2008 President, Sarah Palin
By Tommy Christopher
Sept. 9, 2008
"...[T]he former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment," the Washington Post is reporting today...
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.
The report goes on to say that the expense is within the applicable rules, but are these the actions of a lean, mean crusader against government waste?
On the other hand, the $16,9551.00 in per diem expenses she collected while staying at home could have been a lot more.
I understand she used Expedia to find the lowest fare from her living room to her kitchen...
By Tommy Christopher
Sep 9th 2008 10:59AM
Filed Under:eRepublicans, Featured Stories, 2008 President, Sarah Palin
By Tommy Christopher
Sept. 9, 2008
"...[T]he former governor was moose hunting and could not be reached to comment," the Washington Post is reporting today...
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.
The report goes on to say that the expense is within the applicable rules, but are these the actions of a lean, mean crusader against government waste?
On the other hand, the $16,9551.00 in per diem expenses she collected while staying at home could have been a lot more.
I understand she used Expedia to find the lowest fare from her living room to her kitchen...
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