Hissyspit
Hissyspit's JournalWhy Greg Smith Left Goldman Sachs (Former Goldman Sachs VP New Book Released Monday)
Source: Associated Press
WHY GREG SMITH LEFT GOLDMAN SACHS
By CHRISTINA REXRODE
— Oct. 22 12:54 AM EDT
Greg Smith wrote the essay that echoed across Wall Street like a thunderclap.
Smith was a vice president at Goldman Sachs until March. He announced his departure from the investment bank with a blistering editorial in The New York Times, accusing Goldman of routinely deceiving clients and relentlessly pursuing profit at the expense of morality.
And he struck a nerve. The essay went viral in the financial world and beyond. Smith was praised for uncloaking corruption that was crying out to be addressed, and also derided as a disgruntled employee.
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Smith's book, "Why I Left Goldman Sachs," is being released Monday. It's a window into a company that is notoriously tight-lipped, with stories about a swaggering place where interns arise for 5 a.m. meetings and business trips mean slapping down $150 for one person's dinner.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/why-greg-smith-left-goldman-sachs#overlay-context=article/obama-take-campaign-tonight-show-wednesday
Kansas Teen Files Climate Change Lawsuit
http://planetsave.com/2012/10/21/kansas-teen-files-climate-change-lawsuitKansas Teen Files Climate Change Lawsuit
By Michael Ricciardi
(Topeka, Kansas) – In the current ‘political climate’ of disinformation regarding human-caused climate change, and the pervasive political (Congressional) inertia to do anything substantive about it, it is quite heartening to know that some of the most serious, legal pushes to take action are coming from young people. This should not be as surprising at it may seem at first — young folks (and their future off-spring) will be the direct inheritors of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change — and our generation’s failure to act now.
On Thursday (Oct. 18), 14 year old Samantha Farb of Lecompton, Kansas, became the latest U.S. youngster to file suit (District Court of Shawnee County) against her State under what’s known as the Public Trust Doctrine. The doctrine rests upon a long-standing legal principle that requires all branches of government to protect and maintain certain shared resources fundamental for human health and survival.
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Her stated goal in this litigation is to prevent further increases in her state’s CO2 emissions, and, to compel the State of Kansas to reduce CO2 emissions to levels consistent with what current scientific analysis deems necessary to protect the lives and property of its citizens — including future generations.
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“I live in an agricultural area,” said Samantha, “I’ve noticed how climate change is affecting crops, and I can see how it’s affecting the garden in my backyard. I’m filing this lawsuit to demand that my state take the necessary steps to combat climate [change] to protect our way of life and preserve the state’s resources for future generations.”
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"George McGovern Saved My Life"
Great tribute from Teddy Partridge:http://firedoglake.com/2012/10/21/sunday-late-night-george-mcgovern-saved-my-life/
Sunday Late Night: George McGovern Saved My Life
By: Teddy Partridge
Sunday October 21, 2012 8:01 pm
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I was awed by George McGovern’s courage. Knowing full well the moment I read that Washington Post right after high school graduation that those burglars at the Watergate were probably Richard Nixon’s own idea, I watched Senator McGovern struggle with his own probable knowledge of Nixon’s complicity as he tried to help America understand the rot at the core of our government, in an ultimately futile presidential campaign that came to define him for many Americans.
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But, more than anything else, I owe George McGovern the past fifteen years. He and his wife Eleanor suffered the unbearable pain of losing their child Teresa to alcoholism; she froze to death in Madison, Wisconsin. His book, “Terry: My Daughter’s Life-and-Death Struggle With Alcoholism,” brought him to the McLean Community Center one evening for a book chat, which my parents attended. They had an estranged son struggling with addiction all the way across the country, who rarely reached out. They did not know how to help him. Hearing George McGovern talk about how he and his wife worked so hard to get Terry help meant so much to my parents. They were inspired by the McGoverns’ tragedy.
My mom went up to him afterwards and told Senator McGovern their own story, about how I had begun my national political activism in his 1972 campaign and was now trapped in a cycle of dependency and addiction far away in a world they did not understand. He listened carefully and comforted them, but he challenged them as well. “Three words,” George McGovern said. “I have only three words for you: Never. Give. Up.”
Shortly afterwards, my parents flew cross-country despite their own health worries, accompanied by my cousin, without whom they could never have made the trip. They challenged my grandiose addict’s world view with their love. They continued to reach out. They let me know I was cherished. They went home to Virginia without me; I had abandoned them practically at the airport gate. But they never gave up. They took George McGovern’s advice, enrolling me in a special United Airlines program for lost family members that required only a keyword to board a plane from anywhere in the United States, as long as it was bound for Dulles. They made sure I knew the secret keyword and how to use it at the airport.
I remembered that keyword; the next spring, I used it. The airline called my parents and told them what plane I would be on. They met me at the airport and took me to their home in McLean. My parents never gave up. Given their own challenges at the time, they had come very close to giving up on me. But when they heard George McGovern (whose personal hell wasn’t giving up but knowing he hadn’t and he still couldn’t save Terry) tell them not to give up, they acted.
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I became a productive citizen again, thanks to the advice George McGovern gave my folks.
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What Romney's Hiding: 'It's the Amnesty, Stupid'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/what-romneys-hiding-its-t_b_1908104.htmlPaul Abrams
What Romney's Hiding: 'It's the Amnesty, Stupid'
Posted: 09/23/2012 8:40 pm
Why does the press feign puzzlement about what Romney is hiding by not revealing his 2009 tax returns?
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His disclosure of his 2010 account omitted information about his Swiss bank account at the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). Why is the press not asking for this form? UBS was fined $760 million for putting Americans into abusive tax shelters and forced to reveal more than 4000 Americans who banked with them under numbered accounts.
The 4000+ Americans who were exposed by UBS were offered amnesty from criminal prosecution for tax evasion if they closed their Swiss Account, recalculated and paid all back taxes and paid a 25 percent penalty on the largest amount.
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To review, here is the circumstantial evidence:
i) Romney closed ONLY his Swiss UBS Account, not Caymans or Bermuda or Luxembourg. Hence, he cannot claim "bad optics for a campaign" as the alternative explanation;
ii) Romney closed the UBS account during the time required to receive amnesty;
iii) Romney omitted from his public disclosure of his 2010 returns the specific information about the UBS account;
iv) Romney took six extra months to prepare his 2011 returns, disclosing them in the countdown to the election, whereas he could have disclosed 2009 immediately with 2010, getting all that bad news out at once, during the primary, so that it would be ancient history by now. That is strong evidence that 2009, that would have shown the amnesty with flashing lights, was too toxic.
The press should be pressing for answers to each of these questions, as well as the over-arching question of amnesty. Otherwise, there is a real chance that a man who committed a federal crime and received amnesty could be occupying the nation's highest office.
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There is also some "softer" evidence. Why do the Romneys keep insisting that their finances were all handled by a blind trust? If they have done nothing wrong, why even mention it?
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Reuters: As Other Polls Show Tight Race, Gallup Stands Apart
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE89J02720121020As other polls show tight race, Gallup stands apart
WASHINGTON | Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:08pm EDT
By Andy Sullivan
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Questions about the gap between Gallup's findings and those of other pollsters is the latest fuss this election season over polling methodology as partisan passions come to a boil in the heated final weeks before the November 6 presidential contest.
With a record of correctly predicting all but three of the 19 presidential races stretching back to 1936, Gallup is one of the most prestigious names in the business and its outlier status has other polling experts scratching their heads.
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When Obama opened up a wide lead in polls last month, Republicans accused researchers of interviewing too many Democrats. Those complaints evaporated when Romney surged ahead after his strong October 3 debate performance.
Now, the Obama campaign is questioning the validity of Gallup's methods after it released a poll earlier this week that showed Romney leading among likely voters in the handful of battleground states that will decide the election.
Obama pollster Joel Benenson called the Gallup survey an "extreme outlier" and said its formula to determine likely voters created a bias against Obama supporters. "Gallup's data is once again far out of line with other public pollsters," he wrote in a memo on Monday.
MORE AT LINK[p]
BREAKING: Federal Judge Blocks Arizona Law That Bars Funding to Planned Parenthood
Source: Reuters
Judge blocks Arizona law that bars funding to Planned Parenthood
Reuters – 10 mins ago
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge barred Arizona on Friday from applying a new law that bars Planned Parenthood's health clinics from receiving money through the state because the organization also performs abortions.
District Court Neil Wake granted a temporary injunction to Planned Parenthood, which had sued Arizona to block the law in July. He denied the state's motion to dismiss the case.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-blocks-arizona-law-bars-funding-planned-parenthood-002128026.html
AP: http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/free/20121019arizona-planned-parenthood-ruling-funding.html
Judge bars Arizona action against Planned Parenthood
By Paul Davenport
Associated Press
Fri Oct 19, 2012 4:08 PM
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The preliminary injunction issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Neil Wake bars the state from applying a new state anti-abortion law to Planned Parenthood Arizona and a physician with his own practice.
The law was enacted earlier this year but it hasn’t been implemented.
Arizona already bars public funding for most abortions, but the new law would go beyond that by barring public funding for general health care services provided by abortion clinics and doctors.
Grounds cited by Wake in his ruling include that federal law doesn’t allow states to exclude Medicaid providers for reasons other than their qualifications to provide services.
'...lives he's changing by just saying that simple thing.' LGBT For Obama (Kleenex Alert at 2:50)
You will cry starting at 2:50 in.
LGBT Americans for Obama
Now THIS Is What I Like To See...
I don't often visit FiveThirtyEight.com, but when I do I like to see the Blue Line going UP & UP!
(O.k. I actually visit http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com pretty much every day.)
NOW-CAST Updated 11:29 PM ET on Oct. 18
Reuters: Mormon Feminists? Yes They Exist, and They're For Obama
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE89I05220121019Mormon feminists? Yes they exist, and they're for Obama
SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:08pm EDT
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - One group was not surprised to hear Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's comments about "binders of women" at the presidential debate this week - Mormon feminists.
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Aimee Hickman, co-editor of the Mormon feminist magazine Exponent II, said Romney's remarks in which he said he looked at "binders full of women" while searching for staff as governor of Massachusetts suggested he was comfortable having powerful women around him, even if he put it awkwardly.
Yet when he then described setting up a flexible schedule for a senior aide so that she could go home and make dinner for her family, he was speaking in the church's paternalistic language that casts women ultimately as mothers, she said.
"The emphasis on them (women) being seen as leaders or them being seen as breadwinners is still really missing from our rhetoric," Hickman said. Romney's response put that "on full display," she added.
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Soup Kitchen in Ryan Photo-Op Suffers ‘Substantial’ Loss of Donations
Source: Raw Story / Huffington Post
Soup kitchen in Ryan photo-op suffers ‘substantial’ loss of donations
By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, October 18, 2012
A charity that operates a soup kitchen in northeastern Ohio has faced an exodus of donors ever since vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan staged a photo-op on the premises.
“It appears to be a substantial amount,” Brian Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society in Youngstown, told The Huffington Post. “You can rest assured there has been a substantial backlash.”
Ryan and his family were photographed cleaning dishes on the premises. During Ryan’s appearance at the soup kitchen on October 13, he briefly talked with volunteers before donning an apron and cleaning some large metal pots. He was at the soup kitchen for about 15 minutes.
But Antal told the Washington Post that the Romney campaign did not ask for permission before entering the soup kitchen. He said he worried his faith-based apolitical organization could lose funding if it appeared the charity favored one of the political candidates.
The photo-op ended up being an embarrassment for Ryan.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/18/soup-kitchen-in-ryan-photo-op-suffers-substantial-loss-of-donations
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