KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Saturday August 22 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder (Where's the MSM Coverage?) - (www.thenation.com) A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." Despite the State Department's announcement canceling Blackwater's contracts in Iraq, the Obama administration will pay the company more than $174 million for security services in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between the illegal weapons, explosive ammunition and the possibility that Blackwater operatives killed civilians as practice, the picture of the military contractor gets darker by the day. Erik Prince has been implicated in murder, viewed himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims from the globe and his company smuggled weapons into Iraq. In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting "illegal" or "unlawful" weapons into the country on Prince's private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety. These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct. Susan Burke, a private attorney working in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is suing Blackwater in five separate civil cases filed in the Washington, DC, area. They were recently consolidated before Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia for pretrial motions. Burke filed the August 3 motion in response to Blackwater's motion to dismiss the case. Blackwater asserts that Prince and the company are innocent of any wrongdoing and that they were professionally performing their duties on behalf of their employer, the US State Department. The former employee, identified in the court documents as "John Doe #2," is a former member of Blackwater's management team, according to a source close to the case. Doe #2 alleges in a sworn declaration that, based on information provided to him by former colleagues, "it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct." John Doe #2 says he worked at Blackwater for four years; his identity is concealed in the sworn declaration because he "fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this Declaration." He also alleges, "On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince's employ, Mr. Prince's management has personally threatened me with death and violence."

Alabama Looks to Call in National Guard to Quell Dissent - (news.yahoo.com/s/ap) Guard troops may be needed in troubled Ala. County. The sheriff in Alabama's most populous county may call for the National Guard to help maintain order, a spokesman said Tuesday, after a judge cleared the way for cuts in the sheriff's budget and hopes dimmed for a quick end to a budget crisis. Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker ruled that leaders in Jefferson County — now trying to head off a municipalbankruptcy filing of historic proportions — could go ahead with plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale, who had filed a lawsuit that temporarily blocked spending cuts for his office. About 1,000 county workers already are on unpaid leave because courts threw out a key county tax, and Hale has warned that reductions to his budget would mean fewer patrols by deputies and decreased courthouse security. A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Gov. Bob Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department's current funding is exhausted in early September. "We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard," said Christian. Hale may have to cut as many as 188 deputies and almost 300 civilian workers out of more than 700 employees total because of Boohaker's ruling, Christian said. That would leave just enough workers to staff the county's two jails, which hold about 1,000 prisoners on average. Christian said the department couldn't close either jail or release inmates, but it would send as many prisoners as possible to the state prison system, which already is badly overcrowded. Riley previously refused to declare a state of emergency in Jefferson County, which has about 640,000 residents and includes the state's largest city, Birmingham. But he hasn't ruled out sending in Guard members or state troopers if needed. Members of the county's legislative delegation scheduled a meeting to consider a replacement for the defunct occupational tax. However, Jefferson County Commission president Bettye Fine Collins said she doubted the commission would approve the plan since lawyers already have questioned its constitutionality. "It wouldn't make sense to support it since we would likely be right back where we are now," Collins said in an interview. The crisis followed court rulings that blocked Jefferson County from using money from an occupational tax that provided some $75 million annually, or about one-third of its budget.

Post Office to Close 1,000 Branches - (abcnews.go.com) The postal service is considering closing as many as 1,000 local offices as it battles staggering financial problems. The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying. The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year, despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, cuts in staff and removal of collection boxes. Also on the block are branch offices across the country and postal officials sent a list of nearly 700 potential candidates to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission. More may be added, the postal service says. Those the current list of potential candidates can be viewed athttp://www.prc.gov/Docs/63/63990/SBOC%20Full%20Study%20July%20List.pdf.

Geithner Loses His Cool - (www.nytimes.com) Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner blasted top regulators in an expletive-laden tirade amid frustration over President Barack Obama’s faltering plan to overhaul financial regulation, Reuters reported, citing a Monday story in The Wall Street Journal. A person familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Geithner told regulators “enough is enough,” the newspaper said. The meeting took place last Friday with Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairwoman Sheila Bair. The Treasury secretary said regulators had been given a chance to air their concerns, but that it was time to stop, the newspaper said, citing the person. A Treasury Department representative had no immediate comment. The Fed, the S.E.C. and the F.D.I.C. did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Mr. Obama in June unveiled a financial regulatory overhaul, sometimes called the biggest since the 1930s. Among other things, the plan would give the Fed added powers, award the government more power to break up troubled companies and create a new agency to oversee consumer finance. Many major banks and industry trade groups have criticized the plan, as have some regulators wary that any redistribution of power would reduce their own. According to the newspaper, Friday’s roughly hour-long meeting was unusual because of Mr. Geithner’s repeated obscenities and his aggressive posture toward regulators generally deemed independent of the White House.

Goldman's New American Socialism Manifesto - (www.marketwatch.com) Average folks erroneously believe behavioral economics helps them. But behavioral nudgers just want to help themselves. No letup in lobbying: The economic downturn has done little to curb government lobbying in Washington. The Wall Street Journal's Louise Radnofsky says too much has been at stake for lobbyists to tighten their spending. And both political parties are guilty. Behavioral economics is all the rage since the new president hired some academic behaviorists. That also helped the GOP, made average folks forget the former president had his nudgers, too, like former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Moreover, his party recently hired 350 lobbyists, many former Senators and Congressmen, to kill the new guy's health-care reform. The truth is, folks, behavioral economics, nudging, manipulation and lobbying, whatever you call it, has been a part of American politics for a long time under many names, though neither party publicly admits their nudging strategies. Puzzled? Ask yourself: Why is the GOP so aggressively demonizing Obama's health-care reform as "socialism?" Why? Yes, something smells fishy, especially since the GOP created the biggest "socialized medicine" program ever with Medicare drugs. Then suddenly the "why" hit me. Here's why ... All the fear-mongering about health-care "socialism" is actually a strategic smoke screen, a brilliant counterattack, a sneaky political cover-up of the GOP's recent historic takeover of America using taxpayer-funded bailout money against us. Get it? The Right's making Left turns into "socialism." You heard me. In "Bailout Nation," hedge fund manager Barry Ritholtz summarizes this clandestine takeover of the great American democracy, led by Paulson and the Goldman Conspiracy juggernaut. In less than a year America has become "Socialism for the Rich! Capitalism for the Rest," says Ritholtz. It all began last October, just before the elections. Paulson, Goldman's Trojan Horse inside a GOP-controlled White House, moved with the lightning speed of a special-ops team attacking behind enemy lines. Paulson took command of the meltdown, before our clueless Congress knew what happened. Back then, the Goldman Conspiracy was near bankruptcy as the stock bubble crashed. But Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: Rise of Disaster Capitalism," warned: "When those bubbles burst" Wall Street's "ideology becomes a hindrance and goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue." Klein then predicted: Free-market "ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis." Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi also warned of an attack brewing in "The Big Takeover, how Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution." Yes, that "revolution" took less than a year. Except we did not return to the old Reganomics capitalism Klein warned of. Instead, the Goldman Conspiracy created a new American "Socialist-Capitalism." As Ritholtz aptly describes it, America now has "socialization of risk" [with trillions of toxic bailout debt dumped on taxpayers] versus "privatization of profits" [for Wall Street insiders like the Goldman Conspiracy].

Senators, Advisers Urge Obama to More Than Double Afghan Forces - (www.bloomberg.com) President Barack Obama and top U.S. military commanders are being pressed by senators and civilian advisers to more than double the size of Afghan security forces, a move that would cost billions of dollars. In letters and face-to-face meetings, the lawmakers and the advisers have urged Obama, National Security Advisor Jim Jones and the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan to boost the Afghan National Army and police from current levels of 175,000 to at least 400,000. “Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper U.S. efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year, Senators Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter obtained by Bloomberg News. General Stanley McChrystal, the new U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will recommend a speedier expansion of Afghan forces beyond current targets in an assessment he will give within a month to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, according to a senior military official familiar with the review. McChrystal’s report won’t propose how many additional U.S. or NATO troops may be needed to train those Afghan forces or to boost the U.S. fighting effort, the official said, adding that any discussion of U.S. and NATO troop strength will come later. U.S. intelligence agencies, in a document submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee April 24, estimated the Afghan Army alone would need to grow to 325,000 -- more than triple its current strength -- to mount an effective counterinsurgency. In a meeting last week with Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the deputy national security adviser who oversees Afghan policy at the White House, Levin said a substantial expansion of Afghan forces is essential, according to his spokeswoman, Tara Andringa. In a May 19 letter to Obama, 17 Democrats and Republicans on the SenateArmed Services Committee, including Levin, a Michigan Democrat, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, echoed the Afghan government’s view that a doubling of Afghan forces is needed. They cautioned Obama against “taking an incremental approach” that “does not reflect the realities on the ground.”

Situation in Afghanistan is Dire - (www.reuters.com) Almost half of Afghanistan is at a high risk of attack by the Taliban and other insurgents or is under "enemy control," a secret Afghan government map shows, painting a dire security picture before presidential elections. The threat assessment map, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, shows 133 of Afghanistan's 356 districts are regarded as high-risk areas with at least 13 under "enemy control." The map, which bears the logos of Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and the army as well as the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, was produced in April 2009, before a dramatic escalation of violence ahead of the August 20 ballot. The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment despite several telephone calls and emails on Wednesday. The map shows virtually the entire south of the country under extreme risk of attack, a vast swathe stretching from Farah in the west through Helmand province in the south and east toward provinces such as Paktia and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border.