dixiegrrrrl
dixiegrrrrl's JournalThe Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail
Of course WE saw that slippery slope during Bush warrantless spying...but it has really increased in the last 8 years.
An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57578839-38/irs-claims-it-can-read-your-e-mail-without-a-warrant/
Dispatches From Exxon’s Spill Zone: The Cover-up Continues
Mayflower, AR, April 9 As spill estimates are being revised to over 300,000 gallons,
we have been hearing very disturbing reports about Exxons continued focus on PR damage control rather than actual damage control. At every turn they are attempting to obfuscate the truth even if it means endangering the health of workers, residents and the ecosystem.
We already reported how they power-washed bitumen into a nearby wetland and then paid local sheriffs to keep cameras away, hiding the problem at the expense of the local watershed and everyone who relies on it for drinking water, hunting and fishing.
During the day, workers and police are not wearing masks. We have spoken to several workers who had no idea that they were dealing with tar sands bitumen instead of crude oil. None were willing to talk further or go on the record.
At night, according to reports from several residents, workers wear full protective suits.
Something is wrong here. There are two possibilities, both alarming.
http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/exxonspill-dispatches-5/
The Banks' "Penalty" To Put Robosigning Behind Them: $300 Per Person
Article comes with a nice pie chart...
Borrowers who receive a payment from the settlement can still take any other action against their mortgage servicer.
The servicers also cannot ask borrowers to waive any legal claims when accepting the payment.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-09/banks-penalty-put-robosigning-behind-them-300-person
edited to add:
The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency say a total $3.6 billion in cash will be distributed to
4.2 million borrowers
got it?.......... They just admitted there were 4.2 million borrowers who got screwed.
Look at Bernie Sanders' "little" bill to break up TBTF banks....30 lines long.
To address the concept of Too Big To Fail with respect to certain financial entities.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4 This Act may be cited as the Too Big to Fail, Too
5 Big to Exist Act.
6 SEC. 2. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON INSTITUTIONS THAT
7 ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL.
8 Notwithstanding any other provision of law. not later
9 than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the
10 Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to Congress a list 2
GRA13102 S.L.C.
1 of all commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds,
2 and insurance companies that the Secretary believes are
3 too big to fail, which shall include, but is not limited to,
4 any United States bank holding companies that have been
5 identified as systemically important banks by the Finan-
6 cial Stability Board (in this Act referred to as the Too
7 Big to Fail List).
8 SEC. 3. BREAKING-UP TOO BIG TO FAIL INSTITUTIONS.
9 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, begin-
10 ning 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the
11 Secretary of the Treasury shall break up entities included
12 on the Too Big To Fail List, so that their failure would
13 no longer cause a catastrophic effect on the United States
14 or global economy without a taxpayer bailout.
15 SEC. 4. DEFINITION.
16 For purposes of this Act, the term Too Big to Fail
17 means any entity that has grown so large that its failure
18 would have a catastrophic effect on the stability of either
19 the financial system or the United States economy without
20 substantial Government assistance.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GRA13102.pdf
Pssst...pass it on.
The bill needs to be introduced and given a number, still.
btw..did y'all see Bernie on Real Time last week? He was absolutely steaming mad ....
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for April 5th to April 8th, 2013
More news of various TEPCO problems also at link:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/nuclear-reaction/fukushima-nuclear-crisis-update-for-april-5th/blog/44658/
Private Prison Company Affiliated With US Chamber Conducts Drug Raids at Public Schools
An unsettling trend appears to be underway in Arizona: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.
Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school -- with a student population of 1,776 -- on "lock down," kicking off the first "drug sweep" in the school's four-year history. According to Hamilton, "lock down" is a state in which, "everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves -- nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school."
While such "drug sweeps" have become a routine matter in many of the nation's schools, along with the use of metal detectors and zero-tolerance policies, one feature of this raid was unusual. According to Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) Public Information Officer Thomas Anderson,
It is the involvement of CCA -- the nation's largest private, for-profit prison corporation -- that causes this high school "drug sweep" to stand out as unusual; CCA is not, despite CGPD's evident opinion to the contrary, a law enforcement agency.
"To invite for-profit prison guards to conduct law enforcement actions in a high school is perhaps the most direct expression of the 'schools-to-prison pipeline' I've ever seen," said Caroline Isaacs, program director of the Tucson office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization that advocates for criminal justice reform.
http://shutthechamber.org/news/prwatch-private-prison-company-affiliated-us-chamber-conducts-drug-raids-public-schools
don't know about you, but not only would I take my kid out of that school, I would find a lawyer.
Laiki Bank: The Cyprus bank staff hit worst of all
This is unbelievable....
Before the bank closed, the employees were pressured to buy shares in the bank, with the implication their job depended on it.
So they borrowed money to buy the shares, and were pressured not to sell them as the economy got worse.
Voskou later found that this same director sold his shares shortly after that conversation.
Now they still have to pay for the loans.
the laid off workers have all their pension money in the now defunct bank, too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22042727
Scientist that Discovered GMO Health Hazards Immediately Fired, Team Dismantled
........ British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose office was discovered to have secretly contacted RRI just hours after Pusztai and his team announced the results of their study on television.
http://worldtruth.tv/scientist-that-discovered-gmo-health-hazards-immediately-fired-team-dismantled/
"Mass deletion of data"’ on former Bank of Cyprus execs’ computers
Smoking gun but no fingerprints, apparently.
said the information provided by BoC was incomplete and data deleting software were found on the computers of two senior executives.
Our computer forensic technologists have found that the computers of two employees, (former CEO) Mr. (Andreas) Eliades and (senior manager group treasury and private banking) Christakis Patsalides, have had wiping software loaded, which is not part of the standard software installations at the BoC, A&M said.
Mass deletion of data appears to have been undertaken on the Patsalides computer on October 18, 2012.
The firm said some deletion had taken place after a data preservation notice was issued to BoC by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) on August 21, 2012.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/alvarez-and-marsal/mass-deletion-data-former-boc-execs-computers/20130405
Austraila's Cyprus moment; breaks promise not to tax retirement funds.
It is not the tax nor the fund amounts that are important here,
it is the Cyprus like move to suddely impose a tax on people's savings after they were encouraged to create the promised tax free accounts.
Treasurer Wayne Swan was also accused by the Opposition of breaking a promise not to tax retirement payments after he announced yesterday superannuation earnings over $100,000 a year would be slugged at 15 per cent.
http://www.news.com.au/money/superannuation/raid-on-nest-eggs-to-hit-more-aussies/story-e6frfmdi-1226613624250
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Washington state, for half my life
Home country: USA
Current location: SW Alabama. for the rest of my life
Member since: Wed Feb 27, 2008, 02:09 PM
Number of posts: 60,010