AIG's continued Bailouts... ..time for an innovative response & an END to Wall Street's rampant and delusional Corporate Hubris

Currently, the American taxpayers hold 80% of AIG, a corporation whose actions have been critical in creating the sub-prime financial quicksand that has led world financial markets to a complete collapse at their foundations.

At the same time as AIG admits they will now be paying exorbitant and unfounded bonuses to its financial products unit - the very unit responsible for AIG's current financial debacle - as well as taking delivery on expensive corporate jets, we hear from the White House and Timothy Geithner that AIG cannot be allowed to enter bankruptcy given the international implications. We are being told as taxpayers that bankruptcy for AIG, the one remedy which would allow the erasure of the repugnant contractual provisions AIG is asserting they are bound by, is simply not an option.

Obviously, AIG executives knew of these potential bonus payments LONG before they appeared on Capitol Hill to speak with Congress, yet, at a time when such bonuses were a key concern of: lawmakers, the White House, investors, the world financial community, and the public, they studiously avoided any mention of these contractual provisions.

Given the asserted international financial implications of an AIG failure, and the fact that even Congress cannot identify AIG officials with actual day-to-day corporate responsibility, much less accountability, at AIG I would suggest the White House needs to move completely outside the traditional "box"

I would therefore offer the following for consideration:

1) The White House immediately appoint a special AIG working group chaired by Robert Reich and composed of representatives from each of the following: a former Treasury official, a former Commerce official, a senior former member of the Senate and a senior former member of the House, and a former senior diplomat. That this working group also include representatives from G-20 member states of the EU and a member from Japan.

2) That this working group be tasked with immediately developing an international buyout fund, to be financed by US and other governments, for the remaining 20% of AIG still not currently held by US taxpayers. This buyout plan to be invoked should AIG enter bankruptcy.

3) That AIG be refused further bailout funds, and instead be allowed to enter Chapter 11 receivership, at which point simultaneously: the buyout of the remaining 20% of AIG would go into effect and the contemptuously repulsive contractual provisions would be rendered an effective legal nullity.

4) Direct the Attorney General and Department of Justice to immediately begin investigating whether these bonuses being paid to AIG financial products unit executives was indeed not performance based, but given the timing of the drawing of said contractual provisions (just as the sub-prime meltdown began in earnest), was instead "illegal hush money" designed to prevent full and open disclosure/discussion of AIG's true financial status and the full extent of their exposure as the direct result of that unit's actions.

Leveraging at the ratios AIG's financial products unit engaged in is effectively little different than the kind of ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff created. In neither case could one rationally believe the income existed to ever payoff the extreme leveraging engaged in. It is high time for us to protect the 80% of AIG assets held by we taxpayers and to hold those accountable for this financial meltdown fully responsible at the public bar.

Torn Calf Muscle

Ok, this is really boring for most of you, but I've had to cut my nightly 3 mile run to a 1.5 mile run and 1.5 mile fast walk. Why? Well, according to my MD, I tore a calf muscle when I tripped on one of those horizontal street-level cellar doors that many small businesses in the NYC area use for product deliveries. This pisses me off...

Beyond that, I now know that the first of my two diplomas from Rutgers is already printed (YAY!): a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Philosophy from Cook College of Rutgers University - commencement is 23 May. The second diploma comes next year and will be a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior.

The next big step is my sojourn in Morocco this summer, where I'll be studying Arabic intensively, via immersion, for six weeks, beginning in late June.

Not even Guilty of a Misdemeanor after more than 50 shots kill an innocent man without warning...

3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting - New York Times
The detectives were found not guilty on all felony and misdemeanor charges in the November 2006 death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Queens...

All I can say is it's simply incredible. But it highlights two sobering facts.

Proof, as if we didn't have enough that:

1) America has been, since 9/11, a shadow of what it once was and represented. Today we are a Police State, where: illegal wiretaps, falsifying evidence, torture, and shooting without warning are endorsed by the highest ranks of government. That "shining city upon the hill" has gone dark, while the echoes of air raid sirens and combat boots are the only sounds to punctuate the oppressive silence.

2) racism is still alive and well in America. Sadly, one everyday black man's life just isn't worth anything in the eyes of many in this society.


"This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy... ..Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." MLK (1963)


For those of you in New Jersey, here are two New York Times pieces collectively demonstrating that racism has been and remains prevalent in our own New Jersey State Police (yes, I am saying that many NJ State Troopers are racist a**holes - the TRUTH HURTS):

A Troubling Encounter With the State Police

U.S. WILL MONITOR NEW JERSEY POLICE ON RACE PROFILING


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A New Petrarchan Sonnet

The Night Swan Bed & Breakfast

Well, THAT'S a subject heading one doesn't see everyday!

Ok, so when I'm REALLY stressed out to the max, I generally have only two options that work:

1) I go jogging. Which, for reasons that are irrelevant here, I began doing again for the first time in six years, this past weekend. I'm running 3 miles every other day. I was doing it every day until a persistent cramp in one calf made clear I was overdoing it after the long hiatus.

2) I write something REALLY structured - like a Petrarchan Sonnet. Two weeks ago a friend was stressing out and, given my ridiculous tendency toward empathy, my friend's emotional state impacted with mine.

The point of all this is that I ended up writing a new piece which several people are pushing me to publish, so I'm tossing it in the proverbial bottle and letting it float on the waves of the internet.

The octet's a bit of a combination of the kind of disconnected visual imagery, written in a stream of consciousness style, one might find in an Alan Ginsburg poem, like those found in The Fall of America (I was fortunate to attend a reading by Alan, speak with him, and get him to autograph a copy of that very volume a few years prior to his death). While the turn and the sestet adhere to more traditional Petrarchan elements and rules.

For those who might wonder, the octet imagery is drawn from actual events in the State of Florida, related to one another, over a short time period.

Hopefully, I'll get some feedback on this piece and perhaps the photos as well (if you click on any of the images, you will get a much larger version).

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The Night Swan B&B in Black & White InfraRed

Cantus Catalina

Lithe spirited Muse proves moonlight so pale,
Viridian eyes shame gold lighthouse beams,
Feline its essence, with Lorelei themes,
Beckons the Venti to billow white sail.

Gold morning sunshine adorns porpoise tails,
Open top driving in Florida’s gleams,
Sapphire twilight revives polka-dot dreams,
Night’s clingy black dress calls soddening gales.

One word from her lips brings life to dry earth,
Giggles unbidden melt ice from cold stone,
Odysseus’ Siren kindles new art.

Brief moments shared are a priceless rebirth,
de Leon’s fount midst fair Venus’ mons,
Love unexpected has purloined this heart.



© Copyright, Keith Krebs, 2008, All Rights Reserved

Polka Dot Dreams in Sapphire

Captain Gary of SunDial Sailing & Charters

The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse
(tallest in Florida)

Wind in our Sail

The Gin Hammock Beach Resort vista from an Ocean View Suite

Ridiculous Pakistani Government Assertions!!!

How stupid do they assume we all are?!!

From the Associated Press:
"Authorities on Thursday said Bhutto died from bullet wounds fired by a young man who then blew himself up, killing 20 other people. A surgeon who treated her said Friday she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull.

But later Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said all three shots missed her as she greeted supporters through the sunroof of her vehicle, which was bulletproof and bombproof.

He also denied that shrapnel caused her death, saying Bhutto was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and the shock waves from the blast knocked her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull.."


The clear implication by Pakistani government officials is that Benazir Bhutto is somehow the cause of her own death, that she wasn't murdered.

Imagine the following on an episode of CSI:

"I'm sorry the Department will have to release him (the suspect). Apparently, she (the victim) was killed when she ducked to avoid his bullets and a bomb went off. Her head smacked against the wall when the bomb went off. He obviously isn't the killer. There was no murder here, just a horrible accidental death..."

Um, yeah... ..about as 'accidental' as me dying if someone tossed a plugged in toaster into my bathwater!

'It wasn't the electricity that killed him, it was his heart stopping'


This IS the VERY SAME Pakistani government that repeatedly turned down specific security requests by Bhutto and her team!

First, she died of spinal cord damage resulting from gunshot wounds to her chest and head:
"Bhutto was rushed into surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. She was given an open-heart massage, but the spinal cord damage was too great, he said."


Then the same Interior Ministry, now saying she died from her 'fall', blamed it on just a gunshot wound to her neck:
"Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto died of bullet wound in neck by a suicide bomber, Interior Ministry Spokesman said here Thursday. He said the suicide bomber fired at the PPP chairperson when she was waving to the crowd from the sun-roof of her vehicle minutes after addressing the public gathering at Liaquat Bagh. Later, the killer blew himself up at the spot killing over 20 people and injuring more than 50 persons."

Now, she basically 'accidentally' killed herself!?

To steal a line from 'Apocalypse Now!':

"Oh man, the shit piled up so fast in [Pakistan] you needed wings to stay above it."

Give us a F_in break!

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For an interesting side note on this, read Bhutto Sent Blitzer Security E-Mail"

The CIA Tapes Saga Gets More Interesting....

The Huffington Post is reporting that part of the reason for the destruction of the CIA tapes was the people Abu Zubaydah named at the top levels of the Pakistani and Saudi governments who were involved with the 9/11 plot. No surprise they've all died since then.

The Saddam Tapes - VP Cheney now argues Iraq Is not part of War on Terror

Just in case you've been living in a cave, I'll remind you that the CIA destroyed video tapes of the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Well, I have been told, by a government source I trust, that similar tapes of interrogations of Iraq War detainees have been in the hands of: the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, the Army Office of the Inspector General (as a result of Abu Ghraib investigations), and most importantly, the Office of the Vice President and the White House. Journalist Seymour Hersh has, in the past, reported the existence of some of these tapes.

However, the big news is that the Office of the Vice President and the White House also had possession of some VERY INTERESTING tapes of the interrogation of Saddam Hussein. The mental image of Dick Cheney and Dubya eating popcorn, laughing, and playing with Saddam's pistol, while sitting in the White House theater watching the tapes, is something I can't get out of my mind. Is this what America is about?

Related to that and the other tapes from Iraq is the reported other-worldliness of internal government discussion (both in the Executive Branch and in the Senate Intelligence Committee) on whether or not these tapes are subject to the order of Judge Brinkema to produce videotapes of government interrogations of Al Qaeda terrorism suspects.

The Office of the Vice President has explicitly and specifically argued over and over again that Iraq is part of the War on Terror. Well, in more proof of VP Dick Cheney's residence in Bizarro World, comes news that his office has been arguing that any tapes from detainees captured in Iraq are not subject to Judge Brinkema's order...

..why?

Well, of course, because "the War in Iraq is not part of War on Terror operations against Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda Iraq is not proven to be a part of its namesake parent organization Al Qaeda." That's right friends, after nearly six years of telling us that operations against Iraq are part of the War on Terror, the VP is arguing internally that they legally are not part of that war.

Gerald Ford was right, Cheney has lost his mind with paranoia over terrorism. I'm willing to bet that Cheney personally approved Jose Rodriguez's decision to destroy the CIA videotapes after White House Counsel Harriet Miers apparently told the CIA not to destroy them. That would allow the White House to plausibly avoid direct responsibility and still ensure the disappearance of the tapes. At the very least, given Cheney's past refusal to cooperate with Judicial Branch orders, it would keep any inquiry from reaching a conclusion before Bush/Cheney Co. leave office.

Note to Judges Brinkema & Kennedy: you need to explicitly add videotapes of interrogations of terrorism suspects detained in Iraq and interrogated by the CIA, DIA, US Military, and/or US contractors (my reports are that Blackwater, and other contractors have participated in some of these interrogations - however Blackwater may have passed its responsibility for such operations to its new intelligence subsidiary Total Intelligence Solutions. The same sources say that part of the inspiration for setting up the new subsidiary was to legally shield Blackwater's principles and huge earnings from direct liability for such actions) to your order.

Welcome to the newspeak of 1984, where war is peace.