Tuesday
Dec212010
In case you're confused about where you've landed within the site, this is a new page we launched in January. We will try to update this page all day with new headlines and links to stories that we until now have placed into our comments. I will be setting the 'landing page' for 'Daily Bail' to this headline page whenever I post a group of new links. You can still reach our usual 'HOME' page on the navigation bar at the top of every page.
Dec 21, 2010 at 5:18 PMMonday
Jul262010
Europe freezes out Goldman Sachs
Shocked by past deals with Italy and Greece, governments are excluding the Wall Street bank from sovereign bond sales.
Tuesday
Jul202010
Tuesday
Jul132010
Castro Predicts Nuclear War
(Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio on Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition.
Tuesday
Jul132010
DEM Governors Challenge Obama On Immigration Suit
At the National Governors Association meeting, from left, Phil Bredesen, Deval Patrick, Joe Manchin III and Bob McDonnell.
Tuesday
Jul132010
Push for Public Funds to Finance Campaigns
WASHINGTON—Advocates of government funding for congressional campaigns have argued for years that their plan would reduce the influence of wealthy donors and corporate executives.
Now, legislation to put a publicly funded system in place is gaining a boost from an unusual set of allies: wealthy donors and corporate executives.
A group of about a dozen former corporate executives and other wealthy individuals has made $5 million in donations and pledges to bankroll a lobbying effort for government financing of House and Senate campaigns, according to David Donnelly, the head of Campaign for Fair Elections and the man leading the effort.
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Sunday
Jul112010
From CNBC Business Journalist to Critic of Bankers on MSNBC (NYT Profile OF Dylan Ratigan)
Ratigan said flatly:
- "As long as there’s been banks and governments, banks and governments have been conspiring to take money from the people.” What has changed now, he said, is that “we have the ability to engage it directly through fair elections and a free press."
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Saturday
Jun262010
How Russell Simmons Out-Lobbied Big Banks
Unmentioned are the fees Simmons' company imposes for its card, including a $9.95 monthly charge, $3 for activation, $1 for every purchase if a PIN is used, $1 for online bill paying, and 50 cents to check your balance at an ATM. Direct deposits and online account management are free, as is a service that alerts customers when their balances are low. By comparison, check-cashing services can charge $50 to cash a $1,000 paycheck. Such fees have led some to ask whether Simmons is at least as interested in doing well as in doing good. Simmons is "marketing a product that is frankly exploitative of the poor and minorities," says Georgetown University law professor Adam Levitin, who specializes in banking issues. "He's no different than a bank."
Thursday
Jun242010
Texas GOP platform: criminalizes gay marriage and bans sodomy, outlaws strip clubs and pornography (WTF?)
They might as well ban oral sex while they're at it. Wait, that's already in the platform. I'm not kidding.
Wednesday
Jun232010
Total U.S. Unfunded Liabilities Reach $99 Trillion
The company also practices dirty accounting tricks like "forward funding," "advance funding," and "delayed obligations," deceptive tricks that hide its precipitous finances from auditors and its investors.
This company routinely borrows from its workers' pension plan to pay off its debt. Its accountants then claim that because the company owes the borrowed money to its own pensioners and not to outside creditors, the resulting hole in the pension plan doesn't really count as a liability. Sometimes, the company's executives neglect to pass a budget at all. When that happens, they keep the company running with "emergency expenditures," which its accountants don't consider real expenditures for records-keeping purposes, even though they're paid with real money.
By now, you've probably guessed where I'm headed. I'm not really talking about any private company. I'm talking about your federal government. If any private corporation employed the same accounting tricks Congress and the White House use to hide the government's massive debt and financial liabilities, its board and executive officers would all be in prison. In the government, it's common practice. And that's not even considering the funding of our two ongoing wars, which somehow emanates from outside the normal budget process.
If the government were required to abide by the same accounting standards as private industry, its debt would be in the trillions, not billions. Last May, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said that the government's unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare alone comes to a staggering $99.2 trillion, or $330,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. It's an impossible figure.
Wednesday
Jun232010
Somali Pirates Receiving 'Ship-Cargo Tips' From London
Somali pirates do not randomly attack vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean; they rather select their targets via the help of a london-based consultant group.
Tuesday
Jun222010
Tuesday
Jun222010
Friday
Jun112010
Wednesday
Jun022010
Recycle Your Cell Phone & Save Mountain Gorillas (WATCH)
Video: Cell Phones & Gorillas - Today's Green Minute brings you information on green living and the environmental connection between recycling cell phones and Gorillas in the Congo.
Wednesday
Jun022010
Senate Candidate Bill Halter Makes Wall Street Bailouts & Reform Central Campaign Issue (WATCH)
- "I'm a proud Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Arkansas. Washington is no longer on the side of Arkansas families. And it’s up to us to fix it."