Sep
30
By voting down the proposed $700 billion financial bailout package - and causing a spectacular stock market rout - a majority of members in the House of Representatives made a clear statement that they didn’t want to put taxpayers on the hook for the failures of financial institutions.
But there’s a catch: taxpayers are already on the hook for the failures of financial institutions, and it’s possible that the bill will actually be larger without bailout legislation than with it. That’s because the regulators who mind the financial industry - the Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC - will keep doing what they’ve been doing: stepping in to prevent the chaotic failure of banks and other large financial institutions. This means continuing to put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars at risk, but in a way that adheres to no clear plan of action and doesn’t require members of Congress to explicitly approve their actions.
On Monday afternoon, Wall Street basically stopped trading to watch TV - mainly CNBC - to see how the House of Representatives would vote on the $700 billion bailout package. When it first started looking like the bill would fail, the Dow plummeted 389 points, or 3.6%, in just seven minutes. If it had continued at that pace for much longer, this would have been perhaps the most harrowing day in stock market history. It didn’t, but things were still really, really bad. The Dow ended the day down 778 points, or 7%, and the S&P 500 - a better measure of the overall market - was down 107 points, or 8.8%, its worst performance since the 1987 market crash. And markets for bonds and short-term loans were, for the most part, nonexistent.
So what happens now? On Capitol Hill, House leaders said they’ll try again soon. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson practically begged for a revised deal in his brief appearance after the market carnage. “Our tool kit is substantial but insufficient,” he said. The market’s traumatized reaction today may change some minds and some votes.
In asking Congress 11 days ago for the authority to spend up to $700 billion to buy troubled assets, Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were hoping to share some of the responsibility and the blame - and get the freedom to boost companies that weren’t already on the brink of failure. Instead, they’re back to being crisis managers for the moment - and maybe for the duration of the crisis.
That’s not all bad, especially now that most of the endangered financial institutions are commercial banks. The Federal Government has clearly defined that authorities take them over, merge them out of existence or shut them down - whereas it had to make things up as it went along with investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and insurer AIG. That’s why the demise of giant banks Washington Mutual and Wachovia, arranged over the past week by the FDIC, occurred in a far more orderly fashion than the non-bank meltdowns.
But orderly isn’t the same as cheap. To get Citigroup to absorb Wachovia, the FDIC agreed to share the risk on a $312 billion portfolio of loans (Citi has to eat the first $42 billion in potential losses; anything above that hits the FDIC fund).
Also, the fact that every big FDIC deal so far in this crisis has been different - IndyMac was allowed to fail, with only insured deposits safe; WaMu was seized, but all depositors were protected; and Wachovia was sold in a deal that protected both depositors and owners of the company’s bonds but left shareholders with very little - has left investors guessing about the fate of the rest of the banking world. Hardest hit in today’s market sell-off were regional banks like Sovereign Bancorp and National City, perhaps because they seem too small to get special FDIC treatment.
Federal authorities are going to keep doing whatever they can to keep the financial system from collapsing. Taxpayers will bear the risks and the costs of that, whether Congress votes to put them there or not. And it’s possible - although nobody can know for sure - that this ad hoc approach will end up costing more than an up-front $700 billion bailout. Source
Aug
22
President Bush has assured that the US administration will continue to support the government and democratic forces in Pakistan.
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In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani he renewed us firm commitment to economic and anti-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan
White house spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Washington that the two leaders reaffirmed their mutual support for going after extremists who are a threat to Pakistan, the United States and the entire world. Talking to newsmen in Islamabad, information minister Sherry Rehman said that president bush expressed happiness on successful transition to democracy in Pakistan.
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Aug
20
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar has said that ruling coalition will hold another meeting after completion of intra-party consultations by ANP, JUI(F) and Fata MNAs.
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In an interview he expressed the confidence that the issue of restoration of judges would be resolved amicably.
Aug
7
Pakistan has said it will provide all possible assistance to its citizen Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in U.S. Custody.
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In a weekly new briefing in Islamabad, foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said Pakistan has sought consular access to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, so we get get first hand information from her. He said consular access is a legal process and we hope the U.S. Government will provide consular access to Aafia Siddiqui as soon as possible.The spokesman said Pakistan is committed to bring back all Pakistanis including Aafia Siddiqui in custody in foreign countries.In reply to a question, he said Pakistan is interested in acquiring civilian nuclear technology to fulfill its energy needs.
Aug
6
The government says it is committed to bringing back all its nationals detained abroad and it will continue to make efforts in this respect.
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This was stated by a foreign office spokesman in Islamabad while commenting on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s detention. He said that Pakistan embassy in Washington is seeking consular access to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui who was taken in u.s. Custody from afghan authorities on July 18 in afghan city of Ghazni and was transferred to U.S. Meanwhile, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui who is accused of links with Al-Qaeda appeared in a New York court on charges of attempting to kill U.S. agents and military officers while in afghan custody last month.
Jul
18
GORHAM, Maine - Mara Ranger will be a little paranoid doing laundry now. When she was removing clothes from the washing machine at her Maine farmhouse Wednesday, the clothes moved. She told WMTW-TV, “I jumped back” and saw a snake. She quickly shut the lid and called for help.
Maine Animal Damage Control operator Richard Burton reached into the machine and pulled and pulled - all 8 feet of a reticulated python.
Burton guesses the snake got into Ranger’s washing machine through water pipes. The snake’s future home will be York Animal Kingdom in York.
Ranger is going to start looking into every corner of her washing machine. She says, “I’m going to be looking in the tub first - before and after, maybe even during, the rinse cycle.”
May
12
Families will make case for vaccine link to autism
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WASHINGTON - Families claiming that a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will challenge mainstream medicine Monday as they take their case to a federal court.
They seek vindication and financial redress from a government fund that helps people injured by shots.
Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as test cases that determine whether the children and their families in similar situations should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally. But, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress and show symptoms of autism.
Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single-doses. The CDC says single-dose flu shots currently are available only in limited quantities. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.
Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families will present three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.
The Office of Special Masters of the claims court has instructed the plaintiffs to designate three test cases for each of the three theories - nine cases in all - and has assigned three special masters to handle the cases. Three cases in the first category were heard last year, but no decisions have been reached.
The two cases beginning Monday are among the three that focus on the second theory of causation: that thimerosal-containing vaccines alone cause autism. The plaintiff in the third case originally scheduled for hearing this month has withdrawn and lawyers and court officials are working to agree on substitute case.
Hearings in the test cases for the third theory of causation are scheduled in mid-September.
Lawyers for the petitioning families in the cases being heard this month say they will present evidence that injections with thimerosal deposit a form of mercury in the brain. That mercury excites certain brain cells that stay chronically activated trying to get rid of the intrusion.
“In some kids, there’s enough of it that it sets off this chronic neuroinflammatory pattern that can lead to regressive autism,” said attorney Mike Williams.
In the end, the families’ attorneys hope to convince the special master hearing their case that thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for the inflammation that leads to regressive autism.
To win, the attorneys for the two boys, William Mead and Jordan King, will have to show that it”s more likely than not that the vaccine actually caused the injury.
Many members of the medical community are skeptical of the families’ claims. They worry that the claims about the dangers of vaccines could cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.
“I think that what’s so endearing to me about the anti-vaccine people is they’re perfectly willing to go from one hypothesis to the next without a backward glance,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Dr. Andrew Gerber, a psychiatrist, said that medical experts don’t have a comprehensive understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong hereditary component.
Toxins from the environment could play a role, but currently, data does not support that they do, Gerber said.
Arguments are scheduled to go on throughout the month. A final decision could take several more months. Claims that are successful would result in compensation taking into account lost earnings after age 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.
The families or the federal government can also appeal the decision of the special master to the Court of Federal Claims or to a federal appeals court.
The court Web site says more than 12,500 claims have been filed since creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases, and that more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims. It says there is now more than $2.7 billion a trust fund supported by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine covered by the program.
Apr
13
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in remarks to air on Sunday that his upcoming visit to the Middle East probably would include a meeting in Syria with leaders of the militant group Hamas.
“I’ve not confirmed our itinerary yet for the Syrian visit, but it’s likely that I will be meeting with the Hamas leaders,” Carter said, according to a transcript of his interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”
The Bush administration and close U.S. ally Israel oppose the meeting, which would take place during Carter’s nine-day trip to the Middle East that begins on Sunday.
U.S. policy has been to isolate Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last June, and to bolster pro-Western President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules the West Bank and is in U.S.-sponsored talks with the Israelis.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who sought Carter’s counsel on his own previous Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts ahead of a U.S.-hosted Middle East conference in Annapolis last November, called Hamas a “terrorist organization” on Friday.
“I think there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process,” said Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
“I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative,” he added.
Carter, who served one term as president from 1977 to 1981, would be one of the most prominent Americans to meet with the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
“We’ll be meeting with the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudi Arabians, and with the whole gamut of people who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East,” Carter said of his trip.
The 83-year-old former president has a long history of being involved in the Middle East. In 1978 he succeeded in negotiating the Camp David Accords that paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt, but he has increasingly taken positions critical of Israel.
In a 2006 book, he described Israeli policy in the occupied territories as “a system of apartheid.”
(Reporting by Xavier Briand, editing by Stacey Joyce
Source:
Apr
4
Clinton says she will defend gay rights
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WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy.
Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples “and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board. I will very much work to achieve that.”
Clinton’s comments came in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News that was posted on its Web site Thursday.
Clinton said she and her husband have many gay friends that they socialize with when they get the chance. “I’ve got friends, literally, around the country that I’m close to. It’s part of my life,” she said.
She said that when they ask her why they can’t get married, she tells them marriage is a state law. She said that fact helped defeat a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex weddings that she said would “enshrine discrimination in the Constitution.”
“States are really beginning seriously to deal with the whole range of options, including marriage, both under their own state constitutions and under the legislative approach,” she said. “I anticipate that there will be a very concerted amount of effort in the next couple of years that will move this important issue forward and different states will take different approaches as they did with marriage over many years and you will see an evolution over time.”
Clinton said she opposes a measure that would ban gay marriage in Pennsylvania.
“I would be very distressed if Pennsylvania were to adopt that kind of mean-spirited referendum and I hope it won’t happen,” she said.
Clinton’s Democratic rival Barack Obama and Republican John McCain declined the newspaper’s invitation for an interview. The paper criticized Obama and highlighted his refusal to talk by leaving a blank space on the front page where his interview would have appeared.
Clinton also said she would:
• Eliminate her husband’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that prevents gays from serving openly in the military. Asked if she could do so by a signing order connected to a military appropriations bill, Clinton said she didn’t think that is possible but she would look into it and do it if it were legal.
• Be “very strongly outspoken” against foreign governments that execute gays and use financial assistance and other leverage to prevent the killings.
• Support federal domestic partner legislation to extend rights to all same-sex couples.
• Support services for gay youth, including guidance for schools about the discrimination they face.
• Continue to support gay pride celebrations, to the extent that security would allow. “I don’t think the Secret Service let Bill walk in a parade when he became president,” she said.
Source:Yahoo News
Apr
2
Colombian president: Team will tend to hostages
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PARIS, France (CNN) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy will send a humanitarian mission to Colombia’s jungles to treat ailing hostages held by leftist rebels there, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Tuesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Colombian rebels to release a hostage with dual French citizenship.
“Sarkozy has expressed to me that a humanitarian mission to attend to the health of the hostages is in movement,” Uribe said.
Uribe said that Sarkozy asked him to guarantee safe passage of the mission, which will include the Red Cross, and that he promised to suspend military operations in the area to help the mission’s work.
It was not immediately clear when the mission is to begin. Uribe did not offer additional details.
A spokesman at the Elysee Palace in Paris confirmed the mission.
Uribe’s announcement came hours after Sarkozy appealed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to free former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Sarkozy said she is “in danger of imminent death.”
Addressing Manuel Marulanda, a FARC leader, Sarkozy said in a televised national address that Betancourt “doesn’t have the strength to withstand this endless captivity, which is turning into a tragedy.”
FARC has held Betancourt, who has dual French citizenship, for more than six years. Hostages whom the rebel group recently freed said she is in poor health, and other reports have said she began a hunger strike February 23, the sixth anniversary of her captivity.
Sarkozy did not mention that claim.
He said his country stands ready should FARC decide to release her or other hostages.
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“France awaits only one sign from your part to immediately organize, in concert with the competent authorities, a humanitarian mission to help take care of Ingrid and the weakest hostages,” he said.
“So, you who lead FARC, you now have a date with history,” Sarkozy warned. “Don’t miss it. Liberate Ingrid Betancourt and those hostages who are the weakest!”
Not doing so, he said, “would be a severe political error, in addition to being a humanitarian tragedy. It would be a crime. You would be responsible for the death of a woman.”
Sarkozy’s remarks came as the Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa Noticias Web site published a letter from the rebel group that said Betancourt’s chances of freedom have diminished in the wake of a Colombian attack on a FARC camp inside Ecuador.
The March 1 attack killed about two dozen people, including Raul Reyes, FARC’s second-in-command, as well as an Ecuadoran and several Mexicans.
Ecuador broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia after the attack, criticizing it as an assault on its territorial sovereignty.
“There will not be a meeting with the French delegation over the release of Ingrid,” Ivan Marquez, a FARC member, wrote in the March 20 letter published Tuesday on the ABP Noticias Web site.
“As commander Manuel said: ‘They killed Raul, and seriously wounded the exchange of prisoners and peace,’ ” Marquez wrote in the letter.
The letter was apparently written before the Colombian government made an offer last week to free jailed guerillas if FARC freed hostages, including Betancourt.
The Colombian government said it was prepared to suspend the sentences of imprisoned FARC fighters if the rebel force freed high-profile hostages, such as Betancourt or three U.S. defense contractors held since 2003, the government’s high commissioner for peace, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said in a written statement.
Established as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party in 1964, FARC is Colombia’s oldest, largest and best-equipped Marxist rebel group, according to the U.S. Department of State. Several nations, including the United States, classify it as a terrorist group.
FARC has long justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a drawn-out, complex civil war that has involved right-wing paramilitary groups, government forces and drug trafficking.
The group holds roughly 750 hostages in Colombia’s jungles.
In deals brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the rebels have freed six hostages in the last three months.