OCCUPY WALL STREET is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City.  We vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy … join us! We're now in DAY 10.

... Mike Taibbi Rolling Stone
I was speaking at a conference in Boston yesterday when one of the attendees asked me, "How come the media isn't covering the protests on Wall Street?"

I was about to give a pithy answer about how the press doesn't cover marches unless someone sets a car on fire or someone throws a rock through the window of a Starbucks, when I realized that I myself hadn't even written anything about it.

I don't know a whole lot about Occupy Wall Street, although I'm going to check it out when I return to New York. There are times when one wonders how effective marches are – one of the lessons that the other side learned from the Vietnam era is that you can often ignore even really big protests without consequence – but in this case demonstrations could be very important just in terms of educating people about the fact that there is, in fact, a well-defined conflict out there with two sides to it.

There is a huge number of Americans who simply don't realize that they've been victimized by Wall Street – that they've paid inflated commodity prices due to irresponsible speculation and manipulation, seen their home values depressed thanks to corruption in the mortgage markets, subsidized banker bonuses with their tax dollars and/or been forced to pay usurious interest rates for consumer credit, among other things.

I would imagine the end game of any movement against Wall Street corruption is going to involve some very elaborate organization. There are going to have to be consumer and investor boycotts, shareholder revolts, criminal prosecutions, new laws passed, and other moves. But a good first step is making people aware of the battle lines. It sounds like these demonstrations have that potential. Anyway, I'm going to check them out tomorrow. In the meantime, I encourage people to check out their site, and investigate for yourselves.

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... Noam Chomsky

Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street -- financial institutions generally -- has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world). And should also know that it has been doing so increasingly for over 30 years, as their power in the economy has radically increased, and with it their political power. That has set in motion a vicious cycle that has concentrated immense wealth, and with it political power, in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1%, while the rest increasingly become what is sometimes called "a precariat" -- seeking to survive in a precarious existence. They also carry out these ugly activities with almost complete impunity -- not only too big to fail, but also "too big to jail."


The courageous and honorable protests underway in Wall Street should serve to bring this calamity to public attention, and to lead to dedicated efforts to overcome it and set the society on a more healthy course.
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Cops might be cracking down on Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City, but activists are now bringing their big-bank bashing across the country with demonstrations springing up from coast-to-coast.

More than a week after protests began in Lower Manhattan, the Occupy Wall Street movement is moving, well, off of Wall Street. Both Los Angeles, California and Chicago, Illinois have both hosted demonstrators in the days since the first protest kicked off in New York, and now dozens of more locales across America are expected to be swarmed upon by citizens sick and tired of corrupt corporations and financial institutions run amuck by mismanagement and greed.

Within the next few days, occupation-style protests like the one happening in Liberty Plaza Park, Manhattan are expected to occur in Washington DC, Lexington, Kentucky and San Francisco, California. Elsewhere organizers are laying down the groundwork to soon wage demonstrations in cities like Omaha, Birmingham and Philadelphia, as well.  Occupy Together has started up as an online hub so that like-minded individuals that have had enough of the corrupt ties between K Street and Wall Street can launch protests across America.

“We will only grow stronger in our solidarity and we will be heard, not just in New York, but in echoes across this nation,” writes a post on the homepage of Occupy Together.

This past weekend, Occupy Los Angeles demonstrators led a march through the streets of LA to show their solidarity for their East Coast brethren. On Saturday, Californians will come together again and march to City Hall, hoping to pull in the support of thousands. Occupations in New York are expected to continue as well.

Even if the number of protesters in Los Angeles pale in comparison to the thousands that have gathered in New York for the same cause, that isn’t to say that the message is any different.

"Corporate interests seem to be controlling both parties," one protester out west says to laactivist.com. "The 'little man,' the 'American every man,' just isn't getting their voice heard. When you need $35,000 to donate to a campaign to get your voice heard, to have a meeting, that's not democracy."

In Chicago, what began as a small group of only four demonstrators grew to 20 over the weekend. Some of them have stayed camped out in front of Willis Tower. On Friday, they marched to the Federal Reserve Bank to rally there. Occupy Together shows that demonstrations are expected to continue in conjunction with the NYC rallies throughout the Windy City.

Dozens have been arrested for participating in peaceful protests since the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations began earlier this month.

State, federal officials to resume talks with top U.S. banks on foreclosures

The Thieves Who Took America's Future:
Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo

By Brady Dennis, The Washington Post, Thursday, September 22,11:24 PM

State and federal officials on Friday were again to meet with representatives of the nation’s largest banks, trying to finalize a much-anticipated settlement over shoddy foreclosure practices that remains elusive a year after the abuses first garnered national attention.

People familiar with the negotiations said the session in Washington would center around how broad a release from future liability banks should receive in exchange for agreeing to overhaul their mortgage servicing practices and paying billions of dollars in penalties.

The issue has caused sharp divisions in recent months within a 50-state coalition of state attorneys general and has threatened to undermine the outcome of the talks.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has investigated the manner in which banks bundled and sold pools of mortgages — a practice known as securitization — has expressed concern that the pending settlement could release banks from liability for misdeeds that go beyond flawed and fraudulent foreclosure documents and other questionable servicing practices that caused a national uproar last fall.

Schneiderman has insisted that he would not sign onto a deal he views as too lenient on the banks. Attorneys general from a handful of other states, including Delaware and Nevada, have expressed similar concerns. In recent days, attorneys general in Minnesota and Kentucky echoed that sentiment, saying any legal release should not extend to practices that have not undergone thorough investigation.

Those heading the negotiations on behalf of the states, including Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, have remained adamant that they have no intention of granting banks immunity from claims related to the securitization process, nor have they sought to prevent Schneiderman or others from pursuing broader investigations into securitization, fair housing claims, criminal fraud or other issues.

Rather, they have said they are pushing for a narrow legal release as part of a settlement that would force wholesale changes to the ways that mortgage servicers interact with struggling borrowers and produce a significant amount of money that immediately could go toward preventing future foreclosures.

State and federal officials are hoping to extract about $20 billion in collective penalties from the banks involved, with Bank of America footing the largest share, followed by J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The final amount, however, likely will depend on the scope of the legal release.

It was a year ago this week that revelations about widespread problems with faked documents, forged signatures and other disturbing practices grabbed national headlines, sparking numerous investigations and leading some lenders to halt foreclosures and resubmit reams of flawed paperwork.

No Wonder We're Broke

End of VA honor system

cuts 70 percent of vendors

with veteran status

By Leah Nylen and Kathleen Miller, Monday, September 12, 12:13 AM

Since 2008, the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded billions of dollars in contracts under a program to steer work to firms owned by veterans without requiring proof of their eligibility for the funding.

A new mandate forcing companies to prove their ownership and management status has led to the removal of at least 18,800 companies from the VA vendor preference list, the government said. Until last year, contractors were able to self-certify their status as veteran-owned businesses.

Air Force veteran Chad Gill, whose Plankinton, S.D.-based company supplies ammunition, insecticide and pesticide to federal agencies, said he welcomes the stricter requirements.

“The honor system doesn’t really work in the real world,’’ said Gill, who served at a Merced, Calif., Air Force base and is the chief executive of Phoenix Environmental Design.

Only about 8,200 veteran-owned companies remain in the agency’s “Vendor Information Pages,’’ said Josh Taylor, a VA spokesman. That represents a 70 percent reduction after the introduction of tougher certification measures.

Other federal agencies, which still allow self-certification, spent $8.9 billion last year with companies that said they were owned by service-disabled veterans.

Government auditors and investigators have been uncovering contract fraud and abuse by companies claiming to be owned and managed by veterans or service-disabled veterans for years.

The VA inspector general found in July that the agency awarded $46.5 million in contracts to 32 companies that weren’t owned or controlled by veterans or were passing most of the work on to non-veteran businesses. The IG estimated that the agency gives out as much as $500 million in contracts a year to ineligible companies.

An October 2009 audit by the Government Accountability Office found 10 ineligible companies received about $100 million in government contracts through fraud or abuse during fiscal 2003 through 2009. Six of the 10 companies had received contracts from Veterans Affairs, according to the report.

Some of the ineligible companies were used as pass-throughs for other non-veteran-owned businesses, including large, multinational corporations, that performed the contracted work. Others weren’t small businesses or weren’t controlled by a service-disabled veteran, according to the report.

‘Veterans First’

A 2006 law directed Veterans Affairs to give contracting preference to companies owned by veterans and service-disabled veterans. Under the program known as “Veterans First,” the department can award contracts of up to $5 million without competition to qualified companies. The law also made qualified businesses owned by service-disabled veterans the first choice for all contracts, and companies owned by veterans the second choice. Other federal agencies can’t favor one type of small business over another and can only reserve contracts for veterans who were disabled in the service of their country.

Since fiscal 2008, the first full year under Veterans First, the department has awarded about $11.5 billion to veteran and service-disabled veteran businesses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about 20 percent of total procurement spending by the agency during that period.

To increase oversight and improve veteran employment opportunities, President Obama signed a veteran benefits law in October that requires Veterans Affairs to verify the ownership and management of companies in the registry of companies eligible for contracts through Veterans First. Companies had until March 21 to submit documentation, such as tax paperwork and canceled checks, proving their eligibility.

Veterans Affairs has removed from the VetBiz Registry at least 18,800 companies that failed to meet requirements, had outdated information or didn’t respond to requests for documentation, according to Taylor.

Companies removed from the VA program weren’t all intentionally misrepresenting themselves, Tom Leney, executive director of the department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, said last month. Some, such as those with non-veteran business partners, aren’t comfortable turning over complete control to one owner and opt not to participate, said Leney, who has overseen the small-business program since April.

“Most of the firms that we end up having to deny verification to have a problem with their business model,’’ Leney said. “They’re not bad firms.’’

12 companies debarred

Veterans Affairs has stepped up its efforts to pursue fraud, Leney said. The agency has conducted 840 on-site pre-certification visits this year compared to 110 last year. It also has completed since July roughly a dozen unannounced audits of certified companies to ensure compliance with veteran-owned requirements, he said.

As of Aug. 24, the inspector general’s office has debarred 12 companies or individuals this year for fraud related to veteran status. Seven proposed debarments are pending. The inspector general also can refer cases to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.

Mark Amtower, who owns a Maryland company that advises federal contractors on how to win government business, said all U.S. agencies should require proof that companies are owned and managed by service-disabled veterans before awarding contracts. He also said there should be more severe punishments for those found guilty of fraud.

“You are defrauding the federal government; it’s not dissimilar from going into a federal reserve bank and walking out with bullion,” Amtower, the senior partner at Amtower & Co. in Highland, said this month . “Defrauding the government is defrauding the government.’’

Condoleezza Rice becomes the third member of the Bush administration to accuse Cheney of lying in his memoir

By Rachel Rose Hartman

Political Reporter

By Rachel Rose Hartman

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the third senior official from President George W. Bush's administration to accuse Dick Cheney of lying in his new memoir, "In My Time."

Rice told Reuters in an interview Wednesday that she "kept the president fully and completely informed about every 'in and out' of the negotiations with the North Koreans," countering the former vice president's assertion that Rice misled the president about nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.

"You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president," Rice said. "You know, I don't appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies."

Rice also disputed Cheney's assertion that Rice "tearfully admitted" she was wrong for wanting the administration to apologize for President Bush's claim in the 2003 State of the Union that Iraq was searching for uranium for nuclear weapons.

"It certainly doesn't sound like me, now, does it?" Rice said."I would never--I don't remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him."

Rice admitted that she told Cheney he had been correct about the press reaction to the uranium claim.

Rice is the third former official from George W. Bush's State Department to dispute parts of Cheney's memoir, which was published on Tuesday.

The book has provoked rebukes this week from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson.

During an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Powell defended himself, Rice and others against what he said were "cheap shots" lobbed by Cheney in his memoir to boost book sales.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said contrary to Cheney's claims, the former vice president deserves no credit for Powell's resignation, that Powell presented dissenting views on the Iraq War to the president and that Powell and his former Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, are not to blame for the Valerie Plame scandal.

In an interview with "Democracy Now!" on Tuesday, Wilkerson asserted that Cheney's fears of being tried as a war criminal influenced how the former vice president characterized situations in his memoir.

"This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney," Wilkerson said, referring to Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who was charged for war crimes.

Wilkerson said it was "utter nonsense" for Cheney to claim to have anything to do with Powell's resignation.

"The only person Cheney does not seem to find fault with is Cheney," Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said he regrets not resigning for putting together Powell's February 2003 presentation to the United Nations on the supposed presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Creating that presentation "was probably the biggest mistake of my life," he said.

Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: "I am Willing to Testify" If Dick Cheney is Put on Trial

As former Vice President Dick Cheney publishes his long-awaited memoir, we speak to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. "This is a book written out of fear, fear that one day someone will 'Pinochet' Dick Cheney," says Wilkerson, alluding to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested for war crimes. Wilkerson also calls for George W. Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for their crimes in office. "I’d be willing to testify, and I’d be willing to take any punishment I’m due," Wilkerson said. We also speak to Salon.com political and legal blogger Glenn Greenwald about his recent article on Cheney, "The Fruits of Elite Immunity." "Dick Cheney goes around the country profiting off of this sleazy, sensationalistic, self-serving book, basically profiting from his crimes, and at the same time normalizing the idea that these kind of policies…are perfectly legitimate choices to make. And I think that’s the really damaging legacy from all of this," says Greenwald