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CORRUPTION UPDATES 152

Posted: January 24, 2008, Draft edition

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1) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.

Egypt-Gaza-Palestinians-goods    

 

African Press Agency, 1-25-08

http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?article53112

 

 

Palestinians flood Egyptian town as border wall crashes

 

 

APA-London (United Kingdom) Thousands of Palestinians have been surging into Egypt from Gaza since Wednesday after militants blew up the border wall, said Egyptian diplomatic sources in the United Kingdom on Thursday.

 

Gazans rushed to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce and expensive since Israel imposed a blockade last week.

 

One Egyptian official who spoke to APA expressed concern that the situation is wearing heavily on the low-income Egyptian families at the border, who can hardly afford the rising cost of food items as businessmen cash in on the situation.

 

\"Shoppers scramble over the border fence, strip the shelves of goods at the border town of Rafah within hours, bringing back goats, chickens, cigarettes, crates of Coca-Cola, electronics and other household goods from Egypt at cheaper prices and reselling them for more than five times in Gaza,\" he said.

 

But to the amazement of Palestinian authorities, Egypt said: \"We are not thinking of flushing them out\".

 

And neither are police at the border town of Rafah doing anything to prevent the influx of people.

 

Israeli authorities say that Tel Aviv has made a formal request, pressing on Egypt to close the frontier as they fear militants and weapons could be entering Gaza.

 

\"Israel has no forces in Gaza or Egypt, therefore, it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly according to the signed agreements\", said Israeli Foreign office.

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Israel Says It Wants No Ties With Gaza

 

ap, 1-24-08

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/ISRAEL_

GAZA?SITE=CACHI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A top Israeli defense official said Thursday that Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for the Gaza Strip, including the supply of electricity and water, now that the territory's southern border with Egypt has been opened.

 

"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said, according to his office. "So we want to disconnect from it."

 

It was not immediately clear if Vilnai spoke for the entire government.

 

"We want to stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine, so that it would come from another place," Vilnai said.

 

Israel will continue to be responsible for the flow of such supplies into the Gaza Strip until an alternative is found, the office quoted him as saying.

 

Vilnai spoke as thousands of Gazans flooded into Egypt the day after most of the wall on the border was toppled. Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip a week ago, allowing only minimal humanitarian supplies and fuel for a power station in retaliation for a rise in rocket fire on southern Israel.

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Tax rebate deal could mean checks by May

By ANDREW TAYLOR and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writers
Thu Jan 24, 6:35 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080124/ap_on_go_co/economy_stimulus

With unprecedented speed and cooperation, Congress and the White House forged a deal Thursday to begin rushing tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 to most tax filers by spring, hoping they will spend the money just as quickly and jolt the ailing economy to life.

Rebates would be even higher for families with children.

The one-time tax rebates are at the center of a hard-won agreement to pump about $150 billion into the economy this year and perhaps stave off the first recession since 2001. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican leader John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson worked out the details in negotiations that stretched into Wednesday night at the Capitol.

The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose adjusted gross income exceeds $75,000 and for couples with incomes above $150,000. Contributions to IRA and 401(k) retirement accounts and health savings accounts would not count toward the income limit.

"This package will lead to higher consumer spending and increased business investment," Bush said in hailing the agreement.

The bill will go straight to the House floor next week and on to the Senate, where some Democrats hope to add elements such as extending unemployment benefits for workers whose benefits have run out.

Indeed, many Democrats, such as Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the liberal lion of the Senate, were deeply unhappy that Pelosi agreed to jettison that proposal in late-stage talks, as well as plans to increase food stamp payments.

"I do not understand, and cannot accept, the resistance of President Bush and Republican leaders to including an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are without work through no fault of their own," Rangel said.

For businesses, the stimulus measure would allow them to immediate tax write-offs for 50 percent of the purchase price of plants and other capital equipment and permit small businesses to write off additional purchases of equipment. A provision to allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid was dropped in end-stage talks.

Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits in exchange for gaining the rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including those who make too little to pay income taxes.

"I can't say that I'm totally pleased with the package, but I do know that it will help stimulate the economy. But if it does not, then there will be more to come," Pelosi said. She said that House Democrats may act on other proposals to stimulate the economy, particularly if it worsens in coming weeks.

To address the mortgage crisis, the package raises the limit on Federal Housing Administration loans from $362,790 to as high as $729,750 in expensive areas, allowing more subprime mortgage holders to refinance into federally insured loans. To widen the availability of mortgages across the country, it also provides a one-year boost to the cap on loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy, from $417,000 up to $729,750 in high-cost markets.

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What's Really Going on Here??

Housing-credit crisis exposing the rotten core of American Markets and Economy, Committee, 8-17-07, revised 11-24-07

The rotten core of the American Economy: Our Corrupted Democracy, committee, 12-15-07

Feds bail out greedy speculators:Markets will not settle until all assets are revalued, and housing reestablishes price and volume, Committee, August 17, 2007

the crisis erupts: Markets about to kill economy, Committee, Aug 4, 2007

june, '07: Unregulated Markets Threatens Every American's Security, committee, june 25, 2007

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4) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Some critics say the Fed may risk repeating earlier mistakes
By Edmund L. Andrews
Thursday, January 24, 2008

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/24/business/fed.php

WASHINGTON: Even as the Federal Reserve grapples with the collapse of a speculative bubble in housing - the second speculative bust in less than a decade - is it at risk of repeating recent mistakes?

After the Fed slashed its benchmark interest rate to head off a possible recession, a small minority of economists are warning that the central bank is in danger of invoking the same remedies that it did after the bubble in technology stocks burst seven years ago.

Though most experts agree that the economy is on the brink of a recession, and some even contend the recession has already begun, critics say the Fed's attempted rescue looks uncomfortably similar to the aggressive rate reductions that aggravated the speculative bubble in housing.

"We've literally forgotten that this is the very policy environment that led to the housing and mortgage problems in the first place," said Michael Darda, economist at MKM Partners, an investment firm in Greenwich, Connecticut. "We're not going to see another housing bubble, but we could see more inflation."

Beyond the danger of higher inflation, some analysts warn that the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Ben Bernanke, could also lose credibility by appearing to act in knee-jerk response to plunging stock prices.

But other central banks are not following the Fed's lead. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, strongly hinted Wednesday that European policy makers would keep their benchmark rate unchanged.

"Particularly in demanding times of significant market correction and turbulences, it is the responsibility of the central bank to solidly anchor inflation expectations to avoid additional volatility," Trichet told the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Bank of England is not expected to reduce rates quickly either.

European central bankers face challenges that are different from those the Fed confronts. Few European countries have a housing collapse even remotely comparable to that in the United States, though many European banks are suffering big losses on their holdings of American mortgage-backed securities.

Posen, of the Peterson Institute, predicted that the Fed's new policy of lower interest rates would provide "too much rather than too little stimulus" and help push inflation noticeably higher in 2009 and 2010.

But Posen added that the Fed was facing undeniable pressures to act decisively against a potentially serious downturn.

Bernanke and other Fed officials are well aware of the risks, and of criticism by some experts that the Fed's cheap-money policies from 2001 to 2004 may have aggravated the bubble in housing.

Frederic Mishkin, a Fed governor with close ties to Bernanke, suggested in speech last August what one of those lessons might be. If housing prices plunged, Mishkin said, the Fed should cut rates quickly and substantially.

But once the economy begins to recover, he continued, the Fed should raise them back to normal almost as quickly.

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What's Really Going on Here??

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Group calls for probe of Núñez

– Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau
-
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, January 23, 2008

http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/story/654774.html

A political watchdog group called Tuesday for a state investigation into Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's channeling of corporate charitable funds through a nonprofit group to bankroll civic events that featured him.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said the fundraising by the Los Angeles Democrat – totaling more than $250,000 – was a facade to promote himself in 2005 and 2006 while evading the state's campaign contribution limits.

Núñez denied any wrongdoing in connection with the civic events, which ranged from a toy drive to a youth conference that carried his name.

"People in my district expect me to do things to help them, especially if it's something that's going to help poor children," he said.

The Fair Political Practices Commission said it received the complaint Tuesday but did not formally accept the document because it was missing a required element. It is expected to be refiled soon.

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Nunez is a bribed, Paid Whore of the Special Interests and Corporations:

They are Enemies to Our Democracy, and a Threat to Our Rights

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October 31, 2007

Nunez's World:

This is how politics work in California: The Corporations Bribe Nunez, Perata, and the rest of the Scum in our Legislature with campaign "contributions.". In return, Nunez, Perata, and the rest of the paid Scum in our Legislature use their power as lawmakers to serve the financial interests corporate masters.

Taxes, growth, water, communication, and every aspect of California policy has been sold by these dishonorable pimps. Our state government is little more than a crude tool of the rich and powerful while In the meantime, these "Lawmakers" live like kings on their bribe money.

That's why California has fallen apart: Our politicians have sold our educational, medical, water, and electrical "systems," if they can even be called "systems" down the river to subsidize the profits of their bribers.

Nunez's image: Now and Then

Nunez likes to claim is is "one of us,"an average middle-class American. In the past, Nunez has claimed, during his life before the Assembly, that he is an enemy of America, and represents the vanguard of a Mexican Revolution-in the United States-that will destroy White America and reestablish "Atazlan."

Nunez's old rhetoric just drove the anti-Immigrant forces in California Completely Crazy.

Just who is Fabian Nunez?

He is not a man of the people, either of mexico or America. Nunez is a man who represents the marriage of corruptions that typifies how the "New" Californians are just a whole lot more of the same old shit.

Fabian is one of the new "players," the seekers of exceptional wealth and power, who have crawled out of the mass of crimigrants, and they are reaching high office by combining the worse elements of crimigration with the most corrupted corporations in our state. Fabian is representative of politicians who exploit both crimigrants and corporate bribes to the great detriment to our state, and our country.

Nunez was a radical foreign activist when that led him to power. Nunez gave the crimigrants what they wanted to hear. I never understood how the millions of crimigrants helping our corporations rape our state can call themselves "Revolutionaries" without laughing out loud.

The Corporate-Foreigner Revolutionary Army? HA-HA.

Apparently it makes the foreign slaves who come here to serve the White Man for Dollars feel better if they tell themselves they came here to fight the Whit Man. Yeah, sure. If Fabian says so. But those days are over for Nunez.

Nunez is a corporate Bitch Now, now that he is able to sell his soul for a big share of the real power, wealth, and luxury that exploiting millions of crimigrants brings to our Corporate Masters.

Once in the Assembly, Fabian saw the Butter Was on the Other Side of the Bread. So Fabian instantly changed how he served the man. Instead of just fighting to keep cheap illegal labor flowing into our country, and keeping the impoverished masses of foreigners living in a false dream, Fabian became the man himself.

Now Fabian lives a life of wealth and power dependent on selling the government of our state to the highest bidder, while assuring the masters of labor in California have a massive state subsidized pool of impoverished foreign labor to profit from. Fabian has not changed. Fabian has just changed role he played in this standing comedy of lies and deceptions we call our government.

It seems it's a lot easier for a slave like Nunez to become a master, than for a slave like Nunez to become free. Judging by Nunez's earlier rhetoric, and his present behavior, Nunez never has understood the principals this country is based on, only the sad practices that have betrayed our principals.

Rather than pretending to be a "Revolutionary" while maintaining floods of cheap state subsidized crimigrant laborers for the "Evil White Man," now Fabian has become the "Evil White Man," or at least his docile brown dog. Nunez is continuing the fight to flood the state with low cost subsidized labor, but now he is stuffing his pockets with cash, and his mouth with French food, while overstuffing our state with foreigners.

Fabian has settled the crimigrant identity contradiction; To fight the man you must be the man!  As we can see from Fabian's life before and after entering the Assembly, if you shove yourself up a mexican elephant's ass, or an American elephant's ass you still smell like a piece of shit.

Has Fabian Changed?

Fabian has managed to merge the worse elements of both worlds, becoming a living link between the massive crimigration that has trashed our social services, destroyed our environment, and fucked our democracy, with the corrupt politicians that have allowed the corporate interests to use foreigners to steal our wealth and rights.

The Crimigrants and the Corporations depend on each other. Fabian represents a new generation of Democrats, the Corporate Democrats, who have forged strong bonds between our criminal corporations and the crimigrants. Both groups depend on the same abuses to maintain their positions, and the Dems are, yet again, selling our country down the river to foreigners and corporations to satisfy their lust for wealth and power.

Fabian sold everyone out, except for his own love of power, wealth, and luxury. So, independent of what Fabian actually thinks, which may be dependent on his immediate needs, he is a traitor to our democracy, and represents the worse elements of American society: Those who will do anything for wealth and power. This is the bond that ties the crimigrants and corporations together. This is Fabian.

I don't believe that Nunez is an American, and the radical right's internet ravings demonstrate that I am not alone. Not good company, but they are as right on this issue as they are wrong about drugs, gay marriage, foreign policy and religion. But they are right about Fabian.

The mexican radicals in LA who looked to Fabian to lead the revolution against the White Man must be really disappointed. The ones who haven't sold-out with him, or he hasn't paid off with the fruits of his political corruption must think he is a traitor.

And I sure as hell can't see any REAL working-class Mexicans (the real Mexicans, the ones in Mexico) viewing him as anything but a traitor to their culture and country.

Nunez: The Triple-Faced Traitor: American traitor, mexican radical traitor, and Mexican traitor.

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Also See:

Corruption Updates 7, 2nd article on the page, Another Example of Corruption: Nunez Follows Pattern of Rewarding Family

Corruption Updates 23, 10th article on the page, ASSEMBLY TRIES TO TRADE CORRUPTION REFORM FOR MORE CORRUPTION

Corruption Updates 29, 1st article on the page, Nunez, ASSEMBLY STEALS LIKE CORPORATIONS

Corruption Updates 24, 6th article on the page, POLITICIANS WHO BRIBE POLITICIANS ARE LEADERS

Corruption Updates 66, 1st article on the page, Nunez: Term-Limit Donations can't fail to catch Nunez's eye

 

Nunez Lives Like a King on Corporate Bribes, lat, October 5, 2007

Nunez Pretends to be "Middle-Class" while living in luxury at public and private troughs, lat, October 7, 2007

Nunez and Perata Living Large on the Massive Bribes of the Special Interests, bee, October 13, 2007

Nunez Brags that his Bribes Pay his for Luxury rather than the State: but he still collects his per diem while whoring for the corporations,

Nunez lives with Political Fundraiser: Is there and separation between Nunez and his Corporate Bribers? ap, 12-26-07

Donors pour Millions into State Parties: And the Politicians Party around the world, bee, October 3, 2007

Worthless Assembly does Nothing but Play Games and Rob the People Blind, bee, September 13, 2007

Term Limit measure is a FAKE, a Deception by the Democrats to damage our democracy, bee, September 12, 2007

 

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6) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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9) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

 

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

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Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., January, 2008

 

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Today's Headlines

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1] Hamas breaks israeli blockade: blows down Rafa wall

2] Israel adds another crime to the list: abdication of responsibility for occupied territories

3] Beating a dead horse: Stimulus package goes to congress

4] Fed going the wrong way?

5] Call for Nunez corruption probe

6]

7]

8]

9]

10]