More than five years ago, in April 2003, the attorneys general of two small states traveled to Washington with a stern warning for the nation's top bank regulator. Sitting in the spacious Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, with its panoramic view of the capital, the AGs from North Carolina and Iowa said lenders were pushing increasingly risky mortgages. Their host, John D. Hawke Jr., expressed skepticism.

Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Tom Miller of Iowa headed a committee of state officials concerned about new forms of "predatory" lending. They urged Hawke to give states more latitude to limit exorbitant interest rates and fine-print fees. "People out there are struggling with oppressive loans," Cooper recalls saying.

They Warned Us About the Mortgage Crisis - BusinessWeek

I get a lot of political mailings from my Georgia House representative, Jill Chambers. Thus far, they have painted a pretty decent picture of her. She is a fiscal conservative. She genuinely seems to want to keep my taxes low. Some of the mailings are fairly technically detailed in terms of budget and policy issues. She doesn't insult my intelligence.

At least, not until today.

Today, I received a mailing from her with a supposedly drunken picture from her opponent's MySpace page, some off color sarcastic quote from him about drinking, and a mention of his blog (chrisishardcore) with the implication that it is some sort of porn site or place he picks up women online.

Look, Jill, I HAVE A MYSPACE PAGE. When you drag your opponent's personal Internet presence into the campaign in an obviously dishonest manner, you're not just attacking your opponent. You're attacking every voter in your district who uses the Internet for fun, labeling us all as unelectable because we might have said something somewhere online that wasn't polished or intended for a campaign.

That is insulting, and its wrong. Jill, before I received this mailing I had no idea who your opponent was and I had a least a decent impression of you. Now, there is no way I'd vote for you. Not a chance.

In the age of blogs and social networking sites there is a need for campaigns to draw a line between people's personal and professional internet presence, and focus on the issues, unless there is a real, substantive question of character.

These mailings crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed.

Jill Chambers, my Republican opponent in my current campaign for state House, decided to send a mail piece clearly intending to make this blog appear somehow sinister or otherwise inappropriate. I’m now bringing it back so the voters of the 81st District can judge it for themselves. Take a look around. Although many of the entries are a bit out-of-date, I hope you find at least some of them informative and/or entertaining.

As for the picture of me on Ms. Chambers’s mail piece, that was taken and posted by my younger brother when I was around 20 years old. Despite her allegation that I was “drunk,” I can assure you that is not the case. I personally believe the fact that Ms. Chambers would use a picture posted on the Internet several years ago as proof that I “post pictures of myself drunk” says a lot about her character, or lack thereof.

chrisishardcore.com: An Important Message from Chris Huttman

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.

"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.

Holy fuck! This will have huge repercussions. Unfortunately, the people who blew the whistle on this are going to be hit the hardest, but it wasn't just people acting on their own accord. They were ordered to spy on people who posed no threat.

"They were identified in our systems as 'belongs to the International Red Cross' and all these other organizations. And yet, instead of blocking these phone numbers we continued to collect on them," she told ABC News.

AFAIK, this isn't illegal, or at least it wasn't until the passage of the PAA, but it certainly puts to rest a number of questions. Americans who have nothing to do with terrorism or international espionage are targeted by the NSA for surveillance!

Why?!

ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans

:)

YouTube - Your investment goals

We conducted a soft survey at last week's Atlanta Angel Lounge meeting. As you review the results, you should keep in mind that this crisis is new and unsettled. In fact, since our last meeting the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped over 1,400 points. So this data, although only a week old, may be outdated.

Here is what we learned from a gathering of 25 Atlanta angel investors:

* The professional angels with a sizable wealth base said, 'it will be business as usual.'
* There was agreement that with AAA rated companies like GE paying 10% with warrants for long-term money, valuations for early stage companies will be lower. The risk/return ratio is shifting with the market.
* Many angels are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what their liquidity will be when the markets get back to some rhythm, good or bad.
* Deals will be more closely scrutinized and therefore more time will be needed to raise money.

I've been worried about this. It appears the crisis will impact startups negatively, but it doesn't sound like the market has been wiped out... yet...

Charlie Paparelli - Angel Investments in the Downturn

Hijexx wrote:
Naomi Wolf has an interesting take on what could possibly constitute a "war zone." If you think of the global war on terror including the United States, we are now part of the "war zone."

Note: I have not vetted Naomi Wolf, really only heard about her yesterday with this video. She has a book to sell about America becoming a police state. Fear will help it move. Still, interesting points raised in this 27 minute video:

I've heard of her before. I don't have an impression of her one way or the other but I believe she is generally well regarded. A summary of her views on Wikipedia makes her sound interesting and controversial. Not sure what I think about all of it, but she is obviously not an authoritarian, so maybe I'd like her. Interesting for a feminist to have taken her thinking into this realm. Certainly outside the box.

I haven't heard the video (will do so tonight) but I read a summary of her ten points on Wikipedia. Let me address each:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.

Yeah, but the GWOT is basically over. More in a minute.

2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.

They certainly have demonstrated that they can detain US citizens without trial for years.

3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.

OK. Blackwater. The Army deployment is, however, answerable to us.

4. Set up an internal surveillance system.

OK. Its not clear to what extent this is going on but the infrastructure and legal loopholes are there, at least for widespread monitoring of transactional data, which might be going on.

5. Harass citizens' groups.

This is not going on. Not systemically.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.

This is not going on.

7. Target key individuals.

This is not going on.

8. Control the press.

The Republicans have managed to convince a large swath of the population that the press is politically biased, which allows them to simply lie to their supporters. Their supporters will believe those lies no matter what contrary evidence is presented.

The proof is in the pudding with regard to Sarah Palin. They've been able to get away with presenting VP candidate who is not at all qualified to be president. They've tried to hide this fact by not making her available to the press in general, which is unprecedented in modern American history. The few times she has been interviewed have been disasters, but neither her refusal to hold a press conference nor her failure to perform well when she does take questions has deterred her supporters, as they don't believe anything the press tells them if it conflicts with the talking points of their political party.

This fact is extremely dangerous, but it does not amount to "control" of the press. People have the freedom to point out inconsistenci... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

RE: LAist: Martial Law was Threatened if Bailout Didn't Happen

Valley Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) stood his ground on Friday during the second House bailout vote that passed. He, along with the majority, voted no on Monday and he once again voted no on Friday, although that time in the minority. During a session of congress on the night before Friday's vote, he said proponents of the bailout were apparently saying martial law be put in place if the vote didn't go through. "That's what I call fear mongering," Sherman said.

More strange rumblings about domestic military operations.

LAist: Martial Law was Threatened if Bailout Didn't Happen

In the Sunday NYT print edition, there is an excellent visual depiction of costs all the Federal bailouts relative to ordinary fiscal expenditures (Iraq & Afghanistan Wars, Medicaid, stimulus package, social security, etc.)

The Big Picture | Tally of Federal Rescues

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:

As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:

1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.

2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.

3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted.

For these reasons we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.

To be fair, this isn't very constructive.

Academics oppose bailout

The bottom line - good time to point out why you shouldn’t use the same password on different web services, and that the big picture having to do with Wikileak’s vision of a little less secrecy, and a little bit more transparency, ultimately better serves the world and gives power to the people whose collective consciousness, if not brainwashed, is supposed to be shaping the way we live.

For the record:

1. MemeStreams does not store passwords in cleartext.
2. I don't think providing a resource for hosting someone's stolen personal email or stolen password list "better serves the world and gives power to the people." I think its downright crooked and in fact I think its legally actionable. These are not "leaks." There is a grey area between the defending the people's right to know and violating someone's personal privacy, but disclosing a password list is firmly on the dark side of the spectrum.

RE: Bill O’Reilly’s web site hacked, attackers release personal details of users