Don't do what I do, do what I say do! Peasant! Again!

Let me see, weren't we promised a very transparent administration of government?

SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure
By Dunstan Prial

Published July 28, 2010
FOXBusiness


Reuters


"So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings."

The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as “the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret. The only losers here are the American public.”

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Durable Goods Orders Fall Unexpectedly in JuneIf the SEC’s interpretation stands, Mintz, who represents FOX Business Network, predicted “the next time there is a Bernie Madoff failure the American public will not be able to obtain the SEC documents that describe the failure,” referring to the shamed broker whose Ponzi scheme cost investors billions.

The SEC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Criticism of the provision has been swift. “It allows the SEC to block the public’s access to virtually all SEC records,” said Gary Aguirre, a former SEC staff attorney-turned-whistleblower who had accused the agency of thwarting an investigation into hedge fund Pequot Asset Management in 2005. “It permits the SEC to promulgate its own rules and regulations regarding the disclosure of records without getting the approval of the Office of Management and Budget, which typically applies to all federal agencies.”

Aguirre used FOIA requests in his own lawsuit against the SEC, which the SEC settled this year by paying him $755,000. Aguirre, who was fired in September 2005, argued that supervisors at the SEC stymied an investigation of Pequot – a charge that prompted an investigation by the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees.

The SEC closed the case in 2006, but would re-open it three years later. This year, Pequot and its founder, Arthur Samberg, were forced to pay $28 million to settle insider-trading charges related to shares of Microsoft (MSFT: 25.85 ,-0.31 ,-1.19%). The settlement with Aguirre came shortly later.

“From November 2008 through January 2009, I relied heavily on records obtained from the SEC through FOIA in communications to the FBI, Senate investigators, and the SEC in arguing the SEC had botched its initial investigation of Pequot’s trading in Microsoft securities and thus the SEC should reopen it, which it did,” Aguirre said. “The new legislation closes access to such records, even when the investigation is closed.

“It is hard to imagine how the bill could be more counterproductive,” Aguirre added.

FOX Business Network sued the SEC in March 2009 over its failure to produce documents related to its failed investigations into alleged investment frauds being perpetrated by Madoff and R. Allen Stanford. Following the Madoff and Stanford arrests it, was revealed that the SEC conducted investigations into both men prior to their arrests but failed to uncover their alleged frauds.

FOX Business made its initial request to the SEC in February 2009 seeking any information related to the agency’s response to complaints, tips and inquiries or any potential violations of the securities law or wrongdoing by Stanford.

FOX Business has also filed lawsuits against the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve over their failure to respond to FOIA requests regarding use of the bailout funds and the Fed’s extended loan facilities. In February, the Federal Court in New York sided with FOX Business and ordered the Treasury to comply with its requests.

Last year, the network won a legal victory to force the release of documents related to New York University’s lawsuit against Madoff feeder Ezra Merkin.

FOX Business’ FOIA requests have so far led the SEC to release several important and damaging documents:

•FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain a 2005 survey that the SEC in Fort Worth was sending to Stanford investors. The survey showed that the SEC had suspicions about Stanford several years prior to the collapse of his $7 billion empire.

•FOX Business used the FOIA to obtain copies of emails between Federal Reserve lawyers, AIG and staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in which it was revealed the Fed staffers knew that bailing out AIG would result in bonuses being paid.

Recently, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren told FOX Business that the network’s Freedom of Information Act efforts played a “very important part” of the panel’s investigation into AIG.

Warren told the network the government “crossed a line” with the AIG bailout.

“FOX News and the congressional oversight panel has pushed, pushed, pushed, for transparency, give us the documents, let us look at everything. Your Freedom of Information Act suit, which ultimately produced 250,000 pages of documentation, was a very important part of our report. We were able to rely on the documents that you pried out for a significant part of our being able to put this report together,” Warren said.

The SEC first made its intention to block further FOIA requests known on Tuesday. FOX Business was preparing for another round of “skirmishes” with the SEC, according to Mintz, when the agency called and said it intended to use Section 929I of the 2000-page legislation to refuse FBN’s ongoing requests for information.

Mintz said the network will challenge the SEC’s interpretation of the law.

“I believe this is subject to challenge,” he said. “The contours will have to be figured out by a court.”

SEC Financial Regulatory Law H.R. 4173

Might I point out that Rueters is not now and has not been famous for exposing the machinations of the left, so please don't come at me with that "right-wing conspiracy" garbage!

This administration is gathering unto itself more power and authority and covering more of the the tracks of inept, incompetant government employees every day! Are we now to be told that through FOIA requests we can no longer find out about things like how the SEC dropped the ball in the Bernie Madoff investigation?

These are the same filthy scumbag bottom feeders who have tried to infiltrate the Tea Party Movement! The same slimy scum that beat up the wheel chair-bound Kenneth Gladney! The same corrupt garbage that admitted on their media sharing website that there was a conspiracy to trash Sarah Palin! And all of this is publicly documanted! Much of it by their own admission! The same corrupt filth that gave the New Black Panthers a pass! The same garbage that looted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac! The same garbage that demanded a strawberry picker be loaned a half million dollars to buy a house, knowing he could never pay it back!

"They" and "their?" Who am I talking about? Barak Hussein Obama, his union thugs, his Black Panther legion of terror, his unionized government employees and the vast majority of the "mainstream media!"

Is resistance to this Chicago-styled union thug futile? Or shall we roll over for more powerful, more hidden, more union-thug type government?

OHMS! Join the resistance!

If I don't get my way I shall loot and burn!


Violent protests erupt after ex-transit officer convicted in train station killing

Published July 08, 2010
Associated Press



AP

July 8: Looters are seen making off with merchandise outside of a Foot Locker store in Oakland, Calif., following the verdict in a racially charged train station shooting case.
OAKLAND, Calif.

Violent protests erupted in Oakland with stores damaged and dozens arrested after a Los Angeles jury convicted a white former transit officer of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man.

Prosecutors had wanted Johannes Mehserle convicted of murdering Oscar Grant. So Thursday's lesser verdict raised concerns of a repeat of the rioting that followed the shooting on New Year's Day in 2009 on an Oakland train platform. The trial was moved to Los Angeles following the riots.

The verdict also prompted an announcement by Justice Department officials that they would look into whether the case warrants federal prosecution.

Police in riot gear Thursday had maintained a watchful eye over a crowd of protesters as emotions ran high with about 500 people marching in the street. Members of a crowd near City Hall moaned and cursed when they heard the verdict.

Sporadic violence later broke out and police said they made 83 arrests throughout the night for violations that included failure to disperse, vandalism and assaulting a police officer.

At least a dozen businesses were damaged, including a looted Foot Locker store and a ransacked jewelry store, police said. Protesters also smashed the windows of a bank, set fires in several trash bins, and detonated a small incendiary device near a police station that caused no damage.

"This city is not the wild, wild west," said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts. "This city will not tolerate this sort of activity."

Though police did not release a damage estimate, the protesting appeared to be much less severe than the rioting that hit Oakland after Grant was shot.

Even though the protests wound down late Thursday, Batts expected the number of arrests to double overnight.

During the trial, prosecutors said the 28-year-old Mehserle became angry at the 22-year-old Grant for resisting arrest. He was shot in the back while he lay face-down. Mehserle claims he mistakenly drew his gun instead of his Taser.

The jury had a choice between second-degree murder and lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. The jury found that Mehserle didn't mean to kill Grant, but that his behavior was still so negligent that it was criminal. Involuntary manslaughter convictions carry a sentence of two to four years.

During the trial, Wanda Johnson sat most days in the second row of a Los Angeles courtroom less than 30 feet from the man who killed her son. She hoped and prayed the justice system wouldn't fail her.

After the jury's finding, Johnson denounced the verdict and let loose emotions that had been mostly bottled up during the three-week trial.

"My son was murdered! He was murdered! He was murdered," she said outside the courthouse.

Shortly after the verdict, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would conduct an independent review to determine whether the case warrants federal prosecution. The review will be conducted by the department's Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco and the FBI, said spokesman Alejandro Miyar, who declined further comment.

Federal officials planned to begin their review at the conclusion of the state's case against Mehserle, who still faces sentencing.

As Mehserle was placed in handcuffs and taken away, he turned to his family and mouthed, "I love you guys."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement urging Californians to remain calm and not resort to violence. Schwarzenegger said he had informed Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums the state was well prepared to assist in maintaining order.

The finding on use of a gun allegation could be used to add as much as 10 years to a prison sentence. The next hearing was set for Aug. 6.

The jury included eight women and four men. None listed their race as black. Seven said they were white, three were Latino, and one was Asian-Pacific. One declined to state their race. They left the courthouse under tight security.

"As we have come to notice, and we as a family has been slapped in the face by a system that has denied us a right to true justice," said Cephus Johnson, Grant's uncle. "We truly do not blame the jury, but we blame the system."

At least five bystanders videotaped the incident in what was among the most racially polarizing cases in California since four Los Angeles officers were acquitted in 1992 in the beating of Rodney King.

The trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles because of racial tension and extensive media coverage.

The case was a rare instance in which a police officer stood trial for an on-duty killing and that was captured on video from so many different angles.

Legal experts said the verdict shows the jury sympathized with Mehserle's version of events.

"It is legally as low as they could go without acquitting him," University of California, Berkeley, law school professor Erin Murphy said. Prosecutors had a "huge hurdle" to overcome in convincing a jury that an officer with a spotless record meant to kill, even with video of the killing, she said.

Mehserle testified that he struggled with Grant and saw him digging in his pocket as officers responded to reports of a fight at a train station. Fearing Grant may have a weapon, Mehserle said he decided to shock Grant with his Taser but pulled his .40-caliber handgun instead.

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Stein said in his closing argument that Mehserle let his emotions get the better of him and intended to shoot Grant with the handgun without justification.

Defense attorney Michael Rains contended the shooting was a tragic accident. Mehserle had no motive to shoot Grant, even though he was resisting arrest, the lawyer argued.
Allow me to point out a few items here please;
The man shot here was indeed resisting arrest and was found to be digging in his pocket on video. Personally, I would have done it differently but then I was not in that situation.

My prayers are with Wanda Johnson and her family.

However, please read carefully here; we shall see more of this! There shall be much more and much worse!

The division is growing and widespread violence will hurt this country!

One only needs to do a search of white hate groups and see that their membership is growing.

Likewise the influence of Islam is spreading hate and division everywhere in this nation.

Shamir Shabazz, a prominant leader in the New Black Panthers said, "I hate white people, all of them, every last iota of a cracka I hate im. You want freedom, you gonna have to kill some crackers, you gonna have to kill some of their babies!"

These are the people who intimidated voters and their case was dismissed by the Department of Justice! So, I might ask, why do we have that department if there is no justice?

Last question: are you prepared?

In absolute opposition to the wants of the great majority...

Of Americans, President Barak Obama is intent on fundamentally changing the concept of the democratic republic this nation was founded on!

Each day, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this nation goes billions more in debt! According to the best and brightest this situation is not economically sustainable.

Each day we kill more children in this nation's abortion butchershop! Children needed to work and pay the taxes necessary to cover the now unfunded liability of over $30 trillion in Social Security and Medicare for the baby boomer generation which will collect their first checks next year!

As this is going on we have a move by this president to put literally millions more on the public entitlement gravy train by granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Worse yet, "other than Mexican" OTM illegals being caught on the southern border is on the increase. Recently a Muslim prayer rug was found on one border ranch!

And now, while we are scrapping the space shuttle program and will need to ask Russia for a ride to maintain our satellites, we are going to use NASA to help reach out to the Muslim world!

Our Department of Justice has forgone it's duty to prosecute offenders and allowed the New Black Panthers to skate on voter intimidation charges even though they were caught on video!

I have come to the conclusion that our president, a native born son of Kenya, is dangerously unbalanced, cunningly clever and is out to completely destroy this nation!

Nor is he fit to shine the shoes of intelligent black leaders like Kevin Jackson, Starr Parker and Dr. Walter Williams!

This charismatic Muslim madman is nothing less than a modern American version of Josef Goebbels, the "master of the lie and half truth!"

I keep hearing about taking this country back in November! I'll be shocked and surprised if there ARE elections in November!