Excerpt:
Goldman Sachs Backs Out Of Fundraiser After Occupy Wall Street Listed As Honoree
First Posted: 10/24/11 06:12 PM ET Updated: 10/25/11 12:39 AM ET
Apparently there's not enough room at a fundraiser for both Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street.
The investment banking giant backed out of sponsoring a fundraising event hosted by the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union -- a lender that aims to help New York City's poor -- after Goldman officials found out the list of honorees included Occupy Wall Street, the Wall Street Journal reports. Goldman's $5,000 donation was expected to cover 25 percent of the dinner's cost.
The protesters camped out at Zuccotti Park mere blocks away from Goldman Sachs' headquarters have held up signs deriding the investment bank and ridiculed its compensation packages, according to CNN Money. One protester called the approximately $292,000 per employee the company has set aside for compensation "ridiculous."
The firm's profit dropped 75 percent in the first three quarters of this year, but Goldman only notched 25 percent off of its compensation expenses, according to CNN Money. The company's CEO Lloyd Blankfein took home an extra $3.6 million in bonuses in 2010,
The investment banking giant backed out of sponsoring a fundraising event hosted by the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union -- a lender that aims to help New York City's poor -- after Goldman officials found out the list of honorees included Occupy Wall Street, the Wall Street Journal reports. Goldman's $5,000 donation was expected to cover 25 percent of the dinner's cost.
The protesters camped out at Zuccotti Park mere blocks away from Goldman Sachs' headquarters have held up signs deriding the investment bank and ridiculed its compensation packages, according to CNN Money. One protester called the approximately $292,000 per employee the company has set aside for compensation "ridiculous."
The firm's profit dropped 75 percent in the first three quarters of this year, but Goldman only notched 25 percent off of its compensation expenses, according to CNN Money. The company's CEO Lloyd Blankfein took home an extra $3.6 million in bonuses in 2010,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2187533
Excerpt:
On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated the police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training.
Blackwater is secretive about its non-federal, as well as its foreign clients, which the Post pointed out includes Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Burkina Faso, but a WMR inspection of the photograph of the police agencies has yielded the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:
1. Iowa Department of Natural Resources
2. Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff's Department
3. Matthews, North Carolina Police
4. Atlanta Police
5. Chillicothe, Ohio Police
6. Charleston, South Carolina Police
7. Port Chester, NY Police
8. Highland, Indiana Police
9. Unalaska, Alaska Police
10. Metropolitan Washington, DC Police
11. Charlottesville, Virginia Police
12. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Dulles and Reagan National Airports)
13. St. Louis County Police (Missouri)
14. Queen Anne's County, Maryland Police
15. Prince George's County, Maryland Police
16. FBI SWAT Team
17. Gloucester Township, New Jersey Police
18. Tempe, Arizona Police
19. New York Police Department
20. Yonkers, New York Police
21. Fairfax County, Virginia Police
22. Maplewood, New Jersey Police
23. Gastonia, North Carolina Police
24. Tampa Police
25. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
26. DeKalb County, Georgia Police
27. Arlington County, Virginia Police
28. Baltimore Police
29. U.S. Coast Guard
30. Suffolk, Virginia Police
31. Franklin City, Virginia Police
32. Milford, Delaware Police
33. University of Texas Police
34. Norfolk, Virginia Police
35. Ottawa-Carleton, Canada Police
36. San Bernardino County, California Sheriff
37. Plattsburgh, New York Police
38. Chicago Police Department
39. Oregon State Police
40. Los Angeles Police Department
41. Tonawanda, New York Police
42. Special Forces of Colombia
43. Jacksonville, North Carolina Police
44. Harvey Cedars, New Jersey Police
45. Elmira, New York Police
46. Department of Corrections, New Jersey
47. Lexington, Kentucky Police
48. Willimantic, Connecticut Police
49. Georgia Department of Law Enforcement
50. City of Fairfax, Virginia Police
51. Alexandria, Virginia Police Special Operations
52. Illinois State Police
53. Dallas, Texas Police
54. Hamilton, Ohio Police
55. Morganton, North Carolina Police
A number of the police departments that have been trained by Blackwater have abysmal civil rights and police brutality records, most notably the Chicago Police and Illinois State Police, both cited by former Illinois Governor George Ryan as being guilty of police misconduct in his decision to commute the death sentences of Illinois' death row inmates. It was a decision that likely had much to do with his indictment by the Bush administration on corruption charges -- political misuse of the Department of Justice that has been seen in the indictments and investigations of Alabama former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth former CEO Richard Scrushy, Qwest's former CEO Joseph Nacchio, Democratic campaign contributor Martha Stewart, Coastal Corporation's former Chairman and Democratic contributor Oscar Wyatt, and Democratic-leaning trial attorneys around the United States, as well as the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who refused to engage in political prosecutions, and a Justice Department workup on North Carolina presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004.
http://endablog.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/in-any-other-era-in-history-what-the-koch-brothers-are-doing-to-their-own-country-would-be-viewed-as-high-treason/
Excerpt:
In Any Other Era in History, What the Koch Brothers are Doing to Their Own Country Would be Viewed as High Treason
Analysis from Robyn Blumner:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company
Excerpt:
International legal issues
In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that stated, that although hired as "security guards", private contractors were performing military duties. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under International law. Many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are not signatories to the 1989 United Nations Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries.[12]
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/10080/koch-denies-interest-no-bid-deals-opens-new-lobby-shop
Excerpt:
University economics departments, like [Florida State]’s, are part of the mercenary army that gives the Koch brothers legitimizing cover. George Mason University, a public university in Virginia, is one of the best examples. The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has given more than $30 million to it over the last 20 years. The foundation’s pet project is the school’s Mercatus Center, over which it exerts tremendous control. The institute touts itself as “the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas.” Its scholars helped mold the Bush administration’s anti-regulatory policies.If ‘the people’ get to vote on gay marriage, why can’t they vote on the Koch Brothers’ continued presence in American society – you know, something that actually has a negative effect on, well, everything?
…
The Kochs may not like taxes but they sure like to leverage public funds to advance and amplify their own ideological agenda. That agenda leaves the middle class without a government protector in the face of laissez-faire capitalism.
Welcome to the Koch brothers’ war. Once America’s progressives are fully snuffed out, we will all be its casualties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company
Excerpt:
International legal issues
In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that stated, that although hired as "security guards", private contractors were performing military duties. The report found that the use of contractors such as Blackwater was a "new form of mercenary activity" and illegal under International law. Many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are not signatories to the 1989 United Nations Mercenary Convention banning the use of mercenaries.[12]
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/10080/koch-denies-interest-no-bid-deals-opens-new-lobby-shop
Excerpt:
may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under [previously controlling law].http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504577000320434317092.html?mod=e2tw (WSJ -Rupert Murdoch) ...cal
