J's Cafe Nette

Archive for May 1st, 2007

Chase Bank is very careless with personal information on their customers. This video shows what was found in Chase Bank trash cans.

Here’s the disclaimer with the video:

Are you a Chase customer? Watch this video to see how several New York City Chase branches carelessly threw out their customers’ information in the state with the nation’s highest rate of identity theft. Customers’ names, dates of birth, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and account numbers were all found in publicly accessible trash left out on the curb by their city’s largest bank.

If this could be you, be sure to call Chase at (312) 732-7007 and tell them not to trash your identity too!

Kinda scary, isn’t it?

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From The Hill we read a re-cap of what some of us have known about Dianne Feinstein’s shenanigans but has not been made public in many newspapers, if any.

Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.

If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.

The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.

In other words, it appears Sen. Feinstein was up to her ears in the same sort of shenanigans that landed California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R) in the slammer. Indeed, it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his state’s senior senator.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, or CREW, usually focuses on the ethical lapses of Republicans and conservatives, but even she is appalled at the way Sen. Feinstein has abused her position. Sloan told a California reporter earlier this month that while”there are a number of members of Congress with conflicts of interest … because of the amount of money involved, Feinstein’s conflict of interest is an order of magnitude greater than those conflicts.”

Her chief legal adviser says he gave the information to Sen. Feinstein’s chief of staff so she could recuse herself from any conflict of interest issues. Except she didn’t recuse herself. And, more important, her chief legal adviser was a business partner of her husband’s.

During this period the two companies, URS of San Francisco and the Perini Corporation of Framingham, Mass., were controlled by Feinstein’s husband, Richard C. Blum, and were awarded a combined total of over $1.5 billion in government business thanks in large measure to her subcommittee. That’s a lot of money even here in Washington.

Interestingly, she left the subcommittee in late 2005 at about the same time her husband sold his stake in both companies. Their combined net worth increased that year with the sale of the two companies by some 25 percent, to more than $40 million.

In spite of the blatant appearance of corruption, no major publication has picked up on the story, the Senate Ethics Committee has reportedly let her slip by, and she is now chairing the Senate Rules Committee, which puts her in charge of making sure her colleagues act ethically and avoid the sorts of conflicts of interest with which she is personally and so obviously familiar.

When do the ethics committee hearings begin on Sen. Feinstein? Will she get the Cunningham treatment or will the double standard apply and she’ll get a slap on the wrist?

I have nothing against Sen. Feinstein personally. She seems to be an intelligent woman, but if she did something crooked she should be forced to face the charges and pay the penalty, and the penalty should be severe.

If this is as solid as claimed she should be booted out of the Senate and sent to prison someplace. I take this stand whether it’s a Republican or Democrat. You break the law and use congressional chairmanships for your own personal gain, that makes you a crooked politician.

We were promised the most ethical congress in history when this congress took over. They’ve talked the talk; now let’s see them walk the walk.

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This afternoon Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid had a signing ceremony of their own on the Supplemental War spending bill. With great fanfare Speaker Pelosi signed the bill she has been pushing for several weeks.

It has been reported Speaker Pelosi needed to read the bill and understand it thoroughly in order to sign this important piece of legislation, yet she appointed the conferees, gave them directions on the conference meetings, talked about the fact the president should sign the bill and told him to calm down because there was a new congress in town.

Today, President Bush vetoed that bill and made the statement that this bill is bad not only due to the withdrawal timelines, but because it had requirements in it that would allow congress to oversee the war from Washington DC. Commanders would have to check with congress before they could do anything.

He also made the argument about all the pork in the bill, and so he used his veto pen for only the second time in his presidency.

He has called for congressional leaders to meet with him on Wednesday and to come up with a compromise bill that will not tie the hands of our troops in Iraq.

In the meantime, the Pentagon is having to pull money from other vital areas such as the purchasing and repair of equipment needed to protect our soldiers. Training will be affected.

Now, the American people, of which I am but one, ask congress and the president to be adults and come up with a plan that will work and will not tie the hands of our military serving over there, and to do it post haste.

Update: From Breitbart News with a hat tip to Sister Toldjah,<):) who also has the video of Biden telling a Democratic supporter they are going to push the veto down Bush's throat.

Bush signed the veto with a pen given to him by Robert Derga, the father of Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Dustin Derga, who was killed in Iraq on May 8, 2005. The elder Derga spoke with Bush two weeks ago at a meeting the president had with military families at the White House.

Derga, whose son was with a unit from Columbus, Ohio, asked Bush to promise to use the pen in his veto. On Tuesday, Derga contacted the White House to remind Bush to use the pen, and so he did.

Also a hat tip to Sue <):) who reminded me I needed to put this update in.

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Should we replace the inept, corrupt and scandal ridden United Nations?

I have questioned for years why we pay an enormous price to belong to an institution which has scorned and belittled America for years.

Well now we are given some viable options laced with a bit of humor. (Be sure to check out the links.)

As for my vote, I’m with Don.

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An interesting debate could be in the making for tomorrow and it centers around this:

The Lost Art of Constructive Debate
It is a sad fact that Logic and Critical Thinking are no longer taught in many universities, much less high schools. This goes some of the way, I believe, in explaining what passes for debate and considered evaluation in the modern media; Katie Couric and her like are mistaken for people with working brains. And even though blogs offer the forum for reasoned discourse, all too often they also devolve into emotional rants, especially where the readers demonstrate a mob mentality which denies even the theoretical existence of a valid alternative to their opinion. The measured mind and balanced soul find themselves outcasts. It is my hope to revive that spirit of courteous debate and reasoned examination of the issues, through the discouragement of negative tactics and the encouragement of positive methods. To that end, I am proposing a simple yet difficult task.

Tomorrow, if there is interest in the endeavor, I will open a thread for debate on the subject of what, since 1967, the Republicans and Democrats (or Greens, Libertarians, Trekkers, Anarchists, whatever) have each added to America’s store of worth and ideals.

A reasoned debate on issues? If this works Mr. Drummond, perhaps you could next instruct our politicians how to civilly argue the issues of the day.

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Governor Jon Corzine left the hospital on Monday after being involved in an accident that broke 11 ribs and did a lot of damage to his left leg.

We here at J’s Cafe Nette wish him a speedy recovery.

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From Yahoo News:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed on Tuesday in a fight between insurgents north of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry spokesman said, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report.

There has been growing friction between Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al Qaeda’s indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway.

If true, the death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri would signal a deepening split at a time when the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to woo some insurgent groups into the political process.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem Khalaf, said Masri was killed in a battle near a bridge in the small town of al-Nibayi, north of Baghdad.

“We have definite intelligence reports that al Masri was killed today,” he said.

Both Khalaf and another Interior Ministry source said the Iraqi authorities did not have Masri’s body, but the source added that “our people had seen the body.”

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Reuters he understood Masri had been killed on Monday.

“We too have security and intelligence reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri was killed as a result of fighting between insurgents and al Qaeda yesterday near Taji,” Salih said, referring to a town north of Baghdad.

The other Interior Ministry source said Masri, who is believed to be an Egyptian, had been killed in what he described as “probably score-settling within al Qaeda.”

The U.S. military was checking the reports, said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a spokesman.

“We are in discussions with the Iraqis over how they obtained this intelligence. If we do have a body, we are going to conduct DNA tests, and that will take several days. If there is no body, that makes it harder,” Garver said.

There have been erroneous reports of al-Masri’s death before, so take this with a large box of salt until/unless it is confirmed.

Others blogging this story: Captain’s Quarters, who also urges caution.

And

California Conservative

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I consider her to not only be a good friend to me, but one of the greatest writers in the blogosphere. If I could write half as well as she does I would be a big success.

I’m talking about The Anchoress, who has been laid low with a recurring illness.

The blogosphere isn’t as good when she isn’t able to write, and I have personally missed her spot-on posts about faith with just a sprinkle of politics (she says it’s too early to write about that) and a lot of common sense.

Welcome back, A, and don’t overdo it or you’ll be on your back again.

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For your viewing and listening pleasure courtesy of Old Blue Web Designs.

Take Me Back To the Fifties.

And,

Take Me Back To the Sixties.

Whether you’re an “oldie but goodie” or a “youngin” sit back and enjoy a trip down memory lane.

Have Fun!

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