So... did you folks vote yet?
DON'T FORGET!
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3 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304391204579177903824606742?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Monday that SAC Capital Advisors and related companies had agreed to pay record penalties and to plead guilty to criminal insider-trading charges.
SAC has also agreed to shut down its business of managing other people's money.
But in this settlement, assuming it is approved by a judge, no individuals will plead guilty to anything.
(*DEAFENING SILENCE*)
SAC will pay $1.8 billion, including more than $600 million it agreed to pay in a related settlement earlier this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Few people expect criminal charges to be filed against SAC founder and CEO Stephen A. Cohen.
* THEN AGAINST WHOM WILL CRIMINAL CHARGES BE FILED...???
Therefore, after a multiyear investigation, the legal conclusion seems to be that Mr. Cohen is a non-criminal running a criminal enterprise.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
In a Monday statement, Mr. Bharara claimed that "individual guilt is not the whole of our mission. Sometimes, blameworthy institutions need to be held accountable too. No institution should rest easy in the belief that it is too big to jail."
* BUT... BUT... BUT... THAT'S LIKE CHARGING A GUN WITH A GUN CRIME WHILE NOT CHARGING THE SHOOTER!
[I]nstitutions don't rest, don't believe and certainly don't go to jail. People do. And if — without much in the way of cooperating witnesses or wiretaps — Mr. Bharara has decided he can't make a case against Mr. Cohen, will he now slap the cuffs and an orange jumpsuit on SAC's Stamford, Connecticut headquarters?
* RIDICULOUS! INSANE!
On Monday George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI's New York field office, employed the passive voice to describe this phenomenon of crimes without criminals: "What SAC Capital's plea demonstrates is that cheating and breaking the law were not only permitted but allowed to persist."
But who allowed them to persist?
* YEAH! WHO ALLOWED THEM TO PERSIST?! (AND WHO ALLOWED BREAKING THE LAW IN THE FIRST PLACE?)
It's true that six former SAC employees have pleaded guilty to insider trading...
* WELL THERE YA GO! SO INDIVIDUALS HAVE PLED GUILTY TO INSIDER TRADING! (THEIR PENALTIES...???)
...and two more criminal trials of individuals are on the horizon.
* OK... BUT BACK TO THE SIX...
(*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)
But as far as who allowed crimes to occur in a firm of roughly 1,000 employees, that question will apparently remain unresolved.
(*HEADACHE*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
The SEC has a pending civil case against Mr. Cohen for a failure to supervise.
* LISTEN... IF "FAILURE TO SUPERVISE" IS ACTIONABLE IN CIVIL LAW... THEN CERTAINLY IN A CASE WHERE A CORPORATION HAS BEEN FINED $1.8 BILLION THOSE RESPONSIBLE WITHIN THE CORPORATION MUST BE HELD CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE.
No trial date has been set, and if one ever occurs, it might shed some light on how he managed the firm. But the SEC would only have to prove negligence, not intent, so even a finding of liability wouldn't answer the question of whether this outlaw organization was actually run by an outlaw.
* THE WAY THIS STORY IS BEING TOLD... I'M LOST.
Whether there are any victims to SAC's crimes may be an even harder question to answer. Mr. Bharara couldn't name any at his Monday press conference, because they are theoretical. The prosecutor spoke of people who believe the markets are fair and that investors all play by the same rules. Others would argue that investors view as most fair a market in which prices reflect all available information and are therefore more accurate, or perhaps one in which investors, not regulators, decide what kind of disclosure they require.
Perhaps hazier still is the public understanding of what exactly insider trading is. After his recent win in a civil insider-trading case against the SEC, billionaire Mark Cuban noted that there are "no bright-line rules" and added of the SEC, "They regulate through litigation."
Illegal insider trading is generally understood to be trading securities on material non-public information by a fiduciary or someone in a position of trust, but it's never been precisely defined. The Securities and Exchange Commission notes that "Insider trading violations may also include 'tipping' such information, securities trading by the person 'tipped,' and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information."
The SAC case centered on this gray area of tips, and of course Monday's settlement involved the Department of Justice and criminal charges, where the government must clear a much higher bar than in the SEC's civil cases. At trial Mr. Bharara would have had to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than simply having to demonstrate a preponderance of the evidence as the SEC does. Had the Justice case gone to trial, however, there's no guarantee that SAC could have capped its payouts at even $1.8 billion.
So we have the unsatisfying result of Mr. Cohen, who remains a multibillionaire, going on his way after agreeing to a hefty fee. And we have $1.8 billion flowing from the private economy to Washington, though prosecutors haven't proven that the government deserves a single dollar.
http://www3.blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/citizens-united-joins-vitter-push-against-health-benefits-for-congress-staff-video/
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) took his campaign against federal employer-provided health benefits to a new level on Monday night.
* THAT'S ONE WAY OF PHRASING IT, I SUPPOSE; A MORE HONEST WAY WOULD BE TO REPORT THAT VITTER IS FIGHTING TO ENSURE THAT CONGRESS - AND CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS - GET THEIR INSURANCE VIA THE OBAMACARE EXCHANGES.
The Louisiana Republican appeared on the Fox News program “Hannity” along with David Bossie of the conservative group Citizens United to launch a new advertising effort in favor of the Vitter amendment that includes a fundraising effort for Citizens United.
* HERE'S THE AD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VhLjeGz40E
“We’re really excited about this, being able to take it to the American people so that they can rise up and say look, enough is enough. Congress, you can’t pass a law that by the way is so bad it can’t be rolled out in a competent way for anyone but themselves,” Bossie said. “That’s just plain wrong.”
Vitter said he’s still seeking to get a vote on the amendment that would overturn an Office of Personnel Management ruling allowing members of Congress and their staffs to keep the federal contribution to their health care as they transition onto the exchanges set up under ObamaCare. Vitter and like-minded colleagues consider the continuation of the benefits an “exemption” from the health care law.
* AND SO DO I! (AND BESIDES... THAT WAS HOW OBAMACARE WAS WRITTEN - THUS THE "NEED" FOR OPM TO STEP IN AND PROVIDE THESE PEOPLE WITH AN "ESCAPE CLAUSE."
Host Sean Hannity had an exchange with Vitter in which the two discussed potential effects on Democratic incumbents from conservative states, including his home-state colleague Mary L. Landrieu. “So far, she’s dug in her heels and is resisting it,” Vitter said. “Now, we need a vote on the Senate floor. I’m fighting for that. We don’t have it yet, but we’ll get one.”
To date, there’s been no agreement for a vote on the Vitter amendment, though as a contentious non-germane proposal, it would all but certainly require 60 votes for adoption.
* LET'S GET EACH AND EVERY REPUBLICAN SENATOR ON BOARD!
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