Companies Making Money

'Tis the season... Argh.

The Senate Republicans have killed the bill that would provide support for Ground Zero workers who became chronically ill from the effects of their work in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

The workers, many of whom helped in the cleanup and rescue operations as volunteers, have now been twice betrayed by the government they tried to help.

The first time came at Ground Zero itself, when the Bush administration and Rudy Giuliani's City Hall assured them - and the world - that the air was safe to breathe.

Then-EPA chief Christine Whitman famously informed New Yorkers that "their air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink." Much later, EPA officials would concede that Whitman's statement only referred to outdoor air far from Ground Zero. And only to asbestos. And only to healthy adults - not children or the elderly. (EPA statements that were not sufficiently upbeat were revised by a White House panel.)



City Hall echoed these bogus claims and warned companies working at Ground Zero that any slowdown in the work could result in fines or termination. (A construction worker who asked Giuliani to give Ground Zero crews Christmas Day off was quickly rebuffed.)

You could understand why, in the crazed hours following the attack, rescuers were encouraged to do whatever they could, without regard to their own safety. But in the long days and weeks that followed, there was both the time and the public health information available to make safety precautions possible. In particular, everybody working anywhere near Ground Zero should have been required to wear respirators that would protect them from contaminants in the air.

The breathing apparatus was uncomfortable and slowed down work. People didn't like wearing all that bulky equipment and readily put it aside when their supervisors didn't insist. In their eagerness to get Wall Street - and the city - back to normal as soon as possible, virtually no one insisted.

I met some of the victims of that laissez-faire attitude when I was researching a book on the Giuliani administration and 9/11. Many of them were construction workers who had been eager to serve as part of the recovery operation. They worked around the clock, breathing in poison that would later corrode their insides, leaving them invalids, barely able to gasp for breath.



They seemed bewildered by what had happened to them. No one was celebrating them as heroes; they were all alone with their beleaguered families in their modest exurban homes, painfully making their way from bed to living room chair to bathroom to bed again in what was left of their continually narrowing lives.

Some of them joined a lawsuit that was recently settled, providing them with health care expenses and modest compensation for their lost livelihoods. (It's well worth asking why men and women who sacrificed so much were forced to sue to get their due.)

Other Ground Zero workers waited, either because their symptoms seemed manageable at first, or because they were in denial, or because they simply expected that the government would take care of them if the consequences of their public service became too great to handle.

They're the ones who were left holding the bag by Senate Republicans.

One of the messages of the death of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was that it makes sense to go to court. Not the message the trial-lawyer-averse Republicans might have wanted to send, but they sent it.

Another message is that New York bashing is back. One of the few bright spots in the post-attack landscape was the way the rest of the country rallied around our stricken city.

No more. We saw it during the campaign, when some Republicans tried to use the mosque controversy to make New York City a dirty word. Now it's official - the GOP line about the Zadroga bill was that it was too much money, and that too much of that money went to New York.

It was an uphill climb for the local legislators - particularly in recent months for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who labored heroically on this issue. But perhaps it was inevitable. The Senate Republicans have been killing bills all week - labor rights for firefighters, Social Security benefits for the elderly, a firewall against tax breaks for millionaires. You name it.

Thanks to the rule that requires 60 votes to get anything through the Senate, nothing moves without the support of at least two Republicans. The backers of the 9/11 bill thought they had two in Mark Kirk of Illinois and Olympia Snowe of Maine. The expectations about Kirk were reasonable, given the fact that as a member of the House he had voted for the bill earlier this year. Snowe, who's supposed to be a Republican moderate, had indicated support to a reporter earlier this week.



But both of them backed off, claiming they couldn't vote on anything until the Democrats passed the compromise tax bill President Obama worked out with their leadership.

In other words, they have to have proof that the Democrats are going into the tank on tax cuts for the rich before they'll help the men and women who ruined their health at Ground Zero.

The supporters of the bill are now hoping to attach it to that very tax giveaway. It's all too depressing for words.

Le Web 10 host Loic Le Meur just finished his on-stage interview with Alexander Tamas, Partner at one of the most watched technology investment firms on the planet, DST / Mail.ru Group.

That’s quite a presence you have: Groupon, Zynga, Facebook and … Twitter?

Not Twitter (smiles).

What is DST?

The firm originated in Russia, grew out of social networking company called Mail.ru, and at some point we started making international investments. Facebook was our first one.

How big is your stake in Facebook now?

It’s hard to say, we’ve made some straightforward investments and then we bought as many shares from early employees and investors as possible. We’ve definitely invested more than $500 million in total though.

So Facebook was your first investment – how did that come about?

Well, we owned and ran a social network in Russia, but the dynamics there were different, we were actually ahead of most social sites. Every single one of our countries became really big. So, we knew there was money in it, and we realized quickly that it was only a matter of time for Facebook to become really large worldwide.

Did you lead the Mail.ru Group IPO as well?

Yes, that was last month.

Is it the biggest tech IPO in Europe to date?

In the past few years, yes. The initial market valuation was about $6 billion, we’re now at roughly $8 billion.

So when’s the Facebook IPO planned?

I don’t have any comments on that (smiles).

Do you sit on the Facebook board?

No we actually don’t, but we obviously have good relationships with management and other board members. our perspective is that it’s entirely possible to be a major investor in a company without being on the board, as long as you have an open dialogue with the people in charge.

You got in late, what was Facebook’s valuation at the time?

We got in at a $6.5 billion valuation. It’s difficult to say what the valuation is now – although I can tell you the secondary market ones are based on limited information and generally not super accurate.

We haven’t purchased Facebook shares in quite some time though.

The Zynga investment came after Facebook?

Yes.

Why haven’t they been acquired yet?

If you’re a founder of company like Zynga, with fast growth and massive revenues, it only makes you wealthy on paper, right. So you used to have two choices: sell or take it public. Now, companies can get liquidity early on, so it takes the pressure of.

We invested $150 million in Zynga, but we didn’t disclose at what valuation.

So Groupon was almost sold …

I can’t comment on the rumors, but I can tell you that they’re going for it. They realize they have something special and there’s a lot of potential for Groupon to become a generation-defining company. They’re shooting for the stars.

By the way, I’m always amazed when people discuss valuations of private companies without actually knowing the financials. The truth is most people can’t say whether investments come cheap or expensive, as commentators. It all depends on how you measure growth, and most people tend to think linearly.

When we invested in Groupon, they sold 4 million groupons, a month later it was 25% more. The potential was obvious. They’ll hit 20 million groupons sold next week.

How does a startup get an investment deal out of DST? Is Twitter big enough, as an example?

It’s definitely an interesting company, but there are more. What we look at is that you have to be on a path to become a clear leader in your segment, companies that could theoretically go public today. We want to know all companies, but we focus our investments on those with long-term sustainability.

You know, we’re not an early-stage investor. We’re really small, with no people on the ground. So we can’t really help companies when they’re just getting started, apart from writing a check, and that’s not what we want. There are many more capable firms for that.

So startups should give you a call when they hit a $1 billion valuation?

Not really, we’ll also talk to you if you’re clearly on a path to becoming a $1 billion company down the line.

What about Foursquare?

There are lots of opportunities for them, they’re seeing good growth, so it could become a really interesting company for sure.

You’re (sort of) a European fund – why don’t you invest more here?

Groupon, Zynga and Facebook really just happened to be US companies, we look all over the world for companies. We tick boxes, and we can do that anywhere.

Many of the startups in Europe for some reason want to sell out early. That’s not what we’re looking for. There aren’t enough role models here, so less confidence.

Do you look at Asia, more specifically India, China and Japan?

It’s definitely a geography we’re looking at. We know a lot of the companies there already.

What’s your advice for young entrepreneurs?

Not many people have the opportunity to really change the world. If you have an urge to build something that could, don’t focus on the money, but the legacy you’ll leave behind.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a generation-defining company, so I applaud people for shooting for the stars. It’s a much more rewarding thing than doing it for the money.

I mean, look at Le Web, it’s not just about the money right, it’s also the community, helping out startups throughout Europe.

Loic: yes, we actually got a few offers, but we’re not looking at that right now.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Changing The World With Entrepreneurship

Want to change the world? Become an entrepreneur. Sounds too simple, too idealistic, right? Ah, but it's true. Entrepreneurs make change and in the small.

How Fox <b>News</b> Spun the Health-Care Debate - The Daily Beast

As the debate over the health-care public option heated up, a Fox News executive told staffers to change the way they talked about it. Howard Kurtz on the memo that echoed a GOP talking point.

Saudi Arabia - Fox <b>News</b> - David Letterman | Mediaite

Here's an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American ...

Whos Making Money

Rachel Maddow wants to deprive sex offenders of their government-supported Viagra! Or possibly, she supports it. Or, perhaps, she was just making a point about the use of pedophilia and sex drugs as a convenient means of turning legislation into campaign attack ad fodder:

“They keep coming up with ways to add the word ‘pedophile,’ or ‘Viagra,’ or ‘rapist’ to bills that have precisely nothing to do with any of those things. They add those things to bills so it looks like Democrats are voting in favor of pedophiles or Viagra or rapists, when in fact they are voting for things like school lunches.”

“This has been the year of the pervy poison pill,” said Maddow, referring to the traditional political practice of inserting something unacceptable into a bill as a means of killing it. Maddow highlights a recent bill from May dubbed “cash for caulkers” that was really about home weatherization, but became subject to an uber-pervy poison pill:

“Then Republicans developed a poison pill specifically for this awkwardly-named bill. They added a ‘no cash for caulkers money for child molesters provision’ to the legislation. So if you vote for cash for caulkers, you’re voting for molestation. Actually, you’re not. But if you squint, you might convince someone of that in a low-budget campaign ad.”

Watch Maddow’s segment here, from MSNBC–complete with video of a member of Congress asking on the House floor for everyone to “raise their hands who’s for pornography. Nobody? Nobody?”

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Thanksgiving is almost here, and that means there's only a month of shopping left in the holiday season. However, while this can be a scary realization for many people, you don't have to worry — because we've got ideas for the geeks on your list (or anyone else you want to convert to a life of geekery) covered.

This year, we're giving you the next best thing to actually buying the gifts for you. Your friendly neighborhood Splash Page team has come up with a wide-ranging list of books, games, toys, music and various other things to buy for everyone on your list — from the hardcore fanboys and fangirls to someone who's still learning the difference between Green Lantern and Green Hornet.

In the end, we tried to avoid some of the most obvious comics-related gifts this year and give you a mash-up of our own wishlists and the items we're planning to buy for our own friends and family. Here's hoping you find it helpful when it comes time for you to start dropping your hard-earned money on manufactured holiday joy.

If you're buying gifts for someone new to comics or in need of a familiar name or title to catch their attention, how about "The Dark Tower" graphic novels (based on the popular Stephen King novels) or Dark Horse Comics' "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "Serenity" comics (based on Joss Whedon's fan-favorite television series)? They all feature original stories that unfold within and expand the world each one is based upon. There's also IDW Publishing's critically praised "Parker" graphic novels based on the crime-noir novels of Donald Westlake (which also inspired such movies as "Point Blank" and "Payback"). "The Hunter" and "The Outfit" are available now, and they're as beautiful to look at as they are to read.

If you're shopping for someone who loves music almost as much as comics, why not pick up an album by nerd rockers Kirby Krackle? It's filled with ridiculously cool, addictively sing-able tunes about comics, gaming, love, and, well... everything else that being a geek is all about. My favorite track? An ode to Green Lantern titled "Ring Capacity." It's brilliant. Also worth checking out is "Zero Day," the latest album from nerdcore rapper extraordinaire MC Frontalot (named the "rapper laureate" of the massively successful "Penny Arcade" webcomic), as well as the awesomely indie soundtrack for this year's hit film "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World." Oh, and if you're looking to give someone a nostalgia-inducing trip down memory lane, snag them a copy of "The Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection." It's a collection of popular and little-known jingles (who knew "The Atom" had a theme song?) featuring DC characters.

If you're shopping for young readers, pick up a copy of "Tiny Titans/Lil Archie." The books combine all-ages superhero fun with classic Archie characters and sensibility. You might also want to check out Boom Studios' "Muppet Show" comics and Archaia Studios' "Fraggle Rock" comics. Both of these series are just as good as the television shows they're based on, and to be honest, you'll probably enjoy the heck out of 'em, too.

For older readers, why not pick up a few novels written by and for comics fans. Matt Myklusch's "Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation" is a great novel that feels a lot like the "Harry Potter" series, except instead of magic and wizards, it deals with superheroes and supervillains. There's also "Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die," featuring a bunch of stories written (and occasionally illustrated) by some of the biggest names in the webcomics world, including "Dinosaur Comics" creator Ryan North and "Wondermark" creator David Malki.

Looking to help someone prep for next year's slate of comic book movies? Ryan Reynolds name-dropped "Green Lantern: Secret Origin" as one of the books that inspired the upcoming movie, so it can't hurt to revisit Geoff Johns' origin story. On the other side, Marvel's upcoming slate of movies all draw heavily from the publisher's line of "Ultimate" comics, so picking up the first volume of "The Ultimates" (the "Ultimate"-universe version of The Avengers) will get readers ready for what's to come in 2011 and beyond.

Buying for a comics fan with some gaming tendencies? You can't go wrong with "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" for various systems, which gives players the opportunity to web-swing as several different incarnations of Spider-Man over the years. There's also the downloadable game based on "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" for the Playstation Network, and the all-ages friendly "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" for the Nintendo Wii. All three games are bunches of comics-inspired fun.

Beyond the normal DVD and Blu-Ray suggestions of "Iron Man 2," "Kick-Ass," "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" and other recent big-screen adaptations, you might want to consider some outside-the-box selections like "Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods," a documentary about one of the comics industry's most celebrated writers of the modern era. There's also "Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist," which puts the spotlight on one of the greatest creators ever to craft a comic. If documentaries aren't exactly what you're searching for, pick up a copy of "DC Showcase Collection." It's a collection of the excellent animated shorts DC and Warner Bros. have included on their larger animated features the last year or so, focusing on lesser-known characters. Every one of them is animated gold.

If you know someone who enjoys the latest television series based on comics like "The Walking Dead" or "Human Target," why not introduce them to the source material? Image Comics' "The Walking Dead Compendium, Volume 1" collects the first eight chapters of the comic in one hefty book. And though it doesn't quite match up with the comic, Vertigo's "Human Target: Chance Meetings" collects several great storylines from writer Peter Milligan's celebrated work on the series and offers a nice example of why the character is so popular.

On the toy front, we'd be fools not to point you in the direction of Hasbro's awesome Iron Man 2 helmet. It's made to fit just about any head, and is both ridiculously cool and surprisingly comfortable to wear on a regular basis (trust me on this). Of course, if you're buying for kids, you might as well complete the package and buy the Iron Man 2 3-in-1 Repulsor and Iron Man 2 Arc Light — just for the sake of completion. (Note: Star Wars fans, there's a Boba Fett version of the helmet, too.)

And finally, if you're looking for something that will look great on a bookshelf and is as much a status symbol as it is reading material, DC's "Absolute Planetary" hardcovers come with a hefty price tag but are well worth the price. If that's along the lines of what you're looking for, Image Comics' "Spawn Origins Collection" hardcover is another book that will not only be appreciated by whoever receives it, but will make you look that much cooler for picking it out.

And that's about it for the first-ever MTV Splash Page Gift Guide. Here's hoping it gives you some shopping suggestions for the geeks on your list (especially if you're one of them).

Happy shopping, and an early Happy Holidays from MTV Splash Page!

Let us know what you think in the comment section or on Twitter! You can also follow me, Splash Page editor Rick Marshall, on Twitter!

Tags gift guide 2010

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foreclosure victims

ubetchaiam @ 30

I’m not sure I understand your hypothesis wrt the MBS tranches. No one who I’ve been reading, about foreclosure, writes about what’s happening to the thousands of houses in foreclosure, except as one-off anecdotes. There was a NYT magazine article about Cleveland last year that indicated there are thousands of vacant, stripped houses that the banks have abandoned, and a pattern of sending foreclosure notices, the people moving out, the house being stripped, and then the bank stops the foreclosure in order to avoid responsibility. But this may just be Cleveland and similar rust belt cities. I’m wondering about the pattern in newer, spiffier towns and neighborhoods, such as the Inland Empire in CA or Cape Coral, FL.

The suspicion that Fannie and Freddie are winding up with these houses is very strong, having just read Mortgage Lenders Meet Resistance in Courts (scroll down) with a graph captioned: “PILING UP: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are acquiring foreclosed homes faster than they are selling them, creating a backlog of foreclosed properties that must be sold.”

Getting back to the MBS tranches: If you mean that the foreclosures are to trigger CDSs, ok. But who’s paying off on the CDSs at this point? That news seems to be off the radar now. BAC is suing Old Republic, its mortgage insurer who has now stopped paying.

—–

@ 31

I actually learned nothing in the Taibbi article that I hadn’t already learned over the past two years of reading about foreclosure fraud (and personal experience). He did an excellent job, as usual, in telling the story of this outrageous fraud, except for one major, major narrative: the intentional servicer fraud, designed to force people into foreclosure, regardless of HAMP. If he wants to really explain why the ‘deadbeat borrower’ narrative is so very wrong he needs to write about the way people who could afford their mortgages are forced out by tacking on outrageous fees. One might even get the idea that the game is to see how quickly the servicers can force people into default, so that the bank can reclaim and re-mortgage the houses. In essence the banks are the house-flippers, taking huge fees, mortgage insurance, and bonuses at each flip.

The case of Ms. Cooper is the norm. The funny thing it points out is the lack of anyone at the foreclosure mills to keep time lines on the cases, in order to make sure the dates on the robo-signed documents conform to a plausible narrative for the foreclosure and how the bank came to have (fictitious) standing. This is more of an indictment of the courts, than just mere sloppiness or carelessness of the foreclosure mills: The fact that it wasn’t deemed worth the bother because the judges wouldn’t notice. Fact: none of the documents exist until foreclosure begins. The documents acquire dates when the robo-signers process and sign them. The depo of Tammie Lou Kapusta explains how it was recognized at one point that the notary stamps were dated differently from the signatures they purported to witness, and that thence forward they had to make the notary dates match the signature date not the date that the notary seal was applied. That’s how sloppy the paperwork was. And it’s those kinds of issues that the banks were trying to clean up in October, during their moratorium.

I just ran Eric "InAction Jackson" Holder's announcement relating to "Operation Broken Trust" through a word cloud generator to demonstrate a simple point.

According to the feared one, this is what the combined resources of the United States Government enforcement apparatus (Obama's "Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force") has been busy doing during the past three months, chasing Ponzi clowns to see if there is another Bernie Madoff hidden in the financial cracks and bringing down pump and dump schemes.

What is it these vermin financial predators are pumping and dumping is what I want to know.

Fraud, investment, financial, schemes...those are the big words you see.

Here are some of the big words you don't see: the name of a major Wall Street institution or any Wall Street firm for that matter, the word bank, the word mortgage, the words origination fraud, the words title and foreclosure fraud, the word housing,  the word securitization, the word RICO, the word subprime and finally, the word C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-T.

ATTENTION ALL BANKSTAS, you have nothing to fear, InAction Jackson and the Federal posse are busy chasing the financial Boogeymen so the rest of you can sleep tight tonight.

 

TEXT OF BUFFOON:

Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Operation Broken Trust Announcement
Washington, D.C.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

I’m pleased to be joined today by several key leaders in our collective effort to combat financial fraud – FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry and SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Chief Postal Inspector, Guy Cottrell; IRS Criminal Investigation Deputy Chief Rick Raven; and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle.

We are here to announce the results of Operation Broken Trust, a three-and-a-half-month targeting of investment fraud schemes throughout the country – and a critical step forward in law enforcement’s work to protect American investors, to ensure the strength of our markets, and to prevent financial fraud schemes.

While there is nothing new about conducting nationwide operations and sweeps – this one is different in that it brought together a broad array of criminal and civil enforcement tools, at both the federal and state level, to attack investment fraud schemes collectively. Operation Broken Trust is the first national operation in history to target the many different types of investment fraud schemes that prey directly on the investing public.

This historic effort has been coordinated, executed, and led by members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that President Obama created in November 2009. This task force is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever established to combat fraud. Multiple federal agencies, as well as partners at the state level, are working together to ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to protecting consumers and investors.

Our mission is simple – to bring financial fraud schemes to light and those who operate them to justice.And our aggressive, coordinated approach is working.

Since Operation Broken Trust was launched on August 16th, all across the country investment fraud cases have been prioritized. To date, the operation has involved enforcement actions against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants, whose conduct harmed more than 120,000 victims. Several individuals have been charged with defrauding men and women across the country out of thousands – and sometimes millions – of dollars. The cases in this operation involve a variety of different investment fraud schemes that have led to more than $8.3 billion in losses in just the criminal cases alone. Staggering numbers. These losses represent hard-earned money and even life savings. They represent needs that may not be met and dreams that may not be fulfilled.

All of these victims can tell a tragic and cautionary story of being misled and exploited – often by someone they trusted. In fact, many of the scam artists we’ve identified were preying on their own neighbors – and on the most vulnerable members of their communities. Several of those prosecuted during this operation solicited victim investors from their own churches. One man in Texas allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners, asking them to invest with him and claiming that his success in foreign exchange trading was “a blessing from God.”

In Florida, one defendant was convicted recently for his role in an investment scam that specifically targeted the local Haitian community. In Ohio, a former police officer operating a Ponzi scheme solicited investments from active and retired police officers and firefighters. And in Chicago, another Ponzi scheme resulted in more than $30 million in losses to hundreds of victims – many of them elderly, Italian immigrants. As a result of our prosecution, the man who operated this scheme has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Many of the criminals we’ve identified used investor funds to support lavish lifestyles. One man operating an $880 million Ponzi scheme in Florida duped investors from across the country – and used the money to buy floor seats at professional basketball games and to make payments on his personal yacht, his beach house, and his Mercedes. A New Jersey man charged with operating an investment scam allegedly used investor funds to make payments on three different luxury cars and to pay fees at two country clubs.

With this operation, the task force is sending two messages. A message to the public: be alert for these frauds, take appropriate measures to protect yourself, and report such schemes to proper authorities when they occur. And a second message to anyone operating or attempting to operate an investment scam: we will use every tool at our disposal to find you, to stop you, and to bring you to justice. Cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan.

Along with the agencies represented here on stage, I also want to thank the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Secret Service, and the National Association of Attorneys General. Because of their work, and the contributions of everyone involved in Operation Broken Trust, dozens of criminals who hatched fraud schemes now face significant time behind bars – including one sentence of 85 years.

Although this operation marks an important step forward, our fight to combat financial fraud goes on.

The task force will continue working with consumer groups to increase financial literacy and raise awareness about the warning signs of financial scams. And we encourage investors to share tips and concerns with us by visiting stopfraud.gov. With the commitment of so many partners and with the help of an informed public, I am confident that we can take our fight against financial fraud to a new level.

And now I’d like to turn things over to FBI Executive Assistant Director, Shawn Henry.

WB7: No need to edit the speech because it is funny enough as is. Here is my closing question: What precisely is it that they were doing prior to the last three months?

 

This evil financial genius was foiled from bringing down the financial system.

MEANWHILE: This is for those of you losing faith in Federal law enforcement:

"A German man apparently smuggled hundreds of tarantulas and various other arachnids into the US, authorities said on Friday, according to AFP.

Authorities set up a sting to catch 37-year-old Sven Koppler in a sting called “Operation Spiderman,” the news agency reported. He was arrested on Thursday after flying into Los Angeles.

"He is one of the largest importers of illegal tarantulas into United States.

He has been doing it for several years," Assistant US Attorney Mark Williams told the Los Angeles Times.

Williams said that Koppler made around $300,000 for selling off the spiders in various countries including the US. The Times reported that he could get a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and fine of $250,000."

 

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Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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ubetchaiam @ 30

I’m not sure I understand your hypothesis wrt the MBS tranches. No one who I’ve been reading, about foreclosure, writes about what’s happening to the thousands of houses in foreclosure, except as one-off anecdotes. There was a NYT magazine article about Cleveland last year that indicated there are thousands of vacant, stripped houses that the banks have abandoned, and a pattern of sending foreclosure notices, the people moving out, the house being stripped, and then the bank stops the foreclosure in order to avoid responsibility. But this may just be Cleveland and similar rust belt cities. I’m wondering about the pattern in newer, spiffier towns and neighborhoods, such as the Inland Empire in CA or Cape Coral, FL.

The suspicion that Fannie and Freddie are winding up with these houses is very strong, having just read Mortgage Lenders Meet Resistance in Courts (scroll down) with a graph captioned: “PILING UP: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are acquiring foreclosed homes faster than they are selling them, creating a backlog of foreclosed properties that must be sold.”

Getting back to the MBS tranches: If you mean that the foreclosures are to trigger CDSs, ok. But who’s paying off on the CDSs at this point? That news seems to be off the radar now. BAC is suing Old Republic, its mortgage insurer who has now stopped paying.

—–

@ 31

I actually learned nothing in the Taibbi article that I hadn’t already learned over the past two years of reading about foreclosure fraud (and personal experience). He did an excellent job, as usual, in telling the story of this outrageous fraud, except for one major, major narrative: the intentional servicer fraud, designed to force people into foreclosure, regardless of HAMP. If he wants to really explain why the ‘deadbeat borrower’ narrative is so very wrong he needs to write about the way people who could afford their mortgages are forced out by tacking on outrageous fees. One might even get the idea that the game is to see how quickly the servicers can force people into default, so that the bank can reclaim and re-mortgage the houses. In essence the banks are the house-flippers, taking huge fees, mortgage insurance, and bonuses at each flip.

The case of Ms. Cooper is the norm. The funny thing it points out is the lack of anyone at the foreclosure mills to keep time lines on the cases, in order to make sure the dates on the robo-signed documents conform to a plausible narrative for the foreclosure and how the bank came to have (fictitious) standing. This is more of an indictment of the courts, than just mere sloppiness or carelessness of the foreclosure mills: The fact that it wasn’t deemed worth the bother because the judges wouldn’t notice. Fact: none of the documents exist until foreclosure begins. The documents acquire dates when the robo-signers process and sign them. The depo of Tammie Lou Kapusta explains how it was recognized at one point that the notary stamps were dated differently from the signatures they purported to witness, and that thence forward they had to make the notary dates match the signature date not the date that the notary seal was applied. That’s how sloppy the paperwork was. And it’s those kinds of issues that the banks were trying to clean up in October, during their moratorium.

I just ran Eric "InAction Jackson" Holder's announcement relating to "Operation Broken Trust" through a word cloud generator to demonstrate a simple point.

According to the feared one, this is what the combined resources of the United States Government enforcement apparatus (Obama's "Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force") has been busy doing during the past three months, chasing Ponzi clowns to see if there is another Bernie Madoff hidden in the financial cracks and bringing down pump and dump schemes.

What is it these vermin financial predators are pumping and dumping is what I want to know.

Fraud, investment, financial, schemes...those are the big words you see.

Here are some of the big words you don't see: the name of a major Wall Street institution or any Wall Street firm for that matter, the word bank, the word mortgage, the words origination fraud, the words title and foreclosure fraud, the word housing,  the word securitization, the word RICO, the word subprime and finally, the word C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-T.

ATTENTION ALL BANKSTAS, you have nothing to fear, InAction Jackson and the Federal posse are busy chasing the financial Boogeymen so the rest of you can sleep tight tonight.

 

TEXT OF BUFFOON:

Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Operation Broken Trust Announcement
Washington, D.C.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

I’m pleased to be joined today by several key leaders in our collective effort to combat financial fraud – FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry and SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Chief Postal Inspector, Guy Cottrell; IRS Criminal Investigation Deputy Chief Rick Raven; and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle.

We are here to announce the results of Operation Broken Trust, a three-and-a-half-month targeting of investment fraud schemes throughout the country – and a critical step forward in law enforcement’s work to protect American investors, to ensure the strength of our markets, and to prevent financial fraud schemes.

While there is nothing new about conducting nationwide operations and sweeps – this one is different in that it brought together a broad array of criminal and civil enforcement tools, at both the federal and state level, to attack investment fraud schemes collectively. Operation Broken Trust is the first national operation in history to target the many different types of investment fraud schemes that prey directly on the investing public.

This historic effort has been coordinated, executed, and led by members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that President Obama created in November 2009. This task force is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever established to combat fraud. Multiple federal agencies, as well as partners at the state level, are working together to ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to protecting consumers and investors.

Our mission is simple – to bring financial fraud schemes to light and those who operate them to justice.And our aggressive, coordinated approach is working.

Since Operation Broken Trust was launched on August 16th, all across the country investment fraud cases have been prioritized. To date, the operation has involved enforcement actions against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants, whose conduct harmed more than 120,000 victims. Several individuals have been charged with defrauding men and women across the country out of thousands – and sometimes millions – of dollars. The cases in this operation involve a variety of different investment fraud schemes that have led to more than $8.3 billion in losses in just the criminal cases alone. Staggering numbers. These losses represent hard-earned money and even life savings. They represent needs that may not be met and dreams that may not be fulfilled.

All of these victims can tell a tragic and cautionary story of being misled and exploited – often by someone they trusted. In fact, many of the scam artists we’ve identified were preying on their own neighbors – and on the most vulnerable members of their communities. Several of those prosecuted during this operation solicited victim investors from their own churches. One man in Texas allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners, asking them to invest with him and claiming that his success in foreign exchange trading was “a blessing from God.”

In Florida, one defendant was convicted recently for his role in an investment scam that specifically targeted the local Haitian community. In Ohio, a former police officer operating a Ponzi scheme solicited investments from active and retired police officers and firefighters. And in Chicago, another Ponzi scheme resulted in more than $30 million in losses to hundreds of victims – many of them elderly, Italian immigrants. As a result of our prosecution, the man who operated this scheme has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Many of the criminals we’ve identified used investor funds to support lavish lifestyles. One man operating an $880 million Ponzi scheme in Florida duped investors from across the country – and used the money to buy floor seats at professional basketball games and to make payments on his personal yacht, his beach house, and his Mercedes. A New Jersey man charged with operating an investment scam allegedly used investor funds to make payments on three different luxury cars and to pay fees at two country clubs.

With this operation, the task force is sending two messages. A message to the public: be alert for these frauds, take appropriate measures to protect yourself, and report such schemes to proper authorities when they occur. And a second message to anyone operating or attempting to operate an investment scam: we will use every tool at our disposal to find you, to stop you, and to bring you to justice. Cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan.

Along with the agencies represented here on stage, I also want to thank the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Secret Service, and the National Association of Attorneys General. Because of their work, and the contributions of everyone involved in Operation Broken Trust, dozens of criminals who hatched fraud schemes now face significant time behind bars – including one sentence of 85 years.

Although this operation marks an important step forward, our fight to combat financial fraud goes on.

The task force will continue working with consumer groups to increase financial literacy and raise awareness about the warning signs of financial scams. And we encourage investors to share tips and concerns with us by visiting stopfraud.gov. With the commitment of so many partners and with the help of an informed public, I am confident that we can take our fight against financial fraud to a new level.

And now I’d like to turn things over to FBI Executive Assistant Director, Shawn Henry.

WB7: No need to edit the speech because it is funny enough as is. Here is my closing question: What precisely is it that they were doing prior to the last three months?

 

This evil financial genius was foiled from bringing down the financial system.

MEANWHILE: This is for those of you losing faith in Federal law enforcement:

"A German man apparently smuggled hundreds of tarantulas and various other arachnids into the US, authorities said on Friday, according to AFP.

Authorities set up a sting to catch 37-year-old Sven Koppler in a sting called “Operation Spiderman,” the news agency reported. He was arrested on Thursday after flying into Los Angeles.

"He is one of the largest importers of illegal tarantulas into United States.

He has been doing it for several years," Assistant US Attorney Mark Williams told the Los Angeles Times.

Williams said that Koppler made around $300,000 for selling off the spiders in various countries including the US. The Times reported that he could get a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and fine of $250,000."

 

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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ubetchaiam @ 30

I’m not sure I understand your hypothesis wrt the MBS tranches. No one who I’ve been reading, about foreclosure, writes about what’s happening to the thousands of houses in foreclosure, except as one-off anecdotes. There was a NYT magazine article about Cleveland last year that indicated there are thousands of vacant, stripped houses that the banks have abandoned, and a pattern of sending foreclosure notices, the people moving out, the house being stripped, and then the bank stops the foreclosure in order to avoid responsibility. But this may just be Cleveland and similar rust belt cities. I’m wondering about the pattern in newer, spiffier towns and neighborhoods, such as the Inland Empire in CA or Cape Coral, FL.

The suspicion that Fannie and Freddie are winding up with these houses is very strong, having just read Mortgage Lenders Meet Resistance in Courts (scroll down) with a graph captioned: “PILING UP: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are acquiring foreclosed homes faster than they are selling them, creating a backlog of foreclosed properties that must be sold.”

Getting back to the MBS tranches: If you mean that the foreclosures are to trigger CDSs, ok. But who’s paying off on the CDSs at this point? That news seems to be off the radar now. BAC is suing Old Republic, its mortgage insurer who has now stopped paying.

—–

@ 31

I actually learned nothing in the Taibbi article that I hadn’t already learned over the past two years of reading about foreclosure fraud (and personal experience). He did an excellent job, as usual, in telling the story of this outrageous fraud, except for one major, major narrative: the intentional servicer fraud, designed to force people into foreclosure, regardless of HAMP. If he wants to really explain why the ‘deadbeat borrower’ narrative is so very wrong he needs to write about the way people who could afford their mortgages are forced out by tacking on outrageous fees. One might even get the idea that the game is to see how quickly the servicers can force people into default, so that the bank can reclaim and re-mortgage the houses. In essence the banks are the house-flippers, taking huge fees, mortgage insurance, and bonuses at each flip.

The case of Ms. Cooper is the norm. The funny thing it points out is the lack of anyone at the foreclosure mills to keep time lines on the cases, in order to make sure the dates on the robo-signed documents conform to a plausible narrative for the foreclosure and how the bank came to have (fictitious) standing. This is more of an indictment of the courts, than just mere sloppiness or carelessness of the foreclosure mills: The fact that it wasn’t deemed worth the bother because the judges wouldn’t notice. Fact: none of the documents exist until foreclosure begins. The documents acquire dates when the robo-signers process and sign them. The depo of Tammie Lou Kapusta explains how it was recognized at one point that the notary stamps were dated differently from the signatures they purported to witness, and that thence forward they had to make the notary dates match the signature date not the date that the notary seal was applied. That’s how sloppy the paperwork was. And it’s those kinds of issues that the banks were trying to clean up in October, during their moratorium.

I just ran Eric "InAction Jackson" Holder's announcement relating to "Operation Broken Trust" through a word cloud generator to demonstrate a simple point.

According to the feared one, this is what the combined resources of the United States Government enforcement apparatus (Obama's "Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force") has been busy doing during the past three months, chasing Ponzi clowns to see if there is another Bernie Madoff hidden in the financial cracks and bringing down pump and dump schemes.

What is it these vermin financial predators are pumping and dumping is what I want to know.

Fraud, investment, financial, schemes...those are the big words you see.

Here are some of the big words you don't see: the name of a major Wall Street institution or any Wall Street firm for that matter, the word bank, the word mortgage, the words origination fraud, the words title and foreclosure fraud, the word housing,  the word securitization, the word RICO, the word subprime and finally, the word C-O-M-P-E-T-E-N-T.

ATTENTION ALL BANKSTAS, you have nothing to fear, InAction Jackson and the Federal posse are busy chasing the financial Boogeymen so the rest of you can sleep tight tonight.

 

TEXT OF BUFFOON:

Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Operation Broken Trust Announcement
Washington, D.C.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

I’m pleased to be joined today by several key leaders in our collective effort to combat financial fraud – FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry and SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Chief Postal Inspector, Guy Cottrell; IRS Criminal Investigation Deputy Chief Rick Raven; and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle.

We are here to announce the results of Operation Broken Trust, a three-and-a-half-month targeting of investment fraud schemes throughout the country – and a critical step forward in law enforcement’s work to protect American investors, to ensure the strength of our markets, and to prevent financial fraud schemes.

While there is nothing new about conducting nationwide operations and sweeps – this one is different in that it brought together a broad array of criminal and civil enforcement tools, at both the federal and state level, to attack investment fraud schemes collectively. Operation Broken Trust is the first national operation in history to target the many different types of investment fraud schemes that prey directly on the investing public.

This historic effort has been coordinated, executed, and led by members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that President Obama created in November 2009. This task force is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever established to combat fraud. Multiple federal agencies, as well as partners at the state level, are working together to ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to protecting consumers and investors.

Our mission is simple – to bring financial fraud schemes to light and those who operate them to justice.And our aggressive, coordinated approach is working.

Since Operation Broken Trust was launched on August 16th, all across the country investment fraud cases have been prioritized. To date, the operation has involved enforcement actions against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants, whose conduct harmed more than 120,000 victims. Several individuals have been charged with defrauding men and women across the country out of thousands – and sometimes millions – of dollars. The cases in this operation involve a variety of different investment fraud schemes that have led to more than $8.3 billion in losses in just the criminal cases alone. Staggering numbers. These losses represent hard-earned money and even life savings. They represent needs that may not be met and dreams that may not be fulfilled.

All of these victims can tell a tragic and cautionary story of being misled and exploited – often by someone they trusted. In fact, many of the scam artists we’ve identified were preying on their own neighbors – and on the most vulnerable members of their communities. Several of those prosecuted during this operation solicited victim investors from their own churches. One man in Texas allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners, asking them to invest with him and claiming that his success in foreign exchange trading was “a blessing from God.”

In Florida, one defendant was convicted recently for his role in an investment scam that specifically targeted the local Haitian community. In Ohio, a former police officer operating a Ponzi scheme solicited investments from active and retired police officers and firefighters. And in Chicago, another Ponzi scheme resulted in more than $30 million in losses to hundreds of victims – many of them elderly, Italian immigrants. As a result of our prosecution, the man who operated this scheme has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Many of the criminals we’ve identified used investor funds to support lavish lifestyles. One man operating an $880 million Ponzi scheme in Florida duped investors from across the country – and used the money to buy floor seats at professional basketball games and to make payments on his personal yacht, his beach house, and his Mercedes. A New Jersey man charged with operating an investment scam allegedly used investor funds to make payments on three different luxury cars and to pay fees at two country clubs.

With this operation, the task force is sending two messages. A message to the public: be alert for these frauds, take appropriate measures to protect yourself, and report such schemes to proper authorities when they occur. And a second message to anyone operating or attempting to operate an investment scam: we will use every tool at our disposal to find you, to stop you, and to bring you to justice. Cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan.

Along with the agencies represented here on stage, I also want to thank the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Secret Service, and the National Association of Attorneys General. Because of their work, and the contributions of everyone involved in Operation Broken Trust, dozens of criminals who hatched fraud schemes now face significant time behind bars – including one sentence of 85 years.

Although this operation marks an important step forward, our fight to combat financial fraud goes on.

The task force will continue working with consumer groups to increase financial literacy and raise awareness about the warning signs of financial scams. And we encourage investors to share tips and concerns with us by visiting stopfraud.gov. With the commitment of so many partners and with the help of an informed public, I am confident that we can take our fight against financial fraud to a new level.

And now I’d like to turn things over to FBI Executive Assistant Director, Shawn Henry.

WB7: No need to edit the speech because it is funny enough as is. Here is my closing question: What precisely is it that they were doing prior to the last three months?

 

This evil financial genius was foiled from bringing down the financial system.

MEANWHILE: This is for those of you losing faith in Federal law enforcement:

"A German man apparently smuggled hundreds of tarantulas and various other arachnids into the US, authorities said on Friday, according to AFP.

Authorities set up a sting to catch 37-year-old Sven Koppler in a sting called “Operation Spiderman,” the news agency reported. He was arrested on Thursday after flying into Los Angeles.

"He is one of the largest importers of illegal tarantulas into United States.

He has been doing it for several years," Assistant US Attorney Mark Williams told the Los Angeles Times.

Williams said that Koppler made around $300,000 for selling off the spiders in various countries including the US. The Times reported that he could get a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and fine of $250,000."

 

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 &amp; Lens Profile Downloader <b>...</b>

Adobe releases Lightroom 3.3, ACR 6.3 & Lens Profile Downloader: Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.3, Camera Raw 6.3 and DNG Converter 6.3. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. Stone, who's usually in films as a ...

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