The thing about a corporation committing widespread fraud is that it tends to involve a lot of people, some of whom will not be enthusiastic about committing fraud and may even try to stop it. Michael Hudson at iWatch News reports on how Countrywide Financial Corp. protected its ability to commit fraud by firing whistleblowers, behavior that continued after Countrywide was bought by Bank of America. In fact, they fired the person in charge of fraud investigations; recently, "the U.S. Department of Labor ruled that Bank of America had illegally fired her as payback for exposing fraud and retaliation against whistleblowers. It ordered the bank to reinstate her and pay her some $930,000."

But Countrywide/Bank of America didn't just get in the way of investigations at the top. At least 17 other former employees allege that they were demoted or fired for raising the alarm about fraud they witnessed. For instance:

Mark Bonjean, a former operations unit manager in Arizona, complained to a divisional vice president, according to a lawsuit in state court in Maricopa County. Within two hours of sending the VP an email about what he believed were violations of the state?s organized crime and fraud statutes, the suit said, he was placed on administrative leave. The next day, according to the lawsuit, he was fired.

And:

Lupe Manegdeg, a loan specialist at a Countrywide office in Glendale, Calif., claimed that, in early 2007, she discovered that loan officers in her branch were defrauding borrowers in a variety of ways ? including forging their signatures on documents and lying to them about the type of loans they were getting.

She reported this, she said, to her supervisors, to Countrywide human-resources officials and to the company?s fraud hotline. The company responded, her lawsuit in state court in Los Angeles said, by firing her.

Corporate corruption of the pervasive kind that helped bring on the mortgage crisis and victimized so many homeowners comes from the top. But here it succeeded by involving employees throughout the company?and by penalizing those who resisted. Neither was Countrywide alone in abusing its employees in order to sign more and more dubious loans, as Hudson's book The Monster details. Strong protections?whether through government oversight or unions?for workers who push back on troubling or outright illegal actions by employers don't just protect the workers, they protect us all.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/uKAfZqUVzJs/-At-Countrywide,-protecting-mortgage-fraud-involved-firing-whistleblowers

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/Z-RFySWnbMU/race_for_the_big_sky.php

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As cities and states across the country grapple with potentially crushing health and pension obligations for their current and future retirees, stories of excess and gaming of the system are getting more attention than they have in the past, causing problems for unions as they try to win the battle

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/08/AR2011030802528.html?wprss=rss_politics

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Andy Rooney's last regularly scheduled appearance on "60 Minutes," where he has had the final word since 1978

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/vIm0HGFlw3o/main20114470.shtml

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The conservative legal group Judicial Watch announced Monday that it has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Alcee Hastings, accusing the 10-term Florida Democrat of sexually harassing a policy adviser who worked on a commission that Hastings once chaired.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030703288.html?wprss=rss_politics

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President Obama will nominate Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as the next U.S. ambassador to China, senior administration officials said late Monday, continuing a game of musical chairs that has shuffled top administration officials at the start of the second half of Obama's term.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/07/AR2011030704348.html?wprss=rss_politics

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George Will, Washington Post

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/10/02/nclb_waivers_are_dc039s_power_grab_264606.html

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President Obama reiterated his accomplishments for the LGBT community during his address to the Human Rights Campaign tonight, and called out the Republican presidential candidates for not condemning the booing of a gay soldier. But Obama failed to evolve in favor of full marriage equality or lay out a roadmap for advancing the political goals [...]

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/10/01/333761/obama-at-hrc-dinner-gop-presidential-candidates-must-stand-up-for-gay-soldiers/

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Justice Clarence Thomas has been under ongoing scrutiny by activists and members of Congress for what appear to be numerous ethical lapses and a failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars on financial disclosure forms.

Now 20 members of Congress have called for an official investigation into that non-disclosure. That investigation could lead to a further investigation by the Department of Justice.

WASHINGTON ? Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, together with 19 Members of Congress, today sent a letter to the Judicial Conference, requesting that the Conference follow the law and refer the matter of Justice Clarence Thomas's non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to the Department of Justice.[...]

Section 104(b) of the Ethics in Government Act requires the Judicial Conference to refer to the Attorney General of the United States any judge who the Conference "has reasonable cause to believe has willfully failed to file a report or has willfully falsified or willfully failed to file information required to be reported."

If the Judicial Conference finds reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas has "willfully falsified or willfully failed to file information to be reported," it must, pursuant to §104, refer the case to the Attorney General for further determination of possible criminal or civil legal sanctions.

The congress members point to recent reports, including the detailed article in the New York Times of the numerous gifts from conservative activist Harlan Crow, the nearly $700,000 his wife earned from the Heritage Foundation from 2003-2007 and as founder of a tea party organization. They say, "Due to the simplicity of the disclosure requirements, along with Justice Thomas's high level of legal training and experience, it is reasonable to infer that his failure to disclose his wife's income for two decades was willful, and the Judicial Conference has a non-discretionary duty to refer this case to the Department of Justice."

One of the institutional problems with the Supreme Court is that the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct that all other federal judges must abide by doesn't apply to Supreme Court Justices. But the Conference can act, and these congressional Democrats are demanding they do so. Stay tuned, because things could get very interesting for Justice Thomas.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/_7HmUQUjEA8/-Twenty-House-Democrats-call-for-investigation-of-Justice Thomas

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This week, the Obama administration delivered another significant blow to al Qaeda by successfully killing terror propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki. AS MSNBC notes, “No president since George H.W. Bush has had more foreign-policy successes happen under his watch than President Obama.” Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Vice President Dick Cheney firmly agreed with host [...]

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/10/02/333809/cheney-says-obamas-anti-terror-strategy-is-successful-but-demands-an-apology-for-not-calling-it-a-war-on-terror/

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