Gee, these threats from Sarah Palin's lawyers makes me speculate that there is something to investigate about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of the Wasilla sports arena:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24521.html#ixzz0KMqAULUQ&C

The Shakespearean phrase "Methinks thou doest protest too much" comes to mind when people like Palin feel they have to threaten people about investigating her. Generally, innocent people are much more open about things. Conversely, such posturing and overreacting to speculation that we are seeing from Palin's lawyers does tend to make people speculate about what Palin has to hide and if it has anything to do with her unexpected and poorly delivered resignation.

Awhile back I kept harping on Bank of America's misuse of bailout money, support of right wing reactionary causes, their horrible customer service and their predatory lending practices? Well, I am not the only one who was pissed. Seems Bank of America shareholders have voted to oust their CEO. This comes from SEIU:

Something remarkable happened yesterday. A majority of Bank of America's shareholders voted to oust Ken Lewis as Chairman of the company's board.

This is huge.

Shareholders cast an unprecedented vote of no confidence on Ken Lewis' leadership at Bank of America. It's the first step to real accountability at the financial giant...

After weeks of advocating for major reforms at Bank of America we delivered more than 90,000 signed "taxpayer proxy cards" to the shareholder meeting yesterday. Allies like MoveOn.org, Brave New Films, True Majority, and many others were instrumental in the success of our actions.

Let's be clear: what happened yesterday is just the first step towards holding Bank of America accountable. Shareholders delivered a major vote of no confidence, but there's much more to be done.
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I cannot believe this one. Seems Norm Coleman, the very much FORMER Senator from Minnesota who wants to run again for his old seat, has just completely compromised his donors' credit card information. This was discovered last January and yet Coleman only alerted his donors to the fact that their credit card info was now public knowledge until now. [UPDATE: Daily Kos has a good, if a bit over done, explanation of just how stupid and irresponsible Coleman and his campaign was.]

From the Minnesota Independent:

...scrutiny by web enthusiasts exposed a bigger problem for the campaign: an unprotected database that contained information on campaign donors, including names, email and home addresses, credit card numbers and the three-digit security codes. On Tuesday, donors received an email from the website Wikileaks alerting them that the site has revealed some of the database information.

“We understand that Norm Coleman became aware of the leak in January,” the note reads, in part...
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As Madoff pleads guity to one of the biggest scams in history, I want to point out an impact of his criminal activity that many may not appreciate. This sleaze's crimes are really far, far worse than any street criminal whose crimes may hurt some immediate victims because Madoff's crimes hurts many, many more people.

Back in January I was talking to a professor who had just given a talk at NYU Medical Center. One of the main topics of conversation was the economic collapse and, in particular, the Madoff scandal. He related to us an incident that illustrates just how disusting and damaging Madoff's crime spree was. Among Madoff's hardest hit clients was the Picower Foundation, a funding agency that funds neurological research. Work funded by these people studies the deepest aspects of how the brain works and how memory is formed. Some of the headlines coming from work they helped fund include:

Growth hormone could help reverse autism-like condition

Possible Treatment For Neurological Disorder Rett Syndrome -- Most Common Basis Of Autism In Girls

Team sheds light on Alzheimer's mystery

Spinal Cord Stem Cells May Act as Nerve Repair System

Pretty important stuff if you ask me.
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Just yesterday I wrote about how Bank of America, right after grabbing taxpayer money through the bank bailout, went ahead and used some of that money to lobby against the very popular Employee Free Choice Act and tried to raise money for Republican Senators. By the way, the Employee Free Choice Act passed DESPITE this use of bailout money by Bank of America to lobby against it.

This led me to decide to not bank at Bank of America and to stop using my credit cards from them. Funny how they love corporate welfare but oppose anything that helps working class and middle class Americans.

I also decided to look into Bank of America's record in general on social issues. First thing I discovered was that according to Co-op America's Responsible Shopper, Bank of America is considered tied with Citicorp for worst bank or financial institution. Here are some comments (last updated 9/2008) from Responsible Shopper regarding Bank of America:
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As our economy collapses, it doesn't help to learn that Wall Street insiders have been running Ponzi schemes, bilking investors. Corruption has just been rampant in America during the Republican "deregulation" years. This comes from the Florida Chief Financial Officer's Consumer eViews newsletter:

A grand Ponzi scheme uncovered; Florida investors hurt

Recently an investment scam was uncovered in the investment capital of the world - Wall Street. A respected investment manager allegedly ran a giant Ponzi scheme with a possible loss of $50 billion. Unfortunately many investors put most or all of their funds in this one plan. One of the wisest rules of investing is to spread the risk.

Bernard Madoff ran a vast options game made popular by inviting investors into the fold. Anxious for an invitation to join, investors entrusted their money to Madoff. A part-time resident of Palm Beach, Madoff convinced many neighbors, friends and acquaintances to invest in his funds. This type of affinity fraud grows from the natural trust among friends and relatives.
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