May 2013 archive

Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got.”- Barack Obama

And now he’s maybe going to lose his job.

Investors May Lobby JPMorgan to Clip Dimon’s Wings If Vote Fails

Reuters

Sunday, 5 May 2013, 5:15 PM ET

JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon may be losing ground in his fight to keep the title of chairman, as some major investors push for more oversight of the chief executive after the “London Whale” trading losses.

At the largest U.S. bank’s annual meeting in two weeks, shareholders will be able to vote on a non-binding proposal to separate the chairman and CEO roles. Two of the bank’s top 10 shareholders told Reuters they are considering voting in favor of the proposal, a reversal of their position last year, because of the disastrous bets on credit derivatives that cost the bank more than $6 billion last year.

Though he’s flat out promised to quit if he loses the Chairmanship.  And he’s not the only Director in trouble.

JPMorgan Directors Feel Heat in a Vote

By SUSANNE CRAIG and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG, The New York Times

May 3, 2013, 8:08 pm

Some JPMorgan shareholders are taking public aim at individual directors who hold crucial positions on the bank’s audit and risk committees as the bank grapples with an onslaught of regulatory challenges.

On Friday, the CtW Investment Group, which represents union pension funds and owns six million shares in JPMorgan, said it planned to vote against the three directors on the risk policy committee and the head of the audit committee.

…

Shareholders like CtW are singling out members of the risk committee because they think the board failed to police the bank in important areas, contributing to the trading loss in 2012.

“What we have learned over the past year is that the performance of the risk committee is even worse than we thought,” said Richard Clayton, CtW’s research director. “Their behavior is a combination of being out at sea and asleep at the wheel. Both are bad and together they are disastrous.”

James S. Crown, who has been a director of JPMorgan or one of its predecessor companies since 1991, is chairman of the risk policy committee. The other members are David M. Cote, the head of Honeywell International; Timothy P. Flynn, a former KPMG executive; and Ellen V. Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History. Mr. Flynn was appointed to the risk policy committee in August 2012.

CtW also plans to vote against Laban P. Jackson, chairman of the audit committee, which shares responsibility for oversight.

They should all lose their jobs.

JPMorgan Caught in Swirl of Regulatory Woes

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and BEN PROTESS, The New York Times

May 2, 2013, 10:00 pm

The possible action comes amid showdowns with other agencies. One of the bank’s chief regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is weighing new enforcement actions against JPMorgan over the way the bank collected credit card debt and its possible failure to alert authorities to suspicions about Bernard L. Madoff, according to people who were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.

In a meeting last month at the bank’s Park Avenue headquarters, the comptroller’s office delivered an unusually stark message to Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman: the nation’s biggest bank was quickly losing credibility in Washington. The bank’s top lawyers, including Stephen M. Cutler, the general counsel, have also cautioned executives about the bank’s regulatory problems, employees say.

…

In the energy market investigation, the enforcement staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, intends to recommend that the agency pursue an action against JPMorgan over its trading in California and Michigan electric markets.

The 70-page document also took aim at a top bank executive, Blythe Masters. A seminal Wall Street figure, Ms. Masters is known for helping expand the boundaries of finance, including the development of credit default swaps, a derivative that played a role in the financial crisis.

The regulatory document cites her supposed “knowledge and approval of schemes” carried out by a group of energy traders in Houston. The agency’s investigators claimed that Ms. Masters had “falsely” denied under oath her awareness of the problems and said that JPMorgan had made “scores of false and misleading statements and material omissions” to authorities, the document shows.

…

In the credit card investigation, people briefed on the case said the comptroller’s office had discovered that JPMorgan was relying on faulty documents when pursuing lawsuits against delinquent customers. The accusations, which are expected to prompt an enforcement action later this year, echo complaints that JPMorgan and rivals plowed through home foreclosures with little regard for accuracy.

In a separate investigation into JPMorgan’s relationship with Mr. Madoff, the comptroller’s office raised concerns that the company may have violated a federal law that requires banks to report suspicious transactions.

Out of Control – New Report Exposes JPMorgan Chase as Mostly a Criminal Enterprise

David Dayen, Naked Capitalism

Thursday, March 14, 2013

It’s hard to summarize all of the documented instances in this report of JPM has been breaking the law, but here’s my best shot. I try to keep up on these matters, and yet some of these I’m learning about for the first time:

• Bank Secrecy Act violations;
• Money laundering for drug cartels;
• Violations of sanction orders against Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor;
• Violations related to the Vatican Bank scandal (get on this, Pope Francis!);
• Violations of the Commodities Exchange Act;
• Failure to segregate customer funds (including one CFTC case where the bank failed to segregate $725 million of its own money from a $9.6 billion account) in the US and UK;
• Knowingly executing fictitious trades where the customer, with full knowledge of the bank, was on both sides of the deal;
• Various SEC enforcement actions for misrepresentations of CDOs and mortgage-backed securities;
• The AG settlement on foreclosure fraud;
• The OCC settlement on foreclosure fraud;
• Violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act;
• Illegal flood insurance commissions;
• Fraudulent sale of unregistered securities;
• Auto-finance ripoffs;
• Illegal increases of overdraft penalties;
• Violations of federal ERISA laws as well as those of the state of New York;
• Municipal bond market manipulations and acts of bid-rigging, including violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act;
• Filing of unverified affidavits for credit card debt collections (“as a result of internal control failures that sound eerily similar to the industry’s mortgage servicing failures and foreclosure abuses”);
• Energy market manipulation that triggered FERC lawsuits;
• “Artificial market making” at Japanese affiliates;
• Shifting trading losses on a currency trade to a customer account;
• Fraudulent sales of derivatives to the city of Milan, Italy;
• Obstruction of justice (including refusing the release of documents in the Bernie Madoff case as well as the case of Peregrine Financial).

And, exhale.

The sheer litany of illegal activities just overwhelms you. And these are only the ones where the company has entered into settlements or been sanctioned; it doesn’t even include ongoing investigations into things like Libor, illegally concealing inclusions of mortgage-backed securities in employer funds (another ERISA violation), the Fail Whale trades, and especially putback suits for mortgages, where a recent ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff has seriously increased exposure. While the risks are still very much alive and will continue to weigh on the firm, ultimately shareholders will pay, certainly not executives as long as the no-prosecutions standard holds.

Mirabile Dictu! JP Morgan Finally on Regulatory Hot Seat for Widespread Control Failures and Alleged Lying by Blythe Masters Under Oath

Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism

Friday, May 3, 2013

The Times reports that the bank faces actions across eight regulators including: FERC, for a series of “schemes” to dupe state authorities to overpay for power and includes allegations that JP Morgan executive Blythe Masters lied under oath; using false documents when collecting credit card debt; and a failure to report suspicious trading activities by Bernie Madoff.

The fact that JP Morgan is in hot water isn’t news. Josh Rosner revealed in an extensive report released in early March that the bank had paid out over $8.5 billion in fines since 2009, nearly 12% of its net income, for violations across virtually all of its operations. This account showed the carefully cultivated picture of JP Morgan as a well-managed operation was an artful fabrication.

…

The London Whale fiasco alone demonstrated beyond doubt that JP Morgan was, as Rosner put it, out of control. Even before the Senate investigation, media reports provided compelling evidence of astonishing risk management failures, such as having risk management reporting to the CIO, rather than being independent. Sarbanes Oxley expert Michael Crimmins saw the risk management and control failures to be so severe as to firing Dimon.

…

And despite this impressive history of bad conduct, JP Morgan was getting special treatment from regulators as recently as January of this year. Marcy Wheeler noted the OCC failed to clean up “previously identified systemic weaknesses” in its anti-money laundering compliance. Eighteen months of intransigence and all the OCC did was scold a bit. It issued no fine.

Even though regulators are finally waking up to the fact that JP Morgan is a dangerous institution that thinks it can act as a law unto itself, the bank does not appear ready to change its ways.

JPMorgan’s annual meeting will be May 21 in Tampa, Florida.

Over at The Plum Line Jamelle Bouie is a little irrationally exhuberant about the prospects for renewed action on Gun Safety based on promises of a new talking tour by Joe Biden and reports of deteriorating public polls for Ayotte, Baucus, Begich, and Murkowsi.

Well, not so fast buckaroo.

OFA’s first foray falls short

By: Reid J. Epstein, Politico

May 3, 2013 05:02 AM EDT

President Barack Obama’s man in North Dakota couldn’t pitch in to help shame Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for her vote against gun control – he was busy with his new job selling Toyotas.

Organizing for Action’s top Montana official wouldn’t canvass the state to turn up the heat on Sen. Max Baucus because there was no reimbursement for the gas money.

Alaska Sens. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski haven’t had to worry about running up against OFA’s influence there, since Obama’s former state director there has turned back to building up her own political consulting business – “I need to get to making money,” she said.

…

Even in states Obama carried handily – places like Ohio and New Hampshire – the group couldn’t hold big rallies, blanket the airwaves with TV ads or motivate enough supporters to match the volume of phone calls from pro-gun advocates. Asked for demonstrations of the strong effort they were mounting, OFA staff pointed to “tweet your senator” pushes they encouraged in the days after the vote.

…

What that’s added up to so far: On the weekend after the background checks vote, seven OFA volunteers protested at the Tampa office of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “More than 30” came to protest Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) at his Bozeman office, according to a local TV station, though some of them were counter-protesters in support of Baucus’s no vote on background checks.

Just 20 people came to protest Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) at his Winston-Salem office. The OFA protesters were invited into the office two at a time to air their grievances to staff, a Burr spokesman told POLITICO. A few accepted the offer, but many did not.

There were no events in North Dakota or Alaska, each home to Democrats who voted no. In Arkansas, the lead state volunteer planned events in and around Little Rock, where he lives, and posted them to OFA’s website. Barely anyone showed.

Outside groups like Mayors Against Illegal Guns are counting on OFA to help them pack town hall meetings to confront senators who voted against the background checks bill.

But at New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte’s town hall meetings Tuesday, there was no discernible OFA presence. While there were protesters, many of them attended on their own to voice concerns to Ayotte about gun control or were organized by the Michael Bloomberg-backed group, which distributed signs saying, “Shame on you.”

OFA has just 19 paid state coordinators.  11ty Dimensional Chess my ass.

The main purpose our blogging is to communicate our ideas, opinions, and stories both fact and fiction. The best part about the the blogs is information that we might not find in our local news, even if we read it online. Sharing that information is important, especially if it educates, sparks conversation and new ideas. We have all found places that are our favorites that we read everyday, not everyone’s are the same. The Internet is a vast place. Unlike “Punting the Pundits which focuses on opinion pieces mostly from the mainstream media and the larger news web sites, “Around the Blogosphere” will focus more on the medium to smaller blogs and articles written by some of the anonymous and not so anonymous writers and links to some of the smaller pieces that don’t make it to “Pundits” by Krugman, Baker, etc.

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This is an Open Thread.

From CounterPunch a really good article by Jeffery St. Clair, on Obama’s The Game of Drones.

From Dean Baker at his blog Beat the Press: Tyler Cowen Recognizes Public Goods Problem of Pandemics: More Money for Drug Companies

At Corrente, letgetitdone posts Make ’em Prove the Causality before They Cause Any More Suffering: Part Two, the Fall and After

George Gideon Oliver Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury of the United Kingdom, is about to get “spanked” by the IMF for not “living it up and spending more.”, from Paul Krugman at Conscious of a Liberal: George Osborne’s Fear of Ghosts

Apparently austerity loving economist said something really, really offensive about John Maynard Keynes, get taken to the wood shed by Corey Robin at Crooked Timber: Edmund Burke to Niall Ferguson: You know nothing of my work. You mean my whole theory is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

Over at FDL Book Salon, Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute: Welcomes Robert Kuttner, Debtors’ Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility

And a h/t to ql at Eschaton this morning noted this link from Avedon’s Sideshow to an article by David Roberts at Grist: Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities

after re-election.

Obama diversity disappoints again

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN, Politico

5/5/13 7:04 AM EDT

There were, after all, just eight women among the 23 Cabinet-level officials in Obama’s first term. And that number will be even lower in his second.

After picking an all-white, all-male slate to fill departures at key departments including State and Treasury, Obama urged critics to be patient. Given time, he promised just before his second inauguration, he’d erase concerns sparked by an entirely white and male group of top picks.

“I would just suggest that everybody kind of wait until they’ve seen all my appointments – who is in the White House staff and who is in my Cabinet – before they rush to judgment,” he said. “Until you’ve seen what my overall team looks like, it’s premature to assume that somehow we’re going backwards. We’re not going backwards, we’re going forward.”

Now the second term Cabinet is complete, with final selections that include both Pritzker and Anthony Foxx, an African American, for Transportation secretary. Still, Obama’s put together a less diverse Cabinet than in his first term, when his picks were criticized for being too white and male. And quite a few of the people Obama had asked to hold off until the picture was complete say they they’re not so sure it was worth the wait.

…

(O)verall, there’s no denying the group he wound up with isn’t just less diverse than the current demographics of the country, and far less representative of the coalition of voters that got Obama reelected. It even falls short in virtually every category of the marks he set in his first term.

…

If Foxx is confirmed, there will be three African Americans in the Cabinet, one fewer than before. The number of Asian Americans has dropped from 3 to just 1: first-term holdover Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. And if Labor Secretary-designate Thomas Perez is confirmed, the number of Latinos will have officially made an identical slide.

…

“I at least expected that more than a third of the jobs would go to women,” NOW’s president, Terry O’Neill told POLITICO. “Women should be half the Cabinet. We’re 51 percent of the population, and more than half of us voted for the president’s reelection.” Instead, women have been picked for just seven of 23 Cabinet posts.

The numbers speak for themselves.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge

May 5 is the 125th day of the year (126th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 240 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1862, the Mexican Army defeated the French forces at the Battle of Puebla

Certain that French victory would come swiftly in Mexico, 6,000 French troops under General Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles. From his new headquarters in the north, Juarez rounded up a rag-tag force of loyal men and sent them to Puebla. Led by Texas-born General Zaragoza, the 2,000 Mexicans fortified the town and prepared for the French assault. On the fifth of May, 1862, Lorencez drew his army, well-provisioned and supported by heavy artillery, before the city of Puebla and began their assault from the north. The battle lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers to the fewer than 100 Mexicans killed.

Although not a major strategic victory in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza’s victory at Puebla tightened Mexican resistance, and six years later France withdrew. The same year, Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who had been installed as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon in 1864, was captured and executed by Juarez’ forces. Puebla de Los Angeles, the site of Zaragoza’s historic victory, was renamed Puebla de Zaragoza in honor of the general.

Mexico

Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday limited primarily to the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday in other parts of the country.

United States

In a 1998 study in the Journal of American Culture it was reported that there were more than 120 official U.S. celebrations of Cinco de Mayo, and they could be found in 21 different states. An update in 2006, found that the number of official Cinco de Mayo events was 150 or more, according to Jose Alamillo, professor of ethnic studies at Washington State University in Pullman, who has studied the cultural impact of Cinco de Mayo north of the border.

In the United States Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. The date is perhaps best recognized in the United States as a date to celebrate the culture and experiences of Americans of Mexican ancestry, much as St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, and the Chinese New Year are used to celebrate those of Irish, German, and Chinese ancestry respectively. Similar to those holidays, Cinco de Mayo is observed by many Americans regardless of ethnic origin. Celebrations tend to draw both from traditional Mexican symbols, such as the Virgen de Guadalupe, and from prominent figures of Mexican descent in the United States, including Cesar Chavez. To celebrate, many display Cinco de Mayo banners while school districts hold special events to educate pupils about its historical significance. Special events and celebrations highlight Mexican culture, especially in its music and regional dancing. Examples include baile folklorico and mariachi demonstrations held annually at the Plaza del Pueblo de Los Angeles, near Olvera Street. Commercial interests in the United States have capitalized on the celebration, advertising Mexican products and services, with an emphasis on beverages, foods, and music.

Hello. Today’s #Uppers was also pretty disappointing. You get the feeling Steve Kornacki still thinks this is 2008 and elections have hope. But we don’t have a functioning legislature and it’s either going to be about filibuster reform or nothing. Not the baseball card stats of 2014 and specifically not 2016 which always pisses me off talking about it because it’s so sensational. It was also about the Syrian civil war and that Israeli bombing in Syria, and for some reason Anthony Weiner.

Oh well I had an interesting debate on the War Powers Act which was more interesting than the show. Now #Uppers.

@therealpriceman We have not had a “properly” declared war since WWII. #uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

And has been regularly violated.It is a joke! RT @therealpriceman: @gfjacobs Which is why the War Powers Act was passed. #Uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

A damned sad joke.RT @therealpriceman: @gfjacobs Which is why the War Powers Act was passed. #Uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

Aid/Abetted by Congress MT @therealpriceman …but enforced w Lebanon retreat in 80s. Not always a joke, Presidents just violate it. #Uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

Red line? When does the game of Team America World police stop? #Uppers Our involvement makes things worse in ME spec with military. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@gfjacobs Yes but enforced nevertheless. (D)s had some principals back then and cared about Constitution/wars. Obama has no excuse. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

Always great to hear what dumb shit neocon Lindsey Graham has to say. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

The bipartisan BS war on terror fake domino effect. F that BS. It’s a lie. We can’t do anything about this. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@therealpriceman Still not a declared war.WPA an abdication of Congressional power.but I will give you that as a law followed #uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

The bipartisan BS war on terror fake domino effect. F that BS. It’s a lie. We can’t do anything about this. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

.@therealpricemanvalid complaint.All wars undeclared.One example (so far) of WPA actually followed. #LousyRecordAnyway #uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

.@therealpriceman #confusion No precedent for War or actually declaring it per the constitution? #uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

@therealpriceman it was designed to rein in presidential power out of hand w “police actions”, however only rarely enforced.

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

Agreed @jtlarsen future topic? RT @therealpriceman: Anyway good debate. I agree that we have a big problem declaring wars. #Uppers

— GFJacobs (@GFJacobs) May 5, 2013

Basically party leadership apparatus of both parties tries 2 use+coopt any perceived independent movement in the end. It is their MO #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@joanwalsh is right. The young have a right to be jaded. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

Let’s be real about this. The Obama administration has not prosecuted any financial crimes since crash caused by fraud. #Executive #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

That was pretty despicable of Anthony Wiener. I have 2 wonder if we really know who all else did something similar to get elected. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@azannaphx @joanwalsh I think they realize that they are being used for election purposes and then dumped. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

There’s one way to know if @tedcruz has a chance=If @barackobama gets (D)s to cut Social Security. Then any (R) will have a chance. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

Voters want jobs over deficit which is coming down faster than WWII which is a problem because we need deficit for full employment. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

did they say something on Chained CPI? #uppers @therealpriceman I kinda spaced out on the Politics chatter

— Greg Griffin (@GDGriffin) May 5, 2013

@therealpriceman thanx all I’m hearing is white noise #uppers

— Greg Griffin (@GDGriffin) May 5, 2013

@therealpriceman true that #uppers my mental defense is to go numb

— Greg Griffin (@GDGriffin) May 5, 2013

We also have true believers in the Democratic party. If Obama wants to cut Social Security+wage Bush war on terror it’s just fine. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@gdgriffin This Congress baseball card shit is getting old. #Uppers

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

@yeswecanjane It really is. Just read the comment section at @dailykos.

— priceman (@therealpriceman) May 5, 2013

Hopefully Steve will bore me less in the future. Still I am sort o addicted to this tradition but I may quit #Uppers if it gets too bland. The same roster needs to come on. Thank you for reading.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Steve Kornacki: Joining Steve Kornacki will be: Abby Rapoport, staff writer, The American Prospect; Nate Cohn, staff writer, The New Republic;

Joan Walsh, editor-at-large, Salon.com, msnbc Political Analyst; Nia-Malika Henderson, National Political Reporter, The Washington Post; Maria Teresa Kumar, president, Voto Latino, msnbc Contributor; Michael Hanna, senior fellow at The Century Foundation; Amr Al-Azm, History Professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio and member of the Syrian opposition; and Andrew Tabler, senior fellow, The Washington Institute.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Investor Warren Buffet; Roundtable: Democratic Strategist James Carville, Republican Strategist Mary Matalin, Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and Cokie Roberts.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guests are Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman, House Intelligence Committee; Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), ranking member, House Intelligence Committee; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Joining him on the roundtable are former Pro Tennis Players Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova; NFL Player Brendon Ayanbadejo; former NFL Player Esera Tuaolo; owner of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics Ted Leonsis; President of the NFL Players Association Domonique Foxworth; William Rhoden, New York Times; and Chris Stone, Sports Illustrated.

The Chris Matthews Show: Katty Kay BBC; Dan Rather, HDNet; David Ignatius, Washington Post and Kathleen Parker, Washington Post.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: MTP guests are Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (a noun, a verb & 9/11); Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA); and Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

The roundtable guests are: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrch (R-GA), Former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Rich Lowry, National Review and Joy-Ann Reid, Miami Herald.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Joining Ms. Crowley are Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN); Rep. Peter King (R-NY); Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, American Islamic Forum for Democracy; Former Member of the National Security Council Jessica Stern; Suhail Khan, Institute for Global Engagement; A.B. Stoddard, The Hill; Jeanne Cummings, Bloomberg News; Reliable Sources’ Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker; Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times; Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom; Cartoonist Garry Trudeau; and Elsa Walsh, formerly of the Washington Post.

Israel strikes Syrian military research center, US official says

By Robert Windrem, Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News

Israeli jets bombed a military research facility north of Damascus early Sunday, a senior official told NBC News — the second Israeli attack on targets in Syria in recent days.

Heavy explosions shook the city, and video shot by activists showed a fireball rising into the sky after Sunday’s strikes, according to Reuters.

Syrian media also reported that the target was the Jamraya military research center, which Israel hit in January, Reuters said. The center is about 10 miles from the Lebanese border.

Reuters reported that a Western intelligence source said the operation hit Iranian-supplied missiles that were en route to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

In this Saturday’s segment of “What We Now Know,” Up host, Steve Kornacki up dates last week’s show and notes that the fight for real filibuster reform is not over. He discusses what they have learned this week with panel guests Mary C Curtis, The Washington Post; State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson (D-NV); John Amaechi, former NBA player; and Mike Pesca, NPR.

Progressives Urge Filibuster Reform Revival In Senate

by  Sabrina Siddiqui, Huffington Post

Progressive and labor groups on Thursday renewed calls for Senate leaders to reform filibuster rules that have allowed Republicans to repeatedly stonewall presidential nominees and legislation, including gun control.

Fix the Senate Now, a coalition of more than 70 progressive and labor organizations sent a letter to Senate leaders focusing on judicial vacancies. Republicans have repeatedly used filibusters to block President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees. The coalition’s letter urges Senate leaders to change rules requiring 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Jeff Merkley Escalates Push For Filibuster Reform

by Sahil Kapur, TPMDC

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is teaming up with the liberal advocacy group Democracy For America to build public awareness of filibuster abuse and court supporters for reform.

“It’s now clear the experiment has failed. The Senate remains broken,” Merkley wrote to supporters. “Senate Republicans continue to force delays – even on bills with overwhelming public support, and even on nominees widely considered well-qualified.” [..]

Senate Democrats have the option to weaken the filibuster at any time with 51 votes, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has repeatedly threatened to use that “nuclear option” if Republicans don’t stop blocking presidential nominees. Hardly any Democrats have publicly ruled out using that option to fix the Senate. But behind the scenes, despite anger at the GOP now, there is concern that weakening the filibuster could come back to haunt them when Republicans return to power and, for instance, seek to weaken abortion rights.

Merkley insists he’d be just as strong a supporter of his plan if he were in the minority, arguing that the point of the filibuster is to debate, not to obstruct in the dark.

Obama ‘comfortable’ with FDA’s lowered age limit for ‘Plan B’

By Michael O’Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

President Barack Obama said that he was “comfortable” with new federal regulations making emergency contraception available to women and girls over the age of 15, but said more study was needed to see whether it was safe to allow access to the “morning after” pill for girls younger than that. [..]

On Wednesday, the FDA agreed to lower the age limit to 15 for sales of “Plan B One-Step,” and to make the emergency contraceptive available in the general aisles of stores instead of behind the pharmacy counter.

Justice Department to appeal judge’s Plan B order

By JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer, NBC News

U.S. Department of Justice officials have filed notice that they will appeal a federal judge’s order requiring the Food and Drug Administration to make the so-called “morning after” pill available without a prescription to all women without age or certain sales restrictions.

The department also has asked the federal district court to stay its order, which was set to take effect on May 6, according to Allison Price, a spokeswoman.

The move comes a day after the FDA agreed to lower the age limit to 15 for sales of non-prescription Plan B One-Step emergency contraception and to make the drug available in the general aisles of stores with pharmacies, instead of behind the counter.

Iraq Violence Leads To Deadliest Month In 5 Years

by Eline Gordts, Huffington Post

With more than 700 people killed in just 30 days, April was the deadliest month in Iraq in five years. According to the United Nations Mission in the country, 712 Iraqis lost their lives in acts of terrorism and acts of violence in the month of April. Nearly 600 of the dead were civilians.

The string of attacks continued in the first days of May. On Friday, a bomb outside a Sunni mosque in Rashidiya killed at least seven, the Associated Press reported. In a separate incident, nine police officers and four militants were killed during clashes Thursday evening in the northern city of Mosul.

Reprinted from 5/5/2012

The name simply means “The Fifth of May” and it’s an oddly U.S. American holiday.

Except in the State of Puebla they don’t much celebrate the victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in Mexico which makes it much more like Patriot’s Day that we here in New England get to celebrate almost every year as an extra filing day (I understand there’s also a foot race in Boston).

Interestingly enough it was a stand up fight against the banksters which they lost (those who do not remember history…).  Some people say that the French intervention was intended to establish a supply line to aid the Slave Owner’s Rebellion (or as the more charitable put it, The War of the Rebellion).

Not Congressionally recognized until 2005, celebrations started in California as early as the mid 1860s and for over 100 years were most common in Southwestern States with a large population of people of Mexican descent.  Now of course it’s just another excuse to over consume the cheap crappy Tequila and Beer that Mexico exports (don’t get me wrong, there are good Mexican Beers and Tequila but Corona, Dos Equis, and Jose Cuervo are not them) and ignore real, actual factual Mexican history because we’re so fucking exceptional that understanding and caring about the countries we border is as beneath us as even knowing which ones they are.

Just don’t mistake it for Grito de Dolores.