CoOlDiGgY: Mar 18, 2010

the big story (late edition)

Nader vs Kucinich: Rep. on Hot Seat for Health Care Backtrack

earlier:

As lame-duck Senator Chris Dodd pushes through symbolic reform under the auspices of the privately-owned Federal Reserve, regulators who actually work for the government received big bonuses for "overseeing" the big banks. Corruptible system or criminal enterprise?

WASHINGTON — The government has given millions of dollars in bonuses to its bank regulators.

The payments are detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. They are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. The regulators received taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was about to melt down.

The bonuses were part of a reward program little known outside the government. Some government regulators have received tens of thousands of dollars in perks, boosting their salaries by almost 25 percent.

Read more...

CoOlDiGgY news (late edition)

Now Bernanke Wants To Eliminate Reserve Requirements Completely

Up until now, the United States has operated under a "fractional reserve" banking system. Banks have always been required to keep a small fraction of the money deposited with them for a reserve, but were allowed to loan out the rest.

But now it turns out that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wants to completely eliminate minimum reserve requirements, which he says "impose costs and distortions on the banking system". At least that is what a footnote to his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services on February 10th says. So is Bernanke actually proposing that banks should be allowed to have no reserves at all?

Read more...

*Tracking Electric Use Could Allow Utilities to Track You, Too

*Is Media Hyping “Homegrown” Threats

*Jim Kramer's TheStreet.com under SEC probe

*Will the U.S. Become the Next Ireland?

earlier:

States Give Prisoners Your Personal Data

WASHINGTON — Prisons in eight states let convicts work in jobs that give them access to Social Security numbers and other personal information for the public, despite years of warnings that the practice should end, a federal audit finds.

Most of the prisoners hold jobs processing public records for federal, state and local governments, according to the audit released this month by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General. The work often involves entering and processing data on documents such as student transcripts, tax files, and health care and labor claims forms.

"Although we recognize there may be benefits in allowing prisoners to work while incarcerated, we question whether prisoners have a need to know other individuals' Social Security numbers," the audit says. "Allowing prisoners access to Social Security numbers increases the risk that individuals may improperly obtain and misuse (the data)."

Read more...

*EPA fails at protecting kids from poisons

*Health Care bill cut deficit by $130 Billion

*Stalling issue with Toyota Corolla

*Sen. Barbar Boxer at risk in election

*Democrat Steve Levy becoming GOPer to run for gov

*The Latino Completion Gap, Examined

*MoveOn Raises $1 Million-Plus To Target Anti-Health Care Dems

the fairer sex

the Girls of CoOlDiGgY

(coming soon)

Would You Cheat on Sandra Bullock with This Woman?

Michelle Bombshell Strips for Jesse James

What you do in your private life is your business. So if Jesse James wants to cheat on his money, er, honey then that's his business. But to throw away his millionaire, Oscar-winning, legs-for-days wife aka Sandra Bullock for a tattooed freak is debatable. Yeah, sure, Michelle Bombshell McGee is a dangerous bad girl who plays by her own set of rules and is a demon in the sack whose sexual rage knows no boundaries. But who wants that? For shame. Now enjoy these ambiguously sexy photos and video

girl blurbs (late edition)

*The Proof Jesse James cheated on Sandra

*Rebecca Hall: the woman who ended Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes’ Affair?

*A pregnant Amy Adams goes grocery shopping. Probably for pistachio and liver sandwich with gravy and mayo

earlier:
*Sandra Bullock Has Left the Family Home

*Heidi Klum topless in Allure

*Tina Fey is hot and naughty in Esquire

*'The View' of Marisa Tomei's panties

*It Was Only A Matter Of Time: Ashley Dupre Does Playboy

the random

BREAKING NEWS: Joan Jett is still hot. Unfortunately, however, she's being played by lifeless zombie Kristen Stewart in an upcoming movie, 'Runaways,' which will certainly suck ape balls.

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

Emergency Internet control bill gets a rewrite

Sen. Jay Rockefeller alarmed technology and telecommunications firms last year when he announced a plan for the president to seize "emergency" control of the Internet. Now the West Virginia Democrat is trying again with a new version that aides hope will be seen as less extreme.

During a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday attended by about a dozen industry representatives, CNET has learned, Rockefeller's staff pitched a revised version of his controversial cybersecurity legislation.

It says that after the president chooses to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," he can activate a "response and restoration plan" involving networks owned and operated by the private sector. In an attempt to limit criticism, instead of spelling out the plan's details, the latest draft simply says that it must be developed by the White House in advance.

There is no requirement that the emergency response plan be made public, meaning it could still include a forcible disconnection of critical Web sites from the Internet--which is what the March 2009 version of the legislation had proposed.

Read more...

*Condom requirement for porn film actors to be voted on in California