Wistful Iguana

Clarence Thomas for President

2012-02-26T08:40:00.003-08:00

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Republican candidates

2012-02-23T17:28:00.004-08:00

Young Newt

2012-02-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich (; born Newton Leroy McPherson; June 17, 1943)

Newt hangs

2012-02-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

Barracuda: one of Romney's Irish investments

2012-01-26T16:55:00.000-08:00

Some investments listed in Mitt and Ann Romney’s 2010 tax returns – including a now-closed Swiss bank account and other funds located overseas – were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement the GOP presidential hopeful filed in August as part of his White House bid. Most of the funds that don't show up on the financial disclosure form are entities listed on the 2010 tax return for Ann Romney’s blind trust. While Romney’s financial disclosure does detail three pages of investments held by Ann Romney’s trust, 21 entities that the couple reported as part of their tax filing are missing or not reported in the same fashion.

here

Romney in the Cayman Islands

2012-01-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Romney’s individual retirement account included a stake valued at $5 million to $25 million in something called BCIP Trust Associates III in the Cayman Islands.

insider trading
assets
lmt entry

BCIP Trust Associates III related
Bain Capital (CC) X Offshore/L/P - SEC # 1440944 - 7/31/08
Bain Capital Fund IX LP - SEC # 1361064 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Fund VIII-E/L/P - SEC # 1309465 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Fund VIII/L/P - SEC # 1309468 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Fund VIII/LLC - SEC # 1379474 - 12/21/10
Bain Capital Integral Investors II/L/P - SEC # 1389409 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Investors LLC - SEC # 1040508 - 12/13/11
Bain Capital IX Coinvestment Fund LP - SEC # 1361640 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Partners IX/L/P - SEC # 1486793 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Partners VIII-E/L/P - SEC # 1309462 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital Partners VIII/L/P - SEC # 1309466 - 11/14/11
Bain Capital VIII Coinvestment Fund/L/P - SEC # 1309467 - 11/14/11
BCIP Associates III - SEC # 1379476 - 3/4/11
BCIP Associates III-B - SEC # 1379519 - 3/4/11
BCIP Associates III-B/LLC - SEC # 1379517 - 12/21/10
BCIP Associates III/LLC - SEC # 1379475 - 2/14/11
BCIP Associates-G - SEC # 1430079 - 12/13/11
BCIP Trust Associates III-B - SEC # 1379521 - 3/15/11
BCIPT Associates III-B/LLC - SEC # 1379516 - 12/16/10
BCIPT Associates III/LLC - SEC # 1379518 - 12/21/10
Sensata Investment Co S/C/A - SEC # 1486142 - 11/14/11
Sensata Management Co S/C/A - SEC # 1486718 - 11/14/11

A lot has been made about how Romney is invested in certain Bain Capital funds whose address is Cayman Islands instead of 200 Clarendon Street in Boston. It makes for great political soundbites, but is much ado about nothing. Almost all PE firms that raise money from overseas sources use such tax havens to protect their foreign investors from being double-taxed, and Romney's records should show that he didn't derive any personal gain from the Cayman mailboxes. .Dan Primack, SENIOR EDITOR, FORTUNE In a past journalistic life, Dan ran a community paper in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He currently lives just outside of Boston.

homes

George Romney's swiss bank account

2012-01-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

You can't make this stuff up!

Romney had a Swiss bank account that his trustee, Brad Malt, said was closed in early 2010. He also said that it was fully legal and fully disclosed. Okay, where did the account get opened again, BVI?

“In Bermuda, Romney served as president and sole shareholder for four years of Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd.,” said the newspaper. “It funneled money into Bain Capital’s Sankaty family of hedge funds, which invest in bonds and other debt issued by corporations, as well as bank loans.
“Like thousands of similar financial entities, Sankaty maintains no office or staff in Bermuda. Its only presence consists of a nameplate at a lawyer’s office in downtown Hamilton, capital of the British island territory. ‘It’s just a mail drop, essentially’, said Marc B. Wolpow, who worked with Romney for nine years at Bain Capital and who set up Sankaty Ltd. in October 1997 without ever visiting Bermuda. ‘There’s no one doing any work down there other than lawyers’.”
Investing through what’s known as a blocker corporation in Bermuda protects tax-exempt American institutions, such as pension plans, hospitals and university endowments, from paying a 35 percent tax on what the Internal Revenue Service calls “unrelated business income” from domestic hedge funds that invest in debt, experts say. here

Santorum in North Carolina Spartensburg Citadel

2012-01-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich playing rough

2012-01-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Fairey for Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Gingrich made 1.8 million from semi-public firm

2011-11-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Speaker of the House had two contracts with mortgage company Freddie Mac, During the 2008 campaign, Gingrich suggested in a Fox News interview that presidential candidate Obama should return contributions he had received from executives of the two companies. He said that in a debate with Obama, GOP presidential nominee John McCain “should have turned and said, ‘Senator Obama, are you prepared to give back all the money that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae gave you?’”
Gingrich's primary contact inside the organization was Mitchell Delk, Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist, and he was paid a self- renewing, monthly retainer of $25,000 to $30,000 between May 1999 until 2002. Gingrich’s second contract with Freddie Mac was a two-year retainer for which he was paid a total of $600,000, said two people familiar with the agreement. He made between $1.6 million and $1.8 million in consulting fees from two contracts Regarding a $300,000 payment in 2006, former Freddie Mac officials familiar with his work in 2006 say Gingrich was asked to build bridges to Capitol Hill Republicans and develop an argument on behalf of the company’s public-private structure that would resonate with conservatives seeking to dismantle it. He was expected to provide written material that could be circulated among free-market conservatives in Congress and in outside organization. He didn’t produce a white paper or any other document the firm could use on its behalf.

Crowd waits for President Obama to lay wreath

2011-05-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

At Ground Zero, South Tower site, after death of Usama bin Laden

Arizona passes I.D. check for citizenship

2010-05-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands has joined in filing a legal brief in support of Arizona in the DOJ challenge to the new state immigration law

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is part of Micronesia, comprises the former Mariana Islands District of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. It consists of three main islands--Saipan, Tinian, and Rota

Saturday in Times Square: Gaza

2009-01-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

The 7 train stopped at Fifth Avenue, on Jan. 3, and the transfer tunnel to the train to Times Square was closed, about 1:30, with yellow ribbon and four police persons. The exit was crowded, but in fact, most travelers this Saturday were shoppers headed towards Fifth Avenue, the after New Year's sales still going on. At the Northeast corner of 42d & 7th, a yellow school bus was unloading preteen and teen students under the guidance of a young adult in a white shirt and a beard. The temperature was about 37F and the students and I were wrapped in layers of winter clothing. The kids were silent and murmuring. They carried signs like "Israel hands off Gaza" and Palestinian flags. The young adult directed them West across then South across, down two blocks, then East across to the end of the line. The demonstration was on the sidewalk behind metal police barriers. The packed crowd extended along Broadway from Times Square South two blocks. TV said they had bussed in 12,000.

I turned at 42d & 7th North where I saw the police horses standing. In the middle of the street at the dividing island a Police Command Center trailer was parked. I went West across at 43d then South opposite the permanent police box on the island, with its great signage, NYPD and "Welcome to Times Square." Across 42d, opposite the head of the crowd on the other side, there was a competing Israeli demonstration. It was dispirited, I think the crowd was mainly looking at the opposite side, which was tightly packed, liberally decorated with flags and well-designed vertical posters so that many were close together. The word "genocide" was common, the signage was on different colored poster paper and often printed; very impressive, costly. There were a few Israeli organizers in yellow winter nylon jackets with the Star of David and an organization name, but greatly numbered by "NYPD Community Affairs" light blue winter jackets. I took a video of one and another shooed me on. The first was too fat to be a regular police person and the second too short. They must have been auxiliary volunteers.

The crowd was harangued and chants led from a platform with speakers, "Long Live Palestine" was well received.

Normally, you get competing local TV vans, with bright signage and tall retractable antennae. But there was only one without a dish around the corner. Normally, the cameras routinely use a spotlight and carry colorful logos. Not here, no light, no logos except on the mikes of the interviewing reporters. The reporters I saw wore sport/tweed jackets (see temperature) whereas usually, they wear distinctively/competitively colored windbreakers with logos.

I went South and East across, say, 40th, below the crowd, over a block and North towards 42d. On a divider in the middle of the street there was a small African costumed group carrying an African nationalist flag and signs reading the standard "Israel hands off Gaza." But handmade and forlorn.

As I walked back towards the subway, the shopping public soon was louder than the crowd chants fading behind me. Big City.

Vicki Iseman filed a $27 million defamation suit

2008-12-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

Vicki L. Iseman filed a $27 million defamation suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond on December 30, 2008 against the New York Times. It also names as defendants the Times' executive editor, its Washington bureau chief and four reporters.

Security for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari

2008-09-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Zardari is here for United Nations General assembly.

"Gorgeous," this is how Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari described Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a former Miss Wasilla runner up in Alaska beauty pageant.

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Killing in East Village - Law & Order

2008-08-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Calvin Gibson, owner of Deja Vu shop shot with Tec-9 across from his Apartment on E. 7th Street and Avenue D after taking daughter to school in NYC's East Village. Sophie's Bar Youtube

father of Rielle in scam to kill horses

2008-08-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

James Druck, the father of Rielle Hunter, John Edwards' mistress, was an Ocala, Fla., lawyer implicated in a scam to kill horses for insurance money.

The first horse killed belonged to Rielle, who was then a teenager known as Lisa Jo Druck.

Rielle and John

Lisa Jo Druck / Rielle Hunter

2008-08-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

In 1991, she married Alexander M. Hunter III, the son of Alex Hunter, the Boulder, Colo., district attorney who prosecuted the Jon Benet Ramsey murder.

Denzel Washington vehicle Ricochet, features a young Lisa Hunter, a.k.a. Lisa Druck, a.k.a. Rielle Hunter.
See also Overboard and Chicago Poems

1. Lisa Druck
2. Rielle Hunter
3. Rielle Jaya James Hunter
4. Alison Poole (from "Story of My Life" by Jay McInerney)
5. Lisa Jo Hunter

In his novel "American Psycho", Bret Easton Ellis borrowed a character from Jay McInerney's book "Story of My Life" (Alison Poole). In a recent interview he said that the inclusion of Alison Poole was because he was upset at McInerney over something (he couldn't recall) and his revenge was to have her attacked by Patrick Bateman. She then appeared in his novel "Glamorama."

Bret Easton Ellis is close friends with fellow novelist Jay McInerney.

Rielle & John in NewYork City

Jesse Jackson apologizes to WHAT campaign?

2008-07-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

listen carefully...

Columbia Noose Professor Fired

2008-06-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Spitzer at Grand Central Station

2008-03-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

Gov. Spitzer at Press Conference in Grand Central Station

Bhutto: when a charismatic leader dies

2007-12-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

In a country like Pakistan or India, when a charismatic leader dies, people are not sure that the traditions he symbolized will continue—there’s a lot of illiteracy and there isn’t the same access to information. So they tend to transfer allegiance from a male leader to a female descendant, in the hope that his policies will be continued. But in Westernized societies, it’s a little different, because people have greater education and greater access to information—they don’t have the same need to be sure of the message of the leader. here

Jesse Jackson on Wall Street

2007-12-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

co-sponsored by NAACP, National Urban League and PUSH to support houseowner refinancing.

"Not so much telling ... as...retelling old folk tales,”

2007-10-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

Teachers College Demonstration
Professor Constantine has a right to feel violated and disgusted, but rather than a lonely voice in danger of being silenced, there’s almost nothing at American universities more welcomed than a professor who specializes in the study of racism. PETER APPLEBOME nyt
Columbia University, Teacher's College, Noose Incident video

Buddhist monks demonstrate at UN - Spooks take note

2007-09-28T05:08:00.001-07:00

Free Burma demonstration, September 27, 2007

“The big missing piece of the puzzle is what is going on in the minds of the senior leadership,” said Thant Myint-U, a former United Nations official, “Nothing that they have said in the last 20 years would suggest that they will back down.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2007-09-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 24th, 2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke and participated in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum.
This was the demonstration

Barney Rubin, a New York University professor who attended the dinner hosted by Ahmadinejad, said he felt that, despite the unprecedented access to the Iranian president this year, most people will continue to see what they want to see: either a man from a misunderstood country who can be reasoned with, or an evil dictator who must be confronted