Dodd says White House meeting was a disaster
By Greg Robb
Last update: 6:13 p.m. EDT Sept. 25, 2008
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Chris Dodd, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Thursday that bipartisan meeting with President Bush at the White House on the mortgage rescue plan was nothing short of a disaster. In an interview on the CNN cable news network, Dodd described a meeting in which Democrats were blindsided by a new core mortgage proposal from House Republicans, with the tacit backing of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. "I am not going to sign on to something I just saw this afternoon," he said. Dodd said Republicans and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had to decide what they wanted to support. The whole meeting "looked like a rescue plan for John McCain," Dodd said. He said he was simply going to pretend that the meeting had never happened. End of Story

Labels: politics

Pelosi orders wide Wall Street probe
By: Mike Allen
September 16, 2008 08:33 PM EST

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered a broad, swift investigation of Wall Street and will demand testimony from Bush administration officials and captains of finance, congressional officials said.

House Democrats plan to aggressively look at the administration’s role in the meltdown over the weekend and to explore further regulation and government structures that would be taken up under the new president.

Republican aides accused Democrats of trying to shift blame with a series of “show trials,” but acknowledged that key officials will wind up cooperating.

The hearings will take place over the next few weeks, the officials said. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who regularly appears on Capitol Hill, will be called to testify as part of the investigation.

As the main event, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, wrote to Richard Fuld, chief executive of the imploded Lehman Brothers, to ask him to appear on Capitol Hill on Sept. 25.

“The hearing will examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to yesterday's bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers,” Waxman wrote. “The committee will also explore the impacts of the Lehman bankruptcy on financial markets and the United States economy.”
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Separately, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, plans a forward-looking hearing with economists on Wednesday to “begin a conversation about where we go with the capital markets,” a House aide said.

Frank plans “oversight of what happened this weekend with the Treasury and Federal Reserve,” and will look at “how bad the capital markets are, and what may be needed.”

“The markets are not self-correcting,” the aide said. “If they continue to not self-correct over the next several months, is there a federal response? There might be more federal intervention that’s needed. We’ll proceed cautiously, and that would be next year."

Both chairmen are acting at the direction of Pelosi, who told them to figure out what happened and demonstrate that they are on top of the situation, the officials said.

Pelosi said Tuesday on MSNBC that she expects a “restructuring” of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “in the next Congress with a new president.”

“Are they quasi-governmental organizations, are they quasi-nongovernmental organizations? Should they just be share hold private institutions?” she said. “We have to examine that. And I've asked the chairmen — Chairman Frank and the Chairman Waxman, the chairman of our Oversight and Reform Committee, to take a look at both of those.”



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Dozens of brawls reported at Raiders game
By Angela Hill
Oakland Tribune
Article Launched: 09/09/2008 04:40:52 PM PDT
OAKLAND — The ugliness of Monday night's Oakland Raiders loss to the Denver Broncos at McAfee Coliseum was not limited to the score, as several nasty brawls were reported in the stands and outside the stadium, police said.

One of the most dramatic incidents took place at Gate C before the game had started, police said. Three Oakland police officers were attempting to detain a man who was drunk when another man, who was later discovered to be on parole, walked up and "sucker punched" one of the officers in the face, police said. The man then punched a police sergeant, and others in the crowd began fighting. When it was all over, the sergeant and one of the officers had received significant cuts and bruises on their faces and the third officer suffered a broken finger. They were all treated on the scene.

Three men were taken into custody in that incident.
"Our goal is to make this a family type event," said Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren. "But there are some people who want to come just to cause trouble. That kind of behavior will not be tolerated and those individuals will be dealt with."

Police said fans were particularly rowdy in sections 224 and 324, and officers used stun guns on several people to break up fights during the game. Oakland police reported at least 30 arrests for drunkenness, fighting and assault and about as many ejections for more minor offenses, such as sitting in the wrong seat. The Alameda County

Sheriff's Department also made 15 arrests for such things as drunkenness, fighting and some drug charges, and ejected 55 people from the stands.

Oakland police and Alameda County Sheriff's deputies regularly provide back-up security at Raiders games.
One officer, who has worked at numerous Raiders games, said the incidents were not as bad as they could have been considering the game was a Monday Night Football contest against a major rival and the fans were likely upset at the team's performance.

Three More Borat Complaints Tossed

Natalie FinnTue Sep 9, 4:22 PM ET

Borat continues to have the last laugh.

A New York judge has thrown out several lawsuits brought by some of the unsuspecting citizens who interacted with Sacha Baron Cohen's titular buffoon in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The Baltimore-based driver's education teacher who gets behind the wheel with Borat and two etiquette coaches (including the one who had to explain that human feces belong in the toilet, not at the dinner table) each sued Cohen and 20th Century Fox for allegedly engaging in fraudulent tactics to get them to appear on film.

But U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska noted in her Sept. 3 ruling that all three plaintiffs consented to participating in a "documentary-style movie" by accepting money for their efforts and signing releases that freed the filmmakers from liability.

These complaints were part of the wave of litigation that washed over Fox in the months after Borat made benefit glorious stardom of Cohen, whose low-budget comedy grossed more than $260 million worldwide. He's currently filming Bruno, based on another of the characters in his mental lockbox, a flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter.

But although a number of ticked-off civilians were angling for a cut of that box office loot, maintaining that they were all suckered into the unflattering portrayals they offered up on camera, the courts have been residing largely in the defendants' camp so far.

Presky also rejected in April a defamation suit brought by the businessman whom Borat tries to hug on the streets of New York, determining that the scene was less reputation-killer and more ironic and newsworthy commentary on social mores.

And in February 2007, a Los Angeles judge granted 20th Century Fox's motion to dismiss a fraud lawsuit brought by two of the boorish-acting fraternity brothers who Borat hitched a ride with in the 2006 film—they claimed that they were plied with booze before signing their release forms—and refused to order the studio to excise their scene from future screenings or DVD editions.

Madonna dedicates "Like a Virgin" to pope in Rome


ROME (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna, once accused by the Vatican of staging one of the most satanic shows in history, dedicated her hit "Like a Virgin" to the pope at a sold-out concert in Rome over the weekend.

"I dedicate this song to the pope, because I'm a child of God. All of you are also children of God," Madonna, 50, told the 60,000 fans that flocked to the Italian stop of her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour on Saturday.

Italian newspapers gushed over the singer's electric performance and called the dedication a surprising provocation.

"At the Roman leg of her tour, Madonna didn't miss the opportunity for a provocation that will certainly be discussed," Italy's top newspaper Corriere della Sera said in a front-page report.

Madonna, who comes from a devout Italian Catholic family, has raised the ire of the Catholic Church in the past with sexually charged antics designed to shock.

In 2006, she staged a mock-crucifixion at a concert in Rome to the backdrop of accusations from the Vatican of blasphemy.

The Vatican also condemned her controversial 1989 video for the song "Like a Prayer" that featured burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus.

The Vatican later panned a show where she decked the stage out with religious imagery as one of the most "satanic shows in the history of humanity."

(Writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Ralph Boulton)