This situation is getting ridiculous. Why is this not considered economic treason? Hang 'em high!

Ah, I'm too disgusted to write a coherent comment.

The media is responsible for spreading the great lies of government. Too many actually believe in Reagonism, cut taxes, spend like crazy, war is salvation. Sure, the politicians are corrupt patsies for corporate interests, but without television exposure, they would be lying into the wind. There is much talk of boycotts as a solution to a myriad of problems. Start with the transmitters of the lies. If the truth was given equal airtime, many would come to understand the lies they have been fed. Think Monkey Wrench.

Squashing the lie highway should be the first step. Nothing will change through the system, it's rotten to core, unsalvageable. You can talk all day everyday about this travesty or that travesty. Take the first step.

Remember when California was real rich.

If it were a country, it would be the sixth richest country in the world.

California does not need the US...the US needs California.

Feinstein and her Texas fiendishfriends along with Svarttzanegger and whoever he works for??? need to leave the Golden State on the first one way trip to Mars Mall Societies - to rule There!

Leave Caifornia and her last ancient redwoods and pines to the people who will love her and care for her. Stop killing the sea lions! Put a halt on salmon production. A subsidy to salmon farmers worthy of some of those taxpayer billions, natch, trillions we spend so freely of the American taxpayer dollars around the World. They have played people for fools for a very long time. Imprisoning poor people; priced out of life, is a big business here in the Golden State. Remember when the Governator declared he wouldn't take his [paycheck from the financially strapped California?? Very generous of him to give back the $100k or so stipend. He didn't mention that he proceeded to accept his paychecks from the prison workers union.

Remember, our California State Golden Bear went extinct, due to hunters, back in the early part of the 20th century.

Private prison company finds gold in California
By John Howard | 01/28/10 12:00 AM PST

(Poster's Note: this was painfully edited, extracted out from no less than six flashing ads that rendered the original article, unreadable! This article about the power of the prison union and the connection to the Gov. in California is strictly reading for those who are interested. It is split in three parts due to the 1000 word limit here at CD. Editors, thank you for allowing me to share this imprtant article here with readers)

In the intensifying debate over budget-driven releases of state prison inmates, the state’s cash problems are well known. But at least one private correctional company is reaping major rewards.

In three years, a private-prison construction and management company, the Corrections Corporation of America, has seen the value of its contracts with the state soar from nearly $23 million in 2006 to about $700 million three months ago – all without competitive bidding. Even in a state accustomed to high-dollar contracts, the 31-fold increase over three years is dramatic.

During the same period, the company’s campaign donations rose exponentially, from $36,750 in 2006, of which $25,000 went to the state Republican Party, to $233,500 in 2007-08 and nearly $139,000 in 2009. The donations have gone to Democrats, Republicans and ballot measures. The company’s largest single contribution, $100,000, went to an unsuccessful budget-reform package pushed last year by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The lack of competitive bidding has raised concerns about in the Democrat-controlled Legislature about prison-system procurement.

But the state and the company note CCA’s ability to respond quickly and efficiently to California’s prison overcrowding emergency. “We couldn’t be happier with their (CCA’s) responsiveness and performance,” said Scott Kernan, the undersecretary for operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Overcrowding is just one critical problem facing the state's prisons. The prisons' health-care system is under federal supervision, and the correctional system's financial problems -- always severe -- are especially difficult in a state budget facing a $20 billion shortage through next year.

CCA, a national leader in private correctional work handling more than 80,000 state, federal and local inmates across the country, also has spent heavily on lobbying in California, more than $840,000 over the past decade, according to state financial disclosure records.

Typically, it spends between $30,000 and $45,000 per quarter on lobbying. The level of spending is not unique: Major companies doing business with the state often contribute to candidates and hire lobbyists.

Nashville-based CCA won its first, $22.9 million contract in October 2006 immediately following Gov. Schwarzenegger’s emergency proclamation to send prisoners outside the state to relieve overcrowding. Its most recently updated contract is worth a total of about $700 million over several years, or about $197 million annually, according to an Assembly analysis. Another corrections company also won an early out-of-state transfer contract, but later pulled out.

The emergency proclamation triggered the out-of-state transfers and, in effect, allowed an end-run around formal bidding procedures which, Kernan said, “would have pushed us back months, seven to nine months.” Later, legislation solidified the process.

“We have been able to deliver immediate relief to overcrowding,” said CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant. “We have done it very cost effectively and we have done it by focusing on delivering the best quality corrections operations.”

Kernan and CCA agree that the company’s ability to speedily accommodate California’s inmates in high-security settings is a key to CCA-state relationship. One example: CCA built the 3,060-bed La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., in nine months and had it fully operational in 12, far less than the three-year window for a government-built prison.

The rise in the dollar value of the contract is mirrored by the increase in the numbers of California’s out-of-state prison inmates – most of whom are handled by CCA.

continued..

Part 2 of Prion Co. Strikes Gold in Californ-i-a

In the first departure of inmates in January 2007, about 80 prisoners were transferred. Now, more than 8,000 are housed out of state, and CCA has just been contracted to handle some 2,500 more – for a total of 10,468. New plans call for an additional 5,000 inmates to be sent out of state. It has not yet been decided where those prisoners will be located, and within the private correctional industry there is a scramble for the new state business.

Costs vary, but CCA receives about $63 per day per inmate, or about $23,000 annually. Under the contract, the state will pay the CCA about $200 million annually.

State officials speak highly of CCA, and note that CCA likely would have received its contracts, competitively bid or not. In a difficult industry, the company has performed, they said.

But not everyone is so complimentary.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents some 28,000 prison officers, has been critical of the inmate transfers. CCPOA’s web site is peppered with stories about lack of security at CCA and comments about CCA-run institutions. The chairman of the Assembly Oversight Committee, Assembly Hector De La Torre, is critical of the magnitude of the contract and the succession of high-dollar amendments. He opposes expansion of the private-prison contracting without competitive bidding.

CCA is one of three companies that currently contract or have contracted in the past to provide private prisons.

The others are GEO Group and Cornell Corrections. Cornell operates about six dozen facilities in 15 states and Washington, D.C., with a national total service capacity of more than 18,000 beds. Both groups have operated several facilities in California.

The in-state, dormitory-style community facilities handle a lower security level inmate than CCA’s out-of-state prisons.

Last fall, the state ordered the closure of three of the private community correctional facilities – including two of Cornell’s institutions in Baker and Bakersfield, and a GEO facility in McFarland. The state said the closures would save some $15.2 million, and were prompted by a declining number of low-security inmates.
CCA operates five out-of-state facilities for the state of California.

Three are in Arizona – the Florence Correctional Center, La Palma Correctional Center and Red Rock Correctional Center. The other two are the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi and the North Fork Correctional Facility.

The prisons hold a total of about 8,060 inmates, with an expected increase to 10,468 inmates under CCA’s latest contract, according to the Out-of-State Correctional Facility, a section of the state prisons’ administrative system, which supervises California inmates who have been shipped to out-of-state

The lack of competitive bidding has raised concerns about in the Democrat-controlled Legislature about prison-system procurement.

But the state and the company note CCA’s ability to respond quickly and efficiently to California’s prison overcrowding emergency. “We couldn’t be happier with their (CCA’s) responsiveness and performance,” said Scott Kernan, the undersecretary for operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Overcrowding is just one critical problem facing the state's prisons. The prisons' health-care system is under federal supervision, and the correctional system's financial problems -- always correctional system's financial problems -- always severe -- are especially difficult in a state budget facing a $20 billion shortage through next year.

CCA, a national leader in private correctional work handling more than 80,000 state, federal and local inmates across the country, also has spent heavily on lobbying in California, more than $840,000 over the past decade, according to state financial disclosure records.

Typically, it spends between $30,000 and $45,000 per quarter on lobbying. The level of spending is not unique: Major companies doing business with the state often contribute to candidates and hire lobbyists.

continued..

Final, Part 3: Prison Co. Strikes Gold in CA

Nashville-based CCA won its first, $22.9 million contract in October 2006 immediately following Gov. Schwarzenegger’s emergency proclamation to send prisoners outside the state to relieve overcrowding. Its most recently updated contract is worth a total of about $700 million over several years, or about $197 million annually, according to an Assembly analysis. Another corrections company also won an early out-of-state transfer contract, but later pulled out.

The emergency proclamation triggered the out-of-state transfers and, in effect, allowed an end-run around formal bidding procedures which, Kernan said, “would have pushed us back months, seven to nine months.” Later, legislation solidified the process.

“We have been able to deliver immediate relief to overcrowding,” said CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant. “We have done it very cost effectively and we have done it by focusing on delivering the best quality corrections operations.”

Kernan and CCA agree that the company’s ability to speedily accommodate California’s inmates in high-security settings is a key to CCA-state relationship. One example: CCA built the 3,060-bed La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., in nine months and had it fully operational in 12, far less than the three-year window for a government-built prison.

The rise in the dollar value of the contract is mirrored by the increase in the numbers of California’s out-of-state prison inmates – most of whom are handled by CCA.

In the first departure of inmates in January 2007, about 80 prisoners were transferred. Now, more than 8,000 are housed out of state, and CCA has just been contracted to handle some 2,500 more – for a total of 10,468. New plans call for an additional 5,000 inmates to be sent out of state. It has not yet been decided

where those prisoners will be located, and within the private correctional industry there is a scramble for the new state business.

Costs vary, but CCA receives about $63 per day per inmate, or about $23,000 annually. Under the contract, the state will pay the CCA about $200 million annually.

State officials speak highly of CCA, and note that CCA likely would have received its contracts, competitively bid or not. In a difficult industry, the company has performed, they said.

But not everyone is so complimentary.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents some 28,000 prison officers, has been critical of the inmate transfers. CCPOA’s web site is peppered with stories about lack of security at CCA and comments about CCA-run institutions. The chairman of the Assembly Oversight Committee, Assembly Hector De La Torre, is critical of the magnitude of the contract and the succession of high-dollar amendments. He opposes expansion of the private-prison contracting without competitive bidding.
CCA is one of three companies that currently contract or have contracted in the past to provide private prisons.

The others are GEO Group and Cornell Corrections. Cornell operates about six dozen facilities in 15 states and Washington, D.C., with a national total service capacity of more than 18,000 beds. Both groups have operated several facilities in California.

The in-state, dormitory-style community facilities handle a lower security level inmate than CCA’s out-of-state prisons.

Last fall, the state ordered the closure of three of the private community correctional facilities – including two of Cornell’s institutions in Baker and Bakersfield, and a GEO facility in McFarland. The state said the closures would save some $15.2 million, and were prompted by a declining number of low-security inmates.
CCA operates five out-of-state facilities for the state of California.

Three are in Arizona – the Florence Correctional Center, La Palma Correctional Center and Red Rock Correctional Center. The other two are the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi and the North Fork Correctional Facility.

The prisons hold a total of about 8,060 inmates, with an expected increase to 10,468 inmates under CCA’s latest contract, according to the Out-of-State Correctional Facility, a section of the state prisons’ administrative system, which supervises California inmates who have been shipped to out-of-state

For profit private prisons are nothing but a return to slavery. I think that anyone lost in this new Gulag has not only a right but a responsibility to rebel. This pigocracy is always oinking about freedom, let's give it to them!

Derivatives of all types, including trading in options on stocks (puts and calls), which are fairly easy to understand should all be illegal. They are nothing but bets. We are told they are "derived" from an "underlying interest". Sure. The value of a stock option depends on the movement of stock prices. But they are in no way tied to the stocks than a bettor at the track is tied to the horse. It is all fraudulent, but the masters of the universe make very convincing, though arcane and barely understandable arguments for their continued existence.

The founders realised to late that one flaw of the constitution was to have neglected a more specific handling of money. The Fed is corrupt and so are all the banks. It appears that we're screwded. The politicians including both sides are heavily sponsored by financials and the stock market.
Why do we allow private banks to have any say in our money. It's time to think outside the box...isn't it?
It's also ironic that the party of Lincoln would now make such overt attempts to destroy the Union. Lincoln actually created money out of nothing during the Civil War. The alternative was loans that would've enslaved the US in debt. Now how smart was Lincoln? Can we learn from History and do what works? An American greeen back...Not Federal Reserve Notes.
Any better ideas? We need to reposses the control of our money. We are being enslaved.
Do we live in a wonderland of flim flams where up is down and down is up?

Not being a wise guy but are you really asking a question? Is it not obvious?

In the 1980's, the banks got over-extended in lending money to the less developed countries (LDC debt). The panic and bailouts that followed saved them. Then in the 1990's the same thing happened with commercial real estate. Smart lenders realized there was good money to be made in "accidentally" overextending yourself. In the early 00's, it was the dot-com bubble. then they figured out how to get the biggest payday of all - the entire US treasury. As long as the banks got out first and bet on both the upside and the downside, the masters of the universe would win. And those that weren't quite fast enough could get bailed out by their handlers if they played nice - not like WAMU. Now, it's a matter of orchestrating the bubble and the burst. They have it down to a science. None of it is accidental.

Who are they working for? Themselves. We are bank-fee fodder.

I'd recommend looking at the principle of Disaster Capitalism explained in Naomi Klein's book and a John Cusack interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srG9RvNRZug
(see also http://www.thedailybanter.com/tdb/disaster-capitalism/)
It makes perfect sense that the banks would take advantage of the influence they wield with the White House. The costs are born by the American people. We now know the TARP was just the tip of an iceberg, a treasure of Federal Reserve liquity programs meant to solidify balance sheets (or was it really meant to boost profits?)
As the Disaster Capitalism theory dictates, inadequate responses (like the to Katrina) open the doors for private contractors, who clean up on government's thoroughly designed incompetence. We can only guess at the sweetheart deals being announced behind the Federal Reserve's secrecy, likely meant to reward Wall Street cronies

Now Part II of this saga is a story I blogged on after seeing thinkbigactsmall.com utterly disassemble the OneWest takeover of now defunct IndyMac and the FDIC's response to that bank closure in California. Basically, the mortgages were sold under the guarantee that the FDIC would get OneWest 100% of their value. If not, OneWest could get up recompensed for $1.5 billion in losses. Should enough of its properties go into foreclosure--a likely event considering the inadequacies of the Obama mortgage renegotiation effort--the purchasers of IndyMac's mortgages win big.
The mortgage renegotiation program was recently relaunched but we don't know if it'll really work (the last one is crediting with forestalling only 150,000 mortgages or so, a tiny slice of the eligible pie.
Along the lines of a disaster capitalism exploitation, the failing mortgage renegotiation programs could be part of a giant subsidy for the banks when foreclosures come. Then vultures companies like OneWest can move in and dump mortgages to get FDIC subsidies.

See my post and the links there for more on this story outside the MSM:
http://jbpeebles.blogspot.com/2010/02/goldman-execs-stand-to-profit-in-fdic.html

Like many sectors in our economy today the banking sector is one that needs many changes. Quickly the solution lies in a debt free money supply. I would like to suggest the changes advocated by these organizations:

http://www.prosperityuk.com/

and

http://monetary.org/

Basically our money supply should be created and spent into circulation rather than have private banks create the money and loan it into circulation. I think if we get the financial sector right many other problems will be solved.

I would also like to make a second proposal, one that might offer a way to solve other problems our world faces. This would be to establish a Participatory Democracy. I find the idea that I, as a citizen, will have a legal means to effect the laws and policies of my government very intriguing. A couple resources for a fuller explanation can be found here:

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/DeepDem.pdf

and here:

http://www.thataway.org/

To sum up I believe that the solution to many of our problems has two components to it. Participatory Democracy and Monetary Reform. To put it another way Democratic Politics and Democratic Money. Taken together these two components will give us the ways and means to make a better world.