Mike Barnicle, Bianna Golodryga, Eugene Robinson, Steve Rattner, Kier Simmons, Tom Costello, John Cox, Greg Feith, Katie Couric, Ken Burns, Mark Halperin, Robert Grenier, Michael Goldfarb, Barak Goodman, Deborah Hersman, Peter Alexander, Peter Orszag, Bill McDermott are all on with Mika today (Joe is still off this week)
Wow. So many questions about the airbus crash.(Steve Rattner is/was also a pilot?). Anyway, Obviously there is no sign of life but is there any sign of bodies? A cockpit voice recorder badly damaged when a German jetliner slammed into an Alpine mountainside and a crucial two-minute span when the pilot lost contact offer vital clues into the crashes cause, officials said Wednesday.
Plane crash kills 150 people in French Alps; black box found Associated Press
France says considering all possible causes for plane crash, attack not main theory Reuters
The Latest: Spain to observe silence for Germanwings victims Associated Press
Rescuers search for air crash bodies in French Alps AFP. Search teams probe wreckage of jet in French Alps. All 150 people on board were killed in Tuesday's crash of the Germanwings Airbus 320 in the southern French Alps.
Helicopters surveying the scattered debris lifted off at daybreak, hours ahead of the expected arrival of bereaved families and the French, German and Spanish leaders. The flight from Spain to Germany went into an unexplained eight-minute dive before crashing. Crews were making their way slowly to the remote crash site through fresh snow and rain, threading their way to the craggy ravine. On Tuesday, the cockpit voice recorder was retrieved from the site, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
"The black box is damaged and must be reconstituted in the coming hours in order to be useable," Cazeneuve told RTL radio. Key to the investigation is what happened during the minutes 10:30 and 10:31 a.m., said Segolene Royal, a top government minister whose portfolio includes transport. From then, controllers were unable to make contact with the plane.
People comfort each other as they arrive at the Barcelona airport in Spain, Tuesday, March 24, 2015. … The voice recorder takes audio feeds from four microphones within the cockpit and records all the conversations between the pilots, air traffic controllers as well as any noises heard in the cockpit. The flight data recorder, which Cazeneuve said had not been retrieved yet, captures 25 hours' worth of information on the position and condition of almost every major part in a plane.
Royal and Cazeneuve both emphasized that terrorism is considered unlikely. Investigators retrieving data from the recorder will focus first "on the human voices, the conversations" followed by the cockpit sounds, Transport Secretary Alain Vidalies told Europe 1 radio. He said the government planned to release information gleaned from the black box as soon as it can be verified.
Victims included two babies, two opera singers, an Australian mother and her adult son vacationing together, and 16 German high school students and their teachers returning from an exchange trip to Spain. In Seyne-les-Alpes, locals had offered to host bereaved families because of a shortage of rooms to rent, said the town's mayor, Francis Hermitte.
Raw: People Gather at German Airport After Crash. People Gather at German Airport After Crash. The plane, operated by Germanwings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, was less than an hour from landing in Dusseldorf on a flight from Barcelona when it unexpectedly went into a rapid eight-minute descent. The pilots sent out no distress call and had lost radio contact with their control center, France's aviation authority said.
Germanwings said 144 passengers and six crew members were on board. An Air France flight from Paris to Saigon crashed just a few kilometers (miles) from the same spot in 1953, killing all 42 people on board.
Damaged black box, 2 minutes key clues in Alpine jet crash which is key to listen to but I had no clue there were so many scenarios out there about how and why it crashed.
The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.
Soon after the U.S. entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks. Photo: Getty
The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.
“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.
It sounds like we are just delaying the inevitble and as (Mike) Barnicle asked that Robert Grenier guy is that is this a classic case where we have to own this situation today. I think its a bit of both that we must "kick the can down the road" so to speak and we must own what we did is the end result we see today. I guess at least we have exit plan this time.
And, great. More funny hypocrisy's surrounding comments made by Ted Cruz. Not is he for Obamacare a day after he says he is repealing it, he took a swipe at banks, including the one his wife works at. I see now. The Cruz family, including himself are going on or using Obamacare. he is not for it platform wise. He is just using it for health care. That is still funny to me. Bloomberg reports that One day after announcing himself as presidential candidate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz fired a few shots across the bow of Wall Street, and the firm that employs his wife as managing director.
In an interview with Bloomberg's With All Due Respect, Cruz was asked by host Mark Halperin whether, on balance, Goldman Sachs was a positive or a negative force on society. "Like any institution, there's some of both," Cruz responded, adding, "Goldman is one of the biggest banks on Wall Street, and my criticism with Washington is they engage in crony capitalism. They give favors to Wall Street and big business and that's why I've been an outspoken opponent of crony capitalism, taking on leaders in both parties. I think big business, if they're building a better mousetrap, great, but it shouldn't be government favoring, and let me give you an example: Dodd-Frank. Sold to the American people as stopping 'too-big-to-fail.' What happened? The big banks have gotten bigger. Goldman has gotten bigger..."
“I think they're entitled to practice their business, but without subsidies or special benefits.” Halperin pressed Cruz as to what he saw as the negative aspects of the investment giant were. "Because, like many other players on Wall Street and big business, they seek out and get special favors from government," Cruz responded. "I think they're entitled to practice their business, but without subsidies or special benefits."
Goldman Sachs was the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history before converting to a bank in 2008 and taking $10 billion in taxpayer money from the Treasury, which was run at the time by former CEO Henry Paulson. The New York-based firm repaid the funds with interest less than a year later. The bank also received guarantees on about $30 billion of debt and the ability to borrow cheaply from the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s bailout of American International Group Inc., and its decision to pay the insurer’s counter parties in full, funneled more than $12 billion to Goldman Sachs.
Over the years, the firm has drawn the nickname “Government Sachs” because of the number of senior executives who moved into public posts. Robert Rubin, another former Goldman Sachs chief, was Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley are among company alumni who went on to set monetary policy.
During Tuesday's interview, Halperin pointed out that during Cruz's campaign rollout at Liberty University on Monday, he failed to mention the fact that his wife, Heidi, worked for Goldman Sachs. "I am unabashedly proud about everything about Heidi," Cruz responded. "And I did mention the fact that she had an incredibly successful business career." A managing director at Goldman, Heidi Cruz will be taking unpaid leave as she campaigns for her husband. As a result, the Cruz family will be switching over from Goldman's generous medical plan to, you guessed it, Obamacare.
Whats up with regard to Terry Mcullough? I like that guy. Josh Gerstien at POLITICO cites favoritism for Terry McAuliffe and brother of Hillary Clinton. It faults the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for creating “an appearance of favoritism." A Department of Homeland Security watchdog report issued Tuesday blasted the agency’s No. 2 official for repeatedly intervening on behalf of well-connected participants in an investor-visa program, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-Va.) and Tony Rodham, a brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The inspector general report faults Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for creating “an appearance of favoritism and special access” as a result of highly unusual steps he took while serving as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversaw the investment-based program known as EB-5.
“Mayorkas communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues, outside of the normal adjudicatory process and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders,” Inspector General John Roth wrote. “In … three instances, but for Mr. Mayorkas’s intervention, the matter would have been decided differently.” In a 32-page written statement made public along with the 65-page report, Mayorkas adamantly denied wrongdoing. “I respectfully submit that a complete and total repudiation of the allegations against me is the only correct and just conclusion,” he told investigators in January.
However, a press statement Mayorkas released Tuesday was slightly more conciliatory. “While I disagree with the Inspector General’s report, I will certainly learn from it and from this process,” he said. “As the leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, I had the responsibility to ensure that cases, including the three that are the focus of the report, were decided as the law required and that agency errors were corrected.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that he has “full confidence” in Mayorkas, but that Mayorkas and others need to be cautious about intervening in specific cases.
“Each of us in leadership must be mindful that, when we become involved in individual matters that happen to reach our desk, we risk the appearance of preferential treatment and the suspicion of our subordinates. As public servants, we must maintain the trust and confidence of all those around us, and be above reproach,” Johnson said in a statement. “I have discussed this with Deputy Secretary Mayorkas and I am confident he understands this.”
Mayorkas’s involvement in a McAuliffe-backed effort to win funds for a fledgling electric car company called GreenTech Automotive became an issue of contention when McAuliffe mounted a successful bid for the Virginia governorship in 2013. The inspector general report cites that as one case in which USCIS employees believed political influence was at work.
“Mayorkas intervened in an administrative appeal related to the denial of a regional center’s application to receive EB-5 funding to manufacture electric cars through investments in a company in which Terry McAuliffe was the board chairman,” the IG report said. “The intervention was unprecedented and, because of the political prominence of the individuals involved, was well as USCIS’s traditional deference to its administrative appeals process, staff perceived it as politically motivated.”
The report also draws attention to the role played by Rodham, who ran an EB-5 visa investment known as Gulf Coast Funds Management, which directed funds to GreenTech. Rodham’s sister was secretary of state during much of the time that Gulf Coast and GreenTech were pressing USCIS for approvals to accept investments that could lead to green cards for foreigners willing to front up more than $550,000 in principal and fees.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the Center for American Progress March 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. Clinton joined a panel in discussing challenges facing urban centers in the United States. Rodham wrote directly to Mayorkas in January 2013 about approval delays, the report said, and Mayorkas forwarded the email to other staffers “with a ‘high importance’ designation.”
The report explores possible discrepancies in accounts of a February 2011 meeting involving Mayorkas and McAuliffe. Mayorkas told investigators he was in a “listen-only mode” at the meeting, but four months after the meeting McAuliffe emailed another DHS official complaining: “We were promised by the Director that our application would receive an expedited review.”
The report said one employee at the meeting wrote in an email after a July 2011 meeting that Mayorkas “noted several times that these cases are affiliated with ‘people of influence’ and ‘people with money’ and he has several more of these on his radar.”
Mayorkas told investigators in an interview that he didn’t remember making such statements, that they sounded “absurd,” and that he was “impervious to pressure.” He argued more broadly that the EB-5 program, aimed at awarding green cards to foreign investors who invest $500,000 in a rural or impoverished area while creating at least 10 jobs, was badly managed and that those involved at the immigration service were making inconsistent decisions on applications. A spokesman for McAuliffe did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The report says investigators “were unsuccessful in [their] attempts to interview McAuliffe.” He dropped his investment and role in GreenTech in 2012 before launching his gubernatorial bid.
President Barack Obama, flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, right, makes a statement at the start of a Cabinet Meeting at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 3, 2011.
Email messages and phone messages to Rodham on Tuesday through the Virginia office of Gulf Coast were not immediately returned. The IG report also faulted Mayorkas’s involvement in EB-5 investment projects that drew the interest of two other prominent Democrats: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. The report says Reid and Mayorkas spoke about a Las Vegas casino-and-hotel development effort in January 2013. Mayorkas said he promised nothing beyond a “fresh look” at the issue. However, USCIS staffers say they were told that the director had agreed to provide weekly updates to Reid’s staff on the status of the petitions. Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said Reid was proud of his advocacy for the casino project, known as SLS.
“Senator Reid’s work helped get SLS built and created thousands of Nevada jobs. SLS Las Vegas has revitalized the North end of the Las Vegas Strip and with the coming addition of the Genting Resort the area will continue to grow. … Senator Reid considers it part of his basic responsibility as Nevada’s senator to ensure that projects that benefit Nevada get fair and timely consideration from the federal government,” Orthman said. “Senator Reid will always put Nevada first and fight for Nevada jobs.” The report claims Mayorkas spoke with Rendell in 2011 and 2012 as USCIS worked on applications related to efforts to obtain investor visas through financing of movies. Mayorkas said he initially spoke to Rendell at the request of the office of then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and that Rendell complained that USCIS’s mishandling of applications was “costing Pennsylvania the investment of funds and the creation of jobs.” Mayorkas said that after the first call he looked into the matter with his staff. He could not recall the second call with Rendell, the report said.
Rendell did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment on the report.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) issued a statement Tuesday calling the report “extremely concerning” and announcing that he will hold a hearing Thursday to explore the issue. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the findings raise concerns about Obama’s decision to name Mayorkas last year as the deputy secretary at DHS. “Digging into the report and reading about specific cases, you can see just how questionable Mr. Mayorkas’ ethics and judgment were. And, just as bad, is the blind eye that the Obama administration turned when elevating this individual to the number two slot at the Department of Homeland Security,” Grassley said. “The sheer number of whistleblowers who came forward is a darn good indication as to how bad things were at the agency.”
Breaking News out of Yeman that as Shiat rebels approached, the President of that country had to flee his home. Yemen's embattled president fled his palace in Aden for an undisclosed location Wednesday as Shiite rebels offered cash bounty for his capture and arrested his defense minister. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi left just hours after the rebels' own television station said they seized an air base where U.S. troops and Europeans advised the country in its fight against al-Qaida militants. That air base is only 60 kilometers (35 miles) away from Aden, the port city where Hadi had established a temporary capital.
Wow. So many questions about the airbus crash.(Steve Rattner is/was also a pilot?). Anyway, Obviously there is no sign of life but is there any sign of bodies? A cockpit voice recorder badly damaged when a German jetliner slammed into an Alpine mountainside and a crucial two-minute span when the pilot lost contact offer vital clues into the crashes cause, officials said Wednesday.
Plane crash kills 150 people in French Alps; black box found Associated Press
France says considering all possible causes for plane crash, attack not main theory Reuters
The Latest: Spain to observe silence for Germanwings victims Associated Press
Rescuers search for air crash bodies in French Alps AFP. Search teams probe wreckage of jet in French Alps. All 150 people on board were killed in Tuesday's crash of the Germanwings Airbus 320 in the southern French Alps.
Helicopters surveying the scattered debris lifted off at daybreak, hours ahead of the expected arrival of bereaved families and the French, German and Spanish leaders. The flight from Spain to Germany went into an unexplained eight-minute dive before crashing. Crews were making their way slowly to the remote crash site through fresh snow and rain, threading their way to the craggy ravine. On Tuesday, the cockpit voice recorder was retrieved from the site, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
"The black box is damaged and must be reconstituted in the coming hours in order to be useable," Cazeneuve told RTL radio. Key to the investigation is what happened during the minutes 10:30 and 10:31 a.m., said Segolene Royal, a top government minister whose portfolio includes transport. From then, controllers were unable to make contact with the plane.
People comfort each other as they arrive at the Barcelona airport in Spain, Tuesday, March 24, 2015. … The voice recorder takes audio feeds from four microphones within the cockpit and records all the conversations between the pilots, air traffic controllers as well as any noises heard in the cockpit. The flight data recorder, which Cazeneuve said had not been retrieved yet, captures 25 hours' worth of information on the position and condition of almost every major part in a plane.
Royal and Cazeneuve both emphasized that terrorism is considered unlikely. Investigators retrieving data from the recorder will focus first "on the human voices, the conversations" followed by the cockpit sounds, Transport Secretary Alain Vidalies told Europe 1 radio. He said the government planned to release information gleaned from the black box as soon as it can be verified.
Victims included two babies, two opera singers, an Australian mother and her adult son vacationing together, and 16 German high school students and their teachers returning from an exchange trip to Spain. In Seyne-les-Alpes, locals had offered to host bereaved families because of a shortage of rooms to rent, said the town's mayor, Francis Hermitte.
Raw: People Gather at German Airport After Crash. People Gather at German Airport After Crash. The plane, operated by Germanwings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, was less than an hour from landing in Dusseldorf on a flight from Barcelona when it unexpectedly went into a rapid eight-minute descent. The pilots sent out no distress call and had lost radio contact with their control center, France's aviation authority said.
Germanwings said 144 passengers and six crew members were on board. An Air France flight from Paris to Saigon crashed just a few kilometers (miles) from the same spot in 1953, killing all 42 people on board.
Damaged black box, 2 minutes key clues in Alpine jet crash which is key to listen to but I had no clue there were so many scenarios out there about how and why it crashed.
I agree with (Steve) Rattner is that there is no real initial sign of terrorism yet. You cannot rule anything out yet but it just seems like its unlikely. Maybe it was a pilot suicide which would really suck. Now, was it possible that the pilots were not aware is also iffy because they put in that distress signal at 6K feet. They were aware then at least or at least somewhat aware. The evidence is still coming in and the teams of investigators would now need to assess after they go over everything.
BTW, I did not know that the airbus that went down in the Hudson with Captain Sully saving everyone was the same type of a plane. I think the panel also mentioned another crash that happened with that same type of jet. So, i was off base yesterday when I said I had no idea of any other tragedy's with them. But less than .21 ratio for the amounts flight had crashed over the years but in 2016, there were indeed 6 of them. Again though, there were over 1 million flights. But when it happens, man oh man is it a story. The black box would tell us what went down but nit why it went down. Its a combination of the voice data recorder and the black box that tells us the outcomes. I would also call a 24 year old plane a medium aged plane. They have flow older ones alot over the years and I know they have re patched up older planes to fly it again. Like that one where the hole was blown through the United flight near Hawaii. They patched that one up to fly it again.
Mika brings up a great point that the terrain is awful. That plane was scattered everywhere on top of steep slopes. The debris field was alarming when i saw it in the afternoon yesterday. A lot of the plane will not be brought back to be pieced together like they do.
Anyway, more talk about the Israeli spying on those Iran meetings. And, oh yeah, I saw that headline that (Ted) Cruz is now for Obamacare just one day after he said it was time to repeal it again. I forget what else on tap today but we will shift away from the airbus crash story for a while. Oh I know what I wanted to say about other news. What is the deal with that press conference with the President of Afghan? Weren't we just at war with them? I do know that it was said in that press conference yesterday afternoon that Obama is holding up the Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Obama: We will maintain Afghanistan troop levels and that on CNN yesterday, they reported that the United States will keep its current level of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through the end of the year, rather than reducing that number to 5,500 as planned, the White House said Tuesday. The announcement comes as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visits President Barack Obama and attends a series of meetings at the White House. Ghani has requested that the U.S. consider adjusting its troop withdrawal timeline, with greater support from U.S. troops over the next few years during a transition to a complete withdrawal.
"The timeline for a withdrawal down to a embassy center presence, a normalization of our presence in Afghanistan, remains the end of 2016," Obama said in a joint press conference with Ghani on Tuesday afternoon. "So that hasn't changed. Our transition out of a combat role has not changed." Obama acknowledged that as long as troops were in the region, they would face risks in a "dangerous place."
"We're essentially moving the draw down pace over to the right by several months in part to compensate for the lengthy ... government formation; in part because we want to make sure we're doing everything we can to help Afghan security forces succeed; so we don't have to go back," Obama said Tuesday.
Currently, there are 9,800 U.S. troops providing training and support in Afghanistan, as well as 3,000 troops from other NATO countries. The Obama administration had planned to reduce that number to about 5,500 by the end of this year before withdrawing completely by the end of 2016.But Ghani has made clear to Obama in recent conversations that such a timeline could jeopardize the security situation on the ground as Afghan forces continue to fight back the Taliban and al Qaeda. "The institutional gains that would be achieved through the (training), advise and (assisting) role is what will guarantee that the investments of the last 14 years pay off," Ghani said during Tuesday's press conference. Ghani also discussed his country's need for support during a Monday press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.
"Peace is our goal, but peace from strength, an enduring peace that will bring regional cooperation," Ghani said, acknowledging that President Obama will make the decision on troop numbers. "What we have emphasized and agreed is that we are strategic partners. We are bound by common interests and will act together to ensure both the safety of United States and the safety of Afghanistan. That is the important consideration. Numbers are a means; they are not an end in themselves," Ghani said.
Tuesday's meeting, Ghani's first trip to the White House as president, marks a pointed shift in the relationship between the U.S. and Afghanistan since Ghani took office. "This is a different relationship than we had under President Karzai," Jeff Eggers, special assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters in a conference call Friday. "It's clearly more cooperative and better."
And, remember too, the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) states that Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks With U.S. and the ally’s snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal. Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks.
The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.
Soon after the U.S. entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks. Photo: Getty
The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.
“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.
It sounds like we are just delaying the inevitble and as (Mike) Barnicle asked that Robert Grenier guy is that is this a classic case where we have to own this situation today. I think its a bit of both that we must "kick the can down the road" so to speak and we must own what we did is the end result we see today. I guess at least we have exit plan this time.
And, great. More funny hypocrisy's surrounding comments made by Ted Cruz. Not is he for Obamacare a day after he says he is repealing it, he took a swipe at banks, including the one his wife works at. I see now. The Cruz family, including himself are going on or using Obamacare. he is not for it platform wise. He is just using it for health care. That is still funny to me. Bloomberg reports that One day after announcing himself as presidential candidate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz fired a few shots across the bow of Wall Street, and the firm that employs his wife as managing director.
In an interview with Bloomberg's With All Due Respect, Cruz was asked by host Mark Halperin whether, on balance, Goldman Sachs was a positive or a negative force on society. "Like any institution, there's some of both," Cruz responded, adding, "Goldman is one of the biggest banks on Wall Street, and my criticism with Washington is they engage in crony capitalism. They give favors to Wall Street and big business and that's why I've been an outspoken opponent of crony capitalism, taking on leaders in both parties. I think big business, if they're building a better mousetrap, great, but it shouldn't be government favoring, and let me give you an example: Dodd-Frank. Sold to the American people as stopping 'too-big-to-fail.' What happened? The big banks have gotten bigger. Goldman has gotten bigger..."
“I think they're entitled to practice their business, but without subsidies or special benefits.” Halperin pressed Cruz as to what he saw as the negative aspects of the investment giant were. "Because, like many other players on Wall Street and big business, they seek out and get special favors from government," Cruz responded. "I think they're entitled to practice their business, but without subsidies or special benefits."
Goldman Sachs was the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history before converting to a bank in 2008 and taking $10 billion in taxpayer money from the Treasury, which was run at the time by former CEO Henry Paulson. The New York-based firm repaid the funds with interest less than a year later. The bank also received guarantees on about $30 billion of debt and the ability to borrow cheaply from the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s bailout of American International Group Inc., and its decision to pay the insurer’s counter parties in full, funneled more than $12 billion to Goldman Sachs.
Over the years, the firm has drawn the nickname “Government Sachs” because of the number of senior executives who moved into public posts. Robert Rubin, another former Goldman Sachs chief, was Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley are among company alumni who went on to set monetary policy.
During Tuesday's interview, Halperin pointed out that during Cruz's campaign rollout at Liberty University on Monday, he failed to mention the fact that his wife, Heidi, worked for Goldman Sachs. "I am unabashedly proud about everything about Heidi," Cruz responded. "And I did mention the fact that she had an incredibly successful business career." A managing director at Goldman, Heidi Cruz will be taking unpaid leave as she campaigns for her husband. As a result, the Cruz family will be switching over from Goldman's generous medical plan to, you guessed it, Obamacare.
Whats up with regard to Terry Mcullough? I like that guy. Josh Gerstien at POLITICO cites favoritism for Terry McAuliffe and brother of Hillary Clinton. It faults the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for creating “an appearance of favoritism." A Department of Homeland Security watchdog report issued Tuesday blasted the agency’s No. 2 official for repeatedly intervening on behalf of well-connected participants in an investor-visa program, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-Va.) and Tony Rodham, a brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The inspector general report faults Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for creating “an appearance of favoritism and special access” as a result of highly unusual steps he took while serving as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversaw the investment-based program known as EB-5.
“Mayorkas communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues, outside of the normal adjudicatory process and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders,” Inspector General John Roth wrote. “In … three instances, but for Mr. Mayorkas’s intervention, the matter would have been decided differently.” In a 32-page written statement made public along with the 65-page report, Mayorkas adamantly denied wrongdoing. “I respectfully submit that a complete and total repudiation of the allegations against me is the only correct and just conclusion,” he told investigators in January.
However, a press statement Mayorkas released Tuesday was slightly more conciliatory. “While I disagree with the Inspector General’s report, I will certainly learn from it and from this process,” he said. “As the leader of U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, I had the responsibility to ensure that cases, including the three that are the focus of the report, were decided as the law required and that agency errors were corrected.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that he has “full confidence” in Mayorkas, but that Mayorkas and others need to be cautious about intervening in specific cases.
“Each of us in leadership must be mindful that, when we become involved in individual matters that happen to reach our desk, we risk the appearance of preferential treatment and the suspicion of our subordinates. As public servants, we must maintain the trust and confidence of all those around us, and be above reproach,” Johnson said in a statement. “I have discussed this with Deputy Secretary Mayorkas and I am confident he understands this.”
Mayorkas’s involvement in a McAuliffe-backed effort to win funds for a fledgling electric car company called GreenTech Automotive became an issue of contention when McAuliffe mounted a successful bid for the Virginia governorship in 2013. The inspector general report cites that as one case in which USCIS employees believed political influence was at work.
“Mayorkas intervened in an administrative appeal related to the denial of a regional center’s application to receive EB-5 funding to manufacture electric cars through investments in a company in which Terry McAuliffe was the board chairman,” the IG report said. “The intervention was unprecedented and, because of the political prominence of the individuals involved, was well as USCIS’s traditional deference to its administrative appeals process, staff perceived it as politically motivated.”
The report also draws attention to the role played by Rodham, who ran an EB-5 visa investment known as Gulf Coast Funds Management, which directed funds to GreenTech. Rodham’s sister was secretary of state during much of the time that Gulf Coast and GreenTech were pressing USCIS for approvals to accept investments that could lead to green cards for foreigners willing to front up more than $550,000 in principal and fees.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the Center for American Progress March 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. Clinton joined a panel in discussing challenges facing urban centers in the United States. Rodham wrote directly to Mayorkas in January 2013 about approval delays, the report said, and Mayorkas forwarded the email to other staffers “with a ‘high importance’ designation.”
The report explores possible discrepancies in accounts of a February 2011 meeting involving Mayorkas and McAuliffe. Mayorkas told investigators he was in a “listen-only mode” at the meeting, but four months after the meeting McAuliffe emailed another DHS official complaining: “We were promised by the Director that our application would receive an expedited review.”
The report said one employee at the meeting wrote in an email after a July 2011 meeting that Mayorkas “noted several times that these cases are affiliated with ‘people of influence’ and ‘people with money’ and he has several more of these on his radar.”
Mayorkas told investigators in an interview that he didn’t remember making such statements, that they sounded “absurd,” and that he was “impervious to pressure.” He argued more broadly that the EB-5 program, aimed at awarding green cards to foreign investors who invest $500,000 in a rural or impoverished area while creating at least 10 jobs, was badly managed and that those involved at the immigration service were making inconsistent decisions on applications. A spokesman for McAuliffe did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The report says investigators “were unsuccessful in [their] attempts to interview McAuliffe.” He dropped his investment and role in GreenTech in 2012 before launching his gubernatorial bid.
President Barack Obama, flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, right, makes a statement at the start of a Cabinet Meeting at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 3, 2011.
Email messages and phone messages to Rodham on Tuesday through the Virginia office of Gulf Coast were not immediately returned. The IG report also faulted Mayorkas’s involvement in EB-5 investment projects that drew the interest of two other prominent Democrats: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. The report says Reid and Mayorkas spoke about a Las Vegas casino-and-hotel development effort in January 2013. Mayorkas said he promised nothing beyond a “fresh look” at the issue. However, USCIS staffers say they were told that the director had agreed to provide weekly updates to Reid’s staff on the status of the petitions. Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman said Reid was proud of his advocacy for the casino project, known as SLS.
“Senator Reid’s work helped get SLS built and created thousands of Nevada jobs. SLS Las Vegas has revitalized the North end of the Las Vegas Strip and with the coming addition of the Genting Resort the area will continue to grow. … Senator Reid considers it part of his basic responsibility as Nevada’s senator to ensure that projects that benefit Nevada get fair and timely consideration from the federal government,” Orthman said. “Senator Reid will always put Nevada first and fight for Nevada jobs.” The report claims Mayorkas spoke with Rendell in 2011 and 2012 as USCIS worked on applications related to efforts to obtain investor visas through financing of movies. Mayorkas said he initially spoke to Rendell at the request of the office of then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and that Rendell complained that USCIS’s mishandling of applications was “costing Pennsylvania the investment of funds and the creation of jobs.” Mayorkas said that after the first call he looked into the matter with his staff. He could not recall the second call with Rendell, the report said.
Rendell did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment on the report.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) issued a statement Tuesday calling the report “extremely concerning” and announcing that he will hold a hearing Thursday to explore the issue. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the findings raise concerns about Obama’s decision to name Mayorkas last year as the deputy secretary at DHS. “Digging into the report and reading about specific cases, you can see just how questionable Mr. Mayorkas’ ethics and judgment were. And, just as bad, is the blind eye that the Obama administration turned when elevating this individual to the number two slot at the Department of Homeland Security,” Grassley said. “The sheer number of whistleblowers who came forward is a darn good indication as to how bad things were at the agency.”
Breaking News out of Yeman that as Shiat rebels approached, the President of that country had to flee his home. Yemen's embattled president fled his palace in Aden for an undisclosed location Wednesday as Shiite rebels offered cash bounty for his capture and arrested his defense minister. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi left just hours after the rebels' own television station said they seized an air base where U.S. troops and Europeans advised the country in its fight against al-Qaida militants. That air base is only 60 kilometers (35 miles) away from Aden, the port city where Hadi had established a temporary capital.
Witnesses said they saw a convoy of presidential vehicles Wednesday leaving Hadi's palace, located at the top of a hill in Aden overlooking the Arabian Sea.
Presidential officials said Hadi was in an operations room overseeing his forces' response. They declined to say where that facility was located. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to brief journalists.
The advance of the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, threatens to plunge the Arab world's poorest country into a civil war that could draw in its Gulf neighbors. Already, Hadi has asked the United Nations to authorize a foreign military intervention in the country. Yemen's state television broadcaster, controlled by Houthis, made an offer of some $100,000 for Hadi's capture. Officials meanwhile said that the country's Defense Minister Maj.-Gen. Mahmoud al-Subaihi and his top aide were arrested in the southern city of Lahj, where fighting with Houthi forces was ongoing, before they were transferred to Sanaa.
Already, military officials said militias and military units loyal to Hadi had "fragmented," speeding the rebel advance. They said the rebels were fighting Hadi's allied forces on five different fronts Wednesday. Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the Houthis, said that their forces were not aiming to "occupy" the south. "They will be in Aden in few hours," Abdel-Salam told the Houthis' satellite Al-Masirah news channel. Early Wednesday, Al-Masirah reported that the Houthis and allied fighters had "secured" the al-Annad air base, the country's largest. It claimed the base had been looted by both al-Qaida fighters and troops loyal to Hadi.
The reported Houthi takeover of the base took place after hours-long clashes between rival forces around the base. The U.S. recently evacuated some 100 soldiers, including Special Forces commandos, from the base after al-Qaida briefly seized a nearby city. Britain also evacuated soldiers. The base was crucial in the U.S. drone campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which America considers to be the most dangerous branch of the terror group. American and European military advisers there also offered logistical in its fight against the al-Qaida group, which holds territory in eastern Yemen and has claimed directed the recent attack against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
U.S. operations against the militants have been scaled back dramatically amid the chaos in Yemen. U.S. officials have said CIA drone strikes will continue in the country, though there will be fewer of them. The agency's ability to collect intelligence on the ground in Yemen, while not completely gone, is also much diminished. The takeover of the base is part of the wider offensive led by Houthis, backed by loyalists of deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh within Yemen's armed forces.
Jeez Louise is there lots going on this morning. (Mark) Halperin asks if this war is winnable (with Afghanistan) and I laughed out loud. Both of these wars have been debacles.
BTW, someone at the Iron Hill Brewing company told me last night that the Malaysian Airline was taken down by Chinese terrorists and that's why the cover up. I was also told by other people that Obama has ruined America and that he has given us the largest deficit in ever in American history and wait a second please because this person also said that because it is so cold out, that global warming is farce but hang on again please because it gets better because she also called Obama a Muslim that was not born in America. I tried to defend Obama but she told me to get my something straight as she left the restaurant bar. I could not get a word in edge wise and this is in South new jersey. I felt like I was in Texas or some Southern state. I cannot believe people do NOT understand the science behind 'glovbal warjming' and how the scientists mean that its warming up in the Arctic, in Antarctica and in Greenland and not in New jersey. I also cannot believe there people that still spew out that Obama was born in Africa 7 years into his presidency and a day after Ted Cruz announced his campaign plan for next year,. Cruz was born in Canada which is fine but lying about Obama being born in Africa is not OK. I wonder why? What could be the difference between these two besides that one is white / Hispanic and one is black and that one is a GOP'er and one is a Dem. I wonder what could be the issue with it even today. When I mentioned that it was Bush Jr. that did whatever she said to the deficit was when she said to my facts (she did not use the word fact because I did) straight. Also, that same woman says that Angelina Jolie is not even a woman anymore. Honestly, I still cannot believe there are such morons in South New Jersey. This is just them/her being an asshole as I think about the rhetoric she was spewing at me. I wonder too, if she has an audience that just listens to her because she was so flustered by me saying what was real, that she goit up and left as she yelled something at me. The one hot girl on the other side of them laughed but I hated that conversation. I honestly, should not have engaged anyone but I just talk to much. I can't not talk to people and that is what sucks. I think next time i will get a table by myself so no one can talk to me. That is what I will do from now on. I did join the 'King Of The Hill' Club at the Iron Hill and i got a cool free mug. That I was psyched about the bartender and these two other guys I met were totally nice but this one idiot freaked me out. I did not know how to react and I tried to be more on her side by saying that I am not an Obama fan and that I have voted against people since the 80's, but I also said that facts are facts which again, she did not want to hear.
Ken Burns is on to talk about his new Documentary Film Series that is being shown on PBS. Katie Couric and the day to day filmmaker Barak Goodman are on the show too during this segment. Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies is a three-part, six-hour major television event from preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Based on the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, the series is the most comprehensive documentary on a single disease ever made. This "biography" of cancer covers its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the 20th century to cure, control and conquer it, to a radical new understanding of its essence at a time when we are at an inflection point in knowledge and treatment — the dawn of an era in which cancer may become a chronic or curable illness rather than its historic death sentence in some forms.
The film will air on ValleyPBS on March 30, 31 and April 1.
BTW, someone at the Iron Hill Brewing company told me last night that the Malaysian Airline was taken down by Chinese terrorists and that's why the cover up. I was also told by other people that Obama has ruined America and that he has given us the largest deficit in ever in American history and wait a second please because this person also said that because it is so cold out, that global warming is farce but hang on again please because it gets better because she also called Obama a Muslim that was not born in America. I tried to defend Obama but she told me to get my something straight as she left the restaurant bar. I could not get a word in edge wise and this is in South new jersey. I felt like I was in Texas or some Southern state. I cannot believe people do NOT understand the science behind 'glovbal warjming' and how the scientists mean that its warming up in the Arctic, in Antarctica and in Greenland and not in New jersey. I also cannot believe there people that still spew out that Obama was born in Africa 7 years into his presidency and a day after Ted Cruz announced his campaign plan for next year,. Cruz was born in Canada which is fine but lying about Obama being born in Africa is not OK. I wonder why? What could be the difference between these two besides that one is white / Hispanic and one is black and that one is a GOP'er and one is a Dem. I wonder what could be the issue with it even today. When I mentioned that it was Bush Jr. that did whatever she said to the deficit was when she said to my facts (she did not use the word fact because I did) straight. Also, that same woman says that Angelina Jolie is not even a woman anymore. Honestly, I still cannot believe there are such morons in South New Jersey. This is just them/her being an asshole as I think about the rhetoric she was spewing at me. I wonder too, if she has an audience that just listens to her because she was so flustered by me saying what was real, that she goit up and left as she yelled something at me. The one hot girl on the other side of them laughed but I hated that conversation. I honestly, should not have engaged anyone but I just talk to much. I can't not talk to people and that is what sucks. I think next time i will get a table by myself so no one can talk to me. That is what I will do from now on. I did join the 'King Of The Hill' Club at the Iron Hill and i got a cool free mug. That I was psyched about the bartender and these two other guys I met were totally nice but this one idiot freaked me out. I did not know how to react and I tried to be more on her side by saying that I am not an Obama fan and that I have voted against people since the 80's, but I also said that facts are facts which again, she did not want to hear.
Ken Burns is on to talk about his new Documentary Film Series that is being shown on PBS. Katie Couric and the day to day filmmaker Barak Goodman are on the show too during this segment. Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies is a three-part, six-hour major television event from preeminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Based on the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, the series is the most comprehensive documentary on a single disease ever made. This "biography" of cancer covers its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the 20th century to cure, control and conquer it, to a radical new understanding of its essence at a time when we are at an inflection point in knowledge and treatment — the dawn of an era in which cancer may become a chronic or curable illness rather than its historic death sentence in some forms.
The film will air on ValleyPBS on March 30, 31 and April 1.
Bill Karins reports about there being storms in the mid west. I think he mentioned something about there being Tornado watch and it seems like there will be rain for us East Coasters and New Yorkers and new Jersey'ites as the warm air comes in too. I am fine with some rain so long as we get some warmer air.
If there is anything new to be discussed in the last half an hour segment (I know Peter Orszag is on the show at 830AM but I am not good to talk about finance. Bianna (Golodryga) will grill him according to Mika. have Phun with it but of anything else gets discussed today, I'll chime back to say whatever about it. Bill McDermott is on now too to discuss his book and various job industry's (Big Data) that are thriving today.
Regardless of all folks, stay in touch!
Actually, I wish I heard this conversation before that one I had at The Iron Hill Brewery. I would have known what to say more about the economy.
Also, we just got a report that two Americans were indeed on that flight that crashed into the Alps yesterday morning.
PS: Low and Behold is that Bianna (Golodryga) and Peter (Orszag) are married to each other. Good for them. She always mentions her kids and husband but I never knew it was him. Thats way cool as he says its great to be on the air with his wife. That is cool. They are a great couple. They look great together too.
Regardless of all folks, stay in touch!
Actually, I wish I heard this conversation before that one I had at The Iron Hill Brewery. I would have known what to say more about the economy.
Also, we just got a report that two Americans were indeed on that flight that crashed into the Alps yesterday morning.
PS: Low and Behold is that Bianna (Golodryga) and Peter (Orszag) are married to each other. Good for them. She always mentions her kids and husband but I never knew it was him. Thats way cool as he says its great to be on the air with his wife. That is cool. They are a great couple. They look great together too.
