EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
44 comments:
The Story of Lipa
by Dr. Seuss
Lipa, oh Lipa,
We do love your song.
But all is not right,
There is something wrong.
Through acting and singing
You bring so much joy.
But why must you sing
The songs of a goy?
You visit the sick,
To sing them a few.
And you bring a smile
To the face of a Jew.
So what's wrong with that?
Many will wonder.
Why so much yelling?
Why all the thunder?
I'm not sure the answer,
One day we will know.
And why did they cancel
Your upcoming show?
No sense of humor,
Perhaps that is it.
They think you're not funny
So they made you quit.
But I know the answer,
To the matter at hand.
Why was it cancelled?
Did not go as planned.
There is only one reason,
No show left to see.
They wanted some tickets,
You said none for free.
I'm appalled at Lipa for backing out and yielding to these criminals. I understand Shia can't burn his bridges, but Lipa, what the hell?
My prediction is that Lipa will be working in a bakery by this time next year.
Freddie Mac loss swells as mortgage crisis deepens
By Al Yoon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.N), the second-biggest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Thursday said its fourth-quarter loss widened to a record $2.5 billion as the housing crisis worsened.
Freddie Mac, as well as rival Fannie Mae (FNM.N), suffered from soaring defaults on mortgages guaranteed by the two companies as nationwide home prices declined in 2007 for the first time since the Great Depression.
The company also warned it expected to lose billions of dollars more in upcoming quarters as the housing market slump deepens and more borrowers fall behind on payments......
MORE LIES FROM AVI SHAFRAN:
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/02/will-rabbi-avi.html#more
Rabbi Avi Shafran again proves himself to be incapable of understanding the harm he does. Rabbi Shafran would have you believe…
…criticism of Shafran (and, by extension, of Marvin Schick) for his behavior surrounding the New York Jewish Week's' coverage of the Michelle Friedman, et al, paper on women and sexual abuse in Orthodoxy.
Shafran, whose Jerusalem Post column appears at first glance to be identical to a Cross Currents blog post from late last week, would like you to believe all criticism directed toward him is based on one idea – that sexual abuse in haredi society is at the same level as sexual abuse in non-Jewish (or Jewish but non-haredi) society.
But Shafran's argument is false.
Certainly, some people criticized him by claiming that Friedman's AJP study proved abuse rates are the same in haredi society as outside of it.
Most people, however, criticized him for minimizing sexual abuse within haredi society and for giving short shrift, both to victims and their advocates.
Shafran's Jerusalem Post and Cross Currents pieces rely heavily on a brief paper written by Dr. Nachum Klafter for Rabbi Gil Student's blog Hirhurim. Dr. Klafter notes:
This study provides no conclusive information about the rate of sexual abuse in our communities, and should not factor into Jewish communal policy decisions.
And this would seem to support Shafran – unless the entire paper is read as a whole. Because Dr. Klafter points out the failings in the arguments made by haredim like Marvin Schick. Dr. Klafter also notes the study's authors themselves made it perfectly clear that no sweeping conclusions could be drawn from the study, and they did this before the Jewish Week wrote its article and before haredim like Schick and Shafran complained.
And Dr. Klafter concludes his paper this way:
…From my perspective as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, I believe that there is still not enough being done in Orthodox communities to prevent sexual abuse of children. The areas which I believe would be the most productive are preventive education for parents and children, and mandatory criminal background checks for all employees of day schools, seminaries, yeshivas, and summer camps. My perspective is informed by the following: (1) an understanding of the devastating consequences of childhood sexual abuse which comes from in-depth psychotherapy treatment of numerous patients who continue to struggle with the consequences of it during adulthood, (2) being privy to numerous incidents of sexual abuse in Orthodox communities across North America which have been horribly mishandled when mental health professionals and law enforcement were not involved, and (3) seeing numerous incidents of sexual abuse in Orthodox communities where involvement of the legal authorities and mental health professionals was enormously helpful to victims and their families, as well as to institutions and communities as far as preventing further incidents of abuse.
This may be why Rabbi Shafran, the official spokesperson for Agudath Israel of America, failed to link to Dr. Klafter's paper (or mention its source, for that matter) in his Cross Currents post. The Jerusalem Post article also contains no link or mention of Hirhurim.
Shafran then draws a conclusion from the study that also cannot be drawn, for the very same reasons the study's authors warned that no conclusions should be drawn:
Both of the recent papers, moreover, noted that the study's data in fact yields the remarkable (yet somehow unremarked upon by the Jewish Week) fact that the survey respondents who were raised Orthodox were 50% less likely to have experienced sexual abuse than those from non-Orthodox homes. Considering that the survey asked if abuse occurred at any point in respondents‚ lives, it is plausible if not likely that much of the abuse reported among those raised non-Orthodox occurred before they joined observant communities.
First of all, Shafran (intentionally, I believe) ignores what is the most likely reason for that disparity – ba'al teshuvas (BTs), people not brought up Orthodox but who have later adopted a haredi lifestyle, are more likely to speak about sexual abuse than women who grew up under the haredi system of Omerta.
Secondly,those same BTs are trained to despise the secular society they left behind. Speaking about abuse that took place in that non-haredi society reinforces their newly held religious beliefs. That means BTS are more likely to discuss sexual abuse that took place before they became haredi, while haredim are less likely to discuss abuse that takes place within haredi society.
Worst of all is this:
NONE OF which, of course, is to deny either that abuse exists in the Orthodox community (as it does in all communities) or that all communities, including the Orthodox, have a responsibility to put effective measures into place to prevent it. But the fact of its existence in the Orthodox world is no justification for drawing unwarranted conclusions about its extent there.
The background checks Dr. Klafter calls for have been rejected by Agudath Israel of America, which has fought mandatory background checks for all religious school employees in New York State. It refused to deal with the issues of sexual abuse and rabbinic pedophilia at its convention, and its rabbis have been widely linked to cover ups of rabbi-on-boy sexual abuse.
Dr. Klafter wants measures taken to stop sexual abuse and pedophilia in haredi society. Rabbi Shafran opposes those measures, and his organization has done nothing significant to stop sexual abuse and pedophilia in the communities it claims to represent.
And that is the truth behind Avi Shafran's spin.
THE "ACTIVIST" HAS OFFERED TO MAKE SOME KIND OF RESTITTUTION. THE WORD IS THAT HE IS OFFERING REFUNDS TO TICKET HOLDERS. FRIEDMAN'S NUMBERS ARE : W-718 436 1084 H-718 851 9699
C-718 755 4880
Ask the fuckin scumbag why Margo was asked to sign when that menuval promoted knowingly a child pedophile and terrorized the victims and family. And ask the gerrer rav (a cult of horny homos) why he saw fit to allow this ban to go to print in the hamodia diarhea and never thought to allow a article condeming the rampant sexual abuse in his community by roshei yeshiva. and why his jerusalem counterpart offered to post bail for the jewish worlds most notorious child rapist, avrom mondrowitz. could it be that these to ra-bonim are creating a smokescrean to divert attention from the upcoming trials of kolko (ytt) and lieserowits (gere)
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=6273
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; D01
NEW YORK
Visa said Monday that it is looking to raise as much as $18.8 billion in what would be the largest initial public offering ever for a U.S. company.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Visa said it plans to offer 406 million shares at $37 to $42 each, with an option for the deal's underwriters to buy an additional 40.6 million shares.
If it goes well, the Visa IPO would give a boost to its member banks, which include Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, HSBC, Capital One and Citigroup. Some banks have been hit with billions of losses on subprime mortgage-related securities and have actively been looking to raise capital.
The banks are too scared to loan to each other, Bank of America and Citigroup are on the edge of disaster and even the Arabs and Chinese are wary of being the next patsy for Wall Street's various cooked-up frauds.
So . . . the next big unsuspecting dummy is . . . (drumroll) investors. Why not? They fell for all that sub-prime hoopla.
The very people who have been vacuumed of their assets by fraudulent 'derivatives' are now going to be taken to the cleaners by the more direct VISA initial public offering (IPO).
Not to worry that IPOs have been shelved by major privatizations for lack of investment liquidity.
Not to worry that its hardly a secret that the next big disaster for already crippled banks is credit-card default.
Not to worry that VISA is an inflated liability waiting to be formally recognized as a 'bubble.'
The carnival barkers who have (thus far) been able to keep the Dow Jones above 12,000 have a dandy little investment for all you folks who missed out on the Brooklyn Bridge or the Master-Card IPO. Master Card (they tell you with a wink and a nod) opened at $34, less than two years ago and look at it now . . . (drumroll) over $200.
Not to worry that two years ago any house with a front door and a roof that didn't leak was appreciating by 20% a year.
Not to worry that two years ago the wheels still seemed to be bolted on to a runaway stock market.
Not to worry that fraud has squeezed the last of the liquidity out of an exhausted, fearful and untrusting market.
Not to worry that the banks lined up to feed off this new carrion are too terrified to lend any of their money and want some of yours instead.
There are so many not to worrys that a prudent investor might almost be worried.
So, what's the risk? Visa just moves money from shopkeeper to bank. They don't take the risk of cardmember default.
Don't be too sure of that. As the economy gets tighter and people become more desperate, their credit-cards become the cash of last resort. They max them, take new ones and max the new ones. VISA cards are issued by banks and Universities and Moose Lodges, United Airlines and L.L.Bean. As 'lenders,' they have a responsibility to lend (authorize), well . . . responsibly.
You can bet your blue-jeans that VISA card issuers are going to go directly to the courts if they lose billions and those billions can be connected to irresponsible authorizations. That's a source of potential liability.
A source of potential loss is the very thing that makes VISA attractive. Billions out there at 18%. Who wouldn't want a part of that? But what happens when consumers go bankrupt, simply walk away from their debt or pull in their spending habits? All of a sudden those billions at 18% are reduced by half, or 60-80 percent.
Not so profitable.
An IPO that opens at the expected $40 per share, if it actually sells out, may be worth $8 in two years.
Let's hope VISA's owned by the Dubai sheikhs or Chinese.
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,162614,00.html
New High-Tech Cameras Are Watching You
Popular Mechanics | James Vlahos | February 26, 2008
There are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras now deployed in the United States shooting 4 billion hours of footage a week. Americans are being watched, all of us, almost everywhere.
We have arrived at a unique moment in the history of surveillance. The price of both megapixels and gigabytes has plummeted, making it possible to collect a previously unimaginable quantity and quality of data. Advances in processing power and software, meanwhile, are beginning to allow computers to surmount the greatest limitation of traditional surveillance -- the ability of eyeballs to effectively observe the activity on dozens of video screens simultaneously. Computers can't do all the work by themselves, but they can expand the capabilities of humans exponentially.
Security expert Bruce Schneier says that it is naive to think that we can stop these technological advances, especially as they become more affordable and are hard-wired into everyday businesses. (I know of a local pizzeria that warns customers with a posted sign: "Stop stealing the spice shakers! We know who you are, we have 24-hour surveillance!") But it is also reckless to let the advances proceed without a discussion of safeguards against privacy abuses. "Society is fundamentally changing and we aren't having a conversation about it," Schneier says. "We are entering the era of wholesale surveillance."
Earlier this year, on a hot summer afternoon, I left my Brooklyn apartment to do some shoplifting.
I cruised the aisles of the neighborhood grocery store, a Pathmark, tossing items into my cart like a normal shopper would -- Frosted Mini-Wheats, Pledge Wipes, a bag of carrots. Then I put them on the belt at checkout. My secret was on the lower level of the cart: a 12-pack of beer, concealed and undetectable. Or so I thought. Midway through checkout the cashier addressed me, no malice in her voice, but no doubt either. "Do you want to ring up that beer?"
My heist had been condoned by Pedro Ramos, Pathmark's vice president of loss prevention, though he didn't know precisely when or where I was going to attempt it. The beer was identified by an object-recognition scanner at ankle level -- a LaneHawk, manufactured by Evolution Robotics -- which prompted the cashier's question. Overhead, a camera recorded the incident and an alert was triggered in Ramos's office miles away on Staten Island. He immediately pulled up digital video and later relayed what he saw. "You concealed a 12-pack of Coronas on the bottom of the cart by strategically placing newspaper circulars so as to obstruct the view of the cashier."
Busted.
Pathmark uses StoreVision, a powerful video analytic and data-mining system. There are as many as 120 cameras in some stores, and employees with high-level security clearances can log on via the Web and see what any one of them is recording in real time. An executive on vacation in Brussels could spy on the frozen-food aisle in Brooklyn.
In 2006 theft and fraud cost American stores $41.6 billion, an all-time high. Employee theft accounted for nearly half of the total (shoplifting was only a third), so much of the surveillance aims to catch in-house crooks. If the cashier had given me the beer for free -- employees often work with an outside accomplice -- the system would know by automatically comparing what the video recorded with what the register logged. The technologies employed by Pathmark don't stop crime but they make a dent; weekly losses are reduced by an average of 15 percent.
This may sound like a privacy wonk's paranoia. But examples abound. Take E-ZPass. Drivers signed up for the system to speed up toll collection. But 11 states now supply E-ZPass records -- when and where a toll was paid, and by whom -- in response to court orders in criminal cases. Seven of those states provide information in civil cases such as divorce, proving, for instance, that a husband who claimed he was at a meeting in Pennsylvania was actually heading to his lover's house in New Jersey. (New York divorce lawyer Jacalyn Barnett has called E-ZPass the "easy way to show you took the offramp to adultery.")
So-called "facial profiling" has been surveillance's next big thing for nearly a decade, and it is only now showing tentative signs of feasibility. It's easy to see why people are seduced by the promise of this technology. Twelve bank companies employ 3VR systems at numerous locations, which build a facial template for every single person that enters any branch. If somebody cashes a check that is later determined to be stolen, the person's face can be flagged in the system, and the next time the con artist comes in, the system is supposed to alert the tellers.
There's a man in Salt Lake City who knows what I did last summer. Specifically, he knows what I did on Aug. 24, 2007. He knows that I checked my EarthLink e-mail at 1:25 pm, and then blew a half an hour on ESPN's Web site. He also knows that my wife, Anne, wanted new shoes, from Hush Puppies or DSW, and that she synced her electronic planner -- "she has quite a busy schedule," the man noted -- and downloaded some podcasts. We both printed out passes for free weeklong trials at 24 Hour Fitness, but instead of working out, apparently spent the evening watching a pay-per-view movie. It was Bridge to Terabithia or Zodiac, he thinks.
The man's name is Joe Wilkinson, and he works for Raytheon Oakley Systems. The company specializes in "insider risk management," which means dealing with the problem of employees who, whether through innocent accident or nefarious plot, do things they really shouldn't be doing at work. Oakley's software, developed for the U.S. government and now used by ten Fortune 100 companies, monitors computer use remotely and invisibly. Wilkinson had agreed to run a surveillance trial with me as the subject, and after accessing my computer via the Web, he installed an "agent" that regularly reported my activities back to him.
The modern desktop machine is a multimedia distraction monster: friend, lover, shopping mall, stereo, television, movie theater and adult video store are mere mouse clicks away. Raytheon Oakley's software caught me wasting valuable work time checking personal e-mails and reading digital camera reviews online. Companies are also concerned about hostile work environments caused by employees openly surfing porn in the office -- consequently, my 10:14 am visit to a risqué site was duly noted. Employees also leak trade secrets. (Consider the case of DuPont chemist Gary Min, who, after accepting a job with a competitor in 2005, raided DuPont's electronic library for $400 million worth of technical documents. He was caught by the FBI last year.) If I had downloaded any large engineering drawings onto a removable hard drive, Oakley's software would have alerted Wilkinson. And employees bad-mouth the boss. I wrote an e-mail to Anne that mentioned my editor at Popular Mechanics, Glenn Derene. Wilkinson rigged the software to flag anything with Derene's name, and alarm bells rang. Sorry, Glenn.
Surveillance of this sort is common. A 2005 survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute found that 36 percent of companies monitor workers on a keystroke-by-keystroke basis; 55 percent review e-mail messages, and 76 percent monitor Web sites visited. "Total Behavioral Visibility" is Raytheon Oakley's motto. The vice president of marketing, Tom Bennett, knows that some people fear workplace monitoring. But the technology has many positive aspects. "We are not Big Brother," he insists.
Employees are sometimes lazy or dishonest, but often they're simply careless. A parent who has to leave the office at midday to care for a sick child might copy sensitive company information onto a USB drive so that he can work at home. An account manager might carelessly send customer credit card numbers over an unsecured wireless network where they can be stolen. Bennett says that his company's software helps companies understand and improve how workers use their computers. The Oakley monitoring application works like a TiVo, allowing an instant video replay: where you pointed the mouse, when you clicked, what you wrote. This can catch the guilty but also exonerate the innocent, because the replay puts your actions in context.
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,163010,00.html
LONDON - Military experts have warned that terrorists could use unmanned drones in aerial attacks, saying robotics offered a frighteningly easy way to evade security.
The know-how and materials for manufacturing lethal, improvised robots are easily available, according to experts at a conference Wednesday on robotics at the Royal United Services Institute, a 177-year-old forum on military affairs.
"Sooner or later we're going to see a Cessna programmed to fly into a building," said Rear Adm. Chris Parry, who formed the Ministry of Defense's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Center in 2005. He said small, remotely piloted planes or even converted model aircraft were "ideal weapons" for terrorists because they are easy to build and could evade radar.
"They are cheap. They don't need as much motor power or fuel, and they're difficult to detect - about as difficult to detect as a blackbird," he said.
Parry's statements were echoed by other speakers, among them computer scientist Richard Starkey.
"It is very easy to go to the Internet ... or go down to the scrapyard and put a robot together," Starkey said. "You don't need (it) to last long if you want to explode it among a civilian population."
Both pointed to Hezbollah's deployment of pilotless aircraft against Israel in 2006, when the militant group sent a series of unmanned aerial vehicles hovering above Israeli territory. Parry alluded to the use of unmanned submarine-like vessels to ferry drugs across the Pacific.
In February 2003, six Hamas militants died in an explosion as they were examining a remote-controlled model airplane that Israel and Hamas said was intended to be used in an attack.
Al-Qaida-linked groups have also reportedly considered using unmanned aircraft - in 2006 American radical-turned-FBI informant Mohammed Junaid Babar accused an alleged Canadian co-conspirator, Momin Khawaja, of working on fitting a model plane with explosives.
Unmanned vehicles, from hunter-killer planes like the U.S. Predator to explosives-disposal buggies, are also playing an increasingly important role in the U.S. war effort in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Pentagon wants $3.4 billion for 2008 to fund its unmanned aircraft programs, and a strategy document put out by the U.S. Department of Defense last year outlined plans to automate a third of the Army's new ground combat vehicles by 2015.
Will anyone ever be able to set Rabbi Avi Shafran straight?
Once again, Rabbi Avi Shafran who is the public spokesperson (Director of Public Affairs) of Agudath Israel of America is speaking out on a topic he knows very little about.
A few years ago I went back and forth with Shafran in an e-mail exchange regarding various statistics and issues pertaining to survivors and sex offenders. Unfortunately, the folks Rabbi Avi Shafran was quoting included Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield. For those of you who are unaware of these two psychologists, they are well known for defending alleged and convicted sex offenders. They are both known to support the propaganda that "we should all be fighting to protect the civil rights of pedophiles as we fight for gay rights." Several years both Underwager and Wakefield provided interviews for Paidika - a European pro-pedophile publication (see links below). After going around in circles several times, I finally let Rabbi Avi Shafran know about the controversy behind his experts who he was quoting.
Part 1: http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager2.html
Part 2: http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager3.html
We need to demand that the news media require Rabbi Avi Shafran to show his credentials, proving or disproving his expertise in the sexual violence field, prior to publishing articles by him. I think we all deserve to read accurate information instead of theories created by a man who feels the need to defend the rabbonim of charedi community. His writings are very similar to those who defend the Catholic church after years of covering sex crimes.
Also see:
www.theawarenesscenter.org/offenders.html
www.theawarenesscenter.org/statistics.html
Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC, NCC, ATR-BC - Executive Director
The Awareness Center, Inc.
(international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault)
www.theawarenesscenter.org
443-857-5560
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&refer=us&sid=auI8qPM3t6uc
Financial Firms Face $600 Billion of Losses, UBS Says (Update2)
By Abigail Moses
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Financial firms are likely to face at least $600 billion of losses as the crisis triggered by the collapse of subprime mortgages batters banks, brokers and insurers, UBS AG analysts said.
Banks and brokers stand to lose $350 billion, according to estimates from the global banking unit of UBS, the world's largest wealth manager. Financial institutions have so far disclosed more than $160 billion of writedowns and credit losses.
``We have to recognize the risk that the economy will suffer more damage than what consensus suggests,'' Geraud Charpin, head of European credit strategy at UBS in London, wrote in a report today.
American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, reported the biggest quarterly loss in its 89-year history yesterday after an $11.1 billion writedown on derivatives linked in part to subprime mortgages. London-based Peloton Partners LLP said yesterday it is being forced to liquidate a $1.8 billion hedge fund managing asset-backed debt because of tighter lending restrictions on Wall Street.
``The collapse of Peloton's flagship fund yesterday is a reminder to all investors that yesterday's rising star can be tomorrow's fallen angel,'' Charpin wrote. ``Leveraged risk positions are a cancer in this market and the sooner it is treated the better.''
Shareholder Support
Zurich-based UBS has written down $19 billion of securities. Chairman Marcel Ospel won shareholder support yesterday for a plan to replenish capital by selling 13 billion Swiss francs ($12 billion) of bonds that will convert into shares to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and an unidentified Middle Eastern investor.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday there will probably be some failures among smaller banks and unemployment will rise, fueling investor concern that a recession can't be avoided.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/15444658/detail.html
A suburban New York man who broke into a neighboring home and stole a teenage girl's panties has been sentenced to prison.
Benjamin Metzger also put spyware on the girl's computer to monitor what she was doing. He pleaded guilty last month to third-degree burglary and was sentenced Thursday by a Westchester County judge to 2 1/3 to 7 years behind bars.
The 22-year-old Peekskill resident was busted after his cell phone was found in the girl's house. He says he's sorry for what he did and deserves the sentence he got.
Metzger told police he pilfered the panties in November 2006 to use for sexual fantasies. He told probation officials he liked to wear women's clothing.
The girl and her family were so traumatized that they moved.
http://www.hedgeworld.com/news/read_news.cgi?section=mfad&story=mfad1136.html
False Documents, Brotherly Love and a Vanishing Act
By Jacob Bunge, Financial Correspondent | Thursday, February 28, 2008
The National Futures Association had its hands full this week, taking action against two members accused of misleading clients and suspending the membership of several other firms that failed to respond to the industry watchdog's complaints.
An emergency enforcement action was filed on Monday [Feb. 25] against Brooklyn, New York-based commodity trading adviser Innovative Capital Management LLC and its principal, Yehuda Belsky, charging that Mr. Belsky passed along false documents when the NFA asked to see his firm's account statements in January.
As part of an examination, the NFA requested statements for October, November and December 2007. When Mr. Belsky provided these, NFA officials compared them with statements received from MF Global Inc., the futures commission merchant holding the firm's account, and noted some big discrepancies between the two. In December, Mr. Belsky represented his ending balance as $826,000, whereas MF Global had the figure at $134,000.
The NFA memberships of Mr. Belsky and his firm were suspended immediately, and both were prohibited from soliciting or accepting money from customers or pool participants, or doing any trading at all aside from liquidating existing positions. Neither Mr. Belsky nor his firm can distribute or transfer any customer or pool assets without NFA approval.
Innovative Capital did not return a call seeking comment.
http://www.innovativecta.com/
"This web site is temporarily unavailable."
There must be a temporary glitch as we "consolidate" websites.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:_gZE08KoXZAJ:www.innovativecta.com/documents/ICM%2520Presentation.pdf+%22yehuda+belsky%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Innovative Capital Management, LLCYehuda Belsky, President and Chief Investment StrategistYehuda Belsky brings over 12 years of investment industry experience to Innovative Capital Management, LLC, where he serves as its CEO and Investment Manager. Mr.Belsky began his trading career in 1995 with The Timber Hill Group as an Option Market Maker on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (“AMEX”). In 1997, he founded Libra Capital LLC, an option trading firm, managing a variety of equity and index options positions on the AMEX floor and personally trading in the exchange’s busiest pits. While on the floor, Mr. Belsky began to design and develop his uniquebalanced investment strategy. His style focused on structuring hedged option positions, designed to provide maximum profitability while keeping volatility low. From March, 2004 until May, 2005, Mr. Belsky implemented this investment strategy as a Principal of Tradewise Associates LLC, a registered CPO. Today, Mr. Belsky, through his extensive experience in and knowledge of futures and option markets, offers investors access to his strategy through the trading program of Innovative CapitalManagement, LLC
http://www.hedgeweek.com/articles/detail.jsp?content_id=244759
The National Futures Association has announced that it has taken an emergency enforcement action against Innovative Capital Management and its principal, Yehuda Belsky. Innovative is a commodity pool operator and a commodity trading adviser located in Brooklyn, New York.
Effective immediately, the Member Responsibility Action is deemed necessary to protect customers because Innovative and Belsky have provided NFA with false and misleading information, specifically fictitious statements regarding accounts controlled by Innovative.
The MRA suspends Innovative and Belsky from NFA membership and Associate membership, respectively. The MRA also prohibits Innovative and Belsky from acting in any manner that requires registration under the Commodity Exchange Act.
In addition, the MRA prohibits Innovative and Belsky from soliciting or accepting any customer or pool participant's funds or placing trades on behalf of any of its customers or pools except to liquidate existing positions. Furthermore, the MRA prohibits Innovative and Belsky from distributing, disbursing or transferring any funds of customers or pools without prior NFA approval.
http://store.activetradermag.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4876
From Active Trader Magazine.
http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Case.aspx?entityid=0332418&case=08MRA00001&contrib=NFA
Innovative and Belsky are required to provide copies of this MRA via overnight courier to all customers having accounts that Innovative or Belsky control and to all pool participants in any pools that Innovative or Belsky operate, including, but not limited to the Innovative Capital Fund LLC ("ICF"), or over which either Innovative or Belsky exercises control and to all banks and other financial institutions with which money is on deposit in the name of Innovative, Belsky, or ICF or in the name of a customer that Innovative or Belsky controls.
NFA's role in the U.S. futures industry
In 1974 Congress established the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal regulatory agency with jurisdiction over futures trading. The same legislation authorized the creation of "registered futures associations," giving the futures industry the opportunity to create a nationwide self-regulatory organization.
NFA has the authority to take disciplinary actions against any firm or individual who violates its rules, ranging from Warning Letters for minor rule infractions to formal Complaints in cases where rule violations warrant prosecution. Penalties resulting from Complaints include expulsion, suspension for a fixed period, prohibition from future association with any NFA Member, censure, reprimand and a fine of up to $250,000 per violation. NFA often collaborates with the CFTC, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to ensure successful prosecutions.
Jay Akselrud writes on his BalloonTwister blog that he learned bechavrusah with Yehuda Belsky in the Montreal yeshiva.
Blood Thinner Might Be Tied to More Deaths
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By WALT BOGDANICH
Published: February 29, 2008
Amid indications that more people may have died or been harmed after being given a brand of the blood thinner heparin, federal drug regulators said Thursday that they had found “potential deficiencies” at a Chinese plant that supplied much of the active ingredient for the drug.
Twists in Chain of Supplies for Blood Drug (February 28, 2008)
Baxter International, which makes the brand of heparin associated with the problems, and buys supplies from the Chinese plant, announced that it was expanding a recall to include virtually all its heparin products. Though Baxter produces much of the heparin used in the United States, regulators said the other major supplier would be able to meet the demand.
The Food and Drug Administration said the number of deaths possibly associated with the drug, made from pig intestines, had risen to 21 from 4. But it cautioned that many of those patients were already seriously ill and that the drug might not have caused their deaths.
The F.D.A. emphasized that it had yet to identify the root cause of the problem, and that it had not concluded that the Chinese plant was responsible. The agency also said it was investigating two Chinese wholesalers — also called consolidators — that supplied crude heparin to the Chinese plant, Changzhou SPL, as well as those that sold raw ingredients to the consolidators.
The New York Times reported Thursday that at least one of the consolidators received supplies from small, unregulated family workshops that scraped mucous membrane from pig intestines and cooked it, eventually producing a dry substance known as crude heparin.
The F.D.A. admitted this month that it had violated its own policy by failing to inspect SPL, located west of Shanghai, before the factory began shipping the heparin ingredient to Baxter in 2004. China’s drug agency also did not inspect the plant.
Last week, the F.D.A. sent inspectors to the plant. Among the potential problems they found was a failure to properly follow the steps for identifying impurities and deficiencies related to manufacturing equipment. According to a redacted inspection report released by the agency, the SPL plant appeared to have made at least some heparin with “material from an unacceptable workshop vendor.” The vendor was not identified.
Scientific Protein Laboratories, a Wisconsin company that is the majority owner of the Chinese plant, issued a statement Thursday saying the F.D.A.’s finding did not represent its final determination as to whether the plant complied with federal regulatory rules. S.P.L., the statement said, is committed to finding the root cause of the adverse reactions.
Erin Gardiner, a spokeswoman for Baxter, said the company was reviewing the F.D.A.’s report. “We expect S.P.L. to respond to those observations thoroughly and promptly,” Ms. Gardiner said. “The observations are important and need to be addressed promptly but they are not necessarily indicative of the root cause.”
The F.D.A.’s concern about heparin had previously centered on Baxter’s multidose vials, but on Thursday Baxter agreed to voluntarily recall not only the multi-dose vials but also single-dose vials and a diluted solution of heparin used to keep blood clots from forming in intravenous lines. There have been no adverse reaction reports involving the latter product, called Hep-Lock heparin flush products.
“We have assurance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that there is an adequate supply in the market to meet the demand for these critical and lifesaving drugs,” Peter J. Arduini, president of Baxter’s Medication Delivery business, said in a statement released by the company.
The only heparin products made by Baxter that are still on the market are premixed bags of intravenous solutions, the Food and Drug Administration said.
“We at the F.D.A. understand how unsettling this whole situation with heparin is,” said Dr. Sandra Kweder, the agency’s deputy director, Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “We are determined to get to the root cause.”
The F.D.A. estimates that more than one million multidose vials of heparin are sold per month in the United States, about half of which are manufactured and distributed by Baxter.
The problems with heparin, which is used to prevent blood clotting during dialysis and after some surgery, were first reported last month at a hospital in Missouri. Since then, the number of reported adverse reactions has risen to 448, the F.D.A. said. “Yes, we have gotten more and we are continuing to evaluate those reports,” Dr. Kweder said.
At first, the agency said it believed that four people had died after allergic reactions to the drug. On Thursday, officials said as many as 17 more people may have died, but they described the links to heparin as more tenuous.
The adverse reactions have included decreased or low blood pressure and fast heart rate. Not all of them are known to involve Baxter products, but the drug agency did not issue warnings involving any other products.
The Chinese heparin market has been in turmoil over the last year, as pig disease has swept through the country, depleting stocks, leading some farmers to sell sick pigs into the market and forcing heparin producers to scramble for new sources of raw material.
As a result, even big companies have been turning increasingly to small village workshops, which are often unsanitary. In interviews this week at some of these workshops, employees told The Times that they had not been inspected by the government.
Scientific Protein Laboratories said it responded to the disease outbreak by buying less raw material in China. Its president, David Strunce, said in an interview this week that the Chinese plant bought supplies only from two reputable consolidators, and that its suppliers were audited.
The F.D.A has already finished inspecting one of the consolidators and is still looking at the second one, an agency spokeswoman said. The agency also plans, if necessary, to look at some of the small workshops that supply the consolidators.
“We will go where the investigation takes us,” an agency official said.
So is Yehuda Belsky a son or nephew of the gangster-in-chief?
When I asked Neuhoff a few minutes he dodged the question.
So should we use that picture from the magazine of Yehuda Belsky to put next to Yisroel's on post office walls?
The biggest losers in this, most unfortunately, are the Tyreh Yesomim for whom this Concert was set up to give much needed financial help.
Imagine their bitter disappointment and bewilderment at being betrayed by their own Ass-Konim and "Dass Toiyreh".
We are sternly instructed by Hashem in the most emphatic terms: DO NOT MESS WITH YESOMIM and ALMONEHS!
"Dass -Toiyreh", Frumaks in Lakewood, Buru Pahk, & Villemsberg
obviously missed this in their Sedorim.
Asher Friedman, wake up and pay up now.
As Uncle Moishy ( not yet banned )
sings: Hashem is Everywhere.
The address on East 31st St would mean he lives on the same block as Dr. Tuvya Chaim "Bungalow Putz" Neuhoff. Neuhoff's bungalow colony is also in Fallsburg.
YEHUDA BELSKY
5405 STATE ROUTE 42
Recorded: 12/01/2004
SOUTH FALLSBURG, NY 12779
(845) 434-1521
YEHUDA L BELSKY
Born 1971
1386 E 31ST ST
Recorded: 03/01/2006
BROOKLYN, NY 11210
(718) 951-3531
YEHUDA BELSKY
4205 AVENUE M
BROOKLYN, NY 11234
(718) 253-9470
No relation between me & Yehuda "L." Belsky.
I think Israel Belsky has a brother in Montreal. Yehuda would then probably be his nephew.
I could sense there was another storm brewing.
Now UOJ is going to say there is a tzad hashoveh between Rubashkins & Belskys, that they both have multiple criminals in the mishpuche.
When I visit my pal Neuhoff at his South Fallsburg bungalow, we should also get together with Yehuda Belsky. Tovim hashlosha min hashtayim.
I'm on vacation this week but I was wondering why the messages on my answering machine were maxed out.
Everyone should support Rabbi Yudel Shain and go to his blog to offer words of encouragement.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/
Blogger Joe Izrael is reporting that forces in Lakewood are putting tremendous pressure on Rabbi Shain to shut down his website.
Denver, CO - Zaler's Kosher hot dogs were a fan favorite at Broncos and Rockies games.
But they may not have been as popular as owner Arnold Zaler wanted investors to believe.
A federal grand jury indicted Zaler, 58, on 30 counts of wire, bank and mail fraud after an FBI investigation.
The indictment alleges that Zaler falsified orders to sell hot dogs at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High, Coors Field and Super Target grocery stores.
He then used the orders as credit to secure at least $2.2 million in loans from two investment companies and an individual investor.
He created a fake purchase order stating that Kroenke Sports Entertainment, which operates the Pepsi Center, had ordered more than $700,000 worth of hot dogs.
He then told a New Jersey-based investment company that if it loaned him money, he would repay it with payments from Kroenke Sports. The investment company transferred about $469,000 into Zaler's bank account.
The same scheme was used on other investors as well.
Zaler's business made news in late 2006, when a Denver-based kosher-certifying agency pulled certification for one of his locations, saying that they did not operate according to kosher standards.
In a fight, Zaler blamed the nonprofit agency, ScrollK/Vaad Hakashrus, for the closing of the South Tamarac location. He said he had a "difference of opinion" with the agency and said its staff had acted unfairly - allegations that Scroll K denied.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count of wire and mail fraud, and up to 30 years and a $1 million fine on each count of bank fraud.
All great people are only "one" person!
Rabbi UOJ: There was never a more true statement!
This Yehuda Belsky is the grandson of the Memphis TN rosh yeshiva. No connection to Torah Vodaas.
Does Yehuda Belsky have any plans yet now that he's a pariah on Wall St?
I have an opening to drive the truck route to Montana.
Yehuda Belsky is a shochein tov. We're one big happy family on East 31st between M&N.
It looks like this drive to put R' Yudel Shain out of business is really picking up steam.
This is a Quad-partisan effort of Chassidishe, Yeshivishe and Modern Orthodox and even Chabad elements.
First, Dokter Rabbiner Seth Mandell of the OU wrote a posionous letter to Professor Levine who writes for the Jewish Press.
Then a letter that was a veiled smear against R' Yudel was officially released by the OU that seemingly had the backing of Genack & Savitsky.
Then some Rubashkin cronies started badmouthing him on Lubab websites.
Then a Chassidish rov in bed with Weissmandel and Rubashkin started calling him a "baal loshon horah"
Now Lakewood is out to get him.
It's not a joke about Rubashkin in Montana. There is a truck route to Seattle that makes a pit stop in Montana to drop off meat for the new Chabad house there.
The Neuhoff-Belsky block of East 31st really is a strange one. It's also home to a putz who's friendly with Kolko as well as the head of Lubavitcher meshichists from the whackjob shtiebel on Ocean Ave.
Avi L. Shafran is telling the truth that he did not have relations with Yehuda L. Belsky.
Please everybody send words of chizuk to R' Yudel...We must wrestle control of the news and the truth - out of the hands of the Jewish Mafia!
Rabbi Shain did have the guts to take on the big boys. It's a shame though that they are responding with heavy firepower against a lone voice.
The reason why I'm here today is to blow the whistle on a major OU cover up in the making. I still need to verify a few details before posting this later. I can tell you that the treifa Solomon bison meat IS a scandal but for reasons that haven't come to light yet.
The Dow just closed down 315.79 (or so, should have the final number in a few minutes).
The market volatility will continue to unnerve people, as the economy as a whole is shaky, and currency hyperinflation battles it out with asset deflation.
There are two main problems going on here, class. Your money is becoming less valuable - it has less buying power. This combined with scarcity of key commodities, such as various foodstuffs and light sweet crude, makes things more expensive. You need more US Dollars to get the same old amount of "stuff" when you go to the store.
Asset deflation means the stuff you own - your house, retirement fund, stocks and whatnot - are worth less than they were. People who were thinking of useing these to finance private school tuition, weddings, bar/bat mitzvaot, etc. are going to rudely find themselves out of luck.
On top of this, banks and investment funds are actuarily and actually broke - the funds that you entrusted with them may never be seen again, vanished into the void from which they sprang.
Your credit cards and loans are held by those same struggling banks, who need money - yours - to stay afloat. Hence the loan calls and raises in credit card and revolving credit interest rates and rises in adjustable rate mortgage and home equity loans. Basically, they get to retroactively charge you more for your house, and you have no recourse against them. Nice, huh?
On top of that, real wages, adjusted for inflation, are the same as they were in the 70s. Your Dad made more than you, relatively speaking, and you have a higher standard of living and most likely a higher standard of halachic stringency imposed on you.
It just doesn't add up.
Something's gotta give, class.
I don't know if this info is already public, but I put up a few words on the Deleted Comment" blog about the concert ban & Chazer Friedman.
Also please don't sign in with my name. Get creative & find yourself another nickname. If you want to quote me just say I wrote it.
Thanks.
The real J. Izrael.
I don't know if this is yet public, but I put up a few details about the ban and Chazer friendman on Deleted Comment" blog.
THX,
J. Izrael
OK here is the story. The OU dropped the ball in a big way with Solomon bison meat and continues to wallow beshat nefesh. NO ONE from the OU is going down to see if the treif company has extra sleeves with the OU imprint that would allow for this disaster again. OU outsiders who know about it have complained only to be met with an illogical OU response that the OU needs permission to go down and inspect. Yes, you heard that right. The new improved Orthodox Union is allowing the Rubashkin infection to spread. This is the new way of doing kosher supervision, you let anyone dictate terms to the kosher supervisors.
The OU also broke their own rules about distributors.
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