I URGE EVERYONE AND ANYONE WITH INFORMATION HELPFUL TO THE CHILD VICTIMS OF YESHIVA TORAH TEMIMAH, LIPA MARGULIES, YEHUDA KOLKO...AND ALL THE RABBINICAL PARTICIPANTS OF THE COVER-UP FOR DECADES - TO CONTACT ATTORNEY JEFFREY HERMAN!***************************************************
Regarding Mesirah
by Rabbi Hershel Schachter - Rosh Kollel - Kollel Elyon
The prohibition of mesirah is well known among religious Jews. The severity of this issur becomes ever so clear when we read in Shulchan Aruch that a mosser is dino ke’akum with respect to writing a sefer Torah (Yoreh Deah 281:3) and with respect to shechitah ( Remah ibid 2:9). Even if the mosser is otherwise an observant individual, and is meticulous in fulfilling his religious duties, because he demonstrates his rejection of the unity of all of Klal Yisroel (by his act of mesirah), he is treated as an akum (see Rambam, Hilchos Teshuva 3:11 and Nefesh Horav pg. 235).
If, however, one is guilty of a crime, and according to the law of the land deserves a prison sentence, or will be put to death, even though according to Jewish law his punishment would not be as severe, this is not mesirah (see Ritva to Bava Metsia 83b; Dvar Avraham vol. I pg. 8). One would still not be allowed to hand this individual over to the civil authorities because this is the equivalent of returning aveidas akum, which is usually not allowed. In an instance of avoiding a chilul Hashem, just like we would be obligated to return the aveidas akum, so too we would be obligated to hand over this individual (see Rama, Choshen Mishpat 388:12).
If the non-Jewish governmental authorities know that one Jew is concealing information about another Jew in order to save him from punishment, the Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 28:3) considers this a situation of chilul Hashem. Similarly, for many generations it was the practice that if a gneiva had occurred, and suspicion had fallen on the Jewish community, rather than allow that suspicion to hover over the entire community, the roshei hakehol, with the permission of the rabbonim, would inform the non-Jewish authorities who might possibly be the real ganav (Be’er Hagola, Choshen Mishpat 388:12).
Even if one is guilty of a crime and deserves a punishment according to the laws of the land, but due to anti-semitic attitudes he will probably suffer more than if he were a non-Jew; or, the (state) prison conditions are such that he will suffer at the hands of the other inmates (or at the hands of the guards) in a manner that is not proscribed by law, then turning the offender in would constitute mesirah, since his added suffering will be shelo kadin. However, mesirah is permitted in situations where one is a public menace (see Shach to Choshen Mishpat 388, 59), or if one is physically or psychologically harming another individual (for example, in instances of sexual abuse of children, students, campers etc., or spousal abuse) (see Shach to Choshen Mishpat ibid, 45).
The Jewish community does not have the ability to investigate these types of cases. Wherever there are raglayim ladavar that there seems to be a problem, the proper government agencies should be contacted to investigate.
Just as in other areas of halachah, one should consult a competent moreh horaah when faced with such a shayla. Just because one is knowledgeable in Yoreh Deah vol. I or one delivers a good pilpul shiur on sugyos in Nashim or Nezikin, it does not necessarily follow that that individual will be qualified to pasken on hilchos mesirah – lehakel or lehachmir.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
Lawyers Against Kolko Seek Additional Victims;
Trial Set For March 31, 2008
by Hella Winston
Special to the Jewish Week
Lawyers representing "several men" and "two young boys" who were allegedly sexually molested by a teacher at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn sent a letter March 13 to the families of more than 600 male students who had Rabbi Yehuda Kolko as an instructor.
The letter, from attorneys Jeffrey Herman and Michael Dowd, is "seeking any information that may be helpful to these important cases, including information that staff at Torah Temimah and/or [founder and head of school] Rabbi [Lipa] Margulies was aware of allegations against Rabbi Kolko."
According to the letter, "Two of the boys allege they were abused by Rabbi Kolko while attending the yeshiva during the past few years. Others allege they were abused by Rabbi Kolko at the yeshiva during the 1980s."
"[The letter] is part of our investigation," Herman told The Jewish Week Friday. "We are interested in speaking with families whose kids were with Rabbi Kolko at school and may have information that's relevant. We allege that there were complaints going back for decades about Rabbi Kolko.
"My sense is that the community is really coming around," Herman continued, "and that people [in the community] are much more willing to cooperate than they were a few years ago."
In December of 2006, Rabbi Kolko was arrested and indicted by a
Brooklyn grand jury on sexual abuse charges that involved a 6-year- old boy and a 31-year-old man; the latter alleges he was abused by the rabbi as a boy and again when he returned to visit the school in 2005.
Rabbi Kolko was arrested again in September 2007 on charges that he molested a first grader at the school in 2005. Rabbi Kolko remains free on $60,000 bail.
According to a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, preliminary hearings are set to begin in Rabbi Kolko's criminal case on March 31.
Over the past several years, YTT has been served with four civil lawsuits by five students. The most recent, filed in January 2007 on behalf of an underage "John Doe," alleges that the yeshiva covered up the abuse during the 2004-2005 school year, and seeks $10 million.
The yeshiva has denied a cover-up.
"I have been deeply involved in cases involving child sexual abuse for the past 12 years," Dowd, who just joined Herman on the Torah Temimah case, told The Jewish Week Friday. "And whether it be the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, whoever does this to children, they have to be stopped, the children have to be made whole and the children have to be protected in the future.
"The only way you defeat evil in this world is by standing up to it," Dowd continued. "We are asking and appealing to the children of the community that have been subjected to this evil to come forward and confront this evil, which is to be condemned in the eyes of men and in the eyes of God. We protect the evildoers when we remain silent. There is no difference whether it be a priest or a Boy Scout leader, it's all wrong."
A message left for the attorney for YTT, Avi Moskowitz, was unreturned.
135 comments:
Boycott Kedem Wines--Why are kosher wines double the price?
Boycott gefilte fish until the minced issue is resolved!
Is Margo so arrogant that he's still sleeping at night or is reality finally catching up to the fat fraud?
Someone should also help Jeff Herman compile more lists to reach out to with the mailing.
Stolin
Mir
Weinfeld's Shul
Regency
All camps in the Catskills (because of Lake Compounce outings)
Geldwerth's shul
Gissinger's shul
Yeshiva of Brooklyn (where Kolko proctored tests)
http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/VKR68aejf.htm
LEIB TROPPER MUST BE STOPPED!
Despite the issur from the Badatz to have anything to do with this con man, the Israeli Yated is pretending that Tropper is still all-important.
Why is R' Nochum Eisenstein of the Vaad HaRabbonim Haolami LeInyonei Giyur (founded by HaRav Chaim Kreiswirth zt"l) still working with him?
Why is the Rabbanut and Rav Haroshi Amar still catering to the loser?
http://www.slate.com/id/2186547/
The Rise of American Incompetence
We used to be the world's most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we're laughingstocks. What happened?
By Daniel Gross
Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008, at 7:12 AM ET
The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy. Countries that outsourced their monetary policy by pegging domestic currencies to the dollar are having second thoughts. Kuwait last year detached the dinar from the dollar, and Qatar government officials last week said they were considering doing the same with their currency. International financiers are unnerved by the toxic combination of "misplaced assumptions about housing, a lack of necessary regulation and irresponsible use of debt with sophisticated financial instruments," said Ashraf Laidi, currency strategist at CMC Markets.
Dissing American financial management is an affront to national pride tantamount to standing in Rome and asking, loudly, if Italians are able to make pasta. The United States invented the concept and practice of running large, complex systems. Along with baseball and deep-frying, management is one of our great national pastimes. The world's first MBAs were awarded by pioneering yuppie factories such as the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wharton's founding in 1881 was quickly followed by the world's first time-share summer houses in the Hamptons.) Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line was the gold standard in global manufacturing for decades. Contemporary American institutions stand for excellence in managing everything from supply chains (Wal-Mart) to delivery services (Federal Express and UPS).
Americans' ability to manage complex systems has been the ultimate competitive advantage. It has allowed the United States to enjoy high growth and low inflation—a record we haven't hesitated to lord over our foreign friends. The shelves in the business section of a bookstore in a mall in Johannesburg, South Africa, are stocked with the same volumes you'll find in a Barnes & Noble in Pittsburgh, Pa.: memoirs by cornfed paragons of capitalism like Jack Welch, wealth-building advice from American money managers, large tomes on how Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller built global businesses from scratch.
But now, thanks to widespread incompetence, American management is on its way to becoming an international laughingstock. Faith in American financial sobriety has been widely undermined by the subprime mess. The very mention of the strong-dollar policy now elicits raucous bouts of knee-slapping in even the most sober Swiss banks. (How do you say schadenfreude in German?) Earlier this month, as oil hovered near $100 a barrel, President Bush complained to OPEC about high oil prices. OPEC President Chakib Khelil responded acidly that crude's remarkable run had nothing to do with the reluctance of Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the "mismanagement of the U.S. economy." Since Bush's plea, oil has gushed to $110 per barrel. (How do you say schadenfreude in Arabic?)
Doubtful of the ability of provincial American executives, with their limited language skills, to negotiate today's global business environment, the boards of massive U.S. firms like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Alcoa, and insurer AIG have hired foreign-born CEOs. Carl Icahn, the 1980s corporate raider, has reinvented himself as a borscht-belt comedian/activist investor, who delights conferences and reporters with jokes at CEOs' expense. On a recent 60 Minutes, Icahn complained to Lesley Stahl about the incompetence of American management. "I see our country going off a cliff, and I feel bad about it."
Icahn is moping all the way to the bank. The market's recognition of management failures gives him the opportunities to acquire companies on the cheap. But those of us who aren't billionaire corporate raiders—which is to say pretty much all of us—must manage through this management crisis on our own.
Daniel Gross is the Moneybox columnist for Slate and the business columnist for Newsweek. You can e-mail him at moneybox@slate.com. He is the author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403318.html
A Bear Stearns Market
By James Grant
Sunday, March 16, 2008; B07
Panic is old hat on Wall Street. Rarely before, however, has there been a crisis so comprehensive as this one. It first materialized last summer in the shape of a disturbance in the low-rated, or subprime, mortgage market. "Contained," the regulatory establishment hopefully pronounced. But it has blazed across markets and time zones, with central bankers, politicians and Treasury functionaries in hot and, to date, futile pursuit.
What makes these proceedings so frightening is that not only is credit in crisis but so, too, is money. There are well-founded doubts about the promises to pay money and about the nature and integrity of the dollar itself. So it was on Friday that the Federal Reserve committed to lend undisclosed billions to bail out Bear Stearns, a top Wall Street purveyor of mortgage-backed securities and a leading lender to hedge funds. Where will the Fed find these dollars? Where it always, ultimately, does. It will have to print them, despite abundant evidence from the currency and gold markets that the world has just about all the dollar bills it cares to hold.
By the looks of things, America's surfeited creditors must make room for many billions more. The markets are in "uncharted waters," Robert Rubin, chairman of the Citigroup Executive Committee, said in a speech Friday. He urged the government to exert itself on behalf of the mortgage market and the American homeowner.
And who are these bankers who went sailing off the end of the Earth and thereby find it necessary to pass the cup to the government? The company of errant, if lavishly compensated, navigators includes none other than Rubin himself. Last fall, the former Treasury secretary confessed to Fortune magazine that until the mortgage storms broke over his head in the summer of 2007, he was unfamiliar with the kinds of complex mortgage structures with which Citi's own balance sheet was packed. Almost certainly, the gulf between competence and compensation on Wall Street has never been wider.
It's surprising that R' Don Segal, who is currently the mashgiach of Tifrach, would publicly talk about onshim regarding the bochurim killed at Mercaz Harav.
R' Aron of Satmar did not do so and the Belzer rebbe attended the levaya and visited the wounded in the hospital.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/963696.html
Rabbi: Terror attack was punishment for rebellion against Torah
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
Notices in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, the location of the Mercaz Harav yeshiva where a Palestinian gunman shot to death eight students last week, said: "Each and everyone is required to imagine what the enemy is plotting to do to us, and to match it measure for measure."
The rabbis also said it was necessary "to work to create a proper Jewish leadership," and looked forward to the day when "Jews will congregate in their cities ... and strike those who wish upon them ill in those days at this time." The latter alludes to the Book of Esther, which will be read next week on Purim.
Among the signatories to the street notice were Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Ido Elba, who was sentenced to a two-year prison term for incitement to racism, Rabbi Gadi Ben-Zimra, the rabbi of the Orthodox high school where girls who were arrested refused to recognize the court's authority.
"In going to war," the rabbis write, "the Cohen [priest] fills the people with motivation by giving him the knowledge that he is going to fight his enemies and he must not show compassion or mercy."
Ben-Zimra told Haaretz that the message did not call for individual acts of vengeance because that is the job of the proper Jewish leadership that must be established.
Ben-Zimra said the words "local blessed actions" in the notice referred to acts such as returning to Gush Katif. He said the notice he had been asked to sign was formulated somewhat differently than the one that appeared.
"Private vengeance is damaging and I for one am not calling for it," Ben-Zimra said. "I don't think that this message implies that one must go out and take revenge."
Channel 1 reported Tuesday that a rabbi had given permission to yeshiva students to carry out revenge attacks. The head of the Bnei Akiva yeshivas, Rabbi Haim Druckman, sharply criticized the message and said no such thing took place at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva. He said individuals were forbidden to take security matters into their own hands.
The extreme right represented by the notice's signatories is usually opposed to the "government stream" of Orthodoxy with which the Mercaz Harav yeshiva is identified.
MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party-National Union) demanded Wednesday that the Public Security Ministry investigate the validity of the television report. Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told the Knesset in response that the Shin Bet security service and police have no information on revenge plots.
Another notice posted in Jerusalem and signed by the right-wing groups Komemiyut, the Jewish Heart, and Women in Green, said that "we will come in masses to destroy the murderer's house and expel his family." The notice also made reference to the Book of Esther and the victory of Jews over their enemies.
A few days ago, the police arrested right-wing activists at the Promenade in southern Jerusalem, not far from the village of Jabal Mukkaber, where the terrorist's family lives. The activists said they were on their way to destroy the family's house.
Meanwhile, a different Orthodox response to the massacre at Mercaz Harav came from the leader of the anti-Zionist Lithuanian stream of Judaism, Rabbi Dan Segal.
According to the new ultra-Orthodox daily, Yom Hadash, Segal told his students the massacre was a divine punishment for violating two of three oaths the Talmud links with coming to live in the Land of Israel. The issue of the three oaths is at the nexus of debate between Zionist and anti-Zionist Orthodoxy.
Segal reportedly said that the Orthodox were called to greater strictness in keeping the two oaths, which are not to come as a group to live in Israel using force, and not to rebel against the nations of the world.
Other non-Zionist ultra-Orthodox leaders, among them the leader of the Satmar sect, wrote eulogies for the victims of the attack. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Knesset faction visited the Mercaz Harav yeshiva on Wednesday.
Ha! While you UOJ cronies were rejoicing over my resignation, you may have gone from the frying pan to the fire.
David Paterson is in the back pocket of the Agudah and has a 20+ year relationship with Agudah Fresser Shmuel Lefkowitz.
"My sense is that the community is really coming around," Herman continued, "and that people [in the community] are much more willing to cooperate than they were a few years ago."
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6113113659847582922&postID=1764328684722183798
Anonymous said...
i'm a victim and wont come 4ward for fear of hurting my family and b called a mooser. with the stigma attached to this y com fward?
March 16, 2008 7:02 PM
OMERTA LIVES!
Paterson Invocation Speaker From Agudath Israel of America
Albany, NY - One of Governor Designate David Paterson's choices to deliver an invocation at his swearing-in tomorrow has raised some eyebrows in the Orthodox Jewish community.
Paterson tapped Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president for community services of Agudath Israel of America, to do the honors at the joint legislative session in the Assembly chamber.
Lefkowitz, who could not be reached for comment is not a practicing rabbi, according to a knowledgable Jewish source.
But he is a plugged-in political operative who frequently presses Agudath Israel's case on a variety of issues at both the Capitol and City Hall, although he is not a registered lobbyist.
The source called Lefkowitz "a surprising choice," adding: "In a state with more practicing rabbis than any other in the US, couldn't the governor find a rabbi who makes his living tending to the spiritual needs of the people as opposed to their material needs?"
A Paterson spokesperson said the selection of Lefkowitz carried "personal significance" for the governor designate, noting the two have known each other since Paterson was first elected some two decades ago and have worked together over the years on "improving education and social services for working families." [nydailynews]
Federal Cash Cow Out of Milk
By Matt Towery
Friday, March 14, 2008
While reviewing an archive of my past Creators Syndicate columns for another project I'm working on, I discovered this from a Florida Times-Union clipping from about two years ago:
"Don't look now, but America's housing market is on the edge of a precipice. More ominous still is that it's not just the houses themselves that are a concern...The financial foundations may not be able to bear the weight of their debt."
Believe me, I don't want any reward for having been on to something ahead of most of my national colleagues. And -- naturally -- I found a column just weeks later in which I wrote that President Bush wasn't doing so bad! So I'm not bragging. In fact, I'm scared to death.
This week, the federal government went back to its same old playbook and pumped $280 billion into the financial community to create instant additional liquidity. Only now are we learning that many analysts suspect that the move was made to rescue a specific major financial institution that might have been on the brink of insolvency.
The last time I wrote about the government's practice of simply pumping more dollars into the market to prop up the economy, I sounded to some like one of those conspiratorial types who believes a handful of individuals run the world and that we should all have gold buried in our backyard.
Well, boot the "conspiracy nut" labels. Let me cite the Times of London's online edition of March 13, 2008. It quotes an analyst on the failure of the latest cash infusion to lift the stock market beyond a one-day bounce. The analyst, fearful that at least one or more major financial institutions will go under, says that maybe a standard playbook answer is no longer an option. "The Fed just can't keep printing money," he wrote.
Coming from a family that was for decades in the printing and publishing business, I can tell you that it is an amazing sight to look down a row of massive presses all operating at one time. The noise is awesome. The smell is one that only a person with ink in their veins could love. For me, seeing such a sight meant that we were making money. The value of whatever came off that press, be it a corporate annual report or an ad campaign for a retailer, had value because it was backed up by the dollars we would be paid for producing the product.
But imagine that you are standing watching rows of presses, some as long as a house, printing not books or catalogues or advertisements, but dollars. Just as in the world of commercial printing, the price of the product being printed goes down with each additional unit you print.
After you get past the many processes necessary to prepare the press, the biggest cost that remains is that of time and paper. That's what makes the cost of the product decline.
Similarly, the dollar is declining today. And the idea that we -- our government -- is printing on more paper and more ink doesn't give me the same happy feeling I had when it was a commercial printing product being cheaply replicated, for which my company would be paid dollars.
No, instead we are talking about the very "thing" of value to us, the dollar bill itself. It's being stretched to such a long run that its cost -- or in this case, its value -- per unit is dropping like a rock.
This is no longer some far-out discussion of "why we left the gold standard." Our nation is on the verge of a potential 1929 catastrophe; if not immediately, then in the long run.
To have the president not recognize that we are probably in a recession already, and not to recognize that gas prices could be $4 per gallon this summer, is regrettable. But Bush is political toast, and to expect that either he or Vice President Darth Vader will accomplish anything in their remaining months is hopeless.
The answer to this is in our own hands. Whatever idiotic piece of legislation your congressman or senator is working on right now, call them and ask them to put it aside.
We need bipartisan movement quickly on the issue of saving our economy.
The Fed can't keep lowering interest rates because it is not working; it doesn't reach those who need relief. Additionally, with inflation racing up the charts, the cuts will soon result in a reversal of interest-rate hikes. And the absurd concept of sending everyone a one-time check in the mail to "stimulate the economy" will lift things, oh, maybe a week or two.
Meanwhile, they'll just keep on printing money. Including the $40 million-plus it took to mail out notices to Americans, to let them know that their handout from the government will be arriving soon. Keep those presses rolling, boys.
Jewish Survivors Blog
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/03/we-must-feel-pain-and-anguish-by-member.html
Sunday, March 16, 2008
We Must Feel The Pain And Anguish - By A Member of the Baltimore Community
From The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter:
We Must Feel The Pain And Anguish
By Member of the Baltimore Community
© (2008) The Awareness Center
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer of Baltimore writes in this week's shul bulletin for Parshas VaYikra: "We must feel the pain and anguish of the parents, siblings, families, and friends of these eight young Bnai Torah who were brutally murdered [in Eretz Yisroel]."
It is human to ask WHY and know that there is no ultimate answer in this world, but there are ways of analyzing world events to learn lessons.
These events unfortunately parallel the current community topic of sexual abuse and child molestation. We must connect to the pain and anguish of the parents, siblings, families, and friends of the many young B'nai Torah (both boys and girls) who have been sexually molested and are then coerced to keep silent.
The parallel continues: the perpetrators of murder in Eretz Yisroel are the Arabs. Yet the Israeli government leaders give the enemy Arabs political power, lethal weapons and international support. Our Rabbinic leaders enable the perpetrators and molesters to hide under the cover of victim silence. This cover up allows the perpetrators to continue their destruction of the physical, emotional and spiritual lives of more Jewish victims, families and future generations of Klal Yisroel.
So now we have a hint of one of the deep dark reasons WHY tragedy has hit our people at this time and this place. In the holy of holies, Yerushalayim, and with our holy kinderlach.
According to national statistics a child molester will criminally sexually violate between 117 - 120 times prior to law enforcement being notified.
Last month at a community meeting, David Mandel of Ohel Children Home (NYC) and Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer instructed community members not to report alleged sex crimes to the police. Instead to report the crimes to the rabbonim. Considering the fact that this policy has been endorsed by the president of the Vaad of Baltimore (Jewish Religious Court), one has to wonder if the number of victims left by a sexual predator within the Eruv would be double the national norm? -- Vicki Polin, Director - The Awareness Center
For more information on various alleged and convicted sex offenders living in the Baltimore orthodox community click below (alphabetical order):
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16).
1. Case of Stanley Ashman
2. Case of Aron Goldberger
3. Case of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann
4. Case of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau
5. Case of Rabbi Benyamin Yaakov Fleischman
6. Case of Cantor Stuart Friedman
7. Case of Shmuel Juravel
8. Case of Martin Kaufman
9. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Menken
10. Case of Ephraim Ohana
11. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro
12. Case of Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro
13. Case of Rabbi Aron Tendler
Those who are no longer living or moved out of the Eruv of Baltimore
2. Case of Judge Robert I.H. Hammerman
3. Case of the Student Offenders of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950's
4. Case of Steven Howard Oken
5. Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg
6. Case of Wayne Stephen Young
if any cases are missing please forward them to The Awareness Center
"Federal Cash Cow Out of Milk"
Sounds like the cholov treifa / stam that I'm mattir for the OU.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/17/2008-03-17_matos_mcgreevey_denies_threesomes_jim_mc.html
Monday, March 17th 2008, 2:07 PM
In a case of he said, she said, he said, denials flew back and forth today over reports that disgraced ex-New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey had threesomes with his wife and a male aide.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, McGreevey confirmed statements made by former campaign aide Teddy Pedersen.
The 29-year-old hunk said he had frequent sexual liaisons with McGreevey and his wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, for about two years before the "I am a gay American" governor took office.
"This happened, this happened in the past, and now we need to move on with our lives," McGreevey said.
Pedersen claims he and the McGreeveys had what they referred to as "Friday Night Specials" for about two years starting in 1999.
In her rebuttal, Matos McGreevey said the statements were "completely false" and claimed that Pedersen was one of her estranged husband’s "cronies."
She said McGreevey set Petersen up to spread the tale because he "cannot stand it when I am receiving attention in the media rather than him."
Pedersen said the weekly romps usually began with dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s and ended with a romp at McGreevey’s condo in Woodbridge, N.J.
Pedersen said he gave a sworn deposition about the sexual liaison and expected to be called as a witness in the McGreevey divorce proceedings. McGreevey’s lawyer, Stephen Haller, confirmed the deposition.
Pedersen, who said he had physical contact only with Matos McGreevey, said the trysts ended when McGreevey was elected governor in 2001.
Pedersen said he went public with the allegations because he disputed Matos McGreevey’s claims that she didn’t know about her husband’s homosexuality.
Matos McGreevey has made the rounds on television talk shows recently to give her perspective on the seamy Gov. Eliot Spitzer pay-for-sex scandal.
Divorce proceedings are ongoing. Another hearing is set for Thursday.
McGreevey resigned in 2004 after acknowledging an affair with a male staffer who he said was trying to blackmail him. The ex-staffer said McGreevey sexually harassed him.
We Brits don't like being treated like a number either.
Tally Ho!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/03/12/2008-03-12_richest_man_in_england_also_a_regular_of.html
Client No. 6
Richest man in England also a regular of prostitution ring in Spitzer scandal
By LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
3 month bill rates fell to the lowest today since the 1950s.
According to a source at the Vaad Hakashrus Leinyanei Hamayim:
It's true that Belsky who says copepods aren't a problem has been known for various controversial psokim that are not understood even by major talmidei chochomim.
It's true that Belsky was not interested in hearing relevant information that experts had that could have contributed to his "evaluation".
It's true that Belsky is using R' Moishe Feinstein's shita that the Klal could not have been nichshol in devorim assurim for decades without knowing BUT it's also true that Belsky ignores the 2nd half of that R' Moishe shita that you have to be mesaken.
It's true that Rav Elyashev read Belsky's teshuva on the copepods and said it's still a problem no matter what Belsky says.
Ban The Music:
" We’ve entered an environment where it’s not just the banks’ write-downs anymore but a complete lack of confidence,” said James Nixon, an economist at Société Générale in London. “When the music stops no one wants to be the one without a chair so people are sitting tight and say ‘there’s no way that I’m getting up now.’ ”
Sex sells soap, at least in the United States — but a married man going to a prostitute is simply not a big deal. We must restore our sense of proportion and priorities.
Oil futures hit $112 a barrel today.
Gold rose to $1033 an ounce.
I don't think there's anything to stop gold's rise given the dollar's collapse and flight to safe haven assets.
UOJ
Welcome back...we missed you.
The Commentator
Jimbo Cramer was together with both R' Elya Spitzer and Silda at Harvard Law School.
Jimbo has also been hitting on a producer at CNBC lately. CNBC refused to comment to the Daily News about it.
UOJ
Welcome back...we missed you.
---------------------------
Todah! Likewise!
Don't be fooled by this charismatic no-record of anything charlatan:
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Obama Attended Hate America Sermon
Sunday, March 16, 2008
By: Ronald Kessler
Obama claims he was completely unaware that the Reverend Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ targeted “white” America.
Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's attendance. Mr. Davis' story was first published on Newsmax on August 9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator's attendance and Rev. Wright's comments during his sermon. The Senator's office declined to comment.
Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.
Senator Obama has sought to separate himself from his pastor’s incendiary remarks, issuing a statement Friday rejecting them as “inflammatory and appalling” but failing to renounce Wright himself for his venomous and paranoid denunciations of America.
In his press release, Obama claimed, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity [United Church of Christ] or heard him utter in private conversation.”
Appearing on cable news shows this past weekend, Obama claimed when he saw recent videos that have Wright making such comments as “God damn America,” he was “shocked.” Obama implied that the reverend had not used such derogatory language in any of the church services Obama attended over the past two decades.
If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.
In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama. [See: ”Obama’s Church: Cauldron of Division.”]
In his sermon that day, Wright tore into America, referring to the “United States of White America” and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened. Hearing Wright’s attacks on his own country, Obama had the opportunity to walk out, but Davis said the senator sat in his pew and nodded in agreement.
Addressing the Iraq war, Wright thundered, “Young African-American men” were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”
Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”
The Reverend Wright’s anti-white theology that Senator Obama expressed surprise over is evident on the church’s website. The site says the congregation subscribes to what it calls the Black Value System, which is described as a disavowal of “our racist competitive society” and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” That is defined as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in the church-affiliated magazine Trumpet four years after the attacks. “White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
The Relationship Unravels
Senator Obama now is attempting to minimize his long and close relationship with the controversial minister.
On Friday, John McCain’s campaign distributed a Wall Street Journal op-ed “Obama and the Minister” written under my byline based on my reporting for Newsmax going back to early January of this year.
The op-ed included details of a sermon Wright gave at Howard University blaming America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs, shamelessly supporting Israel, and creating a racist society that would never elect a black man as president. [See: “Obama’s Minister’s Hatred of America.”]
Obama’s campaign quickly responded to the Wall Street Journal op-ed, posting a statement on the Huffington Post. In his statement, Obama acknowledged that some of Wright’s statements have been “inflammatory and appalling.”
Saying he strongly condemns Wright’s comments, Obama continued, “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.” [emphasis added]
Again, Obama moved to narrowly distance himself from specific comments Wright had made, while still praising his minister in recent interviews for leading him to Jesus and preaching a “social gospel.”
Obama went on to claim that he first learned about Wright’s controversial statements when he began his presidential campaign. But this assertion conflicts with the fact that just before Obama’s nationally televised campaign kickoff rally on Feb. 10, 2007, the candidate disinvited Wright from giving the public invocation.
At the time, Wright explained: “When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli” to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, “a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”
According to Wright, Obama then told him, “'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.'” Still, Obama and his family prayed privately with Wright just before the presidential announcement.
Apparently Obama never foresaw Wright’s sermons making national television or becoming a sensation on YouTube. But lending graphic detail to the saga, ABC News and other networks began running a 2003 sermon in which Wright said, “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people ... God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” [Click Here to see video]
Obama has described Wright as a sounding board and mentor. Wright is one of the first people Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Obama consulted Wright before deciding to run for president. The title of Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons. Obama’s “Yes We Can!” slogan is one of Wright’s exhortations.
Apologists for Wright have said that what he says is normal in black churches, and many blacks claim such preaching cannot be understood by whites.
“If you’re black, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people,” the New York Times quoted James Cone as saying. Cone is a professor at Union Theological Seminary and the father of what is known as black liberation theology.
But Juan Williams, a Fox News commentator and author of “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America,” tells Newsmax that Wright’s sermons reflect “the victim mindset that is so self-defeating in the black community and one that is played on by weak black leadership that chooses to have black people identified as victims rather than inspiring them as people who have overcome. In posing as victims, they say the most prejudiced and vicious things, not only about whites but about America. They call it theology. In fact, it’s nothing but bigotry.”
In failing to condemn Wright himself and claiming that he was unaware of the preacher’s hate-filled speech, Obama is continuing a longstanding pattern.
Obama often refers to Wright as being "like an old uncle, who sometimes says things I don't agree with." Wright is not Obama’s “uncle” — a person born into a blood relationship — but a man he has cultivated for decades as a close friend, mentor and adviser.
After Newsmax broke the story on Jan. 14 that Wright’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan in December for lifetime achievement, Obama again sought to denounce his minister’s action without criticizing Wright himself.
Like Wright, Farrakhan has repeatedly made hate-filled statements targeting Jews (calling Judaism a “gutter religion”), whites, and America. He has called whites “blue-eyed devils” and the “anti-Christ.” He has described Jews as “bloodsuckers” who control the government, the media, and some black organizations.
After the Newsmax story, Obama issued a statement purportedly addressing the issue.
"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan," Obama said.
Again, Obama was careful not to condemn Farrakhan himself or Wright who had spoken adoringly of Farrakhan and put their church behind the award to the controversial Nation of Islam leader.
“When Minister Farrakhan speaks, black America listens,” Trumpet quoted Wright as saying. “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”
Obama adroitly said, “I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.”
In fact, Trumpet is published by Wright’s church using the church’s offices. Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
Having gotten away with sidestepping Wright’s adoring comments about Farrakhan, Obama told Jewish leaders flatly in Cleveland on Jan. 24 that the award was because of Farrakhan’s work with ex-offenders. To date, no news outlet has pointed out that Obama’s claim is false.
Obama went on to explain away Wright’s anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state’s support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his claim that the award to Farrakhan was made because of his work with ex-offenders, Obama made that up. Wright’s statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way.
On Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes on Friday, Obama said he would have quit the church if he had “repeatedly” been present when Wright made inflammatory statements. He was not asked why he did not quit the church when it gave an award to Farrakhan.
Having considered Wright a friend and mentor for two decades, Obama now often mentions that his pastor recently retired. Wright suggested to the New York Times last year that he and Obama might have to do something of a distancing act in the run up to the election.
"If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me," Wright was quoted by The New York Times. "I said it to Barack personally, and he said, ‘Yeah, that might have to happen.'"
Veteran metals trading macher Frank McGhee predicted today that gold may hit $1400 an ounce this year.
There was also a huge seizure in money markets that started early this morning with a dramatic 80 basis point surge in London interbank offered rates (Libor), the biggest daily increase since the Arab terrorist attacks of September 11th. Banks are just scrambling for cash, any cash they can get their hands on.
Why do you think Lehman and most bank stocks took a nosedive today?
Man is there ever a lot of anger out there today. Investors saw their Bear Stearns shares go from $50 to $2 almost overnight. That's what I call B.S. The employees had their pensions wiped out and they will probably be fired by JP Morgan Chase.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_PxepB5WL1N0/R91L7DJEWiI/AAAAAAAAAL0/2mwmsRdT0Dw/s1600-h/Mandel_David2.JPG
This has nothing to do with covering up for molesters. UOJ always had it in for guys whose moustaches are a different color than their beard.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420684980&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
US immigrant couple detained in 'worst child abuse case ever seen'
Rebecca Anna Stoil , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 14, 2008
Two preschool-aged brothers were lying in hospital beds on Thursday, one fighting for his life, as their parents pled innocence in what Jerusalem police called the worst child abuse case they have ever seen.
The estranged parents, recent haredi immigrants from the United States, have six other children.
The older of the two victims, aged four and a half, was hospitalized in good condition at Hadassah-University Medical Center, Ein Kerem, late on Tuesday after a family friend noticed he was behaving strangely and contacted social services. His mother joined him in the hospital.
Then, early Wednesday morning, Magen David Adom received a call from the family's home in the exclusive Wolfson apartment complex in the capital's Rehavia neighborhood, reporting that a three-and-a-half-year-old boy had been found unconscious and not breathing. An MDA team resuscitated the boy after a long struggle, and he was hospitalized, unconscious and in critical condition.
Only then was the connection made between the two cases. Police representatives described the abuse as "prolonged and severe," speaking in court on Thursday.
Both children had burns all over their bodies. The younger boy, who is still unconsciousness, also had marks indicating that his arms and legs had been bound and that he had been beaten with a blunt object and whipped on the back.
Police detained the mother, 38, and spent hours locating the boys' father, also a suspect in the abuse.
The father said that he and his wife had been separated for some time, and that as he had been living in a second Jerusalem property owned by the couple, he had no idea of the horrors that police believed occurred in his wife's residence.
The children were allegedly cared for by two Israeli men in their 20s; they are also suspects in the abuse.
Asst.-Cmdr. Bruno Stein, who is leading the police probe, said officers were trying to locate two more suspects.
The mother was questioned for almost 13 hours on Wednesday, but never asked about her two hospitalized sons, Stein said. Instead, he said, she read from a Book of Psalms. The mother did say, however, that the father had been responsible for bringing the two "caretakers" into the house.
At one point, she confessed to the allegations against her, but she later retracted her statement.
During the parents' remand hearing on Thursday afternoon, the mother's attorney said the confession had been made under pressure. The father also denied any connection to the boys' injuries.
But after being presented with a series of photographs of the injuries, Judge Hayim Li-Ran extended the parents' remands by six days and determined that until the children were questioned, only social services representatives would be allowed to visit them in the hospital.
The couple's other six children have been put in the care of the city's Social Services Department.
It appears that Mordecai Tendler is still up and running. His shiur (class) is being promoted by luach.com.
Contact luach.com, let them know that Mordecai Tendler was kicked out of the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America) and that several rabbis in Monsey, NY declared him a danger to women.
http://www.luach.com/site_search?cat=shiurim_chavrusos
Lower East Side Shiurim & Chavrusos
Change in Shiur Time Rav Mordecai Tendler's Shiur over the phone on Inyanei Tefila has been moved to Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 8:00 PM. Even if you are not home at that time, you can still hear the shiur from wherever you are by calling [641]594-7566 and then pressing pin number 72114#. Press *6 to mute and *6 to ask Rav Tendler questions at end of Shiur.
Contact:
Shmuel Laskin
Luach.com
E-mail: http://www.luach.com/feedback.html
Recession began in December, signposts say
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Although the official word won't come for months, the economic data now available show that the recession probably began in December.
Four of the five indicators watched most carefully for signs of a break in economic growth are now trending lower.
It's only a matter of time before the semi-official recession judges at the National Bureau of Economic Research meet to confirm it. They'll wait a few months in case the trends that now seem so clear are revised higher.
You don't need two consecutive quarters of falling growth in gross domestic product to have a recession. Recessions are mostly about a broad-based weakness seen in falling job growth, incomes, sales and output.
You don't need two consecutive quarters of falling growth to have a recession.
The NBER, a private economic-research group, has defined a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales." Read more.
The outgoing head of the NBER, Martin Feldstein, said Friday that he believes the recession will be "substantially more severe" than recent downturns. "The situation is very bad, the situation is getting worse and the risks are that it could get very bad," he said in a speech to futures traders.
It's probable that the downturn, whether it meets the technical definition of a recession or not, could last for quite a while. See full story on a lengthy recession ahead.
For most Americans, it's a recession when jobs are being lost. Employment is the most important recessionary signal, with most recessions in the post-World War II era starting within a month of the peak in employment. Once payrolls begin to fall, a recession has begun.
Payrolls peaked in December and have now fallen for two consecutive months, with private-sector payrolls falling for three months in a row. The annualized growth rate over the past three months is negative 0.1%, down from 1% growth a year ago.
Incomes are the second-most important signal. If Americans enjoy higher incomes, they'll spend and keep the economy going. Lately, inflation has taken away all the gains in incomes; real incomes peaked in September. The annualized growth rate over the past three months is negative 0.8%, down from 4.7% growth a year ago.
Industrial output, a key indicator of activity on the supply side of the economy, has been essentially flat since July. Weak domestic demand has been offset by higher exports. The annualized growth rate over the past three months is negative 0.7%, down from 3.6% growth a year ago.
Business sales are a good indicator of domestic demand; they peaked in October. The annualized growth rate over the past three months is negative 3.7%, down from 4.1% growth a year ago.
The final indicator used by the NBER doesn't come from the government, but is an estimate of monthly GDP produced by Macroeconomic Advisers. It's the only one of the five major indicators that's still in positive territory. The annualized growth rate over the past three months is 4%, up from 1.8% growth a year ago.
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - Some employees at Israel's covert security agency are blogging about their work lives in an attempt to attract more high-tech workers to the Shin Bet's ranks.
The highly secretive organization runs informants and agents, carries out surveillance and interrogations and serves as a key component of Israel's battle against Palestinian militants.
Viznits Fressers has learned that the Viznitzer Rebbe Shlita (from Monsey) is currently stuck in an elevator on 41st Street at New Utrecht Avenue. The Rebbe was on his first visit to the new Yeshiva building, and the elevator suddenly sopped working while he was inside it. FDNY and NYPD ESU units are currently on the scene attempting to extricate him.
I could not say it better myself:
--------------------------------
How subprime killed Bear Stearns
A problem with risky mortgages has led to a global financial crisis. The bigger issue: Experts don't know when it will end.
By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It started last summer when borrowers with weak credit started defaulting on their mortgages. Last night, it brought down an 85-year-old pillar of Wall Street.
How did we get to this point? How did rising foreclosures among subprime borrowers lead to Bear Stearns being scooped up in a fire-sale for two bucks a share?
The answer starts with investment banks: They sold complex securities backed by debt that was a lot riskier than most realized. The realization that the banks had failed to manage this risk sparked widespread concern among investors and other financial firms. Suddenly, investors found they couldn't put a value on much of what the banks were selling. As a result, the lending markets that keep Wall Street humming seized up because people feared they wouldn't get paid back.
"We got to the point where the various parties in the financial system started not to trust each other," said Lawrence White, an economics professor at New York University.
What's worse is that no one knows when it will end.
Every week, it seems, another part of the U.S. financial system falters and the federal government has to come up with a new rescue plan. The Federal Reserve Bank's actions have helped soothe the markets in past crises, but the magnitude of the current meltdown may prove unprecedented, experts said. Today's troubles ensnare not only traditional banks, but investment firms, hedge funds, insurance companies and non-bank lenders.
No place like home
The roots of the current crisis lie in the euphoria of the real estate boom. With housing prices soaring and the economy solid, financial firms dove into the lucrative mortgage market. To meet the insatiable desire for mortgage-backed securities, firms loosened their lending standards and extended credit to people with weaker financial backgrounds.
But the lenders didn't put in place the necessary controls to handle the risk of a downturn in the housing market, said Amiyatosh Purnanandam, assistant professor of finance at the University of Michigan. The financial firms weren't ready to cope with a downturn in the value of the housing market or of these securities.
The signs were there: The rates paid on risky securities, such as junk bonds, moved closer to those of super-safe Treasuries, an indication that investors didn't feel the need to pay a premium to take on more risk.
"Every time we see a big crisis, someone messed up the risk management," Purnanandam said.
A slowdown in home values last year touched off the maelstrom. Subprime homeowners found they could no longer afford their monthly payments, leading to a spike in delinquencies and defaults. Investors panicked because they could no longer value the securities backed by these mortgages.
At first, some thought the problem would be contained within the mortgage industry. But within a few months, it spread like wildfire through the debt market as people lost faith in the investment banks' ability to manage risk in general. Investors are hesitating to put money in securities backed by municipal bonds, student loans, credit cards and even mortgages backed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which have an implicit government guarantee, for fear they won't be paid back.
"What happened was we figured out the whole scheme wasn't working the right way," said George Tsetsekos, dean of the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. "It's an issue of confidence in the marketplace over the ability of institutions to receive back the funds that were lent."
Financial firms are also shying away from extending credit to one another, afraid that the collateral backing the loans will lose value.
The banks are saying "I don't want to be involved in any relationship where you owe me money because I don't know if you will be able to honor that obligation," White explained.
Faith in the currency wanes
The dollar is compounding the problem. The dollar's fall against other currencies has made it less attractive for foreign investors to put their money in dollar-denominated U.S. securities. And that is pulling much-needed funding out of the system, Tsetsekos said.
Without liquidity, the global financial markets started breaking down, forcing the Federal Reserve to repeatedly inject cash into the system and take the hard-to-trade mortgage securities as collateral in return.
The crisis reached new heights last Thursday when Bear Stearns suffered a classic run-on-the-bank after questions about the investment bank's finances surfaced. The bank, one of largest underwriters of mortgage-backed bonds, had suffered greatly in the meltdown and didn't have the diversity of revenues that cushioned its rivals.
Clients began withdrawing funds or demanding more collateral from Bear Stearns (BSC, Fortune 500), leading it to turn to the federal government for help. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), along with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, announced they would step in with funding while the investment bank explored its alternatives.
Two days later, JPMorgan announced that it would buy the venerable Wall Street firm, once known for its high-quality risk management, for a shockingly low $2 a share, a 93% discount from Bear Stearns' closing price on Friday.
The move, however, has not calmed everyone's nerves. Instead, some investors are looking for the next institution to fail, with their sights set on Lehman Brothers (LEH, Fortune 500), whose shares were down 32% in late-afternoon trading Monday.
"Once you see one bank subject to this kind of run, depositors starting worrying maybe the bank across the street may be equally as susceptible," White said. "Clearly that's what the Fed is worried about."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/us/16rabbi.html
Governor Paterson says I should reach out to the Moetzes.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/us/20080309_JUDAISM_FEATURE/index.html
As you can see in this video, Reb Capers is da man. Even after they were ripped off by Leib Pinter's sub-prime mortgage scam, they still agreed to use Fartscroll siddurim.
Can you recommend a Shabbat siddur suitable for teenage boys? I myself use the *artscroll ohel sarah women's siddur - it's pretentious, but not "bad," I guess. Admittedly, I skip some repetitious parts. Seriously, what is a good Hebrew/English siddur?
Read my article about the abuse problem in this weeks Hamodia.
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -
The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to slash interest rates by as much as a whole percentage point at its policy meeting on Tuesday as investors warily await investment bank results that could aggravate fears of a full-blown markets crisis.
Traders expect the Fed to cut rates by a full percentage point in an effort to stop hemorrhaging in financial markets and boost the flagging economy. The Fed is expected to announce its decision around 2:15 p.m. EDT.
The Fed has cut overnight rates by 2.25 percentage points to 3 percent since mid-September as a rise in defaults on subprime mortgages has escalated into a financial crisis that this weekend claimed one of Wall Street's most venerable firms, investment bank Bear Stearns, as a victim.
While financial markets expect the Fed to fire off its biggest rate cut since 1982, they might focus more on the quarterly results due hours earlier from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), the most profitable U.S. investment bank, and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N), the fourth-largest.
The banks are expected to show how badly they were hit by the credit crunch in the three months ended February 29 -- and any major shocks could send markets into another tailspin, especially given the vulnerability of the financial sector exposed by the fire sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase.....
The Metzudah linear siddur.
And unlike Fartscroll, they do not publish any convicted criminals authors or false puff pieces about convicted child rapists.
March 18, 2008
Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Bialik Arrested on Sexual Assault Charges – Signed 'Pesak Din' in 1997 Declaring the Late Lubavitcher Rebbe the Messiah
Rabbi Mahluf Aminadav Krispin, who is married to a granddaughter of the Baba Sali, was arrested late yesterday on multiple charges of sexual assault.
Rabbi Krispin has a close connection to Chabad, as you can see, after the jump in the extended post. And, as you can also see, the man is no…
…spring chicken, as Ha'aretz notes:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/965192.html
…The 73-year-old rabbi, who is also suspected of assaulting two women who came to the council offices for guidance, has denied all charges against him.
Police suspect the rabbi assaulted the employees over a number of years, with the allegations only coming to light after an alleged victim complained to police, leading officers to a series of other women who reported being assaulted. Police reported the investigation is ongoing and that due to the old age of the suspect, if convicted he will probably be sentenced to house arrest
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=31&ar=mabat
Krispin's name and face were shown on Israeli TV news (Mabat – about 24 minutes into the broadcast).
Now, here is his Chabad connection, courtesy of Beis Moshiach magazine (the article starts on page 6):
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:rkdm0DZsZfkJ:beismoshiach.org/_pdf/453.pdf+kiryat+bialik+rabbi+Rabbi+Machluf+Aminadav+Krispin&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a
…“Shortly before Chai Elul 5757, HaRav Gedalia Axelrod of Haifa prepared a new p’sak din, based on the fact that the Rebbe’s promise does not remain unfulfilled. Rabbi Axelrod included the fact that the Rebbe is a prophet and the halacha that a good prophecy can not be nullified. Along with Rabbi Axelrod, HaRav Mordechai Ashkenazi of Kfar Chabad and HaRav Boruch Boaz Yurkowitz of Lod also signed the p’sak din. In order to widen the scope of the entire matter, Rabbi Axelrod turned to me, since I had already been involved previously, and requested that I secure additional signatures.”…
Weren’t you worried about bringing such a letter to non- Lubavitcher rabbanim?
I see nothing to fear. Eventually, everyone will accept the sovereignty of the Rebbe – and the sooner, the better...
Naturally, we started with rabbanim who are openly more connected to such matters. The pioneer in this effort was HaRav Yaakov Yosef of Be’er Sheva [Ovadia Yosef's renegade Chabad son]. We approached him first due to his warm relationship with Chabad. We told him that dozens of rabbanim had already signed the p’sak, and now we were asking him to join them. Rabbi Yosef responded that regardless of who has signed before, he’s signing now.
Around this same time, HaRav Boaz Kali and HaRav Yigal Pizem came to the rav of Kiryat Bialik HaRav Machluf Aminadav Krispin, and asked him to sign. Rabbi Krispin was also known for his warm friendship with Chabad. He related to the entire matter with great interest, and asked to see the relevant sichos. When he was convinced as to their validity, he decided to form a beis din of seven members to discuss the matter with the utmost seriousness and to come to a halachic decision. While he lobbied hard to create the beis din, in the end, it did not materialize. Nevertheless, Rabbi Krispin himself did sign the p’sak.…
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=31&ar=mabat
R' Chaim Kanievski because of Sakonas Nefoshos.
This was long overdue and several NY restaurants have Arabs working for them too.
He claims to be going with R' Moishe's shita to be mattir the copepods.
There is no bigger R' Moishe talmid than his own son R' Dovid Feinstein who assers the copepods.
Where does Belsky get off?
WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT IT SYS I HAMODIA? OH I AM SURE THEY REALLY TAKE ON THE PROBEM HEAD ON. GIMME A BREAK HAMODIA MAN
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/foreunner-to-shevach-rubashkin.html#c4476997783158222038
Anonymous said...
Reb Yudel, could you shed some light on the following;
The following is verified & reliable.
The head of the OU's Powerful Kashrus commision is a Dr. Simcha Katz.
Dr. Simcha Katz is realy Dr. Steven Kaitz or katz. A Doctor of Philosophy * a professor of Economics & Finance at Baruch College.
His history: Was partner & president of Central Glatt in Newark, NJ
Central glatt was caught in the end of 1985 selling treif veal to the kosher market.
It was an incident in Apple Creek, Ohio-that involved a truckload of "supposedly" Glatt kosher calves Central Glatt Meats, Inc.
Schwartz the now divorced son in law of Klass wrote about in in the JP. This Steve Katz sued in the Southern District of the US District Court in NY-the JP for some 80 million bucks & forced them to drop the articles.
There was a Hazmonah sent to Dr. Katz by Agudas Harabonim, Dr. Katz's lawyers Lubel & Lubell of 220 Fifth Ave, NYC notified Agudas Harabonim the Katz has no intention of atending any Bais-Din.
The following I received from reliable but unverified sources;
1-Central Glatt was certified by the OU.
2-Rabbi G..... was the head of the OU at the time.
3-The head of the OU covered for Dr. Katz.
4- Dr. Katz owed G.... his life.
5-G.... brought in Katz the head the Kashrus commision for a few reasons a) protects G's job, b) to handle all the internal leaks, c) Fire all of the ones that aren't in line in keeping quiet & not looking too much, d) The OU needed someone a strategist to deal with the Peta, plus all of the other kashrus issues.
Now you know why Kashrus looks like this!
Belsky's Heteirim & Katz's atitude to kashrus.
The mechutzef who wrote to Yudel didn't give me enough credit. I also have a yad in the cover ups.
Is Simcha Katz related to the Mexican arms dealer Marcos Katz who is on the OU Board of Governors?
Vat am I doing mit dese putzes Moskowitz, Book & Applegrad? I vill pay top dollar for a real cover up artist vee Simcha Katz.
In 1985, R' Moshe Feinstein ztl was still on the Agudas Harabbonim.
I'm going to look into how long Genack has been in top spot at the OU.
When Marcos Katz makes weddings for his kids, the place should be raided by Interpol. Every petty dictator and thug from Latin America, Asia and Africa is there.
Katz divorces can be unusual too. Once at the OU Fresser Convention, someone slid an informational packet of shmutz about the Katzes under every door in the hotel.
Are there any openings on the OU Board of Governors?
http://www.shomreiemunahnj.org/OurShul/Rabbi.aspx
Rabbi Menachem Genack has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Shomrei Emunah since 1985.
He has also serviced as the Rabbinic Administrator of the Orthodox Union’s Kashrut Division since 1980
Rabbi Genack is a member of the Board of Trustees and Professor of Talmud at Touro College, from which he received an Honorary Doctorate in 1998. He was founding Chairman of NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee that has grown to be the biggest pro-Israel PAC in the country. He also serves on the executive committee of AIPAC.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Just hours after he received a standing ovation from lawmakers chanting his name, New York's newly sworn governor was answering questions about straying from his own marriage.
David Paterson became the state's first black chief executive and the nation's second legally blind governor almost exactly a week after allegations first surfaced that now-former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was "Client 9" of a high-priced call girl service.
Paterson told the Daily News of New York City that he maintained a relationship with another woman from 1999 until 2001 during a rough patch in his marriage. He and his wife eventually sought counseling and repaired their relationship.
The couple agreed to speak publicly about their marriage in response to rumors about Paterson's personal life that have been swirling in Albany since Spitzer resigned, the Daily News reported Monday on its Web site.
Paterson and his wife, Michelle, acknowledged to the newspaper that they each had affairs but did not go into details.
"This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson told the Daily News. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."
A spokesman for the governor, Errol Cockfield, did not immediately reply late Monday to an e-mail or telephone calls seeking comment about Paterson's interview with the News.
Hours before the interview, Paterson outlined a message of unity in a state eager to move past his predecessor's sordid and speedy political collapse.
"We move forward. Today is Monday. There is work to be done," Paterson said. "There was an oath to be taken. There's trust that needs to be restored. There are issues that need to be addressed."
Spitzer, according to ex-aides, was at his Columbia County farmhouse 48 miles south at the time of Paterson's swearing-in.
Where Spitzer's 14-month tenure was marked by partisan sniping, Paterson, a fellow Democrat, reached across the aisle in his remarks from the ornate Assembly chamber. The crowd gave the new governor a two-minute standing ovation and chanted "David! David! David!"
"What we are going to do from now on is what we always should have done all along," the former state senator said. "We're going to work together."
Legislators gave Paterson hearty applause when he called for cooperation, and laughs when he made playful jabs at Republican leaders.
He said Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno, probably Spitzer's most bitter rival, had invited him to dinner at his ranch: "I'll go. I'm going to take my taster with me."
He teased Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, whom Spitzer famously and profanely said he would steamroll, that he would teach him how to play basketball. Tedisco, an upstate Republican, was a basketball star at Union College.
Paterson, 53, rose from the lieutenant governor's office after Spitzer resigned last week amid allegations that he hired a call girl from a high-priced escort service. It was a dramatic fall for Spitzer, who was elected with an overwhelming share of the vote and who had vowed to root out corruption at the Capitol.
"This transition today is a historic message to the world: That we live by the same values that we profess, and we are a government of laws, not individuals," Paterson said.
Paterson took the oath of office from Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who ascended to the pinnacle of the state's highest court in 1993 after former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler was caught threatening and harassing an ex-lover.
Paterson, who becomes New York's 55th governor, has said he will get right to work. The Legislature faces an April 1 deadline to pass an estimated $124 billion budget, and Paterson also said that health care, education, jobs and problems facing "the single mother with two jobs" need immediate attention.
Paterson spoke for 26 minutes — about half of it engaged in the banter and humor that helped define him as a lawmaker and lieutenant governor — without notes or teleprompter.
He joked about his limited vision; he can see things close to him out of one eye.
At Spitzer's last State of the State address, he said, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stopped him from accidentally breaking a glass with his gavel, then told him, "I will not allow you to turn the State of the State into a Jewish wedding."
Before reluctantly accepting Spitzer's offer to run with him as lieutenant governor, Paterson was a Democratic state senator for more than two decades, representing parts of Harlem and Manhattan's Upper West Side.
His wife had tears in her eyes for most of the ceremony.
"Every time I hear David speak, I want to cry," she said afterward. "I'm just very happy I was able to live to see this day."
Politicians past and present, including presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and governors from three neighboring states, attended the ceremony.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said New Yorkers are ready to put the scandal behind them.
"I think most of us are optimistic that this could be a really terrific time for New York state and Albany with Gov. Paterson," said Schumer, a Democrat.
Federal prosecutors must still decide whether to pursue charges against Spitzer. The married father of three teenage girls was accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes — including a call girl "Kristen" in Washington the night before Valentine's Day.
Amazing how you can reinvent yourself with the Agudah. Spitzer was fitted for a kapota at G&G and came by looking for a Homburg yesterday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1205420714939&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
WHILE ISRAELIS are notorious for being ungracious about each other's successes, there's another side of the coin in which they're extremely forgiving of each other's peccadilloes and much more serious offences. Even those whose offences land them in prison are welcomed back into society with open arms, and treated as if they've been on vacation. This is especially so for people in high places, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that some of Israel's most prominent socialites and business people have accepted the invitation Tuesday to board a private plane bound for Namibia to celebrate the bar mitzva of the son of Kobi Alexander, the founder and former CEO of Comverse Technology, an Israeli start-up company which grew into a leading provider of software systems for telecommunications companies worldwide.
After a four-year struggle in which it seemed as if his world would collapse, Alexander had a stunning breakthrough, and then went from success to success, building a global empire with 6,000 employees in more than 50 countries.
He won numerous awards, rubbed shoulders with world leaders and international business tycoons until July, 2006, when he faced multiple charges by the US Justice Department of conspiracy to commit various types of fraud. A civil injunction was subsequently filed against him by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Alexander succeeded in transferring $40 million to his private bank account in Israel and fled with his wife and children to Namibia where he was arrested by Interpol, then released on bail, and is awaiting yet another extradition hearing which is scheduled for June, 2008.
Meanwhile, he had developed close contacts with senior officials in Namibia and has invested heavily in the country, so it is unlikely that they will be in a hurry to give him up to the US authorities. He has also stayed in touch with Israeli friends and acquaintances, some of whom have visited him in Namibia, and more of whom will visit him today, according to a report in Yediot Aharonot.
Invitees include public relations guru Ran Rahav and his wife Hila, advertising agent Yoram Bauman, Shmuel Frankel, the owner of Epsilon Investments, Yigal Shremeister, the owner of a security company, artist Ilana Gur, Carmel Varnia, the former CEO of Tower Semiconductors, and many others who are well known in the business world, and who in some cases went to school or university with Alexander.
Aside from flying them to Namibia in his private plane, he will also treat them to a safari and to a community sing-along with Anat Saruf and her husband, Tamir Harpaz.
Rabbi Aron Baruch Tendler learns night Seder every night at Congregation Ohel Moshe .Does anyone know if he still lives with his daughter and where does he daven shabbos morning ?
I thought he said on Fox News that he never was present at any Wright sermon that was anti-white and anti-America! The man is a lying dangerous bigot!
-----------------------
“For some, nagging questions remain,” Mr. Obama said. “Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”
Your dollar is worthless!
---------------------
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures were higher early Tuesday as the dollar weakened ahead of what markets expect to be a hefty cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve this afternoon.
Gold for April delivery was last up $2, or 0.2%, to $1,004.70 an ounce. Pressured by expectations of lower rates, the dollar index, which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of major currencies, was last down 0.3% at 71.24.
Nu, what do you say?
Our new Gov Patterson admits to a 3-year affair with a chicky-poo not his wife in a motel on Broadway and 94th Street, 4 subway stops from his office. He then reconciled with his following Psych Counseling with his wife to the very same motel to rekindle the "Romance".
This just gives credence to the saying that...
"Love Is Blind".
This alert should read: WALL ST. & FED ON MASS AMOUNT OF ILLEGAL DRUGS!
---------------
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 -- 2:16 PM ET
-----
Fed Lowers Key Interest Rate by 0.75 Percentage Points
Many on Wall Street had expected that the Federal Reserve
would lower its benchmark interest rate by a full point.
Stocks gave up some of their earlier gains on the news.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
SEVERAL AFFAIRS! WHAT A GADOL!
--------------------------
NY governor admits several affairs By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press Writer
25 minutes ago
ALBANY, N.Y. - The state's new governor revealed Tuesday that he had affairs with several women, including a state employee. The confession came day after he took over from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was driven from office amid a prostitution scandal.
Gov. David Paterson said the affairs happened during a rough patch in his marriage, and that the employee did not work for him. He insisted he did not advance her career, and that no campaign or state money was spent on the affairs.
"I do not feel I have broken my commitment to the people of New York state," Paterson said at a news conference with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson.
Paterson admitted an affair in an interview with the Daily News on Monday after he was sworn in, but his comments Tuesday indicate the couple's fidelity problems went deeper than he first acknowledged. He is not having an affair now, he said.
The Patersons said they both had affairs during a time when their marriage was headed toward divorce. But they admitted the infidelity, sought counseling and have built a stronger marriage and family.
"We dealt with it as a family," his wife said. "A marriage has peaks and valleys ... no marriage is perfect."
"I think we have a marriage like many Americans, maybe even like many of you," the governor told reporters. "Elected officials are really just reflections of the people we represent."
Paterson said the affairs took place since about 1999, and one extended into his term as Senate minority leader, which began in 2002. He said he didn't reveal the affairs during his time as a senator, Senate minority leader or lieutenant governor because no one had asked him and he came forward because he didn't want the rumors to cloud his governorship.
"I didn't want to be blackmailed," he said.
Paterson, who is legally blind and the state's first black governor, ascended to office after Spitzer's resignation last week amid allegations he hired a high-priced prostitute from an escort service. Federal prosecutors are still deciding whether to pursue charges against him.
Assembly Democratic Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, said Tuesday he doesn't believe Paterson was weakened by the disclosure.
"This Albany press corps was in a feeding frenzy, looking for anything they could do to find it," Silver said. "And basically what David Paterson did was say, 'Stop bothering people. Here's the story. And that's it.'"
Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who is next in the line of succession to the governor's office should something happen to Paterson, said Paterson's personal life is Paterson's business only as long as it doesn't interfere with how he governs.
WOW!! What Incredible Spin!! for Guv "Big" Dave!
Led by Shelly ("I Don't Go To Cop Funerals")Silver!
At this rate Adultery will be a mandatory requirement to get elected to Public Office.
And "Rabbi" Lefko-shvitz" was there at the Swearing In on behalf of the Agudah to give the Invocation. Hey Lefko! Lose a few pounds.
I'm taking bets that Guv "Big" Dave is the Agudah 2009 Annual Dinner, Man of The Year. Get the Plaque and Menorah ready.
No Honor, No Shame. Every Tinaf Tinofes behavior is being turned into a Mitzvah.
Indeed, "Love Is Blind".
He is not having an affair now, he said.
---------------------
Hey Boog:
Whatdaya want from the guy - he's not having an affair now - he says!
That was at the time of the interview! Who knows what "NOW" means?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scent_of_a_Woman
Governor Paterson wouldn't be the first blind man to fool around.
Governor Paterson is in the midst of "consolidating" his love affairs.
I'm seeking information on Yonason Tendler - a close personal friend of Kolko!
e-mail:a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
Any relation to the molester Tendlers?
Yes, one very sick family.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q5m5KcpIgt8C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22yonasan+tendler%22&source=web&ots=GsTubqSbLE&sig=176X_d2Yb5O5kQTWby8phg0RWvk&hl=en
Is Yonason Tendler a talmid of Rav Segal from Manchester?
http://www.nysed.gov/COMS/CF050/CF0501?SEDCODE=332100229660
MESIVTA OF SEAGATE
332100229660
3803 NAUTILUS AVE
BROOKLYN, NY 11224
PRINCIPAL: JONATHAN TENDLER
He asks a question & information starts pouring in within minutes.
No wonder EF Hutton went out of business.
It's still a number of days away, but Yonason Tendler will be fine when he gets home for Shabbos.
Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by his story that during one of the services he attended during the month of July, Senator Obama was present and sat through the sermon given by Rev. Wright as described in the story. Mr. Davis said Secret Service were also present in the church during Senator Obama's attendance. Mr. Davis' story was first published on Newsmax on August 9, 2007. Shortly before publication, Mr. Davis contacted the press office of Sen. Obama several times for comment about the Senator's attendance and Rev. Wright's comments during his sermon. The Senator's office declined to comment.
UOJ asks:
"Who knows what "NOW" means?"
___________________________________
And the answer is:
Guv "Big" Dave uses the Clinton-Lewinsky Non-Abridged Dictionary.
Adultery has now become a Mitzvah Gedolah Lehios B'Simcha.
Poor Jim Craig. I have Grois Rachmonus on you. Instead of tapping your toes under the Mens Room Stall, you should have rented a Motel Room and you would still be in the Congress.
Obama's Stand on Rev. Wright Clear
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:58 PM
By: Ronald Kessler Article Font Size
When we hire anyone for a job, we look at their record. Barack Obama’s record is now clear for all to see.
For two decades, Obama has been attending a church where paranoid hatred of America is preached on a regular basis. For two decades, the senator has counted as his minster, friend and adviser a man who says that America created the AIDS virus to kill blacks, puts blacks in prison rather than killing them off, and deserved to be attacked on 9/11 because of its racism.
In his eloquent speech in Philadelphia, Obama sought to distance himself from that record while retaining support from blacks who — as my friend Fox News commentator Juan Williams puts it — revel in looking at themselves as victims.
As in the past, Obama carefully parsed his words. Without specifically saying he heard these extremist comments, Obama acknowledged hearing comments by his longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., that “could be considered controversial.”
“Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views?” Obama asked. “Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”
In making that remark, Obama maligned the vast majority of clergymen who would never utter the kind of anti-American hatred that Wright spews forth on a regular basis.
At the same time, Obama implicitly defended Wright by saying his anger against America was understandable.
“For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years,” Obama said. “That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table.”
Obama went on to malign the many black churches that would never condone featuring such hatred in their services.
Occasionally, the anger “finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews,” Obama said. “The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.”
Thus, while he condemned Wright’s statements at other points in his speech, Obama was condoning the mindset of victimhood.
As Williams, author of “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America,” has told Newsmax, that victim mindset “is so self-defeating in the black community and one that is played on by weak black leadership that chooses to have black people identified as victims rather than inspiring them as people who have overcome.”
Williams adds, “In posing as victims, they say the most prejudiced and vicious things, not only about whites but about America. They call it theology. In fact, it’s nothing but bigotry.”
Now Obama says he would not have belonged to the church if he had regularly heard Wright’s hate-filled statements. Yet when he announced for the presidency, Obama disinvited Wright from giving an invocation because his sermons can get “kind of rough.” Why did Obama not resign from the church then?
In December, Wright gave an award to Louis Farrakhan for lifetime achievement. Why did Obama not resign then? Instead, after Newsmax broke the story on Jan. 14, Obama dissembled about the issue, saying the award was for Farrakhan’s work with ex-offenders. Neither the presentation nor the article about it in the church magazine said anything about ex-offenders.
The truth is that Obama joined the church and adopted Wright as his friend and mentor because — beyond the good works that the church performs, as do most religious organizations — he feels an affinity for what Wright has to say. Michelle Obama’s comment that, for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America, highlights the fact that she has the victim mentality Wright promotes.
How could Michelle Obama, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School who makes more than $1 million a year with her husband, say she is proud of America for the first time? The same way Wright can say, “God d*** America.”
Those who are gullible will accept Obama’s brilliant rhetoric as the compass to his thinking. They can try to convince themselves that a man who continues to belong to a church that describes itself on its Web site as “unashamedly black” will unify the country.
Whether hiring a president, an electrician, or a plumber, they ignore the candidate’s track record at their own peril.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.
http://comsyn.org/news.php
Aron Tendler helping bake matzos for his father Rabbi Moses D.'s shul:
YASHAR KOACH
To Sam Silverstein for once again coordinating our annual Matzah baking. To the Rav, Rabbis Yacov and AharonTendler and everyone else who baked or helped
Boog, it's Larry Craig, not Jim Craig.
zeh hakoton gadol yiheh!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's comptroller, who helps oversee the city's pension funds, on Tuesday said he will investigate whether the failure of Bear Stearns & Co was due to miscalculation or deception, which could trigger a lawsuit to recover losses.
The drop in Bear Stearns' share price has resulted in a loss for the city's public pension funds of about $10 million, City Comptroller William Thompson told Reuters in a phone interview.
"I think a lot of people are going to be taking a look. ... Was there some deception in there or was this just a miscalculation?" Thompson, a Democrat, said when asked about a possible lawsuit against Bear Stearns.
About Us
Why we started this Fund and Organization?
The impetus for starting Our Precious Children was brought about by the St. Louis case involving a child molester within the Jewish Congregations in St. Louis.
We saw that there was a need for support for ANY victim in St. Louis. Financial support can be vital for counseling and/or legal needs.
Educational support is needed for the children and parents in our community to know how to recognize a problem and guard against this kind of abuse.
Confidential emails can be sent to:
sarah@OurPreciousChildren.org
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.
"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."
That's because the smaller currency exchanges -- despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency -- don't want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.
The dollar hovered near record lows on Monday, with one euro worth around $1.58 versus $1.47 a month ago
http://zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty/profiles/katz.html
Steven Katz
Associate Professor of Economics and Finance
Steve_Katz@baruch.cuny.edu
Education:
BA Yeshiva University 1965
MS Graduate School of Engineering, NYU 1969
MBA Stern School of Business, NYU 1972
PhD Stern School of Business, NYU 1973
Rabbinic Ordination Yeshiva University 1969
Areas of Expertise:
Corporate Finance, Capital Raising, Capital Markets, Investment Analysis, Cost/Benefit Analysis
Selected Publications:
"Stock Market Behavior Around Distress and Recovery Predictions" (with S. Lilien and B. Nelson). Financial Analysts Journal, January-February 1985.
"A Portfolio Approach to Fossil Fuel Procurement in the Electric Utility Industry" (with D. Bar-Lev). Journal of Finance, 31 (3): 226-39, June 1976.
"The Differential Effects of Industrial and Utility Bond Rating Changes on Bond Yield" (with P. Grier). Journal of Business, 49 (2): 933-47, April 1976.
A Guide to the Financially Perplexed (with H. Friedman). Topics in Finance series. Variety Press, 1975.
"The Price Adjustment Process of Bonds to Rating Reclassification: A Test of Bond Market Efficiency." Journal of Finance, May 1974, pp. 551-59.
Professional Activities:
Presented cost/benefit studies in wound care at Techvest Healthcare Conference, 1999-2001 and at UBS Warburg Global Life Science Conference, 1999-2000.
"One would still not be allowed to hand this individual over to the civil authorities because this is the equivalent of returning aveidas akum, which is usually not allowed".
The ban against mesirah is not total. There are circumstances when civil authorities are to be informed, particularly when the alleged wrongdoing endangers the welfare of others. There are instances of spousal abuse, child abuse and other situations where leading Orthodox rabbis instructed that civil authorities be notified.
Those who deprecate the Orthodox point to sexual abuse of children, including by a tiny number of rabbis, as an area where communal norms create a culture of cover-up with concern for the victims being subordinate to concern for the wrongdoers. The yeshiva deans who comprise the Rabbinical Board of Torah Umesorah, the National Society of Hebrew Day Schools, adopted a policy statement that should dispel this canard. It begins, "We address ourselves to the problem of child molestation in our community." They continue, "in addition to the sins which they have committed, they have created painful memories in the minds of their victims, memories which can have a devastating lifetime impact." In a cover letter to principals, Rabbi Joshua Fishman, the organization's executive head, wrote "If there is indeed an allegation of child abuse that proves to be true, and the matter that had come to your attention was not attended to, you will be liable both in the eyes of G-d and according to secular law."
Idaho Putz;
Jim, Larry, Moe, Curly...I gots the last name right, right? And you voz nose who I voz talkin about, right?
And you guys all be careful when you enter a stall in a public restroom. If the guy in the next stall over has his shoe over the wall line, get out of there pronto.
Tap, Tap, Big Guy. I luvs you.
I now wish to follow in the path of the great and couragious Governor Patterson who had the guts to publicly admit to his having had an ex-marital affair some years back.
Unfortunately, my wife Miriam refuses to stand along side of me, but I too wish to confess for all to know that some thirty-eight years ago, after I got my job at Camp Agudah, I began an affair with Yudi Kolko. Our relationship continued past the summer and even after Kolko left Camp Agudah. Only after the the TT scandal came public I immediately realized that our relationship was not proper and broke up with him. I too went through some professional counseling only to find myself having an affair with the therapist in his office. There was no way I could have known in advance that the man was gay. However, despite all the difficulties and challanges, I promised my wife to refrain from having any future affairs with other men.
Gov. Patterson you have been a great example.
Economic Scene
Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club
By DAVID LEONHARDT - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: March 19, 2008
Raise your hand if you don’t quite understand this whole financial crisis.
It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel as if they should understand it. But they don’t, not really. The part about the housing crash seems simple enough. With banks whispering sweet encouragement, people bought homes they couldn’t afford, and now they are falling behind on their mortgages.
But the overwhelming majority of homeowners are doing just fine. So how is it that a mess concentrated in one part of the mortgage business — subprime loans — has frozen the credit markets, sent stock markets gyrating, caused the collapse of Bear Stearns, left the economy on the brink of the worst recession in a generation and forced the Federal Reserve to take its boldest action since the Depression?
I’m here to urge you not to feel sheepish. This may not be entirely comforting, but your confusion is shared by many people who are in the middle of the crisis.
“We’re exposing parts of the capital markets that most of us had never heard of,” Ethan Harris, a top Lehman Brothers economist, said last week. Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary and current Citigroup executive, has said that he hadn’t heard of “liquidity puts,” an obscure kind of financial contract, until they started causing big problems for Citigroup.
I spent a good part of the last few days calling people on Wall Street and in the government to ask one question, “Can you try to explain this to me?” When they finished, I often had a highly sophisticated follow-up question: “Can you try again?”
I emerged thinking that all the uncertainty has created a panic that is partly unfounded. That said, the crisis isn’t close to ending, either. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, won’t be able to wave a magic wand and make everything better, no matter how many more times he cuts rates. As Mr. Bernanke himself has suggested, the only thing that will end the crisis is the end of the housing bust.
So let’s go back to the beginning of the boom.
It really started in 1998, when large numbers of people decided that real estate, which still hadn’t recovered from the early 1990s slump, had become a bargain. At the same time, Wall Street was making it easier for buyers to get loans. It was transforming the mortgage business from a local one, centered around banks, to a global one, in which investors from almost anywhere could pool money to lend.
The new competition brought down mortgage fees and spurred some useful innovation. Why, after all, should someone who knows that she’s going to move after just a few years have no choice but to take out a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage?
As is often the case with innovations, though, there was soon too much of a good thing. Those same global investors, flush with cash from Asia’s boom or rising oil prices, demanded good returns. Wall Street had an answer: subprime mortgages.
Because these loans go to people stretching to afford a house, they come with higher interest rates — even if they’re disguised by low initial rates — and thus higher returns. The mortgages were then sliced into pieces and bundled into investments, often known as collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s (a term that appeared in this newspaper only three times before 2005, but almost every week since last summer). Once bundled, different types of mortgages could be sold to different groups of investors.
Investors then goosed their returns through leverage, the oldest strategy around. They made $100 million bets with only $1 million of their own money and $99 million in debt. If the value of the investment rose to just $101 million, the investors would double their money. Home buyers did the same thing, by putting little money down on new houses, notes Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com. The Fed under Alan Greenspan helped make it all possible, sharply reducing interest rates, to prevent a double-dip recession after the technology bust of 2000, and then keeping them low for several years.
All these investments, of course, were highly risky. Higher returns almost always come with greater risk. But people — by “people,” I’m referring here to Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Bernanke, the top executives of almost every Wall Street firm and a majority of American homeowners — decided that the usual rules didn’t apply because home prices nationwide had never fallen before. Based on that idea, prices rose ever higher — so high, says Robert Barbera of ITG, an investment firm, that they were destined to fall. It was a self-defeating prophecy.
And it largely explains why the mortgage mess has had such ripple effects. The American home seemed like such a sure bet that a huge portion of the global financial system ended up owning a piece of it. Last summer, many policy makers were hoping that the crisis wouldn’t spread to traditional banks, like Citibank, because they had sold off the underlying mortgages to investors. But it turned out that many banks had also sold complex insurance policies on the mortgage debt. That left them on the hook when homeowners who had taken out a wishful-thinking mortgage could no longer get out of it by flipping their house for a profit.
Many of these bets were not huge, but were so highly leveraged that any losses became magnified. If that $100 million investment I described above were to lose just $1 million of its value, the investor who put up only $1 million would lose everything. That’s why a hedge fund associated with the prestigious Carlyle Group collapsed last week.
“If anything goes awry, these dominos fall very fast,” said Charles R. Morris, a former banker who tells the story of the crisis in a new book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown.”
This toxic combination — the ubiquity of bad investments and their potential to mushroom — has shocked Wall Street into a state of deep conservatism. The soundness of any investment firm depends largely on other firms having confidence that it has real assets standing behind its bets. So firms are now hoarding cash instead of lending it, until they understand how bad the housing crash will become and how exposed to it they are. Any institution that seems to have a high-risk portfolio, regardless of whether it has enough assets to support the portfolio, faces the double whammy of investors demanding their money back and lenders shutting the door in their face. Goodbye, Bear Stearns.
The conservatism has gone so far that it’s affecting many solid would-be borrowers, which, in turn, is hurting the broader economy and aggravating Wall Streets fears. A recession could cause credit card loans and other forms of debt, some of which were also based on overexuberance, to start going bad as well.
Many economists, on the right and the left, now argue that the only solution is for the federal government to step in and buy some of the unwanted debt, as the Fed began doing last weekend. This is called a bailout, and there is no doubt that giving a handout to Wall Street lenders or foolish home buyers — as opposed to, say, laid-off factory workers — is deeply distasteful. At this point, though, the alternative may be worse.
Bubbles lead to busts. Busts lead to panics. And panics can lead to long, deep economic downturns, which is why the Fed has been taking unprecedented actions to restore confidence.
“You say, my goodness, how could subprime mortgage loans take out the whole global financial system?” Mr. Zandi said. “That’s how.”
E-mail: Leonhardt@nytimes.com
Hey, I'm the Putz who owns Gorls Gone Wild, another company that Spitzer's whore works for.
Here's what today's LA Times has to say about me:
Francis, who served 11 months in a Nevada prison for two counts of tax evasion, was released a week ago from Nevada custody so he could face charges in Florida related to filming 17-year-old girls in a shower. A day later, he pleaded no contest in Florida to child abuse and prostitution charges and the judge released him on time served and fines. Then, he jumped on a plane and flew to L.A. to hold a press conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to herald his return to public life.
Francis still faces charges in L.A. of misdemeanor sexual battery for allegedly touching a woman inappropriately at a party.
Another prostitution service used by R' Elya Spitzer:
Meanwhile, in another case of girls gone wrong, Manhattan madam Andreia Schwartz remained in solitary confinement last night after refusing to offer more dirt on Spitzer or the prostitution ring, her lawyer said.
The Brazilian bombshell, convicted of running a midtown brothel, had expected to be deported to her homeland last Friday, said Brazilian Consul General José Alfredo Graça Lima.
The deportation was delayed so the Manhattan district attorney's office could send three investigators to a New Jersey jail to question her about Spitzer, according to Schwartz's lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman.
The U.S. economy is facing the worst financial crisis in almost 80 years and interest-rate cuts will do little to cure the problem, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist, said.
``More and more Americans are going to walk away from their mortgages, and that's going to undermine the foundations of these banking institutions,'' Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, told Radio New Zealand today from Auckland.
Mortgage applications in the U.S. decreased for the fifth time in the last six weeks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today. Building permits fell to a 16-year low in February, the Commerce Department said yesterday.
The Fed Bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing index for March, due tomorrow, will be minus 18, signaling a fourth month of contraction, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/nyregion/18cnd-paterson.html
Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, said he admired Mr. Paterson’s courage in admitting the infidelity and suggested that the couple’s past problems, which he called “a nice story,” could serve as an inspiration to other couples who find their marriages imperiled.
“He basically said: ‘Here are the facts. It’s not an uncommon occurrence in people’s lives when marriages are failing, and this is how we worked it out,’ ” Mr. Silver said.
Money-Market Rates Rise as Fed Fails to Stem Crisis (Update1)
By Gavin Finch
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of borrowing in dollars, euros and pounds rose, in a sign that the Federal Reserve is failing to instill confidence in money markets.
The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for three- month loans in dollars rose 6 basis points to 2.60 percent today, the first increase since Feb. 26, the British Bankers' Association said.
By Carol Massar and Eric Martin
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks, which surged the most in five years yesterday, will likely continue their rally this year because the ``out of control'' Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to save investment banks from collapse, investor Jim Rogers said.
The Fed's support is ``why we're having a big rally, but that's not going to solve the problem,'' Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and co-founder of the Quantum Hedge Fund with George Soros, said during an interview with Bloomberg Television from Singapore. ``The system is terribly corroded.''
The central bank is helping financial stocks while delaying and deepening a bear market and recession, he said. The Fed cut its benchmark for overnight lending between banks yesterday, continuing the most aggressive series of reductions since the rate became an explicit policy target in the late 1980s.
``What are they going to do when the stock market is down 40 percent or 50 percent?'' Rogers said. ``They're not going to have any bullets left. They're not going to be able to solve the problems at that point.''
Futures on the Chicago Board of Trade indicate a 54 percent chance the central bank will cut its rate by another half point to 1.75 percent by its June meeting.
David Kedmi, Defendant.
1. On February 25, 2007, in Kings County, New York, Rabbi Kedmi conducted a ritual circumcision ("bris") and baby naming ceremony for the mother of infant twin children.
2. The woman and her husband were especially excited about the aforementioned bris and baby naming ceremony of their infant twins as they had extremely difficult conceiving and further, the twins were prematurely born approximately eight weeks early and remained in the hospital after birth for at least one month.
3. That in view of the difficulty in conception and premature birth, facts known to the Defendant, the aforementioned bris and baby naming ceremony was to be a joyous celebration of their twins who were now finally healthy enough for the same.
4. At this ceremony however, as is set forth herein, Rabbi Kedmi demand and inappropriately touched "the mother " and made lewd, flirtatious comments to her.
5. More specifically, on the date in question, Rabbi Kedmi touched "the mother's" buttocks.
6. Further, on the date in question, Rabbi Kedmi suggestively touched "the mother's" shoulder.
7. That "the mother" did not consent to Rabbi Kedmi touching either her buttocks or shoulder and that such touching was done for no lawful purpose.
8. That on the date in question, Rabbi Kedmi stated to "the mother," by saying, in sum and substance, among other things, that she "looked 17."
9. That on the date in question, Rabbi Kedmi stated to "the mother," by saying in sum and substance, among other things, that she "must have been a beauty queen."
10. That the aforementioned demeaning behavior, including offensive sexual touching and lewd and sexual comments took place in the presence of one or more witnesses, including Rabbi David Kedmi's wife.
11. Upon information and belief, Rabbi Kedmi's lewd comments, demeaning behavior and unwanted inappropriate touching of "the mother" is part of a pattern of similar conduct that Rabbi Kedmi has engaged in toward women, including toward other women during similar ceremonies he performed for other children.
12. That after experiencing Rabbi Kedmi's unlawful behavior as described above, and after later hearing about his alleged similar conduct toward other women, "the mother" reported Rabbi Kedmi to Mr. Jacob Rubinstein, employed at the Young Israel of Scarsdale synagogue "The mother" had utilized Rabbi Kedmi's services based upon a referral from Mr. Rubinstein.
13. During several conversations with Mr. Rubinstein, "the mother" was repeatedly assured that Mr. Kedmi had been referred for evaluation and treatment to Rabbi Mark Dratch, who, upon information and belief, is employed by an organization known as "JSAFE," and that action would be taken to address and correct Rabbi Kedmi's behavior.
14. That JSAFE's mission statement on their website purports that their goal is "to create an environment in which every institution and organization across the spectrum of the Jewish community conducts itself responsibly and effectively in addressing the wrongs of domestic violence, child abuse and professional improprieties -- whenever and by whomever they are perpetrated."
15. That "the mother" was assured that Rabbi Kedmi was undergoing treatment and that steps would be taken to protect other women from Rabbi Kedmi's predatory conduct, but that Rabbi Rubinstein and Rabbi Dratch would not provide details as to any "treatment plan," though "the mother" was assured that "treatment," "counseling" and additional "measures" were all put in place in an effort to correct "Rabbi Kedmi's behavior and protect women from his unlawful conduct.
16. That "the mother" later learned, in fact, contrary to the assurances provided by Rabbis Rubinstein and Dratch, no meaningful measures were taken to provide treatment to Rabbi Kedmi, to correct his behavior or to protect women from him.
17. That "the mother" later learned that the alleged "measures" implemented were that Rabbi Kedmi was not to be alone with a woman at a bris and that his wife must accompany him when he performs a bris.
18. That, when Mr. Kedmi inappropriately touched "the mother" and made lewd comments to her, there were, in fact, witnesses present, including Rabbi Kedmi's wife. Therefore, the "measures," were meaningless.
19. That "the mother" and her husband endured great hurdles to make it to what was supposed to be a the joyous occasion of their infant twin's bris and naming ceremony and instead, the day now evokes anger, pain and sullied memories.
20. As a result of the foregoing, "the mother" has suffered the permanent mark that Rabbi Kedmi has made on a momentous occasion from which "the mother" and her family can never fully recover.
21. That, prior to the filing this lawsuit to hold Rabbi Kedmi accountable for his actions, "the mother", and/or her attorneys: a) had several telephone conversations with rabbis Rubinstein and Dratch; and also b) sent two letters to Rabbi Kedmi and/or his lawyers, and also to rabbis' Rubinstein and Dratch, request that Rabbi Kedmi be made to undergo appropriate counseling and that steps be taken to protect women from Rabbi Kedmi.
22. And that, in spite of "the mother's" numerous correspondence, upon information and belief, rabbis' Kedmi, Rubinstein and Dratch each refused to take any meaningful steps to address "the mother's" concerns.
23. And that, upon learning "the mother" therefore planned to proceed with this lawsuit, Rabbi Kedmi's response, relayed via his counsel, was to among other things, threaten "the mother" that he would file a claim for slander against her.
24. That any such claim for slander would be patently frivolous and that threat was clearly made in an effort to intimidate "the mother" into not seeking to hold Rabbi Kedmi accountable for his unlawful conduct.
25. That further, upon information and belief, Rabbi Rubinstein and other members of the clergy continue to recommend Rabbi Kedmi to perform circumcisions notwithstanding their full knowledge of his pattern of unlawful and outrageous conduct and continue therefor to knowingly and willfully place women and families in harm's way.
From The Yowza! I can't believe he ate the WHOLE thing Dept:
Guv "Big" Dave of NY now admits to many affairs, the latest one ending just a few months ago with an Olympics Gold Medalist that conveniently got a job on March 8th, 2008 with the Board of Ed, NY through the intervention of the Guv.
Guv "Big" Dave paid for services out of campaign cash, a violation of Federal Statute.
Dave, you gotta go.
Next in line: Boo-Boo Bruno.
Yamod, Yamod, Yamod, HaBruno Ben ?
If you are screwed trying to get a new mortgage, you can thank Leib & Shmeckel Pinter for causing the train wreck.
"I can't believe he ate the WHOLE thing Dept"
Sounds like one of the vultures who hovers the whole time around the meat carving station at the Convention.
My father's name vas Bruno. It is a common name in Schweiz.
http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/2680_sa_jews_worried.htm
Several weeks ago the Jewish community was shaken when a Jewish man in Johannesburg named Sheldon Cohen was shot to death while sitting in his car waiting for his son to finish soccer practice.
In the past few months at least two other Jews were murdered in the same city, including an elderly man on his way to synagogue on Shabbat morning who was shot for the contents of his tallit bag.
The violence comes amid growing concerns among South African Jews about threats to the rule of law in the country following the election last December of the controversial Jacob Zuma to the presidency of the ruling African National Congress.
At its meeting last December, the ANC passed a resolution to push for disbanding the country’s crack crime-fighting unit, the Scorpions, whose probes resulted in an indictment against Zuma on counts of racketeering, money laundering, corruption and fraud.
With Zuma now leading the ANC, he is the favorite to succeed South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
The Jewish community is “very nervous - the worst I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been in leadership,” said Michael Bagraim, the president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the community’s umbrella group.
To make matters worse, the global energy crisis has prompted frequent power outages in South Africa since the beginning of the year, hurting the mining industry, the bedrock of the nation’s economy.
“People want me to look in a crystal ball,” Bagraim told JTA. “They want to know if we’re going down the same road as Zimbabwe, whether the crumbling infrastructure will destroy the economy and whether there’ll be a future for their children.”
Many Jewish leaders here are afraid that concerns about the country’s future could fuel Jewish emigration, further depleting a community that has declined to 75,000 from a peak of 120,000 in 1970.
Zev Krengel, the chairman of the Board of Deputies, in a recent open letter to the country’s Jews acknowledged “a great deal of negativity and uncertainty.”
Krengel told JTA he sees a wave of emigration as “inevitable,”
Though Jews may not be singled out here for being Jewish, as well-to-do South Africans they remain targets of violent criminals that do not discriminate. The Jews’ exposure to crime coupled with the country’s political direction is prompting many to rethink their future here.
One Jewish woman interviewed by JTA recalled her upbringing in Congo in the 1960s, when at age 12 she and her family fled the civil war there. She believes her family may encounter a similar scenario of violence in South Africa.
“I feel that the young people and those that can afford it are definitely going to see a future away from South Africa because they have seen the writing on the wall,” she said.
A resident of the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, Davis has a guard stationed inside his house at night, and his property is secured with palisades and barbed wire.
“It’s a shame that our homes have to be turned into fortresses,” he said.
Aside from having to live under the threat of muggings, burglaries and car jackings, South Africans face the prospect of a president who himself has been charged with crimes.
In 2005, Mbeki dismissed Zuma as the country's deputy president after Zuma was implicated in a corruption scandal. The next year, Zuma went on trial for raping a family friend at his home; he was acquitted.
Zuma is under indictment now on charges of fraud and corruption relating to a bribe he allegedly received from a French arms company in connection with a controversial arms deal.
One Jewish property administrator, Frank Stuppel, said the prospect of a Zuma presidency is “most disturbing and very worrying.”
“He has an unsavory history, and I think that's a problem," he said.
South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, urged listeners in a recent radio address “to see the bad and the good,”
The Jewish community’s 13-year-old Community Security Organization has assisted in rolling out a community watch program that puts armed guards on some street corners, runs vehicle patrols 24 hours a day and has a centralized call center.
Fox reported last night that Federal prosecutors have been talking to the whore "Kristen" in exchange for immunity to build a criminal case against R' Elya Spitzer.
They have given her immunity and she's singing like Lipa Shmeltzer would have at MSG - on Spitzer and the Israeli Mark Brener.
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=79546
First Lady Paterson Remains Bold As Her Life Becomes Public Spectacle
Unlike previous first ladies, Michelle Paterson not only stood by her husband's side when he admitted to infidelities Tuesday, but she brazenly admitted her own indiscretions.
Michelle Paterson lacked the sullen demeanor of a woman scorned - as she admitted to also being unfaithful during her 16-year marriage.
Supporters are rallying behind her, noticing a great difference from the Spitzer scandal.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Hazel Dukes of the New York State NAACP. “[The Patersons] went to marriage counseling, they do what America did. Show me any couple – any couple – that have a relationship or marriage that do not have stormy times. We’re all human.”
(Hazel Dukes is the thief who bankrupted the City's Off Track Betting Corp)
South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, urged listeners in a recent radio address “to see the bad and the good,”
----------------
Another fool murderous rabbi trying to hold on to his job! All Jews should leave South Africa - it is a seriously dangerous place for Jews -
MSG?
Isn't monosodium glutimate the flavor enhancer that Michael Schick uses to make the Convention food so geshmack?
Shelly is talking higher taxes again
Cablevision News:
Silver and Bruno, as well as other top legislative leaders, met with Paterson Tuesday to discuss the budget.
The new governor wants to slash $800 million out of Eliot Spitzer's spending plan. Paterson says it's in reaction to the troubles on Wall Street. That would mean only a four percent increase in the state budget over last year, as compared to the five percent previously proposed.
Bruno is calling for a freeze on government hiring, while Silver is seeking higher taxes for New Yorkers who earn seven figures a year.
Avremel Schorr says over a vort from his father that if you feel a brenn to do something, you know the yetzer hora is pushing you to do it.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/from-the-swearing-in-ceremony-in-albany/?hp
Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president for community services of Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish organization in Brooklyn, delivered an invocation at the start of the ceremony. “David sees the image of God in each and every person,” he said in remarks praising the lieutenant governor.
The NY Times is reporting that Paterson used a campaign credit card to rent a hotel room to fool around. That is a criminal misdemeanor.
I have now heard from a 2nd reliable source who can see that Rabbi Scheinberg would do an avlah for Kolko & Margo.
First I heard from a rosh yeshiva who had a run in with Rabbi Scheinberg that left him very disappointed.
Now I'm told that years ago, there was a dispute at Yeshivas Mishkan Hatorah between the roshei yeshiva. Rabbi Scheinberg showed up one day in the middle of 2nd seder and said that he has not spoken to Rav Gurevitz and he does not know who is right, but "as rov of this city", he is forced to act to stop a rifyon in limud Hatorah and is therefore poskening that Rav Gurevitz is kicked out of the yeshiva.
Every erev Yom Kippur since that day, Rav Gurevitz has sent rabbi Scheinberg a letter that he expects to be asked mechila. He never gets any response.
Ich bin oich a heilige mentch. Dat's vhy I'm the shaliach for Tehillim leinen by the Agudah.
Cesar Rodriguez, 29, the stepfather of Nixzmary Brown, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in the fatal 2006 beating of the 7-year-old girl, which was inflicted as punishment for stealing a snack and jamming a computer printer with toys. He faces up to 25 years in prison — far less than the possible sentence of life that he might have received had he been convicted of second-degree murder.
One of his affairs was with Olympic gold medalist Diane Dixon. He denied it to the press but then called her to ask why she is blabbering.
As a reward for getting some action, Paterson got her a job at the Board of Ed.
Diane Dixon secretly recorded Paterson.
Boog had better get ready for Boo Boo Bruno's swearing in ceremony.
to rabbi herschel schlechter who posted his "brilliant speech on mesira: you are a lying bastard!!! you and the ORA goons have men jailed every day to extract gittin from them. you dont care to investigate any facts! rather you give heters to all women to take the men to court and prosecute them to the max!!! but thats not all! even after the women receive their gittin they continue to harrass their ex-husbands in the court systems. THIS IS MESIRA TOO!!! MAY YOU AND ALL YOUR FEMINIST RESHAIM Y.U AFFILIATED RABBIS BURN WITH HAMAN IN GEHINOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
The state government employee once involved in a love affair with Gov. Paterson is a married mom who found herself in the awkward position of working for him when he took over for Eliot Spitzer on Monday.
Lila Kirton, 49, was identified by sources in the governor's office as one of the women Paterson had extramarital affairs with when his marriage hit a sour patch several years ago.
Paterson said one of his paramours was now on his staff but did not name her and said he would try to respect her wishes regarding her future.
He said that whether she stays is largely up to her.
Kirton, a petite woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Paterson's wife, Michelle, was appointed by Spitzer as his director of community affairs in his Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Paterson inherited Kirton as part of his staff when Spitzer's resignation took effect.
Kirton, a former Queens prosecutor, worked for Spitzer when he was state attorney general, specializing in cases of white-collar crime, including tax fraud and public corruption.
She refused to comment last night when she drove up to her home in White Plains and called the police to shoo reporters away from her property.
A former colleague in the attorney general's office said, "She did a lot of the kiddie porn cases [when she was in the criminal prosecutions bureau] and she did a very good job with them."
Fellow prosecutors were aware that Kirton was a Paterson chum - but never suspected she was involved with him intimately, the source said.
Kirton is married to Randy Lloyd, an insurance man, and they are the parents of twins - a boy and a girl who were born two months premature and are now 12.
"I feel bad for the innocent people involved, like Randy and the kids," Kirton's neighbor June Moskovetz told the Daily News.
Campaign finance records show Paterson paid Kirton $500 for expenses connected to his 2002 state Senate campaign.
Andreia Schwartz was the whore for Time Warner executives. She provided the first hard evidence against Spitzer like his signed checks but is now refusing to talk to the FBI.
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=40648&cat=14
Centava Dozier filed a $200,000 lawsuit Monday against American Airlines, alleging that a passenger masturbated in the seat adjacent to her and then ejaculated on her hair.
Dozier, a native of Harris County, Texas, was on her way to visit family and friends in Los Angeles.
The suit claims Dozier, 21, was sitting in an empty row when the plane took off, and then fell asleep. When Dozier woke up, she says she found a substance in her hair and a man masturbating in the seat next to her.
Dozier claims that when she asked the flight attendants for assistance, and requested the man be removed and taken back to his assigned seat, the staff did nothing.
American Airlines officials maintain that appropriate action was taken and the man was arrested when the plane landed.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080315/NEWS/803150353/1070/NEWS02
A man who kidnapped a 20-year-old woman outside a Lakewood gym and repeatedly raped her, then returned her the next day to where she had been abducted, was sentenced Friday to serve at least 85 percent of a 40-year state prison term.
When Brandon Fritz, 23, of Lakewood, abducted the woman on May 7, 2006, he "stuffed his hand down her throat until she almost choked and passed out so she could not call for help," said state Superior Court Judge James N. Citta in describing the brutality of the crime.
Fritz had wound duct tape repeatedly around her head, covering her mouth and her eyes. He let three hours lapse between the abduction and the rape.
"It was a particularly depraved and heinous act," Citta said. "For three hours after the victim was bound — hand and feet, eyes, head, trembling and shivering — he slept. And then he awoke for another sexual assault."
Citta sentenced Fritz to consecutive sentences for three different crimes. The lapse of time between the kidnapping and rape allowed them to be considered separate crimes and to qualify for individual and consecutive sentences, even though Fritz had no prior criminal history.
The third crime for which he was sentenced was an unrelated burglary in Middlesex County that preceded his arrest and prosecution in the kidnapping and rape.
Citta sentenced Fritz to seven years on the burglary charge, 20 years for the kidnapping charge and 13 years for the aggravated sexual assault charge. Fritz will have to serve 85 percent of the three consecutive sentences.
Regarding the kidnap and rape victim, Citta said: "It is unmeasurable what he stole from her. She will never get it out of her heart and, in her particular culture, this victim, the shame and damage to her is beyond all recognition — the horror she suffers and her family suffers because of Mr. Fritz's animalistic behavior." The woman is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood.
Fritz wept in court, fiddling with a folded paper towel as he tried to explain his actions. He apologized to the rape victim, who was not in court.
"I couldn't stand being rejected," Fritz said in describing his life in general. "Everything just boiled up."
However, when First Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Ronald F. DeLigny began to describe the heinousness of Fritz's crimes, his tears apparently dried up. Fritz stared at his hands, occasionally shaking his head slightly from side to side when the prosecutor spoke directly to him.
DeLigny said Fritz wrote a letter to the court seeking sympathy by describing an incident in which he had urinated in his pants while he was in a store and was laughed at by customers there. He then committed the kidnapping and rape to prove his manhood.
Fritz told the court that he grew up in Tennessee and had been "an excellent equestrian" and had been in great shape until he had an accident involving a truck.
"Everything was going all right until the accident in 2004," he said. He then came to New Jersey to be with his dad, and buried himself in work "90 hours a week."
But during those hours, Fritz was far from working, DeLigny responded, reading one of several notes found in Fritz's work truck that detailed about a half-dozen potential victims he apparently had observed, noting the woman's physical description, location, whether a window was open, whether there was a man in the house, what kind of vehicle she drove, and places to hide on the property.
In one instance, Fritz "even drew himself a little map in case he got lost," Citta said.
DeLigny read only one note aloud but the judge read several others, chilling in their descriptions of the women.
The burglary
In July 2006, Fritz went into the home of a 48-year-old Old Bridge woman, who discovered him in her bedroom wearing her thong underwear on his head. He had done landscape work at the home earlier.
In fact, Fritz had taken $2,000 from the home the day before, DeLigny said, and returned with intentions of harming the woman, but she thwarted his plans by startling him. He ran away and the woman called police, telling them he had worked there as a landscaper.
Police picked up Fritz and later noticed his resemblance to a composite sketch Lakewood police were circulating in the kidnapping and rape case.
Neither the kidnap-rape victim nor the burglary victim "could bring themselves to be in the same courtroom with the defendant," DeLigny said.
Fritz's attorney, Steven Menaker, said his client would not fit in well with the regular jail population, comparing the situation to how it would be for a corrections officer who was sentenced to prison for a crime. Menaker asked that Citta sentence Fritz to serve 85 percent of 27 years. Menaker said his client showed compassion because he returned her to the site where he had abducted her from the night before.
"We already know he is a liar and a malingerer," Citta said.
DeLigny said Fritz had pretended to be mentally ill and was even diagnosed with "malingering."
Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford was at the sentencing along with about a dozen members of the Prosecutor's Office.
"Justice was rendered to two very important victims today," Ford said.
There is another type of child abuse which will take place tomorrow night which rarely gets discussed. On Purim night, several yeshivos, by the orders of the roshei veshivos, rent out large stretch limos for bachurim as young as 14 years old, to go schnorring for their respective yeshivos. These boys end up engaging in all sorts of despicable behavior, including smoking and drinking hard liquor. Who is supplying the liquor? Most often it's the baalei battim that they visit. These people who serve alcohol to minors need to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The chillul hashem that goes on every Purim, with several bachurim getting plastered and roaming in a drunken stupor in the middle of the street, endangering their lives and the lives of others, needs to be condemned in the strongest terms.
However, we hear no words of condemnation from the rabbis, no Kol Korehs, no letters warning baalei battim against serving liquor to minors. Instead it is encouraged, and these boys think that they are fulfilling a mitzvah. That cannot be further from the truth. First of all the mitzvah to drink is during the day(preferably by the seudah), not at night. Secondly, the ikkar mitzvah is to drink wine, not hard liquor. Thirdly, it is assur for any individual, certainly a minor, to intentionally cause physical harm to himself. Add the chillul hashem element of making a public specatacle of themselves, there is no way that this behavior should be condoned. However, the rabbis do not view these shenanigans as any threat to our youth. To them it's all part of chinuch-teach them to schnorr, to smoke and to be drunkards, the younger the better. And do you think that it all stops after Purim? Think again. I see boys as young as thirteen asking adults to order them "drinks" at simchas all the time. It's really no big deal, as long as they don't go to separately seated, Jewish music concerts.
Steve,
you are only partially correct.
Several rabbonim have spoken publicly against this and there are some organizers who do not allow anyone to drink.
Many of the bochurim are not shnorring for their own yeshiva but rather for some other group who pays them or lets them get their thrills.
“Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."-Barack Obama
I'm surprised this statement by Obama is not getting it's share of criticism. Nobody can agree 100% with his pastor/priest/rabbi. I don't agree with everything my rabbi has to say. However, I do agree for what he stands for and therefore I turn to him for spiritual guidance. If he was a rabbi who held heretical views or defended molesters or was a yes man for the kashruth agencies, I would have looked for a new rabbi a long time ago. Similarly, if Obama really opposed the fundamental beliefs of his pastor, that America is the devil, then he should have looked for another church and pastor a long time ago. A man that is running for the highest office in this country that must swear to protect and defend it, cannot espouse the philosophy of "G-d damn America". As much as he denies having any of these same sentiments, one has to wonder why he never abandoned that church and pastor. It's not like the only difference between them is which college football team they root for. Before you vote Democrat this Fall, whether it's Barack or Hillary, thing long and hard who their friends are that they are afraid to cut ties with.
Bear Stearns people are putting their homes up for sale at a furious pace.
Ombudsmen,
Take a walk outside tomorrow night in any frum neighborhood. Witness all the young boys drunk out of their minds and vomiting all over the place. Then tell me how strongly the rabbis have condemned underage drinking.
“Watch out, consumer,” said David M. Khani, a coal analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group. “You’re probably going to see accelerating electricity prices in 2009, 2010 and 2011.”
Coal has long been a cheap and plentiful fuel source for utilities and their customers, helping to keep American electric bills relatively low.
But rising worldwide demand is turning American coal into another hot global commodity, with domestic buyers having to compete with buyers from countries like Germany and Japan.
As it continues a building spree for coal-fired power plants, China is consuming so much coal that its ability to export is diminishing rapidly; it is expected to become a net importer. Other exporters like South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam are cutting back for a variety of reasons, including growing domestic needs and local power shortages. Recent flooding in Australia has cut exports, at least temporarily, while an earthquake closed a major mine in Germany.
Meanwhile India is building huge coal plants that will require growing imports, while Russia is using more and more coal to make natural gas available for export.
I hate to play Devil's advocate but almost all the drunks I've seen are adults 18+. Maybe I haven't been aware enough of my surroundings.
The question remains however as to why lowlives like Friedman are not running around town to get signatures if even a handful of kids are stoned.
Most of the boys I see are high school age, 14-17. BTW, the legal drinking age is 21, but then again who pays attention to U.S. law anyway.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/NEWS/80313040
MONROE -- The town zoning board tonight will hear more public comments on a request by Rabbi Herman Wagschal to keep a garage extension and matzo kitchen he built illegally in a mostly Hasidic northern part of town.
The town has allowed the synagogue, which was illegally added to Wagschal’s home on Lanzut Court years ago. Wagschal has paid fines for those violations, but needs a variance to keep the garage extension that was built too close to the property line.
Wagschal’s neighbors complain that he is disturbing the peace and quiet of their neighborhood with the traffic of people and vehicles that regularly go to and from the home. A public hearing was extended for Wagschal’s request by the Zoning Board of Appeals. It is unclear if the body will make a decision tonight.
A slice of pizza gets pricier
Rising wheat prices are pushing up costs for baked goods, and foods from muffins to pizza are getting more expensive.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Pizzeria owner Joe Vicari shakes his head as he prepares to rip open a 50-pound bag of flour for another batch of dough.
"That's 37-bucks. $37. I couldn't believe it!" says Vicari.
Since opening Mariella Pizza in mid-town Manhattan 30-years ago, Vicari, says he has never experienced such a jump in the cost of his ingredients.
"I can't even believe how much the flour [goes] up. When I see the bill I can't believe it, that's too much," says the veteran pizza maker, who emigrated from Sicily. Only four weeks ago, Vicari says, he was paying just $16-a-bag for Gold Medal brand flour, which at $37-a-bag now seems more golden than ever.
Executives at his supplier, Cremosa Food of Melville, New York, did not return CNN's repeated phone calls, though a source at the company confirms there are plans for a price hike to $40-a-bag in the next week. Cremosa, the source said, is allocating flour to restaurants, refusing to allow customers to buy more than they had purchased the prior week.
Vicari struggles with the thought of raising the price of a slice, which he lifted to $2.50 only a few months ago due to an increase in cheese costs.
"Over here people come to buy pizza, working people. How much [am] I going to raise the pizza now?" asks Vicari. "Somebody come in here for two slices, and I take $5. I feel very, very bad for the person."
But, he concedes, if flour rises a few dollars more, above $40-a-bag, he probably will pass along the higher expense to customers.
The cost of cereals and bakery products climbed at an annual rate of more than 9% last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to a rise in the overall Consumer Price Index during the past 12 months of 4%.
Issue #1: America's Money
Indeed, it's not only pizza that's becoming more costly. Baked goods of all kinds are heading higher as the price of flour rises due to the fact that wheat is trading near a record high.
At the Chicago Board of Trade a bushel, 60-pounds of wheat, now trades for more than $1100, more than two-and-1/2 times what it was just a year ago.
Why? You can lay part of the blame on ethanol. Huge demand for ethanol has farmers planting more corn to produce the fuel when they could be growing wheat.
"Ethanol was competing against wheat for acres in 2007," said Joe Victor, grain analyst with Allendale Inc.
Poor growing conditions last year also affected the global wheat crop, from a winter freeze in the U.S. to droughts in Australia and France.
And, the dollar sinking to a record low makes U.S. wheat relatively cheap for foreigners.
"Fifty-nine-percent of everything we raised in 2007 is leaving the U.S.," said Victor. "That's 9-10% greater than normal." As a result, Victor said, U.S. wheat supplies are at their lowest level since the end of World War II, another factor pushing prices skyward.
The good news for U.S. consumers is that high wheat prices have led farmers to plant a large crop of winter wheat, which could temper retail prices later this year.
But, for now, it appears likely the cost of baked goods is heading higher.
"It's killing us, it's killing us. It's forcing me to pass it on to the consumer," said Frank Karalis co-owner of Europan Bakery Café in Manhattan. Karalis was holding a menu on which he had just crossed out every price and written in new, higher prices he plans for next week: Bagel with butter $1.30, up 20-cents; Muffins $2.25, up 25-cents; Paninis $7.20 up 25-cents.
"Someone's gonna buy a croissant here for $2 and tomorrow they're going to pay $2.50. They're not going to like that," Karalis said.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/breakingnews/local_story_079121340.html
Anti-Semitism at border charged
By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer
PLATTSBURGH —A former senior officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Champlain is alleging he is the victim of a string of anti-Semitic incidents.
Brian Israel, 44, a Jewish man who was born in Montreal and now lives in Champlain, said he was fired from his post last July on three charges: “lack of candor,” “failed to follow supervisory instruction” and “conduct unbecoming of an officer.”
Israel has challenged the dismissal at a U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board hearing, claiming it was racially motivated.
RACIAL SLURS
Israel said his workplace at the Champlain border crossing was the site of racist incidents, including other officers allegedly sticking a swastika and Nazi SS lightning bolts on his locker door.
“I was fired because of anti-Semitism: big Jew, big problem; no Jew, no problem,” Israel said this week.
Israel said he endured commands from superior officers that included racial slurs.
On one occasion, Israel claims, a supervisor pointed to Heiman’s Bus Service as it approached the American border and told him:
“There’s the Hanukah Harry Bus; those are your people. You go clear that bus. You deal with them.”
On another occasion, Israel said, another supervisor told him:
“There’s the Jew cruiser, Israel. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get yourself a bride, because you need one.”
Both supervisors were named in a recent hearing at Customs and Border Patrol Headquarters in Swanton, Vt., according to Andy Ramirez, president of an advocacy group called Friends of the Border Patrol, based in Chino, Calif, who attended it.
Ramirez said in a telephone interview: “One of the things we learned during the course of this is there is a bus of Hasidic Jews that enters the U.S. on Thursdays, between 10 and 11 p.m., that has been called: Rotten Meat Express, Smelly Bus, Harry Christmas Ride, Jew Cruiser, Jew Clipper, Curley Cue and Hanukah Harry.”
Ramirez said several senior officers were named in conjunction with the racist remarks.
Starbucks plans changes amid economic "tailspin"
By Lisa Baertlein
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), battling to revive U.S. growth in an economy that is in a "tailspin" plans to roll out a line of energy, health and wellness products, Chief Executive Howard Schultz said on Wednesday.
Schultz, recently returned to the CEO position, promised shareholders at the annual meeting to transform the company, whose stock has dropped 40 percent over the last 12 months, but he said there was no "silver bullet."
"You have an economy that is really in a tailspin," he said, adding that Starbucks would not use that as an excuse.
Cut the BS, stop wasting time and Skip Boo-Boo Bruno with his storage house of skeletons for the new Guv.
Let's put in a Man that looks you in the eye and let's it all hang out, that hides nothing, won't have to come out with lame explanations and double-speak.
A Man that the Agudah can be proud of and about whom, Leshko-shvitz can proudly invocate.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Please "Rise"
and welcome the next Governor of New York State:
Stephon Marbury.
"Get in The Truck!"
KOLKO LAWYER: IT'S ALL UOJ'S FAULT!
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a5393/News/New_York.html
For This Defense Lawyer, Talmud Is Inspiration
“If people think I’m a monster just because I’m representing a monster, then there’s a flaw with the system,” says Jeffrey Schwartz.Michael Datikash
by Doug Chandler
Special To The Jewish Week
He’s been receiving threats and insults during the last 10 weeks for his defense of Cesar Rodriguez, charged with the abuse and murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Nixzmary Brown. And in the Jewish community, his name has cropped up as the lawyer representing Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a former teacher at Midwood’s Yeshiva Torah Temimah now facing trial for allegedly molesting three students.
But Jeffrey Schwartz, the attorney in both cases, shrugs off the negative reaction to his work, saying that if nothing else during his 21 years of practice, he has learned how to be “thick-skinned.” He also turns to the Talmud for inspiration, says Schwartz, a Brooklyn native who attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, Yeshiva University and YU’s Cardozo School of Law.
While studying
at a Jerusalem yeshiva more than 20 years ago, Schwartz recalled in a recent interview, his rabbi there told him that Talmudic law “provides for both prosecutors and defense attorneys,” placing equal value on both positions. The rabbi also quoted the Talmud as saying that “one of the greatest mitzvahs is helping someone get released from prison.” (not sexual predators, you moron)
It’s a lesson that has stayed with Schwartz throughout the high-profile Nixzmary Brown trial, which the lawyer calls the most “morally challenging” case he has ever handled. In fact, Schwartz, 45, volunteered for the case after other lawyers had turned it down, he said. The offer came from a state panel that assigns counsel to indigent clients. (Rodriguez was convicted of first-degree manslaughter Tuesday but acquitted on murder charges; he faces 25 years in prison.)
“Part of the reason I took the case was to see whether I could do it and give it all I have,” said Schwartz, who considers it his moral and professional obligation to provide the best defense he can. The lawyer also wrestled with his conscience before making the choice, saying he had never contemplated taking a child-abuse or child-murder case. “I thought it was too disgusting and too nasty,” he said. “I didn’t want to defend a baby killer. I have 20 nephews and nieces, as well as a daughter; it’s not as if I don’t love kids.”
But Schwartz, whose daughter is 18, said turning the case down would have been “prima donnish.” Being a true defense lawyer requires taking any type of case, he added, just as being a doctor requires treating any patient who comes before you. He apparently felt the same way when Rabbi Kolko visited his office, having been referred to the attorney.
“If people think I’m a monster just because I’m representing a monster, then there’s a flaw with the system or how they perceive the system,” Schwartz said as he sat in an Upper West Side diner, close to where he lives. In response to one question, the lawyer said he could never have defended Hitler, who destroyed much of his family, “but I wouldn’t have hated the guy representing him.”
Much of the criticism aimed at Schwartz has stemmed from his aggressive defense of Rodriguez, which one of the case’s alternate jurors labeled “cocky.” Part of the lawyer’s strategy has involved questioning Nixzmary’s behavior, including suggestions that the emaciated child was a “little Houdini” — a reference to how she was able to slip from a chair in which she was bound — and that she bullied her five siblings.
But Schwartz made no apologies for his defense, which, he said, was partly intended to show jurors the chaotic situation that greeted his client, “a hard-working family man,” every time he returned home. He never meant to imply that the child brought the abuse on herself, as some of his critics have contended — only that she presented a further challenge to her “overwhelmed, stressed-out” parents.
While the Nixzmary Brown case was viewed by many observers as unwinnable for a defense lawyer, Schwartz believes Rabbi Kolko’s case is bound to be easier, said the lawyer, who began his career as an assistant district attorney in Queens. No stranger to high-profile cases, Schwartz counts among past clients Michael Kneitel, a Jewish Nazi from Borough Park convicted of weapons possession, and Erica Colon, who pled guilty to the murder of a livery cab driver. But his advocacy for the rabbi may stir just as many emotions.
“He seems to be very loved by most people and reviled by a few,” said Schwartz, who argues that many of the allegations against the rabbi came from a blog, the Unorthodox Jew, and that the blog master has recruited new victims in the case. So UOJ "created" these victims. That's a rock solid defense.
Meanwhile, Schwartz, a divorcee who comes across as boyishly charming and forthright, said he can’t wait to return to his normal routine, which includes attending synagogue every morning. The routine also includes a “Daf Yomi” class, in which participants study a page of Talmud each day.
I will be following the trial very closely on my blog theantitzemach.blogspot.com.
Iowa OSHA just sent out a press release that AgriProcessors was being charged with 39 health and safety violations and $182,000 in fines. You can get a copy of the press release at 515-281-3469.
Jewish state
Jewish state said ...
Iowa levies fines against Agriprocessors
Associated Press - March 20, 2008 2:44 PM ET
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - State safety officials have issued 39 citations against the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors in Postville in northeast Iowa.
The Iowa Division of Labor alleges violations of state workplace safety and health standards and has proposed penalties of $182,000.
The citations follow a routine safety inspection at the plant last October, followed by a health inspection in February.
Kerry Koonce is a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, which includes the labor division. She says the violations range from improper labeling of
anhydrous ammonia containers to the lack of appropriate protective equipment for handling dangerous chemicals and machinery.
Agriprocessors has 15 days to respond.
A telephone message left today for the company's attorney, Jay Eaton of Des Moines, was not immediately returned.
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