Are They Going to Arrest the Sith Lord?

Every day brings new exposure of the Sith. Prepare for much wailing, snarling, and gnashing of teeth. Will they fight like Darth Maul, choosing death with honor? My guess is, No honor among scum. Remember, Sam Antar ratted out his own family. He's low rent, but my experience is that this whole crowd is equally low rent. They really are. Like Buffett says, "Sometimes crooks just look like crooks."

Roll early and roll often, lads.

I'm curious: do you think the general public sees the Sith now, and if the public sees them, how long until they glimpse the Lord(s) of Sith? Serious replies only please."

http://www1.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=3532&mn=23793&pt=msg&mid=5575033

The Sith by Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne aka Hannibal

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Scroll down for updates

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I am only here doing this because the press is captured and won't cover this story. I beg you, reporters, get out there and do your job, or are you a captured journalist? By not writing about this you are also complicit. I understand, you cannot bite the hand that feeds you. It is indeed a sad state of affairs, when little old ladies, have to spend their time trying to get the word out.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/deep-capture-1

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Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com broke the story several years ago, that the Sith Lord(s) are attacking his company as well as other publicly traded companies. Now Dr. Byrne (aka Hannibal on the OSTK IV board) has come out with another clue, as we try to crack the back of the illegal cartel responsible for destroying companies, America, and the World, by manipulating stock prices while our Government and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the blind eye of SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox, continues to allow the crooks to do whatever they want, occasionally giving them a small fine nowhere in relation to the amount they stole, whereby they neither admit nor deny guilt, while laughing all the way to their tax free shelters in the Caymans, as they screw the unwashed masses out of their money and retirement nesteggs.

Our Government of elected and appointed multi millionaires is complicit by doing nothing to stop the crime wave, as they continue to pile up their own treasures on earth, and bow down and worship at the feet of the Wall Street moguls who are pulling all their puppet strings. It is the best government Wall Street has ever bought. The hedge funds meet regularly with the SEC to tell them what needs to be done to keep everything flowing into their pocketbooks.

Our candidates are too busy playing dress up, as they puff and primp themselves up , donning their designer clothes and jewelry, powdering their faces and painting their lips, all the while spewing lines about change, while taking money from the tycoons who stole if from the public. to pay for their shameless acts. Our politicians are skirting the issues of the financial meltdown which includes the greatest transfer of middle class wealth to the rich ever, that is taking place right in front of their faces. It will affect the entire world. We are GLOBAL folks. The rank and file hard working citizens will be looking for jobs into their eighties, just to afford food and shelter. Now I ask you, who is going to hire an eighty year old in a society that is obsessed with the young and the beautiful. Our futures are not just bleak, they are becoming downright frightening.

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Hello. Is anybody out there.
Pink Floyd - Us And Them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZGRtUeYTU8

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NEW DEEP CAPTURE

excerpt

A Bad Day for Criminals and the Journalists Who Love Them
September 10th, 2008 by Mark Mitchell
The mainstream financial media says that the SEC should not crack down on criminal short sellers because short sellers are vital to the markets (and vital ghost-writers of a lot of what appears in the financial media). But much of the world has come to understand the enormity of the illegal short selling scandal, and there is a palpable feeling that the days are numbered for the miscreants who are turning our markets to mush.
Consider the events of just the last 24 hours.

http://www.deepcapture.com/a-bad-day-for-criminals-and-the-journalists-who-love-them/

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Canadian company Fairfax Financial has a suit against "The Enterprise".

http://www1.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=3532&mn=23786&pt=msg&mid=5571795

Excerpts

" Morgan Keegan Fires Fairfax Analyst on Early Report Disclosure
By Anthony Effinger and Thom Weidlich

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., a Tennessee-based brokerage, said it fired stock analyst John Gwynn in August for giving his reports on Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. to selected clients before publication.

Fairfax had sued Morgan Keegan, Gwynn and a group of hedge- fund managers including Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates Ltd. and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors LLC in July 2006, alleging they had ganged up to drive down Fairfax's shares and profit from the decline. The defendants have denied the claims.

Fairfax said Gwynn, 62, collaborated with the hedge funds to write negative reports on the Toronto-based insurer, and that the funds knew when the reports would be released and what they would say."

"``Enterprise members used Gwynn's unreasonably negative and materially misleading analysis to pressure investors, analysts and rating agencies into selling their shares or downgrading their ratings,'' Fairfax said in its complaint."

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David Patch on the Rumor Mongering that took place Sept. 9th concering United Airlines. The trades will stand. Hrmphh!

Excerpt

David Patch

"United Airlines stock price plummeted more than 75% this past Monday after an erroneous publication was disseminated claiming the airline was filing for bankruptcy.

According to reports, Florida-based Income Securities Advisors picked up an archived story in the Florida Sun-Sentinel regarding a 2002 bankruptcy of UAL as published it as a present day event. The president of Income Securities, Richard Lehmann, claims that the story was picked up through a Goggle search and that in following the Google linked story the staffer who found the story claims it was linked to the front page of the Sun-Sentinel where stories about Hurricane Ike also existed.

Instead of reading through the story, which clearly identified the timeframe as being 2002, the staffer forwarded the story on to the Bloomberg wire as a third-party contributor. The Bloomberg headline simply reading that United Airlines was filing for bankruptcy and then linking to the archived news report."
http://investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/StockgateToday

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The Easter Bunny does it again

http://thesanitycheck.com/BobsSanityCheckBlog/tabid/56/EntryID/707/Default.aspx

http://solari.com/blog/?p=1400

http://solari.com/blog/?p=1407

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top fannie mae & freddie mac political contribution recipients

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html

"Published by Lindsay Renick Mayer on July 16, 2008 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
The federal government recently announced that it will come to the rescue of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two embattled mortgage buyers that for years have pursued a lobbying strategy to get lawmakers on their side. Both companies have poured money into lobbying and campaign contributions to federal candidates, parties and committees as a general tactic, but they've also directed those contributions strategically. In the 2006 election cycle, Fannie Mae was giving 53 percent of its total $1.3 million in contributions to Republicans, who controlled Congress at that time. This cycle, with Democrats in control, they've reversed course, giving the party 56 percent of their total $1.1 million in contributions. Similarly, Freddie Mac has given 53 percent of its $555,700 in contributions to Democrats this cycle, compared to the 44 percent it gave during 2006.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also strategically given more contributions to lawmakers currently sitting on committees that primarily regulate their industry. Fifteen of the 25 lawmakers who have received the most from the two companies combined since the 1990 election sit on either the House Financial Services Committee; the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee; or the Senate Finance Committee. The others have seats on the powerful Appropriations or Ways & Means committees, are members of the congressional leadership or have run for president. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate banking committee, has received the most from Fannie and Freddie's PACs and employees ($133,900 since 1989). Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) has received $65,500. Kanjorski chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs"

Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

Name Office Party/State

1. Dodd, Christopher J S D-CT $133,900

2. Kerry, John S D-MA $111,000

3. Obama, Barack S D-IL $105,849

4. Clinton, Hillary S D-NY $75,550

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http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F2700

Hedge Fund Contributions

Election Cycle Total Contributions Contributions from Individuals Contributions from PACs Soft Money Contributions Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans % to Dems % to Repubs
2008* $12,025,977 $11,895,677 $130,300 N/A $8,278,869 $3,747,108 69% 31%
2006* $4,951,483 $4,783,383 $168,100 N/A $3,513,240 $1,234,493 71% 25%
2004* $4,504,741 $4,436,441 $68,300 N/A $2,758,560 $1,744,681 61% 39%
2002 $3,279,839 $913,432 $6,500 $2,359,907 $2,801,046 $478,793 85% 15%
2000 $2,370,161 $933,813 $14,000 $1,422,348 $1,802,028 $566,133 76% 24%
1998 $779,492 $371,992 $500 $407,000 $609,692 $139,300 78% 18%
1996 $1,371,286 $525,686 $0 $845,600 $734,096 $637,190 54% 46%
1994 $626,879 $226,879 $0 $400,000 $184,100 $441,779 29% 70%
1992 $698,940 $339,450 $0 $359,490 $602,250 $96,690 86% 14%
1990 $107,450 $107,450 $0 N/A $100,950 $6,500 94% 6%
Total $30,716,248 $24,534,203 $387,700 $5,794,345 $21,384,831 $9,092,667 70%

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Commercial Banks

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F03

Election Cycle Rank† Total Contributions Contributions from Individuals Contributions from PACs Soft Money Contributions Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans % to Dems % to Repubs
2008* 11 $25,607,221 $17,860,861 $7,746,360 N/A $12,215,037 $13,385,283 48% 52%
2006* 10 $25,956,927 $14,186,756 $11,770,171 N/A $9,725,896 $15,981,878 37% 62%
2004* 12 $31,031,562 $20,294,786 $10,736,776 N/A $11,155,174 $19,794,531 36% 64%
2002 17 $20,416,839 $7,874,217 $8,669,773 $3,872,849 $7,289,686 $13,067,025 36% 64%
2000 14 $25,912,405 $11,036,600 $9,619,581 $5,256,224 $9,389,944 $16,445,424 36% 63%
1998 10 $17,736,657 $5,612,096 $8,759,627 $3,364,934 $6,106,145 $11,471,053 34% 65%
1996 10 $19,227,948 $6,765,487 $9,394,731 $3,067,730 $6,464,100 $12,709,548 34% 66%
1994 9 $13,357,949 $4,411,391 $8,029,818 $916,740 $6,459,487 $6,887,562 48% 52%
1992 8 $14,779,470 $5,481,544 $8,234,315 $1,063,611 $7,429,236 $7,314,787 50% 49%
1990 9 $9,769,910 $2,867,784 $6,902,126 N/A $5,159,968 $4,609,142 53% 47%

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Lobbyists

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=K02
Election Cycle Rank† Total Contributions Contributions from Individuals Contributions from PACs Soft Money Contributions Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans % to Dems % to Repubs
2008* 15 $23,121,819 $21,962,651 $1,159,168 N/A $13,010,033 $10,103,986 56% 44%
2006* 13 $23,776,939 $22,275,767 $1,501,172 N/A $10,072,933 $13,524,396 42% 57%
2004* 14 $27,804,863 $26,695,674 $1,109,189 N/A $13,422,657 $14,357,456 48% 52%
2002 21 $17,140,796 $14,237,723 $822,259 $2,080,814 $8,630,795 $8,501,706 50% 50%
2000 27 $16,395,340 $13,118,609 $791,303 $2,485,428 $7,965,666 $8,404,462 49% 51%
1998 24 $10,463,134 $8,742,682 $723,869 $996,583 $5,399,607 $5,046,707 52% 48%
1996 30 $9,870,775 $8,496,814 $496,915 $877,046 $4,997,750 $4,870,825 51% 49%
1994 33 $5,400,326 $4,770,441 $330,882 $299,003 $4,014,748 $1,377,353 74% 26%
1992 28 $6,620,661 $5,985,016 $242,409 $393,236 $4,619,099 $1,996,011 70% 30%
1990 29 $3,197,992 $2,986,558 $211,434 N/A $2,370,457 $827,535 74% 26%
Total 19 $143,792,645 $129,271,935 $7,388,600 $7,132,110 $74,503,745 $69,010,437 52% 48

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Pharmaceutical Companies

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=H04

Election Cycle Rank† Total Contributions Contributions from Individuals Contributions from PACs Soft Money Contributions Donations to Democrats Donations to Republicans % to Dems % to Repubs
2008* 18 $18,090,685 $8,149,670 $9,941,015 N/A $9,019,130 $9,059,622 50% 50%
2006* 15 $19,413,550 $6,918,878 $12,494,672 N/A $6,064,672 $13,039,730 31% 67%
2004* 21 $17,821,866 $8,581,459 $9,240,407 N/A $6,018,855 $11,777,636 34% 66%
2002 10 $29,648,111 $3,421,450 $6,957,382 $19,269,279 $7,702,532 $21,920,572 26% 74%
2000 13 $27,087,280 $5,867,187 $5,649,913 $15,570,180 $8,319,347 $18,704,853 31% 69%
1998 16 $13,205,934 $2,710,085 $4,107,068 $6,388,781 $4,735,279 $8,425,810 36% 64%
1996 16 $14,022,342 $3,558,262 $3,584,217 $6,879,863 $4,879,415 $9,114,373 35% 65%
1994 20 $7,962,783 $2,071,830 $3,477,146 $2,413,807 $3,524,138 $4,435,468 44% 56%
1992 23 $7,424,841 $2,513,802 $2,589,241 $2,321,798 $3,172,117 $4,223,127 43% 57%
1990 28 $3,275,767 $812,196 $2,463,571 N/A $1,517,129 $1,756,423 46% 54%
Total 16 $157,953,159 $44,604,819 $60,504,632 $52,843,708 $54,952,614 $102,457,614 35% 65%

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AP
Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate
Thursday September 11, 6:51 am ET
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Writer
Oil brokers sex scandal, conflicts of interest may affect offshore drilling debate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A scandal involving sex, drugs and -- uh, offshore oil drilling. It's a strange mix, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for those in Congress pressing to expand oil and gas development off America's beaches while trying to stave off an election-year rush by Democrats to impose new taxes and royalties on the oil industry.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080911/interior_oil_scandal.html

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From the Wasatch Journal

This following note is from the editor of the Wasatch Journal commenting on the attention garnered by the publication's great story on Patrick Byrne.

<<< In the Summer '08 issue of the Wasatch Journal our own Melissa Bond wrote a profile of the enigmatic and oft-misunderstood CEO of Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne. We had such amazing response that we've created this, its own page, to handle the web traffic. We hope you enjoy the story and come back to the Wasatch Journal, whether online or, better yet, through our coffee-table quality magazine

Feel free to download the story in PDF form by clicking here.

The Tao of Patrick

Float Like a Butterfly

by Melissa Bond

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Please sign the FDA REFORM PETITION

http://reformfda.org/

"The American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF) is leading a campaign to reform the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We ask you to join with us in signing the Reform FDA Petition presented below. This petition will be delivered to Congress.

Late last year, the US government released a 60 page report entitled: FDA Science and Mission at Risk. A more honest title would have been: FDA Science and Mission in Shambles.

Apart from its title, however, the report was forthright. Here are a few direct quotes from the table of contents:

Major finding: "The FDA cannot fulfill its mission because its scientific base... is weak...."
Major Finding: "The FDA cannot fulfill its mission because its scientific workforce does not have sufficient capacity and capability."
Finding: "FDA does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of food for the nation."
Finding: “The development of medical products based on 'new science' cannot adequately be regulated by the FDA.”
These failures affect the health of all Americans. Good drugs are not approved or approved after interminable delays. Even after new drugs are shown to be safe, doctors cannot use them with terminally ill patients whose cases are otherwise hopeless. Bad drugs are approved -- often on the basis of a recommendation by panels whose members include drug company consultants.

The record with the food supply is almost as bad as with drugs. When fresh food turns out to be contaminated, the only solution the Agency can come up with is to "nuke" it with radiation. What does this do to food? The FDA certainly does not know. If irradiated salad is not unappetizing enough, how about cloned meat, also recently approved.

A veritable revolution is taking place in the science of food, food extracts, and food supplements. Food producers would like to tell the American public about it. Millions of lives could be saved as a result. But the FDA will not permit it. The Agency ignores first amendment protections and censors the communication of valid scientific information.

To persuade Congress to address the comprehensive failure of the FDA, a Petition to Reform the FDA has been drafted. Your signature is vital. We must collect such a large number of names on the Petition that it compels Congressional Action. We will hand deliver the petition to Congressional leaders and urge them to enact comprehensive FDA reform. Congress already knows that the FDA represents a serious problem. This petition will help move them to take the urgent action required.

Send this petition to:
Elected Representative
In November 2007, a 60-page report entitled FDA Science and Mission at Risk was released by the FDA. In this report, the agency admitted that it lacks the competency and capacity to keep up with scientific advances.

The FDA now admits that Americans are suffering and dying because the FDA does not have the scientific ability to ascertain if new drugs are safe or effective or to evaluate scientific claims.

Meanwhile the FDA censors the communication of scientific information and opposes or bans cheaper and often more effective natural remedies in a misguided effort to maintain an FDA-approved drug monopoly.

Some members of Congress think that giving the FDA more money will solve these problems. But the FDA report itself admits that the agency's scientific ineptitude is not solely due to a lack of money. We should not give the admittedly incompetent FDA any more tax dollars. And we should not finance it with drug company money either because then the agency no longer works solely for the public. Rather than give the failed FDA more money, give it instead a total reform and restructuring.

A reformed FDA should liberate consumers from the chains of archaic medical restrictions that cause millions of Americans to needlessly suffer and die each year. It should support, not censor and hold back, science and innovation.

This should not be viewed as a political issue. Think of what will happen when your next family member (or you) suffers a health catastrophe that cannot be cured because the admittedly incompetent FDA failed to allow or approve a safe and effective therapy.

We, the citizens whose signatures appear below, respectfully request immediate action to reform the FDA. A total overhaul is urgently needed. Everything about the FDA must be taken apart, reviewed, redefined, and recreated so that it supports, not obstructs, the mission of advancing medical science and vibrant good health for all."

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overstock court case watch

http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/MC/courtcal/casenoq.cfm?sel_prefix=CIV&sel_caseno=053693

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There ought to be a law against it.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080911/new_york_times_mover.html

It looks like a hedge fund is a major holder in the New York Times

Inmobiliaria Carso, S.A. de C.V, a Mexican holding company controlled by members of the Slim family, bought 9.1 million Class A common shares of the New York Times, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other major shareholders in the Times include the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which owns a controlling interest, and the hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners.

Harbinger Capital Partners is a privately owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm invests in the public equity and hedging markets across the globe. It focuses on restructurings, liquidations, event-driven situations, turnarounds, capital structure arbitrage, and short sales of securities to make its investments. The firm typically invests in value securities. It employs a fundamental analysis with a bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolios. Harbinger Capital Partners is based in Birmingham, Alabama. Harbinger Capital Partners is a subsidiary of Harbert Management Corporation.

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=9471328

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Civil Penalties. What a Laugh! If I hold you up and rob you of a few thousands dollars I can go to jail for years. If I steal millions of dollars from your savings via the stock market, and destroy a company that employs you to profit off of its demise, I can neither admit nor deny guilt, pay a little fine, get barred from the industry maybe for 5 years if they are being extra harsh, and then come back and do it all over again.

When are they going to prosecute these sociopaths criminally and give them jail time? Until that happens, the stock market continues to be the Wild West before the sheriff got to town.

Shame on our government, still hell bent on enriching themselves personally and to hell with joe public.

House votes to bolster SEC enforcement power

Excerpts

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday to strengthen the enforcement arm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The bill would give the investor protection agency broader authority to impose financial penalties and more explicit ability to ban securities law violators from other parts of the financial industry.

"Policing the markets and keeping investors' money safe has never been more important and so this legislation comes at a critical time," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a statement.

The Securities Act of 2008 is sponsored by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. There is not yet a companion bill in the Senate.

The legislation includes a number of measures the SEC has been actively seeking, including the authority to obtain financial penalties from wrongdoers in SEC administrative proceedings without needing to file a separate civil action in federal court.

The bill has the support of the North American Securities Administrators Association, an association representing 67 state, provincial and territorial securities administrators.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080911/pl_nm/sec_enforcement_congress_dc;_ylt=AhIBYczQMyxqn8EvVDtnko2s0NUE

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"What is the true price of wheat?”asked Tippens, president and chief executive officer of Canadian State Bank. "I don't think anybody knows.”Certainly, it's not $10.68, Tippens said. Or it wouldn't be at that level without billions of dollars from hedge funds that have artificially caused the price to soar since the first of the year, he said.For instance, one year ago the price of the July 2007 wheat contract on the Kansas City market was $4.88 a bushel. Two years ago on the same day it was $4.05 for a July 2006 contract.

The difference? The Commodity Futures Trading Commission — the government agency that regulates the grain trading markets — opened the markets to unlimited trading by giant hedge funds last year (2007)said Joe Neal Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Grain & Feed Association and Oklahoma Agribusiness Retailers Association.

"It is estimated that $8 billion has flowed into ag futures since the start of the year,” Hampton said. "They never have any intention of owning that grain. This ongoing large investment has served to drive general commodity prices to ever higher prices, often in disrespect to prevailing fundamentals.”

The giant amounts of cash that the hedge funds have thrown into the grain markets have created a wild volatility, said Kim Anderson, professor and market economist at Oklahoma State University

http://newsok.com/article/3220342/1206414521

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How much was made by illegally manipulating stocks?

“Hedge funds, whose top 50 managers earned a total of $29 billion last year, are mostly private pools of capital whose overseers participate substantially in profits from their bets on whether the prices of assets will rise or fall. John Paulson, the former Bear Stearns Cos. managing director who founded New York- based Paulson & Co. in 1994, was paid an estimated $3.7 billion, the most, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aV51OvVaW7Z8&refer=home

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Looks like we are all home owners now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/business/14gret.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&adxnnlx=1221390082-ZlMuJz3Re/mwpSFJyt/avA

Excerpts

Fair Game

The Joys of Ownership

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

Published: September 13, 2008

SO, ladies and gentlemen, how does it feel to be the new owner of those two big and banged-up mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Not exactly the kind of real estate you were looking to buy, you say? Felt you had swallowed enough garbage after the Bear Stearns bailout tapped you for $29 billion?

Make no mistake: we, the American taxpayers, are amassing quite a portfolio of flotsam and jetsam in the mortgage bust. It certainly brings new meaning to the notion of an ownership society, doesn’t it?

To be sure, the terms of the Mac ’n’ Mae rescue deal are still sinking in. And it will be years before we know how much taxpayers will have to pay for the privilege of backing these out-of-control entities. But in the meantime, here are some of the joys that ownership in Mac ’n’ Mae might bring.

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  Recs: 3 Dave Patch addresses the SEC on recent action against NSShttp://www.investigatethesec.com/drupal-5.5/node/389
( in an email to the Chairman, Commissioners, and designated officials )

From: Patch, David
Subject: SEC Denies Public Protection - AGAIN

Mr. Chairman,

I must commend you on the steps taken today towards addressing naked short sale abuses. With Congress, public issuers, and investors alike seeking to have you and your staff tarred and feathered for the egregious negligence executed under the umbrella of federal protection you stepped out today and threw caution to the wind and told us all to pound sand.

I fully understand that the Commission staff and the Office of Economic Analysis is not convinced that this is a real issue that is destroying public confidence in our Capital markets. I understand that the OEA is not committed at looking at this issue seriously by dedicating the time and resource into analyzing actual trade data before opining on how this may or may not impact our markets. And I understand that private meetings with wealthy short sellers such as Jim Chanos provide opportunity for the Commission to gain support material into the positions taken despite the conflicts such meeting may create. But what I don't fully grasp is why the general public must carry the burdens for the SEC's negligence. Why should we be the people who must work longer to protect our retirements? Why should we be the people who must cut our expenses because we can't afford to pay our bills due to the destruction of our personal savings accounts? Why should we suffer the pains so that people like jim Chanos and his peers can be provided ample opportunity to destroy public companies, local communities, and the financial stability of families across this nation.

Today the SEC took yet another half step to a whole problem. The SEC maintained loopholes in the short sale process so that certain short sellers would not have to carry the burden of expense in the execution of rapid short sales never intent on existing by settlement day. These are the very same short sellers who destroyed confidence in our financial markets and now the short sellers who will continue to destroy other markets and other public issuers.

Let me help you out here:

Hard T+3 Close-Out Requirement; Penalties for Violation Include Prohibition of Further Short Sales, Mandatory Pre-Borrow

The Commission adopted, on an interim final basis, a new rule requiring that short sellers and their broker-dealers deliver securities by the close of business on the settlement date (three days after the sale transaction date, or T+3) and imposing penalties for failure to do so.

If a short sale violates this close out requirement, then any broker-dealer acting on the short seller’s behalf will be prohibited from further short sales in the same security unless the shares are not only located but also pre-borrowed. The prohibition on the broker-dealer’s activity applies not only to short sales for the particular naked short seller, but to all short sales for any customer.

Although the rule will be effective immediately, the Commission is seeking comment during a period of 30 days on all aspects of the rule. The Commission expects to follow further rulemaking procedures at the expiration of the comment period.

Under this rule there are serious flaws in the Commissions thinking.

1. To determine a lack of compliance to this rule it requires the SRO's or SEC to conduct an audit of the failing firms. These audits are not done daily but periodical. By the time the violation is identified the culprit is long gone with the monies and the markets manipulated by the potential abuse. This rule is a responsive rule instead of a pro-active rule.

2. This rule, as it stands will yield compliance violations at the BD level and will rarely result in penalties imposed on the originating seller. Compliance violations rarely achieve the penalty status as that which investors lost by the violation itself. This rule can likewise by circumvented by engaging in a separate violation; marking the trade long and failing that trade instead.

3. This rule does nothing to address the initial abuses of multiple locates on a common share during the time of trade execution. Since multiple locates can exist, fails will exist. This also allows, instantaneously, for there to be too many short sales executed at a single moment in time. Such trading creates the leverage the short seller need in order to drive down a market.

4. The day trader. How does this rule impact the abuses associated with the rapid day trading short seller? Using multiple locates and acting in concert with other hedge funds, a market can be destroyed within the 3-day settlement window and so long as the trades are covered by T+3 the SEC and SRO's have no authority to take enforcement action. This rule simply redefined the window of time a short seller has to abuse a stock and create profit and with sophisticated computer programs the systems will be set up to cover this window. If a portion of the trade falls into the settlement window the trade will fail but…the SEC does not require a mandatory close-out with guaranteed delivery, the Commission only restricts future short sales until it is closed out.

5. Close-out of fails. What ever happened to mandatory w/Guaranteed delivery? The NASD presented the SEC with an argument in 2004 that identified how failed trades were not being closed out because it was not "cost effective" for the failed party to do so. The SEC continues to fail in adopting such language. In fact, the Commission is aware that firms have engaged in rolling failed trades to restart the clock. Nothing in this law changes that tactic. Nothing in this law requires that on T+4 the failing member must go into the market at market open and purchase this stock under guaranteed delivery status. Without such specific language members will game the system to make the close-out profitable.

Mr. Chairman your time is limited but your legacy will live on forever. This Commission will be remembered in history as the most conflicted of all time. The Comission staff that allowed a group of bandits to run rampant across our capital markets and destroy so much of our nations family wealth.

There will be people who no longer can afford to retire, as well as people who will lose their homes and their familes due to financial ruin and it will all be due to the negligence of this Commission.

The Commission has failed to hear the voices of the people and instead has listened to those who have their own self-interest in mind. This is the grandfather clause all over again and this delay is only a delay that will most likely force Congress to step in and make law for you.

Shame on you.

Dave Patch

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Enter the rabbit hole here --------------------> http://www.DeepCapture.com

To enter our $75,000 "Crack the Wall Street Cover-up!" contest read to the bottom of this story.

The Columbia School of Journalism is our nation’s finest. They grant the Pulitzer Prize, and their journal, The Columbia Journalism Review, is the profession’s gold standard. CJR reporters are high priests of a decaying temple, tending a flame in a land going dark.

In 2006 a CJR editor (a seasoned journalist formerly with Time magazine in Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe, and The Far Eastern Economic Review) called me to discuss suspicions he was forming about the US financial media. I gave him leads but warned, “Chasing this will take you down a rabbit hole with no bottom.” For months he pursued his story against pressure and threats he once described as, “something out of a Hollywood B movie, but unlike the movies, the evil corporations fighting the journalist are not thugs burying toxic waste, they are Wall Street and the financial media itself.”

His exposé reveals a circle of corruption enclosing venerable Wall Street banks, shady offshore financiers, and suspiciously compliant reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, CNBC, and The New York Times. If you ever wonder how reporters react when a journalist investigates them (answer: like white-collar crooks they dodge interviews, lie, and hide behind lawyers), or if financial corruption interests you, then this is for you. It makes Grisham read like a book of bedtime stories, and exposes a scandal that may make Enron look like an afternoon tea.

By Patrick M. Byrne, Deep Capture Reporter

The Story of Deep Capture

NEW! Download the Story of Deep Capture in .pdf format.

By Mark Mitchell, with reporting by the Deep Capture Team

Introduction - by Mark Mitchell

I began working on a version of this story in January 2006, while serving as an editor for the Columbia Journalism Review, a publication tasked with upholding the standards of the American media. In November 2006, a hedge fund that was at the center of the scandal I was investigating offered the Columbia Journalism Review a great deal of money. Shortly before CJR accepted the money, I left my job, so I do not know if my editors, whom I believe to be honest people, would have allowed me to persevere. But I have no doubt that the hedge fund’s “beneficence” was aimed at preventing the publication of stories like this one.

And it might well have succeeded if Patrick Byrne had not approached me with an idea. Why not combine forces and spearhead a whole new approach to investigative journalism? Most media content is produced by rumpled journalists (i.e., people like me), working alone under tight constraints. Deep Capture could be something different - a power team circumventing the traditional media and pushing limits to uncover the truth.

When I entered the picture, this team had already established that a small number of law-breaking hedge funds had put the American financial system at risk of collapse. Indeed, the hedge funds are employing the same tactics that contributed to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. If you want to understand the current turmoil in our financial markets, you could do no better than to read the material in Deep Capture: The Analysis.

The lengthy (40,000 word) story that follows should help you to understand how - and why — Patrick came to embark on this project. I am the author of the story, and attest to its accuracy, but it benefits substantially from the work of the Deep Capture team: freelance researchers, bloggers, gonzo computer hackers, economists, and even a one-time foreign intelligence agent.

Some mainstream journalists will not like this story. They will perhaps disapprove of our methods or decry the advent of vigilante journalism. But most of all, they will not like this story because it is largely about them - a tale of reporters who seek to be players, but instead become pawns - a tale of prominent journalists who help cover up a massive financial crime while toadying to some of Wall Street’s slimiest operators.

* * * * * * * *

And it all starts when Patrick Byrne gets a phone call from the Easter Bunny. Really, that’s what the guy calls himself - the Easter Bunny - and he talks like the Bee Gees on fast forward, a nasally frantic falsetto, on and on about some kind of conspiracy involving big time Wall Street operators, the Mafia, and a bunch of famous journalists. Somebody’s got to stop these people, the Bunny says, or the American financial system is going to come crashing to its knees. Also, the bad guys might put a bullet between the Easter Bunny’s ears.

* * * * *

Part 1 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up
by RoryKearney | July 11, 2008 at 07:13 am | 6849 views | 33 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover

Part 2 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up
by RoryKearney | July 18, 2008 at 08:43 am | 539 views | 1 comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-2-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 3 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by by RoryKearney | July 19, 2008 at 06:32 am |1241 views | 3 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-3-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 4 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | July 23, 2008 at 10:05 am | 580 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-4-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 5 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | July 23, 2008 at 10:05 am |1976 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-5-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 6— Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | July 26, 2008 at 08:03 am | 687 views | 2 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-6-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 7— Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | July 29, 2008 at 08:13 pm | 1805 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-7-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 8 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | July 31, 2008 at 05:05 pm | 387 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-8-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 9 — Naked Shorts — $75,000 For Cracking the Wall Street Cover-up REDUX
by RoryKearney | August 6, 2008 at 07:56 am | 378 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/part-9-naked-shorts-75-000-cracking-wall-street-cover-redux

Part 10 - Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne Carpet Bombs Wall Street & The Media on the Don Harrold Show (Video)
by RoryKearney | August 26, 2008 at 12:27 pm | 419 views | 2 comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/overstock-ceo-patrick-byrne-carpet-bombs-wall-street-media-don-harrold-show-video

Part 11 - I AIN'T LEAVIN' TILL THEY THROW ME OUT!
by RoryKearney | August 28, 2008 at 03:16 pm | 464 views | 2 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/i-aint-leavin-till-they-throw-me-out

Part 12 - Back To Back
by RoryKearney | August 29, 2008 at 12:21 pm | 412 views | 5 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/12-back-back

Part 13 - To Catch A Rat — Illegal Rumor Mongering at its Lousiest
by RoryKearney | September 2, 2008 at 10:15 am | 1292 views | 2 comments
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/catch-rat-illegal-rumor-mongering-its-lousiest

Just Say Yes. The FDA Ties That Bind. A Saturday Morning Rant.
by RoryKearney | July 12, 2008 at 08:24 am | 245 views | add comment
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/just-say-yes-fda-ties-bind-saturday-morning-rant

Everything I write is my opinion. If I have made any factual errors, please notify me, and I will correct them.