… will be the day these tables are surrounded by cops, I’m ask to have my bag checked, I say no, I’m told I can’t enter, I tell them I’ll be taking another bus…

… and I either get home on an alternate bus or am arrested.

This image is from the entryway to the Port Authority terminal for the NJ Transit bus I take twice a day. This evening on my way home I saw for the first time tables positioned as shown with the sign. I’ve seen the sign before but never with tables and always pushed into a corner.

There is simply no way I will tolerate being searched on my way to or from work.

Oh… and do you like the “If you see something, say something” sign in the background? Those are all around the subway stations too.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/…

LG (South Korean), Sharp (Japanese), and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (Tiawanese) have admitted to fixing the prices of liquid crystal display TV screens, computer monitors and other thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD screens and will have to pay over a half billion dollars in fines.

That is according to the Justice Department, which Wednesday announced the three leading manufacturers of LCD displays would have to pony up $585 million, $400 million coming from LG, which Justice says is the second highest criminal fine the department has ever imposed. Chunghwa will have to pay $65 million and Sharp $120 million.

Calling it an international cartel, Justice said that LG agreed to plead guilty to participating in the cartel from September 2001 through June 2006. The plea agreements are subject to court approval, Justice said.

Justice said the price fixing affected “millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day.”

Assume we agree that price fixing is a criminal offence, which I don’t, if the government role is to protect us and they brought this case on our behalf… why are they getting the $585 million?

http://www.collegenews.com/…

Former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer will not face charges after rumors that he spent thousands of dollars on high priced prostitutes forced him out of office 8 months ago.

Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney in Manhattan, issued a statement about Spitzer on Thursday, saying that “We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer”.  “In light of the policy of the Department of Justice with respect to prostitution offenses and the longstanding practice of this office, as well as Mr. Spitzer’s acceptance of responsibility for his conduct, we have concluded that the public interest would not be further advanced by filing criminal charges in this matter.”

So… if I get arrested for a victimless crime, like being a John, I get fined or jail time. But if I’m a politician with some connections I get off without even a trial.

November 12, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPECIAL TIMES EDITION BLANKETS U.S. CITIES, PROCLAIMS END TO WAR

• PDF: http://www.nytimes-se.com/pdf
• For video updates: http://www.nytimes-se.com/video
• Contact: mailto:writers@nytimes-se.com

Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end.

If, that is, they happened to read a “special edition” of today’s New York Times.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street.

Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the war.

The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama’s “Yes we REALLY can” speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)

“It’s all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,” said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper’s writers. “We’ve got to make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do. After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start imagining heaven.”

Not all readers reacted favorably. “The thing I disagree with is how they did it,” said Stuart Carlyle, who received a paper in Grand Central Station while commuting to his Wall Street brokerage. “I’m all for freedom of speech, but they should have started their own paper.”

Is Ms. Suttner claiming Carter wasn’t hell? What about LBJ?  I’m not so sure I can be “all for freedom of speech” for individuals who have no desire to extend me freedom of speech (pretty sure they support campaign regulation), or freedom of association (CEO pay, lobbying), or freedom from aggression by the majority (mandatory national healthcare.) The Yes Men are state socialists / anti-big business. They aren’t concerned with individual freedoms. They don’t bother reading history. They likely have little understanding of economics or how these plans of theirs would work in theory or practice. They have an incredibly shallow view of the world and it’s problems, ignore human tendency, and prescribe solutions equally as shallow and ignorant. Their proposed solutions however are far worse then the existing problems.

The one thing I hope comes from acts like this is that the participants get so worked up that when Obama fails to deliver their faith in their all powerful god Government will be diminished. Unlikely, but possible. Maybe if more bridges are built between the anarcho-capitalist and anarcho-socialists these state socialist types can be more easily convinced.

UPDATE:

Since their servers aren’t very responsive here are the PDFs: Without spreads | With spreads

http://www.courant.com/…

The former chief risk officer at investment bank Bear Stearns Cos., which nearly collapsed in March, is now a senior official of the Federal Reserve division that supervises U.S. banks.

Michael Alix, who worked at Bear Stearns for 12 years and was its senior risk manager since 2006, was named a senior vice president in the bank supervision group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to a Fed announcement.

The appointment is apt to raise questions because of the key role Alix played at Bear Stearns and given the Federal Reserve’s role in Bear Stearns’ sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co. after its breathtaking slide. In his new job at the central bank, Alix will help oversee the financial safety and soundness of banks, which are inspected by Federal Reserve examiners.

The inmates are running the asylum. But we already knew that.

The story is a few days old but it’s worth repeating.

http://www.nj.com/…

Go-go dancers with fake tips led to the arrest of a Union City man who had found $5,000 in counterfeit cash, cops told The Jersey Journal today.
Luis Lora-Martinez of Union City is suspected of passing fake $20 bills at AJ’s Lounge, a go-go bar in Secaucus.

Luis Lora-Martinez, 29, of 38th Street, may have seemed like a big man while slipping fake $20 bills to dancers as tips and using some to pay for drinks at AJ’s Lounge, a go-go bar on Secaucus Road in Secaucus Thursday night, officials said.

But Lora-Martinez, who was born on Christmas Day 1978, was busted Halloween morning at the Skylight Motel on Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City on charges of forgery and possession of a fake New York driver’s license, Cindy Wofford, special agent in charge of the Newark Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service, said today.

Wofford said the five $20 bills Lora-Martinez passed were produced on a computer printer on regular paper and were of poor quality. They apparently got passed the dancers and bartenders in the dark club but it wasn’t long before someone noticed they were “funny” and Secaucus police were called, officials said.

Agents of the Secret Service and officers of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office got involved and spoke to the club manager who said his employees could identify the man laying out the fake bills and that they thought he was staying at the Tonnelle Avenue motel, Wofford said.

Agents found Lora-Martinez there and after he consented to a search, investigators found $5,000 in fake $20s and $50s hidden in his room, Wofford said, adding that the fake money was separate from Lora-Martinez’s real money.

No other contraband was found, she said.

Lora-Martinez’s bail was set at $60,000 cash or bond but before the court will accept bail money, Lora-Martinez will have to show it does not come form a nefarious source, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

Lora-Martinez faces three to five years in prison on each of the two charges filed against him.

“Obviously the vigilance of merchants is essential to combat the passing of counterfeit United States currency,” said DeFazio, who called it a successful cooperative investigation between his office and federal agents.

One of these days the public will realize the Federal Reserve and Treasury are doing the same thing.

http://www.investmentnews.com/…

The financial services industry yesterday called on Congress to enact sweeping regulatory reforms, including creating a “stability regulator” to oversee systemic risk in all financial services firms.

Among those calling for a “financial markets stability regulator” was Timothy Ryan, president and chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association of New York and Washington.

The U.S. financial markets regulatory structure dates back to the Great Depression, he noted.

In contrast to that time, “financial institutions no longer operate in single product, or business silo, or in purely domestic or local markets,” Mr. Ryan told the House Financial Services Committee, which held a hearing on revamping the financial regulatory structure. “Instead, they compete across many lines of business and in many markets that are largely global,” he said.

However, the U.S. financial regulatory structure “remains ‘siloed’ at both the state and federal levels. No single regulator currently has access to sufficient information or the practical and legal tools and authority necessary to protect the financial system as a whole against systemic risk,” Mr. Ryan said.

Spoken like a true believer in centralized economic planning. Good luck with that. Perhaps you should check with the USSR and Mises to see how well that works out.