2011 May 06 - Headline News

Just 20% of Likely U.S. Voters say their views are about the same as the average Republican in Congress, and only 22% feel that way about the views of the average congressional Democrat, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

However, 48% of voters now think the average congressional Republican is more conservative they are. That’s up 15 points from a month ago. Twenty-three percent (23%) say the average GOP legislator is more liberal than they are, down from 28%.

On the other side of the aisle, 59% believe that the average Democrat in Congress is more liberal than they are. Only nine percent (9%) think he or she is more conservative than they are, while 59% believe that congressman is more liberal. These findings are little changed.

Voters are now evenly divided when it comes to rating the agenda of Republicans in Congress: 41% say it’s mainstream, while 40% view it as extreme.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/may_2011/just_one_in_five_think_they_share_the_ideology_of_the_average_democrat_or_republican_in_congress

The president is about to order companies that do business with the federal government to disclose their political donations.

President Obama has officially kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign, and don't Republicans know it. The president is expected any day now to sign an executive order that routs 70 years of efforts to get politics out of official federal business.

Under the order, all companies (and their officers) would be required to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts. Companies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether-which is the White House's real aim. Think of it as "not-pay to play."

Whatever you call it, the order amounts to the White House brazenly directing the power of government against its political opponents-and at a time when the president claims to want cooperation on the budget and other issues. Senate Republicans from Mitch McConnell to Susan Collins are fuming, warning this is one political sucker punch too far, an unabashedly partisan move that will damage Senate work.

Minority Leader McConnell in an interview calls the order the "crassest" political move he's ever seen. "This is almost gangster politics, to shut down people who oppose them. . . . I assure you that this going to create problems for them in many ways-seen and unseen-if they go forward."

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703992704576305414137806694.html

The only thing missing from Preet Bharara’s press conference was the blaring of trumpets.

It was Tuesday, and the U.S. attorney in Manhattan was proudly unveiling a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank that his office had filed that morning. As he took reporters through the legal complaint, Bharara spoke sternly about how the bank had defrauded the Federal Housing Administration, which had insured hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bad loans that the bank then sold to investors, reaping handsome fees.

Listening to Bharara, one could easily think that prosecutors were finally - finally! - getting tough on the bad behavior that helped bring about the financial crisis. Alas, it was mainly an illusion.

Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the main target of Bharara’s wrath was MortgageIT, a smallish division that Deutsche Bank bought in 2007 - eight years into an alleged fraud that ended in 2009. In the complaint itself, not one MortgageIT executive was singled out as a wrongdoer; it was as if this faceless corporation had somehow defrauded the government without human help.

Most stunningly, despite concluding that MortgageIT executives had “knowingly, wantonly and recklessly” lied to federal officials, Bharara’s office had decided that none of them deserved jail time. It had brought a civil, not a criminal, case, meaning the only punishment prosecutors could seek was money - more than $1 billion in this instance. That sounds like a lot until you realize that Deutsche Bank’s 2010 revenues were more than $42 billion. In other words, a tap on the wrist.

“Every lie is not a crime,” said Bharara, when he was asked why no criminal charges had been brought. But two-plus years after the financial crisis, that’s not the right question anymore. The right question is: Are there any lies that amount to crimes? When it comes to financial executives, it sure doesn’t look that way.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/opinion/07nocera.html?_r=2

This DAY in History:

May 6, 1937:
Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey

On this day in 1937, the German airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built, explodes as it arrives in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people died in the fiery accident that has since become iconic, in part because of the live radio broadcast of the disaster.

The dirigible was built to be the fastest, largest and most luxurious flying vessel of its time. It was more than 800 feet long, had a range of 8,000 miles, could carry 97 passengers and had a state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz engine. It was filled with 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen, even though helium was known to be far safer, because it made the flying ship more maneuverable.

The Hindenburg had made 10 successful ocean crossings the year before and was held up by Germany's Nazi government as a symbol of national pride. Flying at a speed of 85 miles per hour, the Hindenburg was scheduled to arrive in New Jersey at 5 a.m. on May 6. However, weather conditions pushed the arrival back to the late afternoon and then rain further delayed the docking at Lakehurst. When the dirigible was finally cleared to dock, Captain Max Pruss brought the ship in too fast and had to order a reverse engine thrust. At 7:20 p.m., a gas leak was noticed. Within minutes, the tail blew up, sending flames hundreds of feet in the air and as far down as the ground below.

A chain reaction caused the entire vessel to burn instantly. The nearly 1,000 spectators awaiting the Hindenburg's arrival felt the heat from a mile away. Some on the blimp attempted to jump for the landing cables at the docking station but most died when they missed. Others waited to jump until the blimp was closer to the ground as it fell. Those who were not critically injured from burns often suffered broken bones from the jump. Fifty-six people managed to survive.

On WLS radio, announcer Herbert Morrison gave an unforgettably harrowing live account of the disaster, "Oh, oh, oh. It's burst into flames. Get out of the way, please . . . this is terrible . . . it's burning, bursting into flames, and is falling . . . Oh! This is one of the worst . . . it's a terrific sight . . .oh, the humanity."

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hindenburg-explodes-in-new-jersey