FLASHBACK: Merck Scientist Dr. Maurice Hilleman Admits Introducing HIV & Aids to United States Through Illegal Green Monkey Importations

The admission part starts around the 2:00 mark. Why are these sicko people laughing about this guy admittedly bringing a deadly virus into the country that has killed nearly half a million people?

PBS NewsHour Interview with Deepwater Horizon Survivor Christopher Choy

The YouTube page for this video says that the air date is May 10, 2010.

Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Accused of Plagiarism Scandal Whitewash While Dean at Harvard Law School

I will continue investigating this story to see if it is true. If it is true, then Ms. Kagan's actions (or inactions) in this alleged whitewash need to be considered in the Supreme Court nomination process.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2010
12:23 PM

CONTACT:
Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Supreme Court: Kagan Accused of Plagiarism Scandal Whitewash

WASHINGTON - April 26 - Solicitor General Elena Kagan is widely reported to be the leading contender for the Supreme Court position being vacated by John Paul Stevens.

While Kagan was dean of Harvard Law School, several law faculty plagiarism scandals surfaced. Lawrence R. Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, wrote about much of this and called for Kagan's departure at the time.

Velvel accused Kagan and Lawrence Summers (who as president of Harvard appointed Kagan) of a "whitewash that avoids punishing a celebrity star professor" for their handling of the revelations that a book by University Professor Laurence Tribe had passages identical to those in a book by University of Virginia Professor Henry J. Abraham.

Wrote Velvel: "Harvard University is now probably the only school in the country with a University Professor who is an admitted plagiarist." This followed a similar scandal involving Professor Charles Ogletree; Velvel noted at the time: "Ogletree admitted that in a recent book he plagiarized over 800 words from another book."

Both Tribe and Ogletree taught Obama at Harvard; Tribe is now senior counselor for access to justice at the Department of Justice. Summers -- who is now director of the National Economic Council -- resigned as president of Harvard University in early 2006 following a no-confidence vote by Harvard faculty.

See Velvel's piece from 2005: "Re: Larry Tribe, Larry Summers and Elena Kagan: Because of the Larry Tribe Affair, It Is Time for Larry Summers to Go."

Velvel is reachable at velvel@mslaw.edu

Also see "Prof Admits to Misusing Source: Tribe’s apology marks third instance of HLS citation woes in past year" in the Harvard Crimson."

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Visa Credit Card Company Warns of Imminent Fraud Attack from Eastern Europe Criminal Group

More and more cyberattacks from all over the map. Visa is the likely next victim - or at least it believes so.

Visa is warning financial institutions that it has received reliable intelligence that an organized criminal group plans to attempt to move large amounts of fraudulent payments through a merchant account in Eastern Europe, possibly as soon as this weekend.

In an alert sent to banks, card issuers and processors this week, Visa said it “has received intelligence from a third-party entity indicating that a criminal group has plans to execute “a large batch settlement fraud scheme.”

Source: Krebs on Security

FLASHBACK: Elena Kagan Moderates Gun Control & 2nd Amendment Debate at Harvard University (2003)

This article is from 2003. You can read the full story at the Harvard Crimson web page. This is all I have found so far regarding Ms. Kagan and her position on the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment deserves a B-minus in draftmanship, according to Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz, who debated the constitutional issues surrounding gun ownership at Harvard Law School (HLS) last night.

In front of an audience of about 200, Dershowitz advocated heavy regulation of gun purchases, saying that the amendment would prevent guns from being banned altogether.

Joining him in debating were Dennis Henigan, director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s Legal Action Program, and Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law. Elena Kagan, an HLS professor chosen last week to be the school’s new dean, moderated the debate.

India's Government Plans Annual Mock Cyber Attacks to Shield Against Hackers

Cyber attacks are the new H1N1. It is the latest thing introduced by the mainstream media to instill fear in the populace. Yes, cyber attacks can and will likely occur. However, the reason they occur is because the government is either too lazy, complicit or otherwise to fix the vulnerable holes in its networks. The government also does not have a hand on enterprise architecture software which can take control of a computer without leaving a trace. Why are vulnerable government networks connected to the very insecure Internet?

India is getting into the mix too and will be conducting annual mock cyber defense exercises similar to the Cyber Storm exercises here in the United States of America.

The government is planning to conduct mock cyber war games every year, unleashing malicious mock attacks on computers of critical establishments like defence, telecom companies, airlines, banks and railways to prepare the nation against a cyber war. The move to have mock cyber wars comes in the wake of increased attacks by Chinese hackers on computers of major defence establishments in India, last year.

Source: The Economic Times

Amateur Video of Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico at Deepwater Horizon Site

Leaked Report Reveals That U.S. Government Fears Deepwater Horizon Oil Well Could Become Unchecked Gusher

Uh-oh, what happens if BP cannot close this oil well? Also, what happens if the wellhead is lost and the oil gushes out a maximum rate? It appears that the government has some of these same fears per a recent leaked report.

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

For further reading, check out Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010: The worst-case scenario.

Source: Mobile Press-Register

FLASHBACK: Elena Kagan - The Role of the Supreme Court in a Democracy (2002)

Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation Risk Officer Warns Securities Conference Attendees Moments Before Nearly 1,000 Point Dow Plunge

I don't know if this means anything, because perhaps this guy was just lucky. Nevertheless, an officer at the DTCC warned securities conference attendees how the Greek crisis could lead to widespread panic in the financial markets. Moments later, the market dropped by nearly 1,000 points in a matter of minutes.

Shortly after the chief systemic risk officer of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation warned attendees at a securities operations conference Wednesday that Greece's crisis was a systemic problem, the Dow plunged almost 1,000 points.

Even if the "warning" means nothing, it gives me a chance to introduce The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation to this blog. In case you have never heard of this entity, here is some initial information per the DTCC company website. I'll write additional information as I get more and more relevant stories.

About DTCC

DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution net-works. DTCC's depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.6 million securities issues from the United States and 121 other countries and territories, valued at US$33.6 trillion. In 2009, DTCC settled more than US$1.48 quadrillion in securities trans-actions. DTCC has operating facilities in multiple locations in the United States and overseas.

FLASHBACK: Barack Obama is Top Recipient of BP-Related Donations During 2008 Election Cycle

This is an interesting tidbit to consider when the government finally imposes its penalty onto BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the 2008 election cycle, individuals and political action committees associated with BP -- a Center for Responsive Politics' "heavy hitter" -- contributed half a million dollars to federal candidates. About 40 percent of these donations went to Democrats. The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.

Source: OpenSecrets.org