tv Countdown With Keith Olbermann Current February 3, 2012 11:00pm-12:00am PST
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nt obama called on congress to toughen laws against securities fraud and strengthen the security & exchange commission to police. is it trying to use the power it currently has? in our fourth story on the "countdown", while the sec has increased scrutiny of wall street following the economic collapse it has repeatedly allowed the largest firms to the "new york times" uncovered 350 instances where the sec gave them a pass allowing them to avoid liability from certain lawsuits and making it easier to raise money from investors, allowing companies like jp morgan chase and bank of america, goldman sachs to keep
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benefits normally reserved for the healthiest companies. republican senator charles grassley told the times it's hard to see why the sec isn't using all of its winters' property. by waving, no wonder recidivism is such a problem. >> the purpose of taking away it not to punish a company not seeing times that waivers aren't being granted because the companies don't ask when they know the answer will be no. meanwhile timothy geithner is defending the financial reforms. he noted tighter regulations are already making the financial system stronger and safer although there is still more to be done. >> much of the excess risk taking and careless and damaging financial practices that caused so much damage to the american economy have been forced out of
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the financial system. these gains, though, will erode over time if we are not able to put these full reforms into place. >> apparently the system isn't strong enough for new york's attorney general accusing some of the biggest nations of defeat and fraud. eric scneiderman announced he is suing the three over their use of an electronic mortgage registry that he says puts homeowners at a disadd vantsage in foreclosure cases. let's bring in matt taibbi. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me in. >> this analysis by the "new york times". is it a sign the sec is not they argue, they are enforcing the rules as they best suit the public and the economic recovery. >> it's a great story by the "new york times", a great piece of investigative journalism. i agree with senator grassley. it's another example of the sec failing to do its job. you have to think about the context of this.
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imagine a single mother who gets caught for committing welfare fraud in someplace like riverside county california. she is going to lose her kids. they are going to take her kids away and put them in foster care. here, you have this guy gantic companies like jp morgan chase, they are cereally caught and they are allowed to continue engaging in the same kind of business activities and they give them special waivers to go out and raise money? it's unbelievable we do not show the same kind of consideration to other kinds of citizens. >> the sec, therefore, is not using its powers, deliberately doesn't that blow a hole in president obama's argument that the sec should have more power? >> again, i completely agree with senator grassley. the sec and generally speaking, the financial regulate ors have enormaus power. we don't need action up and downed power. they just haven't done the job. we need new people to come in
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there who are actually going to do the job of prosecuting and enforcing these rules. >> one of the people trying to prosecutor, new york's attorney general knight snyderman. >> this for the mers violations is so long over new. it's the electronic mortgage registry, a gigantic scheme to evade taxes and commit perjury and fraud by, you know, failing to properly register mortgages. you have 12 million foreclosures here in new york state and they are all merged as a plaintiff. the company has 70 employees. they couldn't possibly be the real plaintiff foreclosure cases. it's long other than dew. it's incredible it took this long for somebody to move against these banks for setting up this registry but it's a great thing that he did. >> is that perhaps the only route the public has to hope state officials will continue to pursue this state given the sec, the federal government seems incapable of doing it?
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>> i think it's probably the best hope, certainly no new york a state like new york has expanded power because they have the martin act. it's going to be easier for them to pursue cases against financial criminals, but, i think, also, the obama administration is starting to get a little bit of religion on this stuff nominating schneiderman, that, to me is an indication that he is seeing people want action on these issues, not more talk talk. >> does part of the action mean they are changing leadership at the sec or essentially providing people in key positions actually going to use the power they should be using? >> ultimately, they are going to need new people. i mean the history ofsec and most of the regulators, in fact, is you bring in a bunch of people from the banks that they should be investigating to run the enforcement divisions, look the current head of the sec is bob quasami, former general
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counsel of deutsche bank that should be under investigation for a variety of things. so they have to ultimately get people. but temporarily, i think they need to take instruction from somebody and somebody to say you have to look into these things. >> the republicans in florida and before that, south carolina, new hampshire, iowa, the republican presidential candidates are about let's get rid of reform. everything the president did was wrong. what do you make of that? >> well look, dodd-frank was dipping a toe in the lake of commitment really. i mean they could have done and they needed to do so much more to clean up wall street if you think about what f.d.r. did after the crash, you know, back in the depression, they completely completely reformed and cleaned up wall street and we didn't do that this time. we really needed to. dodd-frank was going too far is preposterous. it's economic and not taken seriously on wall street but they are going to score a lot points with people who are against regulation in general. >> when folks on wall street hear mitt romney saying no regulatory reform, they are
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laughing, saying that doesn't solve the problem but we love that mitt romney sort of looking out. >> absolutely. he is standing up for us. look, they have the expectation that they are going to get that role back. they have been getting nothing but deregulation for 20s, 30 years, and for them to have any regulation increased at all is an abberation they have a full expectation that all of these laws will be whittled away again. it's just it will take them a little while. >> matt taibbi rolling stolen "countdown" contributor. thank you for coming in? >> thank you. >> the komen foundation apologized foplanned parenthood and reversed the decision. the damage komen i know conflicted upon its self may not
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#. >> coming up the disan g.komen foundation reverses their decision ol planned parenthood. in 1809, the territory of illinois was created the 15th and 16th amendments were ratified today 43 years apart. buddy holly and the big bopper died in a plane crash. lastly in 2008 the 12 new york giants upset the previously undefeated patri-i don't think so in super bowl 42. "time marches on". >> we begin in the russian area where this rural farmer has created the sheep car wash. don't forget the hot wax. i am not sure how clean this car is getting but the good news is
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i am sure this guy had no trouble falling asleep when he got home. to quala lampore. this driver was able to slow down and then our hero decides to take a shot at his parking job and cue the blues brothers music. this is no accident as the driver slams into the store over and over again. could this be a business deal gone bad or a jittered lover or maybe just maybe she is trying to prove a point that four wheels are better than two. lted lover or maybe just maybe she is trying to prove a point that four wheels are better than two. to the sports world. i think we have found the next ping upon prodigy. the killer forehand it is too late to qualify for the london olympics but the national team better keep a spot open for 2016. looks like he still needs a little work. maybe on the back end. but there are other issues as well, mainly the sitting on the
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table part crying when he loses a point and, of course soiling his uniform. everyone knows there is no crying in ping tong. "time marches on"! coming up political endorsements usually don't matter very much unless they come from donald trump or a brothel in net asset value. you heard about trump yesterday. we will tell you about the brothel today and the reaction from the ron paul campaign. the komen foundation spent 30 years building his recommendtation. the current administration is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.
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we bring you "countdown" live each night. primary replace at less than p.m. and 2:00 a.m. eastern. in an effort at damage control, the susan g.komen foundation made a huge reversal but their cure may be too late to save the group's reputation. in our third story, the world's largest breast cancer research organization made a u-turn and apologized for the can you tell ming off funds for breast cancer screenings in a written statement, komen said we will continue to fund existing grants including those of planned parent and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grands and and the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political because that is what is right and fair. by all counts komen is the most
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widely known and well funded breast cancer foundation in the world. they have raised $19,000,000,000, and in recent years, their pink ribbons have become part of our cultural fab ring. they convinced major league baseball to have pink bats pink yogurt lives to quote save lives. kentucky fried chicken rolled out pink buckets for the cure. even delta got involved through pink airline flights. in september, an ardent pro-life republican launched his own investigation of abortion services performed by planned parenthood and three days ago, citing that investigation, komen severed ties to planned parenthood and the response was immediate and fierce reactions over twitter and their message board, letters urging them to reverse the position.
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planned parent retweeted positive messages and reminding people across the internet how to donate and make up for komen's cuts. they responded defensively and couldn't get it's story straight. nancy brinker delivered a youtube message claiming it -- did not mention planned parenthood once but said they would not bow to political pressure and they insisted they didn't cut off funds because of their no-in vest which they reinformed and they streamlined and that the public was soeshlths supportive. >> look at your facebook page, people cutting pink ribbons in half. >> and degree i can't, all i can tell you is that we are -- the spontsz we are getting are very very favorable. >> so favorable that less than 18 hours after that interview, komen decided to reverse course and apologize. as for planned parenthood the
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komen miss cue prompted donations of $3 million. joining us is jess mcintosh for emily's list. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> is komen sorry or are they sorry in this world of social media they got called out on it so quickly and powerful? >> look i think they totally under estimated the backlash and this goes to show the power of activists and donors and elected officials when they put the pressure on. but what matters now is what happens next. and frankly, women are sick of having to fight back every time our healthcare is threatened. and frankly, the most effective way to do that is to elect more pro-choice democratic women to congress to stop the attacks. that's the next of emily's list and what we are hoping to do in 2012. >> there seems to be a threat from komen. they say planned parenthood will be eligible but does not
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guarantee they will receive funding in the future? isn't this a problem? >> it's certainly a case for us to remain vigilant but we pro-choice women. vigilenc is what we do. if you adopt a tea party policy ending medicare as we know it, that was a pr the attempts to redefine rape a pr disaster cutting off funds for planned parenthood. you would think they would have learned their lesson by now but i guess not. >> planned parenthood has drawn the wrath of the anti-abortion movement. with an amendment that house republicans tacked on. what happened in this particular case? what was it about this issue that caused this kind of backlash. >> this is the latest in a long lit knee of republican attempts to curtail women's access to
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healthcare. every time they try, we fight back. every time we fight back we get a little better did he have did he have lit knee -- since boehner took over as speaker, we doubled our membership. any -- since boehner took over as speaker, we doubled our membership. we are going to do the next right at 1 million strong. >> not everybody it was thrilled. david vitter of louisiana who approved their actions said well, komen claims they don't want their mission to be claimed by politics it seems that komen caved to the pro-abortion movement and its enforcers in the media. what do you make of that? >> david vitter was the only one who didn't get the memo republicans were not supposed to crow about cutting off funding for planned parenthood. david vitter is hell bent on cutting off access to women's healthcare and we are hell-bent
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on fighting back. i urge you and your viewers to check out our awesome female candidates. if we can replace some of these guys with democratic women actually going to stand up and support women and families wouldn't that be an awesome thing? >> never mind replacing congressman stearns who launched this in the fall? what about replacing the leadership of komen? lots of democrats who wear the pink ribbons and on and on. does something needing to be done with their leadership? >> that will be up to komen supporters. it's amazing to see the out pouring of support for planned parent parenthood people know how to show their ad voc casey with tweets and dollars. we will see more of that. they will make their decisions based upon their base. >> thank you. we appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> you are welcome. coming up a closer look at the activism arising in sxwavps,
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>> in a part of nevada when are prostitution is legal, the ladies at a brothel have endorsed ron paul. they say dr. paul has some special skills. and in indianapolis where the patriots are favored over the giants is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions.
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>>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. >> yesterday on this program, we reported on the full-throated endorsement donald trump gave to mitt romney. today we have an update on another endorsement: for ron paul. as you know, paul is a libertarian and he believes the legalization of drugs and prostitution should be up to individual states. >> if i leave it to the states it's going to be up to the states. up until this past century, for over 100 years they were legal. >> that went down well in nevada
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at the moonlight bunny ranch. prostitution is legal in nearly a dozen counties. the girls love a good caucus met and decided to endorse paul's candidacy, and put up a sign "pimpin for paul" and they promised special favors for any client who says they are. >> if somebody says i am pimping for paul they are going to have a real good time. aren't they girls? >> yay >> given that level of enthusiasm, one wonders if they are in it for the politics. endorsements mean nothing but it can be entertaining. in the case of the working girls, more than a few said they were impressed that ron paul is a doctor. >> he knows what women's wants and needs are. when it comes to a man that's going to be in office you want a man that knows his way around a woman. >> ha-ha-ha. he knows his way around a woman? good grief by that reasoning,
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you should have endorsed newt gingrich. girls noted today that they endorsed president obama back in 2008. last year they apparently became disillusioned when mr. obama endorsed horse meat. one was able to speak for animals, including her pet dog. >> all animal lovers gucchi is supporting ron paul. he said if obama will let us eat horses he may be next. >> horse meat is limited circumstances. get ready for dog meat. don't quit your night job. the story has a happy ending concerning the federal e tleks commission. the bunny ranch girls collected a thousand dollars for the paul campaign and when they tried to hand it to his staff, paul's campaign workers declined to accept the money. they noted some campaign finance issues and encouraged the girls to give the cash 20 did, 50s, and hundreds to ron paul's super
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i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. two days ago indiana govern mitch dan yellows made his state the 23rd to pass right to work legislation. in our number one story with the most watched sporting event in the world occurring in indianapolis on sunday a coalition of organized labor and occupy protesters have an ideal
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platform to voice displeasure, the signature by mitch daniels, 3,000 protesters took to the streets to express their outrage. they marched from the capitol building to lucas oil stadium, home of sunday's super bowl. some hoosiers have tried to argue it's not the place to make a statement about labor, there are many people who would disagree, namely the people actually playing in the game. today, n.f.l. and lane leaders joined to protest possible lay-offs at the hyatt regency. they stand to make millions but it has announced plans to cut jobs. coincidentally, the decision came days after local hotel workers filed a federal lawsuit claiming wage theft. occupy protesters have decided -- also descended on indianapolis and plan to occupy the super bowl in a show with the indiana labor union.
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some lawmakers and n.f.l. execs fear they will interfere with the game nancy guyat said there are no plans to interrupt the game. we understand the anger over this disgraceful passage, the appropriate outlet will be at the ballot box, not the super bowl. all of this puts pressure on governor daniels looking at the super bowl as a chance to raise the profile of indianapolis a city once known as india-no-play. any damage to the super bowl will give them a black eye. it would be no worse than what your administration has already done on the hoosier state. joining us is mike biscar who helped lead the protest at the hyatt hotel. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> are these protests going on right now simply because of the platform the super bowl presents, or is this something that would be happening anyway? >> well, you know, these hotels
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like the hyatt corporation are slated to make millions of dollars during the super bowl and indianapolis hotel workers are some of the lowest paid in the nation. and what's worse, just a couple of weeks ago, as you mentioned before, what's worse than that is these hotel workers, they actually, the hyatt terminated the contract with their subcontracted workers and this happened 10 days after, as you said, a group of workers had filed a historic lawsuit that could be worth up to $10 million in back wages for these people and so we felt that it was important to take to the streets today and to let the hyatt know the community is angry about the recent decision to throw the workers outed. these are the women who clean the rooms, who cook the food t wash the dishes. we think that sends a bad message. >> i have stayed that hyatt, one of the most popular hotels. it doesn't have a cash flow problem. how has the hyatt justified what it's doing?
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>> the hyatt is one of the largest hotel corporations in the world, and yet part of the problem is that here in indianapolis there are currently no unionized hotels the largest american city without a unionized hotel and compared to other similar sized midwestern cities they make 2 3, find an hour and without any union rep presentation the hyatt is able to get away with quite a bit and so they have been able to run wild and subcontract out the jobs of these folks without any sort of sense of accountability. >> tell me about the interest of the n.f.l. player's association and why they appeared with you today. >> it was wonderful. you know the executive districtor of the n.f.l. players association came out on his birthday, walked the picket line with us. it was tremendous to have him out there supporting the hotel workers. you know they have been really strong allies for a number of years here locally and around
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the country. they are a very high-profile organization. so obviously we think it sends a powerful message to the hyatt corporation, in particularly demory spoke and said as of today, they would be cancelling any future events. he would not be eating, meeting, or sleeping at any hyatt hotels around the world. we think that sends a powerful message. >> was it a message hyatt received? ? >> as of now no, we have not heard of any response. we think it sounds a powerful message. >> agreed. would the worker neglect be happening if these workers were allowed to unionize? >> absolutely not. you know as i said this is the largest american city without a single union hotel and we look at similar sized cities where workers do have representation in the midwest. they are making more money. they have better insurance. and it's really not just an economic issue. we also find that it's a health and safety issue. the housekeepers here at the indianapolis hyatt can clean 30
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rooms where their unionized counterparts are cleaning 16 rooms in a day. indiana otia o s /* /* osha found violations and we think if the answer was there was unionization in the hotels we would not find these working conditions. >> what's the atmosphere? what does it feel like and taste like? i grew up in indiana. i know there is a huge amount of excitement but the timing of daniel signing this bill this week, the reaction that sparked in the sort of clash, how is it all playing out? >> well, you know, i think that for us in the indianapolis hotel industry, you know, the right to work for less bill is obviously, you know something that's going to be terrible for work people here in indianapolis and, you know, there has been a billion tax dollars invested in this indianapolis hospitality industry, but there was a promise of good jobs that was supposed to come with that money.
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and but because there is no union rep presentation in the hotels, we have terrible jobs. the worst, the worst here in indiana and frankly i think this push for right to work it's trying to bring unionized industries in indiana where the hospitality workers have been at already. >> what does it say the state of indiana is willing to bring so much money to bring the super bowl there but nothing to protect the workers who serve the food, clean the rooms, et cetera, et cetera. ? >> i think what it says is because we give our tax dollars to these companies doesn't mean they are automatically going to create good jobs that we have to hold them accountable. companies like hyatt, we have to hold them accountable. if we don't, we see they run wild. one thing that was wondesh was the newly elected president of the indianapolis city council, maggie lewis joined us and she is honoring the boycott of the hyatt. >> mike, thanks and have a great
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