Senate panel approves assault weapons ban

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee approved an assault weapons ban Thursday on a party-line vote that signaled how difficult it will be for the proposal to survive in the full Senate.

The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill on a 10-8 vote after rejecting a series of Republican amendments aimed at exempting victims of sexual abuse, people living along the Southwest border and others from the prohibition. The GOP proposals were also defeated along party lines.

President Barack Obama made an assault weapons ban part of the gun curbs he proposed in January, a month after a shooter with an assault rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at a school in Newtown, Conn. An assault weapons ban became law in 1994, but Congress failed to renew it before it expired in 2004.

White House press secretary Jay Carney urged Congress to swiftly pass the assault weapons ban and said Obama is pushing for that along with his other gun control measures in meetings this week with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Carney said the president acknowledges they face tough odds but argued the measures won't take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

"If this weren't a tough issue, the assault weapons ban would not have expired and not been renewed," Carney said.

Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and others have argued that such firearms are used in a disproportionate number of mass shootings and shouldn't be available to civilians.

The prohibition is one of the most controversial of the gun restrictions being considered in Congress. Its foes say law-abiding citizens should not lose their Second Amendment right to own the weapons, which they say are popular for self-defense, hunting and collecting.

Thursday's debate included a fiery clash between Feinstein, D-Calif., the ban's author, and outspoken freshman conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz said Feinstein's bill would create exceptions to the Second Amendment and asked her if she would favor exemptions to the First Amendment's freedom of speech by denying that right to certain books.

"I'm not a sixth-grader," said a visibly upset Feinstein. She described her decades in Congress involved in gun control debates and said, "I'm reasonably well-educated, and thank you for the lecture."

Several Republicans including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who proposed the GOP amendments that were defeated, argued that the most effective approach to curbing gun violence would be to improve how mental health records are sent to the federal system that checks backgrounds of potential gun buyers.

Cornyn also said that as a result of Feinstein's ban, criminals would still get the weapons.

"We're going to give American citizens a pea shooter to defend themselves with," Cornyn said.

Feinstein conceded that the battle to enact her measure would be difficult and said, "I don't see that as being bad. I don't see that as harming Americans. Because we have so many guns."

Feinstein's bill would also ban large-capacity ammunition magazines carrying more than 10 rounds, which she and her allies say allow shooters to inflict more casualties before pausing to reload, which is when they might be stopped. Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman, was said to have had 30-round magazines.

The measure's passage by the Judiciary panel has been a foregone conclusion for some time. It will be far more vulnerable in the full Senate, where Democrats are expected to need 60 votes for passage through the 100-member chamber. That is where the NRA and other pro-gun groups are working hard for the ban's defeat.

"We are focused on the next step of the legislative process," Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist, said Wednesday.

There are 53 Democrats plus two independents who generally side with them. Republicans seem ready to oppose the ban overwhelmingly, and Feinstein can't count on a half-dozen Democrats from Republican-leaning states who face re-election next year.

The ban also stands little chance of approval in the GOP-controlled House.

Feinstein's bill would ban semi-automatic weapons — guns that fire one round and automatically reload — that can take a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature like a pistol grip.

It specifically bans 157 named weapons. But in an effort to avoid antagonizing those who use them for sports, the measure allows 2,258 rifles and shotguns that are frequently used by hunters.

It also exempts any weapons that are lawfully owned whenever the bill is enacted.

There are no definitive figures on assault weapons or high-capacity ammunition magazines in the U.S., since there are no government registries of firearms and Congress has curbed federal research on guns since the late 1990s.

When the previous assault weapons ban took effect in 1994, there were an estimated 1.5 million assault weapons and at least 25 million large-capacity magazines that were privately owned in the U.S.

Proponents of banning the weapons cite studies showing that once the assault weapons ban took hold, the portion of gun crimes using those firearms dropped by up to 72 percent in six cities surveyed. They also argue that each assault weapon taken off the streets reduces the potential for mass shootings.

Opponents cite studies showing that assault weapons have been used in fewer than 1 in 10 crimes involving firearms and argue that eliminating those weapons would put only a minor dent in gun violence. High-capacity magazines are involved in up to a quarter of gun crimes.

The Judiciary Committee has already approved three other measures expanding the requirement for background checks for gun buyers; toughening federal laws against illegal gun traffickers and those who purchase weapons for people barred from owning them; and increasing aid for school safety.

Jaw-Dropping Crimes of the Big Banks

sage: During our awakening to this illusion and breaking through the veil to the truth of what has been happening, we have read and watched dribbles of information coming forth. But I feel that this article pulls it all together – up front, and in the face.

Most, if not all, of the external links correspond to what we may consider as ‘controlled’ mainstream media reporting on these ventures. Yet they have still continued with impunity.

But the truth is coming out so rapidly now, and with such force, that it will be virtually impossible to deny any more.

By George Washington, ZeroHedge – March 15, 2013

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-03-15/jaw-dropping-crimes-big-banks

Preface: Not all banks are criminal enterprises. The wrongdoing of a particular bank cannot be attributed to other banks without proof. But – as documented below – many of the biggest banks have engaged in unimaginably bad behavior.

You Won’t Believe What They’ve Done …

Here are just some of the improprieties by big banks:

• Funding the Nazis

• Laundering money for terrorists

• Financing illegal arms deals, and funding the manufacture of cluster bombs (and see this and this) and other arms which are banned in most of the world

• Launching a coup against the President of the United States

• Handling money for rogue military operations

• Laundering money for drug cartels. See this, this, this, this and this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis)

• Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, thisand this

• Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

• Manipulating gold prices … on a daily basis

• Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts

• Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)

• Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers. See this, this,this, this and this. This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car

• Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure

• Committing massive fraud in an $800 trillion dollar market which effects everything from mortgages, student loans, small business loans and city financing

• Manipulating the hundred trillion dollar derivatives market

• Engaging in insider trading of the most important financial information

• Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this,this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this andthis

• Otherwise manipulating markets. And see this

• Participating in various Ponzi schemes. See this, this and this

• Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees

• Helping the richest to illegally hide assets

• Cooking their books (and see this)

• Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments

• Violently cracking down on peaceful protesters

The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees. But studies show that most of the fraud is committed by management.

Indeed, one of the world’s top fraud experts – professor of law and economics, and former senior S&L regulator Bill Black – says that most financial fraud is “control fraud”, where the people who own the banks are the ones who implement systemic fraud. Seethis, this and this.

Even the bank with the reputation as being the “best managed bank” in the U.S., JP Morgan, has engaged in massive fraud. For example, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report today quoting an examiner at the Office of Comptroller of the Currency – JPMorgan’s regulator – saying he felt the bank had “lied to” and “deceived” the agency over the question of whether the bank had mismarked its books to hide the extent of losses. And Joshua Rosner – noted bond analyst, and Managing Director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co – notes that JP Morgan had many similar anti money laundering laws violations as HSBC, failed to segregate accounts a la MF Global, and paid almost 12% of its 2009-12 net income on regulatory and legal settlements.

But at least the big banks do good things for society, like loaning money to Main Street, right?

Actually:

• The big banks no longer do very much traditional banking. Most of their business is from financial speculation. For example, less than 10% of Bank of America’s assets come from traditional banking deposits. Instead, they are mainly engaged in financial speculation and derivatives. (and see this)

• The big banks have slashed lending since they were bailed out by taxpayers … while smaller banks have increased lending. See this, this and this

• A huge portion of the banks’ profits comes from taxpayer bailouts. For example, 77% of JP Morgan’s net income comes from taxpayer subsidies

• The big banks are looting, killing the economy … and waging war on the people of the world

• And our democracy and republican form of government as well

We can almost understand why Thomas Jefferson warned:

And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies ….

John Adams said:

Banks have done more injury to religion, morality, tranquillity, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they have done or ever will do good.

And Lord Acton argued:

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

Swiss tourist gang-raped in central India

High-ranking Syrian general defects from army

BEIRUT (AP) — One of the highest-ranking military officers yet to abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad defected to neighboring Jordan and said in an interview aired Saturday that morale among those still inside the regime had collapsed.

In another setback for the Assad regime, a leading human rights group accused Syria's government of stepping up its use of widely banned cluster munitions, which often kill and wound civilians.

The twin blows illustrated the slowly spreading cracks appearing in Assad's regime as well as its deepening international isolation. While few analysts expect the civil war between Assad's forces and rebels seeking his ouster to end soon, most say it appears impossible for the 4-decade-old regime to continue to rule Syria.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf announced his defection from Assad's regime in a video aired Saturday on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. It showed him sitting next to his son, Capt. Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who defected with him.

The elder Khalouf said that many of those with Assad's regime have lost faith in it, yet continue to do their jobs, allowing Assad to demonstrate broad support.

"It's not an issue of belief or practicing one's role," he said. "It's for appearance's sake, for the regime to present an image to the international community that it pulls together all parts of Syrian society under this regime."

He also said fighters from the Lebanese military group Hezbollah were fighting in Syria in "more than one place," but did not give further details.

The Syrian government did not immediately comment on the defection. It portrays the uprising as a foreign-backed conspiracy to weaken Syria being carried out by terrorists on the ground.

Seif al-Hourani, an activist from one of the rebel groups that helped get Khalouf and his family out of the country, said via Skype that Khalouf's son made contact with rebels about six months ago and leaked them information before he asked for help getting the family out of Syria.

That process took almost a week because of violence in the southern province of Daraa, the easiest place to shuttle Khalouf across the border, al-Hourani said.

Six days ago, rebels smuggled Khalouf, his wife, and three of their children out of Damascus to the southern province of Sweida. Two days later, they moved them to Daraa. They waited there until late Friday when it was safe enough to drive them to the border and hand them to Jordanian authorities, al-Hourani said.

Like many rebels, al-Hourani spoke on condition he be identified only by that nickname — by which he is widely known among his comrades — because he feared retaliation on his family.

Khalouf was chief of staff of the army branch that deals with supplies and fuel.

While rebels lauded his defection as a blow to the regime, it was unlikely to have a significant effect on Assad's ability to wage war.

Widespread defections among conscripts and low-level soldiers have sapped the Syrian army's infantry, but high-level defections have been rare, and Assad's air force and heavy munitions allow the government to pound rebel areas, even if it cannot take them back.

Still, cracks continue to spread through Assad's regime as rebel forces expand their areas of control and put increasing pressure on the capital, Damascus.

Also Saturday, Human Rights Watch said Syria's government is killing an increasing number of civilians with cluster bombs.

The New York-based rights group said Syrian forces have dropped at least 156 cluster bombs in 119 locations across the country in the past six months. The report said two strikes in the past two weeks killed 11 civilians, including two women and five children.

Cluster munitions open in flight, scattering smaller bomblets over a large area. Rights groups say they endanger civilians because they are imprecise and because civilians, mainly children, are often wounded or killed when they find unexploded bomblets.

Like all Middle Eastern countries except Lebanon, Syria is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs.

Human Rights Watch said it based its findings on field investigations and analysis of more than 450 amateur videos.

A senior Syrian government official on Saturday rejected the report, saying many amateur videos were suspect. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Violence in Syria has killed some 70,000 people and displaced 4 million of the country's 23 million people, according to U.N. estimates.

On Saturday, rebels targeted the tallest building in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour with a two-ton car bomb, setting off clashes with regime troops, state TV and activists said.

State TV said rebels stormed the Insurance Building after the blast but failed to seize it from the government. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four fighters were killed in subsequent clashes with regime troops.

The Observatory also said at least 12 rebel fighters were killed in clashes near a cement factory in the northern city of Aleppo, and five people were killed when a shell exploded in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun.

Also Saturday, the head of Syria's leading opposition group issued an anniversary message to Syrians, saying that the uprising has "has taken a long time."

The opposition recognizes March 15, 2011 as the start of the uprising.

"Our people are great, our people are civilized and they don't need gangs to rule them," said Mouaz al-Khatib in a video posted on his Facebook page. "They just need to breathe a little bit of the air of freedom and they'll create as they have created in all places."

All videos appeared authentic and corresponded with other reporting by The Associated Press.

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