WASHINGTON — Samuel and Charles Wyly, the billionaire brothers from Dallas who are large donors to philanthropies and to conservative causes, were charged Thursday with conducting an extensive securities fraud that the Securities and Exchange Commission said reaped $550 million in undisclosed gains.

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Martha Raddatz has a look at the PTSD epidemic in the US Army:

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The figures in recent years are staggering.

The number of soldiers committing suicide has increased since 2004, surpassing civilian rates in 2008. Use of prescription drugs has tripled in the past five years; prescription amphetamines use has doubled between 2006 and 2009. One third of soldiers take at least one prescription drug and 14 percent of soldiers are on some form of powerful painkiller.

Crime is rising every year as well. Each year has seen an increase of 5,000 misdemeanors over the previous year, meaning soldiers are expected to commit around 55,000 such crimes in 2010. Sexual offenses have tripled since 2003. Domestic abuse is up 177 percent in the past six years.

Non-combat deaths among the force have increased steadily since 2001 to the point where the report says that in 2009 more soldiers died as a result of accidents and "high risk behavior" than at war.

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They're strung out, drugged out, and suicidal and they'll make the scale of Vietnam vets with PTSD seem like a drop in the bucket.

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Plenty of cash for killing, but the Senate is cutting food stamps to pay for Medicaid.

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We're all Paul Krugman now

Apparently some members of the Fed have noticed inflation isn't the real problem right now:

A subtle but significant shift appears to be occurring within the Federal Reserve over the course of monetary policy amid increasing signs that the economic recovery is weakening.

James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, warned that the American economy was at risk of becoming "enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years."

On Thursday, James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, warned that the Fed's current policies were putting the American economy at risk of becoming "enmeshed in a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years."

The warning by Mr. Bullard, who is a voting member of the Fed committee that determines interest rates, comes days after Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, said the central bank was prepared to do more to stimulate the economy if needed, though it had no immediate plans to do so.

Wouldn't it be awesome if the Fed and other government agencies took advantage of domestic Nobel Prize winning economists? For christ sake- someone google "Krugman+lost+decade" and tell me how many hits you come up with. He's done just about everything except tattoo it on his chest and back and then do a pay-per-view boxing match with Tonya Harding.

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funny pictures of cats with captions

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Ousted USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says she will sue blogger Andrew Breitbart!

Now, if we can just get Orly Tatiz to be the council for the defense, my summer will be made.

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Iowa in the running for crazeee state! 

 
Senator Chuck "I AM NOT A NAIL" Grassley

Iowa's GOP is nuts:

At its state convention in Des Moines last month, the Iowa GOP adopted a new party platform that includes the repeal of mandatory minimum wage laws, the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, and even clarification on the definition of manure. Out of the "387 enumerated planks and principles," Newsweek's Jerry Adler found the most "startling" section of the platform calls for "the reintroduction and ratification of the original 13th Amendment."

As we all know, the 13th Amendment is the one that banned slavery, but what is the original 13th Amendment?

The amendment states that "if any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor" from a "foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen" and "shall be incapable of holding any office of trust." In receiving only 12 out of the 13 votes needed for ratification, the amendment was never adopted.

Ahhhhh – now it makes sense: Strip President Carebear of his citizenship because he won the Nobel Prize! I'm sure Orly Taitz will get right on that lawsuit!

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Chelsea Clinton gets married tomorrow, in worlds most important wedding

I remember you well at the Chelsea Hotel, you were famous, your heart was a legend.

Remember Chelsea Clinton, the poor little rich girl who lived in the White House during our last era of Peace & Prosperity, when people had no problems beyond grunge, Windows 95, Oval Office blowjobs and the rapidly growing chasm between the wealthy and the poor? Well, Chelsea has not been in the news very much, ever, other than that time a couple of years ago when her mom was accused of "whoring" the adult child, during a primary campaign. It's no wonder the entire Democratic fundraising community of moneybags is so upset about not getting invited to Chelsea's "small wedding," because what are we now, chopped liver? Is the wedding "small" like the checks we wrote to Bill and Hills and now we're not invited to be Chelsea's "best man" or at least perform the ceremony like cool friends always do these days? MORE »

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squee.jpeg

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Feel like we're being ruled by people with severe personality disorders? This study might explain why.

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Are the American people obsolete?

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But it snowed last winter! And Al Gore is fat! And he flies on jet-planes! Also! Moscow - not the one in Idaho, the one in Russia, the one Sarah Palin can see from her house - has just experienced it's hottest day ever, with the mercury topping 102 degrees farenheit. At least 20% of the nation's wheat crop has been lost to the drought and hundreds have perished in the heatwave, mostly from drowning after they went swimming in their ambient state of being vodka-sotted.

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Senate republicans have done it again. This time they succeeded in blocking a bill that would have increased small business lending by community banks. It hurts small businesses and it keeps them from creating jobs, but that matters not one whit to the republicans in the Senate. They have to make Obama fail, and if they harm their constituents in the process, well fuck those people anyway, they probably voted for the darkie son-of-a-bitch so they have a world of hurt coming for their intransigence in rejecting republican rule in favor of Democratic governance, the bastards.

The bill would create a $30 billion government fund to help community banks increase lending to small businesses, combining it with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at small businesses. Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans to small businesses, helping to loosen tight credit markets.

The fund would be available only to banks with less than $10 billion in assets. Some Republicans, however, likened it to the unpopular bailout of the financial industry.

[ ... ]

Congress has extended unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for long stretches and passed a measure that gives tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed workers. But many other initiatives stalled, in part because of concerns they would add to the growing national debt.

Obama lobbied for the small business lending bill during a trip Wednesday to Edison, N.J. But Senate Democrats fell short of the necessary 60 votes Thursday to end a Republican filibuster.

The vote was 58 to 42, with all 41 Republicans voting to continue the filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also voted to continue the filibuster, but only as a procedural step that allows him to call up the bill again.

I can't believe that the republicans will continue to get away with this stuff and pay no political price for their venality. I mean, I realize that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, but damn...we don't all need guardians for our major decisions...do we?