Paying victims of Fed security, Gov cleaning up Alabama's history for run at Presidency, home,a bad investment, Japan/ Afghanistan costs in perspective

Notes 81

Yea

Under suspicion: Millions paid to former suspects

By The Associated Press The Associated Press – Mon Mar 21
In recent years the federal government or its contractors have paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits filed by people who say they were unfairly detained or harassed because of terrorism fears. The payments include:
• $2 million in 2006 to Portland, Ore., lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who was jailed after FBI agents mistakenly linked him to a fingerprint found after the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
• $2.5 million in attorney fees and damages, ordered by a judge who found that the U.S. government failed to get court warrants before wiretapping the calls of an Oregon charity accused of supporting terrorists.
• $1.8 million in 2006 and 2009 to seven men detained for months in New York and New Jersey shortly after Sept. 11. Other plaintiffs in the case are still pursuing it in court, and their lawyers say it could eventually involve about 1,200 former detainees.
• $250,000 in 2009 to Abdallah Higazy, jailed for 34 days after an aviation radio was found in the safe of a hotel room he was occupying near the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The radio had been left in the room by a previous guest, a pilot.
• $240,000 paid to Raed Jarrar by the Transportation Security Administration and JetBlue Airways after the TSA forced him to cover a shirt with Arabic script before boarding a flight.
• $225,000 paid by the San Francisco Police Department and a TSA contractor to Rahinah Ibrahim, who was detained at the San Francisco International Airport and lost her U.S. visa after her name appeared on a no-fly list. The Department of Homeland Security is still fighting her lawsuit.

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Sometimes the wheels of justice grind very slowly

Ala. leaders apologize for handling of 1944 rape

By Bob Johnson, Associated Press – Mon Mar 21, 5:08 pm ET
ABBEVILLE, Ala. – Nearly 70 years after Recy Taylor was raped by a gang of white men, leaders of the rural southeast Alabama community where it happened apologized Monday, acknowledging that her attackers escaped prosecution because of racism and an investigation bungled by police.
"It is apparent that the system failed you in 1944," Henry County probate judge and commission chairwoman JoAnn Smith told several of Taylor's relatives at a news conference at the county courthouse.
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What I’ve been saying and how I’ve been living for 20 years. Not something you’ll hear from Suzy Ormand.

Why I Am Never Going to Own a Home Again
Posted Mar 21, 2011 10:24am EDT by James Altucher in Newsmakers, Housing

Editor's Note: The following blog post was written by James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, and originally published on his website: The Altucher Confidential.

There are many reasons to not buy a home: [By the way, I also put this in the category of Advice I want to tell my daughters, including my other article: 10 reasons not to send your kids to college.]
Financial:
A) Cash Gone. You have to write a big fat check for a downpayment. “But its an investment,” you might say to me. Historically this isn’t true. Housing returned 0.4% per year from from 1890 to 2004. And that’s just housing prices. It forgets all the other stuff I’m going to mention below. Suffice to say, when you write that check, you’re never going to see that money again. Because even when you sell the house later you’re just going to take that money and put it into another downpayment. So if you buy a $400,000 home, just say goodbye to $100,000 that you worked hard for. You can put a little sign on the front lawn: “$100,000 R.I.P.”
B) Closing costs. I forget what they were the last two times I bought a house. But it was about another 2-3% out the window. Lawyers, title insurance, moving costs, antidepressant medicine. It adds up. 2-3%.
C) Maintenance. No matter what, you’re going to fix things. Lots of things. In the lifespan of your house, everything is going to break. Thrice. Get down on your hands and knees and fix it! And then open up your checkbook again. Spend some more money. I rent. My dishwasher doesn’t work. I call the landlord and he fixes it. Or I buy a new one and deduct it from my rent. And some guy from Sears comes and installs it. I do nothing. The Sears repairman and my landlord work for me.
D) Taxes. There’s this myth that you can deduct mortgage payment interest from your taxes. Whatever. That’s a microscopic dot on your tax returns. Whats worse is the taxes you pay. So your kids can get a great education. Whatever.
E) You’re trapped. Lets spell out very clearly why the myth of homeownership became religion in the United States. Its because corporations didn’t want their employees to have many job choices. So they encouraged them to own homes. So they can’t move away and get new jobs. Job salaries is a function of supply and demand. If you can’t move, then your supply of jobs is low. You can’t argue the reverse, since new adults are always competing with you.
F) Ugly. Saying “my house is an investment” forgets the fact that a house has all the qualities of the ugliest type of investment:
Illiquidity. You can’t cash out whenever you want.
High leverage. You have to borrow a lot of money in most cases.
No diversification. For most people, a house is by far the largest part of their portfolio and greatly exceeds the 10% of net worth that any other investment should be.
For more on Altucher's personal reasons not to own a home, go here.

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At least somebody can imagine ending the Afghan War.

Report: Time is now for talks to end Afghan war

By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press – \
KABUL, Afghanistan – The war in Afghanistan has reached a stalemate and the best time to jump-start a political settlement with the Taliban is now, according to a report released Wednesday by a U.S. think tank.
The report, issued by the New Century Foundation, said the U.S. and Afghanistan's neighbors, especially Pakistan, must play key roles in any negotiations. Demands that the Taliban sever ties with al-Qaida or that foreign troops exit the nation, for example, should be considered goals, not preconditions of talks, the 126-page report said. The group also proposed that a neutral party, perhaps the United Nations, be named to facilitate the process.

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Putting costs in perspective. Estimate of Japanese economic loss is now 235 billion or 4% of GDP and we are startled by amount. But U.S has been spending more than a trillion for years on military and its wars, and people are ho hum. We want to cut domestic programs like education and healthcare, not military costs.
No telling the cost to civilian production now shifted abroad to make room for major American industry--manufacture of armaments

Disaster could cost Japan $235 billion: W. Bank
by Martin Abbugao Martin Abbugao – Mon Mar 21, 6:51 am ET
SINGAPORE (AFP) – Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami could cost its economy up to $235 billion, or 4.0 percent of output, and reconstruction could take five years, the World Bank warned Monday.
"If history is any guide, real GDP growth will be negatively affected through mid-2011," the Bank said in its latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update report.
But growth should pick up in subsequent quarters "as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years, accelerate", it added.