Inspire Political Discourse

Update on Goldman Sachs

>>According to Bespoke Investment Group, the fraud charges cost Goldman Sachs $14.5 billion in market capitalization as of the close of the market on Friday.

The CDO involved in the Goldman lawsuit cost investors on the wrong side of the trade about $1 billion.  Goldman Sachs (GS) is down $25 at the moment, which translates into $14.5 billion of market cap.  Are these charges going to cost Goldman $14.5 billion?

>> Reuters’ Felix Salmon minces no words in his assessment [emphasis mine]:

I think that the SEC has the right defendant here. Paulson and ACA are both culpable, but it’s Goldman which was clearly central to the plan of deceiving investors into believing that the CDO was being managed by people who wanted it to make money, when in fact it was being structured by the biggest short-seller in the entire subprime market.

And although ACA should never have been so passive in terms of accepting the names given to it by Paulson, it did reasonably believe, because it was essentially lied to by Goldman Sachs, that Paulson was in the deal to make money on the long side:

>> And Felix Salmon regarding the Abacus Pitchbook:

Here is the Goldman Sachs pitchbook for the Abacus deal in question today. It spends 30 pages talking in great detail about ACA and its qualifications to manage CDOs; it never mentions Paulson.

>> US stock drops as fraud charges hit, via Business Week:

“The Goldman story is pulling the stock market down, and you’re getting a flight to quality into the yen,” said Carol Hurley, a senior market strategist in Chicago at Lind-Waldock & Co., a unit of futures broker MF Global Holdings Ltd. “It’s most definitely weighing on risk sentiment.”

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World Nuclear Security Summit Hosted by Obama

President Obama hosted 47 world leaders at a summit yesterday, with the goal being to find ways to reduce the threat that terrorists such as al Qaeda could obtain nuclear materials or weapons.

President Obama completed a first meeting of world leaders on combating nuclear terrorism with a list of specific commitments from dozens of nations to eliminate or lock down nuclear materials, in what he called a “bold and pragmatic” program to finish the task in the next four years.

The meeting that Mr. Obama convened, and to a great degree stage-managed, was unlike any negotiations over arms control with the Soviets during the cold war or, more recently, the so-far fruitless talks to get North Korea to disarm. This was a far broader effort to persuade African, Latin American, Asian and European nations to agree on steps to deny terrorist groups the two materials necessary to make a bomb: plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

Mr. Obama began the session arguing that while superpower confrontation was far more remote, the risk of nuclear terrorism had never been greater, and he quoted the warning of Albert Einstein soon after the beginning of the nuclear age: “We are drifting towards a catastrophe beyond comparison.” [……]

He achieved some success[emphasis is mine].

At the end of two days of meetings, Mr. Obama could claim two major accomplishments: The summit meeting forced countries that had failed to clean up their nuclear surpluses to formulate detailed plans to deal with them, and it kicked into action nations that had failed to move on previous commitments.

A second summit meeting will be held in two years in South Korea, Mr. Obama said, to make sure countries are on track. [……]

Image source: Doug Mills, New York TImes

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Scott Brown Snubs Sarah Palin

Palin was there.

Addressing roughly 5,000 people assembled in the morning sunshine near the site of the original Boston Tea Party, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee accused President Barack Obama of overreaching with his $787 billion stimulus program and criticized the administration's health care, student loan and financial regulatory overhauls.

"Is this what their `change' is all about?" Palin asked the crowd on Boston Common. "I want to tell 'em, nah, we'll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion – and you can keep the change."

Scott Brown declined to attend. .

Sen. Scott Brown, whose unexpected victory saw the end of a legacy of liberalism in Massachusetts, is now refusing an invitation from the Tea Party movement -- and Sarah Palin, the very figures who helped Brown score his Senate seat.

And he appears to want nothing to do with the Narcissist Queen.

Scott Brown's connection with Sarah Palin has been similarly tenuous. A few weeks after his election, Brown claimed that he'd "never met [Palin], she's never contacted us and vice versa," a statement that seemed to be contradicted by earlier reports from Palin spokespeople that she'd spoken with Brown on the night of the election to congratulate him on his victory. Apparently, Scott Brown had forgotten about the call altogether.

Big smile here.
Image Source: Morning Sentinel (Maine)

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Jon Stewart Warns Teabaggers to Stay Away From Republicans

The inimitable Stewart knocks it out of the park again, playing with the Teabaggers and the Republicans, who are, of course, one and the same.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Clash of the Teatans
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

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Army Birther Doctor to be Court Martialed for Refusal to Deploy

Birther – another word for ‘racist’.

Past time for birthers who are members of the U.S. military to understand that they, too, must obey President Obama.

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that the U.S. Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he considers orders from President Obama to be “illegal.”

Army doctor Lt. Col. Terry Lakin believes Obama does not meet the constitutional requirements to be president and commander-in-chief, because he believes (incorrectly) that Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

Lakin refused this week to report to Fort Campbell, KY for deployment to Afghanistan, but instead showed up at the Pentagon, where he was confronted by his brigade Commander Col. Gordon Roberts, a Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient.

Lakin was informed by Roberts that he would face court martial, and his Pentagon building pass and government laptop computer were seized. [……]

This birther creep very likely did not have an issue with a president [ who wasn’t elected but was appointedby a 5-4 Supreme Court decision] who ordered his country to invade, and occupy another country for years based on little more than a poorly thought out neocon fantasy.

I hope they throw the book at this guy.

Via Balloon Juice

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IPD Political News Summary, Wednesday, April 22, 2009

| At a United Nations conference on racism in Geneva on Monday, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  launched in to a tirade against Israel. Delegates from a number of European countries walked out in protest.
The U.S., Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Israel all boycotted the conference as they had expected Ahmadinejad to use the conference as a forum to “focus on maligning Israel rather than on the global problems of discrimination, replaying the disputes that marked the first United Nations conference on combating racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.”
The countries that walked out: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic (has left the conference for good), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, , Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, St. Kitts and Nevis
Image courtesy of The NYT.

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| The release of the Bush torture memos last week caused many on the left to become more vocal, urging the current administration to hold accountable those who directed others to violate U.S. and international law. On Tuesday, President Obama stated publicly for the first time, that he is open to prosecution of the people responsible for directing others to commit acts of torture. Bolding is mine.From The New York Times:

But in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, he said, “if and when there needs to be a further accounting,” he hoped that Congress would examine ways to obtain one “in a bipartisan fashion,” from people who are independent and therefore can build credibility with the public.

Image of the scales of justice on top of the Old Bailey in London, by Andrew Parsons, courtesy of the BBC.

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| Congress is back in Washington this week, after a break for Easter recess. At the top of their agenda is the budget, healthcare, and credit cards.
The president has said that he expects Republicans to come back with a more “constructive attitude toward health care, energy and other administration initiatives.” David Axelrod via Huffpost:

"No one expects the Republican Party to fully embrace what we're doing," Axelrod said. "What they would like is for us to ratify the policies that we've had for the last eight years that have gotten us into the mess we're in. We have two parties for a reason, but there are areas of common interest, and we ought to pursue them."

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| On Monday, President Obama directed his cabinet to cut spending by $100 million, acknowledging that it’s a drop in the proverbial bucket.
The cabinet was directed to go through the expenses in each of their areas, and eliminate a total of $100 million from the budget.

Obama said the $100 million would come from "efficiencies" in agency operations, and would be in addition to future cuts in programs that aren't working.

Yet the red ink in the annual budget is currently in the hundreds of billions. He was asked if the efficiency saving isn't just "a drop in the bucket".

"It is," he replied. "None of these things alone are going to make a difference. But cumulatively, they make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone ... $100 million there, $100 million here _ pretty soon, even here in Washington, it adds up to real money."

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| In signing legislation that will triple the size of the Americorps program, President Obama called on students to volunteer to improve their communities. .
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| MEDIA MATTERS log, April 20 - April 26, 2009

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IPD Political News Summary: Monday, April 20, 2009

I got a late start on this last night, so will be finishing it piecemeal, throughout today. Check back later for more.

Political News Summary: Friday, April 17 – Sunday, April 19, 2009

| Last Thursday, President Obama directed the DOJ to release the Bush Torture Memos as part of an ongoing court case. The fallout has been wide, and varied.
In an editorial on Sunday, The New York Times called for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, the author of the memos, and John Yoo's boss.

“These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution. Congress should impeach him.”

President Obama has also drawn fire from the left, when he made it clear that he would not hold accountable those who actually committed the acts of torture. From Think Progress:

Yesterday, as he released four Bush-era legal memos authorizing the torture of terrorist suspects, President Obama made it clear he would not support any prosecutions of low-level interrogators who actually carried out Bush’s policies. “[I]t is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

The ACLU's lead counsel, Jameel Jaffer, told Glenn Greenwald that Obama was very careful in his wording, and that nothing the President or Eric Holder had said precludes prosecution of the people responsible for these policies.

By the way, I read some of the torture memos myself, and they are as ugly and grotesque as you might imagine.

RELATED: :: The case for impeaching Jay Bybee.
:: Fox News Defends Bush Administration’s Use Of Torture
:: Hayden: The Torture Memos Show The ‘Outer Limits’ That ‘Any American’ Would Go To In Interrogations
:: Scott Atran: The Moral Measure of a Civilization Is in Its Treatment of Enemies
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IPD Political News Summary: Wednesday, April 15, 2009

               Pete Souza/White House

| The biggest story of the past couple of days was the introduction of Bo Obama, the newest resident of the White House, on Tuesday. A Portuguese Water Dog, Bo is completely adorable. If you'd like to see his intro to the press, the best video is from the BBC, and NYT has the best pics.
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| On Tuesday night, Reuters reported that another U.S.-flagged and U.S.-owned ship, the Liberty Sun, was attacked by Somali pirates. The pirates attacked with rockets and automatic weapons, but failed to board the ship. The crew was unharmed, but the ship did suffer damage, and contacted the U.S. Navy for help. They are now under escort by the USS Bainbridge. __________________________

IPD Political News Summary: Monday, April 13, 2009

Political News Summary: Friday, April 10 – Sunday, April 12, 2009

| The hostage crisis near the Somali coast was resolved on Sunday, when Navy Seals engaged in a brief firefight with the pirates, killing 3  of them, and wounding one. The hostage, Captain Richard Phillips, has been rescued, and is not injured. Thanks to President Obama who managed the crisis, and to the Navy Seals who accomplished it. It is so nice to have an adult once again in charge.  AP article:

[Unlike Bush] “Obama didn't go before the cameras Sunday to trumpet the success, instead releasing a written statement that saluted the bravery of the military and Phillips but claimed no credit for himself.”

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| The “teabagging” insanity continues, generating massive sales in related merchandise, and demagoguery: Tea Party Insanity: "Burn The Books!" (VIDEO)

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| Mayor Bloomberg will seek re-election to a third term this fall by running as a Republican.

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| First she was for it, then she was against it. Last Tuesday, Texas lawmaker, State Rep. Betty Brown (R), set herself up for an enormous amount of criticism when she said that Asian-Americans should change their names because they’re too hard to pronounce:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” source

She was called upon to apologize or to resign, and up until a couple of days ago, she resisted either course of action, . Her spokesman suggested that Democrats “want this to just be about race.”. Ahem.
Brown finally issued an apology, saying that “the remark came during a conversation on the difficulty of translating names and that she was referring to transliteration issues when she asked a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans whether Asian-Americans could adopt names that "we could deal with more readily here."”

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| Certain news organizations have intentionally mischaracterized President Obama’s stance on supplemental spending bills having to do with the Iraq War, claiming that his war funding request is the same type of supplemental war spending that he [Obama] opposed during the Bush administration. In point of fact, in 2007, when Obama opposed those spending bills, he made the statement then that he opposed them because they contained NO timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. source
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| John McCain’s former economic adviser, and ex-CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, flipped re his stance on the Bush tax cuts. Throughout the presidential campaign, not only was Eakin very vocally in favor of McCain’s plan to retain the Bush tax cuts, he wanted to double these cuts for the very wealthy. He has now said that he believes the tax cuts should be allowed to expire in 2010 for fear of a fiscal meltdown, and rising deficits. Said Holtz-Eakin:

"If you ask: 'Who pays the taxes?', it's the first step toward not having the answer be: 'Our kids.”

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| MEDIA MATTERS log, April 13 - April 19, 2009

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IPD Political News Summary: Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Political News Summary: Monday, April 6 – Tuesday, April 7, 2009

| President Obama spent two days in Turkey, before ending his trip with an unannounced visit to the troops in Iraq, bringing the war back to the forefront of the news again.
In Turkey, Obama reached out to Muslims, telling them;

. “One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a;very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

You can view the video here. Obama also held a town hall with Turkish students, and spoke to Turkish lawmakers where he told them that America is not at war with Islam.

“The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam,” Obama declared, adding that America's relationship with the Muslim world “cannot, and will not, just be based upon opposition to terrorism. We seek broader engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

In Iraq, the president invoked warmer feelings from the Iraqis than former President Bush had. He also spoke to U.S. troops in Bagdad, telling them

“Under enormous strain and under enormous sacrifice, through controversy and difficulty and politics, you have kept your eyes focused on just doing your job and because of that, every mission that has been assigned from getting rid of Saddam to reducing violence, to stabilising the country, to facilitating elections, you have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country.”

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IPD Political News Summary: Monday, April 6, 2009

Friday, April 3 – Sunday, April 5, 2009

| For 18 years, in a practice begun by George H.W. Bush, the government has banned the media from providing coverage of returning war dead.
At President Obama’s request, the Pentagon has now lifted the ban, although permission from the service member’s family is required. “The arrival of the remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Myers, a 30-year-old supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, at Dover Air Force Base at 11 p.m. today [ipd note: Sunday, Apr. 5] marked the first time that the transfer of any of the nearly 5,000 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan was open to the media. The transfer of the flag-draped casket was carried out with great dignity, for the seven family members present.” source
AP/Reuters photo
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IPD Political News Summary: Friday, April 3, 2009

 
Political News Summary Covering Wednesday, April 1 – Thursday, April 2, 2009

| The G-20 Summit is over. Click here to check out all of the news re the G-20 that you might have missed.  __________________________

| Since charges have been dropped against Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) citing prosecutorial misconduct by the Bush Justice Dept., the Alaska GOP is asking that Sen. Begich (D-AK), who won the election in November, resign so that a special election may be held. Palin has apparently put her 2 cents in, and wants Begich to step down. <Begich must not be kissing up to the Queen properly.> Word to Begich: DON’T DO IT. 
>>Be sure to read The LIEonization of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens by Alaskan citizen, Shannyn Moore.

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| First he is for it, then he is against it, now he is for it. Whew. Confusing, but Mitt  Romney has once again flip-flopped on immigration reform. Political gamesmanship? Uh, yeah.

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| Republicans continue to advance a cap-and-trade myth, in an ongoing attempt to delude the American people re taxation.
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| Are you a liberal annoyed with the “conservadems” aka the Blue Dog Democrats? Join this Facebook group in order to fight back. The plan is to campaign to replace these Dems during the 2010 & 2012 elections with people who share more progressive values
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| Amidst growing concern over the lack of congressional oversight on the Fed, Pelosi (D-CALIF). announced on Thursday that the House would address the issue after returning from the Easter recess.
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| Former Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, along with his brother, and several aides, was indicted on Thursday on federal corruption charges for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant senate seat.
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| On Thursday. the DOW extended a 4-week rally that gave the index it’s best 4 weeks since 1933, and drove it to above 8,000 for the first time in two months. The news which provoked the rise was the end of the G-20 summit, where world leaders declared a crackdown on tax havens and hedge funds, and pledged an additional $1.1 trillion in financing to the IMF. Banking shares also rose after a rulemaking body for the accounting industry relaxed financial reporting rules that force banks to value their assets at current market prices.
But be forewarned. The market is likely to dive again as soon as the March unemployment and job losses are released. A temporary dive, I would suspect.
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IPD Political News Summary: Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Political News Summary Covering Monday, March 30 – Tuesday, March 31, 2009

| The results of a new poll show that Americans are not drinking the GOP koolaide when it comes to blaming Obama for the recession.

| On Thursday, the US House passed a bill, in a 247-171 vote, that would give the Treasury broad powers to prohibit "unreasonable and excessive" compensation and bonuses that are not based on performance standards.The bill would affect all employees at financial institutions that receive bailout funds.

| Last night, on MSNBC’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann named O’Reilly “Worst Person” for using his harassment machine to stalk a liberal blogger.

| On Wednesday, the GOP, in a typical move, authored an article containing a phony graph in the Wall Street Journal. Their intent, was of course to discredit Obama’s budget plan.

Cartoon courtesy of McClatchy
Image courtesy of HuffPost.
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Obama Reverses Bush Policy and Announces Overhaul of How Federal Contracts Are Awarded

:: Fulfilling another campaign promise, Obama announced the reform of government contracting procedures, and signed an executive memorandum to begin the process. From the AP:

Obama joined lawmakers to announce an executive memorandum that commits his administration to a new set of marching orders for awarding contracts. Obama said "the days of giving defense contractors a blank check are over" and said changes could save up to $40 billion a year.

Obama's presidential memo changes government contracting procedures. It directs Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to work with Cabinet and agency officials to draft new contracting rules by the end of September. Those new rules, White House aides say, will make it more difficult for contractors to bilk taxpayers and make some half-trillion dollars in federal contracts each year more accessible to independent contractors.

AP photo.
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Craig Fugate Nominated as FEMA Director

:: Fugate is a Republican who has been in charge of Florida's disaster management since 2001, when he was first appointed by Jeb Bush, and remained in his position when Charlie Crist became the governor. According to Janet Napolitano, Fugate is one of the most experienced emergency managers in the country. From HUFFPOST:

In a statement issued by the White House, Obama said he plans to nominate Fugate who will help the administration "improve our preparedness, response and recovery efforts."

Fugate has been praised for helping guide Florida through several devastating hurricanes in the past decade. He was criticized in 2005 for not distributing enough ice, water and other supplies immediately after Hurricane Wilma. Fugate had warned residents before the storm that they should have enough supplies for three days after it passed, but many did not and that overstressed the system.

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David Plouffe Takes Aim at the New Leader of the GOP

:: David Plouffe provides some perspective for the party of "NO!" on their choice of Rush Limbaugh-aka-the-sphereazoid-sleazy-manhood-cruncher-former?-druggie-I-hope-Obama-fails-right-wing-radio-show-lunatic, as their new leader.

Aren't you people (Republicans) embarrassed? For gawd's sake, the GOP has become a party ruled by 6-year-olds! From The Washington Post:

The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top: Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness, and they wanted a government -- and country -- that would put the middle class first.

Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal.

Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

Limbaugh, of course, told his radio listeners that he's rooting for President Obama to fail -- and hoping the president's ideas for bolstering our economy fail with him. For many Americans, hungry for leadership and cooperation, this sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. When Limbaugh reiterated the sentiment this weekend, hundreds of Republican conservatives cheered him on. But instead of rebuking the radio personality or charting their own course, Republican leaders in Washington are paralyzed with fear of crossing their leader. Less than 24 hours after committing the unforgivable sin of criticizing Limbaugh, RNC Chairman Michael Steele felt compelled to publicly apologize. He was not the first and will certainly not be the last.

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Former Countrywide Execs Profit From Their Failures

:: The losers formerly known as the president of Countrywide Financial, Stanford L. Kurland, and his lackeys, form a company to profit from the misery that they helped to create, making millions from the home mortgage crisis. From the New York Times:

CALABASAS, Calif. — Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis. After all, the banking behemoth made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has the economy staggering.

Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide’s former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other failed banks, sometimes for pennies on the dollar. They get a piece of what they can collect.

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Michael Steele: No Steel in His Manhood

One of a number of prominent conservatives attempting to distance themselves from the new Republican leader(I am referring to the defacto leader, Limbaugh, not Steele), Joe Scarborough on Steele's apology to Rush Limbaugh:

"I'm afraid that Rush put Michael Steele's manhood in a lockbox"

And Jason Linkins on The Huffington Post:

RNC Chair Michael Steele, who's made all of the wrong kinds of news this week after he offered Rush Limbaugh a stooping apology for comments he made on CNN's D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, was the subject of a series of acid-tipped disses on this morning's Morning Joe, after canceling his planned appearance. Led by an unabashedly sharp-tongued Joe Scarborough, Steele was viciously mocked at seemingly every lull in the conversation, as the hosts speculated over whether or not Rush Limbaugh had given Steele a "permission slip" to come on the air.

Conservative opinions:
:: David Frum on Rush Limbaugh: The Republican Party's very own Jesse Jackson
:: Rush and Oprah
Video Source: County Fair
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McCain to Help Obama Get a Line-Item Veto

:: McCain, angry at all the pork in the omnibus budget (from the last/110th Congress), blasted President Obama for deciding to sign the spending bill.

"The measure has over 9,000 unnecessarily and wasteful earmarks. So much for the promise of change," McCain said. "What are we doing here? Not only business as usual; an outrageous insult to the American people."

Within a few hours, McCain did an about face, and said that he would reintroduce legislation to give the president a line-item veto right, in order to enable him to go after wasteful spending.

On Tuesday, McCain, along with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), announced that he would reintroduce legislation to provide the president with a line-item veto to target wasteful spending. This came just one week after the president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters that Obama would "love to take [a line-item veto] for a test drive."

Had McCain deliberately greased the legislative wheels to give the president the tool he desired? Or was he simply acting on a long-held view about how best to combat wasteful spending? The Senator's office did not immediately say whether they had talked to the White House about the measure.

READ MORE HERE.
AP photo.
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Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, Resigns

Mercenary King Erik Prince Resigns as Blackwater CEO

Jeremy Scahill

Independent journalist, author, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”

Originally posted at Huffington Post

“The company formerly known as Blackwater continues its mission to bury its tarnished reputation and soldier on. Early this morning, Blackwater founder Erik Prince released a brief statement announcing he is stepping down as CEO of the infamous mercenary firm he started in 1997. A press release from the company — which last month renamed itself “Xe” — said Prince “will now focus his efforts on a private equity venture unrelated to the company.”

In a personal message sent to his employees and clients, Prince sought to cast his departure as a natural part of the firm’s ongoing evolution. “As many of you know, because we focus on continually improving our business that Xe is in the process of a comprehensive restructuring,” he wrote. “It is with pride in our many accomplishments and confidence in Xe’s future that I announce my resignation as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.”

Prince’s resignation could be seen as a public formality in what has been a dramatic attempt to scrub all public vestiges of Blackwater, given that he remains chairman and sole owner of the network of companies now operating under the Xe umbrella. But it’s clear the firm has been thrown into turmoil in recent months. As the Xe statement says, “These appointments follow the addition and departures of several other key personnel. Recent departures from the company include its former Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer, President, and Executive Vice President.” Joseph Yorio, an ex-Army Special Forces officer and former Vice President of the international shipping company DHL was announced as the new Xe president — a somewhat humorous development, given Prince’s fondness for describing Blackwater as the “FedEx of the U.S. national security apparatus.” Meanwhile, Danielle Esposito, a longtime Blackwater employee, was named Xe’s new Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President.

The rebranding of Blackwater and its attempts to hide its former self have been downright crude. The company’s domestic training centers, which some refer to as private military bases, are now simply labeled “U.S. Training Center.” Gone is the sexy black-and-red logo featuring a bear paw in a sniper-scope; it has been replaced by a nondescript, rather amateurish sketch of an American Eagle. The company website has been revamped and scaled down.  MORE HERE.

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