First Madoff, Now Stanford

My friend Rick P (aka Yogui) has suggested me to address the issue surrounding Stanford Bank and fraud allegations and government intervention of a global banking institution. Asides from value judgments this is like a wet dream for any banking and finance attorneys. And for bankruptcy attorneys well it’s like hunting such a huge animal only comparable to a huge Tuna, definitely more meat than teethes to sink in.

What really gets my attention is this fellow Robert Allen Stanford. He comes from Mexia, Texas (a small town in Texas) yet officially resides in the US Virgin Islands and is an honorary citizen of Antigua. He was born in 1950, which roughly makes him 59 years old. He officially holds no formal education, not even a community college degree, at least made public. Stanford International Bank became global from its operation in Antigua during the last 10 years. What really gets my attention is that this bank from Antigua was targeting Latin American investors. Specifically, investors between the figures of 250K all the way up to 20 million dollars. To this date, Stanford Banks have been controlled by governments in Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru.

The Banks experience was directly from Allen Stanford real estate experience and his board, comprised mainly by his college roommate (did he drop out from college? or what?), his father, Laura Pendergast-Holt (a hot chick, apparently Stanford’s mistress) and a resident from Mexia, Texas.

Mr. Stanford has had quite a joyride throughout the years, living a lavish lifestyle while remaining savvy with his greedy Latin American friends. Now, the fraud was not only in Latin America. The fraud permeated the United States, where the SEC and the FBI had to intervene when they found out that Stanford was offering an insane percentage against cash in Certificates of Deposits (CD). Now, US government officials conducted their investigations in Antigua (what? now Antigua is US jurisdiction?), and have seized property belonging to Stanford in Stanford International Bank and ordered the repatriation of cash to the United States.

What really baffles me is that Stanford Bank was being sued by Stanford University, because Allen Stanford alleged that his great-great-great-great grandfather was related to the found of Stanford University. Also being sued by St Judes Cancer Hospital, because Stanford had represented in its financial statements that they made a contribution of 15 Million Dollars, which they never received.

As of yesterday the FBI issued a press release statement disclosing to the public that Stanford Bank may have laundered money for the Cartel of Gulf (Mexico’s worst drug cartel operation), which now makes sense to have operations throughout Latin America, including Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela...And for the FBI to release such a statement translates into what they think professionally before they present the case to a Federal Judge on legal grounds. Time will only tell, but when the news come do not be a stranger...

NY Post a racist according to Al Sharpton

Do you think this cartoon is racist? According to Al Sharpton this cartoon published by NY Post depicts racism against the Black President, Barack Obama. I truly disagree, I think that the author was relating to the chimps in DC that drafted the Stimulus Plan, which was by the way, really huge...

the end of Facebook?

I seriously predict that Facebook users will dramatically come down. I think that users will migrate their profiles to other, smaller and more targeted online communities. Online communities that will identify with each user, instead of a mega web site where you can find virtually anyones profile and ask them if they can join you as a virtual "friend". In my case I intially joined Facebook when I was at law school in 2006 and I remembered that I closed my account because of people asking him to join them as friend, even though I met them the night before...

Its not that I hate social networking, in fact, I think its important. Nowadays I have a profile and am a member of a closed social network website, ASW.

I think Mark Zuckerberg should sell the site before it looses more and more value...


Facebook backs down, reverses on user information policyStory Highlights

Outraged members canceled their accounts or created online petitions

On Wednesday, Facebook reviewed user "feedback," and reverted to its old policy

Next Article in Technology »

(CNN) -- Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information -- for now.


Backlash against Facebook began after a consumer advocate site flagged Facebook's policy change.

The site posted a brief message on users' home pages that said it was returning to its previous "Terms of Use" policy "while we resolve the issues that people have raised."

The "Terms of Use" is the legalese tacked on to the bottom of most Web sites that details what the site's owners can do with the information that users provide.

Facebook, the Web's most popular social networking site, has been caught in a content-rights battle after revealing earlier this month that it was granting itself permanent rights to users' photos, wall posts and other information even after a user closed an account.

The popular site allows users to create personal profiles where they can then connect with one another, upload photos and share links. The site boasts more than 150 million active users.

Member backlash against Facebook began over the weekend after a consumer advocate Web site, The Consumerist, flagged a change made to Facebook's policy earlier in the month.

The company deleted a sentence from the old Terms of Use. That sentence said Facebook could not claim any rights to original content that a user uploaded once the user closed his or her account.

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Facebook faces furor over content rights
It replaced it with: "You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. ... (H)owever, you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

In response, Chris Walters wrote in the Consumerist post, "Make sure you never upload anything you don't feel comfortable giving away forever, because it's Facebook's now."

Thousands of indignant members either canceled their accounts or created online petitions. Among them were more than 64,000 who joined a group called "The People Against the new Terms of Service."

On Monday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to quell the controversy by saying the company's philosophy is that "people own their information and control who they share it with."

But members were not appeased because the site did not fix its Terms of Use. The company, in its post Wednesday, said it was returning to its previous Terms of Use because of the "feedback" it had received.

"As Mark expressed in his blog post on Monday, it was never our intention to confuse people or make them uneasy about sharing on Facebook," company spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a blog post. "I also want to be very clear that Facebook does not, nor have we ever, claimed ownership over people's content. Your content belongs to you."

Schnitt said the company is in the process of rewording its Terms of Use in "simple language that defines Facebook's rights much more specifically."

Who is Valentin Santana ? La Piedrita, anyone?

Valentin Santana is the leader of an urban "collective" movement (La Piedrita) that seeks to protect the poor against the oppression of the state in a Venezuelan barrio (slums, projects or shankytown) called 23 de Enero in Caracas. Their name derives from being a "little stone" on the shoes of criminals, the empire or the oppressor.

Valentin Santana has claimed responsibility for criminal acts against Venezuelan private citizens (Marcel Granier, Alberto Federico Ravell and journalist Martha Colomina) just because they publicly oppose Chavez´s regime. He has publicly said through Venezuelan media that opposition leaders must be "executed". What is really insane is that this fellow has publicly violate the law by threating private citizens and tagging them "enemies of the revolution" or "representatives of the empire" and that they must be passed through revolutionary weapons.

What is worse, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has publicly ordered the arrest of Valentin Santana. Chavez claims he is vital for peace in Venezuela. Still, to this date, Valentin Santana has remain free and vocal, even giving interviews to reporters from his military style bunker in Caracas.

Here you can see him with his shirt "Diego" which was his son, who was allegedly killed by Tupa Amaros (social group with ties with Chavez)...

Tocqueville and the Tyranny of the Majority

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French Political thinker that revolutionized the conception of democracy in the United States of America. He wrote about the democracy in the United States as a example to be followed by European governments.

Concerning the tyranny of the majority, de Tocqueville argues that there is little toleration of difference of opinion in democratic societies. Unlike in aristocratic societies, public opinion is seen as authentic rather than ascribed, and therefore has a great deal more moral force.

He argues that In USA, the government is exposed to the whims of the majority. Particularly in the legislature, which is elected at short intervals,representatives must act on public opinion in order to stay in office.

Furthermore, "the moral authority of the majority is partly based on the notion that there is more intelligence and wisdom in a number of men united than a single individual, and that the number of legislators is more important that their quality".
Yet another principle ensures the moral power of the majority. It is that "the interests of the many are to be preferred to those of the few".

A danger of democracy is that it can crush independence of thought:

"I know of no country in which, speaking generally, there is less independence of mind and true freedom of discussion than in America [...] As long as the majority is still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced, everyone is silent, and the friends as well as the opponents of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety "

In Europe, a person at odds with a repressive government can usually find shelter somewhere. If their opinion is at odds with an aristocratic government, then they can usually find security with the general populace. If it is at odds with the populace, the opposite is true.

The censure delivered on dissenters is much harsher in democratic societies than in aristocratic societies. In aristocratic societies one is tortured and punished but one's soul escapes. In democratic societies, "the body is left free and the sould enslaved":

“The sovereign can no longer say, “You shall think as I do on pain of death”: but he says, “You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your determination, you are henceforth an alien along your people. You may retain your civil rights, buy they will be useless to you, for you will never be chosen by your fellow-citizens, if you solicit their suffrages; and they will affect to scorn you, if you solicit their esteem. You will remain among men, but you like an impure being; and those who are mostly persuaded of your innocence will abandon you too, lest they should be shunned in their turn."

Given this overwhelming moral power of "majority opinion", its ability to ostracise, and its tendency to enforce conformity, it is possible that the average person may simply abdicate responsibility for taking part in political debate and accept majority opinion as his own. De Tocqueville argues that this is a fault of democracy in general, rather than democracy in America.

Tocqueville states that "unlimited power is itself a bad and dangerous thing. Human beings are not competent to exercise it with discretion." Only God, in his perfection, is fit to exercise such power. When absolute command is conferred on any power, there is a germ of tyranny. The main problem with the democratic insitutions of the United States comes their irresistible strength. "I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds there against tyranny."

If a party is wronged, the only entity that one can turn to is the majority. The majority controls the legislature, the executive and courts.

"If the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority, which may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation and oblige them to have recourse to physical force.".

Tocqueville cites Madison's Federalist 51, where Madison states his opinion on faction. He states that it is of paramount importance to protect the weak against the strong, and prevent the oppresion of fractious majorities. Madison argues that the real danger is the tyranny of the legislature, which is so exposed to the whims of the majority.

An Example of the Tyranny of the Majority

In the chapter "The Unlimited Power of the Majority", De Tocqueville cites two examples of the tyranny of the majority.

During the war of 1812, a newspaper in Baltimore had taken the opinion of the other side, and "excited the indignation of the inhabitants". The mob attacked printing presses, the militia was called out, but did not respond. The only way of saving those threatened was to throw them into prison. The prison was then forced upon and the editors killed. The guilty were acquitted.

The other example is that of black voters. The blacks were ostensibly allowed to vote, but De Tocqueville is told that they "volutarily abstain from making their appearance" at the voting booth, because they are afraid of being bullied or mistreated.

"The law is sometimes unable to maintain its authority without the support of the majority".

The majority, De Tocqueville concludes, have the right not only to make the laws, but to break them as well. It is only another instance of the importance of mores and values.

Tyranny of the Majority (Venezuelans approve amendment concerning no term limits for public officials)

No term limit for Venezuelan elected officials

Venezuelans yesterday, Sunday February 15, 2009 have approved in a public referendum to ammend the constitutional provisions that limits the terms for elected public officials, including the President, Governors, Assembly Representative (parliamnent or congress), Mayors and Deputies before State or local Councils.

The victory of the Yes proposition was 54% over 46%, in a 9% difference. The only States in Venezuela where the proposition No won over yes where: Zulia, Tachira, Merida, Miranda and Nueva Esparta. Which means that most of Venezuelans approve the government of Chavez...

What remains true, is that Chavez totally abused the powers of the Presidency for his campaign, it was outright insane.

The answer lies now in Campaign Finance Reform laws in Venezuela. Currently the legal framework resides in the Organic Law of Electoral Power and the Organic Law for Voting and Political Participation. What is even worse, Venezuelans must now turn their opinion and enable institutions to control the National Electoral Power (Consejo Nacional Electoral, or CNE) in their duties to moderate the participation of elected officials in their election campaigns. But I guess that is too sofisticated even for Venezuelans...

the mating game or on why you cant hurry love

My alma mater drawing headlines in the world for really progressive research has this time, outdone themselves. Prepare to be knocked off from your feet, specially if you are single, like me...

An LSE researcher has helped to develop a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often drawn out.

Duration of courtship effort as a costly signal, by Dr Peter Sozou, research associate, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, LSE and Professor Robert Seymour, Mathematics, University College London (UCL) shows that extended courtship enables a male to signal his suitability to a female and enables the female to screen out the male if he is unsuitable as a mate.

The research, published in the January edition of the Journal of Theoretical Biology, uses game theory to analyse how males and females behave strategically towards each other in the mating game.

Dr Peter Sozou, LSE Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and Warwick Medical School and, said: 'From a female's point of view, males are not all equal. A female would like to mate with a good male, but cannot tell a male's type from his appearance alone.

'The strategic problem the female faces is how to screen out bad males, and this is where long courtship comes into play. A male is assumed to always want to mate with a female, but a good male is more willing to pay the cost of a long courtship in order to claim the prize of mating. This leads to an outcome in which the female is not willing to mate immediately, but instead requires the male to wait for an indeterminate time before she agrees to mate with him. During this time, the male may give up on courting the female.

'Bad males give up at some random time if the female has not by then mated with them, but good males are more persistent and do not give up. The female’s strategy is a compromise - a trade-off between on the one hand the greater risk of mating with a bad male if she mates too quickly, and on the other hand the time cost of delay. Under this compromise there remains some risk that she will mate with the wrong type of male. She cannot eliminate this risk completely unless she decides never to mate.'

Young Dwarf Star

One of the hottest white dwarfs known to scientists lies in the heart of this nebula, called NGC 2440, about 4,000 light-years from Earth. The star (the bright dot near the photo's center), has a surface temperature of roughly 360,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Since white dwarfs cool as they age, this one must be relatively young. The glowing purple aura around it is the left-over material cast off by the star when it became a white dwarf star at the end of its life


White Dwarf: Dead Star ShiningBy 02.13.09 At the end of a star's lifetime, when it's burned all there is inside it to burn, it often collapses into what's called a white dwarf star. These dense globes have roughly the mass of the sun packed tight into a ball the size of the Earth. Since there is no fuel left for fusion in white dwarfs, they shine only faintly, by emitting stored heat. A white dwarf is thought to be the end stage awaiting most of the stars in our galactic neighborhood, including the sun — only about 3 percent of nearby stars have masses so huge that they collapse even further in supernova explosions.

Sabato nominated for Nobel Lit prize

One of Latinamerica´s finest writers alive, Ernesto Sabato, has been nominated to the Nobel Literature Prize. Ernesto Sabato was born in Argentina back in 1911. Curiously he graduated from Physics and earned his PhD from La Plata National University in Argentina. He also worked in the Currie Institute in Paris. After World War II, Ernesto Sabato lost his faith in science and starting writing.

His first book, the Tunnel (el Tunel) was a major success. This was his best book in my opinion which was a major literary inspiration in my law school days.

Some memorable quotes from Ernesto Sabato:

Un genio es alguien que descubre que la piedra que cae y la luna que no cae representan un solo y mismo fenómeno.

A genius is he who discovers that the rock that drops and the moons that does not, represents the one and same phenomenon.

Vivir consiste en construir futuros recuerdos.

To live consists in building future memories.

Ser original es en cierto modo estar poniendo de manifiesto la mediocridad de los demás.

To be original is in certain mode to manifestly highlight the mediocracy of others.

La vanidad es tan fantástica, que hasta nos induce a preocuparnos de lo que pensarán de nosotros una vez muertos y enterrados.

Vanity is so fantastic that it induces to worry about what will be thought of us once we are dead and buried.

Cops arrest Michael Phelp´s (weed) friends in Columbus, South Carolina

Local people in South Carolina are calling it the Michael Phelps incident. A week ago, 8 time olympic gold winner, Michael Phelps was shown in a picture of the News of World paper in United Kingdom hitting the (weed) bong. Now police in South Carolina apparently have arrested some of the friends that where with Phelps. This is truly a classic example of how the politics of drugs often violate civil liberties. Police in South Carolina must be water tight on the evidence, and I am not talking about heresay or simple cell phone pictures.

The legal quagmire resides in the fact that Michael Phelps has publicly recognized that he smoke marijuana in Columbus, South Carolina. Now, police in South Carolina can (must?) charge Michael Phelps at least with possession of drug controlled substances, because of the news of the crime...Phelps is facing a three month ban from competitive swimming and now it looks like a court date in South Carolina...

What percentage of US college students have clean sheets from criminal courts in the US? Not a lot I would say...

the Benkler-Carr wager - Peer produced or price incentivized?

Back in July 2006, Nicholas Carr (editor of Havard Business Review) made a bet with Yochai Benkler (a teacher of law from Yale & Harvard), concerning the future the internet. They envisioned the future of the most influential sites on the internet. Nicholas Carr argues that in the future the most influential sites will be dominated by price incentivized sites (content provided by paid workers) whereas Yochai Benkler argues that in the future the most influential sites will be commons based peer production (as wikipedia, youtube and flickr).

I think Benkler is right...

his book wealth of networks can be freely accessed at benkler.org

the Michael Phelps-Bong incident

This is the reply of Mike Edison (former publisher of High Times Magazine) concering Michael Phelps incident smoking weed out of a bong...

George W. Bush never had to answer for his “youthful indiscretions.” Michael Phelps, not so lucky. Having been caught red-handed with a smoking bong firmly pasted to his maw, the long knives are out for the Olympic hero.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Phelps isn’t a future Hall of Famer juicing himself with the “cream” and the “clear,” or getting his gluteus maximus pin-cushioned with designer ’roids. He isn’t a doped racehorse, or a testosterone-shooting bike nerd trying to turn his Lycra-Spandexed bum into a blur pedaling across France.
He isn’t even the current president of the United States, who freely admits to having toked his share of tropical trumpets back in his Hawaiian hoodlum days, not to mention tooting some of the Big Island’s finest imported disco dust.
He’s a 23-year-old rock star who got caught smoking pot. How is Phelps going to do the breast stroke covered in tar and feathers?

Copyright infringement? That is according to the AP

According to the Associated Press, this drawing made by a man in California is a breach to its copyright.

What is truly correct is that copyright as an intellectual property must be protected and its creators duly compensated in order to stimulate new and progressive creations. 

Now, not all copyright infringements require legal redress. Its when the supposed creator bluntly obtains unlawful economic or moral gains, when the law or courts protects the original creators.

The fellow who made the drawing, Shepard Fairey, made thousands of dollars, and even personally signed some posters and sold them on Ebay. Mr Fairey recently has recognized that he used the AP photograph as a base to make the drawing.  Professor Anthony Falzone, a lecturer from Stanford Law School and leader of the Fair Use Project, argues that this is a clear example for Fair Use.  Other people argue that Mr Faireys intention was civic, social and political in nature, thus falling in the category of fair use.

I lean in favor of copyright infringement...you be the jugdge!

Forced Holidays?

This past Monday, February 2nd, 2009, Venezuelans woke up to a rather strange ambiance in the air. Our infamous President Chavez had ordered on Saturday,that Monday February 2nd, 2009 will be a national holiday, because of the 10 year anniversary of the Bolivarian revolution.

Its been a hell of a rollercoaster this past 10 years. Perhaps what is even worse, Venezuelans had a real chance of removing an elected President who had grossly violated the Venezuelan Constitution. The date was April 2002, the responsible Pedro Carmona Estanga, who acted on ill-counsel and self appointed himself provisional President of Venezuela. It was a mess, and still we are living this mess on account of such bad counsel. History will in deed find the responsibles of such a mess...

10 years have passed, and still the image of Chavez appears to be engraved on Venezuelans everywhere, specially those in humble settings. Chavez has received in these past 10 years more money to distribute between roughly 24,000,000 Venezuelans....it would take $2,000 for every Venezuelan citizen for 10 years of government, where has the money gone?

Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua? Perhaps the pockets of members of the Chavista regime?

What Dictatorship? Is Venezuela a Dictatorship?

Yesterday I was listening to a famous Venezuelan comedian Laureno Marquez. Everyone in Venezuela has probably heard or even seen him on tv. He also does stand up shows which he certainly has loads of talents in the field. I have often laughed at his jokes. Now the past 10 years or so Laureano has taken an edge on the political situation in my country. He started doing the Reconstituyente I remember at the time that the Venezuela constituency process for drafting the 1999 Constitution. The typical Venezuelan scenario of comedians cashing in/laughing at our political and social situation. Laureano Marquez was a guest at a radio talk show, and started analyzing the current political situation in Venezuela. He started off by saying that we (as Venezuelans) must start to recognize that the Chavez regime is not a dictatorship. He continued "just because of the fact that I can openly critize the government on radio means that this is not a dictatorship". Laureano has over the past years over-indulge on his title of political scientific or something like that...

Now, is it true, is the policy towards free and open press the only element to consider whether or not a government is undemocratic or a dictatorship? Can we say that in a country where free and open press is found can never consider itself a dictatorship? Now I understand the argument that Laureno was trying to make because the traditional style of dictatorships, specially in Latin America, free and open press was never found.

However, without a doubt we can say that even though there is a free and open press in Venezuela, the regime of Chavez is a dictatorship. Why? Well you can start by arguing that the government has more than 40% of the media outlet in the country. That is directly controlled television, radio and newspapers stations. Not only that but central news services (wires) and even international television stations (telesur). It is ridicilous, even though that in Venezuela still exists a considerable percentage of private media outlets, the (economic) efforts done by a 40% of government media outlets without commercial interest can never be seen as a "fair" in any market. Constantly relaying government propaganda.

Besides, we can never say that this is not a dictatorship. Chavez dictates everything from the Judicial system (naming, removing any Judges from lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court), Electoral systems (can anyone argue against this? i.e. Francisco "tramparencia" Carrasquero? or Jorge Rodriguez?). The Legislature (asamblea nacional) is a true joke. Or what is even worse the brutal economic power that has made almost everyone in this country, whether directly or indirectly, to kneel (from a broad to the specific sense) before Chavez´s power? For instance, in the state of Barinas, where the kidnappings have gone so out of hand that the press has stopped covering the news. Or what is worse, Venezuelan citizens scare to come out publicly against Chavez´s government because they are afraid to lose their jobs or government benefits.

How many people in Venezuela say they publicly support Chavez just because they depend economically on his regime? Sure Laureno we can openly and freely say what we want to say, but do you know how many people have been put on "blacklists" to block them to access legally available funds or opportunities? Or what is worse, do you know how many Venezuelans have been rejected over other Venezuelans who deem themselves Chavistas or loyals to Chavez?

When the government directly dictates the conditions of granting access to public jobs, positions or public funds, is when we see a dictatorship. When Venezuelans are conditioned of whether or not they support the revolution to get what they legally are entitled to, is when we see a dictatorship. Laureno please hit the books, start by reading Locke on Civil Society then move on to Hobbes Leviathan...

Lord Sapic

This is my dog, Lord Sapic

Reservoir

Looking, to your eyes I see myself

reflecting in thy mirror

as my fingers drip senseless in the coldness

and the darkness seems to purify my sweat

It comes as the place for purity

and seem natural to drink for thrist

and spite morrow and the melting

a few sips will quench

To come to the place

to find my eyes

gazing back at me at the reservoir

Its seems the past

never melted in the present

nor the future came into sight without shadows

The streams of the darkness

in the cold mist night

to make believe that the stream had ended

while the reservoir will always be there for quenching

My past 2 weeks in shots

the BULLSH*T you see on AN TV

This image was on Asamblea Nacional Television, a Chavez-State run Television Network...

Flying Vehicles - the Jetsons are here

Icon Aircraft is the new company involved in the future of flight. It seems that the days when the Jetsons fly everywhere with their vehicles are here. Just imagine the future flying highways along with flying traffic and commercial signs. I can see that day is just around the corner...

The model in the picture in the ICON A5. You can take it for a drive, swim or fly. Ahh, and even in your trailer...