Buried in its correction section, The Boston Globe has issued a retraction of its claim that a marriage license supporting the claim of U.S. Senate Candidate and Law Professor Elizabeth Warren that she is part Cherokee. The correction says that no such marriage license has ever been found and that the reference comes from a “family newsletter” and refers to an application for a marriage license. Moreover, no one has been able to find the paper, let alone study it. In the meantime, the Warren campaign is addressing new disclosures that Warren claimed to be a minority not just at Harvard but also at the University of Pennsylvania. Today another news story reported that Warren (who denied knowledge of being listed as a minority) was cited as “Harvard’s first woman of color” in a Fordham Law Review piece — quoting a Harvard official.
The Boston Globe earlier published an account that became the primary defense for Warren supporters:
A record unearthed Monday shows that US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has a great-great-great grandmother listed in an 1894 document as a Cherokee, said a genealogist at the New England Historic and Genealogy Society.
The shred of evidence could validate her assertion that she has Native American ancestry, making her 1/32 American Indian, but may not put an end to the questions swirling around the subject….
Chris Child, a genealogist at the New England Historic and Genealogy Society, said he began digging into Warren’s family history on Thursday, when media interest emerged.
At first, he found no link between Warren’s family and Native Americans in her native Oklahoma.
But Monday afternoon, he said, he discovered a few links. Warren’s great-great-great grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, is listed on her son’s 1894 application for a marriage license as a Cherokee.
Now however the newspaper has said that that was not true:
Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in the May 1 Metro section and the accompanying headline incorrectly described the 1894 document that was purported to list Elizabeth Warren’s great-great-great grandmother as a Cherokee. The document, alluded to in a family newsletter found by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, was an application for a marriage license, not the license itself. Neither the society nor the Globe has seen the primary document, whose existence has not been proven.
That seems like a pretty important disclosure to be simply pushed into the correction section of the newspaper.
In the meantime, the New York Times is reporting that Warren was not just listed as a minority faculty member at Harvard but also at University of Pennsylvania. At the very most, Warren is no more than 1/32 Cherokee, even if the account of the great great great grandmother is proven to be true.
As I have mentioned before, I do not believe that Warren was given her positions due to the claim of minority status. She is an extremely intelligent and talented academic. The claim as a minority however has caused a stir among academics who have been discussing the lack of any criteria for such claims. Minority status is an obvious advantage for a law professor as school strive to diversify their faculty ranks. Claiming minority status has an important impact on reporting academic data for schools as it does for governmental reporting.a
What is intriguing is the claim by Warren that she was not aware that she was listed as a minority when that status was asserted by both Penn and Harvard. I do not believe that she would be considered a minority by any conceivable definition without making most Americans minorities. Presumably, these schools did not arbitrarily claim such status for a faculty member, but had to be given an affirmative claim of being a minority by the faculty member. Yet, this process is remarkably fluid and ill-defined at schools. Schools are eager to list every possible minority members in annual reporting.
I am more interested in the general issue of how to define minority status than the campaign. But, putting aside the raw partisanship over the Senate race, how important should this issue in your view be in judging a candidate?
Blouise,
I guess it’s time to roll out the word “communist”…once again.
SwM and Elaine,
We would all benefit from her presence in the Senate.
Elaine, just must be totally in the tank for these communists members that call themselves “democrat party”; the financial meltdown was cause by lack of regulation?? really? or rather becasue your communists friends leaded by Barney Frank decided the goverment has to OWN a bank give a shoot to those McDonnald workers to buy 300 thousand dollard suburband houses WITHOUT downpayment? You think any bank would had done that? actually…did ANY bank do that after Glass-Steagal was turn down? i will answer for you NO HELL NO….the banks just started to do it AFTER Fanny May did it, because they were losing customers, and thats how the free market works…..but is always the goverment who starts the wrong trend(and dont say internet, cause that was the military toguether with a republican congress and a non-communist democrat president…Obama would have never gone for it…he actually wanted to be able to shoot it down if)
But lets talk science and minorities for a second, since obvioulsly you are part of the communist parlot club….anyone that says he is a minority or have any relation AT ALL with minorities because you are 1/32 of anything is a liar…follwing that, for all know, we all must be minorities, because humans originated in Africa..the way i see it, you can claim minority ONLY if your parents were/are minority…other than that you are trying to pull something dark…..you can ask for prove of when your “heroine” Warren used her “minority card” all you want but the 1/32 attempt of cover it up didnt come from the republicans…..so, i sujest you look at your own side for answers like….why, if Warren never used that status, the “boston communist globe” came up with the quick 1/32 LIE so fast(lie, cause they backtracked yesterday)?
Now, more on politics….Warren is for Obamacare, you are too, but funny thing is MOST PEOPLE DONT and on top of that, if it is so great, why your own governor is attempting to go “Chavez”(as the venezuelan communist dictator…..”Oh but he was elected” says you…so was Hittler…) on health care prices?? regulating prices…always a beautiful trend of communists who know nothing of how the economy works
And now about myself….just in case you want to start with your “you are just another right-wing red-neck racist” I am cuban…I AM A MINORITY in this country called latin; i beleive IT IS A MISTAKE, cause we do no speak latin in our countries of origin, we speak spanish and portuguese which derived from the latin for so is the french….but what i am, is really good at smelling communists(including those who will die denying it…25 years living under a communist regime do that to you) and your Warren is just one of them sheeps in a Wolf pelt.
Now, about you, i dont know, Churchill talk about the “useful idiots”; maybe you are just one of them…but at least, i see you defend yours with claws and teeth…i have to give you that…..
Have a great morning…outdoor….
Blouise, I was thinking the same thing. A win by her would help the dems hang onto the senate, and hers is a much needed voice.
Blouise,
Right you are! The slime mold people are doing their utmost to destroy this woman–because she can’t be bought by the banksters…nor intimidated by their men in Congress.
Serves as a reminder to send another contribution to Warren’s campaign.
Speaking of Wall Street…
JPMorgan Chase Chief Investment Office Played By Different Rules
By Matt Scuffham and Edward Taylor
Reuters | Posted: 05/16/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/jpmorgan-chase-chief-investment-office_n_1520377.html
Excerpt:
LONDON/FRANKFURT, May 16 (Reuters) – The JPMorgan Chase & Co. unit that lost more than $2 billion through a failed hedging strategy had looser risk controls than the rest of the bank, according to people familiar with the situation.
The risk of losses is tallied by the bank using a so-called value at risk (VaR) calculation. However, the Chief Investment Office, the unit responsible for the high-profile loss that JPMorgan disclosed last Thursday, had a separate VaR system. It used a less stringent calculation that gave a lower risk assessment of its trades, according to people who previously worked at the bank.
The unit also reported directly to CEO Jamie Dimon, a factor which allowed it to maintain a separate risk monitoring set-up to other parts of the investment bank, these people said.
Despite repeated warnings from executives inside the firm as long ago as 2005, the CIO unit remained notably free from oversight.
A source with knowledge of the situation said that these warnings included the size of the CIO, the fact that its risk reporting was not transparent and the scope for the unit to get “bigger and bigger” because it had a lower cost of funding than the rest of the investment bank.
Until April, the CIO unit’s unusual autonomy allowed it to build up risky positions without triggering alarms.
Indeed, the unit was encouraged to be a profit center, as well as hedging against risk, a source with direct knowledge of the unit said. Ina Drew, who headed the unit, earned more than $15 million in each of the past two years, making her among the highest-paid executives at the bank and one of the most compensated women on Wall Street.
Asstar,
Warren didn’t cause the financial meltdown. It was lack of regulation and transparency and the “cockeyed” practices and greed of the banksters/Wall Street wizards that did that.
“They” are afraid to debate her common sense thinking. “They” don’t want to call attention to the fact that nothing has changed on Wall Street. What happened at MF Global and JP Morgan are perfect examples that nothing has changed.
I think it is instructive that apologist for JP Morgan and the industry are claiming that this is (1) just one instances of bad behavior and that (2) the loses hardly come anywhere near to the profits of Morgan.
The fact is that this kind of financial trading is planed like a military operation and the execution of trades can be more like driving in the middle of a NAScar race.
Any one who has read uncontested news reports knows that this ‘one instance’ went on not for a few hours, not for a day, not for days, not for weeks but literally for months.
Can you imagine driving car 97 at speeds reaching over 200 mph for months at a time? If you did, do you think maybe your crew chief might ask how are things going? tires ok? fuel getting low?
This bad behavior went on with policies known to and encouraged by the most senior officers of the firm. This bad behavior went on with senior management casting a blind eye not once to bad results, but day after day for months.
The problems occurred not when an economic bubble burst, not under adverse economic circumstances, not when there was a run on the bank, and not under unusual competitive conditions. This 2 billion or maybe 4 billion dollar problem occurred under favorable economic circumstances.
The activities of senior management may have been legal (though there are reports of DOJ and FBI investigations). But the dereliction of senior management occurred with the clear understanding of congress, lobbyist, and senior management that management and the financial institutions have clear obligations beyond just the interests of stockholder and depositors.
If it makes any difference, I too think it would be very useful to investigate all the ‘cockeyed thinking’ in this unfortunate and dangerous ‘single instance’ that went on for months.
Elaine:
They ought to be debating her cockeyed thinking.
But to me it looks like she used her 1/32nd to make some bones at Harvard. So that would go to character. No way, apparently, to prove it but Chmura didnt pull that first woman of color at Harvard out of his ear.
But while regulating the banksters how about regulating the spendsters too.
The problem is that we are NOT regulating the spendsters since the bankers are that. How do you think that they lost $2 billion+? Think they sort of misplaced the money? The problem is that when Glass-Steagal was abolished, we gave the banks permission to gamble with taxpayer insured money. I would love to go to Vegas and gamble as long as it wasn’t my money being lost, and if I won I could keep all the money. That is what banks are doing.
AY,
Why all the hype? Because the dirty tricks people are trying to silence Warren and to keep her from beating their boy Brown. They don’t want her talking about financial reform and regulating the banksters. They trump up a story and divert people’s attention from discussions of substance to trivia like this.
Who cares …… she is successful because she is….. why all the hype……
raff,
I thought the guest bloggers and regulars already had a table reserved on the terrace by the Lake of Fire with our own minibar and hookah. My understanding was that Mephistopheles wanted to keep us apart from the other guests. A bad influence and all that with our talk of human and civil rights. Little does he suspect that this plays right into our hands, muahahahah, er, ah, um, perhaps I’ve said too much already . . .
Elaine,
Look me up when you get to Hell!
Otteray,
Watch this Rowan Atkinson routine about welcoming sinners to hell:
Elaine, don’t think there is a danger of that. After all, the Big Guy himself invented humor and jokes among His creations. Rush and the Tea Party are living proof of the fact He likes a big fat joke from time to time.
Otteray,
I am so going to hell…if there is one!
Elaine, I wasn’t going to go there, but now that you mention it, you may have a point. Well……maybe not a point, just a nub.
Mike S. & Otteray,
Maybe it isn’t just their brains that are small.
Mike, I have my own theories. One theory has it that he cannot get it up, and the other that he is too quick on the trigger. But you are right. All that is because it is the woman’s fault. And anyway, he knows she is smarter than he is, which causes all kinds of cognitive dissonance, since his bloated ego is only slightly smaller than his bloated belly and head.
I wonder if Rush ever got any that he did not have to pay for in one way or another? He has been married four times but no children. I imagine he has a divorce lawyer on retainer.
Off Topic:
Campaign Finance Disclosure Decision Means Rove, Others Could Suddenly Have To Disclose Donors
Posted: 05/15/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/campaign-finance-disclosure_n_1518285.html
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — One of the most consequential campaign finance loopholes affecting the 2012 race — the one allowing big-money donors to secretly funnel millions into campaign ads — is now closed, after an appellate court ruling on Monday.
In April, a district court judge struck down a Federal Election Commission regulation that allowed donors to certain nonprofit groups — including those created by Karl Rove and the Koch brothers — to evade normal disclosure requirements.
And on Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit turned down a request to stay that ruling on a 2 to 1 vote.
“This case represents the first major breakthrough in the effort to restore for the public the disclosure of contributors who are secretly providing massive amounts to influence federal elections,” said Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, one of the lawyers who filed the original lawsuit that led to the April decision, in a statement.
The office of House Administration Committee ranking Democrat Robert A. Brady issued a statement Tuesday saying, “As of today, any entity creating electioneering communications will have to disclose the identity of their top donors.”
“As far as we see, the groups now have an obligation, pursuant to the district court ruling, to disclose all their donors of over $1,000,” said Tara Malloy, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, a group that aims to reduce the influence of money in politics.