Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Federal officials appeared quite pleased with themselves earlier this week when they announced their $1.9 billion settlement with HSBC. HSBC, the world’s third largest bank, has been accused of laundering money for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels and clients with ties to terrorists.
In July, a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report about its probe into HSBC and its shady financial dealings. The subcommittee found that HSBC and its affiliates in the United States “exposed the U.S. financial system to a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing risks due to poor anti-money laundering (AML) controls.”
Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the subcommittee, said:
“In an age of international terrorism, drug violence in our streets and on our borders, and organized crime, stopping illicit money flows that support those atrocities is a national security imperative. HSBC used its U.S. bank as a gateway into the U.S. financial system for some HSBC affiliates around the world to provide U.S. dollar services to clients while playing fast and loose with U.S. banking rules. Due to poor AML controls, HBUS exposed the United States to Mexican drug money, suspicious travelers cheques, bearer share corporations, and rogue jurisdictions. The bank’s federal bank regulator, the OCC, tolerated HSBC’s weak AML system for years. If an international bank won’t police its own affiliates to stop illicit money, the regulatory agencies should consider whether to revoke the charter of the U.S. bank being used to aid and abet that illicit money.”
Most wartimes presidents are not known for their preservation of civil liberties. Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and Roosevelt’s internment of Americans of Japanese descent are infamous examples. During the War of 1812, President James Madison, whether through principles or practicality, or a combination of both, set an example that no other president has followed. Biographer Ralph Ketcham deemed Madison the “unimperial president.”
As we 
No,
Pope Benedict XVI this week raised an outcry among civil libertarians and gay activists by blessing Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, who has promised to pass the country’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill as a “Christmas gift”. Kadaga’s bill would execute gays who are found to be “repeat offenders.” 
Cable programming today often seems to cater to race-baiting or race-loaded interviews from the left. Whether it is 
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The recent opening of a Golden Corral in Casper Wyoming produced quite the buzz of conversation, just not what the Norovirus-like symptoms after eating at the restaurant. Norovirus is transmitted by fecal contamination of food or water.
I saw this picture on Reddit and just had to post it. It is not clear if this is a spaceman Jesus or a deep-sea diving Jesus. However, I can understand it being on sale.
We have previously discussed the obscene relationship between industry and Congress with staffers and members pushing through key legislation and then being given lucrative positions by industry. The 
These two men are accused in a truly bizarre plot to kill and castrate teen pop star Justin Bieber. 41-year-old Mark Staake, 41, (left) and his nephew Tanner Ruane, 23, (right) hatched the plan with another man who was a prison inmate with Staake. The plot reportedly involved killing four people in total and castrating them, according to New Mexico police.
There is another dog fighting arrest this week, though with an added chilling twist of the involvement of children. Shane Santiago and his wife Laura Acampora are charged with endangering the welfare of children in addition to animal cruelty charges because they were raising five children in the rented home while dogfighting was going on in the basement. The children are with other family members and presumably officials have inquired into whether or how other family members were not aware of this large operation before handing over the children. In a twisted irony, police found a copy of parenting magazine in this house of horrors.