TV ALERT

Fab Tourre and Lloyd Blankfein will appear before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on April 27.

BAG OF PUS

Goldman Sachs' London units will be formally investigated by Britain's financial regulator after U.S. authorities sued the bank for fraud. Financial-market regulators in France and Germany are reviewing the lawsuit filed against Goldman Sachs last week by the SEC.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on the FSA, which he created in 1997, to investigate Goldman Sachs two days ago, accusing employees of the bank of "moral bankruptcy."

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said today that regulators need to take urgent steps and that the charges against Goldman Sachs had "huge ramifications." Darling, who described the securities Goldman sold as "a bag of pus," said the government would look at changing the law if necessary.

COOPER UNION PART DEUX

President Barack Obama plans to travel to New York City April 22 for a speech to push his legislation for financial overhaul, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The remarks at Cooper Union comes “almost one year after the administration first laid out a detailed plan for holding Wall Street accountable and protecting consumers,” Gibbs said in an e-mailed statement.

Obama will talk about “what is at stake if we do not move forward with changing the rules of the road,” Gibbs said, as the Senate prepares to debate legislation that’s drawn Republican opposition.

THIS WEEK IN GOD

Beirut (AP) -- A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon Friday. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."

Obama Wins Nuke Deal

Obama Wins Backing for Nuclear Security Goal as Summit Ends

President Barack Obama won commitments from 46 nations to lock down nuclear material and keep it out of the hands of terrorists. The next test will be how far global leaders will go to carry out their pledges. “The summit represents a major step to overcome complacency about this threat,” said Bunn, an associate professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has advised on U.S. nuclear controls. “There’s a lot of work yet to be done, but this does represent major progress.”

The presidents, prime ministers and other representatives from around the world convened by Obama endorsed the U.S. president’s timeline for securing nuclear material within four years. Obama said he set the goal because the world’s biggest security threat is the potential for al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups to acquire the materials to develop a nuclear weapon through theft or illicit sales. “We have seized the opportunity,” Obama said yesterday during a news conference at the conclusion of the summit. “The American people will be safer and the world will be more secure.”

Virtually Speaking

Join Adam Lambert (clammyc) and Chris Kendrick (CSKendrick) at "Virtually Speaking Sundays: A Reality-Based Counterpoint to the Sunday Morning Talking Heads."

go to blogtalkradio or Second Life

Polish President Killed En Route to Katyn Memorial

Relations between Poland and Russia have been tense in part because of a perceived reluctance by Vladimir Putin to acknowledge and apologize for the Katyn forest massacre. But this week the President of Poland flew to Russia to participate in a ceremony to commemorate the event. I don't imagine the death of the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other high-ranking officials in a plane crash in Russia will help relations very much.

America: Blowing Things Ups to Sell Artificial Cheese

Texas Stadium, the former home of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys, will be blasted into oblivion by 2,715 pounds of explosives Sunday in a public spectacle infused with fan nostalgia and some novel marketing.

Kraft Foods Inc. paid $75,000 to sponsor the demolition in as part of a campaign to introduce its “Cheddar Explosion” macaroni and cheese. An 11-year-old boy who won a Kraft essay contest will trigger the explosive charge, taking down 4 million pounds of concrete, 2 million pounds of steel and a banner reading “Demolicious.”

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine sent the city a letter in March saying it would donate $75,000 if Irving dropped Kraft and hung a banner from the stadium warning about obesity and the dangers of “fatty, cholesterol-laden products.”

Face it, this is a fun, but weird, nation.

ORWELL ALERT

Airline Passenger Conversations to Be Monitored Under EU Project

April 4 (Telegraph) -- Airline passengers could have their conversations and movements monitored under a European Union project aimed at tackling terrorism. Brussels is funding research at Reading University aimed at detecting suspicious behaviour on board aircraft. It uses a combination of cameras, microphones, explosives detectors and a
sophisticated computer system which would give a pilot early warning of any danger.

Oh, it's "sophisticated." Ok, then.

AND THE DEVIL CAUSES CAVITIES

MADISONVILLE, TEX. -- As vendors sold yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags nearby, Texas State Board of Education member Don McLeroy assured a gathering of Tea Party activists one recent evening that President Obama was going to keep his hands off the schools in the Lone Star State.

There would be no bid for Obama's Race to the Top grant program, no endorsement of new math and English standards that Obama backs. And the state school board, under McLeroy's prodding, would continue its push to adopt social studies standards that set Texas apart from other states because, among other changes, they recast sections on the American Revolution to put more emphasis on Christianity and less on the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

"Our children will now study some of the unintended consequences of the Great Society, such as the destruction of the black family," said McLeroy, a compact, enthusiastic dentist who keeps a copy of the Constitution in his breast pocket. "Our students will be taught that this country was founded on biblical principles."

Texas's rejection of federal education initiatives is good politics, analysts say, especially in a primary season in which Gov. Rick Perry (R) fought off a challenger by shifting rightward.

"You get a lot of issues that the other states are facing but not talking about because they want to be eligible for Race to the Top" money, said Sandy Kress, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and one of the authors of the No Child Left Behind Act.