The for-profit education fraud: bipartisan, disastrous for our kids

Danny Weil, Truthout:

On Friday, April 13, 2012, Courthouse News reported a class-action lawsuit by students filed in federal court against the Art Institute of California and its owner, Educational Management Corporation (EDMC). As reported in Truthout, Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-Maine) husband, former governor of Maine John McKernan, is chairman of the board of EDMC and a former CEO of the company. The company also faces an $11 billion false claims lawsuit by the federal government and 11 states.
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Like subprime mortgages, for-profit colleges are a scam driven by payment of commissions to sales staff known as recruiters.
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There is a vast network of former and current government officials who actively participate in the for-profit college swindle. Some of the conspirators are well known, and include: Mitt Romney, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), John Kline (R-Minnesota), Alcee Hastings(D-Florida), Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), Steve Gunderson (R-Wisconsin), Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Brian Moran, Snowe, Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi (D-California), and John Boehner (R-Ohio). The group also includes Obama administration officials and supporters such as Lanny Davis, Anita Dunn, Hilary Rosen, Anthony Miller and Charles Rose.

As I have previously written, you won’t read about any of this in The Washington Post because the Post owns a predatory for-profit college outfit known as Kaplan University…

I have to say that I think that there’s plenty of blame to go around. Kids are not being careful enough about getting into debt. But our leaders should set an example, and setting up tricksy schemes to plunge kids into debt before their lives have really even begun is not a positive example.

Watch the right turn this into a Democratic scandal.

Dark Arts Master Murdoch has 10 US allegations waiting for him

Ed Pilkington, The Guardian:

Mark Lewis, the English lawyer who has been a driving force behind phone-hacking revelations in the UK, and his American legal partner Norman Siegel, have revealed that they have been approached by at least 10 people bearing complaints relating to Murdoch’s News Corporation.

The complaints relate largely to alleged hacking by News of the World journalists into phones in the US, but also extend to other News Corp holdings including Fox News.

Lewis said that he had been contacted by a number of people since he arrived in the US last weekend “raising issues against other [News Corp] titles or Fox News, not necessarily about hacking but about other untoward dark arts to obtain information that should be private.”
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Lewis claimed he had “substantial and substantiated” evidence relating to Mulcaire’s notes that pointed to phone hacking on US soil between the years 2001 and 2006.

Romney Blames Obama for Factory Closing That Happened Under Bush

Geez, Mittens, all that money didn’t buy you good researchers? Or are you just hoping nobody in the same establishment that acted as your attack dogs against Hilary Rosen bothers to mention that this is wrong?

Romney in plant that closed under Bush: “Had the president’s economic plans worked, it would be open right now.”

Then again, Republicans like to blame Democratic presidents for bad things that happened under Bushes. Rush Limbaugh and his fellow travelers still blame Bill Clinton for the Ruby Ridge shootout, which took place in August of 1992 — when the first Bush was still in office and in charge.