President Obama came into office pledging to end eight years of American inaction on climate change under President George W Bush, and all year he has promised that the United States would lead the way toward a global agreement in Copenhagen next month to address the warming planet.

But this weekend in Singapore, Mr. Obama was forced to acknowledge that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reach this year. Instead, he and other world leaders agreed that they would work toward a more modest interim agreement with a promise to renew work toward a binding treaty next year.

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Related:
Al Gore Admits CO2 Does Not Cause Majority of Global Warming
Prison Planet
Paul Joseph Watson
November 4, 2009

In a new development that is potentially devastating to the agenda to introduce a global carbon tax and a cap and trade system, Al Gore admits that the majority of global warming that occurred until 2001 was not primarily caused by CO2.

Before we get too excited, Gore is not backing away from his support for the theory of man-made climate change, but his concession that carbon dioxide only accounted for 40% of warming according to new studies could seriously harm efforts to tax CO2, that evil, life-giving gas that humans exhale and plants absorb.

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For doctor, the Senate is a bitter pill
The Washington Post
Mary Jordan
November 10, 2009

Tom Coburn is a Southern Baptist deacon, a family man married to a former Miss Oklahoma, a white-coated physician back in Muskogee who has delivered more than 4,000 babies and sees patients free of charge every Monday.

But there's a darker side of the story, something that Coburn, a Marcus Welby type in ostrich-skin boots, confesses is his less honorable side.

He's a member of the United States Senate.

"I would fire us all," Coburn says, blasting Congress, as he does every chance he gets, as a place populated by people who don't do a whole lot to make the country a better place.

Read More

At $1.5 Million a Day, Health Sector Lobbying Far Outpaces Oil & Gas
The Washington Post
Dan Eggen
July 29, 2009

The health sector continued its breakneck lobbying efforts during the 2nd quarter of 2009, spending money at the rate of nearly $1.5 million a day as it attempted to shape landmark reform legislation to its advantage, according to new data released today.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit group that tracks money in politics, also calculated that the oil and gas industry spent $38 million on lobbying from May to June, as controversial cap-and-trade legislation was under consideration in the House. The number represents a 30 percent increase from the year before, with Chevron, ConocoPhillips and American Electric Power leading the pack.

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Citigroup Asset Guarantees May Cost U.S. Taxpayers, Panel Says
Bloomberg News
Bradley Keoun
November 9, 2009

U.S. taxpayers may have to share in the losses on $301 billion of Citigroup Inc. loans and securities covered by federal guarantees after unemployment reached a 26-year high, according to the Congressional panel overseeing bank-bailout programs.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York projected a year ago that the Treasury Department might have to pay $3.96 billion on the guarantees if unemployment hit 9.5 percent, the panel said in a Nov 6 report. The jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent in October, the Labor

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And exactly WHO didn't see THIS coming???
Authorities scrutinize links between Fort Hood suspect, imam said to back al-Qaeda
The Washington Post
Spencer Hsu & Carrie Johnson
November 9, 2009

Federal investigators are examining possible links between Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal M. Hasan and an American-born imam who U.S. authorities say has become a supporter and leading promoter of al-Qaeda since leaving a Northern Virginia mosque, officials said.

Hasan attended the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church in 2001, when its spiritual leader was Anwar al-Aulaqi, a figure who crossed paths with al-Qaeda associates, including two Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, one senior U.S. official said.

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What a shocker!
Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House
The New York Times
Carl Hulse & Robert Pear
November 7, 2009

Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night, advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy achievement.

After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Democrats said the legislation would provide overdue relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance. 

Read More

Related
House Vote 887 - H.R.3962: On Passage Affordable Health Care for America Act
The New York Times
November 7, 2009

Check interactive map here

U.S. Joblessness May Reach 13 Percent, Rosenberg Says
Bloomberg News
Vincent Del Giudice and Thomas R. Keene
November 9, 2009

The U.S. unemployment rate may rise to a post-World War II high of 13 percent in the aftermath of the recession, said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. in Toronto.

“This is going to be the mother of all jobless recoveries,” Rosenberg said today in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “At the beginning of the year, who was calling for unemployment to go up to 10 percent?”

Read More

Lawsuit Accuses Facebook of Conspiring to Break Video-Privacy Law
Wired
Kim Zetter
November 6, 2009

A Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, claiming the company conspired with Blockbuster to violate a federal law protecting customer video-rental and sale records.

The suit, filed by Cathryn Harris in U.S. District Court in Dallas, accuses Facebook of working with Blockbuster in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act, after the film rental company entered into an agreement with Facebook to supply it with information about movies users rented or purchased from Blockbuster.com.

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Majority leader: House will pass health bill
Associated Press
Yahoo News
Erica Werner & Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar
November 5, 2009

The second-ranking House Democrat predicted that historic health care legislation will be passed Saturday, extending coverage to tens of millions of uninsured and banning the industry from turning people away.

Rep. Steny Hoyer told reporters House leaders would have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill that President Barack Obama has made the defining social goal of his young administration — presuming a couple of final issues are resolved. Hoyer acknowledged that the vote could be tight.

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It's about time!
For parties, the soul-searching begins
The Washington Post
Michael D Shear and Paul Kane
November 5, 2009

Democrats on Capitol Hill began a nervous debate Wednesday about the course President Obama has set for their party, with some questioning whether they should emphasize job creation over some of the more ambitious items on the president's agenda.

Read More

Identity of man shot by LV police revealed
Las Vegas Review Journal
Antonio Planas
October 31, 2009

Read More

Related:
LP Activist Shot in the Back by Police; Local LP Throws Him Under the Bus
LewRockwell.Com
Eric Garris
November 2, 2009

On October 30, Jim Duensing, former chairman of the Nevada Libertarian Party and currently the LP candidate for US Senate against Harry Reid, was shot in the back by a Las Vegas policeman after the police had stopped Duensing for making an illegal turn and some illegal lane changes.

Initial reports said that Duensing ran from the police and that a policeman shot him in the back after “he tried to pull a handgun from his pocket.” An eyewitness reported that he was not going for a gun, but was merely trying to keep his pants up while fleeing.

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Democrats' concerns over abortion may imperil health bill
The Washington Post
Perry Bacon
November 3, 2009

While House leaders are moving toward a vote on health-care legislation by the end of the week, enough Democrats are threatening to oppose the measure over the issue of abortion to create a question about its passage.

Read More

Real Estate Price Plunge Makes U.S. Homeownership Perilous Path
Bloomberg News
Kathleen M. Howley
November 3, 2009

Kajal and Vishal Dharod paid $559,000 in 2006 for a new four-bedroom house built in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Today, it’s worth about $360,000.

“We don’t know how we can come back from a loss like that,” said Kajal Dharod, 29, a first-time homeowner with a $4,200-a-month mortgage. “Buying the house was a mistake.”

American homeownership, once considered a path to wealth, is now leading to disillusionment.

Read More

Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry
The Washington Post
Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane
Oct 30, 2009

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July.

The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer

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Bankers Expect Rising Bonus Pay to Break Records in Global Poll
Bloomberg News
Robert Schmidt and Ian Katz
October 30, 2009

In Washington and on Main Street, politicians and voters are railing against Wall Street’s multi- million-dollar pay packages. In the financial world, most executives expect their bonuses to match or exceed last year’s, with 1 in 10 predicting their best-ever payout.

Having shaken off the biggest economic decline since the 1930s, almost three in five traders, analysts and fund managers believe their 2009 bonuses will either increase or won’t change, according to a quarterly poll of Bloomberg customers. Only one in four see a decline. Asians are the most optimistic about pay and Americans and Europeans somewhat less so.

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Obama administration, Pentagon prepare for homeland military deployment
Examiner.Com
Jim Kouri
October 28, 2009

In a report released to the US Congress recently, analysts assessed what they termed "preparedness tests" between the US military and government agencies at the federal, state and local levels.

Read More

Fla. man says Home Depot fired him over God button
Yahoo News
Associated Press
Brian Skoloff
October 28, 2009

A former cashier for The Home Depot who has been wearing a "One nation under God" button on his work apron for more than a year has been fired, he says because of the religious reference. The company claims that expressing such personal beliefs is simply not allowed.

"I've worn it for well over a year and I support my country and God," Trevor Keezor said Tuesday. "I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country."

Read More

Report slams bank links to cluster bomb production
Alertnet
Olesya Dmitracova
October 29, 2009

The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components.

It did not say the funds went directly to make cluster bombs. The manufacturers could use the money for any of their production lines.

Read More

House takes another step on healthcare reform
Reuters
October 29, 2009

The House proposal includes a 5.4 percent surtax on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples earning more than $1 million, which would bring in an estimated $460 billion over 10 years to help pay for covering the uninsured.

It also would save money by expanding eligibility for the government's Medicaid health insurance program for the poor to people with incomes up to 150 percent of the official poverty level. Covering people through Medicaid is cheaper for the government than providing subsidies to purchase insurance.

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SNAP ANALYSIS: Will Q3 U.S. GDP be as good as it gets?
Reuters
Emily Kaiser
October 29, 2009

It didn't take long for pessimism to creep back in following Thursday's surprisingly strong reading on U.S. economic growth.

Gross domestic product grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, beating the consensus forecast for a 3.3 percent pace. But two of the biggest contributors -- spending on durable goods and residential investment -- received substantial boosts from Washington's emergency rescue efforts.

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U.S. Gives Aid to Stave Off Pakistan Power Shortages
Wall Street Journal
Jay Soloman
October 29, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, seeking to bolster Islamabad's fight against Islamic extremists, initiated an assistance program for Pakistan's power sector aimed at rolling back electricity shortages that are hobbling the nation's economy.

Mrs. Clinton, on the first day of a three-day diplomatic mission to Pakistan, said Wednesday that Washington will give $125 million to Islamabad for the upgrading of key power stations and transmission lines.

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Paying for health care reform with crime
True Slant
Rick Unger
October 28, 2009

Back in the day, it was drugs, gambling, labor union rackets and protection money – all the sexy, old school crime and criminals that made The Godfather one of the coolest movies of all time.

But, like much in America, those days are fading fast.

Crime has latched onto the ultimate victim. Forgoing crack sales and car theft for the safer, more profitable business of submitting phony invoices for selling medical devices that never existed to senior citizens who don’t know they’ve been used, organized and disorganized crime has, at last, found the ultimate bank to rob- the U.S. Medicare program.

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Goldman Lobbies Senate, Says Full Transparency Sucks
True Slant
Matt Taibbi
October 27, 2009

There is a lot of crazy stuff in this document, but the most notable is probably this passage, in which Goldman pooh-poohs the notion that complete transparency in markets creates accurate prices.

Instead, the bank argues that an over-the-counter market in which big traders like Goldman get to do deals in the shadows in “dark pools” without the retail investor having any knowledge of what the hell is going on is somehow better for everybody, that this somehow produces better prices. Of course the reality is that the two-tiered system creates one pool of fools whose every movement is visible to every animal on the Serengeti, and another pool of giant bloodthirsty carnivores who get to walk around invisible, picking off the dik-diks one by one.

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Government May Block Websites During Pandemic
Reuters
October 27, 2009

The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said.

But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth.

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Oct. consumer confidence slips unexpectedly
Deseret News
Associated Press
Ashley M Heher
October 27, 2009

Consumer's confidence about the U.S. economy fell unexpectedly in October as job prospects remained bleak, a private research group said Tuesday, fueling speculation that an already gloomy holiday shopping forecast could worsen.

The Consumer Confidence Index, released by The Conference Board, sank unexpectedly to 47.7 in October — its second-lowest recording since May.

Wall Street analysts predicted a reading of 53.1.

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Obama's Stimulus is Not Working!
The Humble Libertarian
October 21, 2009

Mr. Drudge had two important and related headlines today:

7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs (get table from Committee on Ways and Means Rep. site)
That's right! This press release by the Ranking House Ways and Means Committee Republican, Dave Camp shows that America is "Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of [the Obama] Administration's Projections" and says the following...

So it's no wonder that Mr. Drudge also links us to new Rasmussen poll data, showing Obama's ratings are sinking again with an approval index near all-time lows. Bottom line: Your stimulus package isn't creating jobs, Mr. President, and America knows it, and we're holding you responsible!

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Virginia governor race a snapshot of US attitudes
Associated Press
Liz Sidoti and Bob Lewis
October 20, 2009

Just a year after this one-time Confederate state helped elect a black man president, Democrats are desperately trying to hang onto the governorship.

A lot has changed: Loyal Democrats are more subdued than last fall. Republicans are energized. Independents are proving to be ... independent. Voters of all kinds seem disenchanted.

Just like Americans nationwide.

The contest between Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat R. Creigh Deeds provides a snapshot of sorts — 12 months after America elected Barack Obama as president and expanded Democratic majorities in Congress, and one year before midterm elections in every state.

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Where do we live again!?!
Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets
Wired
Noah Shactmen
October 19, 2009

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.

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CREEPY!!!
U.S. military create live remote-controlled beetles to bug conversations
The Daily Mail
October 19, 2009

Spies may soon be bugging conversations using actual insects, thanks to research funded by the US military.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent years developing a whole host of cyborg critters, in the hopes of creating the ultimate 'fly on the wall'.

Now a team of researchers led by Hirotaka Sato have created cyborg beetles which are guided wirelessly via a laptop.

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So much for our "Peace President!"
United States to send 'up to 45,000 more troops to Afghanistan'
UK Telegraph
James Kirkup and Andrew Hough
October 14, 2009

President Barack Obama's administration is understood to have told the British government that it could announce, as early as next week, the substantial increase to its 65,000 troops already serving there.

The decision from Mr Obama comes after he considered a request from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, to send tens of thousands of extra American troops to the country.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said: "I don't want to put words in the mouths of the Americans but I am fairly confident of the way it is going to come out."

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Greenspan Says U.S. Should Consider Breaking Up Large Banks
Bloomberg News
Michael McKee and Scott Lanman
October 15, 2009

U.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions considered “too big to fail,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.

Those banks have an implicit subsidy allowing them to borrow at lower cost because lenders believe the government will always step in to guarantee their obligations. That squeezes out competition and creates a danger to the financial system, Greenspan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big,” Greenspan said today. “In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil -- so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that’s what we need to do.”

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U.S. Foreclosure Filings Jump 23% to Record in Third Quarter
Bloomberg News
Dan Levy
October 15, 2009

U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record in the third quarter as lenders seized more properties from delinquent borrowers, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 937,840 homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a report. One out of every 136 U.S. households received a filing, the highest quarterly rate in records dating to January 2005.

Read More

Related...
Foreclosures mark pace of enduring U.S. housing crisis
Reuters
Tom Brown
October 8, 2009

Every 13 seconds in America, there is another foreclosure filing.

That's the rhythm of a crisis that threatens to choke off hopes for a recovery in the U.S. housing market as it destroys hundreds of billions of dollars in property values a year.

There are more than 6,600 home foreclosure filings per day, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Durham, North Carolina. With nearly two million already this year, the flood of foreclosures shows no sign of abating any time soon.

Read More

Federal Court Denies Government Attempt to Delay Release of Telecom Records, Again
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Kurt Opsahl
October 13, 2009

Today a federal district court denied the government's latest emergency motion asking for a 30-day stay in last Friday's deadline to release records relating to telecom lobbying over last year's debate over immunity for corporate participation in government spying. The new deadline is October 16, at 4 p.m. Pacific time. We sought the records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

On September 24, Judge Jeffrey White had ordered the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Justice to turn over many of the records we requested by Friday, October 9, 2009. Last week, the agencies asked him to postpone his order while the government decided whether or not to appeal, which EFF opposed. Judge White denied the motion.

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All I can say is, "What!"
Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
BBC News Europe
October 9, 2009

The Nobel Committee said he won it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to support international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament.

Mr Obama - woken up with the news early on Friday - said in an address at the White House that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the award.

He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of some of the "transformative figures" who had previously received the award.

Speaking outside the White House, he said he would accept the prize as a "call to action".

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Fannie and Freddie Continue to Struggle, Lawmakers Told
New York Times
Jack Healy
October 8, 2009

In the year since the government stepped in to rescue the collapsing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the agencies have taken $96 billion from the Treasury, and may still need more.

That was the somber assessment delivered Thursday by the federal agency charged with overseeing the government-controlled Fannie and Freddie, which have lost a combined $165 billion since July 2007 as their bets on the housing market went bad.

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Panel finds no fault with Obama system of policy 'czars'
LA Times
Joe Markham
October 7, 2009

Five constitutional experts testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday that President Obama's extensive use of policy "czars" is legal -- as long as the officials do not overstep their authority.

In a city where power is carefully hoarded and monitored, Obama has drawn complaints from Congress about his use of the so-called czars, officials he has appointed to coordinate environmental, health and other policy areas among various departments.

Lawmakers in both parties have sent letters to the White House saying the czar appointments skirt Congress' authority to confirm top executive branch officials and subject them to oversight hearings.

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Related...
Obama's Many Policy 'Czars' Draw Ire From Conservatives
Washington Post
Michael Fletcher and Brandy Dennis
September 16, 2009

On paper, they are special advisers, chairmen of White House boards, special envoys and Cabinet agency deputies, asked by the president to guide high-priority initiatives. But critics call them "czars" whose powers are not subject to congressional oversight, and their increasing numbers have become a flash point for conservative anger at President Obama.

Lists drawn up by conservative groups detail as many as 40 czars linked to Obama, although some of the positions existed before he took office, and some did win Senate approval.

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Attorney: OKC bombing tapes appear edited
Associated Press
Tim Talley
September 27, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.

"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.

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AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body
Associated Press
Devlin Barrett and Jeffrey McMurray
September 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word 'fed" was scrawled on the dead man's chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment.

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Fed Scales Back 2 Emergency Lending Programs
Associated Press
September 24, 2009

The Federal Reserve said on Thursday that it was further scaling back two emergency lending programs as the economy improved.

The Fed will reduce the amount of money available to banks in short-term loans under a program called the Term Auction Facility.

For 84-day loans, the Fed will provide a total of $50 billion in loans in October, and $25 billion each in November and December. For 28-day loans, the Fed will continue to make $75 billion available monthly through January.

Read More

Related:
Residential Real Estate Market Not Yet Stable
Huliq News
Marc Jablon, Realty Associates
September 24, 2009

Stability in markets usually implies a good balance between supply and demand, and the residential real estate market is moving in that direction. However, while stable housing markets typically carry 7 months of inventory, we’re still carrying an average of about 9 months worth of homes. So while we’re closing in on stasis, we’re not quite there.

Read More

The Bureau of Labor Statistics PDF 
August 2009 Unemployment 

Read It Here

'Contraception cheapest way to combat climate change'
The Telegraph
Richard Pindar
September 9. 2009

Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says.

The report, Fewer Emitter, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction. The UN estimates that 40 per cent of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.

If these basic family planning needs were met, 34 gigatons (billion tonnes) of CO2 would be saved – equivalent to nearly 6 times the annual emissions of the US and almost 60 times the UK’s annual total.

Read More

President Obama speaks to the Nation on Healthcare

Elusive price tag for universal health coverage
MSNBC
John W Schoen
September 10, 2009

One of the biggest questions hanging over the national debate on health care reform is, how much will it cost to provide health coverage to the nearly 50 milllion Americans who have no insurance?

Until details of the plan are finalized, the only honest answer is: No one knows.

In a speech to Congress Wednesday, President Obama pledged to keep the total tab for his comprehensive health care reform package at $900 billion — promising cuts elsewhere if costs run higher. But it's impossible to predict how patients, insurers and providers will respond to the most complex overhaul of the health care system since Medicare was launched more than 40 years ago.

The biggest single cost will likely be extending coverage to those who don't currently have it. It remains to be seen how that cost will be shifted among patients, insurers, employers, and taxpayers.

Read More

Related:
Watch it  (it's at the bottom of the page!)

Transcript Here

Debunking Health Care Lies (by Reading the Bill)
Open Congress
Donna Shaw
August 13, 2009

With Congress preparing to vote on health care reform this fall, talk of what’s in the major House bill has been dominating the news and political blogs. Unfortunately, the public discourse about health care reform has been harmed by false claims, scare tactics, and lies.

At OpenCongress, we’ve had the official text of the House health care bill available online for a month for people to read and get the facts: H.R. 3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Anyone can easily permalink and comment on any individual section of the full bill text. And in this debate, the facts matter — it’s imperative that as a nation we read the actual text of the bill and actively work to counter any misinformation about it.

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Health Care Reform, Part 11--Costs: "Affordability Credits"
St Louis Examiner
Mike Chapman
September 9, 2009

HR 3200's costs are due almost entirely to the Affordability Credits. The language pertaining to these credits is confusing and difficult to follow--possibly by design. Unlike IRS or tax credits which are defined and have limits, these health care affordability credits are not just poorly defined, they are literally unlimited. The maximum dollar amount an eligible individual can receive has no $ limit, as written in the current bill. These would better be described as "inverse credits." They are defined by the amount over and above a certain limit that enrollees would have to pay.

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President Obama wants to talk to your children...
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama Back to School Event
The White House
September 8. 2009

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Planned Activities

Steven Saw has been telling us this all along!  Visit his website to learn more!
Oil speculators on the run
Government may clamp down on banks, funds and others that don't actually use crude. But will new rules bring down prices?
CNN Money
Steve Hargreaves
September 2, 2009

Last year Andrew Hall, the head of Citigroup's energy trading unit, made over $100 million, making him one of the highest paid people on Wall Street.

Meanwhile, Corey Carter, resident of an Alabama county where consumers' gas price burden is greatest, spent more than 25% of his $240 weekly pay on gas.

Some experts argue that the experiences of people like Hall and Carter are linked by the economics of oil trading. They say it's not a coincidence that Americans are paying more at the pump in an era when Wall Street has taken a greater interest in energy trading.

Even the government is reassessing its opinion of speculation's impact on oil prices. In what could be a significant reversal, the United States may tighten the rules on energy trading.

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China's CIC wealth fund muscles up as markets recover
Reuters
By Zhou Xin and Alan Wheatley
August 28, 2009

China Investment Corp is investing as much overseas each month this year as it did in all of 2008, Lou Jiwei, the chairman of the $298 billion sovereign wealth fund, said on Saturday.

CIC is counting on handsome returns this year and might one day ask the government to hand it more of the country's record hoard of foreign reserves to manage, Lou, a former vice finance minister, said.

The fund invested just $4.8 billion outside China last year as it kept its powder dry during the global financial crisis, when asset prices tumbled. It held fully 87.4 percent of its overseas investments in cash or cash equivalents.

Read More

Related:
Head Of China Sovereign Wealth Fund Openly Admits Asset Bubble Addressed By Creation Of More Bubbles
ZeroHedge.com
Submitted by Tyler Durden
August 31, 2009

In a phenomenal demonstration of frankness and true economic assessment, the head of the China Investment Council, Lou Jiwei, who controls China's $298 billion sovereign wealth fund, admits the ponzi nature of today's markets:

Read More

The question needs to be asked...Is it Constitutional for the government to stop us from peaceably protesting?
Video released on Internet urges mass protest during G-20
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
By Carl Prine
September 2, 2009

A video released on the Internet Monday features a masked man encouraging a nationwide revolt against the Secret Service and state and local authorities planning security for the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Posted on YouTube and other Internet sites, the digital recording bears the slogan of the American Resistance Movement, a loose network of people attempting to join disparate militia movements into a bloc against the federal government.

Wearing a dark ski mask and camouflage jacket, and standing before a yellow banner stating "Don't Tread on Me," the man urges Americans to "draw a line in the sand" for constitutional rights from Sept. 24-27 — the start of the meeting of world leaders through two days after it ends.

Read More

To see the video, please visit
Freedom Fighter Radio

Related
Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire
OpEd News
Chris Hedges
September 1, 2009

Globalization and unfettered capitalism have been swept into the history books along with the open-market theory of the 1920s, the experiments of fascism, communism and the New Deal. It is time for a new economic and political paradigm. It is time for a new language to address our reality. The voices of change, those who speak in powerful and yet unfamiliar words, will cry out Sept. 25 and 26 in Pittsburgh when protesters from around the country gather to defy the heads of state, bankers and finance ministers from the world's 22 largest economies who are convening for a meeting of the G-20. If we heed these dissident voices we have a future. If we do not we will commit collective suicide.

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Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling
Wall Street Journal
August 18, 2009

You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.

But look on the bright side. If President Obama has embraced offshore drilling in Brazil, why not in the old U.S.A.? The land of the sorta free and the home of the heavily indebted has enormous offshore oil deposits, and last year ahead of the November elections, with gasoline at $4 a gallon, Congress let a ban on offshore drilling expire.

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And in related news...
Soros Hedge Fund Bought Petrobras Stake Worth $811 Million
Bloomberg News
By Jeb Blount and Miles Weiss
August 15, 2008

Read Here

George Soros Cut Petrobras Stake in Second Quarter
Bloomberg News
By Saijel Kishan and Andres R. Martinez
August 14, 2009

Read Here

More Soros News

See Deb's Blog for the related entry Wasteful Spending…and Buying Votes!

The Move to Depopulate the Planet
Infowars
By Stephanie R Pascoe
August 27, 2009

It is my intention to give you clips from documents, many from the United Nations that prove there is a plan to depopulate this planet. I will also provide quotes from various people and organizations that further show this agenda is afoot. I pray the guidance of the Lord God Almighty will be with me in this pursuit to warn others of this dark plot against humanity.

Everything written in this paper is easily verifiable. It may take some time and effort, but I took great pains to make this paper as accurate as I possibly could.

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Special News...Conference has already been held, but for your information...
News about and from the International Swine Flu Conference held in Washington, DC

Official Website of Conference

PDF of Brochure

Brochure: Shorter Version (Possibly first)

Interesting YouTube about Brochure

News
What the International Swine Flu Conference means for you
Digital Journal
By KJ Mullins
August 22, 2009

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Human Swine Flu Conference to be Held in Washington DC Next Week
The News Tribune
August 10, 2009

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Subprime Lenders Getting U.S. Subsidies, Report Says
The Washington Post
By
August 26, 2009

Many of the lenders eligible to receive billions of dollars from the government's massive foreclosure prevention program helped fuel the housing crisis by issuing risky subprime loans, according to a report to be issued Wednesday by the Center for Public Integrity.

Under the $75 billion program, called Making Home Affordable, lenders are eligible for taxpayer subsidies to lower the mortgage payments of distressed borrowers. Of the top 25 participants in the program, at least 21 specialized in servicing or originating subprime loans, according to the center, a nonprofit investigative reporting group funded largely by charitable foundations.

Much "of this money is going directly to the same financial institutions that helped create the sub-prime mortgage mess in the first place," Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the center, said in a statement.

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The Coming Media Bailout
AntiWar.com
By Justin Raimondo
August 26, 2009

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which usually concerns itself with "consumer protection" issues, is now taking an interest in the journalism industry. The financially strapped New York Times reports:

"The commission is planning two days of workshops in December – titled ‘From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?’ – to examine the state of the news industry."

This ominous development ought to scare the pants off of anyone concerned with the maintenance of a free society – and the continued existence of dissent in an increasingly conformist profession where "journalists" are often reduced to the status of mere stenographers as they eagerly communicate to the masses the words, wishes, wit, and wisdom of government officials.

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Ya think???
Thune: Distrust of Government Fueling Criticism of Overhaul
The New York Times
By Carl Hulse
August 25, 2009

Like other Republicans, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the party’s Senate leadership, says he believes complaints about the health care overhaul go far beyond policy to a more elemental matter of trust.

“I think there a general distrust of the federal government’s capacity to manage something like this,” Mr. Thune told reporters in a conference call Tuesday morning.

Mr. Thune pointed to the administrative problems in the “cash for clunkers” program — an initiative that was embraced by consumers and many auto dealers — as a recent example of federal fumbling that has exacerbated public fears about government-run programs.

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U.S. Raises Estimate for 10-Year Deficit to $9 Trillion
The New York Times
By Edmond Andrews
August 25, 2009

The Obama administration, citing an economic downturn that has been deeper than it had first thought, raised its estimate on Tuesday of the government’s deficit over the next decade to $9 trillion from $7.1 trillion.

The Office of Management and Budget also said that it expected the economy to contract 2.8 percent this year, substantially more than previously estimated, and that employment would peak at around 10 percent.

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Well...This makes WAY too much sense!
The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.
Wall Street Journal
By John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods
August 11, 2009

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

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So...The man has an effective way to help with the healthcare system, runs a successful business and what happens when he suggests what works for his company?  Apparently, by the comments, people are not as stupid as our government would have us believe!
The Whole Foods Boycott:  Much Frothing on the Web
The Los Angeles Times
August 20, 2009

Poor old Whole Foods Market. As if that "Whole Paycheck" joke wasn't mean enough, now there are lots of shoppers who say they won't go there to buy things anymore.

To recap: On Aug. 11,  the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece by the company's chief executive, John Mackey, in which he spoke against deeper government involvement in the nation's healthcare.

Americans, he said, should be responsible for their own health. Like, for example, by eating healthy food (of the kind Whole Foods sells). 

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks trial on global warming
The Los Angeles Times
By Jim Tankersley
August 25, 2009

The nation's largest business lobby wants to put the science of global warming on trial.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off potentially sweeping federal emissions regulations, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change.

Chamber officials say it would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" -- complete with witnesses, cross-examinations and a judge who would rule, essentially, on whether humans are warming the planet to dangerous effect.

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Attack on Obama riles Beck's advertisers
Yahoo News
Associated Press
By David Bauder
August 24, 2009

Glenn Beck returns to Fox News Channel on Monday after a vacation with fewer companies willing to advertise on his show than when he left, part of the fallout from calling President Barack Obama a racist.

A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck's show, according to the companies and ColorofChange.org a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him. That's more than a dozen more than were identified a week ago.

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Ashleigh Kenny Designs T-Shirt: RIP US Constitution
Now Public
August 22, 2009

Ashleigh Kenny, a college student from Valdosta Georgia, is causing a stir with a t-shirt she designed and is trying to sell that says 'RIP U.S Constitution' on the front. On the back is a Ronald Regan quote that says 'In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem'.

Kenny says she wants to raise awareness with the sale of the t-shirt...

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Related Video

Charity's offices apparently bugged
UPI
August 23, 2009

Gary Waits, a private detective hired by Save The Children, said he found the remains of electronic eavesdropping devices in three offices when he swept the headquarters Wednesday, The Oklahoman reports.

Feed The Children, known for late-night commercials featuring children in poor countries, recently settled a lawsuit brought by ousted board members.

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Obama, Congress take U.S. away from Constitution
Billings Gazette
August 23, 2009

Being neither anarchist nor libertarian, I have watched the current health care debate with interest. I note that the U.S. Constitution states in the preamble the federal government is to provide for the "general Welfare ... ." In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution enumerates those actions which the Congress may take to fulfill its duties. There are listed only 18 specific duties to be undertaken by Congress to insure the "general Welfare." Further, in Amendment X (the last one of the "Bill of Rights") the document states very explicitly those duties not assigned (i.e. enumerated in Art. I, Sec. 8) to the Congress fall to the states or to individuals.

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Monsanto's Man in the Obama Administration
The Return of Michael Taylor
Global Research
By Isabella Kenfield
August 18, 2009

Michael R. Taylor’s appointment by the Obama administration to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 7th sparked immediate debate and even outrage among many food and agriculture researchers, NGOs and activists. The Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp. from 1998 until 2001, Taylor exemplifies the revolving door between the food industry and the government agencies that regulate it. He is reviled for shaping and implementing the government’s favorable agricultural biotechnology policies during the Clinton administration.

Yet what has slipped under everyone’s radar screen is Taylor’s involvement in setting U.S. policy on agricultural assistance in Africa. In collusion with the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations, Taylor is once again the go-between man for Monsanto and the U.S. government, this time with the goal to open up African markets for genetically-modified (GM) seed and agrochemicals.

In the late 70s, Taylor was an attorney for the United States Department of Agriculture, then in the 80s, a private lawyer at the D.C. law firm King & Spalding, where he represented Monsanto. When Taylor returned to government as Deputy Commissioner for Policy for the FDA from 1991 to 1994, the agency approved the use of Monsanto’s GM growth hormone for dairy cows (now found in most U.S. milk) without labeling. His role in these decisions led to a federal investigation, though eventually he was exonerated of all conflict-of-interest charges.

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Faith in Obama Drops As Reform Fears Rise
The Washington Post
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
August 21, 2009

Public confidence in President Obama's leadership has declined sharply over the summer, amid intensifying opposition to health-care reform that threatens to undercut his attempt to enact major changes to the system, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Among all Americans, 49 percent now express confidence that Obama will make the right decisions for the country, down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark in his presidency. Forty-nine percent now say they think he will be able to spearhead significant improvements in the system, down nearly 20 percentage points from before he took office.

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The Washington Post ABC News Poll

Existing Home Sales in U.S. Jump to Two-Year High
Bloomberg News
By Shobhana Chandra
August 21, 2009

Sales of existing U.S. homes jumped more than forecast in July to the highest level in almost two years, signaling the housing crisis that crippled the world’s largest economy is easing.

Purchases climbed 7.2 percent to a 5.24 million annual rate, the most since August 2007, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The gain was the biggest since records began in 1999. The median price fell 15 percent.

Foreclosure-driven declines in prices, government credits for first-time buyers and near-record-low borrowing costs may keep stoking demand, helping the economy recover from the worst recession since the 1930s. At the same time, more Americans will probably lose their homes as companies cut payrolls, indicating a rebound will be slow to take hold.

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America's Death Squads Inc.
Global Research
By Bill Van Auken
August 21, 2009

The US Central Intelligence Agency contracted the now notorious private security firm Blackwater for a secret program of “targeted killings” against alleged Al Qaeda operatives, according to media reports Thursday.

The agency essentially was attempting to subcontract state assassinations to a private company employing mercenaries.

In June, current CIA Director Leon Panetta briefed leading members of congressional intelligence committees on the program and said he ordered it terminated. The existence of the assassination program had been kept secret from Congress, apparently on the orders of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Panetta said he learned of it only after six months as the agency’s chief.

According to the New York Times, which broke the story of Blackwater’s involvement, the arrangement was never formalized with a contract. Instead a “gentlemen’s agreement” was worked out between top Bush administration and CIA officials and Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince.

Under Prince, a former Navy Seal, Blackwater (now renamed Xe Services) has taken in billions from the US government to field mercenaries (most of them ex-US military special operations personnel) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Taser-crazy cops becoming global epidemic
CarlosMiller.com
By Carlos Miller
August 18, 2009

Before, it would take a high profile incident like a University of Florida student trying to ask John Kerry some hard questions - only to end up getting Tased and carted away - to generate any national news coverage.

And that was only because the student’s final words - “Don’t Tase me, bro” - were turned into a national punchline.

But nobody is laughing now.

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Hospital company CEO on public-plan option, tort reform
Market Watch
By Kristen Gerencher

Last month, the nation’s hospital trade groups agreed to cut costs by $155 billion over 10 years as their contribution to comprehensive health reform. But some hospital executives have significant reservations about the proposed overhaul. Alan Miller, chief executive of Universal Health Services, a for-profit hospital company with 125 facilities, said he takes issue with the presence of a public-plan option and the absence of medical malpractice reform in the bills now being considered.

I spoke with Miller on Friday before White House officials cast doubt on the future of the public-plan option over the weekend. On Sunday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius suggested that President Obama would be open to a compromise that didn’t include the public-plan option.  Shares of publicly traded health insurers rose Monday on speculation that it was off the table.

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Key Feature Of Obama Health Plan May Be Out
The Washington Post
By Ceci Connolly
August 17, 2009

Racing to regain control of the health-care debate, two top administration officials signaled Sunday that the White House may be willing to jettison a controversial government-run insurance plan favored by liberals.

As President Obama finishes a western swing intended to bolster support for his signature policy initiative, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius opened the door to a compromise on a public option, saying it is "not the essential element" of comprehensive reform. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that Obama "will be satisfied" if the private insurance market has "choice and competition."

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Health care town hall anger rages on
Politico
By Josh Krausshaar and Lisa Lerer
August 13, 2009

Out on the health care firing line, senators and members of Congress continued to get battered by constituents angry over President Barack Obama’s reform plan Wednesday — with voters raising questions about everything from assisted suicide to coverage for illegal immigrants.

Lawmakers insisted over and over that the bills in Congress would cover neither — but their answers did nothing to tamp down the anger from Afton, Iowa, to Hagerstown, Md., to Rocky Mount, N.C. 

In Iowa, a self-described “dumb southern Iowa redneck” told Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, “I see nowhere in the Constitution where health care is a right. ... I want to hear it from Obama, I want to hear it from Pelosi, about how this is about ‘We the people.’“ 

In Maryland, a town hall by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin quickly devolved into shouting after one questioner ordered Cardin to “cease and desist” from considering health care legislation. Cardin’s insistence that he was being fiscally responsible — “I’m not going to vote for any bill that adds to the national debt,” Cardin said — did nothing to quiet the crowd. 

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Immune system cancer found in young 9/11 officers
The Star Online
Associated Press
August 10, 2009

Researchers say a small number of young law enforcement officers who participated in the World Trade Center rescue and cleanup operation after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks have developed an immune system cancer.

The numbers are tiny, and experts don't know whether there is any link between the illnesses and toxins released during the disaster.

But doctors who coordinated the study, published Monday in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said people who worked at the site should continue to have their health monitored.

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FBI raids New Orleans police over Katrina killings
Blacklisted News (From RawStory)
August 9, 2009

Nearly four years after the police shootout that took the lives of Ronald Madison and James Brissette on New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge, the FBI raided the offices of the police investigators who had been looking into the deadly incident.

The bureau’s move suggests that the federal government may be serious about seeing police officers prosecuted over the Sept. 4, 2005 shootout, when Madison and Brissette were allegedly killed by police while four others were wounded as they crossed a bridge in the midst of the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

It also suggests the FBI may be worried that New Orleans police are trying — or may in the future try — to destroy evidence of what happened that day.

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Pelosi and Hoyer Try to Shush the Shouters
The New York Times
By Bernie Becker
August 10, 2009

The two top Democrats in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, have escalated the war of words over health care reform, calling some of the behavior of protesters at town hall events across the country “un-American.”

“It is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue,” the pair wrote in a Monday op-ed for USA Today.  “These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted “Just say no!” drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.”

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The USA Today Article:
'Un-American' attacks can't derail health care debate
USA Today
By Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer

We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate. The failure of past attempts is a reminder that health insurance reform is a defining moment in our nation's history — it is well worth the time it takes to get it right. We are confident that we will get this right.

Already, three House committees have passed this critical legislation and over August, the two of us will work closely with those three committees to produce one strong piece of legislation that the House will approve in September.

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Video's in the full report!
Union Thugs Beat Patriot at Obamacare Town Hall in St Louis
Infowars
August 7, 2009

The effort to discredit and shut down opposition to Obamacare has gone from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid holding up artificial turf and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi calling opponents Nazis to violence. During a demonstration Thursday evening outside a forum on aging called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, in Mehville, Missouri, a patriot was viciously attacked by union thugs.

“Health care reform opponents felt cheated after being locked out of the town hall,” writes Ryan Witt for the Examiner. “Some believed that SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members were being let in instead of them… From my personal observation the Carnahan office was allowing people who had RSVP’d beforehand to go in ahead of others.”

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Related:
Six people, including P-D reporter, arrested at Carnahan meeting
St Louis Today
By Post Dispatch report Leah Thorsen
August 7, 2009

St. Louis County police arrested six people, including a Post-Dispatch reporter, during a demonstration Thursday evening outside a forum on aging called by U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis.

Two of the people were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances, police say.

The forum drew an overflow crowd of several hundred to Bernard Middle School gym in south St. Louis County. Dozens of people, many carrying signs about the health care debate, were kept out because of the turnout.

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Rather than cut Executive compensation, since the execs did not do their job properly, hence the bailouts, we lay off people to help out bottom line!
Goldman, Foreign Banks Cut 1,100 Jobs in Japan Last Fiscal Year
Bloomberg News
By Takahiko Hyuga
August 7, 2009

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and seven other overseas banks eliminated 12 percent of their workforce in Japan last fiscal year as a stock market rout crimped trading profits and investment banking fees.

Goldman, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG, Citigroup Inc., BNP Paribas SA, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG cut their combined workforce in the world’s second-largest economy to 7,846 as of March 31, from 8,937 a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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FDA Stazi Attacks Family Owned Natural Food Distributor
Vote Ron Paul
By Whole Foods USA
August 6, 2009

Annette and Ken Fischer, and their family, started a business up near Silver Bay, Minnesota called Wilderness Family Naturals in 2000 to supply healthy nutrient-dense products like coconut oil, dried berries, and spices over the Internet. Just five years into it, their dreams were shattered.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote them a letter in 2005  and told them they were making health claims for their products—for example, providing links to research suggesting that certain foods were rich in antioxidants, and providing guidance on how to use herbs—and that amounted to selling foods as drugs.

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Sotomayor Confirmed by Senate, 68-31
The New York Times
By Charlie Savage
August 6, 2009

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomajor as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, concluding a 10-week battle with a resounding victory for the White House.

The largely party-line vote, 68 to 31, brought Judge Sotomayor, 55, to the threshold of one of the United States’ most prestigious institutions, completing an extraordinary narrative arc that began in a Bronx housing project where the Puerto Rican girl was raised by her widowed mother.

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Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFIDs Scanned
Wired
By Kim Zetter
August 4, 2009

It’s one of the most hostile hacker environments in the country –- the DefCon hacker conference held every summer in Las Vegas.

But despite the fact that attendees know they should take precautions to protect their data, federal agents at the conference got a scare on Friday when they were told they might have been caught in the sights of an RFID reader.

The reader, connected to a web camera, sniffed data from RFID-enabled ID cards and other documents carried by attendees in pockets and backpacks as they passed a table where the equipment was stationed in full view.

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Thanks, Robert!!!
Gov. threatens to expunge Silverstein from WTC
Associated Press
August 3, 2009

New York Gov. David Paterson gave World Trade Center site developer Larry Silverstein an ultimatum Monday in prolonged talks over his lease to build three planned office towers, saying Ground Zero rebuilding could go ahead without him if necessary.

In a letter that outlined parts of old offers of partial financing for two of the towers, Mr. Paterson pressed the two sides to meet this week to work on resolving the dispute.

Read More

Related news
GOV. PATERSON TO SILVERSTEIN: WE DON'T NEED YOU
New York Post
August 3, 2009

New York Gov. David Paterson has given World Trade Center site developer Larry Silverstein an ultimatum in talks over his ground zero lease. He says the site could be redesigned without Silverstein's buildings.

Paterson wrote a letter Monday renewing an offer to help finance two of Silverstein's planned three office towers at the site.

Silverstein would have to put up over $600 million of his own money to receive financial backing for the second tower. A spokesman didn't immediately return a telephone call Monday.

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Glenn Beck: Cash For Clunkers is a government scam to gain access to your computer

Watch Here

Glenn Beck: Cash for Clunkers update
Aug 3, 2009

If you are the administrator, you know, in your company, let's say you're, you know, Bill's Car Lot and you are the guy who is processing all of the cash for clunkers thing. You get on your computer and you type in all of the information, you go onto the website, you click on something and it comes up and it says, warning, you are entering a secure site. Okay? You've seen that warning before. You go to input more information about who's going to buy this car and this warning comes up on the screen: This application provides access to the DOT CARS system. When logged onto the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government.

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Engine Disablement Procedures for the CARS Program
Instructions to disable CARS trade-in vehicles

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House Passes Bill to Prolong 'Cash for Clunkers'
Washington Post
By Ben Pershing and Dana Hedgpeth
July 31, 2009

The House approved a bill Friday afternoon to provide $2 billion to continue the federal government's week-old "cash for clunkers" program, which has proven so popular with consumers that it was almost out of cash. The 316-109 vote split Republicans but attracted the support of nearly every Democrat in the chamber.

The money will come from funds in the already-passed economic stimulus package that were intended for energy loan guarantees. Congress will seek to replenish the energy program at a later date.

"If you were planning on going to buy a car this weekend, using this program, this program continues to run," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday. "If you meet the requirements of the program, the certificates will be honored."

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Bailed-out banks gave millions in exec bonuses, report shows
USA Today
By Kathy Chu
July 31, 2009

In a report, Cuomo said that his nine-month investigation found that even though banks tout the importance of tying pay to performance, compensation has become "unmoored from the banks' financial performance."

When the banks did well, their employees were paid well," the report said. "And when the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers, and their employees were still paid well.

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Military Poised to Help FEMA Battle Swine Flu Outbreak
FoxNews
By FOX News' Jennifer Griffin, Brian Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report
July 29, 2009

The Pentagon is preparing to make troops available if necessary to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency tackle a potential outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, FOX News has confirmed.

This comes as a government panel recommends certain groups be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, including pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions, and young adults ages 19 to 24.

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Judge: Swine flu is reason to suspend constitutional rights
Orange County Register
By Larry Welborn
July 28, 2009

A Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that there is legal justification to keep the Central Men’s Jail under medical quarantine – at least for a couple of days – to control a swine flu outbreak.

Judge Thomas Goethals said the “significant medical public health event” in the men’s jail is good cause to temporarily suspend constitutional guarantees to speedy trials, preliminary hearings and arraignments for some criminal case defendants.

He made his ruling over the objections of the county public defender’s office and the alternate defender’s office after a special 90-minute hearing on the status of the health scare in the main men’s jail, which usually houses 800 to 900 inmates.

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License-Plate Scanners: Fighting Crime or Invading Privacy?
Time Online
By Hilary Hylton
July 30, 2009

If you are behind the wheel of your car, someone may be on to you. More and more cities are equipping patrol officers, toll booths and even access roads with computer sidekicks that can keep track of vehicle movements. By doing so, they are changing the face of 21st century law enforcement — and sparking debate over privacy issues.

Automated license-plate-recognition systems (ALPRs) mounted in patrol cars are capable of processing 1,500 license plates a minute, capturing a vast amount of data about the movements of both criminals and law-abiding citizens. For police, ALPRs allow them to solve auto-theft cases, pick up wanted felons or monitor the movements of sexual predators. But privacy advocates fear the collected data may be mined for other purposes. For example, one side of a divorce case could potentially look through toll-plaza records for circumstantial evidence of adultery.

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Jobless claims rise more than expected
The Raw Story
By Reuters
July 30, 2009

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but a gauge of underlying labor trends fell for a fifth straight week, government data showed on Thursday.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ended July 25. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends as it smoothes out week-to-week volatility, fell by 8,250 to 559,000.

This was the lowest level since late January. The weekly moving average has declined for five straight weeks.

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96% of Credit Derivatives Risk Held by 5 Banks
Washington's Blog
July 27, 2009

Fitch's has found that JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley together hold 80% of the country's derivatives risk, and 96% of the exposure to credit derivatives:

About 80% of the derivative assets and liabilities carried on the balance sheets of 100 companies reviewed by Fitch were held by five banks: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley.

Those five banks also account for more than 96% of the companies' exposure to credit derivatives.

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That's right...Censor what you don't agree with...Where is Dobbs Freedom of Speech!
Major Civil Rights Group Demands CNN Remove Lou Dobbs From The Air
Huffington Post
By Lila Shapiro
July 24, 2009

The Lou Dobbs "Birthers" saga may be coming to a close. This morning, the President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a major civil rights group, wrote a letter calling on CNN President Jon Klein to remove CNN host Lou Dobbs from the air. The request stems from a segment on Dobbs' radio show this past Tuesday where Dobbs did his part to keep alive the conspiracy theory that President Obama is not an American citizen (AKA the "birther" theory). On air, he speculated: "I'm starting to think we have a document issue. You suppose he's un... no, I won't even use the word undocumented, it wouldn't be right."

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Can you say "Fascist government?"
Taxpayers Inferior to Shareholders With Obama Bonds
Bloomberg News
By Michael McDonald and Bryan Keogh
July 22, 2009

State and local governments, forced to close budget gaps by firing workers and shutting schools, may pay at least $4.2 billion more in interest than companies with similar credit ratings on Barack Obama's Build America Bonds.

The $17.4 billion of Build America Bonds sold since April pay an average yield that’s 0.96 percentage point more than corporate securities with the same ratings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and based on the 25 largest deals.

“Taxpayers are taking it on the chin,” said G Joseph McLiney, president of Kansas City, Missouri-based McLiney & Co., a firm that specializes in selling municipal bonds that qualify for federal tax credits. “There should be no spread.”

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Shouldn't this be up to each individual state!?!
Measure to Expand Gun Rights Falls Short in Senate
The New York Times
By Bernie Becker and David M Herszenhorn
July 22, 2009

The Senate on Wednesday turned aside the latest attempt by gun advocates to expand the rights of gun owners, narrowly voting down a provision that would have allowed gun owners with valid permits from one state to carry concealed weapons in other states as well.

A group comprising mostly Republicans, along with some influential Democrats, had tried to attach the gun amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, a must-pass piece of legislation. But the provision got only 58 votes, two short of the 6o votes needed for passage under Senate rules.

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Bernanke:  "I Don't Know" Which foreign Banks Were Given Half a Trillion
Prison Planet
By Paul Joseph Watson

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was confronted yesterday by Congressman Alan Grayson about which foreign banks were the recipients of Federal Reserve credit swaps, but he was unable to provide an answer as to where over half a trillion dollars had gone.

Asked which European financial institutions received the money, which was handed out by The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a component of the Federal Reserve System, Bernanke responded, “I don’t know.”

“Half a trillion dollars and you don’t know who got the money?” asked Grayson.

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No wonder some children have no respect for the law!
Lawsuit:  Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy
Raw Story
By Daniel Tencer
July 20, 2009

A shelter for adolescents in southern Illinois is suing the local sheriff’s office for what it describes as an unprovoked attack by two police officers on four children, three of whom were tasered, and one of whom was threatened with sodomy by a sheriff’s deputy.

The Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon, IL, filed the lawsuit on behalf of three children in its custody, who the lawsuit says were tasered by Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies who had been called to help subdue two misbehaving children, aged 11 and 12. Neither of those children were among those who were tasered during what one news service described as a police “rampage.”

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The Great American Bubble Machine
Rolling Stones Magazine
By Matt Taibbi
July 13, 2009

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup - which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson.

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Related
Inside The Great American Bubble Machine
Rolling Stones Online
By Matt Taibbi
July 2, 2009

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

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Congressman Conyers Addresses Former President Bush's Illegal Doctrines
St Louis Examiner
By Lawrence Gist
July19, 2009

Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressperson John Conyers, will address the National Press Club at a luncheon on Friday, July 24. His current issues include accountability for policies on torture, warrantless wiretapping, state secrets, and Iraq. Other subjects he is pursuing include single payer health care in national health insurance and action against hate crimes.

Representative Conyers has called for investigating the decisions and legality of the Bush Administration's policies on torture, warrantless wiretapping, and attorney firing. Conyers has said, "Even after scores of hearings, investigations, and reports, we still do not have answers to some of the most fundamental questions.

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Where does the United States of America get oil???
Crude oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries
April 2009 Import Highlights
From the Department of Energy
June 29, 2009

Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in April 2009 has been released and it shows that three countries exported more than 1.00 million barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 59 percent of United States crude oil imports in April while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 80 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports.

See the report here

The NSA Wiretapping Story That Nobody Wanted
PC World
By Robert McMillian
July 17, 2009

They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you're dead.

The cliché doesn't seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein's new book, "Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It." It's an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans.

Klein, 64, was a retired AT&T communications technician in December 2005, when he read the New York Times story that blew the lid off the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Secretly authorized in 2002, the program lets the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) monitor telephone conversations and e-mail messages of people inside the U.S. in order to identify suspected terrorists. Klein knew right away that he had proof -- documents from his time at AT&T -- that could provide a snapshot of how the program was siphoning data off of the AT&T network in San Francisco.

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Citigroup and Bank of America Report Profits, Aided by Asset Sales
New York Times
By Gerry Shih
July 17, 2009

Bank of America and Citigroup, giants that have come to symbolize the troubles plaguing the nation’s banking industry, announced Friday that they were once again turning handsome profits.  

Bank of America reported a $3.2 billion profit for the second quarter. Citigroup said it earned $4.3 billion during the period.

But behind the figures was a sober reality: Those happy results were driven by billions of dollars in one-time gains — in the case of Bank of America, by a profit from the sale of a stake in a big Chinese bank and, in the case of Citigroup, by a bonanza from a new joint venture for its Smith Barney division.

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Finally!  Someone with at least a little bit of sense!
CBO Chief Criticizes Democrats' Health Reform Measures
Washington Post
By Lori Montgomery
July 16, 2009

Instead of saving the federal government from fiscal catastrophe, the health reform measures being drafted by congressional Democrats would increase rather than reduce public spending on health care, potentially worsening an already bleak budget outlook, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this morning.

Read More

Obama administration defends Bush wiretapping
Computer World
By Robert McMillian 
July 15, 2009

Lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Electronic Frontier Foundation squared off in a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday over a warrantless wiretapping program instituted by the Bush administration.

The EFF sued the government and officials who implemented the secret program in September in an effort to get the government to stop the practice of recording communications involving U.S. citizens without a federal warrant. The EFF argues that this warrantless wiretapping is illegal, but government lawyers say the lawsuit should be thrown out because it could lead to the disclosure of state secrets.

The judge in the case, Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, already heard most of these arguments during an ongoing 2006 suit, Hepting v. AT&T, that also sought to put an end to the program. The EFF brought this second suit, Jewel v. NSA, after Congress passed a law last year that protected telecommunications companies like AT&T from lawsuits over the wiretapping.

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Warrantless wiretaps just the tip of the (classified) iceberg
ARS Technica
By Jon Stokes
July 14, 2009

How did a massive (and illegal) NSA surveillance program come into existence after 9/11? A new government report makes it clear that members of both parties just didn't care much about legality in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

This past Friday, the Offices of Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, CIA, NSA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, released an unclassified summary of a report that fills in key details of the problems and controversies surrounding the large-scale electronic surveillance efforts that president George W. Bush authorized the NSA to undertake in the wake of 9/11.

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The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
Wall Street Journal
By Mortimer Zuckerman
July 14, 2009

The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.

Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:

Read Me

US Commercial Real Estate Bust Threatens Regional Banks
Research Recap
July 13, 2009

Although it is smaller than the residential housing market, the deepening US commercial property market bust could have a major impact on the banking system in general and on US regional banks in particular, according to Oxford Analytica.  It could also substantially affect non-residential US investment.

The Fed estimates that the size of the US commercial property market is 6.5 trillion dollars, or approximately one-third the size of the housing market. Commercial property loans outstanding are an estimated 3.3 trillion dollars, also roughly one-third of the 10.0 trillion dollars in residential mortgages outstanding. Of the commercial real estate loans outstanding, over half are held by commercial banks, with these loans constituting a very important part of the regional banks’ balance sheets. Approximately 25% of commercial property loans are securitised, with most of the remainder being held by life insurance and savings companies.

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Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder
Natural News
By Barbara Minton
June 25, 2009

As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

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Bailout Tracker
Wall Street Journal
June 26, 2009

The Treasury first began funneling cash into large banks in October as part of its signature Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which aimed to help boost capital in the ailing financial industry and put the battered economy on a more stable path. See a breakdown of the funds by program. Click the column headers in the table below to sort by company, state, amount and more.

Program Funding:  $722,767,778,971

See The Report Here

For Goldman, a Swift Return to Lofty Profits
New York Times
By Graham Bowley and Jennie Anderson
July 12, 2009

Most of Wall Street, and America, is still waiting for an economic recovery. Then there is Goldman Sachs.

Up and down Wall Street, analysts and traders are buzzing that Goldman, which only recently paid back its government bailout money, will report blowout profits from trading on Tuesday.

Analysts predict the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, because of its trading prowess across world markets. If they are right, the bank’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how Goldman, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so drastically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its foundations.

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AIG Is Preparing to Pay Millions More in Bonuses
The Washington Post
By Brady Davis and Dennis Cho
July 10, 2009

American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.

Read More

Madsen: 'Whistle blown on secret 9/11 unit'
Russia Today
Live report w/Wayne Madsen
July 9, 2009

The US government has allegedly set up a special security wing with the sole task of distancing Washington from any involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Watch the report

Our Rights Are Suspended By Mayor Cedric Glover
In Shreveport, LA
From June 15, 2009

This situation almost defies sanity. Fortunately, we have audio to go along with this post and a transcript of the audio. Please read on and then listen to the audio at the end. You just won't believe what is said by the Mayor of a major southern U.S. city.

According to Mayor Cedric Glover of Shreveport, LA, when you are stopped by the police department, your "rights are suspended." That's right - even if the stop is a traffic violation - your rights as a citizen have been suspended. Huh?

Recently, a friend of mine was stopped for allegedly failing to use a turn signal. Sounds simple enough. Here is where it gets interesting.

Read More

Related...
Traffic stop raises gun rights question, Mayor responds
KSLA
By Carolyn Roy
July 6, 2009

Read More

Police Taser Pastor 'Helping' Driver in Traffic Stop
Associated Press
July 2, 2009

Read More

It's called we are a Sovereign Entity and, oh yeah, Privacy in Banking!
Swiss ready to seize UBS data to stifle Washington
Associated Press
By Balz Brupppacher
July 8, 2009

Switzerland's government said Wednesday it would forbid the Swiss bank UBS AG from complying with any court-ordered transfer of data on tens of thousands of American clients to the U.S. government, and would consider seizing documents to prevent that.

The statement was the strongest yet by Swiss authorities locked in a battle with the U.S. Justice Department over the identities of more than 50,000 American clients at UBS.

The case in the federal district court in Miami has become a focal point of Washington's efforts to crack down on tax evasion and the foreign banks that help wealthy Americans send money overseas. But UBS and the Swiss government say handing over the names would violate Swiss law and subject bank employees to criminal prosecution in Switzerland.

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There aren't words enough to let Hoyer know just how warm and fuzzy I feel inside...
Hoyer Leaves Open Possibility of Second U.S. Economic Stimulus
Bloomberg News
By James Rowley and Brian Faler
July 7, 2009

The House’s second-ranking Democrat left open the possibility of a second U.S. economic stimulus program, while Senate leaders and an aide to President Barack Obama questioned the need for one.

“We need to be open to whether or not we need additional action” to stimulate the U.S. economy, House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today in Washington.

Hoyer cautioned that “it is certainly too early” to assess whether the $787 billion stimulus Congress enacted in February is working or needs to be augmented. “In fact, we believe it is working” because many people otherwise would have lost their jobs if Congress hadn’t passed the stimulus, said Hoyer of Maryland.

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Obama's Plan to Change U.S. Health Care System Will Cost Nearly Two TRILLION Dollars
Mercola.Com
July 3, 2009 Newsletter

The latest cost estimates for health care legislation in Congress are about $1.6 trillion over 10 years, according to two Senate sources.

Two Senate staffers, one Democratic and one Republican, said the Congressional Budget Office made the estimate for the Finance Committee version of the bill. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee version would cost $1 trillion over ten years, but would only cover about one-third of the nearly 50 million uninsured.

Read More (Video at Link)

Border Agents to Dump Agent Orange-Like Chemical to Kill All Plant Life Among U.S.-Mexico Border
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
July 3, 2009

The Border Patrol has temporarily postponed -- but refused to cancel -- plans to use helicopters to spray herbicide along the banks of the Rio Grande between the cities of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in order to kill a fast-growing river cane that provides cover for undocumented migrants, smugglers and other border crossers.

The controversial plan has drawn fire for its similarities to the U.S. government's defoliation strategy during the Vietnam War, in which the government sprayed more than 21 million gallons of "Agent Orange" and other herbicides in order to eliminate hiding places for Vietnamese guerillas. An estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese citizens and thousands of U.S. soldiers were exposed to the dioxin-based chemical, resulting in more than 500,000 birth defects and 400,000 deaths and disabilities among adults.

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Job Losses Dampen Hopes for Recovery
The Washington Post
By Neil Irwin
July 3, 2009

Mounting job losses rattled hopes yesterday that the economy is on track to grow later this year, showing that prospects for American workers are terrible -- and still getting worse.

Employers reduced their payrolls by 467,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said, far more than forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent. And last week, another 614,000 people applied for unemployment insurance benefits.

The number of job losses had decreased every month since January before spiking again in June, and economists think it is highly likely that the jobless rate will hit double-digits later this year. A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people working part time who want full-time work and those who have given up looking for a job, has already risen to 16.5 percent. The nation now has the same number of jobs it did in 2000, meaning that nine years of employment gains have disappeared.

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View the Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Rates by State

Senate bill fines people refusing health coverage
Associated Press
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
July 2, 2009

Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.

In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties.

Called "shared responsibility payments," the fines would be set at least half the cost of base medical coverage, according to the legislation.

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Property Rights Trumped By UAW In First Episode Of Gangster Gov't
IBD Editorials
By Michael Barone
May 7. 2009

Last Friday, the day after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, I drove past the company's headquarters on I-75 in Auburn Hills, Mich. As I glanced at the pentagram logo, I felt myself tearing up a little bit. Anyone who grew up in the Detroit area, as I did, can't help but be sad to see a once-great company fail.

But my sadness turned to anger later when I heard what bankruptcy lawyer Tom Lauria said on a WJR talk show that morning.

"One of my clients," Lauria told host Frank Beckmann, "was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight."

Lauria represented one of the bondholder firms, Perella Weinberg, which initially rejected the Obama deal that would give the bondholders about 33 cents on the dollar for their secured debts while giving the United Auto Workers retirees about 50 cents on the dollar for their unsecured debts.

Read More

Watch Michelle Bachmann take on the House of Reps

Fed Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman Missing Trillions of Taxpayer Dollars
Want To Know.Info

Dear friends,

Elizabeth Coleman is the inspector general of the Federal Reserve of the United States, commonly referred to as the Fed. This is the little-understood institution which prints and regulates all U.S. money. As inspector general, the Federal Reserve website states Elizabeth Coleman is "responsible for preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse." Yet in eye-opening, videotaped Congressional testimony, Fed Inspector General Coleman acknowledged that she can't account for many trillions – yes trillions – of dollars of taxpayers' money.

Do you know how much one trillion dollars is? It's over $3,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. If you only count taxpayers, it's equivalent to $7,000 for every taxpayer. Yet Coleman acknowledges the Fed is not missing just $1 trillion, but many trillions of taxpayers' dollars. In the video clip she says she knows nothing about nine trillion dollars ($9,000,000,000,000) that is claimed to be unaccounted for. That's $63,000 for each taxpayer. It's also three times the amount of the entire annual federal budget of the United States missing in action! These numbers are simply staggering, yet they are getting amazingly little media coverage.

Read more

Related
Federal Reserve Inspector General hedges on trillions missing in Congressional hearing
St Louis Examiner
By Fred Burks
May 22, 2009

Read More

Next-Gen Cell Spying: Like Straight out of a Movie
Infopackets.com
By Bill Lindner
June 26, 2009

According to reports, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been busted once again for illegal surveillance. Worse yet, it seems the NSA has moved beyond wiretapping land lines to the wireless phone industry, too. (Source: nytimes)

Legal experts suggest that collaboration between the wireless phone industry and the NSA runs far deeper than originally thought. There are over 3,000 wireless companies operating in the U.S.; furthermore, the majority of industry-aided snooping is quietly handled by companies that most consumers have never heard of. (Source: cnet.com)

Major Networks Sold Data Starting 2002

For years there has been a global market for off-the-shelf data-mining solutions that deal with analyzing mobile-phone calling records and real-time location information.

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As if they could make any other decision...
Supreme Court Says Strip Search of Child Illegal
The Associated Press
June 25, 2009

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.

The court ruled 8-1 on Thursday that school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding in the rural eastern Arizona town of Safford.

Redding, who now attends college, was 13 when officials at Safford Middle School ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear because they were looking for pills -- the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs and the school was acting on a tip from another student.

Read More

US missile strike kills 60 at funeral in Pakistan
The Guardian
By Sam Jones and Saeed Shah
June 24, 2009

A US drone aircraft killed at least 45 Pakistani Taliban militants in south Waziristan yesterday when it fired missiles at the funeral of an insurgent commander killed earlier in the day, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

"Three missiles were fired by drones as people were dispersing after offering funeral prayers for Niaz Wali," one intelligence official said, referring to a Taliban commander who was one of six militants killed in an earlier drone attack.

The army had no information on the attack on the funeral in the remote area under the control of Baitullah Mehsud, the country's enemy number one, a military official said.

One local security official, who could not be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media, said that more than 60 had died of whom "half are civilians". Funerals of Taliban are attended by local villagers, not just militants.

Read More

Well, well, well...Journalistic Integrity...Ms Hill needs to do a bit more research, at least according to her first sentence!!!
Federal Reserve to gain power under plan
The Washington Times
By Patrice Hill
June 16, 2009

The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration's regulatory overhaul plan.

The final plan due to be released on Wednesday -- which originally aimed to streamline and consolidate banking and securities regulation in one or two agencies -- now is expected to sidestep most jurisdictional disputes and simply impose across the board standards to be applied by all financial regulators, according to administration and industry sources.

Read More

Be sure to take a look at the Comments at the end of the article.  The following was written in response to comments and questions to the "newspaper" editors.

Whose Fed is it anyway?
The Washington Times
By David Dickson
June 18, 2009

What is the Federal Reserve System? Answer: The Federal Reserve System, or the Fed, was created in 1913 by the Federal Reserve Act after the Panic of 1907. It is a quasi-public, quasi-private institution that operates as the central banking system of the United States under the oversight of Congress.

The Fed conducts monetary policy, mostly by manipulating short-term interest rates, in pursuit of the three goals outlined in the Federal Reserve Act: "maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates." The Fed also supervises and regulates bank holding companies and its member banks (all nationally chartered banks are required to be members, and state banks may become members). And the Fed is the lead regulator on consumer-finance issues.

Read More

And, just in case you buy in to the Federal Reserve being Federal, check this out (Thanks, Paul!)...

Government Flow Chart

Also, check out this!

Feingold questions Obama on warrantless wiretapping
St Louis Examiner
By J. D. Tuccille
June 16, 2009

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama harshly criticized Bush administration policies allowing warrantless wiretaps. But, since he assumed office as president, Obama's Justice Department has attempted to deny a private organization the right to sue the federal government for wiretapping communications without court authorization. Now one United States senator -- the closest thing that body has to a consistent civil libertarian -- wants to know which Obama is the real Obama, and what wiretapping policies the administration will pursue.

Read More

Also Read:
Feingold Asks Obama to Clarify Position on Warrantless Wiretapping
The Washington Independent
By Daphne Eviatar
June 15, 2009

Responding to the controversial assertion by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on June 8 that warrantless wiretapping “wasn’t illegal,” Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) today sent a letter to President Obama asking him to make clear that he is not claiming that extraordinary executive authority to disregard the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

“As a United States Senator, you stated clearly and correctly that the warrantless wiretapping program was illegal,” writes Feingold. “Your Attorney General expressed the same view, both as a private citizen and at his confirmation hearing.”

Read More

Letter to President Obama from Senator Russ Feingold

Rising gas prices hit drivers nationwide
CNN Money
By Ben Rooney
June 17, 2009

Gas prices have risen for 50 days in a row and the pain at the pump is taking a toll on household budgets across the nation.

Nationwide, gas prices now average $2.679, motorist group AAA said Wednesday. Prices have risen every day since April 29, when the national average stood at $2.05 a gallon.

Drivers in every U.S. state, with the exception of South Carolina, now pay an average of at least $2.50 a gallon. In the Palmetto State, gas averages $2.49 a gallon.

The runup in gas prices comes at a time when drivers are already struggling with record high unemployment and an abysmal housing market.

Read More

The White House Fires a Watchdog
The Wall Street Journal
June 16, 2009

President Obama swept to office on the promise of a new kind of politics, but then how do you explain last week's dismissal of federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin for the crime of trying to protect taxpayer dollars? This is a case that smells of political favoritism and Chicago rules.

...In April 2008 the Corporation asked Mr. Walpin to investigate reports of irregularities at St. HOPE, a California nonprofit run by former NBA star and Obama supporter Kevin Johnson. St. HOPE had received an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant, which was supposed to go for three purposes: tutoring for Sacramento-area students; the redevelopment of several buildings; and theater and art programs.

Mr. Walpin's investigators discovered that the money had been used instead to pad staff salaries, meddle politically in a school-board election, and have AmeriCorps members perform personal services for Mr. Johnson, including washing his car.

Read More

The Obama Car Dealership: A Prescription for National Disaster
By Paul Sheridan
June 15, 2009

Now that Judge Arthur “Enron” Gonzalez has rubber-stamped Obama’s “surgical bankruptcy,” what does it mean to the car dealerships that survive the cuts from Chrysler and GM?  Since safety defect liability is now the responsibility of the dealers, how will they react when you try to trade-in your old Chrysler or GM vehicle?  How will non-Chrysler dealers respond?

Read Paul Sheridan’s recent essay on this unseen disaster, link here

EFF Challenges Government's "Back Door" Wiretap
Electronic Frontier Foundation
June 11, 2009

Cincinnati - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups filed an amicus brief in Warshak v. United States urging the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday to hold that the government's seizure of email without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment and federal privacy statutes, as well as the Justice Department's own surveillance manual.

During its criminal investigation, the Department of Justice illegally ordered defendant Stephen Warshak's email provider to prospectively "preserve" copies of his future emails, which the government later obtained using a subpoena and a non-probable cause court order. The government accomplished this "back door wiretap" by misusing the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which is only supposed to be used for obtaining emails already in storage with a provider.

In Wednesday's filing, EFF argues that the government's seizure violated federal privacy laws and Warshak's Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy in his email. As a result, the illegally seized emails should have been suppressed by the district court where Warshak was tried. All told, the government acquired over 27,000 emails spanning over six months from Warshak's email provider, all without probable cause.

Read More

Missouri Crowd Opposed To Mandatory NAIS
Farm Futures
By Jason Vance
June 10, 2009

More than 200 farmers and ranchers from seven states gathered in Jefferson City , Mo. Tuesday for a listening session on the National Animal Identification System hosted by USDA. The session was the first of an additional six sessions that were added to the original eight listening sessions that have been held over the past month. It was also the most attended session, drawing producers from six states. Almost everyone who spoke during the session was against a mandatory national animal identification system.

"This affects all of us and I'm glad that Missourians are standing up, it's great," said Nathaniel Barr of Wisconsin . "We didn't get to talk in Wisconsin ; there's no meeting in Wisconsin . Why didn't we get one in Wisconsin ? Seven hours we drove to come down here, that's how important I think it is."

The vast majority either wanted the system to remain voluntary or done away with completely. Several members of the Missouri General Assembly attended and spoke against a mandatory system. State Senator Wes Shoemyer, a farmer from Monroe County , spoke about the cost of a mandatory system citing a study by Kansas State University that suggested the average price of the system to a Missouri farmer would be $16 per head.

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Graham, Lieberman threaten Senate shut down over abuse photo bill
Raw Story
June 9, 2009

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-C.T.) threatened to shut down the Senate by blocking any further legislation unless their bill preventing the release of any further detainee abuse photos is passed.

Both men said they fear more disclosure would trigger heightened violence against Americans overseas.

“Both Senators said they were alarmed that a House-Senate conference committee on the supplemental war spending bill appears poised to eliminate language — inserted by the two Senators — that would block public disclosure of detainee abuse photos,” reported Roll Call.  “The $90-billion-plus bill has been held up, in part, because House Democratic leaders have said they do not have the votes to pass it with the detainee photo provision included, because many liberal lawmakers have balked at the language.”

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Two-time victims in Chrysler's bankruptcy
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jeff Gelles
June 7, 2009

Susan Kline wasn't even supposed to work that Saturday in February 2007. But a fellow employee had a conflict, so Kline offered to help. She left her husband and teen children at home in Morris County, N.J., and headed down Interstate 287 toward her office.

She never made it. Kline, 49, burned to death on the highway, moments after her Jeep Grand Cherokee was rear-ended by a minivan.

...

In his ruling last Sunday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez said public policy was served in a bankruptcy sale - such as the sale of the old Chrysler's assets to Italy's Fiat - by allowing "a purchaser to assume only the liabilities that promote its commercial interests."

Not all consumer protections were wiped away. Under terms of the deal Gonzalez approved, "New Chrysler" agreed to honor certain consumers' rights, such as warranty and lemon-law claims. But the new company will have no further responsibility for injury and wrongful-death claims linked to defects in cars sold by "Old Chrysler."

Consumer advocates and product-liability lawyers, who warned against the plan before Gonzalez's ruling, are continuing to fight. They say the decision undercuts a key element in a highly imperfect regulatory system: that consumers most harmed by vehicles' design defects, or survivors such as Tom Kline, should at least be compensated for their losses.

Paul Sheridan, a former Chrysler product manager who expected to testify in Kline's case, said federal safety standards "are not adequate for the real world, and the industry knows it."

"With that vehicle, just backing up into a high curb can split the tank open," Sheridan said. "It has a plastic, unshielded tank that was known to be defective the moment it left the factory."

How many fires have there been? Sheridan cannot say, in part because automakers know how to work the system. He said they agreed to settle cases, but only if the details are kept private - and from other car owners.

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Also Read Paul Sheridan's Article Here

Judge dismisses NSA wiretap civil liberties suits
Computerworld
By Jeremy Kirk
June 4, 2009

A federal judge on Wednesday threw out 46 civil lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies for allowing the National Security Agency to probe their networks for terrorist communications without approval from a court.

Companies such as AT&T were granted immunity under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (FISAAA), signed into law in July 2008, ruled U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker in a 46-page opinion. 

The law gave companies immunity from lawsuits if the U.S. government provided proof to a court that the surveillance was authorized by the president, was legal or did not occur. It applied to surveillance that happened between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 17, 2007.

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U.S. mistakenly posts list of civilian nuke sites
Computerworld
By Jaikumar Vijayan

Computerworld - A 267-page document listing all U.S. civilian nuclear sites along with descriptions of their assets and activities became available on whistleblower Web site Wikileaks.org days after a government Web site publicly posted the data by accident.

The sensitive, but unclassified, data had been compiled as part of a report being prepared by the federal government for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It was scheduled to be transmitted to the agency later this year and was sent for congressional review by President Obama on May 5, according to a report in the New York Times.

The document, which had been marked by the president as "Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive," subsequently appears to have, for some unexplained reason, been publicly posted by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) on its Web site, the Times said. The document has since been taken down but is now available from several locations via Wikileaks.org.

The document was discovered on the GPO Web site on May 22 by Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy.

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Leap in U.S. debt hits taxpayers with 12% more red ink
USA Today
By Dennis Cauchon
May 29, 2009

The 12% rise in red ink in 2008 stems from an explosion of federal borrowing during the recession, plus an aging population driving up the costs of Medicare and Social Security.

That's the biggest leap in the long-term burden on taxpayers since a Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003.

The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008, according to the USA TODAY analysis. That's quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.

"We have a huge implicit mortgage on every household in America — except, unlike a real mortgage, it's not backed up by a house," says David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, the government's top auditor.

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Obama Says New Cyberczar Won’t Spy on the Net
Wired
By Kim Zetter
May 29, 2009

Following months of rumors, President Barack Obama confirmed Friday that the White House will be creating a new office to be led by a cybersecurity czar. The office will be in charge of coordinating efforts to secure government networks and U.S. critical infrastructures.

Obama was quick to add that the new White House cybersecurity office would include an official whose job is to ensure that the government’s cyber policies don’t violate privacy and civil liberties of Americans. He also reaffirmed his support for the principle of net neutrality.

“Our pursuit of cybersecurity will not include — I repeat, will not include — monitoring private sector networks or internet traffic,” he said. “We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans. Indeed, I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we can keep the internet as it should be, open and free.”

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Obama Touts Stimulus Bill's First 100 Days
Fox News
Fox News Mike Emanuel and the Associated Press
May 27, 2009

One hundred days after signing the $787 billion economic stimulus package, President Obama declared Wednesday in a Las Vegas speech, "we are already seeing results." 

The president called the stimulus package "the most sweeping economic recovery act in history -- a plan designed to save jobs, create new ones and put money in people's pockets." He said it already has created or saved nearly 150,000 jobs. 

But a Republican congressman responded seconds after the speech by saying, in effect, not so fast, Mr. President. 

Texas Rep. John Culberson called the stimulus package "a fiscal flop and nothing to celebrate," and he said that since the bill was signed Feb. 17, "1.597 million jobs have been lost and unemployment numbers at their highest levels in two decades."

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Fed Would Serve as Risk Regulator Under Obama Plan
Fox News
Associated Press
May 27, 2009

The Obama administration is proposing that the Federal Reserve serve as an all-seeing regulator to detect activities that could pose risks to the entire financial system.

Under a plan circulating among key lawmakers, the administration also is recommending a new agency to protect consumers and another aimed at protecting investors and maintaining the integrity of the markets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would get expanded authority to unwind troubled bank holding companies and a new government agency would conduct "prudential regulation," supervising state and federally chartered depository institutions, bank holding companies and insurance companies.

The sweeping proposals are part of six regulatory overhaul recommendations designed to address weaknesses in the financial system that contributed to the current crisis. People familiar with the plan say details still need to be hammered out.

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Showdown in NSA Wiretap Case: Judge Threatens Sanctions Against Justice Department
Wired
By David Kravets
May 26, 2009

The Obama administration has until Friday to convince a federal judge not to levy sanctions against the government for “failing to obey the court’s orders” in a key NSA wiretapping lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is threatening (.pdf) to summarily decide the 3-year-old lawsuit in favor of the plaintiffs, and award unspecified monetary damages to two American lawyers who claim their telephone calls were illegally intercepted by the NSA under the Bush administration. The lawyer represented a now-defunct Saudi charity that the Treasury Department claimed was linked to terrorism.

If it survived appeal, such a ruling would be a blow to the government, but it would fall far short of deciding the important question the case asks: Can a sitting president, without congressional authority, create a spying program to eavesdrop on Americans’ electronic communications without warrants, as George W. Bush did in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks?

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Capital Eye Report: Credit Rating Agencies Under Fire Drop More Dollars on Political Influence
Capitol Eye Blog
Open Secrets
By Michael Beckel
May 14, 2009

As Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eye new rules and regulations to ameliorate the financial turmoil, credit rating agencies are coming under increased scrutiny and are reaching out to K Street for a helping hand.

The 10 firms accredited by the SEC to issue credit ratings spent $370,000 on lobbying during the first three months of 2009, an increase of 42 percent compared to the 1st Quarter of 2008, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. Seventy-eight percent of that total comes from the so-called "Big Three" credit rating firms, whose inflated ratings of risky securities reportedly helped precipitate the financial crisis, according to some.

CRP has also found that employees of these 10 companies and their family members contributed more than $122,400 to federal candidates, parties and committees during the 2008 election cycle, nearly double the amount contributed during the 2004 presidential election cycle. Of the contributions given in the last election cycle, 74 percent went to Democrats.

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Senate Bill Steers Away From the Car
The Washington Post
By Alec MacGillis
May 14, 2009

As stimulus spending on highways and bridges ramps up, Senate Democrats are submitting legislation today that suggests the nation's transportation policy is headed for a major overhaul, with a strong emphasis on reducing automobile use and carbon emissions and boosting public transit, inter-city rail and rail freight service.

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US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent
Associated Press
By Andrew Taylor
May 11, 2009

The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates. Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 red ink — increasing it to more than four times last year's all-time high as the government hands out billions more than expected for people who have lost jobs and takes in less tax revenue from people and companies making less money.

The unprecedented deficit figures flow from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout and the cost of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill — as well as a seemingly embedded structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in.

As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion, the White House says. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps.

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White House forecasts higher budget deficit
Reuters
By Caren Bohan and Richard Cowan
May 11, 2009

The White House on Monday raised its forecast for this year's U.S. budget deficit by $89 billion due to the recession, millions of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.

The new estimate predicted a deficit of $1.84 trillion, or 12.9 percent of gross domestic product, for the fiscal year ending September 30. It updated the White House's February forecast of a $1.75 trillion deficit, or 12.3 percent of GDP.

The report may add to the political challenges facing President Barack Obama as he seeks to push through a new healthcare plan and other domestic initiatives.

White House officials said the gloomier picture reflected weaker tax receipts as the economy declined and higher costs for social safety-net programs such as unemployment insurance. Spending on government rescues for the financial and automobile industries also played a part.

While the Democratic-led Congress has approved the broad outline of Obama's proposed FY 2010 budget that includes initiatives on healthcare, education and other items, many lawmakers are wary about the deficit outlook.

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American kills 5 fellow soldiers at clinic in Iraq
Associated Press
By Robert Reid
May 11, 2009

An American Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers following an altercation at a military counseling center in Iraq Monday, officials said. The attack drew attention to the issues of combat stress and morale among soldiers serving multiple combat tours over six years of war.

The suspect had been disarmed after an incident at the center but returned with another weapon, according to a senior military official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the shootings was ongoing.

Attacks on fellow soldiers, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war but are believed to be rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A brief U.S. military statement said the assailant was taken into custody following the 2 p.m. shooting at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport.

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Memo Says Pelosi Knew About Use of Harsh Tactics
The Washington Post
By Paul Kane
May 8, 2009

Intelligence officials released documents yesterday saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda suspects, seeming to contradict her repeated statements that she was never told the techniques were actually being used.

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Banks' tests results lift cloud of uncertainty
Associated Press
By Daniel Wagner and Jeannine Aversa
May 8, 2009

Government exams of the nation's biggest banks have helped lift a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the economy.

The so-called stress tests — a key Obama administration effort to boost confidence in the financial system — showed nine of the 19 biggest banks have enough capital to withstand a deeper recession. Ten must raise a total of $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses.

"The publication of the stress tests simply cleared the air of uncertainty," said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics. "The results were not scary at all."

He said it will take a long time for the banks to resume normal lending. But the test results didn't alter his prediction that economy is headed for a recovery in October or November.

A key indicator of economic health will be released Friday morning, when the government announces how many more jobs were lost in April and how high the unemployment rate rose.

The stress tests have been criticized as a confidence-building exercise whose relatively rosy outcome was inevitable. But the information, which leaked out all week, was enough to cheer investors. They pushed bank stocks higher Wednesday, and rallied again in after-hours trading late Thursday once the results had been released.

Among the 10 banks that need to raise more capital, Bank of America Corp. needs by far the most — $33.9 billion. Wells Fargo & Co. needs $13.7 billion, GMAC LLC $11.5 billion, Citigroup Inc. $5.5 billion and Morgan Stanley $1.8 billion.

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Suspect detained over 'extremist' bumper sticker
'Don't Tread on Me' puts driver in 'watch' category in DHS report
World Net Daily
By Bob Unruh
May 7, 2009

A Louisiana driver was stopped and detained for having a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker on his vehicle and warned by a police officer about the "subversive" message it sent, according to the driver's relative.

The situation developed in the small town of Ball, La., where a receptionist at the police department told WND she knew nothing about the traffic stop, during which the "suspect" was investigated for "extremist" activities, the relative said.

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Interrogation Memos: Inquiry Suggests No Charges
The New York Times
By David Johnston and Scott Shane
May 6, 2009

An internal Justice Department inquiry has concluded that Bush administration lawyers committed serious lapses of judgment in writing secret memorandums authorizing brutal interrogations but that they should not be prosecuted, according to government officials briefed on its findings.

The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal ethics unit within the Justice Department, is also likely to ask state bar associations to consider possible disciplinary action, which could include reprimands or even disbarment, for some of the lawyers involved in writing the legal opinions, the officials said.

The conclusions of the 220-page draft report are not final and have not yet been approved by Attorney General Eric J Holder, Jr.  The officials said that it is possible that the final report might be subject to further revision but that they did not expect major alterations in its main findings or recommendations.

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President Obama is morphing into old rival Hillary Clinton
Politico
By Alex Conant
May 6, 2009

A year ago today, with returns rolling in from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, the late Tim Russert so famously declared, “We now know who the Democratic nominee will be, and nobody is going to dispute it.”

Russert was right, but Hillary Clinton, nevertheless, kept campaigning for several more weeks, fueled by her supporters’ convictions that her proposals were better than Obama’s.

After barely 100 days in office, it now appears Obama agrees: Since taking office, he has dropped virtually every position that distinguished him from Clinton.

Granted, there were not many policy differences between Obama and Clinton during the campaign. But those that existed were sharply debated and helped Obama define himself as the pragmatic change agent that many voters now believe him to be.

Take Iraq. Obama never missed an opportunity on the campaign trail to remind Democrats that he was the sole candidate to oppose the war in 2002, and — unlike Clinton — he had a hard date for ending the war. Clinton repeatedly questioned the wisdom and sincerity of Obama’s pledge to remove all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. It was the biggest difference between the two candidates — and one of the top reasons Obama won the nomination.

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Israel would inform, not ask U.S. before hitting Iran
Reuters 
By Dan Williams
May 6, 2009

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - When he first got word of Israel's sneak attack on the Iraqi atomic reactor in 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan privately shrugged it off, telling his national security adviser: "Boys will be boys!"

Would Barack Obama be so sanguine if today's Israelis made good on years of threats and bombed Iran's nuclear facilities, yanking the United States into an unprecedented Middle East eruption that could dash his goal of easing regional tensions through revived and redoubled U.S. outreach?

For that matter, would Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu readily take on Iran alone, given his country's limited firepower and the risk of stirring up a backlash against the Jewish state among war-weary, budget-strapped Americans?

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AIPAC launches push for Iran sanctions
Politico
By Andrew Glass
May 4, 2009

These are challenging times for AIPAC, the nation’s pre-eminent pro-Israeli lobby.

Just how challenging will become more evident on Tuesday when some 6,500 delegates to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee fan out on Capitol Hill for more than 500 separate meetings with lawmakers and key aides aimed largely at dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat against the Jewish state.

“Tomorrow is the day the rubber meets the road,” AIPAC president David Victor told the conferees Monday before they disbursed for regionally oriented pre-lobbying briefings at the Washington Convention Center. “This is a moment of danger… We are the only constituency in America making this [anti-Iranian] case.”

Victor noted that Congress is embroiled in a host of top priority domestic issues, including the ailing U.S. economy and soaring federal deficits. These issues, he feared, could adversely impact legislative backing for a pending foreign aid bill that AIPAC hopes would contain nearly $2.8 billion in security aid to Israel.

This year, AIPAC has trained its heaviest lobbying guns at securing passage of newly introduced legislation that would require President Barack Obama to sanction foreign firms that sell, ship or insure gasoline and diesel fuel to Iran – unless the Iranians succumb to diplomatic pressure and agree to drop their long-standing nuclear ambitions.

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Buying Brand Obama
Common Dreams
By Chris Hedges
May 4, 2009

Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

What, for all our faith and hope, has the Obama brand given us? His administration has spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion in taxpayer dollars to Wall Street and insolvent banks in a doomed effort to reinflate the bubble economy, a tactic that at best forestalls catastrophe and will leave us broke in a time of profound crisis. Brand Obama has allocated nearly $1 trillion in defense-related spending and the continuation of our doomed imperial projects in Iraq, where military planners now estimate that 70,000 troops will remain for the next 15 to 20 years. Brand Obama has expanded the war in Afghanistan, including the use of drones sent on cross-border bombing runs into Pakistan that have doubled the number of civilians killed over the past three months. Brand Obama has refused to ease restrictions so workers can organize and will not consider single-payer, not-for-profit health care for all Americans. And Brand Obama will not prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes, including the use of torture, and has refused to dismantle Bush's secrecy laws or restore habeas corpus. 

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Italy Seizes Millions in Assets From Four Banks
New York Times
By Claudio Gatto
April 27, 2009

With municipal bonds investigations spreading to Europe from the United States, Italian authorities have seized about $300 million in assets of four global banks — JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Depfa — whose officials have been accused of fraud.

The Guardia di Finanza in Milan, the financial police of Italy, took over real estate properties, bank accounts and stock holdings on Monday to assure it could collect from the banks if their officials were found guilty and the banks were held responsible.

The seizures stem from the banks’ handling of a $2.2 billion municipal bond issue and related financial contracts known as swaps that Milan undertook to retire other debt in June 2005. The lead prosecutor accused the bankers of misleading the city and falsely claiming that the deal would generate savings. If all the costs had been properly included, the prosecutor said, the entire deal would have been illegal under a national law that allows restructuring of debt only if it produces a savings.

Alfredo Robledo, the prosecutor in Milan, suspects the banks made $130 million in illicit profits, according to information obtained in a joint investigation by the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore and The International Herald Tribune. He is also investigating transactions by the banks with other local Italian governments and the possibility that public officials received kickbacks.

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