Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

No Wonder So Many Are Disillusioned by Our Politics -- We've Got an 18th Century Political System
AlterNet | Steven Hill | 11/26/12

In 2008, an economic earthquake of historic proportions shook the world. That was followed by numerous aftershocks whose effects are still being felt years later. In the middle of the economic crash, a new audacity of hope arrived in the form of the first African American president elected in U.S. history. It was a jubilant moment showing America at its best, taking a giant step toward the dream of a multiracial society.

The very campaign of Barack Obama, which drew in unprecedented numbers of young people, seemed to auger a new era in politics that held out the potential for a badly needed transformation. Time magazine featured the face of President-elect Obama on its cover, photoshopped into a likeness of President Franklin Roosevelt complete with tipped cigarette holder and grey fedora. It seemed that a new New Deal was on the horizon for an America suffering from the ravages of a historic economic collapse. ... Read more

Study: 4 Trillion Tons of Ice Melt Raising Seas at Alarming Rate
commondreams.org | staff | 11/30/12

Concluding what colleagues are calling an 'unprecedented' and exhaustive study, scientists on Thursday said they can report "definitively" that the ice sheets of both Antarctica and Greenland are, indeed, melting and that as global temperatures continue to soar this melting will lead to continued and drastic sea level increases. ... Read more

*Chart Of The Day: The Wageless, Savingsless US Consumer
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/30/12

For a country in which the consumer is responsible for 70% of GDP, one wonders: without savings and without wages where will this "recovery" we hear so much propaganda about and which every investment bank this week went all in on (just like they did in the end of 2010 only to admit their error 4 months later) come from? Because every now and then it helps to step back from the trees and observe the forest. ... Read more
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A Look at the Numbers Behind Obamacare
Bill Moyers | Author | 11/27/12

... Although Obamacare will have a hefty price tag, most of the burden will be carried by the federal government. If every state accepted the Medicaid expansion, an additional 21.3 million people would be enrolled by 2022, increasing the number of Americans on Medicaid by 41 percent. ... Read more

Morgan's Green Soup
myvega.com | Author | date

For the final recipe of our comfort soup series, we are sharing Morgan's hearty Green Soup. There is so much veggie goodness in this soup, we aren't sure where she fits it all! Plant-based powerhouses kale, spinach, swiss chard, broccoli and asparagus give this soup its signature colour. Coconut milk ads a delicious creaminess. ... Read more

sweet potato latkes with vegan sour cream
sweetbeetandgreenbean.net | Author | 12/22/08

Traditional latkes, while delicious, can be somewhat dull -- i substituted beautifully colored sweet potatoes for the standard russet, spiced it up with some indian flavors and used a little blended silken tofu as both an egg replacer and a main ingredient. ... Read more

Black Friday Special! Festival of Minimum-Wage Ideas
The Atlantic | James Fallows | 11/23/12

Just before Thanksgiving, following the observations of a Boston bartender, I published messages from several readers on the importance of raising the minimum wage. In real terms, the minimum wage has gone steadily down; these readers argued that keeping it even with inflation, or better yet moving it substantially ahead, would help lower-income Americans while not hurting the economy as a whole. ... Read more

Whistleblower: Nuclear Disaster in America Is More Likely Than the Public Is Aware of
AlterNet | William Boardman | 11/28/12

... The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has known at least since 1996 that flooding danger from upstream dam failure was a more serious threat than the agency would publicly admit. The NRC failed from 1996 until 2011 to assess the threat even internally. In July 2011, the NRC staff completed a report finding "that external flooding due to upstream dam failure poses a larger than expected risk to plants and public safety " [emphasis added] but the NRC did not make the 41-page report public. ... Read more

Ugly Q3 GDP Confirms Personal Consumption Collapsing; Headline "Growth" Driven By Government, Inventory Accumulation
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/29/12

One glance at today's second read of Q3 GDP may leave some with the false impression that the US economy is soaring, because after sliding to 1.3% in Q2, and after a preliminary read of 2.0% in the first Q3 estimate, today's print, which missed estimates of a 2.8% print, did nonetheless rise to 2.7%. "A stunning success" ...

... Absolutely wrong. Because a quick glance at the underlying numbers shows the true picture of the economy which contracted far more than most expected, with personal consumption collapsing to 1.4% Q/Q, on hopes of a 1.9% rise, and down from 2.0%. In fact, at 0.99% personal consumption expenditures - the core driver of 70% of the US economy - were a tiny 36% of the headline number. ... Read more

Will Tim Geithner Lead Us Over or Around the Fiscal Cliff?
robertreich.org | Robert B. Reich | 11/27/12

Outgoing Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner, whom Monday's Wall Street Journal described as a "pragmatic deal maker" because of "his long relationship with former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, for whom balancing the budget was a priority over other Democratic touchstones." ...

... Geithner has followed in Rubin's path -- engineering a no-strings Wall Street bailout that didn't require the Street to help stranded homeowners, didn't demand the Street agree to a resurrection of the Glass-Steagall Act, and didn't seek to cap the size of the biggest bank, which in the wake of the bailout have become much bigger. ... Read more

The Huge Impact of Israel's Energy Reserves
meforum.org | Lawrence Solomon | 11/08/12

Lawrence Solomon, a Canadian environmentalist and energy expert, is executive director of the public policy institute, Energy Probe Research Foundation in Toronto. On November 8, 2012, Mr. Solomon addressed the Middle East Forum via conference call on the topic of Israel's energy reserves and its impact upon the region. ... Read more

Oil, gas discoveries, a potential Israel-Lebanon conflict
yalibnan.com | Author | 11/02/10

The recent discoveries of massive gas fields off the coast of northern Israel, tantalizingly close to Lebanese coastal waters, has stirred cash-strapped Lebanon to accelerate efforts to begin its own oil and gas exploration. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, November 29 [15:31]

*The United States of ALEC: Bill Moyers on the Corporate-Legislative Body Writing Our Laws [16:44]

*ALEC Rock (07/24/12) [2:25]

Good News For Animal Lovers: Factory Farming's Days May Be Numbered
AlterNet | GlobalPossibilities.org | 11/27/12

In one of history's most stunning victories for humane farming, Australia's largest supermarket chain, Coles, will as of January 1 stop selling company branded pork and eggs from animals kept in factory farms. As an immediate result, 34,000 mother pigs will no longer be kept in stalls for long periods of their lives, and 350,000 hens will be freed from cages. ...

... Meanwhile, in the United States, egg factory farms cram more than 90 percent of the country's 280 million egg-laying hens into barren cages so small the birds can't even spread their wings. Each bird spends her entire life given less space than a sheet of paper. And in a reality that does not please fans of Wilber or Babe, between 60 to 70 percent of the more than five million breeding pigs in the United States are kept in crates too small for them to so much as turn around.

There are laws against cruelty to animals in the United States, but most states specifically exempt animals destined for human consumption. The result is that the animal agriculture industry routinely does things to animals that, if you did them to a dog or a cat, would get you put in jail. ... Read more

Paul McCartney | "If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls" [13:04]

Dick Durbin: Social Security Should Be Off The Fiscal Cliff Table
HP | Author | 11/27/12

Social Security does not contribute to the federal deficit and should not be a part of ongoing negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday, in a speech billed as a "major address making the progressive case for a bipartisan fiscal cliff deal." ... Read more

9 Greedy CEOs Trying to Shred the Safety Net While Pigging Out on Corporate Welfare
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 11/27/12

A gang of brazen CEOs has joined forces to promote economically disastrous and socially irresponsible austerity policies. Many of those same CEOs were bailed out by the American taxpayer after a Wall Street-driven financial crash. Instead of a thank-you, they are showing their appreciation in the form of a coordinated effort to rob Americans of hard-earned retirements, decent medical care and relief for the poorest. ... Read more

The Scariest Chart Of The Quarter: Student Debt Bubble Officially Pops As 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Goes Parabolic
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/27/12

As of September 30, Federal (not total, just Federal) rose to a gargantuan $956 billion, an increase of $42 billion in the quarter - the biggest quarterly update since 2006. Read more

The Next Subprime Crisis Is Here: Over $120 Billion In Federal Student Loans In Default
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/28/12

we presented one of the most exhaustive presentations on the state of the student debt bubble, one question that has always evaded greater scrutiny has been the very critical default rate for student borrowers: a number which few if any lenders and colleges openly disclose for fears the general public would comprehend not only the true extent of the student loan bubble, but that it has now burst. ... Read more

BP Suspended By EPA From New Contracts With Federal Government
HP | Josh Lederman | 11/28/12

The Obama administration put a temporary stop to new federal contracts with British oil company BP on Wednesday, citing the company's "lack of business integrity" and criminal proceedings stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.   The action by the Environmental Protection Administration won't affect current contracts, but prevents BP and its affiliates from new government contracts "until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets federal business standards," the agency said. ... Read more

Corporation Uses NAFTA to Sue Canada for $250 Million Over Fracking Ban
Common Dreams | Author | 11/27/12

A US company is taking advantage of a corporate-friendly NAFTA provision in suing the Canadian government for over $250 million due to lost profits from Quebec's moratorium on fracking. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, November 28 [11:57]

*China Unveils New Killer Drones, Aims Them at Russia
Wired Magazine | Robert Beckhusen | 11/27/12

Watch out, Vladimir Putin: China's drone fleet is getting real. And judging from how Beijing is promoting its robots to the outside world, they're aimed straight at Russia ... Read more

U.S. Buys Yemen a Fleet of Spy Planes for Growing Shadow War
Wired Magazine | Spencer Ackerman | 11/27/12

It's not enough for Yemen's skies to fill up with armed U.S. drones. Now the Pentagon wants to buy its Yemeni ally small, piloted spy planes. It's a sign that the U.S. is upgrading the hardware it gives the Yemeni military, and digging in for a long shadow war. ... Read more

Elon Musk Wants to Build 80,000-Person Mars Colony
Wired Magazine | Adam Mann | 11/26/12

Elon Musk doesn't just want to send a person to Mars -- he wants to send 80,000. According to Space.com, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX spilled details about his hopes for a future Mars colony during a talk at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Nov. 16. ... Read more

Gipsy pickpockets' palaces: The mansions built by Romanian family of thieves who robbed train passengers while they slept
dailymail.co.uk | Rebecca Camber | 02/24/12

These are the gaudy mansions the family of Roma gipsies built after stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from commuters, snatching mobile phones and cash as they dozed on late-night trains from London to Kent. .. Read more

'They didn't deserve to die': Outrage after popular students are found murdered in man's basement after 'they robbed his home on Thanksgiving'
dailymail.co.uk | Lydia Warren | 11/26/12

Friends and family have expressed their outrage over the deaths of two popular students shot by a homeowner while they robbed his home - as he revealed he fired 'more shots than he needed to'.   The bodies of cousins Haile Kifer, 18, and Nicholas Brady Schaeffel, 17, were found in Byron Smith's basement in Little Falls, Minnesota on Friday - the day after they were shot dead on Thanksgiving. ... Read more

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Pentagon: "A Human Will Always Decide When a Robot Kills You"
Wired Magazine | Spencer Ackerman | 11/26/12

The Pentagon wants to make perfectly clear that every time one of its flying robots releases its lethal payload, it's the result of a decision made by an accountable human being in a lawful chain of command. Human rights groups and nervous citizens fear that technological advances in autonomy will slowly lead to the day when robots make that critical decision for themselves. But according to a new policy directive issued by a top Pentagon official, there shall be no SkyNet, thank you very much. ... Read more

The US Government Is Data Mining You
MotherJones | Tom Engelhardt | 04/03/12

I was out of the country only nine days, hardly a blink in time, but time enough, as it happened, for another small, airless room to be added to the American national security labyrinth. On March 22nd, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Jr. signed off on new guidelines allowing the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a post-9/11 creation, to hold on to information about Americans in no way known to be connected to terrorism -- about you and me, that is -- for up to five years. ... Read more

The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
Wired Magazine | James Bamford | 03/15/12

... For the NSA, overflowing with tens of billions of dollars in post-9/11 budget awards, the cryptanalysis breakthrough came at a time of explosive growth, in size as well as in power. Established as an arm of the Department of Defense following Pearl Harbor, with the primary purpose of preventing another surprise assault, the NSA suffered a series of humiliations in the post-Cold War years. Caught offguard by an escalating series of terrorist attacks -- the first World Trade Center bombing, the blowing up of US embassies in East Africa, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and finally the devastation of 9/11 -- some began questioning the agency's very reason for being. In response, the NSA has quietly been reborn. And while there is little indication that its actual effectiveness has improved -- after all, despite numerous pieces of evidence and intelligence-gathering opportunities, it missed the near-disastrous attempted attacks by the underwear bomber on a flight to Detroit in 2009 and by the car bomber in Times Square in 2010 -- there is no doubt that it has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created. ... Read more

Ehud Barak, Israel Defense Minister, Quits Politics
HP | Amy Teibel | 11/26/12/span>

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday abruptly announced he was quitting politics, injecting new turmoil into the Israeli political system weeks ahead of general elections.   Barak, Israel's most-decorated soldier and one-time prime minister, said he would stay on in his current post until a new government is formed following the Jan. 22 balloting. ... Read more

ROLL OVER, GROVER
HP | Nick Wing | 11/26/12

Open criticism of Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform group's anti-tax pledge continued to make its way to the forefront of debate on Monday, with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) saying that his only real obligation was to serve his constituents by finding a long-term solution to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff." ... Read more

Mary Schapiro Resigning: SEC Head To Step Down
HP | Marcy Gordon | 11/26/12

... Schapiro will leave Dec. 14, the SEC said Monday. She was appointed by Obama in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. She took over after the agency failed to detect the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. ...

... Under Schapiro, the SEC reached its largest settlement ever with a financial institution. Goldman Sachs & Co. agreed in July 2010 to pay $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled investors about mortgage securities before the housing market collapsed in 2007. Similar settlements followed with Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others.   The Goldman case came to symbolize a lingering critique of Schapiro's tenure: No senior executives were singled out. The penalty amounted to roughly two weeks of earnings at Goldman. And Goldman was allowed to settle the charges without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, as were other large banks that faced similar charges. ... Read more

Walmart Heirs Have As Much Wealth As Bottom 40 Percent Of Americans Combined
thinkprogress.org | Pat Garofalo | 07/17/12

... And in 2010, as the Walton's wealth has risen and most other Americans' wealth declined, it is now the case that the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families in the wealth distribution (constituting 41.5 percent of all American families) combined. ... Read more

Top Reasons the Walton Family and Walmart are NOT "Job Creators"
walmart1percent.org | Author | n/a

We recently heard the astounding statistic that 6 members of the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, have a total wealth of $93 billion -- more than the bottom 30% of Americans combined. At the same time, the family, which controls nearly 50% of company stock is raking in more than $2 billion/year in stock dividends alone.   Some have responded to criticism of the Waltons by arguing that the family is helping to create much needed jobs. Sadly for U.S. workers and families, the facts just don't support this statement. Here are the facts. ... Read more

To Match Walton Heirs' Fortune, You'd Need to Work at Walmart for 7 Million Years
MotherJones | Josh Harkinson | 09/02/12

Just how rich are the Waltons? According to the latest edition of the Forbes 400, released yesterday, the six wealthiest heirs to the Walmart empire are together worth a staggering $115 billion. This marks the first time in American history that one family has controlled a 12-figure fortune. While the nation's richest person is still Bill Gates, the sixth-, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-richest Americans are all Waltons. ... Read more

Billionaire donors drive anti-teacher, pro-testing education reform agenda
dailykos.com | Laura Clawson | 05/20/12

... When Bill Gates, or the Walmart Waltons, or former SunAmerica CEO Eli Broad, pour millions of tax-deductible dollars through their charitable foundations into education, they don't suddenly cease to be people who inherited or made billions of dollars in the corporate world and magically become noble, pure-hearted philanthropists completely divorced from politics with only the non-politicized good of humanity in mind. ... Read more

Egypt President Mohamed Morsi Seizes New Powers, Called 'Pharaoh'
Reuters | Author | 11/23/12

CAIRO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's decree that put his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament was elected caused fury amongst his opponents on Friday who accused him of being the new Hosni Mubarak and hijacking the revolution. ... Read more

How Israeli Drone Pilots Made Their Life-and-Death Choices Over Gaza
WiredMagazine | Noah Shachtman | new & old

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas has settled into an uneasy ceasefire. But that won't stop Israel's drones from filling the skies over Gaza. In this 2009 story, written during the final days of the last Israel-Hamas conflict, we took a look at how one drone pilot grappled with the moral choices that came with remotely spying, and ordering death, from above. ... Read more

Pentagon Wants to Keep Running Its Afghan Drug War From Blackwater's HQ
WiredMagazine | Spencer Ackerman | 11/21/12

Inside a compound in Kabul called Camp Integrity, the Pentagon stations a small group of officers to oversee the U.S. military's various operations to curb the spread of Afghanistan's cash crops of heroin and marijuana, which help line the Taliban's pockets. Only Camp Integrity isn't a U.S. military base at all. It's the 10-acre Afghanistan headquarters of the private security company formerly known as Blackwater.

Those officers work for an obscure Pentagon agency called the Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office, or CNTPO. Quietly, it's grown into one of the biggest dispensers of cash for private security contractors in the entire U.S. government: One pile of contracts last year from CNTPO was worth more than $3 billion. And it sees a future for itself in Afghanistan over the long haul. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, November 23 [58:56]

TRNN | Hamas Has Been Willing to Negotiate a Peace Deal Based on '67 borders (11/22/12) [6:24]

Target, Walmart, and Other Big-Box Stores Abolish Thanksgiving
MotherJones | Josh Harkinson | 11/15/12

People who work in America's big-box stores don't have much to be thankful for, so maybe it's for the best that many of them can no longer celebrate Thanksgiving.

At Walmart, Target, and numerous other large retailers, Black Friday has become Black Thursday--a day that's much darker because it puts corporate profits ahead of, well, pretty much everything else that our country is supposed to care about. ... Read more

Israel Gaza Offensive Facts And Figures
HP | Josef Federman | 11/20/12

With little notice, Israel has launched a blistering air offensive against the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group. Here's a look at why the violence erupted, the goals of the warring sides and how it may end: ... Read more

HuffPost Social Reading Tel Aviv Bus Explosion: Blast Injures 27 Across From Military Headquarters
HP | Ariel David | 11/21/12

A bomb exploded aboard an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding 27 people, delivering a major blow to diplomatic efforts to forge a truce to end a week of fighting between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers. Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in Gaza fearing Israeli airstrikes.

Hours after the bus blast, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is shuttling across the region in truce talks, arrived in Cairo and met with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who is mediating between Israel and Hamas to end the fighting that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis. ... Read more

Applebee's Waitress 'Disgusted' By Anti-Obamacare CEOs' Wealthy Lifestyles
HP | Janean Chun | 11/21/12

When Krista Trovato learned that an Applebee's franchise owner and the CEO of Papa John's were railing against the costs of implementing the Affordable Care Act, she said she felt "disgusted."   A former Applebee's waitress, Trovato struggled to afford food for her family on a salary of $2.85 an hour plus tips. Health insurance was a far-off dream for the Pittsburgh-based 43-year-old, who left her job at a Washington, Pa. location of the restaurant chain two years ago. ... Read more

Dan Senor, Mitt Romney Adviser, Blasts Republicans For Deserting Candidate After Loss
HP | Nick Wing | 11/21/12

Dan Senor, a top adviser to former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, on Wednesday accused Republicans within the former presidential candidate's inner circle of being fair weather fans, all too eager to throw Romney under the bus only days after his defeat.   Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Senor called the trend "stunning," before taking aim at unnamed Republican officials who he said sought to cozy up to Romney when they believed he was on his way to a victory over President Barack Obama. ... Read more

The Israel-Hamas Conflict, Explained
MotherJones | Dana Liebelson | 11/16-/12

Tax loopholes alone can't solve fiscal cliff
Politico | Lauren French | 11/20/12

Raise revenues and reform the Tax Code? Easy -- just eliminate all the tax loopholes, right? Good luck with that. "Eliminating loopholes" sounds a lot better than "raising rates": The tax rate is what I pay, and a loophole is what the other guy gets.

But the biggest loopholes in the U.S. Tax Code -- generally referred to as tax expenditures -- aren't just the tricks of the trade for millionaires with offshore bank accounts. For the vast majority of Americans, they're just how things work: You don't pay taxes on your health insurance or Medicare benefits; you contribute tax-free to your 401(k); and your mortgage interest pushes down your tax bill each year. And even if you dump the biggest of the set, these tax perks don't even come close to closing the deficit. At best, the top 10 would pull in an extra $834 billion a year, according to Joint Committee on Taxation figures. Read more

Redford: The Beltway is a troubled place
Politico | Caitlin Mcdevitt | 11/20/12

Robert Redford wants to see climate change legislation prioritized in Washington, but he's not holding his breath.   "It's been tied up for so long, it's been bottled up for so long, it takes awhile to undo things," the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. "Particularly when you have elements still in play there that are living in the 1950s. And their points of view are so narrow and so ideologically driven that it's not likely you're going to see much change there. As a matter of fact, it might provoke them to be even more contentious. So I guess I put my hope more in the people, not so much in current government." Read more

Bill Moyers & Naomi Klein: How Climate Change Is an Historic Opportunity for Progressives
AlterNet | Bill Moyer | 11/19/12

Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine , says the tragic destruction of Hurricane Sandy can also be the catalyst for the transformation of politics and our economy. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders in a Fiery Speech: Do Not Cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid
AlterNet | Staff | 11/16/12

The progressive stalwart says we can't balance the budget on the backs of the poor.   A coalition of lawmakers led by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders joined yesterday to demand there be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid made during deficit reduction deals. ... Read more

Washington's Brand of Crony Capitalist Medicine
Alliance for Natural Health | Author | 11/13/12

Does AARP really speak for the elderly? Or the AMA for doctors? ... ... Consider AARP. It gets only about 20% of its revenue from its members. Over 50% comes from its medical insurance business where it has the largest share of "Medigap" policies, the policies that fill in the holes in traditional Medicare. When the administration sought AARP's support for the Affordable Care Act, it promised to exempt Medigap policies from the requirement that insurers could not turn away people with preexisting conditions. Not only that, it also promised to exempt Medigap policies from rate review. (Ordinarily, health insurance companies must tell consumers when they want to increase insurance rates for individual or small group policies by an average of 10% or more.) In the end, Medigap was exempted from most of the law. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, November 20 [11:52]

Terminator - Skynet [2:50]

Bill Moyers & Naomi Klein: How Climate Change Is an Historic Opportunity for Progressives (11/19/12) [32:01]

Bernie Sanders | Hands Off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (11/15/12) [8:11]

Black Report: Craziness on Three Continents (11/20/12) [9:03]

The Fall of the American Empire
Tomdispatch.com | Tom Engelhardt | 11/20/12

History, it is said, arrives first as tragedy, then as farce. First as Karl Marx, then as the Marx Brothers. In the case of twenty-first century America, history arrived first as George W. Bush (and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith and the Project for a New America -- a shadow government masquerading as a think tank -- and an assorted crew of ambitious neocons and neo-pundits); only later did David Petraeus make it onto the scene.

It couldn't be clearer now that, from the shirtless FBI agent to the "embedded" biographer and the "other other woman," the "fall" of David Petraeus is playing out as farce of the first order. What's less obvious is that Petraeus, America's military golden boy and Caesar of celebrity, was always smoke and mirrors, always the farce, even if the denizens of Washington didn't know it. ... Read more

Where Does Milllons in Pentagon Contracts Go?
MotherJones | Nick Turse | 11/15/12

... The figures are telling, but far from complete. They do not, for example, cover any of the billions spent on work at the more than 1,000 US and coalition bases, outposts, and other facilities in Afghanistan or the thousands more manned by local forces. They also leave out construction projects undertaken in the region by other military services like the US Air Force, as well as money spent at an unspecified number of bases in the Middle East that the Corps of Engineers "has no involvement with." ... Read more

Papa John's faces food fight over Obamacare
Politico | Kevin Robillard | 11/15/12

Eating Papa John's has gone political.   More than 17,000 Facebook users plan to eat at the pizza chain on Friday to support the company's founder and CEO, John Schnatter, who has said President Barack Obama's health care reform law will cause prices to jump by 11 to 14 cents per pizza, and has said employee hours may be scaled back. ... Read more

Is Obama About to Take Over the Internet?
MotherJones | Dana Liebelson | 11/16/12

... The Obama administration has tried the legislative route, but the latest cybersecurity bill the president backed failed in the Senate on Wednesday, making the White House even more likely to go ahead with the executive order. "The current prospects for a comprehensive bill are limited, and the risk is too great for the administration not to act," Hayden says.   Even Jaycox, the EFF policy analyst who had worries about the order, notes that the government already regulates chemical plants, electric grids, and railroads. Obama's executive order would simply put those practices in place in the virtual landscape. Read more

Embrace the Fiscal Cliff
on Bill Moyers | Simon Johnson | 11/07/12

... The immediate effect on the economy of the full repeal of the Bush cuts would be more dramatic than the administration wants -- and the president campaigned against rising taxes on the middle class. But once he has vetoed Bush cuts, President Obama can immediately propose a new set of tax cuts -- the Obama tax cuts -- to Congress. These would cut taxes for lower income Americans, for example by lowering payroll taxes (which should also encourage job creation). Would the House Republicans really vote against a tax cut for 100 million Americans? ... Read more

Israel Gears Up For Gaza Invasion
HP | Ibrahim Barzak | 11/15/12

... "I ordered the military today to widen the draft of reserve soldiers in order to be able to be ready for any development," Barak said. Military officials said the moves were to prepare for the possibility of a ground invasion, but stressed no decision had been made. Israel TV stations, however, said a ground offensive was expected Friday. ... Read more

The Real Romney
Slate | William Saletan | 11/15/12

Six months ago at a high-dollar fundraising dinner, Mitt Romney was secretly recorded as he criticized the "47 percent" of Americans "who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it." Romney told his donors: "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." ...

... But now we have a second recording. It documents another conversation between Romney and his wealthiest contributors. This conversation isn't six months, six weeks, or even six days old. It happened yesterday, on a conference call with Romney's finance committee. The recording bears an uncanny resemblance to the 47 percent video. It strongly suggests that the Romney in the video is the real thing, and the Romney on TV is a fraud. ... Read more

8 Election Myths You Probably Believe
Cracked.com | Robert Evans | 11/05/12

Right now is the stage in every American election season when most of us are pretty sure that this whole democracy thing was a mistake. So many terrible ads, so many lies, so many news stories focusing only on the stupidest elements of the process. Why do we even bother?   Well, damn it, we're here to tell you that it's not as bad as you think. In fact, some of what we hate most about the American democratic process aren't flaws at all -- they're actually what make the whole thing tick.

So let's knock down some of the more cynical myths, shall we? ... Read more

U.S. Stocks Fall Amid Concern About Fiscal Cliff, Greece
Bloomberg | Nikolaj Gammeltoft | 11/13/12

U.S. stocks dropped as concern mounted that the so-called fiscal cliff will harm the economy and as euro-area finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund failed to agree on how Greece will repay its debt. ... Read more

Gen. John Allen ensnared in Petraeus scandal
Politico | Mike Allen | 11/13/12

Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the four-star U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan, exchanged thousands of "potentially inappropriate" emails with Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who claimed to have been harassed by the ex-mistress of former CIA Director David Petraeus, a senior defense official told POLITICO early Tuesday. ... Read more

Why the GOP Quashed a Superb Report on Income Tax Rates for the Rich
Slate | Eliot Spitzer | 11/11/12

... The report notes that tax rates were at the highest when growth was at its peak, and that the reduction in rates has not had any discernible impact on the types of investment that lead to growth. Rather than acknowledge the findings, however, Senate Republicans successfully pressured the CRS to withdraw the report. It is reminiscent of a different era, when news the government didn't like was simply suppressed. ... Read more

What's Going on With the Fiscal Cliff?
MotherJones | Kevin Drum | 11/12/12

It's the handiwork of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the same guy who warned us about a "global savings glut" in 2005. In testimony before Congress earlier this year, he said that although it was a good idea to get deficits under control in the long term, it would be a bad idea to raise taxes and slash spending right away: ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, November 13 [4:40]

NPR | Ad Spending Per State in Millions of Dollars

TRNN | Divisions Over Iran Strike in Israeli Leadership Revealed (11/13/12) [10:55]

Tesla Model S Wins MotorTrend Car of the Year
Wired | Damon Lavrinc | 11/12/12

MotorTrend unanimously named the Tesla Model S its "Car of the Year," echoing our own sentiment that the all-electric sedan is more than a great EV. It's a great car. ... Read more

Pimco-to-DWS See Economy Escaping Cliff as Stocks Fall
Bloomberg | John Detrixhe | 11/12/12

The world's biggest investors say the rout that erased $1 trillion from the value of global equities after President Barack Obama was re-elected overlooks the fact that the world economy is improving while U.S. leaders start discussions that may avoid the so-called fiscal cliff ... Read more

Alaska's Methane Hydrate Resource Sparks Debate Over Energy And Climate Change
HP | Dan Joling | 11/11/12

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A half mile (800 meters) below the ground at Prudhoe Bay, above the vast oil field that helped trigger construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, a drill rig has tapped what might one day be the next big energy source. ...

... The world has a lot of methane hydrate. A Minerals Management Service study in 2008 estimated methane hydrate resources in the northern Gulf of Mexico at 21,000 trillion cubic feet (595 trillion cubic meters), or 100 times current U.S. reserves of natural gas. The combined energy content of methane hydrate may exceed all other known fossil fuels, according to the DOE. ... Read more

Charts: How Big Pork Screws Small Towns
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 11/12/12

I've argued often that the food system functions like an economic sieve, draining away wealth. Imagine, say, a suburb served by a handful of fast-food chains plus a supermarket or Walmart or two. Profits from residents' food dollars go to distant shareholders; what's left behind are essentially low-skill, low-wage clerical jobs and mountains of generally low-quality, health-ruining food. ... Read more

How Much Did Independent Groups Spend Per Vote on the Presidential Election?
Click to zoom

RBS, UBS Traders Said to Face Arrest in Libor Probe
Bloomberg | Lindsay Fortado | 11/09/12

U.K. prosecutors are poised to arrest former traders and rate setters at UBS AG (UBSN), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Barclays Plc within a month for questioning over their role in the Libor scandal, a person with knowledge of the probe said ... Read more

Hey, Rush Limbaugh: 'Starting an Abortion Industry' Won't Win You Female Voters
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/08/12

... Rush addressed the question with a long, passionate soliloquy. It was fascinating. Let me excerpt it here. He began with the difficult (for him) admission that his party is not doing well with minority groups. The emphasis here is mine:

It's being said once once again that the Republicans have an outreach problem, that we don't have Hispanics, we don't have blacks, and we don't have women and it's... Okay, fine, we don't, what are we supposed to do? ...

Hurricane Sandy and the Myth of the Big Government-vs.-Small-Government Debate
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/01/12

... Almost exactly four years ago, this is what the conservative Washington Times wrote about the outgoing president:

George W. Bush rode into Washington almost eight years ago astride the horse of smaller government. He will leave it this winter having overseen the biggest federal budget expansion since Franklin Delano Roosevelt seven decades ago.

Bush, it is true, consistently expanded the size of the federal bureaucracies almost across the board during his eight years in office, greatly increasing the size of government just in terms of sheer numbers and volume of spending, but that wasn't all he did. ...

Will Republican Mega-Donors Say Sayonara to Super-PACs?
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/09/12

Can't buy me gov.   That line neatly sums up the dismal showing on Election Day for the fundraisers, super-PAC strategists, and big-dollar donors of the Republican Party. Outside groups spent north of $1 billion this campaign season -- bankrolled mostly by a small cadre of wealthy contributors -- and yet they and their funders, especially on the Republican side, were left with little to show for it when the sun rose Wednesday morning. The GOP's flagship super-PAC, Karl Rove's American Crossroads, had an abysmal 1-percent return on its $104 million investment. Mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, invested $57 million in 2012 races; only 42 percent of the candidates who received Adelson support won. Other big donors -- say, Romney super-PAC backers -- got nothing for their money. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, November 9 [15:05]

TRNN | Obama Wins, Economy is Paralyzed (11/08/12) [20:21]

Corrina Rachel | What Not to Eat, Bad Food & Healthy Alternative Foods (02/17/12) [11:28]

Corrina Rachel | Are We Being Fattened Up Like Farm Animals? (01/30/12) [7:46]

Obama now gets a chance to remake his Cabinet, staff
McClathy | Anita Kumar | 111/08/12

... Already, a pair of high-profile officials -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- have said they'll step down.

No other Cabinet members have said they plan to leave, but the heads of the departments of Defense, Justice and Transportation may quit in the coming months. The position of commerce secretary already is vacant. ... Read more

Election Over, Global Crises Beckon in Obama's New Term
Bloomberg | Author | 11/07/12

Living with a democratic hegemon isn't easy. Every four years, as 300 million Americans convulse themselves with a presidential election, the other 6.6 billion people on the planet must wait as the candidates slug it out. ...

... Of course, many other global challenges loom for the second Obama administration, from a tottering European Union, to the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to North Korea, to a melting Arctic. But first things first. The world has been waiting. Time to get back to business -- until 2016, that is. ... Read more

Sherrod Brown: 'Karl Rove Had A Bad Night'
HP | John Celock | 11/07/12

... Brown also said it showed the need for campaign finance reform to "fix these awful kinds of campaign rules." The Democratic senator has been a critic of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates to corporate and anonymous spending from outside groups, and said he would continue to press for reform in the Senate. ... Read more

John Boehner Looks At Fiscal Cliff, Raises Prospect Of Grand Bargain, Nixes New Taxes
HP | Michael McAuliff | 11/07/12

House Speaker John Boehner wants his "grand bargain" back.   Moving quickly to put a disappointing election behind him, the Ohio Republican turned Wednesday to the fast-approaching "fiscal cliff" -- the paired economic threats of mandated trillion-dollar budget cuts that start Jan. 2 and expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts on Jan. 1. ... Read more

Paul Krugman: Obama Reelection A Victory For The 'Real America'
HP | Paul Krugman | 11/07/12

Paul Krugman would like to welcome you to the "Real America."   The New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist wrote in an early Tuesday morning blog post that President Obama's victory is a sign of a changing America that is no longer dominated by "non-urban white people." ... Read more

Obama's Re-Election Party Cut Short By Biggest Market Plunge In 1 Year
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/07/12

It is not going to be a new government that necessarily ushers in a whole new era of growth, prosperity and confidence. Even under the revered Ronald Reagan, the period of secular growth and bull market activity took two years to unfold -- it didn't happen right away. It took the inflationary excesses to be wrung out of the system and concrete signs that the executive and legislative branches could work together to usher in true fiscal reform -- and to get blue Democrats on board with reduced top marginal tax rates. Hope isn't generally a very useful strategy, but there is reason to be hopeful nonetheless. The critical issue is going to be how we get Washington to move back to the middle where it belongs. This requires bipartisanship which in turn requires leadership. Reagan's whole eight-year tenure in the 1980s occurred with the House being in Democrat hands the whole way through. Bill Clinton's second term coincided with both the House and Senate controlled by the Republicans.   It can be done! ... Read more

Mario Draghi Sends Risk Reeling After Exposing Bitter European Truth
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/07/12

And so finally, after months and months of explaining the fundamental dichotomy in Europe (see here), it is finally becoming transparent. And it is as follow: Germany, which is the economic dynamo of Europe, needs a weaker EURUSD to keep its export economy running. Period, end of Story. The problem is that the lower the EURUSD, the greater the implied and perceived EUR redenomination risk, which in turns send the periphery reeling, and will force first Spain, and then everyone else to eventually demand (not request) a bailout. ... Read more

Barack Obama Victory Speech: 'The Best Is Yet To Come'
Huffington Post | Jennifer Bendery | 11/07/12

CHICAGO -- President Barack Obama scored himself a second term in the White House on Tuesday, nabbing nearly all of the key battleground states and proving, resoundingly, that his message about lifting the middle class resonates with the majority of Americans. ... Read more

Everybody Talks About 'Simpson-Bowles' Again -- Here's What It Really Is
business Insider | Walter Hickey | 10/08/12

During last week's debate, the most searched-for topic on Google was "Simpson-Bowles".   The search frenzy came after mentions of the plan by both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.   So what were the candidates talking about? ... Read more

Was That It For This Round Of The "Housing Recovery"?
ZeroHedge | Author | 11/07/12

In the seven weeks since Bernanke unleashed monetary policy hell on the world, much has been made of the 'housing recovery' and how his policy will help sustain this boomlet. Unfortunately, facts being those annoying things that they are, this is absolutely not the case. Aside from a one week knee-jerk ramp in refinancings - no doubt driven by every mortgage broker in the country dialing-for-dollars on the basis that Ben's-got-your-back - mortgage applications have fallen for five weeks in a row... Read more

Election 2012: How The Winner Will Destroy America
ZeroHedge/alt-market.com | Author | 11/06/12

After all the hollow and uninspired elections that this country has suffered through over the past several decades, one might think that at some point long ago the American public would have finally struck a plateau of disenfranchisement; that we could sink no further into despondency, that there is a saturation limit to the corruption of our voting process. Unfortunately, there has been no such luck. I have to say that in all honesty I have never seen more people gut jumbled and disgusted with our electoral system than I have in 2012. Sure, there is still a hyper-gullible segment of the populous that continues to play the game, but even those idiots are beginning to admit that the choices offered are dismal at best, catastrophic at worst. The fog of the false Left/Right paradigm is starting to lift, and all that lay in its wake is a hoard of lost wide-eyed flabbergasted followers without a coattail or a talking point to cling to. Sudanese refugees have a better chance of survival than these people do… ... Read more

"Climate of Doubt" -- Money Buys Skepticism
climatesciencewatch.org | Jordan Nichols | 10/25/12

PBS FRONTLINE's "Climate of Doubt," an investigation of the global warming disinformation campaign and its sources of support, aired on October 23 and featured a number of prominent faces that will be familiar to readers of Climate Science Watch. And there are some newer players, hiding the anonymous funders who stand behind the denialist political operatives and court jesters. Sen. John Kerry said on the program, "American politics is being completely defined by huge sums of money. ... And it has now made many people in public life very gunshy because they are afraid of having those amounts of money spent against them." ... Read more

Mitt Romney Heckled: 'End Climate Silence!'
HP | Elise Foley | 11/01/12

... The man was standing near the front of the crowd and waited until a few minutes into Romney's speech to interrupt, just after the candidate urged his supporters to donate to victims of superstorm Sandy. The man held up a sign that read "End Climate Silence." The crowd shouted "U-S-A" and one man pulled away the sign. The heckler was then removed from the room. ... Read more

International Polls Indicate World Would Vote For Obama
HP | Eline Gordts | 11/05/12

If the world could vote for a U.S. president this week, the outcome would be less than a thriller. Several polls indicate the overwhelming majority of people outside of the U.S. would vote for Barack Obama if they had the chance.   According to a 21-nation poll conducted by GlobeScan/PIPA for the BBC World Service, an average of 50 percent of people surveyed abroad favor Obama. Only 9 percent of those polled prefer Romney, and in 20 out of 21 countries voters would chose Obama. ... Read more

Occupy Sandy Emerges As Relief Organization For 21st Century, Mastering Social Networks
HP | Lucas Kavner | 11/05/12

As local leaders and citizens complain of FEMA and the Red Cross and general government absences in their own neighborhoods, independent and local volunteer relief organizations have sprung up in droves, organized almost entirely through word of mouth and extensive social media campaigns. ... Read more

Million-Dollar Traders Replaced With Machines: Credit Markets
Bloomberg | Mary Childs | 11/06/12

Wall Street's credit-derivatives traders, who before the financial crisis commanded $2 million of annual pay, are being replaced by machines as banks cut costs and heed new regulations.   UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, fired its head of credit-default swaps index trading, David Gallers, last week, with no plan to fill the position, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, the bank replaced Gallers with computer algorithms that trade using mathematical models, said the people, who asked not to be identified because moves are private. ... Read more

Conspiracy of Silence: Wage Collapse Caused Crisis
HP | Jonathan Tasini | 01/06/09 (older)

Every day, there is another example of the conspiracy of silence that pervades the traditional media's description of the current economic crisis. Sure, de-regulation, greed and pure stupidity has a lot to do with it. But, in truth, the underlying reason for the collapse has been a persistent war on the wages of American workers. Call it -- egads -- class warfare. ... Read more

Biggest Holders of US Government Debt
Yahoo News | Paul Toscano | 02/03/12

... That's right, the biggest single holder of U.S. government debt is inside the United States and includes the Federal Reserve system and other intragovernmental holdings. Of this number, The Fed's system of banks owns approximately $1.65 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities (as of January 2012), while other U.S. intragovernmental holdings - which include large funds such as the Medicare Trust Fund and the Social Security Trust Fund - hold the rest.   In the monthly Treasury bulletin, both are combined into one category and the total accounts for a stunning $6.328 trillion in holdings as of September 2011 (the most recent number available). The amount is an all-time high as the Federal Reserve continues to expand its balance sheet, partially to purchase U.S. government debt securities. ... Read more

*Who Owns the U.S. National Debt?
about.com | Kimberly Amadeo | 09/12/12

Answer: The U.S. debt is more than $16 trillion. The U.S. has been able to run up such a huge debt because it always has the ability to pay it off by auctioning off more Treasury notes.   However, there is a debt ceiling set by Congress. Whenever the debt approaches this ceiling, legislators raise concerns about the ability of the U.S. to pay back its debt. It's of special concern now that the debt-to-GDP ratio has passed 100%. ... Read more

NEW (Part 2) 'Atlas Shrugged' Film Banks on Election Fever
WSJ | Don Steinberg | 10/05/12/span>

To a strict bottom-line capitalist, the new movie "Atlas Shrugged Part II" might not look like a model enterprise. "Atlas Shrugged Part I," released last year, cost businessman John Aglialoro about $25 million (and 19 years) to bring to the screen. Its domestic box-office take was a tepid $4.6 million. Critics' reviews, arguably, were worse

Few flops earn sequels. But Mr. Aglialoro, chief executive of exercise-equipment maker Cybex International CYBI 0.00% and a longtime disciple of "Atlas Shrugged" author Ayn Rand, thinks the timing is right. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he and fellow producer Harmon Kaslow, whose horror credits include "Cemetery Gates" and "Boo," have built their own studio, hopeful that a nation embroiled in debate over the distribution of wealth will put "Part II" in the black. .. Read more

Jeremiah Goulka, The Urge to Bomb Iran
TomDispatch.com | Jeremiah Goulka | 11/04/12

The Obama administration has engaged in a staggering military build-up in the Persian Gulf and at U.S. and allied bases around Iran (not to speak of in the air over that country and in cyberspace). Massive as it is, however, it hasn't gotten much coverage lately. Perhaps, after all the alarms and warnings about possible Israeli or U.S. military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities this election season, it's become so much the norm that it doesn't even seem like news anymore. ... Read more

Congressional Research Service Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP
HP | Ryan Grim | 11/01/12

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Senate Republicans applied pressure to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) in September, successfully persuading it to withdraw a report finding that lowering marginal tax rates for the wealthiest Americans had no effect on economic growth or job creation. ... Read more

Bill Clinton Cites Economist Kenneth Rogoff To Argue Obama Needs Four More Years
HP | Jon Ward | 11/01/12

... Clinton said Rogoff is a moderate Republican. And then he related a conversation he had with Rogoff after reading his book.   "I called him on the phone and I said, 'I read this very carefully. I just have a question. Do you believe that there's any way America could have fully recovered from that crash in four years?'" Clinton said. "He said, 'Lord no.'"   "He said, 'No serious person believes that.' He said, 'The average country takes 10 years,'" Clinton said. ... Read more

*Biggest campaign whoppers of 2012
MSN News | Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org | 11/02/12

FactCheck.org revisits the biggest falsehoods spread by both the Obama and Romney campaigns.

... For example, Romney just claimed that the bailed-out Chrysler Corp. is thinking of moving all Jeep production to China. Chrysler quickly denounced that as a falsehood. Romney's latest whopper is perhaps his payback for Obama's earlier accusation that Romney personally "shipped jobs to China" at a time when, in reality, Romney was running the 2002 Winter Olympics, not Bain Capital. Thus one whopper begets another. ... Read more

Chart: Almost Every Obama Conspiracy Theory Ever

MotherJones | Asawin Suebsaeng | current

Mother Jones Disclaimer: It should go without saying that none of these are true. Follow links at your own risk. Read more

Billionaires, shadowy groups fueled pricey election
MSN News | Jack Gillum | 10/31/12

The top super PAC donor this year is Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who contributed more than $40 million to Republican super PACs.

Billionaires, anonymous donors and shadowy outside groups funneled enormous amounts of money into this year's federal elections, as the cost of the presidential campaign surged past $2 billion and is expected to set a record. Despite grumbling among watchdog groups and even candidates themselves, don't expect serious changes any time soon. ... Read more

NSA Analyst Proves GOP Is Stealing Elections
UK Progressive | Denis G Campbell | 10/25/12

... This goes well beyond Romney's investment control in voting machine maker Hart Intercivic and Diebold's close ties to George W. Bush. Indeed all five voting machine companies have very strong GOP fundraising ties, yet executives (including the candidate's son Tagg Romney) insist there is no conflict between massively supporting one party financially whilst controlling the machines that record and count the votes.

A retired NSA analyst has spent several sleepless nights applying a simple formula to past election results across Arizona. His results showed across-the-board systemic election fraud on a coordinated and massive scale. But the analysis indicated that this only happens in larger precincts because anomalies in small precincts can be more easily detected. ... Read more

Exxon Beats Estimates as U.S. Oil Refineries Flourish
Bloomberg | Joe Carroll | 11/01/12

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world's largest energy company by market value, posted net income that exceeded the highest estimate from analysts as its U.S. refineries diminished the impact of lower oil output and prices.

... Exxon's profit from refining oil at U.S. plants soared 78 percent to $1.4 billion, even as the benchmark margin based on New York futures contracts dropped 5.2 percent. Oil and natural gas production from Exxon's wells fell to the lowest in three years as output slipped everywhere the company operates except for Africa and Australia, slashing so-called upstream profit by 29 percent to $5.97 billion ... Read more