Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Guns & Ammo Editor's Hope For "Healthy Exchange of Ideas" Costs Him His Job
Slate | Josh Voorhees | 11/07/13

Guns & Ammo editor Jim Bequette says he was hoping to generate a "healthy exchange of ideas on gun rights" when he decided to publish a column that veered ever-so slightly from the the usual from-my-cold-dead-hands rhetoric normally found in the pages of his magazine. It's safe to say that effort didn't go exactly as he had hoped.

After a swift and vocal backlash from readers and other Second Amendment enthusiasts, Bequette announced yesterday that he was stepping down immediately, and that the magazine was also cutting ties with the author of the piece in question, contributing editor Dick Metcalf. "I made a mistake by publishing the column," Bequette wrote in an apologetic letter to readers. "I thought it would generate a healthy exchange of ideas on gun rights. I miscalculated, pure and simple. I was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness." ... Read more
Original article

A Malaysian Businessman Allegedly Traded Hookers and Lady Gaga Tickets for Navy Secrets
Slate | Dan Gartland | 11/04/13

The Associated Press brings us the latest details on a wide-ranging Navy corruption case that first came to light last month. Hookers? Check. Lady Gaga tickets? Check. A stage performance of The Lion King? Check.

Based on the court documents the AP got a look at it's unclear whether prosecutors are building a case against U.S. Navy officer Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz and Leonard Francis, a big-spending Malaysian defense contractor known as "Fat Leonard," or simply trying to create the greatest SEO line of all time. ... Read more

Hillary's Nightmare? A Democratic Party That Realizes Its Soul Lies With Elizabeth Warren
newrepublic.com | Noam Scheiber | 11/10/13

We're three years from the next presidential election, and Hillary Clinton is, once again, the inevitable Democratic nominee. Congressional Republicans have spent months investigating her like she already resides in the White House.

... On one side is a majority of Democratic voters, who are angrier, more disaffected, and altogether more populist than they've been in years. They are more attuned to income inequality than before the Obama presidency and more supportive of Social Security and Medicare.1 They've grown fonder of regulation and more skeptical of big business.2 A recent Pew poll showed that voters under 30--who skew overwhelmingly Democratic--view socialism more favorably than capitalism. Above all, Democrats are increasingly hostile to Wall Street and believe the government should rein it in. ...

... A Clinton-Warren matchup would have all sorts of consequences, none of them especially heartwarming. The most immediate is that Warren would probably lose. Though Warren has been boning up on a variety of policy areas in periodic dinners with experts--she told me there are several issues beyond Wall Street "we need to have frank conversations" about without naming specifics--she remains a work in progress as a politician. She is still pedestrian in front of a crowd despite her strengths as a questioner and debater, and her Senate campaign last year was bumpier than it should have been. At this stage in their careers, Clinton is simply easier to visualize as president. "Does Elizabeth Warren . . . cross some kind of experience threshold, a presidential threshold? ... Read more