Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Here Is The White House Spin On Today's Disappointing Economic Data
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/27/12

A massive 13% collapse in durable goods, the biggest since January 2009; a $20 billion miss to annualized Q2 GDP estimates, and well below the lowest estimate, 60+ weeks of constant upward BLS revisions to initial claims "data" and not to mention assorted atrocious economic (note: not to be confused with market - the two are now completely unlinked) data from around the globe. And what does the White House say: the data shows that the "US is making progress." We sure wouldn't want to know what it would look like if after 3 episodes of easing, trillions injected into the economy via the Fed, and of course $6 trillion in extra debt the US was not making progress. Oh and yes, everything else is Bush's fault. ... Read more

ALEC: The Scheme to Remake America, One State House at a Time
HuffingtonPost | Bill Moyers | 09/26/12

This week, we report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most Americans have never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership". But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge. ... Read more

This Presidential Race Should Never Have Been This Close
RollingStone| Matt Taibbi | 09/25/12

... All of these points of view have merit, I guess, but to me they're mostly irrelevant. The mere fact that Mitt Romney is even within striking distance of winning this election is an incredible testament to two things: a) the rank incompetence of the Democratic Party, which would have this and every other election for the next half century sewn up if they were a little less money-hungry and tried just a little harder to represent their ostensible constituents, and b) the power of our propaganda machine, which has conditioned all of us to accept the idea that the American population, ideologically speaking, is naturally split down the middle, whereas the real fault lines are a lot closer to the 99-1 ratio the Occupy movement has been talking about since last year.

Think about it. Four years ago, we had an economic crash that wiped out somewhere between a quarter to 40% of the world's wealth, depending on whom you believe. The crash was caused by an utterly disgusting and irresponsible class of Wall Street paper-pushers who loaded the world up with deadly leverage in pursuit of their own bonuses, then ran screaming to the government for a handout (and got it) the instant it all went south. ... Read more

Looting Main Street
RollingStone| Matt Taibbi | 03/31/10

... What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street -- and misery for people like Lisa Pack. ... Read more

Israel Tells the White House What to Do on Iran; Palestinians See Last Chance for Two-State Solution
HuffingtonPost | Evelyn Leopold | 09/28/12

In a polished presentation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a "red line" on a primitive diagram of a bomb -- arguing that Iran by next spring or early summer would be close to producing a nuclear weapon.   No doubt Netanyahu's drawing will go viral on the Internet but at least one Israeli columnist believes his aim was to reach a war-weary American public by simplifying a complex subject of centrifuges and enriched uranium. A photo of him drawing a red line on his sketch of a bomb is a sure front-pager. ... Read more

Investment Banking Fee Income Falls To Financial Crisis Levels On Europe Woes
Reuters | Author | 09/27/12

Global investment banking fees in the third quarter fell to their lowest since early 2009, according to data from Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting, as the euro zone debt crisis continued to unsettle markets and disrupt deal activity. ... Read more

Anti-Austerity Protests Break Out In Athens And Madrid
Reuters | Renee Maltezou | 09/26/12

Demonstrators clashed with police on the streets of Athens and Madrid on Wednesday in an upsurge of popular anger at new austerity measures being imposed on two of the euro zone's most vulnerable economies.

In some of the most violent confrontations, Greek police fired tear gas at hooded rioters hurling petrol bombs as thousands joined the country's biggest protest in more than a year.   The unrest erupted after nearly 70,000 people marched to the Greek parliament chanting "EU, IMF Out!" on the day of a general strike against further cuts demanded by foreign lenders. ... Read more

Does Monsanto Man Mitt Romney Secretly Eat Organic?
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 09/26/12

Mitt Romney hasn't divulged many details about what kind of agriculture policy he'd pursue as president. (Sound familiar?) But all signs suggest that he'd follow the agribiz party line. As Wayne Barrett showed in a recent Nation piece (my comment here), Romney has ties to agribusiness giant Monsanto that date to the '70s, when GMO seeds were an R&D project, not a business model. According to Barrett, Romney, then a young Bain consultant, helped nudge Monsanto on its path away from disgraced industrial chemical concern toward its current status as world-beating agribiz player. Then there's the agribiz execs and shills the GOP nominee tapped for his campaign's Agriculture Advisory Committee.   But guess what? In the privacy of his campaign jet, the beleaguered presidential contender apparently eats organic, reports the Today show's Peter Alexander. ... Read more

ALEC: The Scheme to Remake America, One State House at a Time
HuffingtonPost | Bill Moyers | 09/26/12

This week, we report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most Americans have never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership". But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge. ... Read more

Albert Edwards Lowers Equity Allocation To Minimum On Fears "Fed Will Destroy The World"
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/27/12

From Albert Edwards: "In 2005 when Alan Greenspan was being hailed as a "maestro" I wrote that his policies would ruin the world and history would judge him to be "an economic war criminal". I now think Ben Bernanke's policies will prove even more ruinous than Sir Alan's (yes unbelievably he still retains his honorary knighthood). Hence we are lowering our equity weighting to 30%, the minimum possible. The last time I did this was 8 May 2008.... I'm reading some insanely stupid stuff at the moment. Okay, I know some of my writing is pretty insane, but when I read direct quotes and commentary about Bernanke's policy of driving up asset prices in general and equity prices in particular, I almost want to cry over the ludicrousness of this position. The Fed is pursuing the same road to ruin as it did between 2003-2007. I'm becoming more and more convinced that, Gloom, Boom, & Doom's Marc Faber is right when he says that "the Fed will destroy the world." ... Read more

Romney Negativity Muddies Message as Obama Leads in Poll
Bloomberg | Julie Hirschfeld Davis | 09/25/12

Republican Mitt Romney's negative ratings are preventing him from capitalizing on President Barack Obama's vulnerabilities in the race for the White House, according to a new poll that gives the incumbent a lead heading into the first of three presidential debates.   Half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Romney -- a September high for a presidential challenger in the last three decades -- and 49 percent of likely voters consider the former Massachusetts governor out-of-touch compared with 40 percent who say that of Obama in the latest Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 21-24. ... Read more

Goldman Executive: 'I'm Glad Romney Is From Bain Capital And Not Goldman Sachs'
HuffingtonPost | Author | 09/25/12

... "I'm glad Romney is from Bain Capital and not Goldman Sachs," Richard Friedman, Goldman's head of merchant banking recently joked at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst Conference, according to the Wall Street Journal. ... Read more

Eye on the Bailout
ProPublica | Author | 09/07/12

Your Bailout Questions Answered: A Reddit Chat with Paul Kiel.   The bailout has become a prominent talking point during the Democratic National Convention this week, with former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland praising President Obama for having "saved the American auto industry" and Vice President Joe Biden boiling Obama's record down to nine words: "Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive." ... Read more

The Bailout: By The Actual Numbers
ProPublica | Paul Kiel | 09/06/12

Why Do the Craziest Religious People Get the Most Attention?
AlterNet | Valerie Tarico | 09/26/12

There's no question that religion can have some ugly moral and social consequences. The homophobic and misogynist attitudes of many American Evangelicals come straight out their sacred texts . So do the Islamic concepts of " dhimmitude" and jihad. So does the Jewish notion of favored bloodlines. So do Mormon and Scientologist recruiting practices. The Bible prescribes the death penalty for thirty six infractions , ranging from childhood disobedience to marital infidelity to witchcraft. The Quran contains over a hundred verses sanctifying the slaughter of infidels in one context or another. I've argued in the past that religion disinhibits violence rather than causing it, but in a world of complex causation, one where straws sometimes break the backs of camels, that may be a distinction without a difference. The fact is, putting God's name on Iron Age morality contributes to Iron Age behavior. ... Read more

One Third Of Athens Businesses Shuttered
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/25/12

What Mitt Romney Got Wrong About the 47 Percent
Bloomberg | Joshua Green | 09/20/12

Mitt Romney's videotaped remark to wealthy supporters that 47 percent of Americans "believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name it" and that "my job is not to worry about" people who won't "take personal responsibility and care for their lives" was pretty stunning any way you look at it.

It cements the impression of Romney as someone who cares only for the rich. It shows a contempt for others that had previously existed only in Democratic attack ads. It writes off half the nation. And it diminishes and undermines the substantial tradition of conservatives who do care about helping the less-fortunate. In this way, Romney's self-revelation illuminates a troubling shift within the Republican Party that he has now come to embody. ... Read more

Pakistan Drone Study Finds 'Damaging And Counterproductive' Consequences From U.S. Policy
HuffingtonPost | Joshua Hersh | 09/25/12

Relying on data compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the study's authors say that between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed in Pakistan since June 2004, and between 474 and 881 of them were civilians. ... Read more

Can America Be Great Again?
HuffingtonPost | Alec Baldwin | 09/24/12

... Reedy's general concern is quite simple. He believed darkness was falling on the office of the president because the modern presidency had become an institution that, by its nature, kept a president out of touch with the country he must lead and the real problems he must solve. The modern president, Reedy explained, is cut off from those who will tell him the truth, and surrounded instead by "yes men" who tell him only what he wants to hear. .... Read more

There's No Engine for Global Growth in Europe
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/24/12

The world continues to believe that Europe is somehow savable. The reality is Europe is in worse shape than most people can imagine. Case in point, Spaniards took 75 billion euros out of Spanish banks in July. Why is this a big deal? The entire Spanish banking system's market cap is just 114 billion euros!!!! ... Read more

Head Of Iran's Revolutionary Guards: "A War With Israel Will Occur"
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/22/12

... In other words, if for some reason the US needs a big diversion in the days just before the election, it is sure to get it. ... Read more

QE For the People - What Else Could We Buy With $29 Trillion?
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/24/12

In a system that depends on lies and the credulity of the citizenry, the greatest lie is that the Federal Reserve's "quantitative easing" bailouts of the banks somehow help our citizens and communities. To clarify this, ask yourself this question: what else could we have bought with the $29 trillion the Fed loaned or backstopped to the banks? If you enjoy quibbling about the total sum of Fed support, be my guest; the Levy Institute came up with $29 trillion after poring over all the data, while the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) tally topped $16 trillion. That's 100% of the nation's GDP and roughly 100% of the $16 trillion national debt. While we're asking about opportunity costs, let's ask what else we could have bought with the $10 trillion that the Federal government has borrowed and blown in the past 11.7 years. The national debt was $5.727 trillion when G.W. Bush was sworn into office on January 20, 2001. It had risen to $10.626 trillion when President Obama was sworn into office in January, 2009. It is now $16.016 trillion, an increase of $5 trillion in less than four years in "debt held by the public" (i.e. the Chinese central bank, the Japanese central bank, the Federal Reserve, etc.) ... Read more

"What's Next?": Simon Johnson Explains The Doomsday Cycle
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/22/12

There is a common problem underlying the economic troubles of Europe, Japan, and the US: the symbiotic relationship between politicians who heed narrow interests and the growth of a financial sector that has become increasingly opaque (Igan and Mishra 2011). Bailouts have encouraged reckless behaviour in the financial sector, which builds up further risks -- and will lead to another round of shocks, collapses, and bailouts. This is what Simon Johnson and Peter Boone have called the 'doomsday cycle'. The continuing crisis in the Eurozone merely buys time for Japan and the US. Investors are seeking refuge in these two countries only because the dangers are most imminent in the Eurozone. Will these countries take this time to fix their underlying fiscal and financial problems? That seems unlikely. The nature of 'irresponsible growth' is different in each country and region -- but it is similarly unsustainable and it is still growing. There are more crises to come and they are likely to be worse than the last one. ... Read more

'We're Running Out Of Time'... 'I Am Sh*t Scared'
HuffingtonPost | James Gerken | 09/19/12

Arctic Sea Ice Levels Hit Record Low, Scientists Say We're 'Running Out Of Time' ... Read more

John Boehner Says Mitt Romney Campaign Not Dead Yet, Jokes 'I Just Hope I Survive'
HuffingtonPost | Michael McAuliff | 09/20/12

WASHINGTON -- Even as he joked "I just hope I survive," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declined to defend Mitt Romney's now-infamous 47 percent remarks Thursday, and insisted the Republican ticket can still win. ... Read more

To Match Walton Heirs' Fortune, You'd Need to Work at Walmart for 7 Million Years
MotherJones | Josh Harkinson | 09/20/12

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

26 Corporations That Paid Their CEOs More Than Uncle Sam
MotherJones | Josh Harkinson | 08/16/12

In recent months corporate America has been lobbying the heck out of Washington to lower tax rates on businesses. As it should, defenders say, because corporations have a duty to maximize their return to investors. But if boosting profits were the goal, then you'd think more big companies would stop complaining about taxes, and look instead at an even greater expense: the bloated salaries of their chief executives.

In a just-released report, the Institute for Policy Studies details 26 megacorporations that paid one guy (their CEO) more than they spent on their entire federal tax bills last year. (See our interactive graph below--whoa! Halliburton!) These same companies averaged $1.4 billion in profits--which were announced, in some cases, around the same time they were announcing massive layoffs. ... Read more

The Next Panic
TheAtlantic | Simon Johnson | 09/21/12

Europe's crisis will be followed by a more devastating one, likely beginning in Japan.

This summer, many government officials and private investors finally seemed to realize that the crisis in the euro zone was not some passing aberration, but rather a result of deep -- seated political, economic, and financial problems that will take many years to resolve. The on-again, off-again euro turmoil has already proved immensely damaging to nearly all Europeans, and its negative impact is now being felt around the world. Most likely there is worse to come--and soon. ... Read more

Grumbles over maps as Apple's iPhone 5 hits stores
Reuters | Jane Wardell | 09/21/12

IPhone aficionados queued around city blocks on Friday to get their hands on Apple Inc's new iPhone 5 - but complaints about inaccurate maps and the lack of a mobile wallet feature were voiced amid the excitement.   The new phone went on sale across Asia and Australia with mobile carriers reporting record demand that looked likely to stretch Apple's supply capacity. ... Read more

Richest Americans' net worth jumps to $1.7 trillion: Forbes
Reuters | Dan Burns | 09/19/12

The net worth of the richest Americans grew by 13 percent in the past year to $1.7 trillion, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday, and a familiar cast populated the top of the annual list, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and the Koch brothers. ... Read more
Forbes.com article

Romney's Most Glaring Omission on Middle East Peace
Bloomberg | Jeffrey Goldberg | 09/19/12

... In the speech, a video of which was just released by Mother Jones magazine, Romney argued that 47 percent of Americans are "victims" dependent on the government. In addition to implying that roughly 150 million of his fellow citizens are moochers and leeches, Romney, answering a question from the audience, said, "The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish." ... Read more

The Ethical Opportunity of a Video
HuffingtonPost | Jim Wallis | 09/19/12

The recently revealed video of Governor Mitt Romney at a fundraising event last May is changing the election conversation. I hope it does, but at an even deeper level than the responses so far. There is certainly politics here, some necessary factual corrections, and some very deep ironies. But underneath it all is a fundamental question of what our spiritual obligations to one another and, for me, what Jesus' ethic of how to treat our neighbors means for the common good. ... Read more

Poll Finds Obama in Better Shape Than Any Nominee Since Clinton
Bloomberg | Jonathan D. Salant | 09/19/12

President Barack Obama is in a better position to win November's election than any presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996, according to a nationwide poll released today that shows him with an eight-percentage- point lead among likely voters.   In the survey by the Pew Research Center, Obama is ahead of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney 51 percent to 43 percent, the largest advantage in September the survey has shown for any presidential nominee among likely voters since 1996, when Clinton -- then seeking re-election -- led Republican challenger Bob Dole, 50 percent to 38 percent. ... Read more

Bank Of America To Fire 16,000 By Year End
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/20/2012

... by January 1, 2013 is that BofA will no longer be America's largest employer, with the total headcount of 260,000 at year end being the lowest since 2008, and smaller than JPM, Citi and Wells. ... Read more

Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record
Forbes | James Taylor | 9/19/2012

Antarctic sea ice set another record this past week, with the most amount of ice ever recorded on day 256 of the calendar year (September 12 of this leap year). Please, nobody tell the mainstream media or they might have to retract some stories and admit they are misrepresenting scientific data. ... Read more
Original Article

Study finds tumors in rats fed on Monsanto's GM corn
Reuters | Ben Hirschler | 09/19/12

In a study that prompted criticism from other experts, French scientists said on Wednesday that rats fed on Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller suffered tumors and multiple organ damage. ... Read more

What the Secret Romney Video Tells Us About His People Skills
MotherJones | Kevin Drum | 09/18/12

... But he can't. Outside the business world, his people skills are apparently so poor that even when he's faced with truly harebrained ideas, his only defense is to simply agree. He seems to have no idea how to handle strong-minded people whose support he needs. This is, needless to say, not an especially good character reference for someone who's running for president of the United States. ... Read more

SECRET VIDEO: On Israel, Romney Trashes Two-State Solution
MotherJones | David Corn | 09/18/12

At the private fundraiser held May 17 where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney candidly spoke about political strategy -- noting that he saw half of the American electorate as freeloaders and "victims" who do not believe in personal responsibility -- he discussed various foreign policy positions, sharing views that he does not express in public, including his belief that peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible. ... Read more

Charts: You Might Be the 47 Percent If...
MotherJones | Tasneem Raja | 09/18/12

By now you've no doubt heard Mitt Romney's thoughts about the "47 percent" of Americans "who pay no income tax." But are you one of them? You might be if you are... ...SUPERWEALTHY Read more

Mitt Romney Week From Hell Prompts Republican Freak-Out
HuffingtonPost | Jon Ward | 09/19/12

Now it's Republicans who are frightened. Mitt Romney's recent troubles have created a sense of gloom, and a good dose of doom, in the Grand Old Party.   "I think there is a broad and growing feeling now, among Republicans, that this thing is slipping out of Romney's hands," wrote the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, in a "come to Jesus," in-your-face column posted on Tuesday night. ... Read more

SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters
MotherJones | David Corn | 09/17/12

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the 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. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what... These are people who pay no income tax.

Romney went on: "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Read more

Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election
Bloomberg | Josh Barro | 09/17/12

... Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers. ... Read more

Romney Dooms His Candidacy by Doing the Full Murray
HuffingtonPost | Bill Black | 09/18/12

Charles Murray's newest book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, proves two classic truths. First, it is impossible to compete with self-parody. Second, be careful what you ask for; for you may receive it. Charles Murray asked right-wing plutocrats (he dismissed left-wing plutocrats as disloyal to their class and to capitalism) to drop what he derided as "political correctness" and denounce Americans who received governmental support as immoral failures. ... Read more

U.S. Slams BP for "Gross Negligence" in Gulf Oil Spill
PBS Frontline | Jason M. Breslow | 09/05.12

The U.S. will argue that BP was guilty of "gross negligence" and "willful misconduct" when the civil trial over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico begins in January, according to a court brief filed by the Department of Justice.   In a scathing memo [PDF] submitted last week to the New Orleans court that will hear the case, government attorneys write that their investigation unmasked a "culture of corporate recklessness" at the British oil giant that led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history. ... Read more

Oregon Plague: Woman Contracted Disease From Cat
HuffingtonPost | Steven Dubois | 09/14/12

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman who tried to help her friend save the life of a choking cat also contracted the plague from the disease-stricken feline over the summer, health officials said Friday. ... Read more

US media angrily marvels at the lack of Muslim gratitude
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 09/14/12

NBC News, along with a leading US newspaper, insist that Egyptians should be grateful to the US for having 'freed' them. One prominent strain shaping American reaction to the protests in the Muslim world is bafflement, and even anger, that those Muslims are not more grateful to the US. After all, goes this thinking, the US bestowed them with the gifts of freedom and democracy -- the very rights they are now exercising -- so how could they possibly be anything other than thankful? Under this worldview, it is especially confounding that the US, their savior and freedom-provider, would be the target of their rage. ... Read more

Rage Across the Middle East
The Daily Beast | Sherif Mansour | 09/12/12

... Since the start of the Arab Spring, I've been sounding the alarm about America's weak-willed approach to Arab Spring countries. America's passive policy toward the Arab Spring as a whole has missed the entire point of the Arab Spring. By lacking guts, vision, and real action to change Arab people's perspectives toward America and toward freedom generally, we focused only on direct security interests, making America even more threatened and hated in the region than before. ... Read more

Israel PM demands US set 'red line' over Iran nuclear programme
TheGuardian | Harriet Sherwood | 09/16/12

Binyamin Netanyahu uses American network TV interviews to repeat call for US to clarify point of military intervention over Iran

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has renewed his demand that the US set out clear "red lines" for Iran over its nuclear programme, in remarks likely to put further strain on his relationship with Barack Obama in the runup to the presidential election. ... Read more

he Spymaster: Meir Dagan on Iran's threat. Says Attack On Iran 'Stupidest Idea' He's Ever Heard
60Minutes | Author | 09/16/12

Meir Dagan has been described as "hard-charging" and "stops at nothing." For more than eight years, Dagan made full use of those qualities as chief of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, where he focused on keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. When that job ended, Dagan did something unheard of for an ex-Mossad chief: he spoke out publicly, voicing opposition to Israel launching preemptive airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities anytime soon. Dagan believes the Iranian regime is a rational one and even its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who has called for Israel to be annihilated -- acts in a somewhat rational way when it comes to Iran's nuclear ambitions. Lesley Stahl reports. ... Read more (60 Minutes)
Read more (HuffingtonPost)

Mitt Romney's Disastrous Energy Plan
RollingStone | Jeff Goodell | 09/14/12

The smirk appeared on Mitt Romney's face near the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. President Obama, he said, had "promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans" and to "heal the planet." Here Romney paused, giving the crowd in Tampa a moment to savor the fact that he was about to turn climate change -- arguably the greatest challenge civilization has ever faced -- into a joke. "My promise," he said, "is to help you and your family." ... Read more

Essay: The One Percent Court
NationMagazine & Bill Moyers | Bill Moyers | 09/13/12

Why a special issue of The Nation devoted to the Supreme Court? Because with partisan gridlock paralyzing both the president and Congress, the Court has more than ever become "the decider" -- the most powerful branch of government, and one at the center of a controversy whose outcome may shape the course of democracy for generations to come. ... Read more

Anti-Islam Film Protests Spread To Sudan, Tunisia, Across Middle East
HuffingtonPost | Aya Batrawy | 09/14/12

CAIRO -- Witnesses say Sudanese police have opened fire on protesters trying to climb the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.   The witnesses say several thousands of Sudanese were protesting outside the embassy, trying to storm it in anger over an obscure file produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad. ... Read more

To be neoconservative is to bear almost daily witness to the resurrection of Adolf Hitler.
NYTimes | Timothy Noah | 01/13/08

... Just about the only place the neoconservative movement can't locate Hitler is Nazi Germany. In 1943, the founding-neocon-to-be, Irving Kristol, publicly dismissed the "near hysterical insistence upon the pressing military danger," Jacob Heilbrunn reports in his new book, "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons." While the Nazis herded Jews into the gas chambers, Kristol, then a 23-year-old Trotskyist, held fast to his conviction that the Allies were no different from the Axis in their imperialism. .... Read more

If You Really Want Action Now, Stand with Teachers on the Picket Line
99getsmart Blog | Leslie Russell | 09/14/12

I literally almost had a stroke on Sunday night when Rahm Emmanuel got on television and said that as a result of the longer school day, Chicago Public School students were getting an hour of reading and an hour of writing each day. Well, I am the reading and writing teacher for most of the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at my school, and based on what is happening where I teach, that is plainly a lie. ... Read more

How Mitt Romney Helped Monsanto Take Over the World
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 09/14/12

Today, Monsanto looms over the global ag landscape like a colossus. It is the globe's largest seed purveyor--and its dominant vendor of genetically modified traits. How dominant? Here's NPR on the company's mastery over the US GMO market: "More than 9 out of 10 soybean seeds carry [Monsanto's] Roundup Ready trait. It's about the same for cotton and just a little lower for corn." It also sells nearly $1 billion worth of herbicides every three months.   But for all its clout, Monsanto is a relatively new player in the Big Ag game. While fellow ag giants like ADM, Cargill, Bunge, and BASF have been in the game for a century or more ... Read more

Yemen Protests: Demonstrators Angered By Anti-Islam Film Storm U.S. Embassy In Sanaa
HuffingtonPost | Ahmed Al-Haj | 09/13/12

SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Chanting "death to America," hundreds of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen's capital and burned the American flag on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Middle East. ... Read more

And For Today's Most Shocking Headline We Have...
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/13/12

Fresh out of the flashing red headline-a-tron:

Special Report: Well-to-do get mortgage help from Uncle Sam
Reuter | Jason Lange | 09/13/12

Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the microprocessor, the personal computer and the iPhone, is a model of private enterprise at work. But not when it comes to getting a mortgage.

In Santa Clara County, the center of the global tech industry and one of the wealthiest places in the United States, most home buyers get help from the government, an analysis of government lending data shows. The same is true in other wealthy enclaves such as Nassau County, outside New York, and Arlington County, outside Washington, the analysis of more than 50 million loans finds.   It is no secret that the U.S. government propped up the housing market after the financial crisis. What the analysis by Reuters makes clear is the extent to which government programs have helped some of the nation's most well-to-do communities. ... Read more

White Elephants Land in Berlin as Jumbo-Jet Sales Dwindle
Bloomberg | Robert Wall | 09/12/12

Berlin, building an airport that is underappreciated and over budget, is hosting two aircraft to match. Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. (BA) put their flagship jumbo jets on display this week at the Berlin air show adjacent to the yet-to- be opened airfield. While the gleaming white aircraft are crowd pleasers at any event, they're getting less affection from the audience that matters most: airlines.

... List Pricce The A380 has a list price of $390 million and typically seats about 525 passengers in a three-class configuration. The 747-8 lists for $351 million and seats about 467 travelers in three classes. ... Read more

Comment: I guess when our dark rich chocolate is being threatened the corporations start to worry about Climate Change... and the rest of us.

Bayer, Nestle Lead Carbon-Cutting Effort as Climate Risk Grows
Bloomberg | Alex Morales | 09/12/12

Bayer AG (BAYN) and Nestle SA (NESN) are leading efforts to measure and cut emissions as companies increasingly view extreme weather events caused by climate change as a threat to their business, the Carbon Disclosure Project said.

About 37 percent of respondents in a survey of the 500 biggest companies reported an immediate danger to their operations from disruptions ranging from floods that shut factories in Thailand to drought that's decimated crops in the U.S., the London-based non-profit said today in a report. That's up from 30 percent last year and 10 percent in 2010. ... Read more

Analysis: Obama, Netanyahu both find themselves in a tight spot
Reuters | Author | 09/12/12

Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu appear to have landed in a place neither wanted to be: squabbling about Iran, in public, ahead of a U.S. presidential election. ... Read more

Solar Explosion: Earth, Sun Shown To Scale In Amazing PHOTO
HuffingtonPost | Meredith Bennett-Smith | 09/11/12

On Aug. 31, a massive filament of super-heated plasma exploding out from the sun and into outer space was captured in photos and film collected by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Now, the space agency has released a new photo of the eye-popping event, which shows the filament's size in comparison to planet Earth. The picture is a good reminder of how comparably insignificant the Blue Planet really is when measured up against the solar system's central star. ... Read more

September 11 Responders Still Waiting For Relief Promised In 2010
HuffingtonPost | Michael McAuliff | 09/11/12

It's been 11 years since terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center towers, and more than a year-and-a-half since President Barack Obama signed into law a bill meant to compensate responders and survivors sickened from exposure to the hazardous debris and toxins of Ground Zero.   But they're going to have to wait a while longer -- perhaps more than a year -- before most of them start to see any of the money authorized in the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. ... Read more

The Deafness Before the Storm
NYTimes | Kurt Eichenwald | 09/10/12

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning's "presidential daily brief" -- the top-secret document prepared by America's intelligence agencies -- featured the now-infamous heading: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration's reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it. ... Read more

$648 Trillion Derivatives Market Faces New Collateral Concentration Risks
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/11/12

In a sad case of deja vu all over again, the over-reliance on 'shaky' collateral and concentration of risk is building once more - this time in the $648 trillion derivatives market. ... Read more

U.S. has no right to block Israel on Iran: Netanyahu
Reuters | Jeffrey Heller | 09/11/12

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the United States had forfeited its moral right to stop Israel taking action against Iran's nuclear program because it had refused to be firm with Tehran itself. ... Read more

Bernanke Proves Like No Other Fed Chairman on Joblessness
Bloomberg | Caroline Salas Gage | 09/11/12

When it comes to achieving his mandate for full employment, Ben S. Bernanke's willingness to undertake more bond buying shows yet again that he's the most aggressive and experimental Federal Reserve chairman in history. ... Read more

White supremacy: The new national security threat
Aljazeera | Khaled A Beydoun | 09/10/12

The white supremist ideology is a terrorist threat that needs greater attention ... Read more

Aljazeera | The Stream: American terror (08/21/12) [34:46]

*Who Gets To Decide The American Future?
HuffingtonPost | Peter S. Goodman | 09/10/12

... In Tampa, the Republicans looked like what they have become: a men's group for angry middle-aged white guys enraged by demographic change and inclined toward the politics of blame. Here was a besieged slice of America desperately seeking to maintain the privileges of a bygone era.

In Charlotte, the Democrats looked like what America has become: an often-disorganized, internally contradictory and above all racially diverse collection of people grappling with common troubles, like not enough paychecks, too many worries about bills to pay, and no reliable hold on middle-class basics like housing, health care, education and retirement. We saw military veterans in uniforms and professionals in suits; white, black, Hispanic and Asian Americans; gays and straights; Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus. ... Read more

9/11 Anniversary Marked Under Cloud Of Health Problems, Funding Fights
Reuters | Chris Francescani | 09/09/12

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Eleven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, New Yorkers will mark the anniversary on Tuesday against a backdrop of health concerns for emergency workers and a feud over financing that has stopped construction of the $1 billion Ground Zero museum. ... Read more

Why Some CEOs Survive Wall Street Scandals
Bloomberg | William D. Cohan | 09/09/12

Bob Diamond, the chief executive officer of Barclays Plc (BARC), was fired a few days after his bank paid $453 million to settle charges with U.S. and U.K. regulators about its role in the Libor scandal. Yet Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), seems to have plenty of job security after traders at his bank unexpectedly lost $6 billion (and counting)?   Why did no one come looking for Lloyd Blankfein's head after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) paid $550 million to settle civil charges brought against the firm by the Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2010? At the time, it was the largest settlement ever paid by a Wall Street firm to the SEC. ...

... Throughout the financial crisis and its aftermath, regulators in the U.K. have taken a much harder line than their U.S. counterparts on accountability, overcompensation, incentives and capital requirements. Why? It isn't entirely clear. But it is very hard for me to imagine either Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke or Mary Schapiro, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, demanding the resignations of Dimon or Blankfein in the same way that Turner and King insisted on Diamond's. ... Read more

NYSE Reports 50% Drop In August Stock Trading Volume
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/10/12

Last August, a 400 point move in the DJIA was the norm. This August, a 50+ point drop in the second coming of the "Balls to the Wall" DJIA was the green light for sheer market panic. While unknown if it is the cause, or effect, of this collapse in volatility, the NYSE just reported that August cash volumes imploded by exactly 50% from last year ... Read more

The Political Awakening of Republican: 'I Had Viewed Whole Swaths of the Country and the World as Second-Class People'
AlterNet | Tom Dispatch / By Jeremiah Goulka | 09/10/12

I used to be a serious Republican, moderate and business-oriented, who planned for a public-service career in Republican politics. But I am a Republican no longer.   There's an old joke we Republicans used to tell that goes something like this: "If you're young and not a Democrat, you're heartless. If you grow up and you're not a Republican, you're stupid." These days, my old friends and associates no doubt consider me the butt of that joke. But I look on my "stupidity" somewhat differently. After all, my real education only began when I was 30 years old. ... Read more

U.S. congressman confirms high-level U.S.-Israel spat over Iran
Reuters | Tabassum Zakaria | 09/07/12

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blew up at the U.S. ambassador last month because he was "at wits' end" over what he sees as the Obama administration's lack of clarity on Iran's nuclear program, a U.S. congressman who was at the meeting said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican, made his first public comments about the late August meeting in Israel in an interview with Michigan's WJR radio on Tuesday. ... Read more

Matt Taibbi: "Private Equity Companies Do Not Exist To Turn Around Companies"
HuffingtonPost | Bonnie Kavoussi | 09/07/12

... "When you take over these companies, you have all these tools at your disposal that allow you to extract value from the company without the company succeeding," Taibbi said, expanding on his recent Rolling Stone article bashing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his roots in private equity. "You can force them to take out a bank loan and pay you a dividend. There's all these different things you can do. You can succeed in a private equity deal without turning a company around." ... Read more

BB | Obama Says Path to Recovery Isn't `Quick or Easy' (09/07/12) [39:27]

BB | Joe Biden on Obama's Performance, Economic Outlook (09/07/12) [39:00]

*BB | Elizabeth Warren, in a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention (09/06/12) [14:53]

Money in Politics: From Bad to Worse
HuffingtonPost | Nick Penniman | 09/06/12

I really wish I wasn't writing this. Especially in the wake of Bill Clinton's formidable speech last night. But it needs to be said.

Back in 2000, I worked with Arianna at the Shadow Conventions. She and I had met the previous year because of our shared passion for ending the corrupting influence of money in politics. We thought the problem was bad then; it's rotten now. ... Read more

Wall Street CEOs Strut Amid Suffering, Warren Says
Bloomberg | Richard Rubin | 09/06/12

U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, in a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention, intensified her criticism of Wall Street, saying CEOs who wrecked the U.S. economy with risky bets "still strut around Congress" and demand favors from lawmakers. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren, in a high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention (09/06/12) [14:53]

Clinton Nominates Obama, Rebuts Romney Criticism On Jobs
Bloomberg | Margaret Talev | 09/06/12

Bill Clinton said President Barack Obama deserves re-election because he contained the economic crisis and put the nation on a path to recovery, casting the 2012 election as a choice between "shared opportunities and shared responsibility" and a "winner-take-all, you're-on-your- own society." ... Read more

Clinton Nominates Obama, Rebuts Romney Criticism On Jobs (09/06/12) [48:21]

DNC 2012 - Sandra Fluke Address the DNC (09/06/12) [6:36]

*Noam Chomsky: Why America and Israel Are the Greatest Threats to Peace
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 09/03/12

Imagine if Iran -- or any other country -- did a fraction of what American and Israel do at will. ... Read more

Wall Street Regulator (Tim Geithner) Was Warned Of Libor Manipulation In 1996
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 09/04/12

And yet, somehow, we are supposed to believe Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's claim that he was clueless about Libor manipulation until the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, Geithner was in charge of the New York Fed, the financial regulator that sits right smack dab in the middle of the financial system, watching interest-rate markets all day, every day. ... Read more

Bloomberg FOIA Documents How Wall Street Made A Muppet Of The SEC, Mary Schapiro And Dodd Frank
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/05/12

That the SEC is the most incompetent, corrupt, irrelevant and captured organization "serving" the US public is known by everyone. And while the details of the SEC's glaring lack of capacity to do anything to restore investor confidence in the capital markets, which has become a casino used exclusively by Wall Street to defraud any retail investor still stupid enough to play (which lately a moot point as there have been no material retail inflows into mutual funds in over three years), are scattered, courtesy of Bloomberg we now have the best summary of just how the utterly clueless SEC is a muppet plaything of Wall Street, and together with it, the "grand regulation" that was supposed to keep Wall Street in check, is nothing but what Wall Street demand it to be, and forced the SEC, way over its head on regulation, to accept every change, that the very banks that are supposed to be regulated, demands as part of Dodd-Frank reforms. In short: everything we know about Wall Street 'regulation' has been a farce, and a lie, exclusively thanks to corruption rampant at the now documentedly incompetent Securities And Exchange Commission. ... Read more

Top Bank Lawyer'S E-Mails Show Washington'S Inside Game
Bloomberg | Author | 09/05/12

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, on April 25, 2012. ... Read more

Since When Did Paul Ryan Become a Liar?
NYMagazine | Jonathan Chait | 09/04/12

... The thing about Ryan is that he has always resided in a counter-factual universe. He is a product of the hermetically sealed right-wing subculture. Many of the facts taken for granted by mainstream economists have never penetrated his brain. Ryan burst onto the national scene with a dense, fact-laden attack on the financing of Obama's health-care bill that was essentially a series of hallucinations, pseudo-facts cooked up and recirculated by conservative apparatchiks who didn't know what they were talking about or didn't care. His big-think speeches reflect the influence of fact-free conservatives and collapse under scrutiny. ... Read more

Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 08/29/12

... His (Romney's) legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist -- they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation. ... Read more

Mitt Romney's | Bain Capital's Federal (FDIC) Bailout
RollingStone | Author | 08/31/12
Read more

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan Speeches Make Me Miss George Bush
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 08/31/12

... The Republican convention in general has been a strange affair. The vibe around Republican politics in general was much happier in the days before the Bush presidency cratered. Republican politics before Bush imploded was a confident brew of guns, Jesus, and Freedom. ... Read more

Republican Convention Delegates Spurred By Fear Will Fight For Man They Don't Like
HuffingtonPost | Michael McAuliff | 09/01/12

The conservative faithful who make up the base of the Republican Party still don't like Mitt Romney very much, but Democrats are kidding themselves if they think that will matter at all in November. ... Read more

At Jackson Hole, a growing fear for Fed independence
Reuters | Pedro Nicolaci da Costa | 09/02/12

JACKSON HOLE -- Increasing political encroachment on the Federal Reserve, particularly from the Republican Party, could threaten the central bank's hard-won independence and undermine confidence in the nearly 100-year old institution. My comment... GOOD. Read more

*TRNN | Austerity Hawks Want a Return to 1920's Capitalism Part 1 (older) [10:01]