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Good Morning!
Water lily. August, 2012 by joanneleon
It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
~ Henry David Thoreau
News
Jeremy Scahill on Up with Chris Hayes, Part 1:
"The Nation's Jeremy Scahill asks when the President will explain the drone strikes in the much-needed conversation about national security that needs to happen during the general election."
Jeremy Scahill on Up with Chris Hayes, Part 2:
"Hawaii House Tulsi shares her thoughts on the conversation about Afghanistan at the Democratic National Convention, and the Up panel discusses whether or not Mitt Romney would be ready to handle the President's kill list."
Unbelievable.
Lawmakers Push to Increase White House Oversight of Financial Regulators
Financial regulators may face a new obstacle in their efforts to police Wall Street.
Lawmakers are pushing a bill that could curb the influence of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other regulators, according to Congressional staff members and government watchdog groups.
The measure, which a Senate committee is planning to debate this month, aims to empower the president in the rule-writing process. The proposal would allow the White House to second-guess major rules and mandate that agencies carefully study the economic effects of new regulation. The change could, in effect, delay a number of rules for the financial industry.
Well they knew they had the Occupy movement and any protesters fenced out in Charlotte, Wall Street South, so they went easy on the criminal banksters. Otherwise, the banksters might have been offended.
Banks mostly spared at DNC convention
The relatively light verbal assault relieved the financial sector’s allies, who have spent much of the past four years attempting to breach the divide between the Obama administration and financial titans. When the president mentioned it in his speech Thursday night, he limited his criticism to one line: “We don’t want bailouts for banks that break the rules.”
“I haven’t seen the rhetoric on the floor of the convention going after Wall Street,” said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., whose House district includes part of New York’s financial district. “But that’s been done already, to some degree it’s beating a dead cat.”
[ ... ] Former President Bill Clinton didn’t utter the words “Wall Street” in his 48-minute address this week, [ ... ]
“There’s not been a great deal of criticism,” said Tony Podesta, a Washington lobbyist who represents financial firms. “People were really offended by it, and so I think it’s reasonable to change the tone and talk about policy.”
[ ... ]
“Republicans like to say we’re pointing the finger at Wall Street. We’re not pointing the finger at anybody,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. “What works best is not demonizing anybody, but telling the middle class how we are going to help.”
[ Emphasis mine ]
Covention Diary: Even in a classless society... the other half live it up
As tradition dictates, convention delegates were shoehorned on to the arena's floor, while plebs took up plastic chairs in "the Gods". But the most comfortable seats were reserved for Masters of the Universe.
Among the organisations spending big cash on luxury "suites" was Bank of America, which (as those of a cynical disposition may recall) received a $97bn bailout a few years back. Shortly before Obama's big speech, lucky guests in its two corporate boxes took delivery of a trolley-full of fried chicken from junk food chain Bojangles'.
Britain must champion the wealth creators, say Tories
Britain should “salute” wealthy people who create jobs for others rather than looking for new ways to tax them, leading Conservative minister Michael Fallon has said, as he calls for an end to the 'politics of envy in this country'.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph Michael Fallon, the new minister of state for business, calls for an end to the “politics of envy in this country” and calls entrepreneurs “Olympian champions.”
He cites business leaders such as Jon Moulton, the founder of private-equity firms, Duncan Bannatyne, the “Dragon’s Den” hotels and health clubs entrepreneur, and Terry Smith, the financier, as examples who should be “saluted”.
Without making any direct criticism of his Liberal Democrat departmental boss, Vince Cable, who has been dubbed the “anti-business” Business Secretary by the Conservative Right, Mr Fallon suggests there will be bruising political clashes ahead.
The Only Grand Bargain We Need Is A Grand Bargain On Jobs
Worse, the economy faces severe hurdles ahead. Manufacturing employment is down by 15,000, and the deepening recession in Europe and downturns in China and elsewhere are only beginning to be felt. Government employment is down (state and local governments shed 10,000 jobs in August), and the cuts at the federal level have only begun to be made.
Still worse, Washington is headed into a jobs cliff after the election, with the impending negotiations over the sequester and the scheduled expiration of extended unemployment insurance, the payroll tax cut and the Bush tax cuts.
Any notion of a "grand bargain" must begin with action on jobs.
Words Wealthy Democratic Donors Should Get Used To: 'It's Me, Rahm'
Now that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in charge of raising really big dollars for a superPAC that supports President Obama, wealthy Democrats all over the country may be eyeing their phones nervously.
[ ... ]
Sources in Democratic fundraising circles tell NPR that Emanuel needs to reach out to the top echelon of liberal donors and persuade them to write checks — not for $1 million, but for $10 million to $20 million. They say that's the only way to build a war chest for multimillion-dollar TV campaigns.
And they say most of the money will have to be raised within the next two weeks or so. In the battleground states, much of the airtime has already been sold.
School's out in Chicago as teachers strike, parents scramble
Emanuel said two main issues remain to be resolved - his proposal that teachers be evaluated based in part on student performance on standardized tests, and more authority for school principals.
But union president Karen Lewis, who has sharply criticized Emanuel, said the standardized tests do not take into account of the poverty in inner city Chicago as well as hunger and violence in the streets.
More than 80 percent of Chicago students qualify for free lunches because they come from low-income households, and Chicago students have performed poorly compared with national averages on most reading, math and science tests.
Union officials said more than a quarter of Chicago public school teachers could lose their jobs if they are evaluated based on the tests.
Tensions surround 9/11 memorial on anniversary
At the somber site, which only opened last year to mark the spot where over 2,600 people were killed on September 11, 2001 out of a total of nearly 3,000 dead, police, private security guards and volunteer guides are enforcing strict rules on decorum.
[ ... ]
Nothing like serious vandalism has occurred, but even the most seemingly benign activities, such as thousands of tourists snapping photos of each other in front of the monument, are too much for relatives who refer to the site as “sacred ground.”
[ ... ]
When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year brought up the possibility of scaling down the lengthy ritual, he immediately prompted a backlash from some victims’ families.
Lowest US carbon emissions won't slow climate change
It looks like good news, but it's not. The US has recorded a sharp fall in its greenhouse gas emissions from energy use. Thanks to a rise in the use of natural gas, emissions are at their lowest since 1992. The fall will boost the natural gas industry, but in reality the emissions have simply been exported.
Shell criticised for limited testing of Alaska drilling containment equipment
Greenpeace says oil company used 'stock-car race' recklessless in testing capping stack to prevent Gulf of Mexico-style blowout
Shell has been accused of "stock-car racing recklessness" after apparently undertaking only the most limited testing of a key piece of equipment aimed at preventing a Gulf of Mexico-style blowout during its controversial drilling in the Arctic.
[ ... ]
Shell reportedly started work yesterday on the $4.5bn (£2.8bn) drilling programme in the Chukchi Sea, 70 miles off Alaska's north-west coast. It does not yet have permission to drill into oil reserves.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a US group that helps federal and state employees raise the alarm on environmental protection issues, said it was shocked by the single page of notes from the government agency after it filed a federal lawsuit against the BSSE asking for all documents relating to the capping tests.
Why is the "Free Syrian Army" made up largely of foreign fighters?
Jihadists join Aleppo fight, eye Islamic state, surgeon says
Jacques Beres, co-founder of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, has spent time working as a doctor in embattled cities of Syria on multiple visits. He tells Reuters that on his last visit it was more apparent than ever that the opposition fighters are made up of largely of foreign jihadists.
[ ... ]
In an interview with Reuters in his central Paris apartment on Saturday, the 71-year-old said that contrary to his previous visits to Homs and Idlib earlier this year about 60 percent of those he had treated this time had been rebel fighters and that at least half of them had been non-Syrian.
"It's really something strange to see. They are directly saying that they aren't interested in Bashar al-Assad's fall, but are thinking about how to take power afterwards and set up an Islamic state with sharia law to become part of the world Emirate," the doctor said.
[ ... ]
Assad himself has consistently maintained that the 17-month-old insurgency against him is largely the work of people he refers to as "foreign-backed terrorists" and says his forces are acting to restore stability.
America's refusal to extradite Bolivia's ex-president to face genocide charges
Obama justice officials have all but granted asylum to Sánchez de Lozada – a puppet who payrolled key Democratic advisers
In October 2003, the intensely pro-US president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, sent his security forces to suppress growing popular protests against the government's energy and globalization policies. Using high-powered rifles and machine guns, his military forces killed 67 men, women and children, and injured 400 more, almost all of whom were poor and from the nation's indigenous Aymara communities. Dozens of protesters had been killed by government forces in the prior months when troops were sent to suppress them.
The resulting outrage over what became known as "the Gas Wars" drove Sanchez de Lozada from office and then into exile in the United States, where he was welcomed by his close allies in the Bush administration. He has lived under a shield of asylum in the US ever since.
The Bolivians, however, have never stopped attempting to bring their former leader to justice for what they insist are his genocide and crimes against humanity: namely, ordering the killing of indigenous peaceful protesters in cold blood (as Time Magazine put it: "according to witnesses, the military fired indiscriminately and without warning in El Alto neighborhoods"). In 2007, Bolivian prosecutors formally charged him with genocide for the October 2003 incident, charges which were approved by the nation's supreme court.
[ ... ]
Because he has yet to be tried, I have no opinion on whether Sánchez de Lozada is guilty of the crimes with which he has been formally charged (Bolivian courts have convicted several other military officers on genocide charges in connection with these shootings). But the refusal of the Obama administration to allow him to stand trial for what are obviously very serious criminal allegations is completely consistent with American conceptions of justice and is worth examining for that reason.
5 Things You Should Know About Dead Kids in Kabul
1. It may be a weakened insurgency, but this is far from over.
[ ... ]
2. This was a terrorist attack, with no military or political gain whatsoever.
[ ... ]
3. This is going to be blamed on the Haqqani.
[ ... ]
4. This had nothing to do with the Haqqanis being designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
[ ... ]
5. Those kids work that street because ISAF is there.
Vladimir Putin leads Siberian cranes on migratory route in deltaplane – video
It's a bird … it's a plane … it's Russian president Vladimir Putin helping young Siberian cranes find their migration route. Donning a baggy white costume and goggles, Putin takes the front seat of the motorised deltaplane helping the captivity-bred birds on their way. The president is known for his love of wildlife having previously tracked a Siberian tiger and posed with a polar bear
CNN and the business of state-sponsored TV news
The network is seriously compromising its journalism in the Gulf states by blurring the line between advertising and editorial
Today I reported on the refusal of CNN International (CNNi) to broadcast an award-winning documentary, "iRevolution", that was produced in early 2011 as the Arab Spring engulfed the region and which was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain. The documentary, featuring CNN's on-air correspondent Amber Lyon, viscerally documented the brutality and violence the regime was using against its own citizens who were peacefully protesting for democracy. Commenting on why the documentary did not air on CNNi, CNN's spokesman cited "purely editorial reasons".
Even so, the network's relationships with governments must bear closer examination. CNNi has aggressively pursued a business strategy of extensive, multifaceted financial arrangements between the network and several of the most repressive regimes around the world which the network purports to cover. Its financial dealings with Bahrain are deep and longstanding.
Blog Posts of Interest
Obama, Stuck in the 9/11 Era as Much as Mitt Is Stuck in the Cold War Era by emptywheel
Frackonomics, or, Why we can't have anything nice - by joe shikspack
(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
We are ready for some serious change. We are ready to take up the tools of a free and analytic press to peacefully undermine the stranglehold of the kleptocrats on our battered democracy. We are ready to expose and publicize their greed, lies and illegal machinations and hold their enablers in government and the media to account. Are you in?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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