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News October 2012

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Wednesday October 31, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Hurricane Sandy's Storm Surge Wreaks Havoc As Its Energy And Trajectory Stun Experts
HP | Tom Zeller Jr. | 10/30/12

... But unlike Hurricane Irene -- which devastated the East Coast in August of last year and caused some $16 billion in damages, chiefly from inland flooding arising from that storm's prodigious rainfall -- the current storm's most powerful artillery derives from its record low pressure, sustained Category 1 hurricane winds (nominally between 74 mph and 95 mph), and its sheer size, which stretched some 1,000 miles in diameter as it swept up the East Coast. These factors, along with the timing of the high tide -- and, perhaps, new meteorological variables arising from a warming planet -- combined to deliver the worst damages to low-lying coastal areas.... Read more

New York Subway System Faces Weeks to Recover From Storm
Bloomberg | Angela Greiling Keane | 10/31/12

That's the job ahead for Metropolitan Transit Administration officials, who must examine 600 miles of track and the electrical systems with it before they can fully reopen the largest U.S. transit system, which took a direct hit by Hurricane Sandy. ... Read more

Mitt Romney Would Be Toast Without This Man
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 10/31/12

... Spies -- together with strategist Carl Forti and veteran ad-maker Larry McCarthy--co-founded Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super-PAC. The group has blown its rivals out of the water in the money chase: it's raised a record $131.6 million and spent a record $107 million. On Tuesday, in the final stretch of the 2012 election, Restore Our Future unveiled a weeklong, $20 million ad blitz--the largest-ever single-race buy by a super-PAC, according to Spies. And when the Romney campaign found itself pinched for cash at the end of the summer, Spies and Restore Our Future spent $30 million throughout August on ads to blunt the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney. "In the month of August, we were one of the key factors keeping Governor Romney afloat," Spies says. "That's the time period that traditionally the underfunded candidate gets knocked out." ... Read more

Obama Dares to Say It: Romney Lies
MotherJones | David Corn | 10/30/12

... Obama dared to cross that line with a new campaign ad. Entitled "Collapse," the spot targets Mitt Romney's over-the-top and recklessly untrue claim that as a consequence of Obama bailing-out the auto industry, Chrysler is moving Jeep production jobs from the United States to China. Romney, as I've reported, invested heavily in firms that outsourced (or exploited outsourcing) to China when he was leading Bain Capital. (See here and here.) Yet in the closing days of the 2012 campaign, Romney has been trying to turn Obama's strength (he saved Detroit) into a liability by making a phony charge about Jeep jobs. Numerous media accounts have noted that Romney is dead wrong, and Chrysler itself has declared this is a false claim. Romney, as is his practice, has refused to apologize. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
"Blacked Out" because of the storm Sandy. Will post when it becomes available.
Bill Moyers | Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Marty Kaplan join Bill to assess the true value of the 2012 political debates. (10/26/12) [28:52]
One of the comment: I'm watching now. Kathlee H-J is driving me nuts. I don't think she gets it. She's too center right. Marty Kaplan saw what I saw and is concerned about the same things that worry me-Romney's lies and his lack of any character. Romney would bomb Iran. He would do whatever he had to to keep his job if he were prez. H-J is totally wrong. He would make a terrible commander-in-chief.
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Inside Story: US 2012 climate dialogue runs aground (10/31/12) [25:15]
TRNN News
TRNN | Greg Palast: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps reveals vote stealing methodology. (10/31/12) [15:11]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Hurricane Sandy And The 2012 Presidential Election 10/31/12
TYT News
TYT | Sandy: Climate Change and Devastation Numbers (10/31/12) [10:05]
TYT | Romney continues to run ads about Jeep production moving to China even though it's a flat-out lie (10/30/12) [2:57]
TYT | Romney Flip Flops on Gay Adoption (10/31/12) [4:49]
Is Iran Being Setup?

Only Global Banks Will Benefit From A Cyber-Attack On The U.S.
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/31/12

... Why is it that everything Al-Qaeda does ultimately enriches the men they call their enemies? ... Read more

U.S. Officials believe Iran behind recent cyber attacks
CNN | Mike Mount | 10/16/12

The United States believes Iran is behind cyber attacks on American banks and the oil industry in the Middle East, officials said. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Tuesday October 30, 2012
International News
Domestic News

New York City Wakes Up to Fires, Flooding From Hurricane Sandy
Bloomberg |Brian Chappatta| 10/30/12

At least 50 homes in Queens burned after Hurricane Sandy sent floodwaters gushing into New York's five boroughs. The colossal storm submerged cars, tunnels and the subway system, and darkened vast swaths of the nation's most populous city.

Sandy, which weakened as it passed over the coast, shaped up to be among the worst storms in New York history, rivaling the blizzards of 1888 and 1947. Two deaths were reported in Queens and more than 684,000 were without power in the region, according to Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED). ... Read more

Sandy Hits Coast, Floods New York
WSJ | Jamila Trindle | 10/30/12

Superstorm Sandy carved a harrowing path of destruction through the East Coast on Monday, inundating Atlantic City and sending cars floating through the streets of lower Manhattan. ... Read more

The East Coast In Pictures: The Morning After
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/30/12
Click to see pictures 1
Click to see pictures 2

Documents Found in Meth House Show the Inner Workings of a Dark Money Group Linked to 23 Conservative Candidates
AlterNet | Kim Barker | 10/29/12

The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts. ... Read more

If Elected, Moderate Mitt Will Disappear
Bloomberg | Jonathan Alter | 10/29/12

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney and his team. Starting in the first debate, he pivoted almost effortlessly to the center, which is where elections are won. If he beats President Barack Obama, it will be because he Etch-A- Sketched his earlier positions and convinced enough people that he would be a moderate president.

Unfortunately, he has little chance of governing that way. We don't know which Romney will show up on a given day, but we sure know which Republican Party would be in charge in Washington every minute. The Republicans have become the most extreme major political party in generations. They are tolerating Romney's heresies this month only to gain power. ... Read more

The Incredible Shrinking Half-Life Of Central Bank Action
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/29/12

... The following chart should clarify - to anyone placing their gambling chips on the hopes of another round of easing from the Fed - why the game is up. ... Read more
Click to zoom



DemocracyNow Daily News
Will add Democracy Now News articles as soon as they become available.
PBS Frontline
PBS Frontline | Climate of Doubt (10/23/12) [53:47]
What is really depressing is Fred Singer and Lord Monckton still being taken seriously.
PBS Frontline | Big Sky, Big Money, an investigation with Marketplace (10/30/12) [0:31]
Will post the full video when it becomes available
Read article
PBS Frontline | The Presidential Choice 2012: A journey into the places, people, and decisive moments that made the men who are competing for the presidency (10/09/12) [1:54:17]
Read article
TRNN News
TRNN | Greg Palast: Koch Brothers and the Road to "Citizens United" (10/29/12) [10:27]
Greg Palast is a BBC investigative reporter and author of Vultures' Picnic. Palast turned his skills to journalism after two decades as a top investigator of corporate fraud. Palast directed the U.S. government's largest racketeering case in history -- winning a $4.3 billion jury award. He also conducted the investigation of fraud charges in the Exxon Valdez grounding.
TRNN | Steve Horn: ALEC is only one of several right wing organizations that write model big business friendly laws for state legislatures (10/29/12) [13:46]
TRNN | Bill Black: Government Sues Bank of America but No Criminal Prosecutions (10/26/12) [4:47]
BB | New York City Wakes Up to Fires, Flooding From Hurricane Sandy (10/30/12) [2:49]
More News

A declining Japan loses its once-hopeful champions
Washington Post | Chico Harlan | 10/27/12

TOKYO -- Jesper Koll, an economist who's lived in Japan for 26 years, says it's not easy for him to keep faith in a country that's shrinking, aging, stuck in protracted economic gloom and losing fast ground to China as the region's dominant power.   "I am the last Japan optimist," Koll said in a recent speech in Tokyo.   Indeed, the once-common species has been virtually wiped out. It was only two decades ago that Japan's boosters -- mainly foreign diplomats and authors, economists and entrepreneurs -- touted the tiny nation as a global model for how to attain prosperity and power. ... Read more

Spanish Contraction Continues, Austerity Spurs Inflation
Bloomberg | Emma Ross-Thomas | 10/30/12

Spain's economy contracted for a fifth quarter, undermining efforts to plug the budget deficit that's pushing the nation closer to a bailout, while austerity measures kept inflation at a 17-month high.

The prolongation of Spain's five-year slump, which is prompting record loan defaults at the nation's banks and job cuts at companies including Gamesa SA (GAM), adds to pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he resists requesting international aid. While the tax hikes he's implementing as part of his austerity program are depressing consumption, they are also spurring inflation, which threatens to add 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) to the country's pension bill. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday October 29, 2012
International News

One year after IMF bailout, Greece still big on military spending
RT | Author | 10/26/12

Exactly one year ago, the EU agreed to several extreme measures to combat the ongoing economic crisis, to mixed results. But despite its unique economic distress, Greece shows no sign of cutting back its considerable military budget. ... Read more

Domestic News

The Final Days, the Biggest Issue, and the Clearest Choice
HP | Robert Reich | 10/28/12

... President Obama says emphatically yes. He proposes ending the Bush tax cut for people earning more than $250,000 a year, and requiring that the richest 1 percent pay no less than a third of their income in taxes, the so-called "Buffett Rule."   Mitt Romney says emphatically no. He proposes cutting tax rates on the rich by 20 percent, extending the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, and reducing or eliminating taxes on dividends and capital gains. ... Read more

Hurricane Sandy Eyes DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia And New York
HP | Author | 10/29/12

Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. ... Read more

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States
HP | Ryan Grim | 10/28/12

During a CNN debate at the height of the GOP primary, Mitt Romney was asked, in the context of the Joplin disaster and FEMA's cash crunch, whether the agency should be shuttered so that states can individually take over responsibility for disaster response.   "Absolutely," he said. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?" ... Read more

Live New York Web (And Sound) Cam
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/29/12

Because the only thing more informative than watching a shut down New York get blown (away) by Sandy, is hearing it live. Watch, and listen, as downtown New York, very much unprepared for what may be a record flood surge, gets the Venice treatment. ... EarthCam - Statue of Liberty - Click to watch!



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, October 29 [11:58]
DN | Bill McKibben on Sandy and Climate Change: "If There Was Ever A Wake-up (10/29/12) [16:21]
DN | Meteorologist Warns Hurricane Sandy an Outgrowth of Global Warming's Extreme Weather (10/29/12) [13:54]
DN | Nuclear Power Plants from Virginia to Vermont Could Be Impacted from Massive Hurricane Sandy (10/29/12) [8:53]
One year after IMF bailout, Greece still big on military spending (10/26/12) [4:25]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Congress And The Fiscal Cliff 10/29/12
Greg Palast - Investigative Reporter
Greg Palast Talks About Open Markets and Free Trade (11/30/09) [9:09]
BBC News - Block $100m Democratic Republic Congo threatened by vulture fund loop hole (11/18/11) [10:20]
BP Blow-out Cover-Up - EcoWatch.org (04/20/12) [6:29]
Greg Palast - The Lies and Fraud Behind Nuclear Plants (03/06/12) [12:27]
     Article | Fukushima: They Knew
TYT | Greg Palast on Vultures' Picnic (11/16/11) [18:18]
Big Easy to Big Empty - The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans:
Big Easy to Big Empty, Part 1 [9:13] Part 2 [9:13] Part 3 [9:13]
In this half-hour film, Greg Palast and his team travel to New Orleans to investigate what has happened since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year. On his visit, he discovers that the population of New Orleans is miniscule, the reconstruction sparse, suicide rates are climbing, and many have not, nor know how to, return to the city that care forgot. He examines why residents had to leave, what really caused the flood and why they aren't returning.
Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday October 26, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Larry King Hosts Third Party Debate: Presidential Candidates Slam the Drug War
HP | Derek Rosenfeld | 10/25/12

... In the final debate for President Obama and Mitt Romney, moderator Bob Schieffer referred to the war in Afghanistan as America's longest war. But America's longest war is actually the war on drugs, which turned 40 last year. We've spent more than one trillion dollars fighting this unwinnable war, thousands have lost their lives for it, and the madness will only continue until the public leaves elected officials no choice but to pull their heads out of the sand. ... Read more

Ralph Nader to Host Third-Party Presidential Debate in D.C. Nov. 4
nader.org | Author | 10/25/12

(Washington, D.C.) -- The candidates* from four political parties -- Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Rocky Anderson (Justice) -- will meet for a two-hour debate on Sunday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. at Busboys and Poets restaurant located at 2021 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009. Busboys and Poets is a well-known venue for frequent political, civic and cultural events. ... Read more

Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?
Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (2011) [1:16:00]

Click to zoom

Download the full: Powell Memo by Lewis F. Powell
Thought of the Day - Military Budget(s)
The combined total for China ($89.8 billion) and Russia ($52.7 billion) comes to $142.5 billion. Consider how puny that $142.5 billion is compared to the US's $739.3 billion.


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, October 26 [10:20]
DN | Who Owns the World? Noam Chomsky on US-Fueled Dangers From Climate Change to Nuclear War Part 1 (10/26/12) [13:59], Part 2 [22:22], Part 3 [8:19]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 10/26/12
International News - Friday 10/26/12
Third Party Presidential Debate with Larry King
RT | Larry King: Third Party Presidential Debate and pre-debate show (10/23/12) [1:10:20]
Note: the progress bar will move in to about 50% to where the debate starts.
Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala - Green Party
Click to zoom
  or download flyer
Rocky Anderson and Luis Rodrigues - Justice Party
Click to zoom
  or download flyer
Virgil Goode and James Clymer - Constitutional Party
Click to zoom

Past Elections
Bush Family Fortunes () [1:01:10]
Factory Farms
The Most Shockingly Beautiful Video About Factory Farming ,   Website

Thursday October 25, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Colin Powell Endorses Obama For President
HP | Luke Johnson | 10/25/12

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term Thursday.   "You know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I'll be voting for he and Vice President Joe Biden next month," he said on CBS' "This Morning." ... Read more

Finally Liberated From Facts, Mitt Romney the Pure Bull Artist Takes Flight
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/19/12

You know those Balsa wood airplanes -- not the glider-types but the deluxe models, powered by rubber bands, with little propellers on the nose? I thought of those planes watching Mitt Romney debate Barack Obama the other night.   Romney's journey toward the presidency has been a marvel to behold. Dating back to his first political steps -- his race against Ted Kennedy, followed by his assault on the Massachusetts governorship.... Read more

18 Ways Mitt Romney Is Just Like George W. Bush
RollingStone | Tim Dickinson | 10/18/12

Mitt Romney clearly wants to run away from the Bush legacy of unnecessary war, budget-busting tax cuts for the rich and economic collapse. When a town-hall debate questioner finally forced the GOP nominee to directly compare himself to Dubya earlier this week, Romney insisted: "President Bush and I are different people." But place the two men's biographies side by side, and the similarities that emerge are not just striking, they're uncanny.

    Here are 13 of the 18
  1. Each attended an elite all-male prep school.
  2. Because neither excelled at sports, both became cheerleaders.
  3. Each received mediocre grades in high school.
  4. Both rode their pedigrees to elite universities.
  5. Both graduated with degrees in the liberal arts.
  6. Each dodged service in Vietnam.
  7. Their fathers each lost a prominent bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
  8. Both dads' campaigns were defined by a reference to the paranormal.
  9. They attended Harvard Business School at the same time.
  10. Each lost his first race for national elected office.
  11. Each became governor of his adopted home state.
  12. As governors, each championed an issue dear to Democrats.
  13. Both campaigned for president on an "across-the-board" tax cut -- and promised it wouldn't explode the deficit.
Read more

Firings Highest Since 2010 as Ford to Dow Face Slump
Bloomberg | Chris Burritt | 10/25/12

Ford Motor Co. (F) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) joined a growing number of companies firing thousands of workers as sluggish U.S. growth and Europe's deepening recession lead to a persisting slump in sales. North American companies have announced plans to eliminate more than 62,600 positions at home and abroad since Sept. 1, the biggest two-month drop since the start of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Firings total 158,100 so far this year, more than the 129,000 job cuts in the same period in 2011. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, October 25 [12:32]
DN | Valeria Tachiquin: U.S. Agent Kills Young Mother of Five in Latest of Growing Border Deaths (10/25/12) [9:27]
*DN | Prop 34: Ex-Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford Backs California Measure to End Death Penalty (10/25/12) [16:16]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Voter Fraud And Intimidation. (10/25/12)
TRNN - The Real News Network
*TRNN | Law Enforcement Officials Call for an End to "The War On Drugs" (10/25/12) [18:02]
TRNN | Baltimore, Race and the Occupy Movement: Editors of the book "We Are Many" discuss how the Occupy Movement can overcome the racial divide (10/25/12) [16:38]
TRNN | Most Greeks Look to Left for Solutions, but Far Right Gaining Strength: Left party Syriza leads polls but conditions for fascism also developing as crisis deepens (10/24/12) [14:57], Part 2 [7:06]
Rainforest Alliance - Follow the Frog
*Follow the Frog [3:27],   Website
Small Actions = Big Changes [1:27]
An Earth Day Message from West Africa [3:10]
Walking the Madagascar Vanilla Trail [4:24]
Magnum and the Rainforest Alliance: From Bean to Bite [5:23]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Wednesday October 04, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Is Our Version Of The 1987 "Can't Lose" Paradigm Melting Down?
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/24/12

... The price action over the past few weeks in the wake of the markets getting more from the Fed than they could have ever expected heading into an election is a clue that the times indeed could be a changing. The 1987 paradigm underwent a similar period of choppy trade before melting down. Of course, crashes by their nature are a rare breed and the probability of one occurring is astronomically low. That said, should the S&P 500 fail to hold the 1400 level over the next few days (especially on a closing basis) we wouldn't wait around too long in anticipation that the modern day version of LOR will save the day. ... Read more

Click to zoom

Romney's Air Force Comparison Misses U.S. Edge in Jets
Bloomberg | Gopal Ratnam | 10/24/12

Mitt Romney, who has been criticizing President Barack Obama for letting the U.S. Navy shrink, is making a similar case about the Air Force.   "Our Air Force is older and smaller than at any time since it was founded in 1947," the Republican presidential nominee said in his final debate with Obama on Oct. 22. ... Read more

Romney Enlists General Behind Iraq Debacle as Key Military Adviser
Mother Jones | Adam Weinstein | 10/19/12

... So what does Franks' role in the campaign tell us about national security policy in a Romney administration? Perhaps further overseas adventures would be in store, although given the lack of details from Romney regarding his vision for global affairs, it remains anybody's guess. Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, October 24 [9:04]
Michael Pollan: From GMOs to NYC's Soda Ban, Local Efforts Challenge Agri-giants' Influence (10/24/12) [9:23]
Food Fight: Debating Prop 37, California's Landmark Initiative to Label GMO Food (10/24/12) [23:39]
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers | Former TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky explains his disappointment with the former Citigroup CEO and the president for failed financial leadership. (10/23/12) [19:46]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Environmental Issues And The 2012 Presidential Race. (10/24/12)
Click to zoom

Tuesday October 23, 2012
International News
Domestic News

'47 Percent' Videomaker Weighs In On Final Presidential Debate
HP | Author | 10/23/12

... "Romney has been talking about getting tough on China lately. From what I heard at the dinner, he's more interested in getting tough on the young Chinese girls at his sweatshop," the man said, continuing to request anonymity. "Unless we stand up for those girls in China, our mothers, sisters and daughters here are doomed to the same fate. Just ask the Sensata workers. If he could get rid of the unions, he would have no problem paying U.S. workers a 'pittance,' stacking them three high, 12 to a room. Romney is dangerously out of touch with the struggles of hard-working Americans." ... Read more

Obama as Commander-in-Chief, Romney as Dithering Bully
HP | Robert Reich | 10/22/12

... Romney seemed out of his depth. His arguments were more a series of bromides than positions -- "we have to make sure arms don't get into the wrong hands," "we want a peaceful planet," "we need to stand by our principles," "we need strong allies," "we need a comprehensive strategy to move the world away from terrorism." ... Read more

Nearly Half Of Americans Have Less Than $500 In Savings: Survey
Huffington Post | Harry Bradford | 10/22/12

Got five Benjamin Franklins stored under the mattress? You're doing pretty good then.   Nearly half of Americans don't have more than $500 saved up, according to a recent study by CreditDonkey.com, a credit card comparison company. Of the roughly 1,100 Americans polled, 41 percent reported having less than half a grand of readily-accessible savings at hand. ... Read more

Trade Treaties
TYT | TPP - Worse Than ACTA? (08/28/12) [6:35]
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the son of ACTA, a secretive copyright and trade treaty being negotiated by the Pacific Rim nations, including the USA and Canada. As with ACTA, the secretive negotiation process means that the treaty's provisions represent an extremist corporate agenda where due process, privacy and free expression are tossed out the window in favor of streamlined copyright enforcement. If this passes, America will have a trade obligation to implement all the worst stuff in SOPA, and then some...".* Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola (host of TYT University, and Common Room) break it down.
Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement
What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)?
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): 15th Round of TPP Negotiations Set for Auckland, New Zealand -- December 3-12, 2012
Tanosborn.com:
US Elections: Three Meaningless Political Debates
For all the personal dislike for each other said to exist between these two ordained priests of American capitalism -- often misidentified as Free Market Enterprise -- Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have shown to be equally adept at dealing with trivia and secondary issues... and equally inept at dealing with every substantive issue.

Their polemical theatrics have not tackled head on any of the significant issues affecting the nation's direction -- assuming there is a charted course we're navigating -- by way of any specific domestic or foreign policy. And that unequivocally affects the nation's viability in the short, medium and long term.

Perhaps substantive matters are not meant to be debated, lest debaters be found out in either deceit or ignorance. Montaigne said it best when he wrote, "Men only debate and question of the branch, not of the tree." [Essays II.xii.] And all three debates have been about the branches and foliage... and not once about the tree (our nation) and our need to diagnose its health, and if found to be diseased, propose a plan of cure. But the duopoly has chosen for us two arborists who either lack mastery in the field or, the most likely reason, lie to the public for motives which are personally or politically expeditious. That's the price Americans must pay for their corrupt two-party system.

It would have been helpful if there had been meaningful questions asked of the candidates to the presidency by either the moderator or a select panel of experts; or if the candidates had exhibited vision and/or courage to bring to the debate -- something totally absent in all three debates; questions not just for the candidates to answer, but for the voter to better understand what is at stake in this election. Why do we maintain this political taboo that forces us not to look at ourselves, our institutions or our imperial, undemocratic form of government? Is it our Americentricity?

Only the idealistic among us would expect, no, require, that transcendental issues be addressed by the candidates. Issues such as: the unconstitutional power-ascendancy of the Supreme Court; the obscene influence that money has on elections; the question of universal healthcare or the sacrosanctity of social security; or why we insist on being an empire with a quarter of the world under our protection. However, there were other critical issues of interest to most voters that weren't touched, or where direct answers were not demanded from the two candidates, such as:

If our level of consumption continues to exceed, and by a considerable amount, our level of production, what remedial options do we have other than to keep on borrowing ad infinitum? But that's a topic no politician would dare touch. Yet, isn't Greece really a 1/30th scale economic model of the US? Then, why do we point the finger at Greece as a mismanaged economy, or at the EU as a welfare model, when we should be pointing that finger at the US with a de facto bankrupt economy?

Why do the candidates talk about bringing back those good paying manufacturing jobs when we know for a fact that most manufacturing jobs now being created pay only half as much... and that the jobs which were exported during the past three decades are gone... gone... forever gone? That globalization is a fact of capitalism totally embraced by business and government during the last two decades, Democrats and Republicans holding hands on this issue? Is either candidate in favor of reverting to the economic model of protectionism (tariffs, etc.)?

Can either candidate answer why government fails to address economic problems in a timely manner, waiting until it's irremediable late? Such as accounting for short-funding of state pensions (one trillion), or the eventual cataclysm in student loans (one trillion), or the eventual rescuing of municipalities and conniving banks (again), or the unfunded costs of taking care of our own victim-heroes of the new expeditionary wars.

How can a fully matured economy such as the United States afford a national debt which is likely to exceed during the next presidential cycle the nation's GDP by more than 25 percent? I fear that Standard and Poor's recent credit downgrade of the US is far too small and accommodating, tainted perhaps by misguided patriotism.

And in foreign policy, for all the talk by both candidates in addressing the problems besetting the Middle East, they both failed miserably in identifying the key to success for the US: helping, insisting, forcing a solution in the creation of a 2-state Palestine. The United States will not attain credibility with the people in the Middle East unless and until Palestinians are given a fair deal. Yet Palestinian claims did not enter the debate, only Israel's concern with Iran attaining nuclear capability.

Here we are two weeks before Election Day and we are told that the election is too close to call, that either Obama or Romney could win the election. Well, perhaps the winner cannot be predicted, but we know for sure who the loser will be: Americans... all Americans except for those who are part of the Thug-elite.



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, October 23 [10:52]
DN Expanding the Debates
DN Expanding the Debates
  1. As Obama/Romney Agree on Afghan War, Israel & Syria, 3rd Parties Give Alternative [12:09]
  2. Trade War with China: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[13:54]
  3. China: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[5:17]
  4. Pakistan & U.S. Drones: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[4:24]
  5. Afghanistan & Pakistan: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[9:18]
  6. Negotiations with Iran: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[12:14]
  7. On U.S Ties to Israel: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[3:36]
  8. Military spending: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[9:04
  9. America's Role in the World: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[6:37]
  10. On U.S. Mideast policy: Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[7:36]
  11. Middle East: Discuss Syria Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[5:24]
  12. Middle East: Discuss Iraq Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson[5:18]
  13. Closing Statements By Jill Stein & Rocky Anderson [8:32]
  14. Full segment on Democracy Now
  15. DN | As Obama and Romney Agree on Afghan War, Israel and Syria, Third Parties Give Alternative (10/22/12) [58:56]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Morning-After Analysis Of The Final Presidential Debate. (10/23/12)
Bill Moyers Show
Bill Moyers | Journalist Matt Taibbi and Chrystia Freeland to explore how far America's mega-wealthy will go to keep the One Percent in charge (10/22/12) [49:05].
TRNN News
TRNN | Lawrence Wilkerson: Why Idaho will Vote for Romney and Drone Strikes Create Suicide Bombers (10/22/12) [15:03]
TRNN | Lawrence Wilkerson on Pakistan [5:03]
HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream
"HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream?" (Extended Trailer) (04/12/12) [22:19], Powell Memo by Lewis F. Powell, Website
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Listening Post - Blowing the whistle on Obama's America (06/09/12) [25:51]
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - Who stole the American Dream? (09/15/12) [25:08]
Why Are We Putting More Money In To Killing People Than Saving Our Own People At Home
Click to zoom
Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday October 22, 2012
International News
Domestic News

GMO | Seralini and Science: an Open Letter
Independent Science News | jrlatham | 10/02/12

A new paper by the French group of Gilles-Eric Seralini describes harmful effects on rats fed diets containing genetically modified maize (variety NK603), with and without the herbicide Roundup, as well as Roundup alone.   The Seralini publication, and resultant media attention, raise the profile of fundamental challenges faced by science in a world increasingly dominated by corporate influence. ... Read more

GMO | Vote for the Dinner Party
NYTimes | Michael Pollan | 10/10/12

One of the more interesting things we will learn on Nov. 6 is whether or not there is a "ood movement" in America worthy of the name -- that is, an organized force in our politics capable of demanding change in the food system. ... Read more

How Obama Can Smoke Out Mitt: Call for Breaking Up the Biggest Banks, and Resurrecting Glass-Steagall
HuffingtonPost | Robert Reich | 10/18/12

... It would also remind America that five years ago Wall Street's excesses almost ruined the economy. Bankers, hedge-fund managers, and private-equity traders speculated on the upside, then shorted on the downside -- in a vast zero-sum game that resulted in the largest transfer of wealth from average Americans to financial elites ever witnessed in this nation's history.

Most of us lost big -- including over $7 trillion of home values, a $700-billion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, and continuing high unemployment.   But the top 1 percent have done just fine. In the first year of the recovery they reaped 93 percent of the gains. The latest data show them back with 20 to 25 percent of the nation's total income -- just where they were in 2007. ... Read more

Wall Street

Greg Smith to '60 Minutes': I Didn't Betray Goldman
WSJ | David Benoit | 10/19/12

On Sunday night, CBS will air an Anderson Cooper interview with the former Goldman Sachs vice president on "60 Minutes." On Monday, Mr. Smith's book "Why I Left Goldman Sachs, A Wall Street Story" will be fully released to the public. ... Read more

The Wall Street Money Machine
ProPublica | Many Author | Investigation
Read many more articles (47)

How Much Have Big Banks Been Docked for the Financial Crisis?
ProPublica | Cora Currier | 03/27/12

... Overall, the SEC says it has brought in almost $2 billion in penalties as well as money for investors from settlements related to the crisis, and the Department of Justice lists dozens of criminal cases it has brought against smaller players. And the investigating isn't over yet. The SEC recently sent notices of possible charges to JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo, and the DOJ reportedly has issued subpoenas to eleven financial institutions related to mortgage securities. See Chart. Read more

The Campaign Finance Free-For-All: How We Got to This Point
ProPublica | Justin Elliott | 10/17/12

In a forthcoming law review article, Richard Briffault of Columbia Law School argues that the rise of super PACs and unfettered contributions and spending this election cycle are "effectively ending the post-Watergate era of campaign finance laws." ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, October 22 [11:45]
DN | EXCLUSIVE "No Way Out": Freed Hiker Shane Bauer On Solitary Confinement From Iran to US. Part 1 (10/22/12) [13:54], Part 2 [12:16]
HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream
"HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream?" (Extended Trailer) (04/12/12) [22:19], Powell Memo by Lewis F. Powell, Website
HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream by Frances Causey & Donald Goldmacher, Co-producers? is stunning audiences across the globe, as it exposes the real truth behind the worldwide economic collapse, tracing its origins to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.
TYT | HEIST Director Donald Goldmacher (08/21/12) [4:09]
Thom Hartmann: Heist - Who Stole the American Dream? (11/09/11) [9:49]
Review | Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? [4:58]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Understanding Political Polls: Voters look to political polls to understand who is winning the presidential race. (10/22/12)
Aljazeera News
Aljazeera | Listening Post - Blowing the whistle on Obama's America (06/09/12) [25:51]
Aljazeera | Counting the Cost - Who stole the American Dream? (09/15/12) [25:08]
60 Minutes | In his first interview, Greg Smith, who publicly resigned from Goldman Sachs by writing an editorial in The New York Times, tells Anderson Cooper why. (10/19/12) [1:51]
Mortgage & Forclosure News
Payments to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure

The National Mortgage Settlement Administrator will mail Notice Letter and Claim Forms in late September through early October 2012 to those borrowers who lost their home due to foreclosure between January 1, 2008 and December 31 2011 and whose loans were serviced by one of the five mortgage servicers that are parties to the settlement.

You can now access the secure claim filing site where you can submit your Claim Form.
National Mortgage Settlement.com

  1. Ally/GMAC 800-766-4622
  2. Bank of America 877-488-7814
  3. Citi 866-272-4749
  4. JPMorgan Chase 866-372-6901
  5. Wells Fargo 800-288-3212
Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday October 19, 2012
International News
Domestic News

New lie: The government spends more on welfare than everything else!
Salon | Alex Pareene | 10/18/12

... In the context of political discussions, "welfare" traditionally (as in pretty much always) refers specifically to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the federal program that was created in 1996 to replace the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program -- also known as "welfare" -- that had existed since the New Deal. This is what people refer to when they say "welfare caseloads" and "welfare rolls." The federal government spends $16.5 billion a year on TANF and, combined, the states spend another $10 billion. ...

... Most of the federal budget is "defense" and war spending and Medicare, which should be common knowledge but that fact is regularly obscured by right-wingers who claim to be deficit hawks but refuse to cut defense spending and are scared of proposing real reductions to our programs for old people. ...

... The con is pretty easy to see when you read the actual CRS report. Senate Republicans are counting 83 separate (and wildly different) programs as "welfare" in order to make the case that the government is spending more on poor people than old people. ... Read more

The welfare programs, 83 in all, range from pell grants for college students to the Food Stamps program to the free or reduced lunch plan to community development block grants to Indian housing block grants, and seemingly everything in between.

Bill Moyers | Plutocracy Rising
Bill Moyers | Author | 10/17/12

The One Percent is not only increasing their share of wealth -- they're using it to spread millions among political candidates who serve their interests. Example: Goldman Sachs, which gave more money than any other major American corporation to Barack Obama in 2008, is switching alliances this year; their employees have given $900,000 both to Mitt Romney's campaign and to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Why? Because, says the Wall Street Journal, the Goldman Sachs gang felt betrayed by President Obama's modest attempts at financial reform.

On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), Bill is joined by two veteran journalists to discuss how the super-rich have willfully confused their self-interest with America's interest. Guests are Chrystia Freeland, author of the new book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else; and Rolling Stone magazine's Matt Taibbi, who regularly shines his spotlight on scandals involving big business and government. Read more

DN | TransCanada Temporarily Halts Keystone Pipeline
The oil giant TransCanada has temporarily shut down its Keystone pipeline due to apparent "safety issues." TransCanada told federal officials on Thursday it had halted the massive pipeline, which carries crude from the Alberta tar sands to Illinois and Oklahoma. The shutdown will last at least three days. The news comes as activists in Texas are nearly a month into a blockade against the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline.

Could Prop. 37 Kill Monsanto's GM Seeds?
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 10/10/12

... At least 70 percent of processed food in the United States contains GM ingredients. Eighty-eight percent of corn and 93 percent of soybeans grown domestically are genetically modified. Soda and sweets are almost guaranteed to contain GM ingredients, either in the form of corn syrup or beet sugar. Canola and cottonseed oils also commonly come from GM crops. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, October 19, 2012 [11:25]
DN | As George McGovern Nears Death, How Antiwar Candidate Challenged Vietnam, Top-Down Politics (10/19/12) [3:11]
*DN | Former Financial Regulator William Black: Occupy Wall Street A Counter to White-Collar Fraud (older by good) (10/19/11) [18:03]
Bill Moyers Show
*Bill Moyers | Journalist Matt Taibbi and Chrystia Freeland to explore how far America's mega-wealthy will go to keep the One Percent in charge (10/17/12) [49:05].
To discuss how the super-rich have willfully confused their self-interest with America's interest, Bill is joined by Rolling Stone magazine's Matt Taibbi, who regularly shines his spotlight on scandals involving big business and government, and journalist Chrystia Freeland, author of the new book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.

"We have this community of rich people who genuinely believe that they are the wealth creators and they should get every advantage and break," Taibbi tells Bill. "Whereas everybody else is a parasite and they're living off of them"

Freeland adds, "You know, 2008 is not so long ago, and already, the anti-regulation chorus is so strong. How dare they have the gall to actually argue that too much regulation of American financial services is what is killing the economy?"
*BillMoyers | Bruce Bartlett on Where the Right Went Wrong (02/10/12) [24:52]
Bill Moyers talks with conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, who wrote "the bible" for the Reagan Revolution, worked on domestic policy for the Reagan White House, and served as a top treasury official under the first President Bush. Now he's a heretic in the conservative circles where he once was a star. Bartlett argues that right-wing tax policies -- pushed in part by Grover Norquist and Tea Party activists -- are destroying the country's economic foundation.
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 10/19/12
International News - Friday 10/19/12
TYT News
TYT | Did Mitt Romney tell CEOs to threaten employees' jobs if they don't vote the right way? (10/18/12) [3:35]
TYT | Insight on why Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit decided to quit his job. (10/18/12) [4:55]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Michael Greenberger: If somebody understood the economic issues and explained them to the American people, you could easily be elected president by saying you're going to put an end to the Wall Street hijinks (10/19/12) [13:41]
TRNN | Bill Black: Romney's Secret Plan; the 1% Now Have More Wealth than the bottom 90% (10/19/12) [9:53]
TRNN | Greek Society Unravels Under Austerity Measures (10/19/12) [14:57]
Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert
*Jon Stewart | Jon Stewart Opens Obama Interview With Debate Jab: Shows President Photos Of Michelle's Reactions. (10/19/12) [9:10], Part 2 [4:47],
Womens point of view on the Presidential Debate [4:47]
*Jon Stewart | The media struggles to interpret contradictory poll numbers, and Jason Jones examines a poll of polls to predict the polls favored by poll-addicted pundits. (10/10/12) [6:41]
Stephen Colbert | Mocks Megyn Kelly's Town Hall Debate Analysis, "Those Stupid Town Hall Topics." (10/18/12) [2:28]
Stephen Colbert | The Entire Show. GREAT TOPICS (10/11/12) [21:34]
Jon Stewart | Statistician Nate Silver explains the science behind effective political forecasting and separating the signal from the noise. Part 1 (10/17/12) [5:32], Part 2 [3:31], Part 3 [5:29]
Jon Stewart | Eugene Jarecki investigates the financial, social and moral failure of America's war on drugs.. Part 1 (10/16/12) [6:35], Parrt 2 [7:03]
Influence Tracker
Below is an App that allows you to see what groups are influencing your representative.
How to use: 1) find your state in the dropdown list, or type in a name in the text box, then 2) click on your representative in the list that appears, 3) click on "Top Ten" link to see more. To return to the "Search Candidate" screen click on the "Select Candidate" link at the top center.



Thursday October 04, 2012
International News

Spain Banks Face More Pain as Worst-Case Scenario Turns Real
Bloomberg | Charles Penty | 10/18/12

Spain's banks face more loan losses as the pace of an economic slump risks turning a worst-case scenario dismissed in stress tests into reality. ... Read more

Domestic News

Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza
The Nation | Greg Palast | 10/17/12

... in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney's November 2008 New York Times op-ed, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout -- and a few of Romney's most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys', were astronomical -- more than 3,000 percent on their investment. ... Read more

Come on people... these guys are laughing at us. Pandit sold his failing hedge fund to Citigroup for $165 million, who had to take a $202 million writedown. Pandit became CEO of Citigroup and got $261 million in compensation over 5 years. He is now quiting and will probably receive about $24 million from his Citigroup's profit-sharing plans.

Mean while the banks are continuing to foreclose on home owners and greatly increasing the derivatives bubble that put us all at risk for another financial melt-down.

Vikram Pandit Resigns: Citigroup CEO, Censured Bonus Unhurt
Bloomberg | Donal Griffin | 10/17/12

... If no changes are made, Citigroup will have paid Pandit about $261 million in the five years since he became CEO, including his personal compensation and about $165 million for buying his Old Lane Partners LP hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to his becoming CEO. The bank shut Old Lane soon after Pandit took the post, causing a $202 million writedown. ... Read more
Click to zoom

Keystone XL Construction Draws Opposition From Texas Landowners
HP | Ramit Plushnick-Masti | 10/17/12

... In the minds of some landowners approached by TransCanada for land, the company has broken the code.   Nearly half the steel TransCanada is using is not American-made and the company won't promise to use local workers exclusively; it can't guarantee the oil will remain in the United States. It has snatched land. Possibly most egregious: The company has behaved like an arrogant foreigner, unworthy of operating in Texas. ... Read more

Google Throws Open Doors to Its Top-Secret Data Center
Wired Magazine | Steven Levy | 10/17/12

If you're looking for the beating heart of the digital age -- a physical location where the scope, grandeur, and geekiness of the kingdom of bits become manifest -- you could do a lot worse than Lenoir, North Carolina. This rural city of 18,000 was once rife with furniture factories. Now it's the home of a Google data center. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday , October 18, 2012 [13:14]
DN | Greg Palast: "Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions From The Rescue of Detroit" (10/18/12) [17:00], Part 2 [7:01]
DemocracyNow - "Expanding the Debate"
The Other Presidential Candidates
There are three other Presidential Candidates running for the office, that have the credentials, but haven't been included in any of the main debates. They are Jill Stein from the Green Party, Rocky Anderson from the Justice Party, and Virgil Good from the Constitutional Party. I don't know anything about Virgil Good, but Jill Stein is very articulate and gives better answers to the moderators questions than any of the other candidates.

Note: immediately below is a good interview on how the The League of Women Voters lost the rights to present the Presidential Debates.
DN | Secret Debate Contract Reveals Obama/Romney Campaigns Excludes 3rd Parties, Control Topics (10/16/12) [15:18], Part 2 [22:27]
On Employment After Graduation (10/16/12) [7:31]
On Immigration Reform [5:21]
On the Libyan Embassy Attack [2:49]
On Outsourcing American Jobs [4:24]
On Question of Gun Control [4:25]
Differences Between Bush/Romney? [5:05]
Conclude with Final Reflections [5:16]
*DN | Texas Landowners Join Environmentalists For Blockade of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline (10/15/12) [20:58]
*GMO - Genetic Roulette - The Gamble of our Lives (new) [1:24:59]
TRNN (The Real News Network) News
TRNN | "Global Noise" Protests Against Austerity and Debt Spread Worldwide... the Occupy movement is still active! (10/17/12) [5:05]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart Scoffs At Paul Ryan Soup Kitchen Photo Op, Can't Wait For Election To End (10/16/12) [3:35]
Book of Women (10/17/12) [2:49]
Battle for the Historic Footnote - Joe Biden (10/17/12) [2:15]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Wednesday October 17, 2012
International News
Domestic News

OUT OF CONTROL: Romney Tramples Over Debate Moderator
Huffington Post | Jack Mirkinson | 10/16/12

Candy Crowley asked a followup question. And then she asked some more followup questions. And the world didn't collapse. Her biggest challenge turned out to be Mitt Romney. Crowley went round after round with the Republican nominee, sparring with him over the rules of the debate and, at one point, doing a real time fact check on one of his comments. She also had a similar, though slightly easier, set of tussles with Barack Obama. ... Read more

Jill Stein (Presidential Candidate) Arrested Before Hofstra (Presidental) Debate, Campaign Reports
HP | Author | 10/17/12

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested outside of Hofstra University on Tuesday after she attempted to enter the debate grounds.   According to Stein's campaign press statement, Stein and running mate Cheri Honkala joined supporters outside the Hofstra campus at 2 p.m., where Stein declared: "We are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy." When they started to walk onto the debate grounds, they were stopped by police officers, and then the two women sat down on the ground. ... Read more

Quote of the Day Art Cashin's Presidential Debate Summary: "Not A High Moment In The History Of The Republic"
ZeroHedge
Well, who knew it was gonna actually get close to fisty-cuffs? According to CNN Polls, 65% believe Obama won (with 50% saying by a lot) and 19% that Romney won by a lot. Obama dominated speaking time 44:05 to a mere 40:50 for Romney (almost the same margin as in the last debate); but Romney (somewhat ironically) crushed Obama in the drinking game 44:23. Obama Intrade Odds wavered during the debate ending marginally higher but S&P 500 futures are tracking lower. Twitter interest fell 30% from the first debate. Full Bloomberg Headlines and Top Ten Debate Lines below. Obama uttered a brisk 7651 words for a 173 word/min pace (172 last debate) while Romney's 8006 words were spoken at a 196 word/min pace (slower than his 217 pace of the last debate) but still the winner. So, time: Obama, drinking-game: Romney, word-count: Romney - the winner of tonight's debate is??

The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/12/12

I've never thought much of Joe Biden. But man, did he get it right in last night's debate, and not just because he walloped sniveling little Paul Ryan on the facts. What he got absolutely right, despite what you might read this morning (many outlets are criticizing Biden's dramatic excesses), was his tone. Biden did absolutely roll his eyes, snort, laugh derisively and throw his hands up in the air whenever Ryan trotted out his little beady-eyed BS-isms.

But he should have! He was absolutely right to be doing it. We all should be doing it. That includes all of us in the media, and not just paid obnoxious-opinion-merchants like me, but so-called "objective" news reporters as well. We should all be rolling our eyes, and scoffing and saying, "Come back when you're serious." ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, October 17, 2012 [13:43]
I will add material here when it becomes available.
*Bill Moyers | Exploring efforts to capture climate change in action, and the fight to protect our state courts from predatory politics. (10/12/12) [56:54]
*Reason.tv | David Stockman on the banking system (10/17/12) [42:06]
Presidential Debate
*Obama-Romney Presidential debate #2 (10/16/12) [97:49]
Jill Stein (Presidential Candidate) and Cheri Honkala removed from Hofstra (Presidential Debate) by police (10/16/12) [0:26]
Diane Rehm *Analysis Of The Obama-Romney Debate (10/17/12)
*TRNN | Bill Black and Glen Ford on Presidential Debate (10/17/12) [18:55]
*TRNN | Gerald Epstein: Romney's tough talk on China is pure campaign rhetoric and his tax math is nonsense; Obama didn't talk about poverty, climate change, financial regulation, and low wages (10/17/12) [8:09]
GMO
What is GMO - Genetic Roulette - trailer [8:24]
*PP | Jeffrey M. Smith: The GMO Threat (01/16/11) [59:49]
C2CAM | Jeffrey Smith: Dangers of GMO Foods (02/09/12) [1:10:46]

Tuesday October 16, 2012
International News
Domestic News

WONKBLOG | What Paul Ryan's budget actually cuts -- and by how much
Washington Post | Brad Plumer | 03/20/12

Paul Ryan's budget would spend $5.3 trillion less over the next decade than President Obama's budget. Part of this is health care: Ryan would trim Medicare and Medicaid for a portion of his savings. But he'd also spend $2.2 trillion less on everything else. So what, specifically, is Ryan planning to cut? ... Read more

David Stockman On Mitt Romney: 'He Was A Master Financial Speculator'
HP | Author | 10/15/12

In an op-ed in The Daily Beast, David Stockman argues that the Romney campaign's refrain is "dead wrong" -- the refrain being that the Republican candidate is prepared to help the sputtering U.S. economy because he transformed struggling companies and created jobs. Instead, Stockman says, it's "crony capitalism" and central bank help that's made gambling on failing companies a relatively safe bet.   "Mitt Romney was not a businessman," he wrote. "He was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses." ... Read more
Original Daily Beast article

Vikram Pandit Resigns: Citigroup CEO To Be Replaced By Michael Corbat
Huffington Post | Author | 10/16/12

The RATS are leaving the sinking ship??

Vikram Pandit is resigning as CEO of Citigroup, the company announced in a press release Tuesday. He will be replaced by Michael Corbat, previously the bank's CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa. ... Read more
Click to zoom

JPMorgan Deploys New Risk Model for Derivative Bet
Bloomberg | Michael J. Moore | 10/12/12

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), whose trading loss of more than $6.2 billion was fueled by the adoption of a flawed mathematical formula that understated the risks, is trying yet another one.   JPMorgan said today it started using a new formula to judge the risk of the derivatives position, at least the third such model it's used this year, when it moved most of the contracts to the investment-bank unit. The new analysis cut the firm's calculation of overall value-at-risk, or VaR, by $36 million, or 24 percent, to $115 million in the third quarter, the New York- based bank said today on its website. ... Read more

Presidential Debate Contract, 'Memorandum Of Understanding,' Released by Commission on Presidential Debates
HP | Author | 10/15/12

Time's Mark Halperin has released the full-length, previously secret, contract governing the presidential debates. ... And you thought the debates were Open and Spontaneous ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, October 16, 2012 [12:01]
DN | Secret Debate Contract Reveals Obama/Romney Campaigns Excludes 3rd Parties, Control Topics (10/16/12) [15:18], Part 2 [22:27]
Crony Capitalism
*Bill Moyers | David Stockman On: "Crony Capitalism" (03/09/12) [33:00]
TRNN News
Comment: Michael Greenberger: Legal and lobying assault by finance sector blocks regulation of excessive speculation, creating higher prices for food and other commodities

TRNN | Court strikes down CFTC regulation to limit extensive speculation (10/16/12) [16:13]
Comment: Heiner Flassbeck [Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development]: The drive to be more "competitive" is pushing the world economy into deep recession; the best that quantitative easing can do is create another bubble
TRNN | Low wages and high unemployment are paralyzing the global economy (10/16/12) [13:09], Part 2 (10/16/12) [12:03]
Why Did Vikram Pandit Step Down as CEO of Citi? (10/16/12) [4:07]
Paul Ryan's vs White House Budget News
The Path to Prosperity, Paul Ryan FY 2013 Budget , Paul Ryans Website
An Analysis of the President's 2013 Budget, Congressional Budget Office Website
Click to zoom

Click to zoom

Click to zoom


Monday October 15, 2012
International News
Domestic News

United Swing States Of America
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/15/12

... when it comes to determining the fate of America's leadership every 4 years, the bankers, lawyers, venture capitalists, socialites, marketers, hedge funders, Economist PhDs, and other very important jobs, courtesy of the Electoral College, have absolutely no impact, and it all boils down to such swing states as Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. ... Read more

2012 Election: Debate Preparation Trumps Campaigning
Huffington Post | Steve Peoples | 10/14/12/span>

As Mitt Romney's campaign claimed new momentum in the race for the White House, President Barack Obama's political advisers on Sunday promised the incumbent would unleash his more aggressive side in Tuesday's debate to prevent their Republican rival from delivering another "magical and theatrical performance." ... Read more

Third Party Presidential Candidates

Ross Perot 2012! His message was 20 years ahead of its time.
WP | Chris Cillizza | 07/20/12

Ever since Perot earned one in every five votes cast in 1992, talk of forming a legitimate and sustainable third party has been with us. Yet no one has come close to equaling Perot's success. (Ralph Nader's role as spoiler in the 2000 election does not come close to counting.) ... Read more

Americans Elect calls it quits
WP | Krissah Thompson | 05/17/12

Americans Elect, a group that set out to secure ballot access for a yet-to-be-named centrist presidential candidate, has thrown in the towel.   After spending $35 million to create an online nomination process and petition for a line on the ballot in more than half the states -- the group's leaders acknowledged Thursday that they couldn't find a candidate. ... Read more

Comment: I included Ross Perot's campaign ad (infomercial) because it really shows the difference between todays ads and information from the past. It also shows what you can learn if third (and fourth) party candidates are allowed to participate in the debates.

Ross Perot Campaigns: Mr. Perot discussed his plans for the economy, the federal budget, the budget deficit, and the national debt. Sitting at a desk in his office [29:13]


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday October 15, 2012 [14:08]
*DN | Koch Brothers Among U.S. Billionaires Pressuring Thousands of Employees to Vote For GOP (10/15/12) [11:09]
*DN | Texas Landowners Join Environmentalists For Blockade of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline (10/15/12) [20:58]
News from Iraq
Comment: Remember all those DU (Depleted Uranium) munitions we dumped on Iraq and Fallujah. Well the results are in. I think Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld should be held accountable. Note: this will be ongoing for decades.

Iraq records huge rise in birth defects
The Independent | Sarah Morrison | 10/14/12

It played unwilling host to one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war. Fallujah's homes and businesses were left shattered; hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed. Its residents changed the name of their "City of Mosques" to "the polluted city" after the United States launched two massive military campaigns eight years ago. Now, one month before the World Health Organisation reveals its view on the legacy of the two battles for the town, a new study reports a "staggering rise" in birth defects among Iraqi children conceived in the aftermath of the war. ... Read more

Comment: right after the Vice Presidential Debate a friend sent me this comment... taken from the talking heads.

On Iran, Ryan accused the administration of watering down sanctions and blocking congressional action. Biden pushed back against that charge.   "Imagine had we let the Republican Congress work out the sanctions," said Biden. "You think there's any possibility the entire world would have joined us, Russia and China, all of our allies? These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions. Period."

Biden is mostly correct: the administration did marshal international support for the most crippling sanctions, although they did not want to sanction Iran's central bank until Congress forced the president to do so.
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis: Sanctions Against Iranian Banks is Economic Warfare (10/11/12) [7:55]
Breaking Records

Red Bull Stratos YouTube Live Stream Attracts Record Number Of Viewers
HP | Catherine Smith | 10/14/12

Felix Baumgartner captured the attention of the web on Sunday when he jumped from a capsule 128,000 feet above Earth and landed safely on the ground in New Mexico. ... Read more

Other Videos and Documentaries I Ran Across

Friday October 12, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Iraq intends to replace Exxon with Russian companies - reports
RT | Author | 10/11/12

Iraq is reportedly considering replacing US oil major ExxonMobil with Russian companies in the West Qurna-1 project, as the authorities are angered by ExxonMobil's deal signed with the Kurdistan regional government without Baghdad's approval. ... Read more

Russian companies are expanding their activities in Iraq, says Putin
Examiner | Roberrt Tilford | 10/11/12

President Vladimir Putin said in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on October 10, 2012, "Russian companies are expanding their activities in Iraq now."   "Mr. Prime Minister, it is a great pleasure to see you in Moscow once more... We see how the new Iraq is getting back on its feet and developing, and we are very happy for your success." ... Read more

Why Are Americans So Easy to Manipulate and Control?
AlterNet | Bruce Levine | 10/11/12

The shopper, the student, the worker, and the voter are all seen by consumerism and behaviorism the same way: passive, conditionable objects. ... Read more

The Romney Men: 6 Filthy Rich Moguls Who Will Do Anything to Elect Mitt
AlterNet | Lynn Parramore | 10/10/12

The following 1 percent wonders are doing just fine under Obama, but since their worldview is largely restricted to an obsession with their marginal tax rate, they can't refrain from denouncing the president and thinking of new ways to thwart his re-election bid. The Romney men desperately want to see the first financier president, a man after their own cold hearts. ... Read more

A graph is worth a 1000 words. Below graph show the change in government spending over the last 50 years.
Click to zoom

New Senate Push to Pledge Unconditional Support for Israeli Preventive War on Iran
Huffington Post | Jamal Abdi | 10/11/12

... Now, Graham is herding his willfully ignorant colleagues to support another incremental step towards war with Iran, under the guise of being "pro-Israel" and supporting the president. His new resolution would twist Obama's words that the U.S. "has Israel's back" to mean the U.S. is on call to jump into war with Iran if and when Netanyahu decides it's go time. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, October 12 [13:45]
DN | EU Awarded Nobel Peace Prize Despite Ties To NATO, Crippling Austerity Cuts (10/12/12) [10:56]
RT | Iraq wants Exxon out, Russia in (10/11/12) [1:49]
Complete Vice Presidential Debate 2012: Joe Biden vs. Paul Ryan (10/11/12) [1:31:05]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 10/12/12
International News - Friday 10/12/12
TRNN News
TRNN | Phyllis Bennis: Sanctions Against Iranian Banks is Economic Warfare (10/11/12) [7:55]
TRNN | US and Israel Recognize Iran Not Near a Bomb (10/12/12) [11:25]
SUSTAINABILITY
I have decided to concentrate on Sustainability. I know it is a buzz word for the environmentalist, but I think the rest of us are a little mystified how it effects us and don't have enough references to make the term relevant to our own lives. Thus I hope to find more examples of time-lines that illustrate how fast we are using up our limited resources.
A Century in the Sun: the development of Florida () [56:46]
Overfishing visually explained (2012) [4:20]
Ever wondered who owns your favorite product, store or restaurant? Well, the answer might surprise you, for it is only a few well known companies that seem to own all the rest.
Click to zoom
Alternative Lifestyle
*Commune (2005) [1:18:01]
*Garbage Warrior (Earthship Biotecture) (10/07/12) [1:27:41]
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart Blasts 'F*cking Crazy' GOP Candidates Part 1 (10/11/12) [2:12], Part 2 [5:23]

Thursday October 11, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Barack Obama's Record On Addressing Climate Change In First Term Under Scrutiny By Activists
Huffington Post | Tom Zeller Jr. | 10/11/12

"I think I missed the part where they discussed the Arctic melting," the environmentalist and author Bill McKibben recently quipped. ... ... "Wasn't there some kind of drought or something this summer?" he continued. "Maybe I'm misremembering." ... Read more

comment: the table/chart below show how doughts have effected the United States over the past 70 years. One picture is worth 1000 words.
Click to zoom

The art of GPS
Daily Mail | Lee Moran | 06/19/12

These stunning CGI images reveal what the nation looks like from the skies, and how its transport and communication infrastructures work to power the vast nation on a daily basis.   Everything from the routes taken by Manhattan pizza delivery drivers on a Friday night to Domino's Pizza truck movement across the country are replicated in breathtaking detail. ... Read more

5 things to watch in VP debate
Politico | Maggie Haberman | 10/11/12

Paul Ryan will look to win for the Republican ticket tonight when he takes the debate stage at Centre College here against Joe Biden in the first national face-off in which he's participated.   Biden -- for whom expectations have been lowered over the constant refrain of "What about your gaffes?" -- will try his best to triumph, providing Democrats with a strong night to change the momentum of a race that has shifted slightly toward Mitt Romney. ... Read more

Weakness Spreads to Emerging Markets
WSJ | Brian Blackstone | 10/11/12

TOKYO -- Weakness in major economies is starting to infect formerly fast-growing emerging markets, top global economic officials warned, raising fears of a prolonged world-wide slowdown and renewed finger-pointing over blame.   "The biggest change from the spring meeting is that slowdown of economic growth is affecting not only advanced countries but also emerging countries, particularly in Asia," International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference at the start of the IMF's annual meeting Thursday. ... Read more

PBS American Experience | The Clintons () [3:35:19]



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, October 11 [11:26]
*DN | Birthplace of Atomic Bomb, New Mexico Remains Center of Massive U.S. Nuclear Arsenal (10/11/12) [18:08]
*DN | "Earthship Biotecture": Renegade New Mexico Architect's Radical Approach to Sustainable Living (10/11/12) [13:56]
*Garbage Warrior (Earthship Biotecture) (10/07/12) [1:27:41]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm The Risks And Rewards Of Being A Whistle-blower (10/11/12)
Solar Flares
Solar Storms are Rising (09/19/12) [3:04]
*April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft. [2:01]
We Don't Have Capitalism
*How Crony Capitalism Corrupts the Free Market | David Stockman (09/26/12) [35:42]
Nuclear Bombs
comment: this is a long video and starts out slow, but it telling. I didn't realize there were over 2050 nuclear test between 1944 and 1998.
*A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto [14:25]
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998.
Other Videos and Documentaries

Wednesday October 10, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Mitt Romney CNN Interview: The 47% Comment Is 'Not What I Meant'
Huffington Post | Sam Stein | 10/09/12

Mitt Romney CNN Interview: The 47% Comment Is 'Not What I Meant' [1:55]

Romney's walk back from the 47 percent comments underscores a general walk toward a more moderate plank during the last week. In his initial comment, he clearly wasn't just talking about electoral math. He lamented that he would never be able to convince those people who paid no federal income taxes to take personal responsibility for themselves.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Republican nominee continued to present his tax plan as something that would be balanced in its budgeting and maintain the progressivity of the code. But while he pushed back forcefully on President Barack Obama's charge that he didn't have the means to pay for, what amounted to a $5 trillion tax cut, he continued to avoid offering specifics with respect to pay-fors. ... Read more

The Half-Trillion Dollar Nuclear Budget
Huffington Post | Benjamin Loehrke | 10/10/12

The nuclear arsenal might seem like an artifact of Cold War strategy, but the U.S. is spending money on it like the Wall never fell. If nothing changes, in fact, the U.S. is on track to spend approximately $640 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years. This upward trend stands in contrast to the advice of national security experts who say we can cut defense budgets by getting rid of last century's weapons. ...

... The U.S. currently has 5,000 operational nuclear warheads, with 3,000 more awaiting dismantlement. Top experts like Gen. James Cartwright agree we can provide for our security with less than 1,000 total. ... Read more

Billionaire CEO Threatens to Fire Employees if Obama Wins
Nation of Change | Scott Keyes | 10/10/12

"David Siegel, who owns Florida-based Westgate Resorts, sent an email to all his employees yesterday to discuss the upcoming election." ...   ... Siegel earned national notoriety this year for his quest to build the biggest house in America, "a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles." ... Read more

The Queen of Versailles
America's Largest House - American Versailles (07/17/12) [6:27]



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, October 10 [14:04]
As Bain Ships Jobs to China, Bainport Protesters Arrested for Blocking Illinois Factory (10/10/12) [7:38]
Sandra Fluke got her boost to fame by a rude comment by Rush Limbaugh. Boy, he should watch out. All you have to do is listen to five minutes of this interview and compare it to one of Rush's radio shows and you will know instantly who is more intelligent. For a young person Sandra has a lot of potential.
Diane Rehm | A Conversation With Sandra Fluke (10/09/12) (radio/repeat)
This video is Michael Moore at a book signing in Miami, Florida. A lot of people don't like Michael and his documentaries, but I find them interesting and I think he does a good job of presenting serious topics with a mixture of humor.
Michael Moore, Here Comes Trouble (02/03/12) [58:01]
TRNN News
Romney and Obama Policy to Save GM: Lower Wages (10/10/12) [10:48]
TYT News
TYT | Paul Krugman Attacks Press for Debate Coverage (10/09/12) [6:57]
TYT | THE IRAN JOB director, Till Schauder (10/09/12) [6:19],   The Iran Job trailer [2:28]
TYT | Kid Rips Romney: "Stay in Massachusetts" (09/30/12) [4:22]
TYT | Jesse Ventura: If 3rd party candidates were allowed in debates, they'd have a fighting chance (09/13/12) [3:56]
Solar Flares
Solar flare - Active Sunspot Regions - 2 Day Movie (10/10/2012) [0:10]
Billionaire Houses
25 largest houses in america [5:46]
Other Videos
C2CAM | Solar Cataclysms (10/03/12) [2:32:16]
C2CAM | A Conversation with Michio Kaku (07/01/12) [2:37:38]
Other Videos and Documentaries I Found

Tuesday October 09, 2012
International News

'Nuclear time bomb:' Downed K-27 submarine must be lifted out
RT | Author | 09/13/12

A Soviet K-27 submarine suffered a nuclear accident before being dumped at the bottom of the Kara Sea 30 years ago. Russia may now have to lift the sub from dangerously shallow waters -- before an "uncontrolled chain reaction" causes fatal damage. ... Read more

Domestic News

Inside the campaign: The Romney rebellion
Politico | Mike Allen | 10/09/12

For months, Ann Romney and her eldest son, Tagg, were dutifully supportive of the political professionals running Mitt Romney's campaign. All the while, their private frustration was mounting.   Shortly before the first debate, it finally boiled over.

What followed was a family intervention. The candidate's family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee -- a "let Mitt be Mitt" approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew. ... Read more

Romney's Stake in Chinese Stocks
MotherJones | James West | 10/09/12

On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney rips President Obama's policy on China and talks tough against the rising global power. "We're going to crack down on China," he said at a recent event in Ohio. "They've stolen our jobs; that's gotta stop." But according to Romney's recent tax returns, between 2008-2011 Romney invested more than a half million dollars in the stocks of 10 Chinese companies -- including firms that embezzled, partnered with Iran, and stole US intellectual property. ... Read more

Presidential Debate Aftermath: Mitt Romney Wins All-Important BS Contest
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/08/12

I didn't watch the debate -- I just couldn't. I read it in transcript form afterwards. I know it is widely believed that Mitt Romney won, but I don't agree. I think both candidates lost. I think they both sucked. Romney told a series of outright lies -- the bit about the pre-existing conditions was incredible -- while Barack Obama seemed unaccountably disinterested in the intellectual challenge of the exercise, repeatedly leaving the gross absurdities hurled his way by Romney unchallenged. ... Read more

Google Says It Won't 'Manually' Review YouTube Vids for Infringement
Wired Magazine | David Kracets | 10/04/12

YouTube five years ago engineered a filtering system enabling "content owners" -- now numbering 3,000 -- to upload music and videos they own to a "fingerprinting" database -- 500,000 hours of reference files to date. When YouTube users upload their videos, the algorithm known as Content ID scans new uploads against the copyright database for matches. ... Read more

Most of Us Will Not Have a Better Life Unless We Turn the Tables on the Super Rich
AlterNet | Chuck Collins | 10/04/12

An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar? It's no mere coincidence that over the last century the top earners' share of the nation's total income peaked in 1928 and 2007--the two years just preceding the biggest downturns. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, October 9, 2012 [9:49]
DN | Danny Glover: Record Venezuela Voter Turnout Hands Chavez Mandate to Continue Social Agenda (10/09/12) [12:36]
DN | As Texas Pipeline Blockade Continues, Activists Challenge First U.S. Tar Sands Mine in Utah (10/09/12) [13:25]
Watch: Big Bird Responds to Mitt Romney's Debate Threat on 'Saturday Night Live'
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Secretary Of Education Arne Duncan (10/09/12)
A Conversation With Sandra Fluke (10/09/12)
Sun Flares
Stunning Solar Flare Eruption! - October 8, 2012 [0:10]
To see updated chart

'Nuclear time bomb: K-27 sub must be lifted out
19 Soviet Nuke Subs, 14 Reactors Leaking On Bottom Of Ocean (09/26/12) [1:12]
The Nuclear Waste Ship History (02/24/11) [18:04]
Dumping Radioactive Waste at Sea [6:33]
"Nightmare Nuclear Waste" (2009) [1:38:27]
Scary Videos
comment: this is a long video and starts out slow, but it telling. I didn't realize there were over 2050 nuclear test between 1944 and 1998.
A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto [14:25]
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998.
Other Videos and Documentaries

Monday October 08, 2012
International News

It's All Connec ted: Euro Crisis
NYT | Author | 10/22/11

The global financial system is highly interconnected. So problems in one part of the world can reverberate almost everywhere else...

Read more
Click to zoom
Comment: Looking at the following two graphs I was amazed on how the FED has basically determined what the Stock Market was going to do, and that now the FED, and 7 other Central Banks balance sheets have spiked back to 33% of world stock market capitalization.

Living In A QE World
The Big Picture | Author | 12/27/12

The degree to which central banks around the world are printing money is unprecedented. ... Read more

Click to zoom
Click to zoom
Recently, the eight central bank balance sheets have spiked back to 33% of world stock market capitalization. This has come about not by lender of last resort loans, but rather by QE expansion (buying bonds with "printed money") even faster than world stock markets are rising.
Domestic News
Comment: this graph goes with the video of the same name in the right column. I was really surprised on how steep the curve was for Perscription Drugs.
Prescription for Addiction
Comment: this table shows where different countries rate on an Inequality Scale... notice where the United States is.


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, October 8, 2012 [14:14]
DN | US Peace Activists Join Anti-Drone March in Pakistan; 10 Arrest at NY Military Base Protest (10/08/12) [2:36]
DN | Robert Scheer on The Great American Stickup (older, but I just finished reading the book) (09/07/10) [8:31]
Prescription for Addiction ()[5:35]
*WSJ | The Big Interview: Sheila Bair (09/27/12) [24:19]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Elements in Iran and US that Want War (10/08/12) [12:31]
TRNN | Bill Black: Obama susceptible to attack by Romney because he failed to deal with systemic risk to financial system - even though Romney would be worse (10/08/12) [6:52]
BBC Horizon
Comment: I have decided to add a lot more comments to my choices of articles and videos. I ran across a lot of BBC Horizon videos during the weekend and became facinated by the one below. I see a lot of comments on the web questioniong the integrety of the BBC reporting, but I try to put all that aside so I can enjoy learning new aspects of subjects that I never knew about. Anyway, "How Big Is The Universe" is beautiful and really explains how far we have gone in Cosmology.
*BBC Horizon: How Big Is The Universe [58:03]
BBC Horizon: Solar Storms The Threat to Planet Earth (03/11/12) [59:00]
Jon Steward
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Do Debate Prep For The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium (10/04/12) [6:57]
The Rumble 2012: Bill O'Reilly VS. Jon Stewart (10/07/12) [1:33:08]
Other Videos
PBSNewshour | Watch President Clinton Deliver Nomination Address at the DNC () [50:13]
Brooksley Born - The Woman Who Knew - Freshman History Day Schools 2011
US Debt Clock
Other Videos and Documentaries

Friday October 05, 2012
International News

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard says crisis will last a decade
independent.ie | Author | 10/03/12

THE world economy will take at least 10 years to emerge from the financial crisis that began in 2008, the International Monetary Fund's Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said in an interview published on Wednesday. ... Read more

China To Challenge US Dollar Reserve Currency Status
ZeroHedge | Author |10/04/12

... China is actively taking steps to phase out the US dollar which will decrease volatility in oil and commodity prices and deride the 'exorbitant privilege' the USA commands as the issuer of the reserve currency at the centre of a post-war international financial architecture which is now failing. ... Read more

Domestic News

Mitt Romney: '47 Percent' Comments Were 'Just Completely Wrong'
HP | Kasie Hunt | 10/04/12

FISHERSVILLE, Va. -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has described his disparaging remarks about the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes as "not elegantly stated." Now he's calling them "just completely wrong."   Romney had contended that nearly half of Americans consider themselves "victims" and are dependent on government.

In an interview Thursday night with Fox News, Romney was asked what he would have said had the "47 percent" comments come up during his debate the night before with President Barack Obama.   Romney responded that sometimes in campaigning something doesn't come out right and that, quote, "In this case, I said something that's just completely wrong."... Read more

Romney's Dodd-Frank Comments Shock Bewildered Bankers
HP | Mark Gongloff | 10/04/12

... This came as a shock to Wall Street, notes Politico's Ben White, who writes that it "blew up [his] inbox like no other" line of the night. One such email, from a "New York" bank executive, said: "Doubt that most folks on Wall Street would have predicted that Romney would have taken the most direct shots at 'N.Y. banks' at this point. ... If he'd named names, it would have been his top five contributors." ... Read more

The mounting cost of violence
Politico | Mike Honda | 09/28/12

What we don't know, however, is how much that violence costs our society -- in total. A new report out this week, by the Institute for Economics and Peace, shows just how much, and it is an overwhelming amount. So what do we spend on violence, on violence-related medical expenses, incarceration, police, the military, insurance, and even the private security industry?

The total U.S. public and private expenditure containing violence on our lands and overseas is $2.16 trillion. That equates to roughly $15,000 that each American taxpayer spends annually on violence or more than 15 percent of America's gross domestic product. Break that figure down by sector and you have public sector spending on violence accounting for 10.8 percent of GDP and private sector spending on violence accounting for 4.2 percent of U.S. GDP (and these are conservative figures).   That means 1 out of every 7 dollars spent in the U.S. is spent containing violence. ... Read more

No Income? No Problem! How the Gov't Is Saddling Parents with College Loans They Can't Afford
ProPublica | Marian Wang | 10/04/12

Steve Lance put both his sons through college by taking out federal Parent Plus loans. Like many parents, he's now deeply in debt. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, October 5 [11:58]
DN | On Afghan War 11th Anniversary, Vets Confront Mental Health Crisis, Suicide, Violence, Part 1 (10/05/12) [11:09]
CNBC | Marc Faber & Jim Rogers On Obama & Romney are "Clueless, Ignorant, Dangerous" (10/04/12) [7:50]
Reuters | Economist Laura Tyson: Romney's 47 percent labels vets & retirees as slackers (10/03/12) [1:51]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 10/05/12
International News - Friday 10/05/12
NPR Tom Ashbrook
NPR Tom Ashbrook | Charles Ferguson in his book Predator Nation: is back with more. A deep, furious critique of American finance and politics today as fundamentally corrupt and corrupting. (05/23/12) [1hr]
When the U.S. economy melted down in 2008, Charles Ferguson stepped up with a blistering documentary on the collapse called "Inside Job." He named names and laid blame for the crash in a way that regulators and law enforcement were unwilling to do. "Inside Job" won the Academy Award for best documentary.
TRNN News
TRNN | Leo Panitch: Romney's defense of small banks, small businesses and the middle class is disingenuous, but Obama share's too many of the same assumptions to counterattack (10/04/12) [7:31]
New Campaign Ads
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney | Ohio Jobs (10/05/12) [0:32]
Mitt Romney | Born And Raised In Nevada (10/05/12) [0:30]
Mitt Romney | Facts Are Clear (10/05/12) [0:30]
Barak Obama
Obama | Sit down in your livingroom (10/05/12) [2:03]
Other
The Gulf... Under Attack: Another oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico! (05/25/12) [4:25]
Aljazeera | Organic farmers beat US droughts [2:09]
Fukushima
On Fukushima Beach (09/24/12) [59:59]
LFTRs in 5 minutes - Thorium Reactors (03/10/12) [5:05]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Thursday October 04, 2012
International News

China To Challenge US Dollar Reserve Currency Status
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/04/12

... China is actively taking steps to phase out the US dollar which will decrease volatility in oil and commodity prices and deride the 'exorbitant privilege' the USA commands as the issuer of the reserve currency at the centre of a post-war international financial architecture which is now failing. ... Read more

Domestic News

The Rise Of Global Central Planning
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/04/12

There was a time when the world had (somewhat) free markets. Then Lehman failed as the inevitable culmination of a credit bubble that was second in size and severity only to the one being blown currently, and the central planners took over, converting equity, bond and FX markets into nothing but monetary policy tools dominated by central banks. Below is a great summary of how parallel to SkyNet's HFT takeover of stock trading, the central planners conducted their own not so stealthy take over of all capital markets. ... Read more

CNN, FactCheck.org On Romney's $5 Trillion Tax Plan: Trust Him
HuffingtonPost | Matt Sledge | 10/04/12

Despite an otherwise lackluster performance, one area where President Barack Obama went on the offensive in Wednesday night's debate was over Mitt Romney's proposal for broad tax cuts.

Four times Obama repeated the conclusion of an independent analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that those cuts would cost approximately $5 trillion. Romney, in response, claimed "I don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don't have a tax cut of a scale that you're talking about."

Faced with that contrast -- a statistic generated by a non-partisan, widely respected think tank versus an unsupported assertion by a guy essentially asking people to trust him -- who did CNN and FactCheck.org declare had the more factual response?

Mitt Romney.

"Obama accused Romney of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. Not true," FactCheck.org said. "Romney proposes to offset his rate cuts and promises he won't add to the deficit."

If a reader read on a mere 755 words, however, they would discover a salient point about Romney's proposal. It is, in FactCheck's words, "The Impossible Plan" because there aren't enough tax breaks to take away from the rich to pay for it, as Romney has promised he would do.
Read more

Why the Pundits Are Wrong About the Debate
HP | Lynn Parramore | 10/04/12

... Obama did what anybody paying close attention would have known he would do. He played it safe. And he stuck to a rather dull rhetorical style because -- he has a rather dull rhetorical style. Also because that's what you do when you're the front-runner. You don't say or do anything wild and crazy. You let your opponent jump up and down and make excitable noises. Which is precisely what Romney did. Some have read Romney's stance as aggressive, others as pushy, but there's one word that you're unlikely to hear: "presidential." Makes for good theatrics. But it won't win you the White House. ... Read more

Top 10 GMO Foods to Avoid
nationofchange.org | Author | 07/29/12

Genetically modified foods have been shown to cause harm to humans, animals, and the environmental, and despite growing opposition, more and more foods continue to be genetically altered. It's important to note that steering clear from these foods completely may be difficult, and you should merely try finding other sources than your big chain grocer. ... Read more

Orders to U.S. Factories Plunge on Airplanes, Computers
Bloomberg | Lorraine Woellert | 10/04/12

... Orders placed with U.S. factories fell in August by the most in more than three years, signaling that slowdowns in business investment and exports restrained the economic expansion. ... Read more

Bank-Friendly Regulator Shifts to Revamp Reputation
Bloomberg | Jesse Hamilton | 10/04/12

Lets hope so

Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Expanding the Debate Exclusive: Third Party Candidates Debate As Obama-Romney Spar Part 1 of 3 [10:42]
DemocracyNow Expanded Debate
DemocracyNow expands the Presidential Debates to include the other two candidates, Green Party's Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson. At first I wasn't sure how this was going to pan out, so I didn't pay too much attention. But after viewing these videos I realized how much I wanted Romney and Obama to REALLY answer the the important questions that are lingering in the shadows.
DN | Ideas on Social Security, Entitlements [5:14]
DN | Tackling Deficit [5:26]
*DN | Dodd-Frank and Financial Reform [6:56]
DN | How to Create Jobs? [13:33]
DN | HealthCare Reform [4:51]
DN | Expanded Healthcare Discussion [5:34]
DN | Plans on Education Part 1 [1:54]
DN | Plans on Education Part 2 [1:49]
DN | Failure of Bipartisan Collaboration [1:53]
DN | Offer Closing Remarks in Presidential Debate [5:39]
TRNN News
*TRNN | Chris Hedges: US Elections: Pick Your Poison (10/02/12) [17:02]
60 Minutes
*60 Minutes | "Insider attacks" kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan (09/30/12) [15:31]
Lara Logan tells Overtime Editor Ann Silvio about her remarkable interview with a Taliban commander, who described how al Qaeda has helped his fighters plan and execute "insider killings" of U.S. troops, Part 2 [5:12]
PBSFrontline
PBS Frontline | The Battle for Syria (09/18/12) [53:42]
Presidential Debate
HP | Presidential Live debate feed is provided by The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) (10/04/12) [91:27]
Romney Walked Back Multiple Positions... Denied His Own Tax Plan... 'Dodged Almost Every Point In The Right-Wing Canon'... Top Adviser Contradicts Romney On Health Care... His 4 Most Misleading Moments... No Mention Of 47%... Or Immigration, Bain, Libya, Offshore Accounts...
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm *The First Presidential Debate. (10/04/12)
Occupy Wall Street
*OWS Explained: 1% vs 99% () [5:42]
#F29 Shut Down the Corporations | Occupy Wall Street Video (03/07/12) [5:41]
Jon Steward
*Jon Stewart | The United Nations General Assembly nearly fails to deliver any of the high drama, red meat rhetoric and innovative prop comedy for which it is known. (09/27/12) [6:32]
Other Videos and Documentaries

Wednesday October 03, 2012
International News
Domestic News

Grand Illusion: Mobility, Inequality, and the American Dream
HuffingtonPost | Jerome Karabel | 10/02/12

... So the United States now finds itself at a crossroads: still fervently committed to the American dream, but unwilling to adopt policies that would promote its realization. Put simply, Republicans and Democrats alike want something they cannot have: a society of unsurpassed opportunity to rise, regardless of family background, while tolerating exceptionally high levels of poverty and inequality. Such a society does not -- and cannot -- exist. ... Read more

On Keystone, Environmentalists Lose by Winning
Bloomberg | Jeff Rubin | 09/25/12

A surplus of oil backing up at Cushing has turned into a sweet deal for Midwest refiners, and explains why West Texas Intermediate crude traded more than $20 a barrel lower than benchmark world oil prices for most of 2011. Without a new pipeline, Midwest refiners will get to keep paying a discounted price for Canadian oil.   Considering that Canada exports more than 2 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S., getting shortchanged by $20 on every barrel sold is no trifling matter. It works out to about $40 million a day or roughly $1.25 billion a month in forgone petrodollars. And it's not just Canadian oil producers that take a hit. The royalties collected by Alberta's provincial government also shrink with the corporate taxes collected by Canada's federal government. ... Read more

This Is Why High Frequency Trading Will Never Go Away
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

... Reliance on the fake "liquidity" (which was never liquidity per se but merely volume and churn) by the Hight Frequency Trading (HFT) algos that stuff quotes, frontrun each other, spoof, layer, and generally make a mockery out of the thing fomerly known as the market. ... ... in 2011 the CME made 31.5% of all its revenues from HFT, the ICE: 25.1%, the NYSE: 21.4%, the Nasdaq: 17.1%, the CBOE: 22.4%, and so on. Read more

No Joy on Wall Street as Biggest Banks Earn $63 Billion
Bloomberg | Max Abelson | 10/03/12

Bank of America Corp. made more in the 12-month period than Walt Disney Co. and McDonald's Corp. combined. Citigroup Inc. (C), which like Bank of America took $45 billion in taxpayer funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, earned more than Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Boeing Co. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. bank by assets, had profits of more than $17 billion even after reporting a $5.8 billion trading loss.

Still, Wall Street isn't enjoying its good fortune.

Those billions of dollars in profits aren't enough, according to interviews with more than a dozen bank executives and analysts. The lowest leverage in a decade, return on equity at a third of 2006 levels, higher capital requirements, shares trading below book value, declining bonuses, job cuts, the European sovereign-debt crisis and a backlash against bankers have damped the joys of profit, they said. Read more

Libor Rigging Lawsuits Geithner's Fault, Senators Say
Reuters | Sarah N. Lynch | 10/02/12

... In a sharply worded letter to Geithner, Republicans Chuck Grassley and Mark Kirk blamed a "deluge" of lawsuits over the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) on Geithner's failure to inform the public, even though he knew of manipulation as president of the New York Federal Reserve in 2008. ... Read more

Global Trade Grinds To Halt: Seven And A Half Things To Know
HP | Mark Gongloff | 10/01/12

Thing One: Importing Recession: This economy would be great if it wasn't for the customers. ... Read more

Killers on the loose: the deadly viruses that threaten human survival
Guardian | David Quammen | date

Don't panic, this didn't happen, but I did find this an interesting and detailed article on how diseases can spread, especially in our Globalized world.

... It's a mildly technical term, zoonosis, unfamiliar to most people, but it helps clarify the biological complexities behind the ominous headlines about swine flu, bird flu, Sars, emerging diseases in general, and the threat of a global pandemic. It's a word of the future, destined for heavy use in the 21st century.   Ebola and Marburg are zoonoses. So is bubonic plague. So was the so-called Spanish influenza of 1918--1919, which had its source in a wild aquatic bird and emerged to kill as many as 50 million people. All of the human influenzas are zoonoses. As are monkeypox, bovine tuberculosis, Lyme disease, West Nile fever, rabies and a strange new affliction called Nipah encephalitis, which has killed pigs and pig farmers in Malaysia. Each of these zoonoses reflects the action of a pathogen that can "spillover", crossing into people from other animals. ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, October 3 [1:51]
DN | As Obama, Romney Hold 1st Debate, Behind the Secret GOP-Dem Effort to Shut Out Third Parties (10/03/12) [23:53]
CNBC | Mark Cuban: High-Frequency Trading Hurts Confidence (10/02/12) [5:58]
BB | No Joy on Wall Street as Biggest Banks Earn $63 Billion (10/03/12) [3:00]
Experts discuss the findings of the Roundup/GM cancer trial (09/19/12) [2:30]
Bill Moyers | United States of ALEC (09/28/12) [31:58]
Report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has 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.
Bill Moyers | Who Shipwrecked Our Economy? [3:03]
Alternet: New Rules for Radicals: Ten Ways to Spark Change in a Post-Occupy World
BillMoyers | Bruce Bartlett on Where the Right Went Wrong (02/10/12) [24:52]
Bartlett argues that right-wing tax policies -- pushed in part by Grover Norquist and Tea Party activists -- are destroying the country's economic foundation. When he called George W. Bush out as "a pretend conservative" in his book Impostor: Why George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, Bartlett was fired from his position as a senior fellow at a conservative think tank.
Eliot Spitzer | Rachel Maddow | ED Show
Eliot Spitzer | How the candidates are perceived: 'People are surprised that Romney is as bad as he is. (09/24/12) [2:00]
Rachel Maddow | Akin opens door to disagreeing with Civil Rights Act (10/01/12) [8:46]
Rachel Maddow | Scott Brown: Romney who? (10/01/12) [5:04]
The ED Show | Will Romney use zingers for the debate? (10/01/12) [8:37]
*The ED Show | Ryan says Romney campaign made 'missteps' (10/01/12) [12:26]
*The ED Show | New Details on Romney investment in China (09/27/12) [3:31]
Martin Bashir | Ryan breaks campaign's own 'no whining rule' over media bias (10/01/12) [6:08]
Martin Bashir | GOP's potential voter fraud scandal grows (10/01/12) [3:29]
*Martin Bashir | Ryan: No time to explain my budget math (10/01/12) [4:53]
Other Videos and Documentaries
*97% Owned - Monetary Reform documentary [2:10:23]
97% owned present serious research and verifiable evidence on our economic and financial system. This is the first documentary to tackle this issue from a UK-perspective and explains the inner workings of Central Banks and the Money creation process.
When money drives almost all activity on the planet, it's essential that we understand it. Yet simple questions often get overlooked, questions like; where does money come from? Who creates it? Who decides how it gets used? And what does this mean for the millions of ordinary people who suffer when the monetary, and financial system, breaks down?
Produced by Queuepolitely and featuring Ben Dyson of Positive Money, Josh Ryan-Collins of The New Economics Foundation, Ann Pettifor, the "HBOS Whistleblower" Paul Moore, Simon Dixon of Bank to the Future and Nick Dearden from the Jubliee Debt Campaign.
Paul Ryan (The American Spectator, Nov 1, 2011) [23:37]
"Trade-Off": A Study In Global Systemic Collapse (07/14/12) [article]

Tuesday October 02, 2012
International News

The ECB - EUR22 Trillion Is Missing
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

Think of it; twenty-two trillion dollars worth of assets and liabilities and accounted for nowhere. These are twenty-two trillion dollars ($22 trillion) of loans and securitizations and mortgages that are found and accountable for by no one. These are real assets and real liabilities that have been turned into cash by the ECB and it causes us to wonder just how accurate the Money Supply numbers are for Europe with this amount of cash being pumped into the system. We also wonder what anyone's real balance sheet looks like and I wonder what kinds of losses are being incurred and by whom. This is what we are investing in when we buy European bonds? This is where we are putting our client's money? ... Read more

Dow Falls as Spain Spooks Investors
WSJ | Chris Dieterich | 10/02/12

Stocks fell to session lows after Spain's prime minister poured cold water on speculation that the country is nearing a bailout request.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 65 points, or 0.5%, to 13449 in midday trading, paring early gains that brought the blue chips higher by as many as 52 points.   Tuesday's early advance followed reports that Spain was nearer to requesting funds from the European Central Bank. But early stock gains wavered, and losses accelerated after headlines that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a bailout request is not imminent. ... Read more

Domestic News

Mitt Romney's Quest For Swing Vote An Uphill Battle, Say Republican Pollsters
HuffingtonPost | Jon Ward | 10/01/12

The tone on a conference call with Republican pollsters Monday, discussing Mitt Romney's chances of winning over key swing voters, was rather gloomy. ... Read more

Eric Cantor Says In Debate 'Not True' He Voted For Sequester That He Voted For
HP | Jennifer Bendery | 10/01/12

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) insisted Monday night that he didn't support the budget sequester put into place last summer that Congress is now trying to get out of. But, well, he did vote for it.   During a debate with his Democratic challenger Wayne Powell, Cantor blamed President Barack Obama for pushing through a debt deal in August 2011 that included a $1.2 trillion sequester, or a trigger for automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to kick in at the end of this year. The sequester was never intended to take effect. It was supposed to spur lawmakers to come up with a better way to cut trillions in spending. But Congress failed to come up with a bipartisan plan, so the possibility of the sequester taking effect now looms. ... Read more

TitleTop 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened
Bloomberg | Peter Robison | 10/02/12
Read more

Click to zoom

SEC Leads From Behind as High-Frequency Trading Shows Data Gap
Bloomberg | Nina Mehta | 10/01/12

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stung by criticism that it lacks the knowledge to analyze the computerized trading that has come to dominate American stock markets, is planning to catch up. ... Read more

Sam Zell On "Class Warfare Crap", QE3 Unreality, And Why Everything Is Mispriced Due To The Fed
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

"QE-whatever has created artificial numbers that the underlying won't support" is how Sam Zell sums up his view of the Fed's actions, adding that the Dow should be more like 9000, not 14000. The typically optimistic bottom-feeding real-estate magnate says he is not buying here, is gravely concerned about liquidity needs, and in his assessment "everything is massively too expensive." ... Read more



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, October 2 [10:45]
DN | As U.S. Death Toll in Afghanistan Passes 2,000 Mark, Phyllis Bennis on America's Longest War (10/02/12) [9:35]
TRNN News
TRNN | Shadow Banking Still an Unregulated Threat. Jennifer Taub: Before the crisis, the top five financial institutions had assets equivalent to 50 percent of GDP. Now let's fast-forward to 2011, three years after the crisis, if you look at the top five institutions that survived, and their assets are equal to 58 percent of GDP (10/02/12) [11:42], Part 2 [11:55]
TRNN | Faced with Police Violence, Thousands return to Spanish Parliament (10/02/12) [7:00]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm How The Electoral College Works. (10/02/12)
How the Stock Market is Fake
SEC Leads From Behind as High-Frequency Trading Shows Data Gap
60 Minutes | Wall Street: The Speed Traders () [13:36]
CNBC | Sam Zell On "Class Warfare Crap", QE3 Unreality, And Why Everything Is Mispriced Due To The Fed (10/02/12) [5:58]
TYT News
TYT | Chris Wallace To Paul Ryan: 'Why Are You And Romney Losing?' (10/01/12) [6:20]
TYT | Republicans Preparing For Romney Loss? (10/01/12) [7:36],   article
TYT | Afghanistan Withdrawal May Come Sooner Than Expected - NATO (10/01/12) [5:19]
TYT | Conservative message of movie 'Won't Back Down' on education, Cenk tries to figure out where its pervasive anti-teachers' union messaging originates. (10/01/12) [3:46]
TYT | Ikea Apologizes For Saudi Arabia Catalog Photoshop (10/01/12) [4:52]
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer | Will the divided Supreme Court find a way forward? (10/01/12) [2:52]
Eliot Spitzer | Hillary's Nuclear Weapons Policy Advisor: Netanyahu is Lying (09/28/12) [5:49]
Eliot Spitzer | Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's says there are a few politicians he'll put money on (09/26/12) [1:57]

Monday October 01, 2012
International News

Russia announces enormous finds of radioactive waste and nuclear reactors in Arctic seas
Bellona | Charles Digges | 08/28/12

Enormous quantities of decommissioned Russian nuclear reactors and radioactive waste were dumped into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia over a course of decades, according to documents given to Norwegian officials by Russian authorities and published in Norwegian media. ... Read more

'Bitter Seeds' Film Tells of Suicide and GMO Effects on India's Farmers
HP | Author | 09/21/12

"Every 30 minutes a farmer in India kills himself ..." This frightening fact is pointed out in "Bitter Seeds," the third documentary in "The Globalization Trilogy" directed by Micha Peled. The 12-year project aims to generate debate about public policy and consumer choices in some complex issues relevant to all of us. Peled is the founder of the nonprofit Teddy Bear Films, which he created to make issue-oriented films such as "Will My Mother Go Back to Berlin?" and "Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town."   "Bitter Seeds" follows a season in a village in India from planting to harvest. There are three important stories in this film, each revolving around the multinational corporate takeover of India's seed market and the effect it has on farmers and farming all over India and the world. ... Read more

Domestic News

Top Romney Official: Mitt's A 'Lousy Candidate'
Politico | Author | 09/28/12

With Republicans everywhere wondering what has happened to the Mitt Romney campaign, people who know the candidate personally and professionally offer a simple explanation: It's the candidate himself.   Slowly and reluctantly, Republicans who love and work for Romney are concluding that for all his gifts as a leader, businessman and role model, he's just not a good political candidate in this era. Read more

We Are the 96 Percent
NYTimes | Suzanne Mettler | 09/24/12

WHEN Mitt Romney told the guests at a fund-raiser in Florida in May that America is divided between people who pay no income taxes and depend on government and pretty much everyone else, he missed the deeper truth. It is not just that most of the 47 percent Mr. Romney talked about do pay payroll taxes and that many of them have paid income taxes in the past. The reality he glossed over is that nearly all Americans have used government social policies at some point in their lives. The beneficiaries include the rich and the poor, Democrats and Republicans. Almost everyone is both a maker and a taker. ... Read more

Supreme Court Term Begins, Major Rulings Ahead
HuffingtonPost | Author | 10/01/12

The Supreme Court term that begins Monday holds the prospect for major rulings about affirmative action, gay marriage and voting rights. A look at cases the court already has agreed to hear and other top cases in the pipeline: ... Read more

Peter Peterson Spent Nearly Half A Billion In Washington Targeting Social Security, Medicare
HuffingtonPost | Paul Blumenthal | 05/15/12

According to a review of tax documents from 2007 through 2011, Peterson has personally contributed at least $458 million to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to cast Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and government spending as in a state of crisis, in desperate need of dramatic cuts. Peterson's millions have done next to nothing to change public opinion: In survey after survey, Americans reject the idea of cutting Social Security and Medicare.

Read more


DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, October 1 [12:57]
DN | Supreme Court Returns to a Docket Heavy on Divisive Issues (10/01/12) [12:54]
DN | Virginia Residents Fight Back Against Nuclear Industry Effort to Lift Ban on Uranium Mining (10/01/12) [8:28]
DN | Will Supreme Court's View of Corporate Personhood Mean Liability for Crimes Abroad? (10/01/12) [9:35]
Russia
Russia announces enormous finds of radioactive waste and nuclear reactors in Arctic seas! 8/28/12 (09/01/12) [3:25]
Monsanto
GMO, Global Alert (09/19/12) [12:50]
Bitter Seeds [trailer]
India Suing Monsanto for Biopiracy (GMO) (10/05/11) [8:37]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Preview Of The New Session Of The U.S. Supreme Court. (10/01/12)
WSJ Videos
WSJ | Presidential Debates: Why the Little Things Matter
Typhoon to SLAM Fukushima & update (09/29/12) [10:24]
Softbox Films - Short and interesting videos
Tax Dollars At War () [3:46]
Occupy Economics () [3:16]
Gar Alperovitz on America Beyond Capitalism (12/08/11) [3:43]
Noam Chomsky Clip () [2:31]
TYT News
TYT | GOP Abandoning Romney (09/20/12) [4:54]
TYT | Mitt Romney Lies (02/28/12) [5:08]
Mitt Romney- Corporations Are People My Friend! (08/11/11) [0:48]
Mitt The Ripper (01/15/12) [1:01]
Other videos
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky on the BBC - Newsnight (06/05/11) [21:55]
John Pilger
John Pilger - The New rulers of The World () [53:12]
Ontario Sales
The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror () [1:29:17]

Friday September 28, 2012
International News
Domestic News

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

Comment: "Now Matt, say what you really mean"

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

Comment: This is an old article. I knew about what happened in Jefferson County before, but just re-read the article again by Matt Taibbi.

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



DemocracyNow Daily News
Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, September 28 [16:17]
"The United States of ALEC"
DN | The United States of ALEC: Bill Moyers on the Corporate-Legislative Body Writing Our Laws, Part 1 (09/28/12) [11:39], Part 2 [11:39]
Diane Rehms Show
Diane Rehm Domestic News - Friday 09/28/12
International News - Friday 09/28/12
Yet Another War?
Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu Draw The Red Line For Iran [2:57]
Meet the Press | Israeli PM Netanyahu Calls on U.S. Voters to Make Iran an Election Issue [13:52]
Full Speech | 'Nuclear Iran same as nuclear-armed al-Qaeda': Netanyahu [31:52]
TRNN News
TRNN | Bill Black: London and Wall St. in a dangerous competition to create a more unregulated environment for finance (09/28/12) [8:46]
TRNN | Chris Hedges: Judges to Review Constitutionality of NDAA Military Detention Legislation (09/28/12) [11:33]
Monsanto. Are GMO Foods Safe??
Comment: How can we let a Corporation, such as Monsanto, have such a strangle hold over the earth??
*TYT | Is Monsanto GMO Evil? (09/22/12) [9:39]
*The GMO Threat (06/16/11) [59:49]
David vs. Monsanto () [1:05:43]
Imagine that a storm blows across your garden and that now, without your knowledge and without your consent, foreign and genetically-manipulated seeds are in your vegetable patch which you have nourished and maintained for many years. A few days later, representatives of a multi-national corporate group pay you a visit at home, demand that you surrender your vegetables - and simultaneously file a criminal complaint against you, resulting in a fine of 20.000,00 euros for the illegal use of patented and genetically-manipulated seeds. What's more: The court finds for the corporate group! Yet you fight back...

This short story is no utopia rather, around the world, the bitter truth. It is also the true experience of the family of Percy und Louise Schmeiser in Canada, also winners of the Alternative Nobel Prize, who meanwhile have been fighting the chemicals and seed manufacturer Monsanto since 1996. Nowadays, nearly three-fourths of genetically-manipulated plants harvested worldwide originate from Monsanto labs. Monsanto is a U.S.-based corporate group which calls dismal inventions such as DDT, PCB and Agent Orange its own. In its effort to gain absolute hegemony over plants - from the field all the way to the consumer's plate - Monsanto knows no qualms. The farmers Troy Rush, David Runyon and Marc Loisell also learned the hard way what it means to be confronted with Monsanto's methods of doing business, as did thousands of other farmers worldwide.

They and the Schmeisers are not just fighting against Monsanto and with that, for the continuation of their livelihood as farmers but also for the right to freedom of speech and the right to their property.
The World According to MONSANTO () [1:49:03]
French filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin spent some 20 years hearing about Monsanto before she set out to understand just what Monsanto was all about. Robin posits that perhaps the company s past can shed some light on what the company is all about today. Monsanto started out as one of the world s largest chemical companies and is responsible for the creation of Agent Orange (used during the Vietnam War), Aspartame, Bovine Growth Hormone, Polystyrene, PCBs and GE crops (genetically-engineered). ...
Wake the F**K Up [3:40]
Other Videos and Documentaries

10.01.2012. 18:22



Special Interest Important stuff
GOOD Shorts Videos

Note: To view a video, click on code at left of the title

I'm still working on this

GOOD Short Videos
Newer Documentaries You Might Not Have Seen

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I'm still working on this

Newer Documentaries
Documentaries You've Never Seen

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Documentaries (small | pop-up)
Documentaries (big | full screen)
Good YouTube Documentaries

Note: To view a video, click on its name/title
Great YouTube Docs. (small | pop-up)
Good YouTube Docs. (big | full screen)

Lindsey Graham Mashups
Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the quiet part aloud on why he’s still so close to former President Donald Trump: because we can use him for our goals. "President Trump has gotten people who wouldn't give me or Romney or anybody else the time of day. They believe he is on their side," the senator told the America First Agenda Summit crowd on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Environment & Climate Change
Environment

The term "climate change" is often used to refer specifically to anthropogenic climate change (also known as global warming). Anthropogenic climate change is caused by human activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of Earth's natural processes.

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning
AI - Artificial Intelligence

AIArtificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.

The term "artificial intelligence" had previously been used to describe machines that mimic and display "human" cognitive skills that are associated with the human mind, such as "learning" and "problem-solving". This definition has since been rejected by major AI researchers who now describe AI in terms of rationality and acting rationally, which does not limit how intelligence can be articulated.
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Quantum mechanics | AI - Artificial Intelligence
Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.  It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
Classical physics, the collection of theories that existed before the advent of quantum mechanics, describes many aspects of nature at an ordinary (macroscopic) scale, but is not sufficient for describing them at small (atomic and subatomic) scales. Most theories in classical physics can be derived from quantum mechanics as an approximation valid at large (macroscopic) scale.
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Economy, Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street and Banksters

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

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Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

Intelligence Agencies/Deep State?

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

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Daniel Ellsberg | Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg and Paul Jay explore Ellsberg's latest book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. In the introduction to the book, Ellsberg writes: "No policies in human history have more deserved to be recognized as immoral or insane. The story of how this calamitous predicament came about and how and why it has persisted over a half a century is a chronicle of human madness".

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Nukes
Nukes

Nuclear weapons have come a long way and come in all types of different sizes. Some are relatively small while others are enormous, so big they boggle the mind at what they can be capable of, i.e. the Soviet 'Tsar Bomba' is/was 3,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

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Rana Foroohar and Fall of American Business
Rana Foroohar

Ms. Foroohar says financialization delivers stagnant wages, inequality and economic crisis; the Financial Times columnist and author of "Makers and Takers" says the financial sector represents only 7 percent of the U.S. economy, but takes around 25 percent of all corporate profit while creating only 4 percent of all jobs.

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The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick | 2014 | 10 Episodes

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

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Kuznick Interviews

Kuznick Interviews

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

The Untold History of the United States by Kuznick, Peter.mobi | Book | 6.99 MB

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China Valley of Tunnels

China Valley of Tunnels

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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911
911

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

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The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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Trump's Mashups
Trump's Mashups

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? VICE News' "Trump Talk" mashup series tries to answer that. And, we're happy to say, it was just nominated for two Webby Awards. Now you can watch all the nominated videos.

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Trump's Sexcapades
Trump's Sexcapades.

Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Kristin Anderson (1990s)
E. Jean Carroll (1995 or 1996)
Lisa Boyne (1996)
Cathy Heller (1997)
Temple Taggart McDowell (1997)
Karena Virginia (1998)
Mindy McGillivray (2003)
Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Rachel Crooks (2005)
Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Jessica Drake (2006)
Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Cassandra Searles (2013)
Allegations of pageant dressing room visits(1997)
Mariah Billado,
Victoria Hughes,
and three other Miss Teen USA contestants
Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Tasha Dixon (2001)
Unnamed contestants (2001)
Samantha Holvey (2006)

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Trump's Speeches | Rallys |Interviews
Trump's Speeches | Rallys

Donald Trump talks a lot, but what is he actually saying? Watch Trump at some of his rallys and see what you think.

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