Archive for the 'Elite' Category
Wall Street Cabal Seen Derailing Serious Swap Reform
April 2nd, 2010Via: Reuters: A major crisis is building in the derivatives market yet a cabal on Wall Street is blocking the formation of a clearing house that could stop the next financial meltdown, a senior official with the Kauffman Foundation said on Tuesday. The need for disclosure in the swap markets is enormous, yet the will […]
Obama Gives Key Agriculture Post to Agribusiness Goon Who Lobbied for Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow
April 2nd, 2010Via: Green Change: Today, President Obama announced that he will recess appoint Islam A. Siddiqui to the position of Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Siddiqui is a pesticide lobbyist and Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America, an agribusiness lobbying group that represents Monsanto. Following is a letter […]
Lovelock: Authoritarian System Needed to Deal with Global Warming
March 31st, 2010Imagine my shock. Via: Guardian: We need a more authoritative world. We’ve become a sort of cheeky, egalitarian world where everyone can have their say. It’s all very well, but there are certain circumstances – a war is a typical example – where you can’t do that. You’ve got to have a few people with […]
Drill Baby, Drill: Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time
March 31st, 2010Via: New York Times: The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday. The proposal — a compromise that will please oil […]
Mike McConnell and the American Corporate State
March 30th, 2010I’ve included just a few choice excerpts from this great article. If you only click through on one story today, make this the one. Via: Salon: In a political culture drowning in hidden conflicts of interests, exploitation of political office for profit, and a rapidly eroding wall separating the public and private spheres, Michael McConnell […]
Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent
March 30th, 2010This is such good news, I almost fell out of my chair. Via: New York Times: A federal judge on Monday struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property. […]
KBR Bills $5 Million For Mechanics Who Work 43 Minutes a Month
March 29th, 2010Via: Mother Jones: It was just a single contract for a single job on a single base in Iraq. The Department of Defense agreed to pay the megacontractor KBR $5 million a year to repair tactical vehicles, from Humvees to big rigs, at Joint Base Balad, a large airfield and supply center north of Baghdad. […]
EU Draws Up Plans for Single ‘Economic Government’ to Prevent Crisis
March 29th, 2010Via: Telegraph: Germany and France have tabled controversial plans to create an “economic government of the European Union” to police financial policy across the continent. They have put Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President, in charge of a special task force to examine “all options possible” to prevent another crisis like the one caused by […]
CFTC Whistleblower Injured in London Hit-and-Run
March 28th, 2010Via: GATA: London metals trader Andrew Maguire, who warned an investigator for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in advance about a gold and silver market manipulation to be undertaken by traders for JPMorgan Chase in February and whose whistleblowing was publicized by GATA at Thursday’s CFTC hearing on metals futures trading — http://www.gata.org/node/8466 — […]
Manager of World’s Biggest Sovereign Wealth Fund Missing After Glider Crash
March 28th, 2010Via: BBC: A search is on in Morocco for a leading member of the Abu Dhabi royal family after a glider he was in crashed into an artificial lake south of Rabat. Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, a younger brother of Abu Dhabi’s ruler, manages what is thought to be the world’s biggest sovereign wealth […]
