Archive for the 'Elite' Category
China Jails Literature Professor Who Demanded Open Elections and the Rule of Law
December 26th, 2009Via: New York Times: The harsh sentence handed down on Friday to Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s most prominent campaigners for democracy and human rights, prompted strong rebukes in the United States and Europe, but it also raised fresh questions over whether the West has much leverage over a government that is increasingly self-assured on […]
Federal War Spending Exceeds State Government Outlays
December 26th, 2009Via: Public Record: The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans. Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of Washington, D.C. says the states collected a total of $781 billion in taxes in 2008. For a […]
Fannie, Freddie: Unlimited Fail
December 25th, 2009Via: Reuters: The Obama administration pledged on Thursday to back beleaguered mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no matter how big their losses may be in the next three years. It also jettisoned a demand that the two companies cut the size of their mortgage-related investment portfolios next year, allowing them to provide […]
Cost to Fight Each Al Qaeda Member in Afghanistan Per Year: $300 Million
December 23rd, 2009War is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler Via: ABC News: As he justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year, President Barack Obama’s description Tuesday of the al Qaeda “cancer” in that country left out one key fact: U.S. intelligence officials have concluded there are only about […]
GE Attempting to Silence a Danish Academic from Discussing Dangers of Omniscan
December 20th, 2009Via: Times Online: Two years ago in a conference room in the Randolph hotel in Oxford, Henrik Thomsen gave his inside account of a medical “nightmare”. In a presentation to about 30 colleagues, Thomsen, one of Europe’s leading radiologists, revealed how patients treated at his hospital had subsequently contracted a rare and potentially fatal disease. […]
France: Former President Chirac Indicted for Embezzlement
December 18th, 2009Via: France24: A drawn-out case involving claims that former French president Jacques Chirac set up fictitious jobs while he served as mayor of Paris is heading to court after a judge ordered Chirac’s indictment on embezzlement charges.
Are Americans a Broken People?
December 16th, 2009In general, Americans represent a collective battered spouse who hopes that the batterer will change. Spitting teeth and squinting through two black eyes, they usually go back for more of the same. This isn’t politics. It’s pathology. —The Devil and Mr. Obama Via: Alternet: Can people become so broken that truths of how they are […]
U.S. Taxpayers Pay for Citigroup’s Fat Bastards to Get Fatter
December 16th, 2009Via: Washington Post: The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis. The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax […]
GULF OIL STATES LAUNCHING SINGLE CURRENCY
December 16th, 2009I’ll believe it when I see it. Anyway, maybe it will be backed by this thing: Via: Telegraph: The Arab states of the Gulf region have agreed to launch a single currency modelled on the euro, hoping to blaze a trail towards a pan-Arab monetary union swelling to the ancient borders of the Ummayad Caliphate. […]
Bernanke Named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
December 16th, 2009Via: Bloomberg: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was named “Person of the Year” by Time magazine today for leading the “most-powerful, least-understood government force shaping our lives,” Managing Editor Richard Stengel said. Bernanke, 56, was picked for his efforts to shepherd the U.S. out of the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression, Stengel said […]
