3798 QuickLinks

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Bombings target Baghdad Green Zone
Two powerful bombs exploded just outside Baghdad's tightly-guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was due to address reporters inside.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
After Her Campaign Proposes Entitlement Cuts, Palin Declares McCain Will Protect ‘Entitlement Programs’
McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin admitted that in order to pay for his health care plan, McCain would slash $1.3 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years. But McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, appears to be unaware of the proposed cuts. At a rally in Florida today, Palin delcared that McCain will “protect the entitlement programs that Americans depend on”

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Glenn Greenwald: Dick Morris: A sign of the times
Two weeks ago, Dick Morris was running around proclaiming McCain's decision to suspend his campaign and make the bailout happen as a "brilliant move" that would pay off "big time" because he would be viewed as the bailout's prime mover by a grateful public. A mere two weeks later, with McCain continuing to plummet in the polls, Morris blithely announces that McCain's woes are due to his awful decision to suspend his campaign.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Banker Bailout Bill Contains IRS Police State Provision
(1 comments) InfoWars - Not only is the recently passed Banker Takeover bill larded up with pork, it also contains dictatorial provisions. In addition to making former Goldman Sachs chairman and current Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson an economic czar — a provision completely at odds with the Constitution — the bill grants police state powers to the IRS.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
BOB HERBERT: A Fool’s Paradise
We’ve been living for years in a fool’s paradise atop a mountain of debt. The masters of the universe on Wall Street lost all sense of reason, no doubt. But most of us have been living above our means through the magic of easy credit, ever lower taxes, ever rising property values, stock market bubbles and the gift of denial, which we used to assure ourselves that the bills would never come due.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
McCain fudges his Navy record
During the course of his flying career with the U.S. Navy, John McCain was involved in at least five major mishaps or crashes involving his plane. The most dramatic incidents occurred in 1967. He barely escaped with his life after a missile exploded aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal, in July of that year, killing 134 of his fellow crew members.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Court Won't Force Testimony On Firings of U.S. Attorneys
A federal appeals court declined yesterday to order current and former White House aides to testify before a House committee about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, leaving the next Congress to decide how aggressively to pursue the constitutional showdown.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Former Iraq Contractor Pleads Guilty To Stealing Almost $40 Million In Army Fuel
A former Army contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing nearly $40 million worth of jet and diesel fuel from a U.S. Army base in Iraq and selling it on the black market. Lee W. Dubois, 32, of Lexington, S.C., faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on a single count of theft of government property.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
McCain linked to Iran-Contra group
GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair. McCain's ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Fed Sets Floor Below Rate Target, Engineering `Stealth' Cut
The central bank used power granted under last week's financial-rescue legislation to effectively set a floor under its main interest rate that's lower than the 2 percent target set by policy makers last month. The Fed may now pay interest on bank reserves while it floods financial markets with liquidity, pushing down the overnight lending rate.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION
John McCain's chances of winning the White House are getting slimmer and slimmer. After a series of gaffes, his running mate has fallen back down to Earth and the financial crisis has exhausted the supply of rabbits he can pull out of his hat. At this point in the game, every slip-up is one gaffe too many.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Pa. widow sues US over vet-husband's suicide
A young widow sued the U.S. government over the post-combat death of her husband, a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran who committed suicide while in Veterans Administration care. "I intend to make them make changes," said Lori Woodward, a medical claims supervisor from Lancaster. "I have too many friends whose kids are in Iraq. I have a nephew now in Iraq, in the same unit, and I can't have my family go through this again."

Monday, October 6, 2008
TIM DICKINSON ON MCCAIN: Make-Believe Maverick
Few politicians have so actively, or successfully, crafted their own myth of greatness. In McCain's version of his life, he is a prodigal son who, steeled by his brutal internment in Vietnam, learned to put "country first." Remade by the Keating Five scandal that nearly wrecked his career, McCain re-emerged as a "reformer" and a "maverick."

Monday, October 6, 2008
Chris Floyd: The Wounded Shark: 'Good War' Lost, But the Imperial Project Goes On
Don't tell Obama and McCain, but the war they are both counting on to make their bones as commander-in-chief -- the "good war" in Afghanistan, which both men have pledged to expand -- is already lost. Their joint strategy of pouring more troops, tanks, missiles and planes into the roaring fire -- not to mention their intention to spread the war into Pakistan -- will only lead to disaster.

Monday, October 6, 2008
The Bailout Bill Will Do Nothing for the Real Economy
George Bush played with fire when he gave a primetime speech to the American people in which he said if you do not pass the bill the stock market will crash. He may have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fear created by those in support of the bill could turn into terror and irrational panic as unreasonable expectations have now been created for what the bailout bill can do.

Monday, October 6, 2008
VIDEO: Palin Parodied in SNL Reprise of VP Debate
Boston Globe: In the Saturday Night ''debate,'' Fey/Palin thanked America for letting her speak without a media filter that asked pesky followup questions and cared about syntax. She played a flute during her self-declared ''talent portion'' of the debate, and said, regarding same-sex benefits, that ''marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers."

Sunday, October 5, 2008
David Sirota: The Bailout: How Capitalism Killed Democracy
(1 comments) The marriage of American capitalism and democracy has always been a Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee affair -- stormy and erratic since its hasty wedding. But during the debate over a Wall Street bailout this week, we watched that matrimonial knot unwind into a tangled tale of terror. As a financial crisis became a political panic, capitalism murdered democracy.

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Chris Floyd: Shock and Awe: Bipartisan Beltway Terrorists launch Economic 9/11 on the American People
(5 comments) ...The system is now set up so that when the ruling class is particularly intent upon a certain objective, even your obedience isn't required any longer. After all, what are you going to do? Move to another country? Not vote for any of these bastards in November? Most Americans protest now; once the deed is done, they'll go back to their lives, and devote themselves to making the ruling class more wealthy and more powerful.

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Now Wall Street may shun $700bn bail-out
(1 comments) Fears are mounting that many Wall Street banks and financial firms will refuse to participate in the US government's $700bn bail-out package, leaving global markets and world economies in a perilous state for months to come. 'There is a growing feeling that banks ... might instead decide to tough it out,' said Thomas Caldwell, chairman and CEO of Caldwell Financial, a $1bn-plus fund manager.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Minneapolis radio host Baker: "I don't think homeless people should vote"; "I'm not that excited about women voting"
(2 comments) BAKER: You know what they vote for? They vote for booze. OK? They vote to be lazy, no-good, disgusting, putrid bums, all right? I don't -- why do those guys vote? And these guys -- and they're warehoused voters, OK? This is what annoys me about this, that they'll go to some ghetto somewhere and go in there and grab some slug out of an apartment and throw him in a voting booth.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Israel threatens Lebanon with destruction
(1 comments) "We will use disproportionate force against these villages (in southern Lebanon) and cause enormous destruction because from our point of view these are not villages but military bases," Major General Gadi Eisenkot, the top commander in northern Israel was quoted by Yediot Aharonot on Friday.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
US threatens to steal Iraq oil money
(2 comments) Upon arrival in Iraq from Washington, President Jalal Talabani told reporters that he is concerned over Washington threats. "Washington threatened to use any means to seize Iraqi assets if we do not support the security pact," Marsadiraq quoted Talabani as saying.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Jamison Foser: Time for clarity
With little more than a month to go before Election Day, voters need the news media to cut through the clutter of the candidates' competing sound bites and spin. They need clear and concise explanations of what, exactly, the candidates would do if elected. And they need the media to provide this every day, not just once in a while.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Palin On Fox News: Couric Annoyed Me
Appearing on a friendlier news outlet, Gov. Sarah Palin said she was "annoyed" with the way Katie Couric handled their interview and complained that the CBS Evening News host failed to give her the opportunity to take a proverbial axe to Barack Obama. "It's like, man, no matter what you say, you are going to get clobbered."

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Like Putting Lipstick on a Cheney: Palin's Vow to Continue Unitary Executive and Lack of Accountability for VP Position
Amid the folksy "doggone its," "you betchas," and "darn rights" that Gov. Sarah Palin dished out at the debate last night, she dropped a bombshell that was largely missed: She sees herself as the new Dick Cheney.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Alaska judge refuses to halt troopergate probe
An Anchorage judge today refused to halt the Legislature's investigation of Sarah Palin and denied the state attorney general's attempt to throw out legislative subpoenas. Five Republican state legislators sued to stop the investigation. The governor's husband, Todd, and nearly a dozen state officials have refused to honor the subpoeana ordering them to testify, and they face the threat of possible jail time.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Palin Runs For Senate Dictator - TV Repubs Ride The "Straight Talking Points" Express
(1 comments) It was creepy to watch Sarah Palin ignore Gwen Ifill's questions and repeat the same scripted answers over and over, as if she were oblivious to her physical surroundings. Even creepier was that so many Republicans interviewed afterward seemed to do the same thing, each robotically repeating the same stock phrases. It was like that scene in Children of the Damned where their eyes start glowing and they all speak in unison.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
BREAKING: O.J. Simpson Found Guilty in Robbery Trial
(3 comments) A jury here Friday night found O. J. Simpson guilty of robbery and kidnapping, a verdict that came 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Blackhawks crash in Baghdad
Two US Blackhawk helicopters crashed in northern Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah late on Saturday, a US military spokesman said. At least one Iraqi army soldier was killed and four people, including two US soldiers, were wounded.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Big job losses point to consumer woes ahead
Another important part of the economy is now starting to falter: businesses that cater to consumers. As families stop making so many trips to the mall or cut back on their dining in restaurants, the consumer sector is now laying off workers. Jobs are disappearing for people in furniture stores, electronics retailers, and department stores. Even food-services companies are reducing their staffs.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Statement on Congressional Approval of Bailout
This is the first time in the history of the United States that the president has sought to provoke a financial panic to get legislation through Congress. While this has proven to be a successful political strategy, it marks yet another low point in American politics. It was incredibly irresponsible for President Bush to tell the American people on national TV that the country could be facing another Great Depression.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Husband, 2nd Man Held in Female Soldier's Stabbing
(1 comments) For the third time in four months, a female soldier based at Fort Bragg is dead, and a husband or lover is charged with murder -- leading critics to demand the home base of the Army's elite soldiers exert ''control over their troops'' and address domestic violence.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Next: The Mother Of All Bank Runs?
It's plain that the current financial crisis is worsening in spite of--or perhaps because of--the Treasury rescue plan. The strains in financial markets are becoming more, rather than less, severe in spite of the nuclear option of a $700 billion package.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Guidelines Expand FBI's Surveillance Powers
(1 comments) Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama
(4 comments) John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama's character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal associations.

Saturday, October 4, 2008
False Flier Warns of Election Day Arrests in PA African-American Neighborhoods
The dirty tricks are starting even earlier than usual this year. An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day. The message is completely false.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
The odd couple of global spirituality
Miguel d'Escoto, the current president of the United Nations General Assembly,He has boldly criticized the "shameful and deplorable" world conditions of today, attacked the failed "neo-liberal economic policies" and the Wall Street culture of "greed" and "selfishness" that has left "more than half the world's people" to "languish in hunger and destitution."

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Truth, lies and ticker tape
Which institutions would get the capital injection, and at what price? In effect the Treasury would be dispensing capital gains to institutions it liked, but not to institutions it did not like. Shareholders in favored institutions would receive an enormous benefit, which is why some amended versions of the bill propose to allow the government to claw back some of the capital gains through the right to buy company stock.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Mendacious, Manipulating . . . Maverick? Hardly. Today's real McCain
Rear Adm John S. McCain must be spinning in his grave, not out of pride that his son is the GOP nominee, but that he sold his soul, honor, and integrity in the process. On September 15th, John McCain used the same words that were abused by Herbert Hoover in 1931, "The foundations of our economy are strong." On Sept 29, John McCain claimed all credit for the passage of the tax-payer funded Wall Street Bailout of 2008.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bailout: When all else fails, try bribery
Proponents of the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, banks and the financial industry are loading up the legislation with pork, inducements and favors for members of Congress in exchange for the votes needed to pass the bill when it hits the floor of the House of Representative on Friday. At last count, the bribes will add at least $120 billion to the cost of the bailout.

Thursday, October 2, 2008
While Nobody Was Looking: Senate Approves Indian Nuclear Deal
The United States-India Business Council, which promoted the deal, estimates that India may spend as much as $175 billion over the next quarter century expanding its nuclear industry to cope with rising energy demands. Companies like General Electric, Westinghouse and Bechtel will now be able to compete for contracts.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Morford: What's your poison, citizen?
Did you notice? Amid the wreckage of the failed financial bailout, amid the finger-pointing and the flaring tempers and the adorable splintering of the Republican side of the aisle, and amid the entire nation instantly becoming deeply disgusted with every politician and banker and fund manager and CEO in existence, there's one overarching theme: It's Bush.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
McCain urges Bush to bypass Congress
Senator John McCain has urged the Bush administration to bypass Congress and spend a whopping one trillion dollars on bad mortgages. In three interviews on Tuesday, the Republican presidential nominee called on the US Treasury Department to address the economic crisis independently and without congressional approval.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Muslim Children Gassed at Mosque After 'Obsession' DVD Hits Ohio
Gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. "This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends.Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed, according to leaked memo
Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan has stoked opposition to the allied operation there by reportedly saying that the campaign against the Taleban insurgents would fail and that the best hope was to install an acceptable dictator in Kabul. Britain is withdrawing the children of its diplomats from Pakistan after last month’s suicide bomb attack.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Case of the Disappearing Banking Industry
Ask any mother in the '90s what she wished for her son and she'd say she wanted him to go into investment banking. That trade was a ticket to wealth and everybody knew it. During the '90s…up until 2007…investment banking was probably the best-paid profession in the world. Whatever they were doing was working like gangbusters. So, they kept doing it…until they went broke.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Will Wall Street's Meltdown Turn America Into a Police State?
"Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" -- President Bush, to congressional leaders during bailout negotiations.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
McCain urges Bush to bypass Congress
(1 comments) Senator John McCain has urged the Bush administration to bypass Congress and spend a whopping one trillion dollars on bad mortgages. In three interviews on Tuesday, the Republican presidential nominee called on the US Treasury Department to address the economic crisis independently and without congressional approval.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
VIDEO: Rep. Michael Burgess - “we are under Martial Law”
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) reports from the floor of the House that the Republicans have been cut out of the process and called unpatriotic for not blindly supporting the fraudulent bailout. He says the only debate has been about what talking points to use on the American people. The most ominous revelation is when he claims the Speaker has declared martial law.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
New GOP Video Blames Dems for Wall St. Collapse
(2 comments) A popular YouTube video blames congressional Democrats and Barrack Obama for the Wall Street meltdown, saying they backed the Community Reinvestment Act that the video alleges forced banks to make sub-prime loans. Moreover, the video says John McCain sought to regulate the mortgage monster years ago.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
IAEA 'puts Israeli nukes on agenda'
After requests by the Non-Aligned Movement and the Arab League, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed to put the issue of Israel's nuclear capabilities on the agenda of the 52nd annual meeting of the UN body.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Bush quest for 'dead or alive' Bin Laden
(4 comments) It is easy to see why George W. Bush is so desperate. Bin Laden has hung over Bush Presidency like a malignant cloud, a standing rebuke to his pledge in the aftermath of 9/11 to get the terrorist mastermind "dead or alive", a western think-tank said in an editorial appeared in Telegraph. The editorial added that plenty have died in that so-called war on terror, but unfortunately they do not include bin Laden.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Afghan policeman kills a U.S. soldier, wounds 3
An Afghan policeman opened fire on US troops at a police station, killing an American soldier and wounding three. The policeman wounded three U.S. soldiers, one of the detainees and an Afghan interpreter working for the Americans, officials said.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Israel irked by IAEA move on its nukes
An initiative by Iran and Arab League member states to put the Israeli regime's nuclear activities under scrutiny has irked Tel Aviv. In reaction to the decision, Israel filed a motion on Monday to remove the issue from the IAEA's agenda. It also termed the move as inconsistent and "substantially unwarranted and flawed."

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Bob Herbert: When Madmen Reign
I’m not holding my breath, but I would like to see the self-proclaimed conservative, small government, anti-regulation, free-market zealots step up and take responsibility for wrecking the American economy and bringing about the worst financial crisis since the Depression. Even now, with the house on fire, the most extreme among them won’t pick up the fire hoses and try to put it out.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Margolis: Senator McCain: One More Such 'Victory' and We're Ruined
Senator John McCain's insistent claims that the US is winning the war in Iraq thanks to his 'surge' strategy is the military-political equivalent of the junk securities that Wall Street's shady financiers have been peddling around the globe.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thom Hartmann: Reclaim the Media: Bring Back the Elites
(2 comments) John Kennedy was an elite. He came from an elite family, had an elite education, and he had the calm demeanor and the good fashion of a man who knew he was part of the intellectual and political elite. Americans didn't just love him they lionized him calling his administration Camelot. It's time for an Elite presidency. It's time for the best and the brightest to once again lead this nation.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts: Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Unlike their forbears, Americans today live a material life, not a spiritual one. Americans are far too likely to dismiss Ahmadinejad’s words about obeisance to God and justice as the mumbo-jumbo of an “Islamist extremist.”

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Anthrax Case Reopens: Why Did the FBI Let the Fort Detrick Scientists Investigate Themselves?
new evidence shows just how deeply wrong ABC and Washington Post reporters have been over the years on their coverage of the anthrax attacks. They can't have it both ways: Either they made repeated "mistakes" by relying on their sources, or several people deliberately lied in order to advance war on Iraq.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A Mad Day
Democrats were once again Charlie Brown to the Republican's Lucy with the football and we saw the predictable result. Republicans are whining about "the big mean lady who talked bad about us so we showed her - we didn't vote for America, we voted against the big mean lady who didn't talk nice!" And the media talking heads will regurgitate this bilge for hours and days to come.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Ex-CIA Official Pleads Guilty to Fraud
The CIA's former top administrator pleaded guilty yesterday to steering agency contracts to a defense contractor and concealing their relationship, making Kyle "Dusty" Foggo the highest-ranking member of a federal intelligence or law enforcement agency to be convicted of a crime, officials said.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Congratulations, Corporate Crime Fighters! Coup Averted for Three Days! ...from Michael Moore
Everyone said the bill would pass. The masters of the universe were already making celebratory dinner reservations at Manhattan's finest restaurants. But what they didn't know was that hundreds of thousands of Americans woke up yesterday morning and decided it was time for revolt. The politicians never saw it coming.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
US cites laws, UN Charter to justify Fata raids
Defence Secretary Robert Gates says that international laws allow the United States to take unilateral actions inside Pakistan. “To be blunt, to fail – or to be seen to fail – in either Iraq or Afghanistan would be a disastrous blow to our credibility, both among our friends and allies and among potential adversaries,” he said.

Monday, September 29, 2008
Game Plan for Palin Is Retooled Ahead of Debate
The McCain campaign aims to halt a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Palin's latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls. The more experienced advisers assigned to her by the McCain campaign are accustomed to working with seasoned candidates, not someone "completely green on the national stage."

Monday, September 29, 2008
Kirwin: Fixing The Blame Will Solve the Problem!
What has happened is simple: Massive fraud and criminal manipulations have taken over the largest financial institutions in the world because of the actions of the twelve central banks and their owners who are launching a full-court-press in order to capture control over all financial assets.

Monday, September 29, 2008
Kirwin: Fixing The Blame Will Solve the Problem!
What has happened is simple: Massive fraud and criminal manipulations have taken over the largest financial institutions in the world because of the actions of the twelve central banks and their owners who are launching a full-court-press in order to capture control over all financial assets.

Monday, September 29, 2008
Special Prosecutor Named in Attorney Firings Case
The new prosecutor, Ms. Dannehy, has been the acting United States Attorney in Connecticut since April. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she has been a prosecutor for 17 years and specializes in white-collar and public corruption cases. She led the prosecution of Connecticut’s former governor John Rowland, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to accepting $107,000 in gifts.

Monday, September 29, 2008
Chris Floyd: The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic Attack as Bailout Goes Bust
(3 comments) Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- could be politically safer than opposing George W. Bush. And yet the entire Democratic leadership, Barack Obama included, lined up to support a cockamamie plan proposed by this scorned and shriveled figure, a plan that was transparently nothing more than an audacious raid on the Treasury Big Money hoods.

Monday, September 29, 2008
Josh Bolten, on the Record
When asked about the crisis, the chief of staff offered a familiar analysis, tracing the troubles to an overheated housing market. "We had a lot of people buying homes, which was a good thing," he said. "We had a lot of people buying homes on cheap credit. Which is normally a good thing -- but it turns out we had too many people buying homes on too-cheap credit

Monday, September 29, 2008
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER STEINBRÜCK
(1 comments) Steinbrück: We are experiencing the most severe financial crisis in decades, although one should be careful about historic comparisons with 1929. One thing is clear: After this crisis, the world will no longer be the same. The financial architecture will change globally.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
EuCom deploys radar, troops to Israel
U.S. European Command has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
I’m Your Pastor, and I Approved This Ad
(4 comments) Call it an act of faith or call it a political ploy, but 33 ministers plan to endorse a presidential candidate from their Sunday pulpits in defiance of federal law. Taxpayers of any faith should see this as an election-year gambit to dash the pillar of church-state separation.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
BOB HERBERT: Palin’s Words Raise Red Flags
The McCain campaign has done its bizarre best to shield Ms. Palin from any sustained media examination of her readiness for the highest offices in the land, and no wonder. She has been an embarrassment in interviews. The alarm bells should be clanging and warning lights flashing. You wouldn’t put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit of a jetliner.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Pakistan's New Leader Denies Firefight as Mullen Confirms It
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday denied that American and Pakistani forces exchanged fire along the Afghanistan border this week, even as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged that the two sides engaged in a brief firefight.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Iran criticizes Security Council for politicizing nuclear program
Iran on Saturday criticized the Security Council for passing a new resolution as an effort to politicize the technical dispute between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Pelosi: This is not a bailout, it’s a buy in
The plan, bollixed up for days by election-year politics, would give the administration broad power to use taxpayers’ money to purchase billions upon billions of home mortgage-related assets held by cash-starved financial firms. Flexing its political muscle, Congress insisted on a stronger hand in controlling the money than the White House had wanted.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Advertising? Critics call DVD insert unfair hit on Islam
A New York nonprofit called the Clarion Fund is distributing an hourlong DVD, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," as paid advertising in The Sunday Oregonian. Masoud Kheirabadi, a Portland State University professor who teaches about Islam, said, "This is hate-mongering."

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Presidential Children Don’t Belong in Battle
(2 comments) The assignment to Iraq or Afghanistan of a service member who is the son or daughter of a president or vice president does not make sense. No matter what the young person’s desires or career needs are, they are of little importance compared with ensuring that our leaders are able to stay focused on the important business of the nation — and not worrying about the fate of a child a world away.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
FRANK RICH: McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere
When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Old Codger: Remembering The Golden Fleece
After an inspection of the cemetery, it was further discovered that the muffled sounds were emanating from the grave of one William Proxmire (1915-2005). It was determined that the late Mr. Proxmire, a resident of the cemetery since December, 2005 was “viciously turning over in his grave."

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Franklin Roosevelt, a Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You
Over the last two weeks, Bush has been seen infrequently and when he has spoken his words have rung false. This Harvard MBA speaks Economics as though he were phonetically reading a foreign language. We need solutions, not sound bites or pandering. We need inspiration and hope, not spin or cant.

Sunday, September 28, 2008
Iran Resolution Shelved in Rare Defeat for 'Israel Lobby'
In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the so-called 'Israel Lobby', the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives has decided to shelve a long-pending, albeit non-binding, resolution that called for President George W. Bush to launch what critics called a blockade against Iran.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Is the bailout needed? Many economists say 'no'
"It's more hype than real risk," said James K. Galbraith, a University of Texas economist and son of the late economic historian John Kenneth Galbraith. "A nasty recession is possible, but the bailout will not cure that. So it's mainly relevant to the financial industry."

Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Old Codger: Thank God for Sarah Palin
(3 comments) In these somber times, we need a savior. We need someone to bring us to the “Temple of Reality.” We need someone to show us the way and to reassure us, the American public, that we are in good, knowledgeable, dedicated hands that can lead us to greatness. Thank God for Sarah Palin.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Air Force Instructor Details Harsh Interrogations
(1 comments) Forced nudity, sleep deprivation, painful shackling--had been used for years to prepare US fighter pilots for possible capture by an enemy. But Col. Steven Kleinman, an Air Force instructor, said he was shocked in 2003 to see the same harsh methods used haphazardly on Iraqis in a US prison camp. "It had morphed into a form of punishment for those who wouldn't cooperate," said Kleinman.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Jamison Foser: Ignoring Keating
the week's most striking indication that the media are inadequately scrutinizing McCain rather than, as he claims, unfairly doing so is that in the midst of a banking crisis, there is virtually no media examination of McCain's role in a similar crisis 20 years ago.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
'Germany Will Pay a High Price for US Sins'
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück delivered an impassioned speech before parliament Thursday denouncing greed and government failures for the US financial meltdown.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
US stonewalls justice for Palestinians
The US steers clear of the issue of illegal Israeli settlements by putting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the spotlight. Rice said the UN Security Council should avoid the issue of Israel and discuss Iran if it seeks to talk about world threats. She explained that the Iranian president says 'another member of this body should be wiped from the map, should not exist… That should not be allowed."

Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Old Codger: McCain’s “Albatross” to be Released October 2nd
On October 2nd, McCain’s “Albatross” will be released to the world. The McCain campaign has kept the Albatross - Sarah Palin - so well covered up that Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon would have been envious. The rules for the Albatross are simple and to the point: “Look, but don’t ask her anything.”

Saturday, September 27, 2008
GAIL COLLINS: McCain: Bearish on Debates
To be fair, it had been a very long week for McCain, what with ruling out the debate, ruling in the debate and returning to a Senate from which he has been AWOL so long that it's believed his desk is now being used to store janitorial supplies.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
Kirwin: Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dumb
(2 comments) whoever ends up at the helm of the new Titanic-Americana will have no money to do anything about anything, for at least the next three decades: thanks largely to the bandits of privatization that have rigged every aspect of society with poison pills to explode rather than to ever change their ways.

Friday, September 26, 2008
Helen Thomas: Republican government-bashers line up for federal aid
What about the thousands of suffering homeowners who face mortgage foreclosures? They are at the end of the public trough and almost forgotten in the scramble to protect Wall Street. And what about the failed CEOs who hope to walk out the door with obscene multi-million-dollar golden parachutes and big bonuses? Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

Friday, September 26, 2008
Pakistan Fires at U.S. Helicopters on Afghan Border
Pakistan fired warning shots on two U.S. helicopters that it said crossed into the country's airspace from Afghanistan, two weeks after the nation's army chief said cross-border incursions wouldn't be tolerated. Pakistan's president said the shots were warning ``flares.''

Friday, September 26, 2008
U.S. warns of punitive measures against Russia
(4 comments) Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, said Moscow would find itself more isolated and its reputation further damaged if it did not comply with obligations laid down in a French-brokered ceasefire deal. "If the Russians have not complied by October 10 there would be a very strong reaction," Fried added.

Friday, September 26, 2008
N. Korea Plans to Resume Processing of Nuclear Fuel
North Korea plans to restart nuclear fuel processing next week and has banned international inspectors from its nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced.

Friday, September 26, 2008
FBI Began Investigating AIG in March
Federal investigators have been scrutinizing American International Group since March, focusing on whether the insurance giant knowingly concealed mammoth losses that helped lead to the company's $85 billion federal bailout this month.

Friday, September 26, 2008
'Whoever Has the Bomb Has Power'
"Amid the tug-of-war with Iran, the fact that there is another nuclear dispute was almost forgotten: the one with North Korea. This seemed to lose its contentiousness after a deal was signed last year that would put a stop to North Korea's nuclear program and Pyongyang presented a list of its technical abilities and then made the big gesture of blowing up a cooling tower.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Bill Clinton: Don't 'Overly Parse' McCain Request to Delay Debate
(1 comments) With Friends like this... Former President Bill Clinton defended Sen. John McCain's request to delay the first presidential debate, saying McCain did it in "good faith" and pushed organizers to reserve time for economy talk during the debate if the Friday plans move forward.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Palin may also suspend campaign
Palin cannot participate in the high-level federal government deliberations on the economy that McCain gave as his reason for suspending his campaign. Yet, after McCain’s dramatic announcement, his campaign chief Steve Schmidt suggested Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, would also suspend her campaign.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sam Harris: When Atheists Attack
(2 comments) Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal?

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Joe Conason: A Special Prosecutor for Wall Street
Politicians of both parties refuse to be herded by the Bush White House into a ridiculous $700-billion swindle. Before Congress approves such a stunning expenditure to save the undeserving hides of the super-rich, they may at least create provisions for independent oversight, new regulation, public equity and homeowner relief.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
Old Codger: A quick and decisive "Decider"
In the first part of the week, blame was being passed around faster than a bottle of wine at a wino’s convention down by the rail road tracks. Then the politicians began engaging in a significant amount of excessive hubris to solve the problems quickly and with a minimum amount of pain, or an excessive amount of pain, depending on whose ox was getting gored.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Iran Talks Scrapped After Russia Pulls Out
(1 comments) Foreign ministers from major powers have canceled a meeting in New York to discuss more sanctions against Iran after Moscow opposed the move. Russia's decision to pull out of the talks appeared to be a tit-for-tat gesture after the United States balked at another high-level meeting of the Group of Eight that would have included Russia, Germany's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Economic Fears Give Obama Clear Lead Over McCain in Poll
More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Newspapers in Swing States Are Delivering Anti-Islam DVDs to Voters
(1 comments) The 2006 film, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, which has been accused by critics of encouraging Islamophobia, was reportedly delivered, or slated for delivery this weekend, into tens of millions of households in states such as Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Missouri and other "swing states" that don't vote consistently for either party and usually decide elections.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
McCain Wants A Time Out -- But Why?
John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. He has cast a single vote in five months, since April 9. All of a sudden, McCain is demanding that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Mark Morford: 700 billion fluffy nothings
Nearly $40 billion in profit for Exxon in 2006, the biggest of any US company, ever. The price of a barrel of oil just jumped its highest amount in history--$25 in a single day--thanks to all the violent instability in the US market. Turns out, given the bizarre machinations of How It's All Set Up, the energy markets are loving this meltdown, and Bush's oil cronies (among others) are getting richer than ever. Go figure.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
FBI Opens Probe of Finance Giants
The FBI is investigating whether fraud played a role in the troubles at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and American International Group, bringing to 26 the number of bureau investigations of institutions tied to the mortgage debacle.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Upheaval on Wall St. Stirs Anger in the U.N.
(1 comments) Wall Street and the Bush administration’s record of financial oversight came under attack at the United Nations on Tuesday, with one world leader after another saying that market turmoil in the United States threatened the global economy.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Bernie Sanders: Rescue Wall Street--and the Rest of Us
This proposal as presented is an unacceptable attempt to force middle-income families to pick up the cost of fixing the horrendous economic mess that is the product of the Bush administration's deregulatory fever and Wall Street's insatiable greed. If the potential danger to our economy was not so dire, this blatant effort to essentially transfer $700 billion up the income ladder to those at the top would be laughable.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
US generals planning for resource wars
The 2008 modernisation strategy, by Lieut Gen Stephen Speakes, deputy Army chief of staff, contains the first explicit and official acknowledgement that the US military is dangerously overstretched internationally. "The army is engaged in the third-longest war in our nation's history and...the Global War on Terrorism has caused the army to become out of balance with the demand for forces exceeding the sustainable supply."

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Steering the McCain Campaign, a Lot of Old Bush Hands
The clutch of Bush veterans helping to coach Palin reflects a larger reality about Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign: Far from being a group of outsiders to the Republican Party power structure, it is now run largely by skilled operatives who learned their crafts in successive Bush campaigns and various jobs across the Bush government over the past eight years.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid
Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it. Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages. At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Conflict Of Interest? Report Says Goldman Sachs ‘Among Biggest Beneficiaries’ Of Paulson’s Bailout
Paulson has surrounded himself with former Goldman executives as he tries to navigate the domino-like collapse of several parts of the global financial market. And others have gone off to lead companies that could be among those that receive a bailout.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
McCain Campaign Refuses to Appear On the Rachel Maddow Show
(1 comments) Surrogates for Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign rarely shy away from the chance to put out their talking points, regularly flacking on cable news programs. However, there is at least one cable news show they are avoiding: MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The speech Palin never gave: Ahmadinejad dreams of Final Solution
In the speech which Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was to have delivered at a Monday rally protesting the UN appearance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she was to have said that the Iranian president "dreams of being an agent in a 'Final Solution' - the elimination of the Jewish people."

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Chris Floyd: Coming Attractions: War Without End, Amen
While our national leaders quibble and carp over just how much public money they should ladle out to Wall Street's den of thieves, and how many people should be in charge of divvying up this vast pork pie (one guy at Treasury? a panel of Establishment worthies? a couple of goobers in Congress?), the real business of the American empire -- war and rumors of war -- goes on without let or hindrance.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
US military, economic policies the real threat: Ahmadinejad
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday accused the United States of encircling his country, and said Washington was the real threat to world stability."It is the US troops around our borders. It is not ours around the American borders. So what exactly are they doing over there?" The United States wants to impose new sanctions against Iran, but Russia and China are resisting the move.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
WaPo Sheds More Light on Todd Palin's Secretive Political Work
"Todd sits in on high-level meetings. He's copied on official emails. He offers counsel on a wide range of issues. He travels on state business (often at taxpayer expense). He even unofficially lobbies lawmakers and outside interest groups on matters of importance to him. But because all of this is done under the auspices of his personal relationship with Governor Sarah, the citizens have no real sense what Todd is up to.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Bush's Final Address to U.N. Draws on Familiar Themes
Amid a gloomy atmosphere brought on by the world financial crisis, Bush focused his final address to the UN on some of his favorite themes, especially the responsibility of member nations to battle terrorists, while seeking to reassure world leaders that the United States is taking steps to put its economic house in order. He also upbraided Russia, calling its invasion of Georgia a "violation" of the UN Charter.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Press Frustration With McCain Bubbles Over: Is This The 'No Talk Express'?
Relations between John McCain and the press corps that was once described as his "base" have fully deteriorated. After an appearance in Strongsville, Ohio, on Tuesday, the Senator blissfully ignored questions about the bailout plan from nearby reporters, prompting one journalist to scream out: "Has your bus become the No Talk Express?"

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Reporter Warns Staged Financial Crisis Part Of Fascist Coup
(1 comments) Writer Larisa Alexandrovna has been attacked by neo-con bloggers and phony right-wing patriots after pointing out that the current financial crisis is part of an intentional coup to transfer unprecedented power to the Executive Branch and place public funds in the hands of the global corporate elite.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008
George Will: McCain Loses His Head
(5 comments) Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Monday, September 22, 2008
Frank Rich: Truthiness Stages a Comeback
For better or worse, the candidacy of Barack Obama, a senator-come-lately, must be evaluated on his judgment, ideas and potential to lead. McCain, by contrast, has been chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, where he claims to have overseen “every part of our economy.” He didn’t, but he does have a long and relevant economic record that begins with the Keating Five scandal of 1989 and extends to this campaign.

Monday, September 22, 2008
Reform and Change: Meaningless buzz words
The last politician that America had who was truly dedicated to change and reform was Harry S. Truman. Truman kept on his desk a simple sign that said: “The Buck Stops Here.” Obviously, McCain and Palin don’t believe in that philosophy. If they don’t believe in that policy, how can they possibly bring any changes or reform to Washington?

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Ed Naha: Putting lipstick on an ass
The best that can be said about the McCain-Palin pairing is that there are only two of them. Whenever they speak in public, I'm reminded of Linda Blair's epic projectile vomiting scene in "The Exorcist." Their spew stinks to high heaven and there's a seemingly never-ending supply. This past week, every thinking American was slimed. Big Time. These idiots can't even get their lies straight.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Paulson resists calls for added help in bailout
Paulson and President Bush argue there's no time to help taxpayers and homeowners because credit markets would remain frozen, meaning that businesses will fail because they can't get the loans they need to operate and the economy will grind to a halt because consumers, who account for two-thirds of economic activity, won't be able to get the credit they need to keep spending. Ed. Note: Say, WHAT?!

Sunday, September 21, 2008
US drones continue flights over Pak tribal areas despite warning
American drones are continuing their flights over various areas of North and South Waziristan, spreading panic and fear among locals despite a warning from Pakistan not to do so. Pakistan's tribal leaders have also warned that if the US cross-border attacks continue, they would give a harsh response. They even threatened to target US-led troops in Afghanistan if they continue to attack the tribal zone.

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Whitney: Grasping at Straws
THE FEAR FACTOR IN HIGH GEAR -- Christopher Dodd, head of the Senate Banking Committee, revealed that at an emergency meeting convened by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, lawmakers were told,"We’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system.” Dodd added somberly, that in his three decades of serving he had "never heard language like this.”

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Kristof: The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama
Here’s a sad monument to the sleaziness of this presidential campaign: Almost one-third of voters “know” that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be. In short, the political campaign to transform Mr. Obama into a Muslim is succeeding. The real loser as that happens isn’t just Mr. Obama, but our entire political process.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
China Blames Wall Street Meltdown On Fed Overissuance Of Currency
The Bush administration today announced a plan to use hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to buy up up bad mortgages and other debts. The process of injecting more fiat money into an already over-inflated system had the desired effect - the Dow Jones shot up 450 points - but the dollar, following a brief jump, began to plummet.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Ron Paul Blasts “Secret Government” Running Economy
Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy, are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret. He says he's not sure the Federal Reserve has any idea what to do next and the Congress is totally oblivious to the whole sorry state of affairs.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Madsen: ‘Einstein’ replaces ‘Big Brother’ in Internet surveillance
(1 comments) WMR has learned from government sources that the Bush administration has authorized massive surveillance of the Internet using as cover a cyber-security multi-billion dollar project called the “Einstein” program.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Where's Our Bailout?
Almost overlooked in this morning's extraordinary headlines about government intervention to protect the nation's financial system from collapse was the failure of the House of Representatives on Thursday to act on a $50 billion stimulus package for the rest of us.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Imprisoned Voters Take Aim at the Presidential Election
A coalition of concerned citizens in Alabama is shaking up the GOP with their goal of registering voters in the most unlikely of places -- state prisons. A voter registration drive led this week by Rev. Kenny Glasgow, began registering prisoners to vote, a right guaranteed under Alabama's State Constitution, so they could cast absentee ballots.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
This Federal Bailout Proposal is a Disaster
Do you understand what they're going to do? They are about to steal ONE TRILLION dollars from us and just hand it over to the guys on Wall Street who screwed everything up. They are going to take all of their bad loans and dump it on us. We're going to have pay for their mistakes!

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Bush's Shifting Ideology
(1 comments) "I see a lot more continuity, certainly in terms of who this president is, what he stands for, what his values and principles are," Hadley said. "I mean, I think you've heard him, you've been listening to his speeches over the last eight years. This is a man who is remarkably unaffected by eight years as president, in terms of who he is, what he stands for, how he thinks of himself."

Saturday, September 20, 2008
The Nation: McCain and the POW Cover-up
(2 comments) John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
IT’S THE DERIVATIVES, STUPID! WHY FANNIE, FREDDIE AND AIG HAD TO BE BAILED OUT
The Federal Reserve has the power to print the national money supply, but it is not actually a part of the U.S. government. It is a private banking corporation owned by a consortium of private banks. The banking industry just bought the world’s largest insurance company, and they used federal money to do it.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Bright Side of a Total Financial Market Collapse: Michael Lewis
We've just witnessed the largest bankruptcy in US history and we know neither the inciting incident (though there is speculation that sovereign wealth funds decided to stop lending to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.)nor the deep cause. But there's now a pile of assets and liabilities smoldering in New York awaiting inspection.

Friday, September 19, 2008
GOP DELEGATE VIDEO: Karma Sucks: We need more wars; bomb Iran baby!
(1 comments) “Republican by day, Romeo by night, robbed by morning,” is the headline that the St. Paul Pioneer Press slapped on a story about a Denver attorney and GOP delegate who took a woman to his hotel room, got naked, got slipped a mickey and then got robbed of a reported $120,000 in cash and bling during the Republican National Convention.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Iran's Ahmadinejad says ready for debate with US presidential candidates
President Ahmadinejad made the remark in a press conference in presence of domestic and foreign reporters in Tehran. "I have no plan to meet with US politicians but as I have already declared I am ready for debate with the US presidential candidates at UN headquarters," he said.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Tent cities rise across the country
A few tents cropped up by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer. Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy. From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Return of the Geeks
If the Bush administration had consciously plotted to leave office with one last jab at American scientists, it could hardly have done better than the North Atlantic right whale incident. This fish tale has everything: attacks on science, appeasement of special interests, delays in government action—even a cameo by Moby Dick Cheney.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Nine US soldiers killed in helicopter crash in Iraq, - Update
Nine US soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed west of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the US army said Thursday. The Chinook helicopter had not come under fire and the crash appeared to have been an accident, the army said in a statement also correcting an initial death toll of five.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Fragging: GI held in killings of 2 U.S. soldiers
An American soldier was in custody in Iraq in the shooting deaths of two fellow American soldiers at their patrol base near Iskandariya on Sunday, the American military said Thursday. All three soldiers were assigned to the Third Battalion, Seventh Infantry Regiment, Fourth Brigade Combat Team, Third Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Dahr Jamail: "We Blew Her to Pieces"
(1 comments) "She was carrying a huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us, so we lit her up with the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher, and when the dust settled, we realised that the bag was full of groceries. She had been trying to bring us food and we blew her to pieces."

Friday, September 19, 2008
Vermont Candidate Pledges To Prosecute Bush
Charlotte Dennett, who entered the race for Vermont Attorney General this week, readily admits that it will be an uphill battle. At her first press conference, sitting next to renowned prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi, she pledged to prosecute George W. Bush for murder if elected and appoint Bugliosi as a special prosecutor to take on the job.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Karpinski: Palin Can Launch Us Back in Time
My intuition is kicking into high gear on the nomination of Sarah Palin as vice president on the Republican ticket. Hmmmmm. It is haunting me. There is something sneaky behind her and me thinks it is the devious orchestration of Karl Rove. Months of criticism for Barack Obama's allegedly short supply of expertise, then McCain selects a true novice as a partner on his ticket. Does this make any sense at all?

Friday, September 19, 2008
Morford: White women, no way--Once pro-Obama, but now swoon for McPalin? Who the hell are you?
(2 comments) every thoughtful or liberal or intuitive or open-minded white woman I know worth her vagina monologue and her self-determination and two centuries of nonstop striving for equal rights and sexual freedom and exhaustive patriarchal unshackling is right now openly horrified, appalled at what the addition of shrill PTA hockey-mom Sarah Palin seems to have done for the soggy, comatose McCain campaign.

Friday, September 19, 2008
John Dean: Vice President Dick Cheney's Incredible and Deadly Lie
By Deceiving a Congressional Leader, Cheney Sent Us to War on False Pretenses And Violated the Separation of Powers - as Well as the Criminal Law

Friday, September 19, 2008
VIDEO: Incredible Documentary Footage of Mass Arrest in St. Paul
Video released today shows the indiscriminate arrest of a crowd of two hundred at the waterfront across from a concert on Harriet Island Regional Park during this month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The video includes multiple angles of the event as well as an interview with the cameraman who buried his footage and was one of almost two hundred people arrested for rioting without probable cause.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Palin postpones California fundraising events
Palin was to hit the Golden State next Thursday and Friday for a two-day swing, and the change of plans came as a shock to party insiders, who were distributing 15,000 tickets to her Friday rally in Orange County. There was no information on when or if the rally will be rescheduled.

Friday, September 19, 2008
N. Korea Dismisses Terror Blacklist
“We neither wish nor expect to be delisted as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism,’ ” the North’s state-run news agency, KCNA, quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. “We can go our own way.” Washington agreed to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism once it started disabling the Yongbyon complex and submitted a declaration of its nuclear activities, as it did last June.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Paulson Argues for Need to Buy Mortgages
(3 comments) Seeking to dispel any impression that the bailout would amount to a rescue of greedy Wall Street executives by Main Street Americans, Mr. Paulson said the program would “cost Americans far less than the alternative.”

Friday, September 19, 2008
PAUL KRUGMAN: Crisis Endgame
(3 comments) This flight to safety has cut off credit to many businesses, including major players in the financial industry — and that, in turn, is setting us up for more big failures and further panic. It’s also depressing business spending, a bad thing as signs gather that the economic slump is deepening.

Friday, September 19, 2008
Jim Willie: Panic, Consolidate, Game Over
We are in historically unprecedented times. The foundation is being laid for a default of USTreasurys in the wake of the greatest regulatory failure in modern history, and the collapse of the US financial system. Anyone who cannot see that suffers from poor vision, chronic nostalgia, low mental wattage, a paycheck from Wall Street, a post in financial press media, or owning an Economics advanced degree.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
Israeli Bombers Planned to Use Georgian Airfields in Iran Strike
In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter-bombers in the event of pre-emptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter-bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
Goo-Goo America: Republicans declare all-out war on democracy
History is occurring as the election season progresses, mostly under the mainstream media radar, and it often looks like latter-day, de facto racism. For instance, in Macomb County, outside Detroit, Republicans have gotten foreclosure lists to challenge the addresses of (mostly African-American) registered voters, even as the GOP sits on an anti-predatory lending bill. Lose your home, lose your vote.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
US FINANCIAL CRISIS: 'The World As We Know It Is Going Down'
Panic is the word of the hour on Wall Street. Now even Morgan Stanley is fighting for survival. The commercial bank Wachovia and China's Bank Citic are being discussed as possible rescuers.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Madsen: Latin America uniting against neocons of Washington
Antipathy and disgust for the Bush administration and its neocon ideological ilk, including the key players and advisers in the John McCain campaign, have long taken root in the Middle East and South Asia. Names like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, and Ledeen are held in utmost contempt throughout the Middle East and Muslim worlds.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Pelosi orders wide Wall Street probe
(4 comments) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered a broad, swift investigation of Wall Street and will demand testimony from Bush administration officials and captains of finance, congressional officials said.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter
(1 comments) The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witchhunt against a Kenyan woman who he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
How is McCain connected to the almost bankrupt AIG?
(1 comments) Why, after snubbing Lehman, and initially denying AIG's request for help, would the Bush administration change its mind? There's a great story that isn't getting enough attention -- a clear a connect-the-dots drama that links AIG to the unregulated credit derivatives market to former Senate Banking Committe chairman Senator Phil Gramm all the way back to John McCain.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
GOP group behind negative Obama poll
A Republican group is taking responsibility for a poll that has roiled the Jewish community by asking sharply negative questions about Senator Barack Obama. The Republican Jewish Coalition, which is launching a campaign against Obama on behalf of Senator John McCain, sponsored the poll to "understand why Barack Obama continues to have a problem among Jewish voters."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Madsen: Bush family cleaning up on transfer of public lands to private hands
The Bush family, most notably former President George H. W. Bush, is reaping windfall profits from the transfer of title of public federal and state lands to private hands. The elder Bush, according to our sources, has a vested financial interest in land title companies that specialize in the transfer of public lands to private interests.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Bernanke: 'We have lost control'
Several months ago, economist David Hale had a private meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was trying to ward off a recession by lowering interest rates and increasing the money supply in the economy. "We have lost control," said Hale, quoting Bernanke. "We cannot stabilize the dollar. We cannot control commodity prices."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Gates Apologizes for Afghan Deaths
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday sought to defuse growing tensions with the Afghan government over civilian deaths, expressing his “sincere condolences” and promising speedier compensation and investigation after such incidents.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Politicians Point Fingers, Assign Blame
“This crisis serves as a stark reminder of the failures of crony capitalism and an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary,” Mr. Obama said, alluding contemptuously to “Washington lobbyists” and “special interests” who rake in dollars and hope, perhaps not too fervently, “that prosperity trickles down to the rest.”

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sean Penn: Country First (or, How The Media Loves A Lipsticked Rumsfeld)
His choice of Palin is, once again, McCain's vainglorious head rising. It's about "winning," not serving. As Senator Joe Biden said this week, "Don't tell me your values, show me your budget and I'll tell you your values."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Russian Markets Halted as Emergency Funding Fails to Halt Rout
Russian markets stopped trading for a second day after emergency funding measures by the government failed to halt the biggest stock rout since the country's debt default and currency devaluation a decade ago.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Global banks brace for derivative blow-up
SO here we are on the morning of D Day. The world's major couterparties on the $US455 trillion derivatives market go into technical default and no one is sure what is going to happen. Of Wall Street's big five independents, only two are now left standing, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Eugene Robinson: Palin - Running on a Lie
What kind of person tells a self-aggrandizing lie, gets called on it, admits publicly that the truth is not at all what she originally claimed -- and then goes out and starts telling the original lie again without changing a word? One deeply troubling thing we're learning about Palin is that, as far as she's concerned, unambiguous fact doesn't appear to rise even to the level of inconvenience.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Nuclear agency says Iran has improved enrichment
Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. The report made clear that there had been no diversion of nuclear material for weapons purposes.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
India: End of the road for the 123 agreement
The U.S. argument that the fuel supply assurances are not legally binding since the 123 Agreement is a “framework agreement” is patently false. Though the agreement is a ‘framework’ whose implementation requires the drafting of commercial contracts with U.S. firms, this does not rob the commitments of their legal nature.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
David Corn: McCain Blasts Wall Street Failure, Neglects To Mention His Adviser Helped Cause It
McCain, speaking at a campaign rally in Florida on Monday, angrily declared, We will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. This is a failure. If McCain wants to hold someone accountable for the failure in transparency and accountability that led to the current calamity, he should turn to his good friend and adviser, Phil Gramm.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Let the House of Cards Tumble!
What we really need is to start on a clean slate. So let the correction ensue; “let ‘em fail.” Let them all crash and burn. Let the fire purify all and start anew. Let the house of cards tumble. It’s the only way to return to some semblance of economic sanity and security.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
AIG Rating Cuts Threaten Funding Quest, Shares Plunge
The downgrade of AIG is the latest tremor to shake the global financial industry, less than a day after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch & Co. sold itself to Bank of America Corp. for about $50 billion. Stock markets from Tokyo to London tumbled as investors weighed the impact of a potential collapse of the largest U.S. insurer by assets.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
BREAKING: Fed to Give A.I.G. $85 Billion Loan and Take 80% Stake
(1 comments) In an extraordinary turn, the Federal Reserve agreed Tuesday night to take a nearly 80 percent stake in the troubled giant insurance company, the American International Group, in exchange for an $85 billion loan. With the prospect of a giant bankruptcy looming — one with unpredictable consequences for the world financial system — the Fed abandoned precedent and agreed to let the money flow.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What the Lehman Bankruptcy Means for Germany
The move by US investment bank Lehman Brothers to declare bankruptcy has set off a global earthquake on markets. The crisis is also threatening German financial institutions as well as the country's federal budget.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
DID SAAKASHVILI LIE? The West Begins to Doubt Georgian Leader
Five weeks after the war in the Caucasus the mood is shifting against Georgian President Saakashvili. Some Western intelligence reports have undermined Tbilisi's version of events, and there are now calls on both sides of the Atlantic for an independent investigation.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tariq Ali: The American War Moves to Pakistan
What is really required in the region is an American/NATO exit strategy from Afghanistan, which should entail a regional solution involving Pakistan, Iran, India, and Russia. These four states could guarantee a national government and massive social reconstruction in that country. No matter what, NATO and the Americans have failed abysmally.

Monday, September 15, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!
This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy the photo gallery.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Israel's dark arts of ensnaring collaborators
For decades, the occupation has imposed a system of absolute control on the lives of Palestinians that requires them to apply for permits either from the military regime ruling over them, known misleadingly as the Civil Administration, or from the Shin Bet. In return for help or a permit, a small favour is given by the occupation regime. Once taken, the recipient's integrity is compromised and slowly greater demands are made.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Wall St.’s Turmoil Sends Stocks Reeling
concerns led to a wave of last-minute selling as the Dow, already about 300 points lower, plummeted, closing down 4.4 percent or 504.48 points. On Wall Street, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 4.6 percent at the close, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 4.6 percent.Benchmark indexes were off nearly 4 percent in London and Paris and almost 3 percent in Frankfurt.

Monday, September 15, 2008
The Army's Totally Serious Mind-Control Project
Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone."

Monday, September 15, 2008
Top Economist: Americans Should Worry About Bank Deposits if Congress Doesn't Act
The intent here isn't to add to people's anxieties, but Roubini is one of the few market watchers to correctly predict the severity of this ongoing credit crisis. If nothing else, he says people with accounts exceeding $100,000 in value should spread their money - and the risk - among different firms.

Monday, September 15, 2008
YouTube Censors Documentary on Palin's Churches
(1 comments) Palin has every right to hold whatever religious views she chooses but, by the same token, Americans have every right to know what Palin's religious beliefs are-especially to the extent that they may include the view that all other religious and philosophical views but her own are under the influence of demonic powers and believing Christians must conquer the Earth and cleanse it of evil in this final generation.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Lehman and the end of the era of leverage
An enormous hoax has been perpetrated on global financial markets during the past 10 years. An economy based on opening containers from China and selling the contents at Wal-Mart, or trading houses back and forth, provides scant profitability. Where the underlying profitability of the American economy was poor, financial engineering managed to transform thin profits into apparently fat ones through the magic of leverage.

Monday, September 15, 2008
World markets tumble on Lehman news
Stock markets tumbled in Europe and Asia on Monday after the double-fisted blow from Wall Street news that Lehman Brothers had filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch would be sold to a large U.S. bank.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Wilbur Ross: Possibly a Thousand Banks Will Close
(2 comments) In an exclusive interview with CNBC.com, Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co., says he sees possibly as many as a thousand bank closures in the coming months. And this will create opportunities for investors. "I do think a lot of the regional ones will (close), just as they did in the last savings and loan crisis in the 1990s," Ross said.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Cheney Shielded Bush From Crisis
Vice President Cheney convened a meeting in the Situation Room at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 2004, with just one day left before the warrantless domestic surveillance program was set to expire. Even now, three months into a legal rebellion at the Justice Department, President Bush was nowhere in the picture.

Monday, September 15, 2008
The perils of visceral voting
When I first heard that John McCain had selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, I did immediately ask myself, “Is he really so cynical, or so naïve, that he doesn’t think voters will see through his transparent attempt to exploit the gender card?”

Monday, September 15, 2008
Fed Adds Most Reserves Since 9/11 as Banks Hoard Cash
The central bank uses repurchase agreements, or repos, to buy or sell Treasury, mortgage-backed and so-called agency debt for a set period, to help maintain enough money in the system to keep overnight interest rates close to the target. They don't signal a policy shift. Futures show traders boosted odds to 68 percent that the Fed will cut rates when policy makers meet.

Monday, September 15, 2008
U.S. Approves Bunker-Buster Bombs to Israel
(2 comments) The bombs could be used to penetrate heavily fortified targets, such as suspected nuclear sites located in underground bunkers. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the Pentagon department responsible for evaluating foreign military sales, notified Congress over the weekend about the pending sale. Congress now has 30 days to voice its objections.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Paul Krugman: Financial Russian Roulette
To understand the problem, you need to know that the old world of banking, in which institutions housed in big marble buildings accepted deposits and lent the money out to long-term clients, has largely vanished, replaced by what is widely called the “shadow banking system.” Depository banks, the guys in the marble buildings, now play only a minor role in channeling funds from savers to borrowers.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Advising the next president, 5 former secretaries of state say talking to Iran is essential
The wide-ranging, 90-minute session in a packed auditorium at The George Washington University, produced exceptional unity among Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Warren Christopher, Henry A. Kissinger and James A. Baker III.

Monday, September 15, 2008
McCain and Palin Are Trying to Take Political Lying to the Next Dimension
McCain now seems to have located a soul-mate in Sarah Palin, who shares McCain's assuredness in making public statements that are clear-cut lies and then insisting they are absolute truth. The only remaining question is how well this strategy will work.

Monday, September 15, 2008
Sarah Palin's Not-So-Secret Political Advisor: Todd Palin
We should be giving Todd Palin considerably more scrutiny. And the media should be asking Sarah Palin whether, if she is elected vice president, Todd will continue to be her top adviser, and will continue to attend high-level meetings, be cc'd on official correspondence, and be intimately involved all high-level political decisions. He's a professional snow machine racer, fer chrissakes!

Sunday, September 14, 2008
REAL NEWS VIDEO: Escobar -- The "lipstick pit-bull" goes to war
In her long-awaited, first prime-time interview - to ABC News' Charles Gibson - since appointed as running mate to Senator John McCain in the Republican presidential ticket, Alaska governor Sarah Palin was able to display her foreign policy knowledge - which does not include understanding the meaning of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war.

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Grave Concerns on the New GI Bill
The VA is contracting out the creation of an automated computer system that would process benefit applications while “minimizing human intervention.” Bob Filner (D-Calif), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said, “You don’t know what you’re going to get, you don’t know what it’s going to cost, you don’t know what’s going to happen if it fails. What are you getting us into?”

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Afghanistan blames vendetta for civilian deaths
An American military operation that killed up to 90 civilians was based on false information provided by a rival tribe and did not kill “a single Taliban,” the president’s spokesman said Sunday. Afghan police arrested three suspects accused of giving the U.S. military false information. A U.S. military spokeswoman did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the arrests.

Sunday, September 14, 2008
McCain fliers give wrong ballot mailing info
(1 comments) Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, denied there was any intent to prevent people from voting. The wrong absentee ballot applications were the result of incorrect information in databases used for the mailing. "You do the best with the lists you have, and no list is perfect." He said the mailing was directed to hundreds of thousands of voters.

Sunday, September 14, 2008
THE OLD CODGER: Let’s forget about Palin
Gibson allowed Palin to demonstrate that she really doesn’t have a clue about much in the world, or America for that matter. One could reasonably blame her lack of knowledge on her being a slow learner - until one looks at who has been giving her crash lessons in both domestic and foreign policies: operatives and advisers from Team Bush. Poor girl doesn’t stand a chance.

Sunday, September 14, 2008
Greenspan Says Crisis May Be `Once in Century' Event
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the financial crisis that began with the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market last year "is probably a once in a century event" that will lead to the failure of more firms. "There's no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I