April 27, 2012

Max Keiser: Tainted Sinkholes Of Fraud

In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss the fact that the economy is naked with tainted sinkholes of fraud and ex-Citigroup board member, Richard Parsons, is blaming Glass Steagall. In the second half of the show Max talks to activist Reverend Billy about living in public, taking action and casting out Blythe's demons.

April 27, 2012

'Cop brutality fuels fire of student anger in Canada'

160 protests within just two months - and Canada's student uprising continues unabated. And, with new clashes on Thursday night, the standoff over tuition fee hikes is turning increasingly violent. Centering on the country's second largest city of Montreal, clashes resumed after talks collapsed between student leaders and authorities. Riot officers charged, maced and detained dozens of protesters, while the police chief publicly complained that his forces were worn out. The students are incensed over a tuition fees rise which the government says is necessary. But journalist Bernard Desgagne, says heavy-handed policing will only provoke the students further.

April 27, 2012

Pope Ratz takes aim at nuns who aren't medieval enough for his holiness

from the Daily Beast:


He may be 85, but Pope Benedict is hitting back at liberal Catholics and living up to his reputation as the "enforcer of the faith." Peter Popham on how this doesn't bode well for nuns.

He recently started walking with a cane, amid speculation that his health was failing, and during a mass last week to mark both his 85th birthday and his seventh anniversary on St. Peter’s Throne, he remarked, “I am on the last lap of my life.”

.....(snip).....

With the pope’s approval, Cardinal William Levada, the American who occupies the post that Ratzinger held for so many years, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—a bland modern name for what used to be called the Inquisition, and the grave old men who staff it take the “correction” of the unorthodox as seriously as their Spanish predecessors did centuries ago—has launched a crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella group that represents the overwhelming majority of American nuns.

.....(snip).....

The LCWR is full of good works, the Vatican document announcing the crackdown makes clear. “The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude,” it begins, “the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by the Religious over the years.” But the tone of purring approval is quickly replaced by the flashing of naked claws, as the Vatican takes a swipe at the organization’s attitude to gay marriage, abortion, and the ordination of women. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/25/return-of-the-rottweiler.html

April 27, 2012

Scientists cry fowl over the FDA's regulatory failure

Scientists cry fowl over the FDA's regulatory failure
Overuse of antibiotics in factory farming kills thousands every year, yet the industry is force-feeding chickens pharmaceuticals

Richard Schiffman
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 April 2012


In 2005, the antibiotic fluoroquinolone was banned by the FDA for use in poultry production. The reason for the ban was an alarming increase in antibiotic-resistant campylobacter bacteria in the meat of chickens and turkeys – "superbugs", which can lead to a lethal form of meningitis that our current antibiotics are no longer effective against.

Antibiotic-resistant infections kill tens of thousands of people every year, more than die of Aids, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America. This problem is on the rise because antibiotics are recklessly overused, especially in the commercial livestock industry, where 80% of all antibiotics manufactured in the US end up.

Fluoroquinolone used to be fed to chickens primarily to stimulate their growth. But why did the banned substance show up recently in eight of 12 samples of "feather meal", the ground-down plumage leftover from commercial poultry production?

This was just one of the mysteries uncovered in a study conducted jointly by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and Arizona State University. The research, published last month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, uncovered a whole slew of other drugs in the feather meal that the scientists had not expected to find there. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/27/scientists-cry-fowl-fda-regulatory-failure

April 27, 2012

Facebook Lobbies Washington to “Like” Spying on Users

Published on Friday, April 27, 2012 by CorpWatch
Facebook Lobbies Washington to “Like” Spying on Users

by Pratap Chatterjee


Facebook, the social network behemoth that is about to become a multi-billion dollar company, has been lobbying for a proposed new U.S. law called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that would allow companies to share information with government agencies. Zaid Jilani at the Republic Report has been digging up details on the Washington lobbyists who are helping Facebook.

“Under CISPA, private companies may spy on user communications, whether stored or in transit, and freely pass personal information to the government as long as they claim a vague "cybersecurity" exception,” write Mark M. Jaycox and Lee Tien at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The bill also creates expansive legal immunity that makes companies and the government largely unaccountable to users. Companies ‘acting in good faith’ are also excused from all liability for engaging in potential countermeasures, even if they hurt innocent parties.”

This is not the first time that the U.S. Congress has tried to pass a dubious law on computer security in the name of stopping piracy. Last year, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act – backed by Hollywood and opposed by Facebook, Google and Wikipedia – was defeated after a huge backlash. Opponents noted that the law – as drafted - would threaten freedom of speech and support Internet censorship.

Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, and Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democrat from Maryland, are the sponsors of the new bill. Unusually for Washington, the two men work together well, according to the Washington Post. Rogers is a former Federal Bureau of Investigations agent who has been promoting the drone war, notes the Post, and the two men have the backing of people like Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. So it is small wonder that CISPA will help out the intelligence agencies by expanding their powers of surveillance. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/27-3

April 27, 2012

Austerity is Killing Europe

from The Progressive:



Austerity is Killing Europe
By Amitabh Pal, April 26, 2012


The austerity fetish of those making economic decisions is killing Europe’s economy.

The last few days have provided further proof.

“Spain officially slipped back into recession for the second time in three years Monday, after following the German remedy of deep retrenchment in public outlays, joining Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic,” the New York Times reported this week.

And more bad news has followed. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/austerity_is_killing_europe.html

April 27, 2012

U.S. economic expansion slows more than anticipated in first quarter

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. economy slowed more than expected in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Real gross domestic product rose at a 2.2% annualized rate in the first quarter, down from a 3.0% increase in the fourth quarter. Economists had expected a stronger 2.7% growth rate. The big story for the first quarter was the slowdown in business spending and inventory investment. The government sector also dampened growth. This weakness was partially offset by stronger consumer spending and exports. At the same time as the economy slowed, inflation accelerated. The personal consumption expenditure index rose 2.4% in the first quarter, the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2011. The core personal consumption index rose 2.0% after a 1.4% gain in the fourth quarter.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-economy-weakens-more-than-expected-in-q1-2012-04-27

April 27, 2012

Americans No Longer Expect Retirement at 65

from 24/7WallStreet:




Americans No Longer Expect Retirement at 65
Posted: April 27, 2012 at 6:34 am


The American dream that people would retire at 65 with adequate savings is dead. It has been killed by the recent habit in the United States of saving too little for living the last part of life, a collapse of the real estate market and the sharp drop in interest rates. Now, older people do not expect to retire until 67 or older. That creates a long list of problems for the economy.

According to a new Gallup poll:

The average nonretired American now expects to retire at age 67, up from age 63 a decade ago and age 60 in the mid-1990s.

The first and most important byproduct of this decision is well-known. An older person with a job means the chance that a younger person has one is diminished. The economy does not create enough jobs at the rate of 200,000 a month to offset the trouble this pattern creates.

Another effect of the need for the aged to keep their jobs, or get new ones, is that the population is likely to be less mobile. Retirees who might relocate to the South are not doing so in great numbers. This is one of the reasons the real estate markets in Florida, and probably Arizona, are so poor. Unemployment in those states is high. That tends to trigger mortgage defaults. There are not enough people moving into the markets to buy some of that supply. The change in retirement behavior will keep those real estate markets troubled indefinitely. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://247wallst.com/2012/04/27/americans-no-longer-expect-retirement-at-65/#ixzz1tFCH0omr

April 27, 2012

Canada: Poll puts New Democratic Party ahead of Stephen Harper's (repugnant) Conservatives

from the Toronto Star:



OTTAWA—The federal New Democrats are enjoying a rise in support that puts them ahead of the Conservatives following the election of new leader Thomas Mulcair, according to a new national poll.

The poll done by Toronto-based Forum Research Inc. this week shows the NDP was the choice of 36 per cent of decided and leaning respondents, with the Conservatives close behind at 33 per cent.

The Liberals were in third place with 22 per cent, the Bloc Québécois had 6 per cent and the Greens had 2 per cent of support.

An earlier poll conducted by Forum Research on March 30 showed the Conservatives in the lead with 36 per cent, the NDP with 34 per cent, the Liberals with 19 per cent and the Bloc and the Greens with 5 per cent each. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1168871--forum-research-poll-puts-ndp-ahead-of-the-conservatives?bn=1

April 27, 2012

Media for the 99% to Cover May Day

from YES! Magazine:



Media for the 99% to Cover May Day
An independent movement deserves independent media.

posted Apr 26, 2012


This year, International and Immigrant Workers’ Day, May Day, will usher in a spring of protests fueled by the rise in anti-immigrant legislation and enforcement, a lopsided economic recovery that favors the few, and a reemergent Occupy movement poised to challenge corporate power.

If past coverage is any indication, corporate media will not tell the May Day story accurately or with depth or analysis. That’s why YES! Magazine is joining more than 25 independent media outlets belonging to The Media Consortium to provide coordinated, national coverage of May Day events from around the country.

As “Media for the 99 Percent", these diverse outlets will offer a live TV and streaming broadcast, an interactive map, breaking news reporting, and coordinated social media coverage across our sites, reaching a combined audience of more than 50 million Americans.

“With this May Day collaboration, independent media will show that live national coverage can reflect the breadth, diversity, and complexity of the American people,” says Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, executive director of The Media Consortium. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupy-may-day