Archive
ProPublica – Feds Confirm Mumbai Plotter Trained With Terrorists While Working for DEA
From ProPublica:
Feds Confirm Mumbai Plotter Trained With Terrorists While Working for DEA
By Sebastian Rotella
Federal officials confirm that David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to helping terrorists plot the 2008 Mumbai attack, was working as a DEA informant while he trained with terrorists.
Read the original story: “FBI Was Warned Years in Advance of Mumbai Attacker’s Terror Ties.”
Slashdot – DoD Study Contradicts Charges Against WikiLeaks
From Slashdot:
DoD Study Contradicts Charges Against WikiLeaks on Sunday October 17, @03:35PM
Posted by samzenpus on Sunday October 17, @03:35PM
from the offical-story dept.Voline writes “Last Summer, after WikiLeaks released 90,000 leaked internal US military documents in their Afghan War Log, Pentagon officials went on a media offensive against WikiLeaks, accusing it of having the ‘blood on Its hands’ of American soldiers and Afghan collaborators who are named in the documents. The charge has echoed through the mainstream media (and Internet comment threads) ever since. Now, CNN is reporting that after a thorough Pentagon review, ‘WikiLeaks did not disclose any sensitive intelligence sources or methods, the Department of Defense concluded.’ And, according to an unnamed NATO official, ‘there has been no indication’ that any Afghans who have collaborated with the NATO occupation have been harmed as a result of the leaks. Will the Pentagon’s contradiction of the charges against WikiLeaks get as much play in the media as those original accusations did?”
Courthouse News Service – BP may take shelter under the $75 million liability cap
From Courthouse News Service:
Snafus and an Alarming Statement at BP Oil Spill Status Conference
By SABRINA CANFIELD
NEW ORLEANS (CN) – A BP attorney in Federal Court on Friday did not deny allegations that BP may take shelter under the $75 million liability cap provided by the Oil Pollution Act. That prompted an attorney for plaintiffs to say, “We’re shocked over here to hear the defendants now bring up this $75 million cap. We were under the impression [the cap] was waived.”
Other…
Class of Undocumented Workers Sues Wal-Mart
By CHRIS FRY
NEWARK (CN) – In a federal class action, 42 named plaintiffs say Wal-Mart hired them knowing they were undocumented, stiffed them for overtime and for regular wages, paid them in cash or by personal checks from labor contractors, put them to forced labor through coercion, “violated immigration, money laundering and protective wage and hour laws,” and routinely locked them inside stores while they worked night shifts.
Al Jazeera – French strike hits fuel supplies
From Al Jazeera:
French strike hits fuel supplies
Union says 1,500 petrol stations have run dry as workers step up action in protest against pension overhaul.
Last Modified: 18 Oct 2010 17:33 GMT
Lorry drivers joined the protest action on Sunday evening, staging go-slow operations on highways [Reuters]
Petrol stations across France are running out of fuel as refinery and port workers continue a strike against the government’s plan to raise the retirement age.
Around 1,500 petrol stations attached to French shopping centres had dried up by Monday morning, the AFP news agency reported, adding that such services supply the majority of the country’s motorists.
“Twenty to 25 per cent of our distribution capacity is either stopped or in trouble,” Alexandre de Benoist, a senior official with Union of Independent Petroleum Importers, which represents the sector, said.
He said the situation was “very worrying” in some regions with fuel distribution stations on strike or blockaded by workers from other sites.
“There are at least 1,500 stations that have run out of at least one fuel product or are totally dry,” he said.
France has around 12,500 petrol stations, with 4,500 of those attached to supermarkets or shopping centres.
Mortgage Scammers Get Slap On The Wrist
French Riots – Pension Reform
From RussiaToday | October 15, 2010
Strikes across France intensified on Friday with police firing tear gas at protesters in the city of Lyon. About 1,000 high school students went on strike, overturning rubbish bins, smashing bus stops, and setting fire to stacks of free newspapers. The students and labor unions see President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reform – raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 – as an attack on their well-deserved social protections. Workers at all 12 of France’s fuel producing refineries have also joined the protest. Strikers burned tires outside an oil refinery in Donges, near Nantes in western France.
ProPublica – Who’s Who in the Foreclosure Scandal: A Primer on the Players
From ProPublica:
Who’s Who in the Foreclosure Scandal: A Primer on the Players
By Marian Wang
When it comes to untangling our mortgage foreclosure mess, the complexity of the process is part of the problem. Here’s a primer on the players involved.
Chris Lehmann – How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Robber Barons
From Mother Jones:
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Robber Barons
— Illustrations by Peter Arkle / OR Books
Americans used to call greedy capitalists “bloodsuckers” and “pagan worshippers of Moloch.” What happened?
— By Chris Lehmann
Mon Oct. 18, 2010 3:00 AM PDT
The following is an excerpt from Rich People Things by Chris Lehmann (OR Books). Read his column of the same name at The Awl. Watch the book trailer here.
Paul D. Thacker – Glaxo’s Avandia Cover-Up
From Mother Jones:
— Flickr/Fillmore Photography
An ex-Senate investigator reveals how GlaxoSmithKline sought to conceal evidence linking its blockbuster diabetes drug to heart attacks.
— By Paul D. Thacker
Wed Sep. 29, 2010 3:00 AM PDT
From golefttv | October 18, 2010
When it comes to lying, no industry does it better than the pharmaceutical industry. By faking test results, hiding unfavorable results, and paying off the right people, pharmaceutical companies have been able to push dangerous drugs onto American consumers, who pay for the company’s negligence with their own health and sometimes with their own lies. Mike Papantonio talks with investigative journalist Paul Thacker, who’s uncovered yet another instance of pharmaceutical company cover ups, this time with Glaxo Smith Kline’s blockbuster drug Avandia.
Center for American Progress – Bankers Should Take Personal Responsibility for the Foreclosure Mess
From Center for American Progress:
Bankers Should Take Personal Responsibility for the Foreclosure Mess
A Solution to Rebuild Confidence in the Housing Market
SOURCE: AP/Damian Dovarganes
Thousands of people wait in line at the Los Angeles Convention Center for free mortgage help in downtown Los Angeles on September 30, 2010.
By Peter Swire | October 11, 2010
Other…
The Public’s Lack of Enthusiasm for Cutting Government
The public is dissatisfied with government performance, but that dissatisfaction doesn’t translate into government-cutting mania, explains Ruy Teixeira.
Big Oil Goes to College – Democracy NOW!
Too Much – The Difference More Global Equality Could Make
From Too Much:
The Difference More Global Equality Could Make
Despite our current global economic hard times, says a new study from banking giant Credit Suisse, the world has more than enough wealth to ensure every adult on it a significant personal net-worth nest egg. Read more . . .
SCOTUS Blog – Court seeks clarity on what counts as a “complaint” under the Fair Labor Standards Act
From SCOTUS Blog:
Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp.
Case Pages: Kasten v. Saint-Gobain
When Kevin Kasten made oral complaints to his employer regarding potential wage and hour violations, was his conduct protected by the anti-retaliation clause of the Fair Labor Standards Act? Or is the scope of FLSA § 15(a)(3)’s “filed any complaint” language limited to written complaints to government authorities? At Wednesday’s oral argument in Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., the Justices (with Justice Kagan recused) peppered counsel on both sides with hypotheticals in an attempt to nail down precisely what activities § 15(a)(3) is intended to cover.
Other…
UPDATED: New review for Ashcroft
This morning, the Supreme Court agreed to hear former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s plea for immunity from a lawsuit which claims he misused a federal witness-availability law.
Case Pages: Ashcroft v. al-Kidd
The Supreme Court, finishing its first sitting of the new Term, agreed on Monday to hear a single new case, a plea by former U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft for immunity to a lawsuit claiming he misused a federal law to detain terrorism suspects without charging them with a crime. The Court’s order marked the second time in the past two years that the Justices had stepped into a dispute centering on the Justice Department’s reaction to the “war on terrorism.” The last time led to a victory for Ashcroft in a case that then ended in lower courts.
Columbia Journalism Review – Social Security in Perspective
From Columbia Journalism Review:
Social Security in Perspective
A conversation with Ted Marmor
To hear the media tell it, you’d think most Americans agree that this country must drastically reform its Social Security program. As Campaign Desk has pointed out, Social Security and the federal deficit have become Topic A in Washington, but so far the mainstream media haven’t had much of substance to say about it. Instead, they are taking their reportorial cues from the deficit hawks, while other voices have been shut out. This is the first in a series of occasional posts that will put the nation’s oldest and most successful social program into better perspective. I sat down for a conversation with Yale professor emeritus and social insurance expert Ted Marmor, who has written The Politics of Medicare and America’s Misunderstood Welfare State. A couple weeks ago, The Philadelphia Inquirer published his op-ed about what some deficit hawks are really after.
Trudy Lieberman: What is the federal deficit?
Matt Taibbi – Griftopia
From Rolling Stone:
Exclusive Excerpt: America on Sale, From Matt Taibbi’s ‘Griftopia’
Our cash-strapped country is auctioning off its highways, ports and even parking meters, finding eager buyers in the Middle East
By Matt Taibbi
Oct 18, 2010 1:30 PM EDT
Matt Taibbi’s unsparing and authoritative reporting on the financial crisis has produced a series of memorable Rolling Stone features. He showed us how Goldman Sachs, that “great vampire squid”, played a central role in creating not only the housing bubble but four other big speculative booms that filled its coffers while wrecking the American economy. He explained how Wall Street banks cooked up schemes that helped decimate municipal budgets and cost countless jobs, and how Wall Street lobbying led to a financial reform bill that won’t prevent another meltdown. Taibbi builds on that eye-opening work in his new book, Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That is Breaking America , due out from Spiegel & Grau on November 2. In this exclusive excerpt, he describes how our cash-strapped country is auctioning off its highways, ports and even parking meters at fire sale prices — and finding eager buyers in the unregulated sovereign wealth funds of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries.
In the summer of 2009 I got a call from an acquaintance…
