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Reuters – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reminded lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Thursday that failing to address automatic spending cuts and tax increases at the end of the year could damage an already fragile economic recovery, congressional aides said.The Fed chairman has repeatedly sounded a warning that congressional inaction on what has come to be known as “the fiscal cliff” could dent growth if left untended.”It is very important to say that if no action were to be taken by the fiscal authorities, the size of the fiscal cliff is such that there is, I think, absolutely no chance that the Federal Reserve could or would have any ability whatsoever to offset that effect on the economy,” he said at a news conference last month.
via Bernanke warns lawmakers on looming fiscal risks | Reuters.
A former top CIA covert officer who ran one of the spy agency’s secret domestic networks says there are now more foreign spies on U.S. soil than at the peak of the Cold War. The former officer, Hank Crumpton, who also served as deputy director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center and led the U.S. response to 9/11, speaks candidly to Lara Logan about his life as a spy on 60Minutes, Sunday, May 13at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
As the chief of the CIA’s National Resources Division, the highly-sensitive, secret domestic operation, he conducted counter-intelligence within the U.S. “If you look at the threat that is imposed upon our nation every day, some of the major nation states — China in particular — [have] very sophisticated intelligence operations, very aggressive operations against the U.S.,” says Crumpton. “I would hazard to guess there are more foreign intelligence officers inside the U.S. working against U.S. interests now than even at the height of the Cold War,” he tells Logan. “It’s a critical issue.”
via More spies in U.S. than ever, says ex-CIA officer – CBS News.
Of all the ignominious actions of the Obama administration, the steadfast, systematic shielding of Wall Street from criminal liability is probably the most corrupt in the traditional sense of that word. In Newsweek this week, Peter Boyer and Peter Schweizer have an excellent examination of what happened and why, tying together crucial threads. First they lay out the basic facts, including the core deceit of the President’s campaigning for re-election like he’s some sort of populist crusader:With the Occupy protesters resuming battle stations, and Mitt Romney in place as the presumptive Republican nominee, President Obama has begun to fashion his campaign as a crusade for the 99 percent–a fight against, as one Obama ad puts it, “a guy who had a Swiss bank account.” Casting Romney as a plutocrat will be easy enough. But the president’s claim as avenging populist may prove trickier, given his own deeply complicated, even conflicted, relationship with Big Finance.
via Wall Streets immunity – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two NATO airstrikes, one in the north of Afghanistan and one in the south, killed 14 civilians, including a mother and five children, Afghan officials said Monday.
Word of the latest civilian fatalities came at a sensitive time, just two weeks before a major NATO summit in Chicago. At the gathering, the allies are expected to affirm plans to pull most combat troops out of Afghanistan, while pledging to continue training Afghan forces and providing long-term development aid.
In the past, President Hamid Karzai has strongly denounced the Western military over civilian deaths, although the United Nations and other observers say the bulk of such fatalities are caused by the Taliban.
via 14 civilians killed in two NATO airstrikes, Afghan officials say – latimes.com.
This is controlled opposition taken to a whole new level.
I am currently working on a review of the first two episodes of Julian Assange’s new propaganda show called “The World Tomorrow” so what follows the break is just a sneak peak of what I am writing.
I have to say after finally forcing myself to watch the first two episodes that it’s far worse than I could have possibly imagined. Let’s get ready to round up the “international leftists” for American and Israel and do away with that silly “social safety net” that’s messing up all those lovely profits for the billionaires and crashing the economies of Europe and America… I kid you not.
via Assange’s “The World Tomorrow” is Worse Than I Could Have Possibly Imagined « American Everyman.
Even most skeptics agree that the world has been warming during the last 50 years, but there is apparently no significant underlying warming trend in 46 out of 47 years of data. Something decidedly unusual happened to the world in 1977 and we don’t know for sure what it was. The world got warmer, and the change “stuck”. But there were no extra emissions of CO2 in that year, so there is no reason to pin this to CO2.
It’s difficult to believe we are not sure – but the last 50 years of warming trend depends on that single stepwise leap in 1977. Look at the graph below. Does it show one strong underlying warming trend, or is it really a trend so insignificant that it wouldn’t exist if there was not a step change that artificially bolstered it?
via Has CO2 warmed the planet at all in the last 50 years? It’s harder to tell than you think. « JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and tax.
NEW YORK — President Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser today publicly confirmed that the United States conducts targeted killings of suspected terrorists using drones.
In a speech this afternoon at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, John Brennan insisted the targeted strikes are a “wise choice” and “legal” and within the boundaries of international law. However, ACLU Deputy
Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said Brennan’s statement did not go far in explaining how the program passed constitutional muster.
“This is an important statement – first because it includes an unambiguous acknowledgement of the targeted killing program and second because it includes the administration’s clearest explanation thus far of the program’s
purported legal basis.” Jaffer said.
via GGDrafts: ACLU statement on John Brennan drone speech.
May 2001: ABC Fails to Report al-Qaeda Plan to Hijack Plane, after Pressure from Unknown Intelligence Agency
“Massoud,” a 22-year-old Afghan, tells ABC News that al-Qaeda is “planning to hijack aircraft as a means of attacking the West,” according to journalist Edward Girardet. Girardet will write in a 2011 book that “ABC never used this information because of pressure brought about by a certain intelligence agency, presumably the CIA.” Massoud is employed by journalist Peter Jouvenal as a “runner” between Kabul and Pakistan, as a “means of tracking potential stories for the BBC, CNN, and other networks.” Jouvenal is Girardet’s source for Massoud’s story. Massoud also claims to work for the Pakistani ISI, the CIA, and al-Qaeda. He travels with Jouvenal to meet ABC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as part of an effort to get asylum.
via Context of ‘May 2001: ABC Fails to Report al-Qaeda Plan to Hijack Plane, after Pressure from Unknown Intelligence Agency’.
CNET‘s excellent technology reporter, Declan McCullagh, reports on ongoing efforts by the Obama administration to force the Internet industry to provide the U.S. Government with “backdoor” access to all forms of Internet communication:
The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance. . . . That included a scheduled trip this month to the West Coast — which was subsequently postponed — to meet with Internet companies’ CEOs and top lawyers. . . .
via Surveillance State democracy – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
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