SUNDAY: Happy May Day, Obama Jokes, Gaddafis Die, Brits Scorn US Wedding Coverage
April 29th, 2011 - by: danny
Please support the victims of the Southern volcanos.
Happy May Day: 200,000 march in Turkey. But what about the USA? We are the country where May Day was born. So far, I have only heard of a protest in Augusta Maine.
PROTECTING CIVILIANS IN LIBYA
On Saturday, Gadaffi called for peace talks in Libya. NATO’s Response: Bomb him. He survived but his son and three grandchildren did not. Libya said the bombing was illegal, an assassination attempt on a foreign leader.
Meanwhile, at the Correspondent’s dinner in DC: Lots of Yucks
SUNDAY: News Hounds: President Obama And Seth Meyers Skewer Donald Trump At White House Correspondents Dinner
With Donald Trump in the audience, President Barack Obama and SNL’s Seth Meyers went after him mercilessly but hilariously. While the rest of the audience laughed long and hard at his expense, Trump looked grim. Contrast that with Obama who was able to laugh heartily at himself. In just a few minutes, Meyers and Obama did what the media should have done long ago. Obama and Meyers got in some great shots at Fox News, too. Must see TV!
The Guardian Disses The US coverage of The Wedding
One fascinating thing about the royal nuptials was deciding why some 850 reporters from all over the world descended on London to vamp up an international TV audience that could not possibly reach the predicted two billion. And, within that, why every big US network splashed out as never before, dispatching their big news hitters (plus the likes of Cat Deeley and Sharon Osbourne as etiquette experts) to sit in UK studios talking dresses, regimental uniforms and knights of the garter.
Did millions of Americans really want to get up at 4am to watch a couple of long-term partners tie the knot before they turned 30? And why on earth should they care?
Mush and gush
Meet the chicken, meet the egg: Americans told Pew Centre pollsters that only 8% of them had been following the wedding build-up closely — and 64% thought it had had too much coverage. But Nielsen researchers also reported that twice as much reportage over the last six months had been generated in the US (far outscoring a low-key Britain). You knew that most Brits would stir into interest at the spectacle late on: after all, Britons were paying for it. But why such mush and gush in the mightiest republic?
Mix a few kilos of Cecil B DeMille with a good drench of Diana. Throw in the merest pinch of special relationship. Stir while watching The King’s Speech on DVD. Let Piers Morgan earn his CNN crust playing David Dimbleby for the day. But otherwise see this as a triumph of relentless mass marketing. “We’ve had a lot of bad news lately, and if you’re someone who finds this diversion interesting and exciting, then I think that’s great,” said Dan Rather, the former CBS news anchor. In short, escape to Fairytaleland; escape — if you’re the Huws and Fionas of ABC, NBC, Fox and the rest — to London in spring, all expenses paid and new hats for the ladies every breakfast TV morning. Who needs Kabul when you can have the Mall?
And don’t forget the small, stony heart of Mush Central (far harder than for Di and Charles three decades ago). Here’s People magazine plugging 60 special pages of coverage. Here’s the supermarket Star, “revealing” that Kate’s already a “pregnant bride” according the “palace insiders”. Here’s a tacky instant movie where the actors playing Charles and William have unbelievable amounts of hair.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST OF THIS WEEK’S News Dissector Radio Show on ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com
My guests are Vincent Bugliosi, the man who put Charles Manson behind bars and Aaron Krowne, who is fighting for economic justice with the MI-implode website.
Download this episode (right click and save)
SAVE THIS DATE; Wed May 4th, 6pm– The MoveOn Council of New York City is sponsoring a free screening of Plunder The Crime Of Our Time at Penn South NORC Program 290 290 9th Avenue bet. 27th & 28th St. Hopefully, other MoveOn Entities will follow suit with more screenings. If you are in that organization, please suggest it.
WATCH: INTERVIEWED ON RT ABOUT TIME MAGAZINE’S MOST INFLUENTIAL LIST
YOU MUST READ THIS: Mandelman Uncovers a Mortgage Fraud that involves the decapitation of democracy in Arizona–a “disappeared” Bill that passed the State Senate 28-2, Representatives who killed it and were rewarded with mortgage modifications by banks, and a seamy scandal that deserves your attention. READ THIS AND GET MAD.
RELATED: NEW BOOK ON OFF SHORE BANKING THEFT (T/h to FDL)
Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens
Author: Nicholas Shaxson
A thrilling ride inside the world of tax havens and corporate masterminds
While the United States experiences recession and economic stagnation and European countries face bankruptcy, experts struggle to make sense of the crisis. Nicholas Shaxson, a former correspondent for the Financial Times and The Economist, argues that tax havens are a central cause of all these disasters.
In this hard hitting investigation he uncovers how offshore tax evasion, which has cost the U.S. 100 billion dollars in lost revenue each year, is just one item on a long rap sheet outlining the damage that offshoring wreaks on our societies. In a riveting journey from Moscow to London to Switzerland to Delaware, Shaxson dives deep into a vast and secret playground where bankers and multinational corporations operate side by side with nefarious tax evaders, organized criminals and the world’s wealthiest citizens. Tax havens are where all these players get to maximize their own rewards and leave the middle class to pick up the bill.
With eye opening revelations, Treasure Islands exposes the culprits and its victims, and shows how:
*Over half of world trade is routed through tax havens
*The rampant practices that precipitated the latest financial crisis can be traced back to Wall Street’s offshoring practices
*For every dollar of aid we send to developing countries, ten dollars leave again by the backdoor
The offshore system sits much closer to home than the pristine tropical islands of the popular imagination. In fact, it all starts on a tiny island called Manhattan. In this fast paced narrative, Treasure Islands at last explains how the system works and how it’s contributing to our ever deepening economic divide.
Nicholas Shaxson is a journalist who has written for the Financial Times, The Economist Group, African Energy, and the insider newsletter Africa Confidential. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil and an associate fellow with the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. (http://treasureislands.org/) (Palgrave Macmillan)
SATURDAY: Glenn Greenwald reports in Salon about the FBI’s probe of Wikileaks:
“In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina. Alexandria is where a Grand Jury has been convened to criminally investigate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and determine whether an indictment against them is warranted. The individual served has been publicly linked to the WikiLeaks case, and it is highly likely that the Subpoena was issued in connection with that investigation.”
FYI: To write Private Manning
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Letters will be rejected if they contain any of the following: Solicitations for gambling/lottery, business or pen pal correspondence. Blackmail, threats or indecent subject matter. Plans or plots for escape. Codes.
Politico Reports:
Federal prosecutors have dropped two misdemeanor traffic charges filed against a friend of Wikileaks suspect Bradley Manning in connection with a visit the friend, David House, tried to pay to manning at the Quantico, Va. brig in January.
House, an MIT computer researcher, was detained for a couple of hours while attempting to visit Manning on January 23. Liberal activist and Firedoglake blog founder Jane Hamsher was traveling with House. Military police towed Hamsher’s car and cited House for driving without a valid registration or proof of insurance.
As a result of House’s detention, he missed visiting hours for Manning so couldn’t see him that day. Manning was moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas earlier this month after repeated complaints from him, his lawyer, and outside groups that the conditions he was being subjected to at Quantico were too harsh.
Hamsher said in January that the car was properly registered, that it was insured and that House planned to fight the citations. She and House argued that the scrutiny they got appeared to be retribution for their support for Manning.
On March 28, the government filed two misdemeanor charges against House in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. However, court records show that at an April 18 hearing prosecutor John Radacsy IV moved to dismiss the charges with prejudice–meaning they cannot be refiled.
Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan, who just happens to have heard challenges to prosecutors’ requests to Twitter as part of the WikiLeaks investigation, dismissed the case against House.
PEACE???
From Israeli Peace Activist Uri Avnery’s take on the Deal between Fatah and Hamas:
IN ONE word: Bravo!
The news about the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas is good for peace. If the final difficulties are ironed out and a full agreement is signed by the two leaders, it will be a huge step forward for the Palestinians — and for us.
There is no sense in making peace with half a people. Making peace with the entire Palestinian people may be more difficult, but will be infinitely more fruitful.
Therefore: Bravo!
Binyamin Netanyahu also says Bravo. Since the government of Israel has declared Hamas a terrorist organization with whom there will be no dealings whatsoever, Netanyahu can now put an end to any talk about peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. What, peace with a Palestinian government that includes terrorists? Never! End of discussion.
Two bravos, but such a difference.
THE ISRAELI debate about Arab unity goes back a long way. It already started in the early fifties, when the idea of pan-Arab unity raised its head. Gamal Abd-al-Nasser hoisted this banner in Egypt, and the pan-Arab Baath movement became a force in several countries (long before it degenerated into local Mafias in Iraq and Syria).
Nahum Goldman, President of the World Zionist Organization, argued that pan-Arab unity was good for Israel. He believed that peace was necessary for the existence of Israel, and that it would take all the Arab countries together to have the courage to make it.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s Prime Minister, thought that peace was bad for Israel, at least until Zionism had achieved all its (publicly undefined) goals. In a state of war, unity among Arabs was a danger that had to be prevented at all costs.
Goldman, the most brilliant coward I ever knew, did not have the courage of his convictions. Ben-Gurion was far less brilliant, but much more determined.
He won.
NOW WE have the same problem all over again.
Netanyahu and his band of peace saboteurs want to prevent Palestinian unity at all costs. They do not want peace, because peace would prevent Israel from achieving the Zionist goals, as they conceive them: a Jewish state in all of historical Palestine, from the sea to the Jordan River (at least). The conflict is going to last for a long, long time to come, and the more divided the enemy, the better…
LONDON CALLING
In Case You Missed The Spoof Video
The WEDDING was everywhere plastered across American TV the way DIana’s death was. In fact, you may not know that the very first satellite broadcast on US TV News (CBS) covered then Princess Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. (In an an earlier poll, only 6% of the American public expressed interest in the Royal Show, but that didn’t deter the TV gasm.)
For a country that came into being fighting the British monarchy, this is a rather disgusting display of anglophilIa, a deference to the pomp and extravagance of a bread and circus from a county trapped in a severe economic crisis, not of their people’s making.
Sadly, this is so typical of the celebrification of US TV, and its lack of any critical orientation when it comes to power. For a corrective, here’s an essay on the class divisions in England that you won’t learn about from groveling, syncophantic and prettified US TV anchors who see themselves as American royalty while they ooh and ah and hype the BIG KISS.
Gag me….
Just check this out for the day before this obscenity!
*The Royal Wedding **
**all times ET except listings for KCET in California are listed as PT.
**Thursday, April 28:
**12a: **OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network – Prince William & Catherine: A Royal
Love Story Part 1
12a:** **TLC – Extreme Royal Collections
12a, 3a, 12p & 6p:* *Wedding Central – Prince Williamt
1a:** **TLC – Wild About Prince Harry
1a & 4p: Wedding Central – Royal Honeymoon Getaways
1a-6a:** **FOX News Channel *will simulcast UK’s Sky News.
*130a:* *Ovation – William and Kate: A Modern Royal Romance
2a & 7p: BBC America – Prince William’s Africa
2a, 4a, 1p, 7p & 11p: Wedding Central* *- Kate: The New Diana?
530a:** **MSNBC – Way Too Early *from London with anchor Willie Geist.
*6a-9a:* *CNN – American Morning *will broadcast live from London with
co-anchor Kiran Chetry for CNN/US.
*6a-9a:* *MSNBC – Morning Joe* will broadcast live from London with anchors
Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist.
*6a, 12p & 7p: TLC – Extreme Royal Collections
7a-9a:* *ABC News’ Good Morning America* with co-anchor Robin Roberts
reporting live from Westminster Abbey.
*7a-9a:* *CBS News’ The Early Show* with co-anchor Erica Hill reporting live
from the Tower of London.
*7a-9a:* *NBC News’ Today* live from London with Meredith Vieira, Matt
Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker.
*8a:* *BBC America – Memories of a Queen
8a, 2p, 11p & 3a:* *BIO Channel* *- Biography: Kate Middleton: Uncommon
Bride
9a, 3p & 11p: BBC America – Royally Mad Episode 1
9a & 3p:* *BIO Channel Special* *-* *William & Kate*, a rebroadcast of The
Lifetime Original Movie.
*10a & 4p: BBC America – Royally Mad Episode 2
10a & 5p:* *Wedding Central – How To Marry A Prince
11a:** **BBC America – Modern Monarchy: Dos & Don’ts
11a & 5p: BIO Channel – Royal Wedding of a Lifetime* “Kate’s Gown of
Renown.”
*11a, 8p & 10p:* *Wedding Central – William & Kate: The Wedding of the
Century
1130a & 5p: BBC America – William & Kate: Modern Monarchy*
AND THEN, TWEET THIS
RT @DCdebbie – Guess which news channel is covering the Alabama tornadoes while EVERY AMERICAN NETWORK focuses on British wedding? It’s -> @AJEnglish
You Never Know Who You Will Run Into
Sometimes, the news or fragments of it comes in my direction. Last night I was having dinner with the man who funded my film IN DEBT WE TRUST at a restaurant behind the main NY Public Library in Bryant Park. He was then in real estate and hipped me to the risks of subprime loans and the pernicious role played by mortgage servicers back in 2005.
A friend of his had expected to be in Morocco for a conference of Nobel Laureates but a the last minute, had a “funny feeling” and didn’t get on the plane. There was a major terrorist incident in Marrakesh yesterday with many dead. No one in the conference was injured but this was a good example of someone who trusted her instincts.
As our dinner was ending, there was some commotion when a large group entered led by Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea and her new hubby. The buzz level in the place escalated which is when I took my leave. Nothing personal against the ex-Prez, but I hate the gawking celebrities inspire.
Economy/Politricks
NYT: U.S. Economic Growth Slows to 1.8% Rate in Quarter
Higher commodity prices and winter blizzards that shuttered businesses and delayed construction were among the main causes of the slowdown.
WP: More Democrats defiant on debt ceiling
Defying the White House, the senators are joining Republicans in calling for deficit reductions as a condition for lifting $14.3 trillion ceiling.
‘Bernanke sees economic growth through 2013′
CLG: Exxon, Shell Post Huge 1Q Profits on High Oil Prices
The world’s two largest oil companies Thursday reported multi-billion-dollar first-quarter profits, up from a year ago, on higher crude oil prices. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s net income was $10.56 billion, or $2.14 per share, up from $6.3 billion, or $1.33. It was the world’s largest oil company’s biggest profit since its record $14.83 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Revenue rose 26% to $114 billion. Royal Dutch Shell earned $8.78 billion, up from $5.48 billion a year ago. Revenue rose 28% to $110 billion.
Laura Flanders, GRIT TV: Gas prices have been edging up since February, reaching $4 a gallon this Easter, and Republicans are gearing up to make a stink about it. To blame Democrats, that is, for setting things up this way. Blaming green energy initiatives for driving up prices, House Republicans are planning to hold hearings on a slurry of bills aimed at expanding domestic oil production in response to high gasoline prices.”
NakedCapitalism.com: Foreclosure Can Kill
Here’s a sad little story in the “NY/Region” section of the New York Times, which illustrates a not often enough discussed sort of wreckage resulting from the housing mess: that of deaths resulting from foreclosures.
Think I’m exaggerating? There have been cases of suicides, or murder/suicides of people losing their homes. But that can’t necessarily be attributed to foreclosure per se, but of personal financial disaster, with the foreclosure being the literally fatal blow. So while one can attribute their deaths to the financial crisis and therefore to the reckless behavior of major financial firms, it’s hard to pin it on foreclosures per se.
But there are some deaths that can, indisputably, be blamed on foreclosures or more specifically, the negligent management of foreclosed properties. No one should ever die because a bank failed to take proper care of a home it seized. This, just like banks seizing houses that have no mortgages on them, should simply never happen. But it is in fact taking place.
As anyone who lives in a part of the country hard-hit by foreclosures, the banks (more accurately, the servicers) are often derelict in their duties as property managers. When the servicer, acting on behalf of the securitization, takes possession of a home, it becomes responsible for it. It must pay property taxes and comply with local rules. In theory, the servicer should manage the home so as to maximize its value on behalf of the investor. That means securing the property (for instance, taking steps to make sure squatters don’t move in) and maintaining it (mowing the grass, either draining water pipes or providing heat at a minimal level in the winter to preserve the plumbing system).
Trump Partying With Koch In The Hamptons
Libya
Media Lens; The West Has Spent 4 Decades Trying to Dump Gaddafi
Letters
Mark Green writes:
Now that the President’s birth has been re-re-reestablished, I thought you might be interested in this piece about how the GOP Slur du Jour machine (why won’t he release his college grades?) is helping to re-elect him.
The “delegitimatize Obama” crowd is not impressed, and are pedaling a “birth certificate” from Kenya to prove that the one from Hawaii has been forged. I received one email that goes further, asserting:
“Tom Fife in the American Free Press was in Moscow in 1992 where a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences stated they had trained a Barack Obama as a communist and atheist and he will make easier the triumph of communism over the USA. The article is at the bottom of this home page regarding the birth of Barack Hussein Obama II in Mombasa, Kenya. Grandmother of President Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. reveals below the story of his birth in Mombasa, Kenya, a seaport, after his mother suffered labor pains while swimming at ocean beach in Mombasa.”
This bilge keeps coming, Ad infinitem.
Comment on media coverage: John Cory writes:
“”It is a sorry and sad day for America. Yesterday, Obama released his long-form birth certificate to cheers and applause and ‘about time’ comments across the great media landscape and inter-tubes. The Villagers are busy pontificating and examining and thumping their own chests in victory. Everyone is smiling and clapping and proud. Not me. What does it say about our ‘media’ that they have spent so much time and so much effort promoting crazy over reality? That our ‘media’ relishes circus clowns jumping out of their clown-cars and spraying clown-seltzer everywhere and then giddily covers the wet and stained audience reaction while ignoring the burning of fact?”
Al Jazeera via Real News Network: Fatah And Hamas Make Deal
Afghanistan
Pakistani and American officials said Gen. David H. Petraeus’s selection as C.I.A. director could further inflame relations between the two nations.
Feature: A celebration day without celebrations amid tightened security in Afghanistan by Yan Liang KABUL, April 28 (Xinhua) –
A nationwide celebration to mark the Mujahedin (holy warriors) victory over the former Soviet Union invasion in Afghanistan was cancelled just one day before April 28, amid tightened security in Kabul.
Kandahar jail governor detained after mass breakout By Ahmad Nadeem — Thu Apr 28, 1:08 am ET KANDAHAR (Reuters) — The governor of the Afghan jail where hundreds of insurgents this week escaped through a tunnel built by the Taliban has been detained along with several top aides, an intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday.
Key Afghan aid programs delayed
Media
EJC: US Army invites press to Manning prison
Looking to quash complaints about the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, Army officials are inviting reporters to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to visit the military prison where the man accused of sharing classified documents with WikiLeaks is being held. Military officials are eager to show that Manning is being treated well at the medium-security prison as he continues to be held for pretrial evaluation, Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins said. Manning is awaiting the Army’s decision on whether he’s mentally competent to stand trial on nearly two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy, which can come with a life sentence or even death penalty. Opponents say putting him in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and requiring him to sleep in a suicide-proof smock and strip nude to be inspected by prison guards is inhumane treatment. But the Obama administration contends that Manning has been treated fairly. Kevin Zeese, an organizer of the Bradley Manning Support Network, responded to the Army’s plan for a press tour that while it’s “an effort to relieve the pressure,” his group “will not let up until Manning is treated properly.” (Politico.com)
Al Jazeera suspends Syria bureau after crackdown on journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported the suspension of Al Jazeera’s operations inside Syria follow restrictions on its activities and attacks on its staff. Al Jazeera declined to comment further on the matter. According to the CPJ Al Jazeera’s Syria-based staff were told by authorities “not to communicate with the station’s headquarters in Doha, and not to appear on air to present the news from the bureau, even if by telephone”. The press freedom organisation also claims “scores” of local journalists and bloggers have been detained in Syria during the uprisings, with some released but others remaining in custody. “Syria believes that by harassing, expelling, and arresting journalists it can prevent the world from seeing the civil unrest gripping the country,” CPJ middle east and north Africa program coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem said in the report. “This strategy has already failed in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. The government in Damascus must immediately stop harassing and threatening all journalists and allow them to work freely.” The suspension of Al Jazeera’s Arabic bureau in Syria follows the closure of the broadcaster’s Cairo bureau, allegedly by Egyptian authorities, during uprisings in the country. (Journalism.co.uk)
Lara’s Story: ‘CBS correspondent describes Egypt mob’s assault’
Don Hazen of Alternet on Challenges Faced by Progressive Media
Progressive Media Suffer Losses In the Fight Against the
Right-Wing Media Machine
There have been rays of hope for progressives recently,
notably in the Wisconsin uprising against Governor Walker’s
union-busting jihad and in Glenn Beck’s impending departure
from Fox News, after strong critical campaigns by Color Of
Change, the Jewish Fund for Justice and others, focusing on
Beck’s racism and obsession with Nazism.
But let’s face it: progressives are perpetually put on the
defensive by the right-wing media, and so are Obama and the
Democrats, for that matter. The relentless conservative
propaganda machine dominates the public discourse more than
ever. The alarming result is that, according to a number of
polls, the constant repetition of conservative
disinformation results in many Americans increasingly
denying reality.
We have reached this point over a 30- to 40-year process in
which conservatives built and funded an infrastructure that
is now so well entrenched it operates seamlessly. We are
being overrun by a relentless, orchestrated, coordinated
machine that hammers away with propaganda and obvious lies,
shaped by conservative values and pro-business and corporate
talking points. These are woven into conservative narratives
delivered by big personalities in every corner of the media
where they dominate the discourse and have the largest and
most active audiences. It is, in a word, a juggernaut.
So it’s particularly troubling that a bunch of bold-face
progressive voices and talents, the most prominent being
Keith Olbermann, have left their media perches for far less
visible, and in some cases unknown, futures. Meanwhile, the
Huffington Post has married AOL in a $315 million deal, and
its editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington, has gone out of her
way to say that HuffPo hasn’t been a “left” publication for
more than three years, and actually, of all that huge
traffic to the site, only 15-20 percent has been to the
political content. Tell that to all those progressive
bloggers who thought they were sitting atop the Mount
Rushmore of political visibility.
Jesse Freeston writes:
My Latest Video Report: Honduran Teachers Get Shock Treatment
The report was shot over two weeks in Honduras during the heavily-repressed national teachers’ strike.
Click here to see it:
The situation here is severe.
Almost two years after the military coup, it’s extremely difficult to identify a single sector or group that hasn’t been adversely affected by it. Farmers, LGBT, students, indigenous peoples, Garifuna people, unionists, taxi drivers, women, artists, and most visibly over the last month, the teachers. Their pensions stolen, their salaries chopped, their schools on the path to privatization, their right to strike taken away, and their role taken out of decision making. It’s pretty overwhelming. But, even more so is their continuous resistance in the streets.”
Song For Our Times
Tom Morello is set to release Union Town via New West Records digitally on May 17th, with a physical CD and Vinyl release to follow on July 19th. All profits from Union Town will benefit The America Votes Labor Unity Fund via SaveWorkers.org. The studio recording consists of 8 pro-union songs featuring three Tom Morello originals, as well as the Woody Guthrie classic “This Land Is Your Land” (including the more radical, often censored verses). On February 21st of this year, Tom Morello performed at the Capitol Square in Madison, WI in protest to an anti-union bill put forward by Governor Scott Walker. To read Morello’s editorial about his experience, “Frostbite and Freedom: Tom Morello on the Battle of Madison,” please visit RollingStone.com. The title track from the Union Town EP (full track listing below) is available now at SaveWorkers.org. On the heels of Union Town, Tom Morello, as The Nightwatchman, will release his third full length solo album, World Wide Rebel Songs, late Summer via New West Records.
Listen/Watch Union Town by Tom Morello:
Your Comments Welcome: write dissector@mediachannel.org
See the whole Post / →
When The Housing Market Crashes, So Does The “Recovery”
April 28th, 2011 - by: danny
Tomorrow at 1 PM, News Dissector Radio is back on Progressive Radio Network.com Guest Cherie Welch and former prosecutor/author Vince Bugliosi and Aaron Krowne of the MI-implode.com website.
APOLOGY: Yesterday’s blog was accidently NOT ON LINE. I rectified the situation last night, but too late for most readers, You can access it here.
WHEN HOUSING GOES DOWN, THE ECONOMY CAN’T GO UP
In its editorial section yesterday, The New York Times reminded us that “the continuing housing bust means the economy is still at great risk.” Please read it again.
This why I focused on mortgage fraud in my film Plunder and write about this issue every day. Yesterday, I also reported on the problems renters are having staying afloat. This is an issue that continues to menace us, with few progressives aware of it or active in support of homeowners. “Fraud was pervasive” (in the FBI lingo) — but little if anything was done by an Administration more concerned about the well being of the banks than the people losing their homes and hope.
Here’s how the Times put it: “If there was any lingering doubt, the latest data confirm that housing is still in a deep and broad recession. In the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price report for 20 large cities, house prices in February fell to a level last seen in April 2009 – their lowest point in the bust. In a Census Bureau report, new home sales in March remained near their lowest levels since records were first kept in 1963.
It would be comforting to believe that housing-market distress represents a normal, if painful, correction after a period of excess. But all housing trends – in prices, sales, construction and foreclosures – indicate a market that is likely to decline even more, and far more than is needed to erase the artificial gains of the bubble.”
But the Times is not doing the systematic investigative work into the crimes behind the collapse of housing. One website that is, Ml-implode.com is fighting for its life as the fraudsters push back. Here’s the latest in their fight with those who want to muzzle their investigative work. Here’s their take on what’s happening from editor Aaron Krowne.
(P.S.: Don’t be put off by the detail – that’s what makes news interesting!
Economic Watchdog Site Hits on $100 Billion Fraud at HUD —
Largest Government Fraud In History?
ML-Implode.com “SLAPP” Sued By Perpetrators To Keep Quiet
In the course of its activities in bringing transparency to the housing sector and broader economy, in 2008 an ML-Implode.com blogger published a piece detailing a down payment fraud scheme which had just been explicitly outlawed by Congress in the July 2008 Housing Bill.
Surprisingly, the individuals at the nexus of this scheme went out of their way to sue ML-Implode in an attempt to silence the critique of their now-defunct activities. As a result they have rendered ML-Implode financially defunct. The scheme, in short, revolved around dodging the FHA’s 3% down payment requirement by laundering seller monies through an entity posing as a charity (or otherwise beneficent entity) which did not putatively have an interest in the transaction.
The seller monies were recouped by a mark-up in the sale price (typically by a home builder selling a new home). The end result was a 100%, no-money down financed loan, guaranteed by the federal government — without the Federal government realizing the risk it was taking on. The builder (or other seller) got to unload their property at an inflated price (possibly more than the 3% markup) and the lender got to make a no-risk loan.
The buyer? Well, record numbers of these buyers have subsequently gone into foreclosure, and the entire racket will cost FHA (so far) in excess of an estimated $13 billion in outright losses.
In large part, the FHA has raised fees on normal, law-abiding borrowers to maintain its solvency in the face of the losses due to this racket, which is called “seller-funded down payment assistance”, or SFDPA. FHA had prohibited seller monies from being used as a down payment going back years; the prohibition against the practice was published clearly in FHA guidelines from at least 2005, and HUD officials had been speaking out publicly against the racket as early as 1999.
HUD spend about 10 years from 1998 fighting back against companies engaged in the practice; finally resorting to an explicit provision of the law in 2008 when other means continued to be evaded.
The primary individual fighting against ML-Implode is Chris Russell, co-founder of SFDPA purveyor Ameridream. After a falling-out with the rest of management, Russell started a string of his own SFDPA operations.
In 2006, the IRS cracked down on SFDPA, eliminating their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in a blanket ruling, in which it stated powerfully that the use of seller funds for down payments constituted a seller concession, and therefore entities engaged in these transactions as their primary activity were not charitable. Nearly 200 operations were effectively shut down by this ruling.
But this did not dissuade Russell, who then went on to found the “Grant America Program” in partnership with the Penobscot Indian Tribe of Maine. The purpose of using an Indian Tribe was that they are considered a “government agency”, not a charity subject to the jurisdiction of the IRS.
This allowed them to make HUD down payment grants, in principle, but of course those grants are supposed to be from funds not derived from the seller.
Russell persists in suing ML-Implode in order to whitewash the record. He was a key individual in pioneering “SFDPA specialist” companies that do nothing other than launder seller monies to defraud HUD in extending FHA loans, for which they collect a fee.
Now that all parties agree SFDPA is illegal, Russell wants the critical record of his activities eliminated. ML-Implode maintains that these activities, always in contravention to HUD regulations, were always illegal, despite lackluster enforcement by HUD and the Department of Justice.
ML-Implode believes that HUD should be “clawing back” losses on SFDPA loans, as each loan is colored by multiple elements of fraud, as a necessary consequence of the scheme itself. A subsequent Freedom of Information Act request by ML-Implode has revealed that approximately $100 billion in SFDPA-tainted loans were originated into HUD. It is unknown the total amount outstanding at this time, but the FHA continues to pay out claims on defaulted SFDPA loans as if they were valid and free of fraud. More details and updates are available at Ml-implode.com
Ellen Brown: Cheney Was Right About Deficits
Ben Bernanke’s Rare Press Conference, Says Modest Recovery Underway
FT: Press Conference Goal: MAKE NO NEWS
The press conference by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was historic. No Fed chair – a position labelled the second most powerful in America – has given a scheduled conference before.
About 60 reporters gathered in the Fed’s building at 2.15pm in Washington, eager to pose questions that they have been storing up through years of sitting through Mr Bernanke’s congressional testimony.
In immediate terms, the press conference was a success. Mr Bernanke smoothly answered relevant questions without departing far from the Fed’s script or comments that it has made in the past.
“BB is Brilliantly Boring,” said one hedge fund manager. Given the innovation of the press conferences, “The last thing Ben Bernanke wants to do today is make news,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.
The purpose of the press conferences is to let Mr Bernanke explain the Fed’s policy decision and its forecasts. It turned out to be an occasion on which some explanation was necessary.
RT reported on a dubious claim.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke to the press today during an undeniably dire time for the American economy. During that very speech, the US dollar hit a three year low and gas prices rose yet again. Should Americans be concerned? Absolutely, says Gerald Celente, director at the Trends Research Institute. While Bernake may have taken to the press, Celente says Ben’s “jive talk” shouldn’t be trusted as he devalues the dollar and distastes the economy.
Our President’s Day
President Obama named David H. Petraeus the director of the C.I.A., and Leon E. Panetta the defense secretary…The Washington Post reports that this means that the CIA will likely be militarized further, assuming control of the war on Pakistan,
Trumping Trump: Obama releases his Birth Certificate, evidence that he was born and not created in a lab. (Now there is a demand that the Donald release his tax returns.)
WP: ‘Birthers’ unlikely appeased
President Obama’s effort to quell enduring suspicion about his place of birth “raises far more questions than it answers,” says one of the leading figures in the “birther”controversy.
Craig Waits comments in letter to this blog: “In June 2008, Republican Presidential hopefuls began talking about the existence of a videotape in which Michelle Obama gave a racial inflammatory speech, railing against “Whitey,” Republican bloggers and commentators would confidently promise to release the tape in a day or two, and told the media to sit tight. Of course, the tape never appeared, never existed, but to this day, if you type Michelle Obama Whitey Tape into any search engine, you’ll find the same crowd talking of the tape as if it were undisputed fact.
And today, pundits assure us that, since Obama has released his long-form birth certificate, the so-called “birther controversy” can now be laid to rest. I disagree. Such a claim assumes that Republican Presidential candidates are interested in facts… that’s a huge assumption. Just ask John McCain, who lost a crucial presidential primary in the year 2000, because the Bush people spread rumors that the McCain’s adopted daughter was really the product of a tryst between McCain and an Indonesian woman. John McCain learned the hard way that Republican national campaigns are dominated by liars of the first order. That being the case, you can expect the baseless “birther” controversy to be in the news for a long time.
Andy Borowitz’s take: Obama Reveals Unsuccessful Run for President of Kenya, Disqualified by U.S. Birth Certificate
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — In a stunning announcement that took even political insiders by surprise, President Barack Obama revealed today that he ran for President of Kenya in 2005 but was disqualified when a birth certificate surfaced showing he was born in the United States.
At a press conference at the White House, Mr. Obama spoke for the first time about his little-known unsuccessful foray into Kenyan politics: “Like every American boy or girl, I grew up with the dream of someday becoming President of Kenya.”
But soon after he entered the race, political opponents began spreading rumors that he was not “a real Kenyan,” the President said, and foiled his bid by disseminating copies of his authentic American birth certificate.
CLG: Storms knock out 3 TVA nuclear reactors –Units among 23 U.S. reactors similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant
Severe storms and tornadoes moving through the U.S. Southeast dealt a severe blow to the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday, causing three nuclear reactors in Alabama to shut and knocking out 11 high-voltage power lines, the utility and regulators said. All three units at TVA’s 3,274-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama tripped about 5:30 EDT (2230 GMT) after losing outside power to the plant, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. The Browns Ferry units are among 23 U.S. reactors that are similar in design to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan where backup generators were swept away in the tsunami that followed the massive earthquake on March 11.
Treasury plans for debt showdown
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has tools at his disposal to conserve cash and stave off default.
Boston Globe, House votes to restrict union, Measure would curb bargaining on health care
Via Portside: House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.
Patrick Bond, ZNET, Behind the Trashing of the Gameen Bank in Bangladesh
THE ROYAL FARCE
Ian Jack in Newsweek: Nearly a third of the world’s population will watch Prince William marry Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey on April 29, or so reports in the British press predicting a television audience of more than 2 billion would have us believe. The souvenir tea towels have been printed, the mugs glazed, and a national holiday declared. For a whole day, Britain will play the game the world loves us for: royal Lilliput.
…. The country is facing the biggest squeeze in living standards since the 1920s. Government budgets have been slashed in every direction. This year hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers will get the sack, while inflation, tax increases, and a steep reduction in welfare benefits will eat into the household incomes of nearly everyone else. A whole range of public institutions, from military airfields to public libraries, are closing or being sold off. What remains of the British Navy has been deprived of its last aircraft carrier (the HMS Ark Royal, now for sale on the Ministry of Defence’s version of eBay).
NY TImes: Hamas and Fatah Sign Unity Pact in Palestine, Israel Opposes Deal
BASIC: Iranian officials allege new virus attack; mark latest plans for nuclear program
Iranian officials announced on April 25 that another virus has attacked government computers. The commander of Iran’s civil defense organization, Gholam Reza Jalali, referred to the attack as an “espionage virus” which officials have named “Stars.” He said that the virus was still under investigation and there was no specific mention of whether nuclear facilities were targeted. The alleged cyber attack comes not long after Iranian officials recently and publicly pointed to Israeli and U.S. collaboration with Siemens, as being behind the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran’s nuclear program computers last year.
As part of National Nuclear Technology Day observances around April 9, Iranian officials touted and defended their country’s nuclear accomplishments from this past year, all despite a tightening sanctions regime and the Stuxnet virus
Portside: Mumia Wins One: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence KO’d
PHILADELPHIA, PA: The jury that sentenced black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal to death for the murder of a white Philadelphia police officer was wrongly instructed, a U.S. appeals court said.
The court ordered the state of Pennsylvania to hold a new sentencing hearing within 180 days or to sentence Abu-Jamal to life imprisonment. The three-judge panel upheld the findings of a district court judge and an appellate decision in 2008.
War is a Crime, Obama Denies Healthcare to Vermont
MEDIA
Keith Is Coming Back
San Jose Mercury News: “The voice will be silenced no more. Current TV has announced that its new show with Keith Olbermann will debut on June 20 at 8 p.m. The show, to be called ‘Countdown With Keith Olbermann,’ marks the return to the airwaves for Olbermann, one of journalism’s most provocative and outspoken voices and hero of the liberal left. Olbermann’s decision to join Current was announced in February, shortly after he had a not-so-amicable parting with MSNBC.”
Sixteen journalists detained, missing in Libya
Sixteen journalists covering the conflict in Libya are reported missing or detained by authorities in the North African country.
Glenn Greenwald: US Still After Wikileaks, The Latest
Index on Censorship: Al Jazeera Camerman Held At Gitmo To Try To Discredit Network
The latest batch of revelations from WikiLeaks, a trove of more than 700 files on prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in the US War on Terror, confirms that an Al Jazeera cameraman was detained for years in part for information he could provide about the television network and its contacts with Osama bin Laden.
The 11-page cable identifies Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, as being a member of al-Qaida, as well as a member of the Taliban leadership “who acted as a money courier and propagandist for the al-Qaida network under the cover of his employment with the Union Beverage Company (UBC) and al-Jazeera media.”
The document describes al-Haj’s own account of his travel throughout the Middle East and Central Asia as a journalist for Al Jazeera, at several points trying to gain access to cover events in Chechnya at the request of the network. He was detained in December of 2001 by Pakistan while on his way to report in Afghanistan. The leaked document adds that, in talking with interrogators, al-Haj was “careful not to implicate himself as a member of an extremist organization, or to have had any dealings with extremists beyond performing interviews as a journalist.”
Apple Says: We Don’t Track
Shelly Palmer: “Apple has finally responded to accusations that its iPhone’s are tracking user data, denying any claims. While no location information is tracked, Apple does store Wi-Fi and cell tower data information to provide local results for maps and apps. A future software update will encrypt the file and reduce its size.”
Typo Patrol. Several readers found a typo in my piece on Wall Street. Should be rein in–not rain in. Of course.
Comments and stories are welcome. If you live in New York, Mediachannel is looking for a few interns. Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org
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Al Qaeda Terrorist Worked For British, New Market Crash Feared
April 27th, 2011 - by: danny
Blasts From The Past
Today is South African Freedom Day. On this day, back in 1994, I was covering the country’s free election that put Nelson Mandela in office. I made the film, Countdown to Freedom: Ten Days That Changed South Africa. I will be going to a celebration marking the occasion tonight at a New York hotel.
I also note that Madame Nhu has died, She was the wife of the South Vietnamese leader (later overthrown by the CIA) and known as the “Dragon Lady” who the whole world denounced after she compared the immolations of protesting Buddhist nuns to “barbecues.” Back in 1963, I stood outside the Columbia University faculty club to protest her presence. Later on, she turned on the American “cause” in her country and supported those fighting for Ho Chi Minh’s dream of unifying and freeing the country.
Today, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pakistan is calling on Hamid Karzai to dump the US, and work with them!
Up Against The Wall Street Journal
My New York Times didn’t come yesterday morning so I spent the day with the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper filled with all the contradictions and anxieties of capitalism.
P1. reports that big Hedge Fund managers are now funding Republicans because Obama did not move far enough to the center for their taste. So, now they pour money into a GOP that left the center years ago,
They report that the speculators who are driving up oil and food prices are also driving up the cost of production. Diapers are going up in cost. Seems like the Fed’s policies are one big failure.
I am still jet lagged after returning from the Al Jazeera Film Festival in Qatar so will have to pass along some news items of interest.
ACLG: AL Qaida Bomber worked For British
Guantánamo Bay files: Al-Qaida assassin, bomber ‘worked for MI6′ —
Leaked Guantánamo papers link UK to Algerian militant 25 Apr 2011 An al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] operative accused of bombing two Christian churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan in 2002 was at the same time working for British intelligence, according to secret files on detainees who were shipped to the US military’s Guantánamo Bay prison camp. Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an Algerian citizen described as a “facilitator, courier, kidnapper, and assassin for al-Qaida”, was detained in Pakistan in 2003 and later sent to Guantánamo Bay. But according to Hamlili’s Guantánamo “assessment” file, one of 759 individual dossiers obtained by the Guardian, US interrogators were convinced that he was simultaneously acting as an informer for British and Canadian intelligence.
The NY Times reports that the government will not allow lawyers representing Guantanamo prisoners to even see the new Gitmo documents. much less use them.
The Real News Network Reports Many Gitmo Prisoners Are Innocent
Watch (FORA) Assange Blasts The New York Times, Accuses Newspaper of Fearing The Government
EJC: A German foundation says it supported WikiLeaks’ activities last year, with donations totaling EUR 402,000. The Wau Holland Foundation, which previously described itself as WikiLeaks’ main financial backer, said in a report published on its website Tuesday that it received EUR 1.3m in donations for the organization in 2010. It said it paid WikiLeaks EUR 143,000 to supports its campaigns of leaking documents to the public and EUR 104,000 was paid in regular allowances to “a few project managers and activists.”
About EUR 60.000 was paid to maintain WikiLeaks’ hardware, another EUR 62,000 for travel costs – “usually flights, train tickets in the Economy Class” – and EUR 33,000 in legal fees, it added. It said legal fees were not paid to individuals – a hidden reference to the website’s founder Julian Assange’s legal woes. (AP)
Self Satisfied Attorney General does not deal with Why No Prosecutions of Wall Street Crimesters?
Just as Alternet.org is carrying this commentary by Les Leopold:
How Wall Street Thieves, Led by Goldman Sachs, Took Down the Global Economy — Their Outsized Influence Must be Stopped
If we don’t bust up Big Finance, there soon will be another financial crisis that will destroy what’s left of our middle-class way of life.
Ironically, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism reports that she has been interviewed by a FRENCH (not US) documentary on Goldman.
“One amusing tidbit: they were desperately pumping me to put them on to anyone credible who would say something positive, or even mixed, on camera about Goldman. They have been unable to find anyone independent of even moderate stature who will defend the firm.”
Perhaps there is one…..
Atty. Gen. Holder Delivers Uplifting, Cheerleader-like Speech to the Troops
By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON – Sometimes the troops need an uplifting, cheerleader-like speech.
And that’s what Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. – who has sometimes been the Republicans’ favorite pinata – delivered Monday to a crowd of more than 100 employees at the Great Hall at the Department of Justice at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
“I have been privileged to serve this Department, I have worked alongside — and learned from — some of the world’s most talented and dedicated lawyers, law enforcement officials, and public servants. Every day, you and your colleagues — a team that’s now more than 114,000 members strong — carry out your important jobs with the simple, but essential, goals of protecting and improving lives — and pursuing justice in every case, every circumstance, and every community.”
“Like you, I love this Department. And, like you, I am proud — not only to serve it, but also to champion its work.”
Lester Brown,The New Geopolitics of Food
From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.
Overseas:
Name Blame Game As Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock Persists
By Bernard Schell
IDN-InDepth NewsReport
CAIRO (IDN) – While the United Nations is urging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to end the deadlock in peace talks, representatives of the two conflict parties continue to cross swords blaming each other for the unending cycle of violence and ‘retaliation’.
The stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations had persisted over the past month and, with the state-building efforts of the Palestinians progressing, “bold and decisive steps” were needed to resolve the decades-old conflict, according to a top UN political official.
“Despite the Palestinian Authority’s accomplishments, the institutional achievements of the state-building agenda are approaching their limits within the political and physical space currently available,” B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said on April 21, ahead of a day-long open debate in New York.
“Both parties should be concerned that the political track is falling behind the significant progress being made by the Palestinian Authority in its state-building agenda,” he added.
Martin Steele, Op Ed News, Fighting Islamophobia
New Book on Muslim Anger at America : Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America by Steven Kull from the Brookings Institution Press
A new book, Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America by Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, has been released by the Brookings Institution Press. Though it has been nearly a decade since the attacks of September 11, the threat of terrorism from the Muslim world remains real and many Americans question why some Muslims have such hostility toward the United States. What’s more, many wonder whether the current regime changes and upheaval may unleash an even more active aggression against the U.S. and its citizens. Steven Kull has sought to understand more deeply how Muslims see America. How widespread is hostility toward the United States in the Muslim world? And what are its roots? How much support is there for radical groups that attack Americans and why? The book is based on focus groups Kull conducted with representative samples in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Jordan, Iran, and Indonesia; numerous in-depth; WorldPublicOpinion.org surveys in eleven majority-Muslim nations; and a comprehensive analysis of data from such organizations as Gallup, World Values Survey, Pew, and the Arab Barometer.
GET READY TO RELIVE THE CRASH
Paul Farrell on Marketwatch: “2008 Crash Deja Vu: We’ll Relive It And Soon”
Real News: How Stock Prices Are Manipulated
Deficit Fever: Dean Baker, TPM Cafe, Loon Tune Time Among the Elite
We already knew that the folks involved in debating and designing economic policy had a weak understanding of economics, that is why they couldn’t see the $8 trillion housing bubble that wrecked the economy, but now it seems that they are breaking their ties to reality altogether. The
country is still smoldering in the wreckage of the collapsed housing bubble, but the victims have left the policy debate altogether.
Twenty five million people are unemployed, underemployed or out of the workforce altogether, but that’s not on anyone’s agenda. Millions of homeowners are underwater in their mortgage and facing the loss of their homes, that’s also not on anyone’s agenda. Tens of millions of baby boomers are at the edge of retirement and have just lost their life savings.
This also is not on anyone’s agenda.
Deficit cutting fever is the current craze in the nation’s capital. But even here there is little tie to reality.
Reality?
Business Week: Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Decreased 3.3% From Year Ago
April 26 (Bloomberg) — Residential real estate prices dropped in February by the most in more than a year, a sign the U.S. housing market is struggling to stabilize.
Trend analyst Gerald Celente: America’s economic pre-eminence fades; its credit-worthiness at risk. The US dollar dives, gold and silver prices break records, oil and food prices soar.
MacArthur Foundation: U.S. Renters Face Increasing Affordability Pressures
Long-term increases in rental housing prices and utility costs combined with stagnant or falling incomes are creating escalating affordability pressures for U.S. renters. “Rental markets are now tightening, with vacancy rates falling and rents climbing,” finds a new report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. “With little new supply of multi-family units in the pipeline, rents could rise sharply as demand increases.”
Maintaining an adequate supply of affordable rental housing is important because nearly all Americans rent at some point in their lives. While renters reflect the diversity of the nation, they are more likely to be young, single, and low-income, which makes them particularly sensitive to increases in housing costs, according to the MacArthur-supported report.
“Over the course of the last decade, rental housing affordability problems went through the roof, with more renters spending half or more of their income on their housing costs, and these affordability problems are marching up the income scale,” said Eric Belsky, the Center’s Managing Director and an author of the report.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of renter households could increase by 360,000 — 460,000. Given the long lead time required to replace depleted affordable rental housing, such a sharp increase in demand — driven by demographic trends, an economic upturn, or new directions in homeownership policies — could quickly reduce vacancy rates and put further upward pressure on rents.
While new rental units are needed to meet this uptick in demand, preserving current rental stock remains integral to meeting the overall rental housing needs, particularly for low- and moderate-income households.
How Empires Survive: Must Read
Media
UK: Miliband risks Murdoch rage with call for phone-hacking inquiry
Syria: An unnamed source at Al Jazeera is claiming that the Syrian regime is threatening family members of Syrian nationals working for Al Jazeera – asking they resign stating unrelated matters
Related: The American Journalism Review on Al Jazeeera. I am quoted in this report.
CNN Bias?
Richard Knee who is part of an effort to reform the Society of Professional Journalists writes: “Since ethical issues are at the heart of the reform effort, I thought I’d send along this message that I just shot over to CNN TV:
Approx 4:30pm EDT Brooke Baldwin read story about “threat” of China overtaking US as #1 world economic power by 2016. Why is that a “threat”? Does US have some god-given right to economic supremacy? That particular story reflects bias that violates journalism ethics. FYI, I’m a longtime journalist.
Oh, The Donald:
The Washington Post reports: Trump has given most of donations to Democrats
Billionaire Donald J. Trump has a highly unusual history of political contributions for a prospective Republican candidate: He has given most of his money to the other side.
Comment on Trump’s Use of the Birther Issue
Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League writes:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln
A recent CBS/New York Times poll found that 25 percent of Americans and 45 percent of registered Republican voters believe that President Obama was not born in the United States. Another 22 percent of Republican voters say they don’t know. For the record, President Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapi’olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. His birth certificate documents it. Hawaii officials confirm it. And no one seriously doubts it except for a vocal minority of “birthers” who will do or say anything to get America’s first Black President out of the White House.
Recently, the birthers have turned up the volume with the addition of the bombastic rantings of — Donald Trump, the New York business magnate, reality TV star and potential Republican candidate for president. In recent appearances on “The View,” “Good Morning America,” “NBC Today,” and other shows Trump, who is playing the media like a fiddle, has repeatedly made false and incendiary insinuations that Barack Obama may not be a U.S. citizen and therefore not qualified to be President of the United States. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see that Trump’s birther claims as well as his flirtation as a presidential candidate is nothing more than an insincere sideshow, intended to promote his personal brand and raise his TV ratings. But as the new polling shows, in the looney tunes world of modern American politics, a sizeable number of the electorate is responding. That is unfortunate. It is one thing for Trump to “fire” contestants weekly on his “Apprentice” TV show, it is quite another to cynically fire up the right wing base with lies that feed their already biased assertion that President Obama is somehow “not one of us.”
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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