Newt Gets BIG Infusion of Cash; Europe Embargoes Iranian Oil, Fidel Fears Nuke Showdown

January 24th, 2012 - by: danny

Listen: Here’s The Segment I was part of on CBC Radio’s ‘s Current Program in Canada yesterday:

And then read the letters below.

Here’s CBC’s description of the content: Colbert for President

“If you’ve been listening to the news you know the Republican Presidential primary has now moved into a different kind of vicious with Mitt Romney still smarting from a South Carolina side-swipe by Newt Gingrich’s wealth of supporters. Which brings us to the candidate who was all-but-invisible in Saturday’s primary… comedian Stephen Colbert. Crossing lines by inserting politics into his comedy or is that crossing lines by inserting comedy into his politics? Candidate Colbert, disguised as Candidate Cain, walked away with thousands of votes in South Carolina. Today, we ask if Colbert’s tapping America’s funny bone or if he’s cracking some political ribs.”

Last night, Colbert declared victory after he and Herman Cain finished number 1, that is with l percent, in the South Carolina primary and announced he will end his exploratory committee for “President of the United States of South Carolina.” He now wants his SuperPac back from Jon Stewart who gave him the finger when he asked.

My Latest Article on Al Jazeera: #OCCUPY NIGERIA, about one new face of the global Occupy Movement

The Hill: Latest GOP “Debate” A Slugfest

Mitt Romney came out swinging in Monday night’s GOP debate, after launching a full-out attack on Newt Gingrich in Florida.

Romney took his first shot at Gingrich within the first five minutes of the debate hosted by NBC News. Gingrich has taken the lead from Romney in the GOP race in the last week, winning South Carolina.

“This is going to come down to a question of leadership,” Romney said, slamming Gingrich over his record. “The Speaker was given a opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994, and at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace.”

FYA (For Your Amusement):Taiwanese Animation on Gingrich’s Triumph

Right wing Pro-Israeli Settler Extremist and Gambling Mogul Sheldon Adelson Gives Newt Another $5 Million

•Fluent: Who’s the Biggest Spender in the GOP Primary?’

•Boston Globe: Romney Releases Two Tax Forms, Made $42 Million In Recent Years

•HP: Newt’s “Consulting” Contract Released

Neela Bannerj writes about Gingrich

An amazing performance, Democrats. You’d better be watching. This is the man who personifies that essential Republican virtue, the ability to turn the tables of indignation against anyone who dares to say no, sir, no sir, what you did to your family does not smell like roses. Yes, Democrats you have met your nemesis. This is the man who, as President, will look into the camera and tell us, with heavy heart, that Iranians possess weapons of mass destruction, and that America is tasked with the difficult burden of bombing them into the Stone Age. And when it turns out that Iran wasn’t as missile-bound as all that, Newt will indignantly throttle the Democrats, the journalists, and all the boogeymen who came in for such a tongue-thrashing last Thursday, to the sound of mass applause and the fawning of commentators. Yes, Democrats, we’ve all lived for three years under a President who has quietly chipped away against our economic problems, lowered our taxes, turned around the automotive industry, killed Bin Laden, and all this with the fanfare of a man getting up on a regular workday and heading for the office. But where’s the fun in that? What’s the appeal of a President who doesn’t even pretend to be God’s Anointed Messenger? BORING!

Slate; Rand Paul “Detained” After Refusing TSA Pat Down

APN Welcomes Resignation of Editor who Suggested that Israel Kill Obama

Washington, DC – Americans for Peace now (APN) welcomes the resignation of Andrew Adler, the owner and managing editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times. Adler resigned under pressure, following a column he wrote, suggesting an Israeli assassination of President Obama.

APN’s President and CEO Debra DeLee said: “We are pleased that the Atlanta Jewish Federation pressured Adler to step down and that readers of the newspaper strongly repudiated Adler’s abhorrent article. We agree with the Atlanta Jewish Federation that despite Adler’s apology and resignation, his outrageous column caused terrible damage to Israel and to the Jewish people.”

•RELATED: J Street writes: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) says she doesn’t want to reward the recent “bad behavior” of the Palestinians, so she’s found a suitable punishment instead: Canceling ‘Shara’a Sim Sim’ – Palestinian Sesame Street.

Despite statements from the Israeli government asking her to unfreeze Palestinian aid that she suspended. Representative Ros-Lehtinen is continuing to hold back over $150 million in appropriated money. One of the many NGO programs USAID will be forced to drop: Shara’a Simsim, the Palestinian Sesame Street[2].
Is this really what the right-wing thinks is pro-Israel?

OHBama

Fluent: ‘Obama has mixed record on planned State of the Union goals’

Daily Beast: Leaked Obama Memo Warned of Debt Backlash

According to hundreds of pages of previously unreleased White House memos obtained by The New Yorker, President Obama had been warned in 2008 about the size of the deficit if he enacted his campaign promises. A 57-page document (read it in full here) written by Larry Summers, then the incoming director of the National Economic Council, urged the president to scale back on spending: “If your campaign promises were enacted … the deficit would rise by another $100 billion annually. The consequence would be the largest run-up in the debt since World War II.” To be fair, the deficit would also come from many pieces of legislation left over by President Bush—including funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—that Obama would have to sign.

Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism. com: Obama to Use Pension Funds of Ordinary Americans to Pay for Bank Mortgage “Settlement”

“…”the bulk of the supposed settlement would come not in actual monies paid by the banks (the cash portion has been rumored at under $5 billion) but in credits given for mortgage modifications for principal modifications. There are numerous reasons why that stinks. The biggest is that servicers will be able to count modifying first mortgages that were securitized toward the total. Since one of the cardinal rules of finance is to use other people’s money rather than your own, this provision virtually guarantees that investor-owned mortgages will be the ones to be restructured. Why is this a bad idea? The banks are NOT required to write down the second mortgages that they have on their books. This reverses the contractual hierarchy that junior lienholders take losses before senior lenders. So this deal amounts to a transfer from pension funds and other fixed income investors to the banks, at the Administration’s instigation.”

Obama’s latest housing market chicanery should come as no surprise. As we discuss below, he will use the State of the Union address to announce a mortgage “settlement” by Federal regulators, and at least some state attorneys general. It’s yet another gambit designed to generate a campaign talking point while making the underlying problem worse.

The president seems to labor under the misapprehension that crimes by members of the elite must be swept under the rug because prosecuting them would destablize the system. What he misses is that we are well past the point where coverups will work, and they may even blow up before the November elections. If nothing else, his settlement pact has a non-trivial Constitutional problem which the Republicans, if they are smart, will use to undermine the deal and discredit the Administration.

To add insult to injury, Obama is apparently going to present his belated Christmas present to the banking industry as a boon to ordinary citizens.

The NY Times has an article today about “Political Pressure” (ie The White House) pushing for this settlement/sell-out!

The Supremes

NYT: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that police must obtain a warrant before tracking a suspect’s car with GPS. Using electronic surveillance is allowed in public spaces, but physically placing a GPS in a suspect’s car is considered an unlawful search that violates the Fourth Amendment.

Freedom Of Information?

WP: Former CIA officer charged with leaking secrets to reporters

A former CIA officer who told reporters he participated in the interrogation of terrorist Abu Zubaydah has been charged with leaking classified secrets about CIA operatives and other information to reporters, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

John Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington was charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act.

Daily Beast: White House to End Awlaki Silence

Was the killing of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki a summary execution or a lawful act of war? After months of internal debate, the Obama administration is planning to reveal publicly the legal reasoning behind its decision to take out the American-born Yemen operative in a CIA drone strike.

The Hill: Sen. Mark Kirk suffers stroke

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk (R) was hospitalized after experiencing a stroke, his office said Monday.

“He was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where further tests revealed that he had suffered an ischemic stroke,” Kirk’s office said, according to The Chicago Tribune. “Early this morning, the senator underwent surgery to relieve swelling around his brain stemming from the stroke. The surgery was successful.”
Kirk office said that doctors are confident that the 52-year-old senator would recover thanks to his “young age” and “good health.”

(Q: Who pays his health insurance? A: We Do! He has An Excellent Plan as should we all!)

Fidel Castro: World Peace Is Hanging By A Thread

The political situation surrounding Iran and the associated risks of a nuclear war that involves us all — regardless of whether one possess nuclear weapons — are extremely delicate because they threaten the very existence of our species. The Middle East has become the most troubled region on the planet, the same region that produces the energy resources vital for the world’s economy.

Multi-channel News: SOPA On The Ropes

SOPA appeared Friday to be either on the ropes or at the end of one. Support for online piracy bills in both Houses of Congress, at least as currently constituted, continued to erode. The latest blow to content providers’ efforts to get more power to target alleged Web pirates came Friday with Stop Online Piracy Act sponsor Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) essentially striking the flag on that bill. more’’

•NYT: Europe Now Considering Its Own Online Piracy Bill.

•TV Today: Petition Asks White House to Probe MPAA’s Chris Dodd

A petition with more than 10,000 signatures is asking the White House to investigate comments made by MPAA chief executive Chris Dodd, who warned in an interview with Fox News that politicians who failed to back anti-piracy legislation could see Hollywood dollars dry up.

Why This Matters: The petition was initiated by the New York-based We The People Foundation. Since 2002, the group has been a major force in the tax protest movement, sued to stop the use of electronic voting machines and was vocal in disputing President Obama’s citizenship.

•FT via EJC: News Corp to launch US free-to-air Spanish network

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is making a pitch for the 50m-strong Hispanic population in the US with plans to launch a free-to-air Spanish-language television network this autumn in partnership with RCN Television Group, the Colombian broadcaster. MundoFox announced on Monday it will go up against Univision, the private equity-owned market leader in Spanish language television in the US, and Telemundo, part of Comcast-controlled NBCUniversal.

•Broadcasting & Cable: Sean “Diddy” Combs Planning to Launch Music-Themed Cable Network

Sean Combs, the entertainment impresario known as Diddy, is planning to launch a music-themed cable network, according to three sources with knowledge of his plans. The channel is called Revolt and is aiming to launch at the end of the year–12/12/12 — to be specific.’’

•New Record: YouTube Crosses 4 Billion Video Streams per Day (THR)

Da World

•French senate passes ‘Armenian genocide’ bill

•Turkey Denounces French Action. What is Israel’s role in this behind the scenes?

•Foreign Policy: Europe Imposes Oil Sanctions On Iran

Top story: In an effort to dial up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, European Union foreign ministers have adopted an oil embargo against Tehran, which currently sends about 20 percent of its oil exports to the EU. European ministers also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and other public entities.

“I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations” with the West, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton explained. The tougher EU measures come shortly after the Obama administration imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil sector, and Europe and the United States are now trying to persuade Asian countries to reduce their purchases of Iranian oil as well.

• ‘Iran: EU oil sanctions ‘unfair’ and ‘doomed to fail”

Economy

•NakedCapitalism: Paris Bank Forgives Debts of the Poorest

Global Economic Intersection: William Black on Financial Crime

“”If you go back to the savings and loan debacle, we got more than a 1,000 felony convictions of the elite. These are not, you know, tellers or something. We today have zero convictions, zero indictments, zero arrests of any of the elite, non-prime lenders that, through their fraud, drove this crisis.”"

ML-Implode.com: “We Are Going To Kill The US Dollar” says Obama Administration

`Investor Kyle Bass discloses his discussion with a senior Obama admin about how this economic crisis is going to play out. The answe r is to export our way out of this mess by making our exports cheaper by destroying the dollar in a global game of currency devaluation. This simply means that they are going to print more and more dollars until all of your purchasing power is destroyed and you will need more and more dollars to buy the same amount of goods. (ie. Massive Inflation.)”

Automatic Earth: The End Is The Beginning Is The End

No one wants to accept the fact that, until the entire system is fundamentally transformed (through disorderly collapse or otherwise), this vicious crisis cycle will never end. The Greek PSI negotiations are a perfect example of the hamster wheel that is Europe. In theory, it is both necessary and just for private creditors (mainly banks) to take large haircuts on the net present value of their Greek bond holdings. But as long as the “restructuring” is treated as a means to avoid outright default/bankruptcy, stabilize the structurally imbalanced Eurozone and continue business as usual in the future, it will fail to produce any meaningful results.

NYTeXaminer: The “Liberal” Media and American Foreign Policy: Why the New York Times is So Hawkish

By Gregory Harms: The New York Times could probably be fairly described as liberal.
The term has lost much relevance and meaning in recent years, along with its counterpart
designation “conservative.” But if we apply the label generally to mean mildly progressive
and roughly approximating the political center, one could reasonably assert that
the Times falls within range of the liberal framework. (I would argue it’s right-of-center,
but will remain general for present purposes.) The paper’s editorial positions on
domestic issues and social policy are safely categorized as such. When it comes
to gun control, abortion, gay rights, immigration and so on, the paper is in the
vicinity of the center (it is important to bear in mind that liberalism is a centrist
philosophy, not a leftist one).

Moreover, key members of the paper’s staff – former
executive editor Bill Keller, former public editor Daniel Okrent – have openly admitted
as much. Read the article

Robert Meeropol: Occupy Wall Street Protester Guilty of Lynching?

This morning I read that an ardent member of the Occupy Los
Angeles movement has been arrested and charged with
lynching. You might think the protester, Sergio
Ballesteros, attacked and hung someone. After all,
California’s anti-lynching law was designed to protect
minority defendants in police custody from vigilante lynch-
mobs. But no, the police have used the law which defines
lynching as “taking by means of riot any person from the
lawful custody of any peace officer” to charge a non-violent
activist with this felony for allegedly trying to keep a
fellow demonstrator from being arrested.

Coming To Support Occupy:

YOKO ONO, DEBBIE HARRY, WILLIE NELSON, TOM MORELLO, THIEVERY CORPORATION, RAIN PHOENIX, IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE, JOAN BAEZ & JAMES MCMURTRY & STEVE EARLE, OUR LADY PEACE, MOGWAI, THEE OH SEES, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, LOS CINTRON & MANY MORE TO COME

WORKHOUSE (workhousepr.com), has come to the aid of the Occupy Wall Street Movement banding together with producers Jason Samel, Maegan Hayward, Alex Emanuel and Shirley Menard to create the first OWS Benefit Album entitled Occupy This Album: A Compilation of Music By, For and Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the 99%.

Letters

Peter Davis writes from Canada:

Danny – great to hear you on CBC this morning.

My reflection on the current Republican roadshow: when you have a society dedicated to entertainment, it is only fitting that the clowns should take centre stage.

Andrew Slavin writes about my appearance on the CBC

What a pleasure it was to hear you on the radio this morning. You brought colour to what is normally a tediously self-indulgent show.

You totally nailed it. The CBC are so guilty of missing the story on so many subjects. It’s like they think they are on some late night arts show where they have to find the obscure and irrelevant angle on almost all important stories.

You were, as always, entertaining and inspiring.

Vic Kytzia writes on my essay on Press TV:

Totally agree with all of your comments – well said!

Final Word: Sam Cooke, Farther Along

Farther along
We’ll know all about
Farther along
We’ll understand why
Cheer up my brother

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