Hello. The last debate lies directly ahead, which indicates “The End is Near“. Meanwhile, your news:

International Developments

❖ “Sunni and Shia gunmen clash in Beirut and Tripoli”; “Assad to back truce if west stops arming rebels”; “Dozens injured in political protests in Kuwait”; “Protests in Libya over assault on Bani Walid”. Update: “Thousands decried the growing violence in Tunisian politics during a protest in the capital Monday”.

❖ “Three people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in the western Burmese state of Rakhine”.

International Finance

❖ The Troika (European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) has reportedly demanded that “all current Greek tax inspectors” be fired by the end of the week. The new 2235 tax investigators, untested, “will be judged on how much money they bring in”. Video.

Money Matters, USA

❖ Great (and succinct) read: “Every Investor And CEO Needs To See This Chart Before The Fiscal Cliff Is Hit”. There’s a remarkable inverse relationship between government-and-household savings and corporate profits. “Bottom line: The deficit is a major driver of corporate profits.”

❖ General Motors is the largest employer in Defiance, OH and the government effort to keep GM afloat benefited the workers there. Nonetheless, issues such as abortion and the Republican-manufactured boogeyman, “The Deficit”, are having their effect on the voters of Defiance.

❖ Sign of the (anticipated holiday) times: “FedEx to add 20,000 seasonal workers, sees shipping up 13 pct”.

Politics USA

❖ VA’s attorney general won’t investigate Colin Small’s throwing voter registration forms in a dumpster since the State Board of Elections hasn’t asked him to, though both Democratic state Sen Donald McEachin and Democratic Party of VA Chairman Brian Moran have called for an investigation. More here.

❖ Richard Mellon Scaife‘s Mount Pleasant Journal in PA had an article last week with the blatant and inaccurate headline: “Photo ID required for November election”. That requirement was earlier suspended by court order.

❖ A major player in “voter fraud” circles is Hans von Spakovsky, Heritage Foundation denizen, Bushie, and co-author with John Fund of the book “Who’s Counting?”. They’ve managed to create an uproar through True the Vote, a Tea-Party group, which has “filed lawsuits, released studies, testified before Congress . . . and spurred legislative initiatives in thirty-seven states to require photo identification to vote.”

❖ Nathan Sproul’s Strategic Allied Consulting, awash in voting fraud allegations, received $600,000 in September from the Republican National Convention and the Republican Party of Virginia.

❖ A “UN affiliated organization (the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)” will be monitoring voting in the US in a limited capacity.

❖ Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, MO Republican running against incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, has a staffer, Rick Tyler, who scraped the bottom of their oozy juvey barrel and tweeted, “If Claire McCaskill were a dog, she’d be a ‘Bullshitsu’”.

❖ New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a time-trip back to the ’50s and has compared Democrat Elizabeth Warren, running for US Senator from MA, with Soviet communists’ philosophy.

❖ Finally! PA Republican Gov Tom Corbett was pushing an ALEC piece of legislation allowing “the Governor and the State Education Department to override local school boards and open charters where the local board rejected them.” This issue got so hot, that Republicans backed off.

❖ Patrick Fitzgerald, former US Attorney in Chicago who pursued the Plame case and who was working for $155,500, has a new job now with the prestigious firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

❖ Deputy Attorney General James Cole has said the feds’ position on marijuana will remained unchanged regardless of what voters in various states decide.

Women and Children

❖ Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, ripped into conservative Tony Abbott recently, calling him “a sexist and misogynist”. That has led to an increase for her in the polls–5 point jump in approval overall, 5 point decrease among men in disapproval. She’s now 10 points ahead of Abbott.

Planet Earth News

❖ University of London biologists have studied 40 bumblebee colonies and concluded that habitual exposure to pesticides is “linked to bumblebee colony failures.”

❖ A deadly 2011 earthquake in Spain’s southeastern section has been linked to water extraction which reduced one aquifer in the area by 812 feet.

❖ They “gave a falsely reassuring statement” before the deadly 2009 earthquake, so an Italian court has found 6 scientists and a government official guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to six years in prison. There will be an appeal.

Latin America

❖ My word! Many poor Peruvians haven’t had any medical care for more than a month due to a doctors’ strike.

❖ While peace talks are on-going in Oslo between the Colombian government and the FARC, the shooting continues. FARC has reportedly killed 5 Colombian soldiers in Putumayo region.

Mixed Bag

❖ RIP, Russell Means, AIM leader, Wounded Knee incident veteran, actor.

❖ Jan 17, 1966, Palomares, Spain. Two US military planes collided, releasing four unarmed H-bombs. Parachutes on two of the bombs worked; the other two bombs hit the earth hard and scattered radioactive plutonium dust everywhere. A huge, extensive clean-up operation by the US–except for one contaminated area which is still fenced off. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants that area cleaned up, according to one report.

❖ As former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s trial on a variety of sexual misconduct charges rocks along, he’s announced that George Clooney “can help . . . prove [Berlusconi] did not have sex with an underage showgirl.” (Clooney last year denied he was even at the bunga-bunga party, btw–and probably hopes not to be at the trial, either.)

❖ “Election 20,012 B.C.: Where The Candidates Stand On The Issues”. The struggle between leader, Gog, and opponent, Mog.

Break Time

❖ S’All Right?