The Roundup for February 26, 2013

Good evening!

International Developments

❖ “Syrian missile strikes killed at last 141 people in Aleppo”, Syria, with children accounting “for more than half of those who died last week”. [emphasis added]

❖ “Mali Conflict Enters New Phase“–suicide bombings, guerrilla warfare.  Photo gallery.

❖ Op-antiSH (“Oppantish”), the vanguard movement fighting for freedom of all Egyptians to come and go as they please without sexual violence, harassment and intimidation.

❖ Following Mohamed ElBaradei’s lead, the National Salvation Front party has announced it will boycott Egypt’s upcoming elections.

❖ “Four people suspected of involvement in the assassination of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid have been arrested”.

❖ “US-led military forces in Afghanistan have admitted that an error led them to mistakenly claim a fall in the number of attacks by the Taliban last year.”

❖ According to Symantec, an early version of Stuxnet was used in 2005 to attack Iran nuclear plants.

❖ “South African Platinum Miner’s Struggle Creates Political Rupture:  New Miners union growing as workers split with ANC supported union; increasing consciousness amongst workers that the issue now is class.”

International Finance

❖ Thanks to Platform for Mortgage Victims, a “citizen protest movement”, some homeowners in Spain are defying eviction–and winning.

❖ “Markets rocked by Italian political stalemate“–”markets tumbling”, “euro fails against the dollar”, etc.

Money Matters USA

❖ ”Land grab cheats North Dakota tribes out of $1 billion“.  Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people were forced by the US government to live on “arid and barren” land, which just happens to sit on the Bakken Shale.  Lawsuits galore.

❖ Yves Smith’s article on “Jack Lew’s Grotesque Employment Deal and the Institutionalization of Corruption” begins: “Corruption has now become so routine in Washington . . . ”

❖ ”Tips on Quitting Your Job from Jack Lew”

❖ “Ben Bernanke played down concerns about quantitative easing limits in dovish testimony to Congress that suggests the U. S. Federal Reserve will continue to purchase assets.”

❖ “JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs in its consumer bank in 2013″.

❖ At end of the 4th quarter, 2012, US banks’ earnings were up 37%.  “Banks with assets exceeding $10 billion drove the bulk of the earnings . . . they accounted for about 82 percent of the industry earnings”:  Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.  BTW, their lending increased by 1.7%, home equity loans decreased by 2.2%.

❖ “Wall St bonuses rise 9% amid job cuts.”  Average take-home cash?  “$121,900–up from the $111,340 handed out last year.”

❖ US home prices “rose in December by the most in more than six years.”  Claim is the home price surge is part of a “broadly based” trend across the country.

❖ Gas prices soaring with no end in sight due to “breakdowns and seasonal maintenance at refineries [which]  reduce fuel supplies”.

Politics USA

❖ Whoa!  “Black Churches Condemn Obama Administration’s Drone Policy as Murder and Evil”–The National Black Church Initiative, consisting of 34,000 churches.

❖ Chuck Hagel (R) has been confirmed Secretary of Defense by the Senate, 58-41.

❖ Oh, nooooos.  “Immigration and Customs Enforcement Frees Detainees as Sequester Looms.” Republicans are unhappy.

❖ Jack Lew’s nomination for Secretary of Treasury has now gone to the full Senate.

❖ “The Senate Intelligence Committee has closed its investigation into the ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ filmmakers’ contact with the CIA”.  Emptywheel has more.

❖ 62% of those responding to a Pew Poll say the “GOP is out of touch with Americans”, while 46% said the Democrats are out of touch.  52% said the GOP is “too extreme”, while 56% said Democrats are not.

❖ Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) wants to end overtime pay for hourly workers.

❖ A federal court ruling soon on ex-Sen. Larry “Wide Stance” Craig (R-ID)‘s using $216,000 in campaign funds “to defend himself against an arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in an airport bathroom.”

❖ GOP voter disenfranchisement  expert, Hans von Spakovsky, will no longer be an elections official in Fairfax County, VA come March.

Gun Corner

❖ Court records pertaining to the trial of Jared Loughner for killing six and severely wounding former US House Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) have been unsealed.

❖ Threat to a CO legislator whose son was murdered and who supports gun control efforts: ”hopefully somebody Giffords . . . both of your asses”.

❖ NV state assemblyman Steven Brooks (D), “arrested twice in the past two months, . . . for threatening the NV House Speaker (a female) and for domestic battery, tried to purchase a rifle in Sparks, NV, but a background check prevented that.

USSC

❖ “In a 5-4 decision, the court’s conservative justices ruled that lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and others lacked standing to challenge a law passed in 2008 that increases the government’s ability to intercept international communications.”

Women & Children

❖ Startling, disturbing US teen birth rate stats, state-by-state, from 2008.

❖ Ashley Judd will be at the George Washington School of Public Health & Health Services in DC on Friday to speak about women’s reproductive health.

❖ Bill in the OK legislature would allow employers to opt out of including “contraceptives and abortions in employee insurance plans”.  Wait’ll you see why.

❖ KS’ Supreme Court “issued a ruling protecting the rights of same-sex couples to both be recognized as the legal parents of the children they are raising together.”

❖ Westboro Baptist Church picketed Santa Monica High School Monday and the community responded–in droves.  The six Westboro Baptist Church pickets left after about 45 minutes.  Pics and video.

❖ Women in Somalia can now drive cars.

❖ 14-year-old girl, charged with having sex with a married man, sustained 70 of 101 lashes before she dropped and “was taken to hospital, where she died a week later.”  Sharia law, Bengladesh.

Planet Earth News

❖ “Thousands across Mexico demand their government reject permits for GMO Corn while Monsanto defends their patent on life in U.S. Supreme Court.”

❖ If chemicals in our environment are causing otters’ genitals to shrink, could human shrinkage be far behind?

Mixed Bag

❖ For the sheer love of music.  Video.

❖ Hankie alert!

❖ Ready for PANSTARRS?

Break Time

❖ Hesitation Blues