2013-02-05

Barack W. Obushma



"Obama has become the head of America's killing machine and proud of it." Dr. Cornell West

"A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.
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  “Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. … It recognizes some limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it’s easy to see how they could be manipulated.”
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 “the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for the conclusion a secret.”
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16843014-exclusive-justice-department-memo-reveals-legal-case-for-drone-strikes-on-americans?lite

Sixteen page U.S. Department of Justice memo:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/020413_DOJ_White_Paper.pdf
 

Ben Shalom Bernanke


Fuel costs are taking a big bite out of household budgets, according to separate reports Monday from the Energy Department and from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Energy Department says U.S. households spent an average of $2,912 on gasoline, or almost 4 percent of their pretax income, the highest percentage in 30 years.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/gasolines-drag-on-income-hits-30-year-high/nWGDj/

 

2013-02-03

Department of Energy: Taxpayers Dollars at Work

To make this the greenest Super Bowl, the New Orleans Host Committee has partnered with fans and the community to offset energy use across the major Super Bowl venues. The exterior of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome features more than 26,000 LED lights on 96 full-color graphic display panels, designed to wash the building in a spectrum of animated colors, patterns and images. The system draws only 10 kilowatts of electricity -- equivalent to the amount of energy used by a small home -- and the lights are expected to last for many years before needing replacement.
Off the football field, New Orleans is embracing energy efficiency with help from the Energy Department
http://energy.gov/articles/super-bowl-city-leads-energy-efficient-forefront

Snapshot of inside Super Dome just as second half began:
 

The Bernanke Put














 
Goldman Sachs made more than a quarter of a billion pounds last year by speculating on food staples reigniting the controversy over banks profiting from the global food crisis.
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Christine Haigh of the WDM said: "While nearly a billion people go hungry, Goldman Sachs bankers are feeding their own bonuses by betting on the price of food. Financial speculation is fuelling food price spikes and Goldman Sachs is the No 1 culprit."
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British consumers have not been spared the impact of rising food costs – prices have, on average, risen by nearly 40 per cent in the past seven years.
Rob Nash, Oxfam's private sector adviser, said: "Oxfam is very concerned about food speculation, especially in the light of increasingly extreme weather conditions which can reduce supply suddenly and severely deplete stocks. The last thing we need is for that volatility to be exacerbated by speculation and exploited for short-term profit."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/goldman-bankers-get-rich-betting-on-food-prices-as-millions-starve-8459207.html

Barclays has made as much as half a billion pounds in two years from speculating on food staples such as wheat and soya, prompting allegations that banks are profiting handsomely from the global food crisis.
Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, research from the World Development Movement points out.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-makes-500m-betting-on-food-crisis-8100011.html

A measure of net-longs for 11 U.S. farm goods jumped 13 percent to 401,134 contracts, the biggest increase since July 10, CFTC data show. The S&P GSCI Agriculture Index of eight products climbed 1.2 percent last week. Corn positions climbed 8.5 percent to 164,434 contracts, and those for soybeans 7.4 percent to 105,017 contracts, the highest in five weeks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-03/bulls-rewarded-with-best-january-rally-since-2006-commodities.html