Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who is a US special envoy on the Afghanistan war, was in critical condition after more than 20 hours of surgery to fix a tear in the large artery that moves blood from the heart. (Dec. 12)
Continue reading …
Even after the economic crash and subsequent Wall Street reform, big banks have managed to maintain both a monopoly on derivatives trading and secrecy of its process. —JCL The New York Times: On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk. Read more Related Entries December 3, 2010 Joblessness Ticks Higher in November December 1, 2010 New Data Show Extent of Fed’s Free Money Programs
Continue reading …
New data have come to light that the Afghan police force, upon whose shoulders U.S. and British withdrawal is based, is experiencing an unsustainable churn that sees one-in-five police recruits bailing every year. —JCL The Guardian: Afghanistan’s police force, whose success and stability is crucial to allowing the government to withdraw British troops, is losing nearly one in five recruits every year, new figures reveal. Foreign Office statistics show that more than 20,000 officers from the Afghan National Police (ANP), the country’s main law enforcement agency, have left over the past year. The Foreign Office figures will cause concern in the armed forces, where the success of the police is seen as the basis for handing control to an Afghan government in 2014 and British troop withdrawal in 2015. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said the figures were “worryingly high” and could play a significant role in determining when Britain can leave. Read more Related Entries December 3, 2010 Joblessness Ticks Higher in November December 1, 2010 New Data Show Extent of Fed’s Free Money Programs
Continue reading …
With ethnic divisions still etched into the memories of its citizenry, Europe’s youngest democracy, Kosovo, is holding its first parliamentary elections since it formally declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. —JCL Al-Jazeera English: Voters in Kosovo are going to the polls in the territory’s first parliamentary elections since its declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, but there are widespread doubts that the vote will heal ethnic divisions. As polling stations opened at 7 am (06:00 GMT) there were already dozens of people queuing to vote in central Pristina, mostly the elderly and people voting before going to work. Sunday’s snap election comes after the coalition government of Hashim Thaci, the prime minister, failed a vote of no confidence on November 2. Read more Related Entries December 3, 2010 Joblessness Ticks Higher in November December 1, 2010 New Data Show Extent of Fed’s Free Money Programs
Continue reading …
A labor struggle has turned violent in Bangladesh. In protests that have shut down factories in the southern part of the country, three workers have been killed and scores injured as police clashed with demonstrators demanding higher wages. —JCL The BBC: At least three people were killed and dozens more injured when police in Bangladesh clashed with garment factory workers demanding better pay, police have said. Police used batons and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Dhaka and Chittagong. The unrest came a day after demonstrations shut down factories in southern Bangladesh. Read more
Continue reading …
Initial Southern Command investigation finds Armored Corps soldiers who killed two Palestinians near border later opened fire on group of paratroopers they mistook for terrorists
Continue reading …
Prince William and Kate Middleton look relaxed, poised and very much in love in official photos released to mark their engagement. The pictures were taken by fashion photographer Mario Testino late last month. (Dec. 12)
Continue reading …The Panel on Cashin’ In Bashes the Long Term Unemployed as Lazy Bums That Don’t Want to Get off Their Couches
December 12, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media Oh what a lovely bunch we’ve got here. Fox’s weekend carry over from their sister network Fox Business, Cashin’ In hosted a panel segment on the problem we have with long term unemployment. Apparently the problem is not as Susie rightfully noted that we don’t have enough jobs to go around. No… the lazy unemployed bums just don’t want to get off of their couches as long as they’re still collecting those checks. They ask if making the unemployed pay those benefits back later might solve the problem. Yeah, that’ll solve the problem. Let’s squeeze some more nonexistent blood from that turnip. How about a discussion on how to create jobs that doesn’t involve the words “tax cuts” from you cretins? And the apparently soulless Jonathan Hoenig thinks that the government shouldn’t offer unemployment benefits at all, which absolutely stunned Charlie Gasparino who couldn’t believe Hoenig actually thought that. Yeah, let’s just have people starving in the streets immediately after losing their jobs. That’s the ticket. Who needs a safety net? When Julian Epstein attempted to point out as Susie did in her post that due to outsourcing and our rotten economy we’ve got some real structural problems with having enough jobs available to put Americans back to work, he was immediately shouted over by the other guests on the panel and cut off by the host. Heaven forbid we can’t have anyone pointing out the real reasons for our unemployment numbers. I’ve got to wonder how long shows like this that feed off of racial animosity are going to start finding diminishing returns with hating on the poor. This might play well when we’re close to full employment and you want to get some employed white guy to resent the lazy dirty brown person who’s sucking off of the government teet in his view, but when we’ve got unemployment numbers as high as they are now, everyone knows someone out of work. And it’s your family, your friends, your neighbors and not just the scary black person that they want to demonize and dehumanize with their divide and conquer class warfare game. How long can they keep this up before it’s not just liberals who watch hate filled segments like this and see through the game they’re playing and start getting angry at these pundits?
Continue reading …
Opposition party says decision to defer vote on army conversion bill ‘cynical and miserable move by coward who is trying to dodge responsibility for Carmel disaster’
Continue reading …
You have to go to great lengths these days to distinguish your iPod dock from the teeming horde , but that’s exactly what Speakal did here. To state the obvious, it’s a pig , wearing sunglasses, and filled with stereo components. The beast has four-watt stereo drivers for eyes, a down-firing 15 watt subwoofer in the belly, controls in the snout, and ports in the tail region. There’s also an internal lithium ion battery good for up to eight untethered hours on a charge. We’re not sure what would possess you to buy the hog, especially for its $150 asking price, but it could be just the item you’ve been looking for to bolster your eccentric reputation… or ward off particularly annoyed fowl. Speakal’s Cool iPig blasts iPod tunes with extra badassitude originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …