Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/28/plunder_the_crime_of_our_time

We speak with investigative journalist, filmmaker, and author Danny Schechter, ‘the News Dissector.’ His latest film features interviews with industry insiders to reveal how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity. It’s called “Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time.”

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m65504&hd=&size=1&l=e

the Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Gaza determined to, once again, challenge Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in an open-air prison. Under the coordination of the Free Gaza Movement, numerous human rights organizations, including the Turkish Relief Foundation (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organization from Malaysia, the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, and the Swedish and Greek Boat to Gaza initiatives will send three cargo ships loaded with reconstruction, medical and educational supplies. At least five passenger boats with over 600 people on board will accompany the cargo ships.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/jim-hightower-wall-street-grins-washington-fiddles58929

Performing a public service was undoubtedly the last thing on the minds of the geniuses who created Abacus 2007-ACI - but I, for one, am grateful to them.
Abacus is an infamous investment package created by the financial alchemists at Goldman Sachs. It fell into infamy because it is the convoluted scheme that has recently caused mighty Goldman to get its tail caught in a crack. According to fraud cops at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Abacus is a scam. Yet I find it an enormously useful tool, for it sheds light on a dirty little secret that the banking behemoths definitely do not want us outsiders catching onto: They have become casino dealers - only without the ethics.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/28-9

The American Civil Liberties Union has sent a strongly-worded letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to end an alleged program that allows 'targeted killings' of terror suspects outside of war zones. The American Civil Liberties Union has sent a strongly-worded letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to end an alleged program that allows 'targeted killings' of terror suspects outside of war zones. (Rob Jensen/USAF via Getty Images)In the letter (PDF), the civil liberties group argues that the alleged program -- which, according to news reports, is now targeting at least one US citizen -- is unlawful and unconstitutional, and could set a dangerous precedent leading to foreign governments killing people on US soil.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/146659/are_prozac_and_other_psychiatric_drugs_causing_the_astonishing_rise_of_mental_illness_in_america

In 1987, prior to Prozac hitting the market and the current ubiquitous use of antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs, the U.S. mental illness disability rate was 1 in every 184 Americans, but by 2007 the mental illness disability rate had more than doubled to 1 in every 76 Americans. Robert Whitaker was curious as to what was causing this dramatic increase in mental

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25336.htm

The Big Six investment banks, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, are “shorting the American Dream,” according to economist Simon Johnson and entrepreneur James Kwak in an interview on April 16, “Financial Regulation and Regulatory Capture” on Bill Moyers Journal. Here’s a summary of the big and important ideas and issues on the table.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25339.htm

As the world faces an ongoing sovereign debt debacle we see an attempt to defuse an oncoming scandal involving Goldman Sachs, Paulson and perhaps others. The collapse of the fiat money system is underway and each day picks up momentum. The only question is how long it can survive? In the interim we are faced with inflation and perhaps hyperinflation as the privately owned Federal Reserve and other central banks add stimulus and money and credit into their financial systems.

Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-debt_28bus.ART.State.Edition2.4c20b43.html

The president's new fiscal commission began work Tuesday with an urgent warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that Washington must rein in deficits or risk dire and lasting impact on the U.S. economy. "The path forward contains many difficult trade-offs and choices, but postponing those choices and failing to put the nation's finances on a sustainable long-run trajectory would ultimately do great damage," Bernanke said.

Link: http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Obama-Denies-Individual-Aid-After-Storms-92211719.html

Obama has denied aid to individuals affected by March’s massive storms and Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she plans to file a formal appeal. The decision comes just days after Obama approved the state’s request for a “major disaster declaration,” which provides financial help to state and municipal governments in Fairfield, Middlesex and New London counties.

Link: http://www.paltelegraph.com/palestine/gaza-strip/5723-gaza-iof-shoots-protester-in-peaceful-demo

Israeli occupation forces opened fire today toward a peaceful demonstration in east of Gaza against the Israeli buffer zone in the Gaza-Israel border and injured a Palestinian protester.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-the-tea-party-movement-crucified-charlie-crist-1956198.html

The growing influence of conservatives over the Republicans could end the party career of a moderate who has served it in Florida all his political life. In a park near Little Havana in Miami yesterday, a politician with a boyish grin named Marco Rubio, whose parents arrived from Cuba five decades ago, jabbed his pen at a sheet of paper to whoops from the small crowd. The gesture was small, and apparently unassuming, but its consequences could be great. And for another politician – one not present in that park – the stroke of Rubio's pen might as well have been a hammer driving nails into his palms.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/human-rights-national-security/aclu-letter-urges-president-obama-reject-targeted-killings-outside-co

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to reject his administration's reported authorization of a program under which suspects, including American citizens, can be targeted, hunted and killed far away from any battlefield.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04282010.html

Tuesday's hearings of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations laid the groundwork for future criminal prosecutions of Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and his chief lieutenants whose reckless and self-serving actions helped to precipitate the financial crisis. Committee chairman Senator Carl Levin (a former prosecutor) adroitly managed the proceedings in a way that narrowed their scope and focused on four main areas of concern. Through persistent questioning, which bordered on hectoring, Levin was able to prove his central thesis:

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/201042723223544745.html

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has defended his company's business practices amid accusations of conflict of interests, that it knowingly sold customers products it thought would lose money, and that it helped cause the US financial crisis.