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Romney's Auto Bail-out Billionaires - Top funders made billions from US Treasury
by: Greg Palast
Paulson made $1.5 Billion on auto-bailout and 3.7 Billion
on foreclosures.
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the federal government's 2009 bail-out of the auto industry, "nothing more than crony capitalism, Obama style... a reward for his big donors to his campaign." In fact, the biggest rewards - a windfall of more than two billion dollars care of US taxpayers -- went to Romney's two top contributors.
John Paulson of Paulson & Co and Paul Singer of Elliott International, known on Wall Street as "vulture" investors, have each written checks for one million dollars to Restore Our Future, the Super PAC supporting Romney's candidacy.
Gov. Romney last week asserted that the Obama Administration's support for General Motors was a, "payoff for the auto workers union." However, union workers in GM's former auto parts division, Delphi, the unit taken over by Romney's funders, did not fare so well. The speculators eliminated every single union job from the parts factories once manned by 25,200 UAW members.
Interfaith coalition urges politicians to stop playing the religion card
Mary Shaw
If you've been following the 2012 presidential campaign season at all, you're probably aware that religion is playing a big part in it. Combine a widespread distrust of Mitt Romney's Mormonism with Rick Santorum's rabid Catholicism and the still-ongoing whisperings about President Obama's true religious leanings, and it sometimes seems as though the campaign is more about religion than it is about unemployment and the economy.
This is, of course, despite the fact that Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
Lynne Stewart Appeal for Justice
by Stephen Lendman
Lynne was wrongfully indicted, convicted, sentenced, and given a far harsher one unjustifiably on appeal.
On February 29, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit arguments will be presented. She won't be there, but hopes massive support will turn out for her at the:
US Courthouse
500 Pearl Street
Manhattan, New York
She can be reached as follows:
Lynne Stewart #53504-054
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
PO Box 27137
Ft. Worth, TX 76127
Her full appeal brief discusses all relevant facts about her and her case. It includes her character, commitment, honor, and dedication to justice as the law demands but didn't afford her.
Hamas's Iran connection
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
Ismail Haniyeh delivers his speech in front of portraits of late Iranian
revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, on Saturday
According to many Palestinians, Iran manipulates the Palestinian cause, raising suspicions about Ismail Haniyeh's recent visit to Tehran.
The latest visit to Tehran by Hamas's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, raised many eyebrows among Palestinians who viewed the timing as "problematic and unwise".
Critics argue that having cordial meetings with the Iranian leadership at this time is bound to be interpreted by many Muslims as a brazen betrayal of the Syrian revolution, including the Syrian Muslim Brothers, the Alawite regime's arch foe and ultimate enemy.
Tribalism, Racism and Projection – Part 2
By Gilad Atzmon
Racism is a big word with some very bad connotations. Being accused of racism is one of the most hurtful and potentially damaging labels around. And yet, how many ‘racists’ really think in ‘biological determinist’ terms? How many ‘racists’ out there really think in terms of ‘genes,’ or even ‘skin colour’? I guess not that many.
While acknowledging that racism had a significant cultural, and politically lethal impact between the late 19th century and the middle of the last century, in today’s politics, the word ‘racism’ is often misused, mistakenly used, or in some cases, consciously used to mislead and even to silence.
Though discrimination against minority groups is unfortunately common and totally unacceptable, it is not necessarily always motivated by crude racism. Islamophobia, for instance, is commonly regarded as a contemporary manifestation of racism but I would challenge such an understanding. Islamophobia, I contend, is not driven by racism, but rather, it is actually a crude symptom of intolerance -- xenophobia manifested as hatred, bigotry and discrimination.
Wrongheaded UN Vote on Syria
by Stephen Lendman
On February 4, Russia and China vetoed the Arab League's one-sided Syria resolution (SC/10536). It illegitimately called for Assad to step down.
Under international law, no nation or combination thereof, may interfere in the internal affairs of others, except in self-defense if attacked.
Greece: The Epicenter of Global Pillage
by Stephen Lendman
Predatory bankers make serial killers look good by comparison. Their business model creates crises to facilitate grand theft, financial terrorism, and debt entrapment.
They steal all material wealth and then some. They systematically rob investors and strip mine economies for self-enrichment.
They demand they get paid first. They hold nations hostage to assure it. They turn crises into catastrophes.
They leave mass impoverishment, high unemployment, neo-serfdom, and human wreckage in their wake.
Virginia is for Misogynists
By Michael Collins
The Virginia legislature is about to enact a law that requires a transvaginal ultrasound procedure for all women who have abortions (except in the case of a medical emergency). Apparently, the legislators are unaware that the law violates existing sexual assault code or that Virginians oppose the law by a wide margin.
Here's the procedure.
"You will lie down on a table with your knees bent and feet in holders called stirrups. The health care provider will place a probe, called a transducer, into the vagina. The probe is covered with a condom and a gel. … The health care provider will move the probe within the area to see the pelvic organs." Medline Plus
This isn't an option. It's a requirement for an abortion in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The law is clear:
The “Global Crises of Capitalism”; Whose Crises, Who Profits?
James Petras
Introduction
From the Financial Times to the far left, tons of ink has been spilt writing about some variant of the “Crises of Global Capitalism”. While writers differ in the causes, consequences and cures, according to their ideological lights, there is a common agreement that “the crises” threatens to end the capitalist system as we know it.
There is no doubt that, between 2008-2009, the capitalist system in Europe and the United States suffered a severe shock that shook the foundations of its financial system and threatened to bankrupt its ‘leading sectors’.
However, I will argue the ‘crises of capitalism’ was turned into a ‘crises of labor’. Finance capital, the principle detonator of the crash and crises, recovered, the capitalist class as a whole was strengthened, and most important of all, it utilized the political, social, ideological conditions created as a result of “the crises” to further consolidate their dominance and exploitation over the rest of society.
In other words, the ‘crises of capital’ has been converted into a strategic advantage for furthering the most fundamental interests of capital: the enlargement of profits, the consolidation of capitalist rule, the greater concentration of ownership, the deepening of inequalities between capital and labor and the creation of huge reserves of labor to further augment their profits.
How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street
by Ellen Brown
In an article titled “Still No End to ‘Too Big to Fail,’” William Greider wrote in The Nation on February 15th:
Financial market cynics have assumed all along that Dodd-Frank did not end “too big to fail” but instead created a charmed circle of protected banks labeled “systemically important” that will not be allowed to fail, no matter how badly they behave.
That may be, but there is one bit of bad behavior that Uncle Sam himself does not have the funds to underwrite: the $32 trillion market in credit default swaps (CDS). Thirty-two trillion dollars is more than twice the U.S. GDP and more than twice the national debt.
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