Friday, 11 February 2011 10:57 'Defeat for the proposed extension of the so called PATRIOT Act in the House Tuesday night made national headlines, yet the extension is set to pass by the end of the week anyway as it is brought back to the floor for another vote. But just in case anyone in Congress reaches the sudden epiphany that they are effectively voting on the Enabling Act, Big Sis Janet Napolitano has officially notified a congressional panel that the US faces the greatest possibility of a major terror attack since 9/11.' Friday, 11 February 2011 10:33 'The Protection of Freedoms Bill contains a raft of measures to row back is seen as widespread intrusions of privacy, many introduced by the last Government. They include tearing up the controversial anti-paedophile vetting scheme, making it a criminal offence to wheel-clamp vehicles on private land, a dramatic restriction on the storing of the DNA of innocent people and a scaling back of state powers to snoop on people.' Friday, 11 February 2011 10:27 'Obama Energy Secretary Steven Chu has launched the next phase of the White House’s publicly stated agenda to bankrupt the coal industry via EPA regulations after announcing the prospect of “massive” coal plant closures even as Texas and other states suffer rolling blackouts as a result of maxed-out power plants that cannot cope with demand. The Obama administration’s strict enforcement of draconian EPA regulations has led to new clean-burning coal-fired plants being mothballed and other existing ones being shut down, which has in turn led to Texas and other states becoming energy-dependent, leading to shortages and blackouts exacerbated by freezing temperatures.' Read more: Obama Energy Secretary Promises 'Massive' Coal Plant Closures Friday, 11 February 2011 09:09 'The incompetence of central bankers and finance ministers over the past few years has been breath-taking, but Ireland's Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, takes the golden biscuit for sheer ineptitude. From David McWilliams' recent book, Follow The Money: The Tale of the Merchant of Ennis, we learn that Lenihan, a lawyer by training, received his first lessons in banking and finance at McWilliams' kitchen table - on the 17th of September 2008. Before that, McWilliams tells us, Lenihan had learned everything he knew about finance from a biography of Alan Greenspan(!) that he had picked up over the summer. We learn that Lenihan had no idea that Irish banks were in trouble until after the failure of Lehman Brothers just two days before.' Friday, 11 February 2011 08:45 'Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday vowed the biggest budget cuts in US history as budget talks in the Congress heated up. Some of the cuts will be part of a House spending bill to fund the US government through the end of the fiscal year on October 1, replacing a stopgap measure approved last year that expires March 4. Read more: $23.7 Trillion to the Banks, $20 Trillion Wars, and Austerity Cuts for Poor Americans Friday, 11 February 2011 08:31 'The uprising in Egypt is our theater of the possible. It is what people across the world have struggled for and their thought controllers have feared. Western commentators invariably misuse the words "we" and "us" to speak on behalf of those with power who see the rest of humanity as useful or expendable. The "we" and "us" are universal now. Tunisia came first, but the spectacle always promised to be Egyptian.' Read more: The Revolt in Egypt is Coming Home by John Pilger Friday, 11 February 2011 08:04 'President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget will cut several billion dollars from the government’s energy assistance fund for poor people, officials briefed on the subject told National Journal. It's the biggest domestic spending cut disclosed so far, and one that will likely generate the most heat from the president's traditional political allies. Such complaints might satisfy the White House, which has a vested interest in convincing Americans that it is serious about budget discipline.'
Friday, 11 February 2011
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