During the height of the BP oil spill Americans were pumped full of propaganda from the corporate controlled mouth pieces of both the media and the White House.
It has now been admitted through a series of emails that the White House and BP settled on figurative numbers (a placeholder) of only 5000 barrels per day emptied into the gulf as part of a massive cover-up.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident killed 11 and released a minimum of 4.9 million barrels of oil and over 2 million gallons of toxic dispersant into the gulf before it was capped.
Puppet Masters
In an interview with the Maariv newspaper, Matan Vilnai said Israel was ready to face the consequences of a clash with Iran that could be sparked if the Jewish state decides to launch a strike against Tehran's nuclear programme.
But he warned that any military engagement should be weighed carefully, and cautioned that Israel should "always coordinate" with the United States.
"The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on a number of fronts," he said, repeating the predictions of other senior Israeli officials that the Jewish state would suffer around 500 deaths in such a clash.
Ben Swann of Fox News' 'Reality Check' does a very good job of explaining the reality of the US relationship with 'al-Qaeda'.
Your eyes are not deceiving you, this really is Fox News, or at least a segment of the Fox 'Entertainment Group' corporation, exposing one of the greatest lies ever to be told to the world.
Your eyes are not deceiving you, this really is Fox News, or at least a segment of the Fox 'Entertainment Group' corporation, exposing one of the greatest lies ever to be told to the world.
Game changer" is a fitting description of Mitt Romney's selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate. Saturday's announcement has been widely hailed as a bold political choice that's reinvigorated Romney's campaign and shown him to be an effective executive who shrewdly oversaw the decision and kept the process a secret - no small feat in the era of the 24/7 news cycle.
But good politics does not necessarily make for good policy. While Rep. Ryan gets credit for proposing solutions to the federal budget deficit - rather than just criticizing President Obama's handling of the nation's finances - he's offering the wrong prescription for what ails America, according to Mark Dow, a former policy economist at the IMF and Treasury Department and author of the Behavioral Macro blog.
"Just because rich guys will believe any economic theory that ends up in a tax cut doesn't make it the right policy for the time - even if it will get you their vote," he quips.
In a nutshell, Dow says supply-side economics - the basis of Ryan's budget proposals - will not work in today's economy.
But good politics does not necessarily make for good policy. While Rep. Ryan gets credit for proposing solutions to the federal budget deficit - rather than just criticizing President Obama's handling of the nation's finances - he's offering the wrong prescription for what ails America, according to Mark Dow, a former policy economist at the IMF and Treasury Department and author of the Behavioral Macro blog.
"Just because rich guys will believe any economic theory that ends up in a tax cut doesn't make it the right policy for the time - even if it will get you their vote," he quips.
In a nutshell, Dow says supply-side economics - the basis of Ryan's budget proposals - will not work in today's economy.
Some may recall "Bugs Raplin" (Giancarlo Esposito), the resolute investigative journalist depicted in Tim Robbins' 1992 political mockumentary Bob Roberts. After being framed as the culprit in a false flag assassination attempt by corrupt political huckster Bob Roberts (Robbins), Raplin delivers a perceptive soliloquy that among other things effectively describes the American public's moribund civic condition and short-circuited democracy. "The reason Iran-Contra happened," Raplin begins,
is because no one did anything substantial about Watergate. And the reason Watergate happened is because there were no consequences from the Bay of Pigs. They're all the same operatives - the foot soldiers at the Bay of Pigs, the plumbers that got busted at Watergate, the gunrunners in Iran-Contra - all the same people, same faces. Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out the connection here: A secret government beyond the control of the people and accountable to no one. And the closer we are to discovering the connection, the more Congress turns a blind eye to it. "We can't talk about that in open session," they say. "National security reasons." The truth lies dormant in their laps and they stay blind out of choice. A conspiracy of silence.Twenty years later amidst the vast outsourcing of intelligence and military operations many more events may arguably be added to such a shadow government's achievements - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing, the September 11 terror attacks, the non-existent weapons of mass destruction prompting the occupation of Iraq, the July 7, 2005 London tube bombings, the shoe and underwear "bombings" - all of which have contributed to the official justification of imperial wars abroad and an ever-expanding police state at home.
Lacking meaningful contexts with which to understand such events in their totality the general public is incapable of recognizing the road it is being forced down. The most recent set of events that give pause are the horrific, military-style shootings in Aurora Colorado and Oak Creek Wisconsin that authorities maintain were carried out by "lone wolf" gunmen.
Islamist suicide bombers targeted markets crowded with Ramadan shoppers and a major provincial hospital in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 38 people and wounding close to 100.
The bloodshed underscored a surge in fighting ahead of a withdrawal by most Western combat troops and handover to Afghan forces winding up in 2014. NATO-led forces have been struggling to eliminate Taliban insurgent bastions, especially in the east.
Suicide bombings in markets in the southwest province of Nimroz killed at least 28 people - 18 of them civilians and three policemen - and wounded over 70, police said, in the deadliest day of violence in the normally peaceful region since 2001.
Women and children and at least three members of the Afghan security forces were among the dead in Zaranj, the capital of the largely rural province, which lies on Afghanistan's western border with Iran.
The bloodshed underscored a surge in fighting ahead of a withdrawal by most Western combat troops and handover to Afghan forces winding up in 2014. NATO-led forces have been struggling to eliminate Taliban insurgent bastions, especially in the east.
Suicide bombings in markets in the southwest province of Nimroz killed at least 28 people - 18 of them civilians and three policemen - and wounded over 70, police said, in the deadliest day of violence in the normally peaceful region since 2001.
Women and children and at least three members of the Afghan security forces were among the dead in Zaranj, the capital of the largely rural province, which lies on Afghanistan's western border with Iran.
© AP
Russian Akula Submarine
Russian Akula Submarine
The stealth underwater incursion in the Gulf took place at the same time Russian strategic bombers made incursions into restricted U.S. airspace near Alaska and California in June and July, and highlights a growing military assertiveness by Moscow.
The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. officials said were deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities - forces that are facing cuts under the Obama administration's plan to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over the next 10 years.
© unknown
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks
"Hopefully this week we will be able to make a statement on the matter," the leftist leader said in an interview with public broadcaster ECTV late Monday.
Assange, 41, took refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London on June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is accused of sexual assault.
"We expect to have a meeting no later than Wednesday," Correa said, referring to his diplomats in London.
The WikiLeaks founder fears that from Sweden, he could subsequently be re-extradited to the United States to stand trial for espionage, after a trove of leaked US diplomatic cables and military logs were published on his website.
© EPA
Record unemployment and an economy headed back into recession provide a sombre backdrop to an event Hollande will mark by interrupting his summer break to visit police officers in a village where two of their female colleagues died in a shootout in June.
The village, Pierrefeu-du-Var, is located close to the Fort de Bregancon presidential retreat where Hollande has been on holiday with his glamorous journalist girlfriend, Valerie Trierweiller, since the beginning of August.
Political observers say the choice of location is no accident as Hollande attempts to portray himself as a president who shares voters' concerns over insecurity and is willing to take tough measures to fight crime.
On Saturday, after attending a memorial service for the 88th French soldier to die in Afghanistan, Hollande made an unannounced detour to Grenoble to visit victims of a recent violent hold-up, promising that the city would be added to a list of priority areas for tougher action on crime.
Vanguard, the penny-pinching mutual fund company founded by John C. Bogle, has become a colossus. Its index funds - once derided for not even trying to beat the market - are now the industry standard.
And after at least six heart attacks and one heart transplant, Mr. Bogle has managed to witness this triumph. "It's all a kind of a miracle," he says in a booming baritone. "It's really nice that I'm able to see this happen in my own lifetime."
With this kind of medical history, any other man of 83 might simply enjoy his success. But not John Bogle. He is still on a mission, as outspoken as ever and nearly as vigorous - thanks, he says, to the heart of a younger man. He's not done yet.
"It's urgent that people wake up," he says. Why? This is the worst time for investors that he has ever seen - and after more than 60 years in the business, that's saying a lot.
And after at least six heart attacks and one heart transplant, Mr. Bogle has managed to witness this triumph. "It's all a kind of a miracle," he says in a booming baritone. "It's really nice that I'm able to see this happen in my own lifetime."
With this kind of medical history, any other man of 83 might simply enjoy his success. But not John Bogle. He is still on a mission, as outspoken as ever and nearly as vigorous - thanks, he says, to the heart of a younger man. He's not done yet.
"It's urgent that people wake up," he says. Why? This is the worst time for investors that he has ever seen - and after more than 60 years in the business, that's saying a lot.
Comment: The cycle of Violence continues.