Category: 13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

  • Jon Stewart Loses His Sh*t Over Coakley/Brown

    Jon Stewart yesterday – before the special election in Massachusetts. This isn’t the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It’s that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurses office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs. Can’t wait to see what he says […]

  • US Fundamentalist ‘Family’ Behind Ugandan Law to Execute HIV+ Men

    From Raw Story: Under current Ugandan law, homosexuality is a crime punishable by life in prison. The proposed law would not just condemn HIV positive gay men and “repeat offenders” to death, it would also jail for three years anyone who knows a gay man but refuses to report them to authorities. Further, anyone who […]

  • Economists Opposing Fed Audit Have Undisclosed Fed Ties

    From HuffPo: As the debate over an audit of the Federal Reserve intensifies in the House, one camp is trotting out eight academics that it calls a “political cross section of prominent economists.” Seven of the eight are either currently on the Fed's payroll or have been in the past. via Economists Opposing Fed Audit […]

  • Proof That Congress is A Bunch of Whores

    Abominable but not surprising: Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies…. The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under […]

  • Adviser to Iraq Constitution Will Reap Oil Profits

    Winning hearts, minds and oilfields: Peter W. Galbraith…  was also an adviser to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq wrote its Constitution — tough and sensitive talks not least because of issues like how Iraq would divide its vast oil wealth. Now Mr. Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, stands to […]

  • Kelo Development Is Weeds and Feral Cats

    On June 23, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court rewrote the Fifth Amendment to allow cities to declare eminent domain, swipe land from one set of taxpayers and give it to another set of taxpayers in the name of economic development. The majority upheld that the city of New London, Conn., could declare as urban blight […]

  • 24,992 People Making Money and 8 Guys Losing It

    “The story of Lehman Brothers comes down to this one sentence: There’s 24,992 people making money and 8 guys losing it.” This just goes to highlight how eight people can run amuck and go crazy with credit and ultimately lead to the demise of the firm. Lehman Brothers survived the Civil War, numerous World Wars, […]

  • DoJ Official Blows Cover Off PATRIOT Act

    In the debate over the PATRIOT Act, the Bush White House insisted it needed the authority to search people’s homes without their permission or knowledge so that terrorists wouldn’t be tipped off that they’re under investigation. Now that the authority is law, how has the Department of Justice used the new power? To go after […]

  • Burying CIA Crimes Hurts Cooperation with Foreign Intel Agencies

    The former directors argue, for example, that any reopened investigation would damage the intelligence community’s ability to obtain cooperation of foreign intelligence agencies.In fact, the opposite is the case. Foreign intelligence agencies have been holding back their liaison activities and their cooperation with the CIA because of the crimes associated with secret prisons, torture and […]

  • You, On a Platter, With an Apple In Your Mouth

    The corporate media isn’t likely to mention this any time soon. But some of you have heard perhaps that the Roberts Supreme Court is about to remove the ban on direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. This is a Big Deal. In oilman terms: politicians are about to tap the gusher of the century. If […]