Breaking News Friday March 4, 2011

Today's post looks a lot better than yesterday's. LOL
Hope everyone has a good weekend, be sure to check out this weekend's Documentary and stop by rj's Global Glass Onion and the great forums linked at the bottom of the page for excellent discussions of current events. Also, if you feel inclined, feel free to donate at the tip jar! It would be sincerely appreciated.
And now for the news!

Protests and Rebellions
NationalJournal: Clinton: Al-Jazeera is 'Real News'; U.S. Outlets Not Very Informative
America is losing an international “information war” to media outlets like Al-Jazeera, says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
AlJazeera: Chavez Libya talks offer rejected
United States, France and opposition activists dismiss Venezuelan proposal to form a commission to mediate crisis.
CNN: Fallen Marine's father says anti-gay pickets will draw gunfire(Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't already happened.)
BBC: The director of the London School of Economics has resigned over its links to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
FDL: Egypt Under the Generals: The Jailing of Amr Abdallah Elbihiry 
MotherJones: “Hate Comes to Orange County”
The next time someone complains to you about “union thugs,” show them this. It kind of puts the lie to the idea that there’s any moral equivalency between progressive demonstrators and angry, hateful right-wingers.

UPI: Ind. Dems may be fined, censured
AmericanDream: Divide And Conquer: The Union Protests In Wisconsin And Ohio Are Increasing The Hate Between The Left And The Right
Almasryalyom: Q&A: Newly released Bahraini activist Ali Abdulemam on Bahrain's past and future 
GulfNews: Fifth column stalks interim government Loyalists lurk among revolutionaries
TruthDig: Walker: Layoffs Loom for Wis. Workers
AlJazeera: Fresh protests hit Libyan capital
Government forces reportedly fire tear gas on protesters rallying against Gaddafi following Friday prayers.

Financial News
Guardian: Charities attack new limits on emergency welfare loans
Moves to trim £1m daily tax bill for crisis payments branded as another nail in the coffin for family safety net
BusinessInsider: JPMorgan Chase Made Nearly A Billion Dollars From Madoff

A new study of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme concludes that JPMorgan Chase made over $900 million in pretax profits from the Madoff scam.

Alphaville: The global economy is critically ill
Attempter: Corporations Are Feudal Manifestations (1 of 2)

Contrary to propaganda, there’s nothing modernistic about corporations. On the contrary, they’re a carryover phenomenon from feudalism.

ZeroHedge: Gallup Reports Underemployment Surges To 19.9%, February "Jobs Situation Deteriorates": As Bad As 2010
MyBudget360: Phoenix real estate breaks a record with 50 percent of all home sales coming from all cash investors. Locals barely can buy with FHA insured loans. Can a desert market dependent on cheap oil and survive in the $100+ a barrel world?
ZeroHedge: Fed Balance Sheet Hits New Record At $2.55 Trillion As Bank Reserves Hit $1.3 Trillion All Time High
TheDailyBail: Inside Job Trailer #1 - Former Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin Is Corrupt
Guardian: How the rich soaked the rest of us
The astonishing story of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden
WSJ: Why the Dollar's Reign Is Near an End
For decades the dollar has served as the world's main reserve currency, but, argues Barry Eichengreen, it will soon have to share that role. Here's why—and what it will mean for international markets and companies.
NakedCapitalism: The Bizarre Mortgage “Settlement” Negotiations
Slate: Banks, Mars, and Venus
The proposed Foreclosuregate settlement reveals a chasm between the banks and the rest of us.
Reuters: Special Report: U.S. cables detail Saudi royal welfare program
CreditWriteDowns: Charts of the Day: U.S. Unemployment above 10%, Underemployment near 20%

Peak oil and Energy News
CnnMoney: Geithner: We can tap oil reserves if we need them
GlobeandMail: Only a recession stands in the way of $200 oil Jeff Rubins
BusinessInsider: NIALL FERGUSON: Democracy Is The Least Likely Outcome In The Middle East, And Oil Could Spike To $200
ZeroHedge: Jim Rogers: "Saudi Arabia Is Lying About Being Able To Increase Its Oil Production"
RealityZone: The Collapse of the Old Oil Order How the Petroleum Age Will End By Michael T. Klare

Here, however, is the news that should be on the front pages of newspapers everywhere:  That old oil order is dying, and with its demise we will see the end of cheap and readily accessible petroleum -- forever. 

TheOilDrum: Is "shale oil" the answer to "peak oil"?
Wonkroom: Big Oil Lobby Announces It Will Start Donating Directly To Candidates


Environmental News
ClimateProgress: Yes, “human-induced increases in greenhouse gases have contributed to the observed intensification of heavy precipitation events” over much of the NH
Do climate scientists have to caveat every attribution? Not until reporters do.
Politico: The GOP's secret EPA love
FreeFromHarm: Major Farm Animal Cloning Project Cancelled Due to Disease and Deaths

After 13 years of studying how to prevent abnormalities in cloned animals, AgResearch has ended its cloning project because too many of the animals died.
AgResearch is a New Zealand based company that has spent more than a decade trying to perfect the cloning of animals for use in scientific and medical research.
Their cloning trials tried to create: animals that produced a type of “super milk”, sheep that were resistant to eczema, pregnant sheep that wanted to eat more food, and special proteins to be used in human medications.
But on Monday the company released a report that said “only 10 percent of the cloned animals survived through the research trials” and because of the” unnecessary suffering” of the animals they had stopped their cloning projects.

FarmWars: Dangerous New Organism Found and Linked to GMOs!
Wired: Deepwater Horizon’s Impacts Found in Bacteria 

Food and Water
ChristianScienceMonitor: Control over your food: Why Monsanto's GM seeds are undemocratic

Large biotech agribusinesses like Monsanto control much of the global seed market with genetically modified (GM) crops. This centralization of GM seeds threatens food safety, food security, biodiversity, and democratic ideals.

FarmWars: Cloned animals – Consumers shall have no choice
AmericanDream: Yes, You Can Survive The Coming Economic Nightmare – One Family In California Grows 6,000 Pounds Of Produce On Just 1/10th Of An Acre

War, Conflict and Terrorism
WSJ: Interim Palestine State Weighed

JERUSALEM—Israel is losing hope that it can settle the outlines of a final peace accord with the Palestinians in the coming months and instead is weighing plans that would offer them a provisional state with temporary borders, according to several officials familiar with the deliberations. 

MotherJones: Are GOPers Playing Politics With Military Gear?
Bloomberg: Obama Says Pentagon Examines `Full Range' of Libya Options
MotherJones: The Idiot's Guide to Foreign Wars (Iraq Edition)
ABCNews: Former FBI Agent, Missing for Four Years, Could Be Alive in Southwest Asia
Family 'Tremendously Encouraged' By 'Indications' Robert Levinson, Disappeared From Iran in 2007, Is Alive
Cryptogon: Computer Expert Says U.S. and Israel Behind Stuxnet Worm
WSJ: China Strengthens Military Budget

FDL: Male Rape, Wartime Rape

Police State, Big Brother, Surveillance
Cryptogon: CENTCOM Tries to Pull the ‘Persona Management Software’ Fat Out of the Fire
BlacklistedNews: House Republicans attempt to revive Real ID


Science and Technology
WiredThisDayInTech: March 4, 1962: Nuclear Age Comes to Antarctica

Straight: David Suzuki: Politicians who reject science are not fit to lead

Medical and Health
PlanetGreen: Study: Thinking You're Fat Makes You Fat
RawStory: Exclusive: Multiple independent lab tests confirm oil in Gulf shrimp
Experts operating states apart confirm toxic content in not just shrimp, but crab and fish too
EnvironmentalHealthNews: Mustard seed puts the heat on bladder cancer.
RawStory: US pulls 500 unauthorized prescription drugs

Wikileaks
PCMag: Alleged WikiLeaks Source Manning Faces 22 New Charges

Other News
IBITimes: Six women shot and killed in Ivory Coast protest
Security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the country’s disputed president, have shot and killed at least six women who were attending a rally in support of his rival, Alassane Ouattara.
WSJ: Young Adults, Teens Having Less Sex, Study Finds (a few weeks ago, I'd posted a similar story about the youth of Japan having less sex.)
ABCNews: Boy, 12, to Face Charges in Parents' Killing
Charles and Marilyn Long Killed; Boy's Uncle 'Can't Imagine ... What Went Through His Mind'
ABCNewsAustralia: Pope exonerates Jews: why is this news?
Time: Why the Pope's Rejection of Jewish Guilt Really Matters 
Time: Are America's Best Days Behind Us?
DeclineoftheEmpire: Why Give A Damn?
WSJ: College Condemns Classroom Sex Show
BusinessInsider: Clarence Thomas and the Politicization of the Supreme Court by Robert Reich
HuffingtonPost: Justices Scalia And Thomas's Attendance At Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate
HuffingtonPost: Grant Storms Arrested: Anti-Gay Christian Pastor Charged Over Public Masturbation

The Forums
TinfoilPalace: Odd non Deaths
TinfoilPalace: Israel: The Promised Land for Organized Crime - 1, 2 & 3
TheOilAge: Middle East unrest and Petrocollapse
TheOilAge: US states axe social spending, attack state workers
Hubberts-Arms: Blow Hard Denninger smelling the PO Coffee
Hubberts-Arms: Ohio senate passes anti-worker bill
SilentCountry: Indiana Secretary of State Indicted
SilentCountry: Charles Hugh Smith: You Want Small Business to Start Hiring? Here's What To Do