Friday, February 3, 2012

Breaking News Fri. Feb. 3, 2012

Here is is Friday already! My, how the time flies. It's freaky Iran story Friday too!

What's going on here exactly?
Either something is seriously going on behind the scenes, or, it's a ploy to lure Iran into a false sense of security...no wait, we're ass coverin'? Who knows.
Time: The West to Israel: Don't Attack Iran
Israel's major allies in the West are working hard to talk it out of a unilateral military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, arguing forcefully that an attack ultimately would strengthen, not weaken, the regime in Tehran.
The United States is leading the persuasion initiative, even though Washington largely has concluded that outside argument will have little effect on Israeli decision-making.
Iran's regime says it wants to extinguish the Jewish state, and the West accuses it of assembling the material and know-how to build a nuclear bomb. Israel fears that Iran is fast approaching a point at which a limited military strike no longer would be enough to head off an Iranian bomb.
Then there's this new and improved fear mongering going on at the same time.


Much thanks to RJ at the Global Glass Onion and the Ozarker at Conflicted Doomer for their help with stories today! Extra thanks to our good Ozarker who lost her links in a 'puter malfunction but was able to find them again and send them in for us. Thanks you guys!
Be sure to visit the forums linked at the bottom of the post here too. They are on top of all things doom related!

Japan
ExtinctionProtocol: Prefecture of Japan pleads for help after being hit with record snow-fall
ETFDaily: Godzilla Will Come Out Of Tokyo Bay Before Japan Rebounds
Global Conflict
Hey, check out the good news sent in by the Ozarker!
Truthout: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dempsey Told Israelis US Won't Join Their War on Iran
Washington - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.

BlacklistedNews: Obama Administration Selling Arms to Bahrain
BlacklistedNews: BBC "Reveals" After the Facts how British Special Forces Supervised and Spearheaded Libya Rebels to Victory  
LegitGov: Taliban will rule Afghanistan again, says leaked US military report
Zerohedge: What Lies In Store For The "Cradle That Rocks The World" - A History Lesson In Crisis
NYT: US Plays Down Warning By Israeli Over Iran's Missiles
VOA: Iran Threatens Retaliation for Sanctions or Attack 
MSNBC: PhotoBlog: Street battle rages near Egypt's Interior Ministry 
GlobalPost: Syria: Mass killings uncovered near Damascus 
Time: Who Teaches SEAL Team 6 How To Fight?
NYT: Iran's Supreme Leader Threatens Retaliation Against Attack
CBSNews: How much can US influence Israel on Iran?
- There is new drama this morning over Iran's nuclear program. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any attack halt that program would be harmful to America - this after Israeli leaders issued unusually blunt warnings about possibly striking Iranian nuclear sites. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reportedly believes that could happen within the next few months.
ArabNews: Panetta believes Israel may strike Iran this spring — reports
SeattlePI: Russia will not stop selling arms sales to Syria
VancouverSun: U.S. seeks to play down Panetta's Afghan comments
Reuters: Iran's Khamenei warns over military strike, oil embargo threat

OWS
ThinkProgress: With NFL Players Behind Them, Groups Plan ‘Occupy Super Bowl’ Protests Of Indiana’s Assault On Workers - Four days before his state hosts Super Bowl XLVI, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed anti-union “right-to-work” legislation into law Wednesday afternoon, making Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state in the country. Daniels signed the law despite the fact that thousands of workers gathered outside the statehouse in the days leading up to the law’s passage, and despite his own apparent opposition to such a law back in 2006.

Hacker News
MSNBC: Hackers: We intercepted FBI, Scotland Yard call

Domestic Financial News
BusinessInsider: Another One Bites The Dust: Barclays To Cut Banker Pay By 25%-30% - This is coming from Bob Diamond, the CEO who has fired has fired up to 40 bankers for being jerks, prima donnas or overly ostentatious.
NYT: S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
BusinessInsider: Sorry, Retirees, The IRS Will Still Take A Bite Of Your Tax Return

Zerohedge: Implied Unemployment Rate Rises To 11.5%, Spread To Propaganda Number Surges To 30 Year High
Reuters: U.S. indicts Wegelin bank for helping Americans avoid tax
DisInfo: Crony Capitalism and the History of Bailouts Disinformation 
MyBudget360: The Coming Demographic and Financial Disaster - Median income of Americans 65+ is $19,167. What happens when less affluent youth move back home and clash with older generations? 
Reuters: Republicans eye government jobs to limit defense cuts
CapitalGainsAndGames: 8 House GOP Freshman Want Credit For Getting A Cash Advance On Their Master Card To Make A Payment On Their Visa
Reuters: Job growth surges, jobless rate drops to 8.3 percent
CNN: Stocks pop after 'monster' jobs report
USNews: Senate Democrats: Apply Insider Trading Rules to Top Federal Officials
CBSNews: Summers: US on "upwards path" after collapse 
Zerohedge: Non-Manufacturing ISM Ignores Banker Layoffs, Surges Past Expectations On Biggest Jump In Employment Index Ever 
CharlesHughSmith: Counterfeit Value Derivatives: Follow the Bouncing Ball 
Reuters: Fed still divided as Fisher sees no need for QE3
Forbes: Paul Ryan Bashes Bernanke For Killing Savings, Distorting Markets
CNBC: Geithner: Key Parts of Financial Reform Coming in 2012
BusinessInsider: This Chart Shows You The REAL Reason Wall Street Loves Debt And Leverage
MLive: Report: Poorest families hit 1,000 times harder than rich by Michigan tax changes
Bloomberg: U.S. Midwest Jobs Return as Applesauce Lifts ObamaRealityCheck: Securitization Fail, What It Means If the Servicer Settlement “Cures” It & Why NY Can’t Sign - The criminal securities fraud at the heart of the financial crisis has one very under-reported aspect: “securitization fail.” Once you understand the securitization fail concept, you can instantly, with tremendous clarity, see the scale of the fraud the Bailed Out Banks and Wall Street firms committed and commit every day.

Reuters:  Analysis: Obstacles high for more mortgage prosecutions - Despite the determination of President Obama to take Wall Street to court for the financial crisis, prosecutors face an uphill struggle to win more convictions like the two they scored on Wednesday against former Credit Suisse mortgage traders. David Higgs, 42, and Salmaan Siddiqui, 36, pled guilty in U.S. District Court in New York to a criminal charge of conspiracy to falsify books and records and commit wire fraud in a way that bolstered their bonuses.  
AngryBear: Employment Situation (w/ 7 graphs)
Economix: Wow. But Is the Number Real? - How many jobs did the American economy add in January? The Labor Department estimated on Friday that the economy gained 243,000 jobs. The department also estimated that the economy lost 2,689,000 jobs in the month. The difference in the two numbers is in seasonal adjustment.
ETFDailyNews: Real Estate: Looking In On The Housing Disaster (XHB, ITB, LEN, KBH, DHI, TOL, PHM)
EconoMonitor: What Happened to Corporate Tax Reform?
BusinessInsider: Here's The TRUTH About The Massive, Million Plus Spike In People Not In The Labor Force - There's a ton of hype today about the 1 million+ spike in people not in the labor force, and whether it undermines the good jobs data. 


Global Financial News
CommodityOnline: Greece will soon be in absolute poverty: Greek Commerce body
Zerohedge: Vicious Cycles Persist As Global Lending Standards Tighten
Cryptogon: Italy: ‘Pitchfork Movement’
CNNMoney: U.S. charges oldest Swiss bank in tax fraud case
Reuters: Euro zone sales tumble at Christmas, no sign of growth
- Retail sales in the euro zone tumbled unexpectedly in December, the biggest drop in the Christmas period in three years, data showed on Friday, with rising joblessness and stubborn inflation undercut signs of a stabilization in Europe's economy.
BusinessInsider: REPORT: Papademos Is Considering Resigning If He Can't Get Support For New Austerity Measures
GlobeAndMail: AstraZeneca closing Montreal R&D plant 
Independent: The experts' view on the euro's future: it doesn't have one FT: End this masochism in economic policymaking  - Herbert Hoover, you were right. That is the consensus of all right-thinking people on UK fiscal policy. 

 
Peak Oil and Energy News
hehehe, thanks RJ
DeclineoftheEmpire: Peter Orszag Destroys The Peak Oil Myth - I just had to laugh when I saw Peter Orszag's Bloomberg column Fracking Boom Could Finally Cap Myth of Peak OilPeter R. Orszag is a Bloomberg View columnist appearing on alternate Wednesdays. Now vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup, he was President Obama's director of the Office of Management and Budget. Orszag was previously the director of the Congressional Budget Office, from 2007 to 2008. He served in two different jobs in the Clinton administration, as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisors from 1995 to 1996 and, in 1997, as top adviser to the director of the National Economic Council. There is a phrase I like—a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It means "a small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are." On slow days when he is not using the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, Peter takes the time to enlighten us on things he knows little about. Today his expertise is applied to capping the "myth" of peak oil.
FuelFix: Natural gas prices rise 6 percent
TheOilDrum: Basking in the Sun
The following is a story posted by Satori at Silent Country
AlterNet: Why a Likely Natural Event Could Cause Nuclear Reactors to Melt Down and Our Grid to Crash - Unless we take significant protective measures, this apocalyptic scenario is actually possible.
TheRepublic: Mild winter temperatures reduce electricity sales for Tennessee Valley Authority
Bloomberg: Blame Washington for High Fuel Prices  - It's no secret that speculators are the real reason behind high gas prices. The surprise is that Washington is making no effort to stop them, writes Ed Wallace SeattleTimes; Venezuela's oil exports to US decline - Venezuela's oil exports to the United States have dipped in recent months to their lowest level in nearly nine years, according to new U.S. government figures, reflecting a long-term trend of declining oil shipments during President Hugo Chavez's 13-year-old government.
NatReview: Wind Energy, Noise Pollution - Living near wind turbines can be hazardous to your health.
GreenBlogsNYT: In the Little Ice Age, Lessons for Today - EUobserver.com / Economic Affairs / Russia cuts EU gas, blames cold weather - Gazprom has begun cutting gas supplies to the EU in order to meet higher demand in Russia caused by severe cold weather. Italy said on Tuesday (31 January) that volumes dropped by 10 percent but that its underground gas reserves are 65 percent full and that it can pull in extra volumes from Algeria, the Netherlands, Norway and liquid gas markets. "It is not a crisis ... there is no shortage of gas in Italy," European Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzener told EUobserver on Wednesday morning. She noted that gas flows are so far "normal" in EU countries which depend more heavily on Russia, such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. She also said Gazprom expects to increase output "in just a couple of days." Temperatures fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius at night in eastern Europe at the weekend and are forecast to stay low all week. The weather has killed dozens of mostly homeless or old people in Ukraine, Poland and in Balkan countries.
WashingtonPost: As Russian gas supply dwindles, European Union braces for another potential crisis


Commodities/Metals
CommodityOnline: Silver and the shift to measuring wealth in ounces instead of dollars
Zerohedge: Kyle Bass: "Don't Sell Your Gold" 
ETFDailyNews: Fiat Currency Failure Means: ‘In Gold We Trust’
Environmental
CBSNews: "Monster" snowstorm pounds Denver

Accuweather forecaster Justin Povick says it will be a "slow mover and it will produce very gusty winds. In fact, along the Interstate 25 corridor, the winds will occasionally top 40 to 50 mph, producing blizzard conditions and visibility at times will be near zero."
Goods were flying off the shelves as people stocked up to stay in.
"They're out of lettuce, out of meat. It's scary!" one shopper exclaimed.

MSNBC: Video: Severe winter storm targets Plains states
DesdemonaDespair: Second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches from Louisiana to Alabama
NEW ORLEANS, 1 February 2012 (AP) – A new study finds that Louisiana's second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches at least from the Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana to Alabama's Dauphin Island — and could be bigger.
WorldwideMeteorNews: Breaking News -TEXAS/OKLAHOMA BOLIDE MAJOR Meteor Fireball 1FEB2012 - TEXAS/OKLAHOMA BOLIDE MAJOR Meteor Fireball  7:57:10 PM CST 1FEB2012  More Posting Soon please read below and check back
ExtinctionProtocol: Mexico reeling from climate extremes- millions imperiled by drought and cold
ExtinctionProtocol: Isolated winter: Western Canada struggling with record snow-fall as rest of country goes dry
NatGeo: Fracking Arrives at the ‘Sistine Chapel’ of Prehistoric Art 
DesdemonaDespair: India air pollution the worst, study finds - New Delhi, 2 February 2012 (AFP) – India has the worst air quality in the world, beating even its neighbour China, according to an annual survey. 
ScientificAmerican: Temperatures--Not Acid--Could Cook Coral to Death 
Star-Telegram: Big rain ends drought in Dallas-Fort Worth - Last week's unprecedented 4-plus inches of winter rainfall floated Dallas-Fort Worth out of drought for the first time since July.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/02/3708618/big-rain-ends-drought-in-dallas.html#storylink=cpy
Independent: Thirty degrees below – and at least a hundred dead: Europe's big freeze
UPI: Cedar trees said victims of climate change - Yellow cedars, a culturally and economically valuable tree in Alaska and British Columbia, have been dying off because of shifting climate, researchers say. The die-offs have affected about 60 percent to 70 percent of trees in forests covering 600,000 acres in the region, researchers say, and it’s all down to snow — or more accurately the lack of it. “The cause of tree death, called yellow-cedar decline, is now known to be a form of root freezing that occurs during cold weather in late winter and early spring, but only when snow is not present on the ground,” U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Paul Hennon said.
MotherJones: Obama Won't Touch Climate With a 10-Foot Pole
MSNBC: Gulf Oil Spill Still Leaking After 7 Years Subject of Lawsuit - Environmental groups on Thursday sued an oil company over the pace of its cleanup of a Gulf of Mexico spill that continues seven years after it was triggered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. “The plaintiffs filed suit to stop the spill and lift the veil of secrecy surrounding Taylor oil’s seven-year-long response and recovery operation,” Marc Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in New Orleans. ”Neither the government nor Taylor will answer basic questions related to the spill response, citing privacy concerns.” Justin Bloom, a Waterkeeper Alliance director, told msnbc.com that the group had made Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation “and ultimately the Coast Guard has refused to provide us documents citing the Privacy Act.”

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/02/3708618/big-rain-ends-drought-in-dallas.html#storylink=cpy

America in Decline
BlacklistedNews: DUMPED: U.S. Air Force Goes After Those Who Leaked The Military IS Throwing Away Dead Soldiers
BlacklistedNews: How US Fascism Comes Out on Top Via ‘Too-Big-to-Fail?’
FT: Why Most U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Are Gone ForeverAdvisorPerspective: Earning Less - Why The Poor Get Poorer - Working harder - earning less. That is what today's release of productivity and labor costs showed us. With that report also comes the suspicion that a lot more people would be reciting the classic prose of Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job And Shove It" if they thought they had an option to find work elsewhere. This report, of course, shines the light on one of the primary reasons why the poor keep getting poorer, even as the economy struggles to recover at the weakest rate of any post-WWII period on record. 
TheNation: How Scott Walker and ALEC Plotted the Attack on Arizona Unions… Two days after Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected Governor John Kasich’s anti-labor agenda by a sixty-one to thirty-nine margin in a statewide referendum, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker jetted to Arizona to launch the next front in the national campaign to attack union rights. After meeting with former Vice President Dan Quayle, Walker was whisked over to the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, where he briefed a thousand Arizona conservatives on how they could attack “the big-government union bosses.” “We need to make big, fundamental, permanent structural changes. It’s why we did what we did in Wisconsin,” declared Walker, who at the annual dinner of the right-wing Goldwater Institute said that compromising with unions was “bogus.” Comparing governors who have been attacking the collective-bargaining rights of public employees with the founders of the American experiment—“just like that group that gathered in Philadelphia”—Walker told his listeners: “We need to have leaders not just in Wisconsin but here in Arizona…”Krugman: Romney Isn’t Concerned -  If you’re an American down on your luck, Mitt Romney has a message for you: He doesn’t feel your pain. Earlier this week, Mr. Romney told a startled CNN interviewer, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.”  Faced with criticism, the candidate has claimed that he didn’t mean what he seemed to mean, and that his words were taken out of context. But he quite clearly did mean what he said. And the more context you give to his statement, the worse it gets. First of all, just a few days ago, Mr. Romney was denying that the very programs he now says take care of the poor actually provide any significant help. On Jan. 22, he asserted that safety-net programs — yes, he specifically used that term — have “massive overhead,” and that because of the cost of a huge bureaucracy “very little of the money that’s actually needed by those that really need help, those that can’t care for themselves, actually reaches them.”  This claim, like much of what Mr. Romney says, was completely false: As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has documented, between 90 percent and 99 percent of the dollars allocated to safety-net programs do, in fact, reach the beneficiaries. But the dishonesty of his initial claim aside, how could a candidate declare that safety-net programs do no good and declare only 10 days later that those programs take such good care of the poor that he feels no concern for their welfare?

Food and Water
LAWeekly: Activists Call for Food Safety Czar's Ouster
Occupy cornfields! Support is growing for a petition calling for the ouster of Michael Taylor, a senior adviser for the FDA who formerly served as vice president of Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified foods, the Washington Post reports. President Obama took a lot of flak when he appointed Taylor to the position three years ago. As the second highest-ranking official at the FDA, Taylor is responsible for implementing the day-to-day policies that govern food safety laws in the U.S. 
NYT: UN Says Famine in Somalia Is Over, but Risks Remain - A bumper harvest and a surge in emergency food deliveries have ended the famine in Somalia that killed tens of thousands of people in the past year, the United Nations announced on Friday.
Got this next one in email from Sow True Seeds this morning.


A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM THE FRONT LINE
OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto Oral Arguments & Foley Square Rally
January 31, 2012
This past Tuesday, representatives of Sow True Seed joined other farmers, advocacy groups, and other seed companies in the streets of New York City as part of a class action lawsuit, The Organic Seed Grower and Trade Association, (OSGATA), et al. v. Monsanto, filed by the Public Patent Foundation. The opening arguments against Monsanto's dismissal claim was heard in the Southern District Court of NY, while hundreds rallied outside.  We will learn on March 31st if the case will continue to trial or if it will move to the Court of Appeals.  A preemptive battle against the bio-tech/seed giant Monsanto is officially underway, but it's bound to be a long one. Your support is needed!


Internet and Online Privacy News  
FT: Megaupload founder denied bail in NZ
ComputerWorld: Google won't delay new privacy policy despite EU concerns
TheAtlantic: Does China Have an Internet Strategy?
Wired: Google to Censor Blogger Blogs on a 'Per Country Basis' Threat Level - Google has quietly announced changes to its Blogger free-blogging platform that will enable the blocking of content only in countries where censorship is required.

Science and Technology
NewScientist: First brain movie captures a mouse thinking
PCMag: Facebook Used by Half of the World's Internet Users, Save Asia 
ScientificAmerican: Newfound Alien Planet is Best Candidate Yet to Support Life, Scientists Say
Time: New 'Super-Earth': A Potentially Habitable Planet?
HuffingtonPost: UFO Found In Baltic Sea? (VIDEO)
ScientificAmerican: Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could Be Available by 2014
PopSci: Video: PopSci's Favorite Japanese Fembot Gets a Modeling Job at the Mall

Medical and Health
LAT: Komen's untimely 'cure'
TheAtlantic: The Man Behind the Komen Decision
USNews: Report: Worldwide Malaria Deaths Double WHO Estimates
CNN: Exclusive: Doctor cheating warnings expand to dermatology
VancouverSun: Cardiologist has a four-letter word for dieters: Salt - Salt is your biggest enemy, says Dr. Ted Fenske
CaliforniaWatch: Poor, minority residents face most health risks with climate change - Poor, urban and minority residents are most at risk for health problems linked to climate change, according to a new California Department of Public Health analysis of Los Angeles and Fresno counties

Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
BeforeItsNews: Read Between The Lines: Hollywood Mogul Buys 2,600 Acres Of Farmland; Moving To New ZealandCityFarmer: Are “DIY Slaughter Hobbyists” Destroying Your City?
ModernSurvivalBlog: Ready Made Resources
Time: Slab City: Living Off the Grid in California's Badlands
PreppingToSurvive: Spring Fatigue: Should I Store Magazines Fully Loaded? 
CityFarmer: New BC sustainably planned neighbourhood to include urban agriculture 
ModernSurvivalBlog: National Geographic Channel: Doomsday Preppers 

Other News
CNN: Canadian authorities bust child porn rings - At least 60 people have been charged in connection with one of Canada's largest ever pornography busts, authorities said Thursday.
Independent: The picture that shames Italy
It's another balmy weekend on the beach in Naples. By the rocks, a couple soak up the southern Italian sun. A few metres away, their feet poking from under beach towels that cover their faces and bodies, lie two drowned Roma children.
Reason: Atlas Shrugged Part Two To Start Filming In April
(why are they making a sequel? I heard the movie sucked in a monstrous, mind boggling way? What's the reason Reason?)
PopSci: New Climate Change Culprit: Chilean Man Stealing Glaciers to Put In Cocktails
Guardian: Bloomberg offers $250000 to Planned Parenthood to make up funds shortfall
CNN: Teacher bondage photos suspect investigated earlier
WBIR: 4 Knoxville "head shops" shut down for selling synthetic marijuana
GlobalPost: Southeast Asia: migrant maids as modern day slaves 
Time: Gingrich's Guardian Angel: Could Sheldon Adelson Back Mitt Romney?
USAToday: Nuns plan to tackle Super Bowl sex traffickingCBSNews: Bodies found bound, burned in Ariz. ID'd 
Independent: The 'ghost bike' revolt: Families demand action on cyclist deaths 

Politics
CBS: Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney
(they have the same hairdresser. hehehe)
OH, and now things should get even more interesting!
LAT: Roseanne Barr is running for president as a Green Party candidate
SFChronicle: Strip-Club Spending Ban a Target of Lawmakers' Message Politics
CBSNews: Romney: I "misspoke" with comment about the poor 
IBTimes: Rick Santorum: Your Life-Saving Drug Costs $1 Million? That's Capitalism!

 
Forums
TinfoilPalace: Beijing ‘seven minutes from destruction’ when a 2.5 ton satellite crashed to Earth at 300mph
TinfoilPalace: Ancestor Simulation. Is reality an illusion? TheOilAge: Leak in Southern Cal nuke plant, "no problem" 
TheOilAge: EU Summit faces 23 million unemployed 
HubberetsArms: Filmmaker sounds alarm over ocean of plastic
HubbertsArms: poll finds some Christians find their own political beliefs conflict with Jesus' 
SilentCountry: GRID DOWN-Solar Storms
SilentCountry: Keyhole gardening for drought climates - - like maybe Texas

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