International Developments
? Adnan Latif, the 32-year old Yemeni citizen who died at Guantanamo on September 10th, was one of the first Guantanamo prisoners, captured in Afghanistan where he had gone to for medical treatment. He was ?cleared to be released in 2004, 2007, 2009 and again in 2010?. Over half of Gitmo detainees are said to be cleared to leave, but they remain.
? There is a video that may show the late US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, being pulled out of the bomb wreckage by a group of men who subsequently rushed him to a local hospital, though attempts there to revive him failed. None of the rescuers knew who he was.
? ?Egypt?s general prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for Gainesville [FL] pastor Terry Jones, seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and referred them to trial on charges linked to? that ?Innocence of Muslims? flick. Among them is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.
? Workers at the mine in Marikana, South Africa, have agreed to a 22% pay increase and are to return to work Thursday.
? Public Issue polled Greeks and ?confirms what many fear most: that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party is on the rise and the vast majority of Greeks are opposed to the stringent austerity measures being dictated by the EU, ECB and IMF?.
? Putin has kicked the US Agency for International Development out of Russia.
? So, ?Chinese authorities have been playing both sides of the [China-Japan territorial dispute] by quietly encouraging recent anti-Japanese protests, then publicly reining them in.? Reining them in so they won?t get out of hand? Apparently, reining them in so they won?t turn on the Chinese government.
? Let us wish them well: ?EU foreign affairs representative. . . is to hold talks with Iran?s chief nuclear negotiator, . . . in a bid to end the stand-off over the Iranian nuclear programme.?
International Finance
? ?Russia will ?forgive? 90% of [North Korean] debt and reinvest $1bn in debt-for-aid plan to develop energy, health care and educational projects.?
Money Matters USA
? ?Fannie Mae has paid $1.5 billion to a dozen banks that manage its massive home loan portfolio so that it can hire companies it thinks will do a better job keeping homeowners out of foreclosure . . ..? Did it pay ?more than what its boilerplate contracts with banks dictate?? Why didn?t it hold the banks accountable for the work?
? ?Why Some Tax Units Pay No Income Tax?. Good data on the 47% from the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
? Atrios?in print no less?on increasing Social Security benefits.
? Russell Wasendorf Sr, founder of Peregrine Financial Group, has ?pleaded guilty to charges including mail fraud, embezzling [over $100 million in] customer funds and making false statements to two regulatory agencies.? Possible jail sentence: 24 years.
Politics USA
? Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York has denied an interim stay of her previous ruling that the National Defense Authorization Act, permitting indefinite detentions, ?impinges on First Amendment rights and violates due process?. The Justice Department argued her ruling was ?unprecedented and . . . should be reversed.? Update: Another judge, Raymond Lohier, placed a hold on the injunction late yesterday. Bmaz discussion and links are here.
? ?U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday escalated a war of words with a prominent appeals court judge [Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit], saying the judge lied in a recent criticism of Scalia?s judicial philosophy.?
? At a ?confab? Monday, Admiral Mike Mullen, Robert Gates, Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson and Alice Rivlin discussed the country?s fiscal problems, but the intransigence of Republicans concerning taxes wasn?t really raised. ?Simpson came the closest?, complaining about Grover Norquist?s no-tax pledge?though he also complained about AARP so everything was all fair and balanced.
? That tape of Romney dissing ?the 47%? was made at the Boca Raton home of Mark Leder, ?known for his penchant for losing business deals and lavish sex parties? (not losing the latter, apparently, but hosting them). Leder is head of Sun Capital. ?Since 2008, 1 in every 5 of the companies among Sun?s holdings have filed for bankruptcy?.
? David Corn has now posted the full video of Romney speaking to guests at Leder?s Boca Raton digs. (?Boca Raton? = mouth of the mouse)
? Mitt Romney?s mother talks about Mitt?s father being a refugee and on welfare for ?the first years of his life.?
? ?How much can you get wrong in just three sentences? A whole lot, it turns out.? Well, if you?re Mitt Romney, anyway. Those 3 sentences have to do with Obama?s economic plan and Bernanke?s actions. And they are chock full of error, all nicely documented for you.
? Oh, noooos. Pastor Terry D. Jones involved in money laundering?
The War on Women
? MI Attorney General Bill Schuette has ?filed an appeal in a religious liberty lawsuit he filed earlier this year against the Obama administration over its birth control mandate in health coverage.? Schuette is arguing that ?the rights of religious groups like Catholics? would be violated by the birth control mandate.
? The ?Women for Akin? website is up. His daughter, Hannah, is prominent among the group. Their slogan: ?I?m a Women and I Support Todd!? Or was. Apparently, the ?Women for Akin? site is now down. Also, one of the women shown on the once-was web site is a Democrat, who routinely attends Akin events.
Health, Homelessness & Hunger
? BPA: ?Researchers have revealed a significant association between obesity and children and adolescents with higher concentrations of urinary bisphenol A . . . , a synthetic chemical recently banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration . . . from sippy cups and baby bottles. Still, the chemical continues to be used in aluminum cans, such as those containing soda.?
Heads Up!
? ?The Occupied Wall Street Journal? is now on-line, folks.
? ?The Debt Resistors? Operations Manual? is now on-line, too.
? A class action suit covering over 700 protestors ?falsely arrested or detained by Chicago police during an anti-war demonstration in 2003? was settled earlier this year for $6.2 million. Deadline for filing a claim is 22 Oct 2012.
Latin America
? A former paramilitary leader has ?named retired Colombian army generals as complicit in massacres in the northern Norte de Santander province during the late 1990s?.
? Cultivation of coca leaves in Bolivia has dropped by 12% over the past year, contrary to concerns expressed when Bolivia ?ended anti-drug cooperation with the United States in 2008.? (Cultivation of small amounts of coca is legal in Bolivia, a tradition going back many hundreds of years.)
? El Salvador?s mangrove trees are being devastated by climate change, with over 1,000 feet of mangroves vanishing beneath the ocean since 2005. Extreme storms, extreme over-logging coupled with gang warfare and an escalating murder rate have also had major impact.
Mixed Bag
? RIP, Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films. ?Generations of NFL fans learned to love the game of football through the lens of Ed (Steve?s dad) and Steve Sabol.? Steve was an earlier employer of DDay.
Break Time
? The great Northwest.
packers score ricky gervais napoleon dynamite michelle williams the descendants the descendants homeland
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