8 Sept 2012

ACLU: TPP is the ‘biggest threat to free speech and intellectual property that you’ve never heard of’

By Madison Ruppert: The highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations are coming under increased fire from both government officials like Senator Ron Wyden and civil society organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More information on the somewhat mysterious TPP negotiations emerged recently in a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published by the Federation of American Scientists which can be read here.
In a recent blog post, Sandra Fulton of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office went as far as to call the TPP the “biggest threat to free speech and intellectual property that you’ve never heard of,” which is likely not all that much of an exaggeration.
Others have characterized the TPP as SOPA on steroids,” referring to the Stop Online Piracy Act which was abandoned thanks to a great deal of public activism. However, it became quite clear that SOPA would not be the end of these efforts.
As the EFF points out in a blog post, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is going above and beyond in the TPP negotiations by not just pushing for the proposed changes to intellectual property law but the USTR is also making a concerted effort to avoid any and all Congressional oversight.
According to the EFF, the USTR has recently rebuffed a request from the staff director on the Senate Finance Committee’s International Trade Subcommittee to review documents pertaining to the negotiations.”

Suddenly, Nobody In Europe Wants The ECB Bailout

Tyler Durden's picture It took the ECB a year of endless behind the scenes Machiavellian scheming to restart the SMP program (which was conceived by Jean-Claude Trichet in May 2010, concurrent with the first Greek bailout). The markets soared with euphoria that this time will be different, and that the program which is a masterclass in central planning paradox, as it is "unlimited" yet "sterilized", while based on "conditions" none of which have been disclosed, and will somehow be pari passu for new bond purchases while it retains seniority for previous purchases of Greek and other PIGS bonds, will work - it won't, and the third time will not be the charm as we showed before. Yet it has been just 48 hours since the "bailout" announcement and already Europe is being Europe: namely, it turns out that nobody wants the bailout.
On one hand there's Germany for obvious reasons - not only are they footing the cost, but it is for them that the threat of an inflationary spike as a result of "unlimited" bond buys is most acute. But on the other, just as we predicted all along, are Spain and France, the biggest beneficiaries of the bailout, and whose bonds soared on expectations the ECB may buy them, who overnight have had a change of heart and say they never actually needed the bailout. Why? Because its politicians have suddenly had a change of heart and realize they will be sacked the second they hand over sovereignty over to the Troika or whatever supernational entity is in charge of the country following the submission of the bailout request.
More importantly, and as explained before, as long as the yield on the bonds of insolvent European countries is sub 8%, not one country will demand a bailout. And as long as these countries reap the benefits of cheap rates, the policies of pseudo austerity will continue (as a reminder, nobody in Europe has actually implemented austerity), where nothing changes, where budget deficits continue to pile on, where sovereign debt continues to soar, where politicians continue making the same flawed policy choices, and where the European slow-motion trainwreck continues, only with a brief delay in the final inevitable outcome.
By now everyone knows about the ECB party that sent US stocks to 4 year highs. Now comes the aftermath.

THE SATURDAY ESSAY: Invasion of the body-politic snatchers? - The Slog

What readers of this site – and other thinkers who are drawn in by the recent Slog Hunt-Groucho four-poster – will I hope take away to ponder is the fear that this process of promoting Jeremy Hunt may be more than simply ironic and high-risk. I would invite every reader to wonder whether the sick ambitions of megamoney are engaged in a survival plan on several levels, and that Our Jezzer is some form of front-man (conscious or otherwise) for this systemic heist.
I’m not talking coordinated mad neocon James Bondesque cat-stroker conspiracy theory, because on the whole I think most of that stuff is risible paranoia aimed at the gullible. More accurately, what I suspect we are watching is a part free-for-all, part copycat and part megalomania dash to be in position and controlling the important levers when the sh*t finally hits the fan.
I think there may be a book in this, but a book this time based on hard evidence, behavioural clues, policy analysis, and a carefully assembled psychography of the people involved in this anarchic trend. I repeat: it is not a plot. But it is a reality.
That reality gets harder and harder to deny on so many levels. These include:

Euthanized Economy and Jekyll Island - Max Keiser with Bill Still

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss uncertain futures for banks in Italy and business purgatory for citizens unable to retire in America. They discuss Monte dei Paschi Bank in Italy which survived the Borgias and the pestilence only to crumble when faced with the fraud and low interest rate world engineered by Alan Greenspan. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Bill Still about his latest film - Jekyll Island. Source

Changing the record: R.E.M. slams Fox News for unauthorized song use

Famous US alternative rock band R.E.M. has denounced Fox News for unauthorized use of their song, Losing My Religion, during its coverage of Democratic National Convention, adding it has no respect for Foxspuff adderreporting.
The band, which broke up last September following over three decades on stage, released a statement on its website slamming the news network.
R.E.M. today, through its music publisher, Warner-Tamerlane Music, demanded that Fox News cease and desist from continuing its unlicensed and unauthorized use of the song.”
"We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there," said band’s frontman Michael Stipe.
The conservative news network apparently used R.E.M.’s hit “Losing My Religion” in order to indirectly comment on what the Republicans see as the Democrats lack of faith.
This is not the first such incident during the 2012 election campaign connected with the Republicans. Last month another US alternative rock band, Silversun Pickups, demanded that Mitt Romney’s campaign stop using their song Panic Switch, during their events.
"We don't like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don't like the Romney campaign," frontman Brian Aubert wrote. "We're nice, approachable people. We won't bite. Unless you're Mitt Romney!" Source
Remember 'Quality of foreign news reports on FOX NEWS'?

Syria to become scene of West defeat: Iran cmdr.

A senior Iranian commander says Syria will become the ultimate scene of the failure of the Western-sponsored terrorism and extremism against the Muslim world.

“Syria will ultimately be the scene of the all-out defeat and scandal of the US and the West in [their] pursuit of the scenario of forging terrorist and deviant sects and organizing the anti-government groups and international mercenaries in an attempt to infiltrate into the Muslim world and create a safe haven for the Zionist regime (Israel),” said Chairman of Iran's Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi.

The creation of sects in the Muslim world and al-Qaeda’s extremism are a plot hatched by the CIA, the Mossad and the MI6 against Islam, the Iranian commander added.

He argued that the new forms of terrorist operations staged by al-Qaeda and other extremist groups against the Syrian government and nation are parts of a long-time scheme by the global hegemonic and colonialist powers against the Muslim world.

The global community must know that al-Qaeda, and the other extremist sects have nothing to do with Shias and Sunnis and the product of the terrorist system of the hegemonic regimes will soon entangle the European and US society,” Firouzabadi pointed out.

Heat-Seeking Eddie Murphy Alpha + Ned Naylor-Leland on CNBC (video)

Trade with Dave: I missed this CNBC interview on Monday with Ned Naylor-Leland on what appears to be a U.K. version of CNBC. There are a couple of things that are notable to take away from the interview. First of all Ned seems to be putting forth the idea that gold and silver are fungible while pork bellies are not. Mortimer may disagree with Ned and claim that gold and frozen orange juice futures are as equally fungible as client #9′s Amex via Square in consideration for an evening with My Fair Lady Jamie Lee Curtis is for pork bellies during a NIRP-inspired backwardation of cash on Christmas Eve when you’re the last one standing at the Comex and still haven’t bought your G. I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip while Ralphie is waiting at home with his Red Rider pointed at you proclaiming In God We Trust but everyone else pays cash.

What is this debate about?  It’s about who brings stability to the marketplace (the right to bear B B guns or the right to be bearish on a TBTF banker’s bonus).  This the same debate that is found in the Woodward paper offered up at the Fed yet shred by Dave and essentially the same debate that we have been engaged in for weeks now in the Fekete-Mises smackdown courtesy of Jaitly-Keiser-Woods.  Think of it this way when you consider Naylor-Leland’s argument.  Does sleeping at night on a piece of plywood provide more stability than sleeping on a Sleep Number Mattress?  That’s essentially what he is saying in regard to his comments about an underlying “bullion basis” supporting the market.  If the kids jumping on your bed on Christmas morning is in need of a solution, then Ned would be correct and an underlayment of plywood market discipline in the absence of government interventionary mattress pads is the order of the day.

The Age of Thermonuclear War Under Obama - Lyndon LaRouche

Alex talks with political activist and former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche about what america and the rest of the world will look like with a 2nd term under president obama. Source

New York Police Department opens a new branch in Kfar Saba, Israel???

By Madison Ruppert: In what just might be one of the strangest recent news stories, Israeli news outlets are reporting that the New York Police Department (NYPD) is opening a branch in Kfar Saba, a city in the Sharon region of the Central District of Israel.
Yes, the NYPD, the same department which recently shot nine innocent bystanders in the course of taking out one murderer, employs officers who have detained people for dancing, has thrown an officer in a psychiatric ward for reporting widespread corruption, and even conducted completely illegal spying operations far outside their jurisdiction. The NYPD has also been busted for their widespread illegal surveillance of Muslims, labeling people who film police “professional agitators” and even for falsely inflating their counterterrorism record.
The above are just a few examples among countless others showing the NYPD to be a corrupt, deplorable entity which apparently has no problem with going far beyond the legal limits.
Now the NYPD has made all their past activities look almost reasonable by actually opening up a branch in Israel supposedly in order to strengthen the NYPD’s ties with the Israeli security forces according to the Ma’ariv newspaper (non-translated version here) in Israel.
The Times of Israel reports, “the prestigious police force was looking to cooperate on a daily basis with the Israel Police, one of the main police forces worldwide with which NYPD has strong ties.”

Ballot access: a continued struggle for third parties in America

By Brent Daggett: While attempting to survive in the duopoly of the traditional left-right paradigm is no simple feat, third parties are equally struggling with ballot access in order to become viable candidates in the eyes of the electorate.
In this election cycle the aforementioned problem continues, especially for former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico who is now the libertarian candidate for president.
On August 24, Republican Party operatives Cynthia Rees and Kelly Mills filed a challenge with Secretary of State John Husted’s office in order to restrict Johnson from being on the Ohio ballot for allegedly violating the state’s sore loser law.
According to paragraph three Section 3513.04 of the Ohio Revised Code:
“No person who seeks party nomination for an office or position at a primary election by declaration of candidacy or by declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate and no person who is a first choice for president of candidates seeking election as delegates and alternates to the national conventions of the different major political parties who are chosen by direct vote of the electors as provided in this chapter shall be permitted to become a candidate by nominating petition or by declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate at the following general election for any office other than the office of member of the state board of education, office of member of a city, local, or exempted village board of education, office of member of a governing board of an educational service center, or office of township trustee.”
In layman’s terms, the law essential means that a candidate who lost a partisan primary cannot run with another party or as an independent in the general election.
However, this did not apply to Johnson since he was on the ballot through the state libertarian party and never filed to run with another party.
Rees and Mills withdrew their challenge after a quick response by legal experts

Mixing Oil and Water with Lindsay Hall and Stephen Leeb!

The jobs report released today reiterates a grim situation for millions of unemployed Americans. The jobs number was below expectations again: the economy added 96,000 jobs while analysts expected 130,000. The unemployment rate fell from 8.3% to 8.1%, however this drop is most likely due to a fall in the labor force participation rate. Meanwhile stock markets appear more than eager to grasp the hand of dovish central banks. Stocks rallied after the ECB announced its unlimited bond buying program yesterday. We talk about it.

Yemenis hold demo to protest against foreign meddling, drone attacks

Thousands of Yemenis have once again taken to the streets to protest against foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs
Press TV reports.


In massive demonstrations held after Friday prayers in the capital Sana’a, the northern city of Sa’ada, and the western city of Dhamar, protesters chanted slogans against the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The demonstrators also called for the prosecution of the remnants of former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime and condemned Washington’s drone attacks in southern Yemen.

The US military has also used assassination drones in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Iraq.
Washington claims that the drones target terrorists in the operations, but civilians have often been killed in the strikes.