Iron Lady; World News; Offshore; Money Manipulation; Wall Street; Foreclosures; Economy; Journalism

Iron Lady

• Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette
• Why Would Anyone Celebrate the Death of Margaret Thatcher? Ask a Chilean
• Why American conservatives miss Margaret Thatcher so much.
• The woman who wrecked Great Britain Salon
• Russell Brand on Margaret Thatcher: 'I always felt sorry for her children'

World News

• N. Korean missile launchpad moved into firing position
• Hungary is no longer a democracy—"Europe has been slow to act, but it is not too late."
• Bulgarians to Rally against Freedom of Speech Restrictions
• Court drops lawsuit against 'Egypt's Jon Stewart'
• Can China's new government end corruption?

Offshore

• Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore—"Offshore financial industry leak exposes identities of 1,000s of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world."
• Deutsche Bank Criticized for Offshore Operations
• Countries rattled by tax-haven data leak
• US issues warning against offshore bank account holders
• Investigative collaboration, cross-border edition—"A good sign that your investigation has hit the mark is when law enforcement agencies start demanding to see your data."

Money Manipulation

• Enron's Jeff Skilling Could Get Early Release From Prison
• Judge Rejects Much of Libor Lawsuit Against Banks—"It was a major victory for some of the largest banks in the world, who had faced claims totaling billions of dollars over accusations they manipulated interest rates." NYT
• Musulin and Cahuzac: France's love for a robber and fury over a crooked tax tsar—"A film released this week tells the true story of a robber who stole millions of euros from an armoured van. Many French people feel he was treated too harshly - and are furious that senior politicians who break the law are never jailed."

Wall Street

• 'Too big to fail' legislation catches the attention of Wall Street
• Ex-Goldman Trader Admits to Hiding $8 Billion Position
• City Settles Lawsuit Over The Destruction of the Occupy Wall Street Library

Foreclosures

• Bank stole your house? Have 10 pitchforks' worth of compensation Salon
• Review Finds 4 Million People Wrongfully Foreclosed On
• Blame Abounds Over a Flawed Foreclosure Review—"A report cites failures by federal regulators, and further government scrutiny of them and of the consulting firms they hired to conduct the review is certain." NYT

Economy

• Is the Global Economy Slowly Falling Apart?
• Huge survey reveals seven social classes in UK
• Why Japan is the most interesting story in global economics right now

Journalism

• Jon Stewart Finally Calls Out the New Absurdity of CNN
• Now Hiring: Fake Somali Pirates—"Foreign journalists have paid Kenyans pretending to be Somali pirates hundreds of dollars to interview them. The fictional stories of these fake pirates have been featured in documentaries and news publications as respected as Time."
• Satire: Guardian launches 'augmented reality' specs to offer immersive liberal insight—"The spectacles also feature optional built-in anti-bigotry technology, which prevents exposure to non-Guardian opinions by blacking out columns by Melanie Phillips or Richard Littlejohn, among other writers, as soon as the user attempts to look at them."

Elections, Voter Intimidation and Suppression, PBS, That's Rich, Obama, Phoney Romney, the Lyin' King, Job Truthers, Unions, Economy

Elections

• Register today--As it may be your last chance for some of you for this cycle.
• New Yorker cover about Obama-Romney debate is funny--Right on the mark.
• Nate Silver's book The Signal and the Noise, reviewed
• Post 47 percent: Audio, video banned at Romney/Ryan fund-raisers
• JetBlue will fly upset voters out of the country

Voter Intimidation and Suppression

• How GOP Voter Suppression Radicalized William Louis-Dreyfus, 'Seinfeld' Star's Mogul Dad
• Voter Suppression Guru Says He's Doing Poor People a Favor
• Husted To Appeal Ohio Early Voting Ruling To Supreme Court
• Voter Intimidation and Suppression Come to New Mexico
• CREW Files FEC Complaint Over Coal Company's Coerced Campaign Donations

PBS

• Big Bird will haunt Mitt Romney--Check out Obama campaign's Big Bird Ad.
• Romney's Threat to Big Bird Sows Confusion Abroad, and Feeds It at Home--7 percent of Americans wrongfully believe "that more than half of the federal budget was spent on television and radio broadcasts."
• Can You Tell Me How PBS Got Sesame Street?

That's Rich

• Super-Rich Irony: Why Do Billionaires Feel Victimized By Obama?--"The hostility toward Obama demonstrated by America's super-rich is not just the self-aggrandizement of wealthy billionaires-it's having a material impact on the 2012 campaign."
• The billionaire Obama hate club--"Billionaires are up in arms over Obama's new tax plan. He should follow the wisdom of FDR and tell them to stuff it." Salon
• The CEO Who Built Himself America's Largest House Just Threatened to Fire His Employees if Obama's Elected

Obama

• The Spectre Of Obama's America--In 2008, conservative group Focus on the Family had 34 doomsaying predictions of an Obama win.
• The Backscratcher—Bob Woodward's Anti-Obama Bias--"The problem with Woodward's latest isn't its tediousness, it's the unabashed bias against President Obama."
• Why Obama Now?--An animated short about the big choice in 2012's presidential election by Simpsons / Family Guy animator Lucas Gray.
• Why I, a Former GOP Senator, Will Vote for Obama
• The Economist: Experts agree on Obama plan over Romney's--"Former vice presidential economic advisor Jared Bernstein and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs examine a new report in The Economist that once again says the numbers for Mitt Romney's tax cuts and Paul Ryan's budget plan just don't add up."

Phoney Romney, the Lyin' King

• Mitt Romney Leads Us Into An Age Of Stupidity--He is leading a party packed with paranoids and fabulists.
• Quote of the Day: Should Obama Call Romney a Liar?--Romney's certainly making it easy.
• Romney Tries to Trick Voters into Believing He’s Moderate on Abortion
• Romney revives debunked point from the dust bin--"This is just one more indication of Mitt Romney saying anything regardless of the facts to get elected."
• The Daily Show on Romney's magical tax plan--"Are you a wizard?"

Job Truthers

• Truth About Jobs--"The furor over Friday's report revealed a political movement that is rooting for American failure, so obsessed with taking down Mr. Obama that good news for the nation';s long-suffering workers drives its members into a blind rage." NYT
• Welch can't take the heat: I quit--He shoulda added the question mark.
• Santelli goes berserk when asked to defend jobs report conspiracy theory
• Jon Stewart Mocks Claim That Obama 'Cooked' Jobs Numbers: 7.8 Percent Is 'A Sh**ty Recipe' 
• Colbert: Jobless Rate 'A Little Too Barely Better To Be True'

Unions

• Judge Strikes Down Wis. Law Limiting Union Rights
• The NFL ref strike is over, but The Daily Show still got to make jokes about it with Patrick Stewart
• Walmart's First-Ever Retail Worker Strike Spreads To 12 Cities

Economy

• Phoenix mayor lives off food stamp budget for a week
• The 30 Year Decline of American Entrepreneurship
• Who Destroyed the Economy? The Case Against the Baby Boomers

Money Laundering, Fast and Furious, Mexico, 420, DEA, Medical Marijuana, Law and Disorder, War on Drugs, International

Money Laundering

• Senate report: HSBC 'allowed drug money laundering'--They're 'sorry' for what they'v done.
• Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges
• Mexican drug cartels and the U.S. banking industry--It's been going on for some time now.

Fast and Furious

• The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal--"A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust."
• Fast and Furious follow up: The ATF and gun stores
• Fast And Furious: Feds Name 4 Suspects Linked To Botched Gun-Smuggling Operation
• Fast and Furious: Failed scandal--"John Boehner seems to realize his party’s effort to use Fast and Furious to embarrass Obama has failed." Salon
• Fast And Furious Whistleblower: Grassley, Issa 'Cried Wolf' On New ATF Video

Mexico

• Mexican drug cartels' spreading influence: Graphic
• Drugs tunnel between Mexico and US discovered
• Mexican papers halt crime coverage for fear of reprisals

420

• Why Pot Is Illegal Everywhere in the World
• Jon Stewart criticizes Chris Christie over marijuana legalization--Christie now says that the war on drugs "has been a failure."
• Moms and Dads for Marijuana Regulation unveil new Colorado billboard

DEA

• DEA head: A thousand dead children means we’re winning war on drugs Salon
• Government-sponsored study destroys DEA's classification of marijuana
• The Fallacy of the DEA: Why the Agency Needs to Concede to Legal Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

• Obama's War On Ethical Medical Pot
• Vote To Close Marijuana Shops Postponed Amid Proposed Deal
• Medical marijuana patient Bob Crouse acquitted of felony charges--"I was just trying to grow the quantity of medicine I needed to medicate myself. I never had any intent to distribute."
• Study: Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Number Of Teens Smoking Pot
• Injured vets want battle over pot to end

Law and Disorder

• Stop-and-Frisk May Soon Hit Judicial Roadblocks NYT
• Florida Cop Fired for Planting Dope, Says He Did That and More Under Orders
• Long Beach Police Investigate Excessive Force in Pot-Shop Raid
• Harlem Couple Branded 'Professional Agitators' in NYPD 'Wanted' Poster
• Twelve Years for Cough Syrup, Criminal Charges for Ibuprofen

War on Drugs

• In His Second Term, Obama Will Pivot to the Drug War
• The Myth of the Toothless President
• The drug war: The path to decriminalisation
• New York Times: What Do You Get From A Drug War Costing $25 Billion Annually? Cocaine 74 Percent Cheaper Than It Was 30 Years Ago
• Florida Supreme Court upholds state's drug law--"A Florida law that requires people caught with illegal drugs in their possession to prove their innocence has been upheld by the state Supreme Court." Emphasis mine.

International

• A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe--"The main aim of the report was to look at the existing research to establish whether the adoption of a decriminalised policy led to significant increases in drug use - the simple answer is that it did not."
• Uruguay legalizes marijuana to fight crime
• Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
• Britain is losing war on drugs--But "[g]overnment has no intention of changing law and problem will not be solved by decriminalisation."
• Cocaine and coca not the same thing, says Bolivia's Morales in defiance of US
• Canadians favor decriminalizing marijuana
• Aussies the biggest recreational drug users in the world - report

World Population Day, Climate Change, Heat Wave, Environment, Fracking, Australia, Ecology

World Population Day: Is a human 'population bomb' ticking?--"Scientists warn that overpopulation and consumption could lead to a forbidding future."

Climate Change

• Schneiderman crushes Koch Brothers in climate-change lawsuit
• The Great German Energy Experiment--"Germany has decided to pursue ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions—while closing down its nuclear plants. Can a heavily industrialized country power its economy with wind turbines and solar panels?"
• In Rising Use of Air-Conditioning, Hard Choices--"Gases that damage the ozone layer are mostly out of use in air-conditioning, but replacements used in developing countries are potent agents of global warming."
• Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change
• Climate change drives salmon evolution--"Salmon DNA records stretching back over 30 years show that nature has increasingly selected for fish that migrate from the ocean earlier in the year. It is among the first pieces of genetic evidence that climate change is driving the evolution of a species."
• Chihuahua: Where the rain doesn't fall any more--"A record drought in northern Mexico has prompted warnings that the region's climate may have changed for good."
• Rise in sea level can't be stopped, scientists say

Heat Wave

• U.S. Sees Hottest 12 Months And Hottest Half Year On Record
• US record heatwave leaves dozens dead
• US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn
• 2011 Texas drought was 20 times more likely due to warming, study says
• Feeling the heat--"Still don’t believe in climate change? Then you’re either deep in denial or delirious from the heat."

Environment

• The Daily Show Uncovers Corporate Conspiracy -- And a Big Revolving Door -- Behind Simplot's Water Contamination
• Don't Scuttle The U.S. Navy's Biofuels Program
  
• Senate Blocks Attempt to Overturn EPA Emissions Standards
• Hungary's Thick Red Line--"Spanish photographer Palíndromo Mészáros documented the effects of a massive toxic aluminum spill in Hungary."
• Mexico axes Baja resort over environmental fears--"Mexican President Felipe Calderon says he is cancelling the construction of a huge tourist resort in Baja California over concerns it could damage a nearby marine reserve."

Fracking

• Confirmed: Fracking can pollute--"A new study explodes the gas industry's claim that fracking won't contaminate local drinking water." Salon
• North Carolina Lawmaker Presses Wrong Button, Accidentally Legalizes Fracking--Thankfully for her, the NC governor vetoed the bill.
• New Anti-Fracking Film by Gasland's Josh Fox Targets Cuomo: 'Governor, What Color Will the Sky Be Over New York?'

Australia

• Shallow and transparent? Australia's ocean protection plan comes under fire
• Australia creates world's biggest marine park, bans drilling
• Australia introduces controversial carbon tax

Ecology

• 20,000 sea turtle eggs crushed by heavy machinery on Trinidad beach
• 21 Nations Block Effort to Turn Southern Atlantic Into Giant Whale Sanctuary
• We’re destroying the seas--"As big fish dwindle from the oceans, swordfish, tuna and marlin could disappear." Salon

UK: Hacking, British Army, Secret Agents, The Daily Show

Hacking

• Tom Watson: 'Phone hacking is only the start. There's a lot more to come out'
• Hacking whistleblower was ignored
• Hugh Grant: How I exposed hacking

British Army

• British sniper nails two Taliban from world record 8,120 feet
• Dead Men Risen: The snipers' story--"In one remarkable feat of marksmanship, two insurgents were dispatched with a single bullet."
• Queen decorates Nepali for Afghanistan heroics--"A Nepalese soldier in the British army has been given a top bravery award by Queen Elizabeth II for his heroics in Afghanistan, where he single-handedly saw off more than 30 Taliban fighters."

Secret Agents

• MI6 'used bodily fluids as invisible ink'
• Bletchley Park Turing archive saved after campaign--The Father of Computer Science was one hell of a codebreaker.
• British spies replace Al Qaeda bomb instructions with cupcake recipe

The Daily Show on England

• Have No Fear, England's Here
• Dude, British Parliament is fucking awesome.
• Parliament Slight