TV station uses copyright law to erase embarrassing broadcast

"A San Francisco Bay Area television station that became world famous for a humiliating gaffe during a news broadcast about a deadly plane crash is apparently trying to erase the event through copyright law. While Campbell and the station quickly issued an apology, that did not stop clips of the broadcast from flooding video-sharing sites and social networks. But the Fox TV affiliate has arrived at a novel solution to its embarrassing moment: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which requires Web sites to remove copyrighted material at the copyright holder's request." Continue reading

Continue ReadingTV station uses copyright law to erase embarrassing broadcast

Bill Bonner: The Making of a Modern Debt Slave

"In China, the 'bare branches' — young men who couldn’t find wives — started a revolution. The Nien Rebellion, which took place between 1851-68, cost over 100,000 lives and almost toppled the Qing Dynasty. Will today’s young people accept their lot… and remain in docile debt servitude their whole lives? Or will they rise up, as Mr. Graeber suggests, and burn T-bonds in public spaces… rampage down Wall Street… and perhaps hang Ben Bernanke in front of the New York Federal Reserve?" Continue reading

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: The Making of a Modern Debt Slave

Detroit Bankruptcy: How to Fix Detroit in 6 Easy Steps

"The news is full of stories of Detroit, and understandably so. It’s an unmitigated disaster. But I know how to fix it. Seriously, I do! I have a plan that would cost the state of Michigan nothing – not a cent. It wouldn’t cost DC anything either, and it would turn Detroit into the most thriving city in North America. As a bonus, it would give the remaining property owners in Detroit a financial windfall. Here’s the plan." Continue reading

Continue ReadingDetroit Bankruptcy: How to Fix Detroit in 6 Easy Steps

The Anti-Default Pomposity of U.S. Officials

"White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dropped a doozie yesterday: 'We are the United States. We do not default. It is unthinkable for the greatest country on Earth to default for the first time in its history. And I believe that Republican leaders share that conviction, and the President believes that Republican leaders share that conviction.' A denial of truth, sprinkled with a dash of 'American Exceptionalism.' Hire this man! The truth is that default is not something new for the U.S. It has already been done in the past. Prior to 1971, foreign central banks, that were holding dollars, were able to turn them into the U.S. Treasury in exchange for gold." Continue reading

Continue ReadingThe Anti-Default Pomposity of U.S. Officials

The Nightmare Ahead: 19 US Cities Have More Public Workers per Resident than Detroit

"Detroit declared bankruptcy due in no small part to $3 billion in unfunded public employee pensions as a result of a massive city workforce that kept growing even as the city’s population shriveled, but a Washington Examiner analysis found that 19 major American cities have even bigger ratios of such workers to residents. Here's the report from WE showing the number of residents per municipal employee." Continue reading

Continue ReadingThe Nightmare Ahead: 19 US Cities Have More Public Workers per Resident than Detroit

Which State Has the Most Self-Reliant People?

"Back in 2010, I put together a 'Moocher Index' as a rough measure of which states had the highest levels of welfare dependency after adjusting for poverty rates. It turned out that there were huge differences among states. Nearly 18 percent of non-poor Vermont residents were utilizing one or more welfare programs, putting them at the top of the Moocher Index. In Nevada, by contrast, less than 4 percent of non-poor residents had their snouts in the public trough. So I was very interested when I came across some state-by-state numbers from the Department of Agriculture showing food stamp participation compared to food stamp eligibility." Continue reading

Continue ReadingWhich State Has the Most Self-Reliant People?

Republican battles for Medicaid funding turn to God and morality

"Most Republicans oppose Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a costly, ineffective and unnecessary expansion of government. But some Republican governors, like Arizona's Jan Brewer and Michigan's Rick Snyder, have broken ranks to embrace the law's Medicaid expansion as a practical way to help the poor while infusing their state budgets with billions of dollars in federal funding to pay for it. Ohio's John Kasich has gone further. His message of morality goes straight to the Republican Party's allegiance to traditional American values including charity, and should resonate with religious conservatives within its influential Tea Party faction." Continue reading

Continue ReadingRepublican battles for Medicaid funding turn to God and morality

Small government promoter Rick Perry sends Texas $2.6 million bill for promotional travel

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) likes to talk tough about his small government credentials, but the numbers he’s been racking up lately tell a different tale: according to The Houston Chronicle, the arch conservative’s out-of-state security detail has cost Texas taxpayers a whopping $2.6 million since he was reelected in 2010. All that money has gone to pay for Perry’s security details as he tours the country trying to poach jobs from other states, and from his ill-fated bid for the Republican nomination to the presidency, according to data released by the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS)." Continue reading

Continue ReadingSmall government promoter Rick Perry sends Texas $2.6 million bill for promotional travel

Democrat seeks to defund Obama’s expansive war powers

"Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) amendment would prohibit the use of funds pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) effective on December 31, 2014. The Bush and Obama administrations have used the AUMF as a legal justification for vast electronic surveillance and targeted drone strikes against suspected terrorists. The AUMF has also been used to deploy troops to various countries — including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Georgia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen — and justify indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay." Continue reading

Continue ReadingDemocrat seeks to defund Obama’s expansive war powers

Man facing criminal charges for swimming across river from Canada to U.S.

"Around 11:30 p.m. Monday night, a neighbor called police saying that she had lost sight of Morillo in the river. Morillo came ashore in the U.S. at Detroit’s Renaissance Park, turned around and started home. It was then that he saw the rescue boats and helicopter. 'As soon I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like ‘Oh, this is really stupid,’' Morillo told the Star. The Canadian Coast Guard picked up Morillo on the Ontario side of the river. He was arrested and charged with public intoxication and swimming in a shipping channel, which carries fines from $5,000 to $25,000. The Canadian Harbor Authority is inspecting the incident." Continue reading

Continue ReadingMan facing criminal charges for swimming across river from Canada to U.S.