"Business Insider"- MOODY'S ANALYST BREAKS SILENCE: Says Ratings Agency Rotten To Core With Conflicts

Business Insider | Aug. 19, 2011, 11:33 AM |

tp://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-analyst-conflicts-corruption-and-greed-2011-8?op=1#ixzz1Vd1tSdyk

A former senior analyst at Moody's has gone public with his story of how one of the country's most important rating agencies is corrupted to the core.

The analyst, William J. Harrington, worked for Moody's for 11 years, from 1999 until his resignation last year.

From 2006 to 2010, Harrington was a Senior Vice President in the derivative products group, which was responsible for producing many of the disastrous ratings Moody's issued during the housing bubble.

Harrington has made his story public in the form of a 78-page "comment" to the SEC's proposed rules about rating agency reform, which he submitted to the agency on August 8th. The comment is a scathing indictment of Moody's processes, conflicts of interests, and management, and it will likely make Harrington a star witness at any future litigation or hearings on this topic.

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"Karen Greenberg"- How Washington Lost Faith in America's Courts

By Karen J. Greenberg

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the unexpected extent of the damage Americans have done to themselves and their institutions is coming into better focus.  The event that “changed everything” did turn out to change Washington in ways more startling than most people realize.  On terrorism and national security, to take an obvious (if seldom commented upon) example, the confidence of the U.S. government seems to have been severely, perhaps irreparably, shaken when it comes to that basic and essential American institution: the courts.

If, in fact, we are a “nation of laws,” you wouldn’t know it from Washington’s actions over the past few years. Nothing spoke more strikingly to that loss of faith, to our country’s increasing incapacity for meeting violence with the law, than the widely hailed decision to kill rather than capture Osama bin Laden.

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"Raul Rodriguez"- One in Four California Families Can't Afford Food for Their Kids

by Raul Rodriguez

SAN FRANCISCO -- One in four California households with children reported food hardship, according to a new analysis of Gallup data released last Thursday by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).

“It’s disturbing, but not surprising,” said Kelly Hardy, director of health policy at Children Now.

The report analyzed data gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project’s responses to the question: “Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”

“It sends a clear signal of economic distress, particularly for families with children,” noted James Weill, president of FRAC. “The answers to the question reveal there are times that these families are going without eating a meal, or the parents are skipping a meal for their children, or children are skipping meals.”

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The New Green Revolution: How Twenty-First-Century Science Can Feed the World

Countries can and must reorient their agricultural systems toward modes of production that are not only highly productive, but also highly sustainable.

by Olivier De Schutter and Gaëtan Vanloqueren

Some crises appear and disappear in global media while remaining acute in the lives of real people. Global food insecurity is this type of crisis. In January 2011 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that global food prices in December 2010 exceeded the 2008 peak during the so-called food price crisis that sparked “food riots” across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.¹ The UN also warned that the price increase would not stop overnight and that we were entering “danger territory.”² Although prices stabilized in the spring, global food prices in May 2011 remained higher than they were in June 2008. We will see more price spikes in the future, due to a growing discrepancy between supply and demand, the impacts of climate disruption on agricultural production, and the merger of the energy and food markets. The food crisis is here to stay.

Governments have pledged to reinvest massively in agriculture. After three decades of neglect, this is welcome news. However, as countries announce impressive figures on the scope of their reinvestment, we tend to forget that the most pressing issues today regarding agricultural reinvestment involve not only how much, but how.

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"Olivier De Schutter and Gaëtan Vanloqueren"-The New Green Revolution: How Twenty-First-Century Science Can Feed the World

Countries can and must reorient their agricultural systems toward modes of production that are not only highly productive, but also highly sustainable.

by Olivier De Schutter and Gaëtan Vanloqueren

Some crises appear and disappear in global media while remaining acute in the lives of real people. Global food insecurity is this type of crisis. In January 2011 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that global food prices in December 2010 exceeded the 2008 peak during the so-called food price crisis that sparked “food riots” across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.¹ The UN also warned that the price increase would not stop overnight and that we were entering “danger territory.”² Although prices stabilized in the spring, global food prices in May 2011 remained higher than they were in June 2008. We will see more price spikes in the future, due to a growing discrepancy between supply and demand, the impacts of climate disruption on agricultural production, and the merger of the energy and food markets. The food crisis is here to stay.

Governments have pledged to reinvest massively in agriculture. After three decades of neglect, this is welcome news. However, as countries announce impressive figures on the scope of their reinvestment, we tend to forget that the most pressing issues today regarding agricultural reinvestment involve not only how much, but how.

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"Ronnie Cummins"- Beyond Frankenfoods and Toxics: Ten Reasons to Buy Organic

by Ronnie Cummins

Organic foods and products are the fastest growing items in America's grocery carts. Thirty million households, comprising 75 million people, are now buying organic foods, clothing, body care, supplements, pet food, and other products on a regular basis. Fifty-six percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer organic foods.

Here are 10 reasons why you should buy organic foods and products:

1. Organic foods are produced without the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Consumers worry about untested and unlabeled genetically modified food ingredients in common supermarket items. Genetically engineered ingredients are now found in 75% of all non-organic U.S. processed foods, even in many products labeled or advertised as “natural.” In addition the overwhelming majority of non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs are derived from animals reared on a steady diet of GM animal feed. Although polls indicate that 90% of Americans want labels on gene-altered foods, government and industry adamantly refuse to respect consumers’ right to know, understanding quite well that health and environmental-minded shoppers will avoid foods with a GMO label.

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"PF Louis"- Texas authorities actively hid evidence of radiation in drinking water

by PF Louis  http://www.naturalnews.com/033386_radiation_drinking_water.html

(NaturalNews) TV station KHOU of Texas, reported a cover up conspiracy regarding radioactive levels in Texas drinking water in May 2011. The cover up efforts were known as high as the Texas governor Rick Perry's office and allowed to continue. In a small way, this reflects what's been happening with the Fukushima radioactivity reports that affect the world.

The Water

High levels of radioactive radium were being discovered in excavated water pipes and discarded water heaters throughout parts of Central Texas recently. Those pipes and water heaters were so radioactive that the junk yard in Brady, TX could not take them. The pipes had only been in the ground transporting water from the area's Hickory Aquifer for five years.

The type of radiation is alpha radiation, which is emitted from radionuclides such as radium and uranium that occur naturally beneath the earth's surface. External alpha radiation is not considered much of a health hazard. But ingesting even a small amount from water creates DNA damage, leading to a plethora of health problems.

Even the water level alpha radiation exposure allowed by EPA standards could result in one in every 1,000 consumers getting cancer. But health experts have projected one in 400 locals could wind up with cancer with the current levels of radiation. Over 200,000 persons depend on water from the Hickory Aquifer and private wells in that area.

If EPA water radiation standards are exceeded, local area environmental commissions are required to notify the public. There have been no public notices, because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) fudged their test results each year, creating lower radioactive reports than the actual readings.

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"Marshall Auerback"- Deathwatch for the Euro? Germany's Call.

By MARSHALL AUERBACK

http://counterpunch.org/auerback08192011.html

Forget about the S&P downgrade, which has had ZERO impact on the global equity markets. The downgrade was supposed to mean that it would be more likely that the US government would not be able to pay its debt than previously assumed.  If the markets took this warning seriously, then they would have attached a higher risk premium to US government bonds.  Of course, the opposite occurred.  US bonds soared in price.  In other words, investors, both here and abroad, voted with money as loudly as possible that they view the US government debt as a very safe haven in a time of financial turmoil

So if it wasn’t the S&P downgrade which caused this downward cascade in the global equity markets, then what was it?  By far the most important factor currently driving the market’s bear trends is Europe or, more specifically, the future of the euro and the European Monetary Union.  Systemic risk has migrated across the Atlantic to the euro zone.

And after the recent joke of a summit between German Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, it appears yet again that Europe’s policy makers have comprehensively blown it.  Their persistent reluctance to get ahead of the looming systemic ticking bomb at the heart of the euro has reached the point where it is likely to doom the euro’s very existence. Their repeated “rescue plans” (and equally fatuous statements about new committees and “euro solidarity”) can no longer mask the central problem, which is that countries with very different economies are yoked to the same currency in the absence of a fiscal transfer union which would otherwise facilitate growth, not ongoing economic depression and political turmoil. 

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"Kevin O’Connor"- Bill McKibben Jailed After White House Tar Sands Pipeline Protest

by Kevin O’Connor

Vermont environmental author and activist Bill McKibben went to Washington, D.C., in hopes of getting attention by getting arrested. This weekend he got that and more: a surprise two-night stay in jail.

McKibben and 64 other protesters kicked off a two-week sit-in at White House on Saturday to oppose a $7 billion, 1,700-mile oil pipeline planned to cross the nation’s Great Plains.

U.S. Park Police had warned demonstrators that each would be arrested and quickly released with a $100 fine for trespassing. But after authorities learned that more than 2,000 people from all 50 states plan to join the protest sometime between now until Sept. 3, they jailed McKibben and his peers until a court hearing Monday — all in hopes of deterring future participants.

The police action, however, didn’t appear to stop pipeline opponents. McKibben used his one phone call from jail to tell fellow protest organizers that despite heat in the nation’s capital, all arrested were in good spirits and urged their peers to continue on.

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"Bruce Levine"- Confronting the Military-Industrial-Complex, The MIC at 50

By Bruce E Levine

Global Research, August 21, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26104

The majority of Americans oppose the U.S. government’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and believe that defense spending is the area that must be cut to reduce the federal deficit. However, many of us feel powerless to stop the ever-increasing bombings, invasions, and occupations of nations which pose no threat to us. Most of us have acquiesced to the “military-industrial complex” (a term coined by Dwight Eisenhower, who devoted his farewell address in 1961 to its “grave implications”). Having worked with abused people for more than 25 years, it does not surprise me to see that when we as individuals or as a society eat crap for too long, we become psychologically too weak to take action.

Democracy means that if the majority of us want to stop senseless wars and wasteful military spending, then this should be stopped. Are we in the majority? How can we take action?

A March 2011 ABC News/Washington Post poll asked Americans, “All in all, considering the costs to the United States versus the benefits to the United States, do you think the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting, or not?”; 31 percent said “worth fighting” and 64 percent said “not worth fighting.” When a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll in December 2010, asked, “Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war in Afghanistan?” only 35 percent of Americans favored the war, while 63 percent opposed it. A 2010 CBS poll reported that 6 of 10 Americans viewed the Iraq war as “a mistake.” And when Americans were asked in a CBS New /New York Times survey in January 2011 which of three programs—the military, Medicare, or Social Security—to cut so as to deal with the deficit, fully 55 percent chose the military, while only 21 percent chose Medicare and 13 percent chose Social Security.

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