Al Gore sues Al Jazeera America for unpaid millions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Vice President Al Gore is suing Al Jazeera America, saying the news network is withholding tens of millions of dollars that it owes for buying Current TV from him and other shareholders for $500 million last year.

David Boies, Gore's attorney, said in a statement that Al Jazeera America "wants to give itself a discount on the purchase price that was agreed to nearly two years ago." He said the suit was filed in Delaware Court of Chancery on Friday.

Al Jazeera America didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Qatar-owned news channel took over Current TV's signal last August and hired a slew of U.S. TV news veterans like Soledad O'Brien and John Seigenthaler. It is available in nearly 60 million U.S. homes.

Gore and co-founder and former Current TV CEO Joel Hyatt each had 20 percent stakes in Current, while Comcast Corp. had less than a 10 percent stake. Another major investor in Current TV was supermarket magnate and entertainment industry investor Ron Burkle.

Rick Perry indicted for abuse of power

James Moore joins Steve Kornacki to discuss the breaking news out of Texas that Gov. Rick Perry has been indicted for abuse of power.

Calling on our leaders to take a stance

The public calls on our nation’s leaders to take a strong stance against the violence that occurred in Ferguson.  Michael Eric Dyson, John Fugelsang and James Peterson discuss.

Police identify Darren Wilson as cop who shot, killed 18-year-old Michael Brown

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/darren-wilson-identified-killed-18-year-old-michael-brown-article-1.1904539

Let's Be Clear About Michael Brown

Posted By Rude One

Here's a nice picture for your Thursday night:

This is the desperate attempt by Matt Drudge to show that Michael Brown, who was shot down, unarmed, and, from multiple witness accounts, with his hands up and moving away from a police car in Ferguson, Missouri, was some kind of thug. How him flipping off the camera (in a jokey, "I'm-just-scratching" way) accomplishes this only the terrier-fucking Drudge would know. Drudge and other shit-eaters of the right just have to gangsta Brown up in order to protect the power of the cop-soldiers who, until tonight, were acting like total, deranged, over-armed, roided-up cockholes with protesters, reporters, and people at home in Ferguson.

And to what end do Drudge and the cop's water carriers need to show this? To say that it was okay to gun the 18 year-old down?

Let's be fucking clear about Michael Brown:

It doesn't matter if he was the biggest drug dealer in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

It doesn't matter if he was the baddest gangsta in the Ferguson 'hood.

It doesn't matter if he was the biggest pimp in the state.

It doesn't matter if he had committed robberies or purse snatchings.

It doesn't matter how many gang signs he flashed with his hands.

It doesn't matter if he said, "Fuck tha police" every chance he got.

It doesn't matter if he flipped off cops or grabbed his junk while looking at them.

None of that justifies being gunned down by a police officer. None of it.

Of course, Michael Brown wasn't any of the above.

What does matter is what the cop did and what the cops have done and will do. You can bet that the officer who shot Brown didn't ask if he was a future college student.  

He was just another nigger, indistinguishable from the niggers around him, and that was enough.

Standing up to post office privatizers

Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

"Boss," spelled backwards, is double-S-O-B, and that's how most of the employees of the US Postal Service feel about their top boss.

America's postal employees –from mail clerks to letter carriers – take great pride in moving millions of pieces of mail to us every day, whether we live in inner cities or way down at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where mail is delivered by mule-riding letter carriers to a Native American tribe living there.

But USPS bossman, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe, definitely does not make postal workers proud, for he's been deliberately monkey-wrenching our mail system by slowing delivery, reducing staff and hours of service, closing neighborhood and historic post offices, shutting processing centers, trying to end Saturday delivery, badmouthing his own agency's performance, steadily corporatizing public functions, and transforming decent, union-scale jobs into the low-wage retail economy.

One portentous example of Donahoe's determination to bust the wages and undermine the performance of USPS is the sweetheart privatization scam he's set up with Staples. He's letting this big box retailer place official postal kiosks in its 1,500 stores – only they're not being staffed by highly trained, publically-accountable postal workers, but by Staple's own poverty-wage, high-turnover floor staff. In at least one case, Donahoe even cut the hours of service at post offices around a Staples store, then put up a sign directing postal customers to the Staples outlet.

Mark Dimondstein – the feisty president of the American Postal Workers Union – calls Donahoe "Wall Street's Trojan Horse, the privatizer from within." But, says Dimondstein, "We intend to stop him." His union has launched a Dump Donahoe campaign as well as a national boycott of Staples stores. For information and support, go to www.apwu.org

Anonymous’ Twitter account suspended in conjunction with Ferguson protests

Anonymous had threatened to reveal private information about a man they claimed to be Michael Brown's shooter  

By Joanna Rothkopf
 

(Credit: Reuters/Nacho Doce)

Hacking group Anonymous’ Twitter account (@TheAnonMessage) was suspended on Thursday. The group claimed to reveal the name of Michael Brown’s shooter via the social media website and threatened to publish his home address and photo if the Ferguson Police Department did not confirm the allegation.

According to NBC News, Chief Angel Jimenez of the St. Ann Police Department in Missouri said that the person accused by Anonymous is actually a dispatcher, not a police officer. “At no time has he ever been involved in a shooting in Ferguson or elsewhere,” said Jimenez.

While Twitter does not comment on individual accounts, when asked for comment, a representative pointed to the social media website’s rules, which states that Twitter does not permit users to  ”publish or post other people’s private and confidential information” or “publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.” Anonymous had done both.

Anonymous has since switched to a backup account.

Twitter has suspended my main account. The powers that be will stop at nothing to silence us. #Anonymous #Ferguson
— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014

Censoring us is an act of war. #Ferguson #TheAnonMessage
— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014

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HANDS UP, DON'T SHOOT. #Ferguson #TwitterSuspension #Anonymous pic.twitter.com/tX93g6lWM1
— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014

ANNOUNCEMENT: We are ceasing any future dox releases until further notice. #Anonymous #Ferguson
— TheAnonMessage2 (@TheAnonMessage2) August 14, 2014

Joanna Rothkopf is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on sustainability. Follow @JoannaRothkopf or email jrothkopf@salon.com.

Chuck Todd to replace David Gregory on Meet the Press

By Brian Stelter  

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

NBC will name Chuck Todd the new host of "Meet the Press" as early as Thursday afternoon, according to people with direct knowledge of the network's plans.

The sources confirmed widespread speculation that David Gregory, the moderator of the iconic Sunday morning public affairs program for the past six years, will be replaced by Todd.

One of the sources said the transition will be swift - so swift that Gregory will not even host "Meet the Press" this weekend.

Gregory seemed to confirm that in a series of Twitter messages on Thursday afternoon, hours after this story was originally published.

"I leave NBC as I came - humbled and grateful," he wrote. "I love journalism and serving as moderator of MTP was the highest honor there is."

He added, "I have great respect for my colleagues at NBC News and wish them all well. To the viewers, I say thank you."

Todd, for whom the term "political junkie" seems invented, is currently the NBC News political director and the host of "The Daily Rundown," which airs at 9 a.m. ET on NBC's cable news channel MSNBC.

He will be the twelfth moderator in "Meet the Press" history. Born on radio in 1945 and reborn for television in 1947, "Meet the Press" is the longest-running show on TV.

Within NBC, it is a cherished brand, but it's also one that has fallen on hard times. With Todd in the anchor chair, NBC hopes to reinvigorate the program and its weekly ratings.

An NBC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Negotiations with Gregory and Todd were still underway Thursday.


An announcement about Todd's promotion would end an ugly period of public conjecture about Gregory's fate, made worse by the network's tepid statement of support for him earlier this summer.

When the New York Post's Page Six column said in July that Gregory could be replaced "soon after the November midterm elections," a network representative was quoted as saying, "We heard the same false rumors and suggest you take them with a grain of salt, as we did."

Tepid support, indeed.

Mike Allen of Politico reported earlier this week that Todd was the "likely successor" to Gregory and that the change was "expected to be announced in coming weeks."

That report may have accelerated the network's timetable. If not Thursday, the anchor change will be announced no later than Friday, the sources said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the record.

On Thursday, Gregory was in New Hampshire, far from his Washington, D.C., office. NBC News president Deborah Turness was in New York, having canceled a long-planned trip to London, to oversee the transition.

Questions about Gregory's future on "Meet the Press" surfaced shortly after Turness took over the news division in the summer of 2013.

She has discussed any number of changes to the program, including, at one point, the possibility of a studio audience.

The best-known "Meet the Press" moderator is Tim Russert, who was appointed to the job in 1991 and died suddenly in June 2008 while preparing for an edition of the program. Under Russert, "Meet the Press" was solidly No. 1 in the ratings race among the broadcast networks.

After Russert's death, Tom Brokaw filled in until December 2008, when Gregory took over. The program now routinely ranks No. 3 behind "Face the Nation" on CBS and "This Week" on ABC.

First Published: August 14, 2014: 1:25 PM ET

XBox One is about to become movie pirates best friend

By GaryOPA

Microsoft continues to outpace Sony with another huge Xbox One update

Microsoft announced a huge new update to the Xbox One on Tuesday and it included a full-scale video player capable of supporting just about any kind of file you can think of including, MKV containers!

At Gamescom, Sony only teased that new 'user interface' is coming this fall with their PS4 updates, but Microsoft turned up the heat by announcing their Xbox One is getting a ton of more 'features' in series of updates thru-out the rest of year.

With the big one that they going to allow you to basically throw at it any media file you can think of, in their dream of making Xbox One the 'all-in-one' thingie attached your big screen living room TV, to compete against the battle of small little streaming xmbc-type boxes that people have now wired up to their connected household to watch all those 'pirated' movies, tv shows you always deny you have until you figure out that your new friends that you invited over to house are cool like you are, and not going slap you down with lawsuit for watching 'Expendables 3'.

Gamescom only just began, but Microsoft has already made a splash with a couple of huge Xbox One bundles, some exclusive game announcements and a software update that Xbox One (and PS4) owners have been waiting for since the consoles launched last fall. Major Nelson took to the Xbox Wire shortly before the media briefing kicked off to announce that a full-scale media player would finally be coming to the Xbox One.

The media player will be capable of playing just about any file you can throw at it, including .avi, .jpg, .gif, .mov, .mp3, .mpeg, .wma and .wmv.

Other additions to the console include a new "Friends" section, Snap Center and threaded messages with the full conversation history. Microsoft is also planning to release a digital TV tuner for the Xbox One in Europe, and those with the TV tuner will be the first to gain the ability to stream live TV on their SmartGlass devices. Xbox One owners will also be able to boot straight to TV and those with OneGuide will see a new mini guide at the bottom of the screen.

Those that have been invited to the Xbox One early access Preview program will get a chance to toy with all the new features later this month. The rest of us will have to wait until September for what looks to be one of the biggest updates yet for the Xbox One.

Well, Microsoft had to do something as there is no good 'games' coming out until the next Holiday 2015 year, so you will need to do something with your new XB1 console this holiday season, even if it is just watching 'pirated' shit. -- Welcome to the Dark Side!

NEWS SOURCE #1: The Xbox One is about to become movie pirates’ best friend (via) BGR
NEWS SOURCE #2: Microsoft continues to outpace Sony with another huge Xbox One update (via) BGR

We're Lucky There Aren't More Riots

Posted By Rude One

That photo is of police patrolling the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of a night of riots and looting in the wake of the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white cop. In that suburb of St. Louis, the population is 67% black, but there are only 3 black cops on the 53 person police force, with 2 other non-whites). What's fascinating about the picture is that the front line of five officers (two from other areas, no doubt) is all black while behind them are roughly a dozen and a half white cops and not a single other non-white one.  (Side note: Has anyone written about GOP opposition to Obama as a symbolic castration and its effect on blacks in this country?)

And that's the problem, isn't it? It's that no matter where black men turn, there are always white men with guns right behind them, whether it's asshole cops or asshole gun owners. No matter if there's a black man in the White House; there's always a power structure founded on and fostered by whiteness that exists with little challenge.

What is there to say about the riots, about the looting, about the burning of businesses in Ferguson?

Yeah, it's wrong to steal shit and fuck up buildings. It's more wrong to gun down a kid who, according to many witnesses, had his hands up and, according to official reports, was 35 feet away from the police car. If you believe the law is no longer on your side - indeed, if you believe its enforcers are using it to harm you - why the fuck wouldn't you riot? Tea Party assholes march around with their guns out right after mass shootings, and no one shoots them down. Maybe it's time for some Black Panther action.

Frankly, it's a shock that there aren't more riots, in Staten Island and in Dayton, in just the last few weeks of cops killing black men. As Brittney Cooper writes in Salon, "To be black in this country is to be subject to routine forms of miscalculated risk each and every day.  Black people have every right to be angry as hell about being mistaken for predators when really we are prey."

The median income in Ferguson is $37,000, ten grand lower than the state average.  The state has refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.  92% of people arrested in Ferguson are black, taken in by, as mentioned before, the over 90% white police force. Of course, poverty combined with racism combined with the endless stream of whites killing unarmed blacks for no reason is going to add up to an explosion.

We as a nation have fucked over black Americans in so many ways. We've isolated many in neighborhoods with shitty housing, shitty schools, shitty businesses, and shitty health care. We've demonized affirmative action. We've gutted welfare programs, work programs, and other poverty programs. We've given prisons over to private corporations that demand to be filled with any kind of petty criminal under minimum sentencing laws and the worthless drug war. 

So we've filled the shitty streets with cops who have been given the right to harass blacks into hatred of the authority they should be able to turn to to stop the crimes that matter. We have made it so that, even if you're not from one of these shitty neighborhoods, you are forever framed by them, forever framed as a thug or a bitch, forever suspect.

Then we've said, "You're an American. You have opportunity. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and live the American dream." Goddamnit, the Rude Pundit wants to fuck shit up just writing that. He can't imagine living it.

So, sure, it's a shame that others now suffer economically (mostly) in the wake of the Michael Brown killing. But when when the plants in the ground finally grow, you don't blame the leaves. You blame the people who put the seeds in the dirt and watered them, decade after decade.

As Washington DC Remains Gridlocked, Cities Are Shifting Toward Progressive Politics

By Gary Younge

 

These mayors are pursuing policies Obama has been unable to enact on the national stage.

After Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 one of his key aides, Rahm Emanuel, sat in the campaign’s favorite restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas, venting his frustration at those who had tried to stand in their way. He would call out a name, ram his steak knife into the table and, like Bluto in Animal House, shout “Dead!” Then he would pull the knife out and call another name and stab the table again.

Heaven only knows what damage he does to the furniture when he mentions Karen Lewis’s name.

Emanuel, who was Barack Obama’s chief of staff, is now mayor of Chicago. Lewis is the head of the Chicago Teachers Union who got the better of him after leading the teachers in a strike two years ago.

The two genuinely despise each other. When Lewis took on Emanuel over lengthening the school day, he told her: “Fuck you, Lewis!”; during the strike Lewis branded him a “liar and a bully”.

Now Lewis is seriously considering running against Emanuel for the mayoralty next year. People are wearing buttons urging her candidacy and setting up Facebook pages to support her. When she showed up at a civil rights conference two months ago the crowd cheered “Run, Karen, run!”

She could win.

A Chicago Sun Times poll last month gave Lewis a nine-point lead with 18% undecided. Other polls have Emanuel in front by a similar margin. But between them a general picture emerges. The situation is volatile; Emanuel is vulnerable and Lewis is viable.

Beyond the idiosyncrasies of the case, the possibility that America’s third largest city might elect a union leader over an establishment Democrat marks a broader national shift towards progressive city politics.

Across the country, from New York to Seattle and Boston to Pittsburgh, municipal authorities are swinging left. As Harold Meyerson argued in the American Prospect: “The mayoral and council class of 2013 is one of the most progressive cohorts of elected officials in recent American history... They are, in short, enacting at the municipal level many of the major policy changes that progressives have found themselves unable to enact at the federal and state levels. They also may be charting a new course for American liberalism.”

The organizational and electoral bases of these campaigns are virtually the same as those that propelled Obama to victory – trade unions, minorities, young people (particularly young women) and liberals. And they are promising what Obama has been unwilling or unable to deliver. They are trying to raise the minimum wage, introduce green technology, create affordable housing, levy money from the wealthy to fund universal childcare and rein in their police departments from racist excess.

These are bold plans and, for the most part, they are acting on them. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, has described the city as a “laboratory” for New Deal-style reforms. In reality these initiatives are more like local triage against the wounds of over a generation of stagnant wages, neoliberal reform and the class and racial polarisation that comes with them – all of which were further aggravated by the most recent economic crisis. It looks like the New Deal only because so many Americans have been getting such a bad deal for so long. Local, populist and redistributive, they owe more to the Occupy movement of 2011 of which they are the most logical, likely corollary. Their agendas, of course, are far less ambitious. But they share a trajectory.

As such, the ramifications go beyond the local. Public imagination when it comes to political geography is skewed. People think in terms of red and blue states, but the real distinction is between town and country. With just a handful of exceptions, every city of more than 500,000 inhabitants votes Democrat; in all of the 10 largest cities in America white people are a minority. More than two-thirds of Obama’s lead against Mitt Romney in 2012 came from the three largest US cities – New York, LA and Chicago, and their surrounding areas. It’s not difficult to see why. People come to cities to escape isolation and find opportunity. So cities become home to a disproportionately large number of gay and lesbian people, immigrants and religious minorities. To function they demand social tolerance and public investment for everything from transport to parks.

Cities are where the overwhelming majority of the Democratic base lives. The increasingly pronounced inequalities of race and class, the impact of neo-liberal school reforms and general disinvestment in social capital have hit all but the very wealthy hard. Anyone seeking the presidential nomination would be a fool to ignore this.

Lewis, like De Blasio before her, is touting a “tale of two cities” theme, calling not just for greater equality but a more liveable city. She’s talking like a candidate even if she has yet to confirm her candidacy. There is much to weigh.

Chicagoans have not taken to Emanuel. His notoriously abrasive manner and high-handed, confrontational approach grates. His predecessor, Richard Daley, was embraced as an authentic Chicagoan with no ambitions beyond the city, even if he came across in public as a monosyllabic dolt. Emanuel has acted – wilfully it seems – like a polarising product of Washington, slick and insensitive.

Lewis has made her fair share of enemies too. But she is a populist who as a former standup comedian has a better feel for her audience. She also cuts an intriguing figure. She’s an African-American woman who recently converted to Judaism. She studied music in college, has a master’s degree in film, and taught chemistry in high school.

Lewis has intensity. Those who follow her – and there are many – will go all out and all the way. But Rahm’s speed dial has bling. When he ran four years ago, he would hang up on donors who’d sent him $5,000, saying he was embarrassed to accept such checks from people who could easily afford $25,000.

Lewis will give Rahm a run for his money. She’ll have to: Emanuel has an awful lot of money. And while progressive voters do get the final word, it won’t be before corporate sponsors have had their say.

Sydney man in Syria posts picture of son holding severed head

‘That’s My Boy’: Islamic State Fighter Tweets Photo of His Son Holding a Severed Head

Aug. 11, 2014 9:31am Madeleine Morgenstern

Editor’s Note:

This story contains a graphic image and descriptions.

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“That’s my boy.”

Those are said to be the proud words of a convicted terrorist who tweeted out a photo of his young son holding up the severed head of a slain Syrian soldier.

The photo, published in The Australian newspaper, reportedly shows the son of Khaled Sharrouf, a Sydney man who fled to Syria last year and joined up with Islamic State militants. The boy, wearing a blue shirt and a blue watch, uses both hands to grab fistfuls of hair to hold the head up for the camera.

Image source: The Australian

According to the newspaper, Sharrouf posted other photos as well, including one posing with his sons, everyone decked out in fatigues and holding guns in front of the IS flag, and another of himself with the same severed head.

“There are more photographs in newspapers in Australia today of the kind of hideous atrocities that this group is capable of,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Australian radio. “[The] Islamic State — as they’re now calling themselves — it’s not just a terrorist group, it’s a terrorist army and they’re seeking not just a terrorist enclave but effectively a terrorist state, a terrorist nation.”

Image source: The Australian

The Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has seized significant territory in the region and proclaimed a caliphate. Its gains across Iraq prompted the United States last week to begin a series of airstrikes to impede its advance.

“ISIL is a threat to the civilized world, certainly to the United States, to our interests, as it is to Europe, it is to Australia,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in Sydney. “I think reflected on the local newspaper I saw this morning, with the picture on the front page, it’s pretty graphic evidence of the real threat that ISIL represents.”

Iraqi troops and tanks deployed in Baghdad

By Mohammed Tawfeeq and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN



(CNN) - Iraqi troops, security forces and tanks surged into Baghdad on Sunday as political turmoil deepened over who should lead the country.

Military tanks were deployed to several neighborhoods in central Baghdad, two Iraqi police officials told CNN. The officials said there are also significantly more troops in Baghdad's Green Zone, the secure area where many government buildings, the military headquarters and the U.S. Embassy are located.

The stepped-up troop presence comes as Iraqi forces battle Islamist militants in northern Iraq, and just after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Fuad Masum, Iraq's newly elected President, of violating the country's constitution by extending the deadline for Iraq's biggest political coalitions to nominate a candidate for prime minister.

The precise reason for the growing number of troops in the Iraqi capital was unclear. But CNN military analyst retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona described it as an "ominous" development that signals the Iraqi Prime Minister doesn't want to hand over power.

"You've got Nuri al-Maliki refusing to step down. Now he's mobilized not just security troops loyal to him, but now he's mobilized army units to put tanks in the streets. Some of the bridges have been closed," Francona said. "It looks like he's trying to lock down the city in some sort of confrontation with the President, so this does not portend well."

Retired Marine Gen. James Williams said the stepped up security could also be a response to advances by militants from ISIS, the Sunni Muslim extremist group that has now declared itself the Islamic State.

"It could be a show of force. If you're talking about protecting government buildings, there may be a sense that ISIS forces may be closer than everybody thinks at this point, and so depending on what the undercurrent in Baghdad right now, that could be a great sign for concern," Williams said. "But it may also be a concern that there's a coup afoot."

CNN's Michael Holmes said al-Maliki could be digging in his heels for a political battle.

"It's not in his DNA to go without a fight. This is a man who's really feeling besieged at the moment. He's cornered on all sides, if you like," Holmes said. "He's got ISIS on his doorstep, in a military sense. He even had the Grand Ayatollah the other day saying politicians should not cling to their posts. But this is a guy who seizes onto power. He holds it."

In a televised speech Sunday, al-Maliki said he would file a complaint against Masum for allegedly violating Iraq's constitution.

Lawmakers elected Masum, a veteran Kurdish politician who's been a member of the Iraqi parliament since 2005, to the presidency last month.

Choosing a prime minister is a key next step for Iraq's leaders. Critics of al-Maliki have called for him to pull his name out of the running, but he's repeatedly refused.

Al-Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government have been under enormous international pressure to be more inclusive of the country's minority Sunni population, who say they have been marginalized and cut out of the political process.

Obama administration officials have talked repeatedly about how their priority is a political settlement that creates a more inclusive government in Iraq. A deadline to agree on a new prime minister had been set for last week and was extended on Sunday.

In a statement Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is closely monitoring the situation and supports Iraq's President.

"The United States fully supports President Fuad Masum in his role as guarantor of the Iraqi constitution," she said. "We reaffirm our support for a process to select a Prime Minister who can represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people by building a national consensus and governing in an inclusive manner. We reject any effort to achieve outcomes through coercion or manipulation of the constitutional or judicial process."

U.S. officials who put their faith in al-Maliki for years may have misjudged him, Francona said.

"Most people thought that there would be this peaceful transition to the new government. He served for two terms," Francona said. "Now he's refusing to step down. ... This looks very bad, like he's going to refuse to go."

CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Jim Sciutto, Elise Labott and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.

Anonymous To Ferguson Police: Expect Us

By karoli

Anonymous published a list of demands in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.



Anonymous has stepped into the Ferguson, Missouri police shooting of a young unarmed black man and they have done so with firm resolve.

In their video above, they demand that elected representatives for that area introduce legislation defining clear standards of conduct for police in situations like the one that resulted in the shooting of Mike Brown Saturday.

They further state that if this demand isn't met, they will hack into police department databases and publish confidential data they obtain.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Anonymous' operating tactics, what they're asking for is not outrageous. There is a point where a line in the sand is needed, and where everyone should stop pretending the police are always right and the people are always wrong. That right/wrong view seems to be the one that prevails when black or brown people are the ones protesting in the street.

That kid lay in the street for hours while they beefed up their militarized presence in Ferguson, as if to invite violence. I'm not sure I'm buying the "official account" of how Brown came to be shot eight times, either. If he allegedly attacked the cop sitting in the car, how did he come to fall 35 feet away while the cop never got out of the car?

As a writer, it's difficult to balance a desire not to slam police, who have a difficult and demanding job against sympathy for an unarmed kid dead in the street. In some cases, criticism just lives in the situation. This is one of those times.

Ferguson's elected officials should take Anonymous' demands seriously.

(As a side note, Twitter killed the #OpFerguson hashtag and suspended the @OpFerguson account. I'm sure glad they believe in free speech. I guess for them that's only for conservatives.)

Who is ISIS?

Who is the extreme group known as the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria?” Rev. Al Sharpton discusses with Evan Kohlmann.

Philly Mom Who Carried Licensed Gun Into NJ Faces 11 Years in Prison

By Bill Anderson

Chasing New Jersey first brought you the story of Shaneen Allen, the single mother from Philadelphia who didn't know it was illegal to bring the gun she was legally licensed to carry in Philly into New Jersey. When she got pulled over for a minor traffic offense she told the police about the gun and was arrested facing a mandatory three-year sentence.

My9 New Jersey

After hearing about the case, most people thought there's no way she would do time for an honest mistake. Well, yesterday she was in court and she can now face a maximum sentence of 11.5 years in prison. Ten years for possession of a weapon and another 18 months for possession of the bullets.

Allen's attorney Evan Nappen discussed how a person with no prior offenses could end up spending a decade behind bars for being honest.

“New Jersey's gun law is as unforgiving as a prosecutor or judge wants to make it. Either of those two, the judge or the prosecutor could have taken steps to relieve Shaneen from this situation, but it didn't happen,” he said.

Nappen said that not only did the judge not dismiss the case, but the prosecutor will not allow her into a pretrial intervention to avoid jail time.

Now, Allen is left with no choice but to go forward to trial. She hopes that a jury will hear her case and won't think that an honest mistake should cost her 11.5 years of her life.

“Shaneen Allen has no criminal background at all. She has no firearm disqualifiers at all. Listen if she did, she wouldn't have gotten a license to carry from the city of Philadelphia,” Nappen explained.

The best offer that the prosecutor gave was a five-year plea bargain with no option for parole for 3.5 years.

Political blogger outs herself as paid troll for big telecom

By Arturo Garcia

 

The editor of a politics website geared toward communities of color revealed that she is paid to be a “consultant” for a lobbyist group that has represented both the tobacco industry and the cable industry, Vice magazine reported.

Politic365.com co-founder and editor-in-chief Kristal High revealed her ties to the lobbying firm the DCI Group during an interview on Wednesday with talk show host David Pakman in which Pakman mentioned that both High and a past guest, Everett Ehrlich, were pitched to his program as guests by DCI.

“Are individuals like you and Everett Ehrlich, are you paid by DCI?” Pakman asked High.

“I think you have to really consider what it is you’re suggesting, you’re asking there,” High said. “If people are working on different issues, there could be, say, a consulting arrangement that’s separate and apart from whatever it is people are advocating for.”

“In other words, DCI may be paying you as a consultant,” Pakman responded, pushing back. “But they’re not paying you for the media appearances or being a spokesperson for the point of view that their clients espouse.”

“Right,” High answered.

According to Vice, High and colleagues at her website have posted in the magazine’s comments section defending the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) otherwise heavily-criticized plans regarding net neutrality.

In one instance, High reportedly commented that Vice was wrong to focus on the “lobbying dollars” being used to influence the public discussion regarding the issue, a sentiment she revisited on Pakman’s show.

“The argument has also kind of devolved, in my opinion, to this nitpicky sort of, ‘Who’s in your pocket? How are you making money?’” she told Pakman. “I think that misses the point of the actual issue here.”

However, High did not reveal whether she was being paid by the DCI Group when she made her comments at Vice, or when she wrote columns for the Huffington Post, including a December 2013 op-ed in which she criticized net neutrality advocates by saying their arguments “fall short of reality.”

“The Internet is a two-sided market, and neutrality is about the supply and content side, not the demand and user side. Wealthy individuals already have access to better and faster Internet because they live in high-income neighborhoods and are prepared to pay more,” she wrote. “In reality, the neutrality debate is more about whether Netflix may have to pay for premium access for better services, not about what consumers will pay.”

According to Vice, High’s website is affiliated with an organization called the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. A June 2013 report by the Center for Public Integrity found that the council had received $440,000 since 2010 from groups tied to media companies. Politic365 also reportedly received a $10,000 donation two years ago from another trade group, CTIA.

Last year, a CTIA affiliate, MyWireless.org, released a video in which High appeared saying African-Americans “are overwhelmingly satisfied with their wireless phone service.”

Watch Pakman’s interview with High, as posted online on Tuesday, below.

Arturo Garcia

 

Arturo R. García is the managing editor at Racialicious.com. He is based in San Diego, California and has written for both print and broadcast media, including contributions to GlobalComment.com, The Root and Comment Is Free. Follow him on Twitter at @ABoyNamedArt

Obama Authorizes Air Strikes, Aid Mission in Iraq

By ABC News via World News

President Barack Obama speaks about the situation in Iraq in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014. Obama says he's authorized the U.S. military to carry out airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic militants if they advance toward the city of Erbil.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

 

President Obama said tonight he has authorized "targeted" air strikes if necessary to protect American interests in Iraq from insurgent forces that are taking over the country's northern cities.

If the terrorist group ISIS reaches Erbil, the president said he will call in U.S. air strikes. The U.S. has an embassy and other staffers in the city. Air strikes have also been authorized to protect families fleeing ISIS in the Sinjar Mountains.

"These innocent families are faced with a choice: descend and be slaughtered or stay and slowly die of hunger," he said.

Obama said U.S. combat troops will not return.

ABC News PHOTO: The US begins a humanitarian airdrop mission in Iraq.

"As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be drawn into fighting another war in Iraq," Obama said.

The announcements marked the deepest American engagement in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.

"Today, America is coming to help," Obama said. "The U.S. cannot turn a blind eye."

An air drop of food, water and medicine made at the request of the Iraqi government has been completed, the president said in the statement from the White House.

U.S. aircraft, escorted by fighter jets, dropped 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 meals ready to eat. The aircraft were over the drop area for less than 15 minutes flying at a low altitude, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The emergency effort is being deployed to help a group of 40,000 Yazidis, a group of ethnic Kurds, who fled villages in northern Iraq under threat from ISIS.

The Yazidis fled to the Sinjar Mountains, in a remote part of northern Iraq near the border of Syria, where they are stuck without food or water while ISIS forces are gathered at the base of the mountains.

ISIS has overtaken much of the northern part of Iraq, including the city of Mosul, over the past two months. They are simultaneously waging campaigns for territory in Syria and Lebanon in their quest to create a unified Islamic state encompassing territory from all three countries.

The Iraqi government has had little success battling ISIS.

In a statement, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said a solution to the threat posed by ISIS "will require further reconciliation among Iraqi communities and strengthened Iraqi security forces."

"Department of Defense personnel in Iraq therefore continue to assess opportunities to help train, advise, and assist Iraqi forces, and will provide increased support once Iraq has formed a new government," he said.

Plums, peaches recall expanded by California company

Wawona Packing Company of California is expanding their product recall due to possible listeria contamination.

MONDAY, Aug. 4, 2014 (HealthDay News) - A recall of fresh, whole peaches, nectarines, plums and pluots is being expanded by Wawona Packing Company of California due to possible listeria contamination.

Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, seniors, and people with weak immune systems. Listeria infection can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women.

On July 19, the Wawona Packing Company issued a recall for specific fresh, whole peaches, nectarines, plums and pluots packed between June 1 and July 12, 2014. The expanded recall covers all such fruits packed between June 1 and July 17.

The recalled products include the brands Sweet 2 Eat, Sweet 2 Eat Organic, and Mrs. Smittcamp's, and were also packed under private labels. Anyone with the recalled products should throw them away.

For more information, consumers can go to Wawona's website or call the company at 1-888-232-9912, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST or Saturday and Sunday between Sun 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST.

A Walmart in North Dakota: Or AEI thinks you're dumber than a bag of hammers

By Dante Atkins for Daily Kos

There's a Walmart out there that pays well. But it's not yours.

 

It's hard to think of two things that the right wing loves more than Walmart and oil drilling. So it comes as no surprise that the American Enterprise Institute, one of the conservative movement's most influential and aggressive pro-business economic think tanks, would be overjoyed at the opportunity to promote both in one fell swoop. 

 

Last month, Professor Mark J. Perry, a scholar at AEI, found just that opportunity in the form of a picture documenting the starting wages at the Walmart in Williston, North Dakota. The wages in question range between $17.20 and $19.90 an hour—far higher than Walmart's average hourly rate, and yet still a few dollars short of the wage of the average employee at Costco.
Now, to set the stage here, North Dakota is in the middle of an oil boom. The increased price of crude has combined with the development of new extraction techniques to result in a massive expansion of oil production in the Bakken shale. This has led to North Dakota having the lowest employment of any state in the country, and the Williston area is right at the boom's epicenter.

Now, in what follows, we're going to ignore the fact that the continued extraction of oil from the Bakken shale is actively contributing to the warming of our planet and the concomitant impending destruction of society as we know it, and choose instead to focus on the specific economic arguments.

See, Dr. Perry is using the example of this one Walmart situated in the middle of perhaps the strongest economy in the state to argue for Walmart and against the minimum wage. Either he's dumber than a bag of hammers, or he thinks his readers are, and it's hard to tell which.

In his first point, Professor Perry notes the first and most obvious thing about about the store in Williston: the comparison between the wages at the store in Williston with Walmart's average wages nationwide indicate that, yes, even Walmart has to respond to the market forces prevalent in a particular community in order to get its stores staffed.

Yes, Walmart won't be able to staff its stores if it attempted to pay minimum wage in Williston—but that doesn't mean that market forces require Walmart to pay lower wages in other places. Perry's apparent confusion on this issue is illustrative of a significant difference between upward pressure and downward pressure on wages: upward pressure on wages sets a higher floor for businesses to be able to get labor at all.

Downward pressure, on the other hand, allows businesses to use wage levels as a determiner of company values and strategy. A Costco and a Walmart in the same general vicinity are subject to the same wage pressures, but Costco chooses to pay a higher wage to engender higher employee loyalty and morale, along with its corresponding effects on customer satisfaction.

Walmart, on the other hand, chooses to exploit its labor by seeking it out at the lowest possible price, and expecting government to pick up the remaining tab through social services. In short, Walmart could choose to pay higher wages: after all, if it weren't profitable to keep the store in Williston open despite the comparatively high labor costs, Walmart would simply close it down.

But Dr. Perry isn't just using the example of this one store to mistakenly defend Walmart's business practices. Instead, he and AEI are using it to attack the very concept of a minimum wage:

2. The fact that Walmart is paying almost 2.5 times the minimum wage in Williston, ND is evidence that a single, national minimum wage for every city, county, labor market in the country can’t possibly make sense. Even proponents of the minimum wage have to agree that a single national minimum can’t be optimal for every labor market in the country. In that case, they would logically have to support thousands of minimum wages tailored to thousands of local communities, or maybe even more logically agree that minimum wages are unworkable.

3. You probably won’t be hearing anybody calling for a $15 per hour “living wage” in North Dakota, since the entry level wages at Walmart's there are already above that

Now, as we break down this section, let's not forget that Perry is a professor of economics at the University of Michigan. Arguments like this are convincing evidence that Wolverine State taxpayers aren't getting their money's worth. 

 

To begin with, Perry is assuming that Walmart is by its very nature a minimum-wage employer, and will only pay the lowest wage it can possibly get away with. But if Perry is representative of his colleagues, it seems that AEI is so invested in the supremacy of free markets that it has forgotten what the job of the minimum wage is. 

 

The entire point of a minimum wage is not to find what the lowest wage is that the market will bear, and codify it. The minimum wage exists as a tool for governments to contravene the very cheap price that the free market places on human dignity, and to ensure that  those who work can theoretically enjoy some modicum of decency regardless of what the free market might have otherwise intended for them. The entire point of a minimum wage isn't to tailor it to every single local community. 

 

Instead, the point is to establish a floor that will be functional for every community, regardless of whether upward pressure on wages in boom towns like Williston is ensuring that nobody will ever meet that floor. The same principle, of course, applies for the concept of the living wage: if a local economy is putting such upward pressure on wages that everyone is making a living wage, that's fantastic in theory—but it doesn't change what a living wage is or why it needs to exist. They exist because some businesses won't pay even that much unless they absolutely have to.
This, of course, brings us to Perry's final, and most ridiculous, claim:

5 (New). From Jon Murphy in the comments: Of course, what we also have here is a huge hole blown in the "we need minimum wage because businesses won't pay good wages" argument.

Yep. This, after writing just a couple of paragraphs earlier that Walmart is only paying good wages in this one boomtown because the local economy gives them no other choice. It's simply amazing that material like this is being published on the website of one of the most active, longest-standing economic think tanks on the right. They're clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Please Proceed: Republicans Hysterically Decide To Make Mitt Romney The Face of 2014

By Sarah Jones

Fooled again.

That CNN poll showing that Romney would beat Obama today in a hypothetical match really got Republicans dreaming. They ignore that Romney would lose in a hypothetical match against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton by 55 percent to 42 percent, and instead focus on how Romney would beat Obama in a hypothetical match. So they’re trying to sell Romney fever again. Romney is so popular, they tell us, that he’s out stumping for Republicans, while they claim no one wants to be seen with Obama.

So there, Obama! Take your 2012 mandate and shove it, because in a hypothetical match up, Romney totally unskewed that election!

Republican whisperer Robert Costa at the Washington Post reported that Mitt Romney is “emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most in-demand campaign surrogates.” He contrasted this with the fact that many Democrats are avoiding an “unpopular” President Obama. Since this is happening in areas where Republicans like Mitch McConnell are desperately trying to run against President Obama because his constituents conveniently believe the Republican lies about this President, it’s not hard to understand. But get back to me when Republicans use Mitt Romney to campaign in the inner city or hardcore Democratic areas. That’s apples to apples.

At any rate, the Mittpalooza is on, babies! Ro-mentum is real. 2016 is riiiight there. Per Costa:

Over three days in mid-August, Romney will campaign for GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates in West Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas, aides said. In September, he is planning visits to the presidential swing states of Colorado and Virginia.

Romney is filling up his October schedule, as well. Senate hopefuls in Iowa and New Hampshire are eager for him to return before November’s midterms, while Romney is weighing trips to other Senate battlegrounds. At least one high-profile Senate campaign said it has produced a television advertisement featuring Romney ready to air in the fall.

“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” said Spencer Zwick, a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council.

He added: “Candidates, campaigns and donors in competitive races are calling saying, ‘Can we get Mitt here?’ They say, ‘We’ve looked at the polling, and Mitt Romney moves the needle for us.’ That’s somewhat unexpected for someone who lost the election.”

Republicans will believe anything, apparently, except reality. No science, no medicine, no physics, no history — but Ro-mentum! All of this because of one poll. As if it weren’t skewed, inaccurate polls that got them into this mess in the first place. Get back to us when Republicans use him in Los Angeles, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or any other Democratic stronghold.

But really. A hypothetical poll of an existing entity versus a fantasy entity is sort of like believing that the fantasy partner one has never had is a viable, better alternative to someone with whom one is in a long term relationship. It’s juvenile, childish and predictable, because people believe the grass is greener in their imagination.

Reality check: If there were an actual election right now with Mitt Romney in it, he would be in the news, and being in the news was never a positive thing for Mitt Romney. Thus, the public would be reminded of his out-of-touch cluelessness and his snide, sneering contempt for them. His wife would be lecturing them about the Romneys’ entitlement. The people would not be happy with the Royals.

As it is, the public has been beaten over the head with phony Obama scandals and a DC that is not working, disturbing foreign policy issues and not enough good paying jobs.

None of these things would be fixed with Mitt Romney at the helm.

Republicans might want to note that the CNN poll was heavy on landlines (622 to 350 on cells), which favors the older, typically Republican voter, and that still, Democratic Congressional candidates were consistently ahead of Republicans. That is the only election actually coming up in reality, and therefor the only election that is relevant. But it’s also relevant that Republicans continue to believe that Obama is massively unpopular. They believed this going into 2012. The media believed it, too. They had polls to back up their beliefs. But those polls were skewed Republican.

Right now, Congressional Democrats are raising money off of Republican attacks on President Obama. They ask supporters to have Obama’s back. They are getting Obama voters motivated to go to the polls — people who usually stay home in midterms. They would not be doing that if Obama were massively unpopular. The midterms favor Republicans, but Republicans are doing everything in their power do destroy their advantage, including attaching themselves to Mitt Romney. The Democrats only need five seconds to remind the public of why they chose Obama.

Does the public fantasize about a different person in the White House magically making Republicans do their jobs and thus changing things? Of course they do. That’s the entire point of the Republican obstruction. But only the very childish believe in comparing fantasy to reality. So, that means that Republicans are giddily shoving Mitt Romney out there.

The echoes of President Obama should warn them as Democrats smile, “Please proceed.”

Please Proceed: Republicans Hysterically Decide To Make Mitt Romney The Face of 2014 was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.

Teaser Image of New Homebrew App/Utility for Wii U

By GaryOPA

Only been a day since MarioNumber1 updated the Wii U's Browser Exploit to handle latest firmwares

And already great things are happening at amazing speed in the newly formed Nintendo Wii U's scene, here is exclusive image of new app being developed to will allow you to launch Homebrew & Dump Keys!

Yesterday, MarioNumber1 updated the first big exploit on Wii U using the WebKit Browser to be able to handle the latest firmwares v5.1.0, but already developers have been working on exploring the userspace and finding more exploits and other things that can be accessed thanks to the 'Browser Exploit', we already posted over the last month videos of Mario Kart 8, but today we bring the first image of actual Homebrew App/Utility being dumped that when finished will able you to launch actual Wii U mode 'homebrew' and dump your needed unique 'keys' that are needed to enable devices like ODE's to work, and also other great future homebrew apps, etc.

A picture they say is worth a thousand words, and this one is worth millions I think, it was given to me by developers that wish to remain for now 'uncredited' and don't ask for ETA, but its been worked on daily, and we will post more good news regarding the growing Wii U scene over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for some ball-busting amazing action found right here only on MaxConsole UnderGround.

Bernie Sanders Comes Through Again For Vets As Deal Reached To Reform the VA

By: Jason Easley 

 

Sen. Bernie Sanders has delivered for our veterans. Sen. (I-VT) will be unveiling compromise legislation with House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller that will fund and reform the VA.

According to The Hill:

Leaders in the House and Senate have reached a deal on legislation to reform the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department and are poised to unveil it on Monday.

Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), told The Hill in an email that an agreement has been reached that will “deal with both the short-term and long-term needs of the VA.”

The VA bill appeared in doubt last week as Sanders and Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) — the chairmen of the two Veterans Affairs’ committees — butted heads over rival proposals. But they kept talking over the weekend, and on Sunday suggested a deal was at hand.

Sen. Sanders is often thought of as a fighter and voice of the left. He took Republicans to task after they killed his VA bill earlier this year that looked prophetic after the scandal at the Veterans Administration broke. He has never backed away from calling out the hypocrisy behind the Republican willingness to send men and women to war, and their refusal to fund the care that the troops are entitled to when they come home.

Sanders has been willing to compromise in order to help the nation’s vets. In June, he worked with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to get a veterans healthcare bill passed in the Senate. On Monday, he will announce compromise legislation with his House counterparts that will give vets access to the healthcare that they need.

Bernie Sanders is showing congressional Republicans how Congress is supposed to function. The legislation process is not a zero-sum game. It isn’t supposed to be made up of winners and losers. The legislative process is based on compromise. Our members of Congress are supposed to give a little and meet in the middle in order to do what is right for the American people.
 

By never giving up, and always working hard, Sen. Sanders has delivered for our veterans. Bernie Sanders deserves to be praised for being a fighter, but deserves greater praise for doing his job in the way that it is supposed to be done.

Bank of America and Other Megabanks Say They Want to Make Nice With Poor People: Don't Buy It

By Lynn Parramore

How do we hate thee, Bank of America? Let us count the ways:
We hate thee for thy mortgage misdeeds, foreclosure frauds and grotesque fees. For unnecessarily kicking people out of their homes, extorting money from military families through predatory loan rates, and treating thy customers like garbage.

For basically being too-big-to-fail/too-big-to-jail blight on the economy and society thou hast proven to be, time and again.

Bank of America has earned itself the worst reputation of any big lender in the U.S., and that is no small feat. The megabank has incurred so many legal costs for its various frauds and abuses, to the tune of billions, its profits have seen a dip. Whatever is a big bank to do?

Under increasing pressure from regulators and widely despised by the public, Bank of America now wants us to believe hat it will make nice with poor people. In a recent report in the New York Times, we learn that BofA and other giant banks are trying to launder their public images by talking about offering low-fee services to people who have been left out of the banking system. BofA has launched a banking account it claims is intended to prevent troubled customers from running up fees for overdrawing their balances.

That’s very interesting, because so far, its accounts have been designed to do the opposite, which is why a lot of poor people don’t have bank accounts in the first place.

BofA’s public campaign showing us its touchy-feely side involves asking low-income people to create collages representing their emotions about money. One image shows a woman who appears to be naked wearing nothing but words like “power,” “want” and “desire” scrawled across her skin.

Other banks like JPMorgan, are following suit with lower-cost prepaid debit cards, checking accounts and what not. As the Times points out, it’s a bit difficult to start cheering:

"It is hard not to be skeptical, particularly because the banks, most recently in the subprime housing crisis, have traditionally wrung vast profits from some of these same customers, who paid steep rates for loans and high fees on basic checking accounts.”

You can say that again.

So here’s the real deal. Under the scrutiny of regulators, these banks have gotten cautious, so they’re trotting out a couple of products that are somewhat less rapacious than their normal fare (nonsensical fees still apply, they’re just lower). We’re guessing that the minute the regulators turn the other way, many of these targeted low-income customers will find themselves hit by some unexpected fee hikes that will send them right back where they came from, the land of the unbanked.

That’s how things roll in the oliogopoly that is the American banking system, where customers have the illusion of choice, but in reality face an industry dominated by a few gigantic players who decide how much abuse they can get away with at any given time. Bank of America is sort of like the lead dog in a small pack of rabid animals constantly scouring the landscape for prey. Whatever it signals, the rest will do, and the most vulnerable customers will be ripped, chewed and spit out.

According to Mehrsa Baradaran, an assistant law professor at the University of Georgia, more than one out of four Americans either don’t have a bank account or do have one, but primarily rely on unscrupulous check-cashing storefronts, payday lenders, title lenders, or pawnshops to survive. In her view, the best option for them would be to do their banking through the U.S. postal system. Elizabeth Warren, and many other progressives, have gotten on board with this idea.

Sounds kind of odd, until you consider that the post office comes with several advantages and an infrastructure that makes it uniquely suited to this role. For example, it has branches in many low-income neighborhoods that were long ago abandoned by private banks. Also, people have a sense of familiarity and comfort with the postal service that they will never have with the likes of BofA or JPMorgan.

Post offices already offer financial services like money orders, and postal banks could add things like savings accounts, debit cards and even simple loans, without relying on a profit model that takes advantage of people.

This is not a new idea. Baradaran notes that in 1910, President William Howard Taft created a government-backed postal savings system for recent immigrants and the poor, which lasted until 1967. Unfortunately, times changed as private banks got bigger and more powerful, and the poor were pretty much thrown to the financial wolves:

“By the 1990's, there were essentially two forms of banking: regulated and insured mainstream banks to serve the needs of the wealthy and middle class, and a Wild West of unregulated payday lenders and check-cashing joints that answer the needs of the poor — at a price.”

In a world in which cash is increasingly becoming obsolete, the poor urgently need financial services. But believing that giant banks operating in oligopolistic conditions and thinking of little beyond profit maximization are the answer is nothing more than a fairy tale. One that ends badly for those who can least afford to lose.

David Gregory: Dead Head Talking?

By Lloyd Grove

NBC News’ chief White House correspondent, Chuck Todd, and Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are jockeying to replace the moderator of Meet the Press.

Whenever he got around to reading the unpleasant item in the Page Six column on Wednesday, Meet the Press moderator David Gregory could not have been happy with NBC’s tepid denial that his job is on the line.       

 “We heard the same false rumors and suggest you take them with a grain of salt, as we did,” the New York Post’s premier gossip column quoted a so-called NBC spokesperson.


 “Just a grain of salt?” Gregory might have thought to himself. “Not even a teaspoon?”       

The spokesperson’s quote—which seemed to some observers an act of premeditated murder—was in stark contrast to NBC News President Deborah Turness’ ardent display of support for Gregory only three months ago, when The Washington Post claimed that NBC had hired a psychologist to interview his friends and relatives to help him get a handle on his television identity.       

“I wanted to reach out to reiterate my support for the show and for David, now and into the future, as we work together to evolve the format,” Turness wrote then in a memo to the staff. “NBC News is proud to have David in the important anchor chair of ‘Meet the Press.’…He is passionate about politics, and is committed to getting answers for our viewers on the issues that matter to them the most.”        

The 43-year-old Gregory, who has been hosting NBC News’ venerable Sunday public affairs program since December 2008 to inexorably declining ratings, didn’t respond to an email requesting guidance on his situation.

But the Page Six item—which suggested that Turness will replace Gregory at MTP shortly after the midterm elections in November—prompted an energetic round of speculation among network insiders about who planted it, for what reason, and which ambitious on-air personality will dislodge Gregory from the anchor chair of the third-place Sunday show.       

In multiple conversations that I had with people inside and outside NBC after the item appeared, it was taken as a given that Gregory is toast. The Post reported viewership has sunk an alarming 43 percent—and in recent months MTP has been beaten consistently by ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos and CBS’s Face the Nation, hosted by Bob Schieffer—since Gregory assumed the unenviable position of taking over for the late Tim Russert, who turned the show during his 16 years as moderator into No. 1 must-see Sunday television.

In multiple conversations that I had with people inside and outside NBC, it was taken as a given that Gregory is toast.

The principal pretenders to the MTP throne are NBC News’ chief White House correspondent and political director, Chuck Todd—who anchors The Daily Rundown, MSNBC’s weekday 9 a.m. show—and the cohosts of the three-hour-long Morning Joe program that precedes it, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

According to my sources, Scarborough, 51, a Washington-savvy former Republican congressman from Florida, and Brzezinski, 47, the supremely well-connected daughter of former White House national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, have been aggressively angling for the job in the event of Gregory’s all-but-certain demise. If they were to be picked as MTP cohosts, it would represent a complete departure from the 69-year-old program’s traditional format. On Thursday, Scarborough tweeted: “There have been numerous stories with NBC News sources saying Mika and I have been 'aggressively angling' for MTP. That is false.” There might be a difference in nuance, of course, between “aggressively angling” and “making no secret” that you want the job, as an informed source told me about Scarborough and Brzezinski.


An NBC insider told me the duo had believed they had an understanding with top news division executives that they would be named cohosts of the Sunday Today show in addition to their Morning Joe duties. Then Turness arrived at NBC from Britain’s ITV News in August 2013 and undid the agreement, I’m told. “They were furious,” my source told me, referring to Scarborough and Brzezinski.

While some observers have expressed skepticism that Scarborough, an erstwhile professional politician, should be made co-anchor of a public affairs program that aspires to be strictly nonpartisan and down the middle, Scarborough’s supporters cite the example of Stephanopoulos—who was a sharp-elbowed Democratic operative and a top adviser in Bill Clinton’s White House before he became ABC News’ chief anchor, cohost of ABC’s top-rated Good Morning America, and the host of the frequently top-rated Sunday show.

Indeed, the much-revered Russert, before he joined NBC News, was an aggressively partisan top aide to Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

The 42-year-old Todd, who has occasionally clashed with Scarborough on the air, leading some to believe that there’s little love lost between them, has slimmed down in recent weeks to fighting trim.

Todd, who wears a goatee, is also deeply knowledgeable about politics and Washington folkways.

Neither Todd, Scarborough nor Brzezinski returned my phone calls, but it’s widely assumed that either the Todd camp or the Scarborough-Brzezinski camp dropped the dime on Gregory, although one veteran NBC producer mischievously suggested: “The people who planted the item are the same people who are making the decision.”