Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalBradley Manning Verdict Coming On Tuesday: Military Judge
FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military judge says she expects to announce a verdict Tuesday in the court-martial of an Army private charged with aiding the enemy for giving U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks.
Col. Denise Lind gave the heads-up notice Monday, her third day of deliberations in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade. Manning faces a possible life sentence if convicted of the charge.
The 25-year-old also faces 20 other counts, including espionage, computer fraud and theft for admittedly sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents and some battlefield video to the anti-secrecy website while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.
In closing arguments last week, the defense portrayed Manning as a naive whistleblower who wanted to expose war crimes. Prosecutors call him an anarchist hacker and a traitor.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/bradley-manning-verdict_n_3671347.html
Signed Contracts To Buy US Homes Slip In June After Reaching 6-Year High In Previous Month
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes dipped in June from a six-year high in May, a sign that sales could stabilize over the next few months.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales ticked down 0.4 percent to 110.9 in June. The May reading was revised lower by a percentage point to 111.3, but it was still the highest since December 2006.
The slight decline suggests higher mortgage rates may be starting to slow sales. Still, signed contracts are 10.9 percent higher than they were a year ago. There is generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale.
Economists were relieved after seeing only a modest decline. They said that shows higher mortgage rates are having only a small impact on the home sales market.
"All told ... pending home sales held up fantastically well," Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, an institutional brokerage, said in a note to clients.
MORE...
http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/505656ebbc48487f9ad0a22d0c6085c9/US--Pending-Home-Sales
Amazon Hiring 5,000 in Warehouses to Meet Customer Demand
By Danielle Kucera - Jul 29, 2013
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is boosting staff in 17 U.S. warehouses, adding more than 5,000 full-time jobs to meet brisk demand for products sold by the world’s biggest Web retailer.
The new hires will join more than 20,000 employees working at Amazon’s more than three dozen U.S. fulfillment centers, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today. Amazon is also hiring 2,000 customer-service staff, including part-time and seasonal workers.
The retailer plans to open five more facilities this year, after adding 20 last year. Warehouse expenses have more than doubled during the past three years, as Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos opens centers full of products closer to consumers in order to reduce shipping costs and speed up delivery. Higher spending contributed to Amazon’s surprise net loss for the second quarter as the online seller continues to fuel revenue growth at the expense of profits.
“As we get closer and closer to customers with fulfillment, we have seen growth,” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak said on a conference call July 25.
That growth is also being driven by Amazon Prime members, who pay $79 a year in exchange for unlimited two-day shipping and access to streaming video, Szkutak said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-29/amazon-hiring-5-000-in-warehouses-to-meet-customer-demand.html
Bernanke Can Be Deposed in AIG Bailout Suit, Court Rules
By Sara Forden - Jul 29, 2013
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will have to give testimony in a lawsuit against the U.S. brought by Maurice “Hank” Greenberg over the government’s bailout of American International Group Inc. (AIG)
Greenberg’s Starr International Co. sued the U.S. for $25 billion in 2011, claiming the assumption of 80 percent of AIG’s stock by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in September 2008 was a seizure of property that violated shareholders’ constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the law. Switzerland-based Starr contended Bernanke’s role in transaction made his testimony critical to its suit.
“The court is persuaded that Mr. Bernanke is a key witness in this case and that his testimony will be highly relevant to the issues presented,” Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims wrote in the ruling today. “Because of Mr. Bernanke’s personal involvement in the decision-making process to bail out AIG, it is improbable that the plaintiff would be able to obtain the same testimony or evidence from other persons or sources.”
The government argued that whatever Bernanke has to say is available from other sources, including Board of Governors meeting minutes and the depositions of lower-ranking officials, according to a Justice Department filing on July 16.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-29/bernanke-can-be-deposed-in-aig-bailout-suit-court-rules.html
U.S. Paring Debt Sales Vindicates Anti-Austerity Since 2008
By Cordell Eddings and Jeff Marshall - Jul 29, 2013
For the first time in three years, the U.S. Treasury will announce plans to begin reducing debt sales in a victory for stimulus over austerity, the majority of Wall Street’s biggest bond dealers say.
Government sales will be cut by $40 billion to $100 billion during the next year when the Treasury announces its quarterly funding needs July 31, a survey of the 21 primary dealers that are obligated to bid at U.S. bond auctions shows. About two-thirds of those responding, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., see reductions this year, possibly as soon as next month. The U.S. issued $2.153 trillion in 2012.
Smaller sales may contain yields as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke prepares to reduce the $85 billion a month of bond buying that has supported the economy. The budget deficit has fallen to about half what it was in 2009 and a Bloomberg survey shows gross domestic product may grow next year at the fastest pace since 2006. By contrast, the euro area’s economy is shrinking as governments pursue austerity measures in the face of debt turmoil.
“It’s clear the U.S. approach of stimulate first, get the economy running and work on the deficit later has turned out much better than a crackdown of budget deficits now and assuming it will all work out in the long run,” Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist in Newark, New Jersey, for Prudential Financial Inc.’s fixed-income division, said in a telephone interview on July 23 . The group oversees $400 billion.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-29/u-s-paring-debt-sales-vindicates-anti-austerity-since-2008-1-.html
Cantaloupe Calves, and 4 Other Unhinged Comments from America’s Lunatic Right-Wing Fringe This Week
July 27, 2013 |
You know you’re pretty far out on the rightward flank of the right wing, when Speaker of the House John “repeal all laws” Boehner and Rep. Paul “slash all social programs” Ryan (R-Wisc.) publicly denounce your comments, but such was the accomplishment of Iowa Rep. Steve King this week. In the past, King has compared immigrants to both dogs and livestock, but this week he went with a fruit metaphor. You see he is just really tired of all the claims that sometimes undocumented immigrants and especially their children achieve things, contribute to and are actually good for a country founded by, well, undocumented immigrants.
“For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” King notoriously said.
--CLIP
Here are the other lowlights from this week in crazy.
1. Jennifer Rubin: Our first black president is taking us backwards on the subject of race.
While some of the bigoted, victim-blaming Trayvon Martin commentary died down this week, eclipsed by Anthony Weiner’s penis pranks and the vitally important royal baby-naming cliffhanger, arch-conservative, proudly Islamophobic Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin kept the racism flame alive with comments on President Obama’s speech last Friday. In a conversation with NewsMax radio host Steve Malzberg, Rubin simply denied the existence of institutional racism. Racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist, she asserted. Poof, gone. Racism is something “most Americans have never personally experienced,” she said. We think it is pretty clear that when Rubin says “most Americans,” she means, “most white Americans.”
--CLIP
2. Pat Buchanan is not sure what’s worse, Anthony Weiner sexting or Christine Quinn being a married lesbian.
We were not going to talk about Anthony Weiner. We were not going to talk about sexting, dick pics, or make fun of his nom de plume Carlos Danger. We were not going to speculate on Huma’s motives, the childhood source of the former congressman’s pathetic need for validation of his manliness, or his misunderstanding of social media. We weren’t going to talk about it, because, really, what’s the point? But, somehow, sure enough, the haters managed to turn this into an opportunity to, once again, bash gay people. Really, when you are a hater, just about everything is an opportunity to bash gay people, here and in Russia, where horrifying videos have come to light about gay teenagers being kidnapped and tortured.
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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/immigrants-have-cantaloupe-calves-and-4-other-unhinged-comments-americas-lunatic?page=0%2C1&akid=10740.260530.g2wnuk&rd=1&src=newsletter874970&t=5
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Should Resign, Sen. Feinstein Says
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on Sunday joined a growing list of Democrats calling on San Diego Mayor Bob Filner to resign due to allegations that he has sexually harassed women, intensifying the pressure on him to step down.
"I don't think that somebody who is lacking a moral compass really sets a role model or really will provide the kind of leadership that San Diegans want,'' Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I suspect there will be recalls, and the people will judge,’’ she said. "I think he should make it easier and resign."
Filner, a Democrat, has rejected calls to resign. H said Friday that he was entering therapy for two weeks to learn how to behave better.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, last week called on the 70-year-old Filner to step down, as have a number of San Diego-area Democratic officials, including Reps. Scott Peters and Susan Davis.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-pn-filner-feinstein-quit-san-diego-mayor-20130728,0,3004321.story
Obama's Defensive Offensive
The president wants to make sure blame falls on the GOP.By Doyle McManus
July 28, 2013
President Obama sounds like a man back on the offensive.
The president is reprising his core message that what the economy needs is more federal spending on popular priorities such as infrastructure and education, not less.
And his stump speeches last week in Illinois, Missouri and Florida put Republicans on notice that he will blame them if a standoff over spending results in a government shutdown or a financial crisis over the federal debt ceiling this fall.
"Repealing Obamacare and cutting spending is not an economic plan," Obama lectured his opponents. "You can't just be against something; you've got to be for something."
But is that true?
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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-obama-on-the-offensive-20130728,-2011,3689149.column
How American Jewish leaders Are Undermining Two-State Solution - Via Jerusalem
Considering the U.S. sees East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state within the framework of any viable two-state solution, mainstream American Jewish leaders’ insistence that Israel should be listed as the birthplace in Jerusalem-born American citizens’ passports undermines U.S. foreign policy and the two-state solution.This article was originally published in The Daily Beast’s Open Zion on Friday July 26, 2013.
On Tuesday, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that Americans born in Jerusalem cannot list Israel as their birthplace on their U.S. passports, in accordance with long-standing U.S. policy. The reason the judges provided is that doing so would infringe on the president’s exercise of power regarding recognition of foreign governments — which has since 1948 meant a refusal to recognize Israel or any country’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, since its final status must be determined in negotiations. The court decision concludes a case originally opened in 2003 by parents of a Jerusalem-born American Jewish boy, Menachem Zivotofsky, who requested to list Israel as the birthplace on his U.S. passport.
American Jewish groups were quick to condemn the decision, insisting that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and calling on the Supreme Court to reverse the decision and maintain that Americans should have the right to list “Israel” as their birthplace, and not just “Jerusalem.” The chairman of the Jewish Federations of North America issued a statement that the decision “leaves 50,000 Americans without an official birth country.”
In an op-ed in Haaretz, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman goes so far as to call the ruling discriminatory, saying it deprives Americans of their civil right to identify themselves on their passports as they wish. He asks how it is that the issue has become “so political,” and insists it “should not be a question of technicalities or legalities or separation of powers. It should be a question of sensible public policy — recognition of the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel.”
Apparently Foxman is unaware, or chooses to ignore, that Jerusalem is in fact quite a “political” issue, one of the thorniest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The fact that no country in the world will house its embassy in Jerusalem, because nobody except Israel formally recognizes Jerusalem as that country’s capital, doesn’t seem to register with him. Neither does the fact that the Palestinian residents of the city are citizens of nowhere, subject to an Israeli government they cannot elect and devoid of the luxury to choose which country to list as their birthplace. Foxman also doesn’t seem aware that Palestinian residents of Jerusalem who become American citizens (or spend enough years out of Jerusalem) are stripped of their residency, leaving their freedom to enter the very place they were born to the whims of the Israeli authorities.
MORE...
http://972mag.com/how-american-jewish-leaders-are-undermining-two-state-solution-via-jerusalem/76565/
Israel vs. Iran, Again
By JONATHAN TEPPERMAN
Published: July 26, 2013
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel went on American television to remind the world (in case anyone had forgotten) that the threat from Iran remains very much alive. Speaking on “Face the Nation,” Netanyahu warned that the Islamic Republic is once again approaching a nuclear redline, and hinted that if the United States doesn’t take action soon, he will.
Expect to hear more of this in the weeks ahead; Bibi’s TV appearance was reportedly just the opening shot in a new campaign to push the spotlight back on Iran. But don’t expect Washington or the international community to leap into action.
Netanyahu won’t — and shouldn’t — get the kind of response he’s hoping for. Simply put, that’s because both his language and Israel’s behavior are make it harder and harder to take his warnings seriously.
The problem starts with just how familiar Israel’s warnings on Iran have become. Netanyahu went through a similar exercise, remember, last summer. And the summer before that. In fact, Israeli leaders have been issuing such alarms for almost a decade now.
That repetition wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if just what they’ve been warning about hadn’t also shifted so much. Consider: Back in 2004, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, he said the point of no return would come when Iran came close to developing the technical capacity to enrich uranium.
more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/27/opinion/global/israel-vs-iran-again.html?_r=1&
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