Gone but not forgotten – the bin Laden revival tour

Dead man walking, with assistance
“I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a … kidney patient,” Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN.
“Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. “One was specifically for his own personal use,” he said.
“I don’t know if [...]

HHS Task Force Mammogram Recs Slammed

Cancer doc (left) tops bureaucrat (right) on cancer recs (WUSA).
HHS Head Sibelius Says, Ignore Panel, Get Checked
Michael Collins
Also published at The Agonist

“The (task force) recommends against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years.” U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, Nov. 17, 2009

“My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always [...]

Benefactors or Piranha? Our Foreign Friends

Michael Collins
Like Blanche DuBois, the United States is “down on its uppers.”  We rely on the kindness of foreigners to finance our government.
A Whole Lot of Kindness

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Oct. 16, 2009
These customers must be extending kindness.  How else do you explain the massive purchase of Treasuries Securities?  They’re ignoring wars [...]

How we got to Zero: General Eikenberry’s Hail Mary

From The Agonist

How We Got to Zero:  General Eikenberry’s Hail Mary

Michael Collins
U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase
“WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American [...]

40 Million “Health” Criminals

At least two provisions in the House  health reform bill are very troubling, the de facto repeal of Roe v. Wade and this.  In a powerful post on the Welcome Back to Pottersville, poster Jurasicpork laid it out.  This is as clear and logical a statement as I’ve seen on the utter contempt that Congress [...]

Goldman left foreign investors holding the subprime bag

Greg Norton interviewed on the Real News Network (Video)
NEW YORK — Inside the thick Goldman Sachs investment circular were the details of a secret, $2 billion deal channeled through a Caribbean tax haven.
Snip
One bond analyst who reviewed the 2006 Cayman deal dismissed it in a report to clients as “a not so cleverly disguised way [...]

Failure by Design – the “Public” Option

Triumph of the Money Party
Michael Collins
Do you know what the “public option” does or who it covers?  If you’ve had trouble finding out, it’s not your fault.  Reading corporate media coverage provides little or no clue.  It’s hardly ever defined.  There’s a very good reason for the lack of clarity and definition.  But [...]

McClatchy Busts Goldman on Double Dealing

Today, McClatchy Newspapers added the how to the what Goldman did in its investment banking business.   Right after the 2008 election, Pro Publica broke a story about Goldman urging key clients to dump California bonds after Goldman had a big pay day from the state to sell the bonds in the first place:
“Goldman, Sachs & [...]