Ron Paul Slams Bernanke in Congress, Again: "History is Against You"

Presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul takes FED chairman Ben Bernanke to task once again in a House Financial Services Committee meeting today in Washington. Paul lets loose on the FED chairman about their destructive activity that is destroying the value of the dollar. Bernanke, like clockwork, gives his same old tired response about the CPI, which does NOT comprehensively account for all of the areas of "consumer cost". Frankly, its just a ridiculous response. Bernanke really ends up having no choice but to admit that Paul is right.

Faux News .... or Fox Porn?

You gotta check out the links in this blurb, which contain real Faux News footage... Wicked good, and wicked bad.

From Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

Via Feminist Law Profs comes this interesting website/advertisement for "Outfoxed," a documentary about how Fox News is dragging down the entire television medium. The website "Fox News Porn" exposes how Fox News consistently relies on images of scantily clad and gyrating women to titillate its conservative audience (puns intended). All of the images on the faux site were actually broadcast on Fox News.

The segments (which you can view on Outfoxed's really well done (and provocative) site) Fox News Porn are particularly surprising (at least to me, since I never -- ever -- stop flipping the channels at Faux News) in light of O'Reilly's near-constant screeds about moral values and the decline of the American social fabric. Nice to know that Murdoch's empire is putting its money where its mouth is.

Inside the World of War Profiteers

Slowly, the graft associated with the largely privatized war in Iraq is being exposed. Unfortunately, an impotent Congress and a wholly corrupt Department of Justice owned by the Executive branch will keep most of this under wraps, or at least in the "a few bad apples" ball park, long enough to let everyone off unscathed except the taxpayers.

From The Chicago Tribune:

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show. (story continues here)

All Starbucks Closing Tonite, Apocalypse Imminent

From Chicagoist:

If you're cramming for a test, need a post-dinner pick me up or want a Paul McCartney CD between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 tonight, you'll have to go somewhere other than Starbucks. Nearly all of the coffee chain's locations will be closed for a company-wide education and training session for employees. Dunkin' Donuts just happens to have a promotion running today and will be giving away free lattes. Our favorite quote in the Trib's story comes courtesy of Frances Allen, Dunkin' Donuts' brand marketing officer: "We never want any customers to ever be denied access to their specialty drinks." You tell 'em, Ms. Allen. Let's draft a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Frappuncino availability.

If you want a quality hot beverage this evening that you don't mind paying for, we recommend opting for Intelligentsia (the Millennium Park store is open till 8 and Broadway till 10). Talking Heads' frontman and all-around awesome guy David Byrne agrees with us. On a recent trip to Los Angeles he stopped by Intelligentsia's new Silverlake location and prounounced the coffees "incredible. This seems to be common knowledge — the place is filled with hipsters waiting patiently to order." Absolutely.