skippy the bush kangaroo

recently in rolling stone, matt taibbi detailed how wall street lobbyists, with a big assist from congress and the white house, are rolling back the dodd-frank financial reform law. dodd-frank, designed to rein in banking fraud and recklessness and prevent another cataclysmic financial crisis, "turned out to be like the fish reeled in by hemingway's old man," matt wrote, "no sooner caught than set upon by sharks that strip it to nothing long before it ever reaches the shore."

to get the word out about wall street's anti-reform push and stiffen spines in congress, we're trying out thunderclap, a cool new technology that lets groups of people tweet a single message together at the same time, breaking through the din and reaching a potentially massive audience. (learn more here.) but we need your help! - rolling stone

a scheduling snafu at a north carolina walmart led to the police being called to ask a group of veterans to leave the store on sunday.

members of a local vfw say they had been told that arrangements had been made to allow them to hand out poppies in observance of memorial day, but walmart says it had already booked the spot out in front of the store for another group.

and store policy only allows for one group to solicit outside a store at a time. the local news report does not explain why police needed to be called to resolve the situation.- consumerist

bank of america, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.

america's second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the filipino press. - mother jones

the story of a sitting governor of a state with a history of presidential election shenanigans knowingly purging his own, eligible constituents from the voter rolls is the definition of major news, and yet remarkably, in the first five months of the year, the washington post, the wall street journal and usa today have published a total of zero articles about scott’s actions. the new york times did slightly better, printing one story on page 16 of the friday, may 18th edition. the article ran under the credulous headline: “florida steps up effort against illegal voters.” - think progress

happy birthday to one of my best friends, the golden gate bridge. may we spend another 75 years together playing hide-and-seek.
— san francisco fog (@karlthefog) May 27, 2012

last week, the republican-led house armed services committee proposed a new pentagon budget. tucked away inside it was a provision that would prohibit the department of defense from buying any alternative fuels that cost more than conventional fossil fuels. tpm has the story.

slate’s fred kaplan laments that this provision would kill the $12 million “green strike group” program the navy is running, which would field a strike group running entirely on biofuels (and a nuclear-powered carrier) for a naval exercise in june. the navy hopes to have an entire “great green fleet” in the water by 2016.

but the language is far broader than that. it would effectively prohibit military field-testing of any non-fossil fuel. after all, if alternatives were already cheaper than fossil fuels, they wouldn’t be alternatives. the air force couldn’t experiment with fuel blends for its jets. the army couldn’t fuel its “green warrior convoy.” this provision would explicitly ban the military from being an instrument of energy innovation. - grist

according to an analysis by the center for budget and policy priorities, romney’s economic plan would throw 13 million people off of food stamps entirely - think progress

...but state rep. stacey newman (d) said the bill endangering women’s access to health care was more of an attack on “women’s reproductive choices” than a message to the federal government. “this is wrong and i dare you to go home and talk to your daughters … and say, ‘look, what we’re going to say is that your employers’ religious beliefs matter more than your own,’” newman told colleagues. - think progress

four people died, dozens were injured and 3,000 were left homeless after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook several small towns in northeast italy on sunday.

the quake struck in the farm region known for production of parmigiano and grana cheeses. italy's farm lobby coldiretti said about 200,000 huge, round cheeses were damaged, causing a loss to producers of $65 million. - sfgate

“f**k the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures,” chirps peter melz, former president of merrill lynch professional clearing corp. (a.k.a. merrill pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales.

we also find out here how wall street professionals manipulated public opinion by buying off and/or intimidating experts in their respective fields. in one email made public in this document, a lobbyist for sifma, the securities industry and financial markets association, tells a goldman executive how to engage an expert who otherwise would go work for “our more powerful enemies,” i.e. would work with overstock on the company’s lawsuit. - matt taibbi in rolling stone

michigan elections officials had proof emergency manager repeal petitions were legal but kept it secret. - daily kos

former united states president george w bush and seven of his associates have been found guilty of war crimes.

but their deeds are likely to go unpunished as the kuala lumpur war crimes tribunal which found them guilty is a "tribunal of conscience" and does not have the power to impose any punishment.
bush, former us vice president richard cheney, former defence secretary donald rumsfeld, former deputy assistant attorney general john choon yoo, former assistant attorney general jay bybee, and former counsels alberto gonzales, david addington and william haynes 2 were convicted as war criminals on Friday.

the five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered a guilty verdict on charges relating to their involvement of knowing that prisoners of war were being tortured while held in afghanistan, iraq and guantanamo bay.

they were charged and convicted for torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of the complainant war crime victims, kuala lumpur foundation to criminalise war said in a statement - stuff.co.nz

according to their most recent outlook, the national interagency fire center predicts that large parts of southern and central california, along with forests throughout the sierra nevada, are likely to see more wildfires than normal, particularly later this summer. - climate central

family pulled from jetblue flight because 18-month-old daughter is on "no-fly list" - consumerist

the point is, when people talk about “austerity,” they only ever talk about the pain the general population should voluntarily accept, in the form of reduced services and curtailed “stimulus.” no one ever says the financial services sector should have to cut back on its access to easy money, and there hasn’t been much in the way of serious plans to restore some sanity and prudence to the lending and investing business. - matt taibbi over at rolling stone

the assembly appropriations committee is studying the potential fiscal impact of a
legislative proposal introduced by assemblymember das williams (d-santa barbara) that would transfer some state-owned properties to a public trust in order to provide need financial support to the state’s higher education systems.

ab 2442 would establish the california hope public trust, to manage state-owned properties deemed suitable for development with the goal of increasing that value of its holdings and earning revenue for the university of california (uc), the california state university (csu) and california community college systems.

“a world class higher education system is one of the hallmarks of our state’s economy, but to see the carnage our uc’s, csu’s and community colleges have taken, we have some work to get us to the greatness we are capable of. but that can start with finding ways to dedicate funding to continue building upon the world-class public education system right here in california,” - das williams

the michigan board of state canvassers has rejected the more than 200,000 signatures collected in support of holding a referendum on the state's emergency manager law. The board's two republican members said the petitions used the incorrect font size. - mother jones.