How to Make Banks Really Mad: Occupy Foreclosures

Mike Konczal, New Deal 2.0: "Could the next step after camping in Zuccotti Park be camping out in homes facing foreclosure? As people think a bit more critically about what it means to 'occupy' contested spaces that blur the public and the private and the boundaries between the 99% and the 1%, and as they also think through what Occupy Wall Street might do next, I would humbly suggest they check out the activism model of Project: No One Leaves."
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REPORT AIR DATE: Oct. 19, 2010
Boston Group Helps Homeowners 'Stand Up, Fight Back' Against Foreclosure

Global Economic Fate Hinges on European Finance Talks

Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: "The fate of the global economy, European unity - and the 401(k) savings of ordinary Americans - all hang in the balance as Europe's leaders meet over the weekend to try to resolve a burgeoning debt crisis that threatens to spread globally. The leaders are expected to decide at their European Union summit by next Wednesday whether and how to expand the controversial bailout fund they created earlier this year."
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Depth Needed in News Coverage of Wall Street

Jesse Laird, Truthout: "What is less certain, however, is whether American media will take upon themselves the more useful tasks of analyzing these underlying moral failures and of providing a fair hearing to the people most damaged by the economy. So far, media coverage tends to focus on dramatic encounters and confrontation without going deeper into the underlying causes or dynamics. America needs greater depth of insight by media into the present crisis."
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Qaddafi Is Dead. Now What for Libya?

Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: "With the death Thursday of Moammar Gadahfi, Libya's de facto leaders now face the challenge of preserving the fragile unity they enjoyed while the deposed dictator was on the run as they begin transforming their war-battered nation into a democracy after 42 years of tyrannical one-man rule. The task is daunting."
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Revolving Door: Top Industries

Practically every industry and special interest area hires lobbyists to represent and defend their interests in Washington, D.C. But some industries frequently employ a special breed of lobbyist: those who previously worked for the federal government they're now tasked with lobbying.

Some of these "revolving door" lobbyists once toiled as low-level congressional staffers or entry-level bureaucrats. Plenty more, however, worked within government's upper ranks, serving as top agency officials, congressional chiefs of staff and even as members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

The chart below details which industries and special interest areas most frequently use lobbyists who have spun through the revolving door of federal politics and government:READ MORE/SEE CHARTS

Which Bank Is the Worst for America? Five Behemoths That Hold Our Political System Hostage

Sarah Jaffe and Joshua Holland, AlterNet: "AlterNet, in partnership with the Media Consortium, looked at the five banks that exert the most influence on our democracy. Based on their size, the amount of money they spend on campaign donations and lobbying, and the number of employees who’ve gone through the revolving door into public service, or vice versa, we determined which banks have had the worst impact on the country. We’ll rank each one based on our research, and come up with the worst of the worst - the big bank that’s done the most damage to America's economy and society."
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Goodbye Iraq? Not Exactly

David Swanson, War Is A Crime.org: "There will be U.S. troops remaining in Iraq. They simply will not be employed by the 'Department of Defense' (as we call it, I'm not sure Iraqis call it that). Thousands of mercenaries will be employed by the State Department. Iraqi police will be trained to U.S. specifications on the U.S. taxpayers' dime. We will maintain the world's largest embassy. And I have to assume the CIA is not departing."
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President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference about the Iraq troop withdrawal in the White House briefing room in Washington, October 21, 2011. (Photo: Philip Scott Andrews / The New York Times)