Norwegian Media: Breivik Part Of International Right-Wing Extremist Group

So much for the “lone nut” theory that’s always dragged out and dusted off whenever a right-winger commits an act of terror. That construct is no longer operative, to paraphrase Ron Ziegler.

Ketil B. Stensrud, who has written for the UK’s Independent and Daily Mirror and has a wealth of Norwegian media experience, posted the following on Twitter (if you’re not familiar with Twitter, start from the bottom and read upwards):

ketilbstensrudKetil B. Stensrud

..on Monday to be open for world media, so that he can ‘reveal all’. Strong suspicion of OSL/Utøya operation being funded by intnl n.work.

5 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

»

ketilbstensrudKetil B. Stensrud

..belongs to an international network of right-wing extremists. He’s planned his actions for a long time, and has requested the hearing ..

5 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

»

ketilbstensrudKetil B. Stensrud

Pulled over in my car to tweet this.. BREAKING: Breivik’s attorney has, in a radio interview with NRK, confirmed that his client (cont)

5 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

And not too long ago, he posted this:

ketilbstensrudKetil B. Stensrud

Police: “Raid in east Oslo linked with new intel suggesting that gunman also owned this particular flat. Six detained, all released w/o bail

37 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Of course, now that Breivik’s been shown to be part of an international right-wing extremist group and that he very likely had help in the planning of his terror attacks, expect the US media to quickly drop this story.  Terrorism is only terrorism if brown-skinned non-Christians do it, as far as the GOP/Media Complex is concerned.

Restoring the monarchy: the American Legislative Council

John Nichols has been spearheading an investigation of the American Legislative Council (ALEC), an organ of the corporate state founded by Paul Weyrich. Weyrich famously said that when people vote, the right loses.

So, here are some excerpts. Julie Underwood:

Public schools,” ALEC wrote in its 1985 Education Source Book, “meet all of the needs of all of the people without pleasing anyone.” A better system, the organization argued, would “foster educational freedom and quality” through various forms of privatization: vouchers, tax incentives for sending children to private schools and unregulated private charter schools. Today ALEC calls this “choice”—and vouchers “scholarships”—but it amounts to an ideological mission to defund and redesign public schools.

John Nichols:

Enacting burdensome photo ID or proof of citizenship requirements has long been an ALEC priority. ALEC and its sponsors have an enduring mission to pass laws that would make it harder for millions of Americans to vote, impose barriers to direct democracy and let big money flow more freely into campaigns.

Wendell Potter:

Click to read on

For posterity

Who Added “Christian” and “Conservative” to Norway Shooter’s Facebook Page Yesterday?
Atlas Shrugs ^ | July 23, 2011 | Pamela Geller

Posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 1:11:38 PM by opentalk

While the leftist and Islamic supremacist ghouls rush to portray Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik as a Christian and even as an anti-jihadist, the unanswered questions multiply. Why did a jihad group take credit for the atrocities, and then retract? And who altered the murderer’s Facebook page? Yesterday, at the time that his name was released, his Facebook page looked like this (hat tip Vivien for the screenshot):
[...two different versions of pages purporting to belong to Breivik]
Did he have two different Facebook pages, one in Norwegian and one in English, and he only identified himself as a Christian and a conservative on the English one? Or did he pause from his murder spree to add “Christian” and “conservative” to his Facebook profile? Or maybe the whole page is a fake, as has been reported here.

But in the case, who faked it, and why? Who is so anxious to portray Breivik as a Christian and conservative? And if this was faked, can we trust any of the material that is now being released about Breivik being anti-jihad?

Click for more crazy. Close your eyes for less.
____________________________

Phone hacking expands again

James Moore and Ian Burrell, The Independent of London:

The phone-hacking story took a new and dramatic turn yesterday as a former journalist on the Daily Mirror claimed that the practice was “endemic” at the newspaper during his time there and that he would be willing to testify to investigating authorities.

James Hipwell, 45, told The Independent that hacking at the Daily Mirror was widespread and “seen as a bit of a wheeze”. He said he would give evidence to a public inquiry into hacking ordered by David Cameron and headed by Lord Justice Brian Leveson.
…
Hipwell told The Independent: “Piers [Morgan, of CNN] was extremely hands-on as an editor. He was on the [newsroom] floor every day, walking up and down behind journalists, looking over their shoulders. I can’t say 100 per cent that he knew about it. But it was inconceivable he didn’t.”

Deep thought for the day

DDay would do FDL an enormous service if he would not just write accurate, measured posts but if he would read the comments and correct the wild misunderstandings that people come up with based on half-heard, quarter-understood information.

Add cows, cut cars

It’s more complicated than that. But Judith Schwartz of The Guardian did a nice, easy-to-follow explanation of how proper livestock and range management can help actually reverse global warming.

When we consider our CO2 predicament, we tend to fault our love affair with the car and the fruits of industry. But the greater culprit has been agriculture…

So, how do we get that carbon out of the air and back into the soil? Some suggest placing calcium carbonate or charcoal (aka “biochar”) directly into agricultural soil (see “Black Is the New Green,” Conservation, Summer 2010). But a growing number of soil and agricultural scientists are also discussing a low-tech, counterintuitive approach to the problem that depends on a group of unlikely heroes: cows.
…

Perhaps the most steadfast advocate of this future is Allan Savory. A 76-year-old native of Zimbabwe, Savory has the relaxed, weathered look of a lifelong outdoorsman … Cattle, he began to realize, could play—if properly managed—the crucial role in grassland ecology that used to be occupied by herds of wild herbivores. They could help prevent and even reverse land degradation and the desertification of grasslands
…
Savory’s singular insight is that grasslands and herbivores evolved in lockstep with one another. This means that to be healthy, grasses need to be grazed.
…
Click for more

Friday Cat Blogging

Buddha kitteh sez “NOMMMMMMMM”.

Chris Christie, as US Attorney, sat on US-based Murdoch hacking scandal

Via Hunter at DailyKos, Jim Edwards at CBS Interactive has what could be an explosive allegation involving the sitting governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, and the now-publisher of the NY Post.

The computer of advertising company Floorgraphics [FGI] was hacked to obtain information about one of its clients (Smuckers), and traced the hacker to News America Marketing of Connecticut. The hacking caused it to lose clients and it was ultimately sold to News America Marketing in what certainly looked like the settlement of FGI’s lawsuit against News America Marketing. News Marketing America was forced to settle two other suits filed by Insignia and Valassis for an eye-popping $625M total. Take it away, Jim Edwards:

FGI also alerted former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (now governor of New Jersey) and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez asking for an investigation of the hacking. When the company got no response, it asked former U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, current U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and U.S. Rep. Rush Holt to write to Christie and Gonzalez again, asking for an update. (Download the FGI v. News hacking memos here.) Christie’s former commercial crimes chief, Deborah Gramiccioni (neé Goldklang, pictured) responded that the case was:

…under review by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in our Commercial Crimes Unit. Because the above-references matter may involve fraud, we are also forwarding copies of your letter and the attached information to the Febreal Bureau of Investigation for review.

Nothing came of the probe. Gramiccioni, now Christie’s director of state authorities, did not respond to a request for comment.
…
At the time FGI’s competitors were allegedly hacked, the CEO of News America Marketing was Paul Carlucci (pictured), who is now also publisher of the New York Post.

The Fed Audit

Thanks to Bernie Sanders, the GAO did an audit of the Fed’s actions during the financial crisis. What this audit shows is that, of the securities from the financial crisis remaining on the Fed’s books, the only major category are Agency Mortgage Backed Securities. These are mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for bundling into bonds which could be sold on the open market. They were not officially guaranteed by the USG at the time of issue.

Since the Congress then guaranteed these with the full faith and credit of the Treasury (after the collapse), the Fed can claim no losses. But in fact it is holding a face value of $1.2T in mortgages (see Appendix 1). These appear to be worth $909B (see Table 1), meaning that the US taxpayer subsidized the mortgage crisis to the tune of $300B.

Then there’s Maiden Lane I, II, and III for Bear Stearns and AIG, which have balances totaling $43B, and another $13B for TALF, which provided loans to buy asset backed securities (Table 1).

From the report:

As of July 2011, most of the Federal Reserve Board’s emergency loan programs have closed and all of those that have closed have closed without losses. Moreover, currently, the Federal Reserve Board does not project any losses on FRBNY’s outstanding loans to TALF borrowers and the Maiden Lane SPVs.

It’s puzzling to me why they don’t close Maiden Lane and TALF if they don’t have any losses. But $56B is a relatively minor point in this fiasco.

The summary provided by Sanders suggests that nothing really serious was discovered (other than the massive socialism-for-the-rich that was inherent in the bailout). The main thing is the Fed is too casual in excluding conflicts of interest, and some of the private contractors it employed may have profited from sweetheart loans.

The Fed is a walking conflict of interest, run by the banks for the banks. Thanks to Senator Sanders for making them open their books. That alone will have a deterrent effect.

Was the Murdoch hacking group behind “Climategate”?

The possibility was raised by Keith Olbermann. Joe Romm, Media Matters:

There have been countless independent investigations into the scientists whose e-mails were hacked in November 2009. And the scientists have been (quietly) vindicated every time …

But we still don’t know who hacked the emails! And now we know that one of the key investigative bodies tasked with tracking down the hackers — Scotland Yard – were compromised at the time.

How were they compromised? Neil Wallis — the former News of the World executive editor — became a “£1,000 a day” consultant to Scotland Yard in October 2009. Last week he became the ninth person arrested in the metastasizing News Corp scandal “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977.”
[Another segment of News Corp was engaged in computer hacking and was forced to settle with Floorgraphics]

…

Here’s one more astrological coincidence of the highest order: In October 2009, Wallis became a senior consultant to Outside Organisation — a PR firm and crisis management agency, which … wait for it … “was used by the UEA following the Climategate scandal.”

…most people think that UEA’s crisis management was catastrophically bad for months — “covert” is a good word for it, though I prefer “virtually nonexistent.”
..
So the Climategate investigation should not involve Scotland Yard, and should investigate whether News Corp had any involvement. It could start by investigating whether News Corp hacked the phone of any climate scientists.

Keith said that the number of phone hack victims is up to 12,000.

Crossposted to FDL. Where, much to my amazement, it hit the recommended list.