The United States of Barbarism
The details of the torture deal vivify how our politicians no longer give a darn about maintaining even a pretense of due process. The agreement will permit the use of coerced confessions in military tribunals – turning the judicial clock back to the 1600s. The Washington Post noted that the agreement permits “defense attorneys to challenge the use of hearsay information obtained through coercive interrogations in distant countries only if they can prove it is unreliable.” Thus, there is a presumption of correctness to whatever accusation is bludgeoned out of people in secret prisons around the world.

Quick Overview

• After a sharp downturn in August, The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence rose from 100.2 to 104.5 in September, the New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday
  
  

• The confidence of American consumers edged up during the latest week, helped by lower gasoline prices and despite signs of a cooling U.S. economy, ABC News and The Washington Post said on Tuesday.
  
  

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's manufacturing index rose from +3 to +9 in September, more than expected.
  

• The National Cocoa Development Committee estimates Nigerian production at 220,000 tons of cocoa in 2006-2007, up 10% YoY.
  

• Germany's September Ifo business confidence index fell slightly to 104.9 from 105.0 in August, but was stronger than market expectations for a decline to 104.4.
  

• Canada officially posted at C$13.2 billion federal budget surplus in 2005-2006, the third largest ever.
  
  

• YoY the Mexican economy expanded 5.00 percent in July.

General: Appeals for More Troops Were Denied Adding to criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq, a retired senior general who commanded an infantry division in the conflict said Monday that requests by commanders for more soldiers were repeatedly turned down.


Million unexploded cluster bombs could be in Lebanon
The bomblets, half the size of a can of soda, are lying in people’s houses, gardens, on the street and on farmland, he said.
So far, 14 people have been killed and around 90 injured from unexploded ordnance ..

A textbook definition of cowardice
..But if his own fitness to serve is of no true concern to him, perhaps we should simply sigh and keep our fingers crossed, until a grown-up takes the job three Januarys from now.
Except for this.
After five years of skirting even the most inarguable of facts—that he was president on 9/11 and he must bear some responsibility for his, and our, unreadiness, Mr. Bush has now moved, unmistakably and without conscience or shame, towards re-writing history, and attempting to make the responsibility, entirely Mr. Clinton’s.
Of course he is not honest enough to do that directly.
As with all the other nefariousness and slime of this, our worst presidency since James Buchanan, he is having it done for him, by proxy.
Thus, the sandbag effort by Fox News Friday afternoon.
Consider the timing: the very weekend the National Intelligence Estimate would be released and show the Iraq war to be the fraudulent failure it is—not a check on terror, but fertilizer for it.

Quick Overview

• A top U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Monday the economy is doing well but inflation remains a concern, in remarks that challenge views the central bank will cut interest rates early next year.

• The National Association of Realtors said that U.S. existing home sales were at an annual rate of 6.30 million units in August, more than expected. The median home price was down 1.7% from a year ago, the first annual drop in eleven years.
  

• Canada posted a C$13.2 billion budget surplus for the 2005-06 fiscal year.
  

US housing slump may prompt Fed to reduce rates
Signs of a crumbling U.S. housing market and worries that the slump may hurt the overall economy are feeding the idea the central bank will be forced to trim short-term interest rates sooner than many had forecast.

County pension hedge fund loss nearly doubles
The county pension system's estimated losses from the crash of a Connecticut-based hedge fund have climbed to $87 million, nearly twice the figure given just two days ago.


(Hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC, which lost about $6 billion trading natural gas futures this month, said it plans to stay in business but has sworn off energy trading. Amaranth founder Nicholas Maounis told investors Friday on a conference call that)

U.N. Torture Investigator: Iraq Now As Bad As Under Saddam
"The situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," said Manfred Nowak. "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it had been in the times of Saddam Hussein."

Quick Overview

• Consumer spending in France increased 3.3% in August, more than expected
  

• Mexico's central bank, wary of a rapid spike in inflation, held its benchmark overnight interest rate at 7 percent on Friday and sent mixed messages over what its next move might be.
  

• Big Japanese manufacturers grew more confident about business conditions in the three months to September, a government survey showed on Friday, underscoring the economy's resilience
  

• The USDA said that there were 10.986 million head of cattle on feed as of September 1st, up 9.9% YoY. August placements were up 15% YoY, and marketing’s were up 2%.
  

• The USDA said that there were 13.9 million pounds of frozen bellies in storage, down 37% YoY.
  

• The USDA said that frozen pork supplies totaled 404.9 million pounds, down 2% YoY.
  

• The USDA said that there were 888 million pounds of frozen orange juice concentrate in storage, down 36% YoY.
  

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Labor Department said that jobless claims were up 7,000 last week to 318,000.
  

• The Conference Board's index of leading indicators was down 0.2%
  

• The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's regional manufacturing index dropped from 18.5 to -.4 in September,
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that supplies of natural gas were up 93 billion cubic feet last week to 3.177 trillion cubic feet. Supplies are now up 13% from a year ago.
  

• Canada's retail sales up 1.5% MoM and up 5.7% YoY.
  

• Argentina's economy grew 9.1 percent.
  
  

• Net inflows to US commodity-linked mutual funds in the year to August were $107m, compared with $3.8bn in the same period of 2005.

Quick Overview

• The Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25%, as expected.
  

• Japan's trade surplus widened 95.5 percent to 200.5 billion yen as exports to the United States grew 19.3 percent and exports to China rose 20.0 percent YoY.
  
  

• Canada's composite index of leading indicators increased 0.2%.
  

• The U.S. Department of Energy said that:
  Supplies of crude oil were down 2.8 million barrels at 324.9 million barrels.
  Supplies of unleaded gasoline were up 600,000 barrels
  Supplies of heating oil were up 600,000 barrels.
  
  

• Hedge fund Amaranth, agreed to sell its energy trading positions to JPMorgan Chase and Citadel, and entering talks to sell nonenergy assets to Citigroup .

Quick Overview

• The net worth of U.S. households increased 0.1% in the second quarter to $53.3 trillion, the slowest gain in nearly four years, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.
  
  
  

• U.S. Housing starts fell 6% more than expected to the lowest rate in more than three years.
  
  

• U.S. Producer prices rose 0.1% in August up 3.7% YoY.
  

• China's central bank governor, admitting the challenge posed by China's trade surplus, on Tuesday described currency reforms so far as important and said their impact would be felt over time.
  

• Canada's consumer prices increased 2.1% YoY
  

• Australia's Bureau of Agricultural said the country will harvest 16.4 million tons of wheat, down 35% YoY.
  
  

Bush owes us an apology
Sept. 18: “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann offers a special comment on George Bush’s Rose Garden

The President of the United States owes this country an apology.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. current-account deficit widened more than forecast last quarter to the second-largest on record as the trade gap expanded and the Treasury paid more interest to overseas investors. Foreign purchases of U.S. securities totaled $54.5 billion in July, while U.S. purchases of foreign securities totaled $21.6 billion.
  

• Canadian investors bought C$6.3 billion of foreign securities in July while foreign investors bought C$3.2 billion of Canadian securities.
  

Keillor: Coffee, tea or TATP
The way to stop terrorists on planes is to encourage passengers to bring loaded firearms aboard: guys in orange vests sitting in exit rows with deer rifles on their laps, ladies with Mr. Colt in their purses, kids with peashooters. Somebody wake up the NRA. Does the Second Amendment say ''The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed except on commercial airliners''? Where is the right wing when you really need them?

ECB Officials Say Inflation Pressures May Persist
European Central Bank officials said inflation pressures may persist beyond 2007, indicating they'll keep raising interest rates into next year.

U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000
"If you, God forbid, are an innocent Afghan who gets sold down the river by some warlord rival, you can end up at Bagram and you have absolutely no way of clearing your name," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch in New York. "You can't have a lawyer present evidence, or do anything organized to get yourself out of there."

The U.S. government has contended it can hold detainees until the "war on terror" ends — as it determines.
"I don't think we've gotten to the question of how long," said retired admiral John D. Hutson, former top lawyer for the U.S. Navy. "When we get up to 'forever,' I think it will be tested" in court, he said.

Quick Overview

• The U.S. Labor Department said that consumer prices were up 0.2% and up 3.8% YoY. Excluding food and energy prices were up 0.2% and up 2.8% YoY.
  

• U.S. Industrial production was down 0.1%.
  

• The New York Federal Reserve's regional manufacturing index increased from 11.0 to 13.8.
  

• China announced a cut in its export tax rebates reducing advantages it provides to Chinese exporters in order to curb its trade surplus which hit a record high of $18.8 billion in August. The export rebates were cut on steel, coal, natural gas and textiles.
  

• In the EU-12 consumer prices were up 2.3% YoY.
  

• China and India must move to curb corruption or else their booming economies will likely falter, a senior World Bank official said on Friday.
  

• Japan’s publicly traded real estate investment trusts and unlisted property funds saw their aggregate assets increase about 80% YoY to nearly 8 trillion yen (US$68.4 billion)
  
  

• The International Monetary Fund warns that Britain's overvalued housing market is vulnerable to further increases in interest rates.

Hacker's delight
The Bush administration’s flagship missile defense program relies on a complex communications network crossing eleven time zones to detect and intercept incoming missiles. One would think such a system would have top-notch security—but it doesn’t. According to the Defense Department’s own Office of Inspector General, poor planning and human error has rendered the communications network extremely vulnerable to hackers.

County foreclosures quadruple U.S. rate
Statewide, 16,533 homes entered some stage of foreclosure in August, more than any other state in the country and a jump of more than 50 percent over July, RealtyTrac said. On a year-over-year basis, considered the most accurate comparison because it eliminates seasonal differences, the 16,533 foreclosures statewide in August represented a 62 percent increase over the previous August, when there were 10,175, the report shows.