Ron Paul Strikes Gold

...Which is why Paul's most recent legislative accomplishment is so impressive. He has rallied the majority of the House to support his new cause: an audit of the Federal Reserve. Legislators are sick of not knowing what's going on inside Bernanke's fortress, especially as the Fed becomes further enmeshed in the nation's fiscal policy. Paul's little bill has become emblematic of a larger movement, one that could spell trouble for Obama's troubled regulatory plan. Ron Paul—always an enemy of regulation—is now an enemy of Obama. And a mighty powerful one at that...

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Reuters

ATMs to Dispense Gold

Automatic teller machines (ATMs) — 500 of them — dispensing pieces of gold will be available around Germany, Switzerland and Austria by the end of this year.

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Reuters

Geithner: AIG untanglement more difficult

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner foresees a lengthy involvement with American International Group and is not ruling out more aid to the insurance conglomerate...

...Senators criticized the government for letting AIG pay off its top creditors the full value of their debt.

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YAHOO!

Senator says KBR Inc. was paid $83 million in bonuses despite evidence company did shoddy work

WASHINGTON - Military contractor KBR Inc. was paid $83.4 million in bonuses for electrical work in Iraq — much of it after the military's contract management agency recognized the contractor was doing shoddy electrical work, a senator said Wednesday...

...At least three troops have been electrocuted while showering in Iraq, and others have been injured and killed in other electrical incidents.

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StarTribune.com

See the hearing here: Video

Washington Post 2007: Pelosi Briefed

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

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Washington Post

Arrest ordered for mom of boy, 13, resisting chemo

NEW ULM, Minn. – Authorities nationwide were on the lookout Wednesday for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy's life.

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YAHOO!

Jeremy Scahill: “Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama”

Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals.

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Democracy Now

Additional Sources: BBC, LA Times