www.organizedpolitics.com

NEW YORK - The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, has suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu consider ordering a Mossad hit team to assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama so that his successor will defend Israel against Iran. http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/uproar-after-jewish-american-n...

America’s troops may be returning home from Iraq, but contrary to President Obama’s assertion that “the tide of war is receding,” we’re far from done paying the costs of war. In fact, at the same time that Obama is reducing the number of troops in Iraq, he’s replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer and redeploying American troops to other parts of the globe, including Africa, Australia and Israel. http://njtoday.net/2012/01/16/privatizing-the-war-on-terror-americas-mil...

Queens has been harder hit by foreclosures than any other New York borough, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes it has found a culprit. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/opinion/on-the-trail-of-mortgage-fraud...

JERUSALEM — Israel and the United States have agreed to postpone a major military defence exercise scheduled for spring, a senior security official said Sunday, amid rising regional tension over Iran’s nuclear programme. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/15/major-u-s-israel-military-drill-po...

An electronic database called MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) has created defects in the chain of title to over half the homes in America. Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-neighborhood/1326472096

Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what. http://rt.com/usa/news/homeland-security-journalists-monitoring-321/

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta let slip on Sunday the big open secret that Washington war hawks don’t want widely known: Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/09/panetta-admits-iran-not-developing...

Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government. http://rt.com/usa/news/fbi-political-activists-terrorists/

Janet Stubbs was grateful when the nursing home recommended hospice care for her aunt Midge. Although Stubbs knew her aunt wasn’t dying, the offer of free, Medicare-paid hospice visits from a nurse and chaplain, plus an extra weekly bath, was too good to pass up. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-06/hospice-care-revealed-as-14-bil...

The gap between the United States’ rich and poor continued to grow last year, according to new government wage data. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66547.html#ixzz1hleo2UGl

A new year is upon us. And even before its first hour has been rung in, 2012 is already taking shape before us as a pivotal year in global politics. We can all feel the awakening under way. A revived longing for equality, shared prosperity and democratic solidarity is inspiring a vibrant new politics around the world. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/public-money-for-public-purpose-t...

Occupy LA protesters, who were arrested for exercising their First Amendment free speech rights, are being offered a deal that would allow them to avoid court trials if they pay $355 to a private company for lessons in free speech. http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/lapd-tells-occupy-la-protes...

“There Goes the Neighborhood,” which ran on 60 Minutes last Sunday, is a must-see piece. Scott Pelley walks through a pillaged house in Cleveland, slated for demolition in a county neighborhood stabilization program. This abandoned house is owned by Structured Asset Investment Trust 2003-BC11. An investor reports lists the property as “in foreclosure” despite no court filing.

Dec. 21, 2011 — American autoworkers are constantly told that high-wage work is an unsustainable relic in the face of a hyper-competitive, globalized marketplace. Apostles of neo-liberal economic theory — both in the public and private sectors — have stressed the message that worker adaptation is necessary to survive. http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/tale-two-systems

(Reuters) - Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/22/us-foreclosures-idUSTRE7BL0MC2...

The private papers of the late George F. Kennan, Cold War architect and diplomat extraordinaire, reveal his anguish over the way his famous 1947 warning about Soviet expansionism helped transform the America he loved into one he no longer recognized: a national-security state. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/Todd-Purdum-on-National-Security

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a dramatic lawsuit on Friday alleging that six former top executives of mortgage finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac committed fraud by authorizing misleading statements about their balance sheets. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/16/133328/sec-sues-former-fannie-and-...

Yesterday the U.S. Senate voted 93 to 7 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 which allows the military to operate domestically within the borders of the United States and to possibly (or most probably) detain U.S. citizens without trial. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/8721-obama-should-veto-em...

Barack Obama is heading back onto the campaign trail, running as a champion of the middle class and even hoping to harness the Occupy movement's public anger at Wall Street. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-froomkin/suskinds-confidence-men-r_b_1...