The New York Times reports: “Saying that offshore tax havens deprive the United States Treasury of tens of billions of dollars of revenue a year, two senior Democratic senators are pushing to help reduce the federal deficit by tightening rules that allow hedge funds, derivatives traders and corporations to skirt federal taxes. “A bill unveiled…

In a letter to the president sent this Saturday, nine Senators wrote: "The inclusion of Social Security in the debt renegotiations is extremely troubling. Social Security has contributed nothing to the debt and yet seniors face potential cuts to their earned benefits. ... Our bedrock social safety net programs should not be adjusted as part…

AFP reports "Rockets Hit Baghdad Green Zone as Panetta Visits." Aswat Al Iraq reports: "U.S. Defense Secretary’s visit aims to keep U.S. forces in Iraq, MP says." RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington, D.C. and currently in Iraq, Jarrar said today: "According the U.S.-Iraqi Security Agreement, all…

* The Washington Post reports: "Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered Friday in Tahrir Square, the symbol of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak this year, to protest what they perceive as an unwillingness to prosecute Mubarak-era officials and police responsible for the killing of nearly 900 protesters. "The demonstration, dubbed the 'Friday of…

CNBC reports: "June's miserable jobs report has put the fear of a double dip recession back into the markets. The U.S. economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate climbed to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent as laid off government workers continued to join the ranks of the unemployed. There were…

The New York Times reported yesterday: "President Obama stepped up pressure on Congressional Republicans on Tuesday to agree to a broad deficit-cutting deal, pledging to put popular entitlement programs like Medicare on the table in return for Republican acquiescence to some higher taxes." TERRY O'NEIL, via Latoya Veal, press at now.org O'Neil is president of…

The Associated Press reports: "The Labor Department will report the latest figures on unemployment and payrolls on Friday, and analysts expect to hear more bad news. They forecast that the unemployment rate will remain unchanged from May at 9.1 percent. They also expect that employers added only 90,000 jobs last month, below the 100,000 threshold…

The Jerusalem Post reports: "The Greek Coast Guard has now stopped the U.S. boat [The Audacity of Hope is attempting to go to Gaza in spite of an Israeli siege] and is demanding that they return to the Port of Athens." Passengers on the boat are tweeting regular updates: "Captain explaining to Coast Guard it's not…

MIRIAM PEMBERTON, Miriam at ips-dc.org, via Lacy MacAuley, Lacy at ips-dc.org Pemberton is research fellow of Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of the just-released report "Unified Security Budget for the United States, FY 2012," which finds that retiring Pentagon head Robert Gates' "words were never matched by the facts of his own budget requests.…

CNN is reporting: "Greek lawmakers Wednesday approved a package of austerity measures demanded by international lenders, despite protests outside Parliament as they were voting." JOSEPH DANA, joseph.dana at gmail.com Dana is a reporter in Greece. He recently tweeted: "The main protests in Athens are taking place on the Athenian 5th Avenue. Imagine an HSBC bank…