1. More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat (For full story, click here)

For the second year (2010) in a row, more US soldiers killed themselves (468) than died in combat (462). In 2009, the 381 suicides of active-duty soldiers recorded by the military also exceeded the number of deaths in battle. The Good report, which references the Congressional Quarterly as a source, was published in January 2011, just weeks after military authorities announced that a psychological screening program seemed to be stemming the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. “This new data, that American soldiers are now more dangerous to themselves than the insurgents, flies right in the face of any suggestion that things are ‘working,’” Good Senior Editor Cord Jefferson wrote.

Sources: Good Report, “More US Soldiers Killed Themselves Than Died in Combat in 2010”Truthdig, “Death and After in Iraq” Alternet, “Can You Face the True Consequences of War?"

2. US Military Manipulates the Social Media (For full story, click here)

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. Anyone suspicious of “sock puppets” ... would be unnerved by the US military’s “online persona management service,” a little-known program described in The Guardian UK, Raw Story, and Computerworld stories. The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) is developing the program. Using up to 10 false identities, they can counter charged political dialogue with pro-military propaganda. These "personas" can be given detailed, fictionalized backgrounds to make them believable to outside observers, and a sophisticated identity protection service to back them up, preventing suspicious readers from uncovering the real person behind the account.

Sources: Guardian UK, “Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media” Raw Story, "Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions"; Computerworld, "Army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda"

3. Obama Authorizes International Assassination Campaign (For full story,click here)

The Obama administration has quietly put into practice an ‘incomplete idea’ left over from the G.W. Bush presidency: creating a de facto ‘presidential international assassination program.’U.S. citizens suspected of encouraging “terror” are being put on “death lists” without any due process of law. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. military have the authority to kill U.S. citizens abroad without a trial and outside war zones if strong evidence exists that they’re involved in terrorist activity, the Washington Post reported in a front page story. A moral, ethical, and legal analysis of the assassinations seems to be significantly lacking inside the corporate media. In December of 2010, Human Rights Watch asked for clarification of the legal rationale behind this practice after a judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the notion.

Source: Human Rights Watch, “Letter to President Obama – Targeted Killings” Inter Press Service, “Judge Declines to Rule on Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens” Salon, “Obama Authorizes Assassination of U.S. Citizen” Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings

4. Human Caused Food Crisis Expands (For full story, click here)

A new worldwide spike in agricultural commodity and food prices is generating both predictable and extraordinary fallouts. The search for causes once again leads to a conjuncture of flawed policies in trade, environment, finance and agriculture that is likely to produce more dangerous volatility in years to come. David Moberg, offering an in-depth breakdown of the global food crisis in In These Times, places the blame for rising food prices and increasing malnutrition on flawed economic policies. “Hunger is currently a result of poverty and inequality, not lack of food,” he concludes. “Since 2010 began, roughly another 44 million people have quietly crossed the threshold into malnutrition, joining 925 million already suffering from lack of food,” Moberg writes. “If prices continue to rise, this food crisis will push the ranks of the hungry toward a billion people.”

Sources: In These Times, “Diet Hard: With A Vengeance”

5. Private Prison Companies Fund Anti–Immigrant Legislation (For full story, click here)

Over the past four years roughly a million immigrants have been incarcerated in dangerous detention facilities in our taxpayer-financed private prison system. Children were abused, women were raped, and men died from lack of basic medical attention. When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ran for reelection in 2010, her greatest out-of-state campaign contributions came from high-ranking executives of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the nation’s largest prison companies. CCA profits directly from building and operating prisons and detention centers. CCA previously employed two of Brewer’s legislative aides as lobbyists. Peter Cervantes-Gautschi spotlights Brewer’s links to CCA and goes deeper still, offering an historic account of how investors in CCA and prison giant Geo Group have for years actively pushed for legislation that would result in the widespread incarceration of undocumented immigrants.

Sources: Social Policy, "Wall Street & Our Campaign to Decriminalize Immigrants"

6. Google Spying? (For full story, click here)

Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated Internet search engine giant Google for illegally collecting personal data such as passwords, emails, and other online activities from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in homes and businesses across the US and around the world. A flurry of stories aired in the spring of 2010 when it became apparent that Google Street View vehicles, in the process of collecting data for its mapping service, also picked up consumer “payload” data on Wi-Fi networks, including e-mail messages, website data, user names, and passwords. The tech giant publicly apologized for what it characterized as a mistake, saying it had “failed badly.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) admonished Google in a letter, but declined to pursue it further. Project Censored authors claim that the FTC abandoned its inquiry because a week earlier, Obama attended a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer, citing a San Francisco Chronicle article about the $30,000-per person affair.

Sources: United States Federal Trade Communication, Personal Communication of David Vladeck; San Francisco Chronicle, "Google’s Marissa Mayer Hosting Obama At $30,000-A-Head Fundraiser Tonight"

7. U.S. Army and Psychology’s Largest Experiment–Ever (For full story,click here)

In the January 2011 issue of American Psychologist, the American Psychology Association (APA) dedicated 13 articles to detailing and celebrating a 117 million dollar collaboration with the US Army, called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF). It’s being marketed as a resilience training to reduce adverse psychological consequences to soldiers who endure combat. Comprehensive Solider Fitness (CSF) is described as a “holistic approach to warrior training,” emphasizing positive psychology as a means to counter mental health problems arising from horrific combat situations. Yet there are many questions about the wisdom of launching a required, untested psychology program for more than a million soldiers, one that encourages soldiers to think positive even in the face of traumatizing events. This “training” program might better be described as a research project. The core hypothesis of this massive program’s success has yet to be confirmed through further research.

Sources: Truthout, “The Dark Side of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” Psychology of Well Being, A Holistic Approach to Warrior Training; Truthout, “Army’s 'Spiritual Fitness' Test Comes Under Fire”

8. The Myth of Clean and Safe Nuclear Power (For full story, click here)

The terrifying meltdowns of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors reignited worldwide debate about the wisdom of relying on nuclear energy as an electricity source. While Germany opted to phase out its nuclear facilities by 2022 in the wake of the tragedy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) came under scrutiny after a Union of Concerned Scientists report analyzed 14 “near misses” at nuclear power plants in 2010, revealing the shortcomings in NRC inspections. Yet mainstream media’s treatment of nuclear power is all too willing to endorse the idea that nuclear power is safe. Major news publications readily go along with the nuclear industry’s branding of the power source as “clean” and “carbon free” when it’s really not. Nuclear power presents a security threat of unprecedented proportions: It’s capable of a catastrophic accident that can kill hundreds of thousands of people, with a byproduct that is toxic for millennia. To call nuclear power “clean” is an affront to science, common sense, and the English language itself.

Sources: Union of Concerned Scientists, “Nuclear Reactor Crisis in Japan FAQs” Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “Nuclear Energy Is Dirty Energy"; U.S. NRC, “Radiation Exposure and Cancer”

9. The Government is Manipulating the Weather (For full story, click here)

Rising global temperatures, increasing population, and degradation of water supplies, have created broad support for the growing field of weather modification. The U.S. government has conducted weather modification experiments for over half a century, and the military-industrial complex stands poised to capitalize on these discoveries. One of the latest programs isHAARP, the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program. This technology can potentially trigger floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. The scientific idea behind HAARP is to “excite” a specific area of the ionosphere and observe the physical processes in that excited area with intention of modifying ecological conditions. HAARP can also be used as a weapon system, capable of selectively destabilizing agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions. At a recent international symposium, scientists asserted that manipulation of climate through modification of cirrus clouds is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory and is fully operational.

Sources: Global Research, “Atmospheric Geoengineering: Weather Manipulation, Contrails and Chemtrails” Dr. Coen Vermeeren, Symposium speech; Commonwealth Club, “Man-Made Climate Change in the Skies”
[For highly revealing documentaries on HAARP by Canada's CBC and the History Channel,click here]

10. Real Unemployment: One Out of Five in US (For full story, click here)

The corporate media wants America to feel secure during a time of unemployment crisis, but people deserve to know what is really happening rather than a statistical lie. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates the “official unemployment rate” by counting everyone who had no job, was available for work, and had actively sought work in the last four weeks, according to the BLS website. But alternative BLS statistics incorporate so-called “discouraged workers,” unemployed individuals who’ve given up on the job hunt. In the first four months of 2011, the national unemployment rate officially stood at around 9 percent, while a BLS statistic incorporating discouraged workers and the marginally employed bumped that figure up to 15.9 percent. Yet according to San Francisco-based economist John Williams, who maintains a website called Shadow Government Statistics, the “real” unemployment rate is actually 22.1 percent, or more than one out of five US residents.

Sources: Information Clearing House, “9% Unemployment Rate is a Statistical Lie” Shadow Government Statistics, "Alternate Unemployment Charts"

>> See More Here

Most outrageous CEO payouts of the year MF Global's Jon Corzine negotiated a hefty retention bonus just months before the firm folded. Who got $100 million

While it may not have been the best year for investors, 2011 was a pretty good year for America's top executives, many of whom took home rich pay packages and perks. Each month, Michelle Leder ofFootnoted.com joins the Daily Ticker to discuss the salacious details her crew picks out of the pile of Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We asked her to put together the top five executive compensation items from 2011.

With no further ado, we present the top five executive compensation outrages of 2011.

5. What the MF? Jon Corzine, former Goldman Sachs top dog, former Senator, former New Jersey Governor, was already a very rich man before he joined financial services firm MF Global as CEO. But he aimed to increase his fortune further by having MF Global put on insanely leveraged trades on European sovereign debt. The trades, of course, blew up in his face, plunged MF Global into bankruptcy, and have launched a slew of investigations. As Leder point outs, it's possible that Corzine's attention in the spring of 2011 was somewhat diverted. As a filing detailed, Corzine was spending time. . . . renegotiating his compensation package. Months before the company blew up, MF Global agreed to pay Corzine a $1.5 million retention bonus on March 31, 2014 (or whenever he left the job), provided he didn't quit without a good reason or get fired for cause. And, Footnoted.com noted, a broadly written escape clause would have allowed him to receive at least partial payment if he quite without 'good reason.' If only Corzine had paid as much attention to the billions of dollars MF was handling as he was to the paltry million or so he was haggling over.

4. You Can Go Home Again. As CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Leo Apotheker was spectacularly unsuccessful. The former CEO of German software giant SAP joined H-P in November 2010, and crashed out ten months later. After presiding over three quarters of disappointing results, controversial decisions, and a falling stock, Apotheker was sent back to Europe. But in the type of deal that is as pathetic as it is typical, Apotheker was richly rewarded for his failure with a ton of money. The $25 million package included $7.2 million in severance, a $2.4 million bonus, and shares awarded for performance. Oh, and because CEOs should never be expected to pay for their own travel, he was given cash to pay for relocation to France, Belgium, or somewhere else in Europe.

3. Leading on a Jet Plane. Bob Pittman, the head of Clear Channel's media business, knows a lot about music. He was a founder of MTV and the former head of AOL. So presumably he'll get the clever reference to the Peter, Paul, and Mary song. But Pittman seems to know — or care — as much about aviation as he does about content. When Pittman hired on, Clear Channel said it would provide him with a fancy Dassault-Breguet Mystere Falcon 900 for personal and business use. Then, the company disclosed that it would pay $3 million to lease a jet for Pittman's use — from a company owned by. . . . Pittman. The name of the leasing company: Yet Again.

2. Chesapeake's Mapquest.In May 2009, Chesapeake Energy spent $12.1 million of shareholders' cash to purchase an antique map collection owned by Aubrey McClendon, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. The company said the map collection added to the natural beauty of the firm's corporate campus and fit in with its history of exploration of oil and gas. But the move was really aimed at bailing out the CEO. McClendon had gotten into trouble by putting up his shares in the company as collateral for other debt, and in 2008 faced significant margin calls. Shareholders sued, and as part of the settlement, announced in November, McClendon agreed to buy back the maps for $12.1 million, plus interest. (Note: the interest charged is only 2.28 percent.) The company also agreed that it wouldn't reimburse McClendon for the deal, and that it would pay $3.75 million to cover plaintiffs' legal fees.

1. Howdy, Nabors! Nabors Industries is a mid-sized energy exploration and production company. But when it comes to executive compensation, it's a titan. Long-serving CEO, Eugene Isenberg has long been a compensation champ. Use by company executives of private jets was covered by Mark Maremont in the Wall Street Journal in June and has led to an SEC investigation. On a Friday night in late October, Nabors disclosed that Isenberg, who had been CEO since 1987, was stepping down and would be replaced. The punch line Nabors announced it "intends to record a $100 million contingent liability, to be reflected in its fourth-quarter results and year-end financial statements, in light of provisions in Mr. Isenberg's employment agreement." Most employees are pleased if they can their long-time employer with an intact pension and a gold watch. Isenberg left with $100 million. That nice round sum, combined with the company's long history of excessive compensation and the weasel-like decision to push the release out on a Friday night lands Nabors in the top spot for 2011.

Join us next year -- and check out Footnoted.com daily -- for more disclosures.

Daniel Gross is economics editor at Yahoo! Finance

follow him on twitter @grossdm; email him at grossdaniel11@yahoo.com

Florida's spending spree with BP money Funds to help the state recover from the Gulf oil spill have been used for lavish promotions.$1 million holiday display

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Florida (AP) — Sports towels and fleece blankets. A poker tournament. A $1 million Christmas display. A prom for senior citizens. BP gas card giveaways. A "most deserving mom" contest. And advertising, lots of advertising.

Florida Panhandle officials made the mix of eyebrow-raising purchases with $30 million BP gave them earlier this year to help tourism recover from 2010's disastrous Gulf oil spill.

The money allowed seven area tourism bureaus to try promotions they could never have afforded otherwise, and it has propelled the Panhandle's visitor counts to record numbers this year following a disastrous season right after the spill. The question now is what happens when the BP money dries up, most likely next April. The grants doubled and tripled the tourism-promotion budgets in these Panhandle counties, and officials worry the boost in visitors may prove fleeting.

"It is one thing to have your numbers go up when a tremendous amount of money is being put, not only in our economy, but in all of north Florida," said Curt Blair, executive director of the Franklin County Tourist Development Council. "We will see after April whether part of this was a real recovery ... or if we see fall-off. ... Whether we've done that or if we've just propped up the market."

BP announced the $30 million tourism grants in April. While the agreement for the $30 million doesn't prevent Florida from pursuing any claims against BP or others, officials there decided a week later not to join other Gulf states in a lawsuit against Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig at the heart of the spill.

Florida's tourism spending spree isn't the first time that BP money has allowed government officials to snag items from their wish lists.

Separately, BP had already poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the four Gulf states in the months after the oil spill — with few strings attached. The Associated Press documented earlier this year how some of the $754 million given to local governments had been spent on tasers, SUVS and pick-up trucks, rock concerts, an iPad and other items with no direct connection to the oil spill.

In all, BP has given $150 million to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi for tourism promotion since the oil spill, with the Sunshine State getting the lion's share — $62 million.

In the case of the more-recent payout, Florida Panhandle counties have allocated more than $23 million of the $30 million through September, with $13.5 million used on for television, digital, radio and print advertising. The counties have also spent millions on a variety of attention-grabbing gimmicks, The Associated Press found through public records requests and interviews.

Some wonder whether the most extravagant promotions — such as Panama City Beach's $1 million Christmas display — are worth it.

"It wasn't all that busy out here last weekend," Charles Walsingham, a beachside merchant near the display, said a few days after the Christmas lights were turned on and the ice rink opened in early December. "There weren't that many people over there skating and that is a lot of money to spend."

The seven counties spent $2.5 million on promotions alone.

In Pensacola, the BP money paid for $30,000 worth of sports towels and another $30,000 worth of fleece blankets given out at local sporting events. In neighboring Perdido Key, officials spent $300,000 on American Express gift cards for overnight visitors. They also purchased $12,500 worth of BP gas cards for tourists who present receipts showing they've stayed in the area, essentially putting BP funds back into the company's pocket.

Alison Davenport, chair of the Perdido Key Chamber and Visitors Center, said the goal is to get tourists driving to the area next spring. "We had no hesitation in choosing BP gas cards over any others since BP's grant money has made the incentivized travel promotion possible," she said.

Okaloosa County, home to Destin and Fort Walton Beach, is giving away a trip to the Super Bowl and tickets to the BCS championship football game to drive traffic to its Facebook page. South Walton Beach also is giving away BCS tickets on Facebook.

Okaloosa County spent a half million dollars marketing and advertising Vision Airlines, which this year launched service from the Northwest Florida Regional Airport to several Southeast cities.

The grants have funded a half-dozen fishing tournaments, a poker tournament, a national flag football championship and a soccer tournament.

It has paid for contests galore.

Carol Daley, of Arlington, Texas, won a "Search for America's Most Deserving Mom" contest from Okaloosa County. Her prizes were a one-week stay in Destin, roundtrip airfare, $1,000 for a spending spree and a 2011 Buick Enclave valued at more than $36,000. Ashley Spencer won a beach photo contest from South Walton Beach that netted her a $15,000 vacation. Franklin County officials sprinkled the area with clues and sponsored a GPS-aided treasure hunt.

A $166,000 Panama City Beach program includes a prom next month for senior citizens. The couple chosen prom king and queen from online submissions will get to invite two friends for a weekend at the beach.

"We think getting these people to talk about why their friends should be queen and king will really help get this viral, talking about Panama City Beach as a fun beach destination," said Dan Rowe, executive director of the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The BP funding paid for almost 20 different festivals.

Santa Rosa County spent $80,000 on a sand-sculpting festival. The money is paying for the Pensacola area's $120,000 Mardi Gras celebration next year, its $25,000 New Year's celebration and a $540,000 music festival. Panama City Beach used the money for a $100,000 pirate-themed festival, a $1.3 million country music festival and a $425,000 Christian music festival.

Panama City Beach's Christmas display includes the ice rink, a candy cane forest and an enormous lights display.

"I think it's a great idea," said Michael Chers, a visitor from Omaha. "People love it."

The BP money was more than tripled the tourism promotion funds normally spent by officials in Okaloosa County. It was double the regular $750,000 budget for tourism officials in Franklin County, home to Apalachicola. The $7 million Bay County got is more than double its normal $3 million budget.

"We wouldn't have been able to do two-thirds of what we did without that BP grant," said Mark Bellinger, executive director of the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council. "We just never had the money in the past for television ads."

Tourists stayed away through much of the summer of 2010 after clumps of gooey tar washed ashore during the spill. Pensacola Beach got a got a heavy coating of gunk for a day or two, but beach towns further east saw mostly smaller tar balls. Tourism experts say the area's image suffered from months of news footage of oiled beaches.

Visitors came back in droves, though, in 2011. Okaloosa County had its best-ever June, July and September. In many counties, tourism is up as much as 20 percent over last year.

"It appears the ... efforts have been successful," said BP spokesman Craig Savage. "The campaigns, plus pent-up consumer demand have made 2011 a banner year for tourism in the Panhandle."

Apart from the advertising the Panhandle tourism bureaus have purchased, BP is launching a new national television advertising campaign this week to outline Gulf cleanup efforts.

Florida State University professor Mark Bonn isn't sure negative perceptions about the Panhandle will vanish so quickly, especially the further away the prospective visitor lives.

"I think it's going to be a five-year minimal process before people are convinced that everything is OK," said Bonn, a professor of service management. "I think it takes people time to adjust to situations."

___

Schneider reported from Orlando, Florida.