Links for 06.29.09 to 06.30.09

The Great American Bubble Machine | The great, indispensable Matt Taibbi on the US economy:

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

AFP: Morocco dismantles militant group: security official | Spanish-Moroccans jihadists arrested, possibly in touch with AQIM.
Death penalty debate rages as hundreds await gallows - The National Newspaper |

CAIRO // June has been dubbed “the month of executions” and 2009 “the year of mass executions” by Egyptian newspapers and analysts amid debate about abolishing capital punishment. More than 200 death sentences have been handed down since the beginning of the year, including 68 in June alone, according to official sources at the justice ministry. There are usually about 80 people executed each year.

Tomgram: Dilip Hiro, The Weeks of Living Dangerously | The Smirking Chimp | Very interesting look at student demographics in Iran, and what some of the key issues of the elections were for young people.
Informed Comment: Moaddel Guest Op-Ed: Iran’s Crisis and the U.S. Option: Support Mousavi now or fight Ahmadinejad tomorrow | It arlams me to see Juan Cole hosting an op-ed such as this one, basically calling for a US-Iran war...