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While the rest of America was busy paying attention to the small plane that crashed into the IRS building in Austin, TX, the rest of the world has been having itself a little coup in Niger.

Diplomatic and military sources say Niger President Mamadou Tandja has been seized by mutinous soldiers during a coup attempt in Niger’s capital.

Mamadou-Tandja, Niger President

Media reports quoting senior officials say armed troops stormed the presidential palace Thursday afternoon as a meeting of government ministers was taking place.  Ministers in Mr. Tandja’s government also appear to be held captive.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said it appears there was an assassination attempt on Mr. Tandja but details are still unclear.

According to the news wire service Reuters, troops led by an army major captured Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja on Thursday after storming his palace in a four-hour gun battle that killed at least three soldiers, military sources said.

Political tensions had been high in the west African uranium exporter in recent months after Tandja changed the constitution to extend his rule last year, a move that drew widespread criticism at home and led to international sanctions.

“The coup leader has succeeded. It is being led by Major Adamou Harouna,” one Nigerien military source said. The president and the ministers were being held not far from the presidential palace in the capital Niamey, the sources added.

State radio is playing military music – a similar pattern to two coups in the 1990s.

Dressed in military uniform, a spokesman for a group calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy appeared on Niger’s Tele Sahel sometime after 10 p.m. local time, surrounded by fellow members of the armed forces.

Without mentioning President Tandja, the spokesman, Col. Abdul Karim Goukoye Karimou, read from a statement saying the constitution and all institutions were suspended in the group’s move to take responsibility and ease political tension in the country. We want Niger “to be an example of democracy and governance,” the colonel said, calling for an end to “lies” and “corruption.” The coup leaders said they had ordered the country’s borders closed and had imposed a curfew.

Adrienne Diop, spokeswoman for the Economic Community of West African States, said that insurgents were holding the president with other ministers and people close to him, and that Mr. Tandja is apparently uninjured.

Mr. Tandja had been in power since 1999, when his election ended a period of coups and rebellions. He was re-elected in 2004 to a second five-year term that was to end in December. But protests arose last year as he moved to extend his grip on power, invoking extraordinary powers to rule by decree after dissolving parliament and the constitutional court, which opposed his plan for a referendum removing term limits.

International efforts to stabilize the situation, with the European Union suspending nonhumanitarian aid, failed to halt the deterioration.

From the Wall Street Journal: Greek police say a bomb exploded Tuesday evening outside an office of JPMorgan Chase in Athens, the Associated Press reports. No one was hurt, according to the report.

“It was a time-bomb at JP Morgan’s offices in central Athens,” a police official told Reuters. “The explosion damaged the outside door and smashed some windows.”

A local newspaper reportedly received a warning call prior to the explosion, according to Reuters. Police had cordoned off the area after the newspaper received the warning call.

Police cars, ambulances and fire engines have blocked streets in the upmarket central district of Kolonaki, where JP Morgan’s Greek offices are situated, a Reuters witness said.

News accounts in recent weeks have detailed how Wall Street firms helped Greece doctor its balance sheets to lie to the European Union that it was in compliance with rules governing debts to GDP ratios:

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.

Even as the crisis was nearing the flashpoint, banks were searching for ways to help Greece forestall the day of reckoning. In early November — three months before Athens became the epicenter of global financial anxiety — a team from Goldman Sachs arrived in the ancient city with a very modern proposition for a government struggling to pay its bills, according to two people who were briefed on the meeting.

The bankers, led by Goldman’s president, Gary D. Cohn, held out a financing instrument that would have pushed debt from Greece’s health care system far into the future, much as when strapped homeowners take out second mortgages to pay off their credit cards.

It had worked before. In 2001, just after Greece was admitted to Europe’s monetary union, Goldman helped the government quietly borrow billions, people familiar with the transaction said. That deal, hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan, helped Athens to meet Europe’s deficit rules while continuing to spend beyond its means.

Athens did not pursue the latest Goldman proposal, but with Greece groaning under the weight of its debts and with its richer neighbors vowing to come to its aid, the deals over the last decade are raising questions about Wall Street’s role in the world’s latest financial drama.

As in the American subprime crisis and the implosion of the American International Group, financial derivatives played a role in the run-up of Greek debt. Instruments developed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and a wide range of other banks enabled politicians to mask additional borrowing in Greece, Italy and possibly elsewhere.

It could be called “A Tale of Two Rivers”. If you were corny. Or if it was two rivers. But it’s only one river: The Trinity River, passing through both Fort Worth and Dallas, and the centerpiece of urban revitalization projects in both sister cities.  And that’s about where  the similarities end:   The Fort Worth TRV is moving right along, and is actually being helped by the recession, with the estimated costs of the next phase declining by $2.6 million dollars, according to the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram.  Thirty miles away, the Dallas Trinity River Corridor Project is getting its federal funds cut.

Again.

So a quick followup to the story we had yesterday, about Republican candidate for Texas Governor Debra Medina stating that Houston is technically bankrupt.  Turns out that a few months ago, a group of CPAs sent an open letter to the members of Houston’s City Government, as well as to major US newspapers.

In it, they don’t beat around the bush on their take of the city of Houston’s finances: Turns out, Houston is broke; it just hasn’t acknowledged it yet:

Read the rest of this entry »

‘Bin Laden’ blames US for global warming:

A new message said to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has blamed global warming on the US and other big industrial nations.

The tape criticises the administration of former US President George W Bush for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on combating climate change.

“Bush the son, and the [US] Congress before him, rejected this agreement only to satisfy the big companies.”

Well, it seems that Bin Laden and Al Gore agree on something.

The U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program will end Monday at 8 p.m., a month after it began, according to a government official.

The Transportation Department said Thursday the government will wind down the program on Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. Car buyers can receive rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 for trading in older vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient models.

“It’s been a thrill to be part of the best economic news story in America,” Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “Now we are working toward an orderly wind down of this very popular program.”

Through Thursday, auto dealers have made deals worth $1.9 billion and are on pace to exhaust the program’s $3 billion in early September. The incentives have generated more than 457,000 vehicle sales. Administration officials said they have reviewed nearly 40 percent of the transactions and have already paid out $145 million to dealers.

Administration officials said applications for rebates will not be accepted after 8 p.m. EDT Monday and dealers should not make additional sales without receiving all the necessary paperwork from their customers. Dealers will be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote LaHood on Thursday and urged the department to consider a policy that would reimburse dealers within five business days for all properly submitted vouchers.

“In order to capture a sale but also make use of the CARS incentive, dealers have been forced to effectively finance the CARS vouchers for buyers until the dealers are reimbursed by the federal government, placing a strain on dealers’ balance sheets that, if prolonged, could eventually offset some of the benefits of the program,” Reid wrote.

President Barack Obama

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said in an interview Thursday that the program has been “successful beyond anybody’s imagination” but dealers were overwhelmed by the response of consumers. He pledged that dealers “will get their money.”Alan Carr: Tooth Fairy LIVE

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Get ready for Government Motors: General Motors Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday

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, marking the humbling of an American icon that once dominated the global car industry and setting up a high-stakes gamble for U.S. taxpayers. The move was once viewed as unthinkable but became inevitable after years of losses and market share declines that were capped by a dramatic plunge in sales in recent months.

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The bankruptcy filing marks the climax of a lengthy debate over the auto maker’s future after it sought a bailout from the U.S. government in December to stay alive. In the end, GM couldn’t complete its restructuring out of court and filed for bankruptcy-court protection to get billions more in aid from U.S. taxpayers.

In the end, even $19.4 billion in federal help wasn’t enough to keep the nation’s largest automaker out of bankruptcy. The government will pour another $30 billion into GM to fund operations during its reorganization. The Canadian and Ontario governments are putting in $9.5 billion for a 12.5% stake.

The reorganization faces myriad risks, ranging from legal challenges to the uncertainty of when consumer demand for new cars will rebound. In becoming GM’s new owner, the government is also entering largely unexplored terrain filled with political minefields, notably the possibility of meddling by Congress in the company’s daily operations and business plans.

In bankruptcy, the auto maker will split apart into two companies: a leaner new GM and a so-called old GM, which will include the pieces that will be wound down. GM intends to accomplish the split through a Section 363 sale, which would transfer the new GM assets to an entity owned by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the United Auto Workers union and the company’s unsecured creditors.

The question now facing 56,000 auto workers, 3,600 GM dealers and the Obama administration: Will it work?

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It now appears that in just a few years since the government forced ethanol use on the country, engine and fuel system failures caused by ethanol are causing major damage to more and more new and used vehicles. This means the hapless owners are not only paying for snake oil in lower fuel efficiency and more smog, but pay again when it damages their vehicles and lawn mowers.

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There are active lawsuits from boat owners; ethanol broke down the resins in their fiberglass gas tanks, destroying their marine engines. Additionally, those who deal in small gas engines for lawnmowers, edgers, and weedeaters have quickly learned that, as Briggs & Stratton’s (BGG

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Pushed into it by the corn growers’ and ethanol refiners’ lobbying organizations, today the EPA is starting to go through the public comment phase on increasing the level of ethanol in our gasoline from 10% to 15%. Time and time again we have heard from these groups, who now claim that there is zero scientific evidence that a 15% blend of ethanol would do any damage whatsoever if the mandate for ethanol were raised. As with all statements made by vested interests, few outsiders have actually taken the time to look and find out whether this statement was true.

In fact, it’s false.

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‘Oh, No, I Won’t Be Punked’: Congresswoman Hangs Up On Obama

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And, on the lighter side of the news:

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