By Ryan Singel
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Auto Workers Told to Take Concessions, Abandon Retirees
by Tiffany Ten Eyck
Auto workers from five states traveled to Washington to talk to Congressional representatives, including Republican staff of the Senate Banking Committee. Photos: Pete Vargas.
President George Bush announced December 19 a $17.4 billion dollar bridge loan for General Motors and Chrysler, a day after it hinted that the companies could be forced into "orderly" bankruptcy.
Auto workers who advocated for short-term aid to the auto industry's crisis bristled at the conditions attached to the loan. The Bush administration's requirements mirror demands from anti-union Republicans who torpedoed Congressional action last week. They would decimate UAW contracts and place retiree health care funds into company stock.
The plan hinges on a demand that UAW auto worker wages and work rules become "competitive" with wages and work rules in foreign-owned, non-union transplant factories in the South.
Lost in the discussion, auto workers said, is any recognition that wages and benefits are less than 10 percent of the cost of a vehicle and can't pull the Big 3 back to profitability.
"We've already taken concessions to help the industry become viable," said Brett Talbot-Ward, a UAW Local 1700 member who works at Chrysler's Sterling Heights Assembly plant. "Why are they asking for more from us when there are all sorts of other costs in the vehicle production process, much less the CEO pay, that haven't even factored into the debate?"
So what have the Palestinians got to complain about?
by MARK STEEL
For example, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, having observed that more than 300 Gazans were dead, said: "We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence. We strongly condemn the attacks on Israel and hold Hamas responsible."
Someone should ask her to comment on teenage knife-crime, to see if she'd say: "I strongly condemn the people who've been stabbed, and until they abandon their practice of wandering around clutching their sides and bleeding, there is no hope for peace."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/394166_complainonline31.html
Report: Military may have to quell domestic violence from economic collapse
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security," writes Nathan Freier, a 20-year Army veteran and visiting professor at the college.
A copy of the 44-page report, "Known Unknowns: Unconventional 'Strategic Shocks' in Defense Strategy Development," can be downloaded here. Freier notes that his report expresses only his own views and does not represent US policy, but it's certain that his recommendations have come before at least some Defense Department officials.
The author warns potential causes for such civil unrest could include another terrorist attack, "unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters." The situation could deteriorate to the point where military intervention was required, he argues.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Report_Military_may_have_to_quell_1229.html
Wise Up!
By David Bruce
• Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, wife of Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, was an unlikely patron of jazz musicians. She did such things as buy their groceries, pay their rent, give them rides in her silver Bentley to their gigs, and even invite them when things were bad to share her home. She said, "I could see that an awful lot of help was needed. I couldn't just stand there and watch."
Jazz great Charlie Parker even died in her home. A doctor told him that he needed to rest, so Nina invited him to stay with her. Three days later, as they were watching TV together, he slumped and died.
She was white, and the jazz musicians were mainly black, and when she was riding in her silver Bentley with jazz great Thelonious Monk, a police officer stopped them, searched the Bentley, and found some marijuana — a small amount. The marijuana belonged to Thelonious, but Nina said that it was hers because she knew that Thelonious would not be able to get work if he were convicted of marijuana possession. She spent a night in jail, but her three-year jail sentence was fortunately overturned. The jazz musicians paid her back by naming compositions after her. Thelonious wrote "Pannonica," and other jazz musicians wrote such compositions as "Blues for Nica," "Nica Steps Out," "Nica's Dream," "Nica's Tempo," and many more.
• Long ago, Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski decided to go to medical school despite having a wife and two children (and a third child on its way). He managed to pay the bills, including tuition, for a while, but in the middle of his third year, he was no longer able to do so. In addition, he was deep in debt. However, his wife called him and told him that comedian Danny Thomas had pledged $4,000 to help him finish medical school. Mr. Thomas had met with officials from Marquette University, and they had told him about a Rabbi who needed financial help to get through medical school. Mr. Thomas asked, "How much money does he need?" Hearing the answer—$4,000—he said, "Tell your Rabbi he's got it." Mr. Thomas is a Christian, but he generously helped a Jew. Rabbi Abraham says, "Who would think of a less likely combination: a Lebanese Christian and a Chassidic rabbi?"
http://www.athensnews.com/news/features/2008/dec/29/wise-good-deeds/
The Top 10 Douchebags of 2008
From the "Pick-Up Artist" to "Joe The Plumber," find out who really sucked at life in 2008.
1 of 11
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich likes to sell things. Like Senate seats once belonging to the president elect. We have a feeling Rod's next job will involve him putting products on clearance, so he'll be right at home. And P.S. -- nice hair, asshole.
2 of 11
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher aka Joe The Plumber let Sarah Palin use him as a pawn in hers and McCain's campaign, and then in an all-too transparent move, votes Obama. Totally effective.
3 of 11
The St. Paul Police. Journalists were arrested and local residents were abused when the boys in blue took to the streets during the Republican National Convention. But at least the delegates didn't have to rub up against the commoners.
4 of 11
If Norm Coleman wins reelection in Minnesota, blame Lucas Davenport. The Senate recount got a dose of idiot when election officials discovered a ballot for "Lizard People" during the hand count. Instead of wallowing in shame for wasting his time and his vote, Davenport decided to get his 10 seconds of fame by emailing Minnesota Public Radio to confess.
5 of 11
Lindsay Lohan's dad, Michael Lohan, will mostly certainly win father of the year in 2008. He recently started a blog that he states is "not about Lindsay," but totally is. When not ranting on his celebrity daughter he spends his time quoting the Bible.
Cheney: ‘I Don’t Have Any Idea’ Why People Don’t Like Me
Only 29 percent of Americans approve of the job Dick Cheney is doing as Vice President. In an interview with his hometown Wyoming newspaper, The Caspar Star-Tribune, Cheney expressed his bewilderment over his low approval numbers: QUESTION: How do you explain your low approval rating?
CHENEY: I don't have any idea. I don't follow the polls.
My experience has been over the years that if you govern based upon poll numbers, upon trying to improve your overall poll ratings, people I've encountered who do that are people who won't make tough decisions. And the job the president has and those who advise him is to make those basic fundamental decisions for the nation that nobody else is authorized or able to make.
In addition to his well-documented abuse of power and disregard for the rule of law, Cheney's public disapproval ratings might be explained in part by his own personal disregard for the public. When told that two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the Iraq war, Cheney responded "so?," adding that he didn't care what the American people thought.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/28/cheney-low-polls-dont-know/
A gay beat poet and a Secretary of State, naked, for peace?
Nestled in recently declassified transcripts of former Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations is an exchange between him and counter-culture icon, peace activist and poet Allen Ginsberg on how to end the Vietnam war.
One joking suggestion from Ginsberg: The duo appear nude on television.
"They don't make gay heroes they way they used to before the movement and community underwent professionalization," said blogger Michael Petrelis. "I'm sorry we no longer have queer visionaries like Ginsberg communicating with power-brokers at the top level of American society, and challenging them like this."
The following is a transcript of the call, which took place on April 23, 1971.
####
G: I am calling at the request partly of Senator McCarthy. Senator McCarthy told me to, call you. My idea is to arrange a conversation between yourself, [CIA Director Richard] Helms, McCarthy and maybe even Nixon with Rennie Davis, Dillinger and Abernathy. It can be done at any time. They were willing to show their peaceableness and perhaps you don't know how to get out of the war and who by private meeting --
K: I have been meeting with many members representing peace groups but what I find is that they have always then rushed right out and given the contents of the meeting to the press. But I like to do this, not just for the enlightment of the people I talk to but to at least give me a feel of what concerned people think. I would be prepared to meet in principle on a private basis.
G: That's true but it is a question of personal delicacy. In dealing with human conscienceness, it is difficult to set limits.
K: You can't set limits to human conscienceness but --
G: We can try to come to some kind of understanding.
K: You can set limits to what you say publicly.
G: It would be even more funny to do it on television.
K: What?
G: It would be even more useful if we could do it naked on television.
K: (Laughter )
G: It might be too ______ but under some kind of circumstances. What shall I tell them that would be encouraging?
K: That I would think about it very seriously.
G: Good deal.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/A_gay_beat_poet_and_Secretary_1228.html
Barack Obama's election marks the beginning of the 21st century
The Bush administration entered the 21st century with 20th-century thinking about the threats it faced. The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama promises to bring fresh solutions to the unique challenges of our time. By shedding dated notions, the United States could rediscover the imperative of acting in concert with others to build global institutions that strengthen our security and foster our values.
WASHINGTON — Social and political epochs rarely end precisely on schedules provided by calendars. Many historians date the end of Europe's 19th century to 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. What we call "The Sixties" in the United States, with its ethos of reform and protest, ended with Richard Nixon's landslide re-election in 1972 and the winding down of the Vietnam War.
In the same way, the outcome of this year's election means that 2009 will, finally, mark the beginning of the 21st century.
It comes as we face parlous economic conditions and a slew of new threats. Nonetheless, we should view this as an opportunity to embrace the words of one of Barack Obama's favorite presidents. "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew," Abraham Lincoln declared in 1862. "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
For all the chatter about the world changing decisively after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, our reaction to the attacks was conditioned by 20th-century assumptions.
Instead of seeing the spasm of violence as representing something entirely new, President Bush's administration, aided by thinkers allied to its approach, resolutely forced events into the interpretive boxes fashioned in previous decades.
A band of reactionary terrorists whose actions reflected the weakness of their position were raised up to world-historical status. They were "totalitarians," which suggested they represented a threat as powerful as those embodied by Hitler and Stalin. They were "Islamofascists," a sobriquet that credited them with battling under the banner of a coherent, modern ideology when in fact they are inspired by a ragtag jumble of ideas rooted in the medieval past.
Osama bin Laden's commitment to reviving the power of the old Islamic "Caliphate" was taken to be as real as the danger of Soviet troops pouring across the old East German border or Hitler occupying Czechoslovakia. The new "global war on terror" was endowed with the same coherence as the old Cold War.
It was a dangerous and self-defeating set of illusions.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008574425_opin31dionne.html
Drillers eye oil reserves off California coast
by Jane Kay
The federal government is taking steps that may open California's fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship traffic into San Francisco Bay.
Millions of acres of oil deposits, mapped in the 1980s when then-Interior Secretary James Watt and Energy Secretary Donald Hodel pushed for California exploration, lie a few miles from the forested North Coast and near the mouth of the Russian River, as well as off Malibu, Santa Monica and La Jolla in Southern California.
"These are the targets," said Richard Charter, a lobbyist for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund who worked for three decades to win congressional bans on offshore drilling. "You couldn't design a better formula to create adverse impacts on California's coastal-dependent economy."
The bans that protected both of the nation's coasts beginning in 1981, from California to the Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic Coast and the Straits of Florida, ended this year when Congress let the moratorium lapse.
President-elect Barack Obama hasn't said whether he would overturn President Bush's lifting last summer of the ban on drilling, as gas prices reached a historic high. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Col., Obama's pick as interior secretary and head of the nation's ocean-drilling agency, hasn't said what he would do in coastal waters.
The Interior Department has moved to open some or all federal waters, which begin 3 miles from shore and are outside state control, for exploration as early as 2010. Rigs could go up in 2012.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/28/MN4G14QMVE.DTL
Your Top ‘Out of Your Head-lines’ of 2008
Citing 'Change' Over 'Experience,' Angry Electorate Votes to Replace God
'3 A.M. Phone Call Ad' Wins Hillary the Presidency, of OnStar
Baseball Decrees the Steroid Age the 'Shrunken Ball Era'
The Legend of Fred Thompson: A Politician Turned Actor Who Couldn't Play a Candidate on TV
Accused in Hate Crime Plea Bargains Down to 'Spite'
Famed Photog Annie Leibovitz Uses Negatives to Capture McCain's Campaign
Iraq Celebrates 5th Anniversary by Re-Gifting Democracy
Rudy Giuliani Reveals His Feet Are Two Different Sizes: a '9′ and an '11′
Co-Founder of Slinky Dies, After Falling Down Steps
Pollsters Admit Flaws in Methodology: 'Exit Polls' Conducted at Entrances
Sarah Palin Touts Her Experience as a 'Closet Organizer'
Satirists Riot Over The New Yorker Obama Cartoon
Americans Strongly Believe in God, But One That Only Controls the Outcome of Sporting Events
Due to Snowstorm, Premature Ejaculation Clinic Operating on a 5 Minute Delay
Huckabee Declares He's Ready to be President From 'Day Six,' Literally
Spitzer Scandal Spurs Call for Reform: Public Financing of Hookers
Christian Right Condemns Gay Adoption of Highways
FOX News Blames Obama for Nigerian Spam
Time-Life Issues the Definitive Collection of 'Bush Scandals'
Sarah Palin Establishes a New 'Crack in the WOODEN FLOOR'
Stood Up by 'Joe the Plumber,' McCain Campaigns with 'Janitor in a Drum'
Iraqi Shoe Thrower Receives a 'Seinfeld Sentence' — Has to Serve as Bush's Butler (and Shoeshine man)
A Sign of the Times: E-Trade Baby Leaps to Death From His Crib
McCain Claims 'Multiple House Story' Helps Him With Mormons
Sarah Palin Takes Phone Call from Napoleon Bonaparte
U.S. Finally Greeted as Liberators, by Wall Street
Lesson Learned: Auto Executives Make Return Trip to D.C. in Flintstones Car
An Ominous Sign for the GOP: Even Mars Turns Blue
Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' Finally Realized: Iraq in Better Shape Than U.S.
Sarah Palin's Greatest 'Gift' to America: Ruining Thanksgiving
Treasury Gives Bailout to Sperm Banks, to Inject Liquidity Into Frozen Markets
Blagojevic, Preparing for the Worst, Plans to Sell His Own 'Seat' in Jail
Conspiracy Theory of 'Second Shoe Thrower' Raised by Abdul-liver Stone
Bernie Madoff's Fraud Reaches Beyond Jewish Community: Ran Pyramid Scheme in Egypt
House of Tudor Lays Claim to Vacant NY Senate Seat
Cheney Voices Concern Biden Will Diminish the 'Vice' in Vice Presidency
GOP Realizes Worst Nightmare: Black Man Elected to Lead U.S. Out of The Dark Ages
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Divine Miss M.
Since the death of performer Wayland Flowers in 1988, his over-the-top puppet creation Madame has been seen only sporadically. But with the launch of her new casino tour, Madame is back.
Click the category to view more stories in this category.
By Lawrence Ferber
During the 1970s and '80s, a silver-haired Hollywood diva ruled the casinos and cabarets, regularly appeared on TV's Laugh-In and Hollywood Squares, cracked bawdy bon mots with high-rated talk-show hosts, and even starred in her own sitcom, Madame's Place.
Oh…and she was a puppet.
Glammed up in '30s-style gowns, jewelry, and turbans, with a bulbous heart-shaped chin that rivals Popeye's (and Quentin Tarantino's), Madame was the creation of openly gay performer Wayland Flowers, who died of AIDS complications in 1988. After nearly two decades out of the spotlight, and a couple of years warming up with other puppeteers, Madame is making an official comeback on the casino and nightclub circuit with performer Rick Skye pulling the strings in a production titled It's Madame With an E!
Advocate.com recently spoke to Marlena Shell, Flowers's friend and manager and the owner of his numerous puppets, including Madame, Crazy Mary, and Jiffy. Much to our surprise, we got not only Shell but Madame herself (voiced by Skye), talking about her comeback, future plans, and past run-ins with Shari Lewis's Lamb Chop and the übercloseted Liberace.
Advocate.com: Where have you been all these years, Madame?
Madame: You know how legends are, we never go away. I was holed up in my Hollywood Hills home for a while. Did you see Sunset Boulevard, that old tin can of a movie? I had my butler serving me breakfast in bed, but you can only do that for so many years. I missed my audiences and needed to go back to the stage, so I was clawing my way back up to the top, that's all. And I had to change hands and find someone who was a perfect fit. You don't replace a friend so easily.
Analysis: 'I don't see how this ends well' in Gaza
By Dion Nissenbaum
"I don't see how this ends well, even if, in two weeks time, it looks like it ends well," said Daniel Levy, a political analyst who once served as an adviser to Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister who's now leading the military campaign against Hamas as Israel's defense minister.
Israel's expanding air strikes already have delivered a costly blow to the Hamas rulers in Gaza by killing hundreds of the group's soldiers and decimating its network of government security compounds.
Beyond that, though, Israeli leaders haven't explained what could bring the violence to a halt. Once the smoke clears, the rubble is removed and the dead are buried, Hamas is still almost certain to remain in control of the Gaza Strip, and its hard-line leaders are already vowing to strike back.
"To the extent to which there's a scenario where Israel wins a tactical round, it will again lose a strategic round," said Levy, a senior fellow at The New America Foundation, a liberal policy institute in Washington, D.C. that's providing ideas and personnel to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Israel's ongoing campaign is already creating an early foreign policy test for Obama, who's pledged to make Middle East diplomacy an early priority when he takes office next month.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/58625.html
Scientists eager for stem cell policy change
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| Although President-elect Obama's pledge to change federal policy on stem cell research is not likely to lead to new cures by the end of his first year — or even first term — the scientific community is eager to get moving.
Embryonic stem cell research is one area in which the change that Obama has promised on the campaign trail will provoke an immediate effect. Once he has acted to ease the restriction on federal funding, researchers across the United States will be free to request funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to collaborate with colleagues conducting experiments with private or state-government money and those working abroad. "Just with the stroke of a pen, the new president could open up new avenues of research," said Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the lead Democratic sponsor of legislation that would broaden funding for embryonic stem cell research. Obama has vowed to lift restrictions put in place by President Bush and to enact legislation the current president twice vetoed. "He would really be signaling that we really are moving in a new direction," DeGette said. http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/scientists-eager-for-stem-cell-policy-change-2008-12-24.html |
Best 50 Astronomy Pictures of Year 2008
Astronomy is arguably the most beautiful of the sciences. I'm biased, of course, but it's nearly impossible to gaze upon a picture of a galaxy, a moon, a nebula, and not see in it something compellingly artistic. Sometimes it's the color, sometimes the shape, and sometimes it's the knowledge that we can understand the subject of the picture itself.
Science doesn't take away from the beauty of nature. It enhances it, multiplies it.
There are so many incredible astronomical photographs released every year that picking ten as the most beautiful is a substantial task. But it becomes easier when you consider the science behind the image as well. Does this image tell us more than that one? Was the scientific result drawn from an image surprising, or did it firm up a previously considered hypothesis?
Still, there's something to be said for a simple, drop dead gorgeous picture.
So here I present my Best 50 Astronomy Pictures for 2008
Rays from an Unexpected Aurora
This aurora was a bit of a surprise. Possibly more surprising, however, the aurora appeared to show an usual structure of green rays from some locations. In this view, captured from North Dakota, USA, a picket fence of green rays stretches toward the horizon. Mirroring the green rays is a red band, somewhat rare in its own right. Lights from the cities of Bismarck and Mandan are visible near the horizon.
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you might find this stunning pair of interacting galaxies, the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with well defined spiral structure is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes clearly sweep in front of its companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195. The pair are about 31 million light-years distant and officially lie within the boundaries of the small constellation Canes Venatici.
Young Star Cluster Westerlund 2
Dusty stellar nursery RCW 49 surrounds young star cluster Westerlund 2 in this remarkable composite skyscape from beyond the visible spectrum of light. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope is shown in black and white, complimenting the Chandra X-ray image data (in false color) of the hot energetic stars within the cluster's central region. Looking toward the grand southern constellation Centaurus, both views reveal stars and structures hidden from optical telescopes by obscuring dust. Westerlund 2 itself is a mere 2 million years old or less, and contains some of our galaxy's most luminous, massive and therefore short-lived stars.
The GOP winter blunderland
by Ed Naha
You have to hand it to the Republicans. Seriously. You have to. If not, they'll beat and belittle you, take whatever you have, anyway, and then insist you never had it in the first place.
The nicest thing I can say about the current crop of GOP (Grinches On Parade) ideologues is that they're consistent. With America currently in the shape of an ER patient on a crash cart, Republican politicos still spew their psychotic Bizarro World views; sort of a fragmented funhouse mirror reflection of their already distorted priorities. Up is down. Right is wrong. And if you feel life has you by the short hairs, you're not seeing life the way they do - so it's all your fault.
Take the current collapse of Detroit's auto making industry. In the Republican view, it's not the companies that caused the crisis, it's the greedy union workers who wanted to, damn them to Hell, earn a living wage!
A group of Southern Senators put the kibosh on a vital influx of cash to the automakers because the deal didn't require union workers to trim their salaries to equal those of non-union workers who toil at foreign auto plants in...the South. The Senators, led by Foghorn Leghorn flimflammers extraordinaire Richard Shelby of Alabama and David Vitter of Louisiana, used very quaint language to try to disguise their union-busting bid.
Declared Vitter, "Negotiations on a real restructuring plan failed for one reason only: The union and the Democratic leadership wouldn't agree to any wage concessions by a date certain. None."
Vitter, a Family Values kinda Senator who has, in the past, had trouble keeping his little Vitter critter in his pants whilst around hookers, concluded with a somber, "It's a shame."
Morgan Johnson, president of the UAW in Louisiana, took a less phantasmagorical approach to Vitter's problem with the unionized auto industry. "He'd rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers."
Now, all of this wage-cutting rumbling could be chalked up to non-political, altruistic reasoning on the Republicans' part. They want to save the country millions of lost jobs, right?
Uh, not really.
Broadband Stimulus Plan: How About Some Data First?
During the Great Depression, the government tried to revive the economy with the New Deal's public work projects, and ended up paying people to dig unneeded ditches.
In today's deep recession, digital age advocates are trying to persuade President-elect Barack Obama to put billions into a nationwide broadband build-out as part of his planned economic stimulus package.
Given that the internet has grown into an indispensable tool for the economy, for people's personal lives and for the nation's political discourse, spending billions to keep it stable and expand its reach is simply common sense.
But how do we make sure that the billions aren't spent creating the 21st century equivalent of ditches to nowhere?
The question of how to spend that money most effectively is largely unanswerable, since almost no one knows anything about the internet's infrastructure and those that do know aren't sharing that information with policymakers or regulators.
In a radio address earlier this month, Obama already signaled that the stimulus package will earmark billions to spur broadband deployment in order to keep the U.S. from sinking even lower than 15th on the list of well-wired countries.
There are many urging that the $800 billion or so economic stimulus plan include money for broader broadband. Higher education IT consortium EDUCAUSE suggests $100 billion (.pdf) be spent on fat fiber optic links to homes, while FreePress, a net neutrality advocacy group, has a $44 billion plan. For its part, the FCC has a pending proposal to open a swath of the airwaves dedicated to free, but filtered, wireless internet.
But the problem is that no one knows the best way to make the internet more resilient, accessible and secure, since there's no just no public data. The ISP and backbone internet providers don't tell anyone anything.
For instance, the government doesn't know how many people actually have broadband or what they pay for it.
In short, how can anyone decide what's the best way to build a bigger information super-highway when the toll operators won't say anything about the current use of the road?
Heaven for the Godless?
By CHARLES M. BLOW
In June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a controversial survey in which 70 percent of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life.
This threw evangelicals into a tizzy. After all, the Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians. Jesus said so: "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." But the survey suggested that Americans just weren't buying that.
The evangelicals complained that people must not have understood the question. The respondents couldn't actually believe what they were saying, could they?
So in August, Pew asked the question again. (They released the results last week.) Sixty-five percent of respondents said — again — that other religions could lead to eternal life. But this time, to clear up any confusion, Pew asked them to specify which religions. The respondents essentially said all of them.
And they didn't stop there. Nearly half also thought that atheists could go to heaven — dragged there kicking and screaming, no doubt — and most thought that people with no religious faith also could go.
What on earth does this mean?
One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of their faith. As Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College told me: "We are a multicultural society, and people expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27blow.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Churches fall to foreclosure
Houses of God land in bankruptcy amid mortgage crisis
"Who gives $700,000, 700, 700?" he called out. One man, a representative for a local bank, raised his finger. The auctioneer tried in vain to nudge the price up. "Sold!" he cried. St. Andrew Anglican Church had just been bought by the bank that had started foreclosure proceedings against it.
"It's probably good for my soul to be taken down a notch," the Right Rev. Joel Marcus Johnson, the rector of St. Andrew, said after the auction.
During this holiday season of hard times, not even houses of God have been spared. Some lenders believe more churches than ever have fallen behind on loans or defaulted this year. Some churches, and at least one company that specialized in church lending, have filed for bankruptcy. Church giving is down as much as 15 percent in some places, pastors and lenders report.
The financial problems are crimping a church building boom that began in the 1990s, when megachurches multiplied, turning many houses of worship into suburban social centers complete with bookstores, gyms and coffee bars. Lenders say mortgage applications are down, while some commercial lenders no longer see churches as a safe investment.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081229/BUSINESS01/812290326
"EMPTY PROMISE": The broken federal commitment behind the Tennessee coal ash disaster
When Earthjustice Attorney Lisa Evans testified earlier this year before a congressional committee about the looming threat from coal combustion waste, she warned that the federal government's broken pledge to regulate disposal of the potentially dangerous material threatened the health and safety of communities across the country.Speaking before a June 10 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources titled "How Should the Federal Government Address the Health and Environmental Risks of Coal Combustion Waste?," Evans pointed out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels published in 2000 that federal standards for disposal of coal combustion waste were needed to protect public health and the environment.
The federal failure to regulate the waste has put 23 states -- including Tennessee -- in a special bind, since their statutes have "no more stringent" provisions prohibiting them from enacting standards stricter than those found in federal law. Without federal action, those states can't regulate coal combustion waste disposal beyond the few obviously inadequate safeguards that now exist.
Yet the U.S. government's commitment to regulate the very real danger of coal combustion waste -- the nation's second-largest industrial waste stream with 129 million tons produced each year -- remains "an entirely empty promise," Evans testified [pdf]:
EPA and [the federal Office of Surface Mining] are fiddling while ash from burning coal poisons our water and sickens our communities. Inadequate state laws offer scant protection. Federal environmental statutes dictate that EPA and OSM must do what they promised to do and what they have been directed to do -- promulgate enforceable minimum federal standards to protect health and the environment nationwide from the risks posed by mismanagement of coal combustion waste.
Evans' testimony seems almost eerily prescient now in the wake of the disaster that befell an Eastern Tennessee community this week following the collapse of a lagoon holding coal combustion waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant. The resulting deluge inundated 12 nearby homes, buried more than half a square mile in four to six feet of hazardous waste, and blocked a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water for millions of people downstream.
Measuring Madoff
By Scott Burns
The loss is mind-boggling. But the figure does nothing to convey the damage this man has done.
One way to measure the extent of the damage is to compare the $50 billion to measures of loss in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. In 2007 there were 9.8 million crimes against property in the United States. This included about 2.2 million burglaries, 6.6 million larceny-thefts and 1.1 million car thefts.
I think you'll agree that 9.8 million crimes represent a veritable army of miscreants. In spite of that, our total losses to property crimes in 2007 were a mere $17.6 billion. To be sure, it didn't feel "mere" if you suffered a burglary. The average loss was $1,991. Nor was it "mere" if you were one of the 6.6 million people who suffered a larceny-theft. In those, the average loss was $886.
But when you add all the losses in 9.8 million common property crimes, it's just a fraction of the estimated $50 billion loss attributed to Bernard Madoff.
Perhaps 2007 was an "off" year for theft?
Well, there was a slight decline in the number of crimes, but not in the amount lost. In 2006 the report shows nearly 10 million crimes against property and losses of another $17.6 billion. Similarly, the 2005 report shows nearly 10.2 million crimes against property and a total loss of $16.5 billion.
Add the three years and you get $51.7 billion. Using that value, Bernard Madoff has caused losses equal to all the losses caused by all the conventional thieves in America for nearly three full years.
http://assetbuilder.com/blogs/scott_burns/archive/2008/12/26/measuring-madoff.aspx
RNC chairman candidate defends 'Barack the Magic Negro' song
By Rebecca Sinderbrand
"I think most people recognize political satire when they see it," Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. "I think RNC members understand that."
The song, set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon," was first played on conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh's radio show in 2007.
Its title was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column that suggested President-elect Barack Obama appealed to those who feel guilty about the nation's history of mistreatment of African-Americans. Saltsman said the song, penned by his longtime friend Paul Shanklin, should be easily recognized as satire directed at the Times.
The CD sent to RNC members, first reported by The Hill on Friday, is titled "We Hate the USA" and also includes songs referencing former presidential candidate John Edwards and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other targets.
According to The Hill, other song titles, some of which were in bold font, were: "John Edwards' Poverty Tour," "Wright place, wrong pastor," "Love Client #9," "Ivory and Ebony" and "The Star Spanglish Banner."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/26/rnc.obama.satire/index.html
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Death of Deep Throat and the Crisis of Journalism
By George Friedman
Mark Felt died last week at the age of 95. For those who don't recognize that name, Felt was the "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame. It was Felt who provided Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post with a flow of leaks about what had happened, how it happened and where to look for further corroboration on the break-in, the cover-up, and the financing of wrongdoing in the Nixon administration. Woodward and Bernstein's exposé of Watergate has been seen as a high point of journalism, and their unwillingness to reveal Felt's identity until he revealed it himself three years ago has been seen as symbolic of the moral rectitude demanded of journalists.
In reality, the revelation of who Felt was raised serious questions about the accomplishments of Woodward and Bernstein, the actual price we all pay for journalistic ethics, and how for many years we did not know a critical dimension of the Watergate crisis. At a time when newspapers are in financial crisis and journalism is facing serious existential issues, Watergate always has been held up as a symbol of what journalism means for a democracy, revealing truths that others were unwilling to uncover and grapple with. There is truth to this vision of journalism, but there is also a deep ambiguity, all built around Felt's role. This is therefore not an excursion into ancient history, but a consideration of two things. The first is how journalists become tools of various factions in political disputes. The second is the relationship between security and intelligence organizations and governments in a Democratic society.
Watergate was about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. The break-in was carried out by a group of former CIA operatives controlled by individuals leading back to the White House. It was never proven that then-U.S. President Richard Nixon knew of the break-in, but we find it difficult to imagine that he didn't. In any case, the issue went beyond the break-in. It went to the cover-up of the break-in and, more importantly, to the uses of money that financed the break-in and other activities. Numerous aides, including the attorney general of the United States, went to prison. Woodward and Bernstein, and their newspaper, The Washington Post, aggressively pursued the story from the summer of 1972 until Nixon's resignation. The episode has been seen as one of journalism's finest moments. It may have been, but that cannot be concluded until we consider Deep Throat more carefully.
Deep Throat Reconsidered
Mark Felt was deputy associate director of the FBI (No. 3 in bureau hierarchy) in May 1972, when longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died. Upon Hoover's death, Felt was second to Clyde Tolson, the longtime deputy and close friend to Hoover who by then was in failing health himself. Days after Hoover's death, Tolson left the bureau.
Felt expected to be named Hoover's successor, but Nixon passed him over, appointing L. Patrick Gray instead. In selecting Gray, Nixon was reaching outside the FBI for the first time in the 48 years since Hoover had taken over. But while Gray was formally acting director, the Senate never confirmed him, and as an outsider, he never really took effective control of the FBI. In a practical sense, Felt was in operational control of the FBI from the break-in at the Watergate in August 1972 until June 1973.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20081222_death_deep_throat_and_crisis_journalism
Jeb Bush Ready to Roll For US Senate?
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – the son of one president and the brother of another – has been working the phones since Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) announced earlier this month that he won't seek reelection in 2010. Sources say Bush hasn't made up his mind yet about running for Martinez' seat yet, but that he's getting green lights from would-be contributors and blessings from Republican Party leaders.
Strategists and political observers take it as a sign that Bush will run.
"Everything indicates that he's in," said David Johnson, a Republican Strategist and the CEO of Strategic Vision. "You're not making calls and laying the ground work for fundraising unless you're clearing the field for your candidacy."
http://3bluedudes.com/florida/jeb-bush-ready-to-roll-for-us-senate/