A roll of whose dice?

By Roger Ebert

 

Is the universe deterministic, or random? Not the first question you'd expect to hear in a thriller, even a great one. But to hear this question posed soon after the opening sequence of "Knowing" gave me a particular thrill. Nicolas Cage plays Koestler, a professor of astrophysics at MIT, and as he toys with a model of the solar system, he asks that question of his students. Deterministic means that if you have a complete understanding of the laws of physics, you can predict with certainty everything that will happen after (for example) the universe is created in the Big Bang. Random means you can't predict anything. "What do you think?" a student asks Koestler, who says, "I think...shit just happens."

He is soon given reason to doubt his confidence. (From this point on, there are spoilers.) "Knowing" begins 50 years ago with a classroom assignment; grade school children are asked to draw pictures of what the world will look like in the future. Most draw rocket ships. Lucinda covers her page with row after row of deeply-etched numbers. All the pages are buried in a time capsule, and when the future comes around, Lucinda's sealed envelope ends in the hands of Caleb, Koestler's young son.

The page seems meaningless, a work of madness. But by chance Koestler notices these numbers in a row: 91120013239. Koestler sees 9/11/2001, and when he googles 9/11 he finds that 2996 people were killed. The numbers were written down in 1959. In a fever, the scientist extracts other numbers and finds the precise dates and fatalities of major catastrophes during the previous five decades.

Koestler and the music of the spheres

How can this be? By now Koestler is in the state of mind that Nicolas Cage evokes so perfectly: Profound, heartsick worry. He turns to his MIT colleague, a cosmologist named Beckman (Ben Mendelsohn). Beckman thinks he must be mad, and warns against the superstition of numerology. But when recent numbers turn out to be correct predictions, and when Koestler realizes that some of the numbers are coordinates of latitude and longitude, it is impossible to dismiss the sheet of paper. It poses a threat to our very understanding of the universe. Shit doesn't just happen.

As I watched these scenes, I became aware of synchronicity in my own life. It happens that I am still immersed in the never-ending debate about Evolution vs. Intelligent Design on my Ben Stein blog entry (currently 1,530 comments and counting). Only a day or two earlier, a reader named Randy Masters asked me what, in my mind, would constitute proof of intelligent design. Fair question. I replied: "I wouldn't expect the Big Banger to manifest in the skies like the Four Horsemen or anything. I would expect him to enlighten scientists so they would learn how to find evidence of his working."

Now, in this movie, a secularist scientist is apparently being furnished with such enlightenment--for how else to explain the numbers? There must be a Design. We learn Koestler is long estranged from his father, a clergyman who serenely believes he will be in heaven with his wife. Aren't these numbers evidence of a higher power? More importantly, what do they mean for the lives of Koestler and Caleb? And for Diana (Rose Byrne), the daughter of Lucinda, and Abby, the granddaughter (Lara Robinson)? Koestler has tracked them down with feverish intensity.

"Knowing" is a superbly crafted thriller in any event, but that it brings basic philosophical questions into view was more than I could have hoped for. The film is by Alex Proyas, whose "Dark City" (1998) was also about the hidden nature of the world men think they inhabit. "Knowing," which could not be a more different film, seems to reveal a similar secret.In that film, the hero discovered the occult powers by which an alien race controls the world of men. In Proyas's "I, Robot" (2004), a robot, whose programming is rigidly deterministic, evolves to the point where it is able to ask, "What am I?"--which of course leads to a discovery of the true nature of the world it inhabits.

Of course it isn't that simple. The professor offered a false choice to his class. No one thinks the universe is random, except possibly at a quantum level, and let's not go there. Gravity doesn't randomly switch off. Light doesn't randomly alter its speed. The classical philosophical choice is between determinism and free will. Is the future already predestined, or do we have a role in the outcome? Can lower orders like dogs have degrees of free will? Is it already written when the dog will bark, or is it only strongly suggested by its instincts?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/03/a_roll_of_whose_dice.html

Sorry ... We don't do condoms.

U.S. move to cheaper Chinese condoms threatens American jobs

By Mike McGraw

Call it a condom conundrum.

At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products?

In this case, Chinese condoms.

That's the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

The switch comes despite implied assurances over the years that the agency would continue to buy American whenever possible.

"Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move," said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus more than 5 cents for U.S.-made condoms) and the fact that Congress dropped "buy American language" in a recent appropriations bill.

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1100966.html

Jindal's List

Since taking office last year, Gov. Bobby Jindal has appointed more than 200 of his top contributors to influential boards and commissions, proving that 'ethics' has a limit — and a price.

BY JEREMY ALFORD

First in a series of stories on the campaign finances of Gov. Bobby Jindal.

It was almost a threat, but he delivered it with a down-home country smile, the kind that hints of mischief and promises all kinds of hell. Sen. Ben Nevers, with a twang that's distinctly Washington Parish, told members of the Senate and Government Affairs Committee he was going to have his staff produce a list of political appointees and how much money each had contributed to the elected officials responsible for their appointments.

  Like a Cajun doing a two-step, Nevers danced around the issue for a while, but his true intentions eventually became clear. His target was Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who had brought lawmakers together for a special session on ethics reform. It was almost a year ago, on Feb. 15, 2008, when Nevers spoke the truth to power: "I think many people in this state think you get a board or commission seat by buying it. I want to get rid of that perception."

  In the House, Rep. Sam Jones of Franklin, a balding and boisterous Democrat who worked under former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, was aiming high as well. He made a principled stand and pushed similar legislation through the House's committee process. But, like Nevers, his bill lost traction when it reached the floor.

  In hindsight, Jones says he should have realized the concept of buying appointments to key boards and commissions was rooted too deeply in the ethos of Louisiana's executive and legislative branches. "These boards and commissions have been for sale for more than 100 years," Jones says. "That's why I filed that bill. I thought there was going to be enough will to change things. I thought, for whatever reason, that we were actually holding a special session just for ethics reforms. I was wrong."

  As for Nevers, his list never materialized, although it would have come in handy for Rep. Neil Abramson of New Orleans. The Democratic freshman pushed the issue a few months later during the 2008 regular session. Abramson's bill would have forced elected officials to publicly report the names of campaign contributors they subsequently hire or appoint.

  During those early days of Jindal's new administration — his political honeymoon — many assumed the governor would support Abramson's bill. Key administration officials kept in contact with him over a five-month period and helped draft the language. Both the House and Senate passed the measure handily.

  Jindal vetoed the bill, however, on July 10, 2008, when the regular session ended. Abramson still remembers it as a "dark day for our efforts at true ethics reform."

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=52725

Who let those executive bonuses happen?

Tax Advice from the Prestigious Internet

by the Prestigious Internet

With tax season upon us, many people come to me, as an economics major, with questions about tax policy and how it affects them.

Specifically: Can I still write off a child as a deduction if they've been kidnapped?

According to the IRS website, the answer is "yes," if two conditions are met:

1. The child must be presumed by law enforcement to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or a member of the child's family, and
2. The child had, for the taxable year in which the kidnapping occurred, the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for more than one-half of the portion of such year before the date of kidnapping.

So, if your child has not been kidnapped by a family member (this excludes most kidnappings, by the way*), and spent more than half of the tax-year, pre-kidnapping, living with you, they are considered for tax purposes a dependent.

As an example, take a hypothetical kidnapping on March 1, 1932. If the missing child had spent 30 or more days of the year leading up to March 1 (1932 being a leap year) in his parents' principle abode, they could write him off for the entire 1932 tax year. Just as a hypothetical.

The IRS also says you can continue to count the missing child as a dependent until they are determined to be dead, or it reaches the year they would have reached 18.

 

http://prestigiousinternet.blogspot.com/2009/03/tax-advice-from-prestigioud-internet.html

AIG is chump change -- let's find corporate America's hidden billions

It's time to reform offshore banking, and see what untaxed wealth big business is hiding in overseas tax shelters.

By Joe Conason

The popular urge to claw back the bogus bonuses paid by American International Group is irresistible and fully justified, but should the Treasury someday retrieve every single bonus dollar, that total of $165 million will make no difference to anyone except a few disgruntled traders. From the jaded perspective of the financiers, the uproar over the AIG bonuses may provide a welcome distraction from far more important (and lucrative) abuses in the world's offshore tax havens.

So rather than continue arguing over chump change, it is long past time for the United States, with its international friends and allies, to demand accountability from the long list of tiny countries and principalities, from Andorra and the Cayman Islands to Singapore and Switzerland, where corporations, wealthy clients and unrepentant evildoers hide their assets.

The big claw-back will reach into quaint islands and mountainous principalities, because the same banks, hedge funds and private equity firms responsible for the world financial meltdown keep their profits in those "secrecy spaces" -- alongside the ill-gotten gains of numerous drug dealers, dictators and delinquents of every description.

According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of America's top 100 corporations maintain subsidiaries in countries identified as tax havens. As the GAO notes, there could be reasons other than avoiding the IRS to set up branches in places such as Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where taxes are light or nonexistent and keeping clients' illicit secrets is considered a matter of national pride.

But what reason other than evasion could there be for Goldman Sachs Group to set up three subsidiaries in Bermuda, five in Mauritius, and 15 in the Cayman Islands? Why did Countrywide Financial need two subsidiaries in Guernsey? Why did Wachovia need 18 subsidiaries in Bermuda, three in the British Virgin Islands, and 16 in the Caymans? Why did Lehman Brothers need 31 subsidiaries in the Caymans? What do Bank of America's 59 subsidiaries in the Caymans actually do? Why does Citigroup need 427 separate subsidiaries in tax havens, including 12 in the Channel Islands, 21 in Jersey, 91 in Luxembourg, 19 in Bermuda and 90 in the Caymans? What exactly is going on at Morgan Stanley's 19 subs in Jersey, 29 subs in Luxembourg, 14 subs in the Marshall Islands, and its amazing 158 subs in the Caymans? And speaking of AIG, why does it have 18 subs in tax-haven countries? (Don't expect to find out from Fox News Channel or the New York Post, because News Corp. has its own constellation of strange subsidiaries, including 33 in the Caymans alone.)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/03/23/big_clawback/

The future!

Populist Outrage Comix

The One Minute Egg(head)

The Irascible Professor^SM

"In the future, everyone will be smart for one minute. "

- Carolyn Foster Segal -

by Carolyn Foster Segal.

It sounds like a joke: a community college is offering what it calls "micro-lectures," whose lengths run from one to three minutes (presumably the extended three-minute lectures are for subjects like Calculus IV).  In fact, at one time it was a joke -- as in Father Guido Sarducci's "The Five-Minute University."  But this is no laughing matter.  There's no time for laughter, or much of anything else.  We've got some serious business to take care of here -- and quickly.

 

The front page of a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education featured an article by David Shieh with the title "These Lectures Are Gone in 60 Seconds: Minute-long talks find success at a community college" (March 6. 2009).  The college leading the (concise) clarion call here is San Juan College, in Farmington, New Mexico, where last fall's first venture in micro-lectures, in an online degree program in occupational safety, was so successful that the school is now "expanding  [micro-lectures] to subjects like reading, tribal government, and veterinary studies."

 

This exciting new pedagogical development should be a relief to everyone and has arrived just in time, for it's the perfect answer to current economic concerns.  Instead of cutting course offerings, we can save our classes by simply cutting 95% of the course content.  Students, who have long complained about tedious class sessions and the price (and contents) of textbooks, will now be able to complete a traditional four-year program in just one semester.  Administrators will be delighted to find that enrollments will "quickly balloon."  In its second semester, enrollment in that program on occupational safety "grew to 449."  (What is the maximum capacity for a program on "occupational safety" in cyberspace?)  Nor should faculty members despair -- they should have no difficulty in creating and executing hundreds of these new online lectures.  The article reassures readers that "course development is relatively quick" as indeed it must be, since the new verbiage-free micro-lectures should take about as much time to design and/or deliver as it takes to compose a quick e-mail message.  Course content should be slightly less heavier, in other words, than the home page of About.com.

http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-03-23-09.htm

Good business to invest in

The crooks won't cry when newspapers die

Only the local paper performs the critical function of holding accountable the mayor, the governor, the local magnates and potentates, for how they spend your money, run your institutions, validate or violate your trust. If newspapers go, no other entity will have the wherewithal to do that.

By Leonard Pitts Jr

On the day the last newspaper is published, I expect no sympathy card from Kwame Kilpatrick. Were it not for a newspaper — The Detroit Free Press — his use of public funds to cover up his affair with one of his aides would be unrevealed and he might still be mayor of Detroit.

Nor will I expect flowers from Larry Craig. Were it not for a newspaper — The Idaho Statesman — we would not know of his propensity for taking a "wide stance" in airport men's rooms and he might still be serving in the U.S. Senate.

And I doubt there will be a toast of commiseration from Reynaldo Diaz and Oscar Rivero. Were it not for a newspaper — The Miami Herald — they would still be living large on money scammed from an agency that builds housing for the poor.

In short, the day the last newspaper is published — a day that seems to be rushing at us like a brick wall in an old Warner Bros. cartoon — I will not be surprised if the nation's various crooks, crumbs and corrupters fail to shed a tear.

But the unkindest cut of all, the "Et tu, Brute?" dagger in the back, is the fact that, according to a new survey from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, most other Americans won't, either. Pew found 63 percent of respondents saying that if their local paper went down, they would miss it very little or not at all.

It is the insult that compounds the injury, by which I mean the growing sense that we are working on the last major story of our lives and it is an obituary. Ours.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008896389_opinb22pitts.html

Healthcare Foxes are Building the Taxpayer Funded Hen House

by Donna Smith

If we want to know who is truly at the helm of our national healthcare reform effort, all we need to do is keep watching who is asked to provide official testimony and guidance to Congress and who is left out completely. Those decisions are made at the highest levels in our government and the choices are purposeful and meant to elicit just the information that will bolster a predetermined outcome.

Last week I wrote about Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health insurance Plans (the industry trade group known as AHIP) who was called on and recognized by President Barack Obama during his White House Summit on Healthcare Reform in late February and who was also the only "stakeholder" seated in the front of the room later for a briefing by the staff of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (the committee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy). Clearly, Ignagni has been afforded a sort of access and status in this debate and in the reform effort that many others have not.

The fox isn't just in the hen house. The fox is building it.

I've got to hand it to Congress right now. Most members of Congress are making sure they remember "on which side of the toast you find the butter" in terms of making the for-profit health insurance industry comfortable in their deeply entrenched roles not only in our broken healthcare system but also in the deep-pocket funding of many Congressional campaigns. The insurance industry's influence is purchased with millions and millions in campaign contributions and with the preventable deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens every year. That is fact.

So why does it even warrant mention that the hearing this week to discuss health insurance reform has a witness list populated with industry-friendly voices, including Ignagni? I write this because it is so deeply dishonest and offensive to me that we are told we have an allegedly open and inclusive process to explore what's best for the nation's healthcare reform while the drafting and crafting thunders forward with very closed very elitist and very non-human rights oriented effort.

If healthcare is a basic human right, we must start from that truth and work forward in how to provide that basic human right to every person in this nation. Period. That is not Karen Ignagni's view. It is not her job. Her job - and she does it well - is to advocate for and protect her industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/23-1

It's illegal to feed homeless, man arrested

Iraq's most ancient sect in need of protection to escape extinction

By Kareem Zair

 

One of Iraq's most ancient sects is on its way to become extinct after nearly 2,000 years of existence.

 

The Mandeans, the worlds only surviving representatives of Gnosticism, have been living in southern Iraq since the 1st century A.D. But their existence is under serious threat.

 

Prior to the U.S. invasion, more than 30,000 lived in Iraq, mainly along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries.

 

"We fear for our lives particularly following several fatwas in which we are denied the status of the People of the Book," said Sheikh Sattar al-Hilou, the Mandeans chief in Iraq.

 

The term 'the People of the Book refers to non-Muslims who have been accorded special protection under Islamic Jurisprudence. The Koran calls them Ahl al-Kitab, a term, which besides Christians and Jews has historically covered the Mandeans.

 

Religious militias are using these fatwas, or religious decrees, against the Mandeans to force them to enter Islam, Hilou said.

 

He said he was not aware of anyone of his people converting to Islam despite threats of death.

 

"As a result more than 22,000 of my community have fled the country," he added.

 

He warned the Mandeans would cease to exist as the countrys most ancient sect if the government fails to protect them.

 

The Mandeans are called in Iraq Subbas and for centuries they have been Iraqs best goldsmiths and canoe makers.

 

They are strongly pacifist and are not known to have ever resorted to violence.

 

http://uruknet.info/?p=m52811&hd=&size=1&l=e

The Pope and AIDS: can he just stick to what he knows?

Pope Benedict XVI, right, seen, with Cameroon's President Paul Biya, during a meeting at the Unity Presidential Palace in Yaounde, Cameroon, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. Pope Benedict XVI set down strategy for his church in Africa on Wednesday, telling Cameroon's bishops to protect the traditional values of the African family and to spare the poor from the impact of globalization. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

by Aimee Kligman

While I understand that the Pope is a revered figure in the Christian world, there ought to be limitations to the subjects he touches. I equate his eminence to the Queen of England, a monarch, and for the most part, irrelevant. To be fair, I'll also cite the example of Rabbi Ovadia and members of the Shas Party of Israel, who think that homosexuals are evil and need reform. How about foreign policy and  Dick Cheney?

When it comes to questions and matters of sex, drugs and diseases which arise as a result of both, separation of church and state is paramount. Thus, when the Pontiff declares that condoms will worsen the AIDS situation in Africa, it is tantamount to saying let's not vaccinate our children against polio. It is that disconnect between reality and the rigors of the Church that question its authority. It is also testament to the fact that the Church has not recognized the deadly cocktail of imposed celibacy and child molestation.

Even former President George Bush whose periphery of knowledge is rather narrow, understood the devastating effects of AIDS and the ravages it was causing in Africa. He deserves credit for his US$15 billion initiative (Pepfar) that changed the face of healthcare in Africa, and was hailed as nothing short of revolutionary. Now, make no mistake, Mr. Bush was indeed an extremely religious individual who believed he was ordained by God to serve as president. But, by the same token, he understood that AIDS was not subject to a miracles program.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2086-NY-Foreign-Policy-Examiner~y2009m3d18-The-Pope-and-AIDS-can-he-just-stick-to-what-he-knows

The real threat

Victory in the War on Hummus

Israel bows to U.S. pressure, lifts food restrictions on Gaza

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the United States and the European Union that Israel will lift restrictions on food items, such as pasta and cheese, entering Hamas-ruled Gaza, diplomats said on Monday.

The government of U.S. President Barack Obama had protested at these and other seemingly random Israeli restrictions, which held up deliveries of certain types of noodles, fruit jams and other foodstuffs to 1.5 million Palestinians in the enclave.

In one case, Israel blocked for weeks a World Food Programme shipment of chickpeas, used to make the Palestinian food staple hummus, according to the UN agency.

Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Olmert's office informed Washington and Brussels that all types of food would be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

"The policy of the government is clear. All food is humanitarian and all humanitarian supplies can go through, as is our policy. We have made sure that that is clear," a senior Israeli official said. "We want the process to be streamlined."

But Western diplomats remained cautious, saying it was unclear whether instructions from the outgoing prime minister would be followed by Israeli military officials who run border
crossings with the Gaza Strip.

Diplomats said it was also unclear whether restrictions on deliveries of other harmless items, such as toilet paper, soap and toothpaste, would also be lifted.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073240.html

Am Not Jewish, but

 

by RUPERT MURDOCH

Over the years, some of my wildest critics seem to have assumed I am Jewish. At the same time, some of my closest friends wish I were.

So let me set the record straight: I live in New York. I have a wife who craves Chinese food. And people I trust tell me I practically invented the word "chutzpah."

Ladies and gentleman, I am humbled by the honor you have given me - because this award speaks more to your good work than it does to mine.

The American Jewish Committee started in response to the persecution of Jews in czarist Russia. And your response took a very American form: an organization that would speak up for those who could not speak for themselves.

In the century since your founding, the American Jewish Committee has become one of the world's most influential organizations. Yet though your concerns begin with the safety and welfare of Jews, these concerns are anything but parochial. The reason for this is clear: You know that the best guarantee of the security of Jews anywhere is the freedom of people everywhere.

Your good work has helped bring real and lasting changes to our world. Unfortunately, while some threats have been defeated, new ones have taken their place. And these new threats remind us the AJC's work is more vital than ever.

In Europe, men and woman who bear the tattoos of concentration camps today look out on a continent where Jewish lives and Jewish property are under attack - and public debate is poisoned by an anti-Semitism we thought had been dispatched to history's dustbin.

In Iran, we see a regime that backs Hizbullah and Hamas now on course to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In India, we see Islamic terrorists single out the Mumbai Jewish Center in a well-planned and well-coordinated attack that looks like it could be a test run for similar attacks in similar cities around the world.

MOST FUNDAMENTALLY, we see a growing assault on both the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel.

This assault comes from people who make clear they have no intention of ever living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state - no matter how many concessions Israel might make. The reason for this is also clear: These are men who cannot abide the idea of freedom, tolerance and democracy. They hate Israel for the same reasons they hate us.

As I speak, the flashpoint is Gaza. For months now, Hamas has been raining down rockets on Israeli civilians. Like all terrorist attacks, the aim is to spread fear within free societies, and to paralyze its leaders. This Israel cannot afford. I do not need to tell anyone in this room that no sovereign nation can sit by while its civilian population is attacked.

Hamas knows this better than we do. And Hamas understands something else as well: In the 21st century, when democratic states respond to terrorist attacks, they face two terrible handicaps.

THE FIRST HANDICAP is military. It's true that Israel's conventional superiority means it could flatten Gaza if it wanted. But the Israel Defense Forces - unlike Hamas - are accountable to a democratically chosen government.

No matter which party is in the majority, every Israeli government knows it will be held accountable by its people and by the world for the lives that are lost because of its decisions. That's true for lives of innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire. And it's also true for the Israeli soldiers who may lose their lives defending their people.

In this kind of war, Hamas does not need to defeat Israel militarily to win a big victory. In fact, Hamas knows that in some ways, dead Palestinians serve its purposes even better than dead Israelis.

In the West we look at this and say, "It makes no sense." But it does make sense.

If you are committed to Israel's destruction, and if you believe that dead Palestinians help you score a propaganda victory, you do things like launch rockets from a Palestinian schoolyard. This ensures that when the Israelis do respond, it will likely lead to the death of an innocent Palestinian - no matter how many precautions Israeli soldiers take.

Hamas gets away with this, moreover, because it does not rule Gaza by the consent of those it claims to represent. It rules by fear and intimidation. It is accountable to no one but itself.

This is the chilling logic of Gaza. And it helps explain why even a strong military power like Israel can find itself at a disadvantage on the ground.

THE SECOND HANDICAP for Israel is the global media war. For Hamas, the images of Palestinian suffering - of people losing their homes, of parents mourning their dead children, of tanks rolling through the streets - create sympathy for its cause.

In a battle marked by street to street fighting, the death of innocents is all but inevitable. That is also true of Gaza. And these deaths have led some to call for Israel to be charged with war crimes by an international tribunal.

But I am curious: Why do we never hear calls for Hamas leaders to be charged with war crimes?

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237392665709&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Eight years of research

Wash. Times forwarded false GOP suggestion that Bush administration played no role in AIG bonus controversy

Summary: A Washington Times article reported GOP criticism of Democrats over the AIG bonus issue and quoted a Republican strategist asserting: "This is not something [Democrats] can point to George Bush. ... They own the issue of giving bonuses to the AIG executives." But the article did not note that $53 million in AIG bonuses that the article mentioned were reportedly paid out under the Bush administration, or that a Bush-appointed special inspector general for TARP has stated that the Bush Treasury Department knew about the AIG bonus contracts and did not insist on their abrogation as a condition of AIG's receiving bailout money.

In a March 23 article about the GOP's strategy to use "furor" over AIG bonuses to boost its congressional election chances in 2010, The Washington Times' Sean Lengell reported that "the Connecticut attorney general said AIG papers showed that the company paid out $218 million in bonuses -- $53 million more than had been disclosed previously." Lengell went on to report that "[t]he blame, Republicans say, rests squarely with the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress for including a provision in the $787 billion economic-stimulus package last month that allowed AIG executives to receive their bonus checks" and quoted Republican strategist Dave Winston asserting of Democrats: "This is their action. This is not something they can point to George Bush. ... They own the issue of giving bonuses to the AIG executives." At no point did Lengell note that the $53 million in bonuses to AIG that the article mentioned were reportedly paid out in December under the Bush administration, or that Neil Barofsky, a Bush-appointed special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), stated in March 19 congressional testimony that the Bush administration Treasury Department knew about the AIG bonus contracts and did not insist on their abrogation as a condition of AIG's receiving bailout money.

According to a Media Matters for America search*, the Times has yet to report Barofsky's statement that the issue of whether to disallow AIG executive bonuses was specifically considered by the Bush Treasury Department, which ultimately gave $40 billion to AIG pursuant to a November 2008 stock purchase agreement without requiring that AIG withhold those bonuses as a condition of receiving the federal aid. Many other media outlets have also ignored Barofsky's testimony.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200903230017?f=h_latest

YANKEES ASK CONGRESS TO TAX A-ROD'S BONUS

"I was shocked to learn how big his bonus was." --President Barack Obama

by R J Shulman

Taking a cue from the recent tax imposed by Congress on AIG executive bonuses, the New York Yankees are asking Washington to impose a 90 percent tax on the bonus the Yankees paid its star third baseman, Alex Rodriguez. "It's not fair to America's pastime to reward such a large bonus when his numbers just haven't come up to expectations," said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.

New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, an early supporter of the A-Rod tax, told Congress that "it must come to the aid of the New York Yankees because they are too big to fail."

"I was shocked to learn how big his bonus was," said President Barack Obama," especially when there are so many deserving underpaid minor leaguers."

"All this talk about A-Rod's bonus is just a distraction from the real issue," said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. "AIG has just spent $1.1 billion of their bailout money to have the Yankees' new ballpark called AIG Stadium."

The Alex Rodriguez bonus tax will be debated by the Senate on Monday and is expected to pass despite the growing opposition by crowds gathering in Washington waving signs that read, "Yankees Go Home."

http://www.legitgov.org/shulman_yankees_tax_bonus_220309.html

AIG's new name

Barack Alien

Source here
Barack Alien by mataleoneBR

Why Do Pro-Marijuana Groups Exist? Answer -- Charles Lynch

By Marijuana Policy Project , Reforming U.S. Marijuana Laws

Today, I've been doing a lot of thinking about Charles C. Lynch – a man who you must have already heard about here or in any number of news stories about his case. Charlie is one of the last victims of George Bush's war on medical marijuana.

This is a man who complied with every state and local medical marijuana law and was even told by federal officials that they would leave him alone so long as he complied with these statutes. What Charlie didn't expect was for a rogue county sheriff to call in the DEA to arrest and prosecute him under draconian federal marijuana laws, after being frustrated by California's state law that should have protected him.

On Monday, Charlie faces sentencing on five counts of federal drug crimes in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He is facing up to 20 years in prison for helping sick and dying patients to obtain their medicine in a safe, clean setting.?

Charlie's sentencing comes only five days after U.S. Attorney General Holder confirmed that the nation's policy on medical marijuana has changed for the better.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-why-do-pro-marijuana-groups-exist-answer-charles-lynch

Envoy damns US Afghan drug effort

Mr. Holbrooke pulled no punches with his comments on anti-narcotics efforts

US efforts to eradicate opium poppy crops in Afghanistan have been "wasteful and ineffective", the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan says.

Richard Holbrooke said the $800m (£550m) a year the US was spending on counter-narcotics would be better used in supporting Afghan farmers.

He said the US also wanted to see an increase in the numbers and capacity of Afghan police.

The US is currently conducting a review of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation, Mr. Holbrooke told a conference in Belgium - the Brussels Forum - had failed to make an impact on the Taliban insurgents' ability to raise money from the drugs trade.

"It hasn't hurt the Taliban one iota," he said, "because whatever money they're getting from the drugs trade, they get whatever they need whether we reduce the acreage or not."

The US said last month that poppy cultivation had been reduced by 19% last year. Despite the drop, the UN estimates that Afghanistan accounts for 90% of the world's illicit heroin supply.

"The United States alone is spending over $800m a year on counter-narcotics. We have gotten nothing out of it, nothing," he said.

"It is the most wasteful and ineffective programme I have seen in 40 years."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7957237.stm

A Judicial Document

by Uri Avnery

THE MOST important sentence written in Israel this week was lost in the general tumult of exciting events.

Really exciting: In a final act of villainy, typical of his whole tenure as Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert abandoned the captive soldier, Gilad Shalit.

Ehud Barak decided that the Labor Party must join the ultra-right government, which includes outright fascists.

And this, too: the former President of Israel was officially indicted for rape.

In this cacophony, who would pay any attention to a sentence written by lawyers in a document submitted to the Supreme Court?

THE JUDICIAL debate concerns one of the most revolting laws ever enacted in Israel.

It says that the wife of an Israeli citizen is not allowed to join him in Israel if she is living in the occupied Palestinian territories or in a "hostile" Arab country.

The Arab citizens of Israel belong to Hamulas (clans) which extend beyond the borders of the state. Arabs generally marry within the Hamula. This is an ancient custom, deeply rooted in their culture, probably originating in the desire to keep the family property together. In the Bible, Isaac married his cousin, Rebecca.

The "Green Line", which was fixed arbitrarily by the events of the 1948 war, divides families. One village found itself in Israel, the next remained outside the new state, the Hamula lives in both. The Nakba also created a large Palestinian Diaspora.

A male Arab citizen in Israel who desires to marry a woman of his Hamula will often find her in the West Bank or in a refugee camp in Lebanon or Syria. The woman will generally join her husband and be taken in by his family. In theory, her husband could join her in Ramallah, but the standard of living there is much lower, and all his life – family, work, studies – is centered in Israel. Because of the large difference in the standard of living, a man in the occupied territories who marries a woman in Israel will also usually join her and receive Israeli citizenship, leaving behind his former life.

It is hard to know how many Palestinians, male and female, have come to Israel during the 41 years of occupation and become Israeli citizens this way. One government office speaks of twenty thousand, another of more than a hundred thousand. Whatever the number, the Knesset has enacted an (officially "temporary") law to put an end to this movement.

As usual with us, the pretext was security. After all, the Arabs who are naturalized in Israel could be "terrorists". True, no statistics have ever been published about such cases – if there are any – but since when did a "security" assertion need evidence to prove it?

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1237674669/

Wall Street's Economic Crimes Against Humanity

By refusing to consider the consequences of their actions, those who created the financial crisis exemplify the banality of evil, writes Shoshana Zuboff

By Shoshana Zuboff

The financiers at AIG were awarded millions in bonuses because their contracts were based on the transactions they completed, not the consequences of those transactions. A 32-year-old mortgage broker told me: "I figured my job was to get the transaction done…Whatever came after the transaction—that was on him, not me." A long list of business executives have reaped sumptuous rewards even though they fractured the world's economy, destroyed trillions of dollars in value, and disfigured millions of lives.

Most experts now blame a lack of regulation and oversight for this madness. Or they point to misguided incentive programs associated with the push for shareholder value that tied executive rewards to a firm's share price. These factors are surely important, but they ignore the terrifying human breakdown at the heart of this crisis.

Each day's economic news leaves me haunted by Hannah Arendt's ruminations on Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann as she reported on his trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker 45 years ago. Arendt pondered "the strange interdependence of thoughtlessness and evil" and sought to capture it with her famous formulation "the banality of evil." Arendt found Eichmann neither "perverted nor sadistic," but "terribly and terrifyingly normal."

Remoteness from Reality

He was a new type of criminal, a participant in "administrative massacre" who committed his crimes "under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong." Eichmann had no motives other than what Arendt described as "an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement…he never realized what he was doing.That such remoteness from reality and such thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all the evil instincts taken together," she concluded, "…was, in fact, the lesson one could learn in Jerusalem."

The economic crisis is not the Holocaust but, I would argue, it derives from a business model that routinely produced a similar kind of remoteness and thoughtlessness, compounded by a widespread abrogation of individual moral judgment. As we learn more about the behavior within our financial institutions, we see that just about everyone accepted a reckless system that rewards transactions but rejects responsibility for the consequences of those transactions. Bankers, brokers, and financial specialists were all willing participants in a self-centered business model that celebrates what's good for organization insiders while dehumanizing and distancing everyone else—the outsiders.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090319_591214.htm

What's shame?

The Real AIG Scandal, Continued!

The transfer of $12.9 billion from AIG to Goldman looks fishier and fishier.

By Eliot Spitzer

The AIG scandal is getting ever-more disturbing. Goldman Sachs' public conference call explaining its trading relationship and exposure with AIG established, once again, that Goldman knows how to protect itself. According to Goldman, even if AIG had failed, Goldman's losses would have been minimal.

How did Goldman protect itself? Sensing AIG's weakening capital position through 2006 and 2007, Goldman demanded more collateral from AIG and covered outstanding risk with instruments from other firms.

But this raises two critical questions. The first is why $12.9 billion of taxpayer money went from AIG to Goldman. What risk—systemic or otherwise—was being covered? If Goldman wasn't going to suffer severe losses, why are taxpayers paying them off at 100 cents on the dollar? As I wrote earlier in the week, the real AIG scandal is that the company's trading partners are getting fully paid rather than taking a haircut.

Goldman's answer is that it was merely taking a commercial position—trying to avoid any losses at all on its AIG positions. I suppose we can hardly expect Goldman to reject government assistance in the form of pure cash that seems to have had no strings attached.

But what were the government officials possibly thinking? The only rationale for what we should call the "hidden conduit bailout" to AIG's trading partners is that the cascading effect of AIG's inability to pay would have been devastating. But Goldman has now said very clearly there would have been no cascade. Not even a ripple.

http://www.slate.com/id/2214407/

The Big Takeover

The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution

by MATT TAIBBI

It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, a yearly income for a median American household every six seconds, roughly $7,750 a second. And all this happened at the end of eight straight years that America devoted to frantically chasing the shadow of a terrorist threat to no avail, eight years spent stopping every citizen at every airport to search every purse, bag, crotch and briefcase for juice boxes and explosive tubes of toothpaste. Yet in the end, our government had no mechanism for searching the balance sheets of companies that held life-or-death power over our society and was unable to spot holes in the national economy the size of Libya (whose entire GDP last year was smaller than AIG's 2008 losses).

So it's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity. And the worst part about it is that we're still in denial — we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream. When Geithner announced the new $30 billion bailout, the party line was that poor AIG was just a victim of a lot of shitty luck — bad year for business, you know, what with the financial crisis and all. Edward Liddy, the company's CEO, actually compared it to catching a cold: "The marketplace is a pretty crummy place to be right now," he said. "When the world catches pneumonia, we get it too." In a pathetic attempt at name-dropping, he even whined that AIG was being "consumed by the same issues that are driving house prices down and 401K statements down and Warren Buffet's investment portfolio down."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/

"Take me to your leader...Oh, never mind."

  

Mr. President by YearoftheDragon

Diebold Admits Audit Logs in ALL Versions of Their Software Fail to Record Ballot Deletions

 

Startling admission made during public hearing in CA to consider decertification of the company's voting and tabulation software...

Guest Blogged by Mitch Trachtenberg, with Brad Friedman

Even the audit log system on current versions of Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold's) electronic voting and tabulating systems --- used in some 34 states across the nation --- fail to record the wholesale deletion of ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election. That's the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier's Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the possible decertification of Diebold/Premier's tabulator system, GEMS v. 1.18.19.

An election system's audit logs are meant to record all activity during the system's actual counting of ballots, so that later examiners may determine, with certainty, whether any fraudulent or mistaken activity had occurred during the count. Diebold's software fails to do that, as has recently been discovered by Election Integrity advocates in Humboldt County, CA, and then confirmed by the CA Secretary of State. The flaws, built into the system for more than a decade, are in serious violation of federal voting system certification standards.

The problems may lead to decertification of the company's voting systems, as well as an examination of voting systems made by other companies to determine if they too may have been able to sneak such violations past both federal and state testers...

Two Tibetans arrested amid ongoing media restrictions

Chinese public security officials in northwest Gansu province should release two Tibetan journalists detained in the past month or charge them with an offense, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

The public security bureau in Gannan, an area in the south of Gansu designated a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, arrested Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang on February 26, according to overseas Tibetan rights groups. Kunchok Tsephel, an online writer, runs the Tibetan cultural issues Web site Chomei, according to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Kate Saunders, UK communications director for the International Campaign for Tibet, told CPJ by telephone from New Delhi that she learned of Kunchok Tsephel's arrest from two sources. She has spent the past two weeks in Dharamsala and Kathmandu.

In an unrelated case, officials from the same bureau rearrested formerly imprisoned filmmaker Jigme Gyatso, according to the Tibetan Center and Saunders. The exact date of the arrest is not clear, but it is believed to have occurred around March 10, the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising. Jigme Gyatso, a Buddhist monk, had been held from March to October 2008 before being freed on probation, Saunders said.

The reasons for the two detentions were not clear.

"These arrests are a disturbing indication that heavy punitive measures await Tibetans who publicize their version of life under Chinese rule. They are happening even though the international community widely condemned official handling of the media during last year's rioting," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Public security officials in Tibet should disclose the circumstances and reasons behind the arrests of Kunchok Tsephel and Jigme Gyatso or release them at once."

The 1959 uprising preceded the Dalai Lama's departure from Tibet; its anniversary provoked ethnic rioting in Tibetan areas just months before the Olympics last year. Foreign reporters remain officially barred from the region, and information is strictly controlled within China. Some journalists and overseas Tibetan groups have defied those restrictions to publicize a strong Chinese military presence and higher-than-usual restrictions on Internet access in Tibetan regions. CPJ's Madeline Earp explored China's media policies regarding Tibet in a March 12 post on the organization's blog.

Saunders said Kunchok Tsephel was taken from his home. "There is serious concern for his welfare," she said. Kunchok Tsephel was detained for two months in 1995, according to the Tibetan Center's statement. It did not report the grounds for that arrest.  

http://cpj.org/2009/03/two-tibetans-arrested-amid-ongoing-media-restricti.php

A cyber-cafe unlike any other

Bill in Texas would allow creationists to grant Masters of Science degrees

by Joe Byrne

If a private college doesn't receive funds from any governmental organization, should they have to be held to any standards or requirements when they award degrees? No, one Texan lawmaker is insisting.

Texas State Representative Leo Berman has proposed House Bill 2800, which would exempt any private non-profit institution that requires students to complete "substantive course work" from having to acquire a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board(THECB). "If you don't take any federal funds, if you don't take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding," Berman says. "Why should you be regulated if you don't take any state or federal funding?"

Because creationism isn't science, critics argue.

Berman admits that his 'inspiration' for the bill was the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School, a Young Earth Creationism institution that has been trying to achieve certification in Texas for two years. Young Earth Creationism, much more popular than the recent Intelligent Design Creationism, is essentially Biblical literalism – Earth is 10,000 years old, Noah's Flood occurred, Adam and Eve were real people. ICRGS insists that they teach more than just "Biblical Creationism," which is based only on the word of the Bible; they also have incorporated tenets of "Scientific Creationism" into their bylaws. Most of these relate to origins of Earth and the evolution of species. Originally the creationist research branch of Christian Heritage College in San Diego, the ICRGS was forced to split from that college when California regulators threatened to take away its certification. Now, the ICRGS operates mostly online, and its Masters of Science Degree is recognized by California and federal law. According to its website, however, Texas residents cannot receive a degree.

Degree-granting colleges and universities in Texas currently must be issued a certificate of authority by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The certificate allows the holder to grant a degree that a graduate would need to apply for a teaching position in a Texas public school. If House Bill 2800 was made into law, only state-funded colleges and universities would have to report to THECB; everyone else would be free to design their curriculums without any regulation.

Critics of Berman's bill are enraged, claiming that it will de-legitimize any degree coming out of Texas.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bill_in_Texas_would_allow_creationists_0321.html

Vermont Senate panel approves gay marriage bill

By DAVE GRAM

Left: Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, receives congratulations from Kathy Stickel of South Royalton, Vt. …

• MONTPELIER, Vt. – A state Senate committee unanimously approved a gay marriage bill on Friday, moving Vermont one step closer to allowing same-sex couples to legally wed.

"It provides ... gay and lesbian couples the same rights that I have as a married heterosexual," said Sen. John Campbell, vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and chief sponsor of the bill.

The measure would replace Vermont's first-in-the-nation civil unions law with one that allows marriage of same-sex partners beginning Sept. 1.

The committee's vote ended an intense week highlighted by a public hearing Wednesday night in which more than 500 people swarmed the Statehouse to speak for and against allowing same-sex marriages.

If approved, Vermont would join Massachusetts and Connecticut as the only U.S. states that allow gays and lesbians to marry.

Civil unions, which confer some rights similar to marriage, would still be recognized but no longer granted after Sept. 1.

Campbell said marriage is an improvement over civil unions both substantively and as a matter of wording.

On the first score, he said, marriage is more widely legally recognized than civil unions. If a couple from Vermont got into an accident in Kansas, a spouse likely would have a stronger claim to hospital visitation rights if they were married than if they were in a civil union, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage;_ylt=AgqeJok55yJOD8v9pK2nMYuyFz4D

And when I snap my fingers you will all fall asleep

The hypnotizer by MadameThenadier