<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>If I Were A Terrorist... Newsletter - May 3, 2008</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> If I Were A Terrorist... <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EXKLVgEx0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EXKLVgEx0</a> International Herald Tribune Editorial - Notes from the war on terrorism.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: May 2, 2008.  For more than a year, President George W. Bush has refused to honor legitimate requests from the Democratic majority in Congress for legal documents that he used to justify ordering the abuse, humiliation and torture of prisoners. This week, the Justice Department finally agreed to show some papers to members of the House and Senate.  Sounds like good news? Not so much. For starters, it is not yet clear whether the White House will turn over the complete and unredacted opinions of the government lawyers that claimed the president could ignore the law and the Geneva Conventions. And even if the documents are not censored, Bush continues to use a bogus claim of secrecy to keep documents on torture from the public.  Appalling as this stonewalling is, it this is not the only disturbing news from the war on terror. This week, Mark Mazzetti reported in The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune that the Justice Department still claims that intelligence agents can legally use interrogation methods prohibited under American and international law.  In 2006, after Congress put restrictions on the military's interrogation methods, Bush formally exempted the CIA. He issued secret rules that are believed to allow harsh and abusive methods, some of which amount to torture by pretty much any definition. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tribune-editorial_03.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tribune-editorial_03.html</a> International Herald Tribune Editorial - Lying for the commander in chief.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: April 28, 2008.  As they prepared to invade Iraq five years ago, the Bush administration called up retired military officers to help sell the war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his propaganda team courted as many as 75 retired military officers who could best market the Pentagon line, particularly on television.  All administrations try to spin, or even manipulate, the news media, but this White House has taken that to a new low. The Bush administration has hired actors to pose as journalists. It has produced mock news bulletins to promote its view of the Iraq war. At least one conservative commentator was paid $240,000 to go on television to promote President George W. Bush's education policies. Now, based on thousands of e-mail messages and other documents, David Barstow of The New York Times has outlined how the Pentagon used a "Trojan horse" of former military officers to parrot falsely positive messages (IHT, April 21).  Bush's national security team - and many Pentagon officers - continue to labor under the tragic delusion that negative coverage, rather than the bad news itself, undermined public support for the war in Vietnam. So the propaganda experts created the instant commentariat of decorated retired generals and admirals who could seem to be strong and independent voices. Too many were not independent at all. One example: a retired Marine colonel and Fox News analyst asked his Pentagon contact to "please let me know if you have any specific points you want covered or that you would prefer to downplay."  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/international-herald-tribune-editorial_29.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/international-herald-tribune-editorial_29.html</a> Letter draws legal outline for CIA tactics.  Copyright by The New York Times.  8:37 PM CDT, April 26, 2008.  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has told Congress that U.S. intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law.  The legal interpretation, outlined in recent letters, sheds new light on the still-secret rules for interrogations by the CIA.  It shows that the administration is arguing that the boundaries for interrogations should be subject to some latitude, even under an executive order issued last summer that President Bush said meant that the CIA would comply with international strictures against harsh treatment of detainees.  While the Geneva Conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity," a letter sent by the Justice Department to Congress on March 5 makes clear that the administration has not drawn a precise line in deciding which interrogation methods would violate that standard, and is reserving the right to make case-by-case judgments. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/letter-draws-legal-outline-for-cia.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/letter-draws-legal-outline-for-cia.html</a> Krugman: Bush made permanent By Paul Krugman.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: April 28, 2008.  PRINCETON, New Jersey: Bush made permanent  As the designated political heir of a deeply unpopular president - according to Gallup, President George W. Bush has the highest disapproval rating recorded in 70 years of polling - John McCain should have little hope of winning in November.  In fact, however, current polls show him roughly tied with either Democrat.  In part this may reflect the Democrats' problems. For the most part, however, it probably reflects the perception, eagerly propagated by McCain's many admirers in the news media, that he's very different from Bush - a responsible guy, a straight talker.  Is this perception at all true? During the 2000 campaign people said much the same thing about Bush; those of us who looked hard at his policy proposals, especially on taxes, saw the shape of things to come./Hail to the chef By Walter Scheib.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: April 29, 2008.  GREAT FALLS, Virginia: The long association between first ladies - or those aspiring to the role - and recipes was thrust into the headlines recently when it was discovered that recipes attributed to Cindy McCain on her husband's campaign Web site were lifted, verbatim, from the Food Network. (A campaign spokesman attributed this seeming act of plagiarism to an intern.)  I ought to be the last person to question this preoccupation with first families' dining habits, since it helped propel me to a certain kind of prominence when Hillary Clinton hired me to be White House chef in 1994. But I confess that I have often wondered why we are fascinated not just with what our presidents and their families eat, but what they cook.  Let's make one thing clear: First families don't get to the White House because of their cooking. True, in one episode of the TV show "The West Wing," there's a federal government shutdown, the chefs are not at work and the first lady cooks dinner. But that's, well, television. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/krugman-bush-made-permanent.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/krugman-bush-made-permanent.html</a> Your Lack of Money Investors pull out of mutual funds By Deborah Brewster in New York.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 27 2008 22:26 | Last updated: April 27 2008 22:26.  All but one of the 25 largest US mutual fund managers saw their long-term assets fall in the first quarter, as returns dived and investors pulled out of funds.  In the worst start to a year for more than a decade, most money managers had retail outflows, and even stalwarts such as American Funds and Vanguard suffered a drop in assets, of 6.6 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.  Pimco, the bond manager, was the only one to show a rise in retail assets, according to Financial Research Corporation and industry estimates. Pimco’s Total Return fund had an inflow of $9bn in the three months to March.  The trend is likely to worry economists, because it suggests the credit turmoil is hurting the confidence of mainstream investors. That, in turn, could dampen activity among consumers in the months ahead, since falling investment sentiment is often associated with muted household spending levels.  However, the fall also marks a fresh blow for the financial industry, because mutual fund managers typically make money by charging a percentage of assets – meaning that profits in the industry fall when assets decline.  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/investors-pull-out-of-mutual-funds.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/investors-pull-out-of-mutual-funds.html</a> Consumer confidence index at 5-year low - The Conference Board's measure falls in April amid concerns about employment and business activity. By Catherine Clifford.  Copyright by CNNMoney.com.  Last Updated: April 29, 2008: 11:31 AM EDT.  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A key measure of consumer confidence slipped in April to the lowest level in five years, as Americans worry about their jobs and the level of business activity.  The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 62.3, the lowest level since March 2003, from a revised 65.9 in March. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 61, according to a consensus compiled by Briefing.com.  The index has now declined for four months in a row.  Consumers who feel that business conditions are "bad" increased to 26.7% from 25.5%, while those claiming business conditions are "good" eased to 15.3% from 15.6% last month. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/consumer-confidence-index-at-5-year-low.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/consumer-confidence-index-at-5-year-low.html</a> US manufacturing contracts for third month By Chris Bryant in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 1 2008 14:33 | Last updated: May 1 2008 16:01.  The US manufacturing sector contracted for a third consecutive month in April as waning domestic demand acted as a drag on factory output even as exports continued to provide a source of strength.  A separate report showed US construction spending dropped much more than expected last month while the bulk of a reported increase in consumer spending was taken up by higher costs for food and energy.  The economic headwinds facing consumers were also reflected in the latest report on the US labour market which registered the highest number of Americans on unemployment benefits in four years, a potentially worrying signal ahead of Friday’s closely-watched jobs report. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-manufacturing-contracts-for-third.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-manufacturing-contracts-for-third.html</a> US economy avoids outright contraction By Chris Bryant in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 30 2008 14:25 | Last updated: April 30 2008 16:29.  The US economy almost stalled in the first three months of this year, saved only by an increase in business inventories and exports, as the labour market weakened, the real estate market slumped and consumers cut back on spending.  The first government estimate of the total value of all goods and services produced in the US economy increased only 0.6 per cent in the first quarter, a fraction better than economists’ expectations and the same rate of growth achieved in the last three months of 2007.  That period in turn represented a sharp contraction from the third quarter of last year, when the economy expanded by 4.9 per cent.  The dismal growth estimate may prompt the Federal Reserve officials to cut interest rates by another quarter point when their policy meeting concludes later on Wednesday.  The Fed has already slashed interest rates by three percentage points since last September in an attempt to prevent the credit squeeze and housing slump tipping the US economy into a deep recession. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-economy-avoids-outright-contraction.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-economy-avoids-outright-contraction.html</a> US jobs figures better than expected By Chris Bryant in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 2 2008 14:00 | Last updated: May 2 2008 16:22.  US employers laid off workers for a fourth consecutive month in April as businesses cut back on spending in the face of economic headwinds but overall job losses were far less severe than most economists had feared.  Investors were also cheered on Friday by stronger-than expected increase in March factory orders.  Nonfarm payrolls fell by 20,000, significantly better than consensus expectations for around 75,000 job cuts and following a revised 81,000 jobs losses in March.  The unemployment rate dipped from 5.1 per cent to 5 per cent, having jumped by 0.3 percentage points last time round. Economists had forecast the jobless rate to edge higher to 5.2 per cent. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-jobs-figures-better-than-expected.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-jobs-figures-better-than-expected.html</a> ExxonMobil boosted by record oil prices By Sheila McNulty in Houston.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 1 2008 14:55 | Last updated: May 1 2008 14:55.  ExxonMobil’s first-quarter results on Thursday reinforced the emphasis the world’s biggest listed oil company places on oil and gas, which continues to provide record earnings, even as high-profile shareholders call for increased diversification into alternatives.  Net income was a record $10.9bn, up 17 per cent from the first quarter of last year, on higher crude oil and natural gas prices.  The results, equivalent to earnings of $2.03 a share, up 25 per cent from last year, came despite lower refining and chemical margins, lower production volumes and higher operating costs.  Exxon shares fell $3.62 or nearly 4 per cent at the open to $89.45 after the results failed to meet earnings expectations of $2.11 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.  The Rockefeller family, the longest continuing shareholder of Exxon, publicly called this week for Exxon to stop relying on decisions made years ago to invest in the oil and gas projects from which it is still reaping high profits, and diversify to prepare for the future. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/exxonmobil-boosted-by-record-oil-prices.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/exxonmobil-boosted-by-record-oil-prices.html</a> Shell and BP profits soar to $14bn By Ed Crooks.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 29 2008 07:47 | Last updated: April 29 2008 15:23.  Royal Dutch Shell and BP, Europe’s two biggest oil companies, have delivered better than expected results as the price of oil soared. While BP’s profit growth was much faster than Shell’s, both companies comfortably exceeded analysts’ expectations, and shares in both rose sharply.  UK Daily View: BP and Shell post big profits  Ed Crooks on the oil giants’ results that comfortably beat analysts’ expectations  Shares in both groups were up by 5 per cent in afternoon London trading, with BP rising 30p to 608½p and Shell gaining 97p at £20.38.  However, BP warned that its results had been flattered by unusual factors contributing about $1bn of profit in the quarter. It cautioned that the results should not be taken as evidence that Tony Hayward, the new chief executive, had yet succeeded in his attempts to turn the company round. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shell-and-bp-profits-soar-to-14bn.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shell-and-bp-profits-soar-to-14bn.html</a> GM posts big loss as U.S. sales hurt - Weakness at GMAC, American Axle strike also hurts results, but overseas vehicle sales help company top analysts' forecasts. GM posted a large loss in the first quarter, as U.S. auto sales were hurt by high fuel costs and the economic downturn. By David Goldman.  Copyright by CNNMoney.com. Last Updated: April 30, 2008: 11:19 AM EDT.  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Corp. reported a large first-quarter loss Wednesday, due in large part to struggles at its former finance wing GMAC, a strike at American Axle and slumping U.S. car sales.  But the loss was narrower than expected and sales topped forecasts, helping to lift shares of GM (GM, Fortune 500) 9% to $23.15.  GM, the nation's largest automaker, posted a net loss of $3.3 billion, or $5.74 per share. That was much wider than the $42 million, or 7 cents a share, loss from continuing operations it reported in the same period last year. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/gm-posts-big-loss-as-us-sales-hurt.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/gm-posts-big-loss-as-us-sales-hurt.html</a> Deutsche falls to first loss in five years By James Wilson in Frankfurt.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 07:56 | Last updated: April 29 2008 15:20.  Deutsche Bank on Tuesday reported its first quarterly loss in five years and revealed the drastic impact of the credit crisis on its profitable investment banking activities.  Reporting a net loss of €141m ($220m, £110m) for the first three months of 2008, Germany’s largest bank said the short-term outlook remained highly uncertain. Deutsche took €2.7bn of write-downs – more than expected – in markets that Josef Ackermann, chief executive, said were ”the most difficult in recent memory”.  Net revenues more than halved, from €9.6bn in the first quarter of 2007 to €4.6bn, as some of Deutsche’s business lines shrank as a result of the credit crisis. The corporate and investment bank – including Deutsche’s most lucrative trading operations – saw net revenues plunge from €6.7bn to €1.5bn.  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/deutsche-falls-to-first-loss-in-five.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/deutsche-falls-to-first-loss-in-five.html</a> Mars and Buffett agree $23bn Wrigley purchase By Jenny Wiggins.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 28 2008 09:32 | Last updated: April 28 2008 15:19.  Mars, the privately held US confectionery group, on Monday moved to create the world’s biggest confectionery company as it announced the agreed all-cash acquisition of gum group Wrigley for around $23bn (£11.5bn, €14.7bn).  Mars is offering $80 a share for Wrigley, a 28 per cent premium to the gum maker’s closing share price on Friday of $62.45 and a 34 per cent premium to the three-month weighted average price of $59.88. The deal is pitched at a multiple of 4.3 times 2007 sales and more than 35 times earnings per share.  The merged company would have around 14.4 per cent of the global confectionery market, according to Bernstein Research, annual sales of more than $27bn and more than 64,000 employees worldwide.  Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, is helping to finance the transaction through his Berkshire Hathaway investment company, which is contributing $4.4bn of subordinated debt. Further financing is being provided by Goldman Sachs, which is putting up $5.7bn of senior debt.  The deal will also see Berkshire take a minority equity investment in Wrigley valued at $2.1bn, purchased at a discount to the share price being paid to Wrigley shareholders. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mars-and-buffett-agree-23bn-wrigley.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mars-and-buffett-agree-23bn-wrigley.html</a> Linens 'n Things files Chapter 11, to close 4 Chicago area stores.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  11:08 AM CDT, May 2, 2008.  Bedding- and home-furnishing retailer Linens 'n Things on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest major retailer to succumb to the difficult consumer environment.  It also said it will close 120 stores, almost a quarter of them in California. It plans to close four Illinois stores: on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Palatine, Skokie and Schaumburg.  The company's parent, Linens Holding Co., filed a petition in bankruptcy court in Delaware.  The company named Michael Gries of the restructuring firm Conway Del Genio Gries & Co. as chief restructuring officer and interim chief executive. Current CEO Robert DiNicola will become executive chairman. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/linens-n-things-files-chapter-11-to.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/linens-n-things-files-chapter-11-to.html</a> Gold and Commodities Oil $116.32 Silver Bullion $16.41 Gold Bullion $857 Platinum Bullion $ $1905 Euro            $1.54.06 Opec says oil could hit $200 By Carola Hoyos in London.  Published: April 28 2008 13:56. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Last updated: April 28 2008 13:56.  Opec’s president on Monday warned that oil prices could hit $200 a barrel and there would be little the cartel could do to help.  The comments made by Chakib Khelil, Algeria’s energy minister, came as oil prices continued to hover near $120 a barrel, putting pressure on the already struggling US economy.  His comments suggest Algeria wants the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to continue to resist calls by US and European leaders for the cartel to pump more oil.  Some US Democratic senators have even threatened to cut off defence supplies to Opec members if the 13-member group failed to reverse its position.  But Mr Khelil blamed record oil prices on the weakness in the dollar and global political insecurity.  He told El Moudjahid, Algeria’s government newspaper: “I don’t think that an increase in production would help lower prices, because there is a balance between supply and demand and the stocks of gasoline in the United States have recorded a surplus and are at their highest level for five years.” <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/opec-says-oil-could-hit-200.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/opec-says-oil-could-hit-200.html</a> Oil and gold claw back some losses By Neil Dennis.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.   Published: May 2 2008 11:22 | Last updated: May 2 2008 11:22.  Oil prices clawed back some ground on Friday as speculators positioned themselves for weak, dollar negative US employment data later in the session.  Nymex West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark crude contract, reached a record peak of $119.93 a barrel on Monday, but has since fallen back to $113.34 – a drop of 5.5 per cent.  Meanwhile, gold ticked 0.4 per cent higher to $855 an ounce, but remained 3.4 per cent lower on the week as the broader commodity market was hit by a strengthening dollar.  James Steel, precious metals analyst at HSBC said that recent price declines may be part of an overall commodity correction. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/oil-and-gold-claw-back-some-losses.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/oil-and-gold-claw-back-some-losses.html</a> Dollar climbs as Fed shifts to neutral By Neil Dennis.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 1 2008 11:36 | Last updated: May 1 2008 11:36.  The dollar climbed to its highest level in a month against the euro and hit a two-month high against the yen on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signalled it may hold US rates at 2 per cent.  Following a quarter-point cut in the Fed funds rate on Wednesday, the US central bank said the outlook for inflation remained uncertain, but it was less bearish on the outlook for the economy.  ”The Fed shifted to a neutral bias, removing the phrase indicating that ’downside risks to growth remain’,” said David Woo at Barclays Capital.  He added: ”These changes signal that the Fed expects to keep rates unchanged for the foreseeable future, although developments in the economy and financial markets will determine what it does next.”  In contrast, economists were increasingly of the opinion that eurozone growth has slowed to the point where the European Central Bank may have to act, or risk stunting economic growth.  Recent eurozone data have been disappointing. German business sentiment, measured by Ifo, recorded its biggest monthly fall since September, 2001, while eurozone purchasing managers’ indexes have also fallen in the last month. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-climbs-as-fed-shifts-to-neutral.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-climbs-as-fed-shifts-to-neutral.html</a> Dollar jumps after US employment report By Peter Garnham.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 2 2008 11:57 | Last updated: May 2 2008 13:45.  The dollar jumped on Friday after monthly US employment figures backed up the Federal Reserve’s less-bearish view about the country’s economy.  With a fall of just 20,000 in monthly payrolls, the US labour market proved surprisingly resilient, confounding expectations that more than 75,000 jobs would be lost in April.  Having rallied sharply on Thursday after investors reacted to signals from the Federal Reserve that it was set for a pause in its interest rate cutting cycle, the dollar set off again on an upward trajectory.  “The data plays very strongly to the pre-existing grain of the market, namely to buy dollar’s and buy risk,” said Alan Ruskin at RBS Greewich Capital.  Shortly after the data, the greenback was up 0.6 per cent to $1.5383.  Meanwhile, analysts said deteriorating eurozone economic data was weighing on the euro, feeding the notion that the single currency’s uptrend against the dollar might have peaked. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-jumps-after-us-employment-report.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-jumps-after-us-employment-report.html</a> Housing Illinois Average Rates 5/2/08 - 10:46 PM 30 Yr Fixed                    5.72% 15 Yr Fixed                    5.29% 30 Yr Fixed Jumbo        7.04% Taking a ride through the land of lost homes - Emotions set aside as real estate agents bus potential buyers ready to capitalize on other's misfortune By Susan Chandler  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  April 28, 2008.  The yellow-and-orange bus would stand out anywhere even without the giant letters proclaiming its purpose: RepoHomeTourChica go.com. A handful of buyers have showed up to board the 12-seat shuttle parked at Woodfield mall amid the drizzle on a recent Saturday morning. As they take their seats, the home shoppers are handed a slick binder listing the repossessed properties they will see in the next two-and-a-half hours. "Welcome to Chicagoland's Premier Foreclosure Tour," it says. "Today we visit Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg." A few minutes after 11 a.m., the bus pulls onto Golf Road, and they're off.  Not long ago, many people viewed shopping for a foreclosed home as a distasteful act, a form of benefiting from someone else's misfortune and misery. As thousands of distressed properties have glutted the market nationwide, driving down home prices for the first time in generations, that stigma appears to have greatly lessened, or maybe disappeared.  Local real estate broker Bill Diehl is hoping the demand for bargain homes is as strong here as it is in such places as California and Florida, where foreclosure auctions and bus tours have drawn eager crowds. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/taking-ride-through-land-of-lost-homes.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/taking-ride-through-land-of-lost-homes.html</a> Fall in US house prices accelerates By Chris Bryant in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 29 2008 14:27 | Last updated: April 29 2008 15:55.  US house prices continue to plunge by a record amount, a new report showed on Tuesday, adding to pressure on consumers and threatening to prolong a domestic economic slowdown.  Meanwhile, confidence among US consumers fell to its lowest level in five years as shoppers reacted to the impact of the housing slump, tighter credit conditions and a weakening labour market.  The Standard & Poors/Case Shiller 10-city index of single-family house prices contracted by 13.6 per cent year-on-year in February, the most since records began in 1987.  The broader 20-city index fell 12.7 per cent compared with a year earlier, the biggest drop since the index’s inception in 2001.  Monthly price declines have accelerated, with repeat sale prices in the 20-city index falling by 2.6 per cent in February, compared with 2.4 per cent in January and 2.1 per cent in December.  The worst affected cities were Las Vegas and Miami where home values have respectively fallen 22.8 per cent and 21.7 per cent in the past 12 months. In San Francisco house prices fell 5 per cent in just one month between January and February.  “Prices of single family homes continue to drop across the nation,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P. “There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers.” <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-in-us-house-prices-accelerates.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-in-us-house-prices-accelerates.html</a> Fed leads fresh move to ease credit strains By Krishna Guha in Washington and Michael Mackenzie in New York.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 2 2008 14:06 | Last updated: May 2 2008 14:06.  US and European central banks on Friday launched a fresh co-ordinated assault on dollar money market strains on both sides of the Atlantic.  The Federal Reserve announced that it was increasing the size of its credit auction facility – the Term Auction Facility, which offers one-month loans to banks – by 50 per cent to $150bn.  Meanwhile the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank said they were increasing the size of dollar currency swaps by almost 50 per cent to $50bn and $20bn, respectively.  This money will be used to increase the supply of dollars offshore in Europe. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/fed-leads-fresh-move-to-ease-credit.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/fed-leads-fresh-move-to-ease-credit.html</a> Financial Times Editorial Comment: No quick end to the credit squeeze. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 1 2008 18:49 | Last updated: May 1 2008 18:49.  “While there remain downside risks, the most likely path ahead is that confidence and risk appetite will return gradually in the coming months.” That is the view of John Gieve, deputy governor of the Bank of England, on what will now happen in credit markets. But while the Bank’s Financial Stability Report may be right not to expect further spectacular crashes and liquidity crises – in that sense the worst may be over – it does not follow that markets will soon return to normal.  The Bank observes that bond prices imply unprecedented levels of default on subprime mortgages and unprecedentedly low levels of recovery from seizing properties and auctioning them off. It argues that predictions of ultimate losses from the credit squeeze based on these prices – such as the $945bn estimate by the International Monetary Fund – are therefore overstated. One implication is that, if markets recover, some banks that have aggressively written down assets may be able to write them back.  This argument works but, as the Bank recognises, only to an extent. Some securities probably are trading below their “fair value” because of uncertainty and illiquidity. Unless uncertainty and illiquidity are ended, however – and it is hard to see what can do that – investors are likely to carry on demanding risk premiums to hold asset-backed bonds. Just as the price of credit risk remained implausibly low for a long period, it can remain implausibly high for a long time as well. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editorial-comment-no.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editorial-comment-no.html</a> Countrywide plunges to $893m loss By Ben White in New York.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 29 2008 13:46 | Last updated: April 29 2008 13:46.  Countrywide Financial, the giant mortgage lender being acquired by Bank of America, said on Tuesday it lost $893m in the first quarter as conditions in the US housing market worsened.  Countrywide, a significant player in the subprime mortgage market, agreed to a $4bn takeover offer from BofA last year after teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.  BofA, which long coveted Countrywide’s lending platform, expects to close the deal in the third quarter. It has said Countrywide will no longer offer loans to high-risk subprime borrowers.  Countrywide said it lost $893m, or $1.60 a share, in the quarter, compared with a profit of $434m, or 72 cents, in the first quarter last year. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/countrywide-plunges-to-893m-loss.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/countrywide-plunges-to-893m-loss.html</a> International Chicago Tribune Editorial - Hunger and hope. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 1, 2008.  Food prices are soaring around the world—up 83 percent in the last three years, according to the World Bank. The cost of rice, a staple for billions, has skyrocketed in just weeks to $1,000 per ton from $400.  Chicagoans grumble because food inflation adds a couple of bucks to their weekly bill at the grocery store, but it's a matter of life and death in parts of the globe far from America's abundance. Food riots have erupted in Haiti, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Afghanistan, North Korea and large swaths of Africa could face famine. India, Egypt, Argentina and Ukraine banned some food exports to soften food price hikes. World Bank President Robert Zoellick estimates that increasing food prices have pushed 100 million people into poverty, undoing a decade of economic growth in some countries. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Tuesday set up a top-level task force on the food crisis, warning that it could hurt trade prospects, hinder social progress and threaten political security.  There is no one cause for this calamity, but there are identifiable culprits—and there are workable solutions.  A multiyear drought in Australia has contributed to high food prices. The weather can't be controlled, but Zoellick correctly noted, "This is not a natural disaster." It is the unintended, though inevitable, consequence of increasing prosperity in the developing world and continued arrogant market manipulation via trade policies, tariffs, subsidies and biofuel mandates in the developed world. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-hunger-and.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-hunger-and.html</a> Tsvangirai wins Zimbabwe election © Reuters Limited.  May 2, 2008.  Zimbabwe’s opposition leader defeated President Robert Mugabe in the presidential election but faces a run-off vote after he failed to win an outright majority, the electoral body said.  Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 per cent of the vote on March 29 and Mugabe took 43.2 per cent, said chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi.  The result was announced after a verification process by the candidates to check the result, but an opposition MDC spokesman said the announcement was scandalous and described it as ”daylight robbery”.  He said the party executive would decide on the next move. Earlier, it had rejected the figure. Its initial projections showed Mr Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent of the vote and it said it had ended the rule of Mr Mugabe, 84, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.  A month-long delay to results had raised fears of widespread bloodshed in a country suffering economic ruin. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tsvangirai-wins-zimbabwe-election.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tsvangirai-wins-zimbabwe-election.html</a> Pakistan strikes deal on restoring judges - Move could give lift to new government By Kim Barker.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  10:45 PM CDT, May 2, 2008.  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's ruling parties apparently have agreed how to restore the judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf last fall, potentially resolving the most contentious issue facing the fledgling government and preventing the fragile coalition from collapsing.  Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the second-largest party in the coalition, said at a news conference Friday evening in Lahore that parliament would vote on a resolution to restore the judges May 12. Sharif, overthrown by Musharraf when he seized power while army chief in a 1999 coup, also said the president could be sacked because of the restoration of more than 60 judges. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/pakistan-strikes-deal-on-restoring.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/pakistan-strikes-deal-on-restoring.html</a> Cuba puts first computers on sale to the public By WILL WEISSERT.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  1:37 AM CDT, May 3, 2008.  HAVANA - Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro.  A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.  Inside, four clerks tore open boxes, hastily assembling display computers. By the time a sign went up listing the PCs specifications, more than a dozen shoppers were lined up to get in. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuba-puts-first-computers-on-sale-to.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuba-puts-first-computers-on-sale-to.html</a> Mess-o-potamia Iraq: U.S. has no claim to oil boom - 'America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq,' Baghdad official says By Liz Sly.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  12:42 AM CDT, May 1, 2008.  BAGHDAD — As Congress gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S. military.  "America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't have all these needs."  The issue of Baghdad's contribution to the costs of the war jumped to the forefront early in April during testimony to Congress of the Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Noting that the soaring price of oil is likely to give Iraq a revenue bonanza this year of up to $70 billion, senators quizzed the two on why Iraq isn't using its rising oil income to pay more of the costs of reconstruction.  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iraq-us-has-no-claim-to-oil-boom.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iraq-us-has-no-claim-to-oil-boom.html</a> Shiite extremists lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the U.S. protected Green Zone By SELCAN HACAOGLU .  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  7:55 AM CDT, April 28, 2008  BAGHDAD - Shiite extremists lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the U.S. protected Green Zone on Monday as American and Iraqi troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in Baghdad.  Abrams tanks were used to repel attacks on two army checkpoints, killing 22 militants in one clash late Sunday, the U.S. military said on Monday. Sixteen other militants were killed Sunday in separate firefights.  The militants apparently were taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed the capital on Sunday, which enabled them to shell the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government on the west side of the Tigris River.  Alarms could be heard again on Monday as loudspeakers warned residents to take cover and stay away from windows.  The U.S. Embassy on Monday confirmed the area was hit by indirect fire, the military's term for rocket or mortar attacks, and said there were "no reports of serious injury or deaths at this time." <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shiite-extremists-lobbed-more-rockets.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shiite-extremists-lobbed-more-rockets.html</a> Bombs kill 35 in wedding convoy - U.S., Iraqi forces fight militia in Sadr City By Sholnn Freeman.  Copyright by The Washington Post.  11:58 PM CDT, May 1, 2008.  BAGHDAD — Two suicide bombers attacked a wedding convoy as it passed through a busy market area in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 65, police said.  As police and rescue crews rushed to the site after the first explosion in the town of Balad Ruz, the second bomb was detonated, police said. They said one of the attackers was a woman.  The double bombing was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks in Diyala, a largely Sunni area. The attackers appear to be targeting members of the Awakening movement, mainly Sunnis who have joined with U.S. forces to fight the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.  In central Baghdad, meanwhile, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy killed an American soldier, the military said. Three suspects were detained and tested positive for explosive compounds, it said. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bombs-kill-35-in-wedding-convoy-us.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bombs-kill-35-in-wedding-convoy-us.html</a> Afghan president safe after fleeing gunfire at Kabul event By AMIR SHAH.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  7:48 AM CDT, April 27, 2008  KABUL, Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan president on Sunday, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.  Three people, including a lawmaker, were killed and eight were wounded. President Hamid Karzai, Cabinet ministers and ambassadors escaped unharmed, the presidential palace said.  Karzai later appeared on television saying several suspects in the attack had been arrested.  He said that "the enemy of Afghanistan" tried to disrupt the ceremony but were thwarted by security forces.  A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had deployed six militants with suicide vests and guns to target the president. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said three had died.  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/afghan-president-safe-after-fleeing.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/afghan-president-safe-after-fleeing.html</a> National Top court's unfair play against fair play By Clarence Page.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  April 27, 2008.  Lilly Ledbetter worked in a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala., for 19 years before she received a valuable tip from an anonymous source: She was making $6,500 less than the lowest-paid guy who had her job.  She did what anybody might do. She sued. She was in for a surprise. So were a lot of civil rights experts. If any cases were intended to be covered by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they thought, it was cases like hers.  Indeed, even the women I know who are hesitant feminists, the middle-of-the-road womenfolk who insist, "I'm not a feminist, but . . ." usually tend to follow that "but" with, "I believe that women should receive equal pay for equal work."  But after Ledbetter's case made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the high court ruled 5-4 that the law did not apply to her. She was too late. She should have filed her complaint years earlier when the original discrimination occurred.  Indeed? As a legal matter, the decision was defensible, but as a practical matter it was inexcusable. One might even call it judicial activism, tilting a law intended to protect workers against discrimination into one that gives a big edge to employers who discriminate. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/top-courts-unfair-play-against-fair.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/top-courts-unfair-play-against-fair.html</a> A better way to fight crime By Steve Chapman.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 1, 2008.  In June 2006, a minor brawl erupted at Ye Olde Six Bells pub in Horley, England. In the aftermath, police arrested Mark Dixie, a chef at the pub, who surprised them by breaking into tears.   He had good reason. As a standard practice in arrests, a DNA swab was taken from him. What the authorities didn't suspect, but he did, is that his DNA would match that of the man who raped and murdered an 18-year-old woman nine months earlier. Dixie was eventually sentenced to life in prison.  This is just one of many cases that have vindicated the use of DNA in cracking crimes. Britain, which now has the world's biggest collection of such profiles, has found it abundantly useful as a law enforcement tool. In a typical month, police get 3,500 matches between samples recovered at crime scenes and DNA profiles in the database.  Now the U.S. government is set to expand its own database to include anyone arrested by federal agents, as well as many foreigners who are detained for one reason or another. It will add more than 1 million samples each year, greatly increasing the chances of getting "cold hits" from crime scenes.  <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/better-way-to-fight-crime.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/better-way-to-fight-crime.html</a> Hispanics lead pace in diverse nation By Howard Witt.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  12:02 AM CDT, May 1, 2008.  HOUSTON—The United States grew steadily more diverse last year, with Hispanics holding on to their rank as the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group—a trend with far-reaching implications for American politics and Immigration policies.  Newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the nation's Hispanic population grew by 1.4 million in 2007 to reach 45.5 million people, or 15.1 percent of the total U.S. population of 301.6 million. Non-Hispanic blacks ranked as the second-largest minority group, at 37 million people.  Overall, the nation's 102.5 million minorities accounted for 34 percent of the U.S. population, a new milepost on America's inexorable journey toward greater diversity and a harbinger of the growing political clout of non-whites. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/hispanics-lead-pace-in-diverse-nation.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/hispanics-lead-pace-in-diverse-nation.html</a> Indecision 2008 McCain's Birth Abroad Stirs Legal Debate - His Eligibility for Presidency Is Questioned By Michael Dobbs.  Copyright by The Washington Post.  Friday, May 2, 2008; Page A06  The Senate has unanimously declared John McCain a natural-born citizen, eligible to be president of the United States.  That is the good news for the presumptive Republican nominee, who was born nearly 72 years ago in a military hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, then under U.S. jurisdiction. The bad news is that the nonbinding Senate resolution passed Wednesday night is simply an opinion that has little bearing on an arcane constitutional debate that has preoccupied legal scholars for many weeks.  Article II of the Constitution states that "no person except a natural born citizen . . . shall be eligible to the office of president." The problem is that the Founding Fathers never defined exactly what they meant by "natural born citizen," and the matter has never been fully tested in court. At least three pending cases are challenging McCain's right to be sworn in as president.  Jurists on both sides of the political divide, consulted by the McCain campaign, insist that the issue is clear-cut. They argue that McCain is a natural-born citizen because the United States held sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone at the time of his birth, on Aug. 29, 1936; because he was born on a U.S. military base; and because his parents were U.S. citizens. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccains-birth-abroad-stirs-legal-debate.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccains-birth-abroad-stirs-legal-debate.html</a> The Democratic Race in Seven Minutes <a href="http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid988327350/bclid1037705321/bctid1531283112">http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid988327350/bclid1037705321/bctid1531283112</a> The Obama Video <a href="http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/">http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/</a> Obama denounces his former pastor By Edward Luce in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 29 2008 19:53 | Last updated: April 30 2008 00:33.  A visibly angry Barack Obama on Tuesday all but disowned Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, whose ever more provocative comments are believed to have dented the Illinois senator’s hopes of securing the Democratic party’s presidential nomination.  Mr Obama, whom opinion polls show to be level with his rival Hillary Clinton in Indiana, which holds what some have billed a “tiebreaker” primary vote on Tuesday, said he was “outraged and saddened” by the Reverend Wright’s most recent comments.  “Rev Wright does not speak for me – he does not speak for our campaign,” said Mr Obama. “I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks. But I do want him to be clear that [his remarks] contradict...who I am and everything that I am about.”  Mr Wright, who is reported to have ignored the pleading of senior Obama supporters to cancel his appearance on Monday in front of the national media in Washington, reiterated his most incendiary comments – including the charge that the US government had created HIV/Aids to kill African-Americans. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-denounces-his-former-pastor.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-denounces-his-former-pastor.html</a> Obama keeps his cool over TV attack By Edward Luce in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: April 27 2008 19:59 | Last updated: April 27 2008 19:59.  Barack Obama on Sunday said that Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, was a “legitimate [campaign] issue”, surprising those calling on the Republican party to withdraw an advertisement that shows Mr Wright’s face morphing into that of Mr Obama.  The Republican advertisement shows a clip of Mr Wright saying “God Damn America” and then switches to a clip of Mr Obama and a burning American flag. In an appearance that could prolong the controversy, Mr Wright will on Monday address the National Press Club in Washington.  Many believe that the one-minute commercial, which is being aired in North Carolina, where Mr Obama will square off next week against Hillary Clinton in a presidential primary, is a foretaste of what Mr Obama would face in a general election were he to become the Democratic nominee. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-keeps-his-cool-over-tv-attack.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-keeps-his-cool-over-tv-attack.html</a> International Herald Tribune Editorial - Senator Obama and Reverend Wright.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 1, 2008.  It took more time than it should have, but on Tuesday Barack Obama firmly rejected the racism and paranoia of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and made it clear that the preacher does not represent him, his politics or his campaign.  Obama has had to struggle to explain this relationship ever since a video surfaced of Wright damning the United States from his pulpit. Last month, Obama delivered a speech in which he said he disapproved of Wright's racially charged comments but said that the pastor still played an important role in his spiritual life. It was a distinction we were not sure would sit well with many voters. But what mattered more was the speech's powerful commentary on the state of race relations in this country. We hoped it would open the door to a serious, healthy and much-needed discussion on race. Wright has not let that happen. In the last few days, in a series of shocking appearances, he embraced the Rev. Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. He said the government manufactured the AIDS virus to kill blacks. He suggested that America was guilty of "terrorism" and so had brought the 9/11 attacks on itself.  This required a powerful, unambiguous denunciation, and Obama gave it. He said his former pastor's "rants" were "appalling." "They offend me," he said. "They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very clearly and unequivocally here today." <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tribune-editorial.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tribune-editorial.html</a> Views: Race, religion and politics in the 21st century by Rev. Deborah Lake.  Copyright by The Windy City Times.  2008-04-30.  During the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember the ongoing struggle to end race based oppression in America. In our communities and our religious institutions we celebrate King's life, mourn his death, and we vow to continue the struggle. Meanwhile, Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments, and our reactions to them, are part of the backdrop. Let us examine Wright's comments and our reactions to them with more than a simplified black/white understanding. As we remember the change brought about through the civil rights movement, let us look at the position of the Black church in the lives of many today with more than a bottom line good/evil lens. We can use this time of social unrest and political disagreement to develop broader understandings of what it means to be American, what it means to be oppressed, and what it means to hold ourselves, our government, and our institutions accountable.  The unapologetic, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American comments of Wright opens a window to American history that many hoped had been closed through the work and sacrifices of activists over the decades. In addition, our reactions to these comments reveal how we tend to look for simplified explanations for the complex challenges that we face today. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/views-race-religion-and-politics-in.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/views-race-religion-and-politics-in.html</a> Religion drags race to the fore in US election By Edward Luce in Chicago.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 2 2008 21:02 | Last updated: May 2 2008 21:02.  The receptionist at Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ makes a joking pretence of punching the latest visitor. “We are not supposed to entertain media inquiries,” she declares. This Sunday, as on the preceding six, the media will lay siege to Barack Obama’s local church on Chicago’s south side for fear of missing what might be the latest twist in the affair surrounding its pastor.  Surrounded by housing projects and boarded-up shops, Mr Wright’s church is 20 minutes drive from downtown Chicago but a world apart. Known for its work among the homeless, single-parent families and HIV-Aids sufferers, Mr Wright has irrevocably associated his church with a series of notorious comments that could badly damage Mr Obama’s prospects of reaching the White House.  Rather than scolding their pastor for the damage he might have wrought, Trinity’s 8,500-strong congregation has closed ranks behind him. On Wednesday, Mr Obama, in effect, disowned Mr Wright after the pastor reiterated that the US had brought the 11 September terrorist attacks upon itself and vigorously defended the militant Nation of Islam, whose bodyguards were flanking him. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/religion-drags-race-to-fore-in-us.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/religion-drags-race-to-fore-in-us.html</a> Chicagoland Chicago Tribune Editorial - Let voters decide on recall.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 1, 2008.  Whatever it takes.  We urge the members of the Illinois House to do whatever it takes by Sunday's deadline to put a recall amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. If they have to work the weekend, blame the defenders of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the Illinois Senate. But if they do whatever it takes, they will give voters a chance to fire inept public officials who can't, or won't, earn their fat pay.  First, of course, the Senate needs to pass its new proposal for a recall amendment and send it to the House. If the Senate fails, or if it doesn't do that soon enough to let the House vote, then Democratic senators will spend a very long time explaining how their inaction killed the recall.  Public demands for a vote on a recall amendment aren't occurring in a vacuum. There's rising talk of moving to impeach the current governor if a recall mechanism isn't created. But that's a discussion for another week. This week, discussion has to focus on getting House and Senate approval on the recall amendment by May 4. That's the deadline to place it on the Nov. 4 ballot, when voters would have the final say.  There's reason to be suspicious of the maneuvering by Senate Democratic leaders.  The House approved a recall amendment three weeks ago, but the Senate leaders refused to call it for a vote. Then on Tuesday, they grabbed a straightforward, bipartisan Senate proposal and gummed it up with changes that were designed to make it more difficult for the House to accept. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-let-voters.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editorial-let-voters.html</a> Impeachment dust kicked up by recall talk By Eric Zorn.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 1, 2008.  Sentiment is growing that it's high time we got rid of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  His leadership has been so poisonously inept that we've made almost no progress toward reform in such bedeviling areas as education, pensions, health care, capital spending and transit. Contributing to this paralysis is a darkening cloud of scandal hovering over his administration.  I share that sentiment. Illinois can't and shouldn't have to endure another 33 months of Cirque du Blago. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/impeachment-dust-kicked-up-by-recall.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/impeachment-dust-kicked-up-by-recall.html</a> City scraps troubled blue bag program - Oft-criticized system will give way to bins used in pilot program By Laurie Cohen and Kristen Kridel.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  11:43 PM CDT, May 2, 2008.  Mayor Richard Daley's controversial blue bag recycling program will end this summer, and the city will expand suburban-style recycling across the city by 2011.  City Hall slowly has been moving toward replacing the blue bag program, which has been marked by cronyism and lack of participation, and has been a continuing embarrassment for Daley, who prides himself on being one of the country's greenest mayors.  Environmentalists said the blue bag program, which began in 1995, was so bad that they aren't concerned that its demise leaves the city without another system fully in place for the next few years.  "The blue bag program was so ineffective it's a minimal loss," said Julie Dick, president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, which has long pushed the city to adopt suburban-style recycling. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/city-scraps-troubled-blue-bag-program.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/city-scraps-troubled-blue-bag-program.html</a> Children's Museum lowers its profile in new Grant Park design proposal By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  10:30 AM CDT, May 2, 2008.  To circumvent long-standing restrictions barring buildings in Grant Park, the Chicago Children's Museum has once again changed its designs for a proposed location in the northeast end of the park.  To lower the project's physical profile, the museum, which is seeking to move from Navy Pier to Grant Park, has ditched the 16-foot skylight structures it was planning to build in the park and has relocated a glassy entry pavilion onto a nearby sidewalk area so that it is no longer on park property, said Grant Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill.  "It's a considerable reduction in profile," O'Neill said. "It's going to be very difficult legally to challenge this now."  Since 2005, the museum has wanted to move from its current location in Navy Pier into Grant Park directly off Randolph Street. It hopes to replace an existing fieldhouse with a $100 million museum building.  The museum also plans to build a $15 million fieldhouse for the Chicago Park District. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/childrens-museum-lowers-its-profile-in.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/childrens-museum-lowers-its-profile-in.html</a> GLBT In modern Christianity, who is out of step on gays? By Leonard Pitts.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  April 29, 2008.  James Lawson is out of step with modern Christianity.  Take gay marriage. Speaking in support of a proposed state constitutional ban on same sex unions, one Rev. Hayes Wicker of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., was recently quoted by the Naples Daily News as saying, "This is a tremendous social crisis, greater even than the issue of slavery."  As asinine as that remark is, it is perfectly in step with much of modern Christianity, which has spent years demonizing gay men and lesbians. And then there's Rev. Lawson, who spoke last weekend at the 10th anniversary conference of Soulforce, a group that fights church-based homophobia. Few things could be more "out" of step.  Lawson, you may know, is an icon of the civil rights movement; it was he who invited Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. He sees his longtime involvement with Soulforce as part of the same struggle. "The human rights issue is not a single issue," he told me recently. "It is about all humankind. And all humankind has been endowed with certain inalienable rights." <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-modern-christianity-who-is-out-of.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-modern-christianity-who-is-out-of.html</a> Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - School no place for anti-gay shirt. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times.  April 28, 2008.  Being gay in high school must be hard enough without having to walk past a guy in the hall wearing a T-shirt that says, "Be Happy, Not Gay."  We would call that crude and intolerant -- the sort of message we all have to live with on a T-shirt spotted at, say, State and Madison, where free speech is free speech. But not in a public high school.  Too bad the U.S. Court of Appeals can't see that.  The court on Wednesday lifted a ban against a sophomore boy wearing just such a T-shirt at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. The ban remains in effect pending the outcome of a civil rights suit the boy and his parents have filed against the school.  Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court, got it right when he argued that the Constitution allows for reasonable limits on free speech in schools. "High school students are not adults," he wrote, "schools are not public meeting halls, children are in school to be taught by adults rather than to practice attacking each other with wounding words."  But Posner got it wrong when he concluded that "Be Happy, Not Gay" is only "tepidly negative" and should not be forbidden by the school. Unless, that is, Posner and the Court of Appeals take the increasingly scientifically bankrupt view that homosexuality is nothing but a lifestyle choice -- not a matter of nature and biology.  "Be Happy, Not Gay," to our way of thinking, makes about as much sense as "Be Happy, Not Black." <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editorial-school-no.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editorial-school-no.html</a> Schools, LGBT parents and the need to be involved (Extended for the Online Edition) by Amy Wooten.  Copyright by The Windy City Times.  2008-04-30.  Given the fact that LGBT parents and their children are often mistreated in a school setting, how do LGBT families go about choosing a school with a proven track record, or make the most out of the school their child currently attends?  Many LGBT parents don't know where to start when it comes to finding a school or working to make their child's school a better place for the entire family. Knowing where to begin and what resources are available to both parents and students is crucial given the light a recent study has shed on the issue.  A report released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ( GLSEN ) , Family Equality Council and COLAGE in February found that although LGBT parents are more involved in their children's education ( more likely to attend parent-teacher conferences and volunteer ) , they are also more likely to feel excluded and ignored because the school community doesn't accept them. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/schools-lgbt-parents-and-need-to-be.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/schools-lgbt-parents-and-need-to-be.html</a> Buying a Business - Avoiding the Pitfalls By Roger McCaffrey-Boss. Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss.  April 29, 2008.  Q: A friend of mine is planing on retiring and wants to sell me and my lover his restaurant. What are the potential problems I face in buying an ongoing business?  A: Your lawyer should first assist you in the preparation of the contract for the purchase of the business. That contract will cover essential issues, such as the price and payment terms, is it to be a cash deal or will the seller finance part of the sale?  The contract should also include a list of the equipment to be sold and what documents the seller should provide to establish that there are no liens against the equipment or judgments against the seller which could prevent the seller from transferring good title to the equipment and business assets. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/buying-business-avoiding-pitfalls.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/buying-business-avoiding-pitfalls.html</a> Health Care WALKING OFF THE ANGER - Rage between cars, bikes is a vicious wheel By Kevin Williams.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  April 27, 2008.  We're mad as hell, and it's all because of the wheel.  Cyclists are dropping, and the whole bike-versus-car showdown has become a tinderbox.  This should make any sane person slow down and think. Instead, it inspires invective. Just look at Internet message boards, like the Tribune's, for proof:  Those bikers had it coming. They don't obey traffic laws," says a motorist.  "SUV-driving pigs hog the road and waste resources as they try to kill me," says a cyclist.  But here's the thing: When I am in my car, cyclists vex the mess out of me. On my bicycle, cyclists and motorists vex the mess out of me. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/walking-off-anger-rage-between-cars.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/walking-off-anger-rage-between-cars.html</a> Men of the cloth - When it comes to keeping women pregnant and in their place, polygamous Mormons and the pope have a lot in common. But the pope does it on a wider scale. By Katha Pollitt.  Copyright by The Nation Magazine.  April 29, 2008.  Child abuse. Sexual abuse. Women raised to be baby machines controlled by powerful older men in the name of God. These shockers—and many more—are flagrantly on offer in the spectacle unfolding around the 139 women and 437 children removed by Texas authorities from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The YFZ is an outpost of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon cult presided over by Warren Jeffs, convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and awaiting trial in Arizona for incest and conspiracy.  The visuals are riveting: women in pastel prairie dresses and identical pompadour-cum-French-braid hairstyles weeping for their children in state custody; skinny-necked middle-age men insisting they had no idea it was illegal to marry and impregnate multiple 15-year-olds. There's a feminist angle, a child-protection angle and a civil liberties angle—it isn't clear that the children were in immediate danger, and this drastic and clumsy sweep might well cause cultists to isolate themselves even more. The original impetus for the raid—a desperate phone call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl raped and abused by her 50-year-old "spiritual husband"—is looking more and more like a hoax. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/men-of-cloth-when-it-comes-to-keeping.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/men-of-cloth-when-it-comes-to-keeping.html</a> Technology Apple in downloads deal with big studios By Kevin Allison in San Francisco and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 1 2008 20:16 | Last updated: May 1 2008 21:07.  Apple has struck a deal with Warner Brothers and other big film studios to sell film downloads through iTunes on the same day that titles are released on DVD.  The move marks the latest step in a revamp of Apple’s film download strategy. This year the company said it would begin offering film rentals over iTunes after Steve Jobs, chief executive, admitted its paid download strategy had not worked as well as had been hoped.  The inclusion of Warner, which has the biggest film library in Hollywood, significantly bolsters the video content available to buy on iTunes. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/apple-in-downloads-deal-with-big.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/apple-in-downloads-deal-with-big.html</a> Immigration Financial Times Editorial Comment: The shameful dividends of immigrant bashing.  Copyright by The Financial Times.  Published: May 2, 2008.  For Americans, what is happening each night in the French channel port of Calais is poignantly and shamefully familiar. As Caroline Brothers reported on Wednesday in The International Herald Tribune, clusters of poor people wait for darkness and a high-risk chance to crawl inside or beneath a truck to cross to a country that needs and welcomes their labor but refuses to legally recognize their presence.  The United States has engaged in this labor-market hypocrisy for decades. Border crossers are mainly Mexican and Central American. Western Europe's come from North and Central Africa, the Middle East and former east bloc countries not yet in the European Union. Just about everywhere, they are distrusted by the local population and vilified by demagogic politicians.  In the rush to blame foreigners for real and imagined social ills, Europe's anemic birth rates, aging population and hard-to-fill jobs are forgotten. Without large infusions of foreign workers, the tourist industries that many European countries depend on would be understaffed and the cost of construction would soar. None of this has stopped Europe's politicians from stoking fears of immigrant crime, welfare burdens and foreign ways. That should also sound familiar to Americans. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editorial-comment.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editorial-comment.html</a> Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Get off fence on immigration.  Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times.  May 1, 2008.  Tens of thousands of people are expected to march in Chicago today, May Day, also known as International Worker's Day. They are demanding immigrant rights and legalization for the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.  It's not just a Mexican issue but one that will rally Poles, Indians, Koreans and Filipinos, who also have sizable undocumented populations in Illinois, as well as legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. An estimated 450,000 to 550,000 undocumented immigrants live in Illinois.  Today's march is expected to be smaller than the 400,000 who came out in 2006 and the 150,000 in 2007. But resolving America's immigration debate remains a burning issue. It has fallen off the political radar as the media focus on such lesser and ephemeral matters as the views of Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and how Hillary Clinton exaggerated the danger of landing in Bosnia.  It's time our political leaders get back to working on issues that matter, and that includes immigration reform. But nothing is likely to happen until we elect a new president, so allow us to take this occasion to remind you where the candidates stand on immigration. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-sun-times-editorial-get-off.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-sun-times-editorial-get-off.html</a> Tables turned in immigration flap - Neighbors say Mexico is guilty of a double standard when it comes to treatment of illegal migrants By Oscar Avila .  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  12:21 AM CDT, May 2, 2008.  MEXICO CITY — While Mexican immigrants led the charge in Chicago and other cities Thursday to push the U.S. government to treat illegal immigrants more humanely, the same demands for immigrant rights are festering in Mexico, which is facing mounting criticism for how it treats Latin American migrants.  In April, diplomats from El Salvador and Honduras protested after dozens of their citizens accused Mexican authorities of brutality while they were detained.  That same month, the top UN advocate for migrant rights toured the country and said that "the impunity with which Mexico victimizes Central American immigrants makes it the principal violator of human rights on the American continent."  The outcry came as Mexican President Felipe Calderon, while at a North American summit in New Orleans last month, gave his most eloquent defense about the contributions that Mexican immigrants make to the U.S.  That led conservative U.S. lawmakers to accuse Mexico of hypocrisy, and even Mexican lawmakers say the gap between their country's rhetoric and actions has become a problem in pushing Immigration reform. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tables-turned-in-immigration-flap.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tables-turned-in-immigration-flap.html</a> The illegal immigrants you never read about - 'I WAS ASHAMED' | Hungarian kept a secret from all as she studied, worked and, finally, gained citizenship By TERESA PUENTE.  Copyright by the Chicago Sun-Times.  April 28, 2008.  Rita Gondocs was 11 when she came to the United States from Budapest with her mother and twin sister. She remembers the shock of humidity that washed over her that summer of 1988. They soon moved into a studio apartment in Edgewater, and her mother worked days as a cleaning woman and nights at a Hungarian restaurant to pay for her daughters to attend a Catholic school. But they kept a secret for the next 10 years; they were undocumented immigrants.  "Nobody knew at school. I didn't tell any of my friends. I was ashamed," recalled Gondocs, now 31 and a high school teacher on the South Side.  Gondocs is one of countless immigrants who were once undocumented but through family sponsors, assistance from an employer or the 1986 amnesty have become legal immigrants or U.S. citizens. We rarely hear their stories. In this column, I plan to feature one of their stories each month for the next six months. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/illegal-immigrants-you-never-read-about.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/illegal-immigrants-you-never-read-about.html</a> Other Planes and purgatory: A day at the airport By Garrison Keillor. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  April 30, 2008.  A cabdriver picked me up outside the Waffle House in Little Rock last Sunday and said so sweetly, "I hope you enjoyed your breakfast" and I said yes, but honestly, I don't really associate breakfast with enjoyment. It's a standardized meal meant to fortify you for the day's maneuvers.  In my parents' home we sat down to our Cheerios and toast and ate it and conversed in small declarative sentence fragments and jumped up and out the door, and I still do, and that's why I don't intend to retire: What do you do after breakfast? Do you have to hang out for hours with other geezers and geezerettes and reminisce about the days when it was fun to fly from place to place—remember? When you walked through the airport and out the door onto the tarmac and up the stairs to the plane, just like Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca"? I don't care to.   Although when I went through airport security in Minneapolis on Monday, it was an object lesson in something—a line of a hundred people twisted around in the cattle chute, 16 men and women in the white Transportation Security Administration shirts with the epaulets, an obese young woman shouting at us to take our laptops out of our cases in a voice she learned from a prison camp movie; one metal detector in operation, two closed, and the guardian of this narrow gate was a man who carefully read each boarding pass as if proofreading it for misspellings. <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/planes-and-purgatory-day-at-airport.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/planes-and-purgatory-day-at-airport.html</a> Humor Bipartisanship <a href="http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bipartisanship.html">http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bipartisanship.html</a> New! Carlos now has an online store. Order your books directly from Carlos and have them signed and dedicated. <a href="http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/">http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/</a> In Pride (orgullo), Carlos T. Mock, MD Www.carlostmock.com Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table. Author: The Mosaic Virus – Floricanto Press 2007.  Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation Author: Author: Papi Chulo – Floricanto Press 2007.  Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation </BODY> </HTML>