[News] Summer of discontent Newsletter - July 19, 2008

[Carlos Mock]

“This is a summer of discontent, and it's only the middle of July.”  GregBurns


Bad news comes in waves for economy By Greg Burns.  Copyright ©2008,
Chicago Tribune.  July 16, 2008.  She's a North Sider who survived th
Depression, a customer for more thn 20 years, and after hearing the bad
news about the economy over the weekend she marched into the bank to see the
boss.  Although the institution is sound and the nation's fnancial system
in no danger of collapse, Matt Gambs dropped everything to aswer her
worried questions. The images of depositors waiting on long lines ater
Friday's failure of IndyMac Federal Bank had shaken her confidence.  "Youcan't discount people's feelings," explained Gambs, chief executive of
iamond Bank at North Avenue and Clark Street.  These are scary times in theU.S. economy, and Tuesday brought more trouble to the fore. Federal Reserve
Cairman Ben Bernanke voiced concerns about inflation, even as the housing
bus continued to slow economic growth. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and
Freddie Ma remain on track for a taxpayer-financed rescue. The dollar
stands at  record low. Unemployment is rising, and struggling General
Motors Corp. sai it needed to eliminate more jobs. This is a summer of
discontent, and it' only the middle of July.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/7/bad-news-comes-in-waves-
for-economy.htl

A bank fails: Should you worry? Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  July 15,
2008.  The government's seizure of IndyMac Bank may raise concerns for many
consumers about whethr their banks might be next.  While it is unlikely the
nation will see thousads of banks fail as they did during the savings and
loan industry collape in the late 1980s and early '90s, analysts predict
more battered financial nstitutions will be unable to survive in today's
marketplace.  "IndyMac' failure is certainly a broader issue," said Eva
Weber, an analyst at Aite Goup, a financial-services research firm. "Those
who are trenched in more rsky business, who are feeling more heavy losses,
may be at more risk." On Friday the Office of Thrift Supervision
transferred control of the Caliornia lender to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. because it did not thin IndyMac could meet its depositors'
demands. By Monday the bank reopened as ndyMac Federal Bank FSB, and
customers whose deposits were insured by the FIC were able to access full
banking services, including online banking, dring normal business hours.
IndyMac, like many of the nation's banks, wa facing pressures of tighter
credit, tumbling home prices and rising forecosures. In recent weeks it had
experienced a run on the bank, with depositorspulling out $100 million a
day.  Here are some answers about the government' role when a bank fails
and if other banks are at risk:
http://iretiredfromnwsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/bank-fails-should-you-wo
rry.html

Have baks bottomed out? - Despite stock price jump for many this week,
analsts see problems continuing By Becky Yerak.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribne.  July 19, 2008.  Don't break out the bubbly just yet.That's the
thinkingof several bank watchers who, despite seeing financial serices
stocks end the week on a high note, say the worst probably isn't ove as the
credit crisis approaches its one-year anniversary.  As the week startd,
many braced for the worst. IndyMac Bancorp Inc. had just been seized by .S.
banking regulators. And the federal government felt compelled to ofer
assurances that it would help out mortgage financiers Freddie Mac and Fanie
Mae. The news drove down the KBW Bank Index by 8.5 percent on Monday.http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/have-banks-bottomed-out-
espite-stock.html

FBI probes IndyMac for possible fraud © Reuters Limite. WASHINGTON, July 16
– Failed bank IndyMac is under investigation by the FI for possible fraud
involving its mortgage lending, unnamed law enforcemet officials said on
Wednesday.  It was not immediately clear how lng the FBI’s probe of IndyMac
has been underway. The bureau said on Wednesdy it had raised to 21 from 19
the number of corporate targets in its investigtion of the mortgage
industry.  US banking regulators seized mortgage lender ndyMac on Friday
after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the thrd-largest banking
failure in US history.  The FBI declined to comment on IdyMac, and law
enforcement officials spoke about the bank on condition thatthey not be
identified. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07fbi-probes-indymac-for-p
ossible-fraud.html  Editorial comment:  It’s always ice to shut the barn
door after the cow escapes.


International

Charges fied at International Criminal Court against Sudan president over
Darfur warcrimes By MIKE CORDER.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  6:56 AM
CDT, July15, 2008.  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) _ The prosecutor for the
Internationa Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant Monday for Sudan's
presiden on charges of waging a campaign of genocide and rape in Darfur, a
high-risk strategy that could backfire against the people in the war-torn
desert region.The indictmentarked the first time prosecutors at the
world's first permanent war crimes trbunal have issued charges against a
sitting head of state, though President Oar al-Bashir was unlikely to face
trial any time soon.  Sudan denounced he indictment as a political stunt,
saying it would ignore any arrest ordeand was considering all options,
including an unspecified military response. ne Sudanese lawmaker said his
government could no longer guarantee the safe of U.N. staff in the
troubled region.  Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo fled 10 charges against
al-Bashir related to a campaign of extermination ofthree Darfur tribes that
the U.N. says claimed 300,000 lives and drivn 2.5 million people from their
homes. A three-judge panel was expected to tke two to three months to
decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
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tionl-criminal.html

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Stand up to Russia ver Georgia.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Publishe: July 15 2008 18:45 |
Last updated: July 15 2008 18:45.  If proof were neede of the significance
of the crisis facing the troubed Caucasus state of Georgia, it came
yesterday with the start of exercises involving 1,000 US troops.  US
officials insist the long-planned wargames have nothing to do with the
recent dispute between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But the give Washington a chance to
support pro-west Tbilisi at a critical time  The exercises come just after
Moscow brazenly admitted sending war planes oer South Ossetia last week,
allegedly to stop an attack by Mikheil Saakashvli, the Georgian president.
While Russia has encroached on Georgian air spacmany times in supporting
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, this was the firs time in recent years that it
has openly confessed to what was a flagrant vioation of Georgia’s
territorial integrity. With the action coinciding with visit to Tbilisi by
Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, the messag to the west was
brutally clear: stay off our turf.
http://iretiredfromnewsltters.blogspot.com/2008/07/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-stand.html

Erope looks no longer immune to U.S. economic storm By Mark Landler.
Copyrigt by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: July 15, 2008.
FRANKFURT: urope, which held the world's economic storms at bay for the
last year, hs finally succumbed.  Spain, Ireland and Denmark are either in,
or on the brik, of a recession. Italy is stagnating. France is weakening
fast. And German, the sturdy locomotive of Europan growth, is suddenly
faltering - dashing most residual hopes that Europe could escape the
upheaval in the United States.  On Tuesday, an influential pll of German
investors by the Center for European Economic Research in Mannhem found
that confidence has plummeted to its lowest level since the surveywas
started in 1991.  Shares in Spain swooned after that country's housing
risis claimed its first big casualty: a property developer that filed for
prtection from creditors. And in Britain, the inflation rate surged - as it
hs elsewhere in Europe - to 3.8 percent because of soaring prices for food
an fuel.  "We've seen a sea change in Europe," said Thomas Mayer, the chief
Eropean economist at Deutsche Bank in London. "All the bad news around the
orld has finally come to us."  While most economists had predicted that
Euope would suffer fallout from the financial market chaos and the broader
Ameican malaise, the speed of the deterioration has surprised the
soothsaers.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/europe-looks-no-onger-i
mmune-to-us.html

UK consumer inflation hits 16-year peak By Andrew Taylor and Delphine
Strauss.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15
2008 22:00 |ast updated: July 15 2008 22:00.  Unions on Tuesday night
dismissed calls om the chancellor to curb pay demands as inflation hit its
highest level fo 16 years, leaving little prospect of near-term cuts in
interest rates.  Theannual rate of consumer price inflation shot up faster
than expected from 33 per cent in May to 3.8 per cent in June, the Office
for National Statisticssaid – the highest since 1992 and nearly double the
Bank of England’s 2 per ent target.  Food prices are now more than 10 per
cent higher than  year ago, and the average price of petrol has risen 5.3p
a litre in th past month to 117.6p.  Policymakers’ biggest fear is that the
speed of th pick-up in prices – much faster than the Bank forecast in May –
will lead pople to expect continued high inflation, and stoke it by
demanding wage incrases.
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ts-16-year-peak.html

The Boston Globe Editorial: Club Med.  Copyrigh by The Boston Globe.
Published: July 14, 2008.  For all its contradictins, the European Union
has shown the rest of the world the way to endingrecurring wars among
nation-states. The possibility of replicating elsewhere the EU model of
cooperation justifies a much-criticized diplomatic gala in Paris, where the
leaders of some  countries gathered on Sunday to inaugurate President
Nicolas Sarkozy's projet for a Union of the Mediterranean.  It is easy to
find fault with Sarkozys proposal for an economic and political union of
most, if not all, of the 2 countries bordering the Mediterranean. Critics
saw it as a way of brushingaside Turkey's bid for EU membership and
shunting the Turks into the antechamer of a Mediterranean Union.  Germany
was particularly put off by the nitial proposal and Sarkozy's manner of
pursuing it. Chancellor Angela erkel made no secret of her annoyance at
Germany's exclusion from an organiztion that would receive money from the
EU's neighborhood fund. Germany also omplained that Sarkozy had been
ignoring a fundamental EU principle - that Euopean states do not make
important decisions without consulting fellow EUmembers.
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lub-med.html

Australian credit crisis casualties sell asses By Elizabeth Fry in Sydney.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  ublished: July 15 2008 10:39 |
La updated: July 15 2008 10:39.  Shares in Centro Properties and Allco
Finance, two of the biggest Australian casualties of the global credit
crisis, rose on Tuesday afer both companies sold assets as part of efforts
to improve their balancesheets.  Centro, an Australia shopping mall
operator that also has asset in New Zealand and the US, on Tuesday said it
had sold 29 of the 31 propertes in the Centro America Fund for A$735m
($720m). The price struck represens a 10 per cent discount to the book
value of the properties.  Tuesday’s sae is part of a divestment strategy by
the shopping mall group aimed at reducng Centro’s debt, which stands at
A$6.6bn. The group spooked the market n December when it defaulted on
A$1.3bn of loans and was forced into a “work-ut” by creditors.  Since then
Centro has won a number of extensions from it lenders on A$2.3bn of
short-term debt, which has to be repaid on December 1. It owes A$462.9m to
US private placement note holders.  Centro said on uesday it also expects
to raise a further A$1bn shortly by selling a potfolio of four of its
Australian shopping centres.
http://iretiredfromnewsleters.blogspot.com/2008/07/australian-credit-crisis
-casualties.html

U.S. Sodiers No Longer Find Haven in Canada By IAN AUSTEN.  Copyright by
The ew York Times.  Published: July 13, 2008.  TORONTO — James Corey Glass,
apprntice mortician and United States Army deserter, was keeping an
unusually clse eye on the text messages coming into his cellphone.He was
hoping to hear that a court had blocked the Canadian government’s attempt to
send him back to the United States.  James Corey Glass, an Army deserter, is
appealingn immigration removal order in Canada.  On Wednesday afternoon,
the messae came: Mr. Glass, 25, could remain in Canada while he appealed
his removal oder by the country’s Immigration Department. It was a welcome
reprieve, he sid, but well short of a guarantee that he and other deserters
could make Canaa their new home.  The Canadian government’s effort to
remove Mr. Glass ontrasts with the warm reception given to deserters and
draft avoiders from te United States during the war in Vietnam. And
although the war in Iraq hs very little support among Canadians, the
situation of Mr. Glass and others ho abandoned their military positions
provokes a wide range of responses. Fo American soldiers seeking an escape,
Canada is no longer a guaranteed haven.http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-soldiers-no-longr-fi
nd-haven-in.html



China

China’s economy slows in second quarter By Geff Dyer in Beijing. Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Pulished: July 17 2008 08:35 | Last
updated: July 17 2008 12:16.  China’s groth rate slowed again in the second
quarter of the year due to weaker export mrkets and restrictions on
lending, although the economy is still expandng at double-digit rates in
the face of a global slowdown.  The government aid that the economy grew
10.1 per cent in th second quarter, down from 10.6 per cent in the first
quarter, which was the fourth quarter in a row of declining growth in gross
domestic product. The result wasthe lowest growth rate since the last
quarter of 2005 and was also slightly low analysts’ forecasts.  The
government also announced mixed news on infltion. While consumer price
inflation continued to decline from 7.7 pr cent in May to 7.1 per cent last
month, factory gate inflation rose againfrom 8.2 per cent to 8.8 per cent.
The batch of new figures underlined te delicate challenge that the Chinese
authorities are facing of trying to col the economy in the face of high
inflation without prompting a sharpdrop in activity and employment.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/008/07/chinas-economy-slows-in-
second-quarter.html

China and Fanie Mae.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.
Published: July17 2008 09:32 | Last updated: July 17 2008 11:00.  Fannie
Mae and Freddie Macmay not have many friends these days, but they should be
able to count on acertain loyalty in Beijing. China is the biggest foreign
holder of ebt issued by the troubled government-sponsored enterprises and a
relatiely captive buyer of the paper. US Treasury data shows that mainland
Chines investors owned $376bn of agency long-term debt at the end of June
lst year, almost one-third of total foreign holdings of the agencies.
Vrtually all of this is likely held by the State Administration of Foreign
Echange, an agency under the central bank which oversees the bulk of
reserves.Extrapolating on the basis of China’s growth in foreign assets, US
economisBrad Setser reckons the country now holds $500-600bn worth of
agency paper, or about one-tenth of the total outstanding stock of agency
debt.  Rshovelling up
the agencies’ asset-backed securities – at the end of June last year, China
held $206bn. This paper may well be trickier to dump. Even in more normal
times, commercial banks – the other natural buyers – often have balance
sheet constraints. Pricing is also more sensitive to changes in the market
rates. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/china-and-fannie-mae.htm
l

Threat of ‘no-fun’ Olympics By Mure Dice, Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008  Published: July 18 2008 20:47 |
Last updated: July 18 2008 20:47.  Just thee weeks before the Beijing
Olympics, concerns are growing that China’s sweepng security measures could
end up sucking all the fun out of the world’ biggest sportsfest.
Pre-Olympic jitters are almost a tradition but a Chinee visa crackdown that
has sent visitor numbers plunging, heightened security hecks, dire warnings
of terrorist attack and curbs on Beijing nightlifehave led to some
observers dubbing the 2008 Olympics the “no-fun Games”.  Mchael Payne, the
International Olympic Committee’s head of marketing for th two decades to
2004, said that in meetings with top Beijing organisers he hs stressed a
single word of advice: smile.
http://iretiredfromnewsleters.blogspot.com/2008/07/threat-of-no-fun-olympic
s.html

Chicago Tribune Eitorial - Olympics clean? Not likely Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune.  July12, 2008.  For years, sprinter Michael
Johnson—Olympic gold medalist, word champion, world record holder—defended
his sport from those who said it as overrun with drug cheats. He pointed
ut that track and field athletes are tested often for performance-enhancing
drug use. But in March, after learning that former teammate Antonio
Pettigrew had taken human owth hormone (HGH) and erythropoietin (EPO) from
1997 to 2001, Johnson change his tune.  "Now I feel that I have been
naive," Johnson wrote in a piece ublished in the Telegraph of London. "Many
of the athletes who have now ha to admit to using banned substances never
tested positive." In other words, hey gamed the system and got away with
using performance-enhancing drugs. nd that is likely to be the case again
this summer, when the world's bes athletes arrive in Beijing for the 2008
Summer Olympics.  Danish researcher studying the effects of EPO found that
the drug markedly improves athletc performance. The researchers also found
that the labs accredited by theorld Anti-Doping Agency to test athletes'
urine samples are inconsistent at icking up evidence of EPO use. While some
of that may have to do with diffeences in the labs, a bigger problem ishe
test itself. Bottom line: Athletes who inject themselves with EPO have
almost no chance of getting caught.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-olmpics.html



Mess-o-potamia

International Herald Tribune Editorial: Who sread false tales of heroism?
Copyright by The International Herald Tribue.  Published: July 16, 2008.
Widespread - and, we suspect, self-induced - anesia among Bush
administration officials and its Defense Department has mad it impossible
for House investigators to determine whether top officialshelped spread two
bogus stories of heroism used to bolster support for te wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.  It now looks as if we may never know ho kept stoking the
impression that Corporal Pat Tillman, a U.S. Army Rangr who became an icon
of the war on terror, had been killed by the enemy in Aghanistan (in a
battle that won him a questionable Silver Star) long after he military knew
he had been killed accidentally by fire from America forces.  Nor are we
apt to find out who promoted the false story that Pivate First Class
Jessica Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-lik performance in
which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle.In fact, she had
been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush ad was being well
cared for by the Iraqis.  Althouh the administration made a show of
cooperating with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Democratic investigators were frustrated by the professed nability of top
officials to recall who knew what. There was also a puzzlingabsence of
documents that logic suggests should have existed. In some 1500 pages of
White House e-mail messages and other documents about Tillman,there is not
a single mention of fratricide.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.logspot.com/2008/07/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_16.html

Intrnational Herald Tribune Editorial: Baseline maneuvers.  Copyright by
The ternational Herald Tribune.  Published: July 14, 2008.  In an act of
comon sense, U.S. troops deploying overseas will now undergo computerzed
neurological screening before they leave. The aim is to have a baeline
measurement of a soldier's brain function in case she or he is wounded
Since a battlefield injury in Afghanistan or Iraq is likely to invlve a
roadside bomb and a traumatized brain, anything that can improve the
tratment of such injuries is highly welcome.  Not to mention long overdue.
The nvasions of those two countries began in 2001 and 2003, and it wasn't
long beore brain injuries emerged as the persistent affliction. A study
this yar by the RAND Corp. found that nearly one in five service members,
or about320,000 people, were likely to have suffered a traumatic brain
injuryin Iraq or Afghanistan, but that the majority had never been
evaluated for on.  There is no excuse for the delay. As long ago as 1997,
after the first Gulf War, President Bill Clinton signed a bill requiring the
military to "accurately record the medical condition of mmbers before their
deployment." That law was prompted by the mysterious oubreak of ailments
known as Gulf War syndrome, and by the bitter legal battles over when and
how soldiers had fallen ill.
http://iretiredfromnewslettes.blogspot.com/2008/07/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_7279.html

Ca bomb in Iraq kills 18, including children; U.S.-led forces hand ove
control of province By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA.  Copyright 2008 Associated
Pres.  2:39 PM CDT, July 16, 2008.  BAGHDAD (AP) _ A car bomb killed at
least sevn children and 11 other people in a northern city, providing a
reminder tht militants still can cause casualties despite security
improvements that ledU.S. troops to return a southern province to Iraqi
control Wednesday.  Ninty people also were injured in the blast at a
popular outdoor market in Tl Afar, said a police official, who insisted on
anonymity because he was not uthorized to speak to the media.  The city, a
one-time stronghold of Sunni nsurgents 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, was
targeted in offensives by U.S.and Iraqi troops that prompted American
leaders to describe it as a succes story in the effort to stabilize Iraq.
But sporadic attacks continue.
htt://iretiredfromnewsletters.bogspot.com/2008/07/car-bomb-in-iraq-kills-1
8-including.html

Iraq recruits hit in dual suicide attack By Ernesto Londoño in Baghdad.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008  Published: July 15 2008 11:57 |
Last updated: July 15 2008 18:44.  At least28 Iraqi security force recruits
were killed on Tuesday in two suicide bombins in Diyala province north of
Baghdad, where the government has said it pans a military offensive against
insurgent groups. The twin bombings ocurred at Camp Saad, a police
recruitment centre east of Baquba, the prvincial capital. The first bomber
detonated explosives among a group of recuits – with the second targeting
those who fled the site – according to the ommander of the Diyala military
operations centre. At least 57 people were ounded in the blasts, he said.
A police recruit wounded in the attack sad he ran from the site of the
first attack. “When I fled the place running, aother suicide bomber blew
himself up among the recruits who were not woundedin the first explosion,”
he said in a phoe interview from a hospital where he was being treated for
injuries on his face and legs. “This time I got injured.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/ira-recruits-hit-in-dua
l-suicide.html

Electrical risks at U.S. bases in Irq worse than reported By James Risen.
Copyright by The International HeraldTribune.  Published: July 18, 2008.
WASHINGTON: Shoddy electrical work b private contractors on United States
military bases in Iraq is widespreadand dangerous, causing more deaths and
injuries from fires and shocks tha the Pentagon has acknowledged, according
to internal army documents.  Duringjust one six-month period — August 2006
through January 2007 — at least 28 electrical fires destroyed or damaged
American military facilities in Iraq,including the military's largest
dining hall in the country, documets obtained by The New York Times show.
Two soldiers died in an electrial fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006,
the records note, while anothe was injured while jumping from a burning
guard tower in May 2007.  And hile the Pentagon has previously reported
that 13 Americans have been electrcuted in Iraq, many more have been
injured, some seriously, by shocks, acording to the documents. A log
compiled earlier this year at one building cmplex in Baghdad disclosed that
soldiers complained of receiving eletrical shocks in their living quarters
on an almost daily basis.
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ases-in-iraq.html

Bush agrees withdrawal deal with Iraq By Andrew Ward in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 20:09 |
Last updated: July 18 2008 0:09.  George W. Bush has agreed to commit the
US to “time horizon” for withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, marking
asignificant shift by a president who has long opposed setting target dtes
for ending the war.  The president struck the agreement with prime ministr
Nouri al-Maliki on Friday as part of negotiations over the long-term fuure
of US forces in Iraq.  The White House insisted the goals would be subjct
to continued improvement in security conditions, in contrast to the
Dmocrats’ call for a fixed timetable for withdrawal.  The Iraqi government
hd been pressing the Bush administration to commit to withdrawal dates as
par of a proposed bilateral agreement to replace the United Nations mandatethat currently authorises US operations in Iraq.
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eal-with-iraq.html

Iraqis ivided on pull-out plan By Sudarsan Raghavan in Baghdad.  Copyright
The Fiancial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 19:30 | Last
updated:July 18 2008 19:30.  As Barack Obama prepares to visit Iraq, people
across te country and politicians are divided over the presumptive
Democratic nominees plan to withdraw US troops in 16 months if be becomes
president.  “Iaq will be in hell and we will find ourselves at the gates of
civil war,” aid Maied Rashed al-Nuaemi, a provincial council member in
Mosul, where forcs are struggling against the Sunni insurgent group
al-Qaeda in Iraq. “The Aerican presence in Iraq is the safety valve to keep
this country quiet. If they withdraw, that will lead to calamity.”  But
Mosul’s deputy governor, Khasru Koraan, said: The US presence in Iraq is
useful now but if the security situationgets better, I think it’s not
necessary to keep all these big numbers o soldiers here.”  Iraq’s future is
at stake in the US presidential electionsthis November and so the capital
is rife with rumours of Mr Obama’s arrivl, expected in a few days.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.cm/2008/07/iraqis-divided-on-pull-o
ut-plan.html

Deadly attack on US base snds worrying signal for commanders hunting
Taliban and al-Qaida By FISNIK ABASHI.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.
9:11 PM CDT, July 14, 2008.  KABL, Afghanistan (AP) _ An insurgent raid
that penetrated an American outpos in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine
soldiers, has deepened doubts about th U.S. military's effort to contain
Islamic militants and keep locals on its sde.Moving in darkness before dawn
Sunday, some 200 fighters surroundd the newly built base in a remote area
near the Pakistan border without eing spotted by the troops inside, said
Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the rovincial police chief. He said people
in the adjacent village of Wanat aided the assault. About 20 local families
left their homes in anticipation of the raid, while other tribesmen stayed
behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight,"Jangalbagh said.  The
result was the deadliest incident for U.S. forces in fghanistan since June
2005, when 16 American soldiers were killed as a rcket-propelled grenade
shot down their helicopter.  Violence has been increasg in Afghanistan,
and many people are questioning whether the Taliban-led insurgency is
gaining, not losing, momentum seven years after the hard-line Islamic regime
was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion.
http://iretiredfromnewstters.blogspot.com/2008/07/deadly-attack-on-us-base
-sends-worrying.html

Candians fear Afghan role not 'peacekeeping' - Critics say mission too much
defnse, too little diplomacy By Kim Barker.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune  July 18, 2008.  BOWMANVILLE, Canada — Near the corner of
Temperance andChurch Streets, a granite monument honors this town's dead
soldiers and liss where they died.  But when Darryl Caswell was killed by a
roadside bomb ast year in Afghanistan, no one was sure how to add his
death, the town's 103d military fatality but the first one in 43 years.
Town leaders had planned t etch the word "peacekeeping" above his name, but
to many in Bowmanville,a town of 31,000 east of Toronto, that description
of Canada's role fightingwith NATO in Afghanistan seemed wrong.  "I don't
see where the peacekeepin comes in," said Paul Caswell, Darryl's father.
The war in Afghanistan ha changed the way Canadians view war and their
military — and in some ways, temselves and the U.S., their mighty neighbor
to the south. After Canada decined to participate in the Iraq conflict, a
decision to send up to 2,500 trops at a time to the bloodiest part of
Afghanistan has transformed Canad from a nation proud of its peacekeeping
missions to a nation figuring ut how to be at war.
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le-not.html

Is Iran Bush's answer for a legacy? By Raja Kamal.  Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune.  July 18, 2008.  History can be very harsh and subjective
It seems that the significant accomplishments of President Bill Clinton willbe unfortunately overshadowed by his personal indiscretions while i office.
Historians will never shy from emphasizing that he was the second US.
president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Clinton'slegacy,
as a result, has been sadly tarnished.  How will historians judge th legacy
of President George W. Bush? And, as he approaches the end of his secnd
term, is it possible for him to influence or redefine his legacy?  The
anser to the first question is not favorable. During his tenure, the Iraq
wa was poorly conceived and implemented. It is now a quagmire with no end
i sight. With more than a half-trillion dollars and counting, this war is
afecting essential programs here at home. Hurricane Katrina also proved
tat Washington was incapable of responding efficiently to natural disasters
o the home front. And then there is the economy. Most economists would
agree hat the country is in a recession and possibly a severe one. More
Amercans are finding themselves jobless every week. The high cost of energy
is compounding matters, and polls are giving the administration a very low
performance rating—confirming at the nation is going in the wrong
direction...Attacking Iran may camouflge the legacy of the Bush
administration. Yet redefining the president'slegacy by a conflict with
Iran may prove to be an even more dangerous path tan that of Iraq.  Will
there be a dark day in November? Let's hope not.
htt://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-iran-bushs-answer-for
legacy.html



National

International Herald Tribune Editorial: America'swar dead, seen only from
afar.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribun.  Published: July 14,
2008.  There's a propaganda edge to waging every war and a sad hallmark of 
the Bush administration's approach has been to den America the candid sight 
of flag-draped coffins of sacrificed soldier returning from Iraq and 
Afghanistan. A nation at war should confront the eality of war.  The muting 
of bad war news, which started at the Pentagon, s now an issue as well at 
Arlington National Cemetery. A public affairs irector at the cemetery was 
recently fired after complaining that ules were tightened to isolate the 
media 50 yards away - well beyond the point at which news organizations 
could hear, never mind photograph or videotape, burial ceremonies.  The 
Pentagon says it is only following the wishes of families and that it has 
not changed its procedures. But there are serious reasons to doubt both 
protestations.  Gina Gray, the fired director, said last April that the 
rules for the media at Arlington were indeed tightened, and she promised the 
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank that she would work to ease them. In 
the ensuing controversy, military officials promised to work out some middle 
ground. But that did not save the job of Gray, who complained that cemetery 
officials had been calling families to encourage them to deny media coverage 
of their loved ones' burials. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_15.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial: Posturing and abdication on climate 
change.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: July 13, 
2008.  The Bush administration made clear on Friday that it will do 
virtually nothing to regulate the greenhouse gases that cause global 
warming. With no shame and no apology, it stuck a thumb in the eye of the 
Supreme Court, repudiated its own scientists and exposed the hollowness of 
President George W. Bush's claims to have seen the light on climate change.  
That is the import of an announcement by Stephen Johnson, the administrator 
of the Environmental Protection Agency, that the EPA will continue to delay 
a decision on whether global warming is a threat to human health and welfare 
and requires regulations to address it.  Johnson said his agency would seek 
further public comment on the matter, a process that will almost certainly 
stretch beyond the end of Bush's term.  The urgent problem of global warming 
demands urgent action. And the Supreme Court surely expected a speedier 
response when - 15 months ago - it ordered the EPA to determine whether 
greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles (and, by extension, other sources) 
endangers human welfare and, if so, to issue regulations to limit emissions. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/posturing-and-abdication
-on-climate.html

SEC set to fight short selling of financials By Joanna Chung in New York.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 21:31 | 
Last updated: July 15 2008 21:31.  US regulators will take emergency action 
to stop abusive short-selling of stock in financial institutions such as 
mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and investment bank Lehman 
Brothers.  Christopher Cox, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, 
told legislators on Tuesday that the agency would issue an emergency rule to 
stop so-called “naked” short-selling of shares in significant financial 
entities. The SEC will also consider new rules to extend those trading 
limits to the rest of the market.  Short sellers aim to profit from share 
declines – usually by borrowing a stock, selling it and buying it back in 
the market. But in a “naked” short the shares are sold without being 
borrowed first. The emergency rule, which would be in effect for up to 30 
days, would require anyone making a short sale to borrow the security first.  
It would apply to Fannie and Freddie – the government-sponsored entities 
that own or guarantee almost half of US mortgages – and all primary 
securities dealers including Lehman, whose shares have been battered by 
rumours the bank says are false. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/sec-set-to-fight-short-s
elling-of.html



Chicagoland

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Your sales tax calendar.  Days since the Cook 
County Board raised the sales tax: 16.  Days until the Feb. 2, 2010, 
Illinois primary election: 566.  July 16, 2008.  The push to roll back Cook 
County's increase of a full percentage point in the sales tax has begun. 
County Board member Tony Peraica on Monday filed the formal paperwork asking 
the board to reverse this most egregious of tax hikes. Peraica needs nine 
votes on the 17-member board to get traction. His measure now boasts seven 
sponsors.  Let's salute them and hope their number grows. The seven, all of 
whom voted against the tax increase in the crucial Feb. 29 meeting of the 
board's Finance Committee, are: Forrest Claypool, Elizabeth Doody Gorman, 
Gregg Goslin, Peraica, Michael Quigley, Tim Schneider and Peter Silvestri. 
No, this is not an all-Republican effort: Claypool and Quigley are 
Democrats—as is every board member who voted for this $426 million tax 
boost.  We hope the other board member who sided with these seven sponsors 
on the losing side of that 9-8 vote, Roberto Maldonado, remembers why he 
fiercely opposed the regressive unfairness of this sales tax hike on his 
poor and elderly constituents. Maldonado needs to join as a sponsor of this 
tax repeal—and then needs to vote accordingly. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-your-sales.html

Chicago Tribune Editorial - And they get a raise?  Copyright by The Chicago 
Tribune.  July 18, 2008.  Anyone who's ever managed a family budget 
understands that paring your spending to match your income is rarely 
painless. For those of us dealing with household-size budgets, the $1.4 
billion that Gov. Rod Blagojevich sliced from next year's state budget 
sounds excruciatingly painful, especially when amplified by the anguished 
cries of those afflicted by the cuts.  It's worth remembering that the $28.3 
billion left on the table when Blagojevich finished his work is $800 million 
more than the previous year's budget. Fully 70 percent of the governor's 
cuts simply eliminated increases over last year's spending. Lawmakers had 
approved an additional $515 million for schools, for example, but the 
governor cut construction costs, laptop computers and other items to trim 
the increase to $330 million.   There were casualties, to be sure. Many 
social service agencies face real funding cuts. Child welfare services, 
substance abuse programs and transit subsidies for students and disabled 
riders all took hits. And the governor couldn't resist gouging some of his 
political nemeses, including Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, daughter of Illinois 
House Speaker Michael Madigan, and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who had backed an 
unsuccessful move to let citizens recall state officials, not that we're 
naming names or anything. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-and-they-get.html

Senators avoiding Statehouse to protect post-election pay raises - Returning 
to Springfield would force them to vote on 7.5% wage hike By Ray Long and 
Jeffrey Meitrodt.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  11:21 PM CDT, July 
15, 2008.  SPRINGFIELD — The House is back this week to fight Gov. Rod 
Blagojevich's budget cuts, but the Senate is avoiding the Statehouse in a 
move that protects lawmakers' chances of getting a post-election pay raise.  
Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) has said there is no need for the 
Senate to meet because his chamber, unlike the House, has already approved 
funding plans that would alleviate the need for the governor's veto of $1.4 
billion in spending from the new state budget.  But critics said returning 
to Springfield also would force the Senate to vote on whether to boost base 
salaries for lawmakers next summer by 7.5 percent, to $72,985. Jones has not 
scheduled the Senate to return until after the November election, when it 
would be less volatile for lawmakers to take a vote.  A consistent advocate 
of boosting legislative salaries, Jones made his position clear this year 
when he told reporters: "I need a pay raise. I need a pay raise." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/senators-avoiding-stateh
ouse-to-protect.html




Your Lack of Money

Bernanke highlights risks facing US economy By Krishna Guha and James Politi 
in Washington and Michael Mackenzie in New York.  Copyright The Financial 
Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 15:19 | Last updated: July 15 
2008 21:38.  Ben Bernanke highlighted the “numerous difficulties” facing the 
US economy in a sobering testimony on Tuesday that sent markets on a 
rollercoaster ride as he signalled serious risks on both the growth and 
inflation fronts.  The Federal Reserve chairman told Congress that strains 
in financial markets, declining house prices, a weaker labour market and 
higher oil prices were all putting pressure on the outlook.  Shares in the 
US – already weak before Mr Bernanke spoke – fell sharply, before rallying 
on a substantial decline in oil prices.  But the main European and Asian 
markets fell sharply throughout the day with financial stocks particularly 
hard hit. In London the FTSE 100 closed down 2.4 per cent at 5,171.9, its 
lowest level since October 2005.  By the close, oil had slumped to $138.74 a 
barrel after trading at an early high of $146.73. As oil slid, the euro, 
which hit a record high of $1.6038 in earlier trading, eased back.  Gold 
rallied to its highest level in four months. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/bernanke-highlights-risk
s-facing-us.html

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Monetary minefield.  Copyright The 
Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 16 2008 19:33 | Last updated: 
July 16 2008 19:33.  The tightrope that the Federal Reserve is walking keeps 
getting thinner. The need to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two 
giant mortgage lenders sponsored by the US government, is a reminder that 
financial conditions pose significant risks to growth; headline prices now 5 
per cent higher than a year ago mean a rising risk of inflation. The Fed may 
not be able to keep its balance much longer, and if it falls, it must be on 
the side of controlling inflation, not sustaining growth.  The package of 
support for Fannie and Freddie has few direct consequences for the 
macroeconomy. It eliminates the risk of an unlikely but catastrophic event – 
the failure of one of the two – but draws attention to the strain that the 
pair could place on the US government’s balance sheet. Fannie and Freddie 
can now keep lending, but some regional banks, such as troubled IndyMac, may 
not be able to. Tough credit conditions, and the fear of another Bear 
Stearns-style crisis, remain serious threats to growth. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/financial-times-editoria
l-comment_17.html

US consumer price jump fuels inflation fears By James Politi in Washington.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 16 2008 14:02 | 
Last updated: July 16 2008 16:44.  US consumer prices rose by 1.1 per cent 
in June, recording their biggest monthly jump since Hurricane Katrina as 
food and energy raised the cost of living for many Americans and justified 
inflation concerns among policymakers.  The increase in the consumer price 
index was well above economists’ expectations of a 0.7 per cent gain. At the 
core level, which excludes food and energy, the CPI also disappointed the 
market, gaining 0.3 per cent compared with an average expectation of a 0.2 
per cent rise.  The sharp increase in monthly inflation - which was the 
biggest since September 2005 and the second biggest since June 1982 – 
highlights the difficult balancing act that is being performed by the 
Federal Reserve as it weighs slow growth, rising unemployment and turmoil in 
financial markets against sharply rising prices. On a yearly basis, the CPI 
gained 5 per cent in June, its largest increase since 1991.  One source of 
comfort in recent months had been that core inflation was relatively under 
control, suggesting that soaring food and energy prices weren’t being passed 
on to the cost of other goods and services. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-consumer-price-jump-f
uels-inflation.html

Fed considered rate hike to hinder inflation.  Copyright by The Associated 
Press.  July 17, 2008.  WASHINGTON — Worried about rising inflation, Federal 
Reserve officials at their meeting in June thought the Fed's next move on 
interest rates was likely to be up.  Documents released Wednesday provided 
insights into the Fed's thinking at the June 24-25 session, when they ended 
a nearly yearlong string of rate reductions, aimed at bolstering a teetering 
economy. At that time, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues were 
increasingly concerned that galloping energy and food prices could spread 
inflation through the economy, so they left the Fed's key rate at 2 percent.  
"With increased upside risks to inflation and inflation expectations, 
members believed that the next change in the stance of policy could well be 
an increase," according to the documents.  However, because of the high 
degree of economic uncertainty, the timing of any such increase was far from 
clear, the documents suggested.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/fed-considered-rate-hike
-to-hinder.html

Boost from stimulus checks may not be enough to save restaurant profits By 
LAUREN SHEPHERD.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  2:14 PM CDT, July 17, 
2008.  NEW YORK (AP) _ Consumers may have had a bit more money this spring 
courtesy of Uncle Sam, but that small windfall is unlikely to translate into 
big second-quarter profits for restaurants.  And with the average price of 
gas now topping $4 a gallon, industry analysts are also no longer expecting 
much improvement in the months ahead.  "Frankly, I don't think we're going 
to go back to the good old days," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president 
of consumer research firm Technomic Inc. in Chicago.  It's been a difficult 
year for the restaurants, which depend on consumers' willingness to spend 
their cash to indulge in a lunch away from their desk or a dinner out. 
Falling home values, higher utility bills and skyrocketing gas prices have 
taken a big bite out of discretionary income.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/boost-from-stimulus-chec
ks-may-not-be.html

Service sector contracts as orders fall.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  
1:30 PM CDT, July 3, 2008.  NEW YORK - Higher oil prices caused service 
businesses to shrink in June, as falling new orders and rising costs hit the 
nation's coffee shops, paper mills and corner stores.  The Institute for 
Supply Management said Thursday that the services sector index fell to 48.2 
in June from 51.7 in May. It missed economists' prediction of a reading of 
51.0, according to the consensus estimate of Wall Street economists surveyed 
by Thomson Financial/IFR. A reading above 50 signals growth.  The sector had 
been growing modestly, while much of the rest of the economy stalled. June's 
decline in the sector, coupled with Thursday's employment report showing the 
sixth straight month of job losses, added to the recent streak of bad news 
about the economy.  Bruce Kane, a Smithtown, N.Y. home accessories 
manufacturers rep, said stores he sells to are afraid to place orders for 
Christmas. "Come September, with home heating oil prices, they don't know 
what the customer is going to do," he said. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/service-sector-contracts
-as-orders-fall.html

Financial Times Editorial Comment: A decent burial for Fannie Mae.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 14 2008 18:22 | 
Last updated: July 14 2008 18:22.  Several financial institutions are 
considered too big to fail by US regulators. But most of them are small 
fractions of the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two 
government-sponsored enterprises hold or guarantee $5,200bn in mortgage 
debts. The moves to shore up the two giants over the weekend are welcome. 
However, policymakers must decide what they want to do with them in the long 
term.  Responding to fears about the mortgage behemoths’ liquidity and 
solvency, the Federal Reserve responded on Sunday by allowing Fannie Mae and 
Freddie Mac to borrow from its discount window. They now have access to 
emergency lending on the same terms as banks and primary dealers. Meanwhile, 
the US Treasury is seeking permission from Congress to increase its credit 
lines to the giants and for the right to purchase equity in them.  The Fed 
and US Treasury had little choice, but it was still the right course of 
action. Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, federal reserve 
chairman, have therefore staved off short-term liquidity problems./Fannie 
Mae and the limits of public obligation By John Kay.  Copyright The 
Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 18:23 | Last updated: 
July 15 2008 18:23.  Still the bills roll in. Taxpayers have already written 
impressively large cheques for Northern Rock and Bear Stearns. This week 
they are asked to dip into their pockets for Fannie Mae and Equitable Life. 
Ten billion pounds is more than a week’s public spending. But the sum is now 
the small change of subvention to failing financial services businesses. The 
common cause of all these calls on the public purse is the gap between the 
responsibilities government is thought to have assumed and the powers and 
competence government has to discharge these responsibilities.  Equitable 
Life, the mutual life assurer that closed to new business in 2000, did not 
fail. Most of its policyholders did not do badly, but they did less well 
than they had been led to expect. Regulators did not cause the crisis, but 
things might have been done that were not done and there were specific 
procedural failings. In a world populated by real people, hindsight will 
almost always reveal such mistakes./The rescue of Fannie and Freddie by 
Hankie and Feddie By Willem Buiter.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 
2008.  July 14, 2008.  The bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the 
combined forces of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board is the 
ugliest exercise of its kind I have ever observed outside early transition 
economies and mature banana republics.  There are two open-ended (possibly 
permanent) measures by the US Treasury and one supposedly temporary measure 
by the Fed. The Treasury’s proposals require Congressional approval to 
become effective, something that should be forthcoming some time next week. 
The Fed measure does not require Congressional approval.  The open-ended 
Treasury commitments are the creation of a facility enabling the U.S. 
government to become a major shareholder in the two GSEs, possibly for as 
much as $15 billion equity in each of the two institutions. The existing 
Treasury lines of credit to the insitutions (currently limited to $2.25bn 
each) would, as far as I can tell, become open-ended and uncapped. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/financial-times-editoria
l-comment_15.html

Opposition, from both parties, over U.S. Treasury bailout plan By Stephen 
Labaton and David M. Herszenhorn.  Copyright by The International Herald 
Tribune.  Published: July 16, 2008.  WASHINGTON: The Bush administration's 
plan to rescue the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies ran into 
sharp criticism in Congress on Tuesday as some lawmakers questioned the 
open-ended request for money that could be used to help the companies.  The 
criticism prompted House leaders to push back their timetable for approving 
emergency housing legislation, saying final action would take at least until 
early next week. The move came after a growing number of Republicans voiced 
skepticism and, in some cases, angry opposition, to the administration's 
proposal to help the two companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac./Fannie and 
Freddie, damned by a Faustian bargain By John Eatwell and Avinash Persaud.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 2008 19:26 | 
Last updated: July 17 2008 19:26.  The rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 
announced by Henry Paulson, US Treasury secretary, on Monday was the 
inevitable consequence of the “marketisation” of banking that has 
transformed central banks from lenders of last resort to buyers of last 
resort. These government-sponsored agencies own or guarantee $5,000bn of 
mortgages, equal to half of US government debt. Unless regulators change 
track, there will be more rescues to come.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have 
become the symbols of the switch from bank finance to market finance. They 
did not originate loans but owned or guaranteed securitised loans originated 
by others. When a report into accounting improprieties in 2003 led Freddie 
Mac to scale back its activities, banks, then looking for a new source of 
income after the dotcom bubble, tried to replicate the model and push the 
envelope. The main cheerleaders for the marketisation of banking were the 
gnomes of Basel – the centre of international bank regulation. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/opposition-from-both-par
ties-over-us.html

Freddie Mac Registers With SEC, Capital Is Sufficient By Dawn Kopecki.  
Copyright by Bloomberg News.  Last Updated: July 18, 2008 13:43 EDT.  July 
18 (Bloomberg) -- Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage-finance 
company, registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 
removing the biggest obstacle to selling common stock and increasing its 
mortgage holdings.  Freddie Mac intends to proceed with a $5.5 billion 
capital raising plan it announced in May that ``will include both common and 
preferred securities,'' the company said in a statement today. The filing, 
which doesn't say when Freddie Mac plans the offerings, fulfills an 
agreement made six years ago with lawmakers before the government-chartered 
company's plans stalled after uncovering $5 billion of accounting errors.  
``Becoming an SEC registrant marks an important milestone for the company 
and demonstrates our commitment to enhanced transparency and financial 
reporting,'' Chief Executive Officer Richard Syron said in a statement. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/freddie-mac-registers-wi
th-sec-capital.html

Google shares drop more than 9 pct after 2Q earnings miss expectations amid 
sputtering economy By MICHAEL LIEDTKE.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  
11:23 AM CDT, July 18, 2008.  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Google Inc. shares 
tumbled more than 9 percent by midday Friday after the Internet search 
leader's second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.  Management 
said economic turmoil in the United States and parts of Europe appears to be 
causing consumers to click less frequently on the ads that generate 
virtually all its profits.  That unnerved already jittery investors, 
although Google managers said they expect the Mountain View-based company 
will thrive even if the economy weakens further./AMD names Meyer CEO as 
quarterly loss widens - Chip giant's shares fall 10% as Ruiz steps down By 
Benjamin Pimentel.  Copyright by MarketWatch.com.  Last update: 12:07 p.m. 
EDT July 18, 2008.  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Shares of Advanced Micro 
Devices Inc. fell 10% Friday morning after the chip giant reported another 
quarterly loss and announced that Chief Executive Hector Ruiz, who led the 
chipmaker's scrappy battle to take market share from tech kingpin Intel 
Corp., has stepped down.  Announcing the switch after the markets closed on 
Thursday, AMD said Ruiz, who became CEO in 2002, will be replaced by Chief 
Operating Officer Dirk Meyer. Ruiz was named AMD's executive chairman and 
will remain as the company's chairman of the board.  The change marks a 
major reshuffling at the Silicon Valley icon that emerged as an aggressive 
challenger to Intel (INTC: 21.99, -0.01, -0.1%) , but which has recently 
struggled with shrinking market share, production missteps and mounting 
financial burdens.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-shares-drop-more-
than-9-pct.html

Slowdown hurts profits at tech arch-rivals By Richard Waters, Chris Nuttall 
and Kevin Allison in San Francisco.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 
2008.  Published: July 17 2008 23:49 | Last updated: July 17 2008 23:49.  
Worries that an economic slowdown was starting to eat into profits at both 
Google and Microsoft hit shares of the tech industry arch-rivals late on 
Thursday after each reported quarterly earnings that fell short of most 
analysts’ estimates.  Both companies, however, claimed to be riding out the 
downturn with little immediate impact and expressed cautious optimism that 
their international reach would continue to protect them from the worst.  
The resilience of the technology industry’s biggest and most diversified 
companies was also underlined on Thursday by the latest figures from IBM. 
The biggest supplier of technology to the corporate market raised its 
full-year outlook and reported better than expected sales and profits as it 
continued to be buoyed by growth in emerging markets.  Microsoft shares fell 
more than 6 per cent on its latest earnings, as well as financial guidance 
that disappointed. But the world’s biggest software maker said a strong PC 
market and its diversified business was helping it ride out uncertain 
economic times. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/slowdown-hurts-profits-a
t-tech-arch.html

Nokia's 2nd-quarter profit falls 61 percent due to one-time gains in 
year-ago quarter By JARI TANNER.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  7:15 AM 
CDT, July 17, 2008.  HELSINKI, Finland (AP) _ The world's No. 1 mobile phone 
maker Nokia Corp. on Thursday said profit fell 61 percent in the second 
quarter from the same period a year ago, when the company booked a large 
gain from its network joint venture with Siemens AG.  In an earnings report 
that came in above expectations, Nokia slightly upgraded its forecast for 
the global handset market in 2008, and said it expected to keep growing its 
slice of the pie. Four in 10 mobile phones sold worldwide are now made by 
the company based in Espoo, Finland./Harley 2Q profit tumbles on fewer 
shipments By DAN STRUMPF.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  8:56 AM CDT, 
July 17, 2008.  NEW YORK - Harley-Davidson Inc. said Thursday its 
second-quarter profit fell sharply as a weak economy, record-high gas prices 
and lower consumer confidence continued to hobble the iconic motorcycle 
maker's shipments and sales.   But the Milwaukee-based company stood by its 
outlook for the year, and its earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. 
Shares of Harley climbed in premarket trading.   Harley said its earnings 
for the quarter ended June 29 fell 23 percent to $222.8 million, or 95 cents 
per share, from $290.5 million, or $1.14 per share, in the same quarter last 
year.   
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/nokias-2nd-quarter-profi
t-falls-61.html

Citi’s $2.5bn loss less than feared By Ben White in New York.  Copyright The 
Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 11:56 | Last updated: 
July 18 2008 15:14.  Citigroup on Friday said it lost a smaller than 
expected $2.5bn in the second quarter, driven by $7.2bn in writedowns and an 
increase of $4.5bn in credit costs.  Analysts had predicted a loss of closer 
to $4bn. Citi, the largest US bank by assets, itself last month warned of 
further large writedowns driven by continued ”unprecedented” market 
conditions.  Citi shares rose 5.6 per cent in early Wall Street trading 
after the bank said it lost $2.5bn, or 54 cents a share, compared with a 
profit of $6.23bn, or $1.24 cents, last year.  The loss was about half the 
size of the $5bn decline Citi posted in the first quarter.  The bank has 
lost more than $17bn in the last three quarters and taken in excess of $58bn 
in writedowns and increased credit costs since mid-2007.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/citis-25bn-loss-less-tha
n-feared.html

Merrill Lynch hit by $9.4bn write-down By Francesco Guerrera and Ben White 
in New York and Krishna Guha in Washington.  Copyright The Financial Times 
Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 2008 22:04 | Last updated: July 18 2008 
02:10.  Merrill Lynch on Thursday spoiled investors’ appetite for financial 
stocks with larger-than-expected write-downs of $9.4bn that underlined 
banks’ continuing struggles to emerge from the credit crunch.  In an unusual 
move, Merrill waited until after the market closed to report a $4.6bn loss 
in the second quarter and announce asset sales aimed at raising $8bn in 
much-needed capital.  The performance, which trailed analyst expectations, 
brings Merrill’s losses for the past four quarters to about $19bn and has 
left the battered investment bank as one of the biggest casualties of the 
financial turmoil.  Merrill’s results are a setback for John Thain, chairman 
and chief executive, who was hired in December to stem the investment bank’s 
tide of losses and tighten risk management./JPMorgan earnings beat 
expectations By Francesco Guerrera in New York.  Copyright The Financial 
Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 2008 12:32 | Last updated: July 17 
2008 12:32.  JPMorgan Chase provided a relative bright spot for the US 
financial sector on Thursday, reporting second-quarter results ahead of Wall 
Street expectations despite $2.4bn in new write-downs and credit provisions.  
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive, tempered the better than expected 
results with a note of caution, warning that the economy was likely to 
weaken and capital markets would remain under stress in the months to come.  
“Our expectation is for the economic environment to continue to be weak – 
and likely to get weaker – and for the capital markets to remain under 
stress. We remain conscious that since substantial risks still remain on our 
balance sheet, these factors will likely affect our business for the 
remainder of the year or longer,” Mr Dimon said in a statement./Northern 
Trust, First Midwest post better-than-expected profits By Becky Yerak.  
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  July 17, 2008.  Better-than-expected 
results posted by two Chicago-area banking institutions were warmly received 
Wednesday by a Wall Street crowd that has been frowning lately on financial 
stocks.  Shares of Northern Trust Corp. closed up 13.1 percent, at $76, 
after the area's only big locally headquartered bank reported second-quarter 
profits that exceeded analyst expectations. It also said its operating 
revenues surpassed $1 billion for the first time.  Meanwhile, shares of 
First Midwest Bancorp Inc., one of the area's mid-size banks, gained 26.5 
percent Wednesday, to $17.71, after it too exceeded profit forecasts despite 
a rise in delinquent loans. It posted quarterly loan growth the likes of 
which it hasn't seen in seven years. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/merrill-lynch-hit-by-94b
n-write-down.html

Coca-Cola sees $5.3bn writedown By Jonathan Birchall in New York.  Copyright 
The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 2008 16:46 | Last 
updated: July 18 2008 01:10.  A one-two punch of higher commodity prices and 
increasingly frugal US consumers is forcing Coca-Cola’s largest bottler to 
write down the value of its business by $5.3bn.  The non-cash writedown by 
the bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, led Coca-Cola itself to take a $1.1bn 
writedown in its second-quarter results, reducing its earnings per share by 
40 cents to 61 cents, 23 per cent down on the same period last year.  CCE, 
which is 35 per cent owned by Coca-Cola, bottles, distributes and markets 80 
per cent of Coke’s drinks in the US. It also distributes in the UK and other 
parts of Europe and handles about 18 per cent of Coke’s total 
sales./Coca-Cola Co. 2nd-quarter profit falls 23 percent as it takes charge 
related to its bottler.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  7:35 AM CDT, July 
17, 2008.  ATLANTA (AP) _ Coca-Cola Co. said Thursday its second-quarter 
profit fell 23 percent as it took a one-time charge related to its bottler.  
The world's biggest beverage company earned $1.42 billion, or 61 cents per 
share, compared with $1.85 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the year-ago 
quarter. Revenue rose 17 percent to $9.05 billion from $7.73 billion a year 
earlier.  Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings were $1.01. The 
quarter's earnings included a 40-cent-per-share non-cash charge related to 
bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/coca-cola-sees-53bn-writ
edowncoca-cola.html

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Stormy weather.  Copyright The Financial 
Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 18:54 | Last updated: July 15 
2008 18:54.  What a difference a year makes. Last year during the Paris Air 
Show, the aviation industry was on a high: the world economy was booming and 
credit was cheap. Orders for civilian airliners stretched far into the 
future.  This year at Farnborough, there have been the usual choreographed 
announcements of orders for new aircraft (if fewer than in Paris last year). 
But this masks a future for the industry that looks far bleaker than it did 
a year ago. The price of jet fuel has doubled since then and economic growth 
has slowed in the face of a credit crisis. For manufacturers based in 
Europe, the weak dollar has given a relative advantage to their competitors 
in the dollar area. Some marginal airlines have already gone to the wall, 
and more may be expected to follow. Others pursuing novel strategies, such 
as business-only operators, have failed. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/financial-times-editoria
l-comment_1612.html

Delta and American parent AMR swing to $1 billion-plus losses in 2nd-quarter 
By HARRY R. WEBER.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  12:31 PM CDT, July 16, 
2008.  ATLANTA (AP) _ Delta Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday it swung to a 
hefty loss in the second quarter despite a strong increase in sales, pushing 
its red ink to more than $7 billion since the start of the year.But the 
carrier's shares soared as the results, hit by unprecedented fuel costs and 
a decline in the company's market value, still beat Wall Street estimates 
when one-time items are excluded. Oil prices plunged by more than $4 a 
barrel Wednesday, bolstering stocks in the airline sector.  The parent of 
American Airlines also reported second-quarter results Wednesday, swinging 
to a big loss in the second quarter as high fuel prices swamped an increase 
in revenue and led the nation's largest carrier to write down the value of 
its jets. The results were not as bad as Wall Street had feared, as both 
companies topped analysts' expectations./American Airlines to cut 1,500 
maintenance jobs.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  11:26 AM CDT, July 
18, 2008.  DALLAS _ American Airlines will cut 1,500 jobs in its maintenance 
division as it reduces its fleet of aircraft.  The nation's largest airline 
told employees of the cuts in memos this week.  American did not break down 
the cuts by location. Tami McLallen, a spokeswoman for the airline, said 
Friday that those decisions had not yet been made.  The airline has 
maintenance hubs in Kansas City, Tulsa, Okla., and Fort Worth, Texas, plus 
many smaller bases around the country. Besides maintaining American's jets, 
workers at the hubs also work on jets brought in by other 
carriers./Continental swings to 2nd-quarter loss from year-ago profit on 
hefty fuel costs By DAVID KOENIG.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  8:55 AM 
CDT, July 17, 2008.  DALLAS (AP) _ Continental Airlines Inc. said Thursday 
it swung to a second-quarter loss, hurt by record high fuel prices and 
weakening economic conditions. But the result was far better than expected, 
and shares rose 73 cents, or 7.9 percent, to $9.92 in trading after the 
opening bell.  For the quarter ended June 30, Houston-based Continental said 
it lost $3 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with a profit of $228 
million, or $2.03 per share, a year ago. Excluding $22 million in one-time 
gains, the carrier lost $25 million, or 25 cents per share, in the latest 
quarter.  Analysts, who usually exclude one-time items from their 
calculations, expected a loss of 49 cents per share, according to a survey 
by Thomson Financial./Qantas cuts 1,500 jobs as fuel costs soar By Elizabeth 
Fry in Sydney.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 
18 2008 02:38 | Last updated: July 18 2008 05:23.  Qantas, Australia’s 
national carrier, on Friday said it would cut 1,500 jobs and abandon plans 
to increase flying capacity as part of a stringent cost cutting plan aimed 
at dealing with the impact of record fuel prices.  The job cuts, equivalent 
to 4 per cent of Qantas’ workforce, come after weeks of speculation that the 
carrier would be forced to take drastic action to cope with the crisis that 
is crippling the aviation industry world wide.  Qantas said it would also 
scrap plans to hire another 1,200 workers in the new financial year, after 
abandoning plans to increase capacity in 2008/09 by 8 per cent. The airline 
said it would close its call centres in Tuscon, Arizona and London. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/delta-and-american-paren
t-amr-swing-to.html

GM suspends dividend and eyes asset sales By Bernard Simon in Toronto.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 14:22 | 
Last updated: July 15 2008 18:38.  General Motors has suspended its dividend 
and is considering asset sales as part of a “self-help” plan to improve 
liquidity in the face of a downturn in the North American vehicle market.  
“Our progress has been threatened as US economic conditions have become more 
difficult,” Rick Wagoner, GM’s chief executive, told employees on Tuesday.  
GM announced last month that it would close four North American plants 
building pick-up and sport utility vehicles.  But Mr Wagoner said “in the 
past six weeks, US markets and economic conditions have continued to 
decline”. A sharp drop in GM’s share price and speculation about a possible 
bankruptcy filing have complicated efforts to raise capital.  The measures 
unveiled, based mostly on internal cost-cutting, are designed to generate 
$15bn in cash by the end of 2009. GM’s automotive operations held cash 
reserves of $23.9bn at the end of March. They assume a drop in US 
light-vehicle sales to 14m units this year and next. Sales totalled 16.3m in 
2007, but fell to an annual rate of 13.6m in June. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/gm-suspends-dividend-and
-eyes-asset.html





Commodities


Oil $128.88
Silver Bullion $18.15
Gold Bullion $955
Platinum Bullion $ $1861
Euro            $1.5833



Dollar leads the ‘ugly parade’ By Neil Dennis and Sarah O’Connor.  Copyright 
The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 15 2008 17:02 | Last 
updated: July 15 2008 17:02.  The fallout from the US rescue plan for Fannie 
Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday sent dollar bulls scuttling for cover while 
raising the question: how much more pain can the battered US currency take?  
Relief over the Treasury’s announcement that it would seek to provide 
funding for the two US government-sponsored mortgage groups has quickly been 
replaced by fears that conditions in the financial system are worsening.  
The dollar sell-off was broad-based. It drove the euro to a record high 
against the US currency – taking it back above $1.60, while the pound broke 
through $2, to its highest level since March. The greenback also fell more 
than 1 per cent against both the Swiss franc and the yen.  The latest bout 
of weakness comes only a couple of months after some analysts had forecast a 
major improvement in the dollar’s fortunes. Rising US inflation prompted 
tough talk from Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman. He said the time 
of lower US interest rates was over, helping the currency to rally modestly 
between mid-April and mid-June. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/dollar-leads-ugly-parade
.html

Oil rebounds while gold consolidates By Chris Flood.  Copyright The 
Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 09:40 | Last updated: 
July 18 2008 09:40.  Oil prices staged a rebound on Friday after dropping 
below the $130 level in the previous session while gold prices traded in a 
narrow range.  Nymex August West Texas Intermediate rose $1.71 to $131.00 a 
barrel after sinking to a low of $129.00 on Thursday, led lower by a sharp 
fall in US natural gas prices.  WTI ended Thursday’s session $5.31 lower at 
$129.29 and has corrected by 12.2 per cent since reaching an all-time high 
of $147.27 last Friday.  Traders said the expiry of August WTI options on 
Thursday was an influential factor in dragging futures prices lower.  ICE 
September Brent rebounded $1.70 to $132.77 a barrel after dropping to a low 
of $130.73 on Thursday. Brent ended Thursday’s session $4.74 lower at 
$131.07 and has corrected by 11.1 per cent since reaching a record $147.50 
last Friday.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/oil-rebounds-while-gold-
consolidates.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial: The lure of offshore drilling.  
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: July 16, 2008.  
President George W. Bush's decision to lift the moratorium on offshore oil 
drilling first imposed by his father 18 years ago is designed to ratchet up 
the pressure on Congress to do likewise.  Congress should resist. Offshore 
drilling will not bring short-term relief from $4-a-gallon gasoline, nor can 
it play much more than a marginal role in any long-term strategy for energy 
independence. The oil companies already have access to substantial 
unexplored resources.  At issue are about 19 billion barrels that, the 
Interior Department says, lie in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico and 
off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Until Monday, these resources had been 
protected by two parallel moratoriums.  One was an executive prohibition on 
offshore drilling in the Lower 48 states, imposed in 1990 after the Exxon 
Valdez disaster. This moratorium was extended by President Bill Clinton, who 
added protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay, a rich fishing ground. Bush 
lifted the Bristol Bay protections last year and has now eliminated the 
rest. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_4556.html

US to open 3.9m acres in Alaska for drilling By Sheila McNulty in Houston.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 16 2008 22:57 | 
Last updated: July 16 2008 22:57.  The US federal government on Wednesday 
said it would open 3.9m acres of land in a designated petroleum reserve in 
Alaska for drilling as a means to help curb rising petrol prices.  “This is 
welcome news at a time when Americans are paying record prices at the pump,” 
said C. Stephen Allred, assistant US Secretary for Land and Minerals. 
“Together with proposed new production from other offshore and onshore 
areas, these increased supplies will help to stabilise energy costs.’’  The 
Alaska decision follows one by President George W. Bush on Monday to lift a 
presidential ban on drilling on the US outer continental shelf, off Florida. 
That decision still requires Congress to lift a separate ban on the area 
before the area can be leased for development.  But the Bureau of Land 
Management, an agency within the US Department of the Interior, said the 
Alaskan land that will now be offered requires no other approvals and will 
be up for leasing in the autumn.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-to-open-39m-acres-in-
alaska-for.html

Florida willing to get tough over oil drilling ban By David Fickling in 
London.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 
2008 22:29 | Last updated: July 17 2008 22:29.  The governor of Florida 
would consider going to court to guarantee his right to permit offshore oil 
exploration around Florida’s coasts. But Charlie Crist, who has been cited 
as a possible running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee 
John McCain, told the Financial Times that in preference to court action it 
would be “more productive” for Congress to overturn its ban on offshore 
drilling.  Oil exploration in all but a few sectors of US coastal waters has 
been prohibited since the 1980s by separate congressional and presidential 
bans. However, George W. Bush on Monday lifted the White House’s moratorium 
and called on Congress to do the same.  That move followed calls from Mr 
McCain last month to end the federal bans. He argued that domestic oil 
production needed to rise to assure affordable fuel for Americans, who have 
seen the price of petrol increase by a third to more than $4 a litre in the 
past year.  Mr Crist echoed that view. “It is a significant crunch on 
Florida families,” he said. “And I think the difficult decision that I have 
to make, as somebody who cares about the environment, is to realise that my 
fellow Floridians are hurting financially right now.” 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-oil-reserves-may-rais
e-false-us.html

Don't heed promises of easy fuel solution By ANDREW GREELEY agreel at aol.com.  
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times.  July 16, 2008.  Sometimes Sen. Phil 
Gramm is not all that wrong about American protests over high pump prices to 
sustain their behemoth autos as they soak up the oil reserves of the world. 
Ever since President Jimmy Carter, warnings have been issued about the risks 
of dependence on foreign oil.  Conservation, we were told, was the only 
solution. Actually there were other solutions, such as legislating stern mpg 
requirements, as European countries did, imposing heavy taxes on gas. In 
fact, the four and a half dollars a gallon Americans must now pay for gas is 
less than Europeans have been paying for 30 years.  However, Americans were 
convinced that they had the right to cheap gasoline and that no power in the 
world should take that right away from us. Now that the right has been 
sopped up, it ought to be clear that gasoline is an expensive commodity. Yet 
Americans continued to purchase it at a discount provided by their 
government.  Environmentalists warned every year that disaster was waiting 
just around the corner, but Big Auto insisted that Americans wanted big cars 
and small trucks and especially SUVs, gas-consuming monsters that were 
rarely used either for sports or utility purposes, but mostly to reinforce 
the masculinity of drivers of either gender. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/dont-heed-promises-of-ea
sy-fuel.html

Bush Spins a Big Lie About Offshore Drilling.  Posted by A Siegel, Get 
Energy Smart! NOW!!! Copyright by Alternet.com.  10:56 AM on July 14, 2008.  
"At what point does 'truthiness' and disingenuous arguments simply become 
lying?"  The push is on, big time. The solution to all of America's 
problems, evidently, is to drill, drill, drill. This is now the Republican 
mantra as they seem to believe that they have found a winning political 
issue, no matter what the implications of this "win" might be for America's 
future.  Let us be clear. Efforts to increase (actually, struggle to 
maintain) America's oil production can be part of a holistic energy package. 
But, only part: far more critical is to use efficiency to produce 
negagallons to help provide some breathing space to move as much of 
America's transportation off oil. (To me, the most fruitful path for results 
by 2020 is mass electrification: rail and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles 
along with GEM-full flex-fuel for the liquid portion of the ground 
transportation system.) Even if transportation is 100% non-oil, we will 
still want oil for many industrial processes and to support manufacture of 
many products. But, efforts and discussion to explore additional oil 
production should be part of a larger discussion. And, they should be 
grounded in truth.  George W Bush, in Saturday's radio address, provided a 
clear example of how truthiness, rather than truth, reigns in the efforts to 
promote oil exploration and drilling in the outer continental shelf (OCS).  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/bush-spins-big-lie-about
-offshore.html



Housing

Today's loan rates

RATE                                                                     
LAST WEEK
30 yr fixed mtg                                     6.33%        6.13%
15 yr fixed mtg                                     5.86%        5.64%
30 yr fixed jumbo mtg                         7.28%        7.20%
5/1 ARM                                                5.73%        5.48%
7/1 ARM                                                6.08%        5.81%


New York construction boosts US housing By James Politi in Washington.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 17 2008 14:01 | 
Last updated: July 17 2008 14:01.  New US housing starts rose an unexpected 
9.1 per cent in June, but economists cautioned against interpreting the jump 
as evidence of a bottoming of the US residential property market.  The 
commerce department said the surge to a pace of 1.066m units was driven by 
multi-family construction in New York, where new building codes were enacted 
last month. Meanwhile, single-family housing starts across the country 
dropped 5.3 per cent to their lowest level since 1991 and overall new home 
construction, setting aside multi-family homes in the northeast, dropped 4 
per cent.  New building codes came into effect in New York at the beginning 
of July prompting builders to start and seek permits for multifamily 
structures before then.  The housing meltdown has been at the heart of the 
economic crisis and policymakers and economists have been searching for some 
signs that it may be ending. Woes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two 
government-sponsored mortgage lenders, over the past week, have increased 
fears of a protracted slump in housing. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-york-construction-bo
osts-us-housing.html

US builders forced to sell off holdings By Daniel Pimlott in New York.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 22:26 | 
Last updated: July 18 2008 22:26.  For decades American builders have, in 
the words of the Joni Mitchell song, “paved paradise and put up a parking 
lot”. Now, a combination of the housing slump, the energy crisis and soaring 
prices for food is helping to keep the bulldozers at bay.  Demand for new 
homes on the outskirts of US towns has fallen spectacularly in the last 
three years, while foreclosures and speculative building have created a far 
greater supply of homes than there are buyers. At the same time, soaring 
fuel costs have made the long commute to work that much less attractive.  
The result is that farmland close to cities that has often been the seedbed 
for new housing developments is becoming less valuable to builders, at the 
same time as farmers want more of it.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-builders-forced-to-se
ll-off-holding.html



Bush Bashing


Bush Admin. Worried About Possible Criminal Prosecution.  Six Questions for 
Jane Mayer, Author of The Dark Side By Scott Horton.  Copyright by Harpers 
Magazine AUGUST 2008.  In a series of gripping articles, Jane Mayer has 
chronicled the Bush Administration’s grim and furtive dealings with torture 
and has exposed both the individuals within the administration who “made it 
happen” (a group that starts with Vice President Cheney and his chief of 
staff, David Addington), the team of psychologists who put together the 
palette of techniques, and the Fox television program “24,” which was 
developed to help sell it to the American public. In a new book, The Dark 
Side, Mayer puts together the major conclusions from her articles and fills 
in a number of important gaps. Most significantly, we learn the details on 
the torture techniques and the drama behind the fierce and lingering 
struggle within the administration over torture, and we learn that many 
within the administration recognized the potential criminal accountability 
they faced over these torture tactics and moved frantically to protect 
themselves from possible future prosecution. I put six questions to Jane 
Mayer on the subject of her book, The Dark Side. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/bush-admin-worried-about
-possible.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial: History goes missing at the White 
House.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: July 13, 
2008.  After watching wholesale lots of the Bush administration's most 
important e-mails go mysteriously missing, Congress is trying to legislate 
against any further damage to history. The secrecy-obsessed White House is, 
of course, threatening a veto - one more effort to deny Americans their 
rightful access to the truth about how their leaders govern or misgovern.  
The House approved a measure last week that would require the National 
Archives to issue stronger standards for preserving e-mails and to 
aggressively inspect whether an administration is in compliance. The 
Archives needs spine stiffening. Congressional investigators found that its 
staff backed off from inspections of e-mail storage after the Bush 
administration took office.  We fear we may never find out all that has gone 
missing in this administration, although we urge congressional investigators 
to keep trying. What we do know is that the Bush gaps of missing e-mails run 
into hundreds of thousands during some of the most sensitive political 
moments. Key gaps coincide with the lead-up to the Iraq war - and the White 
House's manipulation of intelligence - as well as the destruction of 
videotapes of CIA interrogations and the outing of the CIA operative Valerie 
Plame Wilson. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_14.html

Video of teen's Guantanamo interrogation offers glimpse into questioning at 
US military base By CHARMAINE NORONHA.  Copyright by The Associated Press 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-canada-guantanamo-deta
inee,0,3771728.story.  9:11 AM CDT, July 15, 2008.  TORONTO (AP) _ In a 
video released Tuesday, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan cries out for 
his mother and says he needs treatment for his battle wounds during 
questioning by Canadian officials at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo 
Bay. "Oh Mommy," he cries in despair in Arabic when he is alone in the room, 
watched only by hidden cameras.The 10 minutes of video — selected by Omar 
Khadr's Canadian lawyers from more than seven hours of footage recorded by a 
camera hidden in a vent — provides the first glimpse of interrogations at 
the U.S. military prison. It shows Khadr weeping, his face buried in his 
hands, as he is questioned by Canadian intelligence agents over four days in 
2003. The lawyers hope to pressure Canada into seeking Khadr's return, but 
the government said its position was unchanged.  The video, created by U.S. 
government agents at the prison in Cuba and originally marked as secret, 
provides insight into the effects of prolonged interrogation and detention 
on the Guantanamo prisoner. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/video-of-teens-guantanam
o-interrogation.html

Bush claims executive privilege on CIA leak material, Waxman delays contempt 
vote By LAURIE KELLMAN.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  1:11 PM CDT, July 
16, 2008.  WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush has asserted executive privilege 
to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a 
House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie 
Plame's identity.A House committee chairman, meanwhile, held off on a 
contempt citation of Mukasey — who had requested the privilege claim — but 
only as a courtesy to lawmakers not present.  Among the documents sought by 
House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman are FBI interviews of Vice President 
Dick Cheney.  They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union 
address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part 
by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. 
That information turned out to be wrong. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/bush-claims-executive-pr
ivilege-on-cia.html

Court Backs Bush on Military Detentions By ADAM LIPTAK.  Copyright by The 
New York Times.  Published: July 16, 2008.  President Bush has the legal 
power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in 
the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on 
Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.  But a second, overlapping 5-to-4 
majority of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth 
Circuit, ruled that Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody 
in Charleston, S.C., must be given an additional opportunity to challenge 
his detention in federal court there. An earlier court proceeding, in which 
the government had presented only a sworn statement from a defense 
intelligence official, was inadequate, the second majority ruled.  The 
decision was a victory for the Bush administration, which had maintained 
that a 2001 Congressional authorization to use military force after the 
Sept. 11 attacks granted the president the power to detain people living in 
the United States.  The court effectively reversed a divided three-judge 
panel of its own members, which ruled last year that the government lacked 
the power to detain civilians legally in the United States as enemy 
combatants. That panel ordered the government either to charge Mr. Marri or 
to release him. The case is likely to reach the Supreme Court. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/court-backs-bush-on-mili
tary-detentions.html



Indecision 2008

McDumb As Bush  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsiADdmoh3E  Can we afford 
another president who thinks it's smart to be dumb?  

The Comedy Stylings of Shecky McCain.  Copyright by Rum, Romanism and 
Rebellion.  Tuesday, July 15th, 2008...7:44 am.  John McCain made the 
mistake of watching Verdict yesterday where they had a John McCain sycophant 
go on and on about how McCain stuck by his principles when he bucked his 
party on immigration. He and the host failed to note that he was lining up 
with the president and the business community on the issue (not exactly 
“bucking” the folks in charge), and when the heat came down he didn’t even 
support his own bill that this guy was giving him credit for. But hey, he’s 
a maverick, right?  Also, the guy noted that he has this great sense of 
humor. I gotta give him credit here and there for poking fun at his age, but 
for the most part, his humor is awkward at best and usually mean spirited. 
For example, how many folks remember this one:  Why is Chelsea Clinton so 
ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.  For reference, this was back in 
1998, when Clinton was seventeen. Nice.  Okay, that’s too far back for some 
of y’all. McCain made an appearance in Nevada just last month and when asked 
about avoiding campaigning with Governor Jim Gibbons. In response, he 
decided to make the old “And I’ve stopped beating my wife” gag. It wasn’t 
that funny back when Richard Nixon used it, and it sure as heck isn’t funny 
given that Gibbons was accused of assaulting a cocktail waitress just last 
year. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/comedy-stylings-of-sheck
y-mccain.html

McCain's take on birth control By Katha Pollitt.  Copyright © 2008 The 
Nation. July 18, 2008.  I realize it's not as world-shaking as the 
caricature of the Obamas on the cover of The New Yorker, which has the 
high-end media in a total tizzy. It's probably not even as important as the 
raunchy joke Bernie Mac told at an Obama fundraiser last week, which was 
bumped from the tizzy list by the New Yorker story.   But can't the 
commentariat take a break from itself and let the world know how much John 
McCain opposes birth control? Vastly more people rely on contraception than 
read The New Yorker or know who Bernie Mac is from mac 'n' cheese.   In 
fact, vastly more people use birth control than believe Obama is a secret 
Muslim. They might like to know that when it comes to contraception, McCain 
is no maverick.   Here's the story. Last week, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO 
of Hewlett-Packard who has been helping McCain look bright-eyed and 
estrogen-friendly, told reporters that women wanted more choice in their 
health-care plans. For example, it bothered women when plans covered Viagra 
but not contraception. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/mccains-take-on-birth-co
ntrol.html
And the Viagra moment: http://www.wikio.com/video/314833

Crosby, Stills & Nash - "Denver" (6/26/08) - Antiwar DNC Crosby, Stills, 
Nash, and Young have created a new version of their song, “Chicago,” which 
spoke of the 1968 Democratic convention riots with the words “Won't you 
please come to Chicago?” and “We can change the world, rearrange the world.”  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/crosby-stills-nash-denve
r-62608-antiwar.html
WATCH VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q_iwiZ6wjk

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Obama takes a tour of the world.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: July 18 2008 20:11 | 
Last updated: July 18 2008 20:11.  Purely as a matter of domestic politics, 
Barack Obama’s impending tour of foreign parts could be the most important 
manoeuvre of his campaign. When voters are asked whom they trust to do a 
good job, the Democrat comfortably leads John McCain on most issues – with 
the vital exceptions of national security and foreign affairs. During his 
stops in Europe and the Middle East over the coming days, he has a chance to 
alter that perception, perhaps decisively.  No question, a trip of this kind 
has risks: there is always the danger of some memorable gaffe. But if Mr 
Obama avoids making any big mistakes, the effusion of goodwill he is likely 
to meet, and the sheer sense of occasion, are likely to hand him a public 
relations triumph. Anticipation of the trip in the United States, to say 
nothing of the elaborate preparations, is as though for an actual president 
rather than a mere candidate. Assured of wall-to-wall press and television 
coverage, Mr Obama will be trailing a vast retinue of US media, including a 
trio of television network anchors. (At this one gasps: such eminences 
rarely venture from the studio.) When Mr McCain travelled recently, we 
believe to a country in Latin America, nobody cared and few even noticed.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-obama_19.html

Obama arrives in Afghanistan By Jeff Zeleny.  Copyright by The International 
Herald Tribune.  Published: July 19, 2008.  WASHINGTON: Barack Obama arrived 
in Afghanistan on Saturday, opening his first overseas trip as the 
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee by meeting with U.S. commanders 
there before heading to Iraq to receive an on-the-ground assessment of 
military operations in the two major U.S. war zones.  Obama touched down in 
Kabul just before noon, according to a pool report released by his aides. In 
addition to attending briefings with military leaders, he hoped to meet with 
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan before flying to Iraq later in the 
weekend.  Obama, a member of the U.S. Senate from Illinois, gave a brief 
outline of his trip Thursday to two pool reporters traveling with him from 
his home state to Washington.  "Well, you know, I'm more interested in 
listening than doing a lot of talking," Obama said. "And I think it is very 
important to recognize that I'm going over there as a U.S. senator. We have 
one president at a time, so it's the president's job to deliver those 
messages."  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-arrives-in-afghani
stan.html

Obama holds to course By Steve Chapman.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  
July 17, 2008.  It's hard to keep up with Barack Obama's positions on the 
Iraq war. When he entered the presidential race, he offered a plan that 
would take more than a year to withdraw from Iraq. In September, he said he 
would withdraw all our combat brigades over 15 months or so. This week, he 
vowed to pull those forces out within 16 months of taking office.   Wow. 
He's really been all over the lot, hasn't he? No one can possibly tell if 
President Obama will get us out in February of 2010, or if he'll put it off 
till April.   Small wonder that a John McCain spokesman said that on Iraq, 
Obama "has held almost every conceivable position." Or that a blogger for 
the conservative American Spectator said Obama "has entered John Kerry 
territory when it comes to changing positions on Iraq."  See for yourself. 
Obama was against the war before it began—and then, in a complete reversal, 
he was against it after it began. When he launched his campaign in early 
2007, he favored a phased withdrawal. But now, with the Democratic 
nomination in hand, what does he favor? A phased withdrawal. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-holds-to-course.ht
ml

In Obama Fundraising, Signs of a Shift From Online to In-Person By Matthew 
Mosk.  Copyright by The Washington Post.  Friday, July 18, 2008; Page A06  
Sen. Barack Obama reversed a three-month fundraising slide by raising $52 
million in June, a monthly total that has been surpassed only by his own 
performance in February in the history of presidential campaigns, aides 
announced yesterday.  The Democrat's June effort easily topped that of 
Republican Sen. John McCain, who announced earlier that he will report 
raising $22 million for the month. The two are now nearly even in remaining 
resources. When combined with money gathered by their national party 
committees, they both began July with just less than $100 million in the 
bank.  Obama's campaign would not say how much of his total was raised from 
small donors who gave online, and official reports are not due to be filed 
until Sunday. But an examination of his campaign schedule -- which has been 
packed with high-dollar fundraising events -- would suggest that he relied 
less on Internet donors than he did in February, when he took in $55.4 
million.  That month, he raised $30 million in donations of less than $200. 
Donors contributing similar amounts gave $23.5 million in March, $19.3 
million in April and $13.3 million in May, Federal Election Commission 
records show. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-obama-fundraising-sig
ns-of-shift.html

In Obama's Circle, Chicago Remains The Tie That Binds By Shailagh Murray.  
Copyright by The Washington Post.  Monday, July 14, 2008; Page A01.  For 
once, Barack Obama left his iPod and stack of news clips at his seat and 
worked the front cabin of his campaign's chartered plane, laughing and 
reminiscing with the people who know him best. The senator from Illinois 
does not typically travel with an entourage, instead spending his time on 
the plane reading, working or listening to music. But this was a special 
occasion -- the night last month when he was claiming the Democratic 
presidential nomination. Joining him and his wife, Michelle, for the flight 
from Chicago to St. Paul, Minn., were half a dozen of their closest friends, 
a biracial cross section of the city's business and professional elite: 
Martin Nesbitt, a parking lot magnate; Valerie Jarrett, a prominent 
businesswoman; Eric Whitaker, an executive at the University of Chicago 
Medical Center; and John Rogers, the founder of an investment fund.  Some 
were mainly social friends from Hyde Park, their Chicago neighborhood. Some 
have played a major role in Obama's campaign, including Penny Pritzker, a 
billionaire Hyatt hotel heiress and Obama's national fundraising chairman; 
James Crown, son of Chicago billionaire Lester Crown and another prominent 
member of the local Jewish community; and David Axelrod, who has been 
Obama's Chicago-based political adviser and confidant since his U.S. Senate 
campaign in 2004. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-obamas-circle-chicago
-remains-tie.html

Barack Obama's $52 million June - The Obama campaign asks: Buddy, can you 
spare five bucks? by Mark Silva.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  Posted 
July 17, 2008 6:50 AM.  Sen. Barack Obama's campaign raised $52 million in 
June, his campaign manager said Thursday morning - not quite a record for 
the high-flying campaign, but close to it. The campaign had raised $55 
million in February, during the Democratic primaries.  But it's still more 
than twice what Republican rival Sen. John McCain raised during June -- $22 
million.  Yet the Republican National Committee, which is backing the 
party's presidential candidate with its own resources, also had nearly $68 
million in the bank - a combined treasury which the Obama campaign was 
mindful about in reporting its own June haul.  "Supporters like you helped 
raise $52 million,'' campaign manager David Plouffe said in an e-mail to 
campaign supporters this morning. "And together with the DNC, we now have 
nearly $72 million in the bank. That's a very strong financial position to 
be in.''  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/barack-obamas-52-million
-june-obama.html

Why the Obama cartoon cover bombed- Is it funny? Is it true? Is the target 
worth it? By Clarence Page.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  July 16, 
2008.  I winced. I'm sure that's what The New Yorker's esteemed editor David 
Remnick expected me to do when I saw the Barack and Michelle Obama 
caricature that everybody's talking about.  Every so often the quiet little 
liberal-leaning literary and cultural magazine presents a cover that is 
intended—like a high-class editorial cartoon—to startle us.  Back in 1993, 
for example, during a time of high tensions between blacks and Jews, 
cartoonist Art Spiegelman raised hackles from some and heartfelt praise from 
others with a cover that depicted a black woman kissing an Orthodox Jewish 
man.  The controversial Obama cover by artist Barry Blitt is just as 
startling in its image, but not nearly as clear in its meaning. If a casual 
observer didn't know that The New Yorker was a liberal literary and cultural 
magazine, he or she might easily believe Blitt's drawing was trying to 
promote the right-wing smears that it intended to lampoon. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-obama-cartoon-cover-
bombed-is-it.html

They get it By Timothy Egan.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  
Published: July 16, 2008.  MISSOULA, Montana:  They get it.  A big 
red-headed guy in a pickup pulling a fishing boat stopped in front of Barack 
Obama headquarters here - loaded for bear, as they say.  Land Tawney, a 
fifth-generation Montanan with a gap-toothed smile, was wearing a plaid 
shirt and a camouflage cap atop his head. He belongs to Sportsmen for Obama, 
which sounds like Facebook Users for McCain, or Linguists for Bush.  I asked 
him whether fellow members of the hook-and-bullet community are concerned 
about Obama's race, or the depictions of him as un-American. Montana, after 
all, has a black population of less than one-half of one percent.  "For 95 
percent of the people, it doesn't matter or even come up," said Tawney, 
whose name suggests that he was predestined never to spend his days under 
fluorescent lights. "For the other 5 percent, yeah, there's some talk." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/they-get-it.html

Obama Leads by 8 Points In Poll - Economy Remains The Top Concern By Dan 
Balz and Jon Cohen.  Copyright by The Washington Post.  Wednesday, July 16, 
2008; Page A01.  Sen. Barack Obama holds his biggest advantage of the 
presidential campaign as the candidate best prepared to fix the nation's 
ailing economy, but lingering concerns about his readiness to handle 
international crises are keeping the race competitive, according to a new 
Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Overall, the Democrat has a lead of 50 
percent to 42 percent over Republican Sen. John McCain among registered 
voters nationwide, lifted by a big edge among women, and he has also 
regained an edge among political independents. But it is Obama's 19-point 
lead on the economy that has become a particularly steep challenge for 
McCain.  Economic concerns continue to eclipse other issues, with half the 
country saying the economy will be "extremely important" to their vote. 
Gasoline and energy prices, which voters rarely mentioned at the start of 
the year, come in just behind. The Iraq war, which was again the subject of 
direct engagement between Obama and McCain yesterday, ranks third. A cluster 
of domestic issues, including education, health care and Social Security, 
ranked behind the war, as did the issue of terrorism. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-leads-by-8-points-
in-poll-economy.html

In July, dumb stuff fades in background By Garrison Keillor.  Copyright © 
2008, Chicago Tribune.  July 17, 2008.  Summer nights! The fragrant dark 
descends, the night creatures chitter and chirrup, and we linger on the 
porch, a little wine in the glass, children coming and going, and we inhale 
the sweetness of life. In Pasadena, Calif., people are lined up outside a 
bank, hoping to get their money out before it goes belly up, and John 
McCain's friend Phil Gramm says we are a nation of whiners complaining about 
a recession that is only mental, but we are engulfed in summer and don't 
notice. We are sitting on the porch, inhaling the breeze from the trees, and 
we are American optimists. We grew up with cheapo gasoline and our children 
won't and anything you hear about rolling back prices at the pump is just 
election-year blather. Supply is not rising to meet demand, what with China 
and India booming, and that drives the price up: You learned about this in 
the 7th grade. So our kids will have to deal with new realities, which they 
can manage better than we can, and when gas goes to $7 and $8 and $10 a 
gallon, they will roll with it....The huge crowds that Obama draws are 
stunned by the fact that someone like him, with that interesting name, 
is—hang on now—a mainstream candidate for president of the United States and 
that he is, on close examination, One of Us. An earnest striver with a sense 
of humor. He is so much more One of Us than the privileged ne'er-do-well son 
in the White House or poor Rush Limbaugh living alone with his cat in his 
Palm Beach compound with the cherubs on the ceiling just like at Versailles 
and the life-size oil portrait of himself. Imagine having to look at that as 
you come down to breakfast. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-july-dumb-stuff-fades
-in-background.html





GLBT

Chicago Free Press Editorial: Turning a blind eye.  Copyright by The Chicago 
Free Press.  July 16, 2008.  Talk about Orwellian—by the year 2010, assuming 
California continues to allow gays and lesbians to marry, it’s expected that 
tens of thousands of same-sex couples will have gotten hitched in the Golden 
State.  They would join the thousands of gay and lesbian couples married in 
Massachusetts, not to mention those U.S. couples with Canadian marriage 
licenses or the possibility that by 2010 more states may be letting gay and 
lesbians have equal marriage rights.  Nope, says the U.S. Census 
Bureau—that’s just not happening because, well, we don’t want to admit that 
it’s happening. So there.  What the Census Bureau said last week, as 
reported by the San Jose Mercury News in California, is that when it gets 
the forms back from its 2010 Census, it won’t count gay and lesbian couples 
in California, Massachusetts or anywhere else as married. That’s in spite of 
the fact that those couples would have the same marriage licenses—and legal 
recognition by their home states—as their straight, married neighbors, who 
the Census Bureau does recognize as married. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicago-free-press-edito
rial-turning.html

John McCain opposes LGBT adoption by Lisa Keen, ©2008 Keen News Service.  
2008-07-16.  Adoption became an issue this week in the presidential 
campaign—at least for Republican nominee-apparent John McCain. The New York 
Times, in an interview published July 13, asked the candidate whether he 
agrees with President Bush's position “that gay couples should not be 
permitted to adopt children.”  “I think that we've proven that both parents 
are important in the success of a family,” said McCain, “so, no, I don't 
believe in gay adoption.”  The question came up in an interview conducted by 
Times' political reporters Adam Nagourney and Michael Cooper. Nagourney is 
co-author of Out for Good, a 1999 book looking at the gay civil-rights 
movement in the United States. The context was a discussion of what kind of 
conservative McCain sees himself as. The Times said McCain had worried 
Republican conservatives in recent weeks with remarks suggesting a 
willingness to address global warming and citizenship for illegal 
immigrants. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-mccain-opposes-lgbt
-adoption.html

Report: Races see gays differently by Bob Roehr.  Copyright by The Windy 
City Times.  2008-07-16.  African Americans are more likely than whites ( 65 
percent vs. 53 percent ) to oppose marriage equality for gays and lesbians. 
They “are virtually the only constituency in the country that has not become 
more supportive over the last dozen years, falling from a high of 65 percent 
support for gay rights in 1996 to only 40 percent in 2004.”  That finding 
was a key element in a report, “At the Crossroads: African-American 
Attitudes, Perceptions, and Beliefs toward Marriage Equality,” that compiled 
and reviewed all existing polling data on the subject. It was a joint effort 
by the National Black Justice Coalition and Freedom to Marry, and is being 
shared with other organizations but not released to the public.  “Nearly 
three-quarters of blacks say that homosexual relations are always wrong, and 
over one-third say that AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual 
behavior,” according to the report. “Overall, blacks are 14 percentage 
points more likely to hold both positions than whites.”  Younger persons 
generally are more supportive of GLBT rights than older persons are. But, 
significantly, more black youth ( 55 percent ) “believe that homosexuality 
is always wrong” than do Latino ( 36 percent ) or white ( 35 percent ) 
youth, according to a recent study from the University of Chicago. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/report-races-see-gays-di
fferently.html

Gay US bishop fights exclusion from meeting By RACHEL ZOLL.  Copyright 2008 
Associated Press.  1:46 PM CDT, July 13, 2008.  LONDON - The first openly 
gay U.S. Episcopal bishop was barred from a once-a-decade Anglican meeting 
so he wouldn't become a focus of the global event.  Anglicans on all sides 
of the issue agree: The strategy has backfired.  New Hampshire Bishop Gene 
Robinson has been embraced by sympathetic Anglicans in England and Scotland 
who view his exclusion as an affront to their Christian beliefs.  Robinson 
plans several appearances on the outskirts of the Lambeth Conference to be 
what he called a "constant and friendly" reminder of gays in the church.  
"I'm just not willing to let the bishops meet and pretend that we don't 
exist," Robinson said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press 
before preaching at St. Mary's Church Putney. "They've taken vows to serve 
all the people in dioceses, not just certain ones." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/gay-us-bishop-fights-exc
lusion-from.html

Nomination Deadline for Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame Extended to August 12, 
2008.  The 2008 deadline to nominate individuals and organizations for 
induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame has been extended to 
August 12. Nomination forms can be downloaded or printed from the Hall of 
Fame’s Web site (www.GLHallofFame.org) or requested  by calling 312-744-7911 
and leaving a mailing address.  Completed nominations should be sent to:  
The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, Chicago Commission on Human 
Relations Advisory Council on LGBT Issues, 740 N. Sedgwick Street, Floor 3, 
Chicago, IL 60654-3478.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/nomination-deadline-for-
gay-and-lesbian.html

Borah honored.  Copyright by The Windy City Times.  2008-07-16.  Homewood 
attorney William J. Borah, who has crusaded for eliminating sexual 
orientation-based discrimination, received the 2008 Community Leadership 
Award from the Illinois State Bar Association ( ISBA ) June 27 during the 
organization's 132nd annual meeting in St. Louis.  The award—given by the 
ISBA's Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity ( SOGI ) 
—recognizes individuals for efforts to foster understanding of LGBT 
individuals and their concerns. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/borah-honored.html



Immigration

McDonald's franchisee will pay $1 million in Nevada illegal immigration 
case. Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  9:18 AM CDT, July 17, 2008.  NEW 
YORK (AP) _ A McDonald's Corp. franchisee will pay a $1 million fine after 
pleading guilty in Las Vegas federal court to felony immigration offenses 
for giving false Social Security numbers to illegal aliens.  The charges 
follow an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who 
have said management of Mack Associates Inc. knowingly hired illegal alien 
workers in Reno, Nev.-area McDonald's restaurants, supplying them with false 
identification.  The Justice Department released details of the plea 
agreement late Wednesday.  In U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, attorneys 
for Mack Associates filed guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to 
encourage and induce an alien's unlawful residence in the U.S. and one count 
of aiding and abetting an alien to remain in the U.S., which are felony 
offenses. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/mcdonalds-franchisee-ple
ads-guilty-in.html




Health Care

Senate agrees to triple funds to fight AIDS in Africa, elsewhere worldwide 
By JIM ABRAMS.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  12:27 AM CDT, July 17, 
2008.  WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Senate voted Wednesday to triple spending for a 
much-acclaimed program that has treated and protected millions in Africa and 
elsewhere from the scourges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.  The 80-16 
vote committed the United States to spending up to $48 billion over the next 
five years for the most ambitious foreign public health program ever 
launched by the United States.  The legislation would replace and expand the 
current $15 billion act that President Bush championed in a State of the 
Union address and Congress passed in 2003. That act expires at the end of 
September.  In a statement, ' said that when the program was launched in 
2003, about 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving 
anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS. Today, the program supports 
lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment for more than 1.7 million people around 
the world, he said. It also has supported treatment and prevention programs 
that have helped HIV-positive women give birth to nearly 200,000 infants who 
are HIV-free. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/senate-agrees-to-triple-
funds-to-fight.html

House votes to override presidential veto of bill protecting doctors from 
cut in Medicare pay By KEVIN FREKING.  Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  
4:56 PM CDT, July 15, 2008.  WASHINGTON (AP) _ The House voted 
overwhelmingly Tuesday to override President Bush's veto of legislation 
protecting doctors from a 10.6 percent cut in their reimbursement rates when 
treating Medicare patients.The vote was 383-41, easily meeting the 
two-thirds threshold needed for an override. The Senate also must conduct an 
override vote, and it was expected to do so later Tuesday.  Bush has vetoed 
bills nine times, and Congress has had the muscle to override him only three 
times before, on a water projects bill and twice on a farm bill.  The 
president supports rescinding the pay cut, but objects to the way lawmakers 
would finance the plan, which would be largely by reducing spending on 
private health plans serving the elderly and disabled.  "I support the 
primary objective of this legislation, to forestall reductions in physician 
payments," Bush said in a statement. "Yet taking choices away from seniors 
to pay physicians is wrong." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/house-votes-to-override-
presidential.html

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Kids and statins.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago 
Tribune.  July 13, 2008.  Most people know that heart disease can start 
early and so can prevention. But should that include giving kids as young as 
8 powerful cholesterol-fighting drugs known as statins to shield against 
future heart attacks?  That's what the American Academy of Pediatrics 
recommended in its new guidelines released Monday.   That's an aggressive 
stance. And it may strike many people—many parents—as extreme. That was our 
reaction. The recommendation stirred furious debate among doctors, with one 
proclaiming himself "embarrassed for the AAP."   Let's be clear about what 
the academy is—and isn't—saying.   It isn't saying that all or most or many 
kids who are overweight or obese be given these drugs.  It isn't saying that 
the drugs are better than the proper diet and exercise for lowering 
cholesterol levels in kids. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/07/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-kids-and.html

Why they didn't tell us that these pills could kill our kids By David 
Michaels.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  July 13, 2008.  Since 1986, 
every bottle of aspirin sold in the United States has carried a label 
advising parents that consumption by children with viral illnesses greatly 
increases their risk of developing Reye's syndrome, a serious illness ofte