[News] Newsletter- June 21, 2008
Carlos Mock
ctmock at gmail.com
Sat Jun 21 11:56:07 CST 2008
Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance.
It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists
not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall
be righteous as well as strong.
- James Bryce, 1838 - 1922
International
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Electoral terrorism sweeps Zimbabwe.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 20 2008 18:30 |
Last updated: June 20 2008 18:30. Will Zimbabwe be rescued from the living
hell to which Robert Mugabe has consigned it? This weekend, the question
dominates international attention as never before. Next Friday, Mr Mugabe
and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, will contest the second round of a presidential election that the
Zimbabwean president has done everything in his power to steal. It would
shame Zimbabwe and the entire continent of Africa if he were allowed to
succeed. Mr Mugabe clings to power at any price. He has launched a terror
campaign aimed at destroying the opposition. Mr Tsvangirai says at least 70
of his supporters have been killed. His number two has been jailed. Across
the country, pro-Mugabe forces are conducting a merciless campaign of
violence against their opponents.
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l-comment_21.html
China
China locks down city for Olympic torch relay © Reuters Limited. KASHGAR,
China, June 17 China locked down the far-western former Silk Road city of
Kashgar on Tuesday in preparation for the passage of the Olympic torch relay
through the sensitive region populated by ethnic-minority Muslim Uighurs.
Shops lining Wednesday¹s torch route were shuttered and police stood guard
on every street corner. Soldiers and firefighters patrolled the main square
of a city seen as the heart of Islam in China¹s oil-rich border region of
Xinjiang. ²Nobody is allowed to watch the torch relay tomorrow unless you
are being organised by your work unit. I feel a lot of regret,² said Chen
Guangsheng, a Han Chinese resident of Kashgar who said her home was along
the route. ²The police are coming to my house tonight to inspect it and to
register everybody living there.²
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/china-locks-down-city-fo
r-olympic-torch.html
China increases energy prices By Geoff Dyer in Beijing and Javier Blas in
London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19
2008 15:35 | Last updated: June 19 2008 20:03. China raised energy prices
across the board on Thursday in a big policy shift that risks stoking the
country¹s already high inflation. International oil prices fell immediately
as Beijing said that petrol and diesel would go up by to 18 per cent and
electricity tariffs rose by just less than 5 per cent. Oil prices already
under pressure as Saudi Arabia is expected to announce on Sunday an increase
in oil production fell more than $4 a barrel to $132.32./China to lift
fuel prices by 18% © Reuters Limited. Beijing, June 19 - China will
announce a surprise increase of about 18 per cent increase in retail
gasoline and diesel prices effective from Friday, the first increase in
eight months, two industry sources told Reuters. ²Yes it¹s real. They are
going to raise the prices. We were told to wait in the office to receive the
official notice,² said a fuel sales official with top refiner Sinopec Corp.
The sources said gasoline and diesel prices will rise by Rmb1,000 ($145.50)
a tonne.
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s-by-18.html
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Cut oil subsidies. Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 20 2008 19:02 | Last updated:
June 20 2008 19:02. The queues of angry motorists outside Chinese petrol
stations on Friday are a reminder of why cutting gasoline subsidies is
difficult. They are also a reminder of why such cuts are a good idea. Other
countries that subsidise energy especially poor countries should follow
suit. For very similar reasons, countries that tax fuel, such as the US and
the UK, should resist any temptation to cut their levies. China has
announced an 18 per cent rise in the controlled price of diesel alongside a
5 per cent rise in the price of electricity. It joins India, Taiwan,
Malaysia and Indonesia, all of which have cut their subsidies in recent
months, as the cost of maintaining them rose in line with the soaring price
of oil. Exporters of oil, such as Iran, can maintain their subsidies as
prices rise simply by forgoing some extra tax revenue. But for the
oil-hungry importers of east Asia there is no escape: high petrol prices
mean somebody has to lose out, and the only question is who. Use subsidies
to keep prices down and the loser is the government; allow prices to rise
and it is motorists who suffer.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-cut.html
Mess-o-potamia
Nato launches anti-Taliban offensive By Jon Boone in Kandahar and Reuters.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 17 2008 10:16 |
Last updated: June 18 2008 07:30. Helicopter gunships and troops with small
and heavy arms blasted a valley in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday as
local and NATO forces launched a huge offensive against hundreds of Taliban
insurgents, many of whom broke out of jail last week. The defence ministry
in Kabul said on Wednesday that 20 Taliban guerrillas were killed in a NATO
air strike and two Afghan army officers also died in the operation, in
Arghandab district. The ministry said three Taliban group leaders were
killed further south. Nato and Afghan troops began pouring into the south
of Afghanistan after local officials reported that a strategically vital
district next to the country¹s second largest city was being overrun by
Taliban fighters. Western officials said on Tuesday that 700 Afghan
soldiers had been flown from the capital to take part in what was billed as
a major operation to dislodge militants, who appeared to be following up on
a spectacular jailbreak on Saturday when they freed around 400 of their
compatriots.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/nato-launches-anti-talib
an-offensive.html
Another bad deal for Baghdad By Karl E. Meyer. Copyright by The
International Herald Tribune. Published: June 17, 2008. With only
perfunctory debate, the Bush administration is pressuring a divided Iraqi
government to approve a security agreement that could haunt Washington's
relations with Baghdad for years to come. The "strategic alliance" that
President Bush is proposing eerily resembles, in spirit and in letter, a
failed 1930 treaty between Britain and Iraq that prompted a nationalist
eruption in Baghdad, a pro-Nazi military coup and a pogrom that foreshadowed
the elimination of Baghdad's ancient Jewish community. The outline of the
deal, which has not been made public, has been described by a high-level
Iraqi insider, Ali A. Allawi, a moderate Shiite who was a post-invasion
finance minister. Writing this month in The Independent of London, Allawi
noted a disturbing parallel between the proposed alliance between the United
States and Iraq and the earlier treaty that formally ended Iraq's post-World
War I status as a British mandate. "The treaty gave Britain military and
economic privileges in exchange for Britain's promise to end the mandate
over the country," Allawi wrote.
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hdad-by-karl-e.html
Lost army job tied to doubts on U.S. contractor in Iraq By James Risen.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 17, 2008.
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Army official who managed the Pentagon's largest
contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve
paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the
Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to
American troops. The official, Charles Smith, was the senior civilian
overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two
years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Smith said that he was
forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the army
would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their
chaotic Iraqi operations. Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked
credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Smith
refused to sign off on the payments to the company. "They had a gigantic
amount of costs they couldn't justify," he said in an interview.
"Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from
the troops, and I wasn't going to do that."
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ubts-on-us.html
Bomb kills 51 in Iraqi street - Deadliest attack in months targets Shiites
By Ned Parker and Usama Redha. Copyright by The Los Angeles Times. June
18, 2008. BAGHDAD ‹ A car bomb exploded on a bustling commercial street in
western Baghdad's Shiite district of Hurriyah on Tuesday, killing at least
51 people and wounding 75, security officials said. The blast, which
occurred about 5:45 p.m., devastated a pleasant shopping area and bus stop
where residents had waited for mini-bus taxis and vendors sold falafel,
burgers and juices. Rescuers lifted out the wounded and dead, while
relatives searched for loved ones after the deadliest such attack in Baghdad
since March. A 14-year-old girl, dressed in a black headdress and robe,
towed a boy in hand and searched for her father. "Where are they going to
take the injured?" she said in tears to other distraught pedestrians.
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treet-deadliest.html
U.S. says exercise by Israel seemed directed at Iran By Michael R. Gordon
and Eric Schmitt. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune .
Published: June 20, 2008. WASHINGTON: Israel carried out a major military
exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a
rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an
effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes
and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear
program. More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the
maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over
Greece during the first week of June, American officials said. The exercise
also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed
pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles,
which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran's uranium
enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-says-exercise-by-isra
el-seemed.html
Tim Russert Blew It on Iraq. So Why Are We Canonizing Him? By Alexander
Cockburn. Copyright by The Nation. Posted June 20, 2008. The delirium in
the press at Tim Russert's passing has been strange. The delirium in the
press at Tim Russert's passing has been strange. As a broadcaster he was not
much better than average, which is saying very little. He could be a sharp
questioner, but not when it really counted and when courage was required. He
was tough with George Bush in a February 2004 interview. He taxed him with
faking the reasons to attack Iraq. But in the years before the 2003 attack,
I used to hear Russert being merciless to those questioning whether Saddam
Hussein had the nukes and bioweapons alleged by the Bush Administration and
its co-conspirators in the press, prominent among them Russert himself.
Russert and his staff ignored efforts by watchdogs like Sam Husseini and
others to get him to stop telling lies to the effect that it was Saddam who
threw out the UNSCOM weapons inspectors, whereas it was Richard Butler, the
head of UNSCOM, who pulled out the inspectors, apparently at the instigation
of the United States. As Husseini correctly writes, "This lie, echoed
through much of the political-media system around the time Russert told it,
helped set the stage for the invasion after 9/11."
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raq-so-why-are.html
National
US N-weapons parts missing, Pentagon says By Demetri Sevastopulo in
Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19
2008 05:13 | Last updated: June 19 2008 05:13. The US military cannot
locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components, according to
several government officials familiar with a Pentagon report on nuclear
safeguards. Robert Gates, US defence secretary, recently fired both the US
Air Force chief of staff and air force secretary after an investigation
blamed the air force for the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose
cones to Taiwan. According to previously undisclosed details obtained by
the FT, the investigation also concluded that the air force could not
account for many sensitive components previously included in its nuclear
inventory. One official said the number of missing components was more than
1,000.
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ng-pentagon.html
Mississippi rising as next threat - Another battle with the elements looms
in Midwest By Jason George, David Greising and Jo Napolitano. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. 1:03 AM CDT, June 16, 2008. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa ‹
While Iowans battle flooding in small towns and larger cities, residents
along the Mississippi River are trying to tame the power of North America's
largest river as it swells with water from the Iowa and Cedar Rivers, as
well as heavy flows from Illinois waterways. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said the
Mississippi would be the next battleground. "It's likely we'll see major
flooding in every city on the border, from New Boston on down. We're very
concerned about that," he said. "That is going to be the next round here."
Officials predict the Mississippi will crest along the Iowa-Illinois border
by Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the exact location. On the Illinois
side, authorities have evacuated the town of Gulfport, sending residents to
stay in schools in nearby Biggsville. The bridge has been closed at Quincy,
and more surely will follow.
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xt-threat.html
26 Mississippi levees could overflow: feds - Weather or not? -- storm
forecast key BY EILEEN SULLIVAN. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June
17, 2008. WASHINGTON -- The federal government predicts that 26 levees
could overflow along the Mississippi River if the weather forecast is on the
mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the
levees. Officials are placing millions of sandbags on top of the levees
along the river in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri to prevent overflowing.
There is no way to predict whether these levees will break, said Ron
Fournier, a spokesman with the Army Corps of Engineers. ''That's a crystal
ball that nobody has,'' he said. The levees in New Orleans broke during
Hurricane Katrina, causing catastrophic flooding.
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uld-overflow.html
Chicagoland
I don't trust you guys' - Angry taxpayers give Stroger earful By Jeff Long
and Hal Dardick. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:32 PM CDT, June 16,
2008. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger finally kept his date Monday
with taxpayers in the northwest suburbs, where some officials had threatened
to secede from the county in anger over a sales tax increase he championed.
Stroger and his staff were met with a combination of laughs and groans as
they stood before about 200 northwest suburban politicians and residents to
defend the $426 million tax hike. Many in the audience listened politely,
but they were there to show their anger. "We are now starting to feel that
we are now starting to get gouged," said state Sen. Matt Murphy
(R-Palatine), who introduced legislation that would make it easier for
Palatine to secede from the county. "Do you really understand the
competitive disadvantage you're putting the northwest suburbs to?"
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gry-taxpayers.html
Fox River homes flooding By John Keilman. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. 1:13 PM CDT, June 15, 2008. Water levels along the Chain of Lakes
continued to rise Sunday, and with the crest not expected until Monday or
later some homeowners were starting to abandon their properties, officials
said. Mark Ring, Antioch Township Highway Commissioner, said his agency had
delivered sand and bags to dozens of people in the area, but it wasn't
enough to keep the water out of some homes. "People said they would try one
more row [of sandbags], but some of it was for naught," he said. Still, the
flooding was not expected to be the catastrophe it has been in Wisconsin,
Iowa and elsewhere. Kent McKenzie, Lake County emergency management
coordinator, said homeowners would be able to recover from the damage.
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.html
River muscles over levees - 19 Illinois counties declared disaster areas By
Jeffrey Meitrodt and Tim Jones. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. June
19, 2008. URSA, Ill. ‹ Despite a history of heart problems, Larry Ippensen
lifted shovel after shovel of sand Wednesday afternoon with scraped and
sunburned hands in a desperate sandbagging effort to save his 160-acre
family farm from a nearby faltering levee. "If the levee goes, my crop is
gone," said Ippensen, 62, who spent more than five hours filling bags with
his two adult children and a 12-year-old grandson. For miles around
Ippensen's corn and soybean farm, the Mississippi River ‹ raging at all-time
flood highs or near them ‹ devoured thousands of acres of prime farmland. At
least nine levees were overrun Wednesday alone and more than 20 in recent
days. From the air, the river looks like a churning sea, swallowing acres
and acres of farmland while sweeping over levees and submerging them. Only
the tops of some farm houses and trees are visible in the worst-hit areas,
where the water is already at least 10 feet deep and getting deeper every
minute.
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s-19-illinois.html
Fraud probe raises intriguing questions By CAROL MARIN cmarin at suntimes.com.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 18, 2008. There was a federal
arrest at O'Hare Airport 13 days ago that was curious. A Las
Vegas-to-Chicago flight landed, carrying a number of retired Chicago cops
and at least one still on the force, Joseph A. Grillo. Grillo and the
others had been working part-time jobs, doing security for one of the big
trade shows in Vegas. He was coming home to his full-time job as an officer
at the Grand Central District, which includes the 36th Ward on the Northwest
Side. As Grillo, 45, walked off the plane, an FBI greeting party was there
to surprise him. He was immediately arrested and charged, as was another man
-- Collision Towing Co. owner Jim "Meatball" Athans -- with mail fraud in
connection with an alleged towing scam. Grillo's attorney, Barry Sheppard,
maintains his client is guilty of nothing and has an immaculate record. I
guess there's no reason to doubt that the FBI, amid all its other city,
county and state corruption probes, would be hell-bent on also uncovering a
citywide towing fraud if it exists. But the odd part of this June 5 arrest
was what an FBI agent was overheard saying to Grillo as he was being led
away.
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guing-questions.html
Your Lack of Money
IMF says US economy is set to Œstagnate¹ By Krishna Guha in Washington and
Michael Mackenzie in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.
Published: June 20 2008 22:04 | Last updated: June 20 2008 22:04. The US
economy is likely to ³stagnate² in the second half of this year, the
International Monetary Fund warned on Friday, as stock markets in the US and
Europe fell to their lowest levels since March and US bank shares hit a
five-year low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 12,000 for the
first time since March, while the broader S&P 500 fell 1.9 per cent, as oil
rallied and concerns about the financial sector intensified. The S&P
financials index hit its lowest level since April 2003, 5 per cent below its
March low. Commercial and regional banks have borne the brunt of the recent
pullback, because of fears about rising housing and consumer debt
delinquencies.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/imf-says-us-economy-is-s
et-to-stagnate.html
US producer prices soar on rising fuel costs By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 17 2008 14:35 |
Last updated: June 17 2008 15:12. Soaring energy costs in May spurred the
biggest jump in wholesale prices in six months underscoring the looming
challenge of inflationary pressures, which threaten to destabilise the US
economy. Meanwhile, new residential housing starts fell to their lowest
level in more than 17 years as builders continued to shun the enfeebled US
real estate market. The producer price index for finished goods jumped by
1.4 per cent last month, bringing the total increase in the past year to 7.2
per cent. Economists had forecast a monthly increase of only 1 per cent.
However, core producer prices, which strip out the impact of food and energy
costs, rose by 0.2 per cent, only half the rate recorded the previous month.
Federal Reserve officials have become more vociferous in recent weeks about
the inflationary risks associated with the run-up in food and fuel costs. A
warning from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke that he would ³strongly resist an
erosion of longer-term inflation expectations² was taken by many traders as
a signal that interest rate hikes are in the pipeline.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-producer-prices-soar-
on-rising-fuel.html
Market Œexpects too many Fed rate rises¹ By Krishna Guha in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 16 2008 23:15 |
Last updated: June 16 2008 23:15. Financial markets are in danger of
getting carried away with their expectations for Federal Reserve interest
rate increases, some senior Fed officials believe. They do not dispute that
the next move in US interest rates is very likely to be up. But they feel
the market may be pricing in too much tightening too soon. Since March
there has been a sharp rise in bond yields and expected interest rates,
which gathered pace in recent days amid tough talk on inflation by Ben
Bernanke, chairman. Just over a week ago, markets expected just one rate
hike of a quarter percentage point before the end of the year. Now they
expect three and possibly four.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/market-expects-too-many-
fed-rate-rises.html
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Facing up to a fiscal conundrum.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 16 2008 19:16 |
Last updated: June 16 2008 19:16. When the US economic downturn began, the
country¹s fiscal position was already weak. The administration nonetheless
proposed an emergency stimulus mostly criticised as too miserly. Farther
ahead, demographic pressures and the failure to curb rising healthcare costs
(which drive up public spending on Medicare and Medicaid) make matters
worse. Both presidential candidates are big on avowals of fiscal rectitude,
but not on remedies. Their proposals on taxes and spending are quite
different but have this much in common: if enacted, they would add mightily
to the fiscal problem. Before the economy slowed, earlier budget forecasts
admittedly unreliable at the best of times had turned out to be too
pessimistic. Revenues had proved more buoyant than expected, and the deficit
had shrunk. Thus voters and politicians have come to regard all fiscal gloom
as exaggerated. Congress and the administration are expected to voice
concern but do nothing, and indeed to spring boldly to the economy¹s support
with emergency tax cuts when demand slumps. Sooner or later, this
complacency will have to confront a painful fiscal reality. In the first
eight months of the current fiscal year, the deficit was more than $300bn,
roughly $170bn bigger than in the same period last year. Only about $50bn of
that deterioration was due to the stimulus tax rebates that began to be paid
out this spring (another $50bn or so of those rebates is still in the
pipeline). Most of the rest was due not to slowing revenues but to sharply
increased spending, with rises across the board.
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l-comment_17.html
Morgan Stanley slides as earnings sink 57% By Francesco Guerrera and Daniel
Pimlott in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.
Published: June 18 2008 13:25 | Last updated: June 18 2008 15:14. Morgan
Stanley reported second-quarter earnings in line with Wall Street
expectations, as its investment banking and trading businesses continued to
show the strains of the credit crisis. Its shares fell 5.4 per cent or
$2.19 to $38.40 in early New York trading. The bank reported second-quarter
net income of $1.026bn or 95 cents a share, down 57 per cent compared with
$2.363bn, or $2.24, in the second quarter of last year. Analysts had
expected around $1bn in net income for the period. Net revenues were
$6.5bn, 38 per cent below last year¹s second quarter. Non-interest expenses
of $5.1bn, including severance expense of about $245m related to staff
reductions, decreased 28 per cent from a year ago. The results showed steep
drops in profits in Morgan Stanley¹s investment banking and asset management
business, which have suffered from the credit squeeze and the US housing
crisis. The wealth management business was an exception, showing a slight
rise in underlying profits.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/morgan-stanley-slides-as
-earnings-sink.html
Citi warns of further large writedowns By Francesco Guerrera in New York.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19 2008 23:45 |
Last updated: June 19 2008 23:45. Citigroup on Thursday warned of further
large writedowns and credit losses in the second quarter, saying its
business remained under pressure amid ³unprecedented² market conditions.
The announcement, made by Gary Crittenden, Citi¹s chief financial officer,
sent Citi shares more than 4 per cent lower in New York afternoon trading,
although they recovered to close down 1 per cent. Citi¹s warning, which
comes after disappointing second-quarter results from Lehman Brothers and
Morgan Stanley, is likely to compound investors¹ fears that the credit
crunch will weigh on US financial companies for months to come. In a call
with investors, Mr Crittenden said the company expected to report writedowns
on its exposure to subprime mortgages, leveraged loans and monoline
insurance when it unveiled quarterly results next month. Mr Crittenden said
the writedowns were likely to be ³substantial² but lower than last quarter,
when Citi suffered pre-tax writedowns of $10.5bn on those securities.
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rge-writedowns.html
Circuit City records $164m quarterly loss By Jonathan Birchall in New York.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19 2008 17:37 |
Last updated: June 19 2008 17:37. Circuit City, the struggling US
electronics retailer, reported a further decline in its quarterly operating
performance on Thursday, even as executives insisted that it was on the
brink of a turnround. The retailer, which operates over 680 stores in the
US, said it was suspending dividend payments, cutting capital spending and
would use an asset-based loan to finance the build-up of goods for this
year¹s holiday. The retailer recorded a net loss of $164.8m for the
quarter, or $1 per diluted share - more than three times its losses in the
same period last year. Its cash position fell to $92.2m on May 31, from
$364.1m a year earlier.
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m-quarterly.html
Kinko¹s and fuel costs lead FedEx to loss By Justin Baer in New York.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 18 2008 15:46 |
Last updated: June 18 2008 15:46. Fuel costs and writedowns from its
struggling Kinko¹s retail-store division wiped out FedEx¹s quarterly profit
and pressed the overnight-package company to deliver a disappointing outlook
for this year¹s results. FedEx, considered an economic bellwether for its
role in facilitating global commerce, forecast a fiscal 2009 profit of $4.75
to $5.25 a share, below analysts¹ expectations. The company predicted it
would earn 80 cents to $1 this period. ³Record-high fuel prices and the
weak US economy dampened volume growth and substantially affected our bottom
line,² Fred Smith, FedEx¹s chief executive, said in a statement.
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ad-fedex-to.html
Commodities
Oil $135.36
Silver Bullion $17.32
Gold Bullion $902
Platinum Bullion $ $2057
Euro $1.5614
On Oil and Solutions to the Oil crisis By William Rattan. 6/11/08. We are
currently fighting a war over petroleum. Besides the war in Iraq, the price
of gasoline has created havoc in our economy. An argument could be made that
the severe weather that we¹ve been experiencing the last several years,
which has interrupted the flow of fuel to the United States, is due to our
use of oil. Oil prices seem to be on an ever-upward trajectory affecting the
price of everything it touches. Food prices have just started to go up and I
don¹t think that trend will change anytime soon. Most of the chemicals used
in agriculture are made from petroleum. The fertilizers and pest controls
are made from petroleum. The equipment used to plant, maintain and harvest
the crops run on petroleum. The trucks and trains (and planes) that
transport our food around the world to our tables run on petroleum. Every
step of the process is dependent on this weak link in the world economy.
We¹ve seen it happen before and we¹ll see it again in the future. And, the
food chain is only one example.
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oil-crisis.html
International Herald Tribune Editorial: The big pander to big oil.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 19, 2008.
It was almost inevitable that a combination of $4-a-gallon gas, public
anxiety and politicians eager to win votes would produce political pandering
on an epic scale. So it has, the latest instance being President George W.
Bush's decision to ask Congress to end the federal ban on offshore oil and
gas drilling along much of America's continental shelf. This is worse than
a dumb idea. It is cruelly misleading. It will make only a modest
difference, at best, to prices at the pump, and even then the benefits will
be years away. It greatly exaggerates America's leverage over world oil
prices. It is based on dubious statistics. It diverts the public from the
tough decisions that need to be made about conservation. There is no doubt
that a lot of people have been hurt by the high price of gas. But their
suffering will not be relieved by drilling in restricted coastal areas. The
Energy Information Administration says that even if both coasts were opened,
prices would not begin to drop until 2030. The only real beneficiaries will
be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public
land before their friends in power - Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -
exit the political stage.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_19.html
McCain seeks to lift oil drilling ban By Andrew Ward in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 17 2008 00:15 |
Last updated: June 17 2008 00:15. John McCain on Monday called for the
lifting of a federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling in US
waters as part of efforts to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources.
The Republican presidential candidate said it should be left to US coastal
states rather than the federal government to decide whether to exploit
offshore reserves. He called for states to be granted a bigger share of
royalties from their oil and gas to provide an incentive to open up to
drilling. His remarks aligned him with Republicans in Congress who have
been pushing legislation to increase domestic oil and gas production, amid
mounting public concern about soaring energy prices. Mr McCain has faced
criticism from some Republicans for siding with the Democrats in his
opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in
Alaska.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/mccain-seeks-to-lift-oil
-drilling-ban.html
US floods hit food prices By Hal Weitzman in Pike County, Illinois, and
Javier Blas in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.
Published: June 17 2008 22:00 | Last updated: June 17 2008 22:00. Consumers
were warned to expect even sharper increases in global food prices after US
officials said that some of the country¹s best farmland was facing its worst
flooding for 15 years. Agriculture officials and traders said the damage
could push up worldwide corn and soyabean prices, which have spiralled in
recent days as floods have swamped crops in parts of Iowa, the US¹s biggest
corn-producing state. The warning comes at a time when high food prices are
already sparking protests across the developing world. Corn futures in
Chicago this week rose to record highs of more than $8 a bushel on fears
that up to 5m acres of the crop could be lost, while soyabean prices hit a
record of $15.93 a bushel.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-floods-hit-food-price
s.html
Housing
Today's loan rates
RATE LAST WEEK
30 yr fixed mtg 6.28% 6.29%
15 yr fixed mtg 5.88% 5.87%
30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 7.40% 7.41%
5/1 ARM 5.75% 5.74%
7/1 ARM 5.98% 5.94%
FBI eyes big business in mortgage fraud probe By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in
Washington and Hal Weitzman in Chicago. Copyright The Financial Times
Limited 2008. Published: June 19 2008 22:09 | Last updated: June 19 2008
22:09. Federal investigators are homing in on 19 ³large corporations²
including investment banks, credit rating agencies, accounting firms and
hedge funds as part of a broad probe into mortgage fraud. Robert Mueller,
director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, did not identify the
companies on Thursday, but said the majority of the large corporate cases
involved accounting fraud, insider trading and failures to disclose with
criminal intent the proper evaluation of securitised loans and
derivatives. Mr Mueller said the FBI was working closely with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the justice department to ³evaluate
criminal intent².
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/fbi-eyes-big-business-in
-mortgage-fraud.html
Former Bear Stearns managers under arrest By Joanna Chung in New York.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19 2008 03:00 |
Last updated: June 19 2008 14:27. Two former managers of the Bear Stearns
hedge funds that imploded last year surrendered to the FBI on Thursday and
are expected to be charged with securities fraud by US prosecutors. They
would be the first indictments against Wall Street executives to stem from
the credit crisis. The two individuals will be arraigned in federal court
in Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon, US prosecutors said. The former
managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, ran two funds at Bear's asset
management unit that lost bets on subprime mortgage-backed securities,
sparking demands for redemption from investors and repayment from creditors.
Investors lost $1.6bn when the funds imploded in June last year and
collapsed a month later. The collapse of the funds - the Bear Stearns
High-Grade Structured Credit and Enhanced Leverage funds - was a blow for
Bear in a battle for survival that eventually saw it sold to JPMorgan Chase
in March.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/former-bear-stearns-mana
gers-under.html
Bush Bashing
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Bush v. the Bill of Rights.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 18, 2008.
President Bush and his allies are once again trying to scare Congress into
expanding the president's powers to spy on Americans without a court order.
This week, the White House and Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol
Hill hope to announce a "compromise" on a domestic spying bill. If they do,
it will be presented as an indispensable tool for protecting the nation's
security that still safeguards our civil liberties. The White House will
paint opponents as weak-kneed liberals who do not understand and cannot
stand up to the threat of terrorism. The bill is not a compromise. The final
details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its
provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. Bush
and the congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims.
They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of
domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the
telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Bush carry out
his warrantless wiretapping operation.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_3324.html
Yesterday's Man' Leaves Europe by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna,
Matt Corley, Ali Frick, and Benjamin Armbruster © Center for American
Progress Action Fund. June 17, 2008. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. President
Bush concluded his farewell journey through Europe in Belfast, Northern
Ireland yesterday with attempts at rapprochement with leaders throughout the
continent. "[L]ots has changed" since 2003, London School of Economics
international relations professor Michael Cox noted. While Bush enjoyed
warmer relations with Germany, Italy, and France -- mainly due to leadership
changes in those countries -- most Europeans, like many Americans, are
suffering from "Bush fatigue," as they are looking forward to the next
president and "will be glad to see the back" of Bush. Anti-American
sentiment in Europe runs high as a result of Bush's leadership. A recent
poll by London's Daily Telegraph newspaper found that "[m]ore people in
France, Germany and Britain view the United States as a 'force for evil'
than good in the world." And despite Bush's seeming friendly relationship
with conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany's leading news
source Der Spiegel reported last week that "senior politicians from Merkel's
ruling grand coalition as well as from opposition parties have done away
with diplomatic niceties, seizing on Bush's farewell visit to express their
aversion to the president who remains vilified in Germany for launching the
Iraq war."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/yesterdays-man-leaves-eu
rope.html
Indecision 2008
Here's what four more years would sound like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iWYAOMYmp0
Not Alex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq30lapbC9c
McCain risks Œflip-flop¹ jibes by voters By Edward Luce and Andrew Ward in
Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 17
2008 19:32 | Last updated: June 18 2008 07:36. Nobody is yet calling John
McCain a ³flip-flopper². But the Republican nominee¹s increasingly finely
balanced efforts to shore up his support among the shrinking Republican base
while reaching out to independents is starting to fire up the critics. On
Tuesday morning, he launched an advertisement reminding voters of his
repeated clashes with President George W. Bush over climate change, which Mr
McCain believes is real and requires urgent action. In the afternoon, he
delivered a speech to the oil industry in Houston, calling for a lifting of
the moratorium on offshore drilling in order to reduce petrol prices. Mr
McCain¹s shift on offshore drilling which contrasts with his strong
support for upholding the moratorium in his 2000 bid for the Republican
nomination could further chip away at his reputation for being a ³straight
talker².
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/mccain-risks-flip-flop-j
ibes-by-voters.html
Group muddies McCain message - Non-profit bent rules while supporting his
agenda, raising money By Andrew Zajac. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.
June 17, 2008. WASHINGTON ‹ Allies of Sen. John McCain opened a Washington
think tank in 2001 to promote transparency and accountability in government,
a signature issue for the Arizona Republican after his presidential primary
loss to George W. Bush. For the next seven years, the non-profit Reform
Institute churned out position papers and offered expert testimony on
campaign finance reform, the need for bipartisanship and other issues,
frequently supporting McCain's positions. But behind the scenes, the
institute's practices have at times arguably been at odds with its reformist
message, and with McCain's political identity as an enemy of special
interests. In fact, the Reform Institute has stretched and may have broken
rules governing charitable organizations, according to experts on tax law.
The institute has twice omitted the names of donors in IRS filings. IRS
rules require that charities identify their contributors to government
regulators.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/group-muddies-mccain-mes
sage-non-profit.html
What if Hyde Park hosts Midwest White House? By LAURA WASHINGTON
LauraSWashington at aol.com. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 16,
2008 What will happen to Hyde Park if a certain mansion on South Greenwood
Street becomes the Midwestern White House? If U.S. Sen. Barack Obama
ascends to the presidency in November, will Chicago's very own Hyde Park
vanquish the Western White House in Crawford, Texas? Will Obama purchase a
Ford pickup and start clearing brush along East 53rd Street? Will Hyde
Park's desperately meager dining offerings improve? Will the neighborhood's
pathetic nightlife scene pick up? These are crucial questions confronting
Hyde Parkers, the national and international press corps, and the world
leaders who will be compelled to spend time in the HP. My mother has lived
in the Hyde Park/Kenwood area for 17 years. Her high-rise co-op overlooks
Lake Michigan, Louis Farrakhan's mansion and Art "Oprah's Chef" Smith's
sprawling culinary complex. She's looking forward to the descending hordes.
The tour of the stars' homes is coming, she hears. "Security will probably
be even better," she declared the other day. "The tourists will come and
say, 'let's drive by the president's house.'"
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-if-hyde-park-hosts-
midwest-white.html
Obama in Father's Day sermon reminds dads that parenting doesn't end at
conception By Jeff Long and Christi Parsons. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. 1:18 PM CDT, June 15, 2008. CHICAGO - In a Father's Day address
heavy with personal and political meaning, Democrat Barack Obama told
worshipers at a Chicago church Sunday that government must do more to help
families---but he also exhorted parents, especially fathers, to play their
part by raising healthy children. In a popular South Side church, Obama
(D-Ill.) decried the shortage of police on the streets and money for
schools, as well as a proliferation of guns in the wrong hands. But America
needs more than jobs and opportunity in its communities, the presidential
candidate told the hometown congregation. "We also need families to raise
our children," he said. "We need fathers to realize that responsibility does
not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is
not the ability to have a child. It's the courage to raise one." Obama
sounded a theme familiar from previous Father's Day speeches in which he
called on fathers to rise to their duties.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-in-fathers-day-ser
mon-reminds.html
Gore endorses Obama, throws jabs at Bush - Al Gore Endorses Obama for
President. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. June 17, 2008. DETROIT -- Al
Gore made his debut in the 2008 presidential campaign Monday night,
encouraging voters to back Barack Obama because ''take it from me, elections
matter.'' The former vice president's speech at the Joe Louis Arena was
part endorsement and part blistering attack on the man who denied him the
White House eight years ago. ''After eight years of incompetence, neglect
and failure, we need change,'' Gore said. ''After eight years when our
Constitution has been dishonored and disrespected, we need changes.'' In
2000, Gore won the popular vote but lost the disputed election to George W.
Bush, who captured Florida and its electoral votes after a divided Supreme
Court ended the re-count of ballots. Since then, Gore has made combatting
global warming his signature issue, and has been recognized worldwide for
his effort -- from an Academy Award to the Nobel Prize.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/gore-endorses-obama-thro
ws-jabs-at-bush.html
Obama reverses policy on using public funds By Edward Luce in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 19 2008 17:12 |
Last updated: June 19 2008 17:59. Barack Obama on Thursday became the first
American presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to rely solely on
private money to sustain his White House bid when he declared that he would
opt out of the Watergate-era public financing system. Mr Obama¹s decision,
which he announced to supporters in a webcast, was met with strong criticism
from John McCain, his Republican opponent who will rely on the $84m in
public funds that are available, and also from centre-left reformers who
said they felt bitterly betrayed by his move. The Obama campaign said the
move did not compromise Mr Obama¹s support for overhauling what he called a
³broken system² and had been motivated by the expectation that private
groups operating under tax-exempt status so-called 527s would launch the
same kind of attacks on Mr Obama that helped sink John Kerry in 2004.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-reverses-policy-on
-using-public.html
GLBT
Sen. Barack Obama's Pride message. Copyright by The Windy City Times. News
Update Tues., June 10, 2008. Sen. Barack Obama released the following
statement Sat., June 7, according to Advocate.com: ³I am proud to join with
our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered brothers and sisters in
celebrating the accomplishments, the lives, and the families of all LGBT
people during this Pride season. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is
exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is
about who we are as Americans. "It's time to live up to our founding
promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect.
Let's enact federal civil rights legislation to outlaw hate crimes and
protect workers against discrimination based upon sexual orientation and
gender identity or expression. Let's repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and
demonstrate that the most effective and professional military in the world
is open to all Americans who are ready and willing to serve our country.
Let's treat the relationships and the families of LGBT Americans with full
equality under the law.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/sen-barack-obamas-pride-
message.html
Marriages an inspiration, not 'disaster' By Eric Zorn. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. June 19, 2008. Does your marriage feel a little less
special today, straight couples? Does knowing that octogenarian lesbians
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon had a legal wedding this week in San Francisco
diminish, in retrospect, your legal wedding? Does their bond profane yours?
Not at our house it doesn't. My wife and I simply feel inspired. Martin and
Lyon have been a couple for 56 years‹twice as long as we've been
together‹and we see them as role models, not harbingers of the decline of
the family. We celebrate their lifelong commitment and lasting love. We
think the family could use a lot more of that and a lot less puritanical
fretting about what name we put on the hopeful union of souls. We're
honored, even a little humbled, to share this institution with Martin and
Lyon. Another view: The Illinois Family Institute's blog refers to the
legalization of same-sex nuptials this week in the Golden State as "the
California marriage disaster." Such recognitions "do not and cannot exist,
no matter what legal document the state issues homosexual couples," writes
institute blogger Laurie Higgins. "There is an existential, ontological
reality that supersedes the ill-begotten works of man."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/marriages-inspiration-no
t-disaster.html
History of Same Sex Marriage Jurisprudence by Carlos T Mock, MD, June 17,
2008 The history of same sax marriage jurisprudence could be traced back to
the African-American civil rights movement. Until June 12, 1967, in some
American states it was illegal for African-American adults to marry white
ones. In, Loving v. Virginia. U.S. Supreme Court ruled (9 to 0) that
anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional within the equal protection
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Warren said: "There can
be no question that Virginia's miscegenation statutes rest solely upon
distinctions drawn according to race. . . .Marriage is one of 'the basic
civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival. . . .
To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial
classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly
subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth
Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without
due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that freedom of
choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under
our Constitution, the freedom to marry or not marry, a person of another
race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."
Civil unions for interracial marriages were never part of the equation.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/History-of-Same-Sex-Marria-by-Carlos-T-Mock
-080619-759.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - California leads the way in gay marriage.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 17, 2008. Monday marked another
historic step toward the full acceptance of gay and lesbian couples in
America. California became the second state to allow gay couples to marry,
after Massachusetts did four years ago. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is
taking advantage of it. So is George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on "Star
Trek." Plus thousands of other average, everyday folks you probably have
never heard of. It's wonderful for gays and lesbians to receive the rights,
benefits and responsibilities that come with marriage. The New York Times on
Sunday, though, reported that marriage has been a mixed bag for gay and
lesbian couples in Massachusetts. Some have found wedded bliss. Some
haven't. Some argue over the in-laws, money and when to start a family.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-california.html
Norway passes law approving gay marriage. Copyright by The Associated
Press. Published: 6/17/08, 12:25 PM EDT. OSLO, Norway (AP) - Gay couples
in Norway will be granted the same rights as heterosexuals to marry, adopt
and undergo artificial insemination under a new equality law passed Tuesday.
Norway's upper house of parliament voted 23-17 in favor of the
gender-neutral marriage law on the same day that gay couples were marrying
in California. The law replaces 1993 legislation that gave gays the right
to enter civil unions similar to marriage but did not allow church weddings
or adoption. It takes effect Jan. 1. "We are so overjoyed. We have worked
for this for so long," said Jon Reidar Oeyan, leader of the Norwegian
National Association of Lesbian and Gay Liberation. "Now we are going to
celebrate," he said. "I didn't dare until I heard the chairman of the upper
house bang the hammer."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/norway-passes-law-approv
ing-gay.html
Recommendations on Marriage Strategy
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/lgbt/camarriage_joint_20080609.pdf
Tunney bill tweaks DP ordinance By Matt Simonette. Copyright by The Chicago
Free Press. June 18, 2008. Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) last week introduced a
bill he said would modify the city¹s domestic partner benefit law to extend
protections to gay and lesbian city employees who marry in constituencies
where gay marriage is legal. Tunney and local GLBT advocates said the bill
was ³technical,² but would address a loophole that would likely be raised
should gays and lesbians marry in California or other states where same-sex
marriage has been legalized. Currently, city employees are prohibited from
receiving domestic partnership benefits if one of the partners is already
married. The amendment to the ordinance would allow same-sex couples married
in other jurisdictions to receive partner benefits in the city of Chicago.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/tunney-bill-tweaks-dp-or
dinance.html
California Marriage - Benefits and Problems? Copyright by Gay Chicago
Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. June 19, 2008. Q: After many years
together, my lover and I would like to get married. Can we go to California
and get married? A: Yes. There is no residency requirement to marry in
California. Yes. On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that
barring same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional. Beginning June
17, same-sex couples will be able to marry in California. Q: My partner and
I live in Illinois. If we marry in California, will our marriage be valid
here? A: If you live in another state and get married in California, you
will be legally married. However, depending on where you live, your home
state may not respect your marriage. Many states, including Illinois, have
passed discriminatory marriage laws, and in those states, state and local
governments will not respect your California marriage.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/california-marriage-bene
fits-and.html
Forum tackles gay sex and the Internet - Extended for the Online Edition by
Amy Wooten. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-06-18. How is the
Internet changing gay sex? This was just one of many topics tackled during
LifeLube.org and Project CRYSP's June 12 forum, ³Driving Tips for Sex on the
Superhighway.² Held at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, and moderated by
the Feast of Fools podcast, the forum sought to discuss the dos and don'ts
of hooking up online; the responsibility of Web sites such as Manhunt and
Adam4Adam when things go wrong; and more. The panelists were Stephen
Adelson, former general manager of Manhunt ( one of many sites used by gay
men to meet each other ) and current executive director of Internet
Intervention Inc.; Beau Gratzer, director of Howard Brown Health Center's
HIV/STD Prevention; and Brian Mustanski, assistant professor of psychiatry
at University of Illinois at Chicago.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/orum-tackles-gay-sex-and
-internet.html
New fears of Anglican schism over homosexuality By Laurie Goodstein.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 19, 2008.
Once a decade, hundreds of bishops of the international Anglican Communion
meet in Canterbury, England, for the Lambeth Conference. This summer, in
the most tangible demonstration yet of the church's divide over
homosexuality, hundreds of bishops are boycotting the Lambeth Conference and
attending a rival meeting for conservative Anglicans in Jerusalem. Setting
the tone for their meeting, the conservatives issued a strongly worded
theological manifesto Thursday, declaring that they saw no possibility for
reconciliation with the Episcopal Church in the United States and the
Anglican Church of Canada, which have accepted a gay bishop and same-sex
unions. The conservatives say that after years of emergency meetings and
ultimatums, they have been "ignored," "demonized" and "marginalized."
"There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified Communion," the
document said.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-fears-of-anglican-sc
hism-over.html
Health Care
Preemie puzzle - Federal study probes spike in early births -- pre-term
babies can face lifelong challenges BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter.
kspak at suntimes.com. June 17, 2008. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times.
Michelle Archer was due with her babies at the end of July. On May 3, her
twins Mikayla and Dominic were born. Now, Archer and the twins' father,
Rich Graziano, are spending days and nights at the University of Chicago
Comer Children's Hospital, holding their tiny babies still attached to
monitors and learning about the unique challenges they will be dealing with
for the rest of their preemies' lives. "I think it will be stressful, and I
think I will be highly organized," Archer said of life with premature twins.
Because her children will likely have suppressed immune systems, day care is
out. Now, she, Graziano and the twins are working out a caretaking schedule
to use when the twins come home.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/preemie-puzzle-federal-s
tudy-probes.html
Technology
The Electric Car Lives Backed by U.S. venture capital, Norwegian company
Think is betting its Ox concept vehicle can prove the electric car's time
has finally arrived http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/0618_car.jpg
by Matt Vella. Copyright by Business Week. Clean, quiet, and relatively
profitable to produce, electric vehicles have had a rough start in the U.S.:
Five years after General Motors (GM) nixed its innovative EV1 electric car
program, just a handful of automakers have committed to making and selling
electric vehicles on a mass scale any time soon. Enter Think Global, a
Norwegian upstart plotting a U.S. invasion via pint-size, affordable
electric cars. Think has been selling gas-free, Lilliputian city cars in
Europe and will start peddling them to fuel-crunched Americans in 2009. The
company's newly formed North American division has high hopes for Think's
existing models‹and even higher ones for the upcoming Th!nk Ox, a concept
unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show earlier this year. An
electrified people's car for the 21st century, the Ox is a preview of
Think's next-generation production vehicle, due out in 2011. Roughly the
size of a Toyota (TM) Prius, the Ox can travel between 125 and 155 miles
before needing a recharge, and zips from zero to 60 miles per hour in about
8.5 seconds. Its lithium-ion batteries can be charged to 80% capacity in
less than an hour, and slender solar panels integrated into the roof power
the onboard electronics. Inside, the hatchback includes a bevy of high-tech
gizmos such as GPS navigation, a mobile Internet connection, and a key fob
that lets drivers customize the car's all-digital dashboard. Pricing has yet
to be announced, but the company's current vehicles cost less than $25,000.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/electric-car-lives.html
Microsoft braced for post-Gates era By Richard Waters in San Francisco.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 20 2008 03:04 |
Last updated: June 20 2008 03:04. Five years ago, Steve Ballmer felt
compelled to shake the Microsoft rank-and-file out of a worrying sense of
complacency. A disruptive new competitor was forcing the software company to
³challenge old habits and seriously rethink business-as-usual,² he warned in
an internal e-mail. The Microsoft chief executive was right to be worried.
He was wrong, however, about where the real competitive danger lay. The
source of his fears at the time was the Linux open source operating system.
A search engine by the name of Google did not even figure in the rallying
call to the troops indeed, it was absent from other public discussion of
Microsoft¹s competitive position that year.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/microsoft-braced-for-pos
t-gates-era.html
Other
It's 'August: Osage County' and a huge night for Chicago at the Tonys.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. June 16, 2008. 2008 TONY AWARDS. NEW
YORK‹In an unprecedented New York night for the Chicago theater, the
Broadway transfer of Steppenwolf Theatre Company¹s searing production of
³August: Osage County² dominated the 62nd annual Tony Awards here on Sunday.
And thus Radio City Musical Hall hosted a long, emotional parade of winning
Chicagoans. Tracy Letts won the Tony for Best Play. Anna D. Shapiro won for
Best Director of a Play. Deanna Dunagan won for Best Leading Actress in a
Play. Rondi Reed won for Best Featured Actress in a Play. And Todd Rosenthal
snagged Best Scenic Design. The production won in every category in which it
was nominated, with the exception of lighting design. And one of its leading
producers was Steve Traxler of the Chicago-based Jam Theatricals. Both Reed
and Dunagan said after the awards that almost the entire original cast of
³August: Osage County² was headed to the National Theatre in London for a
production there.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-august-osage-county-
and-huge-night.html
Humor
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Baracknophobia
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=173522&title=headl
ines-baracknophobia
New! Carlos now has an online store. Order your books directly from Carlos
and have them signed and dedicated. http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/
In Pride (orgullo),
Carlos T. Mock, MD
Www.carlostmock.com
Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003.
Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT
Round Table.
Author: The Mosaic Virus Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall
Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie
from The Lambda Literary Foundation
Author: Author: Papi Chulo Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a
Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a
Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation
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