[News] The Sad State of Our Republic Newsletter- June 28, 2008
Carlos Mock
ctmock at gmail.com
Sat Jun 28 18:02:12 CST 2008
“Five years of war combined with th worst tax policies turned a 200 billion
surplus inherited from the Clintonadministration into a trillion dollar
deficit. In the process, Mr. Bush,helped by his choice of Fed Chairman,
has created the worst economic crisis ince the 1929 depression. The
unproven Bernanke, overreacted to the Busheconomic policies—tax cuts for
the rich, the larges expansion of the federal government since the 1965
Social Security Act, subprime crises—and started an aggressive interest rate
cut. He gave the bleing to the Bear Stearns demise and takeover. He
started printing money toover the credit crunch—all of which has
devaluated the dollar to a point were commodities like food and petroleum
have risen to unprecedented level creating inflation. Unfortunately now we
are in a vicious cycle. Ever sice the Fed began its rapid interest rate
cuts last September, the danger ha been that it would lose its
inflation-fighting credibility. One expressio of that would be investors
dumping the dollar in order to protect the purhasing power of their money.
That has been largely avoided, but the weak dolar has contributed to
inflation, not least through the oil price. The employent report was the
second blow for the dollar this week. On Thursday, te European Central Bank
strongly indicated it would raise rates this smmer owing to inflation
worries, triggering fresh dollar selng and higher oil prices. The
employment data is of particular significance at present. Personal savings
are almost exhausted in the US and credit availability is much reduced with
th result that consumers, and the broader economy, are more dependent tha
ever on their pay checks. James Knightley, at ING, said: “This is badnews
for the household sector which is already having to cope with negativ real
wage growth, falling house prices and more expensive borrowing. Thiswill
continue to depress consumer spending and will keep activity depressd for
longer than financial markets are currently discounting.” Carlos T Mo
The Sad State of Our Republic by Carlos T Mock. June 28, 2008. Seven moe
months left in the Bush presidency and I can’t but pray he causes no mor
harm. Truth is, the Republic has never been in worst shape. After
presding over the largest attack to American soil ever, Mr. Bush has
managed toturn the sympathy and respect of the entire world population into
disdainand hate for our country. After setting to capture the perpetrator
of thedestruction caused by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan Mr. Bush—
haunted by pst insecurities and pushed by oil executives and Cheney's
Haliburton—strted an unprovoked war against Iraq. In the fall of 2003, a
few months afterSaddam Hussein's overthrow, U.S. officials began to despair
not finding stokpiles of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The resulting
embarrassment cased a radical shift in administration rhetoriabout the
war in Iraq. President Bush no longer stressed Saddam's record or the
threats from the Baathist regime as reasons for going to war. Rather, from
that point forwa, he focused almost exclusively on the larger aim of
promoting democracy. Tis new focus compounded the damage to the president's
credibility that had aleady been caused by the CIA's errors on Iraqi WMD.
The president was seen as istancing himself from the actual case he had
made for removing he Iraqi regime from power.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Sad-Stae-of-Our-Repub-by-Carlos-T-Mock
-080617-829.html
Global markets reel afte first-half carnage By Michael Mackenzie in New
York, Javier Blas in London nd Andrew Wood in Hong Kong. Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2008. ublished: June 27 2008 18:58 | Last updated:
June 27 2008 22:26. Global eqities were on Friday heading for their worst
first-half performance in 6 years after a week in which oil surged to a
record and there were renewe worries about the health of the financial
system and global growth. A igh of $142.99 a barrel for oil sparked a
tumble in Asian markets and slling in Europe and New York. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average on Friday closd just shy of 20 per cent below its record
high set in October and ison cusp of entering an official bear market.
Fears of inflation and slwer growth caused by higher energy costs are
weighing on equities. Yet as stocks suffer, the surge in oil and other
commodities during 2008 has the Reuters-Jefferies CRB sp index on track
for its largest gain in 35 years. The index has risen 30.1 er cent since
January, the largest increase since the 30.2 per cent gain in he first half
of 1973.
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r-first-half.html
Stagflation fears in eurone rise By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt. Copyright
The Financia Times Limited 2008. Published: June 23 2008 10:05 | Last
updaed: June 23 2008 18:27. The eurozone on Monday slid closer to
stagflation –low growth combined with rising inflation – as private sector
output conracted this month for the first time in five years. Weak
economic dat indicated soaring oil prices had hit growth in June, but not
enough to stp the European Central Bank going ahead next week with a
planned quarter prcentage point rise to 4.25 per cent in its main interest
rate. The eurzone purchasing managers’ index dropped from 51.1 in May to
49.5 in Jue, the first contraction in activity since July 2003. The risk of
a recesion in the 15-country region had increased, analysts said. That
contrated with the robust growth seen at the start of the year. But the
same survy also showed inflationary pressures mounting – especially in the
service sector, where prices rose at the fastest rate for more than seven
years. That will alarm the ECB, whih saw the annual eurozone inflation rate
leap to 3.7 per cent in May, te highest for 16 years, and is braced for a
rise as high as 4 per cent in comng months.
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ozone-rise.html
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Fedcannot ignore global inflation.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 208. Published: June 25 2008 19:43 |
Last updated: June 25 2008 19:43. I there were a Central Bank of the World
its monetary policy committee ould glance at today’s inflation rates and
expectations of future inflationand then raise interest rates. There is no
such bank, but there is somehing close: the US Federal Reserve, the
monetary policy of which is mirroed by many countries in the Middle East
and Asia. The Fed may not wantthat responsibility, but it would be wise to
worry because, like it or not,low Fed interest rates are contributing to
global inflation. The Fed set interest rates for Asian countries because,
explicitly or not, they managetheir exchange rates aganst the dollar. If
US interest rates are low, countries targeting the dollar are obliged to
follow, because otherwise investors will sell dollars to buy their currency.The result is that Asian countries have been notably slow to tighten
monetay policy in response to the rapid rise in commodity prices. To take
thre examples: headline inflation in Indonesia is now 10.4 per cent, while
interst rates remain at 8.5 per cent; inflation of 9.6 per cent in the
Philippine is more than 4 percentage points above base rates; and while
inflation in ndia has reached 11 per cent, policy rates have only just
risen to 8.5 per cet.
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l-comment-fed_25.html
Fed interest rate strategy poses risks By Krishn Guha in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published June 24 2008 18:51 |
Last updated: June 24 2008 20:56. Might the Federal eserve be taking too
many chances on prices? On Wednesday, it is expected t keep interest rates
on hold at 2 per cent, and avoid any signal that rate rises are imminent,
while indicating some increased concern about inflation. Economists see
thre big risks to the strategy of not moving rates up quickly unless
challengedby a further rise in inflation expectations. First, the Fed may
be wrong t assume that oil prices will soon level out, as implied by
futures prices. Second, it may be relying too much on unemployment as a
disinflationary counerweight to oil. It may also be underestimating how
fragile inflation expetations are. All Fed policymakers are aware of these
risks. What divides haws from doves is the degree to which they worry about
them relative to the riss to growth. The Fed assumes that oil prices will
soon level out – an estimte based in large part on the information from
futures prices. Some econoists think this approach is flawed.
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gy-poses-risks.html
Economy: From bad o worse By Michael A. Lev. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. June 28, 008. American consumers haven'ound so much extra
money in their pockets since the Ford administration. Thanks to the economic
stimulus checks that went out as a recession-fighter, diposable incomes
jumped 5.7 percent in May, the government said Friday. And yt to look at
investor sentiment, all remains not well. Wall Street experiencd a
terrible June swoon this week that brought the Dow Jones industrial aveage
within a whisker Friday of being declared a dreaded bear market. That best
rears its head when stocks drop 20 percent, and since its October peak he
Dow has plummeted 19.9 percent. The fact is that a positive blip in
conumer spending doesn't appear to be nearly enough to offset all the
worriome news that continues to shadow an economy struggling through a
mortgage cisis and reeling from high food and energy prices.
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e.html
U.S. Economy: onsumer Confidence, House Prices Slide By Shobhana Chandra
and Timothy R. Homn. Copyright by Bloomberg News. June 24 (Bloomberg) --
Confidence among Amricans dropped to the lowest level in 16 years and house
prices fell the mot on record, raising the risk that consumers will cut
back on purchass after spending their tax rebates. The Conference Board's
confidence ndex fell to 50.4 in June, lower than forecast, from 57.2 in
May. Home pricesin 20 cities dropped 15.3 percet in April from a year
earlier, according to S&P/Case-Shiller, the most since the group began
collecting data. Consumers, whose spending accounts for more than two
thirds of gros domestic product, are being hurt by the housing slump,
rising unemploymen and higher food and fuel bills. “We've seen this dive
in confidence in the ast two months at the same time these stimulus
checks'' have been mailed, Chis Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in
New York, said in a Bloomberg Tlevision interview. ``It tells me if we see
this pop in spending, it's not ging to last.''
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idence-house.html
Siemens will reportedly cut 17,200 jobs. Copyright by The Associated Press.
Published: June 28, 200. FRANKFURT, Germany: Conglomerate Siemens AG,
wracked by a wide-ranging corruption scandal, will cut up to 4 percent of
its work force worldwide, or about 17,200 jobs a pair of newspapers
reported Saturday. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reportedthat the Munich-based
company was set to shed the jobs — mostly white-colar and administrative —
without citing any sources. The Wall Street Journa also reported a similar
figure, citing a person who was familiar with the mater. Siemens did not
comment on either report, only to say that it did notcomment on market
rumors. The German paper said that of the cuts to te company's global work
force of approximately 435,000 staffers, sme 6,400 could come in Germany,
where it employs around 136,000 people.
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cut-1200-jobs.html
UAL to shed 950 pilots By Justin Baer in New York. Copyrigt The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: June 23 2008 23:20 | Lat updated: June 23
2008 23:20. United Airlines plans to shed 950, or bout 14 per cent, of its
6,600 pilots, part of the US carrier’s attempt to slash expenses as it
prepares for deepening losses from record fuel costs and falling demand.
United unveiled plans this month to dro as much as 18 per cent of its
domestic flight schedule by the end of next ear, grounding more than a
fifth of its fleet and trimming as many as 1,600 slaried positions from its
workforce. “As we reduce the size of our flet and take actions companywide
to enable United to compete in an environmentof record fuel prices, we must
take the difficult, but necessary step reduce the number of people we
have to run our business,” the Chicago-baed company said in a statement.
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tml
Whitehall Jewelers files Chapter 11. Copright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.
3:32 PM CDT, June 23, 2008. Whitehall Jeweles Holdings Inc. filed for
Chapter 11 protection on Monday with an $80 millio financing package that
requires it to put its assets on the auction bloc in less than a month.
Whitehall, which recently acquired nearly 80 stores rom another jeweler in
Chapter 11 proceedings, said the terms of its $80 milon bankruptcy loan
require it to win bankruptcy court approval of a deal to sell its assets by
July 18. The Chicago company is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Wilmngton, Del., for permission to hold an auction on July 16, at which it
wil consider "all alternatives regarding a disposition of substantially al
of the assets." Whitehall said such options include selling all or a portionof its business as a going concern or selling the rights to liquidate itsinventory.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/whitehalljewelers-files
-chapter-11.html
International
Who will rid us of this tyrat? By Robert I. Rotberg. Copyright by The
International Herald Tribune. ublished: June 27, 2008. After Idi Amin
terrorized and killed his own Ugadans throughout the 1970s, President
Julius Nyerere of neighborin Tanzania finally sent his army across the
border to end the mayhem and retore stability. Who will now do the same
for beleaguered Zimbabwe? Who wll remove despotic Robert Mugabe from his
besmirched and exposed presidenc? Presidential contender Morgan
Tsvangirai's courageous decisn to boycott Zimbabwe's runoff election -
after Mugabe's thugs broke up yet another opposition rally by swinging iron
bars and sticks at potential Tsvangirai voters - compels the Africa Union,
the UN Security Council and major powers finally to act. Tsvangiraisaid
that he and his supporters were facing war, not an election, and they wold
"not be part of that war." Serious UN sanctions are a first step.
http://retiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/who-will-rid-us-of-this-
tyranthtml
Mandela laments Mugabe’s ‘tragic failure’ By Tom Burgis in Pretoria ad
William Wallis in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 008.
Published: June 25 2008 08:51 | Last updated: June 25 2008 23:40.
Zibabwe’s neighbours increased diplomatic pressure on Robert Mugabe on
Wednesay night as Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, broke
years o silence to describe Zimbabwe’s crisis as a “tragic failure of
leadership. Mr Mandela chose what is potentially one of his last
international apearances to add his moral voice to the mounting criticism
across Africa of M Mugabe’s role in the collapse of what was once one of
the continent’s mos prosperous countries. He described Zimbabwe in the
context of some of th world’s enduring disasters, saying: “Nearer to home
we had seen the outbrek of violence against fellow Africans in our own
country and the tragic falure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe,”
and implored younger geneations to “rid the world of such suffering”. His
remarks were brief but wll be far harder for Mr Mugabe to dismiss than
criticisms from former colonil power Britain and other western countries.
http://iretiredfromnewslettersblogspot.com/2008/06/mandela-laments-mugabes-
tragic-failure.html
Tsvangirai seeks refuge in Dutch embassy By Tom Burgis in Johannesburg ad
Tony Hawkins in Harare and agencies. Copyright The Financl Times Limited
2008. Published: June 22 2008 14:36 | Last updated: June 23 2008 15:39.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has pulled out of a
preidential election because of violence, sought refuge overnight in the
Dutchembassy, officials of that country said on Monday. There was no
immediat confirmation from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change. The
Dutch oreign ministry said he had not requested asylum but was welcome to
stay for is own security. Earlier the MDC said police raided its Harare
headquarers and took away more than 60 victims of the violence, in which it
says neary 90 of its supporters have been killed by militias backing
President Robert ugabe. Those detained included women and children. Mr
Tsvangirai, the challnger to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, on Sunday pulled out
of a presidential run-ff and pleaded for international action to prevent
more violence in his counry. “We can’t ask the people to cast their vote
on June 27 when that vote ill cost their lives,” Mr Tsvangirai told
reporters in Harare, the captal. “We will no longer participate in this
violent sham of an election.”
htp://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/tsvangirai-seeks-refuge-
i-dutch.html
Mess-o-potamia
Al-Qaida in Iraq says it was behind Anbar atack By ROBERT H. REID.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 1:33 PM CDT, June 28, 2008. BAGHDAD - An
al-Qaida front organization claimed responsibility Saturday for a suicide
bombing that killed more han 20 people -- including three Marines -- as the
U.S. military stepped up pessure on extremists in northern Iraq. The
Islamic State of Iraq posted he claim on a militant Web site, saying the
bomber blew himself up among gathering of the "heads of apostasy" -- a
reference to U.S.-backed Sunni trial leaders who were attending a meeting
Thursday in Karmah, 20 miles west o Baghdad. "They sold their souls to the
American devil for a cheap price," te statement said. "Therefore, the
soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraqhave launched an open war against
them." The dead included the commander o Marines in the area, Lt. Col. Max
A. Galeai of Pago Pago, American Samoa, aswell as the mayor of Karmah,
several key tribal figures and two interpretes, U.S. and Iraqi officials
said.
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-was-behind.html
3 U.S. soldierskilled by bomb in Mosul region By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
Copyright by The Iternational Herald Tribune. Published: June 25, 2008.
BAGHDAD: Three U.S.soldiers and an interpreter were killed by a roadside
bomb in Ninewa Provinceon Tuesday night in the second large explosion to
strike the Mosul region n a day and further evidence that Sunni Arab
guerrillas remain very active i the northern city despite recent Iraqi
military operations. Few dtails of the attack were released by the
American military, which said thatan improvised explosive device killed the
soldiers and interpreter abut 10:45 p.m. At least 25 American service
members have been killed in Iraq his month, compared to 19 in May,
according to Icasualties.org, a We site that tracks deaths. Iraqi tops
have fanned out in force in Mosul to try to quell the insurgency there led
by Baathist fighters and Sunni extremist guerrillas. Violence has dropped in
the city in recet months, but according to officials knowledgeable about
the fighting, many o Mosul's most fearsome guerrillas have been pursued by
U.S. special operatios forces operating in secret rather than Iraqi troops.
It remains to be see whether the Iraqi forces can keep the Mosul insurgency
in check, or wether the guerrillas will reassert their presence, as they
have in the past
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bomb-in-mosul.html
Police: Female suicide bomber kills 15 in Iraq ByHAMID AHMED. Copyright
2008 Associated Press. 9:14 AM CDT, June 22, 208. BAGHDAD - A female
suicide bomber struck near a government compound norteast of Baghdad on
Sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40, poice said. At least 21
suicide attacks have been carried out this year by wmen. The bomber
detonated her explosives in front of a heavily guarded ara that includes
the courthouse, the post office and the governor's offices i the city of
Baqouba, a police officer said. he 15 killed included seven policemen, the
officer said, giving the casualty toll on condition of anonymity because he
wasn't authorized to release the information. Th attack occurred about 1
p.m., a time when large numbers of people wer visiting the compound. A car
bomb across the street from the compound killd at least 40 people in April.
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mber-kills-15.html
Afghan bombs kill 10 troopBy Stephen Graham. Copyright by The Associated
Press. 9:36 PM CDT, June 1, 2008. KABUL, Afghanistan — Roadside bombs
killed five foreign troop and five government soldiers Saturday, part of a
surge of violence that hs made Afghanistan's battlefields deadlier for
foreign forces than those inIraq. In the deadliest incident, a roadside
bomb hit a coalition convoy west f the main southern city of Kandahar,
killing four troops and wounding two thers. Coalition spokesman Lt. Col.
Paul Fanning said gunmen opened fire on he damaged vehicles and three
Afghans also were hurt. He declined to relese the nationality of the
troops, who were involved in training Afghn forces. To the east, a Polish
soldier from the separate NATO-led force died when a bomb hit his patrol
after midnight in Paktika province Jacek Poplawski, a Polish military
spokesman in Warsaw, said four other soldiers were wounded. In a separate
incident, attackers detonated bombs and opeed fire on vehicles carrying
Afghan troops in Zabul and Kunar provinces, killing five soldiers and
wounding three.
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ops.html
Pakistan agency accused of plotting attack on Karzai By Abdul Waheed Wafa
and Graham Bowley. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.
Published: June 25, 2008. KABUL: The Afghanistan government publicly
accuse the Pakistani intelligence service Wednesday of organizing the plot
to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a parade in Kabul in April. At a
time of rising tension between the two neighbors, the accusation is by far
the most serious leveled by Afghanistan against Pakistan and it is the first
time the Afghan authorities have described specific and public allegations
tat Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, had been involved in
te attack on Karzai. During a news conference in Kabul, Sayeed Ansari, the
spokesman for the Afghan inteligence service, said the accusation had been
based on documents uncovered duing the investigation into the assassination
attempt, confessions from 16 suspects detained after the attack and
cellphone contacts.
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of-plotting.html
Obsessing about Iran By H.D.S. Greenway. Copyright by The International
Herald Tribune. Published: June 24, 2008. The war drums are beating hard
in this the last summer of the Bush presidency. Israel practices bombing
runs far out in the Mediterranean, refueling more than 100 fighter bombers
in midair, in what is advertised as practice against Iranian nuclear
facilities. President George W. Bush goes to Europe to garner support and
issue threats in the cause of confrontation. Israeli politicians line up to
replace the politically ailing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he struggles to
swim against a current of corruption charges, jockeying for who can make the
most belligerent threats against Iran. Is the Bush White House talking
itself into attacking Iran as its moral duty to save the world from Iran?
Condoleezza Rice's State Department is hoping for a diplomatic solution, and
Robert Gates, at Defense, is not the attack dog that his predecessor, Donald
Rumsfeld, was. For the moment they seem to have Bush's ear. But although
our supernationalist vice president, Dick Cheney, may not wield the
influence he did in Bush's first term, he retains his unshakable belief in
the use of force. And Bush retains his messianic streak.
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l
National
International Herald Tribune Editorial: The U.S. Supreme Court shoots down
gun ban. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June
27, 2008. Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year - on the
job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday
all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly, with its
wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of
Columbia's gun-control law. In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme
Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared
that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for
nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to
service in a "militia." The ruling will give gun-rights advocates a powerful
new legal tool to try to strike down gun-control laws across the nation.
This is a decision that will cost innocent lives, cause immeasurable pain
and suffering and turn America into a more dangerous country. It will also
diminish America's standing in the world, sending yet another message that
the U.S. values gun rights over human life.
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bune-editorial_28.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Gun ruling helps only criminals. Copyright by
The Chicago Sun-Times. June 27, 2008. Thursday's landmark U.S. Supreme
Court decision gutting a Washington, D.C., handgun ban can best be viewed,
from Chicago's perspective, as a tax on Chicago citizens. A tax to be paid
in blood and money. Because of the court's ruling, Chicago residents, in
the not too distant future, likely will be able to buy handguns and keep
them in their homes for the first time in more than 25 years. That new
freedom will come at a high cost for our citizens. Today, Chicago
effectively bans its residents from privately possessing handguns -- a law
in effect since the early 1980s -- and that's not going to change anytime
soon. First, there will be reams of litigation, with Chicago taxpayers
footing part of the hefty bill.
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ial-gun-ruling.html
Roberts' record on high court defies '05 pledges of centrism By James
Oliphant. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 3:12 PM CDT, June 28, 2008.
WASHINGTON — With his third term as chief justice coming to a close amid
three explosive cases last week, John Roberts has proved to be almost
everything conservatives hoped and liberals feared. Despite pledges during
his 2005 confirmation hearing to hew to judicial centrism, Roberts has shown
himself to be a reliable member of the Supreme Court's right flank—rarely,
if ever, disagreeing with its positions on civil rights, gun control, the
death penalty, affirmative action and a host of other issues. That may come
as no surprise to those who paid close attention to Roberts' career before
his elevation to the high court, but the picture is at odds with the
non-ideological face he presented after his nomination. "I come before this
committee with no agenda, no platform," Roberts told the Senate Judiciary
Committee in 2005. "I will approach every case with an open mind."
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ourt-defies-05.html
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Justice and decency in the face of
horror. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 26,
2008. For the law to be just, it must temper society's anger over even the
most horrible acts with decency and restraint. The U.S. Supreme Court
exemplified that principle on Wednesday, striking down the death penalty for
the rape of a child. While acknowledging the horror of the crime, Justice
Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion drew on widely shared standards of
decency, constitutional law and real-world impact to explain why the
Constitution forbids punishing it with death. The 5-4 ruling also laid down
a critical standard: In cases of crimes against individuals (which excludes
treason and espionage) the death penalty can be applied only when the
victim's life is taken. Kennedy wrote that the defendant's rape of his
8-year-old stepdaughter was an act "that cannot be recounted in these pages
in a way sufficient to capture in full the hurt and horror inflicted." But
the Eighth Amendment, he noted, requires that a penalty be a "graduated and
proportioned" response.
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bune-editorial_27.html
Chicagoland
Mayor Daley calls Supreme Court's gun-ban reversal 'a very frightening
decision' High court strikes down Washington D.C. law in ruling that could
have implications for similar 1982 Chicago Weapons Ordinance By Melissa
Patterson and Jeff Coen. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 2:34 PM CDT,
June 26, 2008. An angry Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday called the Supreme
Court's overturning of the Washington D.C. handgun ban "a very frightening
decision" and vowed to fight vigorously any challenges to Chicago's ban.
That challenge was not long in coming. Hours after the high court's ruling
was made public Thursday, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois
State Rifle Association sued the city and the mayor in an effort to overturn
Chicago's quarter-century ban on handguns. City officials expressed
confidence the city would prevail in any court challenge, asserting, among
other things, that the 2nd Amendment as part of the Bill of Rights restricts
the federal government and does not apply to state and local governments.
"It's a big blow to those of us who believe in common sense gun laws," Gov.
Rod Blagojevich said during an appearance at a West Side community agency to
announce a summer jobs program. "And as a result, it's the wrong decision."
Earlier, Daley expressed outrage at the 5-4 court decision.
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e-courts-gun.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Madigan's lawsuit nails mortgage firm.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 26, 2008. To get a sense of
Angelo Mozilo, the chairman of the nation's biggest mortgage lender,
Countrywide Financial Corp., consider how he reacted recently when a
customer e-mailed him because he feared he was losing his home.
"Disgusting," Mozilo wrote in an e-mail about the man's plea -- one of many
the company received based on an advocacy group's form letter.
Unfortunately for Mozilo, rather than forwarding that e-mail within his
company, as he intended, he hit the "reply" button, sending it back to the
customer, who posted it on a Web site. "Disgusting" also happens to sum up
our reaction to the allegations in a lawsuit against Countrywide filed
Wednesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-madigans.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Madigan, time to tap funds, ease squeeze.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 25, 2008. House Speaker Madigan,
the ball is in your court. Gov. Blagojevich lobbed it there Tuesday after he
laid out $1.5 billion in painful cuts to social services, health care and
transit that the governor says he must make if the House doesn't come up
with new revenue. We're in this mess because the budget, which legislators
passed May 31 and is supposed to go into effect next Tuesday, is $2 billion
out of wack, according to the governor's office. The Senate passed several
revenue bills to help support the budget, but the House, led by Madigan,
rejected them. Madigan should reconsider at least one of those bills, the
so-called fund sweeps bill. This is a relatively noncontroversial bill,
which could generate as much as $530 million toward ending that $2 billion
deficit. Madigan should let this bill move forward -- to help reduce the
deficit and to show he can do more than just cast stones. Madigan helped
create the problem we're in now, by handing Blagojevich a massively
unbalanced budget, but has shown no interest in fixing it. It's time for
Madigan to give an inch.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-madigan.html
Chicago ranks first in architecture and design, according to study.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. June 27, 2008. I don't put much stock
in studies, but this one is hard to ignore: It rates Chicago the top U.S.
city for architecture and design. The survey comes from the North American
division of a worldwide architecural firm--the division is based in New
York--so it's hard to say the fix was in for Chicago. The study includes a
Zogby poll, which found that 87 percent of the Chicago residents surveyed
rated the architecture of their city as excellent or good. Guess they
haven't seen any of our hideous three-flat condos. A spokeswoman for the
firm that did the study, RMJM Hillier, denied in an interview that the
survey is an attention-getting stunt. "We wanted to do something to spark a
dialogue," she said. "It's quite serious."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-ranks-first-in-a
rchitecture-and.html
Commodities
Oil $140.21
Silver Bullion $17.52
Gold Bullion $927
Platinum Bullion $ $2064
Euro $1.5762
“The American people must demand that our government fix the solution. We
need a Manhattan style project or something similar to Kennedy’s call for
the Space Race. We’re spending billions of dollars a year in Iraq to secure
oil for our economy. We’re running trillions of dollars in debt. What’s a
few billion dollars compared to that. We are the United States. We do big
things. We started the “grand experiment” of Democracy. We started the
industrial revolution, invented the telephone, the computer, got to the
moon, developed the Internet, and the mobile phone. Now we even have a
surrogate scratching in the dirt on Mars. We’ve cured hundreds of diseases,
extending life expectancy easily into the 70 to 80 year range. There are
already several solutions in consideration that may or may not work out in
the long run. Every university in the country should have massive amounts of
funding to find the solution for this problem (a readily available
alternative to a gasoline powered car) in 10 years. Let the Middle East go
back to life in the 10th century, as many of them seem to want. We would no
longer have to spend money in that region to keep millennial tribal fights
under control. Our economy will get back to the business of producing the
next wonderful way of life not having to peer around the corner trying to
guess when the next ransom note is going to arrive from OPEC.” William
Rattan.
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 we’ve 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
don’t 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.
We’ve seen it happen before and we’ll see it again in the future. And, the
food chain is only one example. The solution is not a gas tax holiday or a
never-ending investigation into the oil companies’ motivations; the United
States hasn’t controlled the oil markets in decades. We are no longer the
largest producers of oil and we are quickly getting stiff competition for
the use of oil from countries such as China and India. They’ve only just
begun to get addicted to the stuff. Depending upon the opinions I read,
there may well be enough oil in the ground to last us forever, but that oil
is getting exponentially more difficult to reach and process – increasing
the cost every year just to produce it. And much of it is not under North
America.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/on-oil-and-solutions-to-
oil-crisis.html
Oil burden – Revisited By Carlos T Mock, MD. June 7, 2007. Last time the
United States had an oil crises of this magnitude was in 1980. Even when
adjusted for inflation, crude oil at $137 a barrel is more expensive than at
the peak of the oil spike in 1980. That is an alarming statistic. Instead
of talking about Oil Bubbles we should be talking about Oil Burden:
Véronique Riches-Flores of Société Générale measures the “oil burden” – the
volume of oil consumed, multiplied by the average price and divided by
nominal gross domestic product. This gives the proportion of the world
economy devoted to oil and accounts for the way the world has reduced its
reliance on oil since 1980. The oil burden so measured has risen about 75
per cent during the past year, to its highest level in almost 25 years. This
must soon have an economic impact if prices do not quickly reverse. But
prices would need to reach about $190 before the burden regained its peak of
1980. It is not clear that prices are at a point where demand will fall.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-burden-revisited.htm
l
Oil hits record above $142 a barrel By Chris Flood. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: June 27 2008 09:01 | Last updated: June 27
2008 20:57. Oil prices surged to a record above $142 a barrel, driven
higher by a cocktail of supply concerns, dollar weakness, inflation fears
and fresh turmoil in equity markets. Nymex August West Texas Intermediate
hit a record $142.26 a barrel before easing back to trade 86 cents higher at
$140.50, up 3.8 per cent this week. ICE August Brent hit a peak at $142.13 a
barrel before slipping back to trade 76 cents higher at $140.59, up 4.2 per
cent this week. Libya’s threat to cut its oil production and a warning from
Opec’s president that crude prices could surge as high as $170 a barrel this
summer provided a green light for traders to buy.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-hits-record-above-14
2-barrel.html
Oil blame game By Paul Krugman. Copyright by The International Herald
Tribune. Published: June 27, 2008. The U.S. Congress has always had a soft
spot for "experts" who tell members what they want to hear, whether it's
supply-side economists declaring that tax cuts increase revenue or
climate-change skeptics insisting that global warming is a myth. Right now,
the welcome mat is out for analysts who claim that out-of-control
speculators are responsible for $4-a-gallon gas. Back in May, Michael
Masters, a hedge fund manager, made a big splash when he told a Senate
committee that speculation is the main cause of rising prices for oil and
other raw materials. He presented charts showing the growth of the oil
futures market, in which investors buy and sell promises to deliver oil at a
later date, and claimed that "the increase in demand from index speculators"
- his term for institutional investors who buy commodity futures - "is
almost equal to the increase in demand from China." Many economists
scoffed: Masters was making the bizarre claim that betting on a higher price
of oil - for that is what it means to buy a futures contract - is equivalent
to actually burning the stuff.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/oil-blame-game.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
More offshore oil drilling? Not so fast. By David McGrath. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. June 24, 2008. I live on Dauphin Island, 3 miles
into the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Alabama. As I read the political
positioning by the president and presidential candidates on whether to
rescind restrictions on offshore oil drilling as a solution to soaring gas
prices, I can only shake my head while gaping at the brightly lit crown of
oil and natural gas rigs that surround my community. At first, I liked the
ubiquitous metal platforms, as close as a quarter mile from the beach,
because they constitute good fishery habitat for my favorite sport.
Resembling the motorized contraptions we kids used to build out of erector
sets, and towering several hundred feet into the sky, with sluices and
cranes protruding like porcupine quills, they also serve as "repellent" for
spring breakers, shooing most of the tourists to the Florida Panhandle, and
regions south. But I changed my tune after recent accidents involving the
platforms, part of more than 300 accidents worldwide in the last 25 years,
according to a British study. The scariest for me occurred last September
when a cloud of poisonous gas was expelled by a nearby natural gas rig and
drifted over the island, sickening dozens of residents and forcing the
evacuation of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab School.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-offshore-oil-drilli
ng-not-so-fast.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Drilling for offshore oil won't fix any
problems. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. June 23, 2008. President
Bush's plan to lift a ban on most offshore oil drilling is off base for many
reasons -- and protecting the environment isn't even at the top of the list.
Sure, we want to protect marine ecosystems in the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans against possible oil spills. Sure, we want to protect our oceans and
beaches against toxic metals and other substances. That's what is at risk
if Congress runs with President Bush's plan to lift a 27-year-old moratorium
on most oil and gas drilling off America's coasts. Despite that, this page
might be willing to consider lifting the ban if that would significantly
lower gas prices and help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, particularly
since advances in drilling technology have lessened the odds of a spill.
There is little to suggest that is the case. Expanded offshore drilling is
not expected to have a "significant impact on domestic crude oil and gas
production or prices until 2030," according to a federal Energy Information
Administration report. That's not much help for Americans paying $4 a gallon
or more for gas today.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-drilling.html
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Revenge of the Prius driver. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. June 28, 2008. Used to be, when you pulled up to the
light next to one of those big, brawny, incredibly massive SUVs, you felt
inadequate in your puttering little sedan. Admit it. You did. The
sport-utility vehicle driver, perched high in leathered luxury, commanded
the road in a vehicle so oversized that it often could just barely squeeze
into a single parking space. But now, with $4 a gallon gas, the driver of a
scrawny car with 13-inch tires experiences another emotion when he or she
sees one of those rumbling beasts idling at the stop light, consuming
massive quantities of gas: pity. Yes, those who resisted the supersized
SUV fever of the past decades now feel pretty good about the decision to
scorn the gas-gulping off-road vehicle made for people whose idea of
off-road is a series of potholes on the Edens Expressway.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-revenge-of.html
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Running on vapors. Copyright by The
International Herald Tribune. Published: June 23, 2008. Honda Motor chose
a good week to introduce its new hydrogen-powered car. With gas prices
rising, we could hardly be more eager for an alternative energy source,
especially one that claims to have no bad effects on the environment: A car
powered by a ubiquitous, inexhaustible gas that emits nothing worse than
water. Hydrogen has long been the dream of car visionaries. During the oil
crisis of the late 1970s, there was a $33,000 Dodge Omni retooled to run on
hydrogen. Today, Toyota and General Motors have prototype hydrogen cars. But
there is still work to be done. The FCX Clarity is meant to look like a
regular car built in a regular factory. But Honda is only making 200 between
now and 2010. Honda's president said that the Clarity costs several hundred
thousand dollars to make. The lease of $600 a month is heavily subsidized.
And to lease one, you must live in a small slice of Southern California,
close to one of the few hydrogen fueling stations in the country. There's
also a subsidy on that. It costs the fueling station at the University of
California, Irvine, about $10 a kilogram for hydrogen that it will sell for
$5, according to Scott Samuelsen, director of the university's National Fuel
Cell Research Center.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_23.html
Why must our holiday euros cost so much? By Christopher Johnson. Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 22 2008 19:28 | Last
updated: June 22 2008 19:28. My bank has charged me £50 ($98.5) for a
service that should have been free. My daughter lives in France with her
three children. I made them a gift of £2,000, which had to be converted into
euros. The bank quoted an exchange rate of €1.216 to the pound, which made
€2,432. The market rate quoted on the front page of the Financial Times was
€1.246, which would have made my £2,000 into €2,492. So €60 (about £50) went
missing somewhere in the system. About 2½ per cent had been deducted from my
£2,000. I also had a £20 charge for transferring money through the
international banking system, which would have been more acceptable if the
exchange rate had been better. My daughter’s bank will also make a charge. I
once had to send her some euros when she was changing banks and did not have
an account. The charge for sending £1,500 by Western Union, the dominant
money transmission service, was £60, and the exchange rate was poor.
Different banks and foreign exchange dealers quote a wide variety of
exchange rates, but even the best do not get nearer than 2 per cent to the
market rate, and the worst can range up to about 5 per cent. They boast
about zero per cent commission, but all sorts of hidden charges are added
and the exchange rate is seldom mentioned. There is no real competition,
because most travellers get foreign currency from their own banks and have
to pick it up themselves or pay for home delivery. There is little chance to
shop around at the money shops and cashpoints at airports and stations,
which do not offer the best rates.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-must-our-holiday-eur
os-cost-so-much.html
Housing
Today's loan rates
RATE +/- LAST
WEEK
30 yr fixed mtg 6.27% 6.28%
15 yr fixed mtg 5.84% 5.88%
30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 7.38% 7.40%
5/1 ARM 5.70% 5.75%
7/1 ARM 5.99% 5.98%
Area home sales plunge; prices steady - Bottom may soon be in sight,
analysts say. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. June 27, 2008. Home
sales in the nine-county Chicago area were down 29 percent in May compared
with a year ago while prices were fairly stable, dipping just 0.5 percent,
to $251,000, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors, as a housing
industry in crisis continued to struggle. Nationally, sales of existing
homes rose slightly in May compared with April, only the second increase in
the past 10 months. Prices, however, kept plunging and analysts said the
large number of unsold homes indicated the prolonged slump in housing was
far from over. Some analysts, though, are beginning to speculate that the
bottom of the market soon may be in sight.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/area-home-sales-plunge-p
rices-steady.html
Bush Bashing
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Dealing with the trauma
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: June 23, 2008
The harsh emotional and mental costs of sending troops to frequent and long
deployments in a war without clear battle lines became apparent last month,
when the Pentagon released data on suicides and post-traumatic stress
disorder. In 2007, there were 115 suicides among active-duty service
members, an increase over a total of 102 in 2006 and the highest figure
since the Pentagon began keeping data on suicides in 1980. Last year, the
services also registered their highest number of post-traumatic stress
disorder cases - 14,000, an increase of 46 percent over 2006.
As one step to reduce the pressure on its ranks, the Department of Defense
has already announced it would end the 15-month deployments in Iraq required
by the surge of 2007. For the longer term, a drawdown in U.S. forces in Iraq
would reduce the need for the frequent deployments.
Other preventive steps have included recruiting more mental-health
professionals and a new Department of Veterans Affairs practice of checking
on the condition of discharged service members, including those who have not
reported any health problems. Such calls are aimed at getting care to those
who are suffering from the depression, anxiety, emotional numbness,
sleeplessness, and nightmares of the stress disorder without reaching out
for help.
When it comes to troops and their families reaching out for help, the old
expression associated with life in the armed forces - "hurry up and wait" -
cannot be tolerated.
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Another rebuke on Guantánamo.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 25, 2008.
One of Guantánamo's many horrors is just how long people have been held
there in a cruel legal limbo. Huzaifa Parhat has been detained for six long
years, despite his insistence that he was an innocent swept up in the chaos
in Afghanistan. It is welcome news that a federal appeals court has now
ruled, in the first decision of its kind, that Parhat was improperly labeled
an "enemy combatant." We hope this means Parhat and the roughly 270 other
detainees being held in Guantánamo will be given quick and fair
opportunities to challenge their detention. Parhat is one of 17 Uighur
Muslims, a Chinese ethnic minority, being held at the U.S. Navy base in
Guantánamo. Their supporters maintain that they were captured by mistake and
had no hostile intentions toward the United States. After a hearing before a
combatant status review tribunal - a kangaroo court that rules without a
real hearing or reliable evidence - Parhat was designated an enemy
combatant.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_25.html
Court voids finding on Guantánamo detainee By William Glaberson. Copyright
by the International Herald Tribune. Published: June 24, 2008. In the
first civilian judicial review of the government's evidence for holding any
of the Guantánamo Bay detainees, a federal appeals court has ordered that
one of them be released or given a new military hearing. The ruling, made
known Monday in a notice from the United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, overturned a Pentagon tribunal's decision in
the case of one of 17 Guantánamo detainees who are ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim
minority from western China. The imprisonment of the 17 Uighurs (pronounced
WEE-goors) has drawn wide attention because of their claim that although
they were in Afghanistan when the United States invaded in 2001, they were
never enemies of this country and were mistakenly swept into Guantánamo.
The court's decision was a new setback for the Bush administration, which
has suffered a string of judicial defeats on Guantánamo policy, most
recently in a Supreme Court ruling on June 12 that dealt with a separate
issue of detainee rights. The Uighur case was argued long before that ruling
by the justices.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/court-voids-finding-on-g
uantnamo.html
U.S. to pay millions for anthrax innuendo By Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 28, 2008.
WASHINGTON: The U.S. government will pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit
from Steven Hatfill, a former U.S. Army biodefense researcher intensively
investigated as a "person of interest" in the deadly anthrax letters of
2001, the Justice Department announced Friday. The settlement, consisting
of $2.825 million in cash and an annuity worth $1.8 million that will pay
Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years, brings to an end a five-year legal
battle. Hatfill, who worked at the army's laboratory at Fort Detrick in
Frederick, Maryland, in the late 1990s, was the subject of a flood of news
media coverage beginning in mid-2002, after television cameras showed FBI
agents in biohazard suits searching his apartment near the army base. John
Ashcroft, then the attorney general, later called him a "person of interest"
in the case on national television. In a news conference in August 2002,
Hatfill tearfully denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax letters
and said irresponsible news media coverage based on government leaks had
destroyed his reputation.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/us-to-pay-millions-for-a
nthrax-innuendo.html
Indecision 2008
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Campaign finance rules in a mess.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 22 2008 18:54 |
Last updated: June 22 2008 18:54. More than 30 years ago, following the
Watergate scandal, the US provided for the partial public funding of
presidential elections. Candidates would get public money to supplement cash
they raised in return for accepting curbs on their spending. It worked,
after a fashion: since 1976, every presidential candidate has taken public
money for his general election campaign. Last week Barack Obama announced he
would not. This understandable though hypocritical decision further
undermines the country’s campaign finance rules. In the end, however, this
may be no bad thing. Mr Obama’s fund-raising prowess means he can spurn
public money with strings attached. Left alone, he will have an enormous
financial advantage over John McCain. He would have been foolish, no doubt,
to surrender this – a rare prospect for a Democrat, since Republican
contenders have typically been better funded. Unfortunately, before Mr Obama
discovered his Midas touch, he said he would accept public funds and called
for the system to be upheld. Moreover, he has justified his new position
dishonestly, complaining that special interests were financing Mr McCain’s
campaign. In fact, roughly 2 per cent of what Mr McCain has raised has come
from lobbyists and political action committees (and the Democrats have
usually relied on those sources more than Republicans). Mr Obama’s
reputation for plain dealing has suffered a setback.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/financial-times-editoria
l-comment_23.html
McCain News Flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYs8X0DZNI4
McCain aide hits nerve with terror remark By Edward Luce and Andrew Ward in
Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 24
2008 00:10 | Last updated: June 24 2008 00:10. John McCain’s right-hand man
hit a raw nerve on Monday when he said another terrorist attack on US soil
would prove a “big advantage” to the Republican nominee’s general election
chances. The comments by Charlie Black, who is arguably Mr McCain’s most
experienced adviser, put into words what many Republicans and Democrats have
privately been stating for months. Mr Black, 60, who is a veteran of every
Republican presidential campaign since the 1980s and served in the Reagan
and Bush Senior administrations, immediately apologised for his remarks,
which were published in an interview with Fortune Magazine. Mr McCain, whom
opinion polls show is trailing Barack Obama, his Democratic rival, by
between six and 15 points, said: “I cannot imagine why he would say it. I
strenuously disagree . . . It’s not true. I have worked tirelessly since
9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack on America.” The Obama campaign
said: “The fact that John McCain’s top adviser says that a terrorist attack
on American soil would be a ‘big advantage’ for their political campaign is
a complete disgrace and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to
change.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/mccain-aide-hits-nerve-w
ith-terror.html
Beer battle could give McCain hangover By Andrew Ward in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: June 27 2008 17:12 |
Last updated: June 27 2008 17:12. When InBev launched its $46bn takeover
bid for Anheuser-Busch this month, US politicians expressed horror at the
prospect of America’s biggest brewer falling under European control. For
one political family, however, there is more than national pride at stake as
the maker of Budweiser resists its Belgian suitor. Cindy McCain, wife of
John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, is the controlling
shareholder in a wholesaler that sells $300m of Anheuser products a year.
Hensley & Co has exclusive rights to distribute Anheuser brands in the
McCains’ home city of Phoenix, Arizona, and counts itself as the US’s
third-largest Anheuser distributor. Senate disclosures show Mrs McCain owns
more than $1m of shares in Anheuser, putting her in line for a windfall if
InBev forces the deal through. But analysts say the potential financial
benefits must be weighed against uncertainty over how the takeover would
affect her business.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/beer-battle-could-give-m
ccain-hangover.html
Obama and Clinton stage unity rally By Edward Luce. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: June 27 2008 20:04 | Last updated: June 27
2008 20:04. After sixteen months of often bitter disunity, Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama on Friday staged a “Unity Rally” in the town of Unity, New
Hampshire – just in case anyone might have missed the point. Instead of
calling Mr Obama “naïve and irresponsible”, as she often had on the campaign
trail, Mrs Clinton praised the Democratic nominee’s “grit, determination and
grace”. Instead of referring to the former First Lady as someone who would
“do or say anything to get elected”, Mr Obama waxed lyrical about “this
great leader standing next to me.” The only explicit reference to the
rancour that had tinged so many of their exchanges came when Mrs Clinton
referred to their “spirited dialogue” on the campaign trail – “that was the
nicest way I could think of phrasing it,” she added.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-and-clinton-stage-
unity-rally.html
Obama moving toward center - Democrat edging away from left on some issues
in effort to woo independent voters By Janet Hook. Copyright © 2008, The
Los Angeles Times. 3:17 PM CDT, June 28, 2008. Washington — He would
expand the government's wiretap powers and allow states to execute certain
rapists. He talks tough against Iran. When the Supreme Court on Thursday
struck down Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns, he did not complain. This
collection of policy stances would fit many Republican candidates—but they
are the recent profile outlined by a man once called the most liberal
Democrat in the Senate: Barack Obama. Obama, the presumed Democratic
presidential nominee, has begun staking out centrist or even hawkish
positions in recent weeks on foreign policy, trade, the death penalty and
other hot-button issues as he introduces himself to independent and swing
voters, many of whom know little about him or have heard criticisms that he
is too liberal. Candidates often adjust their policy stances after the
primary season, when their chief goal is usually to win their party's most
ideologically driven voters. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has
also changed tack on a wide array of issues. But Obama has drawn attention
for the number of issues on which he has taken a centrist stance in recent
days.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-moving-toward-cent
er-democrat.html
Obama Accuses Dr. Dobson of 'Making Stuff Up' © 2008 Newsmax. June 26,
2008. LOS ANGELES — Barack Obama said Tuesday that evangelical leader James
Dobson was "making stuff up" when he accused the presumed Democratic
presidential nominee of distorting the Bible. Dobson used his Focus on the
Family radio program to highlight excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June
2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Speaking to reporters
on his campaign plane before landing in Los Angeles, Obama said the speech
made the argument that people of faith, like himself, "try to translate some
of our concerns in a universal language so that we can have an open and
vigorous debate rather than having religion divide us." Obama added, "I
think you'll see that he was just making stuff up, maybe for his own
purposes." In his program, Dobson focused on examples Obama cited in
asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy. For instance,
Obama said Leviticus suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an
abomination. Obama also cited Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is
so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive
its application."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-accuses-dr-dobson-
of-making-stuff.html
Don't go mum on us, Obama By Garrison Keillor. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. June 26, 2008. I was at a playground with my daughter the other
day, reading "The Two Kinds of Decay" by Sarah Manguso (good book) and
watching my girl as she stood at the perimeter of children playing and
studied them, exactly as I did when I was a kid, working up the nerve to
plunge into the fray. She is braver than I—she plunges. I tended to retreat
and have been backpedaling ever since. I was sitting on a bench in the
shade with the nannies and mommies, most of them on cell phones, talking
about problem men, problem cleaning ladies, problem mothers, and the woman
sitting next to me got up to go see to her child, and then stopped and came
back and got her purse out of the stroller and took it with her. I was
offended. I am an author, not a purse snatcher. Does a purse snatcher sit on
a bench reading the latest Manguso book? When she came back I wanted to
tell her, "I am not a crook," but remembered Richard Nixon saying that and
how the very words immediately told you what a liar he was, so I sat and
brooded, and then it occurred to me that if you play it cool and don't talk
to people, then people are entitled to assume the worst. I hadn't said so
much as "Good morning" to her and so she was wary.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/dont-go-mum-on-us-obama.
html
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Rebranding Michelle Obama.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June 25, 2008.
Barack Obama's campaign has been working to soften and sweeten his wife's
image, but the real problem is that such an effort even seems necessary.
Michelle Obama has been fielding scurrilous attacks that both presidential
candidates and both parties should denounce. She has been called "Obama's
baby mama," slang for an unwed mother; she has faced allegations that she
used the slur "whitey" in a speech, and the much discussed fist-bump that
she shared with her husband earlier this month has been absurdly dissected
as a terrorist gesture. It's fair to challenge a candidate's family members
when they act as campaign surrogates. But campaigns shouldn't tolerate
malicious falsehoods. Barack Obama defends his wife on his "Fight the
Smears" Web site, but one site can't clean up all the muck.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_5896.html
GLBT
Chicago Tribune Editorial - For civil unions. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. June 23, 2008. The battle over same-sex marriage affords no
apparent room for compromise. Supporters think it's a matter of simple
justice for gays to get the same legal treatment as heterosexual couples.
Opponents think extending marriage to gays and lesbians means drastically
redefining a foundation of society that has deep religious significance.
It's hard to see how to give both sides a large measure of what they want.
Or is it? In 2007, California created a simple means of accommodating the
opposing camps: domestic partnerships (also known as civil unions), which
offer same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities that go with
marriage under state law, but without upsetting the traditional definition
of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Recently, of course, the
California Supreme Court ruled that gays must be allowed to marry, on the
grounds that providing domestic partnerships but not marriage for same-sex
couples violated the state constitution. California started to perform
same-sex marriages in the last week. So how will this impact Illinois? Not
much, perhaps. Few people expect the Illinois Supreme Court would overturn
state law defining marriage. And even fewer think the Illinois legislature
would pass legislation to redefine marriage.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-for-civil.html
Chicago Free Press Editorial: Happy Pride. Copyright by Chicago Free Press.
June 25, 2008. Every year when Pride rolls around, we inevitably hear the
same complaints: It’s become too commercial, there are too many politicians,
it’s not political enough, the flamboyant few get all the attention. All of
those things are true, of course, but it’s too easy—and far too
simplistic—to act as if Pride is somehow passé or not worth celebrating
anymore. There are many GLBTs who came out to a far different world. Not
that long ago, people risked arrest just going to a gay bar—there are those
among us who’ve seen people commit suicide because they were outed by news
reports of Chicago Police raids on gay bars. As for the politicians, less
than 50 years ago, the only time elected officials boasted about being
around gay people was when they went along on police raids of gay bars in
order to grab a few headlines. How things have changed—now the Chicago
Police have a float in the Pride Parade, with gay and lesbian officers
proudly wearing their uniforms and waving rainbow flags. And, yes, there are
many politicians who make sure to march in the Pride Parade now—it’s
essential if a politician wants to win office on Chicago’s North Side
lakefront.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-free-press-edito
rial-happy.html
Mayor honors LGBTs at reception. Copyright by Windy City times.
2008-06-25. More than 700 people attended Mayor Richard M. Daley's annual
Pride Month reception of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations'
Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues at the
G.A.R. Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph, on June 17.
Text by John Lendman; photos by Kat Fitzgerald ( see more at
www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com/photos/MayorPridereception2008 and
www.MysticImagesPhotography.com ) CCHR LGBT Director Bill Greaves read the
mayor's pride proclamation, officially declaring June as Pride Month in
preparation for the 39th annual Pride Parade./Hundreds attend mayor’s
reception By Matt Simonette. Copyright bhy Chicago Free Press. June 25,
2008. At his annual reception at the honoring GLBT Chicagoans last week,
Mayor Richard M. Daley again reaffirmed his support of gay marriage and
heralded the contributions GLBTs make to the community. Holding up a
pro-gay marriage button that he had just been handed, Daley said at the
Cultural Center June 17 that he supports marriage equality and does so
openly and publicly. “This is all about human rights and civil rights,” he
said.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/mayor-honors-lgbts-at-re
ception.html
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: “I 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
Mormon gays tread lightly in latest bid for acceptance - Meeting with church
leaders called historic By Bonnie Miller Rubin. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. 3:11 PM CDT, June 28, 2008. SALT LAKE CITY — When he was 16,
David Nielson divulged his attraction to men, knowing it could cost him the
two great pillars of his life: his parents and his Mormon faith. "When you
come out, the philosophy here has always been, 'Say goodbye to your family
because they will say goodbye to you,' " said the postal worker, 24. "But, I
believe—and hope—that the climate is finally changing." While the church
still teaches that gay sex is a sin and actively opposes gay marriage—which
it will do from pulpits across California this Sunday—a first-ever meeting
between Mormon officials and members of an advocacy group for non-straight
Mormons, might suggest that such acceptance is more than wishful thinking.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/mormon-gays-tread-lightl
y-in-latest-bid.html
GET TESTED JUNE 27. Copyright by Chicago Free Press. June 25, 2008. I
encourage Americans to join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
and its partners June 27 in our nationwide effort to reduce the number of
people in this country who don’t know their HIV status. The CDC estimates
that about one-fourth of the more than one million people living with HIV in
the United States don’t know they are infected. HIV testing is a critical
step in reducing HIV infections. CDC once again strongly supports National
HIV Testing Day, an annual campaign organized by the National Association of
People with AIDS. The theme of the campaign is significant: “Take the Test.
Take Control.” Knowing your HIV status empowers you to help prevent the
spread of the disease. If you are infected, you can take steps to protect
your health and that of your partners as well as seek life-extending medical
treatment. People who learn they are not infected can take steps to help
ensure they remain uninfected.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-tested-june-27.html
LGBT Parenting - 10 Years Later By Roger McCaffrey-Boss. Copyright by Gay
Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. June 26, 2008. People often ask
my partner and I how does it feel to be parents, as 10 years ago my partner,
Christopher and I became parents, having adopted two boys, one in 1997 who
just turned 10 and the other in 2000, who is now eight. It used to be that
our biggest concern was daycare, nursery schools and play dates. Now that
both boys are in public school, second and fourth grade, our lives revolve
around homework, reading, school vacations and making sure our kids are
active with sports and dance classes. Last weekend, our oldest son had two
soccer games, one day in Libertyville and the other in Oak Park. While the
oldest was in Libertyville, the youngest had a dance recital in Oak Park.
Needless to say, we have become carpooling soccer parents racing to fill our
children’s schedules. As hard as the infant and toddler stages were (being
always on the alert for sources of danger to the children), that stage was
easy in comparison to the current mental demands of homework, school
assignments and research projects. Sometimes the school demands become
overwhelming with the learning of math facts, spelling lists and learning to
type all while in third grade.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/lgbt-parenting-10-years-
later.html
Health Care
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Doctors vs. health care. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. June 28, 2008. About 1,000 retail medical clinics have
opened their doors at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS/Caremark and elsewhere around
the country. Most are open around the clock, don't require appointments and
are staffed by nurse practitioners who treat a variety of common ailments.
The clinics have been a godsend for patients seeking accessible, affordable
and convenient care. But the powerful Illinois State Medical Society wants
to slam clinic doors shut in this state. It has proposed a bill that would
regulate these clinics almost to the point of extinction.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-doctors-vs.html
Rotavirus shot puts cases at new low - Report finds big drop among U.S.
Children By Thomas H. Maugh II. Copyright by The Los Angeles Times. June
26, 2008. A rotavirus vaccine approved in 2006 is having a significant
impact in the United States, delaying the onset of the rotavirus season by
three months and reducing its severity by about half, federal officials said
Wednesday. The incidence of rotavirus activity during the first months of
2008 was the lowest it has been since the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention began monitoring the disease 15 years ago,
researchers reported in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The highly contagious rotavirus is the leading cause of severe vomiting and
diarrhea in infants and young children around the world. Each year in the
U.S., it causes as many as 272,000 emergency room visits, up to 70,000
hospitalizations and 20 to 60 deaths. Worldwide, an estimated 500,000
children die from the virus each year.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/rotavirus-shot-puts-case
s-at-new-low.html
Teen pregnancies at 30-year low - Recent rise could be anomaly or sign of
bigger problem By Lisa Anderson. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 3:06
PM CDT, June 28, 2008. NEW YORK — News of a cluster of at least 17 pregnant
teenagers at a small Massachusetts high school recently made headlines
around the world, but it came at a time when teen pregnancies and abortions
in the United States actually are at their lowest points in 30 years.
Pregnancies — whether they end in birth, miscarriage or abortion — among
women age 15 to 19 dropped to 72.2 per 1,000 women in 2004, down from a peak
of 117 per 1,000 women in 1990, according to the latest data compiled by New
York's Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health research,
policy analysis and education. While some 700,000 women age 15 to 19 become
pregnant every year, the rate has declined 36 percent since it peaked in
1990. The rate of abortions among teens also plummeted, to 19.8 per 1,000
women in 2004 from a high of 43.5 per 1,000 in 1988. That's the good news.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/teen-pregnancies-at-30-y
ear-low-recent.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Pregnancy is no game. Copyright by The
Chicago Sun-Times. June 24, 2008. The story was disturbing: A group of
teenage girls allegedly had made a pact to get pregnant and raise their
babies together. In the most recent school year, 17 girls got pregnant at a
high school in Gloucester, Mass., where four girls got pregnant the year
before. The school nurse administered more than 150 pregnancy tests, and
some of the girls were actually disappointed when the results were negative.
When they received positive test results, some greeted the news with high
fives and plans for baby showers, Time magazine reported. On Monday, the
story became murkier, as Gloucester officials, facing a storm of
international media coverage, backpedaled, saying they had no independent
confirmation of a pact being made. Pact or not, what's clear is some of
these girls at least informally talked about getting pregnant at the same
time together. In short, they treated pregnancy like a game.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-pregnancy.html
Technology
Hot air clouds the energy debate By Clive Crook. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: June 22 2008 18:58 | Last updated: June 22
2008 18:58. Week in and week out, Washington gives master classes in making
simple questions complicated. It is a bipartisan effort of mutually assured
irrelevance. Perfected over years, a combination of tribal ideology, empty
posturing and feverish displacement activity generally does the trick. You
see it everywhere, but nowhere more than in energy policy. The US
constitution makes it difficult for politicians to do much (except fight
wars) and this avoids a lot of damage that would otherwise result. But now
and then some intelligent policymaking is needed, and energy is again a case
in point. Nowadays most Americans want to see action on global warming.
Sensing the mood, both presidential candidates advocate a cap-and-trade
approach to reducing carbon emissions. However, even more than they want to
see global warming addressed, Americans demand cheap fuel for their urban
assault vehicles. So the candidates must cater to that appetite as well –
with petrol tax holidays and new plans for offshore drilling (John McCain)
or windfall taxes to punish oil company gouging and “help families to pay
for their skyrocketing energy costs” (Barack Obama). The US does not know
whether to tax energy or subsidise it, promote domestic oil production or
forbid it, treat ExxonMobil and Chevron as champions or pariahs. So it does
all of the above. What it knows for sure is that it wants energy security,
energy independence and clean air – plus the inalienable right to
recreational trucks (not to mention freezing its citizens in summer and
broiling them in winter) as though energy were a free good.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/hot-air-clouds-energy-de
bate.html
Financial Times Editorial Comment: Dot whatever. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: June 27 2008 19:25 | Last updated: June 27
2008 19:25. Is this the end of dotcom? At a meeting this week in Paris,
regulators voted to allow companies to buy their own “top-level domains”.
TLDs are the last segment of an internet domain name (for example, the “com”
in FT.com). At the mo ment, businesses must choose the suffix for their
website address from a list based on what kind of organisation they are, and
where they are. But no longer. Rightly, websites will soon be able to choose
their own TLD. Many of these new addresses will be quite predictable (like
drink. pepsi, eat.mcdonalds or hillary.clinton2012). But the sky will be the
limit (unless, of course, you buy “.outerspace”). Businesses can set up any
domain they want. A prize should go to the first to offer a haiku as a web
address. However, this change is not without perils. It might have a
detrimental impact on international development. Tuvalu receives $4m a year
from licensing the rights to its country domain name, “.tv”. The Federated
States of Micronesia (“.fm”), Djibouti (“.dj”) and Tonga (“.to”) are also
likely to suffer.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-dot.html
Immigration
International Herald Tribune Editorial: Giving refuge to victims of
mutilation. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: June
23, 2008. Three women from Guinea won a court victory in Manhattan this
month in their struggle to win asylum as victims of the barbaric form of
persecution known as female genital cutting. In doing so, they have shined a
light on the urgent need for consistent humane policies that treat women's
rights as fundamental human rights. The government isn't there yet, judging
from the withering opinion of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Ruling unanimously, the judges said the Board
of Immigration Appeals, the highest immigration tribunal in the country, had
committed "significant errors" and ignored its own regulations in denying
asylum to the women, Salimatou Bah, Mariama Diallo and Haby Diallo. It
ordered the board to reconsider the cases. Among other misjudgments, the
judges said, the board had wrongly assumed that the women were safe from
future persecution because their genitals had already been cut. The board
had likened the women's injuries to the loss of a limb - a bad thing but not
something that happens more than once. The ritual mutilation of girls to
promote chastity and thwart sexual desire is a perpetual injury, one of the
judges wrote. It is performed without anesthesia, often with dirty
instruments, and leads to disfigurement, severe complications and lifelong
trauma. The judges also found that the board had erred by failing to
consider the women's risk of persecution by other means. In societies where
genital cutting is endemic, beatings, rape, forced marriage and sex
trafficking are commonplace, too.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-herald-tri
bune.html
Other
The `Humble Majority' places faith in one another By Eric Zorn. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. June 26, 2008. It's long seemed to me that humility
is the appropriate response to the vastness of the universe and the wonders
and horrors of life on Earth. And I'm glad to learn this week that I seem
to have a lot of company. In reading the results of the Pew Forum on
Religion & Public Life's poll of American religious beliefs and practices,
the number that jumped out at me was 70. That's the percentage of adults
affiliated with a faith tradition who said they agree with the statement,
"Many religions can lead to eternal life." This includes 79 percent of
Catholics, 82 percent of Jews and 83 percent of those who attend "mainline"
Protestant churches. And of course it doesn't include the 16 percent of
those polled who reported not being affiliated with any religion. It all
adds up to whopping proof of the existence of what I'm calling the Humble
Majority—the roughly three-quarters of us who feel that, at some point, the
great riddles of life are, in fact, riddles.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/humble-majority-places-f
aith-in-one.html
Tribune delivers 'jolt' in Orlando By Phil Rosenthal. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. 9:33 PM CDT, June 22, 2008. The redesigned Orlando
Sentinel that hit doorsteps Sunday morning was loud enough to not just wake
up folks in central Florida but down in Ft. Lauderdale, here in Chicago, as
far away as Los Angeles and everywhere else parent Tribune Co. owns a paper.
"We want a jolt," said Howard Greenberg, Tribune Co.'s publisher for both
Orlando and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale. "We want
people to take notice, particularly younger people." Colors are splashy,
reports shorter. Lots of graphic flourishes, stories told in unusual ways.
Like this. So what? I'm in Chicago: The Chicago Tribune is planning its own
redesign in response to Tribune Co.'s call for tighter allocation of space
for news and other cuts. Chicago Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski informed
staff last week that "a rethought and redesigned Tribune" will launch in
mid-September. In the meantime, the Saturday paper will be used for
experimentation.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/tribune-delivers-jolt-in
-orlando.html
Humor
Newly brewed words.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/newly-brewed-words.html
Oh McCain! From Lunatics & Liars / Cartoon satire of John McCain's straight
talk express.
http://www.lunaticsandliars.com/watch?v=bd79e8818a7cc2915b4b2241640d0952
He Said It First: C**t http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euu_DMhsXQo
Sobriety and Pronunciation
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/06/sobriety-and-pronunciati
on.html
Where the Hell is Matt? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
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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