From ctmock at gmail.com Fri Mar 14 13:47:26 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos T Mock) Date: Fri Mar 14 13:47:52 2008 Subject: [News] Newsletter Message-ID: <7793f5ac0803141247h11269981u44f33450a8ea95bc@mail.gmail.com> I'm in Chicago on an emergency and my computer is in Michigan. I can't format a newsletter but feel free to browse the articles posted at: http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/ Thanks Carlos Mock -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.carlostmock.com/pipermail/news/attachments/20080314/ba507313/attachment.html From ctmock at gmail.com Wed Mar 19 07:54:35 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Wed Mar 19 09:16:48 2008 Subject: [News] The Audacity of Hope Newsletter: March 19, 2008 Message-ID: Chicago Sun-Times Editorial: A moving moment in our nation's history. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Time. March 19, 2008. Are we listening, America? On Tuesday morning, Barack Obama delivered the speech of his life about the most divisive issue in America in this day or any day -- race. He spoke for millions of Americans of good will and open minds -- Americans who have struggled to find just these words -- challenging us to heal our painful racial wounds by first admitting the deep roots, complexities and truths of our grievances. The grievances of black America are not imaginary, he said. And the anger and frustrations within segments of the white community cannot always be dismissed as bigotry. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-moving.html Watch Obama speech: http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/850129,CST-NWS-oba The Obama I know - Terrific listener goes wherever reason takes him By Cass R. Sunstein. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 14, 2008. Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School. He is also a friend. But since his election to the U.S. Senate, he does not exactly call every day. On this occasion, he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists. I had written a short essay suggesting that the surveillance might be lawful. Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through. In about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the president's power as commander in chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-i-know-terrific-li stener-goes.html Obama and the bigots. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. By Nicholas D. Kristof. Published: March 9, 2008. The ugliest prejudices in this campaign season are not directly about race. Barack Obama's skin color may cost him some working-class white voters, but it's also winning some votes among blacks and among whites eager to signal their open-mindedness. Sexism seems more of a factor. Americans have typically said in polls that they are less willing to vote for a woman than a black, and Shirley Chisholm (a black woman who ran for president in 1972) always said that she encountered more prejudice because of her sex than her race. Yet the most monstrous bigotry in this election isn't about either race or sex. It's about religion. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-and-bigots.html International Latin America - March 10: A diplomatic success? Edited by Jonathan Wheatley, Brazil correspondent Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 9 2008 18:23 | Last updated: March 9 2008 18:23. Latin American leaders should celebrate their success in bringing an end to the spiralling crisis in the Andean region. But they should not get carried away by the results of Friday?s meeting of the Rio Group in Santo Domingo. Differences between Colombia and Venezuela ? and its allies Ecuador and Nicaragua ? may have been patched over for now but there is every chance that tensions will re-emerge pretty soon. The reason? The accusation that the Colombian left-wing guerrillas of the Farc operate with the help of Venezuela and Ecuador has not been resolved and as an article in the Washington Post puts it, ?is sure to fester?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/latin-america-march-10-d iplomatic.html Canada warns US over oil sands By Sheila McNulty in Houston. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 9 2008 20:47 | Last updated: March 9 2008 22:12. Canada has warned the US government that a narrow interpretation of new energy legislation would prohibit its neighbour buying fuel from Alberta?s vast oil sands, with ?unintended consequences for both countries?. In a letter to Robert Gates, US defence secretary, Canada said that it ?would not want to see an expansive interpretation? of the Energy Independence and Security Act 2007. A copy of the letter, from Michael Wilson, Canadian ambassador, and copied to Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and Samuel Bodman, US energy secretary, has been obtained by the Financial Times. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/canada-warns-us-over-oil -sands.html Spain?s Socialists celebrate poll victory By Leslie Crawford and Mark Mulligan in Madrid. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 9 2008 13:11 | Last updated: March 10 2008 09:59. Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero greets supporters after his election victory. Spain?s ruling Socialist were on Monday celebrating victory, after winning a second term with an expanded majority in a general election overshadowed by the resurgence of Basque terrorism and a slowing economy. The result is a big personal victory for Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero, Socialist leader and prime minister, who emerges with a second successive victory against the opposition Popular party. Mr Zapatero said he hoped the results would usher in ?a new era free of tensions? to overcome the bitter divisions that have plagued Spanish politics since the 2004 Madrid train bombings. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/spains-socialists-celebr ate-poll.html Mess-O-Potamia International Herald Tribune Editorial: Firing an admiral for speaking the truth. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 13, 2008. It is a worrisome sign that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to accept the obviously forced resignation of Admiral William Fallon, chief of the United States Central Command. Even if Gates was right to say, as he did Tuesday, that it would be "ridiculous" to take Fallon's departure as an augury of war with Iran, the fate of the outspoken admiral suggests that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have learned nothing about the value of letting military chiefs speak their minds, particularly when they disagree with questionable administration doctrines. As Central Command chief, Fallon presided over U.S. military operations in the Middle East. In a recent Esquire article that precipitated his ouster, he sagely observed that in this region, "where five or six pots are boiling over, our nation can't afford to be mesmerized by one problem" - an assertion that has been interpreted as a rebuke of Bush's approach toward Iran's nuclear aspirations. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_14.html Petraeus: Iraqi leaders fall short - Political expectations of 'surge' unfulfilled By Cameron W. Barr Copyright by The The Washington Post. March 14, 2008. BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday. Petraeus, who is preparing to testify before Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that "no one" in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in the provision of basic public services. The general's comments appeared to be his sternest to date on Iraq's failure to achieve political reconciliation. In February, after the passage of laws on the budget, an amnesty for certain detainees and provincial elections, Petraeus was more encouraging. "The passage of the three laws today showed that the Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of the opportunity that coalition and Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide," he said at the time. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/petraeus-iraqi-leaders-f all-short.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Helping Iraqi refugees who helped America. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 12, 2008. The Iraqis who have worked for the U.S. government during the war have a "bull's-eye on their back," as Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts put it last year. Theirs aren't the only lives at risk, either; militants have kidnapped or killed relatives of those employed by the United States. These workers need - and are owed - safe ways to build new lives. Some of these workers are relocating to the United States on "special immigrant" visas. A new law backed by Kennedy increased the number of visas from 500 in an earlier program to 5,000. The law also expanded beyond interpreters and translators to include all Iraqis who work for the United States. This could include cooks, drivers, and fixers. And like refugees, special immigrants have access to resettlement programs run by the federal government. Unfortunately, federal officials have stopped processing these visas, citing snags over such logistics as how visa applicants can prove that they face a threat in Iraq as a result of working for the United States. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_13.html Archbishop kidnapped in Mosul is found dead By Erica Goode. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 13, 2008. BAGHDAD: The body of the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, who was kidnapped by gunmen in Mosul in northern Iraq late last month as he drove home after afternoon Mass, was discovered Thursday in an area south of the city, church officials and the Iraqi police said. A church official in Baghdad, Cardinal Emmanuel Dali, confirmed that the body of the archbishop, Paulos Faraj Rahho, had been found and taken to the morgue in Mosul. The body will be released to the archbishop's family late Friday or early Saturday so that they can bury him, Dali said. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/archbishop-kidnapped-in- mosul-is-found.html 8 U.S. soldiers die in Iraq By Liz Sly. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 8:42 AM CDT, March 11, 2008. BAGHDAD - On the bloodiest day for U.S. forces in Iraq in eight months, eight soldiers died Monday in two separate bombings, including five who were killed in an upscale Baghdad district by a man wearing a suicide vest who mingled with their patrol. Three other soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb that struck their patrol in the troubled eastern province of Diyala, the military said in a statement released early Tuesday. Their Iraqi interpreter also was killed, and another U.S. soldier was injured. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/8-us-soldiers-die-in-ira q.html Bombs Reported to Kill 4 in Mosul. By ANNA JOHNSON. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 6:30 AM CST, March 7, 2008. BAGHDAD - Bombings in the northern city of Mosul, an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold, killed at least four people and wounded 46 on Friday, officials said, while relatives mourned the victims of an attack that killed 68 in a Baghdad shopping district. The carnage was a grim reminder of the continuing danger in Iraq, which nonetheless has seen major security gains in the last half-year. An extremist detonated an explosives-laden car outside a police station's front gate in Mosul, killing at least three and wounding 32, authorities said. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/bombs-reported-to-kill-4 -in-mosul.html China International Herald Tribune Editorial: China terrorizes Tibet. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 18, 2008. It was impossible not to notice that the United States removed China from its list of top 10 human rights violators just as the biggest anti-China protests in 20 years erupted in Tibet. Even when handed that undeserved dispensation, the Beijing government cannot control its authoritarian nature. A week of protests in Tibet turned violent on Friday as Chinese security forces clashed with hundreds of Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans. Information was hard to verify, but news reports said a market in the capital was burned; at least 16, and perhaps many more, people were killed; and paramilitary police and troops were deployed. Over the weekend, rioting spread to neighboring provinces, and demonstrations even reached Beijing. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_19.html Financial Times Editorial Comment:: Trouble in Tibet. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 16 2008 18:16 | Last updated: March 16 2008 18:16. China?s Communist party has lied for so long about the situation in the supposedly autonomous region of Tibet that Beijing officials, and the Chinese people as a whole, now believe their own propaganda. The dangers of this approach have become evident in the past few days. Far from being grateful to Beijing for the benefits of modernisation and economic development, many Tibetans bitterly resent the government and the Han Chinese migrants who have flooded into Tibet and who dominate commerce. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment_17.html France raises idea of boycotting Olympics ceremony over Tibet By Katrin Bennhold. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 18, 2008. PARIS: Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France said Tuesday that the European Union should consider punishing China's crackdown in Tibet with a boycott of the opening ceremony of this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. His comments followed an appeal by the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders to governments across the world to shun the highly symbolic ceremony during which the Olympic flame is lighted. European leaders have been conspicuously quiet since protesters and the Chinese police first clashed in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, a week ago. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/france-raises-idea-of-bo ycotting.html Clooney Puts Pressure on Olympic Sponsor. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 7:33 AM CDT, March 11, 2008. LONDON - Hollywood star George Clooney has put pressure on an Olympic sponsor to speak out over China's foreign policy in Sudan. Clooney promotes Omega Watches -- one of the worldwide Olympic partners for the Beijing games. "I have talked with Omega (about China) for over a year and will continue to talk to Omega," Clooney was quoted as saying on the BBC Web site on Tuesday. "I have and will go to the places I and China do business and ask for help." Clooney has publicly spoken several times about the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in three years of fighting between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/clooney-puts-pressure-on -olympic.html National America's Shame by Carlos T Mock. Copyright by Carlos T Mock 2008. March 16, 2008. How gullible are we? If the story is about sex and scandal we allow ourselves to be completely distracted. We act like life is a reality show when sex comes up and we're appalled at the 'immoral behavior of our elected officials'. However, the country is tolerant of an administration that lied to the country for political gain, invaded a country without provocation, has caused the death of four thousand American soldiers, wounded more than forty thousand?not to mention the death of sixty thousand Iraqis with the displacement of four million who are in exile in Jordan and Syria. While forty seven million Americans are without health insurance, our economy is in shambles?one out of five hundred Americans is about to lose their homes, banks are suffering a credit crunch not seen since the Great depression of 1929?our citizens do not seem to care that this irresponsible administration is spending billions of dollars in Iraq every day. My concern is ideological, moral, and, to a certain degree, political. While Spitzer is now out of a job and the butt of late-night jokes; the reality is that other than Spitzer and his family, no one else was harmed. No one will die for his actions. No American will lose his job or his health insurance for Spitzer's transgression. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/americas-shame-by-carlos -t-mock.html Chicago Tribune Editorial - Take aim at guns. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 12, 2008. You can trace the end of gun control as a winning political issue to the 1994 midterm election, when Democrats lost control of the U.S. House and blamed that, in large part, on their support for a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons. You start with that election. And you follow the line to the killings at Columbine High School in 1999 -- Congress did nothing in response, and paid no political price. Congress allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004; that caused barely a whimper. The number of murders with firearms steadily declined from 1994 through the end of the decade, which probably helped to take off some of the political pressure to support gun control. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-tribune-editoria l-take-aim-at.html High court signals gun sentiments - Some weigh in on 2nd Amendment By James Oliphant. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 10:54 PM CDT, March 18, 2008. WASHINGTON ? A majority of Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared ready to make history and embrace the view that the 2nd Amendment creates an individual right to own a gun, placing Washington, D.C.'s ban on handguns at risk and perhaps jeopardizing Chicago's anti-gun law as well. In oral arguments in a case challenging the District of Columbia's law, which prohibits ownership of handguns and allows rifles or shotguns only if they are trigger-locked or disassembled, the more conservative members of the court repeatedly expressed a view that the long-debated provision contains some sort of right of self-defense. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/high-court-signals-gun-s entiments-some.html Bush Whacking International Herald Tribune Editorial: Bush-colored glasses. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 16, 2008. President George W. Bush admitted on Friday that times are tough. So much for the straight talk. Bush went on to paint a false picture of the economy. He dismissed virtually every proposal Congress is working on to alleviate the mortgage crisis. And despite the rush of serious problems - frozen credit markets, millions of impending mortgage defaults, solvency issues at banks, a plunging dollar - he said that a major source of uncertainty today is whether his tax cuts, scheduled to expire in 2010, would be extended. This was too far afield of reality to be dismissed as simple cheerleading. It points to the pressing need for a coherent plan to steer through what some economists are now predicting could be a severe downturn. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_17.html There's no room for real life in Bush's world. Leonard Pitts: McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 11, 2008. Here's how it is out there. Awhile back, I was at the self-checkout counter of a hardware store. A young man approached and offered to put my $20 purchase on his store gift card if I would give him $10 in cash. He said he had no money for gas. I let him put my purchase on his card, but I gave him the full amount back. It was the second time in a week I'd been asked by a stranger for help in filling the tank. And this was before last week's prediction of a spike in gas prices to $4 a gallon. So I am intrigued by the following exchange between President Bush and CBS News reporter Peter Maer at a recent news conference. "What is your advice," Maer began, "to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing ..." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/theres-no-room-for-real- life-in-bushs.html International Herald Tribune Editorial: Timid fiddling while mortgages burn. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 14, 2008. The Bush administration's proposal for revamping the nation's ailing mortgage market contains some sensible ideas. But they are still too modest and rely far too much on the voluntary cooperation and public spiritedness of the private sector, which has shown little of either since the housing and credit crisis began. Until the White House and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. develop a real sense of urgency, and more serious policies, they are not going to rebuild confidence or ensure that today's problems are not repeated in the future. What is especially frustrating is that many of the administration's proposals aren't new. The House of Representatives passed legislation four months ago that contained some of the same requirements - but in greater detail and with more muscle. Stronger versions of the proposals are also in bills pending in the Senate, including one that Republicans recently blocked from being considered for debate. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_15.html US pays price in power for Iraq role By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Stephen Fidler in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 18 2008 19:19 | Last updated: March 18 2008 23:18. US power and prestige around the world continues to suffer from the war in Iraq and its aftermath, and the next president will struggle to repair the damage, many foreign policy specialists argue. But the Bush administration continues to defend its decision to launch the war five years ago on Wednesday, and prominent voices argue that a decision to withdraw US forces soon would send an unfortunate signal to the west?s adversaries. ?A rapid withdrawal would be a demonstration in the region of the impotence of western power,? Henry Kissinger, the former Republican secretary of state, told Der Spiegel last month. ?Hamas, Hizbollah and al-Qaeda would achieve a more dominant role and the ability of western nations to shape events would be sharply reduced,? he said. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-pays-price-in-power-f or-iraq-role.html Democrats attack Bush waterboarding veto By James Politi in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 9 2008 20:21 | Last updated: March 9 2008 20:21. Democrats on Sunday attacked US president George W.?Bush for using a veto to block legislation that would have barred the use by the Central Intelligence Agency of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. ?The CIA?s programme damages our national security by weakening our legal and moral authority, and by providing al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups [with] a recruiting and motivational tool,? said Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee. Mr Rockefeller added that ?by continuing this interrogation programme, the president is sacrificing our strategic advantage for questionable tactical gain?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/democrats-attack-bush-wa terboarding.html Indecision 2008 McCain rebuffed on spending curbs. By Andrew Ward in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 14 2008 16:23 | Last updated: March 14 2008 16:23. John McCain has been rebuffed by fellow senators in his bid to place restrictions on so-called pork barrel spending projects, casting doubt on his ability to impose greater fiscal discipline on Congress if elected president. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has made it one of his main campaign promises to clamp down on wasteful government spending but Thursday night?s vote highlighted the difficulty he will face fulfilling the pledge. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccain-rebuffed-on-spend ing-curbs.html McCain under fire over Pentagon contract By Andrew Ward in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 11 2008 19:30 | Last updated: March 11 2008 19:30. John McCain faced fresh scrutiny of his role in the award of a $35bn (?23bn, ?17bn) Pentagon contract to EADS on Tuesday after it emerged that some of his top advisers lobbied for the European aerospace group to win the deal. Mr McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has portrayed himself as a neutral watchdog in the long battle between EADS and Boeing to supply a new generation of refuelling tanker aircraft to the US air force. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccain-under-fire-over-p entagon.html JOHN McCAIN - Consistent on Iraq... ...consistent in folly By Steve Chapman. March 6, 2008. On the campaign trail, John McCain has retreated on immigration, changed his mind on tax cuts and admitted economics is not his strong suit. But all that's unimportant, we are told, because he was Right On Iraq -- back at the beginning, when he endorsed the invasion, and again over the last year, when he has stoutly supported the surge. So, whichever Democrat he faces, the November election could be a referendum on the Iraq war and his support for it. If so, that may not be a plus for McCain. McCain has been consistent about Iraq, in the sense of being consistently wrong. If the American people get a long look at what he's said and a clear picture of our fortunes in Iraq, he may yearn for the days when he was being pilloried for offering "amnesty" to illegal immigrants. McCain portrays himself as uniquely clear-eyed about the war. In fact, those eyes have often been full of stars. When Army Gen. Eric Shinseki forecast that more troops would be needed, McCain didn't fret. Shortly before the invasion, he said, "I have no qualms about our strategic plans." As the online magazine Salon reports, he predicted the war would be "another chapter in the glorious history of the United States of America." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/john-mccain-consistent-o n-iraq.html Florida won't redo its Democratic primary - State's 210 delegates left in limbo. Copyright by The Associated Press. March 18, 2008. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote and threw the delegate dispute into the lap of the national party. While the decision by Florida Democrats left the state's 210 delegates in limbo, Democrats in Michigan moved closer to holding another contest on June 3. Legislative leaders reviewed a measure Monday that would set up a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary, the Associated Press learned. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/florida-wont-redo-its-de mocratic.html Chicagoland Providing health care in Cook County. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 12, 2008. As physicians who care for hundreds of thousands of patients -- the medically uninsured and underinsured -- who rely on the hospitals and clinics of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services for their health care, we applaud President Todd Stroger and the Cook County Board of Commissioners for reaching a compromise that will raise the revenue necessary to restore services lost in the 2007 budget cuts and will reform the bureau's governance. Two acts of courage were necessary to bring this about. First, while all the commissioners recognized the importance of county health services to the community, Commissioner Larry Suffredin was instrumental in breaking the months-long stalemate on how best to obtain the revenue necessary to forestall further damage to our mission to provide effective health care regardless of the ability to pay. In addition, by winning passage of an ordinance creating an independent Cook County Bureau of Health Directors, consisting of professionals with the experience and expertise necessary to successfully operate our large and complex health-care system and whose loyalties to the bureau and its patients will be undivided, Suffredin has steered the bureau toward its best chance for sustained viability and growth. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/providing-health-care-in -cook-county.html 'Soft' ecomony prompts hard spending cuts for city - $20 million trim may hurt some services, he says By Gary Washburn. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 14, 2008. In a warning sign that Chicago's budget may be off the mark just three months in, Mayor Richard Daley announced $20 million in spending cuts Thursday, citing a "soft" economy. The reductions put the city "at the point" where citizens may begin to feel an impact on services, Daley said, but added he did not yet know which services might be affected. The mayor said he expects the national economic downturn will mean diminishing tax and fee revenues in Chicago. And city officials acknowledged they're watching to see if sales tax collections will take a hit because of a new 10.25 percent rate that threatens to push some buyers to stores outside Cook County when in full effect July 1. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/soft-ecomony-prompts-har d-spending-cuts.html Changing of the guard in Chicago Police Department - 'Make the city proud,' superintendent tells newly sworn-in commanders By Angela Rozas. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 12:44 PM CDT, March 14, 2008. Chicago police Supt. Jody Weis on Friday swore in more than 40 district commanders and other officers who have been assigned new positions in a sweeping shake-up of the department's ranks. At a ceremony in police headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave., Weis told the officers he believed they all had proven track records and that their reassignments were a signal that the department had "stepped out of the shadow" of the past. "I am extremely pleased with the talent and the energy that our new team represents," Weis said. He told the officers that the public and the rest of the department would be watching and asked them to "make the city proud." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/changing-of-guard-in-chi cago-police.html GLBT Gay Bishop Out of Anglican Summit By RACHEL ZOLL. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 9:47 AM CDT, March 11, 2008. NEW YORK - The first openly gay Episcopal bishop announced he will have no official role in a meeting this summer of world Anglican leaders, saying restrictions that organizers wanted to place on his involvement had caused him "considerable pain." New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson had been told last year that he could not fully participate in the once-a-decade gathering in England, called the Lambeth Conference, as the world Anglican Communion sat on the brink of schism over his 2003 election. Still, Episcopal leaders had been negotiating with the Anglican Communion Office to allow him to join the event in some capacity. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the U.S. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/gay-bishop-out-of-anglic an-summit.html Unmarried Partners ? Partnership Agreements. Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. March 11, 2008. Agreements do not have to be drafted and executed every time two people decide to live together or to help each other financially, but when decisions are made which involve long periods of time and serious financial commitments, you ought to consider documenting your intentions. Partnership or living together agreements are contracts between partners, lovers and/or people who live together, describing how finances will be managed and defining their obligations and duties within their living arrangement. Such a document can state what property belongs to whom and how that property will be divided between the couple, should they break up. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/unmarried-partners-partn ership.html Local site to save LGBT organizations money. Copyright by The windy City Times. 2008-03-12. A father-daughter team recently announced the launch of a new Web site to save LGBT organizations and allies money on office supplies.. Queer Inky, www.queerinky.com , provides low-cost inkjet supplies to the community and its allies. The Web site is run by father-daughter team Stacy and Craig Jacobs. Queer Inky said that it will give back to the LGBT community by featuring a non-profit organization each month. The chosen organization will receive a portion of Queer Inky's proceeds from inkjet sales. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/local-site-to-save-lgbt- organizations.html Chicagoan appointed to GLAAD board. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-03-12. Chicago resident Bill Stewart was appointed to Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's ( GLAAD ) 35-member national board of directors. Stewart is the senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Kmart Corporation. He has been involved in a number of non-profits, and is also the executive sponsor of the Sears Holdings Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender employee association. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicagoan-appointed-to-g laad-board.html Your Money Recession Time - As the economy teeters between bad and worse, one question looms: What's the best course of action? Here's what can be done. And what can't by Peter Coy. Copyright by Business Week. March 24, 2008. Waking Up To the Recession Wall Street got its hopes up on Mar. 11. Elated by a Federal Reserve move to stop the credit crunch, the U.S. stock market posted its biggest one-day gain in five years, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising more than 400 points. Look out, though. Fed officials are the first to acknowledge that their initiative attacks only one problem, the liquidity squeeze at big banks. It does nothing about the central risk to the U.S. economy: an unprecedented crash in home values that is sapping households' wealth and confidence while putting an enormous strain on the banking system. How bad will this downturn get? No one can know because we've never experienced such a headlong slide in the housing market?and this comes at a time when its current value of $20 trillion accounts for the vast majority of most families' wealth. Right now most economists expect the U.S. to experience a mild, short recession in 2008. But there is at least a possibility of a steeper decline that the traditional recession remedies?interest-rate cuts here, deficit spending there?won't be able to handle. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/recession-time-as-econom y-teeters.html Financial Times Editorial Comment: Intervene to slow the dollar?s decline. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 13 2008 19:41 | Last updated: March 13 2008 19:41. Selling the dollar is now close to a one-way bet. So great is concern about the health of the US financial system that the dollar traded below Y100 on Thursday, and above $1.56 against the euro. The danger of a dollar rout is rising, and the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Japan?s Ministry of Fi?nance should co-ordinate intervention to slow the greenback?s fall. Aggressive rate cuts and fears that US taxpayers will have to bail out their banks are undermining the dollar. Both make a surge in US inflation more likely, and since the Fed first cut rates last September the risk has been that foreign investors lose confidence, dump assets and trigger a run on the dollar. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment_14.html International Herald Tribune Editorial: Who'll come to the rescue? Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 18, 2008. The more the U.S. Federal Reserve does to avert financial contagion, the clearer it becomes that the Fed alone cannot solve the problems in the financial system. It's now obvious that American taxpayers will have to step in. Less obvious is that if the United States government doesn't stabilize the markets, foreign governments increasingly will, in exchange for an ever larger stake in the American financial system. Over the weekend, the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson Jr. said the government would do "what it takes" to keep order in the financial markets. On Monday, President George W. Bush echoed that point. The American people need an explanation of what they may have in mind. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_577.html Financial Times Editorial Content: The Fed risks doing too much. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 18 2008 19:21 | Last updated: March 18 2008 19:21. So the US Federal Reserve cut by 75 basis points rather than 100 basis points: when the numbers are big enough, a small difference between them can seem unimportant. But with rates down to 2.25 per cent, every 25bp makes a significant difference to the Fed?s brave but perilous monetary policy. There was ample bad news for the Fed to ponder, from evidence that the real economy is now finding it harder to borrow money, to accelerating falls in house prices; from consistently weak job creation to the near failure of Bear Stearns. The Fed?s focus on reducing the danger of severe recession calls for looser policy than current inflation would normally justify, and if the Fed wants rates below 2 per cent, it is right to move there quickly. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-content-fed.html JPMorgan to buy Bear Stearns for $236m By Francesco Guerrera in New York and Henny Sender in Abu Dhabi. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 16 2008 18:03 | Last updated: March 17 2008 01:49 JPMorgan Chase agreed on Sunday to buy Bear Stearns, the stricken US investment bank, for about $236m in shares in a deal that puts an end to Bear?s 85 years of independence and highlights the risks faced by banks during the credit crunch. JPMorgan?s cut-price takeover of Bear, which has the backing of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, came as the Fed cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks and created a special lending facility for primary dealers ? two emergency moves aimed at stabilising financial markets. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/jpmorgan-to-buy-bear-ste arns-for-236m.html Emergency funding for Bear By Aline van Duyn, Anuj Gangahar, Stacy-Marie Ishmael and Ben White in New York and Krishna Guha in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 14 2008 14:05 | Last updated: March 14 2008 16:50. Confidence in Bear Stearns collapsed on Friday after the US investment bank said it had arranged for an unspecified amount of emergency funding from JP Morgan and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York because its liquidity position had ?significantly deteriorated?. In early New York trading, Bear Stearns shares plunged as much as 50 per cent, pulling the rest of the US stock market down. The shares have been hammered by concerns about the bank?s liquidity and had fallen more than 30 per cent this week alone in highly volatile trading. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/emergency-funding-for-be ar.html Change for a penny? - With pennies, nickels costing more to make than they're worth, Congress considers metal makeover By Jim Tankersley. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 12, 2008. WASHINGTON ? These days, your thoughts are worth 1.7 cents. That's what it costs the government to forge a penny, thanks to the rising price of metal. A nickel costs 10 cents. Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has concluded that's a pretty bad deal. A House subcommittee led by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) convened a hearing Tuesday on a proposal to change the composition of both coins. Republicans and Democrats like the concept, particularly its promise to save taxpayers $100 million a year by using cheaper metals at the U.S. Mint. If the legislation clears the House and Senate and President Bush signs it, you could be plucking steel pennies off the street before year's end. In Washington, of course, nothing is that simple. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/change-for-penny-with-pe nnies-nickels.html Prescription drug sales growth lowest in 46 years. Copyright by The Associated Press. March 13, 2008. NORWALK, Conn. - Sales growth in the U.S. prescription drug market slowed to the lowest rate in 46 years in 2007 as more brand-name drugs lost their exclusivity to generics and new product approvals declined, according to a report issued Wednesday. Sales came to $286.5 billion in 2007, up 3.8 percent, IMS Health said in its annual U.S. Pharmaceutical Market Performance Review. The rate of growth was the lowest since 1961, when sales increased by 3.3 percent. Prescription drug sales grew by 8 percent in 2006. Growth moderated beginning in 2001 but picked up in 2006 with the start of the federally subsidized prescription drug program for seniors, IMS Health said. However, growth slowed again last year. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/prescription-drug-sales- growth-lowest.html Other Financial Times Editorial Comment: Papal indulgence. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 7 2008 19:42 | Last updated: March 7 2008 19:42. The Pope is opening the stable door 500 years after the horse has bolted. The Vatican has announced it will rehabilitate Martin Luther, the Augustinian monk whose disagreements with the Catholic Church led to his own excommunication and started the Protestant Reformation. The change in attitude to Luther follows another curious decision of the Vatican ? it is going to erect a statue to Galileo, the 17th century scientist who was declared a heretic by the Roman Inquisition. Given this astonishing reappraisal of two of history?s best known rebels against the Catholic Church, can it be long before Henry VIII is also welcomed back to the fold? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment-papal.html Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke dies By Dennis McLellan. Copyright ? 2008, The Los Angeles Times. 12:38 AM CDT, March 19, 2008. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who peered into the heavens with a homemade telescope as a boy and grew up to become a visionary titan of science-fiction writing and collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick on the landmark film "2001: A Space Odyssey," has died. He was 90. The British-born writer died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had made his home for decades, after experiencing a cardio-respiratory attack, his secretary, Rohan De Silva, told Reuters. Clarke, wrote scores of fiction and nonfiction books (some in collaboration) and more than 100 short stories -- as well as hundreds of articles and essays. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/science-fiction-writer-a rthur-c-clarke.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.carlostmock.com/pipermail/news/attachments/20080319/c47fdec1/attachment.html From ctmock at gmail.com Sat Mar 22 16:46:23 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:46:23 -0500 Subject: [News] The Stress Newsletter - March 22, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thought for the day > > Handle every stressful situation like a dog. > If you can't eat it or hump it. > Pee on it and walk away. Your Lack of Money Central banks float rescue ideas By Chris Giles and Krishna Guha in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 21 2008 22:02 | Last updated: March 21 2008 22:02. Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic are actively engaged in discussions about the feasibility of mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities as a possible solution to the credit crisis. Such a move would involve the use of public funds to shore up the market in a key financial instrument and restore confidence by ending the current vicious circle of forced sales, falling prices and weakening balance sheets The conversations, part of a broader exchange as to possible future steps in battling financial turmoil, are at an early stage. However, the fact that such a move is being discussed at all indicates the depth of concern that exists over the health of the banking system. It shows how far the policy debate has shifted in recent weeks as the crisis has spread to prime mortgage assets in the US and engulfed Bear Stearns, the investment bank. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/central-banks-float-resc ue-ideas.html Treasury bonds, for a new low price of just $100 by William Neikirk. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 22, 2008. Now here?s a twist: A Republican Treasury Department appears to be looking out for the truly small investor. The question is: What took them so long? The answer might be: The government has a bigger debt to cover and wants to expand the list of people who want to buy government securities directly. On Monday, April 7, all marketable Treasury bills, notes, bonds and the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities will be available for sale in minimum (and multiple) entries of $100. The figure was last changed in the Clinton administration, when the minimum purchase was dropped to $1,000. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/treasury-bonds-for-new-l ow-price-of.html Visa's record IPO a windfall for banks - Stock surges 28.4% on initial day of trading. Copyright by Bloomberg News. March 20, 2008. NEW YORK?Visa Inc.'s $17.9 billion initial public offering, the largest ever in the U.S., helped replenish the coffers of its U.S. bank owners, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., as they brace for more losses tied to mortgages and debt markets. Visa stock surged $12.50, or 28.4 percent, to $56.50, on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday on its first day of trading. The six biggest banks that hold Class B shares in San Francisco-based Visa might have made nearly $3.2 billion from the IPO, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That total could grow depending on how many of the 40.6 million overallotment shares the banks sell to meet additional demand. On Tuesday, underwriters sold 406 million Class A shares for $44 each. That's $2 more than the highest price predicted in Visa's prospectus. Visa overcame turbulent market conditions to shatter the U.S. record IPO of $10.6 billion, set by AT&T Wireless eight years ago. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/visas-record-ipo-windfal l-for-banks.html CIT Group draws $7.3bn in emergency aid By Stacy-Marie Ishmael in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 20 2008 17:56 | Last updated: March 20 2008 21:23. CIT Group, the largest independent commercial finance company in the US, on Thursday said it drew on $7.3bn in emergency credit lines and will sell assets to meet funding requirements. Shares closed 17.3 per cent down after falling as much as 45 per cent in an otherwise upbeat market. The cost of protecting CIT?s debt against default soared to a record, suggesting investors had lost confidence in the company. CIT, which leases aircraft and trains and provides financing to companies, is the latest company to run afoul of the deepening credit crisis, having lost access to the short-term financing it needs to fund its long-term assets. Jeffrey Peek, chief executive, blamed the ?protracted disruption? in the capital markets as well as recent credit ratings downgrades for the decision to tap the credit lines. The funds will be used to pay debt maturing this year, including commercial paper, a form of short-term financing. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/cit-group-draws-73bn-in- emergency-aid.html. Editorial comment: Are they next? Borders Book Stores May Be Sold By DAVID RUNK . Copyright by The Associated Press . 7:54 AM CDT, March 20, 2008. DETROIT - Borders, the nation's second-largest bookseller, said Thursday it may put itself up for sale and has lined up $42.5 million in financing to help the chain continue operations. Shares tumbled more than 17 percent, or $1.23, to $5.87 at the open of trade. Borders has lost market share both to online companies and to discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Borders Group Inc. said the financing commitment comes from investment funds affiliated with Pershing Square Capital Management LP, a major shareholder, and includes an offer to buy Borders' international businesses. "This takes care of our financial needs through 2008 and into 2009," Borders CEO George Jones told The Associated Press. "So this gives us the ability to be able to evaluate those opportunities and see what the best options might be as far as other things we might do." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/borders-book-stores-may- be-sold.html Gold and Commodities Oil $101.47 Silver Bullion $17.03 Gold Bullion $917 Platinum Bullion $ $1858 Commodities tumble in broad correction By Chris Flood. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 20 2008 10:48 | Last updated: March 20 2008 17:57. Oil prices sank below the $100 level on Thursday and gold fell as commodity markets continued to correct after a sharp sell-off in the previous session. Traders said funds were de-leveraging their positions, reducing risk exposures and moved into the safety of cash before the Easter break. ?The potential for further speculative liquidation across the commodities complex remains high in the near term, (but) the window of opportunity for a substantial pullback in commodity prices will likely close over the next few months,? said David Greely of Goldman Sachs. In energy markets, oil prices fell for a second session but short-covering before the Easter break helped WTI and Brent pare their losses by the end of trading in New York. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/commodities-tumble-in-br oad-correction.html Housing On Wall Street: Like banks, homeowners need leeway By Saskia Scholtes. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 21 2008 17:21 | Last updated: March 21 2008 17:21. As millions of American homeowners confront falling house prices and record foreclosures, it?s hard not to be troubled by the Federal Reserve?s extraordinary role in orchestrating the rescue of Bear Stearns this week. To many on main street, it looked like the Fed helped Wall Street avoid paying for its mistakes. After all, Bear Stearns played no small part in fuelling the credit crisis that brought it to the brink of bankruptcy last weekend. It seemed like rough justice to bail out Bear before throwing homeowners a lifeline. But a bail-out it was not. Bear Stearns was instead roundly punished for the risk-taking that brought it to?its?knees. The fifth-largest US investment bank was sold to JPMorgan for $2 a share on Sunday, a near vertical drop from the $160 share price it enjoyed in February last year. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-wall-street-like-bank s-homeowners.html Leery Lenders Demand More From Borrowers By ALAN ZIBEL and J.W. ELPHINSTONE. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 3:25 AM CDT, March 21, 2008. WASHINGTON - Just when consumers and the U.S. economy need banks to lend more freely, the mortgage industry is making it harder to borrow -- even for those with good credit. Mortgage insurers, whose backing is required for borrowers who can't afford the traditional 20 percent down payment on a home, have already flagged nearly a quarter of the nation's ZIP codes where they refuse to insure some home loans. That encompasses a wide variety of neighborhoods: McMansions in Scottsdale, Ariz.; luxury Miami condos; 1960 ranch houses in Flint, Mich.; and early 20th century kit homes in Metuchen, N.J. The entire states of California, Florida, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio and Nevada -- which have seen the highest foreclosure rates and the worst price declines -- are blackballed on some mortgage insurers' lists. Banks that have lost billions because of bad bets during the housing boom are now reverting to strict lending standards not seen in nearly 20 years, according to industry data and interviews with lenders. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/leery-lenders-demand-mor e-from.html $200 billion added to loan pool - Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac limits changed By Mary Umberger. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became the latest enlistees in the housing war Wednesday, when new regulations gave them an opening to pump up to $200 billion of liquidity into the beleaguered mortgage market. The two government-sponsored entities agreed to buy more mortgages after their regulator reduced the amount of capital they must hold to insulate themselves from losses. It was a big move welcomed by some but greeted with skepticism by others, because the housing problems and credit crunch run so deep. Wall Street embraced the news, with shares of Fannie rising $2.49, to $30.71, and Freddie up $3.88 to $29.90. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/200-billion-added-to-loa n-pool-fannie.html International Bin Laden threatens Europe - Warns of 'severe' reaction to prophet cartoons. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. March 20, 2008. CAIRO, Egypt -- Osama bin Laden, in a new audio message posted Wednesday, condemned the publication of drawings that he said insulted the Prophet Muhammad and warned Europeans of a ''severe'' reaction to come. The message, which appeared on a militant Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past and bore the logo of the extremist group's media wing al-Sahab, showed a still image of bin Laden aiming with an assault rifle. ''The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God,'' said a voice believed to be bin Laden's, without specifying what action would be taken. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/bin-laden-threatens-euro pe-warns-of.html Delanoe touted for president By Gary Barlow. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press. Wed, 03/19/2008 - 15:30. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe?s easy reelection win in France?s March 16 local elections has fueled speculation that he could challenge French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election. If that happens and Delanoe wins, he would be the first openly gay person to lead a major country. Sarkozy?s Union for a Popular Movement lost control of dozens of municipalities, including conservative Toulouse, as well as Strasbourg, Blois, Reims, Caen and Amiens. Sarkozy?s popularity has plummeted in the 10 months since he defeated another Socialist leader, Segolene Royal, for the presidency. Sarkozy promised market-oriented reforms of the French economy but has scaled back some of those proposals as the country?s economic indicators remain sluggish. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/delanoe-touted-for-presi dent.html Russia holds TNK-BP employee for ?spying? By Catherine Belton in Moscow. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 20 2008 16:25 | Last updated: March 20 2008 16:25. The diplomatic row between Russia and the UK threatened to spill over into the business sector on Thursday after Russia?s security service said it had detained an employee of TNK-BP, BP?s Russian oil joint venture, for spying. Only one day after police raided BP?s Moscow office and those of TNK-BP, Russia?s Federal Security Service said it had detained two brothers, one of whom worked at TNK-BP, for industrial espionage. The FSB, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, named the two brothers as Alexander and Ilya Zaslavsky, and said they had been detained on March 12 for ?collecting classified commercial information for a series of foreign oil and gas companies in order to gain concrete advantages over their Russian competitors?. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/russia-holds-tnk-bp-empl oyee-for-spying.html China Pelosi urges world to condemn Beijing By Amy Yee in Dharamsala and agencies. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 20 2008 14:20 | Last updated: March 21 2008 10:55. Tibetans in China?s tense southwestern province of Sichuan on Friday said they believed several people had been killed in anti-Chinese protests there after Beijing state media said police shot and wounded four rioters ??in self defense??. Meanwhile, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after meeting the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans? spiritual leader, that the free world would lose its moral authority to speak about human rights if it did not condemn Chinese oppression in Tibet. ?The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world,? Ms Pelosi told a gathering of about 2000 Tibetans after meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, the seat of his government-in-exile. The same government-in-exile on Thursday accused China of spreading ?propaganda? and ?lies? alleging Tibetans instigated violent protests. It also urged pro-Tibet demonstrators strictly to adhere to non-violence as China sends more troops into Tibetan-inhabited provinces to quell violent protests that erupted last week. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/pelosi-urges-world-to-co ndemn-beijing.html Opposition Wins Taiwan Presidential Vote By PETER ENAV. Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 8:33 AM CDT, March 22, 2008. TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's opposition candidate cruised to victory in the presidential election Saturday, promising to expand economic ties with China while protecting the island from being swallowed up politically by its giant communist neighbor. Fireworks lit up the sky over Ma Ying-jeou's headquarters, and cheering supporters put up victory posters before the former Taipei mayor climbed on stage and declared victory. "People want a clean a government instead of a corrupt one," said Ma, also a former justice minister. "They want a good economy, not a sluggish one. They don't want political feuding. They want peace across the Taiwan Strait. No war." Across town, a crying crowd gathered at the campaign office for ruling party candidate Frank Hsieh, a former premier. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/opposition-wins-taiwan-p residential.html Anti-China protests in Tibet illustrate reach of YouTube, but access to Internet video is far from universal. China shuts down access to video-sharing Web site By Wailin Wong and Eric Benderoff . Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:47 PM CDT, March 21, 2008. In June 1989, a single photograph of a solitary young man staring down a line of tanks became the iconic image of the Tiananmen Square protests. Almost 20 years later, the anti-Chinese protests in Tibet are the subject of thousands of videos captured by professional media outlets, plus the residents and tourists. Anyone with a camera and access to the Internet or a wireless phone network can upload a video from an international hot spot.The proliferation of user-generated content, whether shot with skill or a shaky hand, is transforming how people around the world take note. That now includes places where anti-government news images were scarce or non-existent. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/anti-china-protests-in-t ibet-illustrate.html Mess-o-potamia There is no such thing as a war for free By J. E. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. Five years ago, as the Bush administration was preparing to attack Iraq, it claimed that the war would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. We are now spending for military operations alone that amount every three months?and that sum does not even include future costs, such as disability and health benefits for returning troops. We estimate conservatively that by the time the war is over, it will have cost America in excess of $3 trillion, an amount so vast it is hard to fathom. The only way to grasp such numbers is to translate them into what a day or an hour of fighting costs, what economists refer to as the opportunity costs, what else we might have purchased. Many are worried about China's growing influence in Africa. But what we spend in aid to Africa amounts to but 10 days of upfront costs of fighting in Iraq. President Bush talked about the enormous financial problems facing Social Security, saying that drastic reforms?even privatization?were needed. Well, for one-sixth of the cost of an Iraq war, one could put Social Security on firm financial footing for at least the next 50 to 75 years. War is always expensive, but this war is particularly expensive. It is now the nation's second longest (after Vietnam) and the second costliest (after the all-encompassing World War II). The cost per troop, even adjusted for inflation, is some eight times greater than earlier wars. Many of these costs arise because the administration tried to persuade the American people that they could have a war for free. The government kept upfront costs down, not spending money on, for instance, vehicles that would have protected our troops against improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which have led to so many deaths and disabilities, even after they were urgently requested. This war is distinctive in the huge number of injuries, some 15 times the number of fatalities?a tribute to modern medicine, but an unfunded liability in excess of $600 billion, costs that we will be paying for decades. (The administration has done all it can to hide these numbers; working through veterans groups, we had to use the Freedom of Information Act to get the full scope of the injuries.) http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/there-is-no-such-thing-a s-war-for-free.html Financial Times Editorial Comment: Today?s task is to mend broken Iraq. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 19 2008 19:32 | Last updated: March 19 2008 19:32. Five years after it was invaded, Iraq has been broken as a country. Already traumatised by tyranny and war, it has now been torn asunder by an occupation that was certain to ignite violent insurgency, and by a savage sectarian struggle for supremacy. Triumphalist claims by President George W. Bush that the year-long US troops ?surge? has turned Iraq around merely add another sorry chapter to this saga of serial delusion and epic bungling. By any measure, Iraqi society has all but dissolved. Ethno-sectarian cleansing has cut through the tissue of the nation like acid, not just by region but street by street. Iraq has not just fragmented into three big chunks, a Shia south, Sunni centre and Kurdish north; Iraqis were never that neat. The country has unravelled into a terrifying patchwork under the control of competing militias in a multi-sided civil war. Yes, Saddam Hussein, a vile dictator, has gone. But dozens of little Saddams have taken his place. Probably hundreds of thousands have died. There has been a middle-class exodus, of teachers and doctors, civil servants and entrepreneurs: a haemorrhage of Iraq?s future. About one in six Iraqis has been uprooted by this cataclysm. The 2003 invasion was supposed to enable Mr Bush and his acolyte, Tony Blair, to pursue a radical new freedom agenda (tough on terrorism, tough on the causes of terrorism) and bring democracy to Iraq and the Arabs. Instead it has scattered Iraqis across the Middle East. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment_20.html Obama mocks McCain, Clinton on Iraq by Mike Dorning. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. ? Sen. Barack Obama mocked rivals Sen. John McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton as he delivered a speech here today highlighting his early opposition to the Iraq war on the fifth anniversary of the conflict?s start. Speaking at a community college near Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command, the Illinois Democrat honed in on McCain?s mix-up in the Middle East yesterday in which the Arizona senator said that Iran was providing support to Al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the Sunni insurgent groups there. In fact, U.S. intelligence agencies believe Iran is providing assistance to Shia militias, which are struggling against Sunni insurgent groups including Al Qaeda in Iraq. ?Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain (R-Ariz.) confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and al Qaeda,? Obama said. ?Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America?s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/bama-mocks-mccain-clinto n-on-iraq.html National Tips ruling is made to order for baristas - Starbucks must repay $100 million for gratuities shared with supervisors, a San Diego judge rules. By Roger Vincent and Andrea Chang. Copyright by The Los Angeles Times . March 21, 2008. Starbucks got caught with its hand in the tip jar and was ordered Thursday to pay California baristas more than $100 million In a San Diego County class-action lawsuit, a judge ordered the coffee giant to pay back tips, with interest, that the company had handed over to shift supervisors. Some baristas could receive more than $10,000, according to their attorney. The ruling was met with cheers by California baristas. "I'm stoked," said Leekeisha Smith, who makes coffee drinks in the Starbucks at Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. "Wow. I'm just shocked that we'll get that [money] back." Smith, 23, said she found out about the lawsuit from a letter sent to employees. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/tips-ruling-is-made-to-o rder-for.html Bush Whacking Rice apologises to Obama for breach ? Reuters Limited. March 21, 2008. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologized on Friday to Senator Barack Obama after it emerged that State Department contract workers improperly viewed the Democratic presidential candidate?s passport files. ?I told him that I was sorry and I told him that I myself would be very disturbed if I learned that somebody had looked into my passport file and therefore, I will stay on top of it and get to the bottom of it,? Ms Rice told reporters. The passport files of Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama?s rival for the Democratic nomination, and Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, were also were improperly accessed by State Department workers, a US official said on Friday The official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, declined further comment. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/rice-apologises-to-obama -for-breach.html Indecision 2008 Obama breaks the secret code By Christopher Caldwell. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 21 2008 18:22 | Last updated: March 21 2008 18:22. Towards the end of his speech about race on Tuesday, Barack Obama made an observation that was raw enough to knock any attentive American listener out of his chair. Mr Obama was talking about one of his campaign volunteers, a white woman in her 20s, who as a girl had proclaimed that her favourite food was mustard sandwiches, in the hope of making her single mother feel less bad about being poor. This girl had kept her faith in other people, Mr Obama said, even though ?perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother?s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work?. All Americans have heard such talk; no recent politician has ever been remotely brave enough to allude to it, even when quoting a hypothetical third party. It is not clear whether Mr Obama?s 37-minute address will help or hinder him on his road to the White House. But it is potentially a great service to his country. For one morning at least, Mr Obama left off trying to inspire and chose instead to explain. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-breaks-secret-code .html Obama wins support from Richardson ? Reuters Limited. March 21, 2008. PORTLAND, Oregon. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama?s bid for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, Obama?s aides said on Friday, in a boost for the Illinois senator. ?I can confirm that he (Bill Richardson) is endorsing (Obama) and that he will be at the rally in Portland tomorrow,? said an official with the Obama campaign. Richardson?s endorsement has been fiercely sought by both Obama and his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in part because as a Hispanic he is seen as influential within the Latino community, which could be a key voting bloc in the November presidential election. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-wins-support-from- richardson.html International Herald Tribune Editorial: Obama's courageous speech on race and religion. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune . Published: March 19, 2008. There are moments - increasingly rare in risk-abhorrent modern campaigns - when politicians are called upon to bare their fundamental beliefs. In the best of these moments, the speaker does not just salve the current political wound, but also illuminates larger, troubling issues that America is wrestling with. Inaugural addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt come to mind, as does John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech on religion, with its enduring vision of the separation between church and state. Senator Barack Obama, who has not faced such tests of character this year, faced one on Tuesday. It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better. Obama had to address race and religion, the two most toxic subjects in politics. It was not a moment to which Obama came easily. He hesitated uncomfortably long in dealing with the controversial remarks of his spiritual mentor and former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., who denounced the United States as endemically racist, murderous and corrupt. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_20.html Saying a mouthful - Obama makes audacious move in race talk By Clarence Page. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 19, 2008. If political campaigns were political movies, Barack Obama's Big Speech deserves a Big Oscar. The Big Speech is a key characteristic of political films and TV shows, from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to "West Wing," Slate's David Edelstein once wrote: "The candidate either bravely affirms principles over politics and is transfigured, or cravenly yields to expediency and is damned." Obama's Big Speech about race in Philadelphia went further than that. He bravely fought to save his presidential campaign by affirming principles over expediency as an argument for improving politics. Obama's campaign was in crisis, thanks to the polarizing rhetoric of his spiritual mentor and former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side. Sound bites of Wright characterizing the United States as fundamentally racist and the government as corrupt and murderous were being replayed endlessly on talk shows and the Internet. Obama's supporters, as well as reporters and other voters, were demanding answers. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/saying-mouthful-obama-ma kes-audacious.html Chicago Tribune Editorial: The uncommon candidate. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. It's not exactly like answering the phone at 3 a.m. to handle a national security crisis, but Sen. Barack Obama's handling of two incendiary political controversies in the last week has shown he is calm and confident under pressure. On Friday, Obama sat down with the Tribune and Sun-Times and said, in effect, "ask me anything you want about my dealings with Tony Rezko," the politically connected developer who is now on trial on corruption charges. No shortcuts. No unanswered questions. He answered, patiently and in detail. We can't recall a similar discussion with any political figure. Obama took a risk. He's now on the record in minute detail about every aspect of his relationship with Rezko. Every possible inconsistency, every shading, can now be picked apart. But by choosing to be utterly transparent, he established a level of trust. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-tribune-editoria l-uncommon.html Chicagoland Name on Levine's lips at trial: Blagojevich - Governor said talk to Rezko, witness testifies By Jeff Coen and Bob Secter. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:20 PM CDT, March 19, 2008. Stuart Levine wanted to thank Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a favor, and he did it in a big way. Just months into Blagojevich's new administration in 2003, the Democrat had decided to keep Levine, a Republican, on a state board that regulated hospital expansion. To express his gratitude, Levine chartered a plane to ferry Blagojevich and others to a series of fundraisers in New York on Oct. 29 of that year. On the flight back, Levine brought up to Blagojevich his reappointment to the hospital board post, Levine testified Wednesday at the federal corruption trial of Blagojevich friend and fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Blagojevich snapped, "Never discuss any state board with me," according to Levine. "Discuss them with either Tony Rezko or [Blagojevich fundraiser] Chris Kelly." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/name-on-levines-lips-at- trial.html Purpose of school `moment of silence' revealed By Eric Zorn. Copyright by The Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. All along, proponents of the new state mandate requiring public school students to observe a brief period of silence at the start of every classroom day have piously insisted that, oh, no, the mandate is not intended to encourage students to pray. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you chief sponsor of the bill, Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D.-Maywood), speaking during a panel discussion on "Chicago Tonight" Wednesday: We do it in the Illinois General Assembly. Before we convene, any day in the General Assembly, we have to say a prayer with a priest, a rabbi or some sort of clergy to start our day. And I believe it?s a huge contradiction not for it to be a suggestion that our youth do it... Atheist activist Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove, who is behind a federal class-action suit challenging the mandate and was seated next to Lightford on the panel, made note of her admission shortly thereafter. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/purpose-of-school-moment -of-silence.html Technology The risk for iPhone users: They know too much - The device makes it easy to search for data on the run. That can quickly turn a casual conversation into the Pursuit of Truth. By Michelle Quinn. Copyright by The Los Angeles Times. March 22, 2008. ?SMART? PHONE: The iPhone helps users track down information and cultivate a reputation as a know-it-all. (Gina Ferazzi When she whipped out her iPhone, Erica Sadum could feel her husband's eyes roll. But she had a point to prove. And in less than a minute, she was able to report to the skeptics around the dinner table that Menno Simons, whose followers are known as Mennonites, was in fact born in 1496. Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which went on sale nine months ago, isn't the only so-called smart phone that provides itinerant access to the Web. But its wide screen and top-quality browser make it easy to use and read, which means it can in seconds change a lighthearted conversation into the Pursuit of Truth. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/risk-for-iphone-users-th ey-know-too.html GLBT Norway moves toward marriage. Copyright by The Associated Press. Wed, 03/19/2008 - 15:29. OSLO, Norway?The Norwegian government proposed a marriage law March 14 that would give gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals, including church weddings, adoption and assisted pregnancies. The new legislation would replace a 1993 law that granted gays the right to enter civil unions similar to marriage but did not give them other benefits enjoyed by married couples. ?This new marriage law is a step forward along the lines of voting rights for all and equality laws,? said Minister of Children and Equality Anniken Huitfeldt. The measure gives gays the right to a church wedding but does not require any minister or religious organization to perform the ceremony. The proposal also grants the right to assisted pregnancies to lesbians and allows gays to be considered as adoptive parents. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/norway-moves-toward-marr iage.html Congress Moves to Repeal HIV-Positive Travel Ban by Bob Roehr. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-03-19. A bipartisan effort to repeal U.S. travel restrictions on persons who are HIV-positive is moving forward in the Senate. The language amendment has been added to legislation reauthorizing PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief. The effort is being led by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who introduced a similar stand alone repeal bill last December. Smith was not able to participate in a March 11 news conference on the measure. The travel restrictions were first imposed in 1987, at the height of AIDS hysteria, by then-Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. The arch-conservative inserted language into a bill that directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to add HIV to the list of medical conditions barring immigrants and visitors to the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services sought to loosen the restriction in the early 1990s but Congress took the opposite tack, writing the ban into immigration law. It is the only disease specifically mentioned in that statute. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/congress-moves-to-repeal -hiv-positive.html HIV notification bill fails in House. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-03-19. A bill that would have repealed an Illinois law that requires health departments to notify school principals of a student's HIV status was defeated in the House, 62-43. The HIV notification bill was sponsored by State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, out of concern for student safety. Current law notifies the school principal, who has the power to notify other school officials if necessary, such as the school nurse. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/hiv-notification-bill-fa ils-in-house.html Helping Trans Kids Out of the Shadows by Jacob Anderson-Minshall. ? 2008 Jacob Anderson-Minshall. 2008-03-19. ?How does a 14-year-old shoot a 15-year-old in the back of the head because he's wearing high heels?? trans activist Jenn Burleton mused about the recent murder of southern California teen. ?More than any other source of childhood abuse, teasing, and bullying?femininity in male children kills.? Dedicated to preventing another causalty, the founder and executiveirector of TransActive Education & Advocacy ( transactiveonline.org ) , a Portland, Ore.-based organization, works with parents and schools to support transgender and gender-variant children. ?This work is not just for trans kids,? she insists. ?Because all children are victims of gender expression oppression.? A lesbian-identified trans woman who recently celebrated her 25th anniversary with her partner, Burleton previously co-founded Trans Youth Family Allies ( TYFA?formerly Trans Youth Family Advocates ) a national organization providing support for trans kids and their families, where she served as the inaugural executive director and board president. Once a trans teen herself, in the mid-1960s, the then-12-year-old Burleton became one of the first?albeit, unsanctioned?trans youth to begin hormone treatments?after she discovered Dr. Harry Benjamin's The Transsexual Phenomenon and began stealing her mother's Premarin. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/helping-trans-kids-out-o f-shadows.html Obama pastor backs gay rights - Rev. Wright supported gay ministry, but failed to adopt ?affirming? status for church. By LOU CHIBBARO JR., . Copyright by The Washington Blade. Mar 20, 10:12 AM. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama?s controversial ex-pastor in Chicago has largely supported gay rights and has welcomed gays into his 8,000-member congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ, according to activists who know him. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently retired as the Trinity Church pastor, has been hit with a firestorm of criticism after news media outlets began airing video recordings of some of his fiery and racially charged sermons, including one in which he blamed U.S. foreign policy for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Obama distanced himself from Wright?s strident political positions but refused to ?disown? his pastor of nearly 20 years, reiterating his praise for Wright as his spiritual mentor. With Obama competing with rival presidential contender Hillary Clinton for gay votes in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, revelations of Wright?s controversial sermons have raised questions among some activists about whether Obama?s longtime pastor was among the preachers who delivered fire-and-brimstone sermons attacking homosexuality. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-pastor-backs-gay-r ights-rev.html U.S. syphilis rates climb for seventh year in a row By Matt Simonette. Copyright by The Chicago Free Press. Wed, 03/19/2008 - 15:27. The U.S. syphilis rate climbed for the seventh consecutive year, according to data released last week at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference held at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. The number of new cases is relatively low?11,181 in 2007?but the increasing numbers worry public health officials. The 2007 figures represent a 12-percent jump from 2006. About 64 percent of those new cases are gay men. ?The resurgence of syphilis among men who have sex with men since 2000 represents a formidable challenge to our STD prevention efforts, but one that can be overcome,?? said the CDC?s Dr. Kevin Fenton March 12. The syphilis rate among men increased 14 percent in 2007, said Dr. Hillard Weinstock of the CDC. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-syphilis-rates-climb- for-seventh.html Out Chicago author, Dwight Okita, is Amazon finalist. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-03-19. Out Chicago author Dwight Okita has been chosen as a finalist for an Amazon.com publishing contest. Okita is one of 10 finalists for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The openly gay local writer has also been active in Chicago as a performance poet and playwright. If Okita wins, he will receive a publishing contract. People can cast their vote through March 31 at www.amazon.com/abna . http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/out-chicago-author-dwigh t-okita-is.html Other CVS settles Medicaid overbilling charges By Ameet Sachdev. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 19, 2008. CVS Caremark Corp. agreed Tuesday to pay $36.7 million to settle charges it routinely overbilled Medicaid for a popular generic antacid drug, cheating federal and state governments out of millions of dollars over more than six years. Prosecutors say the pharmacy chain illegally substituted a more expensive capsule form of the drug instead of the prescribed tablets to increase its Medicaid reimbursement. Switching the form of the drug did not endanger patients, federal officials said. "Switching medication from tablets to capsules might seem harmless, but when that is done solely to increase profit ? pharmacies must know that they are subjecting themselves to the possibility of triple damages, civil penalties and attorney fees," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement. The CVS investigation, which began more than five years ago, is the second that targeted Medicaid fraud at pharmacies brought by the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. In 2006, Omnicare Inc., a leading supplier of drugs to nursing homes, paid $49.5 million to settle allegations similar to those in the CVS case. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/cvs-settles-medicaid-ove rbilling.html 7 charged in 2 rings that sold fraudulent art, prints - Cops say they played key roles in global rings that sold at least $5 million worth of fake pieces to thousands of people By Michael Higgins and Jeff Coen. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 20, 2008. Two Northbrook art dealers played key roles in international art-fraud rings that reaped more than $5 million selling thousands of fake "limited-edition" prints around the world, federal prosecutors charged Wednesday. In one case with links to Europe, a dealer sold so much fake art that distributors warned her to cut back, prosecutors alleged. She was among those charged in the two indictments unsealed in Chicago's federal court. One of the Northbrook dealers, Michael Zabrin, spoke in code as he discussed the counterfeit prints over the telephone with his European contacts, according to the charges. Zabrin went so far as to provide many customers with certificates that purported to prove the authenticity of the limited-edition prints, but prosecutors said they were fraudulent as well. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/7-charged-in-2-rings-tha t-sold.html llinois-shaped corn flake sells for $1,350 on eBay Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 12:17 AM CDT, March 22, 2008. CHICAGO - Two sisters from Virginia sold their Illinois-shaped corn flake on eBay Friday night for $1,350. "We were biting our nails all the way up to the finish, seeing what would happen," said Melissa McIntire, 23. "There's a lot of relief involved." The winner of the auction, which lasted more than a week, is the owner of a trivia Web site who wants to add the corn flake to a traveling museum. "We're starting a collection of pop culture and Americana items," said Monty Kerr of Austin, Texas. "We thought this was a fantastic one." http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/llinois-shaped-corn-flak e-sells-for.html Humor Be careful who you vote this year http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/be-careful-who-you-vote- this-year.html Retired People http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/retired-people.html The One-Semester-of-Spanish love song http://youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw 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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ctmock at gmail.com Sat Mar 29 15:52:34 2008 From: ctmock at gmail.com (Carlos Mock) Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:52:34 -0500 Subject: [News] Money can't buy happiness, and spending it can't fix economy Newsletter - March 29, 2008 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: > Market depression - Money can't buy happines, and spending it can't fix > economy By Louis Ren? Beres. Copyright ? 2008 Chicago Tribune. March 30, > 2008. On the surface, Wall Street's wild rideis the outcome of purely > economic factors. Yet at a deeper level, the ore problem of market weakness > and volatility is not fiscal, but human. As Americans, we are what we buy. > This basic message?received by everone, again and again, day after day?has > created a fragile economy based hyperconsumption. Such an economy, like the > society from which it sprins, is ultimately built upon sand. This is not > what we hear from the exerts, of course, who fill the airwaves wth details > of the housing slump and the credit crunch. It is not their task to go beyond > hard economics into soft psychology. But if we look more closely, it becomes> clear that we may have as much to learn about market crises from Sigmund Frd > and Carl Jung as we do from Adam Smith and Karl Marx. So long as w Americans > accept a negative savings rate as the price of appearing sucessful to others, > government "stimulus" checks will be beside the poi. Soon we must get a > handle on the unceasing public need for more and ore things, for tangible > goods that can seemingly validate us as individual. Wall Street's wild ride > will not slow down with the arrival of more mone to spread around in stores > or online. Even if we could actually fix marke problems by expanding > consumption, what sort of society would we encourae? Ralph Waldo Emerson > once spoke of "self-reliance." He understood that foolish "reliance upon > property" was the result of "a want of self-reliane." > http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/market-depresion-money-ca > nt-buy.html > > Financial Times Editorial Comment: Markto-market. Copyright The Financial > Times Limted 2008. Published: March 27 2008 19:46 | Last updated: March 27 > 2008 19:46. It is an alluring idea: solve the credit crunch at a stroke of > the accountant?s pn. But suspending mark-to-market accounting would only hide > banks? losses ?which would only add to suspicion about their solvency. The > problem isnot mark-to-market as such, it is the use of mark-to-market > accounting to uderpin pro-cyclical bank capital requirements, and it is the > capial regime that should be reviewed. Under traditional historic cost > accountng, bonds that a bank bought for $1m would sit on the balance sheet at > $m until the bank sold them, at which point any profit or loss would be > reognised. Under mark-to-market accounting ? which became widespread in the> 1990s ? the value of the bonds is constantly adjusted to reflect the price at > which they could currently be bought or sold. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editorial- > comment-mark.html > Your Lack of Mone Rebate check hinges on tax return By Humberto Cruz. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 30, 2008. This is not the year foprocrastinators. It's a year for fast action and, for some, smart planning. At stake: Getting our hands on the government's economic stimulus rebate checks as soon as possible or, in some cases, getting them at all. Million of American taxpayers, about 6 percent a year, ask for filing extensions. Many don't file their returns until the drop-dad Oct. 15 extension deadline. That's not a good idea now because we can't get rebate checks until the Internal Revenue Service receives our returns for 2007. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/rebate-check-hinges-on-t ax-return.html Cayne sells stake in Bear for $61m By Ben White in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: Mach 27 2008 23:24 | Last updated: March 27 2008 23:24. Jimmy Cayne, a onetime travelling salesman who became a paper billionaire last year as chief executive of Bear Stearns, hassold his entire stake in the investment bank for a little more than $61m. Acording to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Cayne sold 5.6m Bear shares for $10.84 each on Tuesday, a day after after JPMorgan Chase agreed to raise its bid for the stricken investment bank fivefold to $10 a share. Mr Cayne?s wife, Patricia, sold 45,669 shares at the same price. The sale by Mr Cayne, who helped build Bear into a maverick Wall Street powerhouse during four decades at the company, suggests he does not believe JPMorgan will have to raise its $10 a share bid. Shares in the stricken bank fell 5.6 per cent to $10.60 in after-hours trading. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/cayne-sells-stake-in-bea r-for-61m.html Gold and Commodities Oil $105.62 Silver Bullion $17.90 Gold Bullion $930 Platinum Bullion $ $2015 The dollar is falling at the right time By Martin Feldstein. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 18:52 | Last updated: March 27 2008 18:52. The dollar?s recent decline to a yen-dollar rate of 100 triggered numerous calls for exchange rate intervention. Advocates noted that the yen-dollar rate had not been so low since 1995 and that the dollar has fallen more than 20 per cent since 2002. But intervention proposals misunderstand the significance of the 100 yen-dollar rate, the recent dollar declines, the need for the increased US competitiveness and the potential adverse effects of intervention. Comparing the current exchange rate with the 100 yen per dollar in 1995 is misleading because of differences in US and Japanese inflation. Between 1995 and 2007, consumer prices rose 37 per cent in the US but remained virtually unchanged in Japan (a decline of less than 1 per cent). A dollar buys substantially less in the US today than it did in 1995 while 100 yen buys the same amount in Japan as it did then. Since it takes $1.37 in the US today to buy what a dollar bought in 1995, the yen would have to strengthen to 73 yen per dollar (i.e., 1 divided by 1.37) to cause a dollar to buy the same amount in Japan as it did in 1995. It is wrong, moreover, to read much into the dollar?s recent rapid decline. The value of the dollar, like other asset prices, fluctuates substantially from year to year. But over long periods of time the dollar?s real value has changed very little. The real, inflation-adjusted value of the dollar against a broad basket of currencies, has declined only 7 per cent over the past 20 years (i.e. less than 0.5 per cent per year). http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/dollar-is-falling-at-rig ht-time.html Treasury bonds, for a new low price of just $100 by William Neikirk. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 22, 2008. Now here?s a twist: A Republican Treasury Department appears to be looking out for the truly small investor. The question is: What took them so long? The answer might be: The government has a bigger debt to cover and wants to expand the list of people who want to buy government securities directly. On Monday, April 7, all marketable Treasury bills, notes, bonds and the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities will be available for sale in minimum (and multiple) entries of $100. The figure was last changed in the Clinton administration, when the minimum purchase was dropped to $1,000. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/treasury-bonds-for-new-l ow-price-of.html Housing Financial Times Editorial Comment: Not yet time for a bail-out of banks. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 28 2008 19:49 | Last updated: March 28 2008 19:49. The ?credit crunch? is nearly eight months old, yet shows little sign of easing. It has already forced the US Federal Reserve to slash its benchmark interest rate by 3 percentage points. It has driven central banks to make huge injections of liquidity into markets. Yet this activity has failed to give confidence to markets. So has the time come for a fiscal bail-out? The short answer is: no. ?The heart of the problem is not in the real economy; it is in the financial sector itself,? argued Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England this week. ?It stems from an ?overhang? on banks? balance sheets of assets in which markets have closed ... That has created uncertainty about the strength of banks? financial positions.? Inevitably, banks are now unwilling to extend credit. So spreads between official interest rates and the rates at which banks will lend to one another are unusually high. Worse, these spreads have again been rising in recent months. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment-not.html Signs of weakness in office market multiply By Robert Manor. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 29, 2008. Uncertainty is rising about the near future of the downtown office building market, as signs of weakness increase and concerns about 2009 grow. In one indication, the owners of the Aon Center have taken the distinctive structure off the market. "Given the current condition of the capital markets and the positive leasing momentum at the property, we're comfortable holding this asset for a while," Raymond L. Owens, executive vice president of capital markets for Piedmont Office Realty Trust, said in a statement. In addition to the Aon Center's failure to get an acceptable bid, the largest amount of new office space in nearly a generation is set to go on the downtown market next year, even as the nation is entering economic hard times. And Ernst & Young and Jones Lang LaSalle have both forecast weakness in downtown office space demand. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/signs-of-weakness-in-off ice-market.html International N Korea fuels tension with missile launch By Anna Fifield, Korea correspondent. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 28 2008 07:04 | Last updated: March 28 2008 07:04. North Korea on Friday fired a volley of short-range missiles into the sea from its west coast, a provocative move at a time when Pyongyang?s relations with both Seoul and Washington are coming under increasing strain. Analysts said the missile launches were aimed at ratcheting up the tension in the region, a day after North Korea expelled South Korean government officials from a joint industrial complex in retaliation for Seoul?s new tougher line against Pyongyang. Friday morning, North Korea launched three or four short-range missiles into the Yellow Sea between the Korean peninsula and China, South Korean officials said. The type of missiles could not be confirmed immediately but the Yonhap news agency in Seoul reported that they were Russian ?Styx? ship-to-ship missiles. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/n-korea-fuels-tension-wi th-missile.html Medvedev should expect the west?s respect ? and resolve By Philip Stephens. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 18:47 | Last updated: March 27 2008 18:47. Russia has a new president-elect. There are hopes in the US and Europe that Dmitry Medvedev could foreshadow a fresh start. After the wearing clashes with Vladimir Putin, the impulse is understandable. No one has gained from the cold peace. The west?s response to the changing of the Kremlin guard should be positive without being naive. Both sides would profit from a thaw, but an important line separates sensible conciliation from capitulation. The line was drawn, albeit inadvertently, by Mr Medvedev in his interview this week with the Financial Times. Ukraine and Georgia, the president-elect suggested, should be denied route maps to eventual membership of the Nato alliance. They must remain in Russia?s sphere of influence. The response to this must be unequivocal: Moscow cannot have a veto over the choices made by the democracies that have emerged from the former Soviet Union. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/medvedev-should-expect-w ests-respect.html Nato chief warns Putin over summit By James Blitz in Brussels. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 22:07 | Last updated: March 27 2008 22:07. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato?s secretary-general, has warned Vladimir Putin that next week?s annual summit of the 26-member alliance must not be marked by another display from the Russian president of ?unhelpful rhetoric? directed at the west. As the alliance members? heads of government prepare to meet in Bucharest, tensions between Nato and Russia are running high because of Washington?s insistence that Ukraine and Georgia should be allowed to take a major new step towards joining the organisation. But although the secretary-general said he was looking forward to frank exchanges between Mr Putin and alliance leaders at a session of the Nato-Russia Council ? the first to be held at summit level ? he said he hoped the discussion would also be constructive. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/nato-chief-warns-putin-o ver-summit.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - The broken ice of Antarctica. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 28, 2008. Winter is coming to Antarctica, and that may be the only thing that keeps another of its major ice shelves from collapsing. On Tuesday, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey announced that there had been an enormous fracture on the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf, which started breaking last month. That province of ice, a body of permanent floating ice about the size of Connecticut, lies on the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula, the part of the continent regarded as most vulnerable to climate change. Scientists flew over the break - itself covering some 160 square miles - and what they saw is remarkable: huge, geometrically fractured slabs of ice and, among them, the rubble of a catastrophic breach. A great swath of the ice shelf is being held in place by a thin band of ice. What matters isn't just the scale of this breakout. Changes in wind patterns and water temperatures related to global warming have begun to erode the ice sheets of western Antarctica at a faster rate than previously detected, and the total collapse of the Wilkins ice shelf is now within the realm of possibility. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_29.html China International Herald Tribune Editorial - Speak out on Tibet. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 24, 2008. China has cracked down on Tibet and neighboring provinces. It sent more troops into restive regions and made scores of arrests in Lhasa. It acknowledged firing on demonstrators in Sichuan. Yet, the response of the international community - and of the International Olympic Committee - has been tepid. Beijing must be called to account, especially since it will be the host to the 2008 Games. China has blocked most news coverage despite a pledge to give freer access to journalists in the run-up to the Olympics. Tibetan exile groups say as many as 100 people died in violence that followed a week of peaceful protests. Beijing puts the toll at about 20. The U.S. State Department says Tibet - taken by force by China in 1951 - is "one of China's poorest regions." Authorities have increased controls over the practice of Buddhism and committed serious human rights abuses. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_25.html Boston Globe Editorial: China's Communists in religious raiment. Copyright by The Boston Globe. Published: March 26, 2008. China's violent crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists might give the appearance of a clash between an atheist regime and a traditionalist community of faith. But China's Communist rulers seem to believe the only way they can extinguish the Tibetan spirit of resistance is to give themselves the spiritual authority to make the rules for Mahayana Buddhism, the religion of Tibetans. Adherents believe the current Dalai Lama is the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama, who was the Buddha of compassion. But in an edict issued last August, Beijing decreed that it will henceforth be "illegal and invalid" for anyone to become "a living Buddha without government approval." There may not be a precise Chinese term for the mind-set that produces such a bald assertion of authority over another people's belief system. The old Greek word is hubris. The Yiddish word would be chutzpah. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/boston-globe-editorial-c hinas.html Tibet monks disrupt China media event By Geoff Dyer in Lhasa. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 12:27 | Last updated: March 27 2008 18:41. The simmering political tensions in Tibet burst into the open on Thursday in one of Lhasa?s most important temples when a group of 30 young Buddhist monks interrupted a government organised visit by international journalists to shout about the lack of freedom in the country and in support of the Dalai Lama. The FT?s Geoff Dyer is one of a small group of foreign reporters allowed into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, for the first time since unrest began earlier this month The monks were clearly agitated and several wept openly as they accused the Chinese authorities of lying to the visiting journalists and promised further demonstrations. ?We want a free Tibet, we want a free Tibet,? shouted one of the young monks, who was crying at the time. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/tibet-monks-disrupt-chin a-media-event.html Plea to China to keep Olympics TV live By Roger Blitz in London. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 19:57 | Last updated: March 27 2008 19:57. The International Olympic Committee has asked China to promise not to delay transmissions of the Beijing games, after France raised concerns about Chinese television?s censoring of Tibet protests at the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece this week. French TV executives have asked the European Broadcasting Union to extract guarantees from Beijing that transmissions will be live and uninterrupted even if protests take place. Neither the IOC nor the EBU said they had any grounds to believe Beijing would renege on pledges for live transmission made two years ago and reaffirmed in January. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/plea-to-china-to-keep-ol ympics-tv-live.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Seizing the moment in cross-strait relations. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 26, 2008. Taiwan's voters have given themselves and China a chance for a healthy, new start. Last week, they elected a president who promised to strengthen relations with the mainland - while ensuring the autonomy of Taiwan's vibrant democracy. That should be a relief for both sides of the strait. Over the last decade, Taipei's push toward independence and Beijing's rhetorical bullying and real military buildup - including 1,000 missiles pointed at the island - fanned tensions and fears of war. The two governments must now seize this opportunity to build a productive new relationship. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_27.html Mess-o-potamia Financial Times Editorial Comment: The Basra fight for Shia supremacy. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 19:54 | Last updated: March 27 2008 19:54. The battle in southern Iraq between government forces and Basra militiamen not only demonstrates how fragile are the security gains of the US troops ?surge? of the past year. It could be the prelude to a deadly new phase in Iraq?s multi-cornered civil war, sucking American (and residual British) forces into the struggle for power within the majority Shia community. Ostensibly, the Iraqi national army offensive is to regain control of Basra, the gateway to the Gulf for Iraq?s oil industry, which fell into the lawless clutches of competing Shia militias while under British occupation. In that sense, the Basra push would seem unobjectionable: it is not only the right but the duty of any national government to extend the rule of law to all its citizens. This is, furthermore, the biggest operation mounted by Iraqi forces on their own. But the Shia-dominated administration of Nouri al-Maliki is a national government in name only. In practice it has ceased even pretending to pursue a communalist agenda, preferring the even narrower sectarian interest of the prime minister?s faction of the Da?wa (Call) party and that of its allies in the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq led by Abdelaziz al-Hakim. The Iraqi national army, moreover, is really rebadged militia: in this instance mostly the Badr brigades of the Supreme Council. That is why the offensive is targeting Moqtada al-Sadr?s Mahdi army. The Hakims, backed by Tehran as well as Washington, want power in Baghdad, but underpinned by an oil-rich mini-state made up of the nine mainly Shia provinces of southern Iraq. Another local militia, a Sadrist splinter called Fadhila (Virtue), mainly wants to control the lucrative oil-smuggling trade. It has buttressed these aims through rough control of the oil ministry and a project for a three-province mini-region that would contain most of Iraq?s oil. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-times-editoria l-comment-basra.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - The private sector's tramping in Iraq. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 24, 2008. As the nonpareil war profiteer in Iraq, Blackwater Worldwide keeps outdoing its own mercenary record. Blackwater executives have used inside influence as administration fund-raisers to multiply their no-bid war contracts a thousandfold to more than $1 billion. Blackwater guards redefined Ugly American for the Iraqi people in September in fatally shooting 17 civilians in a burst of "spray and pray" panic on Baghdad's streets. And now congressional investigators report dodgy bookkeeping by which Blackwater insists its 850 operatives in Iraq are separate contractors, not employees. That little device has allowed the company to avoid paying an estimated $50 million in U.S. payroll taxes. Tax and labor laws may have been violated by Blackwater's being awarded $144 million in contracts that were supposed to go to small businesses. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House government oversight committee, is calling for a multi-agency investigation. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_9308.html US sends in back-up for Iraqi offensive By Steve Negus, Iraq correspondent, and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 28 2008 18:20 | Last updated: March 28 2008 23:26. President George W. Bush called the Iraqi offensive in Basra a ?defining moment? on Friday as violence continued to spread across the country. ?This happens to be one of the provinces where the Iraqis are in the lead?and this is a good test for them,? Mr Bush said. Coalition forces sent in reinforcements as the Iraqi security forces admitted having difficulties subduing the radical Shia militants in the south of the country. The support included the first air strikes on Basra since the Iraqi operation began four days ago. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-sends-in-back-up-for- iraqi-offensive.html Anti-War Advocates Get Creative by Yasmin Nair. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-03-26. On the five-year anniversary of the United States' war on Iraq?Wed., March 19?anti-war protestors marched through downtown Chicago, echoing nationwide protests. Departing from tradition, a broad coalition of Chicago's anti-war groups decided to continue the spirit of protest with a day of ?creative actions? and civil disobedience on the following day, March 20. According to a spokesperson, Mitchell Szczepanczyk, groups and individuals were encouraged to speak out against the war outside the format of speeches and rallies. By his account, events began at 7 a.m with a group dropping a banner commemorating Malachi Richter, who self-immolated in protest of the war in 2006, at the Millenium Flame near the Kennedy Expressway. Reports of various actions throughout the area filtered in constantly, including one about a march at University of Illinois at Chicago, against a laboratory that does research on Raytheon Missile Defense Systems. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/anti-war-advocates-get-c reative.html National Puerto Rico's governor, 12 others charged in campaign probe By Manuel Ernesto Rivera. Copyright by The Associated Press. 3:54 PM CDT, March 27, 2008. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged Thursday with 19 counts in a campaign finance probe, including conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws and giving false testimony to the FBI. The indictment also charged 12 others associated with Acevedo's Popular Democratic Party as a result of a two-year grand jury investigation, acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said. Acevedo, a superdelegate for the Democratic Party who has pledged to support Sen. Barack Obama, served in Washington as the island's nonvoting delegate to Congress and was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/puerto-ricos-governor-12 -others-charged.html See Governor?s Televised response to the indictment at: http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/portada/noticias/buscan_sangre._no_ tu_bienestar./383799 Bush Whacking Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Bush's reckless rhetoric undermines case vs. Iran. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. March 24, 2008. One of three fine candidates -- Hillary Clinton, John McCain or Barack Obama -- is likely to be our next president, and that day can't come soon enough. President Bush on Thursday, in an interview for a U.S. government radio program broadcasted into Iran, expressed in characteristically blunt language the danger he believes Iran poses to the world -- and everything he said might well be true. Iran, to be sure, is a threat to security in the Middle East, especially to Israel and Iraq. Our disappointment is with how the president said it -- in his usual imprecise way -- and with the very fact that it was he who said it -- this man of such lost credibility. In perilous times such as these, when an international or domestic crisis can erupt in a flash, America sorely needs a president who can be believed. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-sun-times-editor ial-bushs.html Species protection list dying off - Bush administration quietly makes designating U.S. plants and wildlife endangered considerably harder than in past By Juliet Eilperin. Copyright by The Washington Post. 12:01 AM CDT, March 24, 2008. WASHINGTON ? With little- noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Controversies have occasionally flared over Interior Department officials who repeatedly overruled agency scientists' recommendations to list new species. But internal documents also suggest that pervasive bureaucratic obstacles were erected to limit the number of species protected under one of the nation's best-known environmental laws. Officials also changed the way species are evaluated?by considering only their current range, not their historical range?and put decisions on other species in limbo by blocking citizen petitions that cause legal deadlines. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/species-protection-list- dying-off-bush.html International Herald Tribune Editorial - Taking a cue on energy from Europe and Japan. Copyright by The International Herald Tribune . Published: March 25, 2008. The surge in the price of energy couldn't come at a worse time. The average price of regular gasoline in the United States has shot up to a record $3.28 a gallon. Combine that with the collapse of the housing market and the seizure of the financial sector, and it is putting a boot to the gut of an economy that is either already in a recession or close to one. One can't entirely blame the Bush administration for the pain at the gas pump. But its shortsighted policies - focused on increasing the energy supply, with little attention paid to conservation and greater fuel efficiency - mean the country is far too dependent on oil that is both ruinously expensive and ruinous for the environment. There are several reasons for oil's price spiral. Soaring demand in developing countries like China and India means there is little oil to spare. The turmoil in financial markets has driven prices even higher, as investors have bought oil and other commodities as stocks and the dollar plunge. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri bune-editorial_26.html Taiwan's president giving us a diplomacy lesson By Georgie Anne Geyer. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 28, 2008. WASHINGTON?Ever since the communists overran China in 1949, the once-woebegone island of Taiwan has repeatedly been the subject of potential conflict between the United States and the Chinese mainland. We seemed to be continually on the verge of all-out "war" with China over the small and trembling republic. And it wasn't only Taiwan: Islands, straits, coastal areas, Hong Kong, Macao, oil fields, fishing areas?you name it, we were ready to fight to the death over it. Then, from 1972 onward, that turbulent relationship changed. Foxy Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger pulled off the amazing feat of slipping through a diplomatic back door into communist Beijing and hammering out an agreement that, by linguistic aerobics, has allowed the two countries to live side by side without mayhem. The perception was that China would gobble up Taiwan and incorporate it into the Chinese mainland. But in the following years, it was "little Taiwan," now with 23 million people compared with China's 1.3 billion, which proceeded to set the most brilliant pattern for Asian development. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/taiwans-president-giving -us-diplomacy.html Indecision 2008 Why we should fear a McCain presidency By Anatol Lieven. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 24 2008 19:12 | Last updated: March 24 2008 19:12. It may seem incredible to say this, given past experience, but a few years from now Europe and the world could be looking back at the Bush administration with nostalgia. This possibility will arise if the US elects Senator John McCain as president in November. Over the years the US has inserted itself into potential flashpoints in different parts of the world. The Republican party is now about to put forward a natural incendiary as the man to deal with those flashpoints. The problem that Mr McCain poses stems from his ideology, his policies and above all his personality. His ideology, like that of his chief advisers, is neo-conservative. In the past, Mr McCain was considered to be an old-style conservative realist. Today, the role of the realists on his team is merely decorative. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-we-should-fear-mccai n-presidency.html McCain's record on Iraq is a mixed bag By Bob Drogin. Copyright by The Los Angeles Times. 5:05 PM CDT, March 23, 2008. WASHINGTON -- As America's war in Iraq enters its sixth year, Sen. John McCain is hoping his fight to send thousands more U.S. troops, a surge that has helped lower casualties, will propel him into the White House. But McCain's record on Iraq is decidedly mixed. If the Arizona Republican proved prescient in his calls for a military build-up, many of his other predictions and prescriptions turned out wrong. Before the war, McCain predicted a quick and easy victory, not a vicious insurgency. He issued dire warnings of Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, but didn't read the full 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that showed gaps in the intelligence. Soon after the March 2003 invasion, however, he began criticizing the Bush administration's management in Iraq, and clashed repeatedly with Donald Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense. In mid-2003, he started advocating a larger U.S. force to battle the insurgency, a strategy the White House finally approved last year. McCain did not publicly embrace or join the hard-core neo-conservatives who pushed hardest to unleash the U.S. military against Iraq before the war. But McCain backed many of the same policies. He repeatedly urged backing Iraqi emigre groups, internal dissidents and other proxy forces to overthrow Saddam. His hawkish views carried weight as a senior member of the Senate armed services committee, which oversees the Pentagon. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccains-record-on-iraq-i s-mixed-bag.html Obama on ?Renewing the American Economy?. Copyright by The New York Times. Published: March 27, 2008. Following is the transcript of Barack Obama's economic speech at Cooper Union in New York, as provided by CQ. Obama Urges Tighter Regulation in Wake of Housing Slump (March 27, 2008). Thank you so much for being here. Let me begin by thanking Dr. Drucker and Cooper Union for hosting us here today. I have to say that the last time an Illinois politician made a speech here it was pretty good. So...(LAUGHTER)... the bar is high. And I -- I want everybody to know right at the outset here that this may not be living for generations to come, the way Lincoln's speech did. I want to thank all our elected supporters who are here. I want to -- there are a couple of special guests that I'm very appreciative for being in attendance: Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board...(APPLAUSE) We appreciate his presence. William Donaldson, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We thank you. And finally I want to thank the mayor of this great city, mayor Bloomberg, for his extraordinary leadership. At a time...(APPLAUSE) At a time when Washington is divided in old ideological battles, he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. Not only has he been a remarkable leader for New York, he's established himself as a major voice in our national debate on issues like renewing our economy, educating our children and seeking energy independence. So, Mr. Mayor, I share your determination to bring this country together, to finally make progress for the American people. And I have to tell you that the reason I bought breakfast is because I expect payback at something more expensive. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-on-renewing-americ an-economy.html Obama attacks Bill Clinton?s economic legacy By Edward Luce in Washington DC. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 27 2008 17:34 | Last updated: March 27 2008 17:34. Barack Obama on Thursday laid much of the blame for America?s unfolding credit crisis on the financial deregulation of the 1990s in his hardest hitting attack so far on the economic legacy of Bill Clinton?s administration. Mr Obama?s speech ? the fourth so far this week by a presidential candidate focusing on America?s probable recession ? called for an overhaul of US financial regulation and another $30bn in fiscal stimulus. Without mentioning the Clintons by name, the clear target of Mr Obama?s speech was the economic record of the 1990s. Hillary Clinton has portrayed her candidacy as offering a return to the economic successes of the 1990s. She has also presented herself as more competent on the economy than Mr Obama. In his address Mr Obama associated Mr Clinton?s abolition of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 with the financial scandals that rocked the early years of the Bush administration and which led up to the bailout earlier this month of Bear Stearns. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-attacks-bill-clint ons-economic.html Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan: A comparison By Karl Fleming. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 30, 2008. Barring some event of staggering significance, Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president. Many, though, believe Obama doesn't deserve it. His refusal to walk out of the Chicago church where his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., made many incendiary remarks, including that AIDS was a white plot against blacks, render Obama too duplicitous and morally deficient to inhabit our highest office. Obama has offered a complex explanation, but one that does not include what was likely a powerful component for his sticking with Wright. That is, that walking away would have meant abandoning his strongest Chicago political constituency, thus making it impossible for him to get elected to his first political office. Obama was straight in his speech on race about being an imperfect candidate, not possessing the moral purity his fervid supporters have wished upon him. Hillary Clinton supporters, and many of the media's bloviators, say Obama's association with Wright fatally flaws him. Conservatives, of course, are now smacking their lips in anticipation of his candidacy. http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/barack-obama-and-ronald- reagan.html Obama faces prejudice on all sides By Edward Luce. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 28 2008 18:51 | Last updated: March 28 2008 18:51. Barack Obama has a problem. Nearly a quarter of Democrats who hold a negative view of him believe he is a Muslim, according to a poll published by Pew Research on Thursday. Yet most Democrats who think negatively of Mr Obama also disapprove of his link to Jeremiah Wright, the pastor who introduced him to Christianity two decades ago. Ten days after he delivered what many described as a historic speech on race, Mr Obama?s relationship with the black community still remains an issue. Although Hillary Clinton has largely avoided the topic ? other than to say that she would not have chosen Mr Wright as her pastor ? critics on the right have signalled it will be given a fuller airing in the general election if Mr Obama is the nominee. This week Pat Buchanan, a former Republican contender, wrote: ?America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40m, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.? Mr Buchanan added: ?Wright ought to get down on his knees and thank God he is an American?.?.?.?We hear the grievances, where is the gratitude?? http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-faces-prejudice-on -all-sides.html Pennsylvania's Casey endorses Obama - Senator rescinds vow of neutrality; Clinton: I'm staying By Mike Dorning and Rick Pearson. Copyright ? 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:23 PM CDT, March 28, 2008. PITTSBURGH ? Sen. Barack Obama's campaign in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary received a boost Friday with the endorsement of Sen. Robert Casey Jr., a prominent political figure with a strong following among the white working-class voters Obama has struggled to win elsewhere. Support from Casey (D-Pa.) provides a local ally who can vouch for Obama as well as a signal of confidence to Democrat superdelegates that controversy over Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., has not damaged the Illinois senator's ability to win over the socially conservative white voters needed to prevail in battleground states in November. Another Obama ally, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), said rival Hillary Clinton should withdraw from the Democratic presidential race because there is "no way" she can gain enough delegates to win and the contest was giving a "free ride" to presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/pennsylvanias-casey-endo rses-obama.html Clinton urged to quit presidential race By Andrew Ward in Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: March 28 2008 19:47 | Last updated: March 28 2008 23:14. Hillary Clinton faced calls on Friday to drop out of the presidential race as senior Democrats warned that her divisive battle with Barack Obama was harming the party?s chances of winning the White House in November. Patrick Leahy, the powerful Vermont sena