[News] Money can't buy happiness, and spending it can't fix economy Newsletter - March 29, 2008
Carlos Mock
ctmock at gmail.com
Sat Mar 29 15:52:34 CST 2008
> Market depression - Money can't buy happines, and spending it can't fix
> economy By Louis René 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 senator,
said it was almost impossible for Mrs Clinton to win the nomination and
urged her to step aside and allow the party to unify around Mr Obama. “There
is not a good reason for drawing this out,” he said. Mr Leahy, who supports
Mr Obama, said the Democrats were giving John McCain, the presumptive
Republican nominee, a “free ride” by attacking each other rather than
focusing on November’s election. Mrs Clinton insisted that she planned to
fight on despite trailing Mr Obama in the race for nominating delegates with
almost no chance of closing the gap before the Democratic convention in
August.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/clinton-urged-to-quit-pr
esidential-race.html
Clintons lose luster with black voters By Dawn Turner Trice. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. March 24, 2008. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal
poll taken this month found that former President Bill Clinton, the
so-called first black president, is falling out of favor with
African-Americans. More of the poll's respondents view him negatively (45
percent) than positively (42 percent). Compare this with his ratings just
last year—a positive of 48 percent compared with a negative of 35
percent—and it's a pretty big deal. Beyond scientific polls, anecdotal
evidence reveals that his wife also is losing support from the Democratic
Party's most reliable constituency. A lot of black people are furious at
Sen. Hillary Clinton in part because of the actions or infractions of her
surrogates. They're angry at Bill for the dust-up he created after the South
Carolina contest comparing Sen. Barack Obama's win there to that of Rev.
Jesse Jackson's when he ran for president. They're angry at Geraldine
Ferraro for suggesting Obama is mostly an affirmative action candidate.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/clintons-lose-luster-wit
h-black-voters.html
`Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire!' By Eric Zorn. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. March 27, 2008. See discussion at:
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/03/liar-liar-pant
s.html. The above taunt directed at Hillary Clinton has quickly become a
meme (see examples below) in the wake of her recent, ahem, misstatement:
Clinton’s campaign explains that the senator “misspoke" last week when she
said at a campaign appearance that she had landed amidst sniper fire in her
journey to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996. And this week she has
described the retelling as a “misstatement.’’ Newsreel footage of the Bosnia
landing (see CBS News video)...portrays a smiling Clinton, followed by her
daughter, striding out from the belly of a cargo transport to happily greet
a receiving line that includes a little girl....(from the Swamp)
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/liar-liar-pantsuit-on-fi
re.html
Chicagoland
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Taking a deadbeat to court. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. March 28, 2008. When the General Assembly handed control
of the Chicago Public Schools to Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1995, it did so
with the "goal and intention" of maintaining the state's traditional
contributions to the teachers' pension fund. Forgetting what the road to
hell is paved with, CPS took that assurance to heart. Big mistake. The
legislation acknowledged that the state had "for many years" given the
Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of the
amount it gave the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois, which covers
public school teachers outside of Chicago. The law also declared that the
General Assembly truly meant to continue that level of contribution. It
hasn't. Contributions to the state system have grown, while the annual
figure for Chicago has remained around $65 million. This year, that's
roughly 5 percent of the amount contributed to the TRS. In 2003 lawmakers
authorized the sale of $10 billion in bonds to shore up the five
state-funded retirement systems. TRS is one of them; the Chicago teachers
fund isn't.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-taking.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Why does court clerk need a chauffeur?
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. March 27, 2008. Cook County judges
don't routinely have security guards, but Dorothy Brown -- the clerk of Cook
County Circuit Court -- does. To look at it another way, that means the
people who put criminals in prison don't get protection, but the person who
makes sure that court files -- pieces of paper -- get from one place to
another does. Only in Cook County. That bit of nonsense grabbed our
attention this week in a Fox News Chicago report that revealed that Brown's
security officer also acts as her chauffeur, picking her up in the morning,
grabbing the newspaper off her front stoop, depositing her back home in the
evening and grabbing her mail. The cost to taxpayers? Sixty-three thousand
dollars a year for the driver's salary. Brown refused to concede to Fox
News that she has a chauffeur.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-why-does.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. "It's
turned me from a really annoying know-it-all into an incredibly annoying
know-it-all, with the Internet to back me up," said Sadum, a technology
writer in Denver. "It's not a social advantage."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/risk-for-iphone-users-th
ey-know-too.html
Immigration
International Herald Tribune Editorial - Another foolish immigration purge.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: March 27, 2008.
Leave it to the Bush administration to throw thousands of law-abiding
American workers and companies off a cliff in perilous economic times. That
would be the effect of its decision to press ahead with a bad idea: to force
businesses to fire employees whose names don't match the Social Security
database. The purge is part of a campaign, along with scattershot workplace
raids and the partial border fence, to make a show of tackling the broken
immigration system. The plan rests on the assumption that people with
Social Security glitches are illegal immigrants using fake identities.
Companies that receive "no match" letters warning of database discrepancies
are given 90 days to clear them up. After that, they must fire the affected
workers or face stiff penalties.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_28.html
Immigration issue rerouted to state level as national interest wanes -
Activists foiled as interest wanes on national stage By Howard Witt.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:54 PM CDT, March 23, 2008. HOUSTON —
Illegal Immigration, a hot-button populist issue that many experts had
expected to top the nation's political concerns this year, has largely
vanished from the presidential campaign amid waning interest from voters and
mounting delays in constructing a 670-mile border fence between the United
States and Mexico. Moreover, primary results and opinion polls in recent
months indicate that the Republican Party's emphasis on a crackdown against
illegal immigrants may be driving many Hispanic voters—a crucial electoral
bloc in November's election — into the Democratic fold. "For any candidates
anywhere in the country, I don't think it's demonstrated that combating
illegal Immigration is an issue that controls people's votes," said David
Hill, a leading Republican pollster in Houston who has termed illegal
Immigration a "dud issue" for his party. "Immigration is unlike health care
or the economy, both of which have a more intimate impact on people's
lives."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/immigration-issue-rerout
ed-to-state.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Comprehensive plan needed on immigration.
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. March 23, 2008. In place of meaningful
immigration reform, both conservative and liberal politicians have hatched
piecemeal plans. This won't work. Conservative Democrats, including Rep.
Melissa Bean of Illinois and Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, are
joining Republicans to sponsor the Secure America with Verification and
Enforcement Act, which calls for beefing up the border with Mexico and
requiring employers to do more to not hire -- and to fire -- undocumented
workers. The problem with the SAVE Act is that it is an enforcement-only
piece of legislation and does not include a plan to legalize any of the 12
million undocumented immigrants in the United States. It amounts to "deport
them all." The SAVE Act calls for posting 8,000 more agents along the
border, and for employers to use federal databases to verify the status of
all workers within four years. Those databases, however, are fundamentally
flawed. Immigrants eligible to work in the U.S. legally -- and even U.S.
citizens -- could be mistakenly flagged for something as simple as a typo.
They would be reported to their employers, putting them in the position of
having to prove they can work here legally. Struggling with government
bureaucracy can be hard enough without being swept up in the web of an
error-filled computer database.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial.html
GLBT
A simple request from Illinois State Representative Greg Harris. He is an
openly gay state rep and a personal friend of mine and mentor. Please help
him in his efforts to pass a Civil Unions Bill. This would help bring the
LBGTQ community closer towards the equal rights we deserve. Another way
you can help is to forward this to all your freinds and family. Heck send it
to people you don't know :) and ask them all to do the same. Subject: Help
me pass civil unions, take action now on www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org. I am
writing to ask for your help with my efforts to pass a Civil Unions bill in
Illinois. I have worked on this since the day I took office, and now that we
are getting close to success, I am pulling out all the stops asking friends
to help get us to the finish line. I know you are busy, but if you could
take a few seconds to help me, I would really appreciate it. Please click
on www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org and send a free, instant message to the
legislature in support of the civil unions bill I have authored. You can
read more about the legislation and the pressing need for civil unions on
www.CivilUnionsIllinois.org. I have worked hand in hand with groups across
the State such as Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, PFLAG, ACLU and others to
reach out to their members. We have a Facebook.com group where 8,000
Illinois students have joined the effort. Now I need your help to send a
message to my colleagues asking them to support Civil Unions. Please take 3
simple steps to help pass civil unions!
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/simple-request-from-illi
nois-state.html
Lobby Day is two weeks away By Matt Simonette. Copyright by The Chicago
Free Press. March 26, 2008. Equality Illinois is again taking “citizen
lobbyists” from across the state to the Illinois Capitol in Springfield for
its 2008 Lobby Day April 9. Participants plan to meet with their
representatives to discuss their support of HB 1826, which would allow civil
unions for same-sex couples in Illinois. According to Rick Garcia,
political director of Equality Illinois, Lobby Day “has a real practical
effect. No matter what we think, elected officials do take notice of the
lives of their constituents. They have to know when people in their
districts take notice of an issue.” Buses leave Equality Illinois’ office
at 3712 N. Broadway at about 7 a.m. on April 9. Participants are served
breakfast along the way and should arrive in Springfield by about 11 a.m.
The buses also make a stop in suburban Bolingbrook. Upon arriving at the
State Capitol, participants have lunch and receive orientation on the
lobbying process, then meet with their representatives from about 1-3 p.m.
After a debriefing, there’s a 4 p.m. reception at the Station House, a local
gay bar, before participants return.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/lobby-day-is-two-weeks-a
way.html
SEE (HOWARD) DEAN SCREAM By Gary Barlow. Copyright by The Chicago Free
Press. March 26, 2008. The union between the Democratic Party and gay
activists—often a marriage of convenience rather than love—is showing
strains, particularly in the Beltway, as a discrimination lawsuit brought
against the Democratic National Committee by a fired gay staffer gets closer
to trial. The lawsuit was filed last spring by the DNC’s former gay and
lesbian outreach director, Donald Hitchcock, who claims DNC Chairman Howard
Dean unjustly fired him after his partner, gay activist Paul Yandura,
criticized the Democrats for not doing more to defeat anti-gay ballot
initiatives. Dean not only fired Hitchcock, he eliminated the gay and
lesbian outreach position, all of which led some gay contributors to quit
writing checks to the DNC. Dean and the DNC have done everything they can
to minimize Hitchcock’s suit, dismissing it whenever reporters bring it up.
Dean has been especially irked with the Washington Blade, the capital’s
longtime GLBT community newspaper, for reporting on the lawsuit.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/see-dean-scream.html
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Gets LGBT Support by Amy Wooten. Copyright by The
Windy City Times. 2008-03-26. Several local LGBT people have come out in
support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's
controversial former pastor following media uproar over short clips from his
past sermons. Media frenzy and a flood of criticism over past comments made
by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently retired from leading Chicago's
8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ ( UCC ) , have caused some
unease among Americans, including members of the LGBT community. Some
activists have second-guessed Obama out of fear that the man he labeled as
his “spiritual mentor” might be anti-gay after seeing the short clips. Since
media outlets started showing video clips of racially charged past sermons,
Wright has received a high amount of criticism. Even Obama has tried to
distance himself from Wright. However, there are many who vocally support
Wright, saying he has been nothing but supportive of the LGBT community over
the years. His supporters say three-minute clips taken out of context and
shown by the media mar a lifetime of sermons filled with inclusive messages.
Others say the uproar over the clips also show a misunderstanding of Black
theology and the Black church.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/rev-jeremiah-wright-gets
-lgbt-support.html
Maryland OKs rights for gay couples By Kristen Wyatt. Copyright by The
Associated Press. April 26, 2008. ANNAPOLIS, Md.—With gay marriage a no-go
this year, Maryland senators voted March 18 to allow unmarried couples more
rights to make medical decisions for each other. The Maryland Senate voted
30-17 to allow domestic partners, who could be gay or straight, to make
medical or funeral decisions for each other if they meet certain criteria to
show they are a committed couple. Unwed couples would have to show “mutual
interdependence” such as joint checking accounts or common property
ownership before qualifying as domestic partners eligible for the
decision-making powers. The bill comes amid complaints from unwed couples
that they are sometimes denied life-or-death decision rights or medical
privileges such as riding in an ambulance or visiting a partner on life
support.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/maryland-oks-rights-for-
gay-couples.html
City puts Halsted in spotlight By Matt Simonette. Copyright by The Chicago
Free Press. March 26, 2008. The City of Chicago’s “Great Chicago Places
and Spaces” touring programs is offering a “Gay by Design” tour May 17-18
that looks at two buildings designed specifically for the GLBT community—the
Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, and Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted. The
tour also discusses the North Halsted Street area, which was officially
dedicated as a GLBT neighborhood by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1998. William
Greaves, of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ Advisory Council on
LGBT Issues, said each building is significant because they are city
“landmarks that are designated as gay spaces. What we have are two buildings
that are about meeting the needs of the gay community.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/city-puts-halsted-in-spo
tlight.html
Planning for Disaster By Roger McCaffrey-Boss. Copyright by Gay Chicago
Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. March 25, 2008. Q: My partner and I are
concerned about the possibility of one us being injured or unable to work
due to illness. As an LGBT couple, how can we put our affairs in order and
create a contingency plan for that possible rainy day? A: First, each
member of the couple should make a will, power of attorney for property and
power of attorney for healthcare, and share the details of their financial
affairs with each other. This should include the location of all assets and
vital documents such as insurance policies, passbooks, deeds etc. Each
person should list the names, addresses and account numbers of every bank,
mutual fund and brokerage account; policy numbers for health disability and
life insurance policies; car registration and title numbers; credit card
numbers; employer pension account numbers, and make sure the other person
has a copy of your list.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/planning-for-disaster.ht
ml
Downstate GLBT newspaper ends 11-year run By Gary Barlow. Copyright by The
Chicago Free Press. March 26, 2008. Illinois’ Downstate GLBT community
newspaper, Prairie Flame, has closed after more than 11 years of providing
local GLBT news in its hometown, Springfield, and smaller towns from
Carbondale to Rockford, Peoria and Champaign/Urbana. Owners and partners
Buff Carmichael and Jerry Bowman told the Springfield Journal-Register that
rising distribution and printing costs doomed the newspaper. “We held out
until the very last day of the (February) deadline before we made our
decision,” Carmichael told the Journal-Register. “We just held out hope that
something would happen and we would keep it going.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/downstate-glbt-newspaper
-ends-11-year.html
Gay activist killed by partner in murder-suicide in South Florida - W. Palm
authorities reveal identities By Jerome Burdi and Dianna Cahn . Copyright ©
2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. March 23, 2008. H.G. Roosters bar
workers kept calling Michael Brown's home Thursday, but his partner told
them Brown wasn't available. Brown, 50, a prominent gay activist, had been
beaten and stabbed to death inside his apartment. His partner, Brant Hines,
killed him either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, West Palm Beach
police said Saturday.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/gay-activist-killed-by-p
artner-in.html
Health Care
CDPH Survey Spotlights Gay Behavior by Amy Wooten. Copyright by The Windy
City Times. 2008-03-26. A Chicago HIV behavioral survey recently presented
by the Chicago Department of Public Health shed more light on the local gay
male population and its HIV risk behaviors. Nikhil Prachand, a CDPH
epidemiologist, presented “Guided by the Community: Chicago HIV Behavioral
Surveillance 2004-2007” on March 17. It is an assessment of HIV risk
behaviors among Chicago MSM ( men who have sex with men ) , heterosexuals
and injection drug users ( IDU's ). Project CHAT was a detailed, diverse
survey conducted in 2004 on over 1,000 Chicago MSM. Hetersexuals and IDU's
were also surveyed in later years. The purpose was to estimate and monitor
risk behaviors, HIV testing behaviors and exposure to prevention. MSM were
surveyed at various community settings, such as bars, clubs and social
organizations. The results provide interesting information about the local
MSM community.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/cdph-survey-spotlights-g
ay-behavior.html
Who really pays for health care? By Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Victor R. Fuchs.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. March 27, 2008. By Ezekiel J. Emanuel
and Victor R. Fuchs. Who really pays for health care in the United States?
Americans believe employers pay the bulk of workers' premiums, government
pays for Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance
Program and individuals pay some premiums as well as deductibles and
co-pays. This is wrong. Business, government and individuals do not share
the financial responsibility for health coverage. Individuals bear the full
cost of health care through lower wages and taxes. Employers like to
say—and often believe—that they pay for health care. They complain that the
huge increases in health-care costs are coming out of their bottom lines—as
if costs come out of profits. Union leaders also like to have their members
think that health benefits are a bonus on top of wages and that the
leadership is negotiating hard to get them the free benefit. Employers
sponsor health insurance for the majority of Americans, but that is not the
same as employers bearing the cost for workers' health insurance. Wages and
fringe benefits, such as health insurance, are simply components of overall
worker compensation. When employers provide health insurance to workers,
they may define the benefits, select the health plan to manage the benefits
and collect the funds to pay the health plan, but they do not bear the
ultimate cost. What is labeled as employers' contribution to the
health-insurance premium is really paid for by employees through lower wages
and take-home pay.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/who-really-pays-for-heal
th-care.html
Singulair probed for suicide risk - FDA studying data on Merck's top seller
By Catherine Larkin. Copyright by Bloomberg News. March 28, 2008. Merck &
Co.'s Singulair may be linked to suicide as well as changes in mood and
behavior, U.S. regulators said Thursday in announcing a review of the
company's top-selling asthma drug. The Food and Drug Administration is
working with Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck to evaluate studies and
patient reports, the agency said. The examination may take as long as nine
months, the FDA said. The company declined to say how many deaths were
reported. Singulair is Merck's biggest product and the most-prescribed
respiratory drug in the U.S., with worldwide sales rising 19 percent, to
$4.27 billion, last year. Merck revised the drug's prescribing information
in the last year to include reports of tremors, depression, suicide and
anxiousness. The FDA told doctors and patients to continue to use Singulair
until more information becomes available.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/singulair-probed-for-sui
cide-risk-fda.html
Other
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Honest, Abe wouldn't mind if we finally dumped
penny. Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times. March 27, 2008. We dislike the
humble penny. It has no reason to live. Pennies clog our pockets and clutter
the corners of our lives. You can't buy anything for a penny any more. Take
out the metal -- mainly zinc -- that goes into a penny, and you couldn't buy
even that for a penny, thanks to soaring metal prices. To mint a penny
costs taxpayers 1.7 cents. And that's not chump change, adding up to $50
million a year for taxpayers. Want to get rid of 100 pennies at one of
those grocery store change-buying kiosks? It will cost you about 9 cents.
With recent testimony in Congress, the costly uselessness of the penny is
being underscored again, as happens every few years. But this time, it's
truly time to dump the penny, for good.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-honest-abe.html
Wright's sermons fueled by complex mix of culture, religion By Manya A.
Brachear. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:54 PM CDT, March 28, 2008.
On the Sunday in 2003 when Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. shouted "God damn
America" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, he defined
damnation as God's way of holding humanity accountable for its actions.
Rattling off a litany of injustices imposed on minorities throughout the
nation's history, Wright argued that God cannot be expected to bless America
as the anthem requests unless it changes for the better. Until that day, he
said, God will hold the nation accountable. And that's when Wright uttered
the three infamous words that have rocked Sen. Barack Obama's presidential
campaign. Not long after a Democratic front-runner emerged from the pews of
Wright's church, the pastor's long-winded oratory found itself at odds with
the sound-bite culture that feeds the 24-hour news cycle and YouTube.
Thirty-second snippets of 30-minute sermons led pundits to question how
Obama could remain a member of Wright's flock.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/wrights-sermons-fueled-b
y-complex-mix.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
GEORGE W. BUSH LIBRARY
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/george-w-bush-library.ht
ml
This person needs a job (Updated Version)
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/03/this-person-needs-job-up
dated-version.html
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
Jay Jay French and Friends - I Want Barack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgkrX-NSt6Q
New! Carlos now has an online store. Order your books directly from Carlos
and have them signed and dedicated. http://www.carlostmock.com/catalog/
In Pride (orgullo),
Carlos T. Mock, MD
Www.carlostmock.com
Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003.
Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT
Round Table.
Author: The Mosaic Virus – Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall
Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a Lammie
from The Lambda Literary Foundation
Author: Author: Papi Chulo – Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a
Stonewall Award by the American Library Association GLBT Round Table, and a
Lammie from The Lambda Literary Foundation
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