[News] If I Were A Terrorist... Newsletter - May 3, 2008
Carlos Mock
ctmock at gmail.com
Sat May 3 04:19:35 CST 2008
If I Were A Terrorist... ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EXKLVgEx0
Intenational Herald Tribune Editorial - Notes from the war on terrorism.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: May 2, 2008. For
more than a year, President George W. Bsh has refused to honor legitimate
requests from the Democratic majority in ongress for legal documents that
he used to justify ordering the abuse, humiiation and torture of prisoners.
This week, the Justice Department finallyagreed to show some papers to
members of the House and Senate. Sounds lik good news? Not so much. For
starters, it is not yet clear whether the Whie House will turn over the
complete and unredacted opinions of the governmnt lawyers that claimed the
president could ignore the law and the Geneva onventions. And even if the
documents are not censored, Bush continues to usea bogus claim of secrecy
to keep documents on torture from the public. Appaling as this
stonewalling is, it this is nt the only disturbing news from the war on
terror. This week, Mark Mazzetti reported in The New York Times and the
International Herald Tribune that the Justice Department stillclaims that
intelligence agents can legally use interrogation methods prohbited under
American and international law. In 2006, after Congress put restictions on
the military's interrogation methods, Bush formally exempted he CIA. He
issued secret rules that are believed to allow harsh and abusive ethods,
some of which amount to torture by pretty much any definition.
htt://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-ti
bune-editorial_03.html
International Herald Tribune Editorial - Lying or the commander in chief.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. ublished: April 28, 2008.
As they prepared to invade Iraq five years ago, te Bush administration
called up retired military officers to help sell thewar. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his propaganda team courted s many as 75 retired
military officers who could best market the Pentagon lin, particularly on
television. All administrations try to spin, or even maniulate, the news
media, but this White House has taken that to a new low. The ush
administration has hired actors to pose as journalists. It has prodced mock
news bulletins to promote its view of the Iraq war. At least oe
conservative commentator was paid $240,000 to go on television to promote
resident George W. Bush's education policies. Now, based on thousands of-mail messages and other documents, David Barstow of The New York Times has
outlined how the Pentagon used a "Trojan horse" of former military officers
to parrot falsey positive messages (IHT, April 21). Bush's national
security team - nd many Pentagon officers - continue to labor under the
tragic delusion tat negative coverage, rather than the bad news itself,
undermined public suport for the war in Vietnam. So the propaganda experts
created the instantcommentariat of decorated retired generals and admirals
who could seem to be trong and independent voices. Too many were not
independent at all. One exampe: a retired Marine colonel and Fox News
analyst asked his Pentagon contactto "please let me know if you have any
specific points you want covered or hat you would prefer to downplay."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspt.com/2008/04/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_29.html
Letter draws egal outline for CIA tactics. Copyright by The New York
Times. 8:37 PM CD, April 26, 2008. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department
has told Congress thatU.S. intelligence operatives attempting to thwart
terrorist attacks can legaly use interrogation methods that might otherwise
be prohibited under nternational law. The legal interpretation, outlined
in recent letters, shes new light on the still-secret rules for
interrogations by the CIA. It shws that the administration is arging that
the boundaries for interrogations should be subject to some latitude, even
under an executive order issued last summer that President Bush said meant
that theCIA would comply with international strictures against harsh
treatment o detainees. While the Geneva Conventions prohibit "outrages
upon person dignity," a letter sent by the Justice Department to Congress
on March 5 mkes clear that the administration has not drawn a precise line
in deciding whch interrogation methods would violate that standard, and is
reserving th right to make case-by-case judgments.
http://iretiredfromnewsletter.blogspot.com/2008/04/letter-draws-legal-outli
ne-for-cia.html
Krugman: Bushmade permanent By Paul Krugman. Copyright by The
International Herald Tribun. Published: April 28, 2008. PRINCETON, New
Jersey: Bush made permanen As the designated political heir of a deeply
unpopular president - accordig to Gallup, President George W. Bush has the
highest disapproval rating recrded in 70 years of polling - John McCain
should have little hope of winnng in November. In fact, however, current
polls show him roughly tied witheither Democrat. In part this may reflect
the Democrats' problems. For th most part, however, it probably reflects
the perception, eagerly propagate by McCain's many admirers in the news
media, that he's very different fro Bush - a responsible guy, a straight
talker. Is this perception at all rue? During the 2000 campaign people
said much the same thing about Bush; those of us who looked hard at his
policy proposals, especially on taxes, saw the shape of thngs to come./Hail
to the chef By Walter Scheib. Copyright by The Iternational Herald
Tribune. Published: April 29, 2008. GREAT FALLS, Virgnia: The long
association between first ladies - or those aspiring to te role - and
recipes was thrust into the headlines recently when it ws discovered that
recipes attributed to Cindy McCain on her husband's campign Web site were
lifted, verbatim, from the Food Network. (A campaign sokesman attributed
this seeming act of plagiarism to an intern.) I ougt to be the last person
to question this preoccupation with first families' dning habits, since it
helped propel me to a certain kind of prominence when illary Clinton hired
me to be White House chef in 1994. But I confess tat I have often wondered
why we are fascinated not just with what our presidnts and their families
eat, but what they cook. Let's make one thing clear First families don't
get to the White House because of their cooking. True, n one episode of the
TV show "The West Wing," there's a federal government hutdown, the chefs
are not at work ad the first lady cooks dinner. But that's, well,
television.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/krugman-bush-made-perman
ent.html
Your Lack of Money
Investors pul out of mutual funds By Deborah Brewster in New York.
Copyright The Financal Times Limited 2008. Published: April 27 2008 22:26
| Last updated: April 7 2008 22:26. All but one of the 25 largest US
mutual fund managers aw their long-term assets fall in the first quarter,
as returns dived nd investors pulled out of funds. In the worst start to a
year for more thana decade, most money managers had retail outflows, and
even stalwarts suchas American Funds and Vanguard suffered a drop in
assets, of 6.6 per cent ad 4.3 per cent respectively. Pimco, the bond
manager, was the only one to sow a rise in retail assets, according to
Financial Research Corporation ad industry estimates. Pimco’s Total Return
fund had an inflow of $9bn in te three months to March. The trend is
likely to worry economists, becauseit suggests the credit turmoil is
hurting the confidence of mainstreamvestors. That, in turn, could dampen
activity among consumers in the monthsahead, since falling investment
sentiment is often associated with muted houehold spending levels.
However, the fall also marks a fresh blow for the fiancial industry,
because mutual fund managers typically make money by chargin a percentage
of assets – meaning that profits in the industry fall when asets decline.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/investors-pll-out-of-mu
tual-funds.html
Consumer confidence index at 5-year low -The Conference Board's measure
fals in April amid concerns about employment and business activity. By
Catherine Clifford. Copyright by CNNMoney.com. Last Updated: April 29,
2008: 11:31 AM EDT. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A key measure of consumer
confidence slipped in April to the lowest level in fie years, as Americans
worry about their jobs and the level of business activity. The New
York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index
dropped to 62.3, the lowest level since March 2003, from a revised 65.9 in
March. Analysts had expected the index to decline to 61, according to a
consensus compiled by Briefing.com. The index has now declned for four
months in a row. Consumers who feel that business condition are "bad"
increased to 26.7% from 25.5%, while those claiming business conditions are
"good" eased to 153% from 15.6% last month.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/0/consumer-confidence-inde
x-at-5-year-low.html
US manufacturing contracts for third month By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 1 2008 14:33 |
Last updated: May 1 2008 16:01. The US manufacturing sector contracted for
a third consecutive month in April as waning domestic demand acted as a drag
on factory output even as exports continued to provide a source of strength.
A separate report showed US construction spending dropped much more than
expected last month while the bulk of a reported increase in consumer
spending was taken up by higher costs for food and energy. The economic
headwinds facing consumers were also reflected in the latest report on the
US labour market which registered the highest number of Americans on
unemployment benefits in four years, a potentially worrying signal ahead of
Friday’s closely-watched jobs report.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-manufacturing-contrac
ts-for-third.html
US economy avoids outright contraction By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 30 2008 14:25
| Last updated: April 30 2008 16:29. The US economy almost stalled in the
first three months of this year, saved only by an increase in business
inventories and exports, as the labour market weakened, the real estate
market slumped and consumers cut back on spending. The first government
estimate of the total value of all goods and services produced in the US
economy increased only 0.6 per cent in the first quarter, a fraction better
than economists’ expectations and the same rate of growth achieved in the
last three months of 2007. That period in turn represented a sharp
contraction from the third quarter of last year, when the economy expanded
by 4.9 per cent. The dismal growth estimate may prompt the Federal Reserve
officials to cut interest rates by another quarter point when their policy
meeting concludes later on Wednesday. The Fed has already slashed interest
rates by three percentage points since last September in an attempt to
prevent the credit squeeze and housing slump tipping the US economy into a
deep recession.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-economy-avoids-outrig
ht-contraction.html
US jobs figures better than expected By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 2 2008 14:00 |
Last updated: May 2 2008 16:22. US employers laid off workers for a fourth
consecutive month in April as businesses cut back on spending in the face of
economic headwinds but overall job losses were far less severe than most
economists had feared. Investors were also cheered on Friday by
stronger-than expected increase in March factory orders. Nonfarm payrolls
fell by 20,000, significantly better than consensus expectations for around
75,000 job cuts and following a revised 81,000 jobs losses in March. The
unemployment rate dipped from 5.1 per cent to 5 per cent, having jumped by
0.3 percentage points last time round. Economists had forecast the jobless
rate to edge higher to 5.2 per cent.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-jobs-figures-better-t
han-expected.html
ExxonMobil boosted by record oil prices By Sheila McNulty in Houston.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 1 2008 14:55 |
Last updated: May 1 2008 14:55. ExxonMobil’s first-quarter results on
Thursday reinforced the emphasis the world’s biggest listed oil company
places on oil and gas, which continues to provide record earnings, even as
high-profile shareholders call for increased diversification into
alternatives. Net income was a record $10.9bn, up 17 per cent from the
first quarter of last year, on higher crude oil and natural gas prices. The
results, equivalent to earnings of $2.03 a share, up 25 per cent from last
year, came despite lower refining and chemical margins, lower production
volumes and higher operating costs. Exxon shares fell $3.62 or nearly 4 per
cent at the open to $89.45 after the results failed to meet earnings
expectations of $2.11 a share, according to Reuters Estimates. The
Rockefeller family, the longest continuing shareholder of Exxon, publicly
called this week for Exxon to stop relying on decisions made years ago to
invest in the oil and gas projects from which it is still reaping high
profits, and diversify to prepare for the future.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/exxonmobil-boosted-by-re
cord-oil-prices.html
Shell and BP profits soar to $14bn By Ed Crooks. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 07:47 | Last updated: April 29
2008 15:23. Royal Dutch Shell and BP, Europe’s two biggest oil companies,
have delivered better than expected results as the price of oil soared.
While BP’s profit growth was much faster than Shell’s, both companies
comfortably exceeded analysts’ expectations, and shares in both rose
sharply. UK Daily View: BP and Shell post big profits Ed Crooks on the oil
giants’ results that comfortably beat analysts’ expectations Shares in both
groups were up by 5 per cent in afternoon London trading, with BP rising 30p
to 608½p and Shell gaining 97p at £20.38. However, BP warned that its
results had been flattered by unusual factors contributing about $1bn of
profit in the quarter. It cautioned that the results should not be taken as
evidence that Tony Hayward, the new chief executive, had yet succeeded in
his attempts to turn the company round.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shell-and-bp-profits-soa
r-to-14bn.html
GM posts big loss as U.S. sales hurt - Weakness at GMAC, American Axle
strike also hurts results, but overseas vehicle sales help company top
analysts' forecasts. GM posted a large loss in the first quarter, as U.S.
auto sales were hurt by high fuel costs and the economic downturn. By David
Goldman. Copyright by CNNMoney.com. Last Updated: April 30, 2008: 11:19 AM
EDT. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Corp. reported a large
first-quarter loss Wednesday, due in large part to struggles at its former
finance wing GMAC, a strike at American Axle and slumping U.S. car sales.
But the loss was narrower than expected and sales topped forecasts, helping
to lift shares of GM (GM, Fortune 500) 9% to $23.15. GM, the nation's
largest automaker, posted a net loss of $3.3 billion, or $5.74 per share.
That was much wider than the $42 million, or 7 cents a share, loss from
continuing operations it reported in the same period last year.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/gm-posts-big-loss-as-us-
sales-hurt.html
Deutsche falls to first loss in five years By James Wilson in Frankfurt.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 07:56 |
Last updated: April 29 2008 15:20. Deutsche Bank on Tuesday reported its
first quarterly loss in five years and revealed the drastic impact of the
credit crisis on its profitable investment banking activities. Reporting a
net loss of €141m ($220m, £110m) for the first three months of 2008,
Germany’s largest bank said the short-term outlook remained highly
uncertain. Deutsche took €2.7bn of write-downs – more than expected – in
markets that Josef Ackermann, chief executive, said were ”the most difficult
in recent memory”. Net revenues more than halved, from €9.6bn in the first
quarter of 2007 to €4.6bn, as some of Deutsche’s business lines shrank as a
result of the credit crisis. The corporate and investment bank – including
Deutsche’s most lucrative trading operations – saw net revenues plunge from
€6.7bn to €1.5bn.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/deutsche-falls-to-first-
loss-in-five.html
Mars and Buffett agree $23bn Wrigley purchase By Jenny Wiggins. Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 28 2008 09:32 | Last
updated: April 28 2008 15:19. Mars, the privately held US confectionery
group, on Monday moved to create the world’s biggest confectionery company
as it announced the agreed all-cash acquisition of gum group Wrigley for
around $23bn (£11.5bn, €14.7bn). Mars is offering $80 a share for Wrigley,
a 28 per cent premium to the gum maker’s closing share price on Friday of
$62.45 and a 34 per cent premium to the three-month weighted average price
of $59.88. The deal is pitched at a multiple of 4.3 times 2007 sales and
more than 35 times earnings per share. The merged company would have around
14.4 per cent of the global confectionery market, according to Bernstein
Research, annual sales of more than $27bn and more than 64,000 employees
worldwide. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, is helping to finance
the transaction through his Berkshire Hathaway investment company, which is
contributing $4.4bn of subordinated debt. Further financing is being
provided by Goldman Sachs, which is putting up $5.7bn of senior debt. The
deal will also see Berkshire take a minority equity investment in Wrigley
valued at $2.1bn, purchased at a discount to the share price being paid to
Wrigley shareholders.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/mars-and-buffett-agree-2
3bn-wrigley.html
Linens 'n Things files Chapter 11, to close 4 Chicago area stores.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 11:08 AM CDT, May 2, 2008. Bedding- and
home-furnishing retailer Linens 'n Things on Friday filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, the latest major retailer to succumb to the difficult
consumer environment. It also said it will close 120 stores, almost a
quarter of them in California. It plans to close four Illinois stores: on
North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Palatine, Skokie and Schaumburg. The
company's parent, Linens Holding Co., filed a petition in bankruptcy court
in Delaware. The company named Michael Gries of the restructuring firm
Conway Del Genio Gries & Co. as chief restructuring officer and interim
chief executive. Current CEO Robert DiNicola will become executive chairman.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/linens-n-things-files-ch
apter-11-to.html
Gold and Commodities
Oil $116.32
Silver Bullion $16.41
Gold Bullion $857
Platinum Bullion $ $1905
Euro $1.54.06
Opec says oil could hit $200 By Carola Hoyos in London. Published: April 28
2008 13:56. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Last updated: April
28 2008 13:56. Opec’s president on Monday warned that oil prices could hit
$200 a barrel and there would be little the cartel could do to help. The
comments made by Chakib Khelil, Algeria’s energy minister, came as oil
prices continued to hover near $120 a barrel, putting pressure on the
already struggling US economy. His comments suggest Algeria wants the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to continue to resist
calls by US and European leaders for the cartel to pump more oil. Some US
Democratic senators have even threatened to cut off defence supplies to Opec
members if the 13-member group failed to reverse its position. But Mr
Khelil blamed record oil prices on the weakness in the dollar and global
political insecurity. He told El Moudjahid, Algeria’s government newspaper:
“I don’t think that an increase in production would help lower prices,
because there is a balance between supply and demand and the stocks of
gasoline in the United States have recorded a surplus and are at their
highest level for five years.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/opec-says-oil-could-hit-
200.html
Oil and gold claw back some losses By Neil Dennis. Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2008. Published: May 2 2008 11:22 | Last updated: May 2 2008
11:22. Oil prices clawed back some ground on Friday as speculators
positioned themselves for weak, dollar negative US employment data later in
the session. Nymex West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark crude
contract, reached a record peak of $119.93 a barrel on Monday, but has since
fallen back to $113.34 – a drop of 5.5 per cent. Meanwhile, gold ticked 0.4
per cent higher to $855 an ounce, but remained 3.4 per cent lower on the
week as the broader commodity market was hit by a strengthening dollar.
James Steel, precious metals analyst at HSBC said that recent price declines
may be part of an overall commodity correction.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/oil-and-gold-claw-back-s
ome-losses.html
Dollar climbs as Fed shifts to neutral By Neil Dennis. Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 1 2008 11:36 | Last updated:
May 1 2008 11:36. The dollar climbed to its highest level in a month
against the euro and hit a two-month high against the yen on Thursday after
the Federal Reserve signalled it may hold US rates at 2 per cent. Following
a quarter-point cut in the Fed funds rate on Wednesday, the US central bank
said the outlook for inflation remained uncertain, but it was less bearish
on the outlook for the economy. ”The Fed shifted to a neutral bias,
removing the phrase indicating that ’downside risks to growth remain’,” said
David Woo at Barclays Capital. He added: ”These changes signal that the Fed
expects to keep rates unchanged for the foreseeable future, although
developments in the economy and financial markets will determine what it
does next.” In contrast, economists were increasingly of the opinion that
eurozone growth has slowed to the point where the European Central Bank may
have to act, or risk stunting economic growth. Recent eurozone data have
been disappointing. German business sentiment, measured by Ifo, recorded its
biggest monthly fall since September, 2001, while eurozone purchasing
managers’ indexes have also fallen in the last month.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-climbs-as-fed-shi
fts-to-neutral.html
Dollar jumps after US employment report By Peter Garnham. Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 2 2008 11:57 | Last updated:
May 2 2008 13:45. The dollar jumped on Friday after monthly US employment
figures backed up the Federal Reserve’s less-bearish view about the
country’s economy. With a fall of just 20,000 in monthly payrolls, the US
labour market proved surprisingly resilient, confounding expectations that
more than 75,000 jobs would be lost in April. Having rallied sharply on
Thursday after investors reacted to signals from the Federal Reserve that it
was set for a pause in its interest rate cutting cycle, the dollar set off
again on an upward trajectory. “The data plays very strongly to the
pre-existing grain of the market, namely to buy dollar’s and buy risk,” said
Alan Ruskin at RBS Greewich Capital. Shortly after the data, the greenback
was up 0.6 per cent to $1.5383. Meanwhile, analysts said deteriorating
eurozone economic data was weighing on the euro, feeding the notion that the
single currency’s uptrend against the dollar might have peaked.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/dollar-jumps-after-us-em
ployment-report.html
Housing
Illinois Average Rates
5/2/08 - 10:46 PM
30 Yr Fixed 5.72%
15 Yr Fixed 5.29%
30 Yr Fixed Jumbo 7.04%
Taking a ride through the land of lost homes - Emotions set aside as real
estate agents bus potential buyers ready to capitalize on other's misfortune
By Susan Chandler Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 28, 2008. The
yellow-and-orange bus would stand out anywhere even without the giant
letters proclaiming its purpose: RepoHomeTourChica go.com. A handful of
buyers have showed up to board the 12-seat shuttle parked at Woodfield mall
amid the drizzle on a recent Saturday morning. As they take their seats, the
home shoppers are handed a slick binder listing the repossessed properties
they will see in the next two-and-a-half hours. "Welcome to Chicagoland's
Premier Foreclosure Tour," it says. "Today we visit Hoffman Estates and
Schaumburg." A few minutes after 11 a.m., the bus pulls onto Golf Road, and
they're off. Not long ago, many people viewed shopping for a foreclosed
home as a distasteful act, a form of benefiting from someone else's
misfortune and misery. As thousands of distressed properties have glutted
the market nationwide, driving down home prices for the first time in
generations, that stigma appears to have greatly lessened, or maybe
disappeared. Local real estate broker Bill Diehl is hoping the demand for
bargain homes is as strong here as it is in such places as California and
Florida, where foreclosure auctions and bus tours have drawn eager crowds.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/taking-ride-through-land
-of-lost-homes.html
Fall in US house prices accelerates By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 14:27
| Last updated: April 29 2008 15:55. US house prices continue to plunge by
a record amount, a new report showed on Tuesday, adding to pressure on
consumers and threatening to prolong a domestic economic slowdown.
Meanwhile, confidence among US consumers fell to its lowest level in five
years as shoppers reacted to the impact of the housing slump, tighter credit
conditions and a weakening labour market. The Standard & Poors/Case Shiller
10-city index of single-family house prices contracted by 13.6 per cent
year-on-year in February, the most since records began in 1987. The broader
20-city index fell 12.7 per cent compared with a year earlier, the biggest
drop since the index’s inception in 2001. Monthly price declines have
accelerated, with repeat sale prices in the 20-city index falling by 2.6 per
cent in February, compared with 2.4 per cent in January and 2.1 per cent in
December. The worst affected cities were Las Vegas and Miami where home
values have respectively fallen 22.8 per cent and 21.7 per cent in the past
12 months. In San Francisco house prices fell 5 per cent in just one month
between January and February. “Prices of single family homes continue to
drop across the nation,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee
at S&P. “There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers.”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-in-us-house-prices-
accelerates.html
Fed leads fresh move to ease credit strains By Krishna Guha in Washington
and Michael Mackenzie in New York. Copyright The Financial Times Limited
2008. Published: May 2 2008 14:06 | Last updated: May 2 2008 14:06. US and
European central banks on Friday launched a fresh co-ordinated assault on
dollar money market strains on both sides of the Atlantic. The Federal
Reserve announced that it was increasing the size of its credit auction
facility – the Term Auction Facility, which offers one-month loans to banks
– by 50 per cent to $150bn. Meanwhile the Fed, the European Central Bank
and the Swiss National Bank said they were increasing the size of dollar
currency swaps by almost 50 per cent to $50bn and $20bn, respectively. This
money will be used to increase the supply of dollars offshore in Europe.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/fed-leads-fresh-move-to-
ease-credit.html
Financial Times Editorial Comment: No quick end to the credit squeeze.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 1 2008 18:49 |
Last updated: May 1 2008 18:49. “While there remain downside risks, the
most likely path ahead is that confidence and risk appetite will return
gradually in the coming months.” That is the view of John Gieve, deputy
governor of the Bank of England, on what will now happen in credit markets.
But while the Bank’s Financial Stability Report may be right not to expect
further spectacular crashes and liquidity crises – in that sense the worst
may be over – it does not follow that markets will soon return to normal.
The Bank observes that bond prices imply unprecedented levels of default on
subprime mortgages and unprecedentedly low levels of recovery from seizing
properties and auctioning them off. It argues that predictions of ultimate
losses from the credit squeeze based on these prices – such as the $945bn
estimate by the International Monetary Fund – are therefore overstated. One
implication is that, if markets recover, some banks that have aggressively
written down assets may be able to write them back. This argument works
but, as the Bank recognises, only to an extent. Some securities probably are
trading below their “fair value” because of uncertainty and illiquidity.
Unless uncertainty and illiquidity are ended, however – and it is hard to
see what can do that – investors are likely to carry on demanding risk
premiums to hold asset-backed bonds. Just as the price of credit risk
remained implausibly low for a long period, it can remain implausibly high
for a long time as well.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-no.html
Countrywide plunges to $893m loss By Ben White in New York. Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 13:46 | Last
updated: April 29 2008 13:46. Countrywide Financial, the giant mortgage
lender being acquired by Bank of America, said on Tuesday it lost $893m in
the first quarter as conditions in the US housing market worsened.
Countrywide, a significant player in the subprime mortgage market, agreed to
a $4bn takeover offer from BofA last year after teetering on the brink of
bankruptcy. BofA, which long coveted Countrywide’s lending platform,
expects to close the deal in the third quarter. It has said Countrywide will
no longer offer loans to high-risk subprime borrowers. Countrywide said it
lost $893m, or $1.60 a share, in the quarter, compared with a profit of
$434m, or 72 cents, in the first quarter last year.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/countrywide-plunges-to-8
93m-loss.html
International
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Hunger and hope. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. May 1, 2008. Food prices are soaring around the world—up 83
percent in the last three years, according to the World Bank. The cost of
rice, a staple for billions, has skyrocketed in just weeks to $1,000 per ton
from $400. Chicagoans grumble because food inflation adds a couple of bucks
to their weekly bill at the grocery store, but it's a matter of life and
death in parts of the globe far from America's abundance. Food riots have
erupted in Haiti, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Afghanistan, North Korea and
large swaths of Africa could face famine. India, Egypt, Argentina and
Ukraine banned some food exports to soften food price hikes. World Bank
President Robert Zoellick estimates that increasing food prices have pushed
100 million people into poverty, undoing a decade of economic growth in some
countries. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Tuesday set up a
top-level task force on the food crisis, warning that it could hurt trade
prospects, hinder social progress and threaten political security. There is
no one cause for this calamity, but there are identifiable culprits—and
there are workable solutions. A multiyear drought in Australia has
contributed to high food prices. The weather can't be controlled, but
Zoellick correctly noted, "This is not a natural disaster." It is the
unintended, though inevitable, consequence of increasing prosperity in the
developing world and continued arrogant market manipulation via trade
policies, tariffs, subsidies and biofuel mandates in the developed world.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-hunger-and.html
Tsvangirai wins Zimbabwe election © Reuters Limited. May 2, 2008.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader defeated President Robert Mugabe in the
presidential election but faces a run-off vote after he failed to win an
outright majority, the electoral body said. Movement for Democratic Change
leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 per cent of the vote on March 29 and
Mugabe took 43.2 per cent, said chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi.
The result was announced after a verification process by the candidates to
check the result, but an opposition MDC spokesman said the announcement was
scandalous and described it as ”daylight robbery”. He said the party
executive would decide on the next move. Earlier, it had rejected the
figure. Its initial projections showed Mr Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent
of the vote and it said it had ended the rule of Mr Mugabe, 84, who has led
Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. A month-long delay to
results had raised fears of widespread bloodshed in a country suffering
economic ruin.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tsvangirai-wins-zimbabwe
-election.html
Pakistan strikes deal on restoring judges - Move could give lift to new
government By Kim Barker. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 10:45 PM CDT,
May 2, 2008. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's ruling parties apparently
have agreed how to restore the judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf
last fall, potentially resolving the most contentious issue facing the
fledgling government and preventing the fragile coalition from collapsing.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the second-largest party in
the coalition, said at a news conference Friday evening in Lahore that
parliament would vote on a resolution to restore the judges May 12. Sharif,
overthrown by Musharraf when he seized power while army chief in a 1999
coup, also said the president could be sacked because of the restoration of
more than 60 judges.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/pakistan-strikes-deal-on
-restoring.html
Cuba puts first computers on sale to the public By WILL WEISSERT. Copyright
2008 Associated Press. 1:37 AM CDT, May 3, 2008. HAVANA - Cubans are
getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on
sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as
another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President
Raul Castro. A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780
(euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a
tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass
windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind. Inside, four clerks tore
open boxes, hastily assembling display computers. By the time a sign went up
listing the PCs specifications, more than a dozen shoppers were lined up to
get in.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuba-puts-first-computer
s-on-sale-to.html
Mess-o-potamia
Iraq: U.S. has no claim to oil boom - 'America has hardly even begun to
repay its debt to Iraq,' Baghdad official says By Liz Sly. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. 12:42 AM CDT, May 1, 2008. BAGHDAD — As Congress
gears up to debate the Bush administration's latest request for an
additional $108 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqis are
fuming at suggestions being floated by lawmakers that Baghdad should start
paying a share of the war's costs by providing cheap fuel to the U.S.
military. "America has hardly even begun to repay its debt to Iraq," said
Abdul Basit, the head of Iraq's Supreme Board of Audit, an independent body
that oversees Iraqi government spending. "This is an immoral request because
we didn't ask them to come to Iraq, and before they came in 2003 we didn't
have all these needs." The issue of Baghdad's contribution to the costs of
the war jumped to the forefront early in April during testimony to Congress
of the Iraq war commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and the U.S. ambassador to
Iraq, Ryan Crocker. Noting that the soaring price of oil is likely to give
Iraq a revenue bonanza this year of up to $70 billion, senators quizzed the
two on why Iraq isn't using its rising oil income to pay more of the costs
of reconstruction.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iraq-us-has-no-claim-to-
oil-boom.html
Shiite extremists lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the U.S. protected
Green Zone By SELCAN HACAOGLU . Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 7:55 AM
CDT, April 28, 2008 BAGHDAD - Shiite extremists lobbed more rockets or
mortar shells at the U.S. protected Green Zone on Monday as American and
Iraqi troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in
Baghdad. Abrams tanks were used to repel attacks on two army checkpoints,
killing 22 militants in one clash late Sunday, the U.S. military said on
Monday. Sixteen other militants were killed Sunday in separate firefights.
The militants apparently were taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed
the capital on Sunday, which enabled them to shell the Green Zone that
houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government on the west side of
the Tigris River. Alarms could be heard again on Monday as loudspeakers
warned residents to take cover and stay away from windows. The U.S. Embassy
on Monday confirmed the area was hit by indirect fire, the military's term
for rocket or mortar attacks, and said there were "no reports of serious
injury or deaths at this time."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/shiite-extremists-lobbed
-more-rockets.html
Bombs kill 35 in wedding convoy - U.S., Iraqi forces fight militia in Sadr
City By Sholnn Freeman. Copyright by The Washington Post. 11:58 PM CDT,
May 1, 2008. BAGHDAD — Two suicide bombers attacked a wedding convoy as it
passed through a busy market area in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad,
killing at least 35 people and wounding at least 65, police said. As police
and rescue crews rushed to the site after the first explosion in the town of
Balad Ruz, the second bomb was detonated, police said. They said one of the
attackers was a woman. The double bombing was the latest in a series of
high-profile attacks in Diyala, a largely Sunni area. The attackers appear
to be targeting members of the Awakening movement, mainly Sunnis who have
joined with U.S. forces to fight the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
In central Baghdad, meanwhile, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy
killed an American soldier, the military said. Three suspects were detained
and tested positive for explosive compounds, it said.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bombs-kill-35-in-wedding
-convoy-us.html
Afghan president safe after fleeing gunfire at Kabul event By AMIR SHAH.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. 7:48 AM CDT, April 27, 2008 KABUL,
Afghanistan - Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by
the Afghan president on Sunday, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent
foreign dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover.
Three people, including a lawmaker, were killed and eight were wounded.
President Hamid Karzai, Cabinet ministers and ambassadors escaped unharmed,
the presidential palace said. Karzai later appeared on television saying
several suspects in the attack had been arrested. He said that "the enemy
of Afghanistan" tried to disrupt the ceremony but were thwarted by security
forces. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, saying
it had deployed six militants with suicide vests and guns to target the
president. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said three had died.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/afghan-president-safe-af
ter-fleeing.html
National
Top court's unfair play against fair play By Clarence Page. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. April 27, 2008. Lilly Ledbetter worked in a
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala., for 19 years before she
received a valuable tip from an anonymous source: She was making $6,500 less
than the lowest-paid guy who had her job. She did what anybody might do.
She sued. She was in for a surprise. So were a lot of civil rights experts.
If any cases were intended to be covered by Title VII of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, they thought, it was cases like hers. Indeed, even the women I
know who are hesitant feminists, the middle-of-the-road womenfolk who
insist, "I'm not a feminist, but . . ." usually tend to follow that "but"
with, "I believe that women should receive equal pay for equal work." But
after Ledbetter's case made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court last
year, the high court ruled 5-4 that the law did not apply to her. She was
too late. She should have filed her complaint years earlier when the
original discrimination occurred. Indeed? As a legal matter, the decision
was defensible, but as a practical matter it was inexcusable. One might even
call it judicial activism, tilting a law intended to protect workers against
discrimination into one that gives a big edge to employers who discriminate.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/top-courts-unfair-play-a
gainst-fair.html
A better way to fight crime By Steve Chapman. Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribune. May 1, 2008. In June 2006, a minor brawl erupted at Ye Olde Six
Bells pub in Horley, England. In the aftermath, police arrested Mark Dixie,
a chef at the pub, who surprised them by breaking into tears. He had good
reason. As a standard practice in arrests, a DNA swab was taken from him.
What the authorities didn't suspect, but he did, is that his DNA would match
that of the man who raped and murdered an 18-year-old woman nine months
earlier. Dixie was eventually sentenced to life in prison. This is just one
of many cases that have vindicated the use of DNA in cracking crimes.
Britain, which now has the world's biggest collection of such profiles, has
found it abundantly useful as a law enforcement tool. In a typical month,
police get 3,500 matches between samples recovered at crime scenes and DNA
profiles in the database. Now the U.S. government is set to expand its own
database to include anyone arrested by federal agents, as well as many
foreigners who are detained for one reason or another. It will add more than
1 million samples each year, greatly increasing the chances of getting "cold
hits" from crime scenes.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/better-way-to-fight-crim
e.html
Hispanics lead pace in diverse nation By Howard Witt. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. 12:02 AM CDT, May 1, 2008. HOUSTON—The United States grew
steadily more diverse last year, with Hispanics holding on to their rank as
the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group—a trend with
far-reaching implications for American politics and Immigration policies.
Newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the nation's
Hispanic population grew by 1.4 million in 2007 to reach 45.5 million
people, or 15.1 percent of the total U.S. population of 301.6 million.
Non-Hispanic blacks ranked as the second-largest minority group, at 37
million people. Overall, the nation's 102.5 million minorities accounted
for 34 percent of the U.S. population, a new milepost on America's
inexorable journey toward greater diversity and a harbinger of the growing
political clout of non-whites.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/hispanics-lead-pace-in-d
iverse-nation.html
Indecision 2008
McCain's Birth Abroad Stirs Legal Debate - His Eligibility for Presidency Is
Questioned By Michael Dobbs. Copyright by The Washington Post. Friday, May
2, 2008; Page A06 The Senate has unanimously declared John McCain a
natural-born citizen, eligible to be president of the United States. That
is the good news for the presumptive Republican nominee, who was born nearly
72 years ago in a military hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, then under
U.S. jurisdiction. The bad news is that the nonbinding Senate resolution
passed Wednesday night is simply an opinion that has little bearing on an
arcane constitutional debate that has preoccupied legal scholars for many
weeks. Article II of the Constitution states that "no person except a
natural born citizen . . . shall be eligible to the office of president."
The problem is that the Founding Fathers never defined exactly what they
meant by "natural born citizen," and the matter has never been fully tested
in court. At least three pending cases are challenging McCain's right to be
sworn in as president. Jurists on both sides of the political divide,
consulted by the McCain campaign, insist that the issue is clear-cut. They
argue that McCain is a natural-born citizen because the United States held
sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone at the time of his birth, on Aug. 29,
1936; because he was born on a U.S. military base; and because his parents
were U.S. citizens.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccains-birth-abroad-sti
rs-legal-debate.html
The Democratic Race in Seven Minutes
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid988327350/bclid1037705321/bcti
d1531283112
The Obama Video http://www.dipdive.com/dip-politics/wato/
Obama denounces his former pastor By Edward Luce in Washington. Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 29 2008 19:53 | Last
updated: April 30 2008 00:33. A visibly angry Barack Obama on Tuesday all
but disowned Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, whose ever more provocative
comments are believed to have dented the Illinois senator’s hopes of
securing the Democratic party’s presidential nomination. Mr Obama, whom
opinion polls show to be level with his rival Hillary Clinton in Indiana,
which holds what some have billed a “tiebreaker” primary vote on Tuesday,
said he was “outraged and saddened” by the Reverend Wright’s most recent
comments. “Rev Wright does not speak for me – he does not speak for our
campaign,” said Mr Obama. “I cannot prevent him from continuing to make
these outrageous remarks. But I do want him to be clear that [his remarks]
contradict...who I am and everything that I am about.” Mr Wright, who is
reported to have ignored the pleading of senior Obama supporters to cancel
his appearance on Monday in front of the national media in Washington,
reiterated his most incendiary comments – including the charge that the US
government had created HIV/Aids to kill African-Americans.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-denounces-his-form
er-pastor.html
Obama keeps his cool over TV attack By Edward Luce in Washington. Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: April 27 2008 19:59 | Last
updated: April 27 2008 19:59. Barack Obama on Sunday said that Reverend
Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, was a “legitimate [campaign] issue”,
surprising those calling on the Republican party to withdraw an
advertisement that shows Mr Wright’s face morphing into that of Mr Obama.
The Republican advertisement shows a clip of Mr Wright saying “God Damn
America” and then switches to a clip of Mr Obama and a burning American
flag. In an appearance that could prolong the controversy, Mr Wright will on
Monday address the National Press Club in Washington. Many believe that the
one-minute commercial, which is being aired in North Carolina, where Mr
Obama will square off next week against Hillary Clinton in a presidential
primary, is a foretaste of what Mr Obama would face in a general election
were he to become the Democratic nominee.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-keeps-his-cool-ove
r-tv-attack.html
International Herald Tribune Editorial - Senator Obama and Reverend Wright.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune. Published: May 1, 2008. It
took more time than it should have, but on Tuesday Barack Obama firmly
rejected the racism and paranoia of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright Jr., and made it clear that the preacher does not represent him, his
politics or his campaign. Obama has had to struggle to explain this
relationship ever since a video surfaced of Wright damning the United States
from his pulpit. Last month, Obama delivered a speech in which he said he
disapproved of Wright's racially charged comments but said that the pastor
still played an important role in his spiritual life. It was a distinction
we were not sure would sit well with many voters. But what mattered more was
the speech's powerful commentary on the state of race relations in this
country. We hoped it would open the door to a serious, healthy and
much-needed discussion on race. Wright has not let that happen. In the last
few days, in a series of shocking appearances, he embraced the Rev. Louis
Farrakhan's anti-Semitism. He said the government manufactured the AIDS
virus to kill blacks. He suggested that America was guilty of "terrorism"
and so had brought the 9/11 attacks on itself. This required a powerful,
unambiguous denunciation, and Obama gave it. He said his former pastor's
"rants" were "appalling." "They offend me," he said. "They rightly offend
all Americans. And they should be denounced. And that's what I'm doing very
clearly and unequivocally here today."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial.html
Views: Race, religion and politics in the 21st century by Rev. Deborah Lake.
Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-04-30. During the 40th anniversary
of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember the ongoing struggle to
end race based oppression in America. In our communities and our religious
institutions we celebrate King's life, mourn his death, and we vow to
continue the struggle. Meanwhile, Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments, and our
reactions to them, are part of the backdrop. Let us examine Wright's
comments and our reactions to them with more than a simplified black/white
understanding. As we remember the change brought about through the civil
rights movement, let us look at the position of the Black church in the
lives of many today with more than a bottom line good/evil lens. We can use
this time of social unrest and political disagreement to develop broader
understandings of what it means to be American, what it means to be
oppressed, and what it means to hold ourselves, our government, and our
institutions accountable. The unapologetic, racist, anti-Semitic, and
anti-American comments of Wright opens a window to American history that
many hoped had been closed through the work and sacrifices of activists over
the decades. In addition, our reactions to these comments reveal how we tend
to look for simplified explanations for the complex challenges that we face
today.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/views-race-religion-and-
politics-in.html
Religion drags race to the fore in US election By Edward Luce in Chicago.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008. Published: May 2 2008 21:02 |
Last updated: May 2 2008 21:02. The receptionist at Jeremiah Wright’s
Trinity United Church of Christ makes a joking pretence of punching the
latest visitor. “We are not supposed to entertain media inquiries,” she
declares. This Sunday, as on the preceding six, the media will lay siege to
Barack Obama’s local church on Chicago’s south side for fear of missing what
might be the latest twist in the affair surrounding its pastor. Surrounded
by housing projects and boarded-up shops, Mr Wright’s church is 20 minutes
drive from downtown Chicago but a world apart. Known for its work among the
homeless, single-parent families and HIV-Aids sufferers, Mr Wright has
irrevocably associated his church with a series of notorious comments that
could badly damage Mr Obama’s prospects of reaching the White House. Rather
than scolding their pastor for the damage he might have wrought, Trinity’s
8,500-strong congregation has closed ranks behind him. On Wednesday, Mr
Obama, in effect, disowned Mr Wright after the pastor reiterated that the US
had brought the 11 September terrorist attacks upon itself and vigorously
defended the militant Nation of Islam, whose bodyguards were flanking him.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/religion-drags-race-to-f
ore-in-us.html
Chicagoland
Chicago Tribune Editorial - Let voters decide on recall. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. May 1, 2008. Whatever it takes. We urge the members of
the Illinois House to do whatever it takes by Sunday's deadline to put a
recall amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot. If they have to work the weekend,
blame the defenders of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the Illinois Senate. But if
they do whatever it takes, they will give voters a chance to fire inept
public officials who can't, or won't, earn their fat pay. First, of course,
the Senate needs to pass its new proposal for a recall amendment and send it
to the House. If the Senate fails, or if it doesn't do that soon enough to
let the House vote, then Democratic senators will spend a very long time
explaining how their inaction killed the recall. Public demands for a vote
on a recall amendment aren't occurring in a vacuum. There's rising talk of
moving to impeach the current governor if a recall mechanism isn't created.
But that's a discussion for another week. This week, discussion has to focus
on getting House and Senate approval on the recall amendment by May 4.
That's the deadline to place it on the Nov. 4 ballot, when voters would have
the final say. There's reason to be suspicious of the maneuvering by Senate
Democratic leaders. The House approved a recall amendment three weeks ago,
but the Senate leaders refused to call it for a vote. Then on Tuesday, they
grabbed a straightforward, bipartisan Senate proposal and gummed it up with
changes that were designed to make it more difficult for the House to
accept.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-let-voters.html
Impeachment dust kicked up by recall talk By Eric Zorn. Copyright © 2008,
Chicago Tribune. May 1, 2008. Sentiment is growing that it's high time we
got rid of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. His leadership has been so poisonously
inept that we've made almost no progress toward reform in such bedeviling
areas as education, pensions, health care, capital spending and transit.
Contributing to this paralysis is a darkening cloud of scandal hovering over
his administration. I share that sentiment. Illinois can't and shouldn't
have to endure another 33 months of Cirque du Blago.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/impeachment-dust-kicked-
up-by-recall.html
City scraps troubled blue bag program - Oft-criticized system will give way
to bins used in pilot program By Laurie Cohen and Kristen Kridel. Copyright
© 2008, Chicago Tribune. 11:43 PM CDT, May 2, 2008. Mayor Richard Daley's
controversial blue bag recycling program will end this summer, and the city
will expand suburban-style recycling across the city by 2011. City Hall
slowly has been moving toward replacing the blue bag program, which has been
marked by cronyism and lack of participation, and has been a continuing
embarrassment for Daley, who prides himself on being one of the country's
greenest mayors. Environmentalists said the blue bag program, which began
in 1995, was so bad that they aren't concerned that its demise leaves the
city without another system fully in place for the next few years. "The
blue bag program was so ineffective it's a minimal loss," said Julie Dick,
president of the Chicago Recycling Coalition, which has long pushed the city
to adopt suburban-style recycling.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/city-scraps-troubled-blu
e-bag-program.html
Children's Museum lowers its profile in new Grant Park design proposal By
Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 10:30 AM CDT,
May 2, 2008. To circumvent long-standing restrictions barring buildings in
Grant Park, the Chicago Children's Museum has once again changed its designs
for a proposed location in the northeast end of the park. To lower the
project's physical profile, the museum, which is seeking to move from Navy
Pier to Grant Park, has ditched the 16-foot skylight structures it was
planning to build in the park and has relocated a glassy entry pavilion onto
a nearby sidewalk area so that it is no longer on park property, said Grant
Park Conservancy President Bob O'Neill. "It's a considerable reduction in
profile," O'Neill said. "It's going to be very difficult legally to
challenge this now." Since 2005, the museum has wanted to move from its
current location in Navy Pier into Grant Park directly off Randolph Street.
It hopes to replace an existing fieldhouse with a $100 million museum
building. The museum also plans to build a $15 million fieldhouse for the
Chicago Park District.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/childrens-museum-lowers-
its-profile-in.html
GLBT
In modern Christianity, who is out of step on gays? By Leonard Pitts.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 29, 2008. James Lawson is out of
step with modern Christianity. Take gay marriage. Speaking in support of a
proposed state constitutional ban on same sex unions, one Rev. Hayes Wicker
of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., was recently quoted by the Naples
Daily News as saying, "This is a tremendous social crisis, greater even than
the issue of slavery." As asinine as that remark is, it is perfectly in
step with much of modern Christianity, which has spent years demonizing gay
men and lesbians. And then there's Rev. Lawson, who spoke last weekend at
the 10th anniversary conference of Soulforce, a group that fights
church-based homophobia. Few things could be more "out" of step. Lawson,
you may know, is an icon of the civil rights movement; it was he who invited
Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis to support the striking sanitation
workers. He sees his longtime involvement with Soulforce as part of the same
struggle. "The human rights issue is not a single issue," he told me
recently. "It is about all humankind. And all humankind has been endowed
with certain inalienable rights."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-modern-christianity-w
ho-is-out-of.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - School no place for anti-gay shirt. Copyright
by The Chicago Sun-Times. April 28, 2008. Being gay in high school must be
hard enough without having to walk past a guy in the hall wearing a T-shirt
that says, "Be Happy, Not Gay." We would call that crude and intolerant --
the sort of message we all have to live with on a T-shirt spotted at, say,
State and Madison, where free speech is free speech. But not in a public
high school. Too bad the U.S. Court of Appeals can't see that. The court
on Wednesday lifted a ban against a sophomore boy wearing just such a
T-shirt at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. The ban remains in
effect pending the outcome of a civil rights suit the boy and his parents
have filed against the school. Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court,
got it right when he argued that the Constitution allows for reasonable
limits on free speech in schools. "High school students are not adults," he
wrote, "schools are not public meeting halls, children are in school to be
taught by adults rather than to practice attacking each other with wounding
words." But Posner got it wrong when he concluded that "Be Happy, Not Gay"
is only "tepidly negative" and should not be forbidden by the school.
Unless, that is, Posner and the Court of Appeals take the increasingly
scientifically bankrupt view that homosexuality is nothing but a lifestyle
choice -- not a matter of nature and biology. "Be Happy, Not Gay," to our
way of thinking, makes about as much sense as "Be Happy, Not Black."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-school-no.html
Schools, LGBT parents and the need to be involved (Extended for the Online
Edition) by Amy Wooten. Copyright by The Windy City Times. 2008-04-30.
Given the fact that LGBT parents and their children are often mistreated in
a school setting, how do LGBT families go about choosing a school with a
proven track record, or make the most out of the school their child
currently attends? Many LGBT parents don't know where to start when it
comes to finding a school or working to make their child's school a better
place for the entire family. Knowing where to begin and what resources are
available to both parents and students is crucial given the light a recent
study has shed on the issue. A report released by the Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network ( GLSEN ) , Family Equality Council and COLAGE in
February found that although LGBT parents are more involved in their
children's education ( more likely to attend parent-teacher conferences and
volunteer ) , they are also more likely to feel excluded and ignored because
the school community doesn't accept them.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/schools-lgbt-parents-and
-need-to-be.html
Buying a Business - Avoiding the Pitfalls By Roger McCaffrey-Boss.
Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss. April 29, 2008.
Q: A friend of mine is planing on retiring and wants to sell me and my lover
his restaurant. What are the potential problems I face in buying an ongoing
business? A: Your lawyer should first assist you in the preparation of the
contract for the purchase of the business. That contract will cover
essential issues, such as the price and payment terms, is it to be a cash
deal or will the seller finance part of the sale? The contract should also
include a list of the equipment to be sold and what documents the seller
should provide to establish that there are no liens against the equipment or
judgments against the seller which could prevent the seller from
transferring good title to the equipment and business assets.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/buying-business-avoiding
-pitfalls.html
Health Care
WALKING OFF THE ANGER - Rage between cars, bikes is a vicious wheel By Kevin
Williams. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. April 27, 2008. We're mad as
hell, and it's all because of the wheel. Cyclists are dropping, and the
whole bike-versus-car showdown has become a tinderbox. This should make any
sane person slow down and think. Instead, it inspires invective. Just look
at Internet message boards, like the Tribune's, for proof: Those bikers had
it coming. They don't obey traffic laws," says a motorist. "SUV-driving
pigs hog the road and waste resources as they try to kill me," says a
cyclist. But here's the thing: When I am in my car, cyclists vex the mess
out of me. On my bicycle, cyclists and motorists vex the mess out of me.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/walking-off-anger-rage-b
etween-cars.html
Men of the cloth - When it comes to keeping women pregnant and in their
place, polygamous Mormons and the pope have a lot in common. But the pope
does it on a wider scale. By Katha Pollitt. Copyright by The Nation
Magazine. April 29, 2008. Child abuse. Sexual abuse. Women raised to be
baby machines controlled by powerful older men in the name of God. These
shockers—and many more—are flagrantly on offer in the spectacle unfolding
around the 139 women and 437 children removed by Texas authorities from the
Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The YFZ is an outpost of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway
Mormon cult presided over by Warren Jeffs, convicted in Utah as an
accomplice to rape and awaiting trial in Arizona for incest and conspiracy.
The visuals are riveting: women in pastel prairie dresses and identical
pompadour-cum-French-braid hairstyles weeping for their children in state
custody; skinny-necked middle-age men insisting they had no idea it was
illegal to marry and impregnate multiple 15-year-olds. There's a feminist
angle, a child-protection angle and a civil liberties angle—it isn't clear
that the children were in immediate danger, and this drastic and clumsy
sweep might well cause cultists to isolate themselves even more. The
original impetus for the raid—a desperate phone call from someone claiming
to be a 16-year-old girl raped and abused by her 50-year-old "spiritual
husband"—is looking more and more like a hoax.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/men-of-cloth-when-it-com
es-to-keeping.html
Technology
Apple in downloads deal with big studios By Kevin Allison in San Francisco
and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles. Copyright The Financial Times Limited
2008. Published: May 1 2008 20:16 | Last updated: May 1 2008 21:07. Apple
has struck a deal with Warner Brothers and other big film studios to sell
film downloads through iTunes on the same day that titles are released on
DVD. The move marks the latest step in a revamp of Apple’s film download
strategy. This year the company said it would begin offering film rentals
over iTunes after Steve Jobs, chief executive, admitted its paid download
strategy had not worked as well as had been hoped. The inclusion of Warner,
which has the biggest film library in Hollywood, significantly bolsters the
video content available to buy on iTunes.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/apple-in-downloads-deal-
with-big.html
Immigration
Financial Times Editorial Comment: The shameful dividends of immigrant
bashing. Copyright by The Financial Times. Published: May 2, 2008. For
Americans, what is happening each night in the French channel port of Calais
is poignantly and shamefully familiar. As Caroline Brothers reported on
Wednesday in The International Herald Tribune, clusters of poor people wait
for darkness and a high-risk chance to crawl inside or beneath a truck to
cross to a country that needs and welcomes their labor but refuses to
legally recognize their presence. The United States has engaged in this
labor-market hypocrisy for decades. Border crossers are mainly Mexican and
Central American. Western Europe's come from North and Central Africa, the
Middle East and former east bloc countries not yet in the European Union.
Just about everywhere, they are distrusted by the local population and
vilified by demagogic politicians. In the rush to blame foreigners for real
and imagined social ills, Europe's anemic birth rates, aging population and
hard-to-fill jobs are forgotten. Without large infusions of foreign workers,
the tourist industries that many European countries depend on would be
understaffed and the cost of construction would soar. None of this has
stopped Europe's politicians from stoking fears of immigrant crime, welfare
burdens and foreign ways. That should also sound familiar to Americans.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editoria
l-comment.html
Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Get off fence on immigration. Copyright by
The Chicago Sun-Times. May 1, 2008. Tens of thousands of people are
expected to march in Chicago today, May Day, also known as International
Worker's Day. They are demanding immigrant rights and legalization for the
12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. It's not just a
Mexican issue but one that will rally Poles, Indians, Koreans and Filipinos,
who also have sizable undocumented populations in Illinois, as well as legal
immigrants and U.S. citizens. An estimated 450,000 to 550,000 undocumented
immigrants live in Illinois. Today's march is expected to be smaller than
the 400,000 who came out in 2006 and the 150,000 in 2007. But resolving
America's immigration debate remains a burning issue. It has fallen off the
political radar as the media focus on such lesser and ephemeral matters as
the views of Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and how
Hillary Clinton exaggerated the danger of landing in Bosnia. It's time our
political leaders get back to working on issues that matter, and that
includes immigration reform. But nothing is likely to happen until we elect
a new president, so allow us to take this occasion to remind you where the
candidates stand on immigration.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-get-off.html
Tables turned in immigration flap - Neighbors say Mexico is guilty of a
double standard when it comes to treatment of illegal migrants By Oscar
Avila . Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune. 12:21 AM CDT, May 2, 2008.
MEXICO CITY — While Mexican immigrants led the charge in Chicago and other
cities Thursday to push the U.S. government to treat illegal immigrants more
humanely, the same demands for immigrant rights are festering in Mexico,
which is facing mounting criticism for how it treats Latin American
migrants. In April, diplomats from El Salvador and Honduras protested after
dozens of their citizens accused Mexican authorities of brutality while they
were detained. That same month, the top UN advocate for migrant rights
toured the country and said that "the impunity with which Mexico victimizes
Central American immigrants makes it the principal violator of human rights
on the American continent." The outcry came as Mexican President Felipe
Calderon, while at a North American summit in New Orleans last month, gave
his most eloquent defense about the contributions that Mexican immigrants
make to the U.S. That led conservative U.S. lawmakers to accuse Mexico of
hypocrisy, and even Mexican lawmakers say the gap between their country's
rhetoric and actions has become a problem in pushing Immigration reform.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tables-turned-in-immigra
tion-flap.html
The illegal immigrants you never read about - 'I WAS ASHAMED' | Hungarian
kept a secret from all as she studied, worked and, finally, gained
citizenship By TERESA PUENTE. Copyright by the Chicago Sun-Times. April
28, 2008. Rita Gondocs was 11 when she came to the United States from
Budapest with her mother and twin sister. She remembers the shock of
humidity that washed over her that summer of 1988. They soon moved into a
studio apartment in Edgewater, and her mother worked days as a cleaning
woman and nights at a Hungarian restaurant to pay for her daughters to
attend a Catholic school. But they kept a secret for the next 10 years; they
were undocumented immigrants. "Nobody knew at school. I didn't tell any of
my friends. I was ashamed," recalled Gondocs, now 31 and a high school
teacher on the South Side. Gondocs is one of countless immigrants who were
once undocumented but through family sponsors, assistance from an employer
or the 1986 amnesty have become legal immigrants or U.S. citizens. We rarely
hear their stories. In this column, I plan to feature one of their stories
each month for the next six months.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/illegal-immigrants-you-n
ever-read-about.html
Other
Planes and purgatory: A day at the airport By Garrison Keillor. Copyright ©
2008, Chicago Tribune. April 30, 2008. A cabdriver picked me up outside
the Waffle House in Little Rock last Sunday and said so sweetly, "I hope you
enjoyed your breakfast" and I said yes, but honestly, I don't really
associate breakfast with enjoyment. It's a standardized meal meant to
fortify you for the day's maneuvers. In my parents' home we sat down to our
Cheerios and toast and ate it and conversed in small declarative sentence
fragments and jumped up and out the door, and I still do, and that's why I
don't intend to retire: What do you do after breakfast? Do you have to hang
out for hours with other geezers and geezerettes and reminisce about the
days when it was fun to fly from place to place—remember? When you walked
through the airport and out the door onto the tarmac and up the stairs to
the plane, just like Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca"? I don't care to.
Although when I went through airport security in Minneapolis on Monday, it
was an object lesson in something—a line of a hundred people twisted around
in the cattle chute, 16 men and women in the white Transportation Security
Administration shirts with the epaulets, an obese young woman shouting at us
to take our laptops out of our cases in a voice she learned from a prison
camp movie; one metal detector in operation, two closed, and the guardian of
this narrow gate was a man who carefully read each boarding pass as if
proofreading it for misspellings.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/04/planes-and-purgatory-day
-at-airport.html
Humor
Bipartisanship
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/bipartisanship.html
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: <http://lists.carlostmock.com/pipermail/news/attachments/20080503/20bb971b/attachment.html>
More information about the News
mailing list