[News] The Moron Newsletter - May 17, 2008

[Carlos Mock]

Larry King:  
Is America ready for a woman or a black president?

Jon Stewart:
 "This is such a non-question. Did anyone ask us in 2000 if Americans were
readyfor a moron?"

Keith Olbermann Special Comment *MR BUSH YOU ARE A FASCIST!*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEcBjpsP1bU&feature=related

President ush committed political treason today Posted by Will Bunch @
10:45 AM Ma 15, 2008.  Copyright by Permalink   I've seen a lot of sad
things in America politics in my lifetime — the  resignation of a president
who became a natioal disgrace after he oversaw a campaign of break-ins and
cover-ups, anothe who circumvented the Constitution to trade arms for
hostages, and yet is nw hailed as national hero. And those paled to what we
have seen in the lat seven years -- flagrant disregard for the
Constitution, the launching of a"pre-emptive" war on false pretenses, and
discussions about torture and oter shocking abuses inside the White House
inner sanctum.  But now it's com to this: A new low that I never imagined
was even possible.  President Bushwent on foreign soil today, and committed
what I consider an act of political treason: Comparing the candidate of the
U.S. opposition party to appeasers of Nazi Germany -- in the ery nation
that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaut. Bush's
bizarre and beyond-appropriate detour into American presidential poitics
took place in the middle of what should have been an occasion for oy: A
speech to Israeli's Knesset to honor that nation's 60th birthday.
ttp://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/president-bush-committed-political.html

Blair's wife recalls disappointment at Bush's win By DAVID TRINGER.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  5:44 PM CDT, May 14, 2008.  LONDON- The
wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said she and her husand
watched in distress as George Bush won the U.S. presidential electionin
2000, according to extracts of her autobiography published Wednesday.  "Ithink it's fair to say that our hearts sank when the result was finally
atified," Cherie Blair wrote in "Speaking For Myself," which is being
serialzed in The Times of London newspaper.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blgspot.com/2008/05/blairs-wife-recalls-disa
ppointment-at.html

Internatinal Herald Tribune Editorial - The courage of Laura Berg.
Copyright by The Inernational Herald Tribune.  Published: May 13, 2008.
The PEN American Cener, the literary organization committed to free
expression, is honoring n American most people in the United States have
never read or even hard of: Laura Berg.  She is a psychiatric nurse at a
Veterans Affairs hospial who was threatened with a sedition investigaon
after she wrote a letter to the editor denouncing the Bush administration's
bungling of relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and its
shocking incomptence in conducting the Iraq war.  That's right, sedition:
inciting rebellin against the government.  We suppose nothing should
surprise us in thee days of government zealotry.  But the horror and the
shame of tha witch hunt should shock everyone.  Berg identified herself as
a Veteans Affairs nurse when, soon after Katrina's horrors, she sent her
impasioned letter to The Alibi, a paper in Albuquerque.  "I am furious with
the ragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this
governmet," she wrote. "We need to wake up and get real here, and act
forcefully toremove a government administration playing games of smoke and
mirrors and viious deceit."  Her superiors at the hospital soon alerted the
FBI and impouded her office computer, where she keeps the case files of
war-scarred veterns she treats.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/internatinal-herald-tri
bune-editorial_3538.html

International Herald Tribune Editori - The mental suffering of American
soldiers.  Copyright by The Internatioal Herald Tribune.  Published: May
12 2008.  The Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to cope with a
task for which it was tragically unready: the care of soldiers who left
Afghanistan and Iraq with a extra burden of brain injury and psychic
anguish. The last thing tey need is the blend of secrecy and heedlessness
that helped to send many ofthem into harm's way.  "Shh!" said the e-mail in
February from Dr. Ira Kat, head of mental health services for Veterans
Affairs, to a colleague. "ur suicide prevention coordinators are
identifying about 1,000 suicid attempts per month among the veterans we see
in our medical facilites. Is this something we should (carefully) address
ourselves in some sort o release before someone stumbles on it?"  Katz's
hushed-up figure was nohere near the number he gave to the House Veterans'
Affairs Committee last ear; he said there had been 790 suicide attempts in
all of 2007, and denid there was a suicide epidemic. The veterans affairs
secretary, James Peake,apologized for Katz's "unfortunate set of words" and
promised more candor.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_2476.html

The oily ruth about America’s foreign policy By Gideon Rachman.  Copyright
The Financal Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 12 2008 19:05 | Last
updated: May 12008 19:05.  With the oil price heading upwards and
President George W. Bsh heading for Saudi Arabia, as part of a Middle
Eastern tour, it is time o accept the truth. The pursuit of oil is
fundamental to US foreign policy.  he importance of oil to American foreign
policy is both obvious and curiousl difficult to acknowledge in public. In
the run-up to the Iraq war i was left to the left to make the argument that
this was a “war for oil”. Establishment people – those in the know – rolled
their eyes at this “conspiracy theory”.  Yet in recent monts, both Alan
Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Seator John McCain
have come close to saying that Iraq was indeed about oil.In his memoirs Mr
Greenspan said he regretted that it was “politically iconvenient” to
acknowledge that “the Iraq war is largely about oil”.  Earler this month Mr
McCain, who will carry the Republican banner in this year’s residential
election, promised an energy policy “that will eliminate ourdependence on
oil from the Middle East” and so “prevent us from having er to send our
young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East”
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/oily-truth-about-americ
s-foreign.html

Is McCain sailing into a storm? By Steve Chapman.  Copyright© 2008, Chicago
Tribune.  May 11, 2008.  The last couple of months have been pringtime in
paradise for Republicans: the loveliest of all possible season. They have
been watching two Democratic presidential candidates in an endles battle to
destroy each other—a process that does not appear to enhance th chance that
the eventual nomineewill win in November.   A recent Gallup poll showed
John McCain leading both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head
matchup. All this before Republicns even begin publicizing the worst that
can be said about either of two andidates whose alleged defects provide a
supremely target-rich environmnt.   But it's easy to let the individuals
involved obscure larger factors hat may prove more important. In a
hurricane, even handsome, well-built bots can end up underwater. And right
now, the GOP looks as though itmay be sailing into a perfect storm.
Currently, 69 percent of Americans isapprove of the way President Bush is
doing his job. That is the highest dispproval rating since Gallup began
polling 70 years ago—higher than Lyndo Johnson during the Vietnam War,
Richard Nixon during Watergate, or Jimm Carter during the Iran hostage
crisis. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogsot.com/2008/05/is-mccain-sailing-into-s
torm.html

International Herald Triune Editorial - The lucrative arts of war and not
paying taxes.  Copyrightby The International Herald Tribune.  Published:
May 12, 2008.  Congress i finally moving to shut one of the more egregious
forms of Iraq war profitering: defense contractors using offshore shell
companies to avoid paying heir fair share of payroll taxes. The practice is
widespread and congressionainvestigators have been dispatched to one of
the prime tax refuges, the Cayman Islands, to seek a firsthand estimate of
how much the U.S. Treasury i being shorted.  No one will be surprised to
hear that one of the suspected prime offenders is KBR, the Texas-based
defene contractor, formerly a part of the Halliburton conglomerate allied
with Vic President Dick Cheney. According to a report in The Boston Globe,
KBR, hich has landed billions of dollars in Iraq contracts, has used two
Cayman shll companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in
payroll, Mdicare and unemployment taxes.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.co/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_13.html

How daydreamers cased Iraq nightmare BY ANDREW GREELEY.  Copyright by The
Chicago Sun-Times.  My 14, 2008.  As the Bush administration winds down,
people will rflect on the strange ideas that have emerged during this
disastrous era in ur country's history. We also will wonder about the
arrogant ignorance tha shaped the tragedy of the last eight years. It is
imperative to conider where the ideas came from that will live after Jan.
20, perhaps thrugh the McCain years.  Fred Kaplan has written an insightful
book --Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power --
about th ideas that have supported the president's understanding of foreign
poicy. The basic premise of these theories was the president's convictin
that his predecessor's foreign policy was wrong in every respect. When h
came to the White House, he determined that there would be no more nation
bilding, as in Bosnia, no more active intervention in the
Israel-Palestinin conflict, no more concern about shadow groups such as
al-Qaida.  The tas of his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was
not so much to challnge his assumptions as to reassure him and help him to
develop the explici theories to support what he wanted to do. Thus, when
Richard Clarke warnedRice that al-Qaida was planning massie attacks on the
United States, she apparently did not pass that warning on to the president.
Note that the Iraq war was and still is a massive effort at nation building.
W are engaged in a "war on terrorism" and the ineffable Rice bustles back
nd forth to Israel to tell both warring parties what they "need" (one of
er favorite words) to do.  The new ideas sounded profound and important.After 9/11, the whole world had changed. The Cold War was over, and te
United States was the last superpower. It could do whatever it wanted to
rotect itself and in any part of the world it might choose, especially wih
the new super weapons that Donald Rumsfeld promised would make wars quick
ad painless and would require only a few troops.
http://iretiredfromnewsetters.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-daydreamers-caused-i
raq-nightmare.html

ecurity contractor in Baghdad shooting is flying high By James Risen.
Copright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 10, 2008.
WASHINTON: Last autumn, Blackwater Worldwide was in deep peril.  Guards for
the seurity company were involved in a shooting in September that left at
leat 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings
promped the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater's ouster from the
country, a crminal investigation by the FBI, a series of internal
investigations by the Sate Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile
congressional hearing.  But after an intense public and private lobbying
campaign, Blackwater apears to be back to business as usual.  The State
Department has just renewed its contract to provide security for U.S.
diplomats in Iraq for at least another year. Threats by the Irqi government
to strip Western contractors of their immunity from Iraqi law hve gone
nowhere. No charges have yet been brought in the United States agains any
Blackwater guards in the September shooting, either, and the FBI agens in
Baghdad charged with investigating whether Blackwater guards committe any
crimes under United States law are sometimes protected as they travel
hrough Baghdad by Blackwater guards.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspotcom/2008/05/security-contractor-in-b
aghdad-shooting.html

US postpones firstGuantanamo war crimes trial By BEN FOX.  Copyright 2008
Associated Press.  153 AM CDT, May 17, 2008.  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A
military judge on Frida postponed the first war crimes tribunal at
Guantanamo Bay, saying he wantsto wait until the Supreme Court makes its
highly anticipated ruling o the right of detainees to challenge their
confinement in civil courts.  Nay Capt. Keith Allred ruled the trial for
Osama bin Laden's former drivr should be delayed seven weeks, until July
21, in case the Supreme Court rulng affects his case. He scheduled pretrial
hearings to begin a week earlir.  A Supreme Court ruling is expected by
June 30.  Defense lawyers for SalimAhmed Hamdan, whose trial was scheduled
to start June 2, had requested a ostponement. Military prosecutors had said
they were eager to go to trial.
htp://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-postpones-first-gant
anamo-war.html

Oil rice surges as Bush visits Saudi By Javier Blas in London.  Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 16 2008 14:06 | Last
updated: May 16 2008 14:57.  Crud oil prices on Friday hit a fresh record
high of almost $128 a barrelboosted by a bullish forecast from Goldman
Sachs and as US President eorge W. Bush asked Saudi Arabia, the world’s
largest oil producer, for hel to lower skyrocketing energy prices.  Bush,
on his second visit to Sudi Arabia this year, was renewing his appeal for
the Organisation of te Petroleum Exporting Countries to boost its output.
“We do count on he Opec countries to keep adequate supplies out there, so
the president willtalk again with the king about that,” White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino tod reporters travelling with Bush, Reuters
reported.  The surge in prices cae after Goldman Sachs forecasted West
Texas Intermediate crude t average $141 a barrel in the second half of
2008, up from a previous projecton of $107 a barrel, it said in a report.
Goldman also forecasts prices wll rise further next year to average $148.
http://iretiredfromnewsletter.blogspot.com/2008/05/oil-price-surges-as-bush
-visits-saudi.html

 
 


You Lack of Money

US consumer confidence at lowest since 1980 By Chris Byant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Publishd: May 16 2008 14:36 |
Last updated: May 16 2008 15:39.  US consumer confience sank to its lowest
level in 28 years this month as anxious shoppers grppled with surging food
and fuel costs, according to a new survey publishe on Friday.  The
Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidece index plunged from 62.6
to 59.5 in May, the lowest reading since June 1980 Meanwhile, one-year
inflation expectations rose to 5.2 per cent, the mst since February 1982,
and up from 4.8 per cent n April.  A separate report revealed new
construction of single-family homes dropped to the lowest level in 17 years.
Although the headline rate of housing starts increase, economists
attributed the improvement to a big spike in a volatile gauge f
multi-family home construction.  Waning consumer confidence and the slding
US housing market have compelled the Federal Reserve to slash interest ates
by 325 basis points since last September to try to prevent the US ecnomy
tipping into a deep recession.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.cm/2008/05/us-consumer-confidence-a
t-lowest-since.html

An age of uncertainy - Seniors living on a fixed income face hard choices
as costs soar forgroceries, gas and medicine. No relief is in sight By
Dahleen Glanton.  Cyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 17, 2008.  ATLANTA
— It was a bad day t the bingo table.  When the numbers fall right, the
senior citizens who ather in a small conference room in the rear of the
Kroger grocery store fortheir weekly bingo game fill their bags with
winnings that include eggs, chiken, fruit, bread and fresh fish. But on
this day, no one took homemore than two or three items.  "I'm going to have
to go shopping now," 84-yar-old Ruth Graves, a retired waitress who lives
on Social Security, said asshe rolled her cart into the store to take
advantage of senior discount da, a 10 percent savings on purchases on
Wednesdays.  For Graves, who supplemnts her income by selling Avon
products, and the dozen other women who reguarly attend the bingo games, it
is a tme for fun, laughter and socializing. But there is also a practical
benefit—every item of free groceries helps them save money as the unstable
economy pushes their living epenses higher.  Faced with soaring costs of
prescription drugs, housing, gasline and groceries, it is easy for seniors
on fixed incomes to go over budge. And sometimes, as hard as they try,
there is not enough money each monthto make ends meet.  Like many of
America's elderly, Graves is old enough to rmember at least part of the
Great Depression that began with the stock maret crash of 1929 and ended
with the onset of World War II. The memories o hunger, unemployment and
watching their parents sink into financia ruin are etched in their minds.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.om/2008/05/age-of-uncertainty-senio
rs-living-on.html

US consumer prices how modest gain By Chris Bryant in Washington.
Copyright The Financial imes Limited 2008.  Published: May 14 2008 14:27 |
Last updated: ay 14 2008 17:40.  Consumer prices remained in check in
April, in spite of suging food costs, which could give the Federal Reserve
more room for manouvre as it seeks to steer the US economy out of its
current malaise.  The cnsumer price index advanced by 0.2 per cent in April
while core prices, hich exclude food and energy, rose by only 0.1 per ent.
Both price gauges came in a tenth of a percentage point less than economists
had forecast.  Over the past year overall consumer prices have risen by 3.9
per cet. Core prices - the Fed’s preferred barometer - gained 2.3 per cent
over thiperiod but have increased at an annual rate of only 1.2 per cent
in the pas three months.  Economists said this relatively modest increase
in iflation reflected waning consumer demand as the US economy slows and
also he impact of the housing market slump which has helped keep rents
under conol. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-consumer-pricesshow-
modest-gain.html

Writedowns push MBIA to $2.4bn loss By Saskia Scholts in New York.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published:May 12 2008 14:55 |
Last updated: May 12 2008 14:55.  MBIA, the world’s larest bond insurer, on
Monday reported a $2.4bn loss for the first quarter as t took billions of
dollars of writedowns on derivatives contracts amid onoing credit market
deterioration.  The loss was more than twice analysts’ esimates, equating
to $13.03 a share for the quarter, compared with profits of$198.6m, or
$1.46 a share, for the first quarter of 2007.  MBIA was foced to reduce the
value of securities it has insured through derivatives trdes by $3.6bn in
the first quarter as credit markets tumbled. Unliketraditional insurance on
corporate or municipal bonds, the value of derivatives contracts called
credit default swaps must be priced at the end of each quarter at current
market value.  However, while MBIA acknowledged that the mark-to-market
adjustment was “attenion-getting”, it did not believe the writedown was
representative of actual lsses on the insured securities.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.co/2008/05/writedowns-push-mbia-to-
24bn-loss.html

JC Penney 1Q profit flls 50 pct; rough year ahead By SCHUYLER DIXON.
Copyright 2008 Associated Pess.  11:35 AM CDT, May 15, 2008.  DALLAS - J.C.
Penney reported first-quater profits were halved and on Thursday predicted
"difficult" conditions forthe entire year as consumers pull back on
spending.  Net income fell to $120 illion, or 54 cents per share, from $238
million, or $1.04 per share, a yar ago, the suburban Dallas-based retailer
said.  Total sales fell 5 percent o $4.13 billion from $4.35 billion.
Profits per share were better than he 50 cents expected from analysts
surveyed by Thomson Financial, however, nd it said second-quarter earnings
would be slightly better than analystforecasts.  Shares rose 3.3 percent,
or $1.48, t $44.73 in midday trading.  "It is obviously a very difficult
time for all U.S. consumers," said Myron E. Ullman III, chairman and chief
executive. "They're facing uncertainty in heir financial well-being."
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspotcom/2008/05/jc-penney-1q-profit-fall
s-50-pct-rough.html

German growth hels spur eurozone By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt.  Copyright
The Financil Times Limited 2008. Published: May 15 2008 08:38 | Last
updated:May 15 2008 11:03.  A dramatic German growth spurt powered a
reaccelertion in eurozone growth at the start of this year that contrasted
with the harp US slowdown.  Defying the global economic storms, German
gross doestic product in Europe’s largest economy increased by 1.5 per cent
in the frst quarter – the fastest quarterly rate for almost 12 years, the
country’s tatistical office revealed on Thursday. That was far above
expectations and cmpared with GDP growth of just 0.1 per cent in the US in
the same period.  he German figures helped lift the overall 15-country
eurozone growth rate to0.7 per cent in the first quarter, up from 0.4 per
cent in the previous threemonths. That could lead to forecasts for the year
being revised significanly higher.  However, economists agreed that the
German first quarter figure were distorted by exceptional factors,
including a mild winter that boosted onstruction activity. Forward-looking
confidence indicators such as te IFO business confidence index have
suggesed that growth will be much weaker in the second quarter.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/german-growth-helps-spur
-eurozone.html

BA profits oar to record levels By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent.
Copyright The Fiancial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 16 2008 08:53 |
Last updatd: May 16 2008 12:26.  British Airways achieved record profits
last year ad reached a 10 per cent operating margin for the first time in
its history. It has decided to pay a dividend for the first time since
2000/01 and is payig a bonus to staff of £35m after narrowly achieving its
profit targets despit the cost of the chaotic opening of Heathrow Terminal
5 in the final ays of March.  Willie Walsh, BA chief executive who has been
under heav pressure since the fiasco of the T5 opening, said the company
had achievedan “outstanding financial result” despite rising fuel prices
and significant conomic slowdown in the last six months.  He confirmed,
however, thathe would not be taking his annual bonus that is worth up to
£700,000 because f the debacle surrounding the opening of T5.  ”I felt in
the context of  disappointing opening of Terminal 5 it would be
inappropriate to take a onus,” Mr Walsh said.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/a-profits-soar-to-recor
d-levels.html

REBATE SUGGESTION - This strateg means making a bet on forever By Gerald D.
Skoning.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 11, 2008.  Uncle Sam says
your economic stimulus rebate checks are in te mail (I know, I've heard
that joke too). Soon, American taxpayers will deide how to spend a windfall
that was sold in Washington as a way to boost theeconomy.   So, what to do
with those checks, which for some families coul mean $1,200 or more?   Buy
a flat-screen TV? Pay off credit card debt? Set i aside as a hedge against
skyrocketing gasoline prices?  No, here's a betteridea: Use that rebate to
buy "forever" stamps from the U.S. Postal Service.  ostage rates are going
up, again. On Monday, the cost of sending a firs-class letter will rise by
a penny to 42 cents. It will be the third increasein a little over two
years. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/200805/rebate-suggestion-this-s
trategy-means.html



Gold and Commodities

Oil 126.29
Silver Bullion $16.98
Gold Bullion $902
Platinum Bullion $ $2132Euro            $1.5571

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Time to covene a summit on oil.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Publishe: May 15 2008 19:35 |
Last updated: May 15 2008 19:35.  The inexorabe rise in the oil price, from
below $20 to $126 in less than a decade,makes governments look powerless.
But governments can ease the economic harm of a high oil price – if they act
together. In order to do so they should put oil at the heart of the next
Goup of Eight summit, or even better, organise a wider summit to bring
tother industrialised countries, big emerging market oil consumers and
largeoil producers.  Such a summit would have three objectives: to
encourageenergy efficiency, and so reduce future oil demand; to promote
investment innew oil supplies; and to smooth the recycling of billions of
dollars in il revenues from producers back into consuming countries. All
three tasks wold be easier with international co-operation and there are
enough shared inteests to make a worthwhile deal possible.  More efficient
car engine, fuel cell power supplies, and other technologies to do more
work wit each barrel of oil would all reduce future demand. The trick is to
create icentives to invest in them. More money would be spent on developing
the riht kinds of engine if fuel economy standards were tough (and similar
in every large market. More would be invested n new.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editoria
l-comment-time.html

$4 a gallon not the end of rising gas prices - 'It's not gng to be a
1-year blip and go away' By Joshua Boak and Greg Burns.  Copyriht © 2008,
Chicago Tribune.  May 18, 2008.  Drivers will likely need to becme
comfortable with gas at $4 a gallon as oil experts say an era of historic
ain at the pump will endure well beyond the Memorial Day weekend, when
price traditionally peak.   You might trade in that GMC Yukon for a Honda
Civic skip the highway for the bike lane and redefine that time-honored
traditio of the road-trip. Americans are already reordering their Memorial
Day weeknds, with AAA reporting a decrease in travel for the first time
since 2002. But those changes might not be enough to immediately pull down
a gasoline mket that now follows the whims of the world economy. Newfound
wealth flls pockets of the globe once known for overwhelming poverty, and
for the fist time prices are responding to their thirst for fuel as much as
demand in Aerica. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/4-gallon-not-endof-risi
ng-gas-prices.html



Housing

Illinois Average Rates
5/17/08 -10:46 PM
30 Yr Fixed                    5.80%
15 Yr Fixed                   5.41%
30 Yr Fixed Jumbo        7.05%

Chicago-area home prices fell .6% - Rising inventory of unsold houses a
major problem By Susan Diesenhous.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May
14, 2008.  In a broad-based housig decline, the price of existing
single-family homes fell in 100 out of 149 U.S metropolitan areas during the
first quarter, according to a report released Tuesday by the Naional
Association of Realtors.  The median sale price fell 7.7 percent natonwide,
to $196,300, from $212,600 a year earlier.  In the Chicago area,single-family home prices fell 6.6 percent, to $249,600. For condominiums,
coperatives and townhouses, U.S. prices fell 3 percent, but metropolitan
Chica prices for existing units rose 7 percent, the group reported.  For
the yea, U.S. median house prices will fall 2.4 percent but in 2009 will
rise 4. percent as it becomes easier for buyers to secure mortgages for
high-pricd housing, the association forecast.  A major problem Chicago
faces is a grwing inventory of unsold homes, as foreclosures mount and
prospective buyes face difficulty selling the houses they already own,
according to te April Homebuilding Survey released this week by Zelman &
Associates, NewYork-based housing consultants.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspotcom/2008/05/chicago-area-home-prices
-fell-66-rising.html

Record condo numers to saturate downtown - With sales slowing in weak
economy, oversupply forcast By Robert Manor.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago
Tribu.  May 14, 2008.  Nearly 6,000 condos, by far a record number, are
expected to come on the market in downtown Chicago this year at a time when
mortgages are toughr to get and sales have slowed dramatically, according
to a report.  That add up to a big worry about the Loop-area market, which
has seen explosive grwth in recent years.  "It's tremendously serious,"
said Steven Hovany, presidnt of Strategy Planning Associates Inc., a
planning and real estate conulting firm. "What you are going to see are
buildings going into foeclosure."  Hovany predicts developers will cancel
downtown projects for seeral years to come, until the excess housing is
absorbed.  Downtown living, lmost inconceivable 15 years ago, has
contributed an extraordinary amount to hicago's economy and its reputation
as a livable city. The near West Side,once a depressed area, is now noted
for fine dining. The near South Side ha gone from a desolate warren of
railroad tracks and warehouses to an engagin neighborhood with a short walk
to work for thousands of peple.
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/record-condo-numbers-to-
saturate.html

HSBC sees further pain in US housing By Peter Thal Larsen, Bnking Editor.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 2 2008 11:34 |
Last updated: May 12 2008 15:05.  HSBC on Monday predicted th US housing
market downturn could last for at least another year as the bankng group
revealed it had set aside $5.8bn (£3bn) as a result of the creditturmoil in
the first quarter.  UK Daily View: HSBC seen as bellwether.  Pter Thal
Larsen analyses the bank’s writedowns and its outlook for US housing  The
bank, one of the first to suffer from the meltdown in the US subprime
ortgage market, said any recovery in the US housing market was unlikelythis year.  ”We don’t think this is a 2008 event, it’s a 2009 event,” said
Mihael Geoghegan, chief executive.  HSBC’s position as a large lender to US
cusomers with poor and patchy credit histories meansits results are
closely watched by other banks looking for any signs of an improvement in
the markets. Many bankers believe securities backed by US mortgages will
only stabilise onc US house prices stop falling.  The bank said its US
business had set aside $.2bn in bad debt provisions in the first quarter.
This is double the amunt it provided in the first three months of last
year, but lower than th $4.6bn set aside in the fourth quarter of 2007.
http://iretiredfromnewslettes.blogspot.com/2008/05/hsbc-sees-further-pain-i
n-us-housing.html

inancial Times Editorial Comment: The great asset price controversy.
Copyrigh The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 14 2008 19:28 |
Last updted: May 14 2008 19:28.  One market bubble may be an accident; two
in the sace of a decade begins to look like carelessness. After the
internet bbble that burst in 2000, and last year’s collapse of a credit and
house pricebubble, every sane central banker around the world must surely
think againabout whether to act against over-exuberant asset prices. That
the US FederalReserve is looking at this topic is welcome – but the correct
conclusionis still far from clear.  The past couplef decades have seen a
growing international consensus about monetary policy: central banks should
be independent, their goal should be low but stable inflation,nd they
should use interest rates to achieve it. But as to what centrl banks should
do about asset price bubbles – which damage economic growthand stability
when they burst – controversy still rages.  Bubbles caue two problems for
central bankers. First, they are hard to spot untiafter they have burst.
Are sky-high share prices irrational or a signal hat the internet is an
incredible investment opportunity? It is easy t call a bubble now but it
was harder in the summer of 1999. If central bankrs tighten policy when
there is no bubble, they will distort importan signals from the markets.  
Second, unlike bubbles made from soap, those mae from asset prices are hard 
to prick. Even interest rates of 10 or 15 per cnt might not have been 
enough to damp enthusiasm for the internet in thelate 1990s, but they would 
have crushed a range of other economic ativities. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-imes-editoria
l-comment-great.html




International

International Herald Tribune Editorial - The Burmese generals and crimes 
against humanity.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  
Published: May 14, 2008.  After Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar, killing 
tens of thousands of people, the world rushed to offer help. Most 
governments would be grateful. Not this one. The Burmese generals are still 
blocking large-scale foreign aid. That negligence could lead to the death of 
tens of thousands more.  It took far too long and far too many pleadings 
before the junta agreed to let any international relief planes land. The 
generals - who have brutally shut the country off from the rest of the world 
for more than 40 years - also finally allowed in a team of disaster experts 
to assess the damage. But the junta has approved only 34 of 100 visas sought 
by relief workers and has insisted that only its own five army helicopters 
transport supplies.  The result? Relief supplies are reaching at best only 
one-third of those in desperate need of food, water and medical attention. 
American ships - with helicopters and hospital facilities - are nearby ready 
to help, but barred by the junta from doing so.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_15.html  Editorial Comment:  Unlike Katrina which was pure 
mismanagement

Burma keeps silent on offers of US help By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington 
and Amy Kazmin in Bangkok.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  
Published: May 16 2008 18:50 | Last updated: May 16 2008 18:50.  Burma has 
failed to respond to a series of increasingly creative offers from the 
Pentagon to let the US military deliver aid to the country, it emerged on 
Friday, as the official death toll from the cyclone of a fortnight ago rose 
sharply to 78,000.  Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of US Pacific Command 
who travelled to Burma this week, told the Financial Times he had made 
several suggestions to the junta during his visit, including allowing 
Burmese military officers on to US navy ships and aircraft, but he was 
“disappointed” at not receiving any response.  “I cannot imagine saying no 
to anything . . . we are not so picky,” said Admiral Keating. “We and the 
other agencies and countries are leaning as far forward as we know how.”  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/burma-keeps-silent-on-of
fers-of-us-help.html

US-Russia nuclear deal faces struggle By Daniel Dombey in Washington.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 16 2008 20:39 | 
Last updated: May 16 2008 20:39.  The US administration is facing opposition 
in Congress over a nuclear deal with Russia intended to improve relations 
between Moscow and Washington.  Some US diplomats are concerned that a fight 
over the agreement will hinder their efforts to develop a less 
confrontational relationship with Moscow now that Demetri Medvedev has taken 
over as Russia’s president from Vladimir Putin.  The civil nuclear 
co-operation agreement would permit the transfer of nuclear technology and 
materials between Russia and the US.  While it is unlikely that opponents of 
the deal will be able to obtain a veto-proof congressional majority, US 
officials anticipate a difficult struggle. Congressional aides say that 
Congress could eventually refuse to grant funds for implementing the 
agreement.  “We are confident that the Congress will ultimately agree with 
us,” said Tom Casey, a state department spokesman. “This agreement is 
extremely important and will help us and help the Russians advance the cause 
of non-proliferation.” 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-russia-nuclear-deal-f
aces-struggle.html

Militant group claims it was behind India bombing By MUNEEZA NAQVI.  
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  9:56 AM CDT, May 15, 2008.  JAIPUR, India 
- A previously unknown Islamic militant group claimed Thursday to have used 
explosive-laden bicycles to plant bombs that tore through this historic 
Indian city, warning in an e-mail of more attacks on popular tourists 
sites.(AP) _  The e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated 
Press, came with a document that demands India stop working with the United 
States and Britain or "face more attacks at other important tourist places."  
Authorities said they were investigating the videos and the document to 
determine if they were indeed sent by those behind Tuesday's attack, which 
killed 61 people.  "Some of the footage may have been meant to mislead," 
said Vasundhara Raje, the chief minister of Rajasthan state, where Jaipur is 
located. "Intelligence officials are looking" at the videos and the e-mail, 
which were originally sent to Indian television channels.  The e-mailed 
videos show a bicycle with an alleged bomb strapped to it parked in a 
crowded market. Investigators believe most of the bombs were placed in bags 
left on bicycles, which police have traced to two shops in Jaipur's old 
city, said Pankaj Singh, the city's inspector-general of police. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/militant-group-claims-it
-was-behind.html

Cuba blames US for Internet restrictions By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ.  Copyright 
2008 Associated Press.  3:42 PM CDT, May 16, 2008.  HAVANA - A top Cuban 
official said Friday that Raul Castro's government would consider loosening 
Internet restrictions on ordinary citizens newly allowed to purchase 
computers -- but Washington's decades-old economic embargo makes it 
impossible.  "We aren't worried about the citizenry connecting from their 
homes," Telecommunications Vice Minister Boris Moreno told a small group of 
reporters.  "But problems with technology and resources have made it 
necessary to give priority to connections that guarantee the country's 
social and economic development," he said, referring to an islandwide 
network that lets Cubans receive e-mail and view domestic Web sites. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/cuba-blames-us-for-inter
net.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Time for Africa to lean on Mugabe 
and his cronies.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: 
May 9, 2008.  There is little doubt that Morgan Tsvangirai was elected 
president of Zimbabwe in March. There is no doubt that President Robert 
Mugabe's henchmen have used the weeks since to massage the count and 
terrorize Tsvangirai's supporters and anyone who dares to criticize the 
government. Now Zimbabweans are being told there will have to be a runoff.  
Tsvangirai has not yet said whether he will participate, and we understand 
why he would hesitate. But the unfortunate reality is that unless he runs 
again, Mugabe will automatically get another presidential term. Zimbabwe 
cannot afford five more years of incompetence and brutality. On Thursday, 
the government arrested two senior trade union leaders and the editor of one 
of the country's few independent newspapers.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_3740.html

China

Amid disaster, China presses onward By Evan Osnos.  Copyright © 2008, 
Chicago Tribune.  9:01 AM CDT, May 17, 2008.  CHENGDU, China - As strange as 
it sounds, the streets of Chengdu are normal today. This city barely 40 
miles from devastated schools and apartments and hospitals is operating 
virtually as it was before the earthquake struck this patch of southwest 
China. Stores are open, tire shops are changing tires, the computer market 
is busy.  It's not for lack of sympathy for neighbors hit harder. Indeed, 
ordinary Chinese with no direct connection to the quake have poured out cash 
and donated blood and pledges of support. Rather, the remarkable thing about 
the two worlds unfolding in China this week is how they exist in parallel, a 
case study in a nation divided between its past and its present.  One of the 
subtexts to the earthquake is that it hit China's rural heartland, the high 
hills of Sichuan province, which are a galaxy away from the city. Many 
villages are still built out of stone and wood and clay, while many others 
have upgraded to light construction--concrete, white-tile exteriors, sheets 
of blue glass--or, if they have a bit more money, countryside versions of 
city apartment blocks. None of them are very permanent and their residents 
complain that in the best of circumstances their hard-won new homes don't 
stand the test of time. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/amid-disaster-china-pres
ses-onward.html


Mess-o-potamia

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Help Lebanon: Talk to Syria and 
Iran.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 15, 
2008.  President George W. Bush claims that Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" in 
2005, which ended 30 years of Syrian military occupation, was a triumph of 
his policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East. Given Lebanon's 
history, that was always naïve.  Lebanon is now in deep trouble, and Bush, 
who will be meeting Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Egypt on Sunday, has no 
real plan to help overcome the crisis.  Some calm has returned to Beirut in 
recent days, but the country remains frighteningly close to another civil 
war. One hundred thousand Lebanese - out of fewer than 4 million - died in 
the last civil war.  Responsible Lebanese leaders - Maronite, Sunni, Shiite 
and Druse - must do everything they can to find a peaceful exit, and the 
United States must do a lot more to help.  The current crisis began last 
week when Siniora's government - which unites large sections of the Sunni, 
Druse and Maronite communities - tried to shut down a telecommunications and 
surveillance network run by the militant group Hezbollah. That would have 
been a welcome reassertion of governmental authority, except that the 
government does not have the political and military clout to pull it off. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_16.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Pakistan's coalition can't afford a 
split.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 13, 
2008.  After an auspicious start, the leaders of Pakistan's new coalition 
government have let political rivalries thwart their efforts to rebuild 
their battered country.  Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif withdrew his 
party's ministers from the cabinet on Monday in a dispute with his rival, 
Asif Ali Zardari, over when and how to reinstate dozens of dismissed judges.  
The judiciary has been at the heart of Pakistan's roiling political dynamic 
for a year. At the height of his dictatorial powers, President Pervez 
Musharraf purged 57 judges, including the chief judge of the country's 
Supreme Court. He feared the court would overturn his re-election by the 
departing Parliament.  The country's two main opposition parties - led by 
Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir 
Bhutto, and Sharif - won control of Parliament in February, promising to 
quickly reinstate the judges. But they have not been able to agree since on 
how to do that.  Sharif, who was driven from office by Musharraf, wants the 
judges restored immediately, by executive fiat, with a clear expectation 
that they will legally oust the former general.  Zardari, who seems more 
willing to envision a deal with Musharraf (as did his late wife), wants the 
judges restored by an act of Parliament, coupled with judicial reform 
measures - a process that could take months to play out.  Strong personal 
rivalries, in abeyance until now, have made this all the more complicated. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_8630.html

Iraqi forces hunt door-to-door for Mosul militants By HAMID AHMED.  
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  10:23 AM CDT, May 15, 2008.  BAGHDAD - 
Government troops began house-to-house searches for al-Qaida in Iraq 
militants in Mosul on Thursday, part of a major security operation to 
cleanse Iraq's third largest city from cells of the terror network.  
Described by the U.S. military as the last major urban base of al-Qaida in 
Iraq, Mosul has become the site of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's third 
security drive in two months as he attempts to defeat Shiite militants and 
Sunni extremists.  Al-Maliki flew to Mosul on Wednesday to take charge of 
the operation by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. On Thursday, he sought to enlist 
the support of former Saddam Hussein-era army officers and local tribal 
leaders in two separate meetings in Mosul.  Mosul has traditionally supplied 
the army with a large number of its officers and al-Maliki called on 
authorities to help bring back those who wish to return to duty, according 
to a statement issued by his office.  The prime minister, who has been 
vigorously courting tribal leaders in recent months, also appealed to 
dignitaries from local tribes to stand behind his security forces in the 
fight against militants.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iraqi-forces-hunt-door-t
o-door-for.html

Spokesman: Gunfire hits Iranian convoy in Baghdad By HAMID AHMED.  Copyright 
2008 Associated Press.  9:19 AM CDT, May 16, 2008.  BAGHDAD - An Iranian 
Embassy convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding two Iranian diplomats 
and two other staff, a spokesman said Friday. Tehran accused the United 
States of encouraging attacks against Iranian interests in Iraq.  The U.S. 
military said Americans were "in no way involved in this attack" and said 
that it "condemns any attack on guests or visitors of any country."  It was 
not clear who shot at the convoy. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said 
Iraqi soldiers exchanged fire with guards in an argument that broke out when 
members of the convoy failed to produce identification cards.  Iranian 
Embassy spokesman Manoucher Taslimi said he did not know who the gunmen were 
but said the convoy was attacked while it was en route to a revered Shiite 
shrine in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/spokesman-gunfire-hits-i
ranian-convoy.html

UN official says foreign agents are killing Afghans By FISNIK ABRASHI.  
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.  12:43 PM CDT, May 15, 2008.  KABUL, 
Afghanistan - Foreign intelligence agents are leading secret, deadly raids 
on suspected insurgents in Afghanistan and shirking responsibility when 
innocent civilians are killed, a U.N. official alleged Thursday.  Philip 
Alston, a special investigator for the U.N. Human Rights Council, referred 
to three such recent raids in the country's south and east.  While he didn't 
specifically mention any intelligence agencies, he appeared to imply 
American involvement. U.S. military officials declined to comment on the 
allegations.  Alston said the raids were part of a wider problem of unlawful 
killings of civilians and lack of accountability in Afghanistan. He said 
about 500 civilians had been killed this year, most of them at the hands of 
the Taliban but some by Afghan police.  The allegation came as a suicide 
bomber wearing a burqa attacked a police patrol in western Afghanistan, 
killing five police officers and seven civilians.  Despite his criticism of 
secret raids, Alston said there was no evidence that international forces in 
Afghanistan are committing widespread intentional killings in violation of 
humanitarian law. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/un-official-says-foreign
-agents-are.html


National

22 dead in Mo., Okla., Ga. after new round of storms - Severe storms sweep 
across Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma By Murray Evans.  Copyright by The 
Associated Press.  10:25 AM CDT, May 11, 2008.  PICHER, Okla. - Crews and 
search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles of debris after 
tornados and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier and killed at 
least 22 people in three states.  Seven people died in Picher, once a 
bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as 
families fled lead pollution here, and officials held out hope that they 
wouldn't find any more bodies.  Residents said the tornado created a surreal 
scene as it tore through town late Saturday afternoon, injuring 150 people, 
overturning cars, throwing mattresses and twisted metal high into the canopy 
of trees.  "I swear I could see cars floating," said Herman Hernandez, 68. 
"And there was a roar, louder and louder."  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/22-dead-in-mo-okla-ga-af
ter-new-round.html

Desmond Tutu: Equality of U.S. blacks an 'illusion' By Storer H. Rowley.  
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 14, 2008.  South African Archbishop 
Desmond Tutu weighed in on the presidential campaign Tuesday in Chicago, 
praising America's ability to produce the first viable African-American 
presidential candidate while describing the nation as haunted by a racial 
divide that still offers blacks what he called only "the illusion of 
equality."  "You are a crazy country," Tutu, 76, winner of the Nobel Peace 
Prize in 1984, said in an interview with the Tribune. "You're a country that 
has I think some of the most generous people I've ever come across in the 
world."  But he chided Americans for getting "very, very upset" with the 
pastor of Sen. Barack Obama, noting that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. "may have 
said more crudely what, actually, almost every African-American would have 
wanted to say. I mean that is how they feel in your country, that race ... 
is a very, very real issue."  "And I think on the whole you keep trying to 
pretend it isn't," he added, noting the issue will haunt Americans until 
there is a way to talk honestly about race, such as holding a reconciliation 
forum. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/desmond-tutu-equality-of
-us-blacks.html

Republicans block war funds in House gambit - Oppose sections on benefits, 
withdrawal By Aamer Madhani.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  11:26 PM 
CDT, May 15, 2008.  WASHINGTON — In a surprising move to rebuke the 
Democratic leadership, House Republicans on Thursday found themselves 
allying with anti-war Democrats as they blocked a $163 billion spending bill 
to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The bill was defeated 149-141 
after 132 Republicans voted "present" on the spending bill that would have 
funded the two wars into 2009. Republicans said they opposed the legislation 
because the Democratic leaders didn't allow them the opportunity to offer 
alternative legislation.  The "present" votes could be seen as more of a 
response to the Democratic leadership's attempts to gain concessions from 
the Bush administration than an alliance with Democrats pushing for a U.S. 
withdrawal from Iraq.  House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio accused 
the Democratic leadership of "playing political games" for stacking the war 
spending bill with funding for domestic programs, an overhaul of veterans 
education benefits and a requirement that President George W. Bush start 
bringing home troops within 30 days of the legislation becoming law. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/republicans-block-war-fu
nds-in-house.html


Indecision 2008

John McCain Flip-Flopped on Hamas to Smear Obama 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXp-_RKTzo8

Democrats accuse McCain of hypocrisy on Hamas.  Copyright 2008 Associated 
Press.  9:20 AM CDT, May 16, 2008.  WASHINGTON - Democrats accused Sen. John 
McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States 
should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain 
Republican nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the 
militant Palestinian group Hamas.  In an op-ed published Friday in The 
Washington Post, former Clinton State Department official James Rubin said 
that McCain, responding to a question in a television interview two years 
ago about whether U.S. diplomats should be working with the Hamas government 
in Gaza, said:  "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to 
have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this 
administration and previous administrations had such antipathy toward Hamas 
because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only 
espouse but practice, so ... But it's a new reality in the Middle East. I 
think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent 
future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/democrats-accuse-mccain-
of-hypocrisy-on.html

Financial Times Editorial Comment: McCain’s worrying foreign policy.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 16 2008 19:34 | 
Last updated: May 16 2008 19:34.  The next president of the United States 
has a golden opportunity to make a fresh start in foreign policy, to rebuild 
America’s prestige and restore its reputation in the world, dragged through 
the mud over the past eight years by George W. Bush.  If that president 
turns out to be John McCain, the Republican candidate who is pushing 
national security as one of his strongest suits, will this – as his likely 
Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is implying – amount to a third Bush 
term?  The Arizona senator and former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam does not 
fit easily into any box. He has, moreover, been on the right side of some of 
the most defining US policy debates: against the Bush administration’s use 
of torture, liberal on immigration, in favour of muscular measures to combat 
climate change.  A poll on Monday for ABC News/Washington Post gave Mr 
McCain a lead over Mr Obama in perceived knowledge of world affairs of 41 
percentage points. Even allowing for the difference in age and experience 
between the two men, and mindful that the presidential campaign proper has 
yet to start, this is simply staggering. Mr McCain’s record, underexamined 
while the Democratic primaries marathon slouches towards its bitter climax, 
does not appear to warrant it. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/financial-times-editoria
l-comment_17.html

Republicans' fight against tax realities By Steve Chapman.  Copyright © 
2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 15, 2008.  In the 1980s, a Republican House 
member, fed up with bipartisan efforts to reduce the budget deficit, 
denounced Republican Sen. Bob Dole as the "tax collector for the welfare 
state." Newt Gingrich, who later became House speaker, had captured 
something essential about the party's mood. It was not against the welfare 
state. It was just against paying for it.   That remains the case today, as 
John McCain and his supporters make clear. He rules out tax increases to cut 
the deficit, while vowing to get tough on spending. But the Committee for a 
Responsible Federal Budget says that while his proposals would slow the 
growth of spending, total outlays would still rise faster than inflation. 
Result: a larger deficit.   Republicans used to argue that keeping taxes 
down was the only way to restrain spending. But as taxes have been cut under 
President Bush, spending has soared by 29 percent (after adjustment for 
inflation). Meanwhile, a $236 billion budget surplus has morphed into a 
deficit of more than $400 billion.  If we want to cut federal spending, 
apparently we have to do it directly. And if we don't want to cut spending, 
the least we can do is pay for it ourselves instead of running up debts for 
our children to pay.   But Republicans object to raising taxes in general, 
and one in particular: the tax on capital gains. Barack Obama's plan to 
increase the rate applied to the sale of assets has provoked howls of 
outrage on the right.   McCain said it proves Obama "doesn't understand the 
economy." An editorial in The Wall Street Journal claimed that lower rates 
yield higher revenues and drew a damning conclusion: "Either the young 
Illinois senator is ignorant of this revenue data, or he doesn't really care 
because he's a true income redistributionist who prefers high tax rates as a 
matter of ideological dogma regardless of the revenue consequences."  You 
don't have to be a Democrat to doubt that logic. Conservatives regard Obama 
as a true-blue liberal who itches to expand the size of the federal 
government. Do they think he would forfeit money to do that just for spite?  
As it happens, Obama is the one who is heeding data rather than ideology. 
Most economists believe that in the long run, the 2003 cut in the capital 
gains rate reduced revenue rather than raising it. For that matter, even the 
Bush administration's budget admits as much. Keeping the rate at 15 percent 
rather than letting it revert to 20 percent, it estimates, would cause a 
revenue loss of $79 billion over the next decade. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/republicans-fight-agains
t-tax-realities_16.html


‘Appeasers’ row unites Democrats By Edward Luce and Andrew Ward in 
Washington. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: May 16 
2008 23:20 | Last updated: May 16 2008 23:20.  Barack Obama on Friday 
accused George W. Bush and John McCain of trying to fool the US electorate 
by comparing advocates of talks with America’s adversaries to the 
“appeasers” of Nazi Germany.  Denying that he had ever recommended talks 
with Hamas, the extremist Palestinian group, Mr Obama pointed out that Mr 
McCain had in an interview two years ago called for such talks. He also 
pointed out that Bob Gates, the US defence secretary, had advocated talks 
with Iran.  “That’s the kind of hypocrisy that we have been seeing in our 
foreign policy, the kind of fear-mongering that has prevented us from 
actually making us safe,” said Mr Obama. “They are trying to fool you and 
scare you. . .and the reason is they cannot win a foreign policy debate on 
its merits. But it’s not going to work this time. Not this year.” 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/appeasers-row-unites-dem
ocrats.html

Will Obama claim a cultural war victory? By Clarence Page.  Copyright © 
2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 18, 2008.  John Edwards did a large favor for 
Sen. Barack Obama, but the Illinois senator is not out of the woods yet.   
The former North Carolina senator's endorsement last week of Obama for the 
Democratic presidential nomination blunted Sen. Hillary Clinton's ability to 
celebrate her two-to-one West Virginia primary landslide.   But, even if 
Obama is nominated and chooses Edwards for vice president, as many hope he 
will, the old adage still remains overwhelmingly true that voters vote for 
the candidate, not the running mate. Obama still needs to reach more of the 
folks who have supported him the least.   According to Dave "Mudcat" 
Saunders, the savvy Virginia-based consultant who helped Edwards and other 
Democrats improve their rural vote: We make too much of "color" and talk too 
little about "culture."   Culture matters. Democrats have long been 
frustrated to see their party, historically the party of America's 
working-class, being rejected by the very voters its policies are intended 
to help.   For example, Democratic presidential nominees have not won a 
majority of working-class white males at the ballot box since Lyndon B. 
Johnson in 1964. Since then, Bill Clinton came closest in 1992 by connecting 
culturally, not just politically. When he said "I feel your pain," a lot of 
people believed him.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/will-obama-claim-cultura
l-war-victory.html

First ladies in waiting: candidates’ wives enter the calculations By Edward 
Luce and Andrew Ward.  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  
Published: May 16 2008 19:46 | Last updated: May 16 2008 19:46.  Cindy 
McCain rarely strays from her campaign script and almost never says anything 
political. So when the 53-year-old wife of the Republican presidential 
candidate remarked in February: “I don’t know about you ... but I’m very 
proud of my country,” people took notice.  Although she did not mention 
Michelle Obama by name, Mrs McCain’s remarks were aimed at the 44-year-old 
wife of the Democratic frontrunner. Mrs Obama (pictured below with her 
husband) had sparked a fire-storm earlier that week when she said: “For the 
first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, not just 
because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for 
change.”  It is commonplace to say that a contest between John McCain and 
Barack Obama would present America with one of its starkest choices ever – 
between old and young, white and black, conservative and liberal and someone 
born into privilege against an opponent raised by a single mother on food 
stamps. An equally sharp contrast can be observed of their spouses.  There 
is still a chance that Hillary Clinton could wrest the nomination from Mr 
Obama. In which case, Washington would revive last year’s parlour game about 
whether Bill Clinton would be known as the “First Gentleman”, the “First 
Spouse” or even the “First Laddie”, as a Scottish friend of the former 
president suggested. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/first-ladies-in-waiting-
candidates.html

Greenway: The heirs of Pandarus By H. D. S. Greenway.  Copyright by The 
International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 14, 2008.  I suppose all 
politicians pander to what they think the voters want at one time or 
another, but this year in the U.S. presidential race it seems more blatant 
than usual.  I define pandering as promising something to the voters that is 
either unobtainable, or saying something that you don't believe, just to get 
elected.  It has a harsher definition. Pandarus first appears in Homer's 
"Iliad," but is transmogrified by Chaucer, and then Shakespeare in "Troilus 
and Cressida," into a debauched letch who furthers illicit love affairs, and 
thus enters the language as a pimp.  John McCain and Hillary Clinton's 
advocacy of a gas-tax holiday certainly fits the definition of furthering 
America's illicit, and now unrequited, love affair with cheap gasoline. It 
is a suggestion that has little prospect of becoming law, makes no sense 
either environmentally or economically, but might win over a few voters.  
Barack Obama and Clinton, vying for the title of free trade hater-in-chief, 
presented a sad example of destructive pandering. Nafta has been a net gain 
for the United States, and was, incidentally, one of the successes of Bill 
Clinton's administration. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/greenway-heirs-of-pandar
us.html

Clinton Team Acknowledges $20 Million Debt - A Top Aide Denies Rumors That 
She Is Seeking VP Slot By Anne E. Kornblut.  Copyright by The Washington 
Post.  Monday, May 12, 2008; Page A04.  CLARKSBURG, W.Va., May 11 -- With 
her campaign falling ever deeper into debt, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 
spent a rainy Mother's Day seeking votes ahead of Tuesday's primary here, 
turning a deaf ear to calls for her to leave a Democratic presidential 
contest she has little hope of winning.  Clinton aides continued to insist 
that she will remain in the race even while confirming that she is $20 
million in debt. "The voters are going to decide this," senior adviser 
Howard Wolfson said on "Fox News Sunday," acknowledging the $20 million 
figure. "There is no reason for her not to continue this process." Wolfson 
said he has seen "no evidence of her interest" in pursuing the second-place 
spot on the Democratic ticket, contrary to rumors that she is staying in the 
race to leverage a bid for the vice presidential nomination.  With the 
primary season nearing its close, Sen. Barack Obama's advisers are beginning 
to consider the question of his running mate with more urgency as they focus 
more openly on the general election. Although Obama himself has been careful 
to insist that the Democratic race is not over as long as Clinton stays in 
it, his advisers have planned a trip to Missouri -- a state that held its 
primary on Feb. 5 but appears certain to be a key November battleground -- 
this week.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/clinton-team-acknowledge
s-20-million.html


Chicagoland

Daley arson is 'about the cougar' - MICHIGAN | 'Very personal and vicious' 
threat arrived 2 days before blaze targeted summer home, after cops killed 
cougar BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND FRANK MAIN Staff Reporters.  Copyright by The 
Chicago Sun-Times.  May 17, 2008.  The letter to Mayor Daley was blunt, 
"very personal and vicious" -- and singled out the mayor's wife, Maggie, and 
their children.  The writer was furious about the slaying of a wild, roaming 
cougar in Roscoe Village on April 14, and threatened to torch the mayor's 
home.  On April 24, two days after the unsigned letter arrived, its writer 
-- or an associate -- is suspected of setting a fire on the grassy dunes 
near Daley's summer home in scenic Grand Beach, Mich., sources said.  "It's 
about the cougar," a source told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday, calling 
the writer an apparent animal rights activist. "The connection was to the 
killing of the cougar and [Daley's] comments making light of the killing of 
the cougar." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/daley-arson-is-about-cou
gar-very.html

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Time for Durbin's hammer.  Copyright © 2008, 
Chicago Tribune.  May 15, 2008.  The more than 5 million people of Cook 
County are stuck with a public health care system that can't adequately care 
for the poor patients who rely on it and doesn't treat with respect the 
taxpayers who support it. The blame rests squarely with a derelict Cook 
County Board, and with a county administration that has chronically milked 
this nearly $1 billion-a-year enterprise for payrollers' jobs and insiders' 
contracts.   The notion of liberating that health system from the control of 
County Building meddlers has, over the last year, come to sound as welcome 
as an escape hatch from a crashed airplane: The immediate disaster is so 
threatening that any way out has appeal.   But that's confusing motion with 
progress. And that's how we got to this point. In the waning moments of 
Friday, Feb. 29, the Cook County Board faced an impasse over its budget for 
2008. In return for flipping sides and voting for a 1-percentage-point 
increase in the sales tax, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin got 
Stroger & Co. to supposedly relinquish control of the county's health system 
to outside directors.   We are seeing now the disastrous results of that 
deal. Day by day, what was supposed to be a new era for the beleaguered 
health care system becomes a confirmation that too many County Board 
members, and too many officials in the Stroger administration, are devoted 
to keeping the health system as their fiefdom.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-tribune-editoria
l-time-for.html

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - We need anti-violence plan -- but not this 
one.  Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times.  May 15, 2008.  It's hard not to 
support the $150 million anti-violence plan Gov. Blagojevich announced 
earlier this month.  Who could possibly argue against summer jobs, 
after-school programs and economic development in some of our city's 
toughest neighborhoods?  "My desperate cry is for youth jobs," the Rev. 
Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham said Wednesday when 
he visited the editorial board with other activists and members of the 
governor's staff. "If we don't do something for our kids this summer, then 
we have to accept the responsibility of seeing the death, the violence, the 
killings that are going on."  This page wholeheartedly embraces the notion 
of prevention embedded in the governor's plan. We will never make a serious 
dent in the violence gripping our city if we don't tackle what drives it: a 
lack of jobs, poverty and excess idle time among our teens and young adults.  
But Illinois needs a workable violence prevention plan, not a pipe dream. 
And Blagojevich's plan is just that. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-we-need.html

Museum rift is about Daley getting his way By Eric Zorn.  Copyright © 2008, 
Chicago Tribune.  May 15, 2008.  Just to be sure I was remembering 
correctly, I went Wednesday afternoon to have another look at the north end 
of Grant Park—the battleground over the Chicago Children's Museum.  Mayor 
Richard Daley is a major proponent of the effort to relocate the museum 
there, as you probably know. And neighborhood residents led by their 
alderman, open-space advocates and editorial boards are standing in 
opposition.  The city's Plan Commission will consider the proposal Thursday 
in what's likely to be a contentious hearing. You'd think, from all the 
to-do, that the fight is over some gorgeous meadow, some undeveloped oasis 
that realizes the 172-year-old founding vision of Grant Park as "forever 
open, clear and free of any buildings or other obstruction whatever."  But, 
in fact, no. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/museum-rift-is-about-dal
ey-getting-his.html

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial - Pick a different site for children's museum. 
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times.  May 14, 2008.  The list of reasons for 
keeping the Chicago Children's Museum out of Grant Park grows by the day.  
Nonetheless, Mayor Daley, like a pit bull with his teeth locked around a 
tennis shoe, shows no signs up letting up.  He has done everything in his 
power -- including fanning racial flames, bullying aldermen and intimidating 
opponents -- to promote the notion, espoused by officials of the museum and 
its supporters, that Grant Park is the only suitable home for a new 
Children's Museum. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/chicago-sun-times-editor
ial-pick.html

Chicago Tribune Editorial: Duck, duck, goose Copyright © 2008, Chicago 
Tribune.  May 15, 2008.  What's good for the goose isn't good for the 
gourmands. On Wednesday, the gourmands won. Chicago's much-ridiculed foie 
gras ban was repealed by the City Council.   When aldermen outlawed the 
controversial delicacy in 2006, they congratulated themselves for bucking 
Mayor Richard Daley for once. But it turned out their constituents were more 
worried about the potholes in their wards than the menu items at pricey 
restaurants. And outside of Chicago, people were quacking hysterically.  
"Anybody who has traveled anywhere in this country knows that people are 
just laughing their heads off at us," said Ald. Bernard Stone./City repeals 
foie gras ban BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter.  Copyright by The Chicago 
Sun-Times.  May 14, 2008.  Two years ago, Mayor Daley urged the City Council 
to repeal a foie gras ban that he said had made Chicago “the laughingstock 
of the nation.”  Today, aldermen did just that, after plotting a legislative 
end-run that would set a new standard for violating City Council protocol 
and rolling over any opposition. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/city-repeals-foie-gras-b
an.html


Tony Award goes to Chicago Shakespeare; Steppenwolf gains 7 nominations - 
Shakespeare Theater wins regional award; 'August' grabs 7 nominations By 
Chris Jones.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  12:05 AM CDT, May 14, 
2008.  Despite the receipt of the prestigious Tony Award for excellence in 
regional theater, there was no champagne on Navy Pier on Tuesday morning. 
Staffers seemed dazed by the unexpected news. Besides, the Chicago 
Shakespeare Theater was already crammed full of school kids waiting for 
their promised Shakespeare.  "What other regional theater," pondered theater 
board Chairman M. Hill Hammock, as he sipped some celebratory sparkling 
water in the crowded lobby, "is having a performance at 10 o'clock on a 
Tuesday morning?"  That palpable commitment to education and families goes a 
long way toward explaining why Chicago Shakespeare on Tuesday made Chicago 
the only city in the nation with four theatrical winners of the so-called 
Regional Tony, an institutional award announced each year in concert with 
the nominations for Broadway shows, and given only to theaters outside New 
York.  In smaller cities, a theater winning a Regional Tony is often the 
occasion for ticker-tape parades. In Chicago, it is becoming almost a habit.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/tony-award-goes-to-chica
go-shakespeare.html




GLBT

Ellen DeGeneres announces plans to marry 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJrEQxzGtc

Victory for gay rights - California high court rules marriage ban illegal By 
Maura Dolan.  Copyright © 2008, The Los Angeles Time.  11:24 PM CDT, May 15, 
2008.  SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that 
same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting state marriage laws 
as discriminatory.  The court's 4-3 ruling was unlikely to end the debate 
over gay matrimony in California. A group has circulated petitions for a 
November ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to block 
same-sex marriage, while the Legislature has twice passed bills to authorize 
gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both bills.  The 
long-awaited court decision stemmed from San Francisco's highly publicized 
same-sex weddings, which in 2004 helped spur a conservative backlash in a 
presidential election year and a national dialogue over gay rights. 
/California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban.  Copyright By The 
Associated Press.  12:16 PM CDT, May 15, 2008.  SAN FRANCISCO - The 
California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that 
would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and 
lesbian weddings.  The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic 
partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice 
Ron George wrote the opinion.  The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and 
lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court 
halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march.  The case before 
the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved 
law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.  With the 
ruling, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where 
gay and lesbian residents can marry. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/california-supreme-court
-overturns-gay.html

Unwise haste on gay marriage by Steve Chapman.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago 
Tribune.  May 18, 2008.  In the old story, a preacher gives an inspiring 
sermon, which he concludes by asking his congregants to stand up if they 
want to go to heaven. Everyone rises except one nervous-looking fellow. 
"Brother," asks the incredulous pastor, "don't you want to ascend to 
paradise when you die?" Says the holdout: "When I die? Sure! I thought you 
were getting up a group to go right now."  That's pretty much how I feel 
about the California Supreme Court's decision granting the right of same-sex 
couples to marry. The destination is a good one. I just wish the court 
weren't in such a hurry to get there.   In recent years, the country has 
been moving at a steady pace to affirm a once-unthinkable concept—namely 
that as a matter of both individual rights and social good, gays should be 
free to make the same commitments as heterosexuals. According to a 2007 CBS 
News/New York Times poll, 60 percent of Americans now support allowing 
same-sex couples to enter into civil unions or marriage.   Radical changes 
don't happen overnight. But the speed of this one has been impressive. It's 
been only 22 years since the U.S. Supreme Court said states may criminalize 
homosexual conduct. It's been only 15 years since the Supreme Court of 
Hawaii shocked the country by ruling that gays might have a constitutional 
right to marry.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/unwise-haste-on-gay-marr
iage.html

Response to Steve Chapman’s “Unwise haste on gay marriage” Tribune May 17, 
2008. By Carlos T Mock, MD, May 17, 2008.  Let Us Wed  "We hold these truths 
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, 
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Let us wed. It rests on equality, 
liberty, and even society. Let us wed...That idea remains shocking to many 
people. So far, only five countries-Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, South 
Africa, and Spain-have given full legal status to same-sex unions. The sight 
of homosexual men and women having wedding days just like those enjoyed for 
centuries by heterosexuals is unsettling, just as, for some people, is the 
sight of us holding hands or kissing.  The case for allowing gays to marry 
begins with equality, pure and simple. Why should one set of loving, 
consenting adults be denied a right that other such adults have and which, 
if exercised, will do no damage to anyone else?.... I raise the query 
because there's a lot of conversation—including Mr. Steve Chapman on today’s 
Tribune—in the aftermath of the recent California High Court ruling that 
makes same sex marriage ban illegal.  At heart are the old questions: Do you 
wait for people to be more comfortable to make change? Or do people only 
become more comfortable in the wake of change? Do you sacrifice incremental 
benefits by going for the whole enchilada? Or do small changes merely 
sustain the status quo? 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/response-to-steve-chapma
ns-unwise-haste.html


Gay rights issues present opportunities for both candidates. Copyright by 
FiveThirtyEight.com.  Friday, May 16, 2008.  The Wall Street Journal 
suggests that yesterday's California Supreme Court ruling to require 
recognition of same-sex marriages is a gift to McCain and the Republicans. 
However, the reality of the issue is more complicated.  Firstly, the 
conventional wisdom that gay marriage was a critical issue in allowing 
George W. Bush to win the 2004 election is dubious at best. Academic 
analyses suggest that, while turnout was higher in states with gay marriage 
ballot initiatives in 2004, George Bush performed no better in those states 
than he had in 2000.  Moreover, gay marriage questions may be particularly 
irrelevant given the nature of Barack Obama's and John McCain's 
constituencies. Support for gay marriage and other gay rights initiatives is 
strongly aged-based, with younger Americans being far more tolerant. But 
younger Americans are more inclined to support Obama to begin with, and 
older Americans less so; the demographics are running along parallel rather 
than perpendicular tracks. Meanwhile, while civil unions are strongly 
opposed by evangelical Protestants, they are supported by majorities of 
Catholics and strong majorities of mainline Protestants. Once again, this 
tends to match the existing fractures in each candidate's base of support, 
as Obama does especially poorly with evangelicals but quite strongly with 
mainline Protestants, with Catholics somewhere in between. In a 
Clinton-McCain match-up, gay rights issues would have had far more potential 
to create a "wedge", as Clinton does pick up strong support from older 
voters and some support from white evangelicals. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/gay-rights-issues-presen
t-opportunities.html

Michigan high court says ban applies to partner benefits - The Michigan 
Supreme Court ruled May 7 that domestic partner benefits are outlawed by a 
constitutional ban on gay marriages. By David Eggert.  Copyright by The 
Associated Press.  May 14, 2008.  LANSING, Mich.—The Michigan Supreme Court 
ruled May 7 that a voter-approved ban against gay marriage also prevents 
governments and state universities from recognizing domestic partnerships to 
provide health insurance to the partners of gay workers.  The 5-2 decision 
affects up to 20 universities, community colleges, school districts and 
governments in Michigan with policies covering at least 375 gay couples.  
Gay rights advocates said the ruling is devastating but also are confident 
that public-sector employers have successfully rewritten or would revise 
their benefit plans so same-sex partners can keep getting health care.  The 
constitutional amendment, which passed 59 percent to 41 percent in November 
2004, says the union between a man and woman is the only agreement 
recognized as a marriage “or similar union for any purpose.”  The majority 
ruled that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren’t identical, they 
are similar because they’re the only relationships in Michigan defined in 
terms of gender and lack of a close blood connection. Voters “hardly could 
have made their intentions clearer,” Justice Stephen Markman wrote, citing 
the law’s “for any purpose” language. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/michigan-high-court-says
-ban-applies-to.html

Gay icon Larry McKeon passes by Amy Wooten.  Copyright by The Windy City 
Times.  News Update Wed. May 14, 2008.  McKeon, 63, made a historic mark on 
local politics. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois House, becoming the 
state's first openly gay state legislator. He served as representative of 
the North Side's 13th District, which was the 34th prior to redistricting in 
2002.  Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, announced on the House floor 
May 14 that McKeon died from a sudden stroke, the State-Journal Register 
reported.  Funeral arrangements are pending.  McKeon, who was also 
HIV-positive, served as a state representative from 1997 to 2007. In the 
summer of 2006, McKeon announced his retirement. His health was declining 
due to his struggles with HIV and cancer. Democratic ward committeemen 
selected the openly gay and HIV-positive Greg Harris as McKeon's 
replacement.  Prior to becoming a state legislator, McKeon was Mayor Richard 
M. Daley's liaison to the LGBT community as the director of the Chicago 
Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Gay and Lesbian Issues. 
In this role, he advocated for gay rights and worked closely with local 
politicians on issues close to the LGBT community. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/gay-icon-larry-mckeon-pa
sses.html

When a Loved One Dies - The Responsibilities of Handling an Estate By Roger 
McCaffrey-Boss.  Copyright by Gay Chicago Magazine and Roger McCaffrey-Boss.  
May 12, 2008.  Last week’s article concerned an individual whose next door 
neighbor and friend of many years died of liver cancer. Because the 
decedent’s family lived out of state, the friend was named as executor in 
the will and was asked to handle all the affairs of the decedent’s estate.  
If you are named in the will as executor, you may have to probate the will 
to transfer the estate’s assets - all property owned by the decedent in his 
name. Generally, the lawyer who prepared the will handles the probate 
proceeding although the executor has the right to choose a lawyer, despite 
instructions in the will to the contrary. While you do not need a lawyer to 
probate a will, the procedure can be complicated and court clerks do not 
offer assistance.  Nontestamentary assets, such as life insurance proceeds, 
pension benefits, IRA accounts, joint bank accounts or jointly held real or 
personal property, are transferred automatically, outside the probate 
procedure. If there are no other assets, probate may not be necessary. But 
nontestamentary assets are part of an estate for federal estate tax 
purposes.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/when-loved-one-dies-resp
onsibilities-of.html



Health Care

How it feels to have a stroke http://morenotes.wordpress.com/videos/

Vitamin D tied to cancer outcome - Toronto study finds low level at 
diagnosis correlates with disease spread and death By David Kohn.  Copyright 
© 2008, The Baltimore Sun. May 17, 2008.  Breast cancer patients with low 
levels of vitamin D when they're diagnosed have a higher risk of their 
cancer spreading and are more likely to die from the disease, according to 
new research from scientists in Toronto.  Women with vitamin D deficiency 
had almost twice the risk of the cancer spreading, and they were 73 percent 
more likely to die within 10 years.  The findings, announced Thursday by the 
American Society of Clinical Oncology, add to a growing body of evidence 
that vitamin D may play a role in preventing and perhaps limiting breast and 
other cancers.  "This study links vitamin D with the aggressiveness of 
disease," said University of Albany nutrition researcher JoEllen Walsh, an 
expert on vitamin D and breast cancer. "It suggests that your vitamin D 
status may affect how your disease progresses." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/vitamin-d-tied-to-cancer
-outcome.html



Immigration

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation - Immigrants Sedated Without 
Medical Reason by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest.  Copyright by The 
Washington Post.  Page A1; May 14, 2008.  Michel Shango said he fled Congo 
after working as a journalist there. In America, he married and had 
children, but did not win asylum. Listen to Shango talk about his 
deportation experience.  The U.S. government has injected hundreds of 
foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their 
will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, 
according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people 
who have been drugged.  The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, 
in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in 
which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent 
effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee 
onto an airplane.  "Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac," says a medical note on 
the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. 
Another detainee was "dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose," 
according to an airline crew member's written account. Repeatedly, documents 
describe immigration guards "taking down" a reluctant deportee to be 
tranquilized before heading to an airport. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/some-detainees-are-drugg
ed-for.html

Iowa raid called largest in U.S. By Henry C. Jackson.  Copyright by The 
Associated Press.  May 14, 2008.  DES MOINES — A federal Immigration raid at 
a kosher meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa was the largest such 
operation in U.S. history, with at least 390 people arrested and hundreds 
more being sought, federal officials said Tuesday.  Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement officials said people were arrested on Immigration charges after 
the raid Monday at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. Warrants have also been 
issued for 307 people who were not at the plant when the raid began, 
officials said. Those arrested include 314 men and 76 women, most from 
Guatemala and Mexico but also some from Ukraine and Israel.  "Based on the 
number of ... arrests, this is the largest single site operation of its kind 
ever in the United States," said ICE spokesman Tim Counts.  Of those 
initially arrested, officials said 56 were released on humanitarian grounds, 
typically because their arrest would leave a child with no custodian. A 
handful were also released because of medical conditions.  Men are being 
held temporarily at the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo. 
Women are being held in jail, with many released to care for children. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iowa-raid-called-largest
-in-us.html

International Herald Tribune Editorial - A mind-numbing way to protect air 
travelers.  Copyright by The International Herald Tribune.  Published: May 
15, 2008.  Pity the innocent air traveler whose name repeatedly registers as 
a match on the U.S. government's mammoth terrorist watch list. One major 
airline registers 9,000 false hits every day, according to Michael Chertoff, 
the secretary of homeland security.  These travelers - and thousands more - 
must routinely step aside and provide firmer proof of identity.   Instead of 
trying to fix the troubled list, Chertoff has proposed that victimized 
travelers and the airlines resolve the problem.  He has suggested that these 
travelers volunteer to let airlines keep a record of their date of birth, so 
their bona fides can be more easily verified.  Considering the dimension of 
the no-fly snafus, this is hardly a cure-all.  Each airline is free to 
decide whether to take part, and whether it wants to pay to alter its 
computer systems. Harried fliers would also have to file with each airline 
they patronize.  Meanwhile, the terrorist watch list keeps growing, 
exceeding 900,000 and adding up to 20,000 a month, by some estimates. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/international-herald-tri
bune-editorial_8937.html


Technology

U.S. report envisions big leap in wind power - Could generate 20% of 
electricity by 2030.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune.  May 13, 2008.  
WASHINGTON — Two decades from now Americans could get as much electricity 
from windmills as from nuclear power plants, according to a government 
report that lays out a possible plan for wind energy growth.  The report, a 
collaboration between the Energy Department research labs and industry, 
concludes wind energy could generate 20 percent of the nation's electricity 
by 2030, about the same share now produced by nuclear reactors.  Such growth 
would pose a number of significant costs and challenges, but it is 
achievable without the need of major new technological breakthroughs, 
according to the report released Monday.  "The report indicates that we can 
do this nationally for less than half a cent per kilowatt hour if we have 
the vision," said Andrew Karsner, the Energy Department's assistant 
secretary for efficiency and renewable energy. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/us-report-envisions-big-
leap-in-wind.html

Polar bear listed as threatened species because of global warming.  
Copyright by The Associated Press.  Published: May 14, 2008.  WASHINGTON: 
The U.S. government declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday 
because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should 
not be viewed as a path to address global warming.  Interior Secretary Dirk 
Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the last three decades 
and projections of continued losses, meaning, he said, that the polar bear 
is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future.  But 
Kempthorne said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the protection of 
the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change.  
The Endangered Species Act "is not the right tool to set U.S. climate 
policy," said Kempthorne, reflecting a view recently expressed by President 
George W. Bush.  The department outlined a set of administrative actions and 
limits to how it planned to protect the bear with its new status so that it 
would not have wide-ranging adverse impact on economic activities from 
building power plants to oil and gas exploration.  "This listing will not 
stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting," said 
Kempthorne. He said he had consulted with the White House on the decision, 
but "at no time was there ever a suggestion that this was not my decision." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/polar-bear-listed-as-thr
eatened-species.html

HP agrees $13.9bn deal for EDS By Kevin Allison and Richard Waters in San 
Francisco and Julie MacIntosh in New York.  Copyright The Financial Times 
Limited 2008.  Published: May 12 2008 21:27 | Last updated: May 13 2008 
13:06. Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday to buy Electronic Data Systems, one of the 
the world’s biggest information technology services companies, for $13.9bn.  
The deal marks an attempt by Mark Hurd, HP’s chief executive, to challenge 
IBM’s dominance in IT services, of one of the technology industry’s most 
lucrative markets. The $25 a share all cash price represents a 4 per cent 
premium to EDS’ closing sharing price on Monday.  EDS becomes HP’s biggest 
acquisition since its $19bn merger with Compaq, a rival personal computer 
maker, in 2002, a deal that was controversial at the time but it now 
generally seen as a success. It nearly triples the $4.5bn Mr Hurd paid in 
2006 for Mercury, a business software company, in what was his biggest 
acquisition to date.  As news of the approach emerged on Monday afternoon, 
EDS’s shares jumped by $5.27, or 28 per cent, to $24.13, valuing the company 
at $12.1bn. HP’s shares dropped 5 per cent to $46.64.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/hp-agrees-139bn-deal-for
-eds.html

IPhone rivals can't compete By Eric Benderoff.  Copyright © 2008, Chicago 
Tribune.  May 17, 2008.  It has been nearly a year since Apple Inc. launched 
the elegant and easy-to-use iPhone. Since then, our perceptions on how we 
can use a mobile phone have changed.  But the essential lesson of the iPhone 
has yet to be learned: The magic is in the simplicity of using Apple's 
software.  That became abundantly clear as I wrestled with two new 
touch-based phones. They have their merits but are no threat to what Apple 
offers.  The LG Vu and Verizon's XV6900 (an, ahem, attention-grabbing name; 
another missed lesson) are both handsome from a hardware standpoint. In some 
respects, I prefer either to the iPhone in terms of styling. But based on 
usability, they are so far behind what Apple achieved that it seems unfair 
to even make a comparison.  Essentially, the one thing these phones have in 
common with the iPhone is touch. And even that needs work. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/iphone-rivals-cant-compe
te.html

Research In Motion announces faster BlackBerry to compete with Apple's 
iPhone - Research In Motion beats Apple to punch with news.  Copyright by 
Bloomberg News.  May 13, 2008.  Research In Motion Ltd. climbed to a record 
on the Nasdaq after the introduction of a BlackBerry model with quicker Web 
browsing and more space for video and music, stepping up competition with 
Apple Inc.'s iPhone.  James Balsillie, the company's co-chief executive, 
beat Apple to the punch with the new BlackBerry Bold, due this summer. Apple 
probably won't announce a faster iPhone until next month, analysts say. The 
Bold also may help Research In Motion maintain its margins, countering 
concern that new models are eating into profit.  The Blackberry Bold will be 
as profitable as earlier products, Balsillie predicted Monday. "We expect to 
be consistent with the margins in our business." 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/research-in-motion-annou
nces-faster.html




Other

Cher settles into Vegas By Ann Powers.  Copyright by The Los Angeles Times. 
May 13, 2008.  LAS VEGAS—Like the temples of the ancient Roman world that it 
simulates, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is an environment suited to 
extravagant immortals. The artists who've graced its huge stage have all 
achieved that status in which one name not only serves but also explains and 
expands upon whatever the star projects.  Cher's occupation of the 
Colosseum, where she will play 200 shows over the next three years (rotating 
with Bette Midler and Elton John), is the most appropriate thing to happen 
to Las Vegas since rumors started flying that rock 'n' roll magician Criss 
Angel was dating former Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson.  Like Vegas 
itself, the 62-year-old queen of over-the-top pizazz bridges several eras of 
entertainment. Since the 1960s, when she and her former husband, the late 
Sonny Bono, transformed from would-be folkies into mainstream translators of 
the counterculture, this singer-actress-fashion extremist has crossed a 
surprising number of musical boundaries.  
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/cher-settles-into-vegas.
html

Art market powers ahead despite credit woes By Deborah Brewster in New York.  
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008.  Published: 17:19 | Last 
updated: 17:19.  Sales in the art market this week exceeded even the most 
optimistic expectations, with buyers at major New York sales defying 
widespread fears of a market slump as a result of the credit crisis.  
Sotheby’s had its biggest sale ever by dollar value on Wednesday night, 
selling $362m worth of contemporary works. It sold a 1976 painting by 
Francis Bacon, “Triptych, 1976” for $86m, easily exceeding its estimate of 
$70m. The price was the highest ever paid for a contemporary work at 
auction. Bacon’s works would only fetch about $10m each a few years ago but 
the latest prices put the artist, who died in 1992, in the same price league 
as Picasso. Like many of his works, the triptych — which attracted three 
bidders — featured a distorted human form and was inspired by Greek 
mythology.  The previous night, Christie’s sold Lucian Freud’s “Benefits 
Supervisor Sleeping”, a painting of a voluptuous JobCentre supervisor, for 
$33.6m, setting a new record for the work of a living artist. It also sold a 
1952 work by Mark Rothko, “No 15”, for $50m, which was above its $40m 
estimate. Christie’s sale generated $348m in total. 
http://iretiredfromnewsletters.blogspot.com/2008/05/art-market-powers-ahead-
despite-credit.html




Humor

Mom's overture  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W95Y8hNQiH8

Radio Host Kevin James Walks into a Smackdown  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wSZBTAXRs&eurl=

Pat Buchanan's Racist Paranoid Freakout  
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/38858-pat-buchanan-s-racist-paranoid-freakout



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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