Monday, February 9, 2009

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August J. Pollak: Why We Didn't Impeach George W. Bush Top
How the former president avoided the major outrages. To see more of August J. Pollak's cartoon "Some Guy With a Website," check out the archive . More on Michael Phelps
 
Chris Kelly: Sarah Palin's $159,050 Conflict of Interest Top
While you read this, Alaska's First Dude, Todd Palin, is riding a snowmobile -- I'm sorry, snow machine -- 1971 miles from Big Lake to Fairbanks. In the course of performing this awesome feat, his Arctic Cat's powerful two-stroke engine will emit the same amount of hydrocarbons as an automobile driving from Chicago to San Francisco and back 150 times. A small price for the rest of us to pay to honor the indomitability of the human spirit and one man's ability to sit and hold on. It's not just a blaze of glory and aromatic hydrocarbon. A conventional two-stroke engine emits as much as a quarter of its fuel unburned, directly into the air. This week, as a participant in the Iron Dog™ snow machine race, Todd Palin will release as many cancer-causing and smog-forming pollutants as a Chevy Malibu driven around the Earth at its equator 28 times. Seems like a lot of work, just to get away from Sarah Palin. But Todd's not just doing it because he hates his home life and likes things that make loud noises and emit benzene. He does it because it's there. And for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from corporations who do business with the Governor's office. For riding a snowmobile. Something you could train a bear to do. The Emperor Nero used to clean up at the Olympic games. It was eerie. He won everything . According to Suetonius, he once won a chariot race despite falling off and not finishing the course. That's how good he was. He also never wore the same clothes twice. So he would have fit right in with the Palins there also. I'm not insinuating anything. I'm just saying. The total purse value of this year's Iron Dog™ is $159,050. The sponsors include the petroleum giants Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips; State Farm, Wells Fargo, Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines and the Alaska First National Bank. The Iron Dog™ has fewer than 40 entrants a year, and one of them is always Todd. Does this smell? I'm probably the wrong person to ask. I hate the cold and I think motor sports is an oxymoron. But he is Alaska's First Lady, and Tesoro is an oil company. Let's say this was Louisiana in the 30s. If Texaco sponsored a pancake-eating contest, and Huey Long's wife kept winning it, there would have been talk. To be fair, Todd can't win the whole purse. There are lots of little door prizes just for rookies and women and steak dinners for Cutest Hat. Just like in Jack London days. And, to be fair, Todd doesn't always walk away from the camping trip with the hundred grand first prize. He's only won four times. Once after Sarah was elected to the Wasilla City Council, once after she was elected mayor, the year she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, and the year she was elected governor.
 
New York Times Lays Out "Last Man Standing" Strategy For Survival Top
In a conference call with analysts late last month, Janet L. Robinson, the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, laid out a vision of how the company would survive the downturn that is crippling the newspaper industry. "As other newspapers cut back on international and national coverage, or cease operations, we believe there will be opportunities for The Times to fill that void," she said, for both readers and advertisers. But before it can execute what the industry regards as a "last-man-standing" strategy, the company has to get there first.
 
Steven Petrow: "That's So Gay" Is Not So Funny Top
Last week I was cruising through a Facebook friend's wall postings and came across a friend of his wearing the tackiest of holiday sweaters: a bright red schmata adorned with embroidered snowflakes and a quartet of Frosty the Snowmen. To boot, the poor fellow also wore a turtleneck emblazoned with a ring of snowflakes. "Absolutely hideous," I said to myself. I then noticed the caption that my Facebook friend had written about this Yuletide fashion victim: "What can you say? Really, this may be the GAYest thing I've ever seen. WTF!!!" I paused and read some of the other comments: "tacky," "so manly!!!" and the like. If you're like me, long out of high school, perhaps you didn't know that the word "gay" and the phrase "that's so gay" are now used synonymously for anything stupid, dumb, effeminate, flamboyant and, yes, hideous. In fact, "that's so gay" is one of the most prevalent homophobic slurs around these days. What's the big deal? According to a recent Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ( GLSEN ) survey, "anti-LGBT bullying and harassment remain commonplace in America's schools" and that remarks like "that's so gay" foster a homophobic environment and worse. The GLSEN findings showed that 75 percent of high school students reported hearing remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently, with nine out of 10 often hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" (meaning stupid or worthless). I decided to ask my friend some questions. First, was his Facebook friend gay? "Of course not," he replied. I asked him if he meant to disparage gays and lesbians. "No," he replied. "Why, then, did you use that phrase?" I asked. "Because the sweater was ugly, tacky and hideous. That's so gay," was his response. Honestly, he used the word "hideous," and while I tried to explain that gay is not a synonym for any of those words, he had had enough. Although I could see that he didn't consciously use it as an insult against LGBT people, the phrase had become a part of his generation's daily parlance, used and accepted in schools, Facebook and just about everywhere else. Last fall, largely in response to the rising use of the slur in everyday argot, GLSEN and The Advertising Council launched a new public service announcement aimed at young people to halt the use of the expression. The campaign features actors Hilary Duff and Wanda Sykes calling out teenagers for using "gay" to mean someone is stupid. In one of the spots, Sykes says, "Don't say that something is gay when you mean that something is dumb or stupid." Not surprisingly, the problem goes deeper than language. The GLSEN survey also found that more than a third of all LGBT students experienced physical harassment at school based on their sexual orientation and nearly a fifth had been physically assaulted at school for the same reason. LGBT high school students who experience physical harassment are twice as likely not to pursue college, and their average grade-point averages were half a grade lower than gay and lesbian students not facing the same level of hostility, no doubt because the teens who felt themselves to be at risk were five times more likely to skip school due to "safety concerns." What to do? Even if you think it's funny or a hip turn of phrase, don't forget that "That's so gay" is hurtful. Just because it doesn't have the same bite as "fag" or "dyke" doesn't mean it's not harmful or hateful. It is. We need to stop using the word "gay" to mean dumb, stupid and worthless and to think before we speak (or post on Facebook). As Shannon Gilreath, a law professor at Wake Forest, explained to me last year, "Physical violence begins with bullying, name-calling and homophobic remarks. When nothing happens to someone [for making slurs], it escalates to violence." So, as teens say today: Don't go there.
 
Madoff Scandal Takes Down Noel, Tucker's Fairfield Greenwich Group Top
The founders of a New York hedge fund at the center of the Bernard Madoff scandal have begun selling assets as their firm faces massive losses and a slew of lawsuits, sources told The Post. Walter Noel and Jeffrey Tucker, co-founders of Fairfield Greenwich Group, a New York hedge fund that lost a whopping $7.5 billion to Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme, have been forced to curb their lavish lifestyles amid mounting doubts that the firm can survive the firestorm.
 
Lizard Dung Collection Of 7 Years Mistakenly Thrown Out By University Top
LONDON — A British university has apologized to a Ph.D. student for throwing away his treasured, seven-year collection of lizard dung. Daniel Bennett has told Times Higher Education magazine that he had collected the dung in the Philippines while studying the rare butaan lizard, a relative of the Komodo dragon. The material was to be studied as part of his doctoral research. Bennett said the 77-pound bag was thrown away by cleaners at his lab at Leeds University in northern England. He says the dung represented seven years' worth of field work, and its loss "left me reeling." The university said Friday it had apologized. Bennett says he rejected the university's compensation offer of 500 pounds ($750) and will "see them in court." More on Animals
 
Nissan's Carlos Ghosn: 20,000 Jobs Slashed, First Loss In 9 Years Top
TOKYO — Nissan is slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first annual loss in nine years. "The global auto industry is in turmoil, and Nissan is no exception," Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters Monday in Tokyo. Nissan Motor Co. now expects a 265 billion yen ($2.9 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March _ joining a raft of other Japanese corporate giants, including Toyota, Toshiba and Sony, in slashing jobs and projecting annual losses. The last time Nissan racked up an annual net loss was for the fiscal year ended March 2000, at the start of its alliance with Renault SA of France, which sent in Ghosn to rescue Nissan from the brink of collapse. Then, a bloated Nissan had lost money in seven of the previous eight years. Ghosn, now also chief executive at Renault, said the troubles back then had been limited to Nissan but no automaker has been spared from the global economic slump. "In 1999, we were alone. In 2009, everybody is suffering," he said. The maker of the Z sports car and the March compact sank to a loss of 83.2 billion yen for the October-December period from a 132.2 billion yen profit a year earlier. That was its first quarterly net loss since it began reporting quarterly earnings in 2003. Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan has been battered by the global slump, which has undermined sales in its vital North American market. A strong yen also ate into profits by eroding overseas earnings when converted back to yen. As a key step in weathering the downturn, Ghosn said Nissan's global work force will be reduced by 20,000 through March 2010, to 215,000. Of the job cuts, 12,000 will be in Japan, including group companies, and the rest will be overseas, it said. The company did not give a further regional breakdown. Mamoru Katou, analyst with Tokai Tokyo Research, remained pessimistic about Nissan's recovery prospects. Nissan's job cuts in Japan _ more aggressive than its domestic rivals _ show its strategy to take production overseas and take advantage of the soaring yen but that would make the Nissan brand less popular in its home market, Katou said. "The job cuts will hurt Japanese parts-makers, too, and in the long run diminish the Nissan brand value in Japan," he said. Toyota and Honda, which both have gas-electric hybrids going on sale this year, are also better positioned to boost sales when the recovery kicks in, he said. Nissan does not have a comparable hybrid model. Ghosn said hiring will become minimal, contracts for temporary workers will be ended and the company is offering early retirement packages. Tokyo-based Nissan has already reduced its temporary plant workers in Japan by about 2,000, slashed its British work force by 1,200 at its plant in Sunderland, northern England, where it had employed about 5,000 people. It has offered early retirement to 1,200 workers in the U.S., but that number will likely increase, according to Nissan. It also has work stoppages in Spain. Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp., which is projecting a 350 billion yen ($3.85 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March, its first such loss since 1950, is reducing contract workers in Japan from 8,800 in June last year to 3,000 in March. Honda Motor Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker, is faring relatively better and is expecting to stay in the black, with a 80 billion yen ($879 million) profit. But it will cut the number of temporary workers at its Japan plants from 3,100 to zero by the end of April. Nissan's directors on the board will forgo bonus pay for the year ending March. Their salaries, as well as the salaries of corporate officers, will be reduced by 10 percent, while managers' salaries will be reduced by 5 percent. Nissan will also negotiate a "work-sharing" scheme with the unions, Ghosn said. In work-sharing, an employee's work load gets doled out to two or more employees, but they also must take a pay cut. The effort allows troubled companies to avoid layoffs while adjusting to plunging production. The benefits are that skilled staff aren't lost and the arrangement can be quickly dropped, allowing production to be ramped up without delay, once the industry recovers. "You'd be ready to restart immediately when the crisis is over," said Ghosn. He said he was interested in changing to a four-day week from a five-day week, while reducing compensation per worker, and that was better than cutting jobs. Among other measures, production will be reduced and inventory will be controlled, according to Nissan. Shift elimination, work stoppages and shorter hours will help reduce global production by 20 percent, or 787,000 vehicles, from the initial plan, by the end of this fiscal year, it said. Inventory is being reduced by 20 percent to 480,000 vehicles from 630,000 in March 2008, Nissan said. Nissan sold 731,000 vehicles worldwide in the quarter ended Dec. 31, down 18.6 percent from a year earlier. Nissan's vehicle sales suffered especially in the U.S., where they dropped 29.7 percent in January. Nissan remains committed to developing electric vehicles and other zero-emission technology, Ghosn said. "We don't think this crisis is going to last forever," he said. Nissan shares slid 5.8 percent to 261 yen. Earnings were announced after trading ended in Tokyo.
 
"Dancing With The Stars" Cast: The Woz, Jewel, Lil Kim, Steve-O And More Top
LOS ANGELES — The new season of "Dancing Season with the Stars" will feature three couples and _ with the show's touch for the improbable _ one computer guru. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is among 13 celebrities who will compete on the ABC series' eighth season that begins March 9, the network said Sunday. Romantic relationships may be put to the test this time around, with couples taking to the dance floor with and against each other. Pop star Jewel and her husband, rodeo champion Ty Murray, will compete for bragging rights, ABC said, while country singer Chuck Wicks will take the floor with his girlfriend, two-time "Dancing with the Stars" champion Julianne Hough. Last November, Hough had said she planned to focus on her newly launched country music career and didn't plan to return to the show. Professional dancers and series regulars Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who are newly engaged, will be waltzing in the arms of others. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson gets to make her mark just by showing up: At 17, she's the youngest competitor to date, ABC said. Another star athlete in the field is Lawrence Taylor, the former New York Giant and Hall of Famer. The other celebrity hoofers are Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle; rapper Lil' Kim; actress Denise Richards; actor-comedian David Alan Grier (Comedy Central's "Chocolate News"); Gilles Marini, who played the neighbor ogled by Kim Cattrall's Samantha in the "Sex and the City" film; Steve-O (MTV's "Wildboyz") and TV host Nancy O'Dell of "Access Hollywood." "Dancing with the Stars" is hosted by Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris, with Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba judging the contestants. ___ On the Net: http://www.abc.go.com
 
Lunar Eclipse 2009: First Of Four Appears Over Western US Top
A lunar eclipse was visible in the western United States this morning, and was the first of four lunar eclipses of 2009: "The February full moon was known as the 'snow moon' by the eastern Indian tribes." If you miss it, other lunar eclipses will follow in July, August and December.
 
Audiences Into "He's Just Not That Into You," Not Steve Martin Top
LOS ANGELES — Movie fans were into "He's Just Not That Into You" as the ensemble romance got a jump on Valentine's Day to lead the weekend box office with a $27.5 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday. The movie whose cast includes Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Connelly knocked off the previous weekend's top flick, the abduction thriller "Taken," which dropped to second place with $20.3 million. With Valentine's Day falling in the middle of next weekend, the movie released by the Warner Bros. banner New Line Cinema is positioned for another solid showing, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "We're really walking into a terrific weekend. The biggest bump you can ever get for a romantic comedy is when Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday," Fellman said. "We'll see the girls, female power, drag the guys back in next Saturday." "Taken," distributed by 20th Century Fox, raised its 10-day total to $53.4 million, its second-weekend gross dropping just 18 percent from its debut. Top films often can drop 50 percent or more in their second weekend. Two movies featuring Dakota Fanning opened in the top 10 _ Focus Features' animated adventure "Coraline" at No. 3 with $16.3 million and Summit Entertainment's sci-fi thriller "Push" at No. 6 with $10.2 million. Steve Martin's Inspector Clouseau bumbled through the weekend as "The Pink Panther 2" turned in a so-so $12 million debut to finish at No. 4. The Sony-MGM sequel came in well behind 2006's "The Pink Panther," which premiered with $20.2 million. Hollywood continued its hot streak as the top 12 movies hauled in $131.4 million, up 46 percent from the same weekend last year, when the romantic comedy "Fool's Gold" was No. 1 with $21.6 million. Overall revenues are just above $1.2 billion for the year and are running 19.4 percent ahead of 2008's, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "It seems like every film that's been opening has been doing better than expected, or many of them have," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "I've not seen the start of a year this strong in my entire career." Academy Awards front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" continued to make good on its Oscar buzz, pulling in $7.4 million and raising its total to $77.4 million. The movie passed "Sideways" to take second-place on Fox Searchlight's list of highest-grossing films, behind "Juno" at $143 million. In narrow release, the Weinstein Co. comedy "Fanboys" opened modestly with $164,000 in 44 theaters, averaging $3,727 a cinema. That compared to an $8,650 average in 3,175 theaters for "He's Just Not That Into You." Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday. 1. "He's Just Not That Into You," $27.5 million. 2. "Taken," $20.3 million. 3. "Coraline," $16.3 million. 4. "The Pink Panther 2," $12 million. 5. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $11 million. 6. "Push," $10.2 million. 7. "Slumdog Millionaire," $7.4 million. 8. "Gran Torino," $7.2 million. 9. "The Uninvited," $6.4 million. 10. "Hotel for Dogs," $5.8 million. ___ On the Net: http://www.mediabynumbers.com ___ Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Rogue Pictures are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp. More on Jennifer Aniston
 
Raymond J. Learsy: "My Way Or The Highway"-Nancy Pelosi. The George W. Bush Of The Democratic Party Top
George Bush has finally gone away. Well not really. As a goodbye gift he left his legacy behind, for once reaching across the aisle and leaving us with Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic reincarnation of all those attributes he shared with us and which had come to hold dear. You know what I mean, the arrogance of power, the intransigence, the divisiveness, the thirst for partisan politics, the pandering to personal preference and the perception of fealty rather than competence for those called upon to high service to the nation. Even the syntax is not far afield. Certainly their political and social agendas are at other ends of the political spectrum, and yet their modus operandi and their damage to the civil conduct of governance are uncannily similar. And this, at a crucial and dangerous time in the nation's history, with the nation's economy and security at risk and its citizenry grown tired, angry and deeply despondent about the glaring dysfunction of our governing class. At the very outset of her ascendance to the House Leadership Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the nation a tutorial on the arrogance of power. Shunting aside competence and experience, for reasons personal rather than substantive, she chose to sideline Rep. Jane Harman, the senior Democrat who had served on the House Intelligence Committee with distinction and who had been in line to become its Chairman in a highly dangerous time. Pelosi's personal partiality in effect placed the nation at risk, keeping fast in the tradition of such Bush appointments as Rumsfeld, Bremer, Tenet and the not to be forgotten "Heck of a job, Brownie".by selecting in Rep. Harman's stead a perfectly competent individual, Rep. Silvestre Reyes whose lack of preparedness for this keenly sensitive post was exhibited by his answer when asked whether Al Qaeda came from the Sunni or Shia branch of Islam? "Al Qaeda, they have both" he answered, adding: "Predominantly probably Shi'ite." Then of course there was Nancy Pelosi's scathing speech before the House at the close of the debate on the first bailout fund that went down to defeat at the end of September of last year. It was a speech of such partisan dimension berating Republicans relentlessly that had there been any hope of its passage, it ended on the spot. A worse time for partisan and divisive speechmaking would have been hard to imagine. The next day financial markets around the world near collapsed. The partisan divide and bitterness elicited by the rancorous haggling in Congress and in Washington over the Obama administration's stimulus package does honor to the George W. Bush years. It would seem nothing much changes in Washington. David Brooks, a keen observer of political mores pointed out in his Op-ed column "The Gang System" in Friday's New York Times that President Obama had "surprisingly little influence on the stimulus' bill's evolution". Then going on to write, "The resulting bills would have been no different had Nancy Pelosi been elected President..." So much so, that the bill carrying not a single Republican vote when it came before the House spoke volumes Mr. President, please take note and take the helm. This country didn't elect Nancy Pelosi President. They elected Barack Obama! More on President Obama
 
Chrysler, GM Bankruptcy Looming in Detroit Top
The government may force General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy to assure the taxpayers get back their $17.4 billion in bailout loans. The car companies, of course, say such a move would destroy them. Bankruptcy may be necessary, because, as Bloomberg points out: U.S. taxpayers currently take a backseat to prior creditors, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to loan agreements posted on the U.S. Treasury's Web site. The government has hired a law firm to help establish its place at the front of the line for repayment, two people involved in the work said last week. If federal officials fail to get a consensual agreement to change their place in line for repayment, they have the option to force the companies into bankruptcy as a condition of more bailout aid. The government would finance the bankruptcy with a so-called "debtor in possession" or DIP loan, a lender status that gives the U.S. priority over other creditors, said Don Workman, a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP. The possible bankruptcy isn't news to Congress. According to a document unearthed by The Truth About Cars , Congress had received a report back in December detailing how the bailout would likely fall short. A bankruptcy of the Big 2 could also spell disaster for Ford. According to BloggingStocks , a Chapter 11 filing would mean that many auto part suppliers would only be paid a portion of what they were owed, and would themselves be forced into bankruptcy. This would hurt Ford, because many of the firms from which it receives its components will be wiped out.
 

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