Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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Jacob Heilbrunn: Geithner Must Go Top
As the stock market plunges, as unemployment soars, and as banks fail, who has President Obama selected to revive the economy? Henry M. Paulson's mini-me, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. It's becomingly increasingly obvious that Geithner is the single, worst choice President Obama has made to join his cabinet. Before he can do any further damage, Obama should consider appointing a Treasury Secretary who can hold a press conference without his voice cracking like a teenager just entering puberty. Geithner didn't offer a plan yesterday so much as a new faith-based initiative that is more notable for what it doesn't do than what it does. It doesn't impose pay limits on bankers and it doesn't provide any means to assure that they start lending in exchange for billions in handouts. What Geithner's plan, such as it is, would help accomplish is to create a new class of welfare kings, living high on the federal dole even as they tout the virtues of the free-market economy. Obama set the stage for Geithner by making a big deal at his press conference Monday about not wanting to release any details about the bailout so as to avoid bigfooting Geithner. But what on earth was Obama talking about? Now we know that there weren't any details for Geithner to spill in the first place, which is giving everyone else the willies. Maybe it's no wonder Geithner was suffering from stage fright. Today Wall Street executives will be grilled in congressional hearings, but it won't amount to much more than theater. The moment, though, for theatrics has ended. It's time for the administration to start acting decisively to revive a prostrate economy or watch its fearful audience start to rush toward the exits.
 
Michael Wolff: Okay, Geithner's a Bust. Next? Hey, How 'bout... Top
Nobody anywhere knows how to fix what the Brits are calling the worst economic debacle in 100 years (i.e. worse than the Depression). Nobody really even has a firm point of view. So what do you do if it's your job to fix it? One of Timothy Geithner's problems is that he looks insubstantial. He's boyish, cute even. And there's his kid-caught-at-cookie-jar smile. Oh, and then the fact that he's as confused about paying taxes as anybody else. Oh, yes, then too that he was the head of the New York Fed when Wall Street was blowing apart. If confidence is the name of the game, he sure hadn't come to the treasury secretary's job with a built in advantage. It may be that the thing most needed here is certainty. Consensus and good feeling aren't going to do it. Paul Krugman went after the Obama people the other day for courting bipartisanship. But Krugman is mostly looking for the president to use the present mess to gain liberal ground. He may be missing the larger point that it is not just having the guts to take a position, but having a certain brutishness, and arrogance, and hail Mary courage to ram your plan through. You've got to have righteous growl: If you doubt us, then the blame's on you. Of course, having a position helps, instead of what there is now, which is more of the same, but spending more money to do it. But mostly it's brutishness. A mean, implacable, contemptuous, arrogant face, willing to shoulder the burden and take the blame: That's the ticket. Obviously, that person's available. It's hard to find a bigger brute than Larry Summers . We need a son of a bitch. We need him to be our son of a bitch... Continue reading at newser.com More on Timothy Geithner
 
Bill Daley Shelves Gubernatorial Plans Top
It's official. William M. Daley is no longer a candidate for governor in 2010. Not that Daley -- Midwest Chairman of JP Morgan Chase Bank, former commerce secretary under Bill Clinton, and youngest brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley -- ever formally announced. [...] "I'd love to be governor," Daley said by phone from Washington on Tuesday, "but my gut right now is that you have to give Pat Quinn some time."
 
India: Cow Urine Soft Drink To Be Launched As Coke Alternative Top
India's Hindu nationalist movement is working on creating a new soft drink to rival Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The main ingredient? Cow urine. The Times Online explains the development of the beverage by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS): Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink - called "gau jal", or "cow water" - in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year". "Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins." The Indian Express further reports on Parkash and the RSS planned "revolution": Stating that several colas are harmful to the extent that they can be substituted for pesticides, he asserted that their soft drink with cow urine will not only be natural but cost-effective too. "In addition to this, it will prove and justify the high stature accorded to a cow in Indian culture." Cow urine, in fact, ranks quite high on the RSS list of priorities. "We discuss its importance at various meetings and public programmes. We have also been circulating pamphlets about its medicinal value," said Om Prakash, who has been actively involved in the task of cow protection and promoting bovine urine for the last four decades. More on Asia
 
Jeremy Halbreich Named New Sun-Times Media Group CEO Top
Sun-Times Media Group Inc. has picked the former president and general manager of the Dallas Morning News as interim chief executive officer and chairman. Jeremy Halbreich replaces Cyrus Freidheim, whose resignation is effective Feb. 28. Halbreich says the company's current managers will stay in place to give them "the time and resources to charge ahead." Officials on Wednesday also named the company's current general manager, John Barron, as publisher and Rick Surkamer as president and chief operating officer. Sun-Times Media publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and area community papers. The company has made cuts due to declining advertising revenue. Last month, it closed 12 weekly newspapers and asked union employees to take cuts in compensation.
 
Robert Mackey: The Only Real "Existential Threat": A Sane Path for Reducing Nuclear Arsenals Top
"Existential Threat." In my last decade of active military service, to include a stint as a student at the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS, aka "the Jedi Knight School"), I heard this phrase bandied around on a fairly common basis. Al Qa'ida was called an "Existential Threat." North Korea was called an "Existential Threat." As was Iraq, Cuba, Iran, drugs, international terrorism, the tech bubble, the housing bubble and any popular music created after Led Zeppelin broke up (ok, I made up the last three; that doesn't make it untrue...some people remember when JFK was shot, I remember where I was when Zeppelin broke up). The phrase, like my last comment above, has become not only overused, but somewhat of a joke in the inner circles of military planning. Could illegal drugs destroy the United States? Could a terrorist organization, no matter how well funded, organized or trained, eliminate the Republic from the face of the planet? No. The reality is that there is only one nation on Earth, besides ourselves, who can physically destroy the United States--Russia. I came up through the late Cold War U.S. Army, where posters in my basic training barracks at Fort Benning, Georgia (as an aside, the barracks were the finest quality construction of 1942, had maps of South Vietnam on the walls, and were still being used in 1983), were of life-sized Soviet soldiers and had the words "This is Your Enemy. Know Him." printed below. Thankfully, the world did not leap into that abyss and a 20 year old hillbilly from the Ozarks didn't find himself dressed in full chemical gear somewhere in central West Germany shooting anti-tank rockets at a 20 year old hillbilly from the Urals in a tank. The end of the Cold War,however, did not put an end to the threat of nuclear war. While we pontificate about the "existential threat" of nuclear proliferation from Iran, et al, the simple fact remains that it would take hundreds of near simultaneous nuclear blasts to destroy the United States. Regardless of other issues that a nuclear conflict short of a massive exchange would cause (such as damage to the nation's electronic infrastructure from electromagnetic pulses from the blasts to even a small amount of nuclear soot being shoved into the atmosphere, and the concordant drop in global temperatures, etc.), no minor nuclear power could destroy the United States without a massive, nation-ending counterattack from the Americans. Only Russia possesses the number of weapons and delivery systems required to destroy the United States. The new administration, with the economic crisis, health care and a myriad of other issues on their plate, needs to take on the one real "existential threat" to the Republic--the sane, mutual reduction of nuclear weapons in the United States and the Russian Federation. Both sides can take action to reduce their massive stockpiles while still maintaining a sufficient deterrent to maintain deterrence. First, both sides need to eliminate all land-based ICBMs. Quite simply, they do not need them and of all parts of the nuclear triad, they are the most destabilizing. Land-based missiles are vulnerable to first strike attacks, terrorist assaults aimed at obtaining a bomb or materials, and are the only real first strike nuclear weapons that both nations maintain. Set an example for North Korea and Iran by banning land-based ICBMs. Second, allow for the increase in land-based manned strategic bombers. Doctor Strangelove not withstanding, land-based aircraft take time to arm, marshal and fly to their targets. Heaven forbid a nuclear crisis develops between the U.S. and the Russian Federation, it would give the leaders of both nations the ability to show their determination while giving both sides time to calm down. There is a substantial difference between 30 minutes from a missile launched in the Urals to a target in the U.S., and a bomber flying 15 hours from Louisiana to Moscow. Since we cannot immediately eliminate nuclear weapons from the planet, this is, I believe, a compromise that provides both sides with a viable option. And from a personal view, I am much more comfortable with a pilot in a bomber that can be recalled, than an ICBM that cannot. Third, allow both sides to keep a secure deterrent--ICBM submarines--but with limited warhead and missile capacity. Both the U.S. and Russia would argue that their nuclear forces must be "redundant" and "survivable"--both phrases from the Cold War full-scale war mentality. However, both sides could easily maintain a small, stealthy, and effective nuclear submarine force capable of acting even in a first strike/doomsday scenario. In effect, the submarines would guarantee both sides a final deterrent from a surprise attack--the core fear of both American and Russian military leaders since 1941. Lastly, the elimination of land-based missiles would be the first step in reducing both nuclear stockpiles to sane levels. Later, as air and sea launched weapons became obsolescent or needed to be replaced, both sides could agree to replace a reduced percentage over the years. If, for example, the first generation of nuclear weapons becomes outdated in 10 years, the US could replace 100 of these older systems with 50 newer ones. Then, as time passed, replace those 50 with 25 better weapons, and so on, while still maintaining a credible deterrent force. The increase in lethality and accuracy of modern conventional weapons, and the lack of practical use for nuclear weapons since the end of World War II, means that military planners have no real necessity to depend upon these weapons. Of course, the reality of nuclear weapons is that they are less of a military tool than a political one. This means that it is the role of the political leadership, not the military, of both the U.S. and Russia to address the reduction of nuclear stockpiles. Perhaps that is the real "existential threat" to both nations; unless their leaders act, today, to reduce nuclear weapons, our descendants will be cursed to live with the possibility, no matter how feint, that their fathers and grandfathers cursed them with a never-ending fear of the end of humanity in a flash. More on Russia
 
Stocks show partial rebound after steep selloff Top
NEW YORK — A day after a steep selloff on Wall Street, investors are looking for bargains but are still cautious about the banking industry and the overall economy. Some rebound was to be expected after the major stock indexes fell more than 4 percent on Tuesday on disappointment in the government's announcement of a plan to overhaul the $700 billion financial rescue package passed by Congress last fall. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 382 points. Financial stocks, which were the hardest hit on Tuesday, led the early rebound Wednesday. The move higher in financial stocks comes as chief executives of the nation's top banks are set to appear before a Senate committee to answer questions about how they have put to use more than $160 billion in taxpayer money. The heads of the banks also likely will face questions on their compensation. Several top executives at banks have declined bonuses for 2008 amid the market turmoil. President Obama recently put in place measures to control executive compensation at companies receiving additional bailout funds. The testimony is another reminder to Wall Street that Washington has been the biggest force tugging at the market in recent weeks. That was the case Tuesday as investors showed their frustration with what they saw as a lack of details from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on how the government plans to direct more than $1 trillion in public and private aid to support the ailing financial system. The plan is meant to expand the government's efforts to unfreeze the credit markets and encourage more normal lending by banks to consumers and businesses. The latest version also calls for a government-private sector partnership to help remove banks' bad assets from their balance sheets. Investors are also awaiting a resolution on a more than $800 billion economic stimulus package that passed in the Senate on Tuesday. Republican and Democratic leaders are still at odds over how much money should be directed to certain programs. The final version of the bill is expected to reach President Barack Obama's desk within days. In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 80.92, or 1.03 percent, to 7,969.80. Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 8.94, or 1.08 percent, to 836.10, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.95, or 0.85 percent, to 1,537.68. ___ On the Net: New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com More on Bailout Bandits
 
David Latt: Obama's a Wimp (so says the GOP) Top
President Obama believes in civility. His opposition doesn't. Only days after the inauguration, Rush Limbaugh pushed to the front of the pack to say he hoped Obama would fail . At first Republicans were shocked by his bad behavior. But they soon rallied around Limbaugh and through him rediscovered their hectoring voice. For the stimulus package, Obama held true to his desire for bipartisanship. He allowed more tax cuts into the bill, even against the preferences of his own party because he wanted to meet Republicans half-way. What he got in return was derision . The Republicans saw his hand extended in bipartisanship as evidence that he is a wimp. What Obama forgot is that political opponents happily lie and misrepresent when it gives them an advantage. His opponents aren't just a disaffected group looking for inclusion. They are his antagonists and they are defined by their differences with him. Joining in the attack on the stimulus package, John McCain picked up his mindless old war cry of "Pork, pork, pork." Ignoring history, Senator Mitch McConnell intoned that government spending on infra-structure projects was the wrong way to stimulate the economy because, as we all know, FDR's New Deal was an abject failure . Not withstanding eight abysmal years of the Bush administration, the Republicans are back to their old messages: Democrats are the party of wasteful spending, government is too large, and the only way to stimulate the economy is to lower taxes. Obama was caught off guard by Republican bully-partisanship. Paul Krugman argues that Obama's best impulses may conspire against his intentions. His desire for consensus, his experience as a community organizer, his native goodness potentially make him easy prey for his adversaries. Witness, Mr. Krugman says, the details of the stimulus package. By embracing the changes promoted by the so-called centrist senators, he has in fact allowed the heart of the package to be gutted. One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending. The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut. It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care -- cut. Food stamps -- cut. All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan, with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump. On the other hand, the centrists were apparently just fine with one of the worst provisions in the Senate bill, a tax credit for home buyers. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research calls this the "flip your house to your brother" provision: it will cost a lot of money while doing nothing to help the economy. All in all, the centrists' insistence on comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted will, if reflected in the final bill, lead to substantially lower employment and substantially more suffering. But how did this happen? I blame President Obama's belief that he can transcend the partisan divide -- a belief that warped his economic strategy. Underlying Krugman's question is a larger one. Can a decent man be president? Do the demands of the office require a human being with the ability to conspire, deceive, and manipulate? Can Obama learn to manage the political process and accomplish his policy goals and still remain who he is as a human being? During the early democratic primaries, I wasn't an Obama supporter. I worried that he was too untried to make it through the slug fest of national politics. In the early debates, Hillary and Edwards got the better of him. They had a better command of the facts and they were more aggressive, more willing to strike for the jugular. Obama looked weak. And then over the next several weeks and in the subsequent debates, Obama transformed himself. He mastered the facts. He traded blow for blow. He became a candidate of conviction and strength and he beat Hillary in the primaries and then John McCain and the Republican hate machine in the general election. He prevailed then because he was willing to identify his own failings and learn from them. Now that he is president he is faced with even more difficult circumstances. Until he has a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority in the Senate, he will be forced into compromises with opponents who bear him ill-will. How he balances his emotional needs for bipartisanship with the political realities will determine if he can achieve his policy goals. In the primaries he proved he was up to the challenge, I believe he will do it again as President.
 
Union Leader Tom Balanoff: I'm A 'Strong Witness' Against Blagojevich Top
In his first public comments about former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's arrest two months ago, labor leader Tom Balanoff said he could be "a strong witness" for federal prosecutors who have charged the governor with trying to sell President Barack Obama's old spot in the U.S. Senate. Balanoff, the Illinois State Council president for the Service Employees International Union, was involved in secretly recorded conversations with Blagojevich regarding the Obama vacancy. More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Mickey Rourke And Courtney Love: Dating? Top
Are Mickey Rourke and Courtney Love an item? An item in today's UK Mirror alleges that's the case. Both were in London Monday night for the Elle Style awards, the day after Rourke won the BAFTA for Best Actor for "The Wrestler. The 3 AM Girl, the paper's gossip, wrote about their conversation with Rourke, his flirtation with them, and the stares they got from a nearby Love: We did wonder why, when randy Rourke was chatting us up, we could feel Courtney Love's eyes burning holes in the back of our heads. And now we know - the pair have been secretly dating for the past three weeks... Apologising for working during the next day- so he couldn't take us out for lunch - Mickey suggested we slip him our phone numbers. Er, maybe not. Still not put off, he cheekily slipped an arm around us both. Aware that Elle Woman of the Year Courtney was texting him from across the table, we told Mickey, 56, we didn't want to be in a Love triangle. The pair, who arrived separately, on the red carpet:
 
Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer: Media Drunk Tank: A Spendulus for the Rest of Us Top
Oh, the folks at Fox News are a witty group. They somehow manage to combine Aryan good looks with the comedic sensibility of a Rush Limbaugh...or maybe Gallagher's brother. You see, the kids over at Fox News refer to the Stimulus Bill as a "Spendulus Bill." Get it? Because it involves a lot of spending. Hilarious, right? We'll wait while you hold your side, Sally Jo. But just in case you don't get the joke, they repeat it over and over. On February 10, it was the lead story on FoxNews.com: "Senate OKs 'Spendulus' Bill." And just in case you didn't catch it there, two headlines down: "'Spendulus' Debate on Senate Floor: WATCH LIVE." And further down the page: "Will Americans Block the 'Spendulus' Plan Before It's Too Late?" Ah, yes. Pray tell, how do lesser men breathe in the rarefied air of the Fox newsroom? It's as if the Algonquin Roundtable traveled through time, was gradually replaced by members of your community college's introduction to creative writing class, and started meeting on alternate Tuesdays at Arby's. Now, there are obviously quite a few insipid twits writing copy over at Fox News and, yes, a lot of them seem to have access to the teleprompters, but is this what it's come to? Coulterisms? And while the network's flair for comedy was more than exposed in the criminally unfunny 1/2 Hour News Hour and the even less humorous late-night show Red Eye , do they really need to crib from Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin? But maybe this is just more of that good old-fashioned straight shootin' we've come to expect from Fox News. CNN and MSNBC never refer to the current stimulus package as a "Spendulus" Bill. Those damn liberals--always spinning. Please Call Your First Sexpert to the Stand Fox News has finally addressed the issue of "persistent genital arousal disorder" or PGAD (which we always thought had something to do with gay grandparents). In a piece titled, "FOXSexpert: The Never-Ending Orgasm," we learned that this condition "might sound like a dream come true" but it's really "an absolute nightmare." The odd thing is that on Foxnews.com, the piece is accompanied by a picture of the writer, Fox sex correspondent Yvonne K. Fulbright, showing cleavage and coyly biting the tip of her eyeglasses. Dr. Fulbright explains, "Attempts at relief include self-pleasuring or having sex with a partner. Yet these sexual activities provide only temporary relief or actually exacerbate the problem." The same could be said for being an O'Reilly intern. All we can say is, for being the nation's No. 1 "conservative" network, Fox sure has a knack for mixing its hard news with soft-core porn. It's as if National Review began running the rejected Penthouse Forum letters of William F. Buckley Jr. Who's the Loser Now, Chia Head? Donald Trump was a supporter of John McCain back when an old man with horrible taste in women could still dream of being elected leader of the free world. We saw a lot of him back then. He paraded around on The Factor and Hannity & Colmes and every other show that would book him to discuss the real estate market, politics, and Rosie O'Donnell's waistline. Well, it turns out Trump could now use a loan from the former daytime talk show host. Back in December of '07 when the Trump-O'Donnell feud was blistering, his stock (TRMP) was at 22.37 a share. By January of last year, it was down to 3.03 a share. And now it hovers around 25 cents a share. Now change has come to more than just Washington. Suddenly the Donald is all about Obama, telling Greta Van Susteren, "We have a young, vibrant, smart president who, I think, is going to do a really good job" and "is going about things the right way." That's right, Donald. Kiss up now while you can still try to negotiate some of your overleveraged assets. The man needs a bailout more than his nightly Enzyte smoothie. That being said, we can't wait to see Joan Rivers go postal on the new season of Celebrity Apprentice. Hey, There's a Dating Site for Sean Hannity Fans. Seriously. Are you an angry white man who browbeats and verbally harangues his friends and family, loves guns and theocracy, is still holding out hope that a porno of Barack Obama will one day surface clearly showing the president's Kenyan birth certificate stuck to Bill Ayers' sweaty forehead, and is inexplicably alone for Valentine's Day? Well, then you're a prime candidate for Hannidate! Over at Sean Hannity's online fiefdom, hannity.com, you can find anything a fearful, disaffected, right-wing sex machine would need, including the ephemeral hope of a love you don't have to purchase with leftover freeze-dried food and surplus ammunition from your halcyon Michigan Militia days. Here's how hannity.com's Web toady describes Hannidate: "Hannidate--The place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet. Whether you are looking for a life partner, or just someone to hang out with, here you'll be able to find exactly who you are looking for, locally or around the world." Hmmm--"or around the world." In other words, you get access to roughly the same database as members of russianbrides.com but at a fraction of the price. Now, Hannity is clearly not King Crazybritches over at Fox. That honor undeniably goes to Bill O'Reilly. Combining the recessive crazy alleles of two Bill O'Reilly fans would no doubt lead to a dangerously unstable genome that might herald the rise of a distinct species of unhinged sociopaths that could very well imperil civilization itself, and we urge all world governments and the UN to take appropriate and immediate measures to prevent this. But if Hannity's not nuts himself, at the very least he's manufactured at a facility that processes them. His male viewers are paranoid, angry, rabid, wild-eyed fans-o'-fetus who desperately need love. His female viewers? Well, they don't exist now, do they? (And, yes, we do realize Ann Coulter watches the program.) So sign up for Hannidate now! It's never too late to find that special someone who continually parrots banal reactionary jargon and looks unsettlingly like one of Ronald Reagan's old colonoscopy videos. More on Fox News
 
Obama Officials Defend Controversial State Secret Decision Top
The State Secret Privilege is perhaps the most powerful executive tool available for any president to use, and thus the Obama administration's decision to preserve its invocation, in Mohamed v. Jeppesen, was immediately interpreted by the vocal civil libertarian community as a betrayal of its basic principles. During the campaign, Obama had criticized its use to preemptively dismiss civil lawsuits against the government. Adding to the current agitation, Obama aides have been silent about its reasoning and the process. But based on interviews with current administration officials involved in the case, with Bush administration officials, as well as with national security law experts, a clearer explanation emerges. More on Eric Holder
 
Bob Franken: Spreading the Gain...and Pain Top
Now that the Treasury Secretary is responding to the uproar by pretending to take action against obscene executive compensation, it's time to get real. First of all, you can bet the accountants and lawyers are already taking meetings and charging billable hours to come up with creative strategies to get around these new regulations. Not only that, but the vast majority of the companies in this country will not be covered by these rules. This raw deal is a big deal. While the U-S-of-A prides itself on being a land of opportunity, where anyone can go from rags-to-riches, the truth is we've devolved into a "rich to MORE riches"country. We need to come face to face with the realization that someone can have too much, because the only way he can gain it is at the expense of everyone else. We hear the constant bleating from those who argue that the genius entrepreneur needs incentive to create and develop the brilliant innovation that will help us live longer, produce more and most importantly, have new electronic toys. But how much incentive does anyone need? Is it really necessary to pay 10's of millions each year to some top honcho, particularly the one whose main contribution has been to take away the salary of many thousand others, through layoffs caused by bad management? As for that aspiring Bill Gates: Does he really require billions to take his idea out of his dirty garage and into the marketplace? Of course not. A small fortune, as opposed to a humongous one would do just fine. Now is the time to decide that a seven figure annual salary not eight or nine, is plenty. Now is the time to value other accomplishments than just the accumulation of useless wealth. Setting easily circumvented and temporary executive compensation caps is not the answer Mr. Treasury Secretary. There's a far better way: Taxes. I know you're not altogether familiar with the tax system, Secretary Geithner. but if we FIX it, maybe we could help achieve our goal of economic parity where personal fortune is commensurate with one's contribution to society. How to repair it? Easy. Raise the top brackets to confiscatory levels. Make it air tight where anyone who makes more than a few million a year, however he or she does it, must pay the bulk of it to Uncle Sam. Period. Our country need this money that would probably go to still another vacation house, to help families avoid being tossed out of their single home. As for those who contend that government bureaucracies are wasteful and slothful, they're arguing about a separate issue. We should indeed demand more effective services, but we have the chance as voters to make that happen, at least theoretically. We have no real ability to control what any super rich person does with his or her fortune, no way of making them share the wealth they've taken away from all the workers whose efforts allowed them to accumulate their hoard in the first place. Let's also give proper disdain to the argument they'll simply set up shop in another country. We should encourage them to go, since they will have shown their utter lack of patriotism. Maybe they should leave their citizenship behind too. Let's make sure, however, they don't abscond with the all the riches they could only have made here. They probably need to get out while the getting is good. They'll be turning their backs on a nation that has grown tired of those who would exploit its most natural resource, which is a belief that we're all in this together, not as suckers to be taken by a few wheeler dealer operators. Their henchmen from the Bush Treasury Department already managed the first 350 billion dollar bailout so badly that their Obama counterparts are scrambling to come up with a "Plan B". Pretty soon we're going to run out of alphabet, and hope. We will, unless we get to the root cause of this mess, which is our belief that money is the only value we value. More on Timothy Geithner
 
Three Townships Voting On Secession From Cook County Top
Three northwest suburban townships are asking residents whether they want to secede from Cook County. The referendum questions in Palatine, Barrington and Hanover Townships on the April 7 ballot won't be binding. And even if they were, a majority of votes from all of Cook County would be needed to allow the renegade townships to form their own county or join another. The opening shot in the debate was the County Board's decision last February to increase the sales tax.
 
Nan Aron: Stand Up for Judges Who Support Justice for All Top
Americans want judges who believe the constitution provides for equal justice for all, not just the wealthy and powerful. President Obama has said he plans to appoint highly qualified individuals who respect the law to federal judgeships. So that should give us common ground with all of those conservative groups who have argued for the past eight years that respect for the Constitution is the most important thing when choosing judges, right? Not so fast. They are singing a different tune now that it's President Obama who will make the nominations. I don't find this surprising. The current Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of corporate special interests at the expense of the average, hard-working Americans - instead of applying the constitution to ensure equal justice for all. A president who nominates judges that enforce the laws that protect the environment, or give us access to justice when we're harmed by dangerous drugs, is not exactly singing from their song book. Don't believe me? Take a look at how President Obama's nominees to run the Justice Department are faring at the hands of those conservative groups. It started with the Holder hearings last month and is heating up as the Deputy Attorney General, the Solicitor General who argues the government's cases before the Supreme Court, and other key officials in the Justice Department come before the Senate. Did you see the ad in Roll Call from the Judicial Confirmation Network calling for a slow-down in the confirmation process for Justice Department officials? How about the op-ed JCN legal counsel Wendy Long authored in The Washington Times ? Or the Wall Street Journal editorial calling for a slow, deliberative process for confirming the president's nominees--the exact opposite of what they said when Bush nominees were before the Senate? And that was just yesterday. In the past few days, we have also heard from the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times , echoing Senator Arlen Specter's calls to renominate some of President Bush's nominees--including the controversial Peter Keisler. Newsweek's Stuart Taylor intimated that should President Obama pick a progressive for the Supreme Court, he would be turning his back on bipartisanship. The president's nominees to the Justice Department and later to the courts face a network of ultraconservative legal outlets (JCN, Federalist Society), corporate special interest organizations (National Association of Manufacturers), foundations (Mellon and Scaife Foundations), and elected officials all focused on one goal: maintaining a federal bench that continues to rule on behalf of the wealthy and powerful, at the expense of hard-working Americans. If they succeed, what does that mean for the American people? It means federal courts packed with ultraconservatives who don't put the Constitution first, and who toss fair pay out the window, lift environmental protections, and give big corporations a pass when it comes to product safety. It means courtrooms where the outcome is decided by the political affiliation of the judge, not the merits of a specific case. But this is a new day. Americans voted for change, and now it's up to all of us to help President Obama deliver. He has nominated Justice Department officials with strong qualifications and a deep-seated respect for our core constiutional values. They should be confirmed without delay, so that they can get to work on cleaning up the huge mess that the Bush administration left behind, restore the integrity of the Justice Department, and move on to ensure justice for hard-working Americans. President Bush's judges have backed the corporate special interests at the expense of everybody else - and without the proper regard for the constitution. There are many vacancies on federal courts around the nation. President Obama has a unique opportunity to appoint highly qualified judges who can make the words "equal justice for all" mean something again. More on Supreme Court
 
Julio Osegueda Gets Job Offers Out Of Obama Exchange Top
CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A McDonald's worker who got President Barack Obama's attention at a town hall meeting in Florida says his job prospects were super-sized by the spotlight. Nineteen-year-old Julio Osegueda (AH-suh-GWAY-duh) told CBS' "Early Show" Wednesday that he has gotten two offers since the televised exchange. The communications major at Edison State College said a radio station offered him an internship and a local baseball team owner wants him to broadcast the home opener in April. Osegueda told Obama on Tuesday that he had worked at McDonald's for more than four years because he couldn't find another job. More on Barack Obama
 
Tornadoes Kill 8 People In Oklahoma, Others Injured Top
LONE GROVE, Okla. — Residents on Wednesday confronted the wreckage of homes and businesses destroyed by an unusual cluster of February twisters that ripped across Oklahoma, killing eight people. Emergency responders searched into the night for more victims in Lone Grove, where all of the victims died Tuesday and 14 people were seriously injured, said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten. She said the National Guard was being sent to help local authorities. "We will do everything we can to get Oklahomans the assistance they need," Gov. Brad Henry said. Buildings were damaged or destroyed throughout the town of about 4,600, some 100 miles south of Oklahoma City, said Chester Agan, assistant emergency manager for Carter County. However, much of the most severe damage appeared to be centered in two mobile home parks that were "pretty much wiped out," said Dave Smith, a paramedic who helped in the first emergency response. The eight confirmed deaths included seven people in Lone Grove and a truck driver who was driving through the area, said Robert Deaton, interim chief investigator for state Medical Examiner's office. "It was pretty devastating," said Lone Grove resident Joe Hornback, 42, whose home is a few blocks from a post office that lost its roof in the storm. "We were very fortunate," he said. "We went into the only cellar on our block. There were 30 of us in a 6 by 6 underground cellar." He said there was a calm before the tornado hit. "Then you just heard the wind blow, just like you turned the light switch on," Hornback said. A twister also damaged homes and businesses in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, but only three minor injuries were reported. Another tornado was reported in north-central Oklahoma and six homes were destroyed near the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. Meteorologists would survey the damage Wednesday, said Doug Speheger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman. "We don't really have any indication of how a strong a tornado the Lone Grove one was," Speheger said. In Edmond, a body shop and the vehicles inside were twisted into a ball of metal. "It's just surreal," shop manager Michael Jerry said. "You just don't believe it. Especially knowing you were just there minutes before. The steel girders are in a ball." The tornado in northwest Oklahoma City apparently developed near Wiley Post Airport and then headed northeast, damaging several shopping centers and restaurants at a major intersection. One wall of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant collapsed, windows were blown out, and cars were damaged in a parking lot. That twister then moved through the Boulder Ridge Apartments, a spread of two-story units surrounding a courtyard. Shawn Tiesman, 33, moved to the complex from Iowa about four months ago and got his first taste of Oklahoma's notorious weather but without the same protection of his former home. "Where I'm from, we've got basements," Tiesman said. "I'm amazed that there's no basements here." He invited his upstairs neighbors into his apartment and then used his futon mattress to barricade them into a walk-in closet. While they were in the closet, a large section of roof was blown off one of the complex's apartment buildings and part of a wall was blown off another. One apartment had a gaping hole knocked in its side. Parked cars were smashed into each other. Tornado sirens were sounded in the area but some residents were still caught off guard. "I can't believe we didn't hear it," said Traci Keil, 37. Oklahoma Gas and Electric reported about 8,900 customers without power, nearly 3,500 in Lone Grove, according to its Web site. Tornado strikes in Oklahoma are most frequent in the spring, but can occur at any time, weather service meteorologist Rick Smith said. Since 1950 the state has been struck by 44 February tornadoes, said Speheger at the weather service. The most recent one before Tuesday's spurt occurred Feb. 24, 2000, damaging a barn and power lines in Ellis and Harper counties in western Oklahoma. Outside Oklahoma, however, Speheger said an outbreak of twisters on Feb. 5, 2008, killed more than 50 people in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Elsewhere on Tuesday, wind of more than 60 mph caused dust storms in western Texas that reduced visibility so much some roads were closed. The weather service reported wind speeds reached 88 mph in parts of Texas, downing trees and power outages late Tuesday. Emergency responders in Texas said they would have to wait until Wednesday to assess damage. In the closing minutes of the Dallas Mavericks game Tuesday night, announcers suggested that fans stay in the building while the storms were passing through the downtown area. An empty 18-wheeler was flipped over by wind gusts as high as 70 mph in Bruceville-Eddy, a town of about 1,100 people nearly 106 miles south of Dallas. "He was driving down the road and a gust of wind blew him over," Bruceville-Eddy Fire Chief Randall Sevey told The Associated Press. "He was just shook up." ___ Associated Press writer Andre Coe contributed to this report in Dallas. More on Extreme Weather
 
The Sportsman's Daily: Researchers to Announce New Formula that Adjusts Historical Baseball Stats for Drug Inflation Top
The new formula revises the Babe's home run total to a staggering 1,030 CHICAGO, Ill (The Sportsman's Daily Wire Service) - When Alex Rodriguez acknowledged that he used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while playing for the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003, it cast doubt on more than his own prodigious accomplishments; it cast further doubt on the stats compiled during an entire era, sparking intense debate as to how these stats are to be handled and viewed in the context of the game's hallowed history. Next Monday, two professors from the University of Chicago will hold a press conference to announce an explosive new paper that argues for a new way of assessing and providing historical context to baseball statistics. Professors Walt Ossenheimer, a renowned economist, and Arnold Pinkerton, a statistician known for his trailblazing work on latent space approaches to dynamic embedding of co-occurrence data, purport to have established a new mathematical model for aligning historical baseball statistics with those compiled during the so-called "steroids" era, seasons roughly spanning 1995-2004. . "There are some things we will never know, i.e., did Oswald act alone, did we actually land men on the moon, did Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, A-Rod, et al actually use performance enhancers in producing circus-freak numbers that defy biology and historical trends?" rhetorically asked Professor Ossenheimer. "Well, ok, we pretty much can conclude they did, there's no way of getting around it, just as there's no real way of ignoring the numbers they recorded without rewriting history. So the question becomes: since you can't just dismiss these numbers, how do you honor the actual achievements that have come before, milestones that define the sport of baseball?" The soon-to-be published paper advances a model that goes by the euphonious acronym "SAFPES," which stands for "statistics adjusted for performance enhancement substances." The SAFPES model is akin to the models economists devise that adjust numbers for inflation. The professors studied the career patterns of over 350 major league players whose numbers experienced aberrational spikes during the 10 year "steroids era." They then arrived at a formula that determines - within a 15-20% margin of error - the number of home runs, hits and the types of hits that can be traceable to steroids use. "I really don't want to go into specifics before our press conference next Monday - as soon as we do some clown from the University of Stuttgart who doesn't know baseball from a beer stein will claim to have devised a formula with a 3% margin of error," said Ossenheimer. "But suffice it to say, when we apply the formula to players before the advent of steroids, 163 players have 600+ homers, while the Babe clocks in at an eye-popping 1,030 dingers. Whereas major league baseball officially acknowledges six 60+ home run seasons - three by Sammy Sosa himself - our formula produces 71 such seasons. Two hundred and seventeen join the 3,000 hit club. So on and so forth." Many who've seen abstracts of the study in advance of Monday's conference are eager to embrace the new approach, as it would seem to restore the achievements of baseball's past to its rightful place. However, there are those who find the new model problematic. Count Harvard paleontologist and baseball fanatic Dr. Saul Rubin among the doubters. "While there's something to be said for adjusting historical numbers for steroids, it doesn't account for the way players back in the day trained and prepared," argues Rubin "Steroids don't by themselves bulk you up; they give you the ability to work out harder and longer. Look, the Babe takes a hormone shot in the ass, the last place you're going to find him is in Gold's gym working on his abs and his lats. If anything, he's washing it down with a six pack and a half dozen dogs...maybe it buys him more time at the park since he won't be spending as much time in the sack, what, with the erectile problems that can result. If anything, steroids cuts his homer total by 10% and his testicle size by 25%. For god sakes man, just do the math."
 
Australian Emergency Operators Heard Fire Victims Final Calls Top
TRIPLE-0 operators listened to people "dying over the phone" at the height of the Victoria fires. More than 4200 terrifying phone calls were made to Victoria's emergency services dispatch centres in Bendigo and Burwood as victims pleaded for help across the state. More on Australia
 
Robert Naiman: Can Mitchell Succeed? Let Him Talk to Hamas Top
Rep. Delahunt has taken a constructive step by introducing a resolution in support of former Senator Mitchell's diplomacy for peace. Supporting this resolution should be a no-brainer - even your Representative can do it. [You can ask your Representative to sign on here ; the list of co-sponsors, 50 at this writing, is here .] Mitchell needs more support, because at the moment it's far from obvious whether Washington will let Mitchell be Mitchell. He's been praised for his work in the Northern Ireland peace process, but for all the difficulties Mitchell faced in Northern Ireland, there was one thing he could count on: no-one prevented him from talking to one of the key parties in the conflict. Mitchell talked to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, considered at the time [with obvious justification] by the British, the U.S. and the Protestant leadership in Northern Ireland to be a terrorist group. Today, Sinn Fein is part of the Northern Ireland government. But at the moment, Mitchell's not allowed to talk to Ismail Haniyeh or other members of the political leadership of Hamas, even though they won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and constitute the de facto government of Gaza. Why should U.S. diplomacy engage Hamas? The answer is very simple. It is very likely that if the U.S. were to engage Hamas diplomatically, it would be much easier to achieve a peaceful political resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict. On the other hand, if the U.S. were to continue the Bush Administration's policy of trying to isolate Hamas, the supporters of Hamas, and the people living under Hamas jurisdiction, it is very likely that achieving a peaceful political resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict would be much more difficult. Therefore, if the true and primary goal of U.S. policy is to promote a peaceful political resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict, then the correct U.S. policy is to diplomatically engage Hamas. It may well be that U.S. policy, or major actors that shape U.S. policy, have other, even contradictory goals. If so, those goals should be stated and defended. But let us assume for the sake of discussion that achieving a peaceful political resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict really is the goal of U.S. policy, and examine how engaging Hamas could contribute to that goal, and failing to engage Hamas could thwart it. First: a political resolution of the conflict that involves Fatah and Hamas would be, in Palestinian terms, politically legitimate. Suppose that there is a political agreement between Israel and the Palestinians attempting to achieve a political resolution of the conflict, and that on the Palestinian side, both Fatah and Hamas signed off on this agreement. Taken together, Fatah and Hamas represent the overwhelming majority of Palestinian public opinion. If you have an agreement with Fatah and Hamas, you essentially have an agreement with Palestinians as a whole. No major actor would question the legitimacy of such an agreement. Second: obviously any meaningful agreement between Israel and the Palestinians purporting to resolve the conflict is going to include, along with whatever else it concludes, a commitment from the Palestinian side to forswear violence against Israel. Obviously, the Israeli side - and third parties supporting the agreement - are going to expect that this commitment be meaningful. For such a commitment to be meaningful requires two things: it requires that the agreement be perceived as politically legitimate among Palestinians and related actors - see above - and it requires that the Palestinian side have the capacity to substantially impose the provisions of the agreement on any recalcitrant dissidents. Fatah and Hamas together have that capacity. Indeed, Hamas alone has demonstrated that it has that capacity in Gaza, when it substantially enforced its ceasefire agreement with Israel on more radical groups, even though Israel did not lift or significantly ease the blockade on Gaza, as it had been expected to do. On the other hand, it is clear that Hamas retains the power to "disrupt" any peace process. After Israel's invasion of Gaza, no-one is even bothering to say the word "Annapolis." You don't have to believe the story that was largely propagated in the U.S. media about the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza - that Hamas bore all or most of the responsibility for Israel's actions - to appreciate and acknowledge that Hamas played a significant role. Hamas took a deliberate choice to let the ceasefire expire and renew rocket fire in response to the Israeli government's continued economic strangulation and military attacks, knowing that this could provide a pretext for an Israeli invasion. It was taking a risk, and it was largely Palestinian civilians in Gaza that paid the price for that gamble. There were other choices. It could be argued, given the track record of effective international indifference to the suffering of Palestinian civilians, that other choices would not have been effective at lifting the blockade - but neither has the decision to facilitate the escalation of violence been effective, and now Gazans are worse off than before, with, among other things, 1300 dead. Obviously the overwhelming responsibility for the Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza lies with those who executed and paid for and supported the killing, but the responsibility of those who took actions which helped provide excuses for the killing is not zero. So it should be clear that engagement with Hamas, if successful, could be very helpful, and continuing a policy of isolation could be very harmful. But is there any reason to believe that a policy of engagement could be productive? First: since a policy of engagement costs essentially nothing of concrete value, the rational threshold for engagement is low. If there is any significant probability that engagement might be useful, it should be pursued. If it fails, we have lost nothing; and indeed, if the effort is sincere, it proves to the world that the U.S. is serious, so it gains something, even if it fails. If it fails because another actor is recalcitrant, then the recalcitrant actor is exposed to criticism and pressure - including, in the case of Hamas, pressure from Palestinian and Arab public opinion. Second: Hamas leaders have stated publicly and repeatedly that they are ready to accept a political resolution to the conflict, essentially along the lines of the international consensus and the Arab peace plan: Israel and a Palestinian state side by side, on the 1967 borders. For example, AP reported on January 29 (" Hamas officials signal willingness to negotiate ") that Senior officials in the Islamic group Hamas are indicating a willingness to negotiate a long-term truce with Israel as long as the borders of Gaza are opened to the rest of the world. "We want to be part of the international community," Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad told The Associated Press at the Gaza-Egypt border, where he was coordinating Arab aid shipments. "I think Hamas has no interest now to increase the number of crises in Gaza or to challenge the world." ... Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, said in comments aired Thursday that the Palestinians must heal their internal rifts and he welcomed aid for Gaza from any source. He also seemed to leave a door open for better relations with the U.S. "I think it is not in America's interest to stay in conflict with the Arab and Muslim world, considering its interests in the region," Haniyeh, who remains in hiding after Israel's onslaught, said on Al-Jazeera television. "We hope that the new American President revises all the policies of his predecessor." ... [The] three Hamas leaders interviewed said they would accept statehood in just the West Bank and Gaza and would give up their "resistance" against Israel if that were achieved. "We accept a state in the '67 borders," said Hamad. "We are not talking about the destruction of Israel." As former President Jimmy Carter told AFP last April 13 regarding his then-upcoming meetings with Hamas officials: Carter said his most recent talks [with Hamas] came after the group's win in January 2006 elections. At that time, he said Hamas expressed willingness to declare a ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank and allow Abbas to negotiate on behalf of all Palestinians. "I intend to find out if these are their prevailing thoughts now," he said. What did Carter find out? On April 22, the Washington Post reported : The armed Islamist movement Hamas is prepared to accept Israel as a neighbor if the Palestinian people approve the terms for peace, former president Jimmy Carter and the group's exiled leadership said Monday following a visit to the region that included seven hours of negotiations. ... Carter said the group's "ultimate goal is to see Israel living in their allocated borders, the 1967 borders, and a contiguous, vital Palestinian state alongside." Carter was referring to the borders that Israel had before the 1967 Middle East war, when it captured Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. In 1982, Israel completed a pull-out from the Sinai Peninsula, another conquest of that war. ... Carter said that in his negotiations, Hamas leaders referred to the [Hamas] charter dismissively as "an ancient document" and that they agreed to abide by any peace deal forged by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas if the Palestinian people approve it. That could be accomplished either through a referendum or by a vote of the legislative council. ... The talks resulted in a written agreement. An English version that Carter released reads in part: "If President Abbas succeeds in negotiating a final status agreement with Israel, Hamas will accept the decision made by the Palestinian people and their will in a referendum monitored by international observers . . . even if Hamas is opposed to the agreement." Of course, people can claim, if they wish, that these statements are not meaningful. But there is really only one worthy way to prove whether they are meaningful or not: put them to the test of serious negotiations. As Mitchell has written about Northern Ireland: if you want peace, you have to talk to the people who are involved in the war. If you agree, tell Obama . More on Palestinian Territories
 
David Wallechinsky: U.S.-Iran Relations: A Sexual Glitch or Subtle Intrigue? Top
As the governments of the United States and Iran inch closer to direct talks, an unusual bump in the road may have been hit. In the middle of the crisis surrounding the holding of American hostages, the Carter administration broke diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980. Beginning a year later, the Swiss Embassy in Tehran assumed responsibility for U.S. interests in Iran. Since August 3, 2006, the man in charge of the U.S. Interests section at the Swiss Embassy has been an obscure Swiss diplomat named Marco Kämpf . However, Iranian media have reported that Kämpf (50) has been sent back to Switzerland after being arrested for having "indecent contact" with an unmarried Iranian woman in a car in a parking lot in the mountains north of Tehran. Kämpf's recall happens to coincide with the departure of Switzerland's ambassador to Iran, Philippe Welti, who was the Bush administration's main contact inside Iran. If Marco Kämpf really was engaged in an illicit love affair, the consequences for his lover will be dire. But if the Iranian media does not continue to cover her story, the possibility should be considered that Kämpf was set up by hardline elements hoping to discredit potential negotiations with the U.S. AllGov.com More on Iran
 
Shelly Palmer: 40% of TV Stations to Switch to Digital Signals Next Week: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer February 11, 2009 Top
Watch Shelly's commentary on the nearly 40% of television stations switching to all digital signals next week , despite the government postponing the end of analog television until June 12. Intel plans to spend $7 billion over the next two years upgrading technology at its US factories . Despite having a rough quarter, and announcing that the company would layoff more than 5,000 workers, the chip manufacturer will spend more than it ever has to bolster its production process. Intel President and CEO Paul Ortellini said that historically Intel had found the best way to get out of a slump is to give customers a new reason to purchase goods, and urged other companies to do the same. With less than a week to go until its $175 million of debt comes due, Sirius XM has hired advisers to help the company file for bankruptcy . The satellite radio company, which has never turned a profit, has more than $3.25 billion in debt. As expected, Live Nation and Ticketmaster announced plans to merge yesterday. In total, the deal would be worth roughly $2.5 billion. If the deal becomes complete, Barry Diller would be named Chairman, while Live Nation's Michael Rapino would serve as CEO. Expected to garner quite a bit of scrutiny from the Department of Justice, the two companies hope to save $40 million by combining ticket services, marketing campaigns and data centers through the deal, which could close in the second half of 2009. The Screen Actors Guild and the AMPTP are set to resume negotiations on February 17th . However, SAG president Alan Rosenberg is still threatening to block any deal, with his lawyer Eric George saying any deal reached would be "null and void, without force of law and not binding on the artists represented by SAG." Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards ). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here . Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net
 
Jonathan Tasini: The Greed Continues: $121 Million For FOUR Merrill Execs Top
To the question "have they no shame?" we already know the answer. And as we dig deeper and scrape the bottom of the barrel where the bottom-feeders have been lurking, we learn more about the immoral behavior of the incompetent, greedy elites. Today, the the tally is $121 million for FOUR--count 'em, FOUR--Merrill Lynch executives. The Daily News reports this : Four of the top executives at Merrill Lynch pocketed $121 million in bonuses just before taxpayers helped finance a takeover of the failing firm, the Daily News has learned. The flush foursome each pocketed payments ranging from $18 million to $39 million, investigators from the state attorney general's office found. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for the past month has been examining the highly suspicious timing of the last-minute Merrill handouts. In all, Merrill doled out $3.6 billion in bonuses just days before Bank of America finalized its deal to buy the collapsing firm - with the help of $45 billion in taxpayer money. Cuomo presented his initial findings Tuesday to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), whose House Financial Services Committee holds hearings Wednesday in Washington on how banks are spending bailout funds. "One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding," Cuomo wrote to Frank. And, at least for one of these greedy monsters, it wasn't as if he had to work that hard to rake in the dough: One beneficiary was Peter Kraus, a Thain hire who started at Merrill in mid-September and quit Dec. 18, the day Bank of America took over. He walked away with a $24.9 million bonus for those three months of work , which figures to about $249,000 a day. The day he quit, his wife closed on a $36 million luxury Park Ave. co-op, records show. [emphasis added] I know: when you get almost $25 million for three months work, it might be tough to get by on just $500K . According to this story, the bonus was given, despite the fact that Merrill had just recorded a $15 billion LOSS in the fourth quarter because it was guaranteed in his contract. Which raises at least two points. First, why are we not demanding, in return for a trillion dollars more in taxpayer money, and entire house cleaning, including the boards of directors of the banks and financial institutions who approved contracts that require paying out money even if someone fails spectacularly and craters the company? Not a single one of these board members can be trusted to do the right thing. Second, how can we trust any of these people who still run the institutions to live by the spirit, not to mention, the letter of the Administration's recently announced executive pay caps. As I noted when the caps were announced , they are largely a mirage because a company can get the cap waived with "public disclosure" and a vote of the shareholders. But, given the fact that "public disclosure" can be fairly weak and that the boards of directors typically have majority control of the shareholders, you have to clearly rely on the integrity and watchfulness of the Board members. And these folks are not credible watchdogs. They all belong to the same clubs, travel in the same circles and sit on each others' boards. They will not hesitate to make sure that they are each rewarded. There needs to be a massive house-cleaning, with public oversight locked into any company that gets our money--public oversight meaning individuals representing taxpayers who sit on those boards and have majority control. Otherwise, we will see the same story repeat itself. I'll also repeat my personal rant: we still have time to demand in the legislation authorizing the money that if you take taxpayer money, you may not oppose any attempt to unionize the workplace. You must remain neutral. And, as an add-on, any institution facing charges by the National Labor Relations Board, or facing any federal civil rights suit on wage, age, race, gender or other workplace fairness violation, may not receive any bailout money.
 
James Boyce: The Best Way To Solve A Problem Is To Understand It First. Top
Here's the thing about problems. Solving them often, unfortunately, entails understanding what caused them in the first place and as we watch the bad news all around us, and we debate the details of the different solutions, it occurs to me that we have talked precious little about what caused the problems in the first place. In fact, when asked what caused the economic collapse, Democrats and Republicans alike stumble, fumble and really can't answer the question. So here are the questions everyone in Washington, D.C. should be able to answer. What are the underlying long term economic trends that set the stage for the current crisis? What were the short term economic events that triggered the crisis? What are the short term programs that can cushion the impact of the crisis? What are the longer term programs and plans that can prevent the crisis from happening again? I'll give you a few quick hints about what I think. It's not a credit crisis, it's a debt crisis. Like a drunk at an open bar, we hit bottom. Basic service programs. Restructuring our national, corporate and individual balance sheets. More on Barack Obama
 
Linda Keenan: Meet Hillary, Cancer Warrior Princess Top
I'm hoping Hillary St. Pierre likes how I present her post, because I'm afraid that if I piss her off, she'll come and give me a beat-down. I don't know Hillary; I've only emailed with her a few times. But my guess from reading her blog is that she was a fierce creature well before cancer launched a terror attack on her a few years back. One of my dearest friends was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma 16 months ago, and in my web wanderings through cancer-land, I recently arrived on Hillary, a 26-year-old mother of a 5-year-old named Xander. She writes Baldie's Blog and to get an idea of what she's been through, here's her accounting. "Diagnosed: April 2006 Hodgkin's Lymphoma May 2006- ABVD Therapy Sept. 2006- ASHAP Therapy Oct. 2006- ICE Therapy (Much check this) December 2006- Mini Beam therapy January 2007- Syngeneic Transplant (from my identical twin) Feb. 2007- Lungs fail, my family is told I will not survive. March 2007- I WAKE UP and throw a party!! June 2007- Radiation Therapy August 2007- Cancer Reoccurence, Radiation Therapy Feb 2008- Reoccurence. Radiation therapy, Biopsy, and an allo transplan recommended. April- Second opinion, Sloan & Kettering. Looking into alternatives. May- Third opinion at Dana Farber. Sign on to their care. July 2008- Start trial drug- LDH My husband undergoes surgery for Crohn's disease silmultaneously. September 2008- FOUND A DONOR!Transplant is postponed due to shingles infection. October 2008- Admitted to Brigham & Women's for a "mini-allo" transplant. Mid-October 2008- Move out of Hospital to nearby Hotel." Her latest scans showed more cancer and right now, Hillary's status is this: "Researching like my life depends on it :)". What amazes me about her blog is how raw and real and fearless she is: when she's depressed, disappointed, exhausted, terrified, angry, she's not afraid to say it. And despite the terrible setbacks, she keeps plugging ahead with what she calls "Plan Y". But it's her role as Mom that interests me the most. In a time when it's a sort of vogue to declare yourself a marginally "Bad Parent", Hillary is intense about her desire to educate her son Xander, herself, despite her condition. And with this post from Baldie's blog, it's clear the education goes both ways. Live Like A Stiletto For Christmas, X told me he wanted to buy me a "party dress." He needed to know "How much I was?" "You mean you want to know what size I am?" I asked. "Yes." He said confidently. "Well, I am either a four or a six." "Hhhmmmm, I think you're a four." He says, giving me the look that so many other people do that says "There-is-no-way-in-hell-you're-a-six." "Yes, that's probably right." I said smiling. I think I'm really a two, but I like to have some extra wiggle room. You never know what I may be doing. I remember the first time I wore a dress, in the second grade, I decided I wanted to run with the boys that day, and I just couldn't keep up in a green jumper. All pants after that, until I got sick, and I decided that I should dress cute to feel better. I never knew much about the "dressing up" thing. I think I did okay. I could always borrow something. Or I could pick up the one club top I had and the one pair of pants that fit me and that would always do just fine.But since my sickness I've been trying to compensate for how bad I feel on the inside by taking myself up a notch on the outside. I think I do okay. I was never a big one for dressing until I got out of college and I actually had some money. After that it was pretty much sold. Usually, it goes the other way, you have to have it all as a teenager and during college, but once you're "into" life all those things phase away. Not with me, no, not me, completely opposite. I just discovered what it feels like to look decent. I'm amused. Xander has caught on to me. I will admit, that J {Hillary's husband} has always had a skill for keeping me looking nice. I think the trait has been passed down to X. Last week, when I was in Boston, moping and feeling miserable, X says, "Mom, I want to buy you some shoes." So we went to Payless, and I was running around (with my mask and gloves on, clearly) grabbing all sorts of different shoes in my size. I was trying them all on when X wanders up with a nice pair of black patent stilettos. "It's your size!" he says grinning and I look, it is my size 8! "Oh well, I'll have to try these on." I tell him, and when I get them on, I really like them. I start prancing around the store in my cute shoes with Xander following, then the shoes get tight. Uh-oh. "I think I need an 8.5" I said, slowly, to Xander, to see how he would respond. He turned and ran back to a sales girl that had been waiting patiently to see how the shoes went over. I didn't even know she was there waiting on HIM! X ran back with some of those stilettos in 8.5 and those shoes were sold! And for $9, on clearance, from $20. That is momma's kind of shopper. So I have worn the heels out, twice, both on the suggestion of Xander. I wore them to one of his friend's birthday parties, and I've worn them while taking him to school. The other day, during home school time, he remarked that if I wanted to teach him I "should where pretty clothes like the teacher." He wanted me to put on a dress!! I'm not a dress girl! I'm a big baggy pant girl. I will have the pretty flowy tops, but I am all about the comfy menswear pants. Cute vest, buttoned up shirts, all that works too. Cute dress, maybe on my best day, and maybe, that was why he wants me to dress up. He knows my best days are the days I look pretty. If I look good, I feel good. End of discussion So he's trying to make me look as good as possible in hopes I feel better Awww, what a little valentine. Remember to live like a stiletto today. Hillary's blog can be found here . And think about becoming a marrow donor. Hillary and Xander need the rest of us on their side.
 
Stephen C. Rose: Obama Pattern Language Primer -- 3 Top
By Stephen C. Rose If you are discovering this for the first time, this is a series of posts in progress aimed at having a conversation with an excellent online summary of Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language, which is a set of considered,. nested design principles that are literally a universal template for creating a world that serves people more than things, human culture more than consumer culture. It is in my view essential reading for the Obama team as it faces the need to hypothesize a sustainable world out of the detritus of a system that loses value as we speak. I refer to the declining real value, never to be restored, of automobiles and detached houses. THE ONLINE PATTERN LANGUAGE SUMMARY OBAMA PATTERN LANGUAGE PRIMER POSTS -- CUMULATIVE Build up these larger city patterns from the grass roots, through action essentially controled by two levels of self-governing communities, which exist as physically identifiable places. Community of 7000 Subculture Boundary Identifiable Neighbourhood Neighbourhood Boundary Community of 7000 (May be part of Mosaic of Subcultures) Alexander proposes decentralizing "city governments in a way that gives local control to communities of 5000 to 10,000 persons. As nearly as possible, use natural geographic and historical boundaries to mark these communities. Give each community the power to initiate, decide, and execute the affairs that concern it closely; land use, housing, maintenance, streets, parks, police, schooling, welfare, neighbourhood services." We can amend this to say that communities of this size need the superstructure needed to ensure that they can deliver essential services and amenities within a given, sustainable ecostructure. Subculture Boundary (May be part of Mosaic of Subcultures, Community of 7000, Identifiable Neighbourhood ) Alexander opts for a separation of subcultures into divided sections of a space. I think the answer lies in creating a matrix that will accommodate communities of 5-10,000 and slanting these in different ways as to design, appearance and, yes, cultural differences. However I believe this should aim at a mix when a mix would advance culture beyond nativism. Alexander does however add: "Along the seam between two subcultures, build meeting places, shared functions, touching each community." What I assume, which he does not, is a matrix that is car free which in itself incorporated all aspects of a pattern language, in large part as Alexander delivers them. What I see that he does not is the absence of the automobile within living areas of up to 5-10,000 and the absence of detached dwellings of conventional apartments in new residences which would be modular and highly standardized in form while exceptionally customized as well. I would call this pattern everyone having their own (replicable) room. Identifiable Neighbourhood (May be part of Mosaic of Subcultures, Community of 7000) Alexander says: "People need an identifiable spatial unit to belong to." Agreed. I would apply this to my matrix notion as a sensible way of dispersing dwellings within the entire schema. Residential nodes with "no more than 400 or 500 inhabitants" where these are separated by the other elements -- services, cafes, educational and health nodes, etc. Alexander says: "Keep major roads outside these neighbourhoods." I would say keep all roads out. This is the radical option. How will this matrix get built? Some entrepreneur will build it. The rest of the world will replicate and imitate it. It is not that hard to do. The vision precedes the doing. Neighbourhood Boundary May be part of Community of 7000 , Subculture Boundary, Identifiable Neighbourhood) This is reasonably simple. The matrix would have its own exterior boundary that would separate a community of up to 10,000 from another community. Both inside and out there would be spatial divisions separating groups of various sizes. Inevitably there would be draws from one community to another and ultimately transit between matrix communities would be public and most likely of the people moving variety. http://stephencrose.wordpress.com/ PS: To understand why I believe now is the time to reconsider and begin serious application of Alexander's thinking, please read my piece "Our Crisis Is Not Economic . More on President Obama
 
Dr. Judith Rich: When The Shift Hits The Fan Top
Shift Happens! Change, it turns out, is not a tidy process. Anyone who's ever been through a divorce or quit their job or perhaps more commonly now, lost their job, knows that endings are often very messy and starting over can be even more difficult. Or as Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy put it: It's not so much that we're afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it's that place in between that we fear . . . . It's like being between trapezes. It's Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to. Feeling a little lost, like Linus these days? No wonder! Look where we are! Talk about being in between trapezes! We can't even see if there's another one coming our way. You know that feeling when your stomach suddenly takes up residency in your throat? I think the term for this sensation is "free fall". We're there. Imagine you've just jumped out of an airplane with no parachute. All you have is a good sized piece of fabric, a needle and some thread. Your task is to make a parachute on the way down and have it completed and opened before you hit the ground. Sound a bit daunting? OK, this may be a bit too dramatic of an example, but you get the picture. We're in that gap, the void, the great unknown, the space between trapezes. And it's being in this gap that's so damned challenging to negotiate. Stomach and throat, contact! The change process, while sounding good on paper or in political speeches, is actually quite confounding. Navigating change is like trying to walk through quicksand without being sucked under. Each step needs to be taken mindfully, yet with a sense of urgency. The trick is in knowing just where to place your foot and exactly how fast to move, for the sands are always shifting and every step carries with it the possibility of either triumph or tragedy. You could step into the abyss and disappear, or you could come down on solid ground and live to take another step. Just ask Sisyphus. Or President Obama Change doesn't come with an instruction manual. When the rubber meets the road, all bets are off. We can work hard, plan and prepare and then Life happens. We either end up where we thought we were going or we end up somewhere else. In case of the latter, we get to "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off", take responsibility and choose again. Or as President Obama acknowledged last week " I screwed up ." Does anyone remember any other president in modern history owning up to messing up? Please refresh my memory if you do. And the presidential " Mistakes were made " pretense of responsibility (Reagan post Iran Contra and Bush post Katrina ) doesn't count. It's not quite the same as acknowledging: " I screwed up ". Assume Responsibility And Move On And while you're at it, please make a note that taking personal responsibility for your choices is a very adult thing to do. A very smart skill to cultivate and effective strategy for moving forward. Even if the situation you find yourself in is completely outside your sphere of control, you are in charge of how you respond to it. Don't waste precious time being a victim. You might get lots of sympathy and comfort from your friends, but all you have at the end of the day is a good story, and nothing changes. I'm not saying victim shift doesn't happen. Sure, shift happens. But that's not what makes one a victim. Victims are those who get caught in the story and give up their power to it. Taking responsibility when the shift hits the fan, like President Obama did last week, means taking ownership of your results. Notice how all the "buzz" around Obama's vetting scandals disappeared as soon as he took ownership of what happened. Accepting responsibility sucks the wind out of the critical voices, including the ones in your head. Nothing will free you from the past and help you move forward faster than taking responsibility for your life NOW. By the way, you get to acknowledge all the accomplishments you're proud of along the way as well. The buck really does stop "here" both in good and in hard times. Mistakes = Learning opportunities Did I mention the steepness of the learning curve we're traversing? Think of it as being enrolled in a master class on How to dance on a tightrope in high heels going backwards . Can you picture that? Good! Then you know that missteps or "mistakes" are highly probable. Learning from mistakes made early in the learning curve will better equip you to navigate the steepest terrain later on. The key words here being, " learning from mistakes ". It's the most potent teacher we'll ever have. Or as Michael Jordan said: I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Necessity is the Mother Lode of Invention So don't be afraid to fail. If you don't have at least one failure under your belt, it means you've played too small, stayed too comfortable and never dared to color outside the lines. Now's a great time to get your feet wet! We're all out here searching for new ways to navigate this slippery terrain together. Just think of the creative possibilities that will emerge from this era. Or as author M. Scott Peck said: The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers. We're confronting change on a scale that is beyond anything we've ever learned to comprehend, much less believe in. With unemployment numbers reaching 7.6% last week, the other 92.4% (minus those who are retired or have dropped out of the job market) are walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. The key is not to try to hold on to what was, but to learn how to fly with what is. Get used to being uncomfortable. And then re-invent yourself. There will be people who will learn to thrive in the difficult times ahead. Why not you? Identity Shift If you've always identified yourself as the work you do or where you live or the size of your bank balance and those things are suddenly ripped away, who are you now? Here's an opportunity to reframe who you are and how you see yourself. This part can be difficult to negotiate if the voices in your head keep telling you you're worthless because you no longer have "Job, House, or Bank Account Charming". Part of shifting your idea of who you are requires that you give up your need to look good, because when the shift hits the fan, you're not exactly "ready for your close up". Standing there with shift all over your face is akin to having an alien entity take up residence inside your skin. Think Sigourney Weaver as Lt. Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series. Nothing will ever be quite the same again. You'll see with new eyes and hear with new ears and at first, it's mighty disorienting. I know. Everyone I talk to says the same thing these days. "I feel disoriented". Me too. And why wouldn't we feel disoriented? This is not just a little, baby shift we're experiencing. It's MASSIVE!. As in global, collective, epochal, transformative. And it's happening everywhere, all at once. The Boots and Goggles Brigade I know I already said this, but it bears repeating: Change is messy . If we're going to feel like aliens we might as well look like them. Don a raincoat and wear boots. And don't forget the goggles. Just consider them the newest "must have" fashion accessories. We could start a whole new trend. Now, somebody go out and design a fashion line around this theme. Wait! Maybe I'll do that myself! Anybody want to join me? Or as Charles Darwin opined: It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. The Chinese symbol for "crisis" consists of two characters: danger and opportunity . Think of all the new opportunities waiting to be discovered by the dangerous times we're in! Find a need and fill it. If you don't, somebody else will. The Only Way Out Is Through Being a human being on planet Earth in 2009 is not for the feint of heart! If the only way out is through then I suggest the way to get through this is to go through it together. Really! Together! It's an amazing concept this "together" thing. Many years ago when I first began teaching, I spent two years teaching kindergarten. Boy, Robert Fulghum was right! Everything we ever needed to know, we learned something about it back in kindergarten. Take the age-old practice of holding hands to keep from getting lost, for example. Whenever I took the class on field trips, even if it was just a walk around the block, every child had a buddy and buddies were instructed to hold hands and stay together. It worked. A classroom of 36 five year olds and no one ever got lost. That strategy just might work now. Looking For The Yellow Brick Road Today, we're somewhere between Kansas and the Emerald City and we're looking for the Yellow Brick Road. Here in the Land of Odd, where nothing is certain and everything is possible, find a buddy, or two or three. The more the merrier. Remember, even Dorothy found some buddies to hang out with on the YBR and they ended up empowering each other to find what they thought they'd lost. You can too. Oh, yes you can! So take hold of hands and stick together. Check in with your buddies on a regular basis and see how they're doing. Find out what they need and how you might support each other. Maybe you and your buddies can partner up with some other buddy pairs or trios. Who knows? You might even find some new buddies right here on this page. And you might just start something wonderful! PS: Don't forget the boots and goggles, I think they're going to come in handy. I'll be watching for you out there and looking forward to hearing how it's going right here. Please consider sharing what learning opportunities are opening for you out of the current economic crisis. Has the Shift hit the fan yet in your life? What's most challenging for you now? What kind of support would most serve you at this time? Need a buddy? Let us know. I love receiving your comments and endeavor to respond to as many as possible. Please visit the Post A Comment section below and stop back later if you want to check in for my response. Also, consider subscribing to the RSS feed so you won't miss any future posts. Thank you for being a part of this reader community and for sharing this post with your friends. For personal contact I can be reached at judith@theraisinyears.com. More on President Obama
 
Robert Creamer: Republicans Take Huge Political Risk Opposing Obama Jobs Bill Top
You'd think that the results of November's election - coupled with the collapse of the economy - would begin to make Republican lawmakers question the consequences of their blind commitment to right wing economic orthodoxy. Apparently most Republicans in Congress haven't gotten the memo - although many formerly Republican-leaning independent voters got it some time ago. Monday's Gallup poll found that 80% of voters felt that passing an economic stimulus proposal was important or very important (51% very important, 29% important). Yet every single Republican voted no when the Obama economic recovery package passed the House -- and all but three voted against in the Senate. Eric Cantor, the new House Republican Whip, put it clearly: "just say no" to the economic recovery package he told his colleagues. Cantor is basically herding those colleagues over a political cliff. And be clear: support for the Obama economic recovery program is not limited to "blue" states. Pollster Stan Greenberg presented a poll at last week's House Democratic Caucus retreat that had sampled opinion in 40 swing congressional districts. It showed that 64% of voters in those districts supported the Obama economic recovery plan and only 27% opposed. What makes matters worse for the Republicans is that they have chosen to place a political bet against an economic recovery. President Obama and Democrats in Congress understand clearly that their political fortunes in the Congressional mid-terms and the next Presidential are tied completely to their success in turning the economy around. Democrats understand that as much as their November success was boosted by their charismatic Presidential candidate, it also had to do with the catastrophic failure of Republican economic and foreign policies. Bush learned too late that all of Karl Rove's spin couldn't put their political coalition back together again once the economy broke into a thousand pieces. It's not just the sizzle - it's the steak. That's why Obama's team isn't just focused on messaging about the economy - they are determined to deliver the goods. For those of us who believe in the effectiveness of bottom-up economics, it's a safe bet that by November 2010 - and certainly by 2112 - Obama's progressive economic policies will result in a much improved economy. That will leave the Republican nay-sayers with a lot of explaining to do. Normally, the party out of power gains seats in the first mid-term election after the inauguration of a new president. But the combination of economic improvement, a popular, engaging President, and Republicans who "just say no" to economic recovery could lead to an historic catastrophe for the GOP in 2010. By obstinately opposing Obama's plan to create or save 4 million jobs, Eric Cantor and the rest of the Republican leadership could be leading his followers from their current political wilderness into "never-never" land. Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist and author of the recent book: "Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win," available on amazon.com .
 
Alex Pattakos: Love: The Ultimate And Highest Goal Top
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, this is probably as good a time as ever to discuss the relationship between "love" and the "search for meaning." In this regard, Viktor Frankl's holistic view on the importance of our intuitive capacity for love offers great insight into how meaning in everyday life--and even at work--reveals itself. "Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire....The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved." Dr. Frankl, wrote these words in his classic bestseller, Man's Search for Meaning , a book that was first published in German in 1946 under the title, "Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager" ( From Death-Camp to Existentialism ). For good reason, Man's Search for Meaning remains one of the most important books of modern times (the Library of Congress named it one of the ten most influential books in America). Indeed, Dr. Frankl's personal story of finding a reason to live in the most horrendous of circumstances--Nazi concentration camps--has inspired millions of people around the world. To be sure, I am both honored and humbled to have had him as a mentor. Alex Pattakos with Viktor Frankl at his home, Vienna, Austria, August 1996 It is against this personal backdrop that Frankl's quote about love must be considered. And considered very seriously. You see, although Viktor Frankl was blessed with surviving his horrific ordeal in four different Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz, his mother, father, wife, and brother were not so fortunate. And even though he had been stripped of everything, down--literally--to the bare bones of his humanity, Frankl experienced moments of bliss, especially when he thought of his beloved--his wife, his parents, his brother, and others who were dear to him. In no uncertain terms, he learned unequivocally that love was his salvation and that, among all of the values that offered him a source of personal meaning , it was love that proved to be the "ultimate and highest goal to which he could aspire." I would like all of us to reflect seriously upon the above passage from Man's Search for Meaning , along with Dr. Frankl's personal, love-affirming experience--today, tomorrow, and forever. What do you think about it? How does it make you feel ? How and in what ways are you bringing and weaving love into your life? Into your work? Into your "work?!" Yes, that is what I said. Even though we don't normally associate this particular "L" word with work or the workplace, it does have an important and meaningful role to play. I'm not talking about romantic love, even though we all know that it sometimes finds its way into the work setting. I'm talking about love in the sense of caring about another person's "highest good." And this includes those with whom we may work, such as co-workers, colleagues, associates, customers, vendors, partners, students, patients, and so on. This notion of work and the workplace is not as far-fetched as one might initially think. For instance, in my book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts , I write about a company, Skaltek, a major equipment manufacturer based in Stockholm, Sweden, where the task of building a meaningful workplace is taken very seriously. Listen to the words of Őystein Skalleberg, the founder of Skaltek, as he describes his philosophy about people and work: "Every human being is a Leonardo da Vinci. The only problem is that he doesn't know it. His parents didn't know it, and they didn't treat him like a Leonardo. Therefore he didn't become like a Leonardo. That's my basic theory." Because Skalleberg seeks to practice what he preaches, there are many attributes of the working environment at Skaltek that would be considered "radical" by even some of the most innovative companies/organizations in the world today. One is an annual employment appraisal process that involves the use of randomly selected performance review teams. According to Skalleberg, since no one knows who will be conducting their performance review each year, "Everybody smiles in all directions!" Skalleberg also has a revolutionary formula for building a company culture in the postmodern era: Confidence is the start of it, Joy is a part of it, Love is the heart of it. Now, doesn't Skaltek sound like a company with a meaning -focused philosophy about bringing love to work? And, once again, with Valentine's Day just around the corner, why not make now the time to (re)affirm too that "love is the ultimate and highest goal" to which we all can aspire?! *** You can find out more about Dr. Alex Pattakos, author of the international bestselling book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts , in his HuffPost Bio and at http://www.prisonersofourthoughts.com . See also his "Dr. Meaning" Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/DrMeaning . You can contact Alex at: alex@prisonersofourthoughts.com . More on Happiness
 
MJ Rosenberg: Netanyahu: Better for America, Better For Israel Top
In the end, it does not matter all that much that Bibi Netanyahu is going to be Israel's next prime minister. I don't see much (if any) real differences between him and Ehud Barak or Tzipi Livni. In fact, in my opinion, it is Barak more than anyone else who is responsible for demise of the Oslo process. (For the facts on that, see Clayton Swisher's "The Truth About Camp David," a brilliant expose by a young ex-Marine who was there). I also am taken by an analysis by Yossi Beilin, who was Oslo's architect. He says that it is better to have a pure right wing government than a right wing government covered by a centrist fig leaf. He says that, in the past, the worst Israeli governments have been national unity hybrids. The right goes about its business building new settlements and thwarting the peace process while the "left" (i.e., Shimon Peres, in his day) puts a pretty face on it. Remember how Jimmy Carter handled Menachem Begin? Or how the first George Bush not only used our foreign aid as leverage against Yitzhak Shamir but engineered his replacement by Yitzhak Rabin? Barak, on the other hand, ran rings around us. President Clinton recalls that Barak treated America as if Israel was the superpower and he, Clinton, was a "goddam wooden Indian" whose job was to shut up and listen). Beilin also believes that the United States will come down a lot harder on a right wing government than on one that appears centrist. It will be easier for President Obama to deal with Netanyahu than with the almost equally hawkish Livni because the latter seems dedicated to ending the conflict. In fact, her views on some of the critical issues are at least as hard line as Netanyahu's. But her seeming moderation is a nice cover. A Netanyahu government would have no such cover. Any acts of sabotage to the peace process or new misery inflicted on the Palestinians would likely be strongly opposed by the United States. Israel's most slavish "friends" in Congress -- almost all Democrats -- would find it hard, although far from impossible, to choose Netanyahu (who is very close to the GOP) over Obama. The lobby will be dispirited. Contrary to popular opinion, it does not like far right governments because they are a tougher sell. The likely result will be either a right wing government that goes out of its way not to offend the United States or one that does, and gets put in its place. So I'm not too sad today, except about the rise of the neo-fascist Lieberman (the "neo" is there because everyone uses it. I'm not sure what's so neo about him). Here's my piece about him from today's Los Angeles Times. FOR MORE, SEE MY ORGANIZATION'S NEW BLOG
 
A-Rod's Late Show Appearance Top
 
Morgan Tsvangirai Sworn In As Zimbabwe Prime Minister Top
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe swore in his longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister Wednesday, ushering in a unity government in an extraordinary concession after nearly three decades of virtually unchallenged rule. There had been pressure for Mugabe _ who remains president in the coalition _ to step down altogether, and questions remain about whether a partnership can work after a long history of state-sponsored violence against Tsvangirai and his supporters. Mugabe, who recently declared "Zimbabwe is mine," went further Wednesday than many would have expected. He stood to face Tsvangirai as an equal in a white tent on the grounds of the presidential palace. Regional leaders watched from the tent and Zimbabweans across the country watched on state TV as Tsvangirai raised his right hand and was sworn in. Both Tsvangirai and Mugabe were relaxed and smiling during the brief ceremony, which also included the swearing-in of Tsvangirai's deputies, Arthur Mutambara of a breakaway opposition party and Thokozani Khupe of Tsvangirai's party. In a speech later to those who had attended the ceremony, Tsvangirai said he knew many were "skeptical of this arrangement. But this is the only viable arrangement that we have. We must ensure that this inclusive government works. I ask for Zimbabweans to be patient and give us time." Mugabe also gave a speech after the ceremony and lunch with Tsvangirai, saying he had offered "my hand of friendship and solidarity to work with (Tsvangirai's party) for the service of Zimbabwe." Ian Stephens, a Harare businessman, said it was too early to celebrate the new government. "It depends on how cooperative Mugabe is and whether he can be trusted," Stephens said. But "Mugabe no longer has absolute power and that could be the turning point." The country's economic collapse _ for which Tsvangirai holds Mugabe responsible _ has led to the world's highest inflation rate, left millions dependent on international food aid, and caused a cholera outbreak that has killed some 3,400 people since August. Sampson Ibrahim, a street vendor, was in a crowd watching the broadcast on a TV in the window of an electronics store in downtown Harare. "I am happy because I expect prices to go down," Ibrahim said. "They've got to get the schools and the hospitals working again." Tsvangirai said Wednesday the new government would work to get children in school, hospitals open "and food back on the tables for everybody, regardless of his political affiliation." Neighboring leaders who pushed for the coalition said that once the two men had joined in the unity government, Mugabe and Tsvangirai would overcome mutual mistrust and work together for the good of their country. Tsvangirai has been beaten and jailed by Mugabe's security forces. In 2007, police attacked him after he held an opposition meeting the government had banned. Images shown on news broadcasts around the world of his bruised and bloodied face came to symbolize the challenges his movement faced. Mugabe, who turns 85 on Feb. 21 and has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has in the recent past treated the 56-year-old Tsvangirai as a junior partner at best, often not bothering to hide his contempt. Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round of presidential election held almost a year ago, and withdrew from a June runoff only because of attacks on his supporters. Tsvangirai's decade-old party, the Movement for Democratic Change, also broke ZANU-PF's lock on parliament in March 2008 elections for the first time since independence. A power-sharing deal was reached in September but remained deadlocked for months over how to divide Cabinet posts. Tsvangirai on Jan. 30 agreed to join the government now and resolve outstanding issues later. The coalition agreement calls for the government to make its priority reviving the economy. Even if the factions can put aside their differences, they cannot do much without foreign help. The world's main donor, the United States, has made clear the money won't flow if Mugabe tries to sideline Tsvangirai. The president of neighboring South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, told his Parliament on Tuesday that the swearing in "is a vindication that our approach to the crisis of Zimbabwe all along has been correctly, despite skepticism in certain quarters." Motlanthe called on the international community to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe and turn its attention now to Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who mediated the unity deal, had stuck to a strategy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe for years despite criticism that the approach amounted to appeasing Mugabe. In Brussels on Wednesday, EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel urged Zimbabwe's new unity government to "work without delay" to improve their people's desperate situation. The EU still has in place a visa and assets freeze meant to isolate Mugabe and his supporters. The unity government's agenda includes preparing for new elections, expected in a year or two. Media restrictions will have to be lifted and other steps taken to ensure the elections are free and fair, after several ballots marred by violence, intimidation and manipulation blamed on Mugabe's party. Tsvangirai on Tuesday called for political detainees to be released before he was sworn in as prime minister, but did not say what he would do if they were not. Human rights groups say tortured detainees are on the verge of dying in jail. Some Tsvangirai allies say he never should have agreed to serve as prime minister in a government that left Mugabe president. Mugabe, meanwhile, has been under pressure from aides in the military and government who do not want to give up power and prestige to the opposition. Unusually for a state occasion, no military chiefs were at Wednesday's ceremony. Generals in the past have said they would not salute Tsvangirai, a former labor leader who did not take part in the independence war that swept Mugabe to power in 1980. Elphas Mukonoweshoro, an opposition leader who was to take the oath of minister of public service when the rest of the Cabinet is sworn in Friday, described said the absence of the military chiefs not as a snub, but an effort "to reflect the new Zimbabwe." Mugabe's regime had been described by some as close to a military government, with generals and revolutionary war veterans holding high government and political posts. More on Zimbabwe
 
350 European Cities Pledge To Reduce Emissions Top
BRUSSELS — Mayors from more than 350 cities across Europe signed an EU climate change agreement Tuesday pledging to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 20 percent by 2020. The pact covers urban areas across 23 EU countries and includes cities like London, Paris and Madrid. Cities in Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine and Turkey have also signed it, and faraway places _ like New York; Buenos Aires, Argentina and Christchurch, New Zealand _ also backed the initiative. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on the mayors to follow the famous slogan "think globally, act locally" by encouraging their city dwellers to reduce emissions further. "Voluntary actions by citizens are crucial, changing our energy behavior, making intelligent investments, adopting smart mobility practices, these are actions that need to be motivated," Barroso during the signing ceremony. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the plan _ called the "Covenant of Mayors" _ will affect 80 million Europeans and will save around euro8 billion ($10.4 billion) in energy costs. Under the pact, cities commit to "go beyond" a two-year agreement by EU national governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent, increase energy efficiency by 20 percent and to increase the use of renewable energy sources to 20 percent of all energy used by 2020. Hamburg, for example, plans to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020, said Ole von Beust, the German city's mayor. Paris deputy mayor Denis Baupin said his city hopes to reduce emissions by 25 percent over the same period. Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky said he was confident the agreement "can actually become the new driving force behind the new European climate policy." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told his European counterparts in a video message that his city would aim to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and backed the EU plan as well. "We are committed to doing that even as our population grows to an expected 9 million people," Bloomberg said. "Those of us in city government can and must take a leading role." Under the EU plan, cities must create their own energy efficiency plan, which will be updated and checked every two years by the EU. Those that fail to submit their plan within a year of signing the agreement or that do not meet the goals set out in those plans could lose possible EU aid. EU lawmakers criticized the plan, however, after the commission last week scrapped euro500 million ($652 million) in funds meant to help cities meet their goals. ___ On the Net: http://www.eumayors.eu More on Europe
 
Israeli Election: Inconclusive Results Puts Israel, Peace In Limbo Top
JERUSALEM — Inconclusive election results sent Israel into political limbo Wednesday with both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu claiming victory and leaving the kingmaker role to a rising political hawk with an anti-Arab platform. Livni's Kadima Party won 28 seats, just one more than Netanyahu's Likud, in Tuesday's election for the 120-member parliament, according to nearly complete results. Both held victory rallies, but without a clear majority neither can govern alone. Hard-line parties won a majority of the votes, meaning that Netanyahu has more natural allies and a better chance of forming a coalition. The results set the stage for what could be weeks of coalition negotiations. The first meetings began Wednesday, with Netanyahu meeting the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas faction and Livni meeting Avigdor Lieberman, whose ultranationalist party received 15 seats and emerged as the third-largest force in parliament. Two of the more likely options would see a hard-line government led by Netanyahu, leaving Livni in the opposition, or some form of accommodation between the two in the form of a centrist coalition in which they would share power. Whatever government is forged, it is unlikely to move quickly toward peace talks with the Palestinians and instead could find itself on a collision course with President Barack Obama, who has said he's making a Mideast peace deal a priority. Paralysis could dampen prospects for Egyptian-led attempts to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers after Israel's devastating offensive in Gaza last month. Hamas might be reluctant to sign a deal at the risk of having it overturned by the incoming coalition. It's up to Israeli President Shimon Peres to decide whether Livni or Netanyahu should have the first shot at forming a government. Peres will meet next week with party leaders to hear their recommendations and he expects to assign the task around Feb. 20, presidential spokeswoman Ayelet Frisch said. However, the final word may be up to Lieberman, a former Netanyahu protege and perhaps Israel's most divisive politician. Lieberman says he wants to redraw Israel's borders in order to push out heavily Arab areas and require those who remain to sign a loyalty oath or lose the right to vote or run for office. Some 20 percent of Israel's 7 million citizens are Arabs, and about a dozen serve in parliament. Lieberman kept his options open. "We want a right-wing government," Lieberman told party activists, but added that "we do not rule out anyone." Meeting Lieberman in an attempt to woo him, Livni said Israelis have "chosen who they want to be prime minister." "This is an opportunity for unity which can push forward the issues which are important to you as well," Livni said, according to a statement issued by her office. Nearly everyone seemed to agree on one thing after Israel's fifth election in a decade _ that the nation's fractious election system isn't working. Livni, Lieberman, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the Labor Party said in post-election speeches that the system, in which votes are splintered among a proliferation of parties, must be changed to allow more stability. With all of the civilian votes counted, Kadima won 28 seats, Likud 27 and Yisrael Beiteinu 15. Labor, for decades Israel's ruling party, won just 13 seats. Overall, right-wing and religious parties won a total of 65 seats, compared to 55 for center-left and Arab parties. The tally did not include thousands of votes by soldiers, to be counted by Thursday evening. They could shift the final results by a seat or two. During Netanyahu's three-year term as prime minister a decade ago, he largely froze the interim peace deals his predecessors negotiated with the Palestinians. Netanyahu has derided the past year of peace talks under Kadima as a waste of time, and said he wants to focus on reviving the Palestinian economy. He has also called to crush Hamas, the Islamic militant movement that seized the Gaza Strip by force in June 2007, and remove it from power. Livni has said she would continue peace talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank. But she also advocates a tough line against Hamas and was one of the architects of Israel's three-week Gaza war, which ended with a temporary cease-fire on Jan. 18. Abbas will restart talks only if Israel commits to a settlement freeze, his aides said Tuesday, posing such a condition for the first time. Netanyahu wants to expand settlements, and even under the outgoing Kadima-led government, in which Livni served as chief negotiator, construction accelerated. The Palestinians want all of the West Bank for a future state, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem. They say the West Bank settlements, home to nearly 300,000 Jews, will make that impossible. ___ AP writers Aron Heller and Karen Zolka in Tel Aviv and Josef Federman and Dalia Nammari in Jerusalem contributed to this report. More on Israel
 

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