Saturday, June 13, 2009

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Rob Cohen: I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here Episode 7 Recap: Hitting Its Stride Top
Something weird happened as I watched Thursday night's episode of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! I enjoyed myself. Don't get me wrong, it's still terrible, disgusting, and demeaning even to the rest of reality television. And for the record, most of my previous recaps have pointed that out. I couldn't even get through Wednesday night's episode without a few beers. OK, more than a few. Too many to count. But Thursday night, for the first time, I think I'm A Celebrity found its stride. I still can't stand half of the celebrities, but I couldn't tear my eyes away, either. The conflicts may be fake (planned and encouraged by the producers), but now they're so real (inherently dramatic). It may be a fluke--I'm perfectly ready to go back to hating the show and everything it stands for--but Thursday night, I was pleasantly surprised. Here are some highlights: Janice's "extended" big-break story was excellent. I know it was probably edited to make it look worse and taken out of context, but I don't care, it's brilliant. Good work, editors. It is pretty amazing that Patti Blagojevich recognizes that the reason she's famous and on this show is because of something terrible. Not amazing enough for me to feel any sympathy for her, but amazing, and surprising. It's funny that they get to lounge on inflatable rafts in the river. The celebrities don't get any food other than rice and beans but the producers have provided a giant inflatable whale? Fantastic. These Skype phone calls are surprisingly enjoyable. Seeing Rod Blagojevich at home with his kids is interesting. It's weird that everyone else in camp is watching them, though. But these people were home two weeks ago! They must've left home for more than two weeks before! Lou even said his kid looked like she got bigger. What? And Daniel Baldwin was home just a few days ago--could his wife's stomach really have gotten noticeably bigger? But the best part has to be the hosts struggling to get through the lines they were fed while keeping a straight face: "Some incredibly emotional stuff right there." You wish. Nice job. Sanjaya breaking down while calling Lou Diamond Philips a father figure is causing a visceral reaction in me... it's not a positive reaction, but it's intense, and if reality television can do that, it must be good, right? It's sad that Daniel is going home, only because I enjoyed when he and Stephen would gang up on Janice. Speaking of Janice, why was she yelling "Say no to Prop 8!" as Daniel was hugging everyone and saying goodbye? And why did no one else react? And why did they not show her on camera at all while she was screaming? Something fishy is going on. I don't understand. But at least it's intriguing. Also, the fact that Janice is exempt again for medical reasons from the next challenge is ridiculous. But I do want to come back for more... More on NBC
 
Diane Ravitch: Obama Gives Bush a 3rd Term in Education Top
The great mystery of education policy today is why the Obama administration is embracing the Bush program. I recently wrote in Education Week (June 10) that it is time to kill the Bush-era No Child Left Behind program. The overwhelming majority of teachers agree with me. Those who educate our kids know that NCLB is a failed program that is not improving our schools but rather turning them into test-prep factories and dumbing down our kids. Bush's main advisor Sandy Kress reacted with outrage on the website of Education Week, and Tom Vander Ark on Huffington Post called me an "edu-curmudgeon" for speaking plain truth. Let me say it again: It is time to kill the Bush-era No Child Left Behind program. This is a program in which the federal government requires every state to test every student from grade 3-8 in reading and math every year. If states do not make "adequate yearly progress" towards 100% proficiency by 2014, then the schools face a series of increasingly onerous sanctions, ending with their being closed down. Vander Ark thinks that this punitive approach to school improvement is swell. I don't. If judged solely by test scores, the only coin that the NCLB crowd understands, the law has been a dud. Kids today are making less progress on national and international tests than they did during the Clinton administration years. While our kids focus endlessly on preparing to take their state tests in reading and math, they are not learning science, history, geography, foreign language, the arts, or anything else but how to find the right bubble on a standardized test. A California study in Science magazine predicted that by 2014, nearly 100% of all elementary schools would be deemed failures because of NCLB. This would unleash a flood of sanctions: closed schools, fired staffs, public schools handed over to private management (a remedy that has recently been proved ineffective in Philadelphia, among other places), and public schools handed over to state control (another ineffective remedy). Now Secretary Arne Duncan promises to close 5,000 low-performing schools. The thought of closing 5,000 schools thrills today's so-called "reformers," although none of them has any idea how to make them better. Where will Duncan find 5,000 new principals? Is there an army of great teachers waiting to staff those 5,000 schools? The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965--which is the original law onto which No Child Left Behind was grafted--had none of these punitive features. It was premised on the belief that the federal government could help schools by sending more money. In fact, the federal government never sent much money, never more than 10% of overall spending, and often much less than that. No one today could visit a typical inner-city school and complain that its biggest problem was that it got too much federal money. But with this leverage, the new mandarins of education want to control all of American education. For some reason, first the Bush people and now the Obama people believe they know exactly how to fix American education. (Chicago, their model, is one of the lowest-performing cities in the nation on national tests, and Texas was never a national model for academic excellence.) Their answer starts with testing and ends with data and more testing. If children were widgets, they might be right; but children are not widgets, they are individuals. If reading and math were all that mattered in school, they might be right, but basic skills are not the be-all and end-all of being educated. A recent study by Common Core (Why We're Behind: What Top-Performing Nations Teach Their Students But We Don't) shows that the top-ranking nations do not spend endless hours preparing for tests of basic skills. Instead, in nations such as Finland and Japan, there is a balanced curriculum of science, history, geography, the arts, foreign languages, civics, and other studies. Meanwhile our children are learning to guess the right answer on a multiple-choice test! The amazing thing about American education today is that the Obama people--who promised revolutionary change--have no ideas other than to tighten the grip of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program on the teachers and children of the United States. Diane Ravitch
 
Yoani Sanchez: Cubans Wait Uneasily Through Power Cuts and Food Shortages, Their Dreams Deferred Top
I'm thirty-three with two gray hairs. I've spent at least half my life wishing for a change on my Island. In the summer of 1990, I peeked out the shutters of my house at the corner of Lealtad and Lagunas, when people's shouting made me think of a revolt. From there I saw rafts carried on shoulders to the sea and saw the police trucks controlling the nonconformity. The anxious faces of my family foretold that soon the situation would evolve, but instead the problems became chronic and solutions were postponed. After I had my son, between blackouts and calls of "don't despair," I understood that it would only happen if we ourselves could make it happen. This June has begun very similar to those dark years of the Special Period.* Uneasiness, power cuts in some neighborhoods, and a general sensation that we are going downhill. I'm no longer that fearful and passive teenager whose parents said so many times, "Go to bed, Yoani, today we have nothing to eat." I'm not inclined to accept another era of slogans and empty plates, of a city stopped by lack of fuel and stubborn leaders with full refrigerators. Nor do I think of going anywhere, so the sea will not be the solution in my case for this new cycle of calamities which is starting. The restless seed of Teo will soon fertilize a woman to create another generation that waits. I refuse to believe that there will be adults looking out the window hoping for something to happen, Cubans full of dreams deferred. Translator's note: Special Period: FIdel Castro called the extremely difficult era after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of its monetary support for Cuba, "A Special Period in a time of peace." Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation. More on Cuba
 
Jose, Maximo Colon Turn Tables On NYPD With Videotape Top
NEW YORK — When undercover detectives busted Jose and Maximo Colon last year for selling cocaine at a seedy club in Queens, there was a glaring problem: The brothers hadn't done anything wrong. But proclaiming innocence wasn't going to be good enough. The Dominican immigrants needed proof. "I sat in the jail and thought ... how could I prove this? What could I do?" Jose, 24, recalled in Spanish during a recent interview. As he glanced around a holding cell, the answer came to him: Security cameras. Since then, a vindicating video from the club's cameras has spared the brothers a possible prison term, resulted in two officers' arrest and become the basis for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The officers, who are due back in court June 26, have pleaded not guilty, and New York Police Department officials have downplayed their case. But the drug corruption case isn't alone. On May 13, another NYPD officer was arrested for plotting to invade a Manhattan apartment where he hoped to steal $900,000 in drug money. In another pending case, prosecutors in Brooklyn say officers were caught in a 2007 sting using seized drugs to reward a snitch for information. And in the Bronx, prosecutors have charged a detective with lying about a drug bust captured on a surveillance tape that contradicts her story. Elsewhere, Philadelphia prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen drug and gun charges against a man last month when a narcotics officer was accused of making up information on search warrants. The revelations in New York have triggered internal affairs inquiries, transfers of commanders and reviews of dozens of other arrests involving the accused officers. Many drug defendants' cases have been tossed out. Others have won favorable plea deals. The misconduct "strikes at the very heart of our system of justice and erodes public confidence in our courts," said Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson. Despite the fallout, authorities describe the corruption allegations as aberrations in a city where officers daily make hundreds of drugs arrests that routinely hold up in court. They also note none of the cases involved accusations of organized crews of officers using their badges to steal or extort drugs or money for personal gain _ the story line of full-blown corruption scandals from bygone eras. Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, agrees the majority of narcotics officers probably are clean. But he also believes the city's unending war on drugs will always invite corruption by some who don't think twice about framing suspects they're convinced are guilty anyway. "Drugs are a dirty game," Moskos said. "Once you realize it's a game, then you start playing with the rules to win the game." Just ask the Colon brothers. ___ The brothers' evening started much like any other. Max's friend worked at a bodega down the street from Delicias de Mi Tierra, where they'd sometimes drink and play pool in the evenings. This night, the pool table was closed. They instead sat at the bar. Security cameras ended up filming their every move. The brothers barely moved from the same spot for about 90 minutes as the undercovers entered the bar and mixed with the crowd. Moments after the officers left, a backup team barged in and grabbed six men, including the brothers. Paperwork signed by "UC 13200" _ Officer Henry Tavarez _ claimed that he told a patron he wanted to buy cocaine. By his account, that man responded by approaching the 28-year-old Max, who then went over to the undercover and demanded to pat him down to make sure he wasn't wearing a wire. Max collected $100 from Tavarez, the report said. The officer claimed to see two bags of cocaine pass through the hands of three men, including Jose, before they were given to him. Jose was released after a court appearance. His brother was shipped off to Riker's Island until he could make bail. "I was scared," Max said of his time at Rikers. "I don't get into trouble, and here I am with real criminals." ___ The moment Jose walked out of the holding cell, he made a beeline for Delicias and asked for a copy of the security tapes from the night they were arrested, Jan. 4, 2008. "I knew it would be the only way to defend myself, because I knew the police would not believe me," he said. The owner of Delicias queued up the tapes and the two waded through an entire day's worth of surveillance _ until they found the two hours the men spent in the club that night _ supposedly selling drugs. Jose quickly got the tape to defense attorney Rochelle Berliner, a former narcotics prosecutor. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. "I almost threw up," she said. "Because I must've prosecuted 1,500, 2,000 drug cases ... and all felonies. And I think back, Oh my God, I believed everything everyone told me. Maybe a handful of times did something not sound right to me. I don't mean to sound overly dramatic but I was like, sick." What the tape doesn't show is striking: At no point did the officers interact with the undercovers, nor did the brothers appear to be involved in a drug deal with anyone else. Adding insult to injury, an outside camera taped the undercovers literally dancing down the street. Berliner handed the tape over to the District Attorney's integrity unit. It reviewed the images more than 100 times to make sure it wasn't doctored by the defense before deciding to drop all charges against the brothers in June. Six months later, Officer Tavarez and Detective Stephen Anderson pleaded not guilty to drug dealing and multiple other charges that their lawyers say were overblown. Anderson's attorney has described him as a seasoned investigator who had no reason to make a false arrest. Tavarez, his attorney said, was a novice undercover merely along for the ride. ___ Life quickly deteriorated for Max and Jose after their arrest. They owned a successful convenience store in Jackson Heights, but lost their license to sell tobacco, alcohol and lottery tickets. The store closed a week before their case was dismissed. "My life changed completely," Jose said. "I had a life before, and I have a different existence now. ... Now, I'm not able to afford to live in my own house or care for my children." Jose has found construction work, while Max commutes two hours to Philadelphia to work at a relative's bodega. They stay away from the old neighborhood, where they say ugly rumors about them persist. The brothers have filed a $10 million false arrest lawsuit against the police department, the officers involved and the city. "I'm angry because, why'd it happen to me? I know a lot of people ... they don't go the right way and they can get away with it," Max said. "I'm young and I try to go the right way and boom, this happened to me. So I'm angry with life, too." More on Crime
 
The 3 Ways Obama Can Pressure Israel. Each Is Incredibly Difficult: Slate Top
Since the first stirrings of the Arab-Israeli peace process after the Yom Kippur war, America's relations with Israel have been characterized by a paradox. Those presidents regarded as the least friendly to the Jewish state have done it the most good. Its strong allies have proven much less helpful. More on Barack Obama
 
The Rise Of The Shareholder: Washington Post Top
Count on it: This proxy season, investors will not be shy about giving company management a piece of their mind. More on Financial Crisis
 
Chicago Moves To Legalize Surfing Despite No Ocean Top
The Windy City is one of America's sports meccas: home to the Bears and the Bulls, the Sox and the Cubs, and, Chicagoans are only recently willing to admit, the Blackhawks. But can it become Surf City, U.S.A.? More on Sports
 
Antonio Castro Caught In Internet Love Sting Top
One of Fidel Castro's sons carried on an eight-month flirtation over the Internet with a person he believed was a Colombian woman. Surprise! The woman was actually a Miami man. More on Cuba
 
Funniest Press Release Ever: Senator Howell Heflin And Pink Panties Top
But there are some artifacts that you come to realize are real treasures. Like my favorite press release of all time. It is dated July 19, 1994, and was issued by then-Senator Howell Heflin's office. That morning, the Senator had been dining in the Capitol with some Alabama reporters, and suddenly felt a sniffle coming on. The reporters were aghast when the Senator reached into his pocket, pulled out a bit of fabric and began to wipe his nose with ... a pair of ladies underwear. Hence the following:
 
Sharon Waxman: Eat the (New) Press: Breakfast at Balthazar's Top
The cognoscenti of new media were gathered not-terribly-early beneath the soaring, molded plaster ceilings of Balthazar's, a famous, French-style bistro with heavenly croissants and great big masses of flowers in vases, perched at the corner of Spring and Broadway. It was 9:30, and the vibe was laid-back-about-to-inherit-the-power-from-those-big-money media-moguls-uptown-we-can-wait-a-month. Betsy Morgan, the CEO of Huffington Post, was wearing a faded t-shirt under a suit jacket, having a breakfast meeting (a grapefruit and fried bacon, no bread) in a corner booth when Gawker empire founder Nick Denton - striped, untucked shirt, jeans - wandered by. I'd only been there five minutes, meeting Rachel Sklar (formerly of HuffPo, now with Dan Abrams' new soon-to-launch online media venture) when she plopped down and said that someone across the room had already Twittered about everybody who was here. (Twitterer: Lockhart Steele, of MediaBistro. Apparently Richard Rushfield,, the editor of LATimes.com's entertainment section, had just left. Looking for new opportunities, perhaps?) Sklar pulled out her Blackberry and noted her arrival at Balthazar on a new social media site she's using called FourSquare.com. It tracks your every move - not kidding - and when you tell the site you're at Balthazar, it alerts your network - in Sklar's case, about 50 friends. They comment, say hi, and send you advice about the menu, service, that kind of thing. "It's making me much more social," she says, though Sklar does not appear to need it. (Her Facebook page, which I checked out, features photos of her and friends at New York Internet Week that looks like a page out of Sex and the City. But I digress.) This corner of Soho is the very heart of the kingdom of the Manhattan digerati, a new nexus of power far from the skyscraper canyons of midtown, where News Corp's tower nudges Time-Warner's soaring totem, and the New York Times' new building - already sold - beckons from Eighth Avenue. Their days as the gatekeepers of the Fifth Estate are numbered. They will give way to those lingering in the booths, and twittering, down in Soho. Up there, the media moguls and literary brahmins eat at Michael's. Down here, it's Balthazar. Huffington Post is down the street. The Gawker network started in Nick Denton's apartment around the corner. Dan Abrams' new site is based a block away, having just moved out of his brownstone and into an office. Indiewire is across the street. How are things at Gawker, I ask Denton? Fantastic, he responds. Last month was their biggest traffic month ever. He wants to know about Nikki Finke (everyone seems to want to know about the mysterious Nikki Finke). Have I ever met her? Does she do lunch? Does she go out ever? We talk about the similarly elusive Matt Drudge. Denton and Sklar agree that Matt used to be more accessible, and is now very hard to find. Someone should assign a reporter to head down to Florida to see where he's gone, they agree. A year ago, many of these digital media companies were flies buzzing around the big media picnic. Today, some of them are making money - Huffington Post certainly appears to be. Denton has figured out how to make it work. Dan Abrams, like me, is new to the space, and trying to figure it out. (Not quite sure what the business model is for his new media news site, Mediaite.) The dominion of new media is coming.
 
Leno Told Similar Joke About Palin's Daughter Top
Alan Colmes (former co-host of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes) makes a great a catch regarding the current feud between David Letterman and Governor Sarah Palin. While Palin has been blasting Letterman all over the airwaves for joking about Yankees star Alex Rodriguez "knocking up" her daughter, Jay Leno told an extremely similar joke during the presidential campaign that resulted in no such uproar: Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it. -- "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," 9/2/08 Is there a double standard being applied to Letterman? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. RELATED: NOW Joins Palin In Bashing Letterman More on David Letterman
 
Holly Cara Price: Weekend Horoscoop* for June 13-14, 2009 ~ junie moon edition Top
March 21 - April 19 Aries Yon adventurous Aries folks will no doubt find the Peace Fountain , located next to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in upper Manhattan, fascinating - as I did on a recent re-visit there with my friend Buffalo Jill . Greg Wyatt , the artist and sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral, intended the piece to depict the struggle of good and evil as seen through the battle of wills between Satan and the Archangel Michael. I can't even begin to describe this sculpture, as it has to be seen to be believed. Around the plaza where the fountain resides are a number of plaques with pithy quotes by gifted thinkers like Einstein, Socrates , and John Lennon . The plaque below the fountain itself says, in part: Peace Fountain celebrates the triumph of Good over Evil, and sets before us the world's opposing forces--violence and harmony, light and darkness, life and death--which God reconciles in his peace. April 20 - May 20 Taurus To those stubborn Taureans out there; indulge your love of comfort and luxury for a change. I know you're all hey there's a recession on and suchlike and I get that; but once in a great while you have to live the way you want your life to be rather than the way it is - even if only for a few minutes a week. And when you're in this mode, rub some creamy sweet-smelling shea butter into your skin. Shea butter contains Vitamins A, E, and F and has healing properties that address various ailments like dry skin, burns, muscle aches, wrinkles, and rashes. Shea Yeleen International is a company that makes shea body butter, body balm, and lip balm and, being a fair trade cooperative, they also funnel half of the retail price back into the communities that made the products. SYI 's mission is to promote sustainable economic development and empower women in rural West Africa through organizing and training women owned cooperatives to produce, market, and sell high quality shea butter; and educate consumers in the U.S. about natural body care products and fair trade. May 21 - June 20 Gemini Yes, it's that time. Gemini Time. Brink of Summer Time. And time, once again, for us to check in with the Goddess of Ganja, Nancy Botwin . Weeds has returned. I'll be recapping each episode weekly on the Huffington Post throughout Season Five - first installment here . I'll also be picking a 420 moment during each episode as well. If you've never been a stoner you won't get that reference, so feel free to google it at your leisure. Anyway, to be brief, Nancy's life has been spared since she's carrying the spawn of her Mexican drug lord BF - Celia's been kidnapped by her own daughter, the Mighty Quinn, who's been living in Mexico since she was sent there for boarding school - young Shane is following his brother into the family business - and that's only a few strands of the plotline. Viva the wacky world that Jenji Kohan created, and stop by for a visit Monday nights at 10PM on Showtime . (Followed by the great new show Nurse Jackie , starring a very different Edie Falco than her last incarnation as Carmela Soprano ). June 21 - July 22 Cancer So put this on your calendar because it's a great birthday present for you Cancerians . Under the Covers Volume 2 (Shout Factory) by Sid and Susie , that is to say, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs , will be released on July 21 . The first volume in 2006 was rife with great 60's pop songs like And Your Bird Can Sing (Lennon/McCartney), Monday, Monday (John Phillips), Different Drum (Mike Nesmith), Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young), Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Sandy Denny) and many more. May I say that anyone who brings back the great Sandy Denny, and that song in particular, into the public consciousness deserves multiple thanks in my book. Vol. 2 includes 16 fantastic songs from the 1970's - everything from Sugar Magnolia to Maggie May to Beware of Darkness . Thanks as always to the learned Sal Nunziato and his extremely necessary music blog Burning Wood for this great news. July 23 - August 22 Leo Faithful, yet intolerant. Creative, yet patronizing. That is the eternal dichotomy of Leo . Seems to me that you conflicted souls would enjoy Susan McCorkindale 's terrific autobiographical tale of leaving the city behind for a quieter, simpler, possibly boring as hell life in the country, Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl . McCorkindale, former marketing director for Family Circle Magazine , left her fabulous New York City six-figure job behind to go with her husband and two sons to live on a 500-acre beef farm in rural Virginia. This book is about her struggle to assimilate in a very different world and it will leave you howling. Check out her blog . Follow her twitter feed ("Husband's making hay. Kids are making a mess. And I'm making margaritas. Just another smokin' Friday night on the farm."). August 23 - September 22 Virgo And speaking of twitter feeds... yes, I've gone down that daisy path, like many of you -obsessive Virgo or not. I follow feeds as diverse as The Onion to NPR to Rachel Maddow to Perez Hilton . I pick 'em, I read 'em, sometimes I keep 'em, sometimes I unsub, most times I don't. It's like a moving haiku billboard. Sometimes they're so great that I need to tell the world about 'em. Such is the case with SustainableDump , the fabulous feed of journalist/culinary student Kathleen Willcox . KW's feed delivers substainable food news, plus oatmeal recipes. How about the 411 on the ingredients of Sara Lee bread? Or the scoop on conscientious cacao? All here, plus this - oatmeal du jour: toasted then cooked in light coconut milk with chilies (I plucked 'em out before slurping it up), salt, brown sugar. Check out more of Kathleen's erudite gems on the Eat Me Daily group blog and catch her delicious review of David Liebovitz's new memoir, The Sweet Life in Paris , at the Daily Beast . September 23 - October 22 Libra This one's in honor of my Libran cat, Mr. Boy , a healthy and robust five and a half year old tabby. He's lived with me since last year when I got him as a rescue pet. I recently had to take him to the vet, which is not the easiest task when a cat weighs 15 pounds and really doesn't want to leave the house for any reason, ever, since he is king of the castle here. A friend told me about Pet Taxi and we tried them out and now I want to tell you about how great they are. They offer local service in Manhattan and will take your furry companion anywhere from Soho to Singapore, door to door. They transport dogs, cats, and exotic animals to and from airports, kennels, vets, groomers - with or without you along. They can arrange for your pet to travel by air - from shots, to paperwork, to the plane. They also operate a Hampton Petney shuttle service in the summer. Mr. Boy and I enjoyed them immensely. October 23 - November 21 Scorpio Since Halloween falls within the dates of this sign, it's no surprise that Scorpios tend to gravitate to the beauty of forgotten places, the poetry of decay. On her spooky beautiful site abandoned theaters , photographer Julia Solis presents a number of photo essays about the dark and quiet places where people used to live their lives, the places that have not yet been torn down, empty yet still breathing. Check out Detroit Wonderland : Snapshots of Detroit's notoriously spectacular decay, with sidetrips to plywood, glamour, industry and playtime somewhere along the merry long haul. Draw in your breath at the image of an empty baby carriage in the shadow of an abandoned train station. And the crumbling façade of the Hotel Ft. Shelby. The spooky hallways of an empty office tower. The echoing silence of a mental hospital power plant. The screaming orange booths of an old restaurant, covered with concrete dust. Thank you Amanda Palmer for turning me on to this site via twitter . November 22 - December 21 Sagittarius It's a known fact that Sagittarians love good and plentiful food and drink. So I have one word for you people: Zingerman's . For those of you who don't live in or near Ann Arbor, Michigan, this word may require an explanation. Think deli. Think roadhouse. Think coffee. Think creamery. Think catering. Think bakehouse. Think mail order : extraordinary, traditionally-made tasty gifts sent all across the U.S. There's surely no occasion that would not be enlivened by utilizing the Z-word. There's still time to order up a fabulous Father's Day gift if you hurry (how about a Phantom of the Fridge Secret Stash ?), or go a little nuts with some Hazelnut Spread from France, or carbo load supremely with a subscription to the Bread Club (Did someone say Parmesan Pepper? Roadhouse Rye? Chocolate Sourdough?). Thanks to another ex-Michigander, Paige , for this tip! December 22 - January 19 Capricorn Work, work, work. Sound familiar, O Capricorn ? Are you starting to feel a little tired? A little crispy around the edges? Irritable? Sad? Worried? Scared? Take the time to read Dr. Judith Rich 's 7 Keys For Living The Passionate Life . Dr. Rich, currently living with breast cancer, says " I am growing older, but I'm not growing old. Old happens when we stop being curious about life ." My favorite is key #3, partially quoted here: Let yourself be moved - Allow life to transport and expand you. Let it open you, touch you . . . Be moved to tears at the magic and mystery of it all. Life is so much bigger and grander than you can possibly imagine. That's what it's all about. And you know it, deep down in your real true heart. January 20 - February 18 Aquarius When the power of love is greater than the love of power, then the world will know peace - Jimi Hendrix . This Aquarian -themed quote is prominently featured on the website/blog of the Petal Belle Café in Soho, located on Sullivan Street near West Houston, right across from St. Anthony's Church. A nosh at this teensy eensy beensy café is like stepping back in time, or perhaps going to Europe and sitting in a café off the town square in Vienna or Brussels. Have a red velvet cupcake or a roast pork sandwich with mesclun and pesto on rustic bread or a coconut flavored Belgian waffle sprinkled with powdered sugar. Get on their email list for notices about future classes on cupcake making. Follow their twitter feed to find out when Enrique will be doing tarot readings. Tarot plus cappuccino, does it get better than that? February 19 - March 20 Pisces If I was to guess, I'd say Sookie Stackhouse was a classic Pisces . She's a dreamer. An intuitive. A sensitive human being with an old soul. And it's time for us to be sucked up (sorry) into her rural Louisiana world again as this Sunday night, June 14, Alan Ball 's True Blood returns to HBO with its second season. If you haven't scoped this show yet, give it a chance. Anna Paquin is delightful as Sookie, Stephen Moyer as Bill is way sexy and kind of the dream boyfriend (if you can live with his being dead, that is), Rutina Wesley is outstanding as Sookie's bedeviled best friend Tara, and Nelsan Ellis as drug dealer / short order cook Lafayette is magnificent. Add to that some of the best music scoring on any television show and I'm there. You should be too. Sunday nights at 9pm on HBO .
 
Mark Pasetsky: Dustin Lance Black Nude Photos: Perez Hilton Crosses Line by Posting Top
Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black's private photos of him having sex with an ex-boyfriend were posted on Perez Hilton. Sadly, Black was photographed having unsafe sex and while that's obviously not smart -- it's Perez Hilton who once again has crossed the line and has shown that he is a complete hypocrite. Why is it okay for Perez Hilton to post these pictures? Here is his rationale: We'll say it again, no matter WHO you are, do NOT take naked pictures of yourself or make a sex tape. It WILL get out there, even if you're not famous now and never think you will be. They will get out there and everyone at your work, in your team, in your dorm will find out. Good advice -- but that doesn't mean you have to post them Perez! You are crossing the line. At what point did you think pressing the publish button was a good idea? Plus, you do realize that kids read your site and the Black's mistake of having unprotected sex will lead many kids to believe that having unsafe sex is okay. Not only does Perez show his complete lack of good judgment, he demonstrates the highest level of hypocrisy. On the one hand, Perez is bashing the former Miss California Carrie Prejean for not supporting gay marriage. Meanwhile, he intentionally brings down a gay man who made a mistake in the privacy of his own home -- which will only make it harder for gays in this country to secure equal rights. It's a sad day for Dustin Lance Black -- but I'm convinced he will quickly move past this embarrassment and continue his meaningful work for the gay community. But, it's an even sadder day for Perez Hilton, who clearly has lost any sense of right versus wrong. FYI: Here is Black's response to the unfortunate incident: It is unfortunate that individuals and other outside parties are trying to profit from material which is clearly private," Black said in the statement released to E! Online. "I have had the privilege to speak to people across the country, both gay and straight, on a number of critical issues including safe sex. More important than the embarrassment of this incident is the misleading message these images send. I apologize and cannot emphasize enough the importance of responsible sexual practices. Do you think Perez was wrong to post the pictures? VOTE HERE and sound off below!
 
Bill Mann: Americans Who've Used Canada's Health-Care System Respond to Current Big-Lie Media Campaign Top
The scare ads and op-ed pieces featuring Canadians telling us American how terrible their government health-care systems have arrived - predictably. There's another, factual view - by those of us Americans who've lived in Canada and used their system. My wife and I did for years , and we've been incensed by the lies we've heard back here in the U.S. about Canada's supposedly broken system. It's not broken - and what's more, Canadians like and fiercely defend it. Example: Our son was born at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital. My wife got excellent care. The total bill for three days in a semi-private room? $21. My friend Art Finley is a West Virginia native who lives in Vancouver. "I'm 82, and in excellent health," he told me this week. "It costs me all of $57 a month for health care, and it's excellent. I'm so tired of all the lies and bullshit I hear about the system up here in the U.S. media." Finley, a well-known TV and radio host for years in San Francisco, adds, "I now have 20/20 vision thanks to Canadian eye doctors. And I haven't had to wait for my surgeries, either." A Canadian-born doctor wrote a hit piece for Wingnut Central (the Wall Street Journal op-ed page) this week David Gratzer claimed: "Everyone in Canada is covered by a single payer -- the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system." Vancouverite Finley: "That's sheer b.s." I heard Gratzer say the same thing on Seattle radio station KIRO this week. Trouble is, it's nonsense. We were always seen promptly by our doctors in Montreal, many of whom spoke both French and English. Today, we live within sight of the Canadian border in Washington state, and still spend lots of time in Canada. Five years ago, while we were on vacation in lovely Nova Scotia, the Canadian government released a long-awaited major report from a federal commission studying the Canadian single-payer system. We were listening to CBC Radio the day the big study came out. The study's conclusion: While the system had flaws, none was so serious it couldn't be fixed. Then the CBC opened the lines to callers across Canada. Here it comes, I thought. The usual talk-show torrent of complaints and anger about the report's findings. I wish Americans could have heard this revealing show. For the next two hours, scores of Canadians called from across that vast country, from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Not one said he or she would change the system. Every single one defended it vigorously. The Greatest Canadian Ever Further proof: Not long ago, the CBC asked Canadians to nominate and then vote for The Greatest Canadian in history. Thousands responded. The winner? Not Wayne Gretzky , as I expected (although the hockey great DID make the Top 10). Not even Alexander Graham Bell, another finalist. The greatest Canadian ever? Tommy Douglas. Who? Tommy Douglas was a Canadian politician - and the father of Canadian universal health care. More on Wall Street Journal
 
Daniel Kessler: Shoe Company Leather Supplier Gets World Bank Funds Yanked Top
Late last night the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, withdrew its $90 million dollar loan to Brazil's cattle giant Bertin. The loan was used for the company to further expand into the Amazon region, which was causing destruction of the rainforest and fueling global climate change. While on one hand Lula's government was making commitments to reduce deforestation rates in the Amazon, on the other hand the IFC was helping to expand the Brazilian cattle sector which is now the largest single source of deforestation in the world. Globally forest destruction accounts for almost 20 percent of global warming causing emissions, which is more climate pollution than all the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes, and ships combined. Brazil ranks as the world's fourth biggest climate polluter, largely because of Amazon destruction. Although the IFC published a benign statement on its website late last night about the terms of the cancellation, this announcement comes just two weeks after the release of the " Slaughtering the Amazon " report. The Greenpeace report revealed how the financial backing of the Brazilian cattle industry by the IFC and President Lula's government via its national development bank (BNDES) has led the industry to become the largest single source of deforestation in the world and a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions. The report also shows how cattle products from ranches involved in illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest --as well as in the invasion of indigenous lands and slavery--contaminates the supply chains of top brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Timberland, Geox, Clarks, Nike, Carrefour, Gucci, IKEA, Kraft, and Wal-Mart. By helping Bertin to expand into the Amazon, the IFC has been driving further destruction of the rainforest for products that often make their way into global meat or leather products while undermining Brazil's commitments to reducing deforestation. For a bank that portrays itself as the "knowledge bank", this was a very ill conceived and thoroughly destructive use of international resources. The last $30 million dollar hand-out from the IFC will no longer be given to Bertin and it is anticipated that the IFC will ask Bertin to return early the $60 million dollars it has already invested in the company. The World Bank Group is set to lend another $1.3 billion dollars to Brazil for "environmental protection." Greenpeace is calling for a commitment to Zero Deforestation and global solutions that will protect forests and reduce forest related emissions that are making global warming worse. In the fight to save the Amazon, every step will count so we are asking US consumers to join us in taking on companies like Nike, Timberland, and Adidas which cannot demonstrate that the leather in our shoes is not driving deforestation in the Amazon. More on Brazil
 
Lakers Victory Parade: LA Officials Say They Don't Have The Money For It Top
The Los Angeles Lakers need only one more win to capture a 15th National Basketball Association Championship, but some city officials are already saying they can't afford to throw the team a victory party. More on Sports
 
Iran Election PHOTOS: Protests, Demonstrations, Riots Top
Stunning photos are pouring in from the massive turbulence in Iran as a result of the disputed presidential election. Check out a slideshow of them below. And for updated news and analysis of the election, click here . More on Iranian Election
 
Les Leopold: Fear and Looting in America: Wall Street on Strike against the Obama Administration Top
"The latest plan tries to satisfy public demand for controlling excessive pay while not spooking Wall Street, which the administration is relying on to help buy the troubled mortgage-backed assets at weaker banks." ( NYT, June 11 ) We're seeing things I thought we'd never see. The public is so outraged at outrageous Wall Street salaries that Congress jammed a provision into the stimulus package that mandates the Obama Administration to issue rules to curb compensation. While the effort targets troubled financial institutions that have gorged themselves at the government bailout trough, many Democrats want these controls to apply "at all companies, not just those receiving federal money." ( NYT June 12 ) As a result, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is appointing a salary czar, Washington lawyer Kenneth R. Feinberg, who will be in charge of clamping down on compensation packages at AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors, Chrysler and the two auto finance arms. If these failing companies keep salaries at $500,000 or less per year, Feinberg will automatically approve them. If not, he is empowered to take a closer look... and change them. How the mighty have fallen! To the average American, $500,000 a year is an enormous sum. But on Wall Street it's peanuts. When you're accustomed to hauling in seven or eight figures, how the hell are you going to get by on a half mil? The maintenance on your Fifth Avenue condo might be more than that! So you can well imagine that the rest of Wall Street does not want that pathetically paltry wage control idea to spread anywhere near them. What can they do about it? Plenty. Wall Street has bargaining leverage over the Obama Administration and they are using it right now. To get lending going again to the real economy, the Obama administration believes it must settle the toxic assets problem once and for all by removing the garbage from banks' balance sheets. But the Administration doesn't have enough TARP money to do it, and it doesn't want to ask Congress for more money, not least because Congress probably wouldn't supply it. So the Treasury Department has devised a complex "public-private" partnership plan that insures private investors against loses if they bring capital into the game to buy up this junk from the ailing banks. It's a sweetheart deal that could deliver enormous profits to private investors. (Advertisement: If you want to understand how $300 billion of troubled subprime loans exploded into several trillion dollars of toxic assets, you'll find it spelled out clearly in my book, The Looting of America .) Both the buyers and the sellers of these toxic assets have basically gone on a capital strike. The sellers - the ailing financial firms - are not eager to sell because they don't won't to book the losses. Also recent changes in accounting rules that modified "mark to market" pricing have made it less onerous for financial companies to hold on to the junk and wait for better prices. The potential buyers -- like hedge funds and private equity firms -- don't want to get involved because they worry, and rightfully so, that the public may wonder why the government is guaranteeing profits for rich firms with even richer executives. They dread the thought of public hearings that might expose how they make money hand over fist while the economy is in tatters. So both the buyers and sellers are walking a quiet picket line to "encourage" the Obama administration to put a lot of wiggle room in those compensation controls. The blackmail involved is not very subtle. We're going to hear a lot about compensation reforms to line up risk and reward, get shareholders involved, create more independent compensation committees and avoid bonuses based on phony profits. But the proof is in the caviar: When all is said and done, how much moolah are they taking home? I'd wager that their strike doesn't end until Wall Street executives get what they think they're worth. And there's the rub. What they think they're worth and what the public thinks are very different. Most people don't understand why the captains of finance should make so much money, especially after wrecking the economy. With nearly 30 million unemployed and underemployed , and growing, there's not much tolerance for sky-high compensation packages. When the word leaks out about how much these folks will get paid this year and next, there could be hell to pay... right around election time. Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It . (Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009) More on Timothy Geithner
 
Judge Rules Terrorist Can Sue Bush Admin Lawyer Over Torture Memos Top
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A convicted terrorist can sue a former Bush administration lawyer for drafting the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, ruled a federal judge has ruled who said he was trying to balance a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms. The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco is the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially liable for the abuse of detainees. White refused to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit against former senior Justice Department official John Yoo on Friday. Yoo wrote memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers for the department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003. Padilla, 38, is serving a 17-year sentence on terror charges. He claims he was tortured while being held nearly four years as a suspected terrorist. White ruled Padilla may be able to prove that Yoo's memos "set in motion a series of events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla's constitutional rights." "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," wrote White, a Bush appointee. Yoo did not return telephone and e-mail messages Saturday. White ruled that Yoo, now a University of California at Berkeley law professor, went beyond the normal role of an attorney when he helped write the Bush administration's detention and torture policies, then drafted legal opinions to justify those policies. Yoo's recently released 2001 memo advised that the military could use "any means necessary" to hold terror suspects. A 2002 memo to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised that treatment of suspected terrorists was torture only if it caused pain levels equivalent to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." Yoo also advised that the president might have the constitutional power to allow torturing enemy combatants. "The issues raised by this case embody that ... tension _ between the requirements of war and the defense of the very freedoms that war seeks to protect," White wrote in his 42-page decision. "This lawsuit poses the question addressed by our founding fathers about how to strike the proper balance of fighting a war against terror, at home and abroad, and fighting a war using tactics of terror." The ruling rejected the government's arguments that the courts are barred from examining top-level administration decisions in wartime, or that airing "allegations of unconstitutional treatment of an American citizen on American soil" would damage national security or foreign relations. The Justice Department is representing Yoo and has argued for dismissing the lawsuit. The department has not said if it will appeal White's ruling. The department's on-duty spokesman, Dean Boyd, did not return a telephone message Saturday. "It's a really a significant victory for accountability and our constitutional system of checks and balances," said Tahlia Townsend, an attorney with the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School who represented Padilla. White ruled that "the treatment we allege does violate the Constitution and John Yoo should have known that," Townsend said Saturday. "This is the first time there's been this sort of ruling." Padilla is an American citizen who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused of conspiring with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb." He was held in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., for three years and eight months as an enemy combatant. Padilla's lawsuit alleges Yoo personally approved his time and treatment in the brig. His lawsuit alleges he was illegally detained and was subjected to sleep deprivation, temperature extremes, painful stress positions, and extended periods of bright lights and total darkness. Padilla also alleges he endured threats that he would be killed, that his family would be harmed, and that he would be transferred to another country to be tortured. He eventually was charged in an unrelated conspiracy to funnel money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups. Padilla was convicted in 2007 in Miami federal court, and is appealing.
 
Ellen Brown: Out of the Ashes of GM: The Phoenix of Renewable Energy Top
It may be prophetic that among the brands GM chose to kill was the Pontiac Firebird, a classic hot car of the 1960s sporting the fabled Phoenix on its hood. In Egyptian mythology, the Phoenix was a colorful bird that incinerated itself in its nest, then rose from the ashes as its own offspring. GM too, says Michael Moore, could be reborn as something else. In a eulogy of sorts in the June 1 Huffington Post , he wrote: "So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown . . . Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job. But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company!" What would we want with a car company? Moore suggests that the bankrupt mega-builder of obsolete gas guzzlers can be transformed into a mega-builder of something we need more -- mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices, including bullet trains, light rail mass transit lines, energy efficient clean buses, hybrid or all-electric cars and batteries, windmills, solar panels, and other alternative energy devices. The factories that built the cars that helped destroy the environment can become the tools for cleaning it up. This would, of course, take some investment; but Moore suggests that to pay for it all, the government could impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. It sounds good right up to the gas tax, which is where politicians, the oil lobby and voters are liable to balk. Isn't there some way to fund the plan without driving up the tax burden or the national debt? In fact, there is . . . . To Put Our New Car Company to Good Use, We Just Need to Own a Bank. The federal government could create its own credit with its own government-owned lending facility, on the model of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation used by President Roosevelt to fund the New Deal; but instead of merely recycling borrowed money as Roosevelt did, the new facility could actually create credit on its books. Its capital base could be leveraged into many times that sum in loans, in the same way that private banks routinely create money (or "credit") today. Assuming a reserve requirement of 10%, if the $300 billion or so that remains of the TARP money were deposited in the new bank, this money could be leveraged into $3 trillion in loans. If the money were counted as capital, at an 8% capital requirement it could become $3.75 trillion in loans, or 12.5 times the original sum. Indeed, it is the sovereign right of governments to create the national money supply, but few governments exercise that right today. The only money the U.S. government now issues are coins, which compose only about one ten-thousandth of the U.S. money supply (M3). The rest is created by private banking institutions when they make loans. This includes the privately-owned Federal Reserve, which creates Federal Reserve Notes (dollar bills) and lends them to the government and to commercial banks. Federal Reserve Notes compose only 3% of the money supply. All of the rest consists merely of credit created on the books of private banks. Many authorities have attested that banks simply create the money they lend as accounting entries on their books. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas states on its website: "Banks actually create money when they lend it. Here's how it works: Most of a bank's loans are made to its own customers and are deposited in their checking accounts. Because the loan becomes a new deposit, just like a paycheck does, the bank . . . holds a small percentage of that new amount in reserve and again lends the remainder to someone else, repeating the money-creation process many times." This was confirmed recently by President Obama himself. In a speech at Georgetown University on April 14, he said: "[A]lthough there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks -- 'where's our bailout?,' they ask -- the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth." The money generated by banks through the multiplier effect comes at a heavy cost in interest. One advantage of a government-owned bank is that it could fund public projects interest-free or nearly interest-free, cutting production costs dramatically. Interest comprises as much as 77% of the cost of goods and services requiring large amounts of capital, such as public housing. The cost of interest is lower for labor-based services such as garbage collection, for which it makes up only about 12% of the cost. Averaging them all together, the overall cost of interest has been estimated to be about half the cost of everything we buy. If money for infrastructure development were issued interest-free, projects currently considered unsustainable because of the burden of interest could become not only self-sustaining but actually profitable for the government. In The Modern Universal Paradigm (2007), Rodney Shakespeare gives the example of the Humber Bridge, which was built in the UK at a cost of ₤98 million. Every year since the bridge opened in 1981, it has turned an operating profit; that is, its running costs (basically repair, maintenance and staff salaries) have been exceeded by the fees it receives from travelers crossing the river Humber. But by the time the bridge opened in 1981, interest on its construction loans had driven its cost up to ₤151 million; and by 1992, only 10 years later, the debt had shot up to a breath-taking ₤439 million. The UK government was forced to intervene with sizeable grants and writeoffs to save the local residents from bearing the brunt of these costs. If the bridge had been financed with interest-free, government-issued credit, these costs could have been avoided and the bridge could have funded itself. In March of this year, Congressman Chris Van Hollen introduced a bill to establish a Green Bank aimed at catalyzing clean energy and energy efficiency projects. The proposed bank would be an independent, tax-exempt, wholly owned corporation of the United States, with the exclusive mission of providing a comprehensive range of financial support to qualified clean energy and energy efficiency projects in the U.S. If this Green Bank were operated on the fractional reserve system, its initial capital base could be leveraged many times as loans. The loans could then be paid off with the income generated by the projects, preventing inflation and allowing additional loans to be made. Unlike the bank bailouts that have eaten up so much of the government's revenues, green projects create real goods and services and real profits; and the projects could be particularly profitable if they were created without the burden of interest. Historical Precedents Funding public projects with government-issued credit is not a new idea. It has a long and successful history, including these notable examples: In the early eighteenth century, the colony of Pennsylvania issued money that was both lent and spent by the local government into the economy, producing an unprecedented period of prosperity. This was done without producing price inflation and without taxing the people. When Abraham Lincoln needed money to fund the American Civil War, rather than paying 25 to 36 percent interest charges, he avoided going into debt by printing Greenback dollars that were "legal tender" in themselves. The ploy not only allowed the North to win the Civil War but helped fund a period of unusual national expansion and development. The island state of Guernsey, located in the Channel Islands, used government-issued money to fund roads, bridges and other needed infrastructure throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, without price inflation and without incurring government debt. The Bank of North Dakota, founded in 1919, is a wholly state-owned bank that creates credit on its books just as private banks do. This credit is used to serve local needs, and the interest on loans is returned to the government. Not coincidentally, North Dakota has a1.2 billion budget surplus at a time when 47 of 50 states are insolvent, an impressive achievement for a state of isolated farmers battling challenging weather. During the First World War, when private banks were demanding 6 percent interest, Australia's publicly-owned Commonwealth Bank financed the Australian government's war effort at an interest rate of a fraction of 1 percent, saving Australians some12 million in bank charges. After the First World War, the bank's governor used the bank's credit power to relieve the depression conditions in other countries by financing production and home-building, and lending funds to local governments for the construction of roads, tramways, harbors, gasworks, and electric power plants. The bank's profits were paid back to the national government. A successful infrastructure program funded with interest-free "national credit" was also instituted in New Zealand after it elected its first Labor government in the 1930s. Credit issued by its nationalized central bank allowed New Zealand to thrive at a time when the rest of the world was struggling with poverty and lack of productivity. According to a book titled State Housing in New Zealand , published by the Ministry of Works in 1949: "To finance its comprehensive proposals, the Government adopted the somewhat unusual course of using Reserve Bank credit, thus recognizing that the most important factor in housing costs is the price of money - interest is the heaviest portion in the composition of rent. . . . This action showed . . . it was possible for the State to use the country's credit in creating new assets for the country." The Inflation Objection The objection invariably raised to proposals for government self-funding is that the result would be dangerously inflationary. Addressing that issue in the Winter 2004 edition of the New Zealand Guardian Political Review , Stan Fitchett explored whether the New Zealand government's 1930s approach would create price inflation today. He confirmed with bank officials that 97 percent of the New Zealand money supply is now created by commercial banks when they make loans. The year he was writing, the money supply increased by 18,527 million New Zealand dollars, or 16.8 percent; and 97 percent of this increase came from commercial bank lending. Fitchett confirmed with banking experts that if the Reserve Bank had created 100 million New Zealand dollars to build new houses in New Zealand, the sum would have had no noticeable impact on inflation, since it was only one-half of one percent of what was already being added to the money supply annually by private commercial banks. Similar ratios apply in the United States and other countries. If it is dangerously inflationary for public banks to create money, then it is dangerously inflationary for private banks to do it; but we don't hear economists and politicians clamoring for the private credit machine to be shut down. To the contrary, a flood of money is being poured into that choking and sputtering machine in a desperate attempt to get its pistons firing again. A more efficient solution to the credit crunch would be for the government to abandon its old Tin Lizzie-model credit machine and create a shiny new public Firebird model; and the first thing the new credit engine might be tested on are green energy projects of the sort proposed by Mr. Moore. Out of the ashes of a failed GM could arise not only a new, clean way of traveling but a new way of funding government and the services we expect from it. More on Taxes
 
Weapons Makers Look Overseas As Pentagon Cuts Back Top
WASHINGTON — Foreign governments looking to kick the tires of fighter jets and cargo planes at this week's air show in Paris will likely hear a clear message from U.S. defense contractors: We need your business now more than ever. With the United States looking to cut defense costs and rethinking the way it fights wars, many defense companies are looking for international buyers to take the big, pricey weapons that the Pentagon no longer wants or needs fewer of. U.S. contractors are chasing some lucrative deals, but could also face some legal and political hurdles as they hawk weapons overseas. Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. are competing to sell fighter planes to countries such as India and Brazil. Boeing is trying to spark international interest in its C-17 cargo plane. Middle Eastern nations fearful of threats from Iran are bulking up on missile defense equipment from Lockheed and Raytheon Co. "This is a world market right now," says Chris Chadwick, Boeing's president of military aircraft. Globalization is nothing new for many U.S. industries, which often use overseas operations and sales to tap into fast-growing areas like China and as a hedge against domestic downturns. Some of the nation's biggest manufacturers, companies like Caterpillar and General Electric, make more than half of their sales overseas. But the defense industry is closely tethered to one primary buyer _ the U.S. government. It has been a lucrative relationship. Defense spending is up more than 40 percent over the past eight years, fueled in part by spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of the money flowed to defense contractors that supply the Pentagon with everything from warships to bullets. Overseas arms sales represent a relatively small segment of defense contractor sales. But many are turning to the global markets for growth now that the appetite for big and expensive weapons is waning in the United States. The push is helped by countries worried about security threats from nations such as North Korea and Iran. Many European allies need to upgrade their aging equipment, and are turning to U.S. companies as likely suppliers. However, budgets for big weapons are getting tighter as costs like personnel expenses eat up more Pentagon resources. Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposes spending more money on tools like unmanned drones to fight insurgencies instead of big and pricey equipment like $140 million apiece for F-22 fighters jets meant for more conventional wars. In the 2008 fiscal year, the military spent $164 billion to buy weapons. For the 2010 fiscal year, the Pentagon proposes spending only $131 billion, though that number will probably grow when Congress adds weapons spending as it reviews the budget. Big defense companies would take a hit. Lockheed will have to shut down its assembly line at its big Marietta, Ga. plant, putting thousands of jobs at risk. Boeing, which gets 80 percent of its defense unit sales from the Pentagon, could stop selling the $276 million C-17. "There is a softness in the home market right now," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group. That could grant some new life to programs that would be cut under the Pentagon's new budget. The F-22 program is slated to end at 187 planes for the U.S. Air Force, far fewer than originally envisioned. Japan and Australia are considered potential sources of new sales, but federal law barring export of the technologically sensitive plane would have to be overturned. The prospects of that remain unclear. Congress put eight more C-17s back into the budget. Boeing wants to make 16 per year and hopes to cover the shortfall overseas. It recently cut a deal to make four for the United Arab Emirates. The contractor is also trying to persuade foreign governments to buy the F-18 instead of the F-35, made by a team led by Lockheed. Defense companies will display their jets, engines, missiles, pilotless drones and other hardware for several days this week at an airfield outside Paris. The show is one of the biggest that brings together contractors and militaries from around the globe to broker weapons deals. New markets have emerged. Iraq wants to buy Lockheed fighter jets, Boeing helicopters and Abrams tanks made by General Dynamics Corp. to rebuild its military. The nation was the second largest potential buyer of U.S. military equipment last year, behind Israel, according to a March report by the Arms Control Association, a Washington think tank. The Pentagon notified Congress it planned to sell $74.5 billion worth of U.S. military equipment to 25 countries in 2008, nearly double its proposed arms sales from 2007. Iraq accounted for $18.7 billion of that total. Congress must approve weapons sales to foreign governments that are negotiated between U.S. contractors and foreign countries through the Defense Department. Not all notifications lead to sales and they cover mostly large purchases, but Congress has never moved to block a sale once it was formally notified. But providing weapons to foreign governments is often politically sensitive. The Pentagon and Congress are supposed to consider the effect that helping nations increase firepower will have on regional conflicts or stability, like the rivalry between Pakistan and India or rearming Iraq in a volatile Middle East. For example, the sale of F-16s to Pakistan was long delayed due to Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons. Regional stability could be an issue for sales to India, which is being courted by Lockheed and Boeing for the right to build 126 fighter jets, a contract potentially worth $11 billion. India already bought $2.1 billion worth of anti-submarine planes from Boeing earlier this year. "Fighter jet sales to India would most certainly be viewed by Pakistan as a problematic development," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. In Europe, U.S. defense companies will face stiff competition from suppliers like Saab, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., and BAE Systems. Lockheed, for example, is trying to hold together a coalition of nine potential F-35 buyers also being courted by makers of the Eurofighter jet. Affordability remains an issue, especially for European buyers saddled with struggling economies. But defense analysts said European nations that need to upgrade their aging equipment and those like India that are building their militaries will provide ample markets for U.S. defense companies. "Weapons could be the single biggest U.S. export item over the next 10 years," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
 
Shawna Forde, Minutemen Leader, Arrested In Double Killing In Arizona Top
PHOENIX — Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona. Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz. The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a home about 10 miles north of the Mexican border in rural Arivaca on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter. Their motive was financial, Dupnik said. "The husband who was murdered has a history of being involved in narcotics and there was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location as well as the possibility of drugs," Dupnik said. Forde is the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group, and Bush goes by the nickname "Gunny" and is its operations director, according to the group's Web site. She is from Everett, Wash., has recently been living in Arizona and was once associated with the better known and larger Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. A statement attributed to officers of Forde's group and posted on its Web site on Saturday extended condolences to the victims' families and said the group doesn't condone such acts and will cooperate with law enforcement. "This is not what Minutemen do," said member Chuck Stonex, who responded to an e-mail from The Associated Press sent through the Web site. "Minutemen observe, document and report. This is nothing more than a cold-hearted criminal act, and that is all we want to say." The assailants planned to leave no one alive, Dupnik said at a press conference in Tucson on Friday. He said Forde was the ringleader. "This was a planned home invasion where the plan was to kill all the people inside this trailer so there would be no witnesses," Dupnik said. "To just kill a 9-year-old girl because she might be a potential witness to me is just one of the most despicable acts that I have heard of." Dupnik said Forde continued working through Friday to raise a large amount of money to make her anti-illegal immigrant operation more sophisticated. Forde denied involvement as she was led from sheriff's headquarters. "No, I did not do it," she said. "I had nothing to do with it." Gaxiola also denied involvement; Bush was arrested at a Kingman, Ariz., hospital where he was being treated for a leg wound he allegedly received when the woman who survived the attack managed to get a gun and fire back. Killed were 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her 29-year-old father, Raul Junior Flores. The name of the wounded woman who survived the attack hasn't been released. Forde is well known in the anti-illegal immigration community, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino. "She's someone who even within the anti-immigration movement has been labeled as unstable," Levin said. "She was basically forced out of another anti-immigrant group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and then founded her own organization." Stonex, of Alamagordo, N.M., said he met Forde while on an Arizona border watch operation last fall, and liked her despite her reputation in the Minutemen community. "I know she's always had sort of a checkered past but I take people for what I see and not what I hear," the 57-year-old said. She recruited him to start a new chapter in New Mexico, but was secretive about her group or its members. Stonex said he didn't know how to recruit for a chapter and never did. He said Forde called him on the day of the attack while he was visiting Arizona and asked him to bring bandages to an Arivaca home because Bush had been wounded. Stonex said it appeared Bush had a relatively minor gunshot wound, which he treated. He said Forde and Bush told him Bush been wounded by a smuggler who shot at him while the group were patrolling the desert. Stonex said he didn't suspect that might not be the case until was contacted by a deputy on Saturday about their alleged involvement in the crime. __ On the Net: Minuteman American Defense: http://minutemenamericandefense.org (This version CORRECTS ADDS new graf 7, 17-21, with comments and quotes from group member. SUBS 3rd graf to ADD locator. corrects spelling of Dupnik thruout. ADDS byline, CHANGES dateline.)
 

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