Sunday, October 4, 2009

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Robert Kuttner: It's the Unemployment, Stupid Top
If the unemployment numbers keep rising into 2010, the Republicans are primed to pick up dozens of seats in the House, crippling the Obama administration's capacity to recoup in the second half of the president's first term. Obama would lose his very tenuous working majority and would confront a situation very much like the one Bill Clinton faced after the Republican gains of 1994, when he worked even more closely with Republicans in order to save his own skin. If you liked triangulation Clinton-style, wait for Rahm Emanuel's version of it. The most recent employment numbers were bad enough on their face -- 263,000 job losses in September, and a measured increase in payroll employment to 9.8 percent. But the real numbers are much worse. The nominal rate conceals the fact that the labor force is 615,000 workers smaller than it was a year ago, even though the working age population continues to grow. People who can't find jobs and quit looking are no longer counted as part of the labor force. If normal labor force growth had continued, the unemployment rate would be close to 12 percent. See the analysis of the numbers by the good people at the >Economic Policy Institute and the estimable Dean Baker . The administration's people know this reality, and they are aware of the political risks. So what are they doing? Precious little. I had a conversation with a senior administration economic official last week and I asked him to suspend disbelief and consider a large increase in public spending to create more jobs. What would he spend the money on? We discussed the pro's and con's of emergency fiscal aid to the states versus a tax credit for job creation in the private sector, subsidized job-sharing, and direct public works employment. But it was clear that the administration considers a Stimulus II a non-starter. The view is shared by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who testified last week that there was not much we could do about rising unemployment except wait it out. This is economically deplorable and politically self-defeating. When the administration considered its $787 billion stimulus bill last winter, its projection was that unemployment would peak at 8.9 percent. It's clear that joblessness is going to be a lot worse, and nobody has a convincing story about where the new jobs are going to come from once economic growth turns positive. Time magazine recently ran a cover story suggesting that we might just have to get used to a new reality of persistently high joblessness, and compensate with other policies such as more heroic job training (but for non-existent jobs?) But that view is malarkey. Economists were making the same argument in 1938 and 1939. The economy, supposedly, had reached a level of maturity and technological sophistication that there just weren't enough jobs. Unemployment was just stuck around 15 percent. Then along came World War II. The federal deficit rose to 29 percent of GDP (this year it will be about 11 percent) and unemployment disappeared. The president should be making the case for increased deficit spending on job-creation in 2010 and 2011, followed by a program of deficit reduction financed by progressive taxation. Public opinion on these issues is not static, and in fact a recent poll done by Hart Research Associates for EPI shows that the public cares a lot more about joblessness than it does about the deficit. 53 percent of respondents said lack of jobs was the most important issue, but only 27 percent said the deficit was. Fully 83 percent sand that unemployment was a big problem, and just two percent said it was not a problem . Presidential leadership could make a huge difference in translating these attitudes into action. The Blue Dog Democrats in Congress are opposed to larger deficits, but many of them would support a ten-year program of more public outlay now coupled with deficit reduction after recovery comes. Unfortunately, a lot of Washington's centrist savants are skipping directly to the deficit reduction, overlooking the fact that we are still a long way from recovery. As EPI was holding a conference releasing the results of its research, the more moderate Center for American Progress (CAP) was holding a big event on alarm about the national debt. CAP President John Podesta, former director of the Obama transition team, is an enthusiast of value-added taxes as deficit-reduction medicine. My own view is that VAT's are highly regressive taxes on consumption. I could go along with them if they were part of a deal that included progressive taxes such as a tax on financial transactions and if some of the money went to expanding public services rather than just reducing deficits. But this is only half of the conversation, and the less urgent half. Unless we get a bigger recovery going, and get unemployment down well before the 2010 mid-term elections, all this center-left policy wonkery will be beside the point because the Republicans will be running the country. Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect , a senior fellow at Demos , and author of Obama's Challenge . More on Rahm Emanuel
 
Lisa Earle McLeod: Good Morning Moms: Who's Going To Replace Diane on GMA? Top
Forget health care and Afghanistan, the big media question of the day is: Who's going to replace Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America"? There are bigger life-and-death issues out there, but who we share our morning coffee with matters, or at least it matters to those of us who watch morning TV and it certainly matters to the network executives responsible for making the decision. A morning show host becomes part of your life in that weird TV I-feel-like-I-know-you-and-we're-pals-even-though-we've-never-really-met sort of way. That's one of the odd paradoxes of television. We want a morning show host who seems like they're one of us. Yet they also have to be razor-smart, well-informed, good-looking, a quick study, and be willing to wake up every day at 3 a.m. and work like a dog, all while appearing jovial, in-charge and glamorous, in a non-threatening way, of course (which is definitely not like one of us). With millions of dollars in potential advertising revenue at stake, the big brass at ABC have a lot riding on their decision, and therein lies one of the challenges. The network execs who decide such matters are, generally speaking, highly paid, mostly male, mostly white, TV media people who live in New York. Yet they have to choose a host that will resonate with a suburban housewife in Snellville, a teacher in Omaha and waitress in Tucson. Odds-makers s ay that ABC is leaning toward promoting GMA weekend anchor Kate Snow into the top job. She meets the brains, beauty and talent requirements. Thin and blond as well as uber-smart (undergrad from Cornell, master's in foreign service from Georgetown), she exudes that approachable, calming energy that audiences expect in the morning. But Snow has another advantage, and I suspect the big boys in New York are well aware of how important it is - She's a mother. Women are the primary audience for morning shows, and the group most coveted by advertisers is moms. With two little kids under the age of 6, Snow feels like one of us. We might not be able to share our cornflakes with a real girlfriend, but a TV substitute is the next best thing. The mom factor has been one of the major underpinnings behind some of TV's most successful morning hosts (think Katie Couric and Joan Lunden). I recently interviewed media commentator and mom marketing expert Stacy Debroff, to get her perspective on "The Mom Factor." Debroff, a regular on NBC's Today show has written several parenting books and is the founder and CEO of MomCentral.com. , a company that provides resources and advice to moms, as well as consulting to national brands that target moms. Stacy Debroff Founder and CEO - MomCentral Lisa: Why would the audience even care if the host has kids? Stacy : I've done literally hundreds of national TV interviews, and when the host can personally relate, it makes for a much more compelling segment. When you look at the primary audiences for these morning shows, especially when they leave the primary news hour, it's mothers. Having an anchor that those moms can relate to, that can tie stories into her own experiences with her own kids, becomes tremendously important to an audience. There's a big difference between talking about over scheduled kids with someone who can say, "Oh ugh my kids are 4 and 6 and it's a real problem." versus someone who says, "I've heard this is a problem." Lisa: Let's be brutally honest, many of us feel like having kids makes it harder for us for us to compete, like once people see you as a mom, you're no longer a powerhouse. Are you suggesting motherhood is actually competitive advantage? Stacy: Being a mother is a really powerful asset. When I do a segment with someone who is a parent, I get hundreds more emails Whether it's the latest health issues or all the segments that they do around family and parenting issues, bringing in a charismatic host who is also in the midst of the same challenges, is a great strategic choice because the show becomes that much more grabbing and personal. Lisa: The feel-good factor is nice, but networks are all about ratings and advertising revenue, how does being a mom translate into hard dollars and cents? Stacy: Look at the Today show. One of the things that has made Today so beloved is that everyone is in the midst of raising families, there is a sort of down to earth relatable. They can assign their anchors things that are most relevant to the ages of their kids. Matt Lauer has younger kids, we have Meredith with teens, you have Natalie Morales with her boys, and you have Ann Curry with her daughter. From a strategic audience build, as well as bringing a real emotional connectivity to the experts and the pieces where they're covering, it's a brilliant move to make sure you have anchors who can really relate. As if to further prove Debroff's point, a group of Midwest moms has started a Facebook group called "We're for Kate Snow." Will the Network execs listen? Time will tell. I've actually met Kate Snow, when we both spoke at a career mom's event. The morning we were introduced she was trying to get a coffee stain out of her suit because her 4-year-old had banged into her as she was walking out the door. She was smart and interesting, but it was the coffee stain that endeared her to audience. I don't know who ABC will eventually choose; but when your target audience tells you they want to share their morning coffee with someone who's had it slopped all over her, I'm kinda' thinking the big boys in New York are paying attention. Then again, what do I know? I'm just a mom. Lisa Earle McLeod is an author, syndicated columnist, media commentator and business consultant. A popular keynote speaker, she is the author of The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret To Resolving Conflicts Large and Small and she is an expert in how to get what you want without conflict or compromise. More Info: www.LisaEarleMcLeod.com More on Diane Sawyer
 
Allison Kilkenny: Alan Greenspan Is the Definition of "Epic Fail" Top
Today, the former Fed chairman told George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. economy was "getting close" to the point where it would stop losing jobs. Fantastic, but I have a couple questions: Why is Alan Greenspan still being asked about the economy, and what does it take, exactly, to become a discredited figure in this country? If epically failing, as Greenspan has failed, doesn't get him permanently banned from the Sunday morning talk shows, what does he need to do in order for people to stop asking his advice? When Greenspan took over at the Fed in 1987, the total outstanding US home mortgages stood at just $1.82 trillion. During subsequent years, the total outstanding mortgages increased exponentially. By 1999, the total of outstanding mortgages in the US was $4.45 trillion. By 2004, that figure rose to $7.56 trillion. By the time 2005 rolled around, the home mortgage debt was $9.1 trillion. Some called this trend a "bubble," but not good ole' Alan. All the while, Greenspan praised the "refinancing" of loans, the practice Michael Moore presciently declared a prelude to the subprime disaster. To silence skeptics, Greenspan told the country not to worry about the housing bubble: ...any bubbles that might emerge would tend to be local, not national, in scope... In evaluating the possible prevalence of housing price bubbles, it is important to keep in mind that home prices tend to consistently rise relative to the general price level in this country...A sharp decline, the consequences of a bursting bubble, however, seems most unlikely. And yet there he was on the TV this morning, making new "serious" claims from his brain Ouija board because he is an "expert." Greenspan's ability to make these kinds of public predictions without fear of being pelted by rotten tomatoes is facilitated by America's proud tradition of rewarding white collar failure. A black kid busted with a dime bag of weed usually won't get a second chance to straighten up and fly right. Yet, lifelong losers like Alan Greenspan and Timothy Geithner, who became Treasury Secretary after screwing up his job at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, continue to fail upward. Geithner, much like Greenspan, got it completely wrong when he claimed his job was not to regulate the housing market. Geithner was one of our nation's top regulators during the subprime crisis. Yet he took no effective action, nor did he warn the American people about the housing bubble. According to economist William Black, he didn't even do anything in response to the FBI warning that there was an epidemic of fraud. Later, Geithner was rewarded with a promotion for his epic failure. Even if Greenspan turns out to be right about unemployment, that won't somehow erase his past crimes. Occasionally making an accurate prediction doesn't airbrush the fact that Greenspan and Company destroyed the economy, millions of workers' lives, and crippled the entire country. I believe the kids call this an "EPIC FAIL." This means Greenspan doesn't get a do-over. An "EPIC FAIL" means Greenspan walks away, head hung low, and never comes back. An "EPIC FAIL" survivor like Greenspan is lucky. He gets to keep his home, and his millions of dollars, and his substantial holdings in General Electric, Abbott Laboratories, and beer makers Anheuser Busch, worth between $600,000 and $1.1 million. But at the very least, he should shut up and quietly retreat into the shadows. Worse than the losers that keep making predictions are the people that keep listening to them. Repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Greenspan, Geithner, and their buddies in the cozy deregulation coterie got everything wrong, so they shouldn't be rewarded with governmental promotions and television coverage. I get that Wall Street and the government are now so cozy that politicians either fail to see the sick irony in this system of rewarding failure, or refuse to acknowledge it, but why do ordinary people still tune in to listen to this crap? Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog . Also available on Facebook and Twitter . More on Timothy Geithner
 
Matt Bivens: Cure Millions of Leprosy -- or Just Give Hank Paulson a Tax Break? Top
There are many possible responses to the news that we have committed more than four trillion public dollars to Wall Street. Mine is a roar of admiration. Four trillion dollars! Holy hell! I didn't even know that was possible! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! After all, the cost of World War II in inflation-adjusted dollars was $4 trillion. This bailout thing is just getting started, and already we've burned through that. Without even noticing. Certainly without rationing sugar or collecting scrap rubber or any of that nonsense. Who's the Greatest Generation now, baby? Admit it. You feel it too. Just imagine someone snatching your laptop off a table and throwing it, Olympic-discus style, hundreds... and hundreds... and hundreds of feet. Sure, you'd be upset (and stuck with the bill). But however briefly, you'd feel admiration for the physical feat: Look at that thing fly! So it goes with our bailouts, wild tax cuts, and war budgets. The money in play is staggering, but everyone acts like that's something to mope about. Where's the excitement? Often, after reading an incomprehensible dollar figure, I'll Google "What does a trillion dollars look like?" to get myself fired up. One example of where this takes you shows a million dollars (pathetic, wouldn't fill a grocery bag), a billion (interesting, I could fit it in a truck), and then a trillion. (Wow, it spreads for acres! Look at that tiny human included for scale!) It turns out that the United States can pick up that sort of weight and just smash it down on whatever the hell we want. Like Optimus Prime with giant square green paper fists. Slam! Slam! Yet we've committed not one trillion dollars to the incompetent and/or corrupt, but more than four trillion dollars. That's according to a report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, the overseer of the bank bailout program. Technically, Barofsky adds, Wall Street's IOU to you and me is at about three trillion dollars these days, since some of it's been paid back. Relieved? Don't be. As these tsunamis of public wealth pour out, ignore the slosh and focus on the order of magnitude. The entire Gross Domestic Product -- the number reflecting all wealth generated in this nation for this year -- is only $14.1 trillion. So whether the sum of our money that's now their money is $3 trillion (1/5th of all wealth generated in America in a year) or $4.7 trillion (1/3rd of all wealth generated in America in a year), it still means that, for a big chunk of the year, every single one of us was working for Goldman Sachs et al. Barofsky's report also suggests that Wall Street's tab might ultimately work out to $24 trillion, which would be $80,000 per American, or $320,000 for a family of four. But that's, like, totally the worst-case scenario. (Still, wouldn't it be impressive? I envision huge, five-foot-cubed, shrink-wrapped pallets of dollars dropping from the sky onto my neighborhood, smashing houses, crushing cars, killing beloved pets, blasting craters into asphalt streets. Yeah!) Smallpox and Bikinis And yet could we employ this financial muscle in a more constructive way? For an illuminating example, consider how we dealt with smallpox. That airborne virus, with its fevers reaching 106 F and signature pus-filled skin eruptions, was the greatest killer of man ever known. In the 20th century, smallpox killed more people than all of that bloody century's wars combined. In fact, if you tally the worldwide death tolls for World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Iran-Iraq war and the Mexican Revolution, the civil wars in China and Russia and Spain, and all the other wars of the last century, from Afghanistan to Zaire, the total is less than one-third of the smallpox death toll. And that's just a single 100-year period, for a disease that disfigured Egyptian pharaohs , allied with Hernando Cortes to rout the Aztecs, left a young George Washington scarred , later stalked his Continental Army, and left Abraham Lincoln pale, weak, and dizzy as he delivered his Gettysburg Address. And yet, in the 1960s, smallpox was targeted by visionary public health experts -- and in just 10 years it was gone. An excellent new book by D.A. Henderson, the doctor who led the effort, tells the story: Smallpox: The Death of a Disease . This was a signature achievement, up there with defeating the Nazis or walking on the moon. To track down a virus in every corner of the planet, encircle it with vaccinations and kill it... I began to wonder how many five-foot-cubed pallets of Benjamins the world had brought to bear. After all, this was mankind's greatest killer -- the Joker to our Batman, Lex Luthor to our Superman. The amounts of cash flung about must have been awe-inspiring. Chasing down the cost of the 10-year eradication campaign was not easy. Eventually, Dr. Henderson himself steered me to a 1,450-page official history of smallpox maintained as a PDF in a sleepy corner of the website of the World Health Organization (WHO). The answer, hidden away on page 1,366 : $300 million. Three hundred million? Not trillion? Not even billion? Such a tiny sum of money for such a tremendous feat? It's like hitting a home run at Fenway Park using a chopstick for a bat. The price paid to defeat humanity's greatest foe wouldn't cover a 24-hour day of Iraqi combat operations. In Wall Street bailout terms, there's no way to even talk about sums this tiny. To do that, we have to go the level of overcompensated individuals . So, sure, $300 million could eradicate history's greatest killer of humans -- yet the same sum wouldn't cover the bonus pool for the executives of the insurance company AIG after its great meltdown. It's less than what just one man, Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, pulled down over the past 5 years. It's even more striking if you remember that this was a price tag for a worldwide program whose cost was shared by multiple governments; and also a total cost over a 10-year period. To think about it in annual budgeting terms, it works out to $30 million a year. Which is approaching the ridiculous. Hell, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for 2006 featured a blond in a bikini of diamonds worth $30 million. We Fight Over There So We Don't Have to Fight Here These are sad economic times, sadder still when you consider the tsunamis of wealth going to waste: four trillion dollars for Wall Street welfare queens; somewhere from one to three trillion for anyone affluent enough to own a top hat and a monocle; another trillion or so (and counting) for our current military escapades abroad. But it's also just damned exciting. Because, frankly, it's a helluva lot of money we have to play with! Even now, at one of our darkest economic hours, we could be performing miracles with the spare change left behind the national couch cushions. If you're an engineering type, you might prefer that those miracles involve shoring up our creaking national infrastructure. Good! Go write your own article. I'm a doctor so I'll stick with medical possibilities. Since the smallpox triumph, public health experts have been inspired to target other diseases for eradication. One is polio, a virus known for paralyzing a minority of its unluckiest victims, among them former president Franklin D. Roosevelt; two others are Guinea worm and leprosy, plagues dating back to the Bible. The World Health Organization and the volunteer service organization Rotary International have spent two decades tracking down and vaccinating billions of people against polio. They calculate that they've prevented the paralysis of five million children worldwide. Just this May, a 10-day frenzy saw the immunization of more than 222 million children in Africa and Asia. It was possible to watch the campaigners' march through Africa on Google Maps. Among the foot soldiers in that vaccine war: Ali Mao Moallim , who more than three decades ago became the last person on Earth to contract wild smallpox. (Others have caught smallpox in the laboratory since.) Think about that: inoculating 222 million children in 10 days. For comparison, there are only about 80 million children in the entire United States. Imagine inoculating every child in America in 10 days. In 10 days, we couldn't even get every voter in Florida to figure out whom they chose for president. Not so long ago, polio roamed the globe, and each day would paralyze 1,000 children. Today, there are only some hundreds of cases each year, mostly in underdeveloped areas of Africa and Asia. The entire 21-year slog has so far cost five billion dollars . By comparison, Wall Street executive bonuses last year -- not salaries, but bonuses , for a single year that saw the whole mess collapse and the taxpayers handed the broom -- came to $18 billion. If you look at the polio campaign costs on an annual basis, it's about $240 million a year, or less per year than it has cost to occupy Iraq per day . The United States has been polio-free since 1994. But if the polio campaign falters, the virus could return. This, unlike Iraqi military operations, truly is a case of having to fight them overseas so as not to face them at home. And why would the polio campaign falter? Because there are huge demands on the public purse and we must spend judiciously; otherwise, Wall Street CEOs would have to pay for their own $87,000 area rugs and $68,000 credenzas. (What's a credenza? I had to look it up. Turns out it's that sideboard thing you only see in the movies, where Wall Street villains keep their decanters of fine whiskey for toasting the paralysis of small children.) Casting Out the Fiery Serpent Consider another life-saving success-for-pennies program that's evolving right now, in fact racing against polio to be the next public health triumph. We are on verge of eradicating Guinea worm, a parasite believed to be the "fiery serpent" that torments the Hebrews during the Exodus. Go read your Bible, it's in there. A female Guinea worm matures in its victim's gut, growing two feet long. Then, over a year marked by cramping, nausea, and fevers, it burrows out of the intestines, down through a leg, and to the skin surface. A blister forms accompanied by a burning sensation -- hence the "fiery serpent." The agonized victim immerses the leg in water for relief; on cue, the worm releases a cloud of larvae. Others drink downstream, and the cycle repeats itself. Treatment involves digging into a blister to seize the worm's head, then extracting it over days to weeks by wrapping it around a stick -- a therapeutic image that some argue may have inspired the Rod of Asclepius , the physician's symbol of a snake coiled around a staff. Guinea worm still plagued millions when former President Jimmy Carter organized a charitable foundation and challenged his advisers to suggest a disease to stamp out. They nominated Guinea worm: Humans are its only host, so if the cycle is broken in people, the parasite will be gone. Thanks to larvicides, nylon water filters, and education, we are almost there. Today, there are fewer than 5,000 recorded Guinea worm cases in six African countries. The total cost of this 23-year campaign to date has been $225 million. Or less than $10 million a year. This sort of chump change is so small, you can't even talk outsize salaries ; you have to focus on the tax breaks on those outsize salaries. So, consider that the following celebrities have saved the following estimated sums each year on their taxes, courtesy of Bush-era tax cuts: movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer, $5.8 million; L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant, $1.6 million; rapper 50 Cent, $6 million; real estate mogul Donald Trump, $1.2 million. Imagine a sort of a Congressional reverse earmark -- one that canceled the Bush tax cuts only for Bruckheimer, out of punishment for Armageddon and Pearl Harbor -- and steered the resulting millions to disease control efforts. Really, would any of these men
 
Peg Mullen Dead, Author Of Unfriendly Fire Top
LA PORTE CITY, Iowa — Peg Mullen, an author and former Iowa farm wife who hounded the U.S. military to find the truth about her son's death in Vietnam, has died. She was 92. Family members said Sunday that she passed away Friday at a nursing home in La Porte City. Peg Mullen wrote the 1995 book "Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir" after her son Michael died at age 25 when a U.S. artillery shell fell short and killed him on Feb. 18, 1970, near the South Vietnamese village of Tu Chanh. "This is the first book you've got from the family side of a Vietnam story," Mullen told The Associated Press in a 1995 interview before the book was released. "All you've read everywhere is the blood and the guts," she said. "But you haven't had anything coming out of what went on as far as the family, as far as brothers and sisters and mothers and dads." Almost from the day Mullen and her husband, Gene, who died in 1986, learned that Michael had been killed, she tried to get more information about their son's death from the U.S. military. Her full-page ad in The Des Moines Register protesting the war and marches in anti-war demonstrations put her on par with more notable protesters of the day. Her other son, John Mullen, said Sunday that he doesn't know if his mother was ever satisfied with the information she tracked down, "but she came to terms with it." "If there was one thing, she brought to the forefront the idea of friendly fire. It was a term that never got much play until that time," he said. "I think she'll be remembered as somebody who asked a lot of questions, somebody who wouldn't take a pat answer, somebody who would stand up for something she believed in. You need those types of people." Mullen received many letters, phone calls and notes from other parents who had lost sons and from combat veterans who told her they knew and had served with Michael. Her book includes 40 letters from Michael, along with an account of her conversation one night in 1989 with the man who told her he had fired the fatal shell. It also lambasts Norman Schwarzkopf, the Persian Gulf War general who was Michael's battalion commander in Vietnam. The autobiography was a follow up to "Friendly Fire," a book by C.D.B. Bryan and a television movie of the same name that starred Carol Burnett and Ned Beaty. According to the University of Iowa library's Iowa Women's Archives, Mullen was born in 1917 in Pocahontas, about 140 miles northwest of Des Moines. She was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1997. Mullen also is survived by her daughters Patricia Hulting, of Des Moines, and Mary DeJana, of Kalispell, Mont., and her grandchildren.
 
Andy Borowitz: US Warns Iran: Dismantle Nukes or We Will Block You on Facebook Top
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In its sternest rhetoric to date about the Iranian nuclear threat, the U.S. today issued an ultimatum to the Iranian government: dismantle your nuclear program at once, or risk being blocked on Facebook. A Facebook blockade against Iran would have serious consequences, analysts said, such as preventing the Iranian government from accessing the U.S.'s profile or playing such popular online quizzes as "What 80's Toy Are You?" According to one State Dept. source, the U.S. has been considering blocking Iran on Facebook for some time, especially after Iran sent it a series of increasingly provocative and annoying event invitations. "When they invited us to an event called 'Medium Range Missile Test,' that was really the last straw," the source said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's response to the U.S. ultimatum came in a terse official statement: "Oy." More here . More on Nuclear Weapons
 
After Olympics Bust, What Will Come Of Chicago's Public Projects? Top
Civic leaders are hoping transportation, community development and urban planning improvements will stay on track now that Chicago is not hosting the 2016 Olympics. More on Olympics
 
As Layoffs Persist, Good Jobs Go Unfilled Top
In a brutal job market, here's a task that might sound easy: Fill jobs in nursing, engineering and energy research that pay $55,000 to $60,000, plus benefits. Yet even with 15 million people hunting for work, even with the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, some employers can't find enough qualified people for good-paying career jobs. Ask Steve Jones, a hospital recruiter in Indianapolis who's struggling to find qualified nurses, pharmacists and MRI technicians. Or Ed Baker, who's looking to hire at a U.S. Energy Department research lab in Richland, Wash., for $60,000 each. Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available work and people qualified to do it. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers to the auto industry, construction, Wall Street and other sectors are gone, probably for good. And those who lost those jobs generally lack the right experience for new positions popping up in health care, energy and engineering. Many of these specialized jobs were hard to fill even before the recession. But during downturns, recruiters tend to become even choosier, less willing to take financial risks on untested workers. The mismatch between job opening and job seeker is likely to persist even as the economy strengthens and begins to add jobs. It also will make it harder for the unemployment rate, now at 9.8 percent, to drop down to a healthier level. "Workers are going to have to find not just a new company, but a new industry," said Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of Moody's Economy.com. "A fifty-year-old guy who has been screwing bolts into the side of a car panel is not going to be able to become a health care administrator overnight." It's become especially hard to find accountants, health care workers, software sales representatives, actuaries, data analysts, physical therapists and electrical engineers, labor analysts say. And employers that demand highly specialized training – like biotech firms that need plant scientists or energy companies that need geotechnical engineers to build offshore platforms – struggle even more to fill jobs. The trend has been intensified by the speed of the job market decline, Koropeckyj said. The nation has lost a net 7.6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Yet it can take a year or more for a laid-off worker to gain the training and education to switch industries. That means health care jobs are going unfilled even as laid-off workers in the auto, construction or financial services industries seek work. "So we have this army of the unemployed" without the necessary skills, Koropeckyj said. Sitting in his office overlooking the Clarian Health complex, Jones leafed through some of the applications he's received. One came from a hotel worker who listed his experience as, "Cleaning rooms; make beds, clean tubes, vacuum." Another was from a fitness instructor whose past duties included signing up gym members. Many of the jobless seem to be applying for any opening they see, Jones said. "You just don't have the supply to fill those particular positions," he said of the more than 200 "critical" jobs he needs to fill at Clarian, including nurses, pharmacists, MRI technicians and ultrasound technologists. Contributing to the problem is that in a tough economy, employers take longer to assess applicants and make a hiring decision. By contrast, "in a healthier economy, you don't wait around for the perfect person," said Lawrence Katz, a professor of labor economics at Harvard. To be sure, employers in most sectors of the economy are having no trouble filling jobs – especially those, like receptionists, hotel managers or retail clerks, that don't require specialized skills. But as more jobs vanish for good, the gap between the unemployed and the requirements of today's job openings is widening. Throughout the economy, an average of six people now compete for each job opening – the highest ratio on government records dating to 2000. Sifting through applications for jobs at the U.S. Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, Baker said he sees "people that have worked in other areas, and now they're trying to apply that skill set to the energy arena." "Unfortunately, that's not the skill set we need." The jobs opened up after the lab received federal stimulus money to research energy-efficient buildings. Baker needs employees with backgrounds in city management and a grasp of the building codes needed to design energy-efficient buildings. Yet even a salary of $140,000 for senior researchers isn't drawing enough qualified applicants. Baker said he's getting resumes from well-educated people, including some from information technology workers who want to enter the green-energy field. But he said it could take a year to get an unqualified employee up to speed on all the building codes they need to know. "We're running out of people to train" new employees, he said. "We simply cannot attract enough (qualified) people." The lab has hired a recruiter for the first time to fill dozens of positions. Rob Dromgoole, the recruiter, is going so far as to make cold calls to college professors. He's also visiting academic conferences to pitch jobs. The trend has left jobseekers like Joe Sladek anxious and frustrated. Sladek's 23 years in the auto industry haven't helped his efforts to land a job in alternative energy since he was laid off a year ago. As a quality control engineer for auto supplier Dura Automotive Systems Inc. in Mancelona, Mich., he made about $75,000. Sladek would review technical reports to make sure the factory's auto parts matched the specifications of clients like General Motors and Toyota. He hoped to parlay that experience into a similar job at a factory making windmill blades or solar panels. Several factories were hiring, and Sladek landed a few interviews. But he never heard back. At PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago, there's a shortage of qualified applicants for management jobs in tax services, auditing and consulting. Rod Adams, the company's recruiting leader, said huge pay packages on Wall Street siphoned off lots of business school graduates earlier this decade. "That made our pipeline more scarce," he said. Some of the openings at PricewaterhouseCoopers pay around $100,000 and don't even require graduate degrees – just specialized accounting certifications or other credentials. Formerly successful bankers or hedge fund managers don't necessarily qualify. "We've gotten a lot more resumes, but they haven't been the right people," Adams said. ___ Associated Press reporters Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington and Mike Smith in Indianapolis contributed to this report. More on The Recession
 
IOC: McDonald's Won't Abandon Olympics Deal Over Chicago Snub Top
COPENHAGEN — The International Olympic Committee's marketing boss believes Chicago's rejection by Olympic voters will not affect the status of Illinois-based McDonald's as a leading sponsor. "(McDonald's) have told us absolutely no," IOC director of television and marketing Timo Lumme told the Associated Press on Sunday. "The choice of host city is absolutely irrelevant to the TOP partners in general." McDonald's is part of The Olympic Partners (TOP) program, nine global sponsors who are paying $900 million to $920 million for the 2010-2012 period covering the Vancouver Winter Olympics and London Games. But the manner of Chicago's first-round exit in voting Friday to choose a 2016 host prompted suggestions of a backlash in the United States against the Olympic Movement. McDonald's, which has its headquarters in Oak Brook near Chicago, has a 33-year official partnership with the IOC. It has yet to renew its TOP agreement for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2016 Summer Games that will be held in Rio De Janeiro. Lumme said the sponsor program was a "tried and trusted marketing vehicle." Commercial backing provides around one-third of the IOC's total revenues. He said U.S. viewers would not care about Chicago's defeat when the Vancouver Olympics begin Feb. 12. "There will be full-on Olympic fever," he said. "The American public will be focusing on supporting their athletes and their team. "(The Olympic Games) is what it is all about, it's the excitement. I think everything else will be consigned to a footnote." Lumme said the IOC still hoped to add one or two more TOP sponsors for the Vancouver-London cycle. The IOC already has five companies – Panasonic, Samsung, Omega, Coca-Cola and Atos Origin – signed up though 2016. More on Olympics
 
Mark Kleiman: The Jungle, Part II Top
E. coli outbreaks in ground beef aren't acts of God.   They're the products of corporate and governmental decision-making.  Time for some righteous anger from the President.
 
Cubs Demote Hitting Coach Von Joshua Top
CHICAGO — The disappointed Chicago Cubs wasted little time making a change, dropping hitting coach Von Joshua after Sunday's season finale while offering him a similar spot at Triple-A. Joshua had been promoted from Triple-A Iowa on June 14 when Gerald Perry was fired as hitting coach after 2 1/2 seasons. The Cubs were batting .246 the day Perry was fired and finished the season at .255. Chicago lost to Arizona 5-2 Sunday to finish 83-78 after two straight appearances in the playoffs. "He will be given the opportunity to go back to his other job in Des Moines," general manager Jim Hendry said. "I told him that it wasn't anything that I was upset with him, he didn't do anything wrong. But when you come up from the system in the middle of the year, if things don't make significant difference in improvement, then obviously in my opinion we need to try something different." Hendry said the Cubs had a lot of players struggling offensively this season and they didn't make a lot of progress after Joshua replaced Perry. Hendry said he told Voshua when he was promoted that he would have job until the end of the season and that if things didn't work out, he could go back to Triple-A. Joshua was not available for comment. An outfielder who spent 10 years in the majors, Joshua served as the Chicago White Sox's hitting coach from 1998 to 2001 Hendry said all other Cubs coaches would be retained and that a new hitting coach would be hired before spring training. More on Sports
 
Broncos 17, Cowboys 10: Who's Your MVP? (VOTE) Top
The Broncos just keep winning. Facing what most experts considered to be their first big test this week against the Cowboys, Kyle Orton was solid and the Denver defense shout down the Cowboys in the second half for a 17-10 win. Vote for your pick for MVP , and read the AP story below. Read The AP Story Below * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * DENVER (AP)--Champ Bailey knocked away the potential tying touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Sam Hurd with 1 second left and the Denver Broncos escaped with a 17-10 over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. On fourth-and-goal from the 2, Romo dropped back and found Hurd cutting over the middle, but Bailey reached around and swatted the pass away at the last second, giving the Broncos their first 4-0 start since 2003. The Broncos took the lead on Brandon Marshall's 51-yard touchdown catch with 1:46 remaining. Romo, ineffective in the second half when the Cowboys' first five drives ended in four punts and an interception by Bailey, found Hurd for a 53-yard gain on fourth-and-3 from the Dallas 27 with a minute left. The Cowboys (2-2) reached the 2 on catches by Tashard Choice, Hurd and Patrick Crayton. Romo spiked the ball on second-and-goal, then Bailey knocked away a high pass intended for Hurd before swatting away one that looked as if it was right on the money. Denver, which has the league's top-ranked defense, held the league's best rushing attack to just 74 yards on 25 carries, a 3-yard clip. Elvis Dumervil led a pass rush that hounded Romo, dumping him on his back five times for sacks, two by Dumervil, who has eight sacks in the past three weeks. Matt Prater's 28-yard field goal with 5:58 left tied it at 10. Crayton's 96-yard punt return for a touchdown was nullified because the ball bounced on the goal line before Darcel McBath tipped it back toward Crayton, who picked it up and zigzagged his way downfield. The official immediately ruled it a touchback, keeping it a 10-7 game with 11:18 remaining. Romo was ineffective and continually led his receivers into big hits, none bigger than when Roy Williams was blasted by D.J. Williams with 9:47 left in the game. He also hung up Crayton twice on that drive. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels gambled on the last play of the third quarter when he decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 instead of attempting a 47-yard field goal to tie it. Linebacker Keith Brooking darted through and met rookie running back Knowshon Moreno head-on and stopped him inches short, giving Dallas the ball to start the fourth quarter. Correll Buckhalter wasn't available after injuring his left ankle earlier in the drive, and Peyton Hillis, the battering ram of a back who was stopped at the goal line twice last week in Oakland, watched Moreno get the call. The Broncos were trailing 10-0 when safety Renaldo Hill forced a fumble by Romo that linebacker D.J. Williams recovered inside the Dallas 10-yard-line in the second quarter. Six seconds later, Kyle Orton threw a pass to Moreno that went through the hands of linebacker Anthony Spencer, pulling Denver to 10-7. Before that, little went right for the Broncos, who were whistled for eight flags in the first half. Moreno fumbled away his first carry of the second half when DeMarcus Ware came off a block by Daniel Graham and punched the ball loose. Linebacker Bradie James recovered for Dallas at the Denver 27, but Romo quickly gave it back when Bailey made an acrobatic interception at the 6. Dallas built a 10-0 lead on Nick Folk's 49-yard field goal and Marion Barber's 1-yard run.
 
Glynnis MacNicol: The Misleading Coverage Of David Letterman's Extortion Case Top
Based on the coverage David Letterman 's alleged love life is getting these days you'd be forgiven for concluding that Letterman wasn't the victim of a $2 million extortion plot -- which he chose to reveal himself, to both the police and a national television audience -- but the subject of an undercover investigation or sexual harassment lawsuit. In the past three days the tabloids have done a fairly successful job painting the late night host as a lecherous, randy comic who preys on innocent staffers. Today we find out he keeps a a fold-out couch and a kitchen in his office! Oh the humanity. Let's just take it back a step, shall we? Here's a few things to perhaps keep in mind amidst all this 'sextortion'. One, Letterman didn't actually get married until last March. Two, and this is arguably the most important point, thus far not one of the women staffers allegedly involved with him have stepped forward now, or at any point in the past, to suggest that they were in any shape or form harassed. In fact, according to the NYT "CBS executives did quietly seek and receive assurances that none of the women Mr. Letterman was talking about were under age and that no woman who was involved with him had felt threatened about her job." This fact alone would strongly suggest that what we actually seem to talking about here, in terms of Dave's alleged love life, is simply case of consensual sex between a powerful man and the women who worked around him. Wow right? A jaw dropper. Of course, you'd have to dig through some pretty blaring headlines to reach that conclusion. NEXT: Why is Stephanie Birkitt bearing the brunt of all this shock and awe? More on David Letterman
 
Anti-Jewish Statements Raise Concern After Honduras Coup Top
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A Jewish civil rights organization is expressing alarm over conspiracy theories claiming Jews and Israel aided the ouster of the Honduran president and attempts to dislodge him from his refuge in the Brazilian Embassy. The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League cited statements made by ousted President Manuel Zelaya as well as the news director of a radio station that was closed by the interim government in Honduras and by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among others. Most of the comments repeat widely circulated rumors that Israeli soldiers – or in some versions, mercenaries – worked with the troops backing interim President Roberto Micheletti, allegedly supplying some form of tear gas used at the embassy and providing other assistance. The interim government, which came to power after the military arrested Zelaya and flew him to exile in Costa Rico on June 28, has denied receiving any Israeli help or using any tear gas at the embassy. Journalists who have covered the political crisis say they have not seen any sign of Israeli involvement. The Jewish group also criticized Chavez for claiming at the United Nations that Israel is the only country to recognize the coup-installed government, something Micheletti's administration has denied. The ADL also cited an interview with The Miami Herald in which Zelaya said that "Israeli mercenaries are torturing him with high-frequency radiation." "We know from history that at times of turmoil and unrest, Jews are a convenient scapegoat," ADL national director Abraham H. Foxman, said in a statement released Sunday. "And that is happening now in Honduras, a country that has only a small Jewish minority." The group estimates the Central American country is home to less than 100 families in a population of about 8 million. Chavez, a Zelaya ally, has repeatedly criticized Israel, while insisting he is not anti-Semitic. Zelaya was forced from office with the backing of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court for trying to hold a referendum on rewriting the constitution. His opponents charged he wanted to lift the charter's provision limiting presidents to a single term. He denied that. With the backing of much of the international community, including the U.S. government, Zelaya is seeking to be reinstated to serve out his term, which ends in January. He has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy with dozens of supporters since slipping back into Honduras on Sept. 21. Zelaya, responding to a copy of the ADL report sent to him in the embassy by The Associated Press, said he "profoundly respects people who practice other religions." He and noted he had been criticized by anti-Semites for including several Jews in his Cabinet. "As a human being and president, I call on all Hondurans to abstain from making any anti-Semitic comments," Zelaya said in a statement. Among the remarks criticized by the ADL is a statement by David Romero, news director of Radio Globo, which supports Zelaya. On Sept. 25, commenting on the rumors alleging Israeli involvement in the crisis, Romero referred on air to the "famous Holocaust" and added that "I believe it should have been fair and valid to let Hitler finish his historic vision." Romero apologized for the remarks Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press, saying that they were "stupid" statements made in the heat of the moment and that don't reflect his real views. He said his grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from Czechoslovakia who came to Honduras to escape persecution in Europe. "I apologize to the Jewish community here and throughout the world," Romero said. Radio Globo was shut down and its equipment confiscated by security forces after Micheletti issued an emergency decree banning large-scale demonstrations and limiting civil liberties, including freedom of the press. The interim president, who has come under increasing pressure at home and abroad over the restrictions, is expected to decide Monday whether to lift the decree. There have been some signs of progress in the bitter standoff, with Zelaya and the interim government negotiating through intermediaries ahead of a visit set for Wednesday by the secretary general of the Organization of American States and regional foreign ministers. Victor Rico, an OAS official organizing the summit, told reporters Sunday that he saw reason for "reasonable optimism" with the discussions in recent days. "I think the moment has arrived that all sides start to think about the suffering that this is causing for the Honduran people." More on Honduras Coup
 
Injuries Mar Bears' 48-24 Win Over Lions Top
CHICAGO — Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears weren't about to let Detroit make it two straight wins. Cutler threw two touchdown passes and ran for another, and the Bears pulled away in the second half to beat the Lions 48-24 on Sunday a week after Detroit snapped its 19-game losing streak. Matt Forte ran for 121 yards, rookie Johnny Knox returned a kickoff 102 yards and the Bears headed into their bye with their third straight win. The Lions were celebrating a win over Washington that snapped a slide that matched the second longest in league history. This time, they were holding their breath after watching quarterback Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 draft pick, twist his right knee while being sacked in the fourth quarter. The Lions had a third down on the Bears 6 when he was sacked by Adewale Ogunleye, forcing Detroit to kick a field goal that cut Chicago's lead to 34-24. Stafford had his leg wrapped and Daunte Culpepper replaced him on Detroit's next drive, a sobering sight for a team that has taken its share of blows over the years. With a chance to put together consecutive wins for the first time since 2007, the Lions (1-3) hung in for a half before Chicago (3-1) pulled away. Not that this wasn't a painful afternoon for the Bears. Devin Hester left with a shoulder injury in the second quarter and Knox injured his right leg in the second half, leaving the Bears thin at wide receiver. Before he left the game, Knox did a spot-on impression of Hester when he ran 102 yards untouched up the right side to open the third quarter for the second-longest kickoff return in franchise history. Forte broke off a 61-yard run that set up Chicago's first touchdown and added a 37-yard TD in the fourth quarter. Robbie Gould kicked two field goals, including a career-high 52-yarder in the third quarter, and Tommie Harris set up an early touchdown with his first career interception. Stafford threw for 296 yards and Calvin Johnson caught eight passes for 133, but Detroit still hasn't put together consecutive wins since a 6-2 start in 2007. The Lions won one game the rest of that season in an epic meltdown that saw them post the league's first 0-16 mark last year. Coach Rod Marinelli was let go at the end of that season. He's now the Bears' defensive line coach, and with 31 new players, he could be excused if he didn't recognize the team on the other side of the field. What happened early probably had a familiar feel to him, though. Slow starters the first three games, the Bears immediately fell behind again. Stafford connected on a 45-yarder with Johnson, who beat Zackary Bowman, along the left side to put the ball on the Chicago 28, and Smith ran it in from the 1 after two penalties by the Bears. First, safety Al Afalava jumped offsides as Jason Hanson kicked what would have been a 40-yard field goal, giving the Lions a first down instead. Alex Brown got called for a facemask, putting the ball on the 13, and three plays later, Detroit had a short-lived lead. Chicago immediately responded, with Forte bursting through the line for a 61-yard run that put the ball on the 5. It also set up a TD run by Cutler, who spun like a helicopter propeller after two Lions hit him as he crossed the goal line with the Bears' first points in an opening quarter this season. But it was a painful first half for them. Hester was apparently injured after catching a short pass on second down with just under 12 minutes left. He tried to juke the Lions' Louis Delmas and William James, but instead took a hard hit. He quickly got up showing no obvious signs of an injury, and it wasn't clear which shoulder he hurt. More on Sports
 
John Farr: The Man Who Made the Best Movie Ever Top
Those who hold to the American Film Institute’s view will assume the subject of this piece is Orson Welles, who, at the tender age of 25, made Citizen Kane (1941), a film that both cursed and immortalized the young man. This admittedly brilliant feature heads their much scrutinized list of the top 100 movies ever made. Personally, I think the A.F.I’s number two pick, Casablanca (1942) should have won top honors. Though it’s almost absurd to compare them, Kane today feels more self-conscious, more eager to show off its virtuosity and originality than Casablanca , a film that, viewed once or a hundred times, simply seems to have nothing wrong with it. So this piece will instead concern Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian-born director who never commanded the adulation of a Lubitsch, Hitchcock, Ford or Welles. Part of his relative obscurity came from being so thoroughly enmeshed in the intricate machinery of the studio system in the thirties and forties. Unlike Welles, Curtiz was never known as an auteur, innovator or maverick, but simply put, he knew his business.  A superb film craftsman, from roughly 1933-1945 he was widely acknowledged as the best director on the Warner lot (along with William Wyler). And today we have his pictures to prove it. Born in 1886, he’d been in movies almost as long as there’d been movies. By the time he landed at Warners, he had established a signature style anchored in crisp pacing and frequent camera movement. Curtiz also knew how to use unusual compositions and camera angles to heighten tension. Just as important to Jack Warner, Curtiz was adept at running a disciplined set and moving a production along. He would never have claimed to be an “actor’s director”. Still, he was unfailingly courteous to Ingrid Bergman on the Casablanca set (how hard could that have been?), and got on well enough with the unruly Errol Flynn to make twelve pictures with him. When asked about the importance of “character” in his films, Curtiz replied that character was secondary for him; audiences need hardly be concerned with it since he kept his stories moving so fast.  What humanized Curtiz most was his thick accent and scant understanding of proper English, which often made him incomprehensible on set. The memorable title of David Niven’s memoir Bring On The Empty Horses was an actual Curtiz quote, referring to a group of riderless stallions Curtiz needed to shoot. Then, of course, there’s this hilarious rant which Niven once endured from the director: “You think you know f**k everything! Well, you know f**k nothing! And I know f**k all!” On the set of Casablanca , the director made an unexpected but urgent request for poodles. When the dogs were ushered into his presence, Curtiz went volcanic and screamed: “No! I said poodles! Poodles of water!!!”  After the Second War, Curtiz broke with the Warner studio that had been his home for so long, and in the roughly fifteen ensuing years until his death in 1961, the director’s output would rarely equal the quality of his pre-war features.  But in his hey-day, what fine work he did. Beyond his universally admired masterpiece, just behold some of the other enduring classics Michael Curtiz bequeathed to future generations: Captain Blood (1935) - In this lusty recounting of the Rafael Sabatini tale, Errol Flynn is Peter Blood, a doctor unjustly sentenced to servitude by the British Crown. Chafing against captivity, Blood escapes and becomes a pirate on the high seas. He makes as good a pirate as doctor, wielding a sword in a way they don't teach you in medical school. Beyond zesty sword fights, there are grand sea battles, and of course, romance, as Blood falls for Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), daughter of Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill), cruel master of the penal colony where Blood is initially sent. Blood made an overnight star of the Tasmanian Flynn, and no wonder. His combination of good looks, athleticism, and sheer personality brought back the swashbuckler in one fell swoop. Curtiz's direction is predictably assured, and both Atwill and pirate nemesis Basil Rathbone make truly despicable villains. Finally, young de Havilland is the perfect match for Flynn; it's easy to see why they'd be paired in seven more Warner pictures. The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938)- Robin of Locksley, a noble Saxon (Flynn), sees the people of England exploited by the Normans and their leader, Prince John (Claude Rains), who's seized the throne in his brother Richard's absence. Robin and his followers work to undermine the corrupt regime until King Richard's return. With Maid Marion (Olivia De Havilland) as love interest and Sir Guy Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) as nemesis, Robin is kept constantly occupied. This rousing, gorgeously photographed adventure movie exemplifies the magical heights Warner Brothers attained in the Golden Age of the studio system. Bolstered by a consistently clever script, with both humor and romance complementing the derring-do, Curtiz’s Robin Hood is a milestone in Hollywood cinema -- the first, and perhaps best, color swashbuckler. Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)- Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly, two young hooligans on the make, are caught stealing, and only Jerry gets away. As the years go by, the reform school-hardened Rocky (James Cagney) enters a life of crime, becoming a famous and feared gangster, while Jerry (Pat O'Brien) ultimately sees the light and enters the priesthood. While maintaining affection for each other, criminal and priest must compete for the souls of a new generation of hoodlums in the neighborhood, played by the Dead End Kids. Angels represents the peak of the gangster picture genre which Warners developed and refined in the thirties, when the age of Capone was still fresh in people’s minds. Cagney, whose screen career had been launched seven years before in The Public Enemy , perfects his rendition of the crook with a heart of gold, and his close real-life friend Pat O'Brien counters him perfectly as the mellow, morally upright Father Connolly. Meanwhile Humphrey Bogart, in full villain mode, is deliciously slimy as Rocky’s “business partner”. Whatever you do, don’t miss that ending! The Private Lives Of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)- Based on Maxwell Anderson's play, Elizabeth The Queen , this opulent drama profiles the uncoventional relationship between aging Queen Elizabeth I (a heavily made–up Bette Davis, in a rare character role), and the handsome Earl Of Essex (Flynn). Their obvious mutual affection creates an interesting dynamic, with the Queen's age and position forcing a measure of restraint, and the Earl's awareness of her true feelings making him bolder than your average subject. A sterling supporting cast includes Flynn's frequent co-star de Havilland (in a featured role), Donald Crisp, and a young Vincent Price as Sir Walter Raleigh! In this handsome production, historical accuracy is sacrificed to achieve an intelligent and intriguing character piece, shot in glorious Technicolor. The film admirably showcases its two stars, whose on-screen chemistry never hints at their off-screen disdain for each other. Davis is forced to stretch more in her part, and bravely foregoes any vanity in playing the spinster queen, while Flynn's Essex fits the actor's breezy, effortless charisma like a glove. Another direct hit for Curtiz and Flynn. The Sea Hawk (1940)- Captain Thorpe (Errol Flynn), a British privateer, seizes the bounty on Spanish ships to help thwart that country's hostile intentions towards Britain and fill England's coffers. On capturing a vessel carrying the Spanish Ambassador (Claude Rains) and his niece (Brenda Marshall), he returns to England and advocates for greater preparedness against Spain with Queen Elizabeth. To get him out of the way, the Spanish capture Thorpe at sea and the buccaneer must escape to warn his queen of the advancing Spanish armada. Along with Captain Blood , this remains Flynn’s best pirate film -- it’s a good old-fashioned sword-fest, with plenty of intrigue. Joined by Warner character players Claude Rains, Donald Crisp and Flora Robson (superb as the Queen), Hawk remains an exhilarating experience, with a lusty Erich Korngold score and incredible sets (two full-size ship replicas were built for the production). You’ll find it’s as bracing as the sea air. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - Curtiz's homage to patriotic songwriter/entertainer George M. Cohan was perfectly timed to stir our spirits as we entered World War II. A meeting with F.D.R on the eve of the conflict prompts an aging George M. (James Cagney) to look back on his colorful life, from the lean early days touring the country with his parents and sister in vaudeville, to later heady, happy times as our country's most prominent songwriter/performer, who stirred love of country through the first several decades of the twentieth century. This exuberant slice of Americana is Cagney's show entirely, netting him his only Oscar (after all those gangster roles!). The actor actually began his career as a song-and-dance man, and here he gets to prove it, in a series of rousing, nostalgic numbers that keep the rich Cohan legacy alive. Walter Huston stands out in a sterling supporting cast playing George's loving Dad. Good enough to watch any old time, but a must for Independence Day. Mildred Pierce (1945)- This timeless, tawdry Joan Crawford melodrama is based on the James Cain story of a ruthless career woman (Crawford), who will do anything to ensure her daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) gets all the advantages she never enjoyed. Veda grows into a spoiled monster, but the other characters surrounding the hard-working Mildred aren't too sympathetic either, whether it's the oily Monty Berrigan (Zachary Scott) whom Mildred thinks she loves, or lascivious realtor Wally Fay (Jack Carson), who just might help Mildred if she becomes friendlier. There's a foul odor in this town, and it may be the scent of murder. Here Curtiz the master creates a diabolical murder yarn. Crawford resuscitated her fading career with the driven Mildred, a part she was born to play. The Oscar- nominated Blyth grates as the hateful Veda (hard for her not to), and Scott and Carson each ooze their particular brand of acid as the calculating men in Mildred's life. For a vicarious glimpse into seamy small town intrigue, you can't beat this one. Joan won an Oscar. Note: several other Curtiz titles would have made this list but either are not on DVD, or available only on inferior “public domain” editions. Among them: The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Sea Wolf (1941), and Life With Father (1947). Another winner, Four Daughters (1938), has just been released on  the Warner Archive Collection. For over 2,000 outstanding titles on DVD, visit www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com
 

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