Undernews For December 16, 2008
The news while there's still time to do something about it
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #381
Washington DC 20003
202-423-7884
Editor: Sam Smith
15 December 2008
WORD
From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the
people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded... The shackles, therefore, . . .
will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. -- Thomas Jefferson
PAGE ONE MUST
LEAVE NO BANKER OR DEVELOPER BEHIND:
MAJOR CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDAL IN DC
David S. Fallis and April Witt, Washington Post When a band of Brookland neighbors packed a public meeting to try to stop one of the District's public charter schools
from moving to their quiet cul-de-sac, their pleas seemed to receive a warm reception.
Thomas A. Nida, chairman of the board that supervises one of the nation's largest charter school systems, encouraged
testimony from the group on that summer evening in 2007. "And anything else you've got to say, put it in writing and
we'll take it," Nida said, noting that the charter board would not decide on the move for a month. "That way we will
give everybody a chance to express their views."
What Nida failed to mention was his own stake in the matter. As a senior vice president at United Bank, he had been
working on a $7 million loan to the Elsie Whitlow Stokes charter school to finance the very relocation that neighbors
opposed.
By the time the D.C. Public Charter School Board approved the move in August 2007 -- with Nida recusing himself from the
vote -- the loan deal was done. Nida's employer would receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payments for
years to come.
Homeowners on the losing end of that dispute had encountered one of the hidden financial conflicts of interest in the
city's burgeoning charter school movement. Key members of the public bodies that regulate and fund the schools have
taken part in official decisions that stood to benefit themselves, their colleagues, employers and companies with whom
they have business ties, The Washington Post has found.
The Post's review found conflicts of interest involving almost $200 million worth of business deals, typically real
estate transactions, at more than a third of the District's 60 charter schools. The conflicts are documented in
thousands of pages of internal charter board documents, land records, tax returns, audits and other records reviewed by
The Post.
James V. Grimaldi and Theola Labbe-DeBose,Washington Post - Thomas A. Nida often has played two roles when District charter schools enter into real estate deals. As a banker, he
has arranged loans to the schools or their landlords. And as chairman of the public board that oversees charters, he has
approved the schools' borrowing and spending. But in one episode, Nida ended up wearing three hats.
The deal centered on the old Kingsman public school, a Northeast landmark that closed in 1993 because of declining
enrollment. Kingsman became an eyesore and a haven for drug dealers, with punched-out windows and peeling paint
cascading onto the floors. In 2003, a charity bought the dilapidated edifice from the city for about $300,000 and began
to renovate it for charter schools.
Nida was the bank officer who handled the initial $2.45 million construction loan to the tax-exempt organization,
Charter School Development Corp., known as CSDC. Soon after, Nida was appointed to the Public Charter School Board and
began taking official actions that affected CSDC and its tenants. Then, as a banker, he refinanced the loan. After that,
he joined the nonprofit group's board of directors, where he further helped expand its financing to obtain city revenue
bonds.
Finally, in July 2006, Nida made a move that led to a financial windfall for CSDC. He led the effort and cast the
deciding vote that shut down one of the two charter schools renting space in Kingsman, clearing the way for the other
tenant to purchase the 54,810-square-foot building.
CSDC made almost $1 million from the sale. "We made a nice gain on it," said Frank Riggs, the former California
congressman who is the group's chief executive, "which we need, to be candid with you, to offset the risk for properties
we own in northwest Indiana."
Nida did not disclose his multiple roles in the Kingsman deal at a public hearing, according to a transcript, or before
the vote, according to two charter board members who voted against the closure. Nida also has not listed his CSDC board
membership on the financial disclosure forms he filed with the city. Nida said yesterday that he did not think he needed
to disclose the position because it was unpaid.
April Witt and David S. Fallis, Washington Post - The D.C. charter school credit enhancement committee has operated largely out of public view for most of its eight years
of existence. Yet it has awarded $47 million in taxpayer loans and guarantees to more than 30 schools or their
developers. That generous funding has been a decisive factor in the District's charter school system's becoming one of
the largest in the nation.
The committee's generosity has also benefited banks and private companies that have business ties to committee members,
including the current chairman, Barbara "Bobbie" Hart, public records show.
Committee members or their employers have had financial ties to about a third of the applicants or projects that the
committee has voted to fund with public money. Since Hart joined the committee in 2006, the panel has voted repeatedly
to award taxpayer funds to charter schools or developers with ties to Adams National Bank, where Hart is a vice
president. Hart has recused herself from all but two votes involving applicants that had given her loan business or were
about to, records show. She declined to comment.
Congress created the five-member committee to award taxpayer money to help lease, buy or build charter school
facilities. The committee, which operates under the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, has awarded charter
schools or their developers about $22 million in "credit enhancement" money, typically for collateral to secure
commercial bank loans. The committee has lent an additional $25 million for facility-related expenses. ad_icon
The committee has been dominated by bankers, developers and investment professionals appointed by the mayor's office and
the charter school board. Of the 10 people who have served as members since 2000, more than half have been involved
privately in the financing or development of schools or worked for companies that were, records show. Overall, almost
$20 million in taxpayer funding has been awarded to schools or developers that conducted business with committee members
or their companies.
One of the original members of the credit enhancement committee was Matt HoganBruen of Bank of America. During his five
years on the committee, it awarded millions in taxpayer subsidies to charter schools or their developers that were Bank
of America loan customers, records show.
"It is the policy of Bank of America and the personal policy of Matt HoganBruen not to knowingly vote on transactions
positively affecting" Bank of America customers, a bank spokesman said in an e-mail. The statement said it was "not
uncommon" for the committee to discuss financing without members knowing which banks were involved.
Boing Boing - Tim Jones of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has some good commentary on the news that the MPAA has
asked Obama to spy on the entire Internet, and to establish a system where being accused of copyright infringement would
result in loss of your Internet connection (and your VoIP line, your access to your university, your lifeline to your
parents in the old country, your means of participating in civic life, your means of fighting your parking ticket, etc
etc etc). The MPAA also wants Obama to lean on other countries (notably Canada) and force them to adopt US copyright
laws.
Here, the MPAA is advocating for a number of things, the most problematic of which is a "three strikes" internet
termination policy. This would require ISPs to terminate customers' internet accounts upon a rights-holder's repeat
allegation of copyright ingfringement. This could be done potentially without any due process or judicial review. A
three-strikes policy was recently adopted by legislation in France, where all ISPs are now banned from providing
blacklisted citizens with internet access for up to one year.
Because three-strikes policies do not guarantee due process or judicial oversight of whether the accusations of
copyright infringement are valid, they effectively grant the content industry the ability to exile any individual they
want from the internet. Lest we forget, there is a history of innocents getting caught up in these anti-piracy dragnets.
(Copyfighter Cory Doctorow has wondered what would happen if the MPAA's erroneous notices were subject to a similar
three-strikes law.)
Thankfully, members of the European Parliament vehemently rejected these measures, resolving that "The cut of Internet
access is a disproportionate measure regarding the objectives. It is a sanction with powerful effects, which could have
profound repercussions in a society where access to the Internet is an imperative right for social inclusion." Let's
hope the US government's decisions on this are as wise.
THE MID EAST CRISIS EVERYONE IGNORES
Gershon Baskin , The Jerusalem Post - The current water crisis is extremely serious. Years of mismanagement and irresponsible water policies are now being
investigated by the state comptroller. This is not the first time that the water sector is under the scrutiny of a
public investigatory committee. In June 2001 the Knesset conducted a similar investigation and reported on serious
dysfunctionality, but it seems that very little has changed since then.
For at least 10 years water experts have been calling for increased investment in developing new supplies of water,
mainly through desalination. But as usual here, the real policy makers are the "Treasury boys" who opposed spending
millions of shekels on infrastructure and held up the developments for a decade. They finally had to give in both
because of the increase in the water deficit (we pump more than we have and we continue to pollute fresh water sources
all over the country) and as a result of the very powerful desalination lobby that has greased the wheels of bureaucracy
with a lot of money. . .
The water crisis on the other side of the separation barrier is even more severe than in Israel proper. The
Israeli-Palestinian water agreement that was signed in 1995 provided the Palestinians with increased quantities of
water. The agreement was supposed to be "interim" to be followed by a permanent status agreement several years later. In
the meantime, 13 years have passed, the population has grown, yet no additional allocations have been permitted. . .
It is true that in this joint water pool that we share, there is a zero-sum game. Whatever one side gets is at the
expense of the other. Today when the water deficit is more than one full year of rainfall, division of the water
resources or it reallocation is a reallocation of the deficit. If we fight over water, everyone loses. . .
Cooperation means changing the "hard disk" in our minds regarding the Palestinians. The occupation mind-set that guides
the talks on water led by Kinarti and Nagar can only lead to bad agreements or to . .
The key to resolving the water dispute is cooperation that will bring additional quantities of water to the area and
better management and conservation of the water that we have. The international community has many times expressed its
willingness to assist in any process that builds real cooperation, especially in the water sector.
Haaretz - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a "nuclear umbrella" against the threat of a
nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week. The source, who is close to the new
administration, said the U.S. will declare that an attack on Israel by Tehran would result in a devastating U.S. nuclear
response against Iran.. . .
Secretary of state-designate Hillary Clinton had raised the idea of a nuclear guarantee to Israel during her campaign
for the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency. During a debate with Obama in April, Clinton said that Israel
and Arab countries must be given "deterrent backing." She added, "Iran must know that an attack on Israel will draw a
massive response."
Clinton also proposed that the American nuclear umbrella be extended to other countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf States, if they agree to relinquish their own nuclear ambitions.
According to the same source, the nuclear guarantee would be backed by a new and improved Israeli anti-ballistic missile
system. The Bush administration took the first step by deploying an early-warning radar system in the Negev, which hones
the ability to detect Iranian ballistic missiles.
Obama said this week that he would negotiate with Iran and would offer economic incentives for Tehran to relinquish its
nuclear program. He warned that if Iran refused the deal, he would act to intensify sanctions against the Islamic
Republic. . .
"What is the significance of such guarantee when it comes from those who hesitated to deal with a non-nuclear Iran?"
asked a senior Israeli security source. "What kind of credibility would this [guarantee have] when Iran is
nuclear-capable?"
A senior Bush administration source said that the proposal for an American nuclear umbrella for Israel was ridiculous
and lacked credibility. "Who will convince the citizen in Kansas that the U.S. needs to get mixed up in a nuclear war
because Haifa was bombed? And what is the point of an American response, after Israel's cities are destroyed in an
Iranian nuclear strike?"
British Medical Journal - Measures imposed to reduce exposure to nuts are often based on irrational fears of nut allergies and are becoming
increasingly sensationalist, according to a doctor on bmj.com .
A peanut on the floor of a school bus leading to evacuation and decontamination for fear that it might be eaten by the
10 year old passengers, and schools declaring themselves "nut free" by banning nuts, peanut butter, home baked goods and
any foods without ingredient labels, are just some examples cited in this article.
According to Professor Nicolas Christakis from Harvard Medical School, there is no evidence that any of these extreme
restrictions work better than more circumscribed policies or that they are worth the money and disruptions they create.
In the US, 150 people die each year from food allergies. This is compared to the 50 who die from bee stings, the 100 who
die from lightening strikes, the 45,000 who die in motor vehicle accidents, and the 10,000 who are hospitalized for
traumatic brain injury from playing sport. But these issues do not incur such extreme reactions, such as calling for an
end to sport.
Christakis says that the "gross over-reaction to the magnitude of the threat" is very similar to mass psychogenic
illness, previously known as epidemic hysteria.
Often seen occurring in small towns, schools and factories, these outbreaks of MPI involve healthy people in a flow of
anxiety, most often triggered by a fear of contamination. Being around individuals who are anxious heightens others'
anxiety.
These extreme measures to reduce exposure to nuts are fueling anxiety in parents, leading to more sensitization, and
creating the very epidemic they are designed to stop. A recent study has suggested that early exposure to peanuts
actually reduces, rather than increases the risk of allergy.
Christakis concludes by calling for a level-headed strategy to deal with this phenomenon before it spirals out of
control.
Tony Clarke, Toronto Star - Toronto's decision to ban the sale and distribution of bottled water on city premises was a watershed moment for water
justice advocates the world over. What was truly significant about Toronto's action was not that it banned an
environmentally destructive product, but that it included a commitment to ensuring access to tap water in all city
facilities.
Toronto is now the largest city in the world to pass such far-reaching regulations controlling the distribution of
bottled water on municipal property and promoting the use of publicly delivered tap water. Other Canadian and American
municipalities have enacted policies encouraging the consumption of tap water and limiting the distribution of bottled
water using taxpayer money, but none as large as Toronto has taken such a comprehensive approach.
Toronto's action is in many ways the result of a diverse North American public campaign that has successfully raised
awareness about bottled water as an unnecessary and wasteful product when the majority of people in Canada and the
United States have access to clean drinking water from the tap.
As is often the case, Toronto's initiative had its own elected champions steering it forward. City Councillor Glen De
Baeremaeker and Mayor David Miller had the progressive vision to include bottled water in their goal of keeping
unnecessary packaging out of city landfills. Their efforts were coupled with a concerted grassroots push by Ontario-
based activists, public interest organizations, community and student groups, labour unions and environmental networks.
In the days leading up to the Toronto vote, city councilors faced a barrage of lobbying from the bottled water industry.
These frantic attempts to defeat the resolution continued over the two days of debates when the industry brought a
battery of lobbyists, corporate executives and industry associations into the council chamber to influence the vote. .
However, their high-priced strategy ultimately failed to influence elected officials, who voted with a two-thirds
majority to ban bottled water and reinvest in the public delivery of drinking water.
For many, Toronto has now become the champion of the "Back to the Tap" municipal movement in Canada. To date, this
movement has already seen 17 municipalities from five provinces ban the bottle. With 45 others indicating an interest to
follow suit, Toronto's leadership will no doubt inspire more municipalities to stand up and speak out in support of
public water. To further enable this municipal movement, Toronto City Council also passed a motion to circulate its
resolutions and amended staff report to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Association of Municipalities of
Ontario and the Regional Public Works Commissioners of Ontario.
Tree Hugger - UPS is looking for cyclists in Portland, Corvallis and other cities to drag around 200 pound trailers to do
deliveries. UPS's Jeff Grant spoke with Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland:
"For every three bikes we use for deliveries, we save an average of 17 gallons of fuel per day (compared to one truck).
That's about $50 in savings." Across the entire district, Grant says for every three bikes used during the holiday
season, UPS will save $38,000 in vehicle operation and upkeep costs.
Grant told Jonathan that he'll ask staff to deliver about 25-50 packages per day, compared to 150 stops a day for a
normal "package car".
David Adam, Guardian, UK - Support for renewable energy technology to fight global warming is weakening in the face of worldwide economic problems and the true scale of the
carbon reductions required, a survey published today has suggested.
Figures presented at the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland, show that climate experts have less faith in alternative energy than they did 12 months ago.
The survey shows less support for wind energy, solar power, biofuels, biomass and hydrogen energy as technologies with "high potential" to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere over the
next 25 years.
There was also less support for carbon capture and storage, new nuclear build, small-scale hydropower and natural gas
stations as viable ways to hit targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Eric Whan of Globescan, which carried out the survey of "climate decision makers", said: "As the climate crisis deepens
they could be becoming less optimistic that individual technologies may be able to solve the problem."
Two of the biggest issues that have yet to make it to the table in the climate change discussion: overpopulation and how to get people to stop moving around so much.
Paul Tharp, NY Post - A new Citigroup scandal is engulfing Robert Rubin and his former disciple Chuck Prince for their roles in an alleged
Ponzi-style scheme that's now choking world banking.
Director Rubin and ousted CEO Prince - and their lieutenants over the past five years - are named in a federal lawsuit
for an alleged complex cover-up of toxic securities that spread across the globe, wiping out trillions of dollars in
their destructive paths.
Investor-plaintiffs in the suit accuse Citi management of overseeing the repackaging of unmarketable collateralized debt
obligations that no one wanted - and then reselling them to Citi and hiding the poisonous exposure off the books in
shell entities.
The lawsuit said that when the bottom fell out of the shaky assets in the past year, Citi's stock collapsed, wiping out
more than $122 billion of shareholder value.
However, Rubin and other top insiders were able to keep Citi shares afloat until they could cash out more than $150
million for themselves in "suspicious" stock sales "calculated to maximize the personal benefits from undisclosed inside
information," the lawsuit said.
The latest troubles for Rubin, Prince and others emerged in a 500-page investigation by Citigroup investors represented
by law firm Kirby McInerney. . .
Rubin cleared $30.6 million on his stock sales, while Prince got $26.5 million, former COO Robert Druskin got nearly $32
million and former Global Wealth Management unit chief Todd Thomson got $25.7 million, the suit said.
Citi denied the allegations and said it "will defend against it vigorously."
Chicago Sun-Times - President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning
about whether he was the Obama 'advisor' named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in
exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama's friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
Emanuel was uncharacteristically absent from Obama's news conference this morning. He was spotted two hours later in the
lobby of Chicago's City Hall. He was there to listen to his two children performing in a concert with their school,
Anshe Emet.
A Sun-Times reporter pressed him to comment about whether he was the emissary named in the criminal complaint.
"You're wasting your time," Emanuel said. "I'm not going to say a word to you. I'm going to do this with my children.
Don't do that. I'm a father. I have two kids. I'm not going to do it."
Asked, "Can't you do both? Emanuel replied, "I'm not as capable as you. I'm going to be a father. I'm allowed to be a
father," and he pushed the reporter's digital recorder away.
Blagojevch was caught on tape saying that he wanted the Obama advisor in question to know what Blagojevich wanted in
exchange for the Jarrett appointment.
Blagojevich said, "He asks me for the fifth CD thing, I want it to be in his head." Emanuel represents the 5th
Congressional District in Illinois.
No one in the Obama campaign or administration has been charged with any wrongdoing. Obama said this morning that none
of his staff has had a hand in any dealmaking on his Senate replacement.
Bloomberg - U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing 'storm' of new defaults and
job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
A total of 259,085 properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed on last month,
the seller of default data said in a report today. That's the fewest since June. Filings fell 7 percent from October as
state laws and lender programs designed to delay the foreclosure process allowed delinquent borrowers to stay in their
homes. . .
Rising unemployment, expiring foreclosure moratoriums and state efforts that "run out of steam" will push monthly
filings toward the record of more than 303,000 set in August, Sharga said. The number of homes that revert to lenders,
the last stage of foreclosure and known as "real estate owned" or REO properties, will increase to 1 million from as
many as 880,000 this year, he said.
"The forces leading to foreclosure are hard to offset in most cases and impossible in many," Robert Hall, a Stanford
University professor and chairman of the National Bureau of Economic Research committee that calls the beginnings and
ends of recessions, wrote in an e-mail. "Job loss is a major source of defaults at all times, and job losses are running
at extreme levels now."
A FEW FACTS ABOUT AUTO WORKERSW
Fact Check - As for whether Toyota workers earn more than employees of U.S. domestic automakers: In 2006, at Toyota's Georgetown,
Ky., plant, workers averaged more in base pay and bonuses than UAW members at Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrylser,
according to the Detroit Free Press. The difference was due to profit-sharing bonuses; Detroit's workers aren't getting
many of those these days because, well, there's really nothing to share. The transplants don't give out much data,
however, so it's hard to tell if this pattern is continuing or even if it applied to all Toyota plants in 2006.
Labor costs only account for about 10 percent of the cost of producing a vehicle. And it's not the cost of American cars
that people complain about; they're already often thousands of dollars less than their Japanese counterparts. Whatever
changes may be made in the carmakers' labor agreements, we're convinced, and the recent hearings show, that there are
much bigger problems in Detroit.
Washington Post - GM workers average about $28 an hour, though new workers receive far less. The Nissan workers make about $25 an hour,
the company said.
"The overall compensation for a worker is not that different whether it's a foreign or domestic automaker in the U.S. --
they're all in the same ballpark," said Kristin Dziczek, assistant director of research at the Center for Automotive
Research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "They have to be. Good wages and benefits avoid unionization." The
biggest difference in the labor costs is that the foreign automakers don't have to pay for legions of retirees -- their
workers are younger and haven't received benefits that are as generous, Dziczek said.
From a letter from Peter Karmanos, Jr., chairman and CEO of Compuware Corporation, to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.,
a critic of bridge loans for American automakers.
Peter Karmanos, Jr - I trust it is safe to say that when you refer to "government subsidies," you are referring to subsidies provided by
both federal and state governments. And if this is in fact true, then I am sure you were adamantly against the State of
Alabama offering lucrative incentives (in essence, subsidies) to Mercedes Benz in the early 1990s to lure the German
automobile manufacturer to the State.
As it turned out, Alabama offered a stunning $253 million incentive package to Mercedes. Additionally, the state also
offered to train the workers, clear and improve the site, upgrade utilities, and buy 2,500 Mercedes Benz vehicles. All
told, it is estimated that the incentive package totaled anywhere from $153,000 to $220,000 per created job. On top of
all this, the state gave the foreign automaker a large parcel of land worth between $250 and $300 million, which was
coincidentally how much the company expected to invest in building the plant.
THE BLAGO BEAT
NY Times - In a rare firsthand account of how Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, went about the selection process, an Illinois
state senator said in an interview that he had felt pressured to respond to the governor's interest in him with a quid
pro quo agreement and has withdrawn his name because of increasing wariness about the process.
The state senator, Kwame Raoul, who represents the South Side of Chicago, offered few details of his interaction with
the governor's office but said he received a call about a month ago confirming that he was under consideration. Soon
afterward, however, Mr. Raoul said he ran head-on into another message: that the governor was looking for a candidate
who offered something of tangible value to him.
"It was open knowledge among people in and around Springfield," Mr. Raoul said. "Legislators and lobbyists alike openly
talked about the fact that the governor would want to appoint somebody who would benefit him. I can firmly say that I've
had these conversations, that I've spoken with both legislators and lobbyists who felt that that would be the
consideration in his appointment."
Mr. Raoul would not specifically say what the content of the conversations were, or whom they were with, except that the
initial inquiry from the governor's office was made by Victor Roberson, deputy director for intergovernmental affairs.
Interest in his candidacy died on both sides, Mr. Raoul said, adding, "Obviously, the perception was that I didn't have
anything to give other than my service."
CRASH TALK
Wall Street Journal - Banks lined up to reveal billions in potential losses as a result of alleged fraud by Wall Street investment manager
Bernard Madoff. The Royal Bank of Scotland - 58 per cent owned by the taxpayer - said L400 million was at risk in the
hedge funds invested with 70-year-old . . . Spanish bank Santander, which owns Abbey and the savings business of
Bradford & Bingley, said its potential exposure was more than L2 billion. . . HSBC said it believed it had a potential exposure of
around 1 billion US dollars.
Wall Street Journal - New potential victims emerged of Wall Street veteran Bernard Madoff's alleged giant Ponzi scheme, with international
banks, hedge funds and wealthy private investors among those sorting out what could amount to tens of billions of
dollars in losses. New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, GMAC LLC Chairman J. Ezra Merkin and former Philadelphia Eagles
owner Norman Braman were among the dozens of seemingly sophisticated investors who placed money on what could prove to
be history's largest financial scam.
And at least three funds of hedge funds -- which raise money from investors and farm it out to hedge funds -- may have
significant losses. Fairfield Greenwich Group and Tremont Capital Management of New York placed hundreds of millions of
their investors' dollars into funds overseen by Mr. Madoff. On Friday, Maxam Capital Management LLC reported a combined
loss of $280 million on funds they had invested with Mr. Madoff. "I'm wiped out," said Sandra Manzke, Maxam's founder
and chairman. The Darien, Conn., fund of hedge funds will have to close as a result of the losses, she said. . .
Details emerged Friday of how Mr. Madoff ran the alleged scam, fostering a veneer of exclusivity and creating an A-list
of investors that became his most powerful marketing tool. From New York and Florida to Minnesota and Texas, the money
manager became an insider's choice among well-heeled investors seeking steady returns. By hiring unofficial agents,
tapping into elite country clubs and creating "invitation only" policies for investors, he recruited a steady stream of
new clients.
During golf-course and cocktail-party banter, Mr. Madoff's name frequently surfaced as a money manager who could
consistently deliver high returns. Older, Jewish investors called Mr. Madoff " 'the Jewish bond,' " says Ken Phillips,
head of a Boulder, Colo., investment firm. "It paid 8% to 12%, every year, no matter what.". . .
Mr. Madoff tapped social networks in Dallas, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis. In Minnesota, he attracted investors from
Hillcrest Golf Club of St. Paul and Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, investors say. One of them estimated that
investors from the two clubs may have invested more than $100 million combined. . .
Jeff Fischer, a top divorce attorney in Palm Beach, says many of his clients were also Mr. Madoff's clients. "Every big
divorce that came through my office had portfolio positions with Madoff," he says. . .
Richard Spring, a Boca Raton resident and former securities analyst, says he had about $11 million -- or 95% of his net
worth -- invested with Mr. Madoff. "That's how much I believed in him," Mr. Spring said. .
Eric Gibson, Wall Street Jouirnal - We can now add colleges and universities to the list of victims of the financial crisis. The stock-market collapse has
badly eroded endowments, forcing schools to suspend capital projects, freeze hiring, rethink need-blind financial-aid
policies and cut budgets. The Journal reported this week that Harvard University's giant-killer endowment, which stood
at $36.9 billion as of June 30, has lost 22% of its value in the months since and that the university's administration
is planning for a 30% decline for the fiscal year ending next June. In a letter to the Harvard community two days ago,
President Drew Gilpin Faust announced that the school is "reconsidering the scale and pace of planned capital projects,
including the University's development in Allston, and . . . taking a hard look at hiring, staffing levels and
compensation." Many private colleges and universities are doing the same thing. In response to falling endowments, some
have considered suing their brokers for putting funds into risky investments, while others are trying to get a slice of
any future congressional stimulus package. Can clamor for a bailout be far behind?
Incredibly, one or two schools have even contemplated making up their shortfalls the old-fashioned way -- by increasing
tuition. . . The soup-to-nuts cost (tuition, room and board, extras) of one year at a private college is already in the
region of $50,000, bringing the cost of a bachelor's degree to close to a quarter of a million dollars. As one wag has
observed, that's like buying a new BMW every year and driving it off a cliff.
Moreover, tuition increases have consistently outpaced inflation. Since 1992, inflation has averaged between 2.5% and 3%
a year; annual tuition increases have often been as high as 6%. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the
reason that tuition increases at private four-year institutions kept pace with inflation this year is not that these
schools suddenly curbed their free-spending ways but that inflation itself jumped dramatically. The average tuition
increase was 5.9%, while the Consumer Price Index rose 5.6% in the 12 months from July 2007. . .
In its latest survey, published last month, the Chronicle reports that compensation for private university presidents
rose on average 6% in the past year, a figure that represents 50% more than the standard annual merit increase for
private-sector employees. The total compensation (salary plus benefits) of three private university presidents for 2007,
the most recent year for which data are available, was in the stratosphere: Columbia University's Lee C. Bollinger
earned $1,411,894 and Northwestern University's Henry S. Bienen, $1,742,560; Suffolk University in Massachusetts paid
David J. Sargent $2,800,461.
Washngton Post - Fannie Mae has agreed to let renters stay in their homes even if the owners of the properties have been foreclosed on.
About 4,000 renters live in properties foreclosed on by Fannie Mae. The move comes after the mortgage-finance giant came
under pressure from a Connecticut legal aid group to end efforts to evict tenants who are able to pay their monthly
bills but whose landlords have lost their buildings to foreclosure.
Palm Beach Post - Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street
executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the
rules. But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional
aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling
troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use
the money. Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In
a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue
package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed
the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.
Bloomberg - Almost a third of hedge funds will shut or merge after the $1.5 trillion industry posted its worst ever performance
this year, according to IGS Group, which advises hedge funds on raising money. . The number of hedge funds more than
tripled in the last decade to a record 10,233 at the end of June, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. .
. Hedge funds typically charge a 2 percent management fee and keep 20 percent of profits. . . Prime brokers, the banks
that provide loans and handle fund administration, are cutting off firms they don't expect to be profitable clients,
Godden added. Hedge funds will need to manage at least $300 million in assets, up from $100 million a year ago to stay
in business, Sullivan said.
Reuters - Homelessness and demand for emergency food are rising in the United States as the economy founders, a report said, and
homeless advocates cautioned many cities were not equipped for the increase. A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors
showed that 19 of 25 cities saw an increase in homelessness in the 12 months to October, while four reported a drop and
two cities lacked enough data for conclusive results. On average, the cities in the survey saw a 12 percent rise in
homelessness, the report said. Although the results do not cover all U.S. cities, homeless advocates said they were in
line with anecdotal evidence nationwide. Homeless advocates say families are flooding homeless shelters across the
United States in numbers not seen for years, camping out in motels or staying with friends and relatives following
foreclosures on tens of thousands of homes during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
NY Times - The Superior Court system in New Hampshire will take the unusual step of halting jury trials for a month early next
year because of a widening state budget crisis. John Broderick, the state's chief justice, said suspending trials was
essential to avoid layoffs in the judicial system, which has already cut $2.7 million from its budget. The measure will
save about $73,000, the monthly amount spent on stipends for jurors. But the head of an association representing civil
trial lawyers said it could have a harsh impact on plaintiffs, many of whom have already waited years for a judgment in
their case. "What are they going to rely on in the interim?" said Ellen Shemitz, executive director of the New Hampshire
Association for Justice. "Some of these people have been harmed by the wrongdoing of others, are out of work as a result
and are looking to the courts to protect their rights and provide some kind of financial remuneration."
NY Times - Opponents of a Congressional bailout for Detroit auto companies laid blame for its defeat on the United Automobile
workers union, which refused to agree to grant wage concessions in 2009 as a condition of the deal. At a news
conference, Ron Gettelfinger, the president of the U.A.W., disputed that description of the events and called on the
Treasury and the White House to release financing and "prevent the imminent collapse of the automakers and the
devastating consequences that would follow." . . .
Representatives for the union, which had already accepted a series of cuts in its current contract, sought instead to
push any more concessions back to 2011, when the U.A.W.'s contract with Detroit auto companies expires.
In a statement Thursday night, the union said it was "prepared to agree that any restructuring plan should ensure that
the wages and benefits of workers at the domestic automakers should be competitive with those paid by the foreign
transplants. But we also recognized that this would take time to work out and implement" using programs like buyouts and
early retirement offers to bring in new workers at lower rates.
"Unfortunately, Senate Republicans insisted that this had to be accomplished by an arbitrary deadline. This arbitrary
requirement was not imposed on any other stakeholder groups. Thus, the U.A.W. believed this was a blatant attempt to
make workers shoulder the lion's share of the costs of any restructuring plan," the statement said. . .
Mr. Gettelfinger said Friday that "The G.O.P. caucus was insisting the restructuring had to be done on the backs of
workers and retirees rather than have all stakeholders come to the table."
Media Matters - Simply put, GM's labor costs are not synonymous with hourly wages earned by UAW employees. Many in the press have
casually used the two interchangeably. But they're not.
Felix Salmon at Portfolio did perhaps the best job explaining the misinformation at play: "The average GM assembly-line
worker makes about $28 per hour in wages, and I can assure you that GM is not paying $42 an hour in health insurance and
pension plan contributions. Rather, the $70 per hour figure (or $73 an hour, or whatever) is a ridiculous number
obtained by adding up GM's total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours
worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers. [emphasis in original]
Indeed, according to this Associated Press report, a chunk of GM's $70-an-hour labor costs goes toward paying current
retirees' pensions and health-care coverage. In other words, that's money that's not going to end up in the pocket of
any autoworker when he cashes his paycheck this week. That's money GM has to set aside in order to pay off costs
associated with workers already in retirement. That money has absolutely nothing to do with calculating the hourly wage
of a full-time UAW employee today. None. "
So, no, UAW workers don't make $70 an hour even if you factor in benefits, because a portion of those benefits are going
to people who retired years ago.
Democratic Underground - While Mitch McConnell and other Republicans have hinted that their opposition to investment in the Big Three is all
about busting the unions, Jim DeMint refreshingly came out and admitted it yesterday on NPR.
Norris: Now, you know the unions are saying this is also a political ploy on the part of the Republicans to try get rid
of unions and use the auto industry troubles to do just that.
DeMint: Well, I'm not trying to get rid of the unions, but I am saying that they appear to be an antiquated concept in
today's economy.
DC Indymedia - The sit-in and plant occupation at Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors ended in victory when the union announced that
more than 200 workers and members of UE Local 1110 voted unanimously to accept a $1.75 million settlement that includes
eight weeks of back pay, two months of continued health coverage, and compensation for unused vacation time.
According to UE, over the five days of the Republic plant occupation, messages of solidarity poured in from around the
world. Individual workers, organizations, labor unions and federations sent emails and letters of solidarity. Protests
against the Bank of America were also organized across the U.S. as word of the Republic occupation spread.
Stephen Gandel, Time - While the $700 billion bailout has been the focus of attention and scrutiny, the Internal Revenue Service and lawmakers
have been quietly making changes to the tax code and how it is followed in an effort to further boost the financial
strength of ailing companies. At the same time, though, the changes drain billions of dollars of badly needed tax
revenue when the federal deficit is mushrooming. Many of the changes may lower corporate-tax revenue for years to come.
"The IRS has spent the past few months trying to make the rules as liberal as possible," says Robert Willens, an
accounting and tax expert in New York. "They have been decreasing corporate taxes pretty consistently."
The IRS this year has issued 113 notices, many of which will lower the taxes companies will pay this year and in the
future. That breaks the previous record of 111 in 2006, and is nearly double the 65 issued in the last year of Bill
Clinton's presidency. Lawmakers, too, have passed tax changes and are pushing for more, which will save corporations
billions of dollars this year. One of the biggest windfalls could come from a proposed change in the so-called carryback
rule, which would fatten the tax rebate companies get when they have losses. The extension would be similar to one that
was passed after 9/11. . .
Jonathan Stempel, Reuters - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally
bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded. Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters
Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion
rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders
with new capital. . .
"Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally
bankrupt," said Rogers, who is now a private investor.
"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent
and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's
happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the
incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics.". . .
BREVITAS
OUTLYING PRECINCTS
Frederic Dicker, NY Post - A prominent New York Democratic congressman publicly questioned Caroline Kennedy's credentials to replace Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton, saying she's no more qualified to hold office than Jennifer Lopez. Rep. Gary Ackerman of Queens, a
25-year veteran of Congress, declared in a radio interview: "I don't know what Caroline Kennedy's qualifications are."
"Except that she has name recognition, but so does J.Lo," Ackerman continued on Steve Malzberg's radio show on WOR. "I
wouldn't make J.Lo the senator unless she proved she had great qualifications, but we haven't seen them yet.". . .
Ackerman also joked that he had taken himself out of the running for the Senate in a way that appeared to highlight
Kennedy's lack of statewide experience. He said he wouldn't want to replace Clinton "because I don't do Utica, and
that's a qualification for the job." A Marist College poll Tuesday showed that Kennedy, who lives in Manhattan, has her
weakest support for a potential Senate race among upstate voters.
MONEY & WORK
MSNBC - Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation's most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of
drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
[California's] most dire water shortage in three decades is expected to erase more than 55,000 jobs across the fertile
San Joaquin Valley by summer and drive up food prices across the nation, university economists predict. "People being
thrown out of work are the ones who can least afford it," said Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at
the University of California-Davis, who estimates that $1.6 billion in agriculture-related wages across the valley will
be lost in the coming months because of dwindling water. Already the wage losses have hit businesses that are the
backbone of the small farm communities that sustain nearly a quarter of the nation's agriculture production.
JUSTICE & FREEDOM
Washington Post - Immigration and civil liberties groups condemned a new U.S. government policy to collect DNA samples from all
non-citizens detained by authorities and all people arrested for federal crimes. The new Justice Department rule. . .
dramatically expands a federal law enforcement database of genetic identifiers, which is now limited to storing
information about convicted criminals and arrestees from 13 states. . . U.S. officials said that probable cause that a
person has committed a crime or indications that he is an illegal immigrant subject to removal from the country are
appropriate standards for collecting DNA. But Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's
technology and liberty project, said the change "turns the presumption of innocence on its head." Charles H. Kuck,
president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the U.S. rule "casts civilly detained immigrants as
criminals, requiring them to submit to DNA testing even in cases where there is no suggestion of any criminal
violation."
MEDIA
PR Watch - The Society of Professional Journalists has issued a statement strongly criticizing the National Broadcasting
Corporation for its continued use of retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey as an on-air military analyst, while failing to
disclose McCaffrey's multiple conflicts of interest that were recently detailed in the New York Times. "When the retired
general offers his insight on the air for NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, viewers are left with the impression he is an objective
observer, a former military man speaking from the depths of his experience," it states. "What the networks have failed
to tell viewers is that McCaffrey has a financial interest in the war." . . . Writing for the Columbia Journalism
Review, Charles Kaiser asks if there is "any limit to the shamelessness of NBC News," which "has never once disclosed
any of McCaffrey's multiple conflicts of interest on the air. . . McCaffrey is the living embodiment of all the worst
aspects of entrenched Washington corruption -- a man who shares with scores of other retired officers a huge financial
interest in having America conduct its wars for as long as possible."
Word is that Detroit newspapers may cut home delivery to three times a week.
THE MIX
Malaysia Sun - The Vatican's chief spokesman has said that the Roman Catholic Church believes homosexuality must not be considered a
crime, but added that initiatives aimed at putting all forms of sexual orientation on the same level are wrong. Father
Federico Lombardi was commenting on controversy triggered by the Holy See's decision to oppose a proposal by France,
backed by the 27-nation European Union, for a United Nations resolution calling governments to decriminalize
homosexuality. Lombardi said the Vatican opposed all forms of discrimination, but he added that the proposal, if
accepted, could end up making the Catholic Church, which opposes granting marriage rights to homosexuals, guilty of
infringing human rights. . . Homosexuality is currently punishable by law in more than 85 countries. It is punishable by
death in a number of them, including Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.
CITIES
NY Times - Ridership on the city's sprawling public transportation system increased about 9 percent from 2003 to 2007. "What you
see is that for the first time since at least World War II, all of the growth in travel in the city has been absorbed by
non-auto modes, primarily by mass transit," said Bruce Schaller, New York's deputy transportation commissioner for
planning and sustainability, who wrote the study. . . Mr. Schaller said that vehicle trips citywide peaked in 1999 and
then leveled off, with a dip in 2001 as a result of the terror attack on the World Trade Center. The overall trend has
been largely stable traffic volumes across the city from 1999 through 2007. In contrast, during the years when the
economy was most buoyant, from 2003 to 2007, transit ridership soared, increasing about 9 percent during those years,
according to the city study. The difference is even greater when the focus is on the core commercial district of
Manhattan, south of 60th Street. From 2003 to 2007, the study found, traffic entering that area fell by 3 percent.
During the same period, transit ridership into the same zone rose 12 percent.
RELIGION & ITS ALTERNATIVES
LA Times - Bill Ritter Jr. was not the first governor of Colorado to declare the first Thursday in May as a day of prayer. But he
was the first to attend a celebration of the National Day of Prayer at the state Capitol, joining a crowd of several
hundred Christians in 2007. His appearance at the event caught the attention of a Wisconsin-based atheist group, which
has mounted a campaign its leaders hope will dissuade him and other governors from participating again. The Freedom From
Religion Foundation has filed a lawsuit in state court, seeking to stop the governor from issuing any proclamations it
says endorse a particular religion and send a message to nonreligious residents "that they are expected to believe in
God.". . . "Everybody has become too comfortable with this interaction of religion and government. Sometimes someone
needs to push back," said David Habecker, 63, one of the lawsuit's plaintiffs and a member of the foundation.
ABP - South Carolinians who want to advertise their Christian faith on their car tags won't get to anytime soon, according to
a Dec. 11 ruling by a federal judge. In a preliminary injunction, United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie
ordered state officials to halt production, sales, advertising and distribution of the new license plates. The tags
feature a cross superimposed on a stylized stained-glass window and the inscription "I Believe" above the tag number and
the name of the state. In a five-page order, Currie said she issued the injunction because federal courts would likely
find the law that created the plates a gross violation of the Constitution's ban on government establishment of
religion.
REVIEW IRREGULARS. . . .
Thanks to Jorn Barger, Charles Everett, Scott Langill, Chris Harris, Doug Ireland, Larry Bensky, HT Moses and Jim
McCusker whose recent communiques have had some effect - subtle, corrective, moderating, enlightening or enabling - on
what you read here over the past week.
FURTHERMORE. . . .
The South El Monte city council has ordered its mayor to leave city hall by 11 pm. South El Monte is east of LA, The mayor, who says she
needs to work late to get everything done, calls the new rule petty.
READER COMMENTS
NOTE: You can post your comments on any of the above stories by going to our Undernews site and searching for the
headline. Once posted, a copy is immediately mailed to the Review and we pick some of the most interesting to publish
here. http://prorev.com/indexa.htm
CHILDREN'S BRAINS
And what will science do should it discover that some of the functional differences may be present pre-birth, the cause of congenital happenstance? Or
even, lord help us, in some cases at least, that these differences might be the result of heritable traits passed down
over successive generations? What then? Do we, as a society, simply reconcile ourselves to the idea that poverty may
well be genetic and conclude that the poor 'have it in their blood' so to speak, and thus will always be with us?
Regarding the UC Berkeley findings that children on the lower rungs of society have different brains than those children of the
middle class: reading the article I felt as though ice water was running in my veins and down my spine. Reminds me of
Nazi science and the findings regarding race. I imagine that we will be hearing in the next few months that we need to
prevent poor people from reproducing.
You're assuming the findings were based on genetics. They were actually based on environmental conditions,
Excellent post. I wish people would pay more attention to the incredibly corrupt Kennedy machine, which has dominated Boston and MA
politics for a century now, and has even extended its tendrils into New York. Not surprising that Ted Kennedy would be
trying to get his niece appointed as Senator. If people would take off their rose-colored glasses and investigate the
Kennedy finances they'd find lots of dirt there. JFK appointing RFK as attorney general is the worst act of presidential
nepotism and cronyism in history. But it goes way back. Did you know that their grandfather, Honey Fitz, had his
election to Congress in 1917 invalidated because of voter fraud?
Very informative, but a small error; it's not Liberal Party but Labour Party in NZ - GevN
Is anyone seriously claiming this is not a case of selective prosecution? Fitzgerald had Cheney dead to rights on the Plame case but backed
off. Subsequently every U.S. District Attorney who didn't comply with selective politically motivated prosecution was
fired, yet here we have the Pat Fitzgeralds and the Mary Beth Buchanans stinking up the Justice Dept. I'm not defending
Blagojevich's ethics, but obviously this is selective prosecution intended to embarass and weaken Obama and the Dems.
I'm impressed (not favorably) about how carefully Obama is being protected. Why on Earth should we believe that Obama, who, as Sam has noted, was
foisted on us by somebody, is clean?
Only two things have actually changed to improve real airline security since 9/11, and neither has anything to do with TSA:
- passengers in fear of their collective lives will now die before ceding control to hijackers
- the door to the pilot's cabin has been reinforced and cannot be opened from outside
Everything else is what is known in the business as "security theater" - useless rituals that reassure an ignorant
public. - Stephen P. Schaefer
Educational psychologists have long known that adults spend no time on learning that's not in the service of a goal. If
they're not going to get something out of the process that they want, little or no learning will take place.
Psychologists also know that the first stage of learning is to map the new material onto existing material. However
imperfectly we do it, we must relate the new material to something we already understand (or think we do).
Is it really so surprising, then, to think that children, like other creatures, might not be the simple, conveniently
volitionless "meat mechanisms" that our economic system want nearly all of us to be? That even children might respond
better if treated as human? - Mairead
The pony at the bottom of this mess would be the possibility that Rahm ends up considered being too damaged goods to function of
chief of staff, and thus, gets replaced. One can only dream.
Fewer people, workplaces and schools in walking distance from homes, and work-from-home would immediately reduce energy needs.
Slightly longer term real investment in insulation would cut peak energy demands during the hottest and coldest months.
Slowing down - allowing much more time for travel - would allow energy demand to be cut. Do cargo ships really have to
move as fast as possible, or as efficiently as possible?
A slower, less hectic world could be much more pleasant to live in, without sacrificing anything in luxury.
It was actually Hoover's Administration that came up with the idea for large scale public works to boost the economy. FDR ran on two
issues: Balance the budget and repeal prohibition. He only achieved the latter. He abandoned trying to balance the
budget after about 8 months when the attempt was obviously making the economy worse; only then did he start enlisting
advisors who put together the New Deal - essential continuing and expanding the measures Hoover had started. What FDR
was best at was making FDR look good, and instilling confidence (really quite unfounded) in his presidency. He cleverly
managed to make all his failures appear unavoidable consequences of fate, while taking credit for every success . . even
if he had opposed it.
It is true that Hoover's Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a forerunner of the Works Progress Administration. But
your division is a bit exaggerated. The WPA was started two years after Roosevelt took office. And he liked the RFC
enough to hire his top aide, Tommy Corcoran, from there. And how does your editor know this arcane fact? Because my own
father worked with Corcoran at the RFC, then returned to private practice, only to get a call a couple of months into
the New Deal from Corcoran urging him to come back, which he did.
Note that in cases involving less influential persons the feds generally seize the defendant's assets, alleging assets were
criminally obtained, making hiring adequate legal representation impossible.
People don't seem to realize that, while nukes have a limited future because of their nature -there's only so much mineable radioactive
material available - we don't currently have another source of energy that has its potential yield and doesn't
contribute to the climate disaster. We need to focus on high-yield, high-safety installations -- and crank up research
into replacement technologies. Or we need to stop being a technological society.
We haven't overcome the basic level of entropic limits: we don't yet (maybe never will) know how to get a lot of energy
without giving up something important for it. Personally, I don't think creating massive visual and noise pollution is a
good tradeoff to avoid the risk of a nuke accident. Pollution kills, too - and it does it all the time, with certainty.
A cataclysm only kills if it happens.
Let's not forget to add avian flu to the hysterical mix. That, too, is once again starting to make its rounds. Folks are already starting
to look cross-eyed at my humble flock of chickens. I've already been asked if I feel safe having them in my yard. Let me
state here and now to those so concerned, it's not the chickens that give me pause. What's more, I feel perfectly safe
with the four varieties of nut trees and bushes surrounding my yard. My only problem seems to be nuts of the two legged
variety.
Don't forget the contribution made by insurance companies and lawyers to this nonsense.
The incredible levels of hysteria that have been generated over this non-threat by parents (usually moms in the affluent 'hipster/yuppie'
demographic, I've frequently noticed) just tend to reinforce my personal belief that breeding truly does cause
degeneration of brain cells.
Well obviously we need to curb this menace. Fell all nut trees, pecans, walnuts. Let's cut down hickories and oaks too, then burn them
all in some giant tribute to ignorance and self-loathing. I mean the earth is dirty and dangerous. I think much of D.H.
Lawrence's brilliant work centers around human creation of an environment unsuitable for their entire evolution. Every
once in a while I think of the scene from Srike Pay wherein the striking miners have received their weekly pittance and
make straight for the taverns, They pass a fence where the mine's draft ponies are staring forlornly at a day of idle
freedom . Instead of freedom the ponies and the miners see confusion and emptiness. Lawrence thought western
civilization was neurotic and wrongheaded.
Lest a anyone rush out and harm a tree to curb this menace, remember that peanuts (a legume) grow underground on a vine. - Lorax
Ah, yes. Pharmaceutical LSD-25 from Sandoz Laboratories. Profound mystical experience from a tiny tablet. Those were the days. -
marc
It would be well worth the time and effort to locate a copy of The Best And The Brightest, David Halberstam's chronicle of that previous Harvard dominated era. The parallels are already striking.
WAITING TO VOTE
The wait times to vote given by ABC/MIT seem a bit short. Everyone I know in Florida waited 45 minutes to 3 hours to vote.
Isolating Palestinians in enclaves whose only egress is blocked by IDF is not apartheid? Then I guess carpet bombing Lebanon was self defense?
Torturing teenagers is entertainment? To most Americans, Carter is the only lucid president we've had in decades.
Marijuana should be legal or at least decriminalized. The only lives I've seen ruined by pot are the lives of the people that got
caught. DUI is a lesser offense than possession of marijuana in many states. How many people do you know that were
killed by a marijuana smoker?
OBAMALAND
Democratic Party partisans look exactly like Republican Party partisans -- or fundamentalists of any creed. Strip away the identifying
information and it's not possible to tell them apart. Same tactics, same intolerance for "deviationism", same demands
for lockstep obedience and purity. Partisan politics is a religion, and we're the worse for it.
I can't possibly guess why the Bush Justice Dept. didn't investigate and prosecute this case. I guess the FBI was too busy knocking down doors
and terrorizing innocent families of low level fugitive drug dealers. Asking the Feds to oversee finance and protect
investors would be like expecting a madam to warn her clients that one of her whores had an STD.
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Washington's Most Unofficial Source
611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #381
Washington DC 20003
202-423-7884
Editor: Sam Smith
BOOKS
MUSIC
ENDS