Undernews For May 28th, 2009

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27 May 2009

SHOP TALK

To DC Readers - Assuming we don't get bounced for some more newsworthy matter, your editor and his historian wife will be interviewed on the Kojo Nnambi show on WAMU on Thursday 1:30pm. News commentator Mark Plotkin correctly refers to us, in the aforementioned order, as the bad Smith and the good Smith, but I have promised to be on my best behavior, such as it is.

FLOTSAM & JETSAM

ARGUMENT WITHOUT HONOR

Sam Smith

Obama and his aides have been repeatedly praised for their intelligence. Unfortunately, intelligence is not all that useful an indicator of good leadership. After all, Larry Summers, Robert Rubin and Tim Geithner are quite smart and look where that's led us.

As Jonathan Alter put it, "Obamaworld is loaded with . . . policy wonks who have experienced little in life but sound unfailingly articulate and confident about their elegant economic models . . . One senior Obama official says he feels a bit inferior. He went to Harvard Law School, but his undergraduate degree is merely from Georgetown."

Go back a few decades and you have the Bay of Pigs disaster being inspired and bungled by intelligent people of the likes of Jack Kennedy, Richard Bissell and Allan Dulles. And Vietnam had more Harvard intellectuals making disastrous governmental decisions than at any time in our history.

The problem is that intelligence is just a skill, not unlike a good backhand, which can either be used to whop an old lady and steal her purse or to win a tournament at Wimbleton. Talent is only as good as the purpose to which it is put.

Lyndon Johnson once described the CIA as being filled with graduates of Yale and Princeton whose daddies wouldn't let them into their brokerage firms. Why? No doubt because of the huge difference between the exam at the end of the semester and the endless tests of life.

To work well, intelligence has to be joined with things not well taught at universities, things like judgment, wisdom, understanding of other people and cultures, and, at the top of the list, honor.

Honor and integrity are critical because without their direction and restraint, intellectuals easily become just professional wrestlers of the mind, bright bullies getting their way at the expense of others.

In the end, such people can even add themselves to their list of victims, because they have placed so much trust in the strength of their mind that they have no warning when it is leading them drastically astray.

Such thoughts occurred as I read Obama's scary arguments in defense of preventive detention and as the debate on torture becomes stripped of moral context as though we were arguing over Coke vs. Pepsi. In both cases, arguments have been based on a logic that assumes we no longer care who we are, individually or as a country, only how we might win a particular contest.

In fact, even the proposed course in these cases is pragmatically faulty, but what is truly frightening is that those pressing torture or preventive detention have no more moral grounds for their behavior than did, say, Bernie Madoff. For example, all you have to do with Obama's argument for preventive detention is change a few words and you can dismantle our whole justice system.

Of course, Madoff knew he was doing wrong; the Obamas of the world get trapped by their training in the art of argument without honor, losing the ability to see the dangers of their own logic.

Worst, the media and the public tend to be impressed by such arguments and so we drift quietly further and further from what intelligence is meant to help us achieve: a decent society for all its members.

This drift from honor started well before Obama and no end is in sight. But precisely because current mythology declares him a particularly moral man, Obama's indifference can actually be more dangerous than that of a George Bush and Richard Cheney. If either of them had suggested preventive detention, Democrats and the media would have been immediately up in arms. With all too few exceptions Obama has gotten a pass.

Sadly, it is people like Obama who can make evil or injustice seem reasonable. And when they move on, the bad laws and precedents remain, and the next crowd may no longer be interested in even the appearance of decency. This is what happened when liberals sat quietly as Bill Clinton opened the door for Bush's excesses in support of financial deregulation and against civil liberties.

We have been taught that authoritarianism comes with bombs and guns. But it can just as easily come incrementally and without violence - through a constant and subtle rearrangement of our own view of what's right, fostered by a system that seeks such a change.

This was true in even Hitler's violent Germany as movingly described by Milton Mayer in his book, They Thought They Were Free. Mayer quotes a college professor:

"The crises and reforms (real reforms too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter. . .

"To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it -- please try to believe me -- unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted.' . . .

"Believe me this is true. Each act, each occasion is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.

"Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we did nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. . . Too late. You are compromised beyond repair."

Rosencratz, before disappearing and dying, says something similar in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildernstern Are Dead:

"What was it all about? When did it begin? . . . Couldn't we just stay put? . . . We've done nothing wrong! We didn't harm anyone. Did we? . . There must have been a moment, at the beginning, when we could have said -- no. But somehow we missed it.. . . Well, we'll know better next time."

For us, there is still remains that moment; we are near enough the beginning that we can still say no. And a good place to begin is to reject arguments without honor.

OBAMA CONSIDERS VAT TAX

Washington Post - With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.

"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."

A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.

Liberals dispute that notion. "You could pay for it regressively and have people at the bottom come out better off -- maybe. Or you could pay for it progressively and they'd come out a lot better off," said Bob McIntyre, director of the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, which has a health financing plan that targets corporations and the rich.

CHU WANTS WORLD'S ROOFS PAINTED WHITE TO EASE CLIMATE CHANGE

Telegraph, UK - President Obama's energy adviser has suggested all the world's roofs should be painted white as part of efforts to slow global warming. Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays.

More pale surfaces could also slow global warming by reflecting heat into space rather than allowing it to be absorbed by dark surfaces where it is trapped by greenhouse gases and increases temperatures.

In a wide-ranging discussion at the three-day Nobel laureate symposium in London, the professor described climate change as a "crisis situation", and called for a whole host of measures to be introduced, from promoting energy efficiency to renewable energy such as wind, wave and solar.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist said the US was not considering any large scale "geo-engineering" projects where science is used to reverse global warming, but was in favor of "white roofs everywhere".

He said lightening roofs and roads in urban environments would offset the global warming effects of all the cars in the world for 11 years. .

ANOTHER OBAMA PROMISE DOWN THE DRAIN

According to Army chief of Staff George Casey the Army is prepared to keep troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for another decade. Said Casey, "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction."

GERMAN STATES BAN RED BULL FOR TRACES OF COCA LEAF EXTRACT

Boing Boing - Six German states have banned Red Bull Cola after lab tests turned up trace amounts of coca leaf extracts in the beverage. According to authorities, the substance requires the beverage to be classified as a narcotic, requiring a license for sale. From BBC News:

(Red Bull) said coca leaf extracts were used worldwide as a natural flavoring, and that its own tests had found no traces of cocaine.

The illegal cocaine alkaloid - one of 10 found in coca and representing only 0.8% of the plant's chemical make-up - is chemically removed before use, as mandated by international anti-narcotics agencies.

"There is no scientific basis for this ban on Red Bull Cola because the levels of cocaine found are so small," Fritz Soergel, the head of the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg, Bavaria, told Time magazine.

"And it's not even cocaine itself. According to the tests we carried out, it's a non-active degradation product with no effect on the body. If you start examining lots of other drinks and food so carefully, you'd find a lot of surprising things."

THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW

NY Times - "Pre-rinsing dishes is a big mistake," said John Dries, a mechanical engineer and the owner of Dries Engineering, an appliance design consulting company in Louisville, Ky. "People assume that the dishwasher will perform better if you put in cleaner dishes, and that's not true. Just scrape. Pre-rinsing with hot water is double bad, because you're pumping water and electricity down the drain."

It's actually triple bad, according to Mike Edwards, a senior dishwasher design engineer at BSH Home Appliances in New Bern, N.C. "Dishwasher detergent aggressively goes after food," Mr. Edwards said, "and if you don't have food soil in the unit, it attacks the glasses, and they get cloudy," a process known as etching that can cause permanent damage.

It's also important not to use too much detergent, he said.

How much do you need? That depends on how much food soil there is, he said, not how many dishes. "If you have a light load," he said, "don't fill the detergent cup all the way."

Powder detergent is preferable to that in liquid or tablet form, he said, because it leaves dishes cleaner. But store it somewhere dry, not under the sink, where it can absorb moisture and form clumps. . .

Mr. Dries offered a final tip: stick with the normal cycle. It's the one consumer organizations conduct all their performance and energy tests on. "Manufacturers know this, so it's the cycle that the most work went into," he said.

ADVERTISING AGE: PRINT NOT AGING WELL

Advertising Age has concluded that "Print is not aging well. Or, rather, its readers are aging rapidly." The statement is based on the latest research on the newspaper and magazine industries. . .

By correlating statistics for the average age of American residents and that of the readership of nearly 200 publications and publishing groups, it was found that the latter was aging at almost the same pace as the overall population. The data also indicates that:

"Some magazines and newspapers are even seeing their audiences age in real time -- or faster. Readers' median age has increased 6.6 years since spring 2004 at Motorcyclist magazine, 6.8 years at Street Rodder and 6.8 years at Motor Boating." The implications of the ageing demographics are not going unnoticed in the publishing world. A rise in the age base could cast doubt over the publication's own life expectancy, for example. There is also the question of advertising; it is no news that firms are increasingly targeting a younger market,

SMALL FIRMS HIT HARD BY RISING HEALTH PREMIUMS

Wall Street Journal - Accelerating health-care premiums and sharp revenue shortfalls due to the recession are forcing some small companies to choose between dropping health insurance or laying off workers -- or staying in business at all.

Sheryl Weldon, owner of Commerce Welding & Manufacturing Co., saw health-insurance payments increase to more than $800 monthly per employee from about $200 five years ago. With monthly revenue down 10% since December, Ms. Weldon stopped providing health coverage to employees, including one being treated for prostate cancer, for the first time in the 64-year-history of the Dallas sheet-metal company. . .

Health-insurance premiums for single workers rose 74% for small businesses from 2001 to 2008, the latest year data are available, according to nonprofit research group Kaiser Family Foundation.

About 10% of small businesses are considering eliminating coverage over the next year, up from 3% in 2005, according to a recent survey by National Small Business Association.

That follows earlier declines in coverage, with just 38% of small businesses providing health insurance last year compared to 61% in 1993, according to the trade group. In 2007, 41% offered coverage. A Hewitt Associates survey found that 19% of all companies plan to stop providing health-care benefits in the next three to five years.

GENERAL TO BE PUT IN CHARGE OF DOMESTIC SECURITY

Jason Ditz, Anti War - President Obama announced that he will be combining the White House staffs dealing with international and homeland security, claiming that the move would "make Americans safer." The president will establish a "global engagement directorate" and a "National Security staff" that will deal with all policymaking related to "international, transnational, and homeland security matters." National Security Adviser James Jones will head the staff.

Jones, a former Marine commandant, praised the move, saying that "terror around the world doesn't recognize borders." President Obama said the move "will end the artificial divide between White House staff who have been dealing with national security and homeland security issues."

LATEST NEWS ABOUT PRINGLES

Biz Community - Fore Good and The Harding Group have announced their first activation for Pringles following the announcement that Procter & Gamble's leading snack brand will be sold and marketed in South Africa by the local FMCG group. The new campaign was developed from a total tactile perspective reinforcing the brand's unique value proposition. Jason Frichol, chief brand activist for the Fore Good Group says: "The strategy involved two critical tiers. The first was to educate and excite our sales and merchandising force. The second is to cultivate world class in-store gold standard execution and one-on-one engagement with consumers.". . .

Studies show that 85% of snack purchase decisions are made in store with 70% of the sales taking place from off-shelf displays due to the impulsive nature of the category. A cornerstone of the campaign is to create multiple points of interruption throughout the stores. A full arsenal of point-of-sale collateral was developed for the team to target stores based on format and shopper profiles.

The final leg of the campaign is a national experiential wet demo campaign where consumers can enjoy the Pringles experience with promoters also offering discount coupons to encourage consumers to sample the product.

Annals of Improbable Research - This is (so far as we are aware) the first public mention of the concept of "total tactile perspective", technical specifications for which yet to be released. A Fore Group press release [also] directed us to the South African Pringles web site, which greets visitors with a mysterious message about a Pringles-related or Pringles-infused "trip of a lifetime". The message reads:

"Pringles would like to apologise for a printing error which has seen a competition communicated in some magazines to 'win a trip of a lifetime with Pringles'. This was an unfortunate error, and Pringles regrets any confusion caused."

What is a "trip of a lifetime with Pringles?" Was this going to be (1) a trip of "a lifetime with Pringles" or (2) a "trip of a lifetime," with Pringles? If the latter, then were the Pringles meant to be companions or comestibles?

Tax News - HM Revenue and Customs has won a legal battle with Proctor and Gamble over the liability for value-added tax purposes of its 'Pringles' potato chips.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that Pringles are, in fact, a potato-based snack despite the fact that they are only 42% potato, and are therefore liable for VAT at the standard rate, currently 15%.

Procter and Gamble had attempted to prove in a long-standing battle that their crisps should be allowed VAT-exemption - due to the fact that they are really more dough than potato.

The argument was based around the fact that Pringles had been placed within the category of "potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs and similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starch," by a VAT and Duties Tribunal in 2007.

This ruling was overturned by the High Court last year when the presiding judge, Mr Justice Warren, argued that to attract VAT the product must be wholly, or substantially wholly, made from potato. However, ruling in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Jacob upheld the Tribunal's decision, stating that there "is more than enough potato content" in Pringles "for it to be a reasonable view that it is made from potato."

FLOTSAM & JETSAM: MULTICULTURALISM ON THE CHEAP

Sam Smith

If there's one thing I've learned from the Puerto Rican branch of my family it is that all Puerto Ricans don't agree. So when Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court, my first question was: which one of my Puerto Rican relatives does she most resemble. After considerable research I reached two conclusions: (1) None and (2) my nephews, nieces and sister-in-law are far more interesting.

The reason is simple: Sotomayer seems yet another boring lawyer. The three institutions that most endanger the preservation of any culture are Wal-Mart, TV and law school. Each imposes its own style, values and habits on those it influences making it hard, as Harvard Law School grad Barack Obama has already proved, to retain one's roots.

This, of course, does not dissuade the conventional media from its infatuation with ethnic iconism, turning any rising public figure who doesn't look like David Gregory into a totem of multicultural triumph while ignoring such facts as the paucity of blacks and latinos in the Senate.

To someone who's voted almost all his life in Washington, which means making repeated choices between black candidates, this obsession always seems peculiar, as I was reminded recently when a couple who are longtime friends recalled Mayor Marion Barry's first run for reelection in 1982. The husband, another man and I had sponsored a fundraiser for Barry, but our wives - turned off by Barry - refused to join us. That was 27 years ago and in the capital, ethnicity was already taking a back seat to more important things such as drug and sex habits and whether someone was lying to you. Furthermore, despite our disagreement, we're all still married.

Our present black mayor, who won every precinct in the city, three years later garners only big bucks from business contributors but scarcely a kind word from anyone else, black or white. That's the way multicultural progress is meant to work, although I'm not sure that Judge Sotomayor would agree with it. She once said:

"Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. . . I am not so sure that I agree with the statement. First. . . there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

When I read that, I asked myself just which one of the wise Latina women in my extended family I should listen to instead of myself and quickly realized that was a dangerous choice I had deftly avoided for a number of decades. Then I thought of Clarence Thomas, and the richness of his experience and how little good it had done for him. And finally I imagined Sotomayer relying on her own diagnosis of an illness, since her doctor had not share the richness of her pain.

But at least she said something controversial. The media has been struggling to make her story interesting, a desperate NY Times even using as a large type pull quote this gem:

"Congress has already specified the relationship between cost and benefits in requiring that the technology designated by the EPA be the best available."

Scanning her decisions, they are a pretty bland lot. Some good, some bad, with few signs of eloquence or particular insight. Thus I wasn't surprised to read that "Judge Sotomayor's culinary tastes range from tuna fish and cottage cheese for lunch with clerks in her chambers, to her standard order at the Blue Ribbon Bakery: smoked sturgeon on toast, with Dijon mustard, onions and capers."

I suspect that she will please progressives in some decisions and annoy the hell out of them on other occasions. The rest of the time I imagine she'll be a bit like Obama: a fading symbol of something a lot of people thought they were getting on the cheap, with a single election or appointment, instead of through the far harder but more meaningful path of real political and cultural change.

WANT TO BE HAPPIER? TRY SOME MORE SOCIALISM

Phillip Bannowsky, News Journal DE - No less a "capitalist tool" than Forbes Magazine let a red cat out of the bag with a report this month that the happiest countries tend to be Scandinavian socialist democracies. High per-capita GDP certainly plays a role in their felicity, but even social democratic New Zealand, with per-capita GDP only 64 percent of the United States', ranks with the 10 democracies above us in the happiness index. They pay high taxes in these pinkotopias, but folks enjoy entitlements like free college, extensive elder care, and 52-week paid maternity leave.

The 2005 poll measured personal reports of enjoyment, pride in achievement and learning, being respected, among other things. Forbes suggests that such happiness derives from family, social and community networks, and a decent work-life balance, noting that the average workweek in Scandinavia is 37 hours.

Most of these countries dumped capitalist exploitation long ago and instituted mixed economies with socialist ideals. More contemporary models are the 11 Latin America countries pursuing "Socialism in the 21st Century." They too reject top-down Leninism for a system based on participatory democracy and solidarity. . .

The economies of Latin America's red eleven are improving, although none of them has instituted a socialist utopia. They are still subject to the slings and arrows of egotism, error, and internecine conflict. But they have overcome the greatest impediments to their advancement, including the U.S.-based bankers who are draining our treasury now. And the civil society they created in the struggle is the guarantor of their democracy. .

What could we do with socialism? Well, take banks for starters: take them, so instead of private scams that go broke gambling with money they don't own, they'd become public utilities that finance production, infrastructure, and homes. And treat aging industries like autos: instead of dumping, we'd transform them according to a national plan for green jobs and a healthy environment.

INDICATORS: LATINO MEDIA STATS

New America Media - At year's end, there were 834 Hispanic newspapers, 556 Hispanic magazines and another 526 journals, annuals, yellow-page directories and newsletters keeping this nation's ever-growing Latino population, now approaching 50 million, informed.

Hispanic newspapers had a combined circulation of 17.8 million, with an impressive 144 of them audited. Hispanic magazines had a combined circulation of 31.6 million, with 34 of those audited. . .

Spanish language dailies reached a high point in the United States in 2005, with 42 dailies with a combined 1.6 million circulation. By the end of 2008, those numbers had declined to 29 dailies with a combined 1.1 million circulation. Those numbers decreased even more in 2009.

Today 443 Hispanic newspapers and 311 Hispanic magazines have web sites

OBAMA BACKED AUTO DEALER SLASHING IS NEW BLOW TO STATES

Stateline - Just when many state governments are weeks away from the start of another budget year, a new crisis has emerged that threatens their finances: the closing of nearly 2,000 automobile dealerships.

Coupled with the slowdown in automobile manufacturing and sales, the dealership shutdowns recently announced by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler will have a deep impact on state and local governments already enduring what may be the worst recession since the Great Depression. Consider that a fifth of California's sales tax revenue is from new and used car sales.

"As these local dealerships close, the impact will be more profound than people realize," said Sen. Mark Norris, the Republican Senate majority leader in Tennessee. Chrysler is planning to close 14 dealerships in his state.

To improve profits, Chrysler, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, said it will close 789 dealerships throughout the country by June 9. GM has not released the list of 1,200 dealers it plans to shutter. Until now, Michigan and other upper Midwest manufacturing states have borne the brunt of the auto industry tumult, but the demise of the dealerships widens the scope of the problem. It's expected to put about 100,000 people out of work nationwide. .

Dealers often are keystones of their communities, "with some of the better jobs available," said Paul Taylor, chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association in Virginia. A single dealership employs up to 100 people and averages $16.5 million a year in state and local taxes, advertising expenditures and charitable contributions. Dealers collect taxes on auto sales, parts and repairs. Their employees pay state income taxes in most states. Car-buyers pay titling fees and in some states, a personal property tax.

New Hampshire lawmakers were first to attempt to help car dealers. The bill, signed May 6 by Gov. John Lynch (D), allows local dealers to continue servicing vehicles even if they no longer sell cars. If a dealer closes, the bill requires the automaker he or she represents to buy back inventory delivered in the last two years, which helps the dealer stay on his feet to re-open as a used car lot or repair shop. . .

According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, the auto industry supports 7.2 million jobs in a wide network of suppliers and service workers, In 19 states, auto supply manufacturers are among the top five industrial employers. Those workers eat in restaurants, buy clothes for their kids and get their teeth cleaned, activities that create other jobs. The ripple effect is more like a wave: U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio, said the loss of two shifts at a GM plant in Lordstown since last summer caused the unemployment rate in Trumbull County to double from 7 percent to 14 percent. . .

HOLBROOKE, OTHER OBAMITES, REPORTED TO BILDERBERG

Politico - A handful of high-ranking Obama administration officials this month delivered private briefings at the annual invitation-only conference held by an elite international organization known as the Bilderberg group.

The closed meeting of some of the most powerful business, media and political leaders in North America and Western Europe heard from top Obama diplomats James Steinberg and Richard Holbrooke, who detailed the administration's foreign policy, while economic adviser Paul Volcker, chairman of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, also gave a presentation at the heavily guarded seaside resort in Greece that hosted the event. . .

But a meeting attendee tells Politico that Holbrooke, a State Department special envoy, briefed attendees on the Obama administration's unified approach to dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Steinberg, the deputy secretary of state, gave a presentation on the administration's broader foreign policy and National Security Agency Director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander also participated in the conference. .

The White House, State Department and NSA did not respond to questions about whether Alexander, Holbrooke and Steinberg - all repeat Bilderberger attendees - were representing the Obama administration at the meeting and whether tax dollars paid for their travel. . .

Other American participants at this year's conference included World Bank President Robert Zoellick, billionaire Bilderberg regular David Rockefeller, academic Barnett Rubin and leading neoconservatives Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, according to the attendee. . .

CLICHE CHALLENGE

We've updated our ranking of cliches based on Google mentions over the past month. The big change is change, which has soared to the top of the list. Hope remains stuck behind blog and Google, or embedded if you will

Top Cliches

Change 440 million
Blog 281 million
Google 194 million
Hope 82 million
Embed, embedded 49 million
Amazing 42 million
Marketplace 41 million
Prior to 33 million
Awesome 31 million
9/11 26 million
Inappropriate 25 million
Supportive 24 million
Concerns 21 million
Real time 21 million
Enhanced: 19 million
Empire, imperialism or imperial 17 million
In terms of 17 million
Context 17 million
24/7 13 million
Fuck, fucked, fucking 11 million
In accordance with 7 million
Transformation 5.8 million
Benchmark(s) 5.1 million

Fading cliches

Cliches with a notable downturn in usage since we last checked

In the wake of
Erectile dysfunction
Empower(ing)
Get over it
Plan B [not contraception, contraceptive]
Wake up call
At this moment in time|
Game changer, game changing
Sending a message
You're fired
Electable, electability
Culture war or culture wars
Let's roll
Prioritize
Failure to comply
Edgy
On the same page
Post 9/11
It's not rocket science
With all due respect
Out of the box
In the wake of

FULL LIST

WHY OBAMA MAY NOT WANT ANY MORE TORTURE PICTURES RELEASED

Salon - After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon's custody more horrific than anything made public so far. "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse," Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.

Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it:

"Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib . . . The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

A SHORT HISTORY OF CIA LIES TO CONGRESS

Melvin A. Goodman, Public Record - In 1973, CIA director Richard Helms deceived the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, refusing to acknowledge the role of the CIA in overthrowing the elected government in Chile. Helms falsely testified that the CIA had not passed money to the opposition movement in Chile, and a grand jury was called to see if Helms should be indicted for perjury.

In 1977, the Justice Department brought a lesser charge against Helms, who pleaded nolo contendere; he was fined $2,000 and given a suspended two-year prison sentence. Helms went from the courthouse to the CIA where he was given a hero's welcome and a gift of $2,000 to cover the fine. It was one of the saddest experiences in my 24 years at CIA.

In the new Ford administration, Secretary of State Kissinger, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and White House chief of staff Cheney orchestrated phony intelligence for the Congress in order to get an endorsement for covert arms shipments to anti-government forces in Angola.

The CIA lied to Senator Dick Clark, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was a critic of the Agency's illegal collaborations with the government of South Africa against Angola and Mozambique. Agency briefers exaggerated the classification of their materials so that Senate and House members could not publicize this information. Agency shields of secrecy and falsehood were extremely effective.

In the 1980s, CIA director William Casey and his deputy, Bob Gates, consistently lied to the congressional oversight committees about their knowledge of Iran-contra. Senator Daniel Moynihan (D-NY) believed that Casey and Gates were running a disinformation campaign against the Senate intelligence committee. Casey even managed to alienate Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), a pro-intelligence, conservative senator who typically walked through barbed wire for the CIA. . .

Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, Aldrich Ames performed as the most destructive traitor in the history of the CIA, but CIA directors Gates, William Webster, and Jim Woolsey failed to inform the congressional oversight committees of the serious counter-intelligence problems that had been created.

In the late 1980s, the CIA concealed from the Congress that Saddam Hussein was diverting U.S. farm credits through an Atlanta bank to pay for nuclear technology and sophisticated weapons. The chairman of the Senate and House intelligence committees, Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) and Representative Dan Glickman (D-KS) respectively, were furious with the deception tactics of CIA briefers.

The greatest CIA disinformation campaign in the congress took place in 2002-2003, when CIA director George Tenet and his deputy, John McLaughlin, consistently lied about Iraqi training for al Qaeda members on chemical and biological weapons as well as the existence of mobile labs to manufacture such weapons. . .

More recently, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking minority member of the House intelligence committee, documented the dissembling of the CIA to cover-up the Agency's involvement in a drug interdiction program in Peru that led to the loss of innocent lives. Hoekstra accused CIA director Tenet with misleading the Congress. . .

THE COLLAPSE OF GREAT BRITAIN (CONT'D)

Daily Mail, UK - Barriers similar to those used in banks and post offices will soon be used in pubs. Drinkers in pubs are to be told to stand in a queue and banned from ordering more than two drinks at a time at the bar. Rope barriers similar to those used in shops and post offices will be installed to keep customers in line.

The plan has been proposed following concern over disorder and violence in a town center's bars.

The two-drink limit is intended to curb binge-drinking and stop customers ordering large amounts of alcohol. In addition, customers would not be allowed to drink while queuing. . .

Under plans drawn up by Liberal Democrat-controlled Oldham Council, all 22 pubs in the town centre will have to comply with the new rules. . .

There was a furious response from industry leaders, who say the plan will lead to more pubs going out of business. . .

Jeff Smith, 64, a regular at the Hare And Hounds, said: 'I can't see Oldham lads standing patiently to wait their turn. It would cause even more trouble than there is already because there will always be someone trying to jump the queue.'

Lorraine Howard, 47, said: 'These people must never have been in a busy pub. Younger kids aren't going to wait like they would in the supermarket. And it's silly to limit the round. Lots of friends go out in large groups and one round can be ten or more drinks.'

BUSH'S MID EAST POLICY BASED ON BIBLICAL MYTH

Clive Anderson, CounterPunch - The revelation this month in GQ Magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means?. . .

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".

The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elyse Palace, baffled by Bush's words, sought advice from Thomas Romer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Romer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university's review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush's invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and "wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs".

In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on "a mission from God" in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord. . .

There is a curious coda to this story. While a senior at Yale University George W. Bush was a member of the exclusive and secretive Skull & Bones society. His father, George H.W. Bush had also been a "Bonesman", as indeed had his father. Skull & Bones' initiates are assigned or take on nicknames. And what was George Bush Senior's nickname? "Magog".

WHY ARE CHRYSLER & GM DESTROYING THEIR CUSTOMERS, THE DEALERS?

George Spaulding, Post & Courier - As Chrysler and General Motors are being forced to cut costs by restructuring, a question: What are cost savings in Chrysler firing 789 dealers and GM 1,100?

Retail dealers are the only customers carmakers have. . . When it is now popular to "downsize," nearly 2,000 retailers are completely shut out in the key decisions affecting their business.

Another thought. I have been lead to believe stimulus packages involve "jobs." Chrysler will be axing 40,000 jobs; GM, 63,000 jobs. All of a sudden, "jobs" are unimportant.

What is behind this dealer-cutting, job-cutting strategy? An Associated Press report said, "While GM doesn't own the dealers, the company says its network is too big, causing dealers to compete with each other and giving shoppers too much leverage to talk down prices and hurt future sales.". . .

According to that AP dispatch, the key purpose in all of this is so that you, the buyer, will lose your negotiating advantage. By forcing potential buyers to travel more, the opportunity to "shop around" is reduced and purchasers will pay more. It's clear: thousands of customers are being forced to change their buying habits and, once again, the customer pays. . .

Why not allow the dealers to shake out representation through consolidations or buyouts? My impression is that a few large GM dealers have convinced the Government Motors Board to get rid of competing small dealers so that the big city guys can be more profitable.

Current dealers were appointed to handle a 16 to 17 million-car market. Now it is 10 million. Are the carmakers resigned to a 10 million market?

Several years ago Ford and GM tried to buy out and run auto dealerships, with disastrous results. My fear now is a similar government type of intervention in the auto industry . . .

LOCAL HEROES: STUDENTS WALK OUT OF CLASSROOMS TO PROTEST SPY CAMS

Guardian, UK - Pupils walked out of classrooms in protest against Big Brother-styled CCTV cameras recording their lessons. They were so angry with the installation of the equipment at Davenant Foundation School in Chester Road, Loughton, they refused to return until they received assurances it had been turned off.

It meant they missed three weeks of studies and led to the drafting of a petition signed by about 150 of their peers. And when they did return to the classroom they all wore masks to continue their protest.

The school, an accredited teacher training centre, said the equipment has been installed in two classrooms to capture footage showing examples of best practice in the profession, and would not be used without pupils' knowledge. . .

A father, whose son took part in the walk-out, said the school was wrong not to consult parents about the use of technology which "threatened our children's civil liberties".

BRITAIN EXPANDS SYSTEM OF SPY CAMS

BBC - A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months, the BBC has learned.
Thousands of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are already operating on Britain's roads. Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer. . .

John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town. It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.

"I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?"

ANOTHER RED CAM SCAM EXPOSED

The Newspaper - Nearly two dozen cities throughout the state of New Jersey are preparing to install red light cameras to ticket motorists. In order to "save pedestrian lives" these programs, like others throughout the country, will issue up to ninety-five percent of citations not to straight-through red light runners but to the owners of vehicles that make rolling right-hand turns on a red. This type of turn rarely causes accidents in the Garden State.

"We will continue to bring this revenue-enhancing and life-saving program to all of our neighborhoods," Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker said in a March statement announcing the expansion of its red light camera program. . .

The Bergen, New Jersey Record newspaper obtained accident records from the state transportation department and found that no pedestrians were killed anywhere in New Jersey by drivers making right-hand turns in either 2006 or 2007. In fact, during the same period, nearly a quarter of all pedestrian fatalities could be attributed to drunks stumbling into traffic. The Record's findings match those of a US Department of Transportation report that showed right-turn on red collisions were rare.

RECOVERED HISTORY: TERRY MCAULIFFE

A few forgotten tales from the past of the leading candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial primary

Business Week, December 22, 1997: The U. S. Attorney's Office in Washington is trying to learn more about how McAuliffe earned a lucrative fee in helping Prudential Insurance Co. of America lease a downtown Washington building to the government. Prudential just settled a civil case involving that lease for over $300,000 without admitting any liability . . . The Labor Dept. is probing McAuliffe real estate deals that were bankrolled by a union pension fund .. . . And Labor Dept. probers are looking at possible conflicts of interest in at least two of McAuliffe's Florida real estate deals that were bankrolled by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers pension money. Investigators want to know why McAuliffe got what look like very sweet deals.

Washington Post, January 12, 1998: McAuliffe, the premier Democratic fund-raiser of the decade, has spent much of the past 12 months dealing with hostile Republican investigators, federal prosecutors and adverse news stories. He has emerged as a key, but enigmatic, figure in two overlapping federal investigations: the broadening inquiry into illegal fund-raising on the part of the Teamsters union conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, and the Justice Department's investigation into alleged 1995-96 Democratic presidential fund-raising abuses. In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia investigated McAuliffe's role in the award of a $160.5 million federal lease, but decided against bringing criminal charges. . . McAuliffe has given depositions to federal prosecutors and congressional investigators, but he has not been called to testify publicly, and he has not been charged with any crime .... McAuliffe's success has come from his knack for being in the middle of a deal while maintaining a critical distance. For almost 17 years - as broker, lawyer, promoter and facilitator - McAuliffe had estimated with uncanny precision the sustainable distance between contributor and candidate, as well as between seller and buyer.

Wall Street Journal, 1999 - In his defense of the [Clinton house] loan, Mr. McAuliffe asks: What can Bill Clinton do for me? For starters, he could make it tough for the U.S. Attorney's office to get to the bottom of Mr. McAuliffe's oft-denied role in the sleazy 1996 "contributions swap" between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Teamsters union . . . What Terry McAuliffe did in essence is make a contribution to Hillary's campaign. Its whole purpose is to enable her to establish residence in New York, thus the money is absolutely essential to her campaign . . . In the Hillary race, no McAuliffe "loan," no residency, no campaign. His contribution would seem to be more than $1,000.

Washington Post, 1999 - In a move that enables the Clintons to buy the house "“ and Hillary Rodham Clinton to have a base for her New York Senate run "“ the 42-year-old real estate developer and dealmaker pledged to put up $1.35 million in cash to secure a mortgage for the Clintons. Otherwise, swamped by more than $5 million in legal debts, the Clintons might have had difficulty obtaining the loan for the five-bedroom, century-old house.

Ethics law experts said yesterday that there is no legal difficulty with the Clintons' accepting McAuliffe's help, but some questioned the propriety of the president's accepting such a benefit from a private citizen.

"It's just plain wrong. It's dangerous. It's inappropriate," said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21. "This is a financial favor worth over a million dollars to the president."

McAuliffe is not actually giving any money to the Clintons. Rather, he will deposit $1.35 million in cash "“ the full amount of their mortgage "“ with Bankers Trust; the only risk to McAuliffe's money is in the unlikely event that the Clintons default.

And there's the little matter reported by John McCaslin in the Washington Times: Chapter 5 of the Federal Elections Commission's guide for candidates states: "An endorsement or guarantee of a bank loan is considered a contribution by the endorser or guarantor and is thus subject to the law's prohibitions and limits on contributions."

New York Times, 1999 - A former Democratic official has testified that Terence McAuliffe, President Clinton's friend and chief fund-raiser, played a major role in promoting an illegal scheme in which Democratic donors were to contribute to the Teamster president's re-election campaign, and in exchange the Teamsters were to donate large sums to the Democrats. The official, Richard Sullivan, the Democratic National Committee's former finance director, testified in Manhattan at the trial of William Hamilton, the Teamsters former political director, that McAuliffe urged him and other fund-raisers to find a rich Democrat to donate at least $50,000 to the 1996 re-election campaign of Ron Carey, the former Teamsters president. During the three-week-long trial, Sullivan testified that McAuliffe had said that if a Democratic donor made a large contribution to the Carey campaign, then the Teamsters would contribute at least $500,000 to various Democratic Party committees . . . McAuliffe's lawyer, Richard Ben-Veniste, said his client had done nothing wrong.

Drudge Report, 2001 - Enron-stung GOPers are discreetly eyeing the collapse of Global Crossing [which became the 4th largest bankruptcy in history] and its Chairman Gary Winnick, a top Democrat donor who helped DNC head Terry McAuliffe turn a $100,000 stock investment - into $18,000,000. McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton in 1999 after his cash windfall. Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton's presidential library . . .

McAuliffe told the NY Times' Jeff Gerth in late '99 that his initial $100,000 investment grew to be worth about $18 million, and he made millions more trading Global's stock and options after it went public in '98.

Worth Magazine, 2001 - In 1995, Cincinnati billionaire Carl Lindner, whom McAuliffe had successfully courted as a donor, put up money for McAuliffe to buy American Heritage Homes, then the second-largest home builder in Florida. And in 1997, Los Angeles businessman Gary Winnick, also a Democratic donor, gave McAuliffe an early opportunity to invest $100,000 in Winnick's new company, Global Crossing, an owner and operator of undersea fiber-optic cables. When the stock subsequently soared, McAuliffe made a reported $18 million from that $100,000 investment. Two years later, McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton, and Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton's presidential library. So it went in the 1990s: McAuliffe was helping the rich and powerful gain access to Bill Clinton, and everyone was making money.

Anyone who suggested that there was something inappropriate about all the back-scratching-something that reeked of access peddling-only sounded like a spoilsport. With the stock market boom and the Internet gold rush and the whole country making money, why not join the party?

Newsmax, 2002 - Though he insists now that his relationship with bankrupt telecommunications giant Global Crossing was strictly business, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe admitted in 1999 that he once worked for Global CEO Gary Winnick, who, McAuliffe said, hired him to "help him work on deals" because Winnick "was looking for a little political action." After President Clinton's reelection to a second term, the top Clinton fund-raiser began "operating out of an office in downtown Washington that belonged to Mr. Winnick's Pacific Capital Group, a billion-dollar operation based in Beverly Hills," the New York Times reported in Dec. 1999. Winnick had retained Mr. McAuliffe as a "consultant," the paper said. The DNC chief told the Times, "Gary (Winnick) likes the action. He wanted a stable of people around him with great contacts" to "help him work on deals." . . .

The bankrupt ex-billionaire seems to have gotten what he wanted. Not only did Winnick's company win a $400 million Pentagon contract with the help of the Clinton White House, but he managed to get a public endorsement from the president himself. "Gary Winnick has been a friend of mine for some time now and I'm quite thrilled by the success that Global Crossing has had," then-President Clinton told a Calif., fund-raiser in Nov. 1999.

posted by TPR | 11:05 AM | 0 Comments

BREVITAS

OBAMALAND

City Hall News reports on how White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel pushed Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) out of the U.S. Senate race in New York. "Clearing the field in New York was not about Gillibrand or Israel, left wing politics or moderate politics, gun stances or immigrant rights. It was about Senate Democrats having enough cash to seize red meat territory in the heartland and a new White House eager to collect a big chit. "So Israel was given an ultimatum: if he proceeded with the Senate race, the White House would go to great pains to shut off every dollar in the state. With Schumer's help, the administration would make sure all the big Democratic donors and institutional players kept their distance. They would show no restraint, even campaigning against him and raising money in Israel's own home turf. Obama himself would come out to campaign in New York City, cutting off at the knees the downstate, Manhattan-focused appeal Israel would have needed to run to Gillibrand's left. And perhaps most damning of all, given whom the math dictated Israel would have needed in his column, Emanuel indicated that the nation's first black president was prepared to barnstorm through New York's black neighborhoods hand-in-hand with the junior senator, employing his appeal to African-Americans to a political degree he usually avoids. Oh, and as for Israel having any role shaping policy in the House while all this was going on? Forget it. Or, Emanuel told Israel, there was another option. Step aside and earn the gratitude of the White House."

MEDIA

LA Times - The union representing Los Angeles police officers is pressuring the owner of San Diego's main newspaper to change the paper's editorial stance on labor issues or to fire its editorial writers. The feud is rooted in the recent purchase of the San Diego Union-Tribune by Platinum Equity, a private Beverly Hills firm. Platinum relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies. As League President Paul M. Weber views it, that makes the League part owner in the flagging Tribune and League officials are none to happy with the paper's consistent position that San Diego lawmakers should cut back on salaries and benefits for public employees in order to help close gaping budget deficits. . . . Weber, in an interview, emphasized that the League is not demanding changes in the paper's news coverage of the issue or in its staff of reporters. "It's just these people on the opinion side. There is not even an attempt to be even-handed. They're one step away from saying, 'these public employees are parasites,' " Weber said.

JUST POLITICS

Texas Governor Rick Perry has attacked the federal stimulus program and said his state was threatened by its "audacity." Apparently that doesn't apply to his governor's mansion, which is going to be rebuilt with the help of $11 million in stimulus funds.

ACTIVISM

DESMOND TUTU BEHIND THE SCENES

INDICATORS

ABC News - According to a survey from National Association of Colleges and Employers, . . . just 19.7 percent of 2009 graduates who applied for a job actually have one. In comparison, 51 percent of those graduating in 2007 and 26 percent of those graduating in 2008 who had applied for a job had one in hand by the time of graduation.

Washington Post -In the past six months, most Washington area sellers have lost money on houses they purchased since prices started climbing in 2000, according to a Washington Post analysis of residential sales. In the first three months of this year, 62 percent of local home sellers accepted less than they paid for their homes, in part because aggressively priced foreclosures have dragged down prices around the region

FURTHERMORE. . .

The Washington Post has a good profile of Brooksley Born - one of the few who warned of the fiscal crisis in time to do something about it

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