Undernews For June 7, 2009

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7 June 2009

WORD

Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome -- T. S. Eliot

PAGE ONE MUST

DEMOCRATS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER DEALERSHIP CLOSINGS

Politico - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer and Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Daniel Maffei have circulated this letter:

Dear President Obama:

We are writing to express our concerns about General Motors’ and Chrysler's decision to close profitable automobile dealerships across the country, and urge you to ask GM and Chrysler to delay final action on proposed closures pending further review of the decision to consolidate dealerships and the process by which Chrysler and GM selected the dealerships to close.

Closing these dealerships will put over 100,000 jobs at risk at a time when our country is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. We also question the criteria being used to determine which dealerships should be closed and the fundamental fairness involved in this effort. It is our view that the market rather than leaving it up to the manufacturers whose poor leadership contributed to their demise. Furthermore, we believe car dealers will be key players in any effort to revive the American auto industry.

We believe the dealerships are one of the auto industry’s key sources of strength and the manufacturers should continue to honor their agreements and contracts. The dealerships, and their more than one million employees, form personal relationships with customers that often contribute to brand loyalty and will be key to General Motors’ and Chrysler;s recovery following this economic downturn. While we understand the desire to reduce the number of unprofitable dealerships, no one has yet sufficiently explained the need to close profitable dealerships. . .

We are concerned that manufacturers are closing profitable dealerships to circumvent current contracts which could require expensive buy-outs under normal conditions. We are also concerned about allegations that dealers that have previously stood up for their rights against the manufacturers are being targeted by these closures. . . .

RECOVERED HISTORY: TWA 800

Sam Smith - The mysterious Air France Flight 447 disappearance brings to mind the last great unsolved plane crash: TWA 800. Although the government concluded it was caused by structural problems, hundreds of eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a fiery and/or smoke trailed object headed for the plane. Further, it was the TWA 800 crash that led to the Gore Commission, whose investigation would launch our present era of hyper aviation security. If, in fact, the plane went down because of structural problems, why was there such a need for the heightened security that followed? And why this statement by Gore at a time when, as John Cashill reported, there hadn't been an attack on an American plane in eight years:

"When terrorists attack an American airliner, they are attacking the United States. They have so little respect for our values - so little regard for human life or the principles of justice that are the foundation of American society - that they would destroy innocent children and devoted mothers and fathers completely at random. This cannot be tolerated, or allowed to intimidate free societies. There must be a concerted national will to fight terrorism."

If in fact, the TWA 800 was brought down by a missile, it could have been a misguided weapon accidentally launched by the US military or it could have been the work of a terrorist. The latter possibility, if true, would completely rewrite the history of 9/11 and the so-called war on terror.

None of this, of course, explains what happened to Flight 447 but it reminds us to be extremely careful in believing what the government tells us in such situations.

DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO END USURY BY BANKS GETTING BAILOUTS

William Greider, The Nation - One of the fundamental issues that [Democratic] party managers wished to avoid was the scandal of American usury. Usury is the ancient sin of charging inflated interest rates sure to ruin the borrowers. It is considered immoral by Judaism, Christianity and Islam because usury involves the powerful using their wealth to ensnare weak and defenseless borrowers. The classic usurer offers an impossible choice that debtors cannot easily refuse. If they reject the terms of the loan, they will not be able to pay the rent or buy necessities. If they accept the usurious interest rates, their debts will accumulate until they are bankrupted (at which point the creditors claim their property). No civilized society can endure in such conditions.

Usury used to be illegal in the United States but it was "decriminalized" in 1980--the dawn of financial deregulation. . Thirty years later, American society is permeated with usurious practices--credit cards charging 30 percent and higher, sub prime mortgages and other forms of predatory lending, the notorious "payday" loans that charge desperate working people an effective interest rate of 500 percent or more. Businesses, especially smaller firms, are also prey to usury in less direct ways.

Needing credit to survive, they submit to the creditor's demands and are often weakened as a result, shedding workers and services that shrink customers and income.

The straightforward way to stop usury is to enact a hard legal limit on the interest rates creditors can charge borrowers. In the House, several legislators introduced interest-rate caps, but party leaders would not let the issue get a roll call vote. Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York and co-sponsors proposed an interest-rate cap of 18 percent, the same ceiling enacted years ago for credit unions. "Offering the amendment raised a lot of anxiety on the part of a lot of people," Hinchey said.

"It was withdrawn because it had no possibility of success and it would have put a number of people in a tough situation. We had to back off."

A roll call on usury would have compelled legislators to choose between their constituents and their bankers. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland proposed a tougher ceiling on interest rates, but the House rules committee rejected her amendment. "Our constituents are so angry with the banks," she observed, "siding with credit-card companies would not be helpful to me, and I expect that's true in other districts." Bankers are contributors, so this is what members call "a money vote." A consumer lobbyist explained. "Let's face it," he said. "The main reason lots of members get on the House Financial Services Committee is because they want to raise money from the financial industry."

In the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, the majority whip who rounds up votes for the party, introduced his own usury bill--a cap of 36 percent including the non-interest fees and charges. Durbin's bill also empowered state governments to set lower limits. The Consumer Federation of America endorsed it, but the consumer lobbyists asked Durbin not to have a roll call on his measure because it might reveal their weakness.

Nevertheless, the redoubtable Bernie Sanders of Vermont demanded a vote on his bill--an interest-rate cap of 15 percent.

"When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available," Sanders said. "They are engaged in loan sharking." Sanders lost, 33 to 60. . .

The Rev. David Brawley of East Brooklyn Baptist described a preliminary statement of basic principles. "Reasonable interest rates," he said. "In this financial culture, the nation will return to a time-honored, indeed ancient, practice: the law against usury. Financial institutions and mechanisms that participate in this culture will agree to a maximum of 9 percent interest or so. This was the usual state-mandated rate before the repeal."

Brawley described other principles with radical implications. "The lender holds the loan," he explained. "The financial institution that makes a loan holds the loan for its duration. The borrower and lender enter into a long-term relationship that ends when the loan is fully repaid. This is the fundamental starting point for any return to accountability." That statement of principle challenges the market securitization of mortgages that falsely claimed to reduce risk by dispersing it among many investors. The process instead left no one responsible for sound lending and thus multiplied the costs of failure.

Brawley's final principle was perhaps most threatening to the existing order. "The federal government insists on these core characteristics as the criteria for all further bailout funding. Banks that wish to borrow from the government must accept these simple standards [and] provide consumers with an alternative to the current monopoly of financial transactions dominated and still dictated by the same fifty financial institutions that caused the crisis."

In other words, the social standard of usurious practices should define which banks and financial firms are eligible to participate in all forms of government aid and protection. Why should taxpayers finance the usurers who are injuring the society? The government's undiscriminating approach to aiding banks implicates everyone in supporting the usury. So do the banks and brokerages that collect people's savings and channel the money into usurious practices that produce greater returns by ruining more borrowers. The moral standard poses difficult questions for everyone, not just bankers and politicians.

LIFE & HEALTH INSURERS INVEST BILLIONS IN TOBACCO COMPANIES

Agence France Presse - Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said.

Wesley Boyd, the study's lead author, found that at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

"Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School.

"It's clear their top priority is making money, not safeguarding people's well-being," he wrote.

Tobacco is considered the leading cause of lung cancer and a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, pulmonary disease and cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, it is a contributing factor in 5.4 million deaths a year.

RECOVERED HISTORY: PUBLIC HOUSING

Mark Naisin, History News Network - Today, public housing is widely viewed as a failed experiment in social policy, a place where poor and troubled families are warehoused in prison like conditions that breed crime, violence and apathy. But Sonia Sotomayor's experience of growing up in the Bronxdale houses, a low rise public housing development in the Soundview section of the Bronx that opened in the mid 1950's, recall a different reality. The Bronxdale houses, like many other public housing projects that were built in Bronx in the early and mid 1950's, were filled with families of World War II veterans looking to escape crowded tenements and rooming houses, and their airy apartments, spacious, well kept grounds, seemed like wonderful places to bring up children, Not only were the projects designed with green space, playgrounds and outdoor sitting areas where parents could watch their children, they had community centers on premises and schools conveniently located within walking distance of the buildings.

In those years, there was no stigma attached to living in "the projects." To the contrary, many residents took tremendous pride in the beauty of their surroundings. Allen Jones who wrote a book about his Bronx experiences called "The Rat That Got Away" recalls friends and relatives of people who moved into the Patterson Houses in Mott Haven walking through the grounds in sheer wonder at the meticulously maintained lawns and litter free walkways, while Connie Questell, in an oral history interview she did with the Bronx African American History Project boasted that the Japanese Gardens in the nearby Melrose Houses was a favorite Sunday strolling site for Bronx families

But for many residents, the social atmosphere of the projects was as much an attraction as spacious apartments and well maintained grounds For Black and Latino families especially, who experienced extreme segregation in the private housing market during those years, public housing in the Bronx represented their first experience with living in an integrated neighborhood. Taur Orange, a college administrator who grew up in the Bronxdale Houses at the same time Sonia Sotomayor did, remembers Bronxdale as "a little United Nations" and recalls Black, Jewish, Italian, Latino and Asian mothers sitting on the project benches watching their children and sharing stories and recipes. Vicki Archibald Good, a social work supervisor, who grew up in the Patterson Houses with her brother, basketball legend Nate "Tiny" Archibald recalls families of every nationality playing together, raising children together, and sharing each other's food and music. Allen Jones and Nathan Dukes fondly remember days when everyone regardless of race or ethnicity, sang doo wop, danced Latin and would defend their project against all rivals, on or off project grounds. . .

Over time, the atmosphere in the projects would deteriorate. As the first generation of families moved out to buy homes or middle income co-ops, they would be replaced with poorer, more troubled families, many of them on public assistance, and a combination of job losses, drug epidemics and white flight would erode the spirit of community and feelings of optimism that these developments had once been known for. These problems would be intensified by budget cuts that would reduce the quality of project maintenance, leaving lawns poorly cared for, hallways and grounds filled with debris, and elevators in need of repair, and local community centers deprived of needed staff.

Nevertheless, Bronx housing projects never became the broken, hopeless urban concentration camps that many people imagine them to be. The Bronx River and Bronxdale Houses, along with many other projects in the South and West Bronx, were important sites in the development of Bronx Hip Hop. . And even through the present, Bronx projects house thousands of senior citizens who have lived in them for fifty plus years, and who refuse to move because their neighbors look out for and take care of them.

But the most important thing to remember, at a time when development of affordable large scale multiple dwellings has been neglected for more than a generation (while huge high rises for the rich dot the urban landscape throughout Manhattan and North Brooklyn) is that public housing was a tremendous success when it was rich in social services, provided excellent daily maintenance and was careful in its tenant selection.

STUDENT'S GRAD SPEECH REJECTED AS TOO REAL

Tampa Bay - When Jem Lugo sat down to write her valedictory graduation speech, the Springstead High School senior tried to keep it real for her peers in the Class of 2009.

Lugo, an 18-year-old Spring Hill resident bound for Harvard University, had read speeches on the Internet and watched others on YouTube. The senior class president and yearbook editor was struck by their formulaic sameness - same jokes, same quotes, same inspirational messages.

The student who once stood before the Hernando County School Board to oppose a proposed dress code for high school students decided to give a speech that would be, as she describes it, "worth hearing."

But Lugo, who earned an unweighted 3.98 grade-point average, says she made it much too real for school officials who work with valedictorians each year to ensure their graduation speeches are appropriate. Lugo says Springstead principal Susan Duval rejected the address and told her to start over. Lugo says that the senior class sponsor, who read the speech first, used the word "appalled."

On Thursday, Springstead's graduation day, Lugo read another, shorter speech that did garner approval.

But it isn't Lugo's, she told the St. Petersburg Times in a letter this week.

"Graduation is no longer about the students at all. It's about the school, proudly presenting another fine batch of perfectly acceptable programmed graduates to the rest of the community," she wrote. The new speech, she added, "is not me."

EXCERPTS FROM THE SPEECH

Springstead High School's class of 2009. Look around you. This is it.

No more essays, no more FCAT, no more required reading. We survived 13 grueling years of school, all for this moment, where we get to wear gowns that kind of remind me of a silk version of a Snuggie, and these hats that make every single one of us look absolutely ridiculous. Hate to break it to you, but no one looks good in these hats. Even you, Ben Noury.

So, I was stuck with this arduous task of extra writing to create this speech, and I decided to make this different. I'm not gonna get up here and start spouting these crazy incomprehensible seven syllable words I probably can't even pronounce. Why would I want to do that? Last time I checked, we're done with school. We don't want to think anymore. I would never, ever put you all through that pain. Another thing, nobody in speeches ever tells you what you actually need to know in life. They stand up here and gush about these lofty, inspirational concepts that are supposed to make you feel all warm and gooey inside. You know, I could stand up here and tell you all that I have a dream for this class, that among us are future doctors, lawyers, maybe even the next president, and you guys need to go out there and seize the day! Carpe diem! But really, what good would that do you? How much help will my words be when you wake up tomorrow, and realize that it truly is over? The babied path that's been set out for you since you were born has ended. You've left the womb, the cord's been cut, congratulations, welcome to your life. Your choices actually matter now, and your future is finally in your own hands. Sure, telling you to seize the day sounds impressive, but how are you going to know how to seize it?

Instead, I'm going to remind you of some basic concepts you can actually apply to your life. Crazy, right?

First off, get money. You can't do anything without money. Do something with your life where you're able to have a steady, reliable, source of income. Gamers, I'm sorry, but farming for gold in World of Warcraft is not considered a reliable or socially-acceptable source of income.

Second, after you have your money, be sure to pay your taxes. I hear the IRS can get pretty nasty with tax avoiders.

Also, don't get arrested. Sure, the jail lifestyle might seem like a luxury nowadays, but in 20 years, when you're going for that top-notch CEO position, that misdemeanor you got for stealing a street sign with your friends might just come back and bite you in the butt.

Moreover, take some time in your life to stand up for something. Whether it's a stance for pro-choice, religious debate, vegetarianism, or even something as simple as cleaner bathrooms, just make sure your voice is heard. It feels good to stick it to The Man every once in awhile.

And though you will be earning your steady income with your job, make sure not to waste your entire life working. You're making this money for a reason. Use it to have some fun. Go out and party. Use all of your vacation days. Use it to travel. Explore the world. Free yourself from the monotony of the workforce. I promise you, having fun will keep you sane.

Be sure to have that one person or thing that makes you smile whenever you see it. I'm not going to put on an act and tell you you're future's going to be peachy. No, life is gonna suck sometimes. Believe me, you're gonna need that one thing in your life that can always brighten your day, whether it's a significant other, a dog, a lava lamp, or the blankie you've had since you were a baby. Hey, whatever it takes to smile.

A few other basics to remember. Always say please and thank you; it's always appreciated. Wash your hands when you leave the bathroom; you'd be surprised how many people don't. Listen to your gut instinct and your conscience. When there's a choice between the little angel on one side, and the little devil on the other, please listen to the angel. Respect your elders, because one day, you'll be old too. Plus, they might leave you something in their will. Don't treat spelling and grammar check as a God. It definitely misses things. If you ever achieve any sort of fame or acclaim in your life, don't mess it up. Think Michael Phelps and Britney Spears. And if your mother would not approve of your actions, then you probably shouldn't be doing it. Don't believe everything you hear or read, and definitely don't click on every link someone sends you. Some of us have learned that the hard way. Countless times, I've been duped into clicking links that sent me to the music video of "Never Gonna Give You Up." I'm not sure if I'll ever properly get that song out of my head.

But, the most important thing that I can tell you tonight is to remember where you came from. You were an eagle once. We've been through four long years here. Some of us have loved it, some of us have hated it, but we all had to endure it, and for all of us, it's finally over. What's Springstead going to be like without us? The academic world is going to be missing some of its top performers, and the sports are going to be hurting without some of their best players. Mr. Pennington is not going to know what to do without his core group of seniors that are graduating. No one's going to be rampaging through the hallways, brandishing signs with their name. . .

When it all comes down to it, we're made for bigger things than this. We're going to get out of here, and we're going to live our lives, no doubt about that. Just remember to keep in touch. You'll regret it if you don't. As I said, there are hard times ahead. There are times where you'll just sit there and think to yourself, "Man, I lost the game." Times like that when you're going to need a friend. Don't throw away the friendships you've made here. One of these people might be able to get you a job someday, or might be able to lend you a helping hand. Life is all about connections.

Now I've been talking long enough. We're all dying to just get this over with. So I'm going to resort to a cliche ending, and quote one of the most influential men of all time, Freddie Mercury. "Just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of here." Congratulations class of 2009, we did it!

FRENCH SUPREME COURT ADDS TO COST OF REALITY TV SHOWS

Times, UK - Reality television faces a bleak future in France after contestants who spent 12 days flirting with the opposite sex on a sun-drenched island won the right to be treated as salaried workers.

In a ground-breaking ruling, the supreme court in France awarded three contestants on the French version of the program Temptation Island compensation of about L9,500 each. The judges ruled that the trio were entitled to full employment contracts - including overtime, holidays and even damages for wrongful dismissal upon elimination from the show.

The judgment is likely to presage a flood of claims by participants in other programs, such as the French versions of Big Brother and Britain’s Got Talent. Television executives say the decision, which settles three years of legal wrangling, will add significantly to the cost of producing reality television in France. . .

The supreme court upheld the lower tribunal judgment, which said: “Tempting a person of the opposite sex requires concentration and attention.”

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE LAW

Lowering the Bar - On May 21, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a complaint filed by a woman who said she had purchased "Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries" because she believed "crunchberries" were real fruit. The plaintiff, Janine Sugawara, alleged that she had only recently learned to her dismay that said "berries" were in fact simply brightly-colored cereal balls, and that although the product did contain some strawberry fruit concentrate, it was not otherwise redeemed by fruit. She sued, on behalf of herself and all similarly situated consumers who also apparently believed that there are fields somewhere in our land thronged by crunchberry bushes.

From the decision:

|||| In this case . . . while the challenged packaging contains the word "berries" it does so only in conjunction with the descriptive term "crunch." This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." Furthermore, the "Crunchberries" depicted on the [box] are round, crunchy, brightly-colored cereal balls, and the [box] clearly states both that the Product contains "sweetened corn & oat cereal" and that the cereal is "enlarged to show texture." Thus, a reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . .

So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world. The court, Judge Morrison England, Jr., also pointed out that the plaintiff acknowledged in her opposition to the motion to dismiss that "close inspection [of the box] reveals that Crunchberries . . . are not really berries." Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant's fraud. ||||

DEMOCRATS HUGGING REAGAN MYTH

David Corn, Mother Jones - There's been a lot of Ronald Reagan worshipping going on in Washington --among Democrats. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed a bill that will create a commission to plan events to celebrate what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday in 2011. Launching the commission, Obama said,

"President Reagan helped as much as any president to restore a sense of optimism in our country -- a spirit that transcended politics, that transcended even the most heated arguments of the day. It was this optimism that the American people sorely needed during a difficult period -- a period of economic and global challenges that tested us in unprecedented ways."

On Wednesday morning, when a statue of Reagan was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared,

"That optimism, charm and good humor is such a central part of what President Reagan brought to our country. But behind that grin lay a resolve that kept Americans safe and kept America strong. . . At the height of the Cold War, President Reagan's characteristic confidence warmed and reassured America.". . .

Okay, it's one thing to make nice with a dead president whose wife has been a valuable political ally in the stem cell fight. But do Democratic leaders have to contribute to the myth that Reagan helped save America in the gloomy days of the 1980s? Reagan preached a hardline approach to the world that coddled anti-communist dictators and left nuns and dissenters dead in such countries as El Salvador, Argentina, and Guatemala. He presided over the de-industrialization of America. . . . His administration purposefully aimed to bankrupt the federal government specifically to create pressure for cutting social programs. He wasted billions on missile defense. He busted a union. He did nothing when the AIDS epidemic struck. His administration was marked by numerous scandals and ethics controversies. More than 200 US Marines were killed in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing after his ill-advised deployment of troops to Lebanon, and the Reagan administration never caught the evildoers.

There was not much that was warming, reassuring, or optimistic about the defining policies of the Reagan years. My old college pal Will Bunch recently made the case against Reagan in his book Tear Down This Myth. But years earlier, I did the same in an abbreviated form and composed a list of "66 things to think about when flying into Reagan National Airport". Not everyone under a certain age will get all the references, but the gist is clear:

"The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.

"Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, "homeless by choice," Manuel Noriega, falling wages, the HUD scandal, air raids on Libya, "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa, United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, assassination manuals, Nancy's astrologer.

"Drug tests, lie detector tests, Fawn Hall, female appointees (8 percent), mining harbors, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut, Al Haig "in control," silence on AIDS, food-stamp reductions, Debategate, White House shredding, Jonas Savimbi, tax cuts for the rich, "mistakes were made."

"Michael Deaver's conviction for influence peddling, Lyn Nofziger's conviction for influence peddling, Caspar Weinberger's five-count indictment, Ed Meese ("You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime"), Donald Regan (women don't "understand throw-weights"), education cuts, massacres in El Salvador.

"'The bombing begins in five minutes,' $640 Pentagon toilet seats, African- American judicial appointees (1.9 percent), Reader's Digest, C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed), 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey, Iran/contra.

""Facts are stupid things," three-by-five cards, the MX missile, Bitburg, S.D.I., Robert Bork, naps, Teflon.

JEWISH EXTREMISTS TARGET BERKELEY PAPER

Berkeley Daily Planet - A few East Bay individuals are threatening to bankrupt the Berkeley Daily Planet unless it stops publishing criticisms of Israel's policies and actions. . .

Some of them have been contacting the paper's advertisers, urging them to cancel their contracts. One has created a website dedicated to attacks on the paper.

The expressed goal, in the words of an April 21 e-mail from one of them to the Planet's executive editor, is to make the Daily Planet "reform, or close, or bleed money until you are forced out of business or die broke.". . .

Some Daily Planet advertisers, incensed at the threats, have renewed their contracts. Others have fled, at least one prompted by the loss of paying clients.

These partisans even tar fellow Jews with the same broad brush of anti-Semitism if they criticize Israel's policies, or more specifically, the goals of the kind of hard-line Israeli militants frequently identified with the Likud party.

MEDICAL BILLS BEHIND 60% OF AMERICAN BANKRUPTCIES

CNBC - Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported.

More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine. . .

"Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States, said in a statement.

"For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection," he added.

HEALTH INDUSTRY IS PATENTING YOUR GENES

McClatchy Newspapers - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents to at least 4,382 human genes, including genes related to Alzheimer's, asthma, cancer, muscular dystrophy and other serious diseases.

"Twenty percent of the human genes are currently patented," said Christopher Hansen, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a suit last month challenging six patents on two genes that are connected to tests for breast and ovarian cancer.

A gene patent gives its owner the exclusive right, for up to 20 years, to control its use for medical research, diagnosis or treatment.

"A gene patent holder has the right to prevent anyone from studying, testing or even looking at a gene," the ACLU lawsuit protests. "As a result, scientific research and genetic testing has been delayed, limited or even shut down due to concerns about gene patents.". . .

"Patents are meant to protect inventions, not things that exist in nature like genes in the human body," Hansen said.

"Questionable patents are too easily obtained and are too difficult to challenge," the Senate Committee on the Judiciary declared last month. "An industry has developed in which firms use patents not as a basis for producing and selling goods but, instead, primarily for obtaining license fees."

MORNING LINE

Sam Smith - There is nothing revealed so far in Judge Sotomayer's record that disqualifies her from sitting on the Supreme Court. There is also nothing revealed so far in Judge Sotomayer's record that qualifies her to sit on the Supreme Court. So she should feel quite at home with most of the other justices.

Contrary to the impression given by the media, a school desegregation or major abortion case only comes up once a decade or more. The rest of the time, the assigned task of the justices, as with other judges, is to maintain the status quo. They function much like gimbal rings on a boat, which is to keep what they are holding steady regardless of what is happening in the sea around them.

MOVIE CORPORADOS GET EVEN GREEDIER

Zero Paid - Last September Real Networks launched RealDVD to allow users to make backup copies of purchased DVDs for private use. The MPAA immediately dubbed it "StealDVD" and filed a lawsuit to ban the sale of RealDVD.

It's essentially arguing that the price of a DVD is predicated on the "notion of certain use rights associated with certain price points."

"When a consumer can voluntarily expand the rights that come with one of those services - in essence open the door to multiple copies of a work not licensed for that - that eliminates any monetization models except one: selling full use rights to the work at one fixed price," says the Copyright Alliance on the MPAA's behalf. . .

Real Networks thinks its really all about "stifling competition."

"We believe the buyer has that right to play a DVD as many times as they want," Scott told Patel. "We think he also has the right to make a copy, this fair use copy."

He used the music industry as example, whereby it allows consumers to make copies for personal use.

"This is the experience that has been recognized as lawful fair use," Scott said. "These same studios have talked about CDs. A purchased CD can be copied to a computer and then transferred to an iPod without any charge to the consumer."

POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA

Buffalo News - It is legally permissible for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample, as long as it’s not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury,” a county judge has ruled in the first case of its kind in New York State, and possibly the nation.

Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza decided that the DNA sample obtained Sept. 29 from Ryan S. Smith of Niagara Falls - which ties him to a shooting and a gas station robbery- is legally valid and can be used at his trial.

Smith was handcuffed and sitting on the floor of Niagara Falls Police Headquarters when he was zapped with the 50,000- volt electronic stun gun after he insisted he would not give a DNA sample.

He already had given a sample, a swab of the inside of his cheek, without protest the previous month. But police sent it to the wrong lab, where it was opened and spoiled. Prosecutors who had obtained a court order for the first sample went back to Sperrazza, who signed another order without consulting the defense.

Defense lawyer Patrick M. Balkin denounced the ruling in an interview with The Buffalo News.

“They have now given the Niagara Falls police discretion to Taser anybody anytime they think it’s reasonable,” he asserted. “Her decision says you can enforce a court order by force. If you extrapolate that, we no longer have to have child support hearings; you can just Taser the parent.”

A HOMELESS MAN TELLS WHAT HE DOESN'T LIKE ABOUT SHELTERS

Slumjack Homeless, Change - Here are my reasons for choosing to remain outdoors rather than go to the shelters (which I initially tried):

1. Shelters usually require that you enter early in the eve and then remain there until early the next morn when you must leave. This can totally waste hours of otherwise possibly productive time, just sitting around in unpleasant to worse circumstances -- and a time when every resource, including time, must be marshaled.

2. The shelters I've been to are designed to try to keep alcoholics, drug addicts and criminals from being able to do those things. I don't do those things, so the preventative measures simply needlessly and oppressively impose upon my own adult freedoms. Like going around the corner for a coffee in a cafe and looking for work or some other way to earn money using the wifi.

3. Literally imprisonment with some of the worst people. This is a lousy way to spend evenings and is counterproductive. Or worse.

4. Property Impracticalities - I have a bicycle with a trailer attached. This is a good solution to having to constantly carry around one's belongings. It's a lots more useful, and less unattractive than the stereotypical shopping cart, etc. However, shelters typically do not offer any kind of secure options for one's belongings, usually severely limiting how much one can even carry in. This forces people to a ridiculous minimum of belongings. . . one of the factors that actually contributes to perpetuating a person's homeless predicament.

Also, you don't want other people at shelters to see what you do own and have. There are many thieves that will then know what you're carrying around with you, many of whom you will run across later. . . at night, alone, etc.

5. The solution is the problem - Shelters are often euphemized as emergency shelter but the emergency is that you have nowhere else to just be and operate, so being at a shelter is the emergency. And being in that predicament, even with the help of merely having a lousy place to sleep indoors, a disgusting bathroom and a gesture of a meal - at best - just perpetuates your true problem.

While outdoors you can spend up until midnight or so at comfortable cafe's, with options to interact with intelligent and, possibly, helpful people. You can work on things that may actually afford a chance to get out of the jam. Use wifi etc. The price is that of some modest purchases, but then also having to find a place to sleep outdoors. This is becoming harder and harder to do, as cities virtually outlaw being homeless like that.

STATE UNEMPLOYMENT FUNDS IN DEEP TROUBLE

Pro Publica - Half a million Americans lost their jobs in April, meaning there are now officially 14 million unemployed workers, the highest percentage in 25 years, and the strain on the unemployment system is beginning to show.

A compromise dating back to 1935 means each state has its own unemployment insurance system, with wide latitude to set taxes and benefit levels. As state systems buckle under the weight of skyrocketing unemployment, the fault lines of the current structure have been brought into stark relief.

States have been left on their own to financially founder or prosper, and benefits vary nearly as much as the health of state systems.

Fourteen states have simply run out of money to pay benefits and been forced to borrow from Washington a total of more than $8 billion. That number is almost certain to grow as more states reach the brink. If they are not able to pay that amount back before 2011, which most will not be able to do, they face paying hundreds of millions of dollars in interest. .

MORNING JOE SHOW BITES THE UNION HAND THAT FEEDS IT

Media Matters - The Morning Joe crew was on an anti-union tear this morning, claiming the union label on a company means "sell." Mika Brzezinski went so far as to say of unions: "They cripple the system that makes a company work." Collectively, the journalists on Morning Joe couldn't name a single "successful" unionized company.

This says more about their qualifications to discuss public policy and labor relations than it says about unions. To pick just one obvious example, UPS is unionized -- and the company made more than $3 billion last year. . .

GE is one of the world's largest companies; in 2006, its revenues were greater than the gross domestic products of 80 percent of UN nations. The company made more than $18 billion in 2008 . . . All that despite (or, perhaps, because of) the fact that 13 different unions represent GE workers.

And GE owns NBC-Universal, which owns MSNBC, which pays Joe Scarborough a handsome salary (and the unionized workers who help get his show on the air considerably less.)

Does Joe Scarborough think NBC and GE are not "successful" companies? Does Mika Brzezinski think the unionized workers she no doubt interacts with every day are crippling her ability to do her job, or her employer's ability to be successful?. . .

New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin started off the nonsense about successful unionized companies, saying, "Name a successful unionized company. Think. You're gonna go to break before you come up with one."

If Andrew Ross Sorkin's name sounds familiar, that's probably because he's the reporter who started the myth about the average GM worker being paid $70 an hour. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named him "Worst Person in the World" for that bit of blatantly false anti-union, anti-worker propaganda.

STUPID AIRLINE TRICKS

Guardian, UK - Ryanair boss, Michael O'Leary, insisted that it will cost passengers a pound to spend a penny as he confirmed plans to charge for toilets on his airplanes within two years.

The chief executive of Europe's largest budget carrier said the airline would also generate extra revenues by removing two out of the three toilets on its Boeing 737-800 jets and filling the space with up to six seats.

O'Leary first mooted the toilet charges in February, prompting his press officer to warn that the outspoken executive "makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along". However, O'Leary confirmed that he will ask Boeing to look at putting credit card readers on toilet locks for new aircraft. . .

He added: "We are flying aircraft on an average flight time of one hour around Europe. What the hell do we need three toilets for?" He denied that Ryanair was considering the ploy to make a profit from toilet breaks. "It's not because we need to generate money from the jacks. But . . . if you get rid of two [toilets] you can get six seats on a 737. They will all be scurrying to the toilet before the departure gate."

Asked if he would be interested in charging L5 a toilet visit in order to eliminate the need for the loo altogether, he said: "If someone wanted to pay L5 to go to the toilet I would carry them myself. I would wipe their bums for a fiver."

BREVITAS

CRASH TALK

CNN - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against former Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and two other former executives. The trio was charged with deliberately misleading investors by telling them the company was a quality lender of mostly prime mortgages and had prudent underwriting standards, while it actually was engaging in very risky lending practices in order to build and maintain market share. Mozilo was also charged with insider trading for selling his Countrywide stock for nearly $140 million in profits while knowing that Countrywide's business model was deteriorating. Along with Mozilo, the SEC charged former Chief Operating Officer and President David Sambol and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki with hiding the company's true practices and condition from shareholders.

WATCHING THE COUNT

Washington Post - Sequoia Voting Systems agreed to turn over sensitive information to the D.C. Council about how the District's voting machines work and tabulate results, setting the stage for one of the most comprehensive probes on the reliability of electronic voting equipment. The agreement is a response to the election night chaos in the September primaries, when Sequoia machines tabulated more ballots than there were voters, resulting in thousands of phantom votes. Electoral change advocates said the agreement, finalized in D.C. Superior Court after the city threatened a lawsuit, is one of the first times a manufacturer of electronic voting machines has been forced to endure a public vetting of how its equipment tabulates returns.

OBAMALAND

CQ Politics - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested "a wise Latina woman" or "wise woman" judge might "reach a better conclusion" than a male judge. Those speeches. . . suggest her widely quoted 2001 speech in which she indicated a "wise Latina" judge might make a better decision was far from a single isolated instance. A draft version of a October 2003 speech Sotomayor delivered at Seton Hall University stated, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion." That is identical to her October 2001 remarks at the University of California. . . In addition, Sotomayor delivered a series of earlier speeches in which she said "a wise woman" would reach a better decision. She delivered the first of those speeches in Puerto Rico in 1994 and then before the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York in April 1999.

URBAN

Business Week - Tata, the Indian company that made worldwide headlines with its $2,000 Nano car, now plans to build 1,000 tiny apartments outside Mumbai that will sell for $7,800 to $13,400 each. The company plans to roll out low-cost projects outside other major cities. . Luxury flats in Mumbai can cost more than ones in Manhattan. But these apartments won’t be luxurious. The Tata apartments will be built on 67 acres in Boisar, an industrial area where many lower-wage commuters already rent. . . The carpeted area of the smallest units will be 218 square feet. . . The largest units would be about 373 square feet . .

JUSTICE & FREEDOM

KENS - Twenty-one year-old Victoria Rogers says she wishes she could change the past. The local mother has been a fugitive since January -- wanted by authorities in Killeen, Texas. "I apologized and said I didn't mean to," Rogers said. Out of fear of being picked up for her outstanding warrant, Rogers says she refuses to drive or apply for a job. If only she had returned that library book to the Killeen Public Library, this would not be an issue. "I was floored," Rogers said. "I couldn't believe a warrant for a library book."
During an ugly divorce, Rogers and her 5-month-old son left Killeen and headed south to San Antonio, leaving behind a rocky relationship and a library book. With so much else on her mind, Rogers says she forgot about the book. She says her ex-husband never told her about the notices in the mail. She says she has offered to pay for the book, but the city of Killeen says it's too late. A library worker says that once they send multiple notices and turn over a case to the city, it's out of their hands.

Torrent Freak - The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament. .

THE MIX

New Hampshire has joined five other states in approving gay marriage

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