UNDERNEWS FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
WORD
Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to unreasonable expectations and eventual disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around the room with royal blue chickens. - Frar Lebowitz
VOTERS DON'T KNOW LEFT FROM RIGHT
http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=12504
MATT TAIBBI, NY PRESS - The Harris polling agency last week released the results of an interesting study. In a survey of 2209 adults, they discovered that most Americans only have the vaguest idea of the meaning of two important pairs of words that play crucial roles in the national political discourse: conservative and liberal, and left and right.
According to the survey, 37 percent of Americans think liberals oppose gun control, or else they are not sure if liberals oppose gun control. Likewise, 27 percent of respondents thought a right-winger was someone who supported affirmative action. Furthermore, the survey showed that respondents generally viewed the paired concepts liberals and left-wingers and conservatives and right-wingers as possessing, respectively, generally similar political beliefs - with one caveat. In both cases, respondents were roughly 10 percent more clueless about left-wingers and right-wingers than they were about liberals and conservatives.
DAVID GEFFEN: CLINTON CAN'T WIN
DRUDGE REPORT - Sen. Hillary Clinton should not count on help from Hollywood mogul David Geffen in her possible run for the White House. Geffen, who was a generous supporter and pal of Bill Clinton when he was president, trashed Hillary's prospects last night during a Q&A at the 92nd St. Y in New York City. "She can't win, and she's an incredibly polarizing figure," the billionaire Democrat told his audience. "And ambition is just not a good enough reason." Lloyd Grove reports in the NY Daily News the audience broke with "hearty applause" over Geffen's comments.
OLDEST HOMO SAPIEN FOSSILS FOUND
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/science/17human.html
JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, NY TIMES - Scientists have determined that human fossils found in Ethiopia in 1967 are 195,000 years old, 65,000 years older than first thought. The revised date, they said, makes the skulls and bones the earliest known remains of modern Homo sapiens. The research reinforces the theories of an African origin for modern humans, and the earlier date gives the species more time to have evolved the cultural attributes that probably supported its spread out of Africa to Asia and Europe. The new date appears to be near the early boundary for modern human emergence, as suggested in recent genetic studies.
THE MEDIACRACY
PBS CHICKENS OUT AGAIN
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-na-pbs18feb18,1,609669.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
SCOTT COLLINS, LA TIMES - PBS, the public broadcaster caught in the middle of the nation's culture wars, is entangled in another programming controversy. The producers of a "Frontline" documentary about U.S. combat troops in Iraq on Thursday criticized a PBS decision to send member stations an edited satellite feed of the program that cut out profanity used by soldiers.
Boston station WGBH, which produced "A Company of Soldiers," a 90-minute "Frontline" documentary set to air Tuesday on many of PBS' 349 affiliates, argued in a statement that PBS overreacted out of concern about Federal Communications Commission indecency rules.
This is the second time this year that the Public Broadcasting Service has tangled over programming with WGBH, a major program supplier to public TV stations nationwide.
Last month, PBS heeded the concerns of conservative member stations when it declined to distribute an episode of the children's show "Postcards from Buster" that featured real-life lesbian mothers. . .
The new dust-up involves profanity by U.S. soldiers interviewed by "Frontline," a documentary series that offers in-depth looks at various topics. According to David Fanning, the creator and executive producer, and executives at four public stations, PBS has opted to change traditional practice by broadcasting an edited version of the documentary.
Fanning said "Frontline" had typically made cleaned-up versions of documentaries with potentially objectionable content. But in the past, PBS has chosen to air the original version as its primary feed, he said. An unedited version of the "Frontline" show will be available through a secondary feed. Getting that, however, will be somewhat inconvenient.
RIGHT WINGERS GO AFTER PUBLIC BROADCASTING
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
Two of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's newest members, Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl Halpern, have given more than $816,000 to conservative causes over the past 14 years. In addition, both have shown contempt for the board's function. Halpern signaled her intentions during her confirmation hearing, when she suggested the CPB should be given authority to penalize and "remove physically" someone whose broadcasts it decided were unbalanced. Halpern took repeated shots at esteemed "Now" host Bill Moyers and advocated a policy of "aggressive" censorship.
The partisan CPB has already begun to have an effect: the hosts of PBS's two new public affairs programs are right-wing CNN commentator Tucker Carlson and Paul Gigot, of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board (which once called for the "complete withdrawal" of federal funding for PBS). Moyers's former newsmagazine, which also came under attack during a CBP Board meeting last winter (one member reportedly screamed, "You've got to get rid of Moyers!"), has been zero funded and cut from an hour to thirty minutes. And President Bush has "ordered an internal review" of "Postcards with Buster," a show the Education Department once praised as helping kids learn to read and giving them a "greater understanding and appreciation of the varied cultures in North America."On Thursday, PBS found itself in the middle of another controversy when the producers of a "Frontline" documentary about U.S. combat troops in Iraq criticized the channel's decision "to send member stations an edited satellite feed of the program that cut out profanity used by soldiers." The channel "opted to change from practice" by sending only the edited version of the show and forcing stations to "sign a legal waiver indemnifying PBS" if they want to get the unedited version. The producers charge PBS is bowing to concern about Federal Communications Commission indecency rules and that the network should "stand firm" for the "principle of editorial independence." The latest dust-up highlights the "inside-the-Beltway environment in which PBS is forced to operate, where funding concerns often trump programming decisions, and the fear of upsetting conservatives has become a driving force."
DRUG BUSTS
U.S. TROOPS GETTING MEDICAL ECSTASY; NO ARRESTS REPORTED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
DAVID ADAM, GUARDIAN - American soldiers traumatized by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom existing treatments are ineffective, have been given MDMA since the research began last year.
Michael Mithoefer, the psychiatrist leading the trial, said: "It's looking very promising. It's too early to draw any conclusions but in these treatment-resistant people so far the results are encouraging. . .
The South Carolina study marks a resurgence of interest in the use of controlled psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs. Several studies in the US are planned or are under way to investigate whether MDMA, LSD and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can treat conditions ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder to anxiety in terminal cancer patients
WORDS
CONAN O'BRIEN - This week the U.S. Navy launched a nuclear submarine named after Jimmy Carter. Experts say the sub will be ineffective for four years but tremendously respected once it's retired.
FURTHERMORE. . .
WHY TEACHERS LEAVE
http://www.glef.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1221&issue=feb_05#
BERNIE SANDERS ON TV CENSORSHIP BILL
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0217-32.htm
FIELD NOTES
CLUSTER BALLOONING
http://www.clusterballoon.org/
"Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons? That's the idea behind cluster ballooning. The pilot wears a harness, to which a cluster of large, helium-filled balloons are attached. Control is achieved by releasing ballast to ascend, or by bursting balloons to descend. The most famous cluster balloon flight took place in 1982. Larry Walters, with no prior ballooning experience, attached 42 helium weather balloons to a lawn chair, intending to go up a few hundred feet, but instead soaring to 16,000. Surprisingly, Walters survived his flight. However, both before and since Walters' adventure, experienced balloonists have experimented with helium balloon clusters, some rising to even greater heights."
BLACK MIGRATION
http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm;jsessionid=80303334631107895629379?bhcp=1
"The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment."
TOP OFFICIAL ADMITTED IRAQ INVASION WAS TO PROTECT ISRAEL, NOT U.S.
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=39766
EMAD MEKAY, ASIAN TIMES - Iraq under Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to the United States, but it did to Israel, which is one reason why Washington invaded the Arab country, according to a speech made by a member of a top-level White House intelligence group.
Inter Press Service uncovered the remarks by Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the body set up to investigate the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 - the 9/11 commission - in which he suggests a prime motive for the invasion just over one year ago was to eliminate a threat to Israel, a staunch US ally in the Middle East. . .
Zelikow made his statements about "the unstated threat" during his tenure on a highly knowledgeable and well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which reports directly to the president. He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.
"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat is and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of September 11 and the future of the war on al-Qaeda.
"And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," said Zelikow.
HALIBURTON STILL INVOLVED IN IRAN
NEWSWEEK - "Only weeks before Halliburton made headlines by announcing it was pulling out of Iran ... the Texas-based oil services firm quietly signed a major new business deal to help develop Tehran's natural gas fields. . . But overlooked in most of the press coverage of the announcement was that [Halliburton CEO David] Lesar's statement contained enough wiggle room to permit Halliburton to continue participating in the new South Pars project. . . Lesar's announcement was little more than 'PR damage control,' said one congressional investigator who has closely followed Halliburton's dealings. 'They're still acting like the sanctions law are a big joke,' the investigator added.
POLITICS
GOP JEWISH ORGANIZATION LINKS DEAN TO TERRORISM
http://www.forward.com/articles/2711
E.J. KESSLER, FORWARD - A Jewish Republican group greeted Howard Dean's election to chair the Democratic National Committee this week with an ad campaign seeking to depict him as a supporter of terrorism. The group, the Republican Jewish Coalition, placed full-page advertisements in the Washington newspaper Roll Call and in Jewish weeklies around the country, featuring a large picture of Hamas members decked out in costumes resembling suicide bombers. Above the photo, referring to a long-recanted September 2003 quote from Dean, is the statement: "DNC Chairman Howard Dean Says, 'It's not our place to take sides.'"
Beneath the photograph, the ad features 2003 quotes from Democrats, including Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who criticize Dean's remark.
At the time of the original flap, Dean responded to critics by stating that he meant America needed a president who would be seen as an honest broker by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as Bill Clinton had been, and not that he opposed America's alliance with Israel. . .
The National Jewish Democratic Council called the Republicans' anti-Dean ad a "vicious smear campaign." It said the ad campaign "dangerously politicizes support for Israel, threatening the crucial legacy of bipartisan support for Israel."
DEAN SEEKS MEDIA BLACKOUT, CHANGES MIND
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dean-media-blackout,0,6186251,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
RUKMINI CALLIMACHI AP - Howard Dean, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, requested a media blackout of a debate with top Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, then quickly changed his mind Wednesday after news agencies complained. "DNC Chair Howard Dean has declared a news blackout of his appearance and requested the media not quote, record, and/or paraphrase his remarks," event coordinator Gabrielle Williams wrote in an e-mail sent to news agencies Wednesday morning. "We apologize for the late notice, but we were just informed of this request."
Less than two hours later, Williams called to say: "We were told just a few minutes ago that it is now open" for media coverage. The decision to open Thursday's debate came roughly 30 minutes after an inquiry by The Associated Press. Dean spokeswoman Laura Gross said Dean had decided the event would be closed before he was elected DNC chairman Saturday, but changed his mind because of his new job.
JEFF GANNON CASE
A READER GENTLY chastises us for not covering the Jeff Gannon matter. As our name, Undernews, implies, we try to cover matters that you won't find elsewhere. This is what we in the trade used to call "news." Today, however, the Washington media works on the principle that Eugene McCarthy has identified: like blackbirds on a telephone wire, one flies off and they all fly off.
For example, in contrast with the Gannon tale, which we felt was over-covered, the Review probably provided the most comprehensive coverage of the Bernie Kerick matter which not only had many of the same elements: sex, politics, and lack of proper credentials, but the whiff of the mob as well.
As a general rule, if you find us not covering something, it's probably because we suspect you already are reading enough about it and we have little to add. Having said that, however, today several stories hit our desk that are worth mentioning.
MAUREEN DOWD - I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon. . . Who knew that a hot military stud wanting to mee tlocal men could so easily get to be face 2 face with the commander in chief?. . .
I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?
At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.
In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon. . .
With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with ringers. . .
They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.
Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html?
FRANK RICH, NY TIMES - By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. . .
AMERICAN NOTES
THE RISE EXTREME COMMUTING
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_08/b3921127.htm
BUSINESS WEEK - For the last leg of their five- and sometimes six-hour, door-to-door commutes, the working moms who call themselves the "Bus Buddies" of the Adirondack Trailways' Red Line run usually talk about one thing: How can I get off this thing? How to end the exhausting odyssey from New York state towns such as New Paltz and Woodstock, waking up at 5, 4, and even 3 a.m. to board a smelly long-hauler to Manhattan, where the salaries are 70% more? On the trip home, the Bus Buddies bring out their neck rolls to avoid "commuter nod" and use their pashminas as blankets, brainstorming exit strategies over the dueling aromas of Chinese food and Kentucky Fried Chicken. When a Bus Buddy does manage to leave behind her seat -- such as Jennifer Pickurel, who traded in a big finance job for one at the local Chamber of Commerce -- the Bus Buddies erupt into applause. "We're jealous," says Terry Rust, a broadcast TV business manager who lives in New Paltz. "But we cheer them on and say: 'Yeah, you made it. You're off the bus."'
The Bus Buddies are part of the fastest-growing group of work travelers in the country, people who rarely see their houses in daylight, leave home when their kids are still asleep, and mainline Red Bull just to stay awake. They're known as extreme commuters. They spend at least a month of their lives each year traveling a minimum of an hour-and-a-half to work and back, vs. the U.S. average of 50 minutes. Their ranks have jumped an astounding 95% since 1990, according to the Census Bureau, accounting for 3.4 million workers.
Experts say the numbers of these super-commuters will continue to swell. In 1990, 24% of all workers left their home counties to get to the office. Since then, 50% of new workers do, according to transportation expert and Commuting in America author Alan Pisarski. Corporate America is already taking note, with many companies attempting to ease the strain on their employees. For many, the megacommute is about the ever-broadening search for affordable housing, with more and more people "driving until they qualify" for cheaper houses and better schools, says Pisarski.
CORPORADOS
WORLD'S TOP TEN OIL COS. SHOW $100 BILLION PROFIT
JAD MOUAWAD, NEW YORK TIMES - Born from the mega-mergers of the 1990's, the world's giant oil companies have delivered on their promise. They have cut costs, increased returns and raised profits to records. Now, flush with cash, they find themselves in a paradoxical position --- they are making more money than they can comfortably spend.
Thanks to crude prices that averaged $41 a barrel in New York last year, the world's ten biggest oil companies earned more than $100 billion in 2004, a windfall greater than the economic output of Malaysia. Together, their sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion for 2004, which is more than Canada's gross domestic product.
But even as fears of shortages grow throughout the world and prices remain high, the cash-rich oil companies are not pouring a large portion of their money into their basic business: drilling for oil. Indeed, oil executives, in their second straight year of rising profits, are finding that too much money is chasing too few oil fields. Instead, they are giving much of their cash back to shareholders.
ON CAMPUS
OHIO SENATE CONSIDERING BILL TO MUZZLE TEACHERS
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
Conservatives in the Ohio State Senate are considering a bill that would prohibit public and private college professors from introducing "controversial matter" into the classroom and shift oversight of college course content to state governments and courts. The language of the bill comes from right-wing activist David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights," which recommends states adopt rules to "restrict what university professors could say in their classrooms" and halt liberal "pollution" on campus. The bill is both redundant and misleading - most colleges already have rules ensuring free expression (political and otherwise) and Horowitz and his supporters have been able to offer scant evidence of widespread political bullying. Nevertheless, a variation of the bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and has made inroads in six states.
Ohio Senate Bill 24 was introduced late last month by State Sen. Larry Mumper (R), who says it is necessary because "80 percent" of college professors "are Democrats, liberals or socialists or card-carrying Communists" who attempt to indoctrinate students. When asked how he came to his conclusion, Mumper said he had been "investigating the issue for months," but cited just one instance when he had "heard of an Ohio student who said she was discriminated against because she supported Bush for president." He added that "anti-American" professors were a threat to young people and said he didn't think it was right for college campuses to teach students things their parents might disagree with.
Horowitz, who has been the driving force behind the movement for "academic freedom" in Ohio and other states, has a distinguished history of intellectual defamation, historical inaccuracy and political bullying. He has freely compared American liberals to Islamic terrorists, slandered the Democratic Party and John Kerry for criticizing the war in Iraq and made a habit out of accusing his detractors of racism. Most recently, when African-American historian John Hope Franklin questioned Horowitz's 2001 claim that black people benefited from slavery and owed a "debt" to white America, Horowitz responded by calling the eminent historian "a racial ideologue rather than a historian" and "almost pathological." Horowitz has no academic credentials and routinely distorts facts - exactly the crime he accuses "liberal" professors of committing - to fit his political bias.
Horowitz's best attempt to prove liberal bias on campus is his "Academic Freedom Abuse Center," housed on the Students for Academic Freedom website. But the database, which invites students to report having their "rights abused" in class, only looks impressive until you start reading the actual claims. Some highlights: One student complains because her professor suggested men and women might see colors differently. Another is offended she was asked to watch an "immoral Seinfeld episode." The latest entry in the database as of Tuesday afternoon was from an Ohio State student who claims he got a bad grade on an essay because his English professor "hates families and thinks it's okay to be gay." One of the complaints comes from an Augustana College senior who is upset her school used "funds from Student activity fees to bring in the one-sided speaker David Horowitz."
SEPTEMBER 11
CONTROLLERS' 9/11 TAPES WILLFULLY DESTROYED
LESLIE MILLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Air traffic controllers who handled two of the hijacked flights on Sept. 11, 2001, recorded their experiences shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center but a supervisor destroyed the tape, government investigators said Thursday.
A report by Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead said the manager for the New York-area air traffic control center asked the controllers to make the recordings a few hours after the crashes in belief they would be important for law enforcement.
Investigators never heard it. Sometime between December 2001 and February 2002, an unidentified Federal Aviation Administration quality assurance manager crushed the cassette case in his hand, cut the tape into small pieces and threw them away in multiple trash cans, the report said.
"We were told that nobody ever listened to, transcribed or duplicated the tape," Mead said in the report sent to Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Republican asked the inspector general to look into how well the agency was cooperating with the independent panel investigating the attacks.
Neither manager told anyone outside the center - including their superiors and law enforcement officials - about the tape's existence, the report said. The Sept. 11 commission learned of the tape during interviews with New York air traffic control center personnel between September and October.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
WHY MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/londoncuts/articles/16674309?source=Daily%20Mail
DAVID WILKES, DAILY MAIL - Yesterday scientists explained exactly why it is that men have a tendency to nod off after making love. Apparently, it's nothing to do with wanting to avoid a cosy chat with their partner. According to the scientists, they are simply tired out.
'As frustrating as it is for most women that their male partners just roll over and fall asleep after sex, men aren't entirely to blame,' said Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep at the University of Surrey. . . 'The blood rush after climax depletes the muscles of energy-producing glycogen, leaving men feeling physically drained. 'Because they have more muscle mass than women, men become tired after sex and this subsequently leads to them feeling sleepy.'
Eighty per cent of men said they felt more relaxed and were able to drift off without any problems after making love, compared with 46 per cent of women. They were among 10,000 adults surveyed by organisers of The Vitality Show, Europe's largest health and beauty exhibition.
Birmingham was found to have the highest number of men who fall asleep after sex. Men in the city managed on average to stay awake for just three to four minutes, according to the survey. In Glasgow and Liverpool, meanwhile, men claimed to take up to 20 minutes before falling asleep.
BEHIND THE BUSHES
RUMSFELD EMBEDDED IN HIMSELF
DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST - Two dozen members of the House Armed Services Committee had not yet had their turn to question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at yesterday's hearings when he decided he had had enough.
At 12:54, he announced that at 1 p.m. he would be taking a break and then going to another hearing in the Senate. "We're going to have to get out and get lunch and get over there," he said. When the questioning continued for four more minutes, Rumsfeld picked up his briefcase and began to pack up his papers. . .
Asked about the number of insurgents in Iraq, Rumsfeld replied: "I am not going to give you a number."
Did he care to voice an opinion on efforts by U.S. pilots to seek damages from their imprisonment in Iraq? "I don't."
Could he comment on what basing agreements he might seek in Iraq? "I can't."
How about the widely publicized cuts to programs for veterans? "I'm not familiar with the cuts you're referring to."
How long will the war last? "There's never been a war that was predictable as to length, casualty or cost in the history of mankind."
THE MEDIACRACY
BAD DAYS FOR THE TRUTH
http://www.alternet.org/story/21273/
[Charles Lewis founded the excellent Center for Public Integrity]
CHARLES LEWIS, ALTERNET - Over the years, those unhappy with my investigations have tried just about everything to discourage our work. They have issued subpoenas, stalked my hotel room, escorted me off military bases, threatened physical arrest, suggested I leave via a second-story window, made a death threat personally communicated by concerned state troopers who asked that we leave the area immediately (we didn't), hired public relations people to infiltrate my news conferences and pose as "reporters" to ask distracting questions, attempted to pressure the Center's donors, and even brought expensive, frivolous libel litigation that takes years and costs millions of dollars to defend.
Being despised and frozen out by those in power is an occupational hazard - indeed, a badge of honor - for investigative reporters everywhere. Certainly no one at the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity harbors any illusions that he or she will ever be invited to dinner at the White House. This is hardly surprising given that the Center broke the Clinton White House "Lincoln Bedroom" fundraising scandal, first revealed that Enron was George W. Bush's top career patron and years later disclosed that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, is by far the Bush administration's favorite contractor in Iraq. . .
Over the years, I have investigated and interviewed members of Congress, presidential candidates, judges, captains of industry, government spooks, labor union presidents, crooks and terrorists, FBI agents and Ku Klux Klansmen, billionaires and the homeless, brilliant thinkers and the mentally deranged. And it is fair to say that I have been lied to by people in virtually every part of the United States, in swank marble buildings, smoky bars and dusty local jails, eyeball-to-eyeball and by phone, fax, email and hand-delivered letter, in all kinds of imaginative ways, almost always with a straight face.
The line between truth and falsehood - between the facts and a veneer of verisimilitude - has become so blurred as to be indistinguishable. Increasingly, what the powers that be say has become the publicly perceived reality, simply because they say it is so. . .
The fact is, most major news organizations, particularly broadcasters, failed to recognize and report on the business lawlessness of the 1990s, in which literally hundreds of companies-aided and abetted by lawyers, underwriters and accountants-cooked the books and lied to their shareholders and federal authorities. . .
Nor do the American people get "all the news that's fit to print" when it comes to the political activities of the media corporations themselves. . .
What does it all mean? For the most part, there is little appetite for investigative journalism. For the "suits" who control what we read, see and hear, besides potentially alienating the political power structure against their own company or industry, thereby possibly jeopardizing millions of dollars in future profits, this edgy enterprise journalism is not efficient or cost-effective. It simply takes too much time, requires too much money and incurs too many legal and other risks. . .
The problem is made worse by the presence of brilliant communications tacticians in the White House who cleverly frame their controversial policy agendas, setting up the class's stenography assignment for the day, with bold, positive names. . .
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
GONZALES SAYS SELLING OR DISTRIBUTING SEXUAL MATERIAL NOT COVERED BY FIRST AMENDMENT
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obscenity_appeal_3
MARK SHERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Bush administration said Wednesday it would seek to reinstate an indictment against a California pornography company that was charged with violating federal obscenity laws. It was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first public decision on a legal matter. Billed as the government's first big obscenity case in a decade, the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari, and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, Calif., was dismissed last month by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster of Pittsburgh. . . While acknowledging the importance of the constitutional guarantee of free speech, Gonzales said selling or distributing obscene materials does not fall within First Amendment protections.
WORDS
DAVID LETTERMAN - President George Bush is requesting an additional $82 billion -- $82 billion for war funding. Of course that would include Afghanistan, Iraq and a country to be named later.
"AMERICAN UNION" BEING PLANNED?
http://207.44.245.159/article8069.htm
SEAN GORDON, TORONTO STAR - An influential tri-national panel has considered a raft of bold proposals for an integrated North America, including a continental customs union, single passport and contiguous security perimeter. According to a confidential internal summary from the first of three meetings of the Task Force on the Future of North America, discussions also broached the possibility of lifting trade exemptions on cultural goods and Canadian water exports.
Those last two suggestions were dismissed in subsequent deliberations, say members of the task force, an advisory group of academics, trade experts, former politicians and diplomats from Canada, the United States and Mexico sponsored by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Members said the task force's final report this spring will focus on "achievable" rather than simply academic questions like that of a single North American currency.
Nevertheless, the initial debates prompted a sharp reaction from trade skeptics and nationalist groups like the Council of Canadians, who fear business leaders and the politically connected are concocting plans to cede important areas of sovereignty at the behest of American business interests.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow said the summary, a copy of which was obtained by the Toronto Star, was "disturbing" and "shocking."
"What they envisage is a new North American reality with one passport, one immigration and refugee policy, one security regime, one foreign policy, one common set of environmental, health and safety standards ... a brand name that will be sold to school kids, all based on the interests and the needs of the U.S.," she said.
She said the discussions have added weight because the panel includes such political heavyweights as former federal finance minister John Manley.
LABOR
HISTORIANS SHOW LABOR SOLIDARITY
http://www.oah.org/meetings/2005/news-update-021505.html
HISTORY NEWS NETWORK - The Organization of American Historians executive board has decided to move the 2005 annual meeting from San Francisco to San Jose in response to the ongoing union boycott of the Hilton Hotel, where the meeting was originally scheduled. A poll of some 900 people who registered for the meeting indicated that 3/4ths would refuse to cross a picket line. The move to San Jose could cost the OAH $450,000. But going ahead with the meeting in San Francisco also entailed costs of up to half a million dollars from unrented rooms already reserved and the loss of registration fees.
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
JUDGES ORDER 2 REPORTERS TO TESTIFY ON LEAK
[This is not a matter just of freedom of the press, but of the freedom of every citizen. Absent strong protection for reporters to keep confidential information off the record, the healthy relationship between government or corporate whistleblower and journalist goes down the tube]
REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called for a coordinated effort to support a federal shield law in the wake of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit today that two prominent journalists do not have a privilege to keep sources of information from a federal grand jury.
"The decision in this case underscores that these are perilous times for journalists and the public's right to know," said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish. "There are more than two dozen cases pending across the United States where journalists are being asked to operate as investigators for the government and litigants. The ability of the media to act as independent sources of information for the public is in jeopardy."
In today's action by the D.C. Circuit, the three-judge panel unanimously held that no privilege would protect Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller from being compelled to testify about their sources. The court held that the U.S. Supreme Court "unquestionably" answered the question about maintaining confidentiality before grand juries in 1972 in Branzburg v. Hayes.
SCHOOLS
STUPID SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR TRICKS
AP - A student apprehended on his high school roof in a gorilla mask was charged Tuesday with trespass and other crimes when his senior prank led to a school lockdown, officials said. No one was injured and police found no weapons on suspect Matthew Pattison or inside Oley Valley High School in rural Berks County, state trooper Ray Albert said. The 18-year-old Pattison — a National Merit semifinalist with no school disciplinary record — was charged with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal trespass. He told police he donned a gorilla mask and gloves and climbed up to the cafeteria roof Tuesday morning in order to peer down into classroom windows, Oley Police Chief David A. White said in a statement. The prank was foiled when school staff saw someone donning the mask in the parking lot and scaling a wall and called authorities, who sent officers, a state police helicopter and a bomb squad.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050215/ap_on_fe_st/school_rooftop_prank
TAMMY J. OSEID, PIONEER PRESS - About 100 Henry Sibley students on Monday wore T-shirts calling for the return of the Sibley Warriors' old Indian mascot. Students said they were informed they would be suspended during school today for failing to remove the shirts; Henry Sibley principal Beth Borgen said she knew of only one disciplinary case. Some parents are appealing to the district's superintendent. . .
"I respect students' right to their opinions, but I also would ask that they present an issue to administration in a meaningful and productive manner," she said. The T-shirts, she wrote in a Monday letter to staff, "are abusive to our current mascot, are promoting a mascot which the Native American community had deemed offensive . . . and are a distraction to the learning environment.". . .
At the urging of Henry Sibley High's student council, the school's old Indian mascot was replaced in 1996. Officially, a griffin represented the school for three years. But the part-lion, part-eagle creature was replaced again in 1999 with the medieval knight.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/10724812.htm
OTHER NEWS
GREAT MOMENTS IN CRIME
AP, NEW RIEGEL, OH - The village police chief was surprised when he woke up in the middle of the night to find a man inside his home playing Beethoven on the piano. New Riegel Police Chief Steve Swartzmiller said he grabbed his gun and went to investigate the noise in his house. He found 19-year-old Shawn Chadwell playing the piano. Chadwell was drunk and looking for a friend's house when he mistakenly wandered into the wrong place early Monday, Swartzmiller said. . . Swartzmiller said his house was the only one around that had lights on and it probably attracted Chadwell. The chief added that Chadwell played perfect Beethoven.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050215/ap_on_fe_st/police_chief_s_surprise
REGISTER, UK - A 40 year-old Wisconsin man has put in a strong bid for the dumbest criminal of the year after he allegedly stole a GPS tracking device used to monitor criminals on probation. . . After the light-fingered thief lifted the hi-tech gizmo, the device automatically notified the authorities that it had been removed from the vicinity of the prisoner's home. Its new location was easily tracked over the Net, leading authorities right to the suspect's apartment.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/02/doh_man_steals_gps_tracking/
DEPARTMENT OF SILLY TALK
ULSTER COUNTY NY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DONALD WILLIAMS - It is unfair to speculate on a motive, but to fire 50 to 60 rounds into a mall filled with innocent people indicates a troubled person.
WORDS
JAY LENO - North Korea has declared they have nuclear weapons, saying they need them to protect themselves from a hostile United States. President Bush said today North Korea has nothing to fear from America. He said 'don't these people understand we only attack countries that don't have weapons of mass destruction.'
FURTHERMORE. . .
SENATOR SANTORUM METAPHOR OF THE DAY: "[Bush is] like a pit bull. He's got a pair of trousers in his mouth and he's not letting go.". . .
We trust he was not speaking of Jeff Gannon.
FIELD NOTES
INTERNMENT CAMP NOW A PARK SERVICE SITE
A READER writes, "Driving through the Owens valley in California, my girlfriend and I stopped at Manzanar. The docent told us that the National Park Service only recently acquired the land and built the visitor center. Prior to that, there wasn't even a sign indicating Manzanar's presence. The interpretive center (as it's billed) has displays about the Japanese internment and attempts to convey an understanding of what it was like to have lived there. There is also a 22 minute film that features excerpts from surviving internees. One of the striking comments was from an internee who feared that something like this could happen again if we aren't vigilant. . . I would highly recommend anyone living in Southern California and planning on traveling to Mammoth, Death Valley or anywhere nearby to stop at the new visitor center on Highway 395.
http://www.nps.gov/manz/home.htm
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELECTRICIAN
Includes experiments that students can duplicate
http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/fellows/bob_morse_04/
SOCIAL SECURITY
THE LOBBIES BEHIND THE WAR ON SOCIAL SECURITY
http://www.capitaleye.org/SocialSecurity.1.25.05.asp
CTR FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS The Alliance for Worker Retirement Security is the leading business coalition backing Bush’s proposal that would allow workers to invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes in private investment accounts. The Alliance’s 35 members include representatives of industries that could profit enormously from such a plan, including the Securities Industry Association, Wall Street’s main trade group, and Paine Webber —now called UBS Financial Services and one of the biggest campaign contributors in the securities and investment industry.
The Alliance also includes powerful business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, computer company Hewlett-Packard, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and two lobbying groups funded in part by drug makers: the 60 Plus Association and the United Seniors Association.
Combined, the Alliance members have donated $35 million to federal candidates and political parties since 1999. Of that, $26 million went to Republicans. In addition, Alliance members spent nearly $108 million lobbying the federal government during 2003 and the first half of 2004.
CORPORADOS
CORPORADOS OUT TO KILL MUNICIPAL INTERNET
MEDIA CITIZEN - A growing number of American cities and towns are queuing up municipal wireless networks to provide affordable and fast Internet access to residents. But they're facing increasing opposition from players for the telecom industry, which seeks to consolidate its control over the "last mile" of broadband access to American homes.
Municipal Internet projects pose a threat to industry fiefdoms because they offer citizens a relatively cheap alternative to commercial ISP's costly and incomplete services. Moreover, they're easy to implement and administer and, as a result, growing more popular with local politicians and citizens. . .
Major telecoms -- eager to dominate the multi-billion-dollar ISP market -- have begun to stake out territory wherever municipal broadband had begun to take root. They seek to frame community wireless projects as "costly mistakes" that are an affront to the American ideal of free enterprise.
Don't believe a word of it.
"Access to the Internet today is as much a necessity of life as the more traditional services and should be available to all," writes Jonathan Baltuch, an economic development consultant from St. Cloud, Florida, a city that provides its citizens with a wireless network covering 30 square miles. Baltuch emailed Media Citizen to explain how St Cloud's network has proven everything but a "costly mistake":
"Here is an interesting St. Cloud economic stimulus factoid: Average St Cloud residential annual Internet access cost -- $450, Average St Cloud residential annual property tax bill (city portion only) -- $300. By the city providing this one service to its residents the average household savings will be 50% more than the average tax bill for all city services. Further the $3 - $4 million per year that is leaving the city to flow to corporate headquarters all over the country will stay in the local economy.
Verizon, in particular, has been aggressive in snubbing such civic Wi Fi efforts wherever they emerge. But the company is not alone. Other large commercial telecom services such as Comcast, Qwest and SBC -- whose tentacles reach well into the pockets of legislators in all 50 states -- are arguing that municipalities have no business serving as ISP's.
http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/02/battling-sock-puppets.html
CONGRESS' CREDIT CARD FRAUD
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
PROGRESS REPORT - The United States credit card industry rakes in $2.5 billion a month in profits – largely in fees and interest charged to the American consumer. But its thirst for additional profits is insatiable. Credit card corporations are showering Congress with cash in an attempt to squeeze every last dime out of those who can afford it least to by making it harder for them to get out of debt. The industry is pushing for a bill that would deny bankruptcy relief to "people with low or moderate incomes who have fallen on hard times because of illness, job loss or divorce." Meanwhile the bill does nothing to stop "abusive lending practices by credit card companies."
The bankruptcy bill is an attempt to prevent people from filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy – which gives people a clean slate – and make them file under Chapter 13, which requires continued payments to the credit card companies. Already, judges can deny Chapter 7 protection if they think the law is being abused. The bankruptcy bill would require consumers to complete a complex array of forms to "prove" they qualify for Chapter 7.
The overwhelming majority of Americans do not become bankrupt by purchasing Rolex watches and plasma TVs. The leading cause: getting sick. A Harvard University study found that half of all respondents "said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy."
PUNISHING THE ELDERLY: Another group saddled with credit card debt – largely due to costs out of their control – is the nation's elderly. Between 1992 and 2001, "the number of older Americans filing for bankruptcy tripled." A new report by the Demos Network emphasizes "the growing presence of America's seniors in the bankruptcy courts should warn policymakers of the importance of safeguarding this difficult last resort."
Credit card companies aggressively market their products to many consumers – such as college students, low wage workers and people already drowning in debt – that they know can't afford to pay off their balances. Last year, the industry "collected $11.7 billion in penalty fees." Even as the Federal Reserve has kept its target rate very low (2.25 percent), credit card corporations charged customers who miss one or two payments "with maximum rates that now exceed 28 percent." In April, a unilateral change in the agreement by Discover card allowed the company "to raise the interest rate to 19.99 percent, from as low as zero, for a single late payment." A late payment that was made anytime in the 11 months before the rule change could justify the increase.
Why are members on both sides of the aisle willing to sell out the sick and the poor to pad the profits of the credit card industry? Follow the money. Over the last four years, credit card companies have contributed $24.8 million to congressional and presidential candidates. MBNA – the company leading the industry's hardball lobbying campaign – was the largest single contributor to President Bush's reelection campaign. MBNA contributed $240,675 to Bush through the company's Political Action Committee and individual contributions. It's a reasonable investment; if the bill passes it is expected to "add $75 million a year to MBNA's bottom line."
LABOR
YOU'RE A CORNERSTONE AND YOU'RE FIRED
http://www.capitaleye.org/SocialSecurity.1.25.05.asp
CP - Wal-Mart Canada took out a full-page ad in several Quebec newspapers Monday, telling its employees they are the "cornerstone" of the company. The retail giant's move came after its decision last week to close a Quebec store where unionized employees were seeking a first collective agreement.. . . Wal-Mart's ad says the company has found the last few days "very trying" and seeks to reassure its employees they are its "biggest strength."
"Never let anyone or the Media tell you otherwise," the statement reads. "You represent the cornerstone of our organization and we believe it is a privilege to have such an exceptional team."
HEALTH & SCIENCE
NATURAL ANTI-DEPRESSANTS
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL - Daily Express reports that two new studies show that people with depression can treat their condition just as effectively with natural remedies as with antidepressant drugs. The first study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, found that a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and uridine, which is naturally present in most foods, was as effective against depression as three of the leading antidepressants. . . The second study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that an extract of St John's Wort was actually better at treating depression than paroxetine.
THE MEDIACRACY
]
THE REAL STORY OF DRESDEN
THAT THE media's exculpation of the Allied carpet bombing of places like Dresden and the lumping of its critics with neo-Nazis amounts to Orwellian revisionism can be seen by reading Mike Davis' 2002 book, Dead Cities. In it, Davis writes:
During the early days of the Second World War, tens of millions of American voters of German and Italian ancestry were reassured that the Army Air Force would never deliberately make a target out of "the ordinary man in the street." Americans were officially committed to the clean, high-tech destruction of strictly military or military-industrial targets. The Eighth Air Force sent its crews in daylight "precision" raids against visually identified targets, in contrast to its Blitz-embittered British allies, who saturation-bombed German cities at night by radar, hoping to terrorize their populations into flight or rebellion. The extraordinary technologies of the B-17 and the Norden bombsight allowed the United States to bomb "with democratic values."
Then, along came Operation Thunderclap. Churchill's science advisor, Lord Cherwell, argued that "the bombing must be directed essentially against working-class houses. Middle-class houses have too much space around them and so are bound to waste bombs." Even before the Battle of Britain, Churchill himself had called for an "absolutely devastating, exterminating attack."
Writes Davis:
General George McDonald, the director of Air Force intelligence, privately shared their revulsion against "indiscriminate homicide and destruction." General Cabell, another "precisionist," complained about the "same old baby killing plan of the get-rich-quick psychological boys."
Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Chief of Staff George Marshall also quietly struggled to maintain a moral distinction between the Nazi leadership and the German working class. (Stimson, not wanting "the United States to get the reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities," equally opposed the fire-bombing of Japan.) . . .
Key Air Force leaders were disturbed by the unsavory character of Thunderclap. Major General Laurence Kuter protested to colleagues that "it is contrary to our national ideals to wage war against civilians." Intelligence chief McDonald railed against a plan that "repudiates our past purposes and practices . . . [and] places us before our allies, the neutrals, our enemies and history in conspicuous contrast to the Russians whose preoccupation with wholly military objectives has been as notable as has been our own up to this time."
The British close to Churchill had a different idea:
The British clung to the belief (or dementia, as many Americans saw it) that Berlin could be bombed out of the war. . . They assumed that intolerable civilian suffering would inevitably produce a proletarian revolt in the heart of the Third Reich. . . Air power, according to this logic, would bomb industrial centers, creating mass unemployment and panic, especially among the working classes, who in turn would overthrow the government. In short, air attack against populations would cause workers to rise up against the ruling classes.
And then the American came on board:
Roosevelt's endorsement of Thunderclap, which paved the way for US complicity in Dresden, was a moral watershed in the American conduct of the war. The city burners had finally triumphed over the precision bombers. By committing the Air Force to British doctrine in Germany, Thunderclap also opened the door to the Zoroastrian Society alumni who wanted an unrestricted incendiary campaign against Japan. The hundred thousand or so civilians whom the Eighth Air Force burnt to death in the cities of eastern Germany during the winter of 1945 were but a prelude to the one million Japanese consumed in the B-29 autos-da-fé later that spring.
Thus, the Washington Post strongly inferring that those who question the morality and wisdom of the Dresden bombings are neo-Nazis is not only historically incorrect, it is a libel.
[A lengthy excerpt from Davis' book can be found in the January/February issue of Designer/Builder available for $3.50 from 2405 Maclovia Lane,Santa Fe NM 87505]
DEAD CITIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1565848446/progressiverevieA/
WAR DEPARTMENT
SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS WHITE HOUSE STYLE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-pow15feb15,0,3155150.story?coll=la-home-headlines
DAVID G. SAVAGE, LA TIMES - The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist. The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The case abounds with ironies. It pits the U.S. government squarely against its own war heroes and the Geneva Convention. Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago. Those Iraqi victims, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said, deserve compensation from the United States.
But the American victims of Iraqi torturers are not entitled to similar payments from Iraq, the U.S. government says. . .
Congress opened the door to such claims in 1996, when it lifted the shield of sovereign immunity — which basically prohibits lawsuits against foreign governments — for any nation that supports terrorism. At that time, Iraq was one of seven nations identified by the State Department as sponsoring terrorist activity. The 17 Gulf War POWs looked to have a very strong case when they first filed suit in 2002. They had been undeniably tortured by a tyrannical regime, one that had $1.7 billion of its assets frozen by the U.S. government.
The picture changed, however, when the United States invaded Iraq and toppled Hussein from power nearly two years ago. On July 21, 2003, two weeks after the Gulf War POWs won their court case in U.S. District Court, the Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed.
FIELD NOTES
HOTEL WATCH
http://www.hotellaboradvisor.info/hotelguidestrike.asp
HOTELS ON STRIKE OR LOCKOUT - Workers at these hotels and casinos are on strike or locked out by their employers.
Chicago - Congress Plaza Hotel
New York - Crowne Plaza
LaGuardia - Hampton Inn
JFK - Holiday Inn JFK
BOYCOTT LIST - The following list of hotels are under boycott.
Los Angeles - Hyatt Regency Hotel Los Angeles - Hyatt West Hollywood - Millennium Biltmore Hotel - Regent Beverly Wilshire - Sheraton Universal Hotel - St. Regis Hotel - Westin Bonaventure Hotel - Westin Century Plaza Hotel - Wilshire Grand Hotel
Monterey - Monterey Bay Travelodge (Fairgrounds)
Oahu Island - Turtle Bay Resort
San Francisco - Argent Hotel - Crowne Plaza Union Square - Fairmont San Francisco - Four Seasons San Francisco - Grand Hyatt - Hilton San Francisco - Holiday Inn Civic Center - Holiday Inn Express - Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf - Hyatt Regency San Francisco - Mark Hopkins InterContinental - Omni San Francisco Hotel - Park Hyatt - Sheraton Palace Hotel - Westin St. Francis
Great museums of America
THE FLASHLIGHT MUSEUM
http://www.geocities.com/~stuarts1031/flashlight.html
"Since the flashlight could not exist without a battery and a bulb, the history of the flashlight is associated with batteries and bulbs. The first battery appeared in 1866, invented by French inventor, George Leclanche. He called it a "single fluid electric generating battery". It was a wet cell, made by filling a glass jar with ammonium chloride, manganese dioxide and zinc and then adding a carbon bar for the positive end of the cell. It was not portable. If tipped over, the acid would spill out. Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb in 1879. Improvement to the battery came in 1888, when a German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, encased the wet cell chemicals in a sealed zinc container. This was the first dry cell and the first portable battery."
Educational television should be absolutely forbidden. It can only lead to unreasonable expectations and eventual disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around the room with royal blue chickens. - Frar Lebowitz
VOTERS DON'T KNOW LEFT FROM RIGHT
http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=12504
MATT TAIBBI, NY PRESS - The Harris polling agency last week released the results of an interesting study. In a survey of 2209 adults, they discovered that most Americans only have the vaguest idea of the meaning of two important pairs of words that play crucial roles in the national political discourse: conservative and liberal, and left and right.
According to the survey, 37 percent of Americans think liberals oppose gun control, or else they are not sure if liberals oppose gun control. Likewise, 27 percent of respondents thought a right-winger was someone who supported affirmative action. Furthermore, the survey showed that respondents generally viewed the paired concepts liberals and left-wingers and conservatives and right-wingers as possessing, respectively, generally similar political beliefs - with one caveat. In both cases, respondents were roughly 10 percent more clueless about left-wingers and right-wingers than they were about liberals and conservatives.
DAVID GEFFEN: CLINTON CAN'T WIN
DRUDGE REPORT - Sen. Hillary Clinton should not count on help from Hollywood mogul David Geffen in her possible run for the White House. Geffen, who was a generous supporter and pal of Bill Clinton when he was president, trashed Hillary's prospects last night during a Q&A at the 92nd St. Y in New York City. "She can't win, and she's an incredibly polarizing figure," the billionaire Democrat told his audience. "And ambition is just not a good enough reason." Lloyd Grove reports in the NY Daily News the audience broke with "hearty applause" over Geffen's comments.
OLDEST HOMO SAPIEN FOSSILS FOUND
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/science/17human.html
JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, NY TIMES - Scientists have determined that human fossils found in Ethiopia in 1967 are 195,000 years old, 65,000 years older than first thought. The revised date, they said, makes the skulls and bones the earliest known remains of modern Homo sapiens. The research reinforces the theories of an African origin for modern humans, and the earlier date gives the species more time to have evolved the cultural attributes that probably supported its spread out of Africa to Asia and Europe. The new date appears to be near the early boundary for modern human emergence, as suggested in recent genetic studies.
THE MEDIACRACY
PBS CHICKENS OUT AGAIN
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-na-pbs18feb18,1,609669.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
SCOTT COLLINS, LA TIMES - PBS, the public broadcaster caught in the middle of the nation's culture wars, is entangled in another programming controversy. The producers of a "Frontline" documentary about U.S. combat troops in Iraq on Thursday criticized a PBS decision to send member stations an edited satellite feed of the program that cut out profanity used by soldiers.
Boston station WGBH, which produced "A Company of Soldiers," a 90-minute "Frontline" documentary set to air Tuesday on many of PBS' 349 affiliates, argued in a statement that PBS overreacted out of concern about Federal Communications Commission indecency rules.
This is the second time this year that the Public Broadcasting Service has tangled over programming with WGBH, a major program supplier to public TV stations nationwide.
Last month, PBS heeded the concerns of conservative member stations when it declined to distribute an episode of the children's show "Postcards from Buster" that featured real-life lesbian mothers. . .
The new dust-up involves profanity by U.S. soldiers interviewed by "Frontline," a documentary series that offers in-depth looks at various topics. According to David Fanning, the creator and executive producer, and executives at four public stations, PBS has opted to change traditional practice by broadcasting an edited version of the documentary.
Fanning said "Frontline" had typically made cleaned-up versions of documentaries with potentially objectionable content. But in the past, PBS has chosen to air the original version as its primary feed, he said. An unedited version of the "Frontline" show will be available through a secondary feed. Getting that, however, will be somewhat inconvenient.
RIGHT WINGERS GO AFTER PUBLIC BROADCASTING
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
Two of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's newest members, Gay Hart Gaines and Cheryl Halpern, have given more than $816,000 to conservative causes over the past 14 years. In addition, both have shown contempt for the board's function. Halpern signaled her intentions during her confirmation hearing, when she suggested the CPB should be given authority to penalize and "remove physically" someone whose broadcasts it decided were unbalanced. Halpern took repeated shots at esteemed "Now" host Bill Moyers and advocated a policy of "aggressive" censorship.
The partisan CPB has already begun to have an effect: the hosts of PBS's two new public affairs programs are right-wing CNN commentator Tucker Carlson and Paul Gigot, of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board (which once called for the "complete withdrawal" of federal funding for PBS). Moyers's former newsmagazine, which also came under attack during a CBP Board meeting last winter (one member reportedly screamed, "You've got to get rid of Moyers!"), has been zero funded and cut from an hour to thirty minutes. And President Bush has "ordered an internal review" of "Postcards with Buster," a show the Education Department once praised as helping kids learn to read and giving them a "greater understanding and appreciation of the varied cultures in North America."On Thursday, PBS found itself in the middle of another controversy when the producers of a "Frontline" documentary about U.S. combat troops in Iraq criticized the channel's decision "to send member stations an edited satellite feed of the program that cut out profanity used by soldiers." The channel "opted to change from practice" by sending only the edited version of the show and forcing stations to "sign a legal waiver indemnifying PBS" if they want to get the unedited version. The producers charge PBS is bowing to concern about Federal Communications Commission indecency rules and that the network should "stand firm" for the "principle of editorial independence." The latest dust-up highlights the "inside-the-Beltway environment in which PBS is forced to operate, where funding concerns often trump programming decisions, and the fear of upsetting conservatives has become a driving force."
DRUG BUSTS
U.S. TROOPS GETTING MEDICAL ECSTASY; NO ARRESTS REPORTED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
DAVID ADAM, GUARDIAN - American soldiers traumatized by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom existing treatments are ineffective, have been given MDMA since the research began last year.
Michael Mithoefer, the psychiatrist leading the trial, said: "It's looking very promising. It's too early to draw any conclusions but in these treatment-resistant people so far the results are encouraging. . .
The South Carolina study marks a resurgence of interest in the use of controlled psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs. Several studies in the US are planned or are under way to investigate whether MDMA, LSD and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can treat conditions ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder to anxiety in terminal cancer patients
WORDS
CONAN O'BRIEN - This week the U.S. Navy launched a nuclear submarine named after Jimmy Carter. Experts say the sub will be ineffective for four years but tremendously respected once it's retired.
FURTHERMORE. . .
WHY TEACHERS LEAVE
http://www.glef.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1221&issue=feb_05#
BERNIE SANDERS ON TV CENSORSHIP BILL
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0217-32.htm
FIELD NOTES
CLUSTER BALLOONING
http://www.clusterballoon.org/
"Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons? That's the idea behind cluster ballooning. The pilot wears a harness, to which a cluster of large, helium-filled balloons are attached. Control is achieved by releasing ballast to ascend, or by bursting balloons to descend. The most famous cluster balloon flight took place in 1982. Larry Walters, with no prior ballooning experience, attached 42 helium weather balloons to a lawn chair, intending to go up a few hundred feet, but instead soaring to 16,000. Surprisingly, Walters survived his flight. However, both before and since Walters' adventure, experienced balloonists have experimented with helium balloon clusters, some rising to even greater heights."
BLACK MIGRATION
http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm;jsessionid=80303334631107895629379?bhcp=1
"The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment."
TOP OFFICIAL ADMITTED IRAQ INVASION WAS TO PROTECT ISRAEL, NOT U.S.
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=39766
EMAD MEKAY, ASIAN TIMES - Iraq under Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to the United States, but it did to Israel, which is one reason why Washington invaded the Arab country, according to a speech made by a member of a top-level White House intelligence group.
Inter Press Service uncovered the remarks by Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the body set up to investigate the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 - the 9/11 commission - in which he suggests a prime motive for the invasion just over one year ago was to eliminate a threat to Israel, a staunch US ally in the Middle East. . .
Zelikow made his statements about "the unstated threat" during his tenure on a highly knowledgeable and well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which reports directly to the president. He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.
"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat is and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of September 11 and the future of the war on al-Qaeda.
"And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," said Zelikow.
HALIBURTON STILL INVOLVED IN IRAN
NEWSWEEK - "Only weeks before Halliburton made headlines by announcing it was pulling out of Iran ... the Texas-based oil services firm quietly signed a major new business deal to help develop Tehran's natural gas fields. . . But overlooked in most of the press coverage of the announcement was that [Halliburton CEO David] Lesar's statement contained enough wiggle room to permit Halliburton to continue participating in the new South Pars project. . . Lesar's announcement was little more than 'PR damage control,' said one congressional investigator who has closely followed Halliburton's dealings. 'They're still acting like the sanctions law are a big joke,' the investigator added.
POLITICS
GOP JEWISH ORGANIZATION LINKS DEAN TO TERRORISM
http://www.forward.com/articles/2711
E.J. KESSLER, FORWARD - A Jewish Republican group greeted Howard Dean's election to chair the Democratic National Committee this week with an ad campaign seeking to depict him as a supporter of terrorism. The group, the Republican Jewish Coalition, placed full-page advertisements in the Washington newspaper Roll Call and in Jewish weeklies around the country, featuring a large picture of Hamas members decked out in costumes resembling suicide bombers. Above the photo, referring to a long-recanted September 2003 quote from Dean, is the statement: "DNC Chairman Howard Dean Says, 'It's not our place to take sides.'"
Beneath the photograph, the ad features 2003 quotes from Democrats, including Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who criticize Dean's remark.
At the time of the original flap, Dean responded to critics by stating that he meant America needed a president who would be seen as an honest broker by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as Bill Clinton had been, and not that he opposed America's alliance with Israel. . .
The National Jewish Democratic Council called the Republicans' anti-Dean ad a "vicious smear campaign." It said the ad campaign "dangerously politicizes support for Israel, threatening the crucial legacy of bipartisan support for Israel."
DEAN SEEKS MEDIA BLACKOUT, CHANGES MIND
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dean-media-blackout,0,6186251,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
RUKMINI CALLIMACHI AP - Howard Dean, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, requested a media blackout of a debate with top Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, then quickly changed his mind Wednesday after news agencies complained. "DNC Chair Howard Dean has declared a news blackout of his appearance and requested the media not quote, record, and/or paraphrase his remarks," event coordinator Gabrielle Williams wrote in an e-mail sent to news agencies Wednesday morning. "We apologize for the late notice, but we were just informed of this request."
Less than two hours later, Williams called to say: "We were told just a few minutes ago that it is now open" for media coverage. The decision to open Thursday's debate came roughly 30 minutes after an inquiry by The Associated Press. Dean spokeswoman Laura Gross said Dean had decided the event would be closed before he was elected DNC chairman Saturday, but changed his mind because of his new job.
JEFF GANNON CASE
A READER GENTLY chastises us for not covering the Jeff Gannon matter. As our name, Undernews, implies, we try to cover matters that you won't find elsewhere. This is what we in the trade used to call "news." Today, however, the Washington media works on the principle that Eugene McCarthy has identified: like blackbirds on a telephone wire, one flies off and they all fly off.
For example, in contrast with the Gannon tale, which we felt was over-covered, the Review probably provided the most comprehensive coverage of the Bernie Kerick matter which not only had many of the same elements: sex, politics, and lack of proper credentials, but the whiff of the mob as well.
As a general rule, if you find us not covering something, it's probably because we suspect you already are reading enough about it and we have little to add. Having said that, however, today several stories hit our desk that are worth mentioning.
MAUREEN DOWD - I am very impressed with James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon. . . Who knew that a hot military stud wanting to mee tlocal men could so easily get to be face 2 face with the commander in chief?. . .
I'm still mystified by this story. I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the "Barberini Faun" is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?
At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.
In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon. . .
With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with ringers. . .
They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.
Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/opinion/17dowd.html?
FRANK RICH, NY TIMES - By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. . .
AMERICAN NOTES
THE RISE EXTREME COMMUTING
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_08/b3921127.htm
BUSINESS WEEK - For the last leg of their five- and sometimes six-hour, door-to-door commutes, the working moms who call themselves the "Bus Buddies" of the Adirondack Trailways' Red Line run usually talk about one thing: How can I get off this thing? How to end the exhausting odyssey from New York state towns such as New Paltz and Woodstock, waking up at 5, 4, and even 3 a.m. to board a smelly long-hauler to Manhattan, where the salaries are 70% more? On the trip home, the Bus Buddies bring out their neck rolls to avoid "commuter nod" and use their pashminas as blankets, brainstorming exit strategies over the dueling aromas of Chinese food and Kentucky Fried Chicken. When a Bus Buddy does manage to leave behind her seat -- such as Jennifer Pickurel, who traded in a big finance job for one at the local Chamber of Commerce -- the Bus Buddies erupt into applause. "We're jealous," says Terry Rust, a broadcast TV business manager who lives in New Paltz. "But we cheer them on and say: 'Yeah, you made it. You're off the bus."'
The Bus Buddies are part of the fastest-growing group of work travelers in the country, people who rarely see their houses in daylight, leave home when their kids are still asleep, and mainline Red Bull just to stay awake. They're known as extreme commuters. They spend at least a month of their lives each year traveling a minimum of an hour-and-a-half to work and back, vs. the U.S. average of 50 minutes. Their ranks have jumped an astounding 95% since 1990, according to the Census Bureau, accounting for 3.4 million workers.
Experts say the numbers of these super-commuters will continue to swell. In 1990, 24% of all workers left their home counties to get to the office. Since then, 50% of new workers do, according to transportation expert and Commuting in America author Alan Pisarski. Corporate America is already taking note, with many companies attempting to ease the strain on their employees. For many, the megacommute is about the ever-broadening search for affordable housing, with more and more people "driving until they qualify" for cheaper houses and better schools, says Pisarski.
CORPORADOS
WORLD'S TOP TEN OIL COS. SHOW $100 BILLION PROFIT
JAD MOUAWAD, NEW YORK TIMES - Born from the mega-mergers of the 1990's, the world's giant oil companies have delivered on their promise. They have cut costs, increased returns and raised profits to records. Now, flush with cash, they find themselves in a paradoxical position --- they are making more money than they can comfortably spend.
Thanks to crude prices that averaged $41 a barrel in New York last year, the world's ten biggest oil companies earned more than $100 billion in 2004, a windfall greater than the economic output of Malaysia. Together, their sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion for 2004, which is more than Canada's gross domestic product.
But even as fears of shortages grow throughout the world and prices remain high, the cash-rich oil companies are not pouring a large portion of their money into their basic business: drilling for oil. Indeed, oil executives, in their second straight year of rising profits, are finding that too much money is chasing too few oil fields. Instead, they are giving much of their cash back to shareholders.
ON CAMPUS
OHIO SENATE CONSIDERING BILL TO MUZZLE TEACHERS
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
Conservatives in the Ohio State Senate are considering a bill that would prohibit public and private college professors from introducing "controversial matter" into the classroom and shift oversight of college course content to state governments and courts. The language of the bill comes from right-wing activist David Horowitz's "Academic Bill of Rights," which recommends states adopt rules to "restrict what university professors could say in their classrooms" and halt liberal "pollution" on campus. The bill is both redundant and misleading - most colleges already have rules ensuring free expression (political and otherwise) and Horowitz and his supporters have been able to offer scant evidence of widespread political bullying. Nevertheless, a variation of the bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and has made inroads in six states.
Ohio Senate Bill 24 was introduced late last month by State Sen. Larry Mumper (R), who says it is necessary because "80 percent" of college professors "are Democrats, liberals or socialists or card-carrying Communists" who attempt to indoctrinate students. When asked how he came to his conclusion, Mumper said he had been "investigating the issue for months," but cited just one instance when he had "heard of an Ohio student who said she was discriminated against because she supported Bush for president." He added that "anti-American" professors were a threat to young people and said he didn't think it was right for college campuses to teach students things their parents might disagree with.
Horowitz, who has been the driving force behind the movement for "academic freedom" in Ohio and other states, has a distinguished history of intellectual defamation, historical inaccuracy and political bullying. He has freely compared American liberals to Islamic terrorists, slandered the Democratic Party and John Kerry for criticizing the war in Iraq and made a habit out of accusing his detractors of racism. Most recently, when African-American historian John Hope Franklin questioned Horowitz's 2001 claim that black people benefited from slavery and owed a "debt" to white America, Horowitz responded by calling the eminent historian "a racial ideologue rather than a historian" and "almost pathological." Horowitz has no academic credentials and routinely distorts facts - exactly the crime he accuses "liberal" professors of committing - to fit his political bias.
Horowitz's best attempt to prove liberal bias on campus is his "Academic Freedom Abuse Center," housed on the Students for Academic Freedom website. But the database, which invites students to report having their "rights abused" in class, only looks impressive until you start reading the actual claims. Some highlights: One student complains because her professor suggested men and women might see colors differently. Another is offended she was asked to watch an "immoral Seinfeld episode." The latest entry in the database as of Tuesday afternoon was from an Ohio State student who claims he got a bad grade on an essay because his English professor "hates families and thinks it's okay to be gay." One of the complaints comes from an Augustana College senior who is upset her school used "funds from Student activity fees to bring in the one-sided speaker David Horowitz."
SEPTEMBER 11
CONTROLLERS' 9/11 TAPES WILLFULLY DESTROYED
LESLIE MILLER, ASSOCIATED PRESS - Air traffic controllers who handled two of the hijacked flights on Sept. 11, 2001, recorded their experiences shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center but a supervisor destroyed the tape, government investigators said Thursday.
A report by Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead said the manager for the New York-area air traffic control center asked the controllers to make the recordings a few hours after the crashes in belief they would be important for law enforcement.
Investigators never heard it. Sometime between December 2001 and February 2002, an unidentified Federal Aviation Administration quality assurance manager crushed the cassette case in his hand, cut the tape into small pieces and threw them away in multiple trash cans, the report said.
"We were told that nobody ever listened to, transcribed or duplicated the tape," Mead said in the report sent to Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Republican asked the inspector general to look into how well the agency was cooperating with the independent panel investigating the attacks.
Neither manager told anyone outside the center - including their superiors and law enforcement officials - about the tape's existence, the report said. The Sept. 11 commission learned of the tape during interviews with New York air traffic control center personnel between September and October.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
WHY MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTER SEX
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/londoncuts/articles/16674309?source=Daily%20Mail
DAVID WILKES, DAILY MAIL - Yesterday scientists explained exactly why it is that men have a tendency to nod off after making love. Apparently, it's nothing to do with wanting to avoid a cosy chat with their partner. According to the scientists, they are simply tired out.
'As frustrating as it is for most women that their male partners just roll over and fall asleep after sex, men aren't entirely to blame,' said Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep at the University of Surrey. . . 'The blood rush after climax depletes the muscles of energy-producing glycogen, leaving men feeling physically drained. 'Because they have more muscle mass than women, men become tired after sex and this subsequently leads to them feeling sleepy.'
Eighty per cent of men said they felt more relaxed and were able to drift off without any problems after making love, compared with 46 per cent of women. They were among 10,000 adults surveyed by organisers of The Vitality Show, Europe's largest health and beauty exhibition.
Birmingham was found to have the highest number of men who fall asleep after sex. Men in the city managed on average to stay awake for just three to four minutes, according to the survey. In Glasgow and Liverpool, meanwhile, men claimed to take up to 20 minutes before falling asleep.
BEHIND THE BUSHES
RUMSFELD EMBEDDED IN HIMSELF
DANA MILBANK, WASHINGTON POST - Two dozen members of the House Armed Services Committee had not yet had their turn to question Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at yesterday's hearings when he decided he had had enough.
At 12:54, he announced that at 1 p.m. he would be taking a break and then going to another hearing in the Senate. "We're going to have to get out and get lunch and get over there," he said. When the questioning continued for four more minutes, Rumsfeld picked up his briefcase and began to pack up his papers. . .
Asked about the number of insurgents in Iraq, Rumsfeld replied: "I am not going to give you a number."
Did he care to voice an opinion on efforts by U.S. pilots to seek damages from their imprisonment in Iraq? "I don't."
Could he comment on what basing agreements he might seek in Iraq? "I can't."
How about the widely publicized cuts to programs for veterans? "I'm not familiar with the cuts you're referring to."
How long will the war last? "There's never been a war that was predictable as to length, casualty or cost in the history of mankind."
THE MEDIACRACY
BAD DAYS FOR THE TRUTH
http://www.alternet.org/story/21273/
[Charles Lewis founded the excellent Center for Public Integrity]
CHARLES LEWIS, ALTERNET - Over the years, those unhappy with my investigations have tried just about everything to discourage our work. They have issued subpoenas, stalked my hotel room, escorted me off military bases, threatened physical arrest, suggested I leave via a second-story window, made a death threat personally communicated by concerned state troopers who asked that we leave the area immediately (we didn't), hired public relations people to infiltrate my news conferences and pose as "reporters" to ask distracting questions, attempted to pressure the Center's donors, and even brought expensive, frivolous libel litigation that takes years and costs millions of dollars to defend.
Being despised and frozen out by those in power is an occupational hazard - indeed, a badge of honor - for investigative reporters everywhere. Certainly no one at the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity harbors any illusions that he or she will ever be invited to dinner at the White House. This is hardly surprising given that the Center broke the Clinton White House "Lincoln Bedroom" fundraising scandal, first revealed that Enron was George W. Bush's top career patron and years later disclosed that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, is by far the Bush administration's favorite contractor in Iraq. . .
Over the years, I have investigated and interviewed members of Congress, presidential candidates, judges, captains of industry, government spooks, labor union presidents, crooks and terrorists, FBI agents and Ku Klux Klansmen, billionaires and the homeless, brilliant thinkers and the mentally deranged. And it is fair to say that I have been lied to by people in virtually every part of the United States, in swank marble buildings, smoky bars and dusty local jails, eyeball-to-eyeball and by phone, fax, email and hand-delivered letter, in all kinds of imaginative ways, almost always with a straight face.
The line between truth and falsehood - between the facts and a veneer of verisimilitude - has become so blurred as to be indistinguishable. Increasingly, what the powers that be say has become the publicly perceived reality, simply because they say it is so. . .
The fact is, most major news organizations, particularly broadcasters, failed to recognize and report on the business lawlessness of the 1990s, in which literally hundreds of companies-aided and abetted by lawyers, underwriters and accountants-cooked the books and lied to their shareholders and federal authorities. . .
Nor do the American people get "all the news that's fit to print" when it comes to the political activities of the media corporations themselves. . .
What does it all mean? For the most part, there is little appetite for investigative journalism. For the "suits" who control what we read, see and hear, besides potentially alienating the political power structure against their own company or industry, thereby possibly jeopardizing millions of dollars in future profits, this edgy enterprise journalism is not efficient or cost-effective. It simply takes too much time, requires too much money and incurs too many legal and other risks. . .
The problem is made worse by the presence of brilliant communications tacticians in the White House who cleverly frame their controversial policy agendas, setting up the class's stenography assignment for the day, with bold, positive names. . .
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
GONZALES SAYS SELLING OR DISTRIBUTING SEXUAL MATERIAL NOT COVERED BY FIRST AMENDMENT
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obscenity_appeal_3
MARK SHERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Bush administration said Wednesday it would seek to reinstate an indictment against a California pornography company that was charged with violating federal obscenity laws. It was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first public decision on a legal matter. Billed as the government's first big obscenity case in a decade, the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari, and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, Calif., was dismissed last month by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster of Pittsburgh. . . While acknowledging the importance of the constitutional guarantee of free speech, Gonzales said selling or distributing obscene materials does not fall within First Amendment protections.
WORDS
DAVID LETTERMAN - President George Bush is requesting an additional $82 billion -- $82 billion for war funding. Of course that would include Afghanistan, Iraq and a country to be named later.
"AMERICAN UNION" BEING PLANNED?
http://207.44.245.159/article8069.htm
SEAN GORDON, TORONTO STAR - An influential tri-national panel has considered a raft of bold proposals for an integrated North America, including a continental customs union, single passport and contiguous security perimeter. According to a confidential internal summary from the first of three meetings of the Task Force on the Future of North America, discussions also broached the possibility of lifting trade exemptions on cultural goods and Canadian water exports.
Those last two suggestions were dismissed in subsequent deliberations, say members of the task force, an advisory group of academics, trade experts, former politicians and diplomats from Canada, the United States and Mexico sponsored by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Members said the task force's final report this spring will focus on "achievable" rather than simply academic questions like that of a single North American currency.
Nevertheless, the initial debates prompted a sharp reaction from trade skeptics and nationalist groups like the Council of Canadians, who fear business leaders and the politically connected are concocting plans to cede important areas of sovereignty at the behest of American business interests.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow said the summary, a copy of which was obtained by the Toronto Star, was "disturbing" and "shocking."
"What they envisage is a new North American reality with one passport, one immigration and refugee policy, one security regime, one foreign policy, one common set of environmental, health and safety standards ... a brand name that will be sold to school kids, all based on the interests and the needs of the U.S.," she said.
She said the discussions have added weight because the panel includes such political heavyweights as former federal finance minister John Manley.
LABOR
HISTORIANS SHOW LABOR SOLIDARITY
http://www.oah.org/meetings/2005/news-update-021505.html
HISTORY NEWS NETWORK - The Organization of American Historians executive board has decided to move the 2005 annual meeting from San Francisco to San Jose in response to the ongoing union boycott of the Hilton Hotel, where the meeting was originally scheduled. A poll of some 900 people who registered for the meeting indicated that 3/4ths would refuse to cross a picket line. The move to San Jose could cost the OAH $450,000. But going ahead with the meeting in San Francisco also entailed costs of up to half a million dollars from unrented rooms already reserved and the loss of registration fees.
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .
JUDGES ORDER 2 REPORTERS TO TESTIFY ON LEAK
[This is not a matter just of freedom of the press, but of the freedom of every citizen. Absent strong protection for reporters to keep confidential information off the record, the healthy relationship between government or corporate whistleblower and journalist goes down the tube]
REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called for a coordinated effort to support a federal shield law in the wake of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit today that two prominent journalists do not have a privilege to keep sources of information from a federal grand jury.
"The decision in this case underscores that these are perilous times for journalists and the public's right to know," said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish. "There are more than two dozen cases pending across the United States where journalists are being asked to operate as investigators for the government and litigants. The ability of the media to act as independent sources of information for the public is in jeopardy."
In today's action by the D.C. Circuit, the three-judge panel unanimously held that no privilege would protect Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller from being compelled to testify about their sources. The court held that the U.S. Supreme Court "unquestionably" answered the question about maintaining confidentiality before grand juries in 1972 in Branzburg v. Hayes.
SCHOOLS
STUPID SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR TRICKS
AP - A student apprehended on his high school roof in a gorilla mask was charged Tuesday with trespass and other crimes when his senior prank led to a school lockdown, officials said. No one was injured and police found no weapons on suspect Matthew Pattison or inside Oley Valley High School in rural Berks County, state trooper Ray Albert said. The 18-year-old Pattison — a National Merit semifinalist with no school disciplinary record — was charged with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal trespass. He told police he donned a gorilla mask and gloves and climbed up to the cafeteria roof Tuesday morning in order to peer down into classroom windows, Oley Police Chief David A. White said in a statement. The prank was foiled when school staff saw someone donning the mask in the parking lot and scaling a wall and called authorities, who sent officers, a state police helicopter and a bomb squad.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050215/ap_on_fe_st/school_rooftop_prank
TAMMY J. OSEID, PIONEER PRESS - About 100 Henry Sibley students on Monday wore T-shirts calling for the return of the Sibley Warriors' old Indian mascot. Students said they were informed they would be suspended during school today for failing to remove the shirts; Henry Sibley principal Beth Borgen said she knew of only one disciplinary case. Some parents are appealing to the district's superintendent. . .
"I respect students' right to their opinions, but I also would ask that they present an issue to administration in a meaningful and productive manner," she said. The T-shirts, she wrote in a Monday letter to staff, "are abusive to our current mascot, are promoting a mascot which the Native American community had deemed offensive . . . and are a distraction to the learning environment.". . .
At the urging of Henry Sibley High's student council, the school's old Indian mascot was replaced in 1996. Officially, a griffin represented the school for three years. But the part-lion, part-eagle creature was replaced again in 1999 with the medieval knight.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/10724812.htm
OTHER NEWS
GREAT MOMENTS IN CRIME
AP, NEW RIEGEL, OH - The village police chief was surprised when he woke up in the middle of the night to find a man inside his home playing Beethoven on the piano. New Riegel Police Chief Steve Swartzmiller said he grabbed his gun and went to investigate the noise in his house. He found 19-year-old Shawn Chadwell playing the piano. Chadwell was drunk and looking for a friend's house when he mistakenly wandered into the wrong place early Monday, Swartzmiller said. . . Swartzmiller said his house was the only one around that had lights on and it probably attracted Chadwell. The chief added that Chadwell played perfect Beethoven.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050215/ap_on_fe_st/police_chief_s_surprise
REGISTER, UK - A 40 year-old Wisconsin man has put in a strong bid for the dumbest criminal of the year after he allegedly stole a GPS tracking device used to monitor criminals on probation. . . After the light-fingered thief lifted the hi-tech gizmo, the device automatically notified the authorities that it had been removed from the vicinity of the prisoner's home. Its new location was easily tracked over the Net, leading authorities right to the suspect's apartment.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/02/doh_man_steals_gps_tracking/
DEPARTMENT OF SILLY TALK
ULSTER COUNTY NY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DONALD WILLIAMS - It is unfair to speculate on a motive, but to fire 50 to 60 rounds into a mall filled with innocent people indicates a troubled person.
WORDS
JAY LENO - North Korea has declared they have nuclear weapons, saying they need them to protect themselves from a hostile United States. President Bush said today North Korea has nothing to fear from America. He said 'don't these people understand we only attack countries that don't have weapons of mass destruction.'
FURTHERMORE. . .
SENATOR SANTORUM METAPHOR OF THE DAY: "[Bush is] like a pit bull. He's got a pair of trousers in his mouth and he's not letting go.". . .
We trust he was not speaking of Jeff Gannon.
FIELD NOTES
INTERNMENT CAMP NOW A PARK SERVICE SITE
A READER writes, "Driving through the Owens valley in California, my girlfriend and I stopped at Manzanar. The docent told us that the National Park Service only recently acquired the land and built the visitor center. Prior to that, there wasn't even a sign indicating Manzanar's presence. The interpretive center (as it's billed) has displays about the Japanese internment and attempts to convey an understanding of what it was like to have lived there. There is also a 22 minute film that features excerpts from surviving internees. One of the striking comments was from an internee who feared that something like this could happen again if we aren't vigilant. . . I would highly recommend anyone living in Southern California and planning on traveling to Mammoth, Death Valley or anywhere nearby to stop at the new visitor center on Highway 395.
http://www.nps.gov/manz/home.htm
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELECTRICIAN
Includes experiments that students can duplicate
http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/fellows/bob_morse_04/
SOCIAL SECURITY
THE LOBBIES BEHIND THE WAR ON SOCIAL SECURITY
http://www.capitaleye.org/SocialSecurity.1.25.05.asp
CTR FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS The Alliance for Worker Retirement Security is the leading business coalition backing Bush’s proposal that would allow workers to invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes in private investment accounts. The Alliance’s 35 members include representatives of industries that could profit enormously from such a plan, including the Securities Industry Association, Wall Street’s main trade group, and Paine Webber —now called UBS Financial Services and one of the biggest campaign contributors in the securities and investment industry.
The Alliance also includes powerful business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, computer company Hewlett-Packard, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and two lobbying groups funded in part by drug makers: the 60 Plus Association and the United Seniors Association.
Combined, the Alliance members have donated $35 million to federal candidates and political parties since 1999. Of that, $26 million went to Republicans. In addition, Alliance members spent nearly $108 million lobbying the federal government during 2003 and the first half of 2004.
CORPORADOS
CORPORADOS OUT TO KILL MUNICIPAL INTERNET
MEDIA CITIZEN - A growing number of American cities and towns are queuing up municipal wireless networks to provide affordable and fast Internet access to residents. But they're facing increasing opposition from players for the telecom industry, which seeks to consolidate its control over the "last mile" of broadband access to American homes.
Municipal Internet projects pose a threat to industry fiefdoms because they offer citizens a relatively cheap alternative to commercial ISP's costly and incomplete services. Moreover, they're easy to implement and administer and, as a result, growing more popular with local politicians and citizens. . .
Major telecoms -- eager to dominate the multi-billion-dollar ISP market -- have begun to stake out territory wherever municipal broadband had begun to take root. They seek to frame community wireless projects as "costly mistakes" that are an affront to the American ideal of free enterprise.
Don't believe a word of it.
"Access to the Internet today is as much a necessity of life as the more traditional services and should be available to all," writes Jonathan Baltuch, an economic development consultant from St. Cloud, Florida, a city that provides its citizens with a wireless network covering 30 square miles. Baltuch emailed Media Citizen to explain how St Cloud's network has proven everything but a "costly mistake":
"Here is an interesting St. Cloud economic stimulus factoid: Average St Cloud residential annual Internet access cost -- $450, Average St Cloud residential annual property tax bill (city portion only) -- $300. By the city providing this one service to its residents the average household savings will be 50% more than the average tax bill for all city services. Further the $3 - $4 million per year that is leaving the city to flow to corporate headquarters all over the country will stay in the local economy.
Verizon, in particular, has been aggressive in snubbing such civic Wi Fi efforts wherever they emerge. But the company is not alone. Other large commercial telecom services such as Comcast, Qwest and SBC -- whose tentacles reach well into the pockets of legislators in all 50 states -- are arguing that municipalities have no business serving as ISP's.
http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/02/battling-sock-puppets.html
CONGRESS' CREDIT CARD FRAUD
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=124597
PROGRESS REPORT - The United States credit card industry rakes in $2.5 billion a month in profits – largely in fees and interest charged to the American consumer. But its thirst for additional profits is insatiable. Credit card corporations are showering Congress with cash in an attempt to squeeze every last dime out of those who can afford it least to by making it harder for them to get out of debt. The industry is pushing for a bill that would deny bankruptcy relief to "people with low or moderate incomes who have fallen on hard times because of illness, job loss or divorce." Meanwhile the bill does nothing to stop "abusive lending practices by credit card companies."
The bankruptcy bill is an attempt to prevent people from filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy – which gives people a clean slate – and make them file under Chapter 13, which requires continued payments to the credit card companies. Already, judges can deny Chapter 7 protection if they think the law is being abused. The bankruptcy bill would require consumers to complete a complex array of forms to "prove" they qualify for Chapter 7.
The overwhelming majority of Americans do not become bankrupt by purchasing Rolex watches and plasma TVs. The leading cause: getting sick. A Harvard University study found that half of all respondents "said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy."
PUNISHING THE ELDERLY: Another group saddled with credit card debt – largely due to costs out of their control – is the nation's elderly. Between 1992 and 2001, "the number of older Americans filing for bankruptcy tripled." A new report by the Demos Network emphasizes "the growing presence of America's seniors in the bankruptcy courts should warn policymakers of the importance of safeguarding this difficult last resort."
Credit card companies aggressively market their products to many consumers – such as college students, low wage workers and people already drowning in debt – that they know can't afford to pay off their balances. Last year, the industry "collected $11.7 billion in penalty fees." Even as the Federal Reserve has kept its target rate very low (2.25 percent), credit card corporations charged customers who miss one or two payments "with maximum rates that now exceed 28 percent." In April, a unilateral change in the agreement by Discover card allowed the company "to raise the interest rate to 19.99 percent, from as low as zero, for a single late payment." A late payment that was made anytime in the 11 months before the rule change could justify the increase.
Why are members on both sides of the aisle willing to sell out the sick and the poor to pad the profits of the credit card industry? Follow the money. Over the last four years, credit card companies have contributed $24.8 million to congressional and presidential candidates. MBNA – the company leading the industry's hardball lobbying campaign – was the largest single contributor to President Bush's reelection campaign. MBNA contributed $240,675 to Bush through the company's Political Action Committee and individual contributions. It's a reasonable investment; if the bill passes it is expected to "add $75 million a year to MBNA's bottom line."
LABOR
YOU'RE A CORNERSTONE AND YOU'RE FIRED
http://www.capitaleye.org/SocialSecurity.1.25.05.asp
CP - Wal-Mart Canada took out a full-page ad in several Quebec newspapers Monday, telling its employees they are the "cornerstone" of the company. The retail giant's move came after its decision last week to close a Quebec store where unionized employees were seeking a first collective agreement.. . . Wal-Mart's ad says the company has found the last few days "very trying" and seeks to reassure its employees they are its "biggest strength."
"Never let anyone or the Media tell you otherwise," the statement reads. "You represent the cornerstone of our organization and we believe it is a privilege to have such an exceptional team."
HEALTH & SCIENCE
NATURAL ANTI-DEPRESSANTS
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL - Daily Express reports that two new studies show that people with depression can treat their condition just as effectively with natural remedies as with antidepressant drugs. The first study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, found that a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and uridine, which is naturally present in most foods, was as effective against depression as three of the leading antidepressants. . . The second study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that an extract of St John's Wort was actually better at treating depression than paroxetine.
THE MEDIACRACY
]
THE REAL STORY OF DRESDEN
THAT THE media's exculpation of the Allied carpet bombing of places like Dresden and the lumping of its critics with neo-Nazis amounts to Orwellian revisionism can be seen by reading Mike Davis' 2002 book, Dead Cities. In it, Davis writes:
During the early days of the Second World War, tens of millions of American voters of German and Italian ancestry were reassured that the Army Air Force would never deliberately make a target out of "the ordinary man in the street." Americans were officially committed to the clean, high-tech destruction of strictly military or military-industrial targets. The Eighth Air Force sent its crews in daylight "precision" raids against visually identified targets, in contrast to its Blitz-embittered British allies, who saturation-bombed German cities at night by radar, hoping to terrorize their populations into flight or rebellion. The extraordinary technologies of the B-17 and the Norden bombsight allowed the United States to bomb "with democratic values."
Then, along came Operation Thunderclap. Churchill's science advisor, Lord Cherwell, argued that "the bombing must be directed essentially against working-class houses. Middle-class houses have too much space around them and so are bound to waste bombs." Even before the Battle of Britain, Churchill himself had called for an "absolutely devastating, exterminating attack."
Writes Davis:
General George McDonald, the director of Air Force intelligence, privately shared their revulsion against "indiscriminate homicide and destruction." General Cabell, another "precisionist," complained about the "same old baby killing plan of the get-rich-quick psychological boys."
Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Chief of Staff George Marshall also quietly struggled to maintain a moral distinction between the Nazi leadership and the German working class. (Stimson, not wanting "the United States to get the reputation of outdoing Hitler in atrocities," equally opposed the fire-bombing of Japan.) . . .
Key Air Force leaders were disturbed by the unsavory character of Thunderclap. Major General Laurence Kuter protested to colleagues that "it is contrary to our national ideals to wage war against civilians." Intelligence chief McDonald railed against a plan that "repudiates our past purposes and practices . . . [and] places us before our allies, the neutrals, our enemies and history in conspicuous contrast to the Russians whose preoccupation with wholly military objectives has been as notable as has been our own up to this time."
The British close to Churchill had a different idea:
The British clung to the belief (or dementia, as many Americans saw it) that Berlin could be bombed out of the war. . . They assumed that intolerable civilian suffering would inevitably produce a proletarian revolt in the heart of the Third Reich. . . Air power, according to this logic, would bomb industrial centers, creating mass unemployment and panic, especially among the working classes, who in turn would overthrow the government. In short, air attack against populations would cause workers to rise up against the ruling classes.
And then the American came on board:
Roosevelt's endorsement of Thunderclap, which paved the way for US complicity in Dresden, was a moral watershed in the American conduct of the war. The city burners had finally triumphed over the precision bombers. By committing the Air Force to British doctrine in Germany, Thunderclap also opened the door to the Zoroastrian Society alumni who wanted an unrestricted incendiary campaign against Japan. The hundred thousand or so civilians whom the Eighth Air Force burnt to death in the cities of eastern Germany during the winter of 1945 were but a prelude to the one million Japanese consumed in the B-29 autos-da-fé later that spring.
Thus, the Washington Post strongly inferring that those who question the morality and wisdom of the Dresden bombings are neo-Nazis is not only historically incorrect, it is a libel.
[A lengthy excerpt from Davis' book can be found in the January/February issue of Designer/Builder available for $3.50 from 2405 Maclovia Lane,Santa Fe NM 87505]
DEAD CITIES
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1565848446/progressiverevieA/
WAR DEPARTMENT
SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS WHITE HOUSE STYLE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-pow15feb15,0,3155150.story?coll=la-home-headlines
DAVID G. SAVAGE, LA TIMES - The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist. The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The case abounds with ironies. It pits the U.S. government squarely against its own war heroes and the Geneva Convention. Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago. Those Iraqi victims, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said, deserve compensation from the United States.
But the American victims of Iraqi torturers are not entitled to similar payments from Iraq, the U.S. government says. . .
Congress opened the door to such claims in 1996, when it lifted the shield of sovereign immunity — which basically prohibits lawsuits against foreign governments — for any nation that supports terrorism. At that time, Iraq was one of seven nations identified by the State Department as sponsoring terrorist activity. The 17 Gulf War POWs looked to have a very strong case when they first filed suit in 2002. They had been undeniably tortured by a tyrannical regime, one that had $1.7 billion of its assets frozen by the U.S. government.
The picture changed, however, when the United States invaded Iraq and toppled Hussein from power nearly two years ago. On July 21, 2003, two weeks after the Gulf War POWs won their court case in U.S. District Court, the Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed.
FIELD NOTES
HOTEL WATCH
http://www.hotellaboradvisor.info/hotelguidestrike.asp
HOTELS ON STRIKE OR LOCKOUT - Workers at these hotels and casinos are on strike or locked out by their employers.
Chicago - Congress Plaza Hotel
New York - Crowne Plaza
LaGuardia - Hampton Inn
JFK - Holiday Inn JFK
BOYCOTT LIST - The following list of hotels are under boycott.
Los Angeles - Hyatt Regency Hotel Los Angeles - Hyatt West Hollywood - Millennium Biltmore Hotel - Regent Beverly Wilshire - Sheraton Universal Hotel - St. Regis Hotel - Westin Bonaventure Hotel - Westin Century Plaza Hotel - Wilshire Grand Hotel
Monterey - Monterey Bay Travelodge (Fairgrounds)
Oahu Island - Turtle Bay Resort
San Francisco - Argent Hotel - Crowne Plaza Union Square - Fairmont San Francisco - Four Seasons San Francisco - Grand Hyatt - Hilton San Francisco - Holiday Inn Civic Center - Holiday Inn Express - Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf - Hyatt Regency San Francisco - Mark Hopkins InterContinental - Omni San Francisco Hotel - Park Hyatt - Sheraton Palace Hotel - Westin St. Francis
Great museums of America
THE FLASHLIGHT MUSEUM
http://www.geocities.com/~stuarts1031/flashlight.html
"Since the flashlight could not exist without a battery and a bulb, the history of the flashlight is associated with batteries and bulbs. The first battery appeared in 1866, invented by French inventor, George Leclanche. He called it a "single fluid electric generating battery". It was a wet cell, made by filling a glass jar with ammonium chloride, manganese dioxide and zinc and then adding a carbon bar for the positive end of the cell. It was not portable. If tipped over, the acid would spill out. Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb in 1879. Improvement to the battery came in 1888, when a German scientist, Dr. Carl Gassner, encased the wet cell chemicals in a sealed zinc container. This was the first dry cell and the first portable battery."
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 6:24 AM
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