LAW

that was a long visit with the in-laws

2009-04-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

OK, that was a long visit with the in-laws. It went well, as such things are measured, but it was long (just in case I failed to mention that) and drained all of our energy. During the last week I started working on a couple of ideas for posting here but kept getting pulled away by family obligations, and helping out with campaigns for the local election we're having tomorrow, and with work. Lots and lots of work. All of a sudden I got insanely busy with two different clients. Thursday and Friday I ended up spending all day at one of their sites, and learned how out of shape I am for being in an office all day.One tends to forget how much energy goes into being presentable in an office environment. Here at home, no matter how busy I get, I still only need to look and act professional enough to suit the cat, and then the kids when they come home. I don't have to (1) wear decent (and therefore uncomfortable) clothing, (2) refrain from closing my eyes other than blinking for 8 to 10 hours, (3) smile and nod at acquaintances and perfect strangers alike ALL DAY LONG, face frozen into a mask of vapid congeniality, (4) keep away from the comics and off the internet (ever notice how offices these days are almost universally laid out in such a way that no matter where the computer is, the screen can be seen from the doorway?), or (5) talk about traffic, weather, or Michael Jackson. I did all of these things last week and was exhausted at the end of it. Not that I'm complaining--I was happy for the work, and it was my favorite client. It's just that the region of my brain that controls office demeanor has obviously atrophied. Not sure what other skills I've lost without noticing, but I was grateful to learn that I can still sit in a three-hour meeting and convincingly pretend that oh yes, I understand exactly what you're talking about, oh absolutely, we can take care of that with no trouble at all (sweat!).We are also back on track with the foster child placement I've discussed here, so that added to last week's excitement. Details to follow, but we are now into a transition plan that should culminate in a 6-year-old boy moving in during the last week of April. Lots to do between now and then, but we feel experienced enough that we don't need to quietly freak out every couple of days. Plus Daughter is not very enthusiastic this time around, so we're trying not to make a huge deal of it. She has a long history of being great with kids younger than her, though, so we hope that she'll warm to the idea and to him as she gets to know him.As I said, several posts are in the works. Just don't ask when they'll get done. They always seem so brilliant, compelling, and perfectly balanced in my head. Then I start to write them out and they look like deflated balloons on the screen. Does that happen to, you know, real bloggers?Oh, well. For now, must get back to work.

EPIC Report: “REAL ID Implementation Review: Few Benefits, Staggering Costs”

2008-06-14T02:26:00.003-07:00

EPIC Report: “REAL ID Implementation Review: Few Benefits, Staggering Costs” (PDF; 450 KB)
Source: Electronic Privacy Information Center

Throughout its history, the United States has rejected the idea of a national identification system. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security continues to push forward a system of identification that has been widely opposed. The REAL ID Act mandates that State driver’s licenses and ID cards follow federal technical standards and verification procedures issued by Homeland Security. REAL ID also enables tracking, surveillance, and profiling of the American public.

May 11, 2008 was the statutory deadline for implementation of the REAL ID system, but not one State is in compliance with the federal law creating a national identification system. In fact, 19 States have passed resolutions or laws rejecting the national ID program. The Department of Homeland Security has faced so many obstacles that the agency now plans an implementation deadline of 2017 — nine years later than the 2008 statutory deadline.

Homeland Security claims that it is making strides in implementing the national ID program. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff encourages the use of the REAL ID system for a wide variety of purposes unrelated to the law that authorized the system. In an opinion column written by Secretary Chertoff after the publication of the final rule in January, he said, “embracing REAL ID” would mean it would be used to “cash a check, hire a baby sitter, board a plane or engage in countless other activities.” None of these uses for the REAL ID have a legal basis. Each one creates a new risk for Americans who are already confronting the staggering problem of identity theft.

Last year, EPIC submitted detailed comments to the DHS on the draft proposal for REAL ID. With the assistance of many experts, we attempted to address the enormous challenge in the project proposal. In the following report, EPIC details the many problems with the final plan to implement this vast national identification system. The REAL ID system remains filled with threats to privacy, security and civil liberties that have not been resolved.

New From the GAO

2008-06-14T02:26:00.002-07:00

New GAO Reports, Correspondence and Testimonies (PDFs)
Source: Government Accountability Office
15 May 2008
+ Reports
1. Nursing Homes: Federal Monitoring Surveys Demonstrate Continued Understatement of Serious Care Problems and CMS Oversight Weaknesses
2. Workforce Development: Community Colleges and One-Stop Centers Collaborate to Meet 21st Century Workforce Needs
3. 2010 Census: Bureau Needs to Specify How It Will Assess Coverage Follow-up Techniques and When It Will Produce Coverage Measurement Results
4. Smithsonian Institution: Board of Regents Has Implemented Many Governance Reforms, but Ensuring Accountability and Oversight Will Require Ongoing Action
5. Credit and Debit Cards: Federal Entities Are Taking Actions to Limit Their Interchange Fees, but Additional Revenue Collection Cost Savings May Exist
6. Financial Audit: Congressional Award Foundation’s Fiscal Years 2007 and 2006 Financial Statements
7. DOD Business Systems Modernization: Progress in Establishing Corporate Management Controls Needs to Be Replicated Within Military Departments
–
+ Correspondence
1. Depot Maintenance: Issues and Options for Reporting on Military Depots
–
+ Testimonies
1. Defense Contracting: Progress Made in Implementing Defense Base Act Requirements, but Complete Information on Costs Is Lacking, by John K. Needham, director, acquisition and sourcing management issues, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
2. Information Management: Challenges in Implementing an Electronic Records Archive, by Linda D. Koontz, director, information management issues, before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
3. Congressional Review Act: Applicability to CMS Letter on State Children’s Health Insurance Program, by Dayna K. Shah, managing associate general counsel, before the Subcommittee on Health, House Committee on Energy and Commerce

Agricultural Productivity in the United States

2008-06-14T02:26:00.001-07:00

Agricultural Productivity in the United States
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

It is widely agreed that increased productivity is the main contributor to economic growth in U.S. agriculture. This data set provides estimates of productivity growth in the U.S. farm sector over the 1948-2004 period, and estimates of the growth and relative levels of productivity across the States for the period 1960-2004. Note that this data series has been revised with this release (see the complete documentation for details, or go to the data tables).

The level of farm output in 2004 was 167 percent above its level in 1948 for an average annual rate of growth of 1.74 percent. Input use actually declined in aggregate (labor has been departing the sector and land use has declined slightly, while capital influx has been modest), so the positive growth in farm sector output is wholly due to productivity growth. This contrasts with a 3.7-percent annual output increase in the private nonfarm sector, with productivity growth accounting for a little more than a third of the economic growth. But what exactly is productivity?

Single-factor measures of productivity, such as corn production per acre (yield or land productivity) or per hour of labor (labor productivity), have been used for many years because the underlying data are often easily available. While useful, such measures can also mislead. For example, yields could increase simply because farmers are adding more of other inputs, such as chemicals, labor, or machinery, to their land base. USDA produces measures of total factor productivity, taking account of the use of all inputs to the production process.

Tables in xls.

Secretary Kempthorne Announces Decision to Protect Polar Bears under Endangered Species Act

2008-06-14T02:26:00.000-07:00

Secretary Kempthorne Announces Decision to Protect Polar Bears under Endangered Species Act
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced that he is accepting the recommendation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The listing is based on the best available science, which shows that loss of sea ice threatens and will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat. This loss of habitat puts polar bears at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future, the standard established by the ESA for designating a threatened species.

In making the announcement, Kempthorne said, “I am also announcing that this listing decision will be accompanied by administrative guidance and a rule that defines the scope of impact my decision will have, in order to protect the polar bear while limiting the unintended harm to the society and economy of the United States.”

+ Final Rule (PDF; 2.7 MB)
+ Interim Final 4 (d) Rule (PDF; 409 KB)
+ Secretary Kempthorne’s Remarks
+ Sea Ice Images Sea Ice Images
+ U.S. - Canada MOU (PDF; 114 KB)
+ Guidance from USGS Director Mark Myers (PDF; 20 KB)
+ Guidance from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall (PDF; 1.7 KB)
+ Fact Sheet (PDF; 89 KB)

Contractor To Be Court-Martialed in Iraq

2008-06-01T22:58:00.001-07:00

Via Scott Horton comes the news that the U.S. Marine Corps has charged an Iraqi-Canadian civilian contractor in Iraq with brandishing a knife and stabbing another contractor. The charges follow an important change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice in September 2006, which, in theory, extended the code's reach to include civilians and contractors on the battlefield. As Scott notes, there's still much we don't know here. But this case does represent a significant development in the application of U.S. law to contractors overseas, and I think there will be a lengthy court fight over whether the UCMJ can be applied to civilians in this manner.

And for Some the Future May Hold a Tap on the Shoulder

2008-06-01T20:53:00.001-07:00

Few pleasures are more intense than that of contemplating one's ideological opponents being punished for their errors, an activity that we law professors have so far been able to indulge only in our fantasies. But the times are changing, or seem to be. Witness Philippe Sands' almost palpable delight at the prospect of John Yoo and others in the Bush administration being picked up by the police when they are traveling in foreign countries and tried for international crimes in foreign courts: "And for some the future may hold a tap on the shoulder," he purrs. Jack Balkin agrees. Sands has also been involved in a popular play in London titled Called To Account, which features a trial (actually, a pretrial hearing) of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to determine whether his participation in the invasion of Iraq amounted to a crime of aggression under international law.

I'm all in favor of letting people live out their fantasies, but we're lawyers here at Convictions, and even our fantasies must conform to the rule of law. The principle is that American lawyers should be called to account in foreign courts if their legal advice leads to violations of international law by the United States and (as is virtually always the case) domestic courts offer no remedy. And unless we are to live in a world in which only lawyers go to jail, and not the people who actually make the decisions based on the legal advice, foreign courts are going to have to try the relevant political decision-makers as well. They will be busy.

Nuremberg established the crime of aggression, which though not yet formally incorporated in an international instrument ratified by the United States is widely believed to be a part of customary international law, bolstered by the rules of the U.N. Charter, which permit the use of military force only in self-defense or with the authorization of the Security Council. It is on this premise that Sands' play considers the indictment of Blair—from which it would follow that there should be indictments of Bush and other high-level officials in Britain, the United States, and other countries that participated in the intervention. The invasion of Iraq was not authorized by the Security Council, and it was not an act of self-defense. The crime-of-aggression argument is really not bad—impractical (for both political and jurisdictional reasons), to be sure, but in our fantasies, and on the stage, impracticality is no barrier to action.

Which brings us to the Clinton administration, which in 1999 launched an invasion of Yugoslavia on behalf of Kosovo, its renegade province, now independent. The Clinton administration failed to secure the consent of the Security Council (or even the consent of Congress) but went ahead anyway. In May 1999, the Office of Legal Counsel gave its approval in an oral opinion later memorialized in a memo issued in December 2000. The memo fails to mention that international law prohibited the invasion, perhaps because OLC had exhausted itself trying to prove that Congress had agreed to the use of military force even though the bill to authorize it was voted down. Panting and winded, it had no energy left to address international law. John Yoo, are you listening? Do you see how the pros do it? Next time, refrain from mentioning the Convention Against Torture rather than trying to explain it away.

Should these Clinton lawyers also be "called to account" (along with Clinton himself, of course, and his senior staff, and the former decision-makers and legal advisers of all other NATO countries)? We don't know whether Clinton's lawyers failed to warn him of the relevant international legal prohibitions, or did so only orally, or in a secret memo. Perhaps they gave him good legal advice that he chose to ignore, and they silently resigned their positions in protest. An investigation should be launched so that the truth can be ascertained. Subpoenas issued, witnesses corralled, suspects named. We will also need to look for any legal advice, oral or written, pertaining to other Clinton-era actions that were dubious on international law grounds—the launching of missiles against Afghanistan and Sudan, bombing tactics in Yugoslavia, and the economic sanctions against Iraq, which caused many foreseeable deaths.

Alas, it's not going to happen. International justice has achieved such perfection only in the vivid hallucinations of international lawyers. You former OLC lawyers—next time you're vacationing in Europe, don't be alarmed if you feel a tap on your shoulder. It'll just be me: Boo!

More Yoo

2008-06-01T19:44:00.001-07:00

In a modest attempt to allow equal time, I note that Esquire magazine has posted what it calls the first interview with John Yoo since this week's release of the latest memo. You can find it here. Not that the interview sheds much light, but my favorite excerpt is when the interviewer presses Yoo on his decision to extract the pain-associated-with-organ-failure-or-death standard from an unrelated statute as a means of fleshing out the definition of the federal crime of torture.

Esquire: But at the same time, you as a human being writing that phrase -- this is not legal theory anymore. We're in the real world and its going to have a body count.

Yoo: This is unpleasant. Don't interpret what I'm saying as though I was happy to do this or eager, or I felt some satisfaction. Mainly because I had read what the British and the Israelis had gone through—they had their own struggle with this issue and they had their own judicial decisions—and I had read all kinds of articles and books about this issue. I mean, it's a difficult issue. You have to draw the line. What the government is doing is unpleasant. It's the use of violence. I don't disagree with that. But I also think that part of the job unfortunately of being a lawyer sometimes is you have to draw those lines. I think I could have written it in a much more—we could have written it in a much more palatable way, but it would have been vague.

Can't tell from this whether the greater unpleasantness for Yoo is in the topic or in the interview.

Is an Objective Appraisal of John Yoo's Work Possible?

2008-06-01T16:38:00.001-07:00

Let me begin by saying I have respect for John Yoo. Before 9/11, his presidential scholarship was uniformly thought to be of the highest academic standard. He is still greatly respected by his colleagues at Berkeley and elsewhere. In person, he is unfailingly polite and intellectually curious. It is wrong to lay at his door all of the hubris that has been exhibited by the present administration and that led to our seriously tragic and mistaken disregard of international agreement and our deeply costly occupation of Iraq without well-conceived purpose or strategy.

While there has been a feeding frenzy of criticism directed toward his recently released 2003 memorandum, and some of that criticism is deserved or understandable, some frankly is over-the-top, and insufficiently appreciative of the law and the facts as Professor Yoo confronted them.

Geneva Conventions

First, on the Geneva Conventions applicability to al Qaeda there was virtually no one in any part of the government, presidential appointment or career public servant, who thought this Convention applied to these unlawful combatants. Justice Stevens thought differently about Common Article 3 in Hamdan, but his interpretation was hardly accepted wisdom. That makes sense then and now. Individuals who observe no dignity of human life and who, contrary to every law of war, target civilian populations have been since the time of Bracton or before outside the protections of civil society. There was some discussion, nevertheless, of whether as a policy matter the Conventions should have been extended to al Qaeda and there was considerable disagreement about how the Conventions applied to the Afghanistan and the Taliban. Here there is reason to believe that the administration in not opting to apply the Convention committed error. But, of course, this is wonderfully clear hindsight. Functionally, the administration proclaimed itself to be extending equivalent humane treatment, and perhaps in the main, it did, but the photos of Abu Ghraib would leave an indelible refutation.

Better to Put It in Writing

There is reason to believe that Professor Yoo presented both sides of these difficult questions in his oral briefings to his superiors. It is unfortunate this more balanced appraisal was not memorialized. Recently, in Esquire, the Professor stated: "these were not easy questions. Whether it was a war or not, the question of whether Geneva Conventions applied to al Qaeda was a straightforward question, at least to me. The policy question is much more difficult, whether they should apply to them as a matter of policy." Professor Yoo here shows a keen appreciation for the fact that what is legally permitted is not necessarily what should be prudently done. He shows an extraordinary appreciation for not misleading his military clients, which is somewhat remarkable, given the later, more sweeping nature of the memorandum. Nevertheless, the Professor reports that he was concerned about the "balance" of the advice giving, asking "Is this going to degrade military discipline? Is it going to give us a bad image versus does it produce gains in security? Is it part of the message that terrorists are not going to be given the same status as people who follow the rules? It's a very difficult trade off. And then it's harder and harder because there's the question that if you don't give them full Geneva Convention protection, what are you going to give them? That's a hard question, too. I think the legal questions are much easier than those fine hard-grained policy issues. I think those are very hard questions. It's not my job to say what they should do."

Not His Job

The last point - that it was not OLC's job to set policy is very important to remember. One wonders if the decision-makers remembered this, or if OLC should have even more strenuously than usual given emphasis to this point that is virtually a uniform recital in OLC advice giving. It may be convenient for the fingers to be pointed at Professor Yoo, but it is not beyond reason to think that there was a fundamental confusion in the White House between what was "legal" and what was "right." To be sure, Professor Yoo cannot be fully excused here because it is OLC's job to both make that plain and also not to overstate what is "legal" as an advocate would, and unfortunately, the memos are not the ideal on either score.

If You Can Do Better, Why Didn't You?

Professor Yoo's work has been called "slapdash" by Professor Goldsmith. Professor Goldsmith has written an important book on his very short tenure in OLC (nine months). I have reviewed and complimented the book in part in the forthcoming issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, but in fairness, Professor Goldsmith did his nation a disservice by "dropping into" the OLC role for such a short period. He is an able lawyer, but allowing himself to use government service in this pivotal spot between two academic appointments added more than he may fully appreciate to the ill-considered advice going to the White House from DOJ generally. Professor Yoo was Jack Goldsmith's mentor and supporter, and it is hard for him to comment beyond saying that some of his criticism is "unfair." It is "because Goldsmith never issued an opinion of his own. He's certainly free to criticize. It goes back to unless you've actually made the hard decision yourself, then you don't really know how you think it through, what you would do. So he says "slapdash opinion," but we have no idea what he would have done, because he left."

Nobody Home

Professor Yoo relies also on the "normal" review process in the Department, but in truth, that did not exist both because of the abnormal times, the extraordinary turnover in the Office, and the strength of John's talent. To say that the Attorney General signed off is simply not to say a great deal since those selected for even that post in this administration were more likely "friends," or saw themselves as answerable to the White House rather than the keepers of the integrity of the executive and the law.

In his book, Professor Goldsmith dwells on the statute Professor Yoo borrowed by analogy to give meaning to the often vaguely worded provisions against torture. He does not say what source he would have used and why it was more analogous. The phraseology "organ failure or death," was at least specific, and had been written into law by Congress. Professor Yoo concedes that it is fair to criticize his legal analogy, but then, one has to supply something else to make things specific. Of course, once having chosen this phraseology, with all of its attendant harshness, it should have brought home to the Professor and those who he was advising that the United States was sailing into very troubled waters. It would likely be accused of besting the terrorists at their own awful game - of disregarding the sanctity of the human person. It is not at all clear this was grasped that what the government was proposing to do in interrogation practice was not just "unpleasant" as the Professor put it, but except in the most extraordinary of circumstances (ticking bombs about to take out millions), unthinkable and wrong.

Law Is Not Morality

When Esquire asks if he had "any moral qualms," of course he says yes, but reverts to the law, saying "again, just because the statute says -- that doesn't mean you have to do it. You're right, there's still the moral question -- after you've answered the legal question -- whether you should do it at all." John was relying on the usually narrow role of OLC to convey that or the balance of his memorandum, but having written in a style contrary to the usual OLC role, could that really be grasped? As it turned out, it was not.

The Totality of the Circumstances

The Fourth Amendment portions of the Yoo memorandum are likewise subject to misreading for similar reasons. Again, I think it fair to note that any memorandum written within a few weeks of the fall of the twin towers would naturally view the nation as under attack and at war. Soldiers on a foreign field of battle do not have Fourth Amendment limits on their operations. It was logical to think that was true for domestic military action aimed at enemies or belligerents within the United States as well. The passage of the AUMF was then, and is now, viewed as a legislative endorsement of making war on those who executed the attack against us as well as those who aided and abetted them. What is remarkable is that two years later in 2003 the same proposition seems to have become doctrine even as the context was different.

It is also possible to fault Professor Yoo for not writing more narrowly given what he likely knew was the anticipated audience. Statements like "Our office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations," without qualification were certain to mislead non-lawyers receiving the document. In the legal context of foreign affairs which our founders painted with fine point brush in hazy gray to deliberately allow for the unforeseen, it is seldom prudent to spray paint in black and white.

The Professor relies upon Verdugo-Urquidez, as well as the Supreme Court's treatment of the destruction of property for the purposes of military necessity. This is plausible, but should also have been acknowledged to be scant precedent derived from considerably different facts. U.S.v Verdugo-Urquidez involved a search of the property of a foreign national that was conducted in Mexico with the authorization of the Mexican government. Obviously, there is nothing domestic about that.

To his credit, Professor Yoo did caution that his analysis "should not be confused with a theory that the Constitution somehow does not "apply" during wartime." But this again warranted greater explanation, since his point of reference is the civil war case of Ex parte Milligan, 1866), which had it been fully explained would have been a reminder that the Bill of Rights is fully applicable domestically in wartime to U.S. Citizens.

Of course, the Justice Department has since disavowed both memoranda, properly noting that "Whether a particular search or seizure is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment requires consideration of the particular context and circumstances of the search."

When the administration gave its legal reasons for the Terrorist Surveillance Program in January 2006, it gave a far more nuanced appraisal of the Fourth Amendment, focusing on special needs exceptions and the like.

What Have We Learned?

What is the importance, then, of the recently released 2003 memorandum? In part, it illustrates that the nation was in crisis in 2001, and the crisis mentality shaped the legal analysis being given. What is remarkable is that this attitude continued right through 2003. When facing what was perceived to be a profound threat of uncertain dimension with the fear of even more devastating attack, I am not prepared to say that -- in the 2001 memorandum that has yet to be released -- the legal statement and reasoning should have been more carefully given, but two years later, when the circumstances could have been more objectively assessed, the standard arguably should have been different.

Again, I am reasonably confident that thoughtful appraisers of executive branch lawyering like Professors Dawn Johnsen and Marty Lederman share my regret that the president never staffed OLC with individuals, who could have brought to bear a longer, more mature institutional memory that would have given him the full benefit of legal advice. It was important for a Deputy like John Yoo, with his strong conception of presidential power to be present, but it was also important to have a senior counsel heading OLC who was not in the president's usual orbit of hand-picked friends or advocates and who would have ensured that the Professor's advice was juxtaposed and tested by the diplomatic and practical thinking of the Legal Advisor at State and the General Counsels of the military branches. Of course, it would have been especially handy if there had been a steady hand in the front office capable of synthesizing the contradictory views of this complex area and withstanding the kind of internal political skepticism directed at the OLC lawyer in the room who raises a note of caution.

It seems unlikely that a lawyer attempting to preserve the objective, non-advocacy role of the OLC tradition would have concluded without qualification on the basis of little or no direct precedent that:

"Even if these statutes were [construed] to apply to persons acting at the direction of the President during the conduct of war, the Department of Justice could not enforce this law or any of the other crirninal statutes applicable to the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction against federal officials acting pursuant to the President's constitutional authority to direct a war. Even if an interrogation method arguably were to violate a criminal statute, the Justice Department could not bring a prosecution because the statute w6uld be unconstitutional as applied in this context."

No doubt that is what the CIA wanted to hear, but given all the legal and policy imponderables that Professor Yoo has since acknowledged, that could not be said.

Stuck on Yoo

2008-06-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

Of all the passages in this latest memo worthy of dissection, I still can't get past the following:

Because of the secret nature of al Qaeda's operations, obtaining advance information about the identity of al Qaeda operatives and their plans may prove to be the only way to prevent direct attacks on the United States. Interrogation of captured al Qaeda operatives could provide that information; indeed, in many cases interrogation may be the only method to obtain it. Memo, p.4 (emphasis added).

No citation to authority. No offer of any logical or factual support for the claim. No reference to administration policy documents, security analyses, military or intelligence risk assessments, or any particularly evident basis for the statements of any kind. Just Yoo.

Hard to say what bothers me most here. One possibility is just the painful internal contradiction. John Yoo (among others) has devoted so much time to trumpeting the importance of judicial deference to executive expertise. Too bad it turns out that the only "executive" expertise evident here is Yoo's own take on what might be effective in preventing future attacks. Can't particularly think of anything other than torturing captured detainees. So that must be the only way.

Maybe it's that the passage appears not in some foreign policy article or popular op-ed, in which citation to any supporting basis for such assertions wouldn't be expected—but rather in a legal memo, as part of a legal analysis of the president's powers as commander in chief—to which any first-year law firm associate would respond by just hitting the Alt-F8 macro demanding the author "state the basis" of the claim. Or maybe it's the entirely illusory nature of the proposition. We "may be" all about to explode. Or not. Just wanted to throw that out there as a possibility as the reader contemplates whether to buy into the otherwise, uh, unusual, legal analysis that follows.

Or maybe it's just how painfully ill-informed it sounds in the face of the actually voluminous body of pre- and post-9/11 security policy assessments (9/11 Commission Report included) listing the hundreds of ways other than custodial interrogation one might go about preventing the next attack. Or in the face of the recognition of the U.S. Intelligence Science Board that "knowledge of behavioral indicators that might assist in the detection of deception is very limited and provides little reliable information that could assist intelligence collection ... [with] current populations of interest." That is, it is entirely unclear based on present knowledge how to secure the revelation of accurate information from an individual.

At a minimum, there's no way this paragraph should do any legal work. Yet this paragraph is in no small part how Yoo gets around to defending the legality of torture. And it's part of how he gets around to saying torture should be up to the executive branch alone. So maybe what scares me most is that counterterrorism is indeed serious business—and I would really, really like to think someone other than John Yoo was minding the store.

Airlines — Traffic Continues to Slow - Falling Load Factors Hurt Profitability

2008-06-01T07:55:00.001-07:00

Traffic Continues to Slow - Falling Load Factors Hurt Profitability
Source: International Air Transport Association

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released international traffic data for April.

Year-on-year international passenger demand grew by 3% in April. Capacity growth of 5% saw load factors fall to 75.4%. This is a 1.5% drop from the 76.9% recorded during the same period last year and the third consecutive monthly year-on-year decline. International cargo demand growth remained sluggish at 3.7%.

April figures contain several distortions. The impact of an early Easter holiday in 2008 will have reduced comparative year-on-year traffic growth by about 2% in April. At the same time the 10% transatlantic capacity increase with the commencement of the US-EU Open Skies is estimated to have boosted global traffic by about 1%. Adjusting for these distortions and leap year, underlying passenger traffic demand increased 4% in April and the three previous months.

+ Facts & Figures

Wal-Mart Does Right by the Shanks

2008-06-01T07:43:00.001-07:00

I want to briefly interrupt our torture memo coverage to laud Wal-Mart for finally coming to its senses in the matter of Deborah Shank. The case started back in 2000 when Ms. Shank, a Wal-Mart employee, was seriously injured in a minivan-vs.-18-wheeler traffic accident. Shank's family sued the trucking company and won. Wal-Mart then sued the Shanks under the legal theory of "subrogation" to recover the medical costs it paid. Wal-Mart won in court, and on appeal, and the Shanks' petition to the Supreme Court was denied. (And to add more tragedy to the story, the Shanks' son Jeremy was killed in Iraq in September 2006 while this matter was pending.)

As you might expect, the retailer's actions ignited a firestorm of media and public outrage. Wal-Mart defended its actions, saying "Wal-Mart's plan is bound by very specific rules. ... We wish it could be more flexible in Mrs. Shank's case since her circumstances are clearly extraordinary, but this is done out of fairness to all associates who contribute to, and benefit from, the plan." Wal-Mart's position prevailed in court. But in the end, Wal-Mart decided that the public relations costs of this suit were too much to bear. In announcing its decision to settle, Wal-Mart issued this contrite statement:

Occasionally others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times. We have all been moved by Ms. Shank's extraordinary situation. Our current plan doesn't give us much flexibility, so we began reviewing the guidelines for the trust that pays medical costs for our associates and their family members.

We wanted to understand the ongoing impact of any potential changes to the trust, and ensure that any action we take is in the best interests of our associates and their family members who participate in and contribute to our plan. We have decided to modify our plan to allow us more discretion for individual cases, and are in the final stages of working out the details.

Wal-Mart will not seek any reimbursement for the money already spent on Ms. Shank's care, and we will work with the family to ensure the remaining amounts in the trust can be used for her ongoing care.

We are sorry for any additional stress this has put on the Shank family.

It's tragic that one of America's leading corporations needed such public outrage to teach it a lesson about good corporate citizenship. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right.

Tortured Memories—Of Yoo and Hillary—Legal Memoranda in the Shape of History

2008-06-01T07:16:00.001-07:00

If true, the allegations that Hillary Clinton as a young lawyer assisting the congressional Watergate investigation sought to hide files, and the precedents within them, in order to deny Richard Nixon legal counsel in the context of an anticipated impeachment inquiry are once quaint and deeply troubling. The story is quaint because it is reminiscent of the well-told tales of first law students hiding materials in inappropriate places in the law library during moot court competitions. Neither Hillary's alleged misdeed nor such law school chicanery is ethical, but neither would be modernly possible given the modern electronic nature of how we access materials today, be they books or files. So much for the quaint part.

Hillary's alleged efforts to deny legal counsel to Nixon also conflicts with the position then taken by one of the most notable liberal members of the House, Don Edwards of California. Edwards had a reputation for taking brave stands against the remnants of Joe McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee and the FBI abuses that ironically enough would give rise to the Keith case and FISA. Edwards did not see civil liberty with a partisan glint, and he was one of the strongest voices against those in the Democratic party—perhaps we are now learning misadvised by the then Hillary Rodham—advocating the denial of legal counsel to President Nixon in his prospective impeachment trial.

So the troubling part of this swirling story is not just that the revelation may confirm a longer and deeper pattern of prevarication beyond the Bosnian sniper story, but also that it suggests a calculated distortion of the law aimed at adversely affecting both individual right and democratic process. Tonight on the NewsHour, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtbau called the newly released John Yoo memorandum "shoddy." I think that an unfair characterization given the intelligence of Professor Yoo and an insufficiently nuanced characterization given the context of 2003 and the more careful analysis Marty Lederman is supplying on the topic on this site. It is a description that also fails to capture how ill-served the president and the executive branch have been by the unprecedented turnover and number of acting officials at the helm of the once venerable Office of Legal Counsel, which is intended not only to make tough calls that may be politically unpopular, but also to have the good sense to send back rough drafts of legal analysis or at least not circulate them for political acceptability. But however one pieces together the story of Messer's. Bybee, Yoo, Levin, Goldsmith, Bradbury (I know I must be leaving someone out) in the OLC, the claimed offense of Mrs. Clinton is not sloppy, but corrupt, work.

Given the cultural significance of Mrs. Clinton's run for the presidency, I hope the allegation proves false. It is healthier for the body politic for Mrs. Clinton to lose to Sen. Obama on the merits. If she is dispatched on character failing, it will stir up all the justified and unjustified animosities that her husband's impeachment ordeal generates in public discussion.

There is a different account of Hillary's service in the Annual Survey of American Law. There it was written, "In 1974, while she was serving on the Impeachment Inquiry staff of the Judiciary Committee working on the Watergate proceedings, Hillary Rodham was Sara Ehrman's houseguest for nine months." As Ehrman tells it, "She was brilliant, she was a star, she could have done anything in Washington."

It would be most unfortunate were "anything" now to have a much different meaning than what was intended by the Survey's laudatory profile—namely, in fact, she did anything she wanted, including putting herself above the law.

The Yoo/Chertoff/Ashcroft Memo?

2008-06-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

I've now completed reading the March 14th OLC opinion. As you might expect, there is a great deal within it that warrants very careful attention and analysis. There is nothing like it in our long legal history, as far as I know. After all, how often is it that a Department of Justice memo is issued that matter-of-factly argues that the commander in chief can authorize pouring corrosive acid on a detainee—can authorize cutting out a tongue and poking out an eye —nothwithstanding a statute that would prohibit that very conduct?

I think what I'll do is to publish a series of numbered posts (this is No. 4—Numbers 1-3 are at Balkinization), each centering on a discrete topic or portion of the memo. My reactions must, of course, be tentative and preliminary: I have not yet had the time to research most of these questions or to give them the attention (some of them) might deserve. But I hope that by the end of the endeavor, we'll be able to see clearly just how radical and extraordinary this memo was.

Before I start in on the memo itself, however, I'll begin with a handful of posts about process and ramifications rather than the specific substantive issues raised.

Convictions Poetry Slam: Entry No. 2

2008-06-01T04:13:00.001-07:00

Kudos to Berkeley 2L Josh Keesan for rising to the challenge of nominating "law poetry" for the National Poetry Month-long Convictions Poetry Slam announced yesterday. Josh's entry fits neatly within Slam example No. 2, "poems about law or about law's effect on society." It's "Law Like Love," written by W.H. Auden, the poet who was born in England in 1907, became a U.S. citizen after serving in the Spanish Civil War, and died in Vienna in 1973.

The full poem, perhaps a wee bit long for a blog, can be read here (along with a great comment thereafter). Let me proffer a few choice stanzas:

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

....

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

....

Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyway:
Like love I say.

Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.

Great stuff, Josh; thanks. The erstwhile-student-of-Sherman-Act-remedies-in-me loves the "treble tongue" metaphor. Now: Who among my fellow Convicted is ready to take from Josh the Poetry Slam baton?

Barna Poll: Catholics, Evangelicals, Asians Least Likely to Divorce

2008-06-01T04:12:00.001-07:00

A Barna poll released March 31 finds:

"In addition to finding that four out of every five adults (78%) have been married at least once, the Barna study revealed that an even higher proportion of born again Christians (84%) tie the knot. That eclipses the proportion among people aligned with non-Christian faiths (74%) and among atheists and agnostics (65%). . .

The study showed that the percentage of adults who have been married and divorced varies from segment to segment. For instance, the groups with the most prolific experience of marriage ending in divorce are downscale adults (39%), Baby Boomers (38%), those aligned with a non-Christian faith (38%), African-Americans (36%), and people who consider themselves to be liberal on social and political matters (37%).
Among the population segments with the lowest likelihood of having been divorced subsequent to marriage are Catholics (28%), evangelicals (26%), upscale adults (22%), Asians (20%) and those who deem themselves to be conservative on social and political matters (28%).

Born again Christians who are not evangelical were indistinguishable from the national average on the matter of divorce: 33% have been married and divorced. The survey did not determine if the divorce occurred before or after the person had become born again. However, previous research by Barna has shown that less than two out of every ten people who accept Christ as their savior do so after their first marriage. . ."

JUST ROOMMATES: Boston Globe

2008-06-01T03:44:00.001-07:00

...Now, some colleges are crossing the final threshold, allowing men and women to share rooms. At the urging of student activists, more than 30 campuses across the country have adopted what colleges call gender-neutral rooming assignments, almost half of them within the past two years.

Once limited to such socially liberal bastions as Hampshire College, Wesleyan University, and Oberlin College, mixed-gender housing has edged into the mainstream, although only a small fraction of students have taken advantage of the new policies so far. Clark and Dartmouth universities introduced mixed-gender rooms last fall, and Brown and Brandeis announced plans last month to follow suit.

The University of Pennsylvania, Skidmore and Ithaca colleges, and Oregon State University also allow roommates of different genders. Students at New York, Harvard, and Stanford universities, among many others, are calling for gender-blind dormitory rooms.

"It's definitely a growing movement on campuses across the country," said Denise Darrigrand, dean of students at Clark, where about 30 students are living in mixed-gender rooms. "It's a new world, and gender has taken on all kinds of new definitions. It's about being more inclusive, and it's about keeping pace with the times." ...

Supporters hail the trend as a key advance for homosexual and transgender students that eliminates a gender divide they see as outdated, particularly for a generation that has grown up with many friends of the opposite sex. Traditional rooming policies, they say, infringe upon students' rights and perpetuate gender segregation. ...

Scores of colleges have established gender-neutral bathrooms and specific housing for gay, lesbian, and the small number of transgender students, and some already allow male and female undergraduates to live together in on-campus suites and apartments. Most maintain single-sex floors as an option for students, however, and for practical and moral reasons have been reluctant to allow male and female students to share a room.

But a range of students are pressing administrators to eliminate gender altogether as a factor in student housing. These include gay students who feel more comfortable living with the opposite sex and transgender students who don't identify as either sex.

It also includes straight students who want the option of choosing to live with members of the opposite sex as friends. Students say that although administrators and parents may perceive gender-blind housing as essentially sanctioning sex, the vast majority of mixed-gender roommates are platonic. Their living situations are about mutual compatibility, not romance, they say.

more

YOUR EGGS, MY UTERUS: SHARED MOTHERHOOD: The Globe and Mail

2008-06-01T03:02:00.001-07:00

When Melanie Parish and Mel Rutherford decided to have a baby together, both women wanted to have a biological connection to their child.

So, four years ago, they harvested Ms. Rutherford's eggs, inseminated them with a donor's sperm through in vitro fertilization and implanted the embryos into Ms. Parish's uterus. Today, Ms. Rutherford is the genetic mother and Ms. Parish is the gestational mother of twin three-year-old boys -- and they both feel equally "related" to their kids.

"For me, motherhood is about carrying the baby," says Ms. Parish, an executive coach living in Hamilton. "For her it is about being genetically connected."

It's a new shared-motherhood model that's increasingly being considered by same-sex couples, says Rachel Epstein, co-ordinator of the LGBT Parenting Network at the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto. ...

Though their daughter was born to Jen and their son to Kaye, genetically the kids are full siblings. For Jen, that's not so important. "Genetics for me is scientific," she says. "Our family is not based on genetics."

Kaye feels slightly differently. "I wanted them to have that connection," she says, "of feeling they're connected to each other and to us."

more

THE CURIOUS LIVES OF SURROGATES: Newsweek

2008-05-14T17:55:00.001-07:00

...In the course of reporting this story, we discovered that many of these women are military wives who have taken on surrogacy to supplement the family income, some while their husbands are serving overseas. Several agencies reported a significant increase in the number of wives of soldiers and naval personnel applying to be surrogates since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. At the high end, industry experts estimate there were about 1,000 surrogate births in the United States last year, while the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART)—the only organization that makes an effort to track surrogate births—counted about 260 in 2006, a 30 percent increase over three years. But the number is surely much higher than this—in just five of the agencies NEWSWEEK spoke to, there were 400 surrogate births in 2007. The numbers vary because at least 15 percent of clinics—and there are dozens of them across the United States—don't report numbers to SART. Private agreements made outside an agency aren't counted, and the figures do not factor in pregnancies in which one of the intended parents does not provide the egg—for example, where the baby will be raised by a gay male couple. Even though the cost to the intended parents, including medical and legal bills, runs from $40,000 to $120,000, the demand for qualified surrogates is well ahead of supply.

more

The Opium Brides of Afghanistan

2008-05-14T13:06:00.001-07:00

From "The Opium Brides of Afghanistan," Newsweek, March 29, 2008:

...Afghans disparagingly call them "loan brides"—daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no other way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to $8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No. 1 opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation—but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation: "I call on the people [not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages."
All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default...

Domestic Partners Win Benefits in AZ

2008-05-14T12:11:00.001-07:00

From "Domestic Partners in Ariz. Win Benefits," AP, April 1, 2008:

PHOENIX (AP) — A panel in Arizona, where voters once turned down a constitutional ban on gay marriage, approved a plan Tuesday to provide taxpayer-subsidized health coverage for the domestic partners of state employees and retirees.
The Governor's Regulatory Review Council, which has the final say over many agencies' proposed rules, voted 4-0 to approve changes floated by the Department of Administration with support from Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. Some Republican legislators opposed the move.
Dependents of domestic partners also will qualify. Employees will be able to sign up for benefits as of Oct 1...

EU Court Ruling on Same-Sex Unions

2008-05-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

From "EU backs gay man's pension rights," BBC, April 1, 2008:

A gay man in Germany may be entitled to his dead partner's pension following a ruling by the highest court in the EU.
[The man's] partner died in 2005 but the pension fund refused him a widower's pension and the case was sent to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The court ruled that refusing a pension was direct discrimination if the partnership was comparable to marriage...
The court based its ruling on an EU directive which states that there should be no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Although German law considers only heterosexual unions as marriage, the ruling makes it clear that any country in the EU that gives same-sex couples rights equivalent to marriage should treat the two as comparable...
[One of the man's lawyers] said the ruling would have significant repercussions for the UK and Scandinavia where same-sex partners had "mirror institutions" to marriage, rather than French-style civil contracts...
GAY MARRIAGES IN THE EU
Full marriage recognised: Spain, Netherlands, Belgium
Legal partnerships similar to marriage: Germany, Sweden, Denmark, UK, Czech
Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Finland, Portugal
Civil contracts: France, Luxembourg
No provision: Austria, Baltic states, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Romania,
Bulgaria, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia

Marriage Algorithm Creator Dead at 86

2008-05-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

From "David Gale, Who Created Marriage Algorithm, Is Dead at 86," NY Times, March 31, 2008:

...[Mathematician David Gale] was widely recognized for work on the so-called stable marriage algorithm, a concept he developed in the 1960s with the economist and mathematician Lloyd S. Shapley.
The problem begins with the assumption that equal numbers of men and women are in search of potential partners. Is it possible to pair the individuals in such a way that all achieve a satisfactory match? The solution developed by Dr. Shapley and Dr. Gale was to have each participant rank the members of the other sex in terms of desirability. The researchers then developed an algorithm that directed each participant to his or her next choice of partner, if rejected by the first or second choices.
The result was that everyone would be matched in a "stable" pairing, a term meant to suggest that no two members of the opposite sex would rather marry each other than the ultimate partner provided by the algorithm.
The findings were published in 1962 in The American Mathematical Monthly, and were soon recognized as having broad applications to other situations...

Ivy League Abstinence

2008-05-14T10:57:00.001-07:00

From "Students of Virginity," NY Times Magazine, March 30, 2008:

...The Ivy League's abstinence clubs began emerging several years ago about the same time as student sex blogs, sex columns and, at Harvard and Yale, student sex magazines…[T]he Princeton club [was] the first to form in the Ivy League in 2005...
[The Princeton club members so admired the logic of Catholic thinker Elizabeth Anscombe, the philosopher and student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose arguments] against premarital sex are as impressive as they are difficult to summarize, [that] they named their society after her...
[S]tudents at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were the first to follow with another Anscombe Society...
The Harvard abstinence club came next, in 2006...[The founders] decided that their club would focus on the issue "most immediately relevant" to people on campus — premarital sexual abstinence — and would try to persuade people toward it with arguments less philosophical than scientific...

Does Gay Marriage Ban Invalidate Custody Agreement?

2008-05-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

In this Ohio case, (blogged earlier today by Imapp staff,)I am inclined to say no.

An Ohio woman says the state's ban on same-sex marriage is grounds for barring her ex-partner from sharing custody with her son....
The dispute over custody began in 2005 after the women ended their relationship.

After their son was born in 1996, both women parented him. In order to ensure that Leach had a protected legal relationship with the child, the two women signed a joint custody agreement. Such agreements were approved by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2001.

That same year an Ohio court approved the joint custody agreement stating they would share custody.

After Leach and Fairchild broke up, Fairchild sought to terminate the custody agreement, citing the 2004 state amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.

I don't particularly approve of same sex parenting. But that is not the issue here. These women entered into an agreement (which excluded the bio dad, of course, but never mind.) That explicit agreement sets this case apart from marriage. In a marriage, both members of the couple are assumed to be the parents. That presumption has been in place for centuries, precisely because it is a safe presumption for opposite sex couples. I think we would all be far better off if same sex couples handled their relationships through a series of contracts, rather than trying to rewrite the presumption of paternity into a generic "presumption of parentage."

In this case, the two women did exactly what I think they should have done, and what all same sex couples ought to do: they signed an explicit agreement regarding the upbringing of this child. One of them now wants to set that agreement aside, because of strains in their relationship. I don't think the court should help her renege.
Cross-posted at my personal blog.

Woman Argues OH SSM Ban Bars Ex From Sharing Custody

2008-05-14T07:10:00.001-07:00

From "Woman Argues Ohio Anti-Gay Amendment Bars Ex From Sharing Custody," 365Gay.com, March 26, 2008:

(Columbus, Ohio) An Ohio woman says the state's ban on same-sex marriage is grounds for barring her ex-partner from sharing custody with her son.
Thursday the Court of Appeals will hear her case. Last June a judge in Columbus ruled that the amendment has no bearing on a signed agreement between [the two women] that they would share custody of the boy, now aged 11...
In addition to banning same-sex marriage the amendment, known as Issue 1, says the state "and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."...
Whichever way the court rules the case is likely to be appealed to the state Supreme Court...

New Study: 45% of UK Marriages Will End in Divorce

2008-05-14T07:05:00.001-07:00

From "Half of marriages 'will end in divorce,'" 24dash.com, March 27, 2008:

Nearly half of all marriages will end in divorce, according to a study published today [on p.28 of the spring issue of Population Trends].
About 45% of marriages will not survive if current divorce rates continue - with almost half of these divorces happening before the couples reach their 10th anniversary.
The study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) [ONS news release here] is published just a day after reports that marriage rates have fallen to the lowest level since records began.
Today's report says the proportion of marriages ending in divorce by the 50th anniversary has increased from 34% in 1979/80 to 45% in 2005...

Deal Review: SPAVA Coffee Company

2008-05-13T16:32:00.001-07:00

(Inspired by the Social Capital Index located here on xigi.net, two analysts are posting their take on the enterprises listed in Deals in Play. Deals in Play is a new feature of the Social Capital Index that lists social ventures actively seeking capital. Following is Jason Rissman’s analysis of one of these enterprises.)

SPAVA COFFEE COMPANY

By Jason Rissman

Healthy coffee. Why didn’t I think of that?
Serving caffeine addicts and aficionados that have demonstrated a clear willingness to pay premiums for upgraded cups of joe, Spava’s poised to be the next big thing since non-bleached, stone ground 100% whole wheat sliced bread. I’ve long suspected that half of Starbucks customers are either on the way to or from the gym. Seriously, high end coffee seems to be a last standing vice amongst health conscious people, and Spava’s goal of introducing “organically grown, naturally fortified coffee for healthy living” looks dead on. While demand might not exist yet for healthy coffee, neither did it for bottled or vitamin-enhanced water.

Spava has distribution nationwide at HEB, Publix, Kings Market, and selected Whole Foods and Kroger stores. The team looks very solid. So what could stop it?

My main concerns for Spava surround is intellectual property and its competition. Building wider national distribution overnight will be difficult if a better known brand comes to town with a similar product. IP protection might be its only defense against entering rivals until its own brand becomes well known. Still, within the upscale healthy living space there always seems to be room for new names (and higher prices).

As for a social impact assessment, I suppose that depends on your view of caffeine. Is Spava aiding and abetting a guilt-free but unhealthy indulgence? Or are they just making an inevitable coffee habit a bit healthier? Either way, I can already hear the chatter by the elliptical machine: “Sure I have four cups a day… but the last one is SPAVA!”

Deal Review: ScholarCentric

2008-05-13T10:01:00.001-07:00

SCHOLARCENTRIC

By Jason Rissman

Sad, surprising fact: Every nine seconds a student drops out of an American school. Another: Over 30% of all public school students drop out before graduating high school. For some minority groups the dropout rate is even worse: close to 50% for Hispanic, Native American, and African American students. The overall impact of this dropout rate is simply unfathomable.
Enter Scholar Centric, a for-profit educational business that provides drop-out prevention curriculum, assessment and professional development services to middle and high school students. The company reports early successes, including 64% rise in retention, 137% improvement in school attendance, 52% improvement in grades and 33% increase in classes passed.

While its results with students are impressive, Scholar Centric might face an even more challenging task in selling to schools with very limited resources. The company offers an online fundraising guide with grant writing tips and lists of grants. Hopefully this strategy will be combined with strong PR and sales efforts. If the company can continue to document such impressive results it seemingly will have a compelling story to tell. With increased brand recognition, Scholar Centric could see shortened sale cycles and more inbound leads. While partnering with other organizations serving at risk students might be difficult as they could be competing for the same scare school dollars, such an effort could further demonstrate the impact of Scholar Centric’s program and help raise awareness for the company. For instance, partnering with College Summit could help develop noteworthy case studies and raise the profile of both organizations as parts of a comprehensive strategy to maintain and motivate students. Does anyone know of other possible partners?

Whatever its marketing tactics are, the acquisition cost of new clients seems to be an important metric to track.

The Scholar Centric team is a definite strength. They bring extensive experience within the educational space, especially in developing products for students.

Meanwhile, local support could only help. Is anyone involved in a local school that might want to learn more? Get in touch at 800-995-8779 or info@ScholarCentric.com.

Deal Review: Oso Eco

2008-05-13T09:56:00.001-07:00

OSO ECO

By Jason Rissman

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a fun, easy way to find sustainable products and shop more responsibly? OsoEco is a new company, still in private Beta testing, that thinks it can help. While I won't give away some of their unique features, OsoEco's formula is simple: Layer a green filter onto the proven social shopping mold (ala Kaboodle) and there we have it, smart shopping made easy.

While I do think there is opportunity in the green e-commerce space, I also think there are sizable challenges that OsoEco will face. Here's a couple that stand out for me:

1) First, its no easy feat deciding which products are green, greenest, or even green enough. Until we have a more standardized audit of production processes and of the carbon footprint of individual products, comparing mainstream companies and products is a tricky game. This isn’t to minimize the recent eco-boom of small companies with products specifically designed to have minimal impact, and I think the company has an opportunity to connect these smaller companies with buyers. Even a short time on their beta site introduced me to several interesting products. If the company can successfully recruit an eager community of sustainable shoppers to post product recommendations, OsoEco could become a great resource for finding products that at least seem green to others. Peer validation, however, is a far cry from impact assessment. I hope OsoEco can provide enough information so this is more than a way to feel good about buying questionable products.

2) As demand for green products grows, so will competition for OsoEco. This will include other social shopping sites or green product sites, but also…

- Green content sites that often include product reviews (Treehugger, e-commerce enabled Lime, or RiverWire - which recently raised $1.5m)
- Large e-commerce sites (Amazon, Buy.com) which could include more green products and information
- Direct retailers that could easily start including more green products. For instance, stores ranging from Wal-Mart to Crate & Barrel already highlight organic products
Will OsoEco’s content and community set it apart and provide a barrier to entry against other shopping choices? Perhaps close partnerships with existing organizations could help.
A question I’m left with is how far are we from a more comprehensive green ratings system? Here’s one idea for a eco-nutrition label for products. Greener One has launched their own independent rating system. Am I wrong, or are we in need of some standards?

Deal Review: Zanadu Technologies

2008-05-13T05:23:00.003-07:00

(Inspired by the Social Capital Index located here on xigi.net, two analysts are posting their take on the enterprises listed in Deals in Play. Deals in Play is a new feature of the Social Capital Index that lists social ventures actively seeking capital. Following is Andrea McGrath’s analysis of one of these enterprises.)

ZANADU TECHNOLOGIES

By Andrea McGrath

Zanadu Technologies first began in 2003 with a focus on the deployment of wireless broadband network services in emerging economies. During the past 5 years, as it developed its technology business to service clients ranging from governments, corporate and retail - it began to see the need - and the opportunity - to utilize increasingly available technology - such as broadband, mobile, and hand held devices - to provide increased and improved financial services to poor and largely "unbanked" communities.

Zanadu now aspires to deliver financial services through a secure, mobile, low cost, and scalable model. Solid numbers on the markets, infrastructure growth, and company strengths make this opportunity an interesting one. For example, in terms of access to 'traditional' financial products, recent World Bank data on three larger economies - Mexico, Columbia and Brazil - showed that 65-85% of urban households do not hold any kind of deposit account. While the flow of funds within many developing countries is low - there are a few case studies now of some 'pioneering' m-banking projects in the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa. Another demand signal is that the flow of funds to developing countries in the form of remittances continues to increase (the World Bank estimated recorded remittances at $240 Billion for 2007). In terms of infrastructure to support financial services, the numbers of mobile users and internet users globally continues to grow at a healthy rate. In addition to the mobile banking potential - Zanadu's web based platform has potential to tap the growing social networks getting involved in financial transactions - be it donations, loans, etc.. in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Could social networking increase the use and volume of fund flows in developing economies (increasing transparency, building understanding of new services). As an organization with 5+ years experience in emerging economies, Zanadu has an opportunity to build on its developed relationships and core skills in technology services and expand into the potential of mobile and internet banking services to the still large, unbanked communities globally.

Dialogue Questions
As public information on the organization remains somewhat limited - the dialogue questions for this idea are somewhat more specific/related to details about the market and services - such as:
Services - what services will Zanadu provide (i.e. payments to merchants and others? loans/micro loans?)
Revenue model from transactions - what are rates and volumes needed?
Regulatory/political issues in terms of licensed mobile/internet service providers
IT: Any security issues with Zanadu moving from current business into financial transactions?

Social Impact
Strengthening financial sector can have substantial impact on economic development/poverty alleviation (from the Ecomomist (Nov 15, 2007): Leonard Waverman of the London Business School has estimated that an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country leads to an extra half a percentage point of growth in GDP per person)
Increased access to funds also has potential to spur or encourage increased entrepreneurship
Potential to provide LOW cost access and transparent access (remittances and credit)
Networks via web has potential to develop partnerships for funding and development opportunities

Deal Review: Jewish Community Investment Initiative

2008-05-13T05:23:00.001-07:00

(Inspired by the Social Capital Index located here on xigi.net, two analysts are posting their take on the enterprises listed in Deals in Play. Deals in Play is a new feature of the Social Capital Index that lists social ventures actively seeking capital. Following is Andrea McGrath’s analysis of one of these enterprises.)

JEWISH COMMUNITY INVESTMENT INITIATIVE

By Andrea McGrath

The Jewish Funds for Justice are offering a new investment opportunity - specifically looking to increase the participation of the American Jewish community in community investment notes. The JFSJ Community Investment Initiative is being launched in partnership with the Calvert Foundation and allows individuals to purchase notes of $1,000 or more. Investors have choices ranging from the structure (rates of return ranging from 0% to 3% and a loan period from 1 and 10 years) to the target investments (the can direct investments in 1 of 8 regions in the US themselves or let the Calvert Foundation allocate their funds).

This appears to be a good investment on multiple levels: a low minimum investment threshold to attract diverse funding base and a solid investment partnership - with the Calvert Foundation bringing its expertise and experience in community investment notes and the Jewish Funds for Justice bringing its education and advocacy skills. It also brings a potentially strong new market to community investment with its own membership and with the larger American Jewish community.

Dialogue Questions
The JCF raises interesting questions (possibilities) on:
potential alternative channels to grow community investments
opportunity to learn from partnering with an advocacy/membership organization - and particularly a faith based and/or culturally rooted organizations as a way to build awareness of alternative investments and CDFIs (and increase capital)

Social Impact
Increased community development capital
Increased awareness of alternative investments (such as structured notes)
New insight on effective partnerships to educate and advocate socially responsible investments

Deal Review: Pro Bono Manager

2008-05-13T05:21:00.001-07:00

(Inspired by the Social Capital Index located here on xigi.net, two analysts are posting their take on the enterprises listed in Deals in Play. Deals in Play is a new feature of the Social Capital Index that lists social ventures actively seeking capital. Following is Andrea McGrath’s analysis of one of these enterprises.)

PRO BONO MANAGER

By Andrea McGrath

Pro Bono Net is a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to justice for millions of poor people facing legal problems without legal assistance. Their core activities involve innovative/improved use of technology in the nonprofit legal sector, facilitating collaboration among advocates working on similar sector issues, and increasing the number and impact of pro bono lawyers. Their main programs include:

Probono.net - online resource for attorneys, law professors, students, and social services advocates; also connects pro bono attorneys with opportunities, training events, mentors, and searchable libraries (45,000 members)
LawHelp.org - online resource helping low and moderate-income people find free legal aid programs in their communities, answers to questions about their legal rights, court information, links to social service agencies, and more ((the site won the 2007 Webby Award for Best Law site)
Online Document Assembly - centralized effort to provide online legal document assembly for poverty law and court access to justice programs nationally; also increases access to resources for self-represented litigants and improves efficiency for legal aid, pro bono and courts-based access to justice programs

Pro Bono Net seeks funding for one of its new programs - Pro Bono Manager - which was started with $900,000 in grant capital from the Gates Foundation and Booth Harris law firm. Pro Bono Manager is a hosted web application that helps increase the capacity, effectiveness and efficiency of law firms’ pro bono programs. The site integrates content for pro bono lawyers on training events, volunteer opportunities and news with key tools for law firms such as reporting, knowledge management and lawyer matching tools that draw on data from firm’s internal systems (personnel, billing, time keeping, etc..) It will include firm-branded portals connecting firm lawyers to a national network of pro bono and legal aid organizations, and case tracking and engagement reporting tools.

This service looks like a good bet! Organizational, market, and team strengths include:(1) Value Statement: pro bono net has developed a solid 'value' proposition for law firms in terms of time/money saved, increased efficiencies and case/impact reporting, and their potential to impact clients' critical goal of lawyer retention; (2) Hire and Retention Tool: according to industry surveys, a law firm's pro bono services are ranked #2 in importance (after revenue) in how lawyers rate law firms; (3) Market Spend: law firms are spending $5 BB annually on technology; (4) Market penetration: pro bono net has initial competitive advantages through its law firm penetration (clients include 3 of the top 10 firms) and public interest law penetration (including strong (and somewhat proprietary) public interest legal content); (5) Channel Partners: pro bono net has developed partnerships in sales/marketing channel with ALM and LexisNexis.

Dialogue Questions
What is the potential of an earned income strategy (law firms as clients)?
Would earned income stream affect its philanthropic supporters?
Any possible thoughts on exit strategies for business when it develops

Social Impact
Revenue from this business model could dramatically increase the financial support for Pro Bono Net's CORE nonprofit programs - focused on increasing the number of low income people accessing legal assistance, supporting a community of public interest lawyers and organizations providing this assistance
Value of the product to law firms - and pro bon lawyers (supply) could increase both the time given and the value/impact of pro bono legal services

Deal Review: Calabash Music

2008-05-13T03:01:00.001-07:00

(Inspired by the Social Capital Index located here on xigi.net, two analysts are posting their take on the enterprises listed in Deals in Play. Deals in Play is a new feature of the Social Capital Index that lists social ventures actively seeking capital. Following is Andrea McGrath’s analysis of one of these enterprises.)

CALABASH:
Tune Your World

By Andrea McGrath

Think KIVA for the global music community! Calabash is creating an online microfinance/social networking platform to help independent recording artists worldwide (approx 30,000) attract funding for their recordings directly from fans. It also helps increase their ability to engage with their natural fan bases! Different from Kiva, however, these are not loans but 'donations' of support - coupled with 'high touch' donor services and benefits such as receiving news from he musicians and downloading advance copies. Fans can also download free tunes and purchase downloads from artists for .75 - .99 cents (iTunes is generally .99). Musicians receive approximately 50% of net revenues (revenues - fees) and retain ownership of the copyrights and all other rights in any content and material submitted.

The appeals are numerous for fans and musicians - social networking for music fans, support for small, independent artists, and a platform for global musicians similar to fair trade markets for indigenous products. The social networking site includes spotlights on current projects/artists to fund. Calabash has launched its own "One True Fan" fundraising campaign - looking to find 1,000 "true fans" to donate $100 each to help pay for its development costs to launch their musician micro-funding platform for artists globally. The team is currently working with 2500 artists with goals to reach 10,000 artists - and 100,000 fans - this year (2008). Helping it reach these goals, Calabash is expanding its media company partnerships - including Link TV, Afropop Worldwide Global Rhythm, Brazilmax and Mondomix - and an exclusive music service provider contract with National Geographic.

I love this idea!! The social networking possibilities seem ripe and the team is actively looking to natural partners such as MySpace (fan-artist connection) and iTunes (for distribution). While Calabash uses similar language to microfinance - and actually use Kiva as a comparable - the funds raised are donations to the artists rather than loans. That said - they seem to be doing a great job in terms of creating/marketing a true 'exchange' of value (rather than a donor-recipient mentality) - in that fans who donate get a variety if value-adds from both the artist and Calabash - as well as the opportunity to direct their funds in a meaningful, specific way (growing popularity of this "citizen philanthropy" is being developed well with Kiva and DonorsChoose)

Dialogue Questions
Questions about the markets: independent artist music industry, music download business, etc..
Competition: iTunes and other sites for free music
Revenue model: Calabash current funding appears to come from fees from music sales, some advertising (Google ads on certain pages) and from media partnerships? Curious to see

Social Impact
Could increased marketing and exposure for smaller, global musicians actually produce an 'exit' for previously unfunded artists to more institutional funding from the industry?
Could Calabash have a 'systemic' impact on how people access music, how music is supported, how global audiences can have dramatically improved access to global music (and societal benefits from that)?

The downside of metrics

2008-05-12T19:12:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by k masback

The worst news from the Skoll World Forum was from another investor. They were trying to co-invest with a venture philanthropy fund, but found two significant barriers; one that fund does not co-invest, nor release its due diligence reports to even other like-minded institutional funders.

Worse was that this fund had made the social enterprise sign an exclusive deal; they would not take funding from another fund. The reason, it seems, is metrics run amok; they only way to make sure they can measure their impact is to try to restrict other impacts on the enterprises. So less good gets done, less growth of the mission and the company happens in the name of being able to accurately measure and report.

The enterprise, for its part, is looking into going around the restriction by spinning out another entity that investors can take part in. I can’t say how repugnant I find this. Capital needs to learn to flow together, but some seem more intent on creating walled gardens to prove a counter productive point.

World Clock: a dashboard for the Planet

2008-05-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

Susan Sanderman of Denver just forwarded this fascinating World Clock that shows the current status of major global health, environmental and social statistics, updated in real time. You can see the rate of population growth, new cases of disease, injury, death, biodiversity loss, marriage and divorce…. It's like a (rather depressing) impact dashboard for the Planet!

This kind of 'impact context' should be a touchstone for any impact analysis– if focused down to the region where a company or organization does its work, it makes a great starting point for what the "addressable market" is in terms of any of these social or environmental issues. Working to prevent biodiversity loss? Malaria? Drowning? Use your impact analysis to say not just, “We're eradicating X instances of the bad thing,” but also, "Here's how much our solution will slow it from the current rate of loss." That makes it MUCH more meaningful.

World Clock's makers compiled it from highly credible sources of statistical datasets, but they have not verified any of it and it may be spotty in parts, so it would be worth verifying if you use it.

China says 35 arrested in Olympics bomb plot

2008-05-12T12:40:00.001-07:00

Authorities arrested 35 people in a predominantly Muslim region of China for planning "violent terrorist activities" involving the Summer Olympic Games, the Public Security Ministry said Thursday.

Restaurant etiquette 101

2008-05-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some strategies for dining out, from scoring a table to sending back food.

What could stop your house from selling

2008-05-12T06:33:00.001-07:00

Pat Junod knows why this home in an Atlanta suburb has been sitting empty for months. It isn't the market. Even during this nationwide downturn there are still plenty of potential buyers. So what is it?

Mugabe, rival to attend crisis summit

2008-05-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

President Robert Mugabe will attend a summit of southern African leaders this Saturday to discuss the electoral and political crisis in his beleaguered country.

Hip-hop meets ballet in Big Boi's 'big' debut

2008-05-11T10:01:00.001-07:00

As half of the famed hip-hop duo OutKast, Antwan "Big Boi" Patton is known for his bass-booming, chart-topping smash hits. His recording studio in Atlanta is lined with plush velvet, stocked with Courvoisier and has a swing hanging from the ceiling -- a place to settle in and do his work.

Bush to announce shorter combat tours in Iraq

2008-05-11T06:25:00.001-07:00

President Bush on Thursday is expected to announce shorter combat tours for U.S. troops in Iraq but will order a pause in troop withdrawals.

How To Get Your Tax Rebate Check

2008-05-10T23:28:00.001-07:00

Taxpayers have been ringing the Internal Revenue Service telephones in record numbers trying to get answers about the upcoming economic stimulus payments.

In a recent report, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration noted that the IRS has been averaging more than 50,000 calls per day regarding the stimulus -- significantly above the normal volume of calls the agency gets this time of year. And this is still after the IRS spent $45 million mailing out more than 130 million notices explaining the payments.

One frequent question comes from people who owe taxes this year and are entitled to a stimulus check. Here's what one reader wanted to know: "I am about ready to send in my taxes and I owe money. Do I then have no choice but to await a paper check, or is there some way I can arrange for direct deposit?"

Jim Dupree, an IRS spokesman, responded: "Fill out your bank routing and account information before you submit the return and you'll receive your stimulus payment via direct deposit."

Keep Reading (Registration Required).....

Oprah Tosses Dr. Phil Overboard In Favor Of Dr. Oz

2008-05-10T19:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's news that Oprah is developing a talk show featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz — who's been a regular on her show for some time now — comes as a slap in the face to that other guy who used to be known as "Oprah's Doctor": Dr. Phil McGraw.

The New York Post's Don Kaplan reports that the Dr. Oz show will be in direct competition to a show Dr. Phil is currently developing:

But the new show - slated to debut in the fall of 2009 - appears to be a direct rival to "The Doctors," a new syndicated show slated for next fall that will be produced by the McGraws.

McGraw, was, of course, discovered and groomed by Oprah in 2002 for his own show in exactly the same fashion as Oz is being prepped this year for daytime TV stardom.

Further, Kaplan reports that even though it appears that Oprah has been grooming Dr. Oz for a show of his own (especially given that she recently purchased the Discovery Health Network), TV industry professional were surprised by the aggressiveness of the move:

"It's mystifying," said MediaWeek's Marc Berman yesterday. "This certainly can be seen as diluting the audience for 'The Doctors.'

"But Oprah has clout," he said. "If she wants to put a show on TV, she will."

Dr. Phil's afternoon show is part-owned by Oprah - but "The Doctors" is being made totally by McGraw's own production company without the help or profit participation of Harpo.

Internet Stars Aline For Yahoo

2008-05-10T18:54:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc.'s last-ditch efforts to avoid a takeover by Microsoft Corp. appear to be setting the stage for a dramatic finale featuring a rich cast of Internet and media stars.

Eager to frustrate Microsoft in any way possible, Internet search leader Google Inc. has already agreed to help out Yahoo by participating in an unusual test that will gauge how much more advertising Google can sell for its struggling rival.

The two-week experiment announced Wednesday will be limited to ads posted alongside a small percentage of Yahoo's online search results in the United States.

Yahoo reportedly hopes to build upon the Google deal by combining its online operations with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, which has been struggling to regain its stride after stumbling badly for years. Google already handles AOL's search advertising and owns a 5 percent stake in the Time Warner subsidiary.

As part of the AOL deal, Time Warner would make a cash investment in return for a 20 percent stake in the combined entity, according to a Wall Street Journal story that cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. Yahoo then would use the Time Warner cash to buy back stock to put some money in shareholders' pockets. Yahoo would pay between $30 and $40 per share for an unspecified amount of stock, the Journal said.

Microsoft's bid was worth about $42 billion, or $29.24 per share, as of Wednesday, when Yahoo shares closed at $27.77.

If Yahoo's maneuvering raises the pressure for a higher bid, Microsoft reportedly may mount its counterattack with a surprising ally _ Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., whose media empire already includes the Fox television networks, The Wall Street Journal and the popular online hangout MySpace.com.

If Microsoft and News Corp. were successful in a joint bid, it would unite three of the Internet's most popular Web sites _ Yahoo, along with MySpace and MSN.com.

The New York Times reported Microsoft's discussions with News Corp. late Wednesday, citing people involved in the discussions.

Yahoo had previously been exploring using an alliance with MySpace as one of its escapes from Microsoft.

All the negotiations are at a sensitive stage and still could unravel, according to the newspapers' reports.

Contacted late Wednesday, a Yahoo spokesman declined to comment on the reported AOL talks. Microsoft representatives didn't respond to inquiries.

The complex web of deals faces various complications.

Because Google and Yahoo control a combined 80 percent of the U.S. search market, any long-term advertising alliance between them almost certainly would have trouble getting antitrust clearance, analysts said.

A broader relationship between Yahoo and Google also would face intense political scrutiny, said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who chairs a committee overseeing antitrust issues.

A Yahoo-AOL combination probably would have to overcome shareholder skepticism because both companies have been fading in recent years. Before Microsoft announced its bid Jan. 31, Yahoo's market value had plunged by nearly $30 billion during a two-year period. AOL is now believed to be worth about $10 billion, about half of its value when Google paid for a $1 billion stake in 2005.

And Microsoft might alienate one of partners, Facebook Inc., if it teams up with News Corp. in an attempt to buy Yahoo. Microsoft last year paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, which is the second largest online network behind News Corp.'s MySpace.com.

Yahoo has been working for more than two months to put together a package that trumps Microsoft's takeover bid.

Microsoft has set an April 26 deadline for Yahoo to accept its current offer, which was initially valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share. The deal's value has eroded because Microsoft wants to pay for half of the acquisition with its recently declining stock.

Analysts have said that Microsoft can afford to pay about $35 per share, or about $50 billion, for Yahoo without undermining its future earnings. Yahoo has indicated it thinks its franchise is worth at least $40 per share, or more than $55 billion.

Yahoo's ad tests with Google make a friendly deal with Microsoft less likely and raises the odds that Microsoft will follow through on a recent threat to lower its bid, said Standard and Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler.

In a statement Wednesday, Microsoft reiterated its bid is fair and pointed out the antitrust problems likely to prevent Google and Yahoo from working together.

"This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel. "We will assess closely all of our options."

Microsoft has said that if things can't be worked out amicably, it is prepared to oust Yahoo's 10-member board in a proxy contest that could prolong the drama into the summer.

If the Google tests were to begin immediately, they would be completed shortly before Microsoft's April 26 deadline.

Yahoo didn't specify when the trial run would begin but said the test doesn't mean it will join the thousands of other Web sites that rely on Google to place text-based advertising links next to search requests or their other content.

Under the deal announced Wednesday, Google will show ads tied to about 3 percent of the queries made in the United States through Yahoo's search engine _ the Internet's second largest after Google's.

Yahoo will still use its own technology _ acquired and developed at a cost of more than $2 billion _ to place ads next to the other search results on its Web site. The Sunnyvale-based company also will continue to distribute search ads to its own partners.

By flirting with Google, Yahoo is trying to prove it has other options besides succumbing to Microsoft, Kessler said. But he doubts most investors will take the Google alternative seriously, given the antitrust obstacles.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense for Yahoo to make an announcement like this when everyone knows a long-term relationship (with Google) can't happen," Kessler said. "It strikes me as somewhat desperate."

539,500 Toyotas Recalled After Window-Shattering Accident

2008-05-10T10:24:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON — Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 539,500 Corolla and Matrix passenger cars because the bolts in the power window system can become loose and ultimately cause a window to shatter.

Toyota said Wednesday it had received reports of 143 cases in which the bolts at the bottom of the power window assembly became loose, caused the window to rattle or led to the window breaking.

Toyota spokesman Joe Tetherow said there had been one minor accident and 15 injuries reported. He said he did not know how many complaints Toyota had received of windows shattering. The affected vehicles are in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories, he said.

The recall involves 2003-2004 model year Corolla and Matrix vehicles equipped with power windows. Vehicles with manual windows are not part of the recall.

The automaker said if the window bolts become loose, motorists may hear an abnormal noise from the driver or front passenger door while operating the power windows.

The recall affects only vehicles sold in the United States, Tetherow said.

Toyota will notify owners of the recall in late April. Dealers will replace the driver and front passenger door glass bolts at no charge to owners.

For more information, owners can call Toyota at (800) 331-4331.

___

On the Net:

Toyota Motor Corp.: http://www.toyota.com/

(This version CORRECTS that affected vehicles are in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, instead of only the United States, reflecting later information from the company.) )

Pilots No Longer Living The Dream

2008-05-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

Among the jobs little boys dream of -- policeman, fireman, bulldozer driver -- airline pilot long held the added virtue of satisfying grown-up dreams: pay that reached $300,000 a year, 20 days a month off work, the prestige of one day commanding a $200 million airplane, and a lush retirement at 60.

But the airline industry's financial collapse this decade did away with much of that, leaving thousands of young men -- and increasingly women -- chasing a dream toward a disappointing reality.

"My wife thinks I'm nuts," said Jason Captain, 32, of Fort Worth who left the Navy last November, walking away from $75,000-a-year lieutenant's pay for flying military brass in and out of GuantÃ¡namo Bay.

Two Types Of Tax Fraud On The Rise

2008-05-10T02:45:00.001-07:00

Thieves are increasingly obtaining fraudulent tax refunds by using the identities of lawful taxpayers, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.

The report, an annual document from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, also noted a rise in the theft of taxpayer identities by people seeking to work without paying federal taxes on their wages. The Internal Revenue Service rarely prosecutes such cases, the report said.

Taxpayers who fall victim to either scheme face an uphill battle in sorting things out with the I.R.S., the report said.

Mona Ackerman: Mean Girls And The Parents Who Love Them

2008-05-09T10:44:00.001-07:00

Q: The video of a girl being beaten up by six other girls is very upsetting to me. I have a 16-year-old daughter and I live constantly with the fear of anorexia, drugs, pregnancy, reckless driving, idiotic boyfriends --and dozens of other horrible possibilities that, with a moment's reflection, reduce me to intense anxiety. I try to stay vigilant about her activities while simultaneously trying to keep open our lines of communication. I try to respect her, to be aware of her self-esteem, and to give her the freedom to be exactly who she is. What does a parent do? How does a parent understand and deal with all the psychological issues that affect a kid nowadays? I bet the parents of those girls didn't have a hint about what they were up to. That's what scares me. They could have been you or me.

Are the parents doing the "right thing" now? Some of them are standing by their kids, denying what seems obvious on the video tape. They say they are waiting for the true story to emerge. Are they doing the right thing? After all, shouldn't parents always stand by their children -no matter what? I am reminded of accusations against members of the Duke University lacrosse team. The prosecutor said he had a hard case of rape. But the boys were innocent, virtually framed. What if those parents hadn't stayed true to the belief that their kids were good kids? Isn't it possible that if parents don't think their kids are innocent, the kids then will never forgive them and, maybe, respond by becoming bad? Isn't this a self-fulfilling prophecy?

A: I agree with you. I am very upset by this video as well and as a psychologist, I'd like very much to offer a psychological explanation for what I've seen on the TV screen. That would not only make things easy for me, but it should make things comforting for you. I'd find something to explain this abhorrent behavior and it would not apply to you, your household or your daughter. That way, bad things won't happen to her and she won't do anything bad herself.

Sorry. I cannot find a general underlying psychological explanation. Each child, each family unit, and each neighborhood are unique. Together all of these factors combine in unique ways to the general environment - and all that, taken together, is what influences our children. One parent's response to a child may be correct while another parent, responding the same way, is going to be making a mistake. So it's probably a bit unsatisfying for me to say "Be Alert!" Be open to all possibilities! Be painfully honest with yourself about your child and be even more painfully honest about who you are and what that might mean to your child. Still, unsatisfying or not, that's what I have to do.

Before trying to examine your own parenting, you have to recognize that you simply cannot control your child's environment. For many years, research has focused on the possible effects TV or movie violence has on young minds. Most of the research concludes that there is an effect -and not, as you may have guessed, a good one. Maybe the violent girls -and their alleged male collaborators - were affected by what they saw on television. Maybe, too, they decided to post their exploits on the internet because they had learned -mislearned, is more like it -that there is no such thing as bad publicity. The current infatuation with celebrity, particularly acute among the young, teaches that fame -no matter what for - is the ultimate reward. Well, these girls are -for the moment--famous.

Another possibility strikes me -but it is one that I know of no research to back up. I'll plunge ahead anyway. It's possible these girls distanced themselves from what they allegedly did by posting it on the internet. That made it a virtual attack, not a real one. And they were, they said, responding to what their victim had previously said about them on the internet. This has been the stuff of teenage tiffs since time immemorial -but it has been transported, if that's the right word, to cyberspace. Blurring virtual life with real life -What's real? What's virtual? -- has to be approaching danger.

Young people of today are different from young people of the past in many ways -their toys, for instance (cell phones, etc.) but also in their status. Young people are consumers and in America the consumer is king. Years ago, kids had no money and so no one cared what they thought. Now because they have disposable income and are peculiarly susceptible to fads, society pretends to admire them. Being young is wonderful. Being young is wise. Being young is hip and slim and all the things society admires. Being young, really, means getting your pocket picked.

All this reinforces a young person's sense of personal power and the belief -the immature conviction --that whatever they do is right..

So, perhaps one of the first things to do is to go back to parenting your child. This society has tended to focus too much on the cult of youth and allows kids too much freedom. You are not their friend. That's the reality. You are the one with the power. That, too, is the reality. A parent deserves the respect of position, age and experience. You are their guide through the realities of life. You are the one to make the determination of what their limits are. Respecting your child doesn't mean letting them determine totally what their path is. Respecting your child means loving them for whomever they are, while giving them the tools to function well in the world we live in. You are the one at the moment who knows better.

After having taken into account the influences from the outside, only then can we try to understand what goes on in our unique family unit. Yes, you need to support your child, so that he/she knows they are a part of a secure family unit. But you also don't want to idealize or be blind to issues your child has. By being aware of who they are, you can give them the love they need to find the tools to function well and successfully. Reality means facing some harsh truths, including for instance their inability to make friends easily...or their inability to control their frustrations...or their distress at their inability to compete scholastically or athletically ... or anything else that can bring them pain and make them seek an escape of some kind.

And of course don't forget your own issues. Many parents analyze their children's needs through the filter of their own childhood. Be careful that you are not over protecting your child because as a child you felt overly exposed to the world. Or don't defend your child's every action because you felt that you were not fully supported by your parents. Your child's life is his or her own. Their experience is not your experience. The world has changed. Move on with it.

So, do we need to psychologically understand these girls that allegedly beat up another girl? I don't think so. The proper place for psychology is way before these actions took place. Maybe they need treatment. But certainly they deserve punishment.

Robert De Niro Fires His Agency

2008-05-09T07:51:00.002-07:00

I've confirmed what my sources told me this afternoon: that Robert De Niro has left CAA. But I'm still trying to confirm the second part of what my sources told me: that De Niro is going to Endeavor. The very idea of him leaving CAA, where he's been a client for such a long long time, is astonishing. I remember when Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett made it a top priority as soon as they took over CAA in 1995 to do everything they could to keep De Niro since he was tied so closely to departing Michael Ovitz. And let's face it, "Bobby" had a fabulous career before then and since then.

Michelle Kung: Idol Gives Back, And Then Some

2008-05-09T07:51:00.001-07:00

Three things I learned from watching two and a half hours of "Idol Gives Back" last night: Heart still rocks, Teri Hatcher has a decent voice, and Fergie can do one-handed cartwheels. While singing in leather pants. For that, I say props, woman.

In spite of myself, I actually enjoyed Idol's now yearly telethon show to raise awareness for children living in poverty or suffering from debilitating and terminal diseases. Unlike last year, the taped segments weren't overly treacly, the music performances were entertaining, and the guest stars were A-list. (Although I have to say: after scoring the coup of getting Brad Pitt to present on your show, you have him introduce... Daughtry? Shouldn't it be the other way around?) Even the cross-promotions weren't as egregious as normal. Aside from Fox's deft incorporation of the So You Think You Can Dance performers with the remaining contestants, the most pimped-out network actually seemed to be ABC, as Jimmy Kimmel talked a tad too much about Simon's nipples and Teri Hatcher (!) rocked out to Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." The Desperate Housewives star was clearly talked into the gig by James Denton, her TV husband and guitarist for the fantastic Band From TV. For those who unfamiliar with the group, Band From TV is actually a charity cover band started by ubiquitous J.J. Abrams character actor Greg Grunberg that claims Hugh Laurie and Bob Guiney among its members. Though Hugh tragically did not appear on the show, Jesse "Dr. Chase" Spencer delightfully picked up the slack (and finally got some airtime!) with his vigorous violin playing.

The other musical performances were hit or miss. Snoop Dogg brought it, Fergie and Heart brought it, Carrie Underwood was looking gorgeous, and I'm a sucker for Miley Cyrus ("See You Again" repeats on my iPod gym mix). I loved that she kind of awkwardly stomped around the stage, flung her arms in all directors, and danced basically like the 15-year old that she is, as opposed to a hyper-sexualized femmebot.

"Idol" also attracted a high wattage of hodgepodge celebrities (Eli and Peyton Manning, who was much nicer to those New Orleans teens than the United Way kids he once tried to "coach") and Brits strong-armed by the Simons (Cowell and Fuller) to present (. In addition to usual suspects Bono and Annie Lennox, female A-listers Reese Witherspoon, Julianne Moore, and Jennifer Connelly all physically presented or taped segments; a distinctly dark-tressed Ben Stiller delivered a hit and miss comedy intro (though his comment about AI essentially being about "convincing crazy people that they belong on television" was right on target), and Dane Cook was unfunny as usual. There was also a kinda-Comic Relief reunion, with Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, and Robin Williams - wearing the fugliest shirt I've seen in a long time and doing completely dated schtick - all taking turns in from of the camera.

The AI contestants themselves were meh. The Rent sing-a-long, while a good fit in theory, seemed disjointed, and the kids all, in the words of Randy Jackson, all worked it out for Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music." It was a hawt night, dog!

"Idol Gives Back" Cuts The Presidential Candidates, Gives Miley Cyrus Two Spots And Gordon Brown One

2008-05-08T19:10:00.001-07:00

The juggernaut that is "American Idol" aired their two and half hour "Idol Gives Back" special Wednesday, with a bevy of celebrities (Watch "Idol Gives Back" clips), but cut Senators Obama, McCain and Clinton for time. Despite two segments with Miley Cyrus, including a long, painful exchange with Billy Crystal, ones with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Maria Shriver, and dozens of other celebrity appearances, the presidential candidates' touted cameos got the ax.
The NYT reports:

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain made taped appeals for charity on a special edition of "American Idol" on Wednesday night that didn't make the cut. The telethon for needy children around the world entitled "Idol Gives Back" drew the likes of Fergie, Bono, Brad Pitt, Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus, and went too long. The candidates' contributions were kicked back to Thursday night's episode.

It was Simon Cowell, the "Idol" judge, who admonished the nation about the health care crisis in the United States, narrating a short, gauzy film that showed him visiting and consoling a low-income family with no insurance. It was Reese Witherspoon who spoke on behalf of the Children's Defense Fund, the organization for whom Mrs. Clinton worked as a young lawyer. It was Brad Pitt who praised the American can-do spirit in rebuilding New Orleans and received a standing ovation.

Daughtry in Uganda closed the show.

Hale "Bonddad" Stewart: Inflation Is Getting Worse

2008-05-08T18:23:00.001-07:00

From the WSJ:

After several years of relative stability, a wave of rising prices is washing over the world economy.
It comes at a most inconvenient time. The Federal Reserve is sharply cutting U.S interest rates -- the opposite of the usual response to rising inflation -- to prevent the housing bust and credit crisis from causing a deep, prolonged recession. That's making the global response to inflation more complicated.

On Wednesday, the World Bank estimated global food prices have risen 83% over the past three years, threatening recent strides in poverty reduction. The IMF forecast consumer prices in emerging and developing countries will rise 7.4% this year, the most inflation since 2001 though still well below the double-digit levels of the recent past.

From the WSJ:

Federal energy officials expect oil to average $101 a barrel this year, a sharp upward revision from its earlier forecast that suggests prices will remain above $100 for some time.
But the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects American drivers, truckers and airlines to use less fuel this year as the economy softens. That could take some pressure off prices for gasoline and other fuels, and could keep the price of gasoline under a U.S. average of $4 a gallon.

Just months ago, $100-a-barrel oil seemed an aberration -- a price surge driven by speculators that would soon slip back to more reasonable levels. But the move by the agency -- usually a price bear that had predicted $87-a-barrel oil in January -- suggests $100 oil could be the new norm this year.The arm of the U.S. Energy Department also doesn't anticipate much relief next year, when it sees prices averaging $92.50 a barrel.

Crude oil for May delivery fell 59 cents a barrel, or 0.5%, to $108.50 Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil hit a record high of $110.33 March 13.

Contrary to warnings from many analysts, the agency believes gasoline prices will remain below $4 a gallon in the U.S. during the height of the summer driving season. The government sees gasoline prices peaking in June at $3.60, up from the national average of around $3.33 now. The U.S., consumer of nearly a quarter of the world's daily crude production, is expected to use 85,000 barrels a day less this year in liquid fuels than in 2007, the agency said.

No one really knows where prices will end up -- despite their best intentions and good faith efforts to try and figure it out. However, here is the basic issue with energy demand: so long as India and China are still growing at strong clips, expect more upside price pressure. Those two countries add 2 billion people to the demand side of the equation.

Let's look at some charts.

On the daily for oil, notice the following:

-- Prices were in an uptrend from early February to early March

-- Prices broke this trend, but have remained above the $100 level

-- Prices are consolidating above $100 level in either a triangle or rectangle formation

-- The 10 and 20 day SMAs are bunched together, indicating they are looking for direction.

-- Prices remain above the 50 SMA

On oil's weekly chart, notice the following:

-- Oil started a rally at the beginning of last year.

-- Throughout the course of that rally, oil has moved through resistance and then consolidated price gains.

-- It has used the 10 and 20 week SMA as support

Short version: oil's charts are incredibly strong and show no sign of reversing.

As a result, prices are the pump are noticeably higher.

As a result of high fuel prices, we're starting to see protests from truckers:

Tons of freight idled across the country Tuesday as independent truckers pulled their rigs off the road while others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices.
Using CB radios and trucking Web sites, some truckers called for a strike Tuesday to protest the high cost of diesel fuel, hoping the action might pressure President Bush to stabilize prices by using the nation's oil reserves.

"The gas prices are too high," said Lamont Newberne, a trucker from Wilmington, N.C., who along with 200 drivers protested at a New Jersey Turnpike service area. "We don't make enough money to pay our bills and take care of our family."

On the Turnpike, southbound rigs "as far as the eye can see" staged a short lunchtime protest by moving about 20 mph near Newark, jamming traffic on one of the nation's most heavily traveled highways, authorities said.

While we're looking at commodity prices, let's look at agricultural prices because they have also been spiking

On the daily chart, notice the following:

-- Price have broken through the support of an upward sloping trendline started in late November 2007

-- Prices are below the 50 day SMA and are heading lower

-- The 10 day 20 day SMAs are both headed lower and have moved through the 50 day SMA

-- Prices are consolidating below the 50 day SMA

-- Prices have continually moved through previously established resistance and consolidated those gains

-- Prices are still in a confirmed uptrend

The reason agricultural prices are so important is there are food riots in various countries across the globe and governments are curbing exports:

As well as the riots in Egypt, rising food costs have been blamed for violent unrest in Haiti, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Protests have also occurred in Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.
China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam have curbed rice exports to ensure there is enough for their own people.

Most commodities are priced in dollars. Therefore a dropping dollar is a de factor price increase.

On the daily chart, notice the following:

-- Prices consolidated in the 74 - 77 range from late November to late February.

-- Prices broke through support and have since fallen about 3.3%

-- Prices are consolidating in a triangle consolidation pattern

-- The 10 and 20 day SMAs are bunched together, indicating a lack of direction.

On the weekly chart, notice the following:

-- Prices have continually moved lower, falling through support

-- After falling through support, prices have consolidated their drop and then moved lower

-- The shorter SMAs are below the longer SMAs

-- Prices are below the SMAs

All of this leads to high inflation in the US:

Omid Memarian: Who can you trust reporting on a closed country?

2008-05-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

How can journalists responsibly report on countries to which they have very little access? How can they break beyond barriers to produce good reporting? And more importantly, to what extent can we, as readers, trust stories about such sensitive nations in the news media?

Last week, the International Center for Journalists provided an extraordinary chance for many foreign correspondents to try to answer these questions in a discussion on Iran.

They listened to a variety of Iranian scholars and journalists who spoke about ways to get their readers to understand Iran beyond Ayatollahs, veiled women, ambitious nuclear plans, the 1980 hostage crisis, and its controversial President.

In my experience with journalists who cover Iran, I have found that one of the major obstacles they face in producing accurate, fair, and comprehensive reports is procuring background information.

The information they rely on is mostly provided by Iranian exiles, think thanks (mainly in Washington), Iran scholars and, to an extent, Iranian sources who feel comfortable sharing their stories with foreign journalists -- people who sometimes risk their lives to share their knowledge, insights and analysis on the ground.

Unfortunately, this method of gaining context has become problematic due to politically polarized sources who tend to filter information through different lenses and provide a version of truth that in many cases has nothing to do with what is happening in Iran. To illustrate this, I will share a few examples:

There is no doubt that since Ahmadinejad coming into office, his insufficient economic policies have caused tough times for the Iranian people, who have suffered from high inflation, unemployment and political repression. Numbers support these facts. But I was amazed by the analysis of one of the participants, an American scholar who has written a book on Iran and who had just arrived from Tehran. She said that just six months after Ahamdinejad entered office in 2005, $200 billion of capital fled Iran to other countries. Two hundred billion dollars? How is this possible? Nobody asked about the source and accuracy of the number, which I have heard floating around Iranian scholars' discussions.

I was also surprised when another scholar completely denied a fatwa was issued by Iran's Supreme Leader about Iran's nuclear energy program in 2004, calling nuclear weapons unacceptable under Islam. At the time, this fatwa was on the front pages of Tehran's newspapers and was one of the reasons behind the Iranian leader's defiance in pursuing the controversial nuclear dossier.

I was, however, not surprised when another scholar completely denied the existence of the women's movement in Iran, right before a scheduled talk given by a woman activist from Tehran who is closely involved in this movement. In her talk, she described how women in Iran are battling with the hardliners to change Iran's laws. Despite what the "armchair scholars" in the U.S. may think, she explained that Iranian civil society organizations resist against extensive amounts of intimidation by the government, lobby different layers of power and try to mobilize people with their message of change.

The key issue is that these days in Tehran, any kind of information highlighting the insufficiency of Ahmadinejad's government seems believable. On the other hand, the fear of a possible U.S. attack has led many people concerned about another fiasco in the Middle East to filter the information through certain lenses that do not reflect the truth and can be misleading if journalists take it at face value. Iran is not just Ahmadinejad and hardliners, and without understanding different sources of power it is nearly impossible to give a clear image of one of the most complex societies in the Middle East.

Journalists' very limited access to Iran, which has been reinforced by the Islamic regime during the past few years, has not only blurred reality and produced a series of myths about a country at the core of international concerns, but also has confused many of the scholars and academics who try to understand Iran from outside its borders. The ICFJ seminar was extraordinary in illustrating the peculiar circumstances of reporting on Iran and the challenges affecting the quality of our work.

American Cancels 900 More Flights

2008-05-08T13:30:00.001-07:00

DALLAS — American Airlines canceled more than 900 flights Thursday to fix faulty wiring in hundreds of jets, marking the third straight day of mass groundings as company executives offered profuse apologies and travel vouchers to calm angry customers.

American, the nation's largest carrier, has now scrubbed more than 2,400 flights since Tuesday, when federal regulators warned that nearly half its planes could violate a safety regulation designed to prevent fires.

That's more than one in three flights canceled over the last three days.

Daniel Garton, an executive vice president of American, said cancellations could extend into Friday.

A return to normal operations depends on how quickly mechanics can inspect and fix the wire bundles. Airline spokesman Tim Wagner said late Wednesday afternoon that 60 planes had been cleared to fly, 119 were being worked on, and 121 planes had not yet been inspected.

The fallout could be seen at airport ticket counters, where frustrated customers bickered with American employees, and on the stock market, where shares of American's parent company tumbled more than 11 percent Wednesday.

American estimates that more than 100 passengers would have been on each of those canceled flights. That means a quarter-million people have been inconvenienced this week.

Airline executives said they thought they had fixed the wiring two weeks ago, when they canceled more than 400 flights to inspect and in some cases fix the shielding around the wires in their MD-80 aircraft.

But this week, Federal Aviation Administration inspectors, who have been conducting stepped-up surveys of airline compliance with safety rules called airworthiness directives, said 15 of 19 American jets they examined flunked. That left the airline no choice but to ground all 300 of its MD-80s, the most common jet in American's 655-plane fleet.

"We have obviously failed to complete the airworthiness directive to the precise standards that the FAA requires, and I take full responsibility for that," Gerard Arpey, American's chairman and chief executive, said at an industry event in California.

Back at American's headquarters in Fort Worth, Garton apologized for the snafu and vowed the airline would fix the problem this time.

"We simply cannot put our customers through this again," he said.

Garton added that for American, "this certainly couldn't have come at a worse time." The airline faces record fuel prices and fear of a recession, and analysts forecast that its parent, AMR Corp., lost more than $300 million in the first three months of the year.

American declined to say how much it would spend on $500 travel vouchers and hotel rooms for stranded travelers and overtime for mechanics, or how much revenue it would lose by putting some displaced customers on other airlines. But Garton said it would be "significant."

Perhaps worried about that cost, investors on Wednesday sent AMR shares down $1.15 to $9.17.

American's problem _ and Alaska Airlines' cancellation of 14 flights Wednesday to inspect its nine MD-80s _ stems from an FAA order in 2006 covering the bundling of wires in the backup power system for the fuel pump of the MD-80. The FAA says improperly bundled wires could rub, leading to an electrical short or even fire.

American officials said the safety of their planes was never jeopardized, and the FAA said no serious incidents have been blamed on poorly bundled wires.

Some passengers took a jaundiced view toward American's promise to fix the problems.

Kathy Neer of Santa Fe, N.M., was caught up in both waves of cancellations to and from a vacation in Paris. She and her husband were stranded in Dallas on Tuesday on the final leg of their journey home. American gave the Neers a voucher for a hotel room and seats on another flight home Wednesday.

"They say our flight is leaving at 3:55 p.m., but do you think we trust them?" Neer said. "After being burned twice, we're a little skeptical."

___

Associated Press writers Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles and Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to this report.

Rock Band guitar hack enables stompbox to activate Overdrive

2008-05-08T12:41:00.003-07:00

Filed under: Gaming

Not even 24 hours after catching a whiff of those sick Mushroom-headed Rock Band drum pads comes yet another mod that oozes awesomeness. The Rock Band Stompbox tackles an issue any digital rocker has faced -- accidental (and often unwanted) activation of Overdrive / Star Power. Put simply, this engineering fellow ripped his axe apart, ganked a spare effects pedal and put his superb wiring skills to good use. Hit up the read link for a pictorial step-by-step, or jump on past the break for a video demonstration.

[Thanks, Brad]

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Zune Guy's name change endeavor is back on

2008-05-08T12:41:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We can't say we'd follow in this guy's footsteps for any amount of money, but boy, does it make for fantastic drama. Shortly after the famed Zune Guy (you know, that cat with a trio of Zune-inspired tattoos?) decided to legally change his name to "Microsoft Zune," the plan was put on hiatus after hearing that it cost a whopping $500 to get a name swap. After getting curious, investigating and discovering that he only needed $150 to have it done, he put the mission squarely back on the front burner. Unfortunately, there still stands a chance of the aforesaid name being denied, so he's posted up a poll in order to let the general public give him a list of backups. Personally, we're feelin' McZunin.

[Thanks, Brian]

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Video: Thingamagoop alarm clock mod haunts your dreams, wakes you to its nightmare

2008-05-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

Remember Thingamagoop, the little synth monster controlled by light thanks to the photocell governing the main oscillator? Well, this alarm clock mod requires a 9-volt DC jack and adapter, switch SPDT, and some audio cable and wire to bring it all together. A few snips and solder burns later and voila, the monster Moog alarm clock is born. Man, robots... synthesizers... it's like the ultimate nerd sub-cult. Video after the break, detailed hacking instructions on the other side of that read link.

P.S. Yes, he has throw-switch nipples and a uh, knob.

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ASUS' BD-equipped Essentio CS5110 mini PC gets official

2008-05-08T10:48:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Desktops

If you've been courting the idea of picking up a mini PC resembling an overstuffed history book with a glossy black finish, ASUS' got just the thing. Housing an Intel processor, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, slot-loading DVD / Blu-ray (optional) drive, up to 1TB of hard drive space, a 256MB GeForce 8600M and 7.1-channel audio out, this thing is an ATSC tuner away from being a pretty potent little HTPC. You'll also find gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, an integrated IR receiver, FireWire, 10-in-1 multicard reader, HDMI / VGA out (DVI via bundled adapter) and a multimedia keyboard / mouse combo to go along with that MCE remote. ASUS also promised that it's newest 3.4-kilogram (7.5-pound) desktop keeps ultra-quiet, but sadly, it failed to mention a price or release date.

[Via DailyTech]

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Blockbuster announcing streaming set-top box this month?

2008-05-08T09:54:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Home Entertainment

The Hollywood Reporter is stating in no uncertain terms that Blockbuster is developing a set-top box to stream video into the home. Now the real bombshell: it should be announced "sometime this month." The device is expected to make the most of Blockbuster's access to Movielink's 6,000 strong Movie catalog just as soon as the content is migrated to Blockbuster.com (sometime before June). While delivering movies into the home electronically certainly challenges Blockbuster's brick and mortar business, really, what choice do they have in the relentless face of progress.

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World's first 46-inch stereoscopic 3D TV from Hyundai on sale in Japan

2008-05-08T07:42:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

3D baby, that's what we've wanted from home television for 50 years. Now it's yours... if you live in Japan anyway. Introducing the world's first 46-inch 3D stereoscopic television. Built by Hyundai, the 1,920 x 1,080 set is capable of grabbing BS11 3D broadcasts pumped by Nippon BS in Japan for the last few months. The ¥498,000 (about $4,857) LCD brings 2x HDMI and 3x composite inputs (to name a few) and apparently works fine for traditional 2D broadcasts. Unfortunately, you'll have to wear what appear to be 3-foot wide, 3D glasses judging by the image provided above. Perhaps they're meant as a radiation shield since the set is also the world's first TV with built-in "nuclear reactor" according to the machine translated text. Be careful out there kids, it's just television.

[Via Impress]

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Sony's Bravia E4000 series is pretty as a picture

2008-05-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Filed under: HDTV

See it? No there, the one that looks like a flat screen TV hanging on the wall. Right, that's Sony's new E4000 TV series. Sony's pushing its new Picture Frame Mode and four "blend in frame colours" hard as its looks to differentiate the 32- and 40-inch Full HD LCDs (and a wee 26 inch of unspecified, sub-1080p resolution) from the competition. As such, the TVs will display one of six, pre-installed images like Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Cypresses. Really though, why bother pre-loading content when it'll display any image you stuff into a connected USB drive. Oh right, copyright law. Anyway, the top-o-the-line 40-inch model features x.v.Color on a 10-bit panel, Bravia Engine 2 processing, 3x HDMI inputs and even SCART for you European old-schoolers. No price or release date but you can play along with Sony's hide the 26-incher after the break.

[Via Tech Digest]

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LG's X-R700 and X-S900 replace desktops, double as paperweights for product models

2008-05-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

Filed under: Laptops

Don't know about ya'll, but our eyes tend to glaze over with apathy as soon as we see "desktop replacement" in a laptop press release. Nevertheless, here's LG's take on the semi-portable: the 17-inch X-R700 and 19-inch X-S900. They're big -- much bigger than the average mini-skirt found on Korean product waifs. The ₩1,699,000 (about $1,744) Model X-R700 XP50K sports a WXGA display with integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, 3GB of memory, 512MB of nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics and a 1.83GHz T5550 Core 2 Duo pumping away under the hood. The ₩1,390,000 (about $1,436) X-S900 KP55K model packs the same 1,366 x 768 resolution and processor but slaps in 256MB of ATI Mobility Radeon HD2400 graphics, 2GB of memory, and bumps the disk from 250GB to 320GB spinning at 7,200rpm (thanks Fujitsu). While the laptops are a bit meh, at least you'll notice how much bigger the images are on the new and improved Engadget layout.
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Screen Grabs: Dahlia Malloy can't decide how to hold her iPhone

2008-05-07T20:04:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Cellphones

Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.

Dahlia Malloy certainly has plenty of issues on her mind -- she's living a false life as Cherien Rich, she's married to a compulsive liar and con man played by Eddie Izzard, and she's this close to going back to jail -- but that still doesn't explain why she didn't notice her phone was upside down on last night's episode of The Riches. Making matters worse, she was talking on it the right way up earlier in the show, which means we're betting Minnie Driver did this on purpose to get our attention. That's got to be it, right? Second grab after the break -- check out that reaction to browsing at EDGE speeds.

[Thanks, Gadgnormous]

"Please don't make me use the mail client again!"

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Nikon slides out S52 and WiFi-friendly S52c COOLPIX fashioncams

2008-05-07T16:11:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Nikon is fleshing out its "Style Series" of shooters with the COOLPIX S52 and S52c (pictured) compact cameras. The two cameras are pretty much spec-for-spec identical other than the WiFi capabilities of the S52c which allow it to upload shots wirelessly to services like Flickr or Nikon's own "my Picturetown." Otherwise you're looking at a pair of fairly standard compacts, with 9 megapixel sensors, 3x zoom, optical image stabilization and so forth. Both will be available in May, with the S52 retailing for $250, and the S52c arriving at $280.

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Nikon intros the Coolpix P80, encourages you to zoom

2008-05-07T12:25:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Not been zooming in on "things" enough lately? Well maybe Nikon can help. The company is introducing the new Coolpix P80 18x zoom camera, which covers focal lengths from 27mm to 486mm -- which is a ton of millimeters. The P80 also sports the camera-maker's fancy pants NIKKOR optics, burst modes in four, six, and 13 FPS, ISO to 6400, and a 2.7-inch, anti-reflective LCD display. The camera has a slew of onboard tweaks that make capturing your family get-togethers or drunken escapades easier (provided the two events are separate), like auto redeye reduction and face detection (Face Priority AF). The Coolpix P80 will be available this month for the astonishing MSRP of $399.99. Check the gallery below for a number of revealing angles.

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Gateway P-172X FX gaming laptop unboxing and hands-on

2008-05-07T11:21:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Features, Laptops

If you're a gamer on the move (and we think that you are), you're probably eyeing some monster laptops. If you're looking to bro-down with one in the near future, take a moment to familiarize yourself with Gateway's latest 17-incher, the P-172X FX. The updated rig (a new riff on the similarly-themed P-171) features a Core 2 Duo CPU (the 2.4GHz T8300), 1920 x 1200 resolution, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, NVIDIA's GeForce 8800M GTS GPU (with 512MB of GDDR3 RAM), a DVD-R/RW/RAM optical drive, and a nasty mess of ports and card slots. We got to take the dude out for a spin, and performance was definitely up to par (translation: it plays Crysis), though the design left a little something to be desired, like... style. A cheaper, 2.0GHz version with half the drive space, lower screen resolution, and a gig less RAM is available, though it maintains the GPU and graphics memory. The P-172X FX is available right now for $1,999, and kid brother P-172S FX will run you $1,399. Check the gallery below for a full and proper look.

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D Cube's D9 PMP packs DMB tuner, kickstand

2008-05-07T09:49:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

D Cube's been safely off the radar for quite some time, but its D9 includes just enough goodness to warrant a second glance. For starters, you'll find a 3.5-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, support for MP3, OGG, WMA, AVI, WMV and JPEG file formats and a T-DMB TV tuner to keep things interesting. In case the 2GB / 4GB of internal storage proves too tiny for your bloated collection of acid rock, you can fit a few more tracks on there thanks to the microSD / SDHC expansion slot. Not one to stay parked in the palms, the D9 also includes a kickstand and a pair of lackluster speakers for watching extended clips. Probably a good bet for just ₩128,000 ($131) -- 'tis a shame it won't ever make its way Stateside.

[Via PMPToday]

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Yahoo and AOL suddenly close to merging?

2008-05-07T08:53:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yahoo's done its best to fend off Microsoft's aggressive advances until now, but it suddenly looks like the struggling company might be getting some help -- both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that the Yahoo is "closing in" on a deal to merge with Time Warner's AOL division and partner up with Google on search advertising. Yeah, that's pretty major, and it would probably do something about those declining shares Microsoft's been making noise about. The idea is for Time Warner to sell AOL to Yahoo and make a large investment in the new company, which would probably be valued at around $10B. There's apparently a lot of work left to do on the deal, and it would still have to be approved by Yahoo and Time Warner shareholders, but it looks like Yahoo is no longer stuck taking Ballmer and Co. to the dance.

[Disclosure: Look up to the right. See that? Yeah, Engadget is owned by AOL -- but trust us, we have no idea what's going on.]

Read - WSJ article
Read - Reuters article

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3G iPhone rumors building up steam

2008-05-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Filed under: Cellphones

Apple's next big event is still over two months away, but the iPhone rumor mill is suddenly in full swing, and we'd say the buzz is back after that short-lived Mossberg "60 days" euphoria wore off. Tgdaily is the one making waves today, claiming that we'll see next-gen 8GB and 16GB iPhones debut at WWDC this June for $399 and $499, and that the iPod touch will always offer twice the storage at any given price point. The new units are said to feature revised casings that eliminate the current model's "plasticky" feel, which is interesting, because that supposedly-leaked image from the other day seems pretty ultra-plasticky to us, but we're not exactly expecting any of these rumors to be true, let alone add up. Other than the re-design, tgdaily says there aren't any OS or interface changes in store, and that Apple is really serious about building the Cocoa Touch platform in addition to OS X-- hence the two bridges on those WWDC invites that went out. That's about it -- nothing too shocking, really, but we'd still take all this stuff with a huge grain of salt until Steve sets things straight.

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Conceptual Crystal LED wristwatch is all kinds of gorgeous

2008-05-07T07:58:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Wearables

For as many patently awful watch designs as we see, this here device has given us a newfound appreciation for timepieces. Yes, the Ilya Yakovlev-designed Real Crystal LED Watch is merely a concept at the moment, but creating such a device with crystals and LEDs is entirely plausible. If ripped into the realm of reality (pretty please?), wearers would be allowed to "increase the luminosity and change colors to suit [their] mood." We're just going to hope the question isn't if we'll see this one day, but when.

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FireWire: over a billion ports served

2008-05-07T05:51:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

Alright, so we've harshed a little bit on FireWire recently, but we've got to stop and give the venerable interconnect some love: the 1394 Trade Association says that there are now over a billion FireWire ports out there. That's quite an accomplishment, even if we're not so sure that the group's claim that "every 1394-equipped device sold now has 1 billion opportunities to connect" is the most accurate or useful way of measuring the success of the technology. Even still, growth is always a good thing, and with an estimated 15 percent expansion rate in existing markets and some new applications like in-car networking showing potential, it looks like FireWire is set to hold its own against USB and eSATA for a while longer.

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Canon's new XL H1S and XL H1A prosumer HD camcorders

2008-05-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon's building on its well-received XL H1 prosumer, interchangeable-lens video camera with the new XL H1S and XL H1A. The primary addition shared by the new cameras is the updated 20x HD Video Lens III, but there are also improvements to the image and color settings, audio input capabilities and an external LCD monitor output plug. The XL H1S bests the H1A with uncompressed HD-SD1 output, but will run you a full three grand more when it hits in June for $9,000, with the H1A landing mid-July for $6,000.

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Micro SD Card Projector blows up portable media

2008-05-07T03:45:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Displays

Mini-projectors are a dime a dozen these days, but the Micro SD Card Projector is whizzing right around all those serious competitors and aiming instead for the carefree crowd. Essentially, the image quality you'll get from this thing is likely to be lackluster -- after all, the manufacturer doesn't even bother to pass along a contrast ratio, let alone a native resolution. Still, the ability to shove an SD card into the rear and instantly watch your portable media clips on the big(ish) screen is a boon to travel junkies and kids of all ages. Heck, there's even a set of composite inputs if you're looking to give your DVD player (or similar) some work. No word on exactly what file types the unit understands, but those willing to take a chance can expect it to ship later this week for £99.99 ($196).

[Via ShinyShiny]

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Kohjinsha's SR8KPO6S UMPC makes room for optical drive

2008-05-06T21:22:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Kohjinsha's UMPCs have remained largely unchanged over the years -- an SSD here, Intel CPU boost here -- but the firm's latest has managed to accomplish something few UMPCs would even dream of. That's right, this 7-incher includes a full-fledged dual-layer DVD writer, which tags along nicely with the 1,024 x 600 resolution LED-backlit panel, 1.3-megapixel camera, 60GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth and 800MHz A110 processor. It's also filled with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Ethernet, a duo of USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, audio in / out, 3-in-1 multicard reader and a pair of battery options promising 3.5 / 7.2 hours of life. The 2.4-pound machine looks to be available at the end of this month (albeit rebadged as a Vye Mini-V S37) for around $1,500.

[Via Ubergizmo]

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Wash. Post 's Balz reported McCain "again made clear his opposition to broad federal intervention or bailouts," ignored approval of Bear Stearns aid

2008-05-06T16:56:00.001-07:00

In an April 10 post on The Washington Post's political blog, The Trail, staff writer Dan Balz reported: "On the housing crisis, [Sen. John] McCain once again made clear his opposition to broad federal intervention or bailouts. He said he continues to oppose helping those who engaged in and fed the speculative frenzy in the housing and credit markets." Balz further reported that McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin "called McCain's approach superior to some Democratic measures because it places primary emphasis on the individuals in need, rather than the lenders." However, Balz did not mention that McCain reportedly agreed with the Federal Reserve's decision to extend a $30 billion loan backed by Bear Stearns assets to facilitate the acquisition of the near-bankrupt investment firm by JP Morgan Chase. The deal reportedly puts taxpayers at risk for $29 billion of the loan if the value of Bear Stearns' assets declines.

From Balz's April 10 post on The Trail:

McCain plans a more comprehensive economic speech for next week, but came here today to blunt criticism from Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that he is insensitive to the plight of ordinary Americans.

"Let me make it clear that that in these challenging times, I am committed to using all the resources of this government and great nation to create opportunity and make sure that every deserving American has a good job and can achieve their American dream," he said.

McCain noted that Americans face multiple economic pressures from the economic downturn, from declining home values and threats of foreclosure to the impact of rising gasoline prices on family budgets to fears that a worsening economic situation will throw more people out of work.

On the housing crisis, McCain once again made clear his opposition to broad federal intervention or bailouts. He said he continues to oppose helping those who engaged in and fed the speculative frenzy in the housing and credit markets

"Tax breaks for builders, funds to purchase homes in foreclosure, and tax credits that are not targeted to where the need is greatest do not constitute the federal help that is warranted," he said.

Instead, McCain proposed a federal program that would require individual homeowners to seek help from the federal government and, if they qualified for assistance, emerge with a restructured mortgage that would allow them to stay in their homes.

"There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home, and priority number one is to keep well meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes," he said.

There are some limitations. Those families who can afford the terms of their current, albeit higher, mortgage would not qualify. And the assistance would only cover primary residences and only go to families that can truly afford the new mortgage.

McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the housing assistance would reach an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 families, with an estimated cost of $3 billion to $10 billion. He said McCain's goal is to use federal money only for those families "who really need help." He also called McCain's approach superior to some Democratic measures because it places primary emphasis on the individuals in need, rather than the lenders.

McCain also demanded a Justice Department investigation to look into criminal wrongdoing in both the home mortgage industry and in the securitized credit instruments that were created to fuel the speculative bubble in the housing market.

Citing Gingrich, Halperin falsely suggested Obama's "[t]alk to your enemies" position includes support for meeting with Hamas

2008-05-06T13:00:00.001-07:00

On the April 13 edition of ABC's This Week, discussing former President Jimmy Carter's planned meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin asserted: "I interviewed [former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich on Friday and he seized on this, because he says this is a clear choice if it's [Sen. Barack] Obama versus [Sen. John] McCain -- two schools of thought about how America should deal in the world. Obama's position: Talk to your enemies. The McCain-Republican-Gingrich position: You cannot talk to people who don't meet some certain thresholds." In fact, Obama has repeatedly stated that his willingness to meet with international adversaries "does not include Hamas." Indeed, earlier in the show, during an interview with Carter, host George Stephanopoulos noted, "Senators Obama and [Hillary] Clinton have both said they would not meet with Hamas leaders."

On March 3, Reuters reported that Obama "has said he would break with President George W. Bush's stance of declining to talk to some other international adversaries but that stance does not apply to Hamas." According to Reuters, at a campaign stop in San Antonio, Obama said, "You can't negotiate with somebody who does not recognize the right of a country to exist so I understand why Israel doesn't meet with Hamas."

From the April 13 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Your trip has also become fodder for the political campaign here at home. Senators Obama and Clinton have both said they would not meet with Hamas leaders. Several Democratic congressmen are urging you not to follow through with the meeting. And former Speaker Newt Gingrich pounced on this, saying Democrats ought to dis-invite you from their convention because of this proposed meeting. Are you worried that you might be making trouble for Senators Clinton, Obama, and other Democrats?

[...]

STEPHANOPOULOS: But what about sitting down with the leader of Hamas, and if there's any kind of give in his position that he can then, that President Carter can then go talk to the Israeli defense minister about -- what's wrong with that?

GEORGE WILL (Washington Post columnist): There's nothing wrong with it if there's the slightest shred of evidence that there will be this kind of give. There is none -- none, zero, in all the history of Hamas.

VICTORIA CLARKE (former Pentagon spokeswoman): Well, and the question for him was, when you were president of the United States, you would not appreciate and did not appreciate people from different places going around freelancing foreign policy. It's just not helpful. Having said that, again, overall impact, I don't think he has that much. I was struck by the contradictions he had within the conversation. On the one hand, he says, "I want to induce them to do these things -- but I'm not a negotiator." And then when you got onto the politics of it, he says, "Nancy Pelosi is right -- represent the popular will; however, superdelegates can do whatever they want." I just, I'm struck at the contradiction within one conversation.

HALPERIN: I interviewed Newt Gingrich on Friday and he seized on this, because he says this is a clear choice if it's Obama versus McCain -- two schools of thought about how America should deal in the world. Obama's position: Talk to your enemies. The McCain-Republican-Gingrich position: You cannot talk to people who don't meet some certain thresholds.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And there was some buzz that this might hurt Obama because he did not tell Jimmy Carter not to go and have that meeting.

HALPERIN: Right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's all we're going to have time for today. Thank you all very much. This roundtable is going to continue.

On Hardball , Russert claimed McCain has "maverick brand" with public, without noting his colleagues' role in promoting it

2008-05-06T12:13:00.001-07:00

On the April 10 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert said of Sen. John McCain: "[T]he perception right now of McCain is someone who's experienced, someone who they see not of the Republican brand or the Bush brand, but of the maverick brand. Now, I think a lot of that may change, Chris, come a general election, in a fall election, hotly competitive." While asserting that the "perception right now" is that McCain is "of the maverick brand," Russert did not in any way acknowledge the media's role in promoting that "brand," much less the role of his colleague, Hardball host Chris Matthews. Indeed, the next day on Today, Matthews said: "Well, you only get one reputation in life, and he's got a good one. He's a military man who served his country, sacrificed for his country, carries the scars of battle. And also, he's a maverick. People think of him as a maverick."

Media Matters for America has documented Matthews and others in the broadcast and print media using the label "maverick" when discussing McCain, despite the various instances in which McCain has fallen in line with the Bush administration or the Republican Party establishment, a lifetime rating of 83 by the American Conservative Union, and his recent rightward shift on high-profile issues such as immigration and taxes.

From the April 10 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Now let's take a look at some of the match-up polls potentially going down in November, Tim. Let's take a look at the Associated Press poll. It shows that McCain is tied 45-45 with Senator Obama, who had a 10-point lead as recently as February over McCain, and McCain basically within the margin of error with Senator Clinton at 48-45.

And now look at this fascinating one. These are showing how close these people are, between Democrat and Republican, no matter which Democrat it is. Take a look at this one. This is a new Marist poll that just came out this afternoon. You tipped me off to this yesterday, that it was coming. Let's take a -- this is absolutely fascinating. If you put Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, on the ticket with John McCain on the Republican side, it defeats either Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton by 49-to-46 or 49-to-44 in New York state, the home of Hillary Clinton, the home of American liberalism.

RUSSERT: That's incredible. I mean, if that were to be the case, it's a landslide for the Republicans. Here's the great irony --

MATTHEWS: Well, they would carry 45 states, if they carried New York.

RUSSERT: Minimum. Minimum. Here's the great irony of all this. If you ask Americans 10 issues, from Iraq, the economy, global warming, health care, they prefer the Democratic position. If you ask, this fall, do you want the Democrat or Republican, generic question, Democrat by 12 points. But when you compare McCain-Obama, McCain-Clinton, it equals out.

Why? Because the perception right now of McCain is someone who's experienced, someone who they see not of the Republican brand or the Bush brand, but of the maverick brand. Now, I think a lot of that may change, Chris, come a general election, in a fall election, hotly competitive. Because why?

You're right to identify Iraq as an issue that has reemerged dramatically this week in this campaign, and we're going to have big differences on a big issue with big candidates. If it's McCain-Obama, McCain-Clinton, it's going be, "We're going to stay in Iraq. We're going to finish the job. We're not getting out. We're going to see this thing through" -- versus -- "We're starting to take the troops home immediately. We're going to do it in a way that will hopefully not create more chaos in Iraq. But we can no longer afford to do this. We have to spend the money at home." The American people are going to decide whether or not to stop this war.

From the April 11 edition of NBC's Today:

MATT LAUER (co-host): And real quickly -- latest polls nationally, if we move to November, has a McCain-Obama matchup -- dead heat -- 45-45. A McCain-Clinton matchup -- 45-48 with Senator Clinton leading. I ask this question only because in this year of everybody calling this "the change election"--

MATTHEWS: Right.

LAUER: Boy, you have to look and John McCain is polling pretty strongly. Here's a guy who's been in Washington for decades. He supports the surge. And against a couple of "change" candidates, I guess you could argue that he's doing pretty well.

MATTHEWS: Well, you only get one reputation in life, and he's got a good one. He's a military man who served his country, sacrificed for his country, carries the scars of battle. And also, he's a maverick. People think of him as a maverick. Now, even though he supports the war, people sense that he has -- he has a lot of inner strength. And even though they're against the war, they trust the man's battle courage. He's been in it. He's been fighting for his country --

LAUER: Right.

MATTHEWS: -- all these years. It's going to be a great campaign, I think, between the personalities, the people and the policies. I think the American people are going to have to make up their mind. It's a tough one.

LAUER: Chris Matthews joining us this morning.

CQ: Clinton On Track For Only A Small Delegate Win In Pennsylvania

2008-05-06T12:03:00.001-07:00

Although Hillary Clinton has an edge in Pennsylvania polls, an analysis by CQ shows that the current numbers would not project out to a huge delegate advantage. Of the 103 pledged delegates distributed at the district level -- another 55 will be allocated by statewide popular vote -- Clinton so far has an advantage of only 53 delegates to Obama's 50.

Assuming the statewide delegates closely match with the district votes, Clinton will need to seriously increase her lead at all levels in order to really put any kind of dent in Obama's pledged-delegate advantage.

New McCain Ad: "Big Ideas For Serious Problems"

2008-05-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

John McCain has a new ad up in select markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania, pitching him as a bipartisan conciliator. "As President, John McCain will take the best ideas from both parties to spur innovation, invest in people and create jobs," the announcer says:

The last line seems to be a subtle knock against Barack Obama, whom McCain has accused of being shallow and lacking any real propsals: "Big ideas for serious problems. John McCain."

Poll: Hillary Halts Obama's Progress In Pennsylvania, But Still Only Leads By Six

2008-05-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania.

It finds that while Hillary has halted Obama's progress by stopping the erosion of her support among whites and women, she still clings to a six point lead, 50%-44% -- unchanged from a week ago.

Some key findings:

* The poll found no discernible change in the matchup in polling on April 12-13, the period during which Obama's "small town" comments were heavily reported on by the Pennsylvania media.

* Fully one forth of Hillary supporters in the state would back McCain if Obama became the nominee.

* Hillary made up lots of ground in the Philadelphia suburbs, a key swing area -- she now trails Obama there by two points, down from 11 last week.

* Obama has noticeably increased his share of the male vote.

* Despite Hillary's lead, 55% of Pennsylvania voters think Obama will be the Dem nominee.

* There's been no real change in either candidate's favorability rating.

Full poll here.

Big Third-Party Dem Group Airs First Ad Attacking McCain

2008-05-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a first look at the first ad being run against John McCain by Progressive Media U.S.A., the new pro-Dem third-party group headed by David Brock that's planning to raise $40 million to bloody up the GOP nominee in advance of this fall's election...

The ad, called "Out of Touch," will be running on cable beginning tomorrow and can be seen in D.C. on CNN and MSNBC -- which is to say, it's a small buy aimed at an insider audience of potential future donors, political operatives, and the like.

Rep. Davis (R-KY) Apologizes For Calling Obama "That Boy"

2008-05-06T08:13:00.001-07:00

Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) has publicly apologized to Barack Obama after it was reported that he referred to Obama as "that boy" at a GOP fundraiser.

"My poor choice of words is regrettable and was in no way meant to impugn you or your integrity," Davis wrote in a letter that was delivered to Obama's Senate office. "I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness."

The remarks happened at a local GOP dinner in Davis' district on Saturday night. "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis declared.

The full letter is available after the jump.

Dear Senator Obama:

On Saturday night I gave a speech in which I used a poor choice of words when discussing the national security policy positions of the Presidential candidates. I was quoted as saying "That boy's finger does not need to be on the button."

My poor choice of words is regrettable and was in no way meant to impugn you or your integrity. I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness.

Though we may disagree on many issues, I know that we share the goal of a prosperous, secure future for our nation. My comment has detracted from the dialogue that we should all be having on legitimate policy differences and in no way reflects the personal and professional respect I have for you.

Sincerely
Geoff Davis

Polls: Revote Battle May Have Hurt Obama In Florida, But Not Michigan

2008-05-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

A new pair of polls from Michigan and Florida casts some doubt on the argument over whether the arguments over the states' rogue primaries would make one Democrat more electable than the other in these particular states:

Michigan (EPIC-MRA)
Obama (D) 43%, McCain (R) 41%
McCain (R) 46%, Clinton (D) 37%

Florida (Rasmussen)
McCain (R) 53%, Obama (D) 38%
Clinton (D) 45%, McCain (R) 44%

A failure to hold a revote or honor the January primary doesn't appear to have made Hillary Clinton more electable than Barack Obama in Michigan. On the other hand, it is possible but not conclusive that Obama has been hurt in Florida by the primary fiasco.

New Polling Of Pennsylvania Coming Tomorrow

2008-05-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's due out tomorrow morning from Quinnipiac.

It's possible, even likely, that a fair amount of the polling will have been done during the controversy over Obama's "small town" comments, which broke Friday late afternoon and were covered relentlessly by the Pennsylvania media over the weekend. So there will be keen interest in this poll, to say the least.

The last Q-poll found that Obama had narrowed the gap considerably with Hillary in the state.

Poll: Republicans Way Behind In Even Their Best Senate Pickup Opportunity

2008-05-06T06:16:00.001-07:00

The GOP's single best pickup opportunity in the Senate right now is against Louisiana Dem Mary Landrieu -- but a new poll finds that she holds a solid lead over her Republican challenger, suggesting that this year's Senate map could be very rough indeed for the GOP.

The numbers from Rasmussen: Landrieu 55%, state Treasurer and ex-Dem John Kennedy (R) 39%. If Landrieu prevails this November, then the GOP is likely to be shut out on Senate pickups again, just as they were in 2006.

OK now here is the list of Richest Celebrities

2008-05-06T05:36:00.000-07:00

Kill...
The Celebrity 100
1. Tom Cruise
2. Rolling Stones
3. Oprah Winfrey
4. U2
5. Tiger Woods
6. Steven Spielberg
7. Howard Stern
8. 50 Cent
9. Cast of The Sopranos
10. Dan Brown
11. Bruce Springsteen
12. Donald Trump
13. Muhammad Ali
14. Paul McCartney
15. George Lucas
16. Elton John
17. David Letterman
18. Phil Mickelson
19. J.K. Rowling
20. Brad Pitt
21. Peter Jackson
22. Dr. Phil McGraw
23. Jay Leno
24. Celine Dion
25. Kobe Bryant
26. Michael Jordan
27. Johnny Depp
28. Jerry Seinfeld
29. Simon Cowell
30. Michael Schumacher
31. Tom Hanks
32. Rush Limbaugh
33. Denzel Washington
34. Cast of Desperate Housewives
35. Jennifer Aniston
35. Angelina Jolie
37. The Olsen Twins
38. Nicole Kidman
39. The Eagles
40. Rod Stewart
41. Shaquille O'Neal
42. Jerry Bruckheimer
43. David Beckham
44. Jessica Simpson
45. Andrew Lloyd Webber
46. LeBron James
47. Neil Diamond
48. Alex Rodriguez
49. Will Smith
50. Dick Wolf
51. Dave Matthews Band
52. Tom Brady
53. Ronaldinho
54. Jodie Foster
55. Ray Romano
56. Paris Hilton
57. Adam Sandler
58. Derek Jeter
59. Jennifer Lopez
60. Rick Warren
61. Scarlett Johansson
62. Katie Couric
63. Maria Sharapova
64. Valentino Rossi
65. Halle Berry
66. James Patterson
67. Leonardo DiCaprio
68. Kiefer Sutherland
69. Jim Carrey
70. Cameron Diaz
71. Gisele Bundchen
72. Renee Zellweger
73. Carson Palmer
74. Michelle Wie
75. Reese Witherspoon
76. Bill O'Reilly
77. Kate Moss
78. Diane Sawyer
79. Sean (Diddy) Combs
80. John Grisham
81. Rachael Ray
82. Dave Chappelle
83. Larry the Cable Guy
84. Tyra Banks
85. George Lopez
86. Regis Philbin
87. Serena Williams
88. Ryan Seacrest
89. Wolfgang Puck
90. Venus Williams
91. Annika Sorenstam
92. Matthew Broderick/ Nathan Lane
93. Mel Brooks
94. Emeril Lagasse
95. Nicole Richie
96. Heidi Klum
97. Mario Batali
98. Eric Idle/ Mike Nichols
99. Adriana Lima
100. Ty Pennington

Re: why the double standard?

2008-05-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

Loki...
>>in any case that's an argument for correct usage, not for banning the word. <<

That's why I call this thread a "procedural request".

The sheeple

2008-05-06T05:12:00.001-07:00

Kill...
Can not figure out new ways to help society when they are controlled by those who want to oppress the majority for their own gain.

This world is seriously going down the drain.

I remember a psychopomps song called down the drain. I think it was on some Pro-Death Ravers EP.

We seriously need to think of new ways to fuck the elite, as they keep getting stronger, and the majority keeps getting weaker. People do not even protest anymore.

Capitalism is not bad, no system is really bad, what is bad are the people who run the systems. Even if US had socialism, the elite will still find ways to fuck over the majority.

As Machiavelli put it you have two groups of people:
1) Who wants to oppress the people
2) The people who do not want to be oppressed.

In any system you will notice that leaders will either help the people, or the elite. That in my opinion is where the problem lies.

Re: I remember when a cop beat the shit out of this woman in Chicago

2008-05-06T01:34:00.001-07:00

Dust...
Wrong continent Killer, but I am amazed that those people just stood there and watched

I remember when a cop beat the shit out of this woman in Chicago

2008-05-05T23:40:00.001-07:00

Kill...
and it was cought on tape:
www.youtube.com/watch

and yes you are right it is not newsworthy, as it happens all the time. Then again it is newsworthy in that aspect:
www.youtube.com/watch

Re: israelis have historically denied the very existence of palestinians and palestine

2008-05-05T20:49:00.001-07:00

Loki...
....???

>>"The first widespread use of "Palestinian" to refer to the nationalist concept of a Palestinian people by the Arabs of Palestine began prior to the outbreak of World War I but until the establishment of Israel in 1948 the term Palestinian was used by Jews and foreigners to describe the inhabitants of Palestine – including its Jewish residents and had only begun to be used exclusively for Arabs at the turn of the 20th century, and the first demand for national independence was issued by the Syrian-Palestinian Congress on 21 September 1921. After the exodus of 1948, and even more so after the exodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin, but the sense of a shared past and future in the form of a Palestinian nation-state."<<

How does the site in any way speak to the YES very hate-fueled and utterly irrelevant attempts to justify oppression of a peole based on the idea that they.... what? shouldn't be called "Palestinian"?

I am thoroughly confused.

It's really simple: don't be bigoted. Recognize that there are good&bad people of every stripe and that acculturation affects behavior and you're all good.

If you keep saying "Therrain't no such thang as no palestinians" I'll just keep saying "these are the belches of a racist asshole; go kill yourself and do make haste".

Deal with that shit directly or amend your stupid views. I don't see how it could be any simpler. "There aren't any Palestinians" is not an answer to anything. The identity is not in dispute, is it?

Re: Assasination of Sen. Paul Wellstone

2008-05-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Dust...
"I know you're a lazy guy, and I'm not getting paid by you, so tough luck if you need me to hold your hand. How about you watch the video so I don't have to play tutor again?"\

I am watching the video, and it seems like the guy doesn't have any real evidence. I mean, at one point he justifies his theory due to the amounts knobs and buttons found in the cockpit. I was hoping that possibly I missed something, due to my natural bias against CS, and that if you listed what you thought was probable, that it would further the level of discussion And that we could move beyond the empty bleating on both sides

Re: I admit it, I don't like Republicans

2008-05-05T15:33:00.001-07:00

Loki...
>> Inna only ignores the ridiculous shit that people report all the time.<<

I wish! I get the nah-nanny-boo-boo-smackdown from our poor mod WAY too often. You'd be surprised how delicate and afraid of some of these people are.

Personally, I think those of you that send requests to her to "deal" with some insult that gets your goat should go into a closet and beat yourselves. That's just me, obviously, but ... exactly what are you hoping to accomplish? "Cleaning it up"? That sort of thing starts at home. If the criers weren't such a passel of ridiculous bleating assholes and idiots, they wouldn't be getting insulted so often. Nature is cruel but unrelentingly just.

I'm with you Loki

2008-05-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Kill...
The system is completelyv fucked with a bunch of fake poltitians. As Immortal Technique put it:

This shit is run by fake Christians, fake politicians
Look at they mansions, then look at the conditions you live in

or rather let me post a bit more:
www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/...rics.htm

I pledge no allegiance, nigga fuck the president's speeches
I'm baptized by America and covered in leeches
The dirty water that bleaches your soul and your facial features
Drownin' you in propaganda that they spit through the speakers
And if you speak about the evil that the government does
The Patriot Act'll track you to the type of your blood
They try to frame you, and say you was tryna sell drugs
And throw a federal indictment on niggaz to show you love
This shit is run by fake Christians, fake politicians
Look at they mansions, then look at the conditions you live in

damn I love that song.......what's the name of it again?

someone should post the whole lyrics

anyways.....Fuck the fake polititians, we should be talking about ways to revolt. We should boycott with our money, and boycott all these fucked up firms that have been getting payback at our expense.

Not to mention the whole orchestration of Perl Harbor II.

The purpose of terrorism is to inglict fear. You have to be pretty fucking scared to go to war (or pretty stupid), so who has won the war if we spent close to a trillion bucks fighting an enemy that could be fought by changing our fucked up policies.

Oh yeah, and some dumb bitch and a bunch of other fake ass polititians voted for the war. To my knowledge, a Republican who did not vote for the war recently lost in the last elections.

Delta and Northwest merge to form biggest airline

2008-05-05T08:34:00.001-07:00

Stic...
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7347731.stm

Nuggets' Anthony nabbed on DUI suspicion

2008-05-05T08:11:00.001-07:00

Kill...

By ARNIE STAPLETON, AP Sports Writer Mon Apr 14, 6:03 PM ET

DENVER - NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony was arrested early Monday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, hours after his worst game of the season. The Denver Nuggets forward was arrested on Interstate 25, police said. He was alone in the car and pulled over for weaving and not dimming his lights.
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Detective Sharon Hahn said Anthony failed a series of sobriety tests. He was charged with DUI, then taken to police headquarters before being released to a "sober responsible party," Hahn said. Anthony is due in court May 14.

Mark Warkentien, the Nuggets' vice president of basketball operations, said the team was aware of the situation but declined comment. The Nuggets did not practice Monday and Anthony wasn't available. He's expected at practice Tuesday.

Anthony's attorney, Dan Recht, said his client consented to a blood test, but results won't be available for about two weeks.

"Carmelo apologizes to his fans, the Denver community, his teammates and the Nuggets organization for the distraction this is causing them," Recht said.

The Nuggets (49-32) moved a half game ahead of Golden State for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference on Sunday night when they beat Houston 111-94. Denver can clinch a fifth straight postseason berth by beating Memphis at home Wednesday night or if the Warriors lose at Phoenix on Monday night or against Seattle on Wednesday night.

Anthony was held to 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting against a Rockets team that was missing defensive specialist Shane Battier. Anthony did extend his NBA-best streak of double-digit games to 206.

On Saturday, he committed a flagrant foul against Utah's Deron Williams that changed the course of a close game. The Jazz went on to win 124-97.

Anthony was named an All-Star starter for the first time this year. He's fourth in the NBA in scoring (25.8) and is averaging a career-best 7.4 rebounds.

Last season, he was involved in a brawl at Madison Square Garden. After J.R. Smith was collared on his way to a breakaway basket in the closing minutes of a rout, Anthony, then the league's leading scorer, dropped the New York Knicks' Mardy Collins with a punch that drew a 15-game suspension.

In February, Anthony was ticketed in Colorado for driving 25 mph over the posted speed limit. A hearing is set for next month.

___

Associated Press Writer Dan Elliott contributed to this report.

Re:bitter

2008-05-05T07:09:00.001-07:00

Dust...
Don't fool yourself in thinking that you own some stock in moral superiority,as an Obama supporter

Hands Free 3D enables your movements to control Second Life avatar

2008-05-05T06:15:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Gaming

Using 3D cameras in order to let humans control interfaces by simply moving about is old hat, but for those sick and tired of being strapped to a mouse / keyboard in Second Life, take a glance at this. Hands Free 3D is a prototypical system that gives ~~addicts~~ members of the virtual realm the ability to walk, jump, fly and interact by simply gesturing in front of a PC-connected camera designed by 3DV Systems. Currently, it doesn't seem like this solution is on the fast track to release or anything, but we have a sneaking suspicion they aren't demoing this stuff for kicks and giggles. Peek the video right after the break.

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Apple and Sony settle with Japanese battery burn victims

2008-05-05T06:08:00.001-07:00

Filed under: Laptops

Remember that Japanese couple who sued Apple and Sony over one of those famous burning batteries? Well it looks like the companies have decided to settle, and will pay the fire-damaged pair a total of ¥1.3 million (or around $13,000). Of course, this is a bit less than the absurdly low $16,700 the two were asking, but percentage-wise they didn't make out too badly. During the trial, Apple Japan apparently accepted responsibility for the incident but couldn't justify settling out of court due to a request for "excessive compensation," while Sony maintained its distance by suggesting a link between the battery and burns wasn't clear. We're sure the guy who made the trip to the hospital thinks otherwise.

[Thanks, Jackie]

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