Undernews For 27 August 2010

UNDERNEWS
Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
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WALL STREET WRECKAGE: FIRE STATIONS

New York Times - Fire departments around the nation are cutting jobs, closing firehouses and increasingly resorting to "rolling brownouts" in which they shut different fire companies on different days as the economic downturn forces many cities and towns to make deep cuts that are slowing their responses to fires and other emergencies. Philadelphia began rolling brownouts this month, joining cities from Baltimore to Sacramento that now shut some units every day. San Jose, Calif., laid off 49 firefighters last month. And Lawrence, Mass., north of Boston, has laid off firefighters and shut down half of its six firehouses, forcing the city to rely on help from neighboring departments each time a fire goes to a second alarm. Fire chiefs and union officials alike say it is the first time they have seen such deep cuts in so many parts of the country.

LOS ANGELES JAIL TO USE PAIN RAY TORTURE ON PRISONERS

ACLU - Los Angeles County Jail has just installed an Assault Intervention Device ¬ an invisible microwave-beam weapon originally developed by the military ¬ as a way to subdue inmates by focusing a microwave beam on them to make them feel "intolerable heat."

Sheriff Lee Baca unveiled this giant robot-like device at a news conference last week, noting the "The Assault Intervention Device appears uniquely suited to address some of the more difficult inmate violence issues," since it will "allow us to quickly intervene without having to enter the area and without incapacitating or injuring either combatant."

The claim that the 7 ½-foot tall high-power microwave device ¬ dubbed the "Pain Ray" by the media ¬ will cause no injury is highly dubious, to say the least: There is good evidence from the United States military that it is capable of inflicting not only intolerable pain, but death.

In September 2006, the Secretary of the Air Force said the ADS should be used for crowd control in the U.S. to prove its harmlessness before deployment on the battlefield, or he would be "vilified" in the world press. While the device was being tested by the Air Force, however, a miscalibration of its power settings caused five airmen in its path to suffer lasting burns, including one whose injuries were so severe that he was airlifted to an off-base burn treatment center.

A 2008 report by noted physicist and less-lethal weapons expert Joergan Altmann explained that the ADS device's microwave beam heats the skin without lasting harm only if the beam is switched off immediately once a temperature of 122 F. is reached ¬ and then only if the beam is not retriggered.

The notion that a military weapon intended to cause intolerable pain ¬ and so capable of causing lethal injury when used for crowd control ¬ should now be used against county jail inmates is staggeringly wrongheaded. It is all the more disturbing that the use of the Pain Ray is being entrusted to the deputies of L.A. County Jail, where the long-troubled history of deputy violence, retaliation and abuse against inmates, as well as a subculture of falsification of official records, has been documented by the ACLU.

DEPARTMENT OF GOOD STUFF

BOOKS

Hijacked: The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform

Wolf: The Lives of Jack London: "In his 40 years of life, he was a "bastard" child of a slum-dwelling suicidal spiritualist, a child laborer, a pirate, a tramp, a revolutionary Socialist, a racist pining for genocide, a gold-digger, a war correspondent, a millionaire, a suicidal depressive, and for a time the most popular writer in America."

James Baldwin: The Cross of Redemption: "As an openly gay, African-American writer living through the battle for civil rights, Baldwin had reason to be afraid ¬ and yet, he wasn't. A television interviewer once asked Baldwin to describe the challenges he faced starting his career as a black, impoverished homosexual to which Baldwin laughed and replied: 'I thought I'd hit the jackpot.'"

Not Written in Stone: Learning and Unlearning. American History Through 200 Years of Textbooks

Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times New updated edition by Paul Rogart Loeb

VIDEOS
White House oil spill commission witness underlines his point with guitar and a song

Best local political interview of the month

Kristen Schaal's debut on David Letterman

FILMS

Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans

The Tillman Story: Tillman, as he is being fired on by fellow American soldiers, says "I'm Pat fuckiing Tillman."

Plunder: The Crime of Our Time: The criminal side of the financial crisis

Countdown to Zero. . . .Another review

STUPID VANITY FAIR EDITOR TRICKS

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter writes, "Washington, in the years before World War II, was little more than a segregated, southern hog town." For someone who thinks he's in charge of sophistication for America, that's a pretty childish statement. True, Washington was segregated, but the Harlem renaissance, for example, actually started in Washington, and the New Deal made the capital one of the most positively creative and productive places in American history. The "sleepy southern town" myth is matched by the common claim that Washington was a swamp. It had marshland but no swamps.

BLOCKBUSTED

LA Times - After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter.

WOMAN CONVICTED FOR PHOTOGRAPHING ARREST FROM HER PORCH

Salisbury Post - The resisting-arrest conviction last week of Felicia Gibson has left a lot of people wondering. Can a person be charged with resisting arrest while observing a traffic stop from his or her own front porch? Salisbury Police Officer Mark Hunter thought so, and last week District Court Judge Beth Dixon agreed. Because Gibson did not at first comply when the officer told her and others to go inside, the judge found Gibson guilty of resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer. Gibson was not the only bystander watching the action on the street. She was the only one holding up a cell-phone video camera. But court testimony never indicated that Hunter told her to stop the camera; he just told her to go inside.

FACEBOOK GETTING OUT OF CONTROL

There are increasing problems with Facebook.

- It has censored pages dealing with marijuana legalization

- It is taking legal action against another site with "-book" in its name.No word on whether they will sue dictionaries with the word "notebook" in it.

- And this from the Electronic Privacy Information Center: "The recently announced Facebook service Places makes user location data routinely available to others, including Facebook business partners, regardless of whether users wish to disclose their location. There is no single opt-out to avoid location tracking; users must change several different privacy settings to restore their privacy status quo.

"For users who do not want location information revealed to others, EPIC recommends that Facebook users: (1) disable "Friends can check me in to Places," (2) customize "Places I Check In," (3) disable "People Here Now," and (4) uncheck "Places I've Visited." EPIC, joined by many consumer and privacy organizations, has two complaints pending at the Federal Trade Commission concerning Facebook's unfair and deceptive trade practices, which are frequently associated with new product announcements. For more information, see EPIC In Re Facebook, EPIC In Re Facebook II, and EPIC Facebook Privacy.

Time - TechCrunch reports that Facebook is trying to trademark the word "Face." This means that companies with names starting with "Face" could be in trouble. Even a former classmate of founder Mark Zuckerberg, Aaron Eisenberg, runs a mobile-payments app called FaceCash, and Apple owns the FaceTime video-chatting option on the iPhone.
Next on Facebook's list of nouns to acquire? "Like." Watch out, one-syllable words. You could be in danger, too.

ENTROPY UPDATE

Radar - The night that Glee star Naya Rivera spent trashing her ex’s car was a wild time for the actress and her friend, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned. Earlier this summer, Naya and a friend went shopping for “ammunition” to launch on her co-star Mark Salling’s car, and RadarOnline.com has more exclusive details about the night.

“She looked like she was having a party, cheering wildly each time she and her friend threw something on the car,” a source said about the girls vandalizing the car shortly after midnight.
. .RadarOnline.com has also learned exclusively that the girls threw bird seed on the luxury vehicle, along with eggs and dog food.

WORDS

The NY Times is apparently trying to restore the status of ex-FEMA boss Michael Brown. A headline in the paper reads: "Maligned FEMA Chief Visits New Orleans"

As the Free Dictionary points out, the definition of "maligned" is:

To make evil, harmful, and often untrue statements about; speak evil of.
adj.

1. Evil in disposition, nature, or intent.
2. Evil in influence; injurious.
3. Having or showing malice or ill will; malevolent.

And we thought Brownie was the problem, not his critics.

Ben Zimmer, NY Times - "Jersey" as a nickname for New Jersey is an oddity: there's no corresponding clipping of "New York" to "York," "New Hampshire" to "Hampshire," and certainly not "New Mexico" to "Mexico." Some have complained that the use of "Jersey" is "demeaning" to the state.. . .I asked Maxine N. Lurie, professor of history at Seton Hall University and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of New Jersey, about the usage, and she traced its origins to the end of the 17th century, when there were actually two "Jerseys": the provinces of East and West Jersey, dividing the territory of New Jersey along a diagonal.

Because of this split, it was common to talk of "the Jerseys," even after the provinces were united in 1702. Lurie suspects it was "easier to refer to the 'Jerseys' and people from 'Jersey' than to say 'East New Jersey' and 'West New Jersey.'" The historical record bears this out: 18th-century documents are peppered with mentions of "the Jerseys," and colonial accounts from 1735 and 1746 refer simply to "the province of Jersey."

Alan Suderman (aka Loose Lips) of DC's City Paper has come up with a useful new word in writing about DC city councilman Jim Graham: "As it happens, Graham also called LL and LL's boss to pre-complain before the first word of this story you're reading now was written. What concerned Graham, he says, were reports that some 'bitter' former staff members were speaking ill of him. Which is probably a valid concern, given that some of his former staffers are now working for his opponents."

Alan Simpson is a jerk and what he said about Social Security was stupid. But his use of the word "tits" was fine albeit technically it's spelled "teats." His statement specifically referred to cows: "We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits!" That is what those things under a cow are called despite what offended urban liberals may prefer.

FIVE PERCENT OF WOMEN PRISONERS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

Bureau of Justice Statistics - An estimated 88,500 inmates¬64,500 in prison and 24,000 in jails¬reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff during 2008-09, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.

Nationwide, 2 percent of all prison inmates and 1.5 percent of all jail inmates reported at least one incident involving another inmate; 3 percent of prison inmates and 2 percent of jail inmates reported having had sex or sexual contact with facility staff.

Female prisoners (5 percent) were more than twice as likely as male prisoners (2 percent) to report experiencing sexual victimization by another prisoner. Jail inmates reported a similar pattern of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization (3 percent for females compared to 1 percent for males).

TWITTER SITE OF THE DAY

Fifty Cent:

I'm not gonna cut my hair till I finish my album. I'm working on it now I'm writing

Twitpic just suspended my account damn They got 30mns to get it back or ima go haywire

Ok the truth I'm on 5av by the bvlgari store.

I'm on the low In my hood driving through the back streets with my strap trying to see what's hood?
Yo I had 5'000 dollars this morning I got 2,300 dollars now and i did even by shitWhat the fuck is going on about

Oh man met this homer simpson looking bitch the other day But I aint fuck her tho

I really don't like when people call me crazy I'm not crazy I'm special and I don't wish bad on anyone. Learn to love me about 5 hours ago

You know one day I might wanna run for president like wyclef I must stop using such profanity. Then again fuck that

ANTI-MUSLIM CRIMES LEAP

Daily Beast - Mosques are being vandalized across the country, with the latest incidents at mosques in Queens and Fresno, California on Wednesday. In Fresno, Imam Abdullah Salem discovered a pair of signs at the Madera Islamic Center, one of which read, “Wake up America, the enemy is here”; a week earlier, a brick was thrown at a window at the center. Meanwhile in Queens, a man barged into the Iman Mosque in Astoria, shouted anti-Muslim slurs at the worshippers, and peed on prayer rugs

HUGE INCREASE IN CALIFORNIA HEALTH INSURANCE

LA Times - California insurance regulators cleared the way Wednesday for Anthem Blue Cross to implement scaled-back rate hikes after a previous increase was canceled amid an uproar over its size. Anthem said it intends to put the new rates ¬ averaging 14% and as high as 20% ¬ into effect Oct. 1 for nearly 800,000 individual California policyholders. Regulators also allowed one of Anthem's nonprofit competitors, Blue Shield of California, to move ahead with rate increases ¬ averaging 19% and as high as 29% ¬ for 250,000 individual policyholders.

ATTORNEYS GENERAL TRY BACKDOOR CENSORSHIP OF CRAIGSLIST

Seventeen state attorneys general have signed a letter urging Craigslist to remove its adult services section, claiming it encourages prostitution and child trafficking. This is also true of telephones, mail service and the rest of the Internet, but the AGs have not yet moved on these other nefarious systems.

WHAT'S BEHIND THE ASSAULT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION?

Sam Smith

More and more the Bush-Obama public education deform is looking like a covert effort to make major cities more appealing predominantly to white parents and to ease poorer blacks and latinos out to the suburbs, which for reasons of lack of public transportation, ecological concerns, and weak construction, could easily become the slums of the future as they are elsewhere around the world.

When whites fled cities like Washington, DC, they left behind convenience, excellent public facilities ranging from parks to museums, easy transportation and a better built housing stock. Over past decades, I have periodically wondered when they would figure this out. Now, it looks like they have.

WHY KIDS BULLY

Live Science - A new study sought answers in a way no other study has, by asking bullies why they do it. Bullies with the most hostility reported picking on kids because those kids were not good at sports. The most frequent bullying involved picking on students they perceived to be gay or lesbian, a result that agrees with another recent study on bullying.

The research seems to indicate bullying is about "social attitudes manifesting themselves in a very basic way within the school environment," said study researcher Ian Rivers of Brunel University in the United Kingdom. "So if the school really upholds sports, kids who are not good at sport are going to be victimized because they are not living up to the expectations of others."

Although the research was conducted in the U.K., the results likely apply to children in the United States as well, since issues of sporting and sexual orientation are common to both countries, Rivers said. . .Bullies tended to hold a negative view of themselves, suggesting they pick on others to feel better about themselves, and they may especially single out those who have trouble fitting in for other reasons.

STUPID AUTHOR TRICKS

Washington City Paper - D.C. area author John Ferrer is advertising on Craigslist that he will pay you (or someone else if you’re busy) $50 and give you an autographed copy of his book, The Immortal Ones, if you write a review of it for Amazon or Barnes and Noble, as well as his blog.

Here's a hint of why this may be necessary: an except from Ferrer's own promo: "One night, Derek goes out to a nightclub and meets Nina, a beautiful female who he soon finds out is a vampire. For a human, meeting a vampire means death. In this case, Nina likes Derek and ends up protecting him from her 'host', a villainous elder vampire named Belmont. Derek also learns that Nina has sought to be free from Belmont's control for almost a century."

MICROBES HELPED CLEAN UP GULF OIL

ENN - One study shows that most of the oil is gone, while another shows that there is still a whole lot of it in a mid-depth plume not visible from the surface. The answer might have been found in research announced by Lawrence Berkeley Lab of the US Department of Energy
They found the plume alright, but they also found that microbial activity, spearheaded by a new and unclassified species, degrades oil much faster than anticipated. This degradation appears to take place without a significant level of oxygen depletion.

Note: Two months ago, the Review reported the potential for bioremediation with links to articles on the subject

NJ RESIDENTS DON'T LIKE 'JERSEY SHORE'

People - In a new Quinnipiac University poll of Garden State residents, 51 percent said they had an unfavorable view of the show, while just 11 percent had a favorable view. The rest were undecided. Furthermore, a full one-third of those surveyed agreed with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie‘s recent complaint that the hard-partying stars of the show act out because they’re actually New Yorkers. . .Some 54 percent of respondents in the poll said it’s bad for their state, while only 20 percent thought it was good.

PLASTIC BAG USE PLUMMETS IN UK

Guardian, UK - Use of carrier bags down 43% in four years, says Waste & Resources Action Programme, but recent figures show fresh rise. Customers at the UK's leading supermarkets used 43% fewer carrier bags in 2009-10 than they did in 2006, when figures were first recorded, with 6.1bn single-use bags used in 2009-10 against 10.7bn four years earlier. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme, the amount of material used to make carrier bags has reduced by 39,700 tonnes per year in the past four years, but figures for May 2010 alone indicate that we may be seeing a return to greater usage.

MICHELLE BACHMAN'S BUDDY IN TROUBLE

Phoenix Woman, Seminal - One of the prime movers in Michele Bachmann’s political rise has been a prosperity-gospel-preaching megachurch pastor named Mac Hammond, the head honcho of the Living Word Christian Center. Hammond is notorious for not having only served as Bachmann’s de facto precinct captain with his parishioners, but also for letting her address his congregation from the pulpit ¬ behavior that eventually caused even the Bush-era IRS to raise its eyebrows, triggering a probe which led to an investigation of other questionable practices of the LWCC.

Now the Living Word Christian Center is no more ¬ the prosperity gospel didn’t seem to work in its case ¬ and its church property has gone into foreclosure. As the Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey notes, other prosperity gospel churches around the nation are facing financial difficulties.

But, as Spotty over at the Cucking Stool points out, there’s something else that’s interesting about the LWCC’s financial dealings. From the Minnesota Independent story:

In May, the church was served with papers demanding the return of $2.2 million in money it received from Gerard Cellette, who had been convicted of fraud. Cellette ran a Ponzi scheme and lawyers for the victims were attempting to collect the money from Living Word for remuneration.

The church said in a statement in May that it felt it shouldn’t have to give the money back to the victims because of its status as a church. “This lawsuit, on behalf of Mr. Cellette’s investors, to take back the funds from LWCC and repay the investors is unfair. Our church is essentially being asked to be the guarantor to principally out-of-state, sophisticated investors that made bad investments with Mr. Cellette.”

COURT GIVES GOVERNMENT RIGHT TO TRACK YOUR MOVES

Time - Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements. That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant.

It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

BREVITAS

World Socialist - An article August 18 in the Kansas City Star reported that while the Obama administration has successfully blocked suits over torture within the US, a number of significant cases have developed outside the US addressing the role of top US officials in organizing torture. “This is the remarkable thing: Other countries are reckoning with the legacy of the Bush administration’s torture program, and meanwhile the United States is not,” Jameel Jaffer, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security program, told the newspaper. The Obama administration has either refused to cooperate with or actively hindered these investigations. “The Obama administration, rather than investigate the abuses of the last eight years, has increasingly become an obstacle to accountability,” Jaffer said.

California gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman are planning a “green debate” on October 12 – without the Green candidate for governor, Laura Wells.

WHITE HOUSE OIL SPILL WITNESS BACKS UP TESTIMONY WITH GUITAR AND SONG

BRITISH VERSION OF 'AMERICAN IDOL' RETUNES ITS SINGERS

TEN CANDIDATES FILE SUIT OVER MEMPHIS VOTE COUNT

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