Undernews For February 26, 2009

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
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Editor: Sam Smith

26 February 2009
WORD

A corporation is an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce

All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage . . . which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by 'our' side . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. - George Orwell

PAGE ONE MUST

A WORLD ON EDGE

From the Wayne Madsen Report

Riots break out in Martinique.Violence spreads from Guadeloupe to Fort-de-France, Martinique's capital.

Greek civil servants go on one-day strike. Air traffic controllers and hospital workers walk off jobs demanding better pensions and salaries.

Kosovo health workers on general strike throughout country. Workers demand wage increases.

Peru doctors strike over pay and benefits. Strike to last 48 hours.

Dublin transit workers plan one-day strike. Workers protesting job cuts.

British postal workers threaten strike. "Comrades" urged to stand firm over privatization plans. Now, that is language that is refreshing for a change.

Bangladesh Rifles border guards open fire on their headquarters and seize shopping mall. Demand more pay and better facilities.

IOWA NATIONAL GUARD TRIES TO TRAIN CITIZENS FOR A POST-CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA

William Petroski, Des Moines Register - he Iowa Army National Guard has dropped plans for urban warfare training in the western Iowa town of Arcadia after being deluged by nearly 100 e-mails and phone calls from gun-rights advocates nationwide.

The four-day event in April would have involved between 90 and 100 combat troops arriving in the Carroll County community in a convoy with a Blackhawk military helicopter flying overhead.

Troops would have gone door to door, asking the town's 443 residents about a suspected arms dealer and conducting searches of homes if property owners volunteered in advance to cooperate.

There was no opposition to the Guard's plans from city leaders. But gun-rights advocates were outraged, and news about the exercise became a hot topic nationally on radio talk shows and the Internet. . .

Company A is an infantry unit that served in Afghanistan for 13 months in 2004 and 2005, and it is expected to receive orders to return overseas within the next 24 months, Hapgood said.

One tactic used by infantry units is known as cordon and search. It involves creating layers of security in an area and then searching for weapons caches, explosive devices and bomb-making materials, and people of interest.

IF YOU THOUGHT BOBBY JINDAL SEEMED STRANGE, YOU'RE RIGHT

Max Blumnethal, Daily Beast - As the country gets acquainted with the Bayou's boy wonder, the stranger details of Jindal's religious or personal background remain largely unknown, even among the Republican grassroots. How many Americans know that Jindal boasted of participating in an exorcism that purged the spirit of Satan from a college girlfriend? So far, Jindal's tale of "beating a demon" remains behind the subscription wall of New Oxford Review, an obscure Catholic magazine; only a few major blogs have seized on the story.

Born in Baton Rouge in 1971, Jindal rarely visited his parents' homeland. His birth name was Piyush Jindal. When he was four years old, Piyush changed his name to "Bobby" after becoming mesmerized by an episode of The Brady Bunch. Jindal later wrote that he began considering converting to Catholicism during high school after "being touched by the love and simplicity of a Christian girl who dreamt of becoming a Supreme Court justice so she could stop her country from 'killing unborn babies.'" After watching a short black-and-white film on the crucifixion of Christ, Jindal claimed he "realized that if the Gospel stories were true, if Christ really was the son of God, it was arrogant of me to reject Him and question the gift of salvation.". .

During his years at Brown University, Jindal pursued his Catholic faith with unbridled zeal. Jindal became emotionally involved with a classmate named Susan who had overcome skin cancer and struggled to cope with the suicide of a close friend. Jindal reflected in an article for a Catholic magazine (called "Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare") that "sulfuric" scents hovered over Susan everywhere she went. In the middle of a prayer meeting, Jindal claimed that Susan collapsed and began convulsing on the floor. His prayer partners gathered together on the floor, holding hands and shouting, "Satan, I command you to leave this woman!"

While under the supposed control of satanic demons, Susan lashed out at Jindal and his friends. "Whenever I concentrated long enough to begin prayer, I felt some type of physical force distracting me," Jindal reflected. "It was as if something was pushing down on my chest, making it very hard for me to breathe… I began to think that the demon would only attack me if I tried to pray or fight back; thus, I resigned myself to leaving it alone in an attempt to find peace for myself."

REPORT FINDS CONTINUED ABUSE AT GITMO

William Fisher, Anti War - A leading human rights organization charges that, contrary to recent U.S. government reports that found prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, being treated humanely, they are in fact "deteriorating at a rapid rate" due to "harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines."

The Center for Constitutional Rights released a report on the current conditions in Camps 5, 6, and Echo following a press conference convened late last week by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations. In his own report on conditions at Guantanamo, delivered to the White House, Walsh determined that conditions at the base meet the standards of the Geneva Conventions.

CCR's report disputes that conclusion. . . CCR Staff Attorney Pardiss Kebriaei said the Gitmo detainees "are caught in a vicious cycle where their isolation causes psychological damage, which causes them to act out, which brings more abuse and keeps them in isolation. If they are going to be there another year, or even another day, this has to end."

"Detainees at Guantanamo have continued to suffer from solitary confinement, psychological abuse, abusive force-feeding of hunger strikers, religious abuse, and physical abuse and threats of violence from guards and Immediate Reaction Force teams," the report charged.

It claimed the majority of the men being detained "are in isolation. They go weeks without seeing the sun. Fluorescent lights, however, remain on 24 hours a day in Camp 5." . . .

The CCR report takes issue with two recent U.S. government pronouncements. On Feb. 13, Colonel Bruce Vargo, commander of the Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, stated that "There are no solitary confinement detention areas" at Gitmo, and "Detainees typically are able to communicate with other detainees either face-to-face or by spoken word from their cells throughout the day."

CCR attorneys say this means that the men can yell through the metal food slot in the solid steel doors of their cells when it is left open and through the crack between the door and the floor. . . . . .

The CCR report said hunger strikes continue among a large number of men at Guantanamo. "Hunger strikers are brutally force-fed using a restraint chair and often unsanitary feeding tubes, and are beaten for refusing food, a practice that continued within the last month and a half." Force-feeding hunger strikers is considered by the World Medical Association to be a violation of medical ethics and has continued unabated since President Barack Obama's executive order to close the prison. . .

THE DEMOCRATS' LOUSY HEALTHCARE BILL & WHY SINGLE PAYER IS BETTER

Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan - Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, will not allow consideration of single payer as an option for reform, and Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is, by all indications, poised to promote the flawed Massachusetts health plan at the national level after months of secret meetings with insurance, business, and pharmaceutical company lobbyists.

While President Obama has acknowledged that single payer is the best option for reform, and while he opposed a mandate requiring all individuals to purchase private insurance during his campaign, it would appear he is poised to embrace the piecemeal, incremental approach that keeps the private insurance industry in place.

John Geyman, MD, Tikkun - The inefficiency and bureaucracy of our 1,300 private insurers are not sustainable. According to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, there are 17,000 different hea1th plans in Chicago.

Private insurers offer much less choice than traditional Medicare; there are near-monopolies in 95 percent of HMO/PPO metropolitan markets, enough to trigger anti-trust concerns by the United States Department of Justice.

Because of costs, about 75 million Americans are either uninsured of underinsured, with large segments of the population forgoing necessary care and having worse health care outcomes; the United States now ranks nineteenth among nineteen industrialized countries in reducing preventable deaths from amenable causes. . .

What is neglected by almost all economists, "experts" and pundits is that there is already plenty of money in the system, that we waste about one-third of our health care dollar on our inefficient multi-payer financing system and on unnecessary care, and that NHI will save money, not cost more. NHI is the most fiscally responsible thing we can do now about health care.

The Conyers bill in the House (H.R. 676) will be financed by payroll and progressive income taxes that will be less than what individuals and employers now pay. The health insurance industry is being propped up by government subsidies to the employer-based system and to privatized public programs. NHI can save some $350 billion through administrative simplification, while offering coverage for all necessary care, full choice of provider and hospital, and mechanisms for cost containment through bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, and global budgets.

NHI by itself will not solve all of our health care problems, but it will provide a structure (as no incremental approach can) to enable other necessary steps. These include acceptance of health care as a right, transition to a not-for-profit system, reimbursement reform, rebuilding of primary care, evidence-based technology assessment, and quality improvement. None of this will be possible by using reforms that leave an obsolete private insurance industry in place. . .

FDR almost went for NHI in the mid-1930s, but he backed off, mainly due to the AMA's opposition. Today, the AMA is marginalized with a membership of no more than 30 percent of physicians, and a majority of American physicians now support NHI. . . It has become an economic, moral, and social imperative.

Laura S. Boylan, MD, letter to New Yorker - In "Getting there from here" (Jan. 26), Atul Gawande suggests that the Massachusetts 2006 mandate plan is a model for national health care reform. He sees his stance as pragmatic, politically feasible, rooted in the particular history of American health care and gifted with the commonsense wisdom that we must start from where we are. Advocates of national health insurance (single payer) are characterized as ideologically driven extremists with "contempt" for pragmatists. I respectfully disagree.

Most Americans, including most physicians, supported national health insurance even before the recent economic collapse, polls show. Endorsers of the single payer bill H.R. 676 include 93 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, 450 union organizations in 45 states, and countless others representing a wide range of constituencies. This is not a fringe movement.

High costs are the root cause of Americans' health insecurity. Gawande's analysis is flawed by use of a framework centered on insurance coverage rather than the more fundamental issue of health care value. Gawande sees employer-based coverage as the "path-defining" element of our current system because most people are covered by it. Well, it's all in how you look at it. We need to keep our eyes on the prize, the health care dollar, and follow the money. Government already dominates: tax dollars fund most health care expenditures in the U.S. This is because government covers the sickest and poorest people, tax-favors employer-based private insurance, and covers its own employees. To use Gawande's metaphor, the lifeboat is already bigger than the "main boat" of American health care. This is where we start.

Gawande asserts that Massachusetts "recently became the first state to adopt a system of universal health coverage for its residents." . . A nearly identical assertion was made twenty years ago by then Gov. Dukakis about Massachusetts' 1988 reforms. More breathless proclamations heralded reforms in Oregon (1988), Minnesota (1992), Tennessee (1992), Vermont (1992), Washington (1993) and Maine (2003). These plans all had common themes: public spending initiatives, new regulations and mandates, and continued dominance of private insurance in covering low risk populations. None achieved universal coverage. The common denominator of the ultimate failure of all these plans was the absence of effective cost control. Two weeks ago Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts warned that rising costs, "threaten to crush families and businesses and doom Massachusetts groundbreaking experiment with universal insurance.". .

The repetition of failed experiments is not pragmatic, it is part tragedy and part farce. Electronic medical records, chronic disease management and more emphasis on prevention are all important for many reasons but we must admit that short and long-term cost implications are unknown. Some of these measures may actually increase costs. Medicare is not perfect, but it is demonstrably more cost effective than private insurance and beloved by most Americans. It is shovel ready. Single-payer supporters say: everybody in, nobody out.

Dr. Oliver Fein, Atlanta Journal-Constitution - However well-intentioned, the Obama/Baucus/Kennedy approaches share a fatal flaw: they preserve a central role for the private health insurance industry.

To varying degrees, they would mandate that everyone buy private health insurance - the private insurance that is failing us today. Some of these plans offer a Medicare-like, public option that people could buy into, but experience with Medicare shows that the private plans refuse to compete on a level playing field. They cherry-pick healthier patients and insist on more than their share of payment. . .

As long as we rely on private health insurers, universal coverage will be unaffordable. These companies generate immense overhead costs and force doctors and hospitals to spend heavily on billing and paperwork.

Administration consumes about one-third of every health care dollar in the U.S. By contrast, in countries with nonprofit national health insurance, administrative costs consume only half that amount. . .

Eliminating the private insurance industry would save $400 billion annually in administrative costs, enough to ensure that everyone is covered and to eliminate all co-pays and deductibles.

At this critical juncture, a single-payer plan is the only medically, morally and fiscally responsible path to take.

We already have an example of an American single-payer system that works - traditional Medicare. It's not perfect, but people with Medicare are far happier than those with private insurance. Doctors face fewer hassles in getting paid, and Medicare has been a leader in keeping costs down, at least until Washington politicians decided to pay private insurance plans to enroll seniors at a cost 12- to 19-percent higher than traditional Medicare.

Single-payer systems give patients complete freedom to choose their doctor and hospital. They also enhance cost containment through global budgeting, the bargaining power of being the sole buyer, and an emphasis on primary care and prevention. . .

Opponents of single payer often admit it's the best, most efficient and equitable way to provide quality care, but say it's not politically feasible and is therefore off the table in this round of the debate. How so? A solid majority of physicians, 59 percent, and an even higher percentage of the public, 62 percent or more, support national health insurance, recent surveys show. Single payer should be front and center.

Medicare for All is within reach, but only if we are prepared to take on the private health insurance industry.

HOW TO HOLD BETTER MEETINGS

The Work Site provides lots of good advice for activists. Here are some excerpts from their piece on how to hold better meetings:

Ask each person to come - in person if possible, by phone if not, by email as a last resort. If they don't plan to, try to find out why. Even if these contacts don't get each person to come, they provide an opportunity to discuss some of the points that will come up at the meeting.

If turnout from particular parts of the organization is still low, talk to leaders from those areas to see how you can help them.

Areas with high turnouts should be recognized - including how they achieve high turnout -- at meetings, in publications, and on the organization's Web site.

Set up carpools and ask people if they need a ride. Often they won't volunteer that information.

Provide child care in a separate room or nearby location, staffed by member volunteers or their teenage children. For some members the meeting will then be a welcomed opportunity to talk with other adults without taking care of kids too.

Invite people to bring their spouses or friends. Often, their commitment is stronger if their spouse understands the issues.

Provide non-alcoholic drinks or light snacks if the meeting must be held at meal time.

Make sure the meeting time is convenient for most people. If necessary, hold a series of meetings to accommodate people with different work schedules.

Keep the meetings brief. If word gets around that your meetings drag on too long, attendance will drop off. For many groups these days, one hour would be considered a long meeting.

Start and end on time. That's the only way to develop a culture of starting on time, make sure people don't leave before key decisions are made, and ensure that each participant doesn't have to invest any more time than needed.

Plan ways for people to participate. Give as many as possible assignments such as making a report, leading a discussion, taking notes, or arranging for beverages.

Try to give some specific information those participating wouldn't have had if they didn't attend.

GALLERY
DEPRESSION PHOTOS

THE CASE FOR HEROIN MAINTENANCE

Kevin Zeese - Where heroin maintenance has been tried around the world it has reduced crime, homelessness and unemployment as well as the spread of HIV and overdose deaths. It also has a positive impact on reducing the heroin market because when an addict has an affordable, legal source for heroin s/he does not have to deal heroin (or commit crimes) to pay for the habit.

The big surprise they found in Switzerland was that it also reduced heroin addiction for the people involved. Once they had a legal supply that they could afford (it was not free but a legal price that was 1/100th of the illegal price), they were able to focus on the problems in their lives -- jobs, family, housing, school -- and when they made progress on those fronts they did not need their heroin crutch anymore so many sought treatment to get off heroin (because even when you have a legal source being an addict is not an easy lifestyle).

The Swiss call their program "heroin assisted treatment" as a result of this important reality. Heroin maintenance would be a gigantic win for everyone, especially the addicts and the police. It could be started as a pilot project, impact of the program on participants could be measured for effects on crime, housing, employment, AIDS and overdose.

Baltimore Sun - Heroin maintenance programs seek to lure addicts into treatment, not act as a replacement for it, Reuter said. Some researchers believe that once addicts are removed from the drug lifestyle, they can realize the need for help.

Medical professionals treat addicts like patients, distributing doses of heroin in a sterile, clinical setting. In the Netherlands, where the drug is largely smoked, heroin is distributed in small groups. Users remain at the centers while intoxicated but must leave once they have recovered from their dose. In Switzerland, drug users must have failed several treatment options to be accepted into a heroin maintenance program. They also receive weekly counseling sessions and help finding jobs and housing.

In Germany, trials done from 2002-2006 measured the average number of days a participant was involved in crime at the start and end of the 12 month program. The average dropped from 15.6 days to 2.5.

In Switzerland, a 2001 study followed up with 2,000 addicts who had left a heroin maintenance program. It found that about 60 percent of them sought treatment. Of those, 60 percent went into a methadone program and 40 percent into an abstinence program.

Among the programs' shortcomings is that they enroll a small number of addicts - in Switzerland, just 5 percent of the estimated total. Also, crime declines in the Netherlands were small, not any better than with a good methadone program.

BAILED OUT BANK PARTIES BIG TIME

TMZ - A bank that received $1.6 billion in bailout money just spent a fortune last week in L.A. hosting a series of lavish parties and concerts with famous singers.

Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank, sponsored the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in L.A.

Northern Trust flew hundreds of clients and employees to L.A. and put many of them up at some of the fanciest and priciest hotels in the city. .

Here are the highlights:

- Wednesday, Northern Trust hosted a fancy dinner at the Ritz followed by a performance by the group Chicago.

- Thursday, Northern Trust rented a private hangar at the Santa Monica Airport for dinner, followed by a performance by Earth, Wind & Fire.

- Saturday, Northern Trust had the entire House of Blues in West Hollywood shut down for its private party. We got the menu -- guests dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet. Dinner was followed by a performance by none other than Sheryl Crow.

There was also a fabulous cocktail party at the Loews. And how's this for a nice touch -- female guests at the Chicago concert all got trinkets from. Tiffany.

As for what all that costs, well the company isn't talking. We spoke with a rep from the band Chicago who said Northern Trust paid them around $100,000. A House of Blues source told us it cost more than $50,000 to close the joint down last Saturday night. . .

As for the golf tournament, a rep from the PGA told us Northern Trust wrote one big fat check in order to sponsor the event. That check covers part of the $6.3 million purse, the advertising costs for the spots on CBS (which broadcast the final two rounds of the tournament) and operating costs. The rep says the fee was negotiated and is confidential.

Lots of people from Northern Trust went to the golf tourney . in special Mercedes that shuttled them to and from the hotels. . .

Northern Trust laid off 450 workers in December, 4% of its workforce.

Here's what's absolutely amazing: the United States Government flat out gave Northern Trust the $1.6 billion in bailout money, and the bank didn't even request it. . .

A rep for the bank acknowledges they paid for the events, but that the bailout money did not pay for the events. He claims it was paid out of the bank's operating expenses.

UTAH GOP CLAIMS RIGHT TO PICK OWN ANTI-GAY SPOKESMAN

Salt Lake City Tribune - Senate leaders disciplined Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, not for anti-gay comments he made in a recent interview, but because he violated a deal with leadership that he not talk about gay issues, a senator said.

"Most of what Senator Buttars said, I agree with," Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said in a weekly Red Meat Radio program he hosts on K-TALK. "We as a Senate caucus had an agreement that because Sen. Buttars had become such a lightning rod on this issue, he would not be the spokesman on this issue, and basically he violated that agreement."

Buttars was under fire for statements he made to a documentary filmmaker in which he compared homosexuals to radical Muslims, called them the greatest internal threat to America and said they had no morals.

Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, announced Friday that he was removing Buttars from two committees: the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee and the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, both of which Buttars had chaired.

In making the announcement, Waddoups said he was trying to ensure the Senate runs smoothly, but also noted that "we agree with many of the things he said. . . We stand four-square behind his right [to say what he wants].". . .

ANOTHER SEEDY CABINET CHOICE

You'd think after the Bill Richardson mess, Obama would be a bit more careful, but in naming Gary Locke as Secretary of Commerce, he's revived some old and sorry tales.

Locke was admittedly only a minor beneficiary of a major scandal of the Clinton administration: highly questionable funding of American politicians from Asian sources. He was, in fact, cleared of any wrong doing. But one of the purported prospects of an Obama administration was that the ethical bar would be raised slightly above lack of actual indictment or conviction.

Locke received funding from two of sources involved in the Clinton scandals: Ted Sioneng's family and associates, and John Huang. Here's how Wikipedia describes the context:
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics during the 1996 federal elections. The issue first received public attention in early 1997, with news that a Justice Department investigation had uncovered evidence that agents of China sought to direct contributions to the Democratic National Committee in violation of U.S. laws regarding foreign political contributions. The Chinese government denied all accusations. Twenty-two people were eventually convicted of fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the United States elections, and others fled U.S. jurisdiction. Several of these were associates of Bill Clinton or Al Gore.

Here are some of the characters:

Charlie Trie: The most significant activity by Trie was a $450,000 attempted donation by Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie to Clinton's legal defense fund, which Trie delivered in two envelopes each containing several checks and money orders. The fund immediately rejected $70,000 and deposited the remainder, but ordered an investigation of the source. The investigation found that some of the money orders were sequentially numbered made out in different names but with the same handwriting. The fund then rejected the donation entirely, and returned the deposited funds two months after the initial contribution. . .

Johnny Chung: Born in Taiwan, Chung went from being the owner of a "blastfaxing" business (an automated system that quickly sends out faxes to thousands of businesses) in California to being in the middle of the Washington, D.C. elite within a couple weeks of his first donations to the Democratic Party. Called a "hustler" by a U.S. National Security Council aide, . . . Chung made forty-nine separate visits to the White House between February 1994 and February 1996. . . Between 1994 and 1996, Chung donated $366,000 to the DNC. Eventually, all of the money was returned. Chung told federal investigators that $35,000 of the money he donated came from Liu Chaoying and, in turn, China's military intelligence. . . Chung was eventually convicted of bank fraud, tax evasion, and two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to violate election law. Chung asserts that, after his guilty plea, the Chinese government attempted to assassinate him with "hit squads" three times, but the efforts were foiled by the FBI.

John Huang and James Riady: John Huang [was a] former employee of the Indonesian company Lippo Group's Lippo Bank and its owners Mochtar Riady and his son James (whom Huang first met along with Bill Clinton at a financial seminar in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1980, Huang became a key fund-raiser within the DNC in 1995. While there, he raised $3.4 million for the party. Nearly half had to be returned when questions arose regarding their source during later investigations by Congress. According to U.S. Secret Service logs, Huang visited the White House 78 times while working as a DNC fund-raiser. James Riady visited the White House 20 times (including 6 personal visits to President Clinton). . . Huang eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to reimburse Lippo Group employees' campaign contributions with corporate or foreign funds.[20] James Riady was later convicted of campaign finance violations relating to the same scheme as well.

Maria Hsia: Taiwan-born Maria Hsia, a long time fund raiser for Al Gore, California immigration consultant, and business associate of John Huang and James Riady since 1988, facilitated $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions through her efforts at Hsi Lai Temple, a Chinese Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, California. This money went to the DNC, to the Clington - Gore campaign, and to Patrick Kennedy. After a trial, she was convicted in March 2000. . . [A] Temple event became particularly controversial, because it was attended by the Vice President Gore. In 1997 Gore said

Ted Sioeng: Another notable figure involved in the affair was Ted Sioeng, an Indoenesian entrepreneur, who illegally donated money to both Democrats and Republicans. Suspect contributions associated with Sioeng include $250,000 to the DNC, $100,000 to Republican California State Treasurer Matt Fong, and $50,000 to a Republican think tank. All the money was eventually returned. . . Attorney General Janet Reno and the directors of the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency told members of the Senate committee they had credible intelligence information indicating Sioeng acted on behalf of China. A spokesman for Sioeng denied the allegations.

This was not insignificant stuff, especially when you add in the national security damaging transfer of advanced technology to China during the time of these shenanigans.

Locke's role in all of this was as one of the secondary American political beneficiaries, with help coming from Huang and Sioeng. Locke returned $1,000 from Sioeng's daughter funneled through an associate with Locke's spokesman explaining, "We're not saying it was improper" and "we didn't want anything to do with it."

Locke bemoaned the issue in a talk to Asian journalists: "The fund-raising scandal will have repercussions for several years. It will make our efforts doubly hard to get Asian Americans appointed to top-level positions across the United States. If they have any connection to John Huang, those individuals will face greater scrutiny and their lives will be completely opened up and examined - perhaps more than usual."

Locke got a lot more from Huang - at least $19,000 - and attended a number of occasions that Huang helped organize. Other contributions to Locke, came from a Lippo consultant, a Commerce Department official who swore in a deposition that Huang had access to most of the agency's classified information, several other Commerce Department officials who came under suspicion, and several associates of Sioeng.

Central to the role of the Commerce Department in this period was that of its then secretary, Ron Brown, who helped the Chinese get more favorable trade regulations, as well as aiding the transfer of super computers and highly sophisticated radio phones to the Chinese Peoples Armed Police.

Locke was cleared of any wrong doing by state officials. A House committee could find no wrong doing on his part. Gary Locke was apparently just one more politician basking in the ubiquitous sleaze of the Clinton years. Still, given the moral professions of our new president, his appointment seems odd at best, especially since the department he's been selected to run was once headquarters for a major piece of that sleaze.

TWITTERING ABOUT TWITTER

Reddit: I'm thirty and don't understand twitter. Can anyone explain the benefit ? Am I just too old?

im 29 and i understand it to be some kind of digital umbilical cord so that your friends know when you eat and poop and feel happy or sad

I assume it's a passing fad, like the year when every joe schmoe started a blog. At first people engage in the activity furiously because they think that other people are paying attention. But gradually, nagging voices in their heads tell them that no one is actually listening. Duration between twits increases until the start of a new annoying fad.

One of the great let downs of our time will be when we realize that really, no one else gives a shit what is going on in our lives, except the people we love, and even this its to a limited extent.

Everybody's so self-important these days that I doubt that realization will ever sink in, true as it may be. Most of us are more interested in posting our own lives than paying any attention to anybody else.

Many of us older farts already know this. And usually keep it under 140 characters anyway.

well, most of the things I've seen on twitter are garbage anyways. In fact, I've never read a twitter post that was funny, insightful or even slightly amusing. It's always stupid shit like "lolz, at kfc, getting chicken. haha. Mmm chicken."

I'm 38 and I don't understand blogging. Can anyone explain the benefit? Am I just too old?

I'm 2 and don't understand English. Halp.

A stream of digital urine if you will.

Rots your brain, too.

That's what they said about masturbation.

Now in some weird misguided effort to be "with it," they have Wolf Blitzer, etc, hammering out 40 characters of crap.

The thread enables those of us who ride S.F. Bay Area CalTrain with our bicycles to evaluate the probability that there'll be room for us and our bikes on a given train. I'm 57. . .

Hmm...I don't use twitter and I don't like it and I'm 24. However I shall attempt a actual explanation. . . I think our generation still thinks of the internet as something to get onto and surf. For the next generation (that is people 10 yrs younger) internet is something that is always there, all the time, like a table or chair. Also I think tweets can be sent automatically to hand phones. I think thats a big part of the attraction.

It's a bridge between a standard cell phone and the internet. If you have unlimited texting, you can use it to talk to your friends online in a sort of group chat/delayed response kind of thing . . .

it's a one-to-many IM service.

I use it to tell all my friends (whether or not I've ever met them) how firm my stools are.

It is teenage angst poetry without the effort or the angst. It is a blog without the interesting biographical content. It is a the mindlessly inane prattle about shopping, shoes and other's flaws that distracts twitter users from the echoing vacuum of their futile existences. Really, if they were doing anything worthwhile, how would they have time to scribble vacuous remarks about it?

Robot Wisdom

it's the algonquin roundtable redux:
a universal competition
to say memorable things
in 140 characters or less. . .

twitter is like usenet
where you subscribe to
people not topics

fastfastfast

spamfree by design

intolerant of prolixity

easily capturing stray thoughts
and trying them out
on a mostly-forgiving audience

READER COMMENTS

ON THE OTHER HAND: THE MAN BEHIND CLAIBORNE PELL

Thank you, Mr. Marbrooke, for the opportunity to read this excellent and flawlessly written piece about the man behind The Man.

Regarding the 1960 upset primary win of the underdog Claiborne Pell over the more popular Dennis Roberts, your tribute was indeed illuminating; more so by reading between the lines as by reading the lines themselves.

Corruption. Elections. Machiavellian Politicians. 'Murder by Typewriter.' Themes worthy of a crime novel by Dixon Hawke.

Surely Mr. Nelson, well entrenched himself in the imbroglios and other goings on in the capitol city not far from Warwick, also knew that the headquarters of the New England Mafia was located on Federal Hill in Providence. Fifty years ago the name of Raymond Patriarca was well known in R.I. circles and Mr. Nelson may have had, at least, a passing acquaintance with the legendary head of that crime syndicate, one who also controlled the labor unions.

Yes, it is the stuff of crime novels. In fact, the famous crime writer George Higgins worked for The Providence Journal and, I'm sure, knew Ray Nelson. Raymond L.S. Patriarca was a ubiquitous figure back when Ray worked as a newspaperman. There were stories about him all the time, and The Journal was dogged in its coverage of this man's dark empire. I'm sure that there's much more than has ever emerged to Ray's death, and, like most of his friends, I'm inclined to think the pressures against solving the case were greater than the pressures for solving it. Policemen are like reporters in that their bosses do not always give them the time or resources to do the job. The will to solve such a case must flow down from the top. - Del Marbroook

BLACKWATER CHANGES ITS NAME

Blackwater is a term used in water management to denote water contaminated with feces.

ESCALATING THE WAR ON SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE

I suspect that this will not gain very much traction. Even that spineless bastard Harry Reid has come out in strong defense of Social Security. I went to an event held in Rhode Island shortly after Bush II proclaimed he was going to reform SS with all his political capitol. Reid and other democratic leaders toured the country saying no way, no how. And that was when Dems were in the minority. I know we can't count on the Dems for much, but even they know that massive loss of votes will be the only result of any attempts to cut needed benefits. - Lars

Social Security can always be made solvent through tax increases and benefit cuts (or some combination thereof). That's not the point. The point is that Social Security is a bad deal for the worker. It has been for years. According to the latest CBO report, the median worker won't even recover 100% of his Social Security taxes in the form of benefits. In other words, he's getting a negative real return. What's the point of such a program?

Cutting taxes, especially payroll taxes, is investing in the young. And as for today's young needing social insurance tomorrow, high taxes are a really good way to ensure that. If you take enough money away from today's workers that they're simply incapable of saving for their own retirement then, yes, they will have to rely on government assistance. - Bill Woessner

FORGET THE HONEYMOON

Obama offers people a few bucks here and there, and a few government jobs. But his tax policies will destroy many more private jobs, and that's where the real money comes from. - wellbasically

"there is not a popular left movemen."

This is not true. What is true is that the popular left movement is marginalized in the mainstream media and is entirely shut out of the "debate" that occurs in the MSM. Where do you ever hear Noam Chomsky, or leaders of ACORN or the unions being quoted regularly -- certainly not on any cable news channel, now without being screamed over anyway. - PlanB247

OBAMA'S CONTINUES BUSH'S DISASTROUS SCHOOL PLANS

Obama continues failing Bush policy of ________________. Substitute as freely as you can imagine. - m

CHANDRA LEVY CASE

No, Sam. Stop. No. Lest you forget, the Chandra Levy affair was the great-granddaddy of all irrational missing cute white girl of the week media frenzies, the original useless, sensational lurid story which had no bearing on the real issues affecting peoples' lives, culminating in a veritable electronic orgasm with Connie Chung's ABC "Nightline" interview with then-Rep. Gary Condit, followed up with a Channel 7 live remote from Tryst's bar in Adams-Morgan where they interviewed people for their reactions to the Condit interview. Chandra Levy, who begat Elizabeth Smart who begat Laci Peterson who begat the Runaway Bride who begat the Octuplets Mom and the Berserk Homicidal Chimp.

Surely you remember, that one week in June of '01, when the NBC "Today" show -- the all-time worst offender in the Useless Lurid Story Beaten To Death Department -- opened every morning with a Chandra Levy story, even when there was no new news nor any new leads, even when people really wanted to know about really important things, like their jobs being shipped out of the country to sweatshops, like wage stagnation, like healthcare costs, and a fistful of other real issues of real importance. The morning that the verdict in the case of the NYPD officers' plunger-handle anal rape and torture of a black prisoner was announced, NBC "Today" spent a bare minimum of time reporting that story before immediately jumping back into the Chandra Levy Festival.

And now, all of a sudden, the police are close to making an arrest in the case that everyone quit giving a shit about long ago as if they ever did, and it's back all over the place again. President Timberlake...uhh, Obama... is announcing his intention of continuing the torture and rendition policies of ex-President Chimp, bombing Pakistan and Afghanistan, getting ready to escalate the ground war in Afghanistan, making noises about another attempt to take away Social Security, and what's been top-of-the-fold on the Post's front page? Chandra Fucking Levy.
I'm beggin' ya, dude. Don't go there anymore.

OBAMA'S FUTURE

Conservative Republicans keep talking about "how Obama's term will be like Jimmy Carter's".

Thinking it through, I believe another cycle will instead happen. It will be similar to Lyndon Johnson's period, producing social programs of all sorts but still being very much entangled in at least one on-going war. He will run against an aggressive hard core conservative Republican for re-election, but will survive for another term. Once that second term is over, a new Republican with a less overt approach, being someone with Midwestern charm and polish, and the Nixonian shrewdness and smarts of say Rep. John Boehner, will then win. Where we go from there is anyone's guess. - Robert LeMay

EUROPE REFUSES TO JOIN OBAMA'S AFGHAN WAR ESCALATION

It is not just the war on Afghanistan, as bad as that is. But also the continuing invocation of the states secret privilege to prevent civil litigation on rendition and torture issues that are already public. The refusal to investigate or prosecute criminality in the Bush 43 administration. The continuation of rendition and torture. Wiretapping. Lobbyists had copies of the bailout before the Congress, presumably because lobbyists wrote the bailout. And more. Obama has earned the appellation Bush 44, and its only a month into his occupancy of the White House.

IF POLITICIANS DRESSED LIKE NASCAR DRIVERS

My grandfather was a civilian carpenter on a Military Base, and in his old age he repeatedly told me to "don't wear your worth on your sleeve"- which I interpreted, as a youngster, to make my worth show in things that I did.

Now seeing this NASCAR based political attire here, my mind again thinks about not wearing a person's worth on their sleeve. And while I grew up with an ingrained prejudice against such habit, I can see that it may serve a purpose in the political world. I think All politicians should be required to wear emblems with the size reflecting the amount of donations received.

NEED MORE PUBLIC FUNDS? CHECK THE MILITARY BUDGET

If the military can only account for 38% of the money they have received since Reagan was in office, then in future, the military should only get a budget equaling what they can account for in the past year.

HOMELESS STUDENTS INCREASE

My sister in law works for a school district, and she knows a quite a few homeless students, like teenagers living in cars and homeless shelters, many of them not having any family to help, and this is in an affluent suburban city. Overwhelmingly these students are white kids born in the US.

ENDS

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