The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    In the News

    Fishermen Spot Great White Off NC Coast

    WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. -- A group of fishermen from Boston spotted an 18-foot-long great white shark off the coast of North Carolina, Wilmington NBC affiliate WECT reported.

    The men were 25 miles southeast of Wrightsville Beach when they noticed that the fish stopped biting. They then saw two fins circling their boat."I think it's two dolphins or something -- two dolphins far apart. Those two dolphins turn out to be one giant shark," Matt Garrett told the station.Garrett pulled out his cellphone and captured the shark on video. He said he knew the shark was 18 feet long because it was nearly as long as the 20-foot boat.


     
    cmaukonen 13 years 1 month ago

    Wealthy entrepreneur Nick Hanauer says neither rich people nor businesses create jobs

    I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc. 

    Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

    That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

     

    EmmaZahn 13 years 1 month ago

    You Can Arrest an Idea

     

    [Gadfly Robert Scheer] The liberal Democratic mayor, a past president of the Southern California ACLU, was pleased with the efficiency of the “community policing” approach of his police department. “I said that here in L.A. we’d chart a different path, and we did,” Antonio Villaraigosa boasted. However, the result was the same as elsewhere; the bankers were protected from the scorn they so richly deserve and there will no longer be a visible monument to the pain that they have caused. To ensure a pristine, amoral town square, huge concrete-anchored fences were quickly installed to prevent further access to the public space surrounding City Hall.
     
    Of course the traditional cardboard encampments of the homeless three blocks away, a sprawling and constant feature of life in downtown Los Angeles, remained undisturbed. Sanitation and safety issues are of no concern as long as such manifestations of deep societal inequality are so far from the corridors of power as to be, in effect, invisible.
    ...
    The failure of the SEC or any other government agency to hold the banks accountable provides the essential justification for citizen action of the sort the Occupy movement has offered. In his concluding summary, [Judge] Rakoff stated: “Finally, in any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth. In much of the world, propaganda reigns, and truth is confined to secretive, fearful whispers. Even in our nation, apologists for suppressing or obscuring the truth may always be found.”
     
    Count the liberal mayor of Los Angeles, a man I have respected and voted for, as one of those apologists for suppressing truth in the name of civic order. As I meekly allowed myself to be ordered about by the police clearing the area so that the concrete barriers could be installed, I wondered whether I had not been reduced to the status of a fearful whisperer.
     
    Donal 13 years 1 month ago

    How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street

    Chris Moody in The Ticket, about 6 hours ago. 

    AmericanDreamer 13 years 1 month ago

    Rocky Anderson forms Justice Party, plans to run for president

    One of Utah's most liberal politicians, Anderson renounced his affiliation with the Democratic Party in August, saying he was fed up with it along with Congress, the Obama administration and Republicans. He reiterated that disgust during the interview.

    A Guy Called LULU 13 years 1 month ago

    Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead

    A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has been found dead in her Las Vegas home....

    [Tracy Lawrence, 43] came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.

    Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public. ...

    Police said at the time that the alleged scam had thrown into question the legality of most Las Vegas home foreclosures in the past few years, leaving many people living in foreclosed-upon homes that they unknowingly don't actually own.

    h/t Suburban Guerilla
     

     

    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    Berkshire buying Omaha newspaper

    "​Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said Wednesday that it is buying the Omaha World-Herald Co. and expanding the firm's newspaper holdings despite Buffett's misgivings about the industry."

    ...Buffett told Berkshire shareholders two years ago that most newspapers face the possibility of unending losses because the industry has lost its essential nature.

    "They were only essential to advertisers as long as they were essential to the reader, and that is changing," Buffett said.

    In a statement Wednesday, Buffett suggested that the World-Herald Co. is in better shape than most newspapers.

    "The World-Herald delivers solid profits and is one of the best-run newspapers in America, and we are pleased to have Terry Kroeger and his team join Berkshire Hathaway," Buffett said

    Kroeger, who is the World-Herald's CEO, said this deal will help the newspaper raise needed capital. He said the company's employee-ownership structure was restrictive and forced the World-Herald to repurchase stock from departing employees.

    "We have repurchased the Company about seven times since the employee ownership plan was put in place," Kroeger said."

    EmmaZahn 13 years 2 months ago

    3 protesters hit with Taser at Occupy protest at state Capitol

    http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Special-legislative-session-to-begin-in-Olympia-134614843.html

    kyle flynn 13 years 2 months ago

    IEA's World Energy Outlook on the road

     

    [Tom Whipple] Every November following the publication of the IEA's World Energy Outlook, the leadership of the Agency travels to major capitols in an effort to explain to the world's leaders the conclusions of the new publication. ...
     
    IEA's Chief Economist Fatih Birol ... began with his three principal worries: Despite global lip service to slowing global warming, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere continued to grow last year; All governments claim to want more efficient use of energy resources, yet efficiency continues to drop; and finally high energy prices with oil prices on track to top $150 a barrel within a few years will kill any economic recovery. As an example, Birol pointed out that coal had been selling for $60 a ton as long as the Chinese were exporting it. This year when China switched from being a coal exporter to becoming even a rather small importer, prices rose to $120 a ton.
     
    The IEA sees the future of oil as one of demand for more and more automobiles by the peoples of the non-OECD world. Despite automobile sales that now surpass those of the U.S., China currently has only 90 cars per thousand people as compared to 500 in Europe and 700 in the US. Surprisingly, the US is seen as the country making the most progress cutting oil consumption. Not only is there a plan in place to reduce the nation's gasoline consumption by building more efficient cars in the next 20 years, the U.S. is actually increasing its domestic oil production a bit by exploiting tight oils found in shale deposits and deepwater drilling in the Gulf. Birol was too polite to mention that rising unemployment and stagnant industrial production is also contributing to the drop in oil consumption. ...
     
    The nuclear power question is interesting. The IEA says the world is divided into three camps - Russia, China and India considered the Fukushima disaster and decided they have to have nuclear power anyway; Germany and Switzerland decided to call it quits; and the issue is being hotly debated in Japan and France. The big trouble is that without nuclear power plants, CO2 emissions from burning more coal and natural gas go much higher. ...
     
    Climate change remains the 800 pound gorilla on the IEA's agenda, as on the world's present path we are on the way to a 6oC rise in average global temperature which some hold will be synonymous with the end of life on earth. An average global temperature rise of 2oC, however, is thought to be manageable, but there is a big, big problem - we are almost there. Another five years of building cars and CO2-belching power plants will put us over the tipping point and from there on it is all downhill. Now there is a warning for the ages - it could be the last one we receive while there is still time to react.
    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    Israel divided over plan to attack Iran

    This is a ten minute video report by "The Real News". An interesting point about the reaction in Israel is made at the minute 3:45 to 4:25 point.

    A Guy Called LULU 13 years 2 months ago

    Lies, damn lies, statistics and 9-9-9 The Movie - Slaying the Tax Monster

     

     

    EmmaZahn 13 years 2 months ago

    Barney Frank will not seek re-election

    In what will surely be sad news for everyone here at dagblog, Barney Frank has announced he will not seek re-election in 2012. It's a shame, but he does deserve an enjoyable retirement. The comments in the linked-to article were mostly surprisingly consistently anti-Frank (and often harshly so), at least when I visited it.

    Verified Atheist 13 years 2 months ago

    MittvMitt.com: The story of two men trapped in one body

    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    HERMAN CAIN HAD WHITE MISTRESS

    Well he had a mistress by the last name of WHITE for 13 years.

    Oh but we are still friends, said Ms. White. hhahahaah

    hahahahahaha

    Richard Day 13 years 2 months ago

    Shocker! Newt Gingrich Doesn't Understand Oil

    [Sharon Astyk] I often don't bother arguing with the "Drill, Baby, drill" folks - the reason is that while I think they are misguided and their lack of understanding of the possibilities of US oil are embarrassing, they also have a point - as we get further down the energy curve, most of our available energy resources will be exploited if it is economically viable to recover the oil or the gas. It simply will happen - environmental sensitivity will not be a major factor.

    As you may remember, I've argued before that Americans will cheerfully shovel live baby harp seals into their furnaces, while explaining to the themselves that live baby harp seals enjoy being burned alive if that's what it takes to keep them warm and their economy running. Drilling in ANWR, [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] running pipelines across just about anything, or burning coal despite the climate impact are not things that most people will give up - GIVEN no accessible alternative. Most present-day considerations of environmental sensitivity for most Americans are considerations from a position of comfort and security. We can say that "drill baby, drill" is misguided position because we aren't short of energy - yet. The category of people who are prepared to give up their cars and other luxuries in order to protect the abstract "environment" is actually quite small.
    ...
    All of which sounds cynical, doesn't it? The funny thing is that it is and it isn't. I'm the great believer that people can and will change their lifestyles - and I believe strongly that if baby harp seals aren't the only choice, people will happily skip the awkward self-justifications for evil. Most of us, raised as slave owners would probably prefer to believe we would have been ardent abolitionists, but that's probably not true. Instead, we too would have parroted the repulsive justifications for things that are deeply immoral but that are economically necessary. That is, once we depend on something, the justifications are already in place for all sorts of moral failings.

    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    Durban – your guide to the latest vital climate summit

    Will there be a deal this year?

    Sadly not. American legislators won't entertain the idea of legally enforceable limits on their emissions. The Russians and Japanese say that without the US, they are not interested. Ditto China and India. That leaves only Germany of the top six national emitters still in favour of a binding deal.

    Even optimists don't think US politicians will be in the mood to consummate a new deal until 2016 at the earliest. The best that can be hoped for is a "coalition of the willing" committed to a stop-gap extension of the Kyoto protocol which does not include the US. We are facing a "lost decade" in climate talks.

    Most of the US Senate barely believes in climate change, let alone doing anything about it. Most other nations play lip service, but blame economic travails for postponing hard decisions. Some think the recession will buy us time. Not so. Last year saw the biggest annual increase in carbon dioxide emissions ever recorded – almost 6 per cent. This was mostly due to China, India and others burning more coal, the dirtiest fuel.

    Isn't coal supposedly on the way out?

    Quite the reverse. When the new climate talks started in 2006, the world got 25 per cent of its primary energy from coal; now the proportion is 30 per cent. Even Germany will likely burn more coal as it shuts its nuclear plants in the wake of the nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant. Just 2 hours' drive from Durban, South Africa feeds the coal addiction with the world's largest coal export terminal at Richards Bay.

    Meanwhile, CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere. By 2016, concentrations will probably pass 400 parts per million, compared with 353 ppm when the climate convention was passed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
     

    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    Euro Area Is Coming to an End

    [Peter Boone and Simon Johnson] Investors sent Europe’s politicians a painful message last week when Germany had a seriously disappointing government bond auction. It was unable to sell more than a third of the benchmark 10-year bonds it had sought to auction off on Nov. 23, and interest rates on 30-year German debt rose from 2.61 percent to 2.83 percent. The message? Germany is no longer a safe haven.

    Since the global financial crisis of 2008, investors have focused on credit risk and rewarded Germany with low interest rates for its perceived frugality. But now markets will focus on currency risk. Inflation will accelerate and the euro may break up in a way that calls into question all euro-denominated obligations. This is the beginning of the end for the euro zone.

    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    NYC lightens up

    By Cynthia R. Fagen, New York Post, Nov. 27, 2011

    Newer skyscrapers make Apple shimmer

    For those who haven't visited NYC in a while, here's two photos showing Manhattan's night skyline before (Oct. 2001) and now (Nov. 2011,) along with a short roundup about some of the major additions.  (Though The Post calls the new skyline an "energy efficient extravaganza," somehow I get the idea that Donal is not going to like it. wink)

    artappraiser 13 years 2 months ago

    Economist Steve Keen; bankrupt banks, nationalise financial system

    Should government pay off our debts?

    Economist Steve Keen says we are already in another Great Depression. He advocates bankrupting the banks, nationalising the financial system and paying off people's debt

    Economist Steve Keen is one of the few economists to have predicted the global financial crisis and now he says we are already in a Great Depression. He says the way to escape it is to bankrupt the banks, nationalise the financial system and pay off people's debt.

    He admits what he is advocating is radical but says it is time governments gave money to debtors to pay down debt instead of to creditors such as banks who have held onto it.

     

    [An interesting thought from Steve Keen. What I was advocating myself from the very first.]

    cmaukonen 13 years 2 months ago

    adidas Group, C&A, H&M, Li Ning, Nike and Puma Partner to Reach Zero Discharge by 2020

     

     
    adidas Group, C&A, H&M, Li Ning, NIKE, Inc. and Puma today announced the release of a joint roadmap towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals (ZDHC) in the supply chain by 2020. It is an ambitious plan, one that sets a new standard of environmental performance for the global apparel and footwear industry. The roadmap includes specific commitments and timelines to realize this shared goal. These commitments include:
     
    • Jointly communicating the mission of zero discharge of hazardous chemicals to all suppliers beginning immediately
     
    • Conducting pilot projects at major, vertically integrated and materials suppliers between 2011 and 2013 to better understand scope of use and discharge of hazardous chemicals
     
    • Verifying that nine classes of hazardous or persistent chemicals are not currently used
     
    • Initiating an inventory of all chemicals used in apparel manufacturing by the end of 2012
     
    • Disclosing the results of all pilots and studies undertaken as part of this commitment
     
    • Reporting regularly and publicly on our progress against this commitment (quarterly in 2012, annually from 2013 to 2020)
     
    Tackling and achieving the goal of zero discharge is a complex challenge – one that our brand collaboration cannot solve alone. Our vision is that the roadmap serves as a benchmark and that many more brands join us in our efforts. Ultimately, we want and need a broad array of participants to partner with us in this endeavor – chemical suppliers, academics, NGOs, textile experts, entrepreneurs, policy makers and others. We understand that we are setting out to change the way apparel and footwear is manufactured, globally, and are thus casting our net wide for the best ideas and solutions.
     
    also:
    [h/t Triple Pundit]
    PUMA Completes First Environmental Profit and Loss Account which values Impacts at € 145 million
     
    Within the context of publishing a worldwide unprecedented Environmental Profit and Loss Account (EP&L), the Sportlifestyle company PUMA and PPR HOME, the PPR Group’s sustainability initiative, released today, that the environmental impact for the key areas of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), water use, land use, air pollution and waste, generated through the operations and supply chain of PUMA is valued at € 145 million in 2010. Furthermore, in acknowledging the PUMA EP&L today as an innovative sustainability approach, the PPR Group, PUMA’s majority shareholder, announced that this groundbreaking economic valuation methodology for a company’s environmental impacts will be implemented across its Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle brands by 2015.
     
    After publishing an economic valuation of € 94 million of GHG emissions and water consumption in May this year2, PUMA has now finalised its 2010 E P&L by adding € 51 million caused by land use change for the production of raw materials, air pollution and waste along its value chain. Only € 8 million of the € 145 million total derive from PUMA’s core operations such as offices, warehouses, stores and logistics while the remaining € 137 million fall upon PUMA’s supply chain. These costs, which will not affect PUMA’s net earnings, will serve as an initial metric for the company when aiming to mitigate the footprint of PUMA’s operations and all supply chain levels.
     
    Donal 13 years 2 months ago

    Why blacks aren’t embracing Occupy Wall Street - The Washington Post

    Occupy Wall Street might seem like a movement that would resonate with black Americans. After all, unemployment among African Americans is at 15 percent, vs. almost 8 percent for whites. And between 2005 and 2009, black households lost just over half of their median net worth compared with white families, who lost 16 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

    However, these numbers have not translated into action. A few prominent African Americans, such as Cornel West, Russell Simmons, Kanye West and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), have made appearances at Occupy protests. “Occupy the Hood,” a recent offshoot, has tried to get more people of color involved. But the main movement remains overwhelmingly white: A Fast Company survey last month found that African Americans, who are 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, make up only 1.6 percent of Occupy Wall Street.

     

    EmmaZahn 13 years 2 months ago

    Chavez Price Caps Spark Panic Buying of Coffee, Toilet Paper in Venezuela

    By Nathan Crooks and Jose Orozco, Bloomberg News, Nov. 25, 2011

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move to expand price controls this week sparked panic purchases by consumers, leading to shortages of everything from coffee to toilet paper. People are buying more than they need to stock their homes and resell the products at a profit in the black market, Food Minister Carlos Osorio said yesterday on state television. [....]

    Under regulations that took effect on Nov. 22, the government can fix the price of 15,000 goods in an attempt to slow inflation that reached 26.9 percent in October, the highest in the Western Hemisphere. [....] Speaking on state television today, Chavez said that he had detected “capitalists” hoarding thousands of kilograms of powdered milk, coffee and cooking oil and threatened to nationalize companies and factories caught stockpiling goods. “I’m at the front of this operation, and we’re going to occupy factories and companies,” Chavez said. “We’re going to nationalize what needs to be nationalized. The bourgeoisie hoard milk, sugar and cooking oil and then blame me. But it’s their fault, the hoarders.” [...]

    artappraiser 13 years 2 months ago

    Tensions Flare Between U.S. and Pakistan After Strike

    By Salman Masood and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, Nov. 26/27, 2011

    Saying at least 25 of its soldiers were killed by NATO aircraft, Pakistan closed the alliance’s two main supply routes into Afghanistan and ordered the C.I.A. to vacate drone operations at an air base.

    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — [....] In Washington, American officials were scrambling to assess what had happened amid preliminary reports that allied forces in Afghanistan engaged in a firefight along the border and called in airstrikes. [....] In a sign that the White House was trying to keep the situation from growing worse, President Obama was updated regularly throughout the day by Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, Ms. Hayden said. 

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, all talked to their Pakistani counterparts to offer condolences and to promise an investigation. [....]

    What remained unclear on Saturday, and what will be a main focus of NATO’s inquiry, was what exactly prompted the airstrikes and whether they were unprovoked or resulted from a communications mishap. A NATO spokesman, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, offered details suggesting that [.....]

    Also see:

    US told to vacate Shamsi base; Nato supplies stopped
    By Baqir Sajjad Syed, Dawn, Nov. 27, 2011

    ISLAMABAD: Furious over the pre-dawn Nato attacks on border posts, the government on Saturday reacted sharply by indefinitely closing down supply routes used by western forces in Afghanistan and once again asking the United States to vacate an airbase previously used for drone operations. The government also said it would carry out a thorough review of its cooperation with the US and Nato. The retaliatory decisions were taken at an emergency meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), the country’s highest forum for defence policy consultation and coordination. [....]  The decisions, though sounding tough, apparently kept the window for negotiations open. [....]

    artappraiser 13 years 2 months ago

    What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?

    By Edward Jay Epstein, New York Review of Books, Dec. 22, 2011 issue

    [....]  Several mysteries remain. Was there anyone in room 2820 besides Diallo during and after the encounter with DSK? If so, who were they and what were they doing there; and why, in any case, did Diallo deny that she’d gone to the room? Because she denied it, the police, according to the prosecutor’s recommendation for dismissal, did not search 2820 or declare it a crime scene. And where, if it still exists, is the BlackBerry that DSK lost and feared was hacked?

    All we know for sure is that someone, or possibly an accident, abruptly disabled it from signaling its location at 12:51 PM. DSK himself has not explained why he was so concerned about the possible interception of his messages on this BlackBerry and its disappearance. According to stories in Libération and other French journals on November 11, 2011, DSK sent text messages on a borrowed cell phone to at least one person named in the still-unfolding affair involving the Carlton Hotel in Lille, a scandal in which corporations allegedly provided high-class escort women to government officials.     (DSK denies that he was connected to the prostitution ring.)  [....]

    Also see:
    Dominique Strauss-Kahn linked to French prostitution scandal
    Former IMF chief implicated in investigation into alleged pimping at luxury hotels in northern France
    By Angelique Chrisafas in Paris, Guardian.co.uk, Nov. 11, 2011

    [...] The affair took a new turn after Strauss-Kahn's name came up in statements made to investigators, according to a series of leaked transcripts published in the French media in recent weeks.

    Businessmen were alleged to have paid women to travel to Paris and the US to take part in "soirées" with Strauss-Kahn at his own request, including when he was head of the IMF and tipped to become the next French president. Le Monde reported that one senior French police officer had travelled twice to Washington DC last year with businessmen, including the head of a Lille-based construction firm, to accompany a group of women who worked in massage parlours in Belgium to see Strauss-Kahn. The former head of the IMF was said to have received three visits from the group in Washington. The last visit ended on 13 May, the day before he was arrested over the attempted rape of a hotel maid in New York.     [....]

    And:
    Strauss-Kahn wants hearing in French prostitution scandal
    JTA, Nov. 16, 2011

    NEW YORK (JTA) – [....]  "From the moment his name appeared in the so-called 'Carlton Affair' on Oct. 9, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he wanted to be heard as fast as possible by the magistrates leading the judicial inquiries,” said his lawyer, Frederique Baulieu. “A month has passed without him being heard, and the media lynching has snowballed during that time.”  [....]

    artappraiser 13 years 2 months ago

    Completing the Circle

    The indiscriminate use of pepper spray to disperse OWS crows given casual acceptance by local authorities has its own rewards.  Makes me wonder if the police and city governments really understand their actions are a role- model for the rest of society to follow?

    Beetlejuice 13 years 2 months ago

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