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WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?
Magpie is a former journalist, attempted historian [No, you can't ask how her thesis is going], and full-time corvid of the lesbian persuasion. She keeps herself in birdseed by writing those bad computer manuals that you toss out without bothering to read them. She also blogs too much when she's not on deadline, both here and at Pacific Views.

Magpie roosts in Portland, Oregon, where she annoys her housemates (as well as her cats Medea, Whiskers, and Jane Doe) by attempting to play Irish music on the fiddle and concertina.

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Saturday, October 18, 2003




Irish musicians protest against Green Linnet.

Since Monday, Magpie has been trying to find information about the Green Linnet 5's protest at the doorstep of their record label, Green Linnet. Through the help of a reader, we finally located this story from the Irish Echo.

To bring you up to speed, the protest took place this past Monday, October 13, across the street from Green Linnet's headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut. It was organized by the Green Linnet 5 — Mick Moloney, Eileen Ivers, Joanie Madden, Cherish the Ladies, and Altan — all of which are involved in a long-running dispute with the label over allegedly unpaid royalties. According to Maloney, the amount owed is 'well into six figures.'

Green Linnet owner Wendy Newton declined to comment to the Echo about the artists' complaints.

[Guitarist/singer Dáithí] Sproule acknowledged that "Green Linnet did great things for Irish music. They really did, and so much great creative music is tied up in that company. But clearly something has gone terribly wrong, which is why we're here today. It's a sign of how badly musicians feel that we've been pushed to this. We don't want anything vindictive or destructive at all. We just want to be paid what we're owed and be treated in a way that is decent and fair."

Ryan, former lead vocalist with Cherish the Ladies, said: "We shouldn't have to be here fighting for what is rightfully ours." She cited her own song "The Back Door" as an example of this alleged artist exploitation by the label. It was the title track of Cherish the Ladies' 1992 debut on Green Linnet. "Wendy has been making money on my song for all these years, and I've seen none of it."

Affirming his solidarity with the Green Linnet Five, [Robbie] O'Connell said: "I never got a penny for the three Green Linnet albums I made with Mick [Moloney] and Jimmy [Keane]. I would at least like to get a royalty statement for those records." [...]

On the status of lawsuits filed against Green Linnet by Moloney, Altan, and Cherish the Ladies, and arbitrations filed by Madden and Ivers, Bob Donnelly, a lawyer for the Green Linnet Five, said: "We're in the discovery phase. I know there's a date certain for the three cases in the New York State Supreme Court, and I believe there's a date certain for one of the two arbitrations. I expect these will take place before the new year."

About the possibility of auditing Green Linnet Records, Donnelly added: "We requested a formal audit, and we've hired auditors to do one. Chris Teskey [Green Linnet's chief operating officer] always told me that their books and records are open to us any time. Well, now's the time to prove it."


Thanks, Lila!

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:36 AM | Get permalink



Friday, October 17, 2003

It's Flashback Friday...

...over at Wampum, where MB's look at 1991 focuses on Bush the First's problems with the economy.

DEMOCRATS HOPE TO SHOW BUSH HAS SHORTCHANGED HOME FRONT
Adam Pertman, Boston Globe
October 20, 1991

CONCORD, N.H. -- In a nutshell, this is how the Democratic presidential candidates plan to confront President Bush's widely perceived advantage in the field of foreign affairs:

"He has a domestic policy for China, he has a domestic policy for the Soviet Union. . . . He just doesn't have a domestic policy for America. Perhaps it's time to have a president who pays attention to us for a change. Us, spelled US."

The words are from Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, but a...

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:50 PM | Get permalink



Oh lovely.

One of the top generals in Iraq says that US troops may be there until 2006.

Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:44 PM | Get permalink



Gov. Gropenator: Stranger than fiction?

Given that Arnold Schwarzenegger made much of his name for portraying a cyborg cop from the future, science fiction writers probably have some interesting things to say about him becoming governor of California, right? That's what the editor of the online SF magazine Infinite Matrix thought. You can judge for yourself whether she was right if you go here.

Magpie was impressed with what Ursula LeGuin had to say:

I have to confess that I am way too sad and scared by what happened in California to be pithy or pissy or cute or anything useful. Satire is great stuff, but how do you satirize something like this, a man who is a caricature to begin with?

This doesn't make me think of science fiction. It makes me think of history — those Roman emperors who were very popular to begin with and were self-centered idiot monsters, like Caligula. The cynicism of the voters, that scares me a lot. Cynicism gets you Hitlers, big ones and little ones. We're halfway to a capitalist-corporate nazism right now, and I don't see the opposition building anywhere near fast enough to reassure me that we can overturn the coup d'etat that Bush-Cheney & Co pulled off three years ago.

It really is rather hard to be funny about this, isn't it? — as the mastodon said to the saber-toothed tiger in the La Brea Tar Pit....

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:07 AM | Get permalink



German crow laid low by Demon Alcohol.

Magpie's continuing quest for the most up to date corvid news brings us this story:

German police apprehended a vicious crow which was attacking passers-by by getting it drunk on bait laced with alcohol.

The bird eluded its captors after attacking a woman and a young girl at the weekend until cat food soaked in high-alcohol fruit schnapps proved too tempting to resist.

"The crow was completely smashed," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Dortmund.

Police said the crow was sleeping off its hangover in a local animal home.


Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink



Thursday, October 16, 2003

Those billions that Dubya 'needs' for Iraq.

The Congressional Research Service says that the administration already has enough money to pay for US operations in Iraq into next May. That US $87 billion that Dubya has asked Congress to approve? It seems that the most likely reason for Dubya's request is his desire not to have to ask for money for Iraq during his re-election campaign next year.

For more, see this article at the Daily Mis-Lead.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:52 PM | Get permalink



Mixing church and state war.

Dubya's administration continues to choose winners when it makes appointments.

The current embarrassment for the White House is the recently appointed undersecretary of defense, Lt. Gen. William Boykin. It turns out that Boykin is an evangelical Christian who's been making speeches in which he compares the 'war on terror' to a war on Satan.

Here are some examples of Boykin's rhetoric, the first from a speech to a church group in Oregon this past June:

"Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan."

Why are terrorists out to destroy the United States? Boykin said: "They’re after us because we’re a Christian nation.”


And a story that Boykin tells about a Somali fighter who had bragged that US forces couldn't catch him because he was under the protection of his god:

"Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol."

The Somali was captured, and Boykin said he told the man: "Mr. Atto, you underestimated our God."


But Boykin is scariest, in Magpie's opinion, when he talks about Dubya:

"Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."

And Magpie just had to roll our eyes at this quote from NBC, where Boykin tells them that he's stopped making these war on terror = war on Satan comparisons because of his new Defense Department job:

“I don’t want … to be misconstrued. I don’t want to come across as a right-wing radical.”

This is so typical of Dubya's administration: a concern with appearances rather than reality. We seriously doubt that just because Boykin stops saying publicly that the US is involved in a fight against Satan, that he has stopped believing that such is the case. And that his belief won't figure into decisions that he makes.

And from the Aussie press, there's this response to Boykin's remarks in an article in the Melbourne paper, The Age:

"The first lesson is to recognise that whatever we say here is heard there, particularly anything perceived to be hostile to their basic religion, and they don't forget it," said Stephen Cohen, a member of a panel set up to study policy in the Arab and Muslim world for the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.

"The phrase Judeo-Christian is a big mistake. It's basically the language of bin Laden and his supporters," said Mr Cohen, the president of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development in New York.

"They are constantly trying to create the impression that the Jews and Christians are getting together to beat up on Islam. We have to be very careful that this doesn't become a clash between religions, a clash of civilisations."


The cartoon that The Age put near the bottom of the article sums the whole issue up nicely, Magpie thinks.

More: The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for Boykin's reassignment to other duties:

"Putting a man with such extremist views in a critical policy-making position sends entirely the wrong message to a Muslim world that is already skeptical about America's motives and intentions," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

"Everyone is entitled to their own religious beliefs, no matter how ill-informed or bigoted, but those beliefs should not be allowed to color important decisions that need to be made in the war on terrorism. General Boykin should be reassigned to a position in which he will not be able to harm our nation's image or interests."

Awad said Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews. He noted that Arabic language Bibles use the word "Allah" when referring to God and quoted the Quran, Islam's revealed text, which states: "Say ye: 'We believe in God and the revelation given to us and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another of them and it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves.'" (Quran, 2:136)

"We call on Americans of all faiths to reject any attempts to turn the war on terrorism into a religious crusade. President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld should also take this opportunity to further distance themselves from those who actively promote the clash of civilizations and religions," said Awad.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:34 PM | Get permalink



How the White House orchestrated support for the Iraq war.

The full story is here, on the website for US News & World Report. It's a 56-page report prepared by retired US Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, who has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, Air War College and Naval War College. He runs down all of the lies, and explains why Dubya's administration told them.

You want the links to the PDF files in the Web.Extras box. It's a lot of clicking, waitng for files to download, and reading, but it's really worth the trouble.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:40 AM | Get permalink



Action alert for Portland (OR) readers.

Magpie thanks Rowan at Uncommon Thought Journal for passing along this information:

The Portland City Council will be hearing a resolution criticizing the most egregious portions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Portland would join close to 200 local jurisdictions across the country to take a stand against the USA PATRIOT Act.

We need you to take immediate action. We understand that Portland City Council will be taking the resolution under consideration on Wednesday, October 29. Before that time, they need to hear from all of us in urging them to support the Anti-Patriot Resolution. Apparently Lars Larson has been urging listeners of his radio show to oppose it and City Council is only hearing from opponents.

Please call the Commissioners today and urge them to support a strong version of the anti-PATRIOT resolution.

Portland, Oregon City Council: 1221 SW 4th Ave Portland, OR 97204

Mayor Vera Katz Rm 340 Ph 503-823-4120 fax 503-823-3588 (mayorkatz@ci.portland.or.us)

Commissioner Jim Francesconi Rm 220 Ph 503-823-3008 fax 503-823-3017 (jfrancesconi@ci.portland.or.us)

Commissioner Dan Saltzman Rm 230 Ph 503-823-4151 fax 503-823-3036 (dsaltzman@ci.portland.or.us)

Commissioner Erik Sten Rm 240 Ph 503-823-3589 fax 503-823-3596 (Esten@ci.portland.or.us)

Commissioner Randy Leonard Rm 210 Ph 503-823-4682 fax 503-823-4019 (rleonard@ci.portland.or.us)

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:31 AM | Get permalink



Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Grocery workers fight healthcare take-backs.

LA Times columnist Steve Lopez points to the unifying factor in the strikes that have hit California in the last week: the cost of health care. Employer-provided health plans are getting more expensive and, instead of taking the rising cost out of corporate profits, employers are choosing to pass the increases on to their workers. Grocery clerks and other blue-collar workers (such as striking southern California transit workers) are being especially reluctant to allow this to happen without a fight.

Strikes over this issue have the potential to undercut any economic recovery in the US — if, as Dubya et al claim, there is a recovery in progress. For example, the grocery clerks' strike over healthcare costs that started in a single grocery chain in California has spread to two other chains because of an employee lock-out. Chain owners are having to deal with a sympathy strike by the Teamsters, which is affecting their ability to get food to their stores. Workers at grocery chains outside California are also on strike or threatening to go out over healthcare costs. (For details, see these articles from California, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri.

The grocery chains are playing hardball, bringing in strikebreakers in California and Missouri, and closing stores in three states.

The big player in this strike — and any strike where healthcare is an issue — is the country's largest employer, WalMart. The mega-retailer refuses to provide affordable healthcare benefits to its workers, many of whose wages don't even get them to the 'official' poverty level.

"The MTA employee and the supermarket employee are examples of what was supposed to be the bedrock of society — working people playing by all the rules and enjoying the benefits," says Kent Wong, director of UCLA's Center for Labor Research and Education.

"Now we have a situation in which the largest employer in the nation — Wal-Mart — refuses to pay full medical care for their workers and families. They are causing a great drain on the public sector, because when their employees get sick, they get treated at public expense."

It's a brilliant management model, though, you have to admit. Ralphs' parent company isn't hurting, Wong says. But why should it continue giving employees the Cadillac of health-care plans when Wal-Mart is setting such a different standard?

"It's an attack on the middle class," says Wong, and part of the continued division of the labor force into haves and have-nots.

"The highly unionized supermarket industry was one of the last areas where workers didn't need a college degree or years of experience and training to buy a home, send their kids to college and enjoy health care."

In other words, your friendly neighborhood grocer may soon have to decide between paying the mortgage and taking the kids to the doctor.

"You've got the growing number of uninsured employers putting pressure on those who are still offering it," says Wong. "It's hard to compete with employers who are offering grossly inferior health care. You could call it a race to the bottom."


The website for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union is here.

The World Socialist website has a critical article on the UFCW's handling of the California strike here.

[Free reg. req'd. for LA Times]

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:11 PM | Get permalink



We just love Tom Tomorrow.

Now more than ever.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:41 AM | Get permalink



This is obscene.

The lead paragraph from a Washington Post article:

President Bush's reelection campaign yesterday reported raising $49.5 million in the third quarter, a decisive record for a three-month period. Since launching his fundraising effort in May, Bush has collected $83.9 million.

If you've ever wondered what it would cost to put the nails in the coffin of democracy in this country, Magpie suggests that the price is at least US $83.9 million.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:31 AM | Get permalink



Managing the news, and making journalists like it.

At the First Amendment Center, Paul McMasters explains how the US government has become a master of news management over ther past few decades. By controlling journalists' access to public officials, and everyone's access to information, the government is increasingly able to ensure that the media conveys mainly the messages that suit the government's purposes. The really pernicious part of this is that, by and large, journalists have cooperated with this — and often enthusiastically participated in 'massaging' the news.

Like many other media critics, McMasters warns how this news management is dangerous not only to the credibility of the press, but to democratic institutions in the US. His article is loaded with examples from the war in Iraq and the 'war on terrorism.'

The press experience in Iraq should come as no surprise. The military was merely borrowing from White House and federal agency information policies that have marked press-government relations for some time. These techniques belong to no particular administration, party or persuasion. They have evolved over the years as the most effective way for government to turn the press to its needs.

Public officials regularly require reporters in the Washington press corps to run a gauntlet of public affairs and other screening mechanisms for even the most routine of interviews. Some will speak only as anonymous sources. Others invoke arcane and slippery definitions of “off the record” and “deep background.” Government wordsmiths vet and revise officials’ quotes before they are released.

White House, department and agency spokespersons are well schooled in the art of staying on message, making no news other than that intended, and reminding reporters who’s in charge. On occasion, they call up network and newspaper executives to warn or scold them about coverage, or publicly harangue reporters who get out of line. Reporters who ask impertinent questions face banishment to the back of the room.

Prime-time presidential press conferences are not viewed as a responsibility to report regularly to the American people, but rather as a tool for advancing an agenda. They have been rare events in the Bush administration. The one just before the war was openly “scripted.” Other presidential “press opportunities” are carefully timed and controlled.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink



Tuesday, October 14, 2003

'We will only have the rule of law in Iran on the day that women are treated the same as men under the law.'

Women's ENews has a very good article on Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi of Iran. Journalist Dan De Luce interviewed Ebadi shortly before she found out she'd won the prize.

By staying above the partisan political arena and using Islam as a basis for her arguments, she poses a dilemma for the theocratic leadership. Married with two grown daughters, her personal life is beyond reproach.

Unlike some political activists, she cannot be accused of treasonous opinions as she is citing the writings of clerics and the Koran itself.

"Islam is not the problem. It is the culture of patriarchy. Some clerics have interpreted Sharia law in a way that discriminates against women," Ebadi said.

According to Ebadi, women are increasingly aware of their rights and unwilling to tolerate the status quo.

"At the beginning, few people knew about these discriminatory laws. Few could understand what I was trying to say," she said. "Now women in parliament, even the ones who wear the chador, think like me," she said, referring to the head-to-toe garment worn by more traditional women. "One reason is that 63 percent of students entering university are women. Before the revolution, it was about 25 percent. That's very important."


More: The Iranian has several good articles about Ebadi, including this one about her commitment to an Islam that embraces human rights; and this one about what Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize means for Iranians living in the US.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:51 PM | Get permalink



Look to the skies.

There's a Chinese taikonaut in orbit up there.

Magpie wishes Yang Liwei a safe return to earth tomorrow.

Magpie also wonders why the BBC is calling Yang an 'astronaut,' instead of using the Chinese 'taikonaut'? We notice that it uses 'cosmonaut' to refer to Russians in space.

Update: The official Chinese newspaper, People's Daily , has a special web page devoted to the flight of China's first spacefarer.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:14 PM | Get permalink



Before the storm?

Over at Wampum, MB has some interesting ideas about the fate of Bush the First and the current uptick in Dubya's poll numbers.

When the previous uptick was released, a curious thought popped into my head; it's the Schwartzenegger effect. The LA Times had just broken the story of allegations of sexual harassment, and deep inside, I just knew Americans, unwilling to accept the accusations as anything but a dirty, last minute smear campaign, were transferring their defense of Arnold onto the Republicans as a whole, and the party's standardbearer, George W. Bush, in particular. While the Times held the story until it had strong corroboration, the alleged victims of harassment by Schwartzenegger became the villains, as Americans ran straight into their own prejudices regarding the accusation of sexual assault and/or harassment. Arnold reaped the benefits of that squeamishness, even amongst Democratic women, and came away with the governorship. Bush, somewhat removed from the recall fiasco, was still able to bask in the glow of a Republican victory, in spite of what his minions asserted was merely partisan dirty pool.

Like Magpie is always saying: go over and read the whole post.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:09 PM | Get permalink



Those 'canned' letters from US soldiers in Iraq.

Counterspin continues to do an excellent job of staying on top of developments.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:11 AM | Get permalink



A military state?

Here's the concluding paragraph of George Monbiot's UK Guardian article about how the military has been moving closer to the center of US politics.

But in America, the armed forces, whether they want it or not, are being dragged into the heart of political life. A mature democracy is in danger of turning itself into a military state.

Magpie strongly suggests reading the rest. The article is somewhat alarmist, but the points it makes need to be taken seriously, whether one agrees with Monbiot's overall argument or not.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink



Monday, October 13, 2003

Here's a question for you.

If you were a wire service editor, would you have sent out this picture of Dubya?

Just for the record, Magpie isn't sure what we would have decided. (What really bothers us is that fact that the photojournalist took the picture in the first place.)

Via Daily Kos.

Update: This photo is only the most recent of its type. Bitter Shack has the whole series.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:43 PM | Get permalink



Those date trees in Iraq.

You remember: the trees that US troops have been bulldozing in order to punish Iraqi farmers for not providing information on guerrillas operating in their areas? Riverbend at Baghdad Burning has more info on the trees' significance, as well as an unpleasant comparison.

One of the most famous streets in Baghdad is ‘shari3 il mattar’ or ‘The Airport Street’. It is actually two streets- one leading to Baghdad Airport and the other leading from it, into Baghdad. The streets are very simple and plain. Their magnificence lay in the palm trees growing on either side, and in the isle separating them. Entering Baghdad from the airport, and seeing the palm trees enclosing you from both sides, is a reminder that you have entered the country of 30 million palms.

Soon after the occupation, many of the palms on these streets were hacked down by troops for ‘security reasons’. We watched, horrified, as they were chopped down and dragged away to be laid side by side in mass graves overflowing with brown and wilting green. Although these trees were beautiful, no one considered them their livelihood. Unlike the trees Patrick Cockburn describes in Dhuluaya.

Several orchards in Dhuluaya are being cut down… except it’s not only Dhuluaya… it’s also Ba’aquba, the outskirts of Baghdad and several other areas. The trees are bulldozed and trampled beneath heavy machinery. We see the residents and keepers of these orchards begging the troops to spare the trees, holding up crushed branches, leaves and fruit- not yet ripe- from the ground littered with a green massacre. The faces of the farmers are crushed and amazed at the atrocity. I remember one wrinkled face holding up 4 oranges from the ground, still green (our citrus fruit ripens in the winter) and screaming at the camera- “Is this freedom? Is this democracy?!” And his son, who was about 10, stood there with tears of rage streaming down his cheeks and quietly said, “We want 5 troops dead for each tree they cut down… five troops.” A “terrorist”, perhaps? Or a terrorized child who had to watch his family’s future hacked down in the name of democracy and freedom?

Patrick Cockburn says that Dhuluaya is a Sunni area- which is true. Sunnis dominate Dhuluaya. What he doesn’t mention is that the Khazraji tribe, whose orchards were assaulted, are a prominent Shi’a tribe in Iraq.

For those not interested in reading the article, the first line summarizes it perfectly, “US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.”

…which reminds me of another line from an article brought to my attention yesterday…
“A dozen years after Saddam Hussein ordered the vast marshes of southeastern Iraq drained, transforming idyllic wetlands into a barren moonscape to eliminate a hiding place for Shiite Muslim political opponents…”

Déjà vu, perhaps? Or maybe the orchards differ from the marshlands in that Saddam wasn’t playing jazz when he dried up the marshlands…

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:32 PM | Get permalink



The Texas redistricting mess.

Republican governor Rick Perry has signed the redistricting bill into law. With the new boundaries, the GOP is expected to pick up five to seven of the state's congressional seats in the 2004 elections.

Democrats are already planning a court challenge against the new districts.

Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:44 PM | Get permalink



The Damocles model.

It's an economic model used by Lehman Brothers to determine how likely a particular country's economy is to fall into a financial crisis. Usually this model is applied to developing countries, but it can also be applied (with caveats) to advanced economies. As economist Paul Krugman points out in his current NY Times column, the Damocles model is waring of potentially serious problems in the US economy.

Krugman is careful to point out that there are significant structural and institutional differences in the economies and politics of a country like the US and those of, say, an African or Asian country that needs help from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund. So even though some of the same problems are showing up in the US economy as appeared in Argentina and Indonesia before their economies nosedived, that doesn't mean the same thing will happen in the States. However, the various reassuring counterarguments to warnings of a US financial crisis give Krugman little comfort.

{T]here's no question that the U.S. has the resources to climb out of its financial hole. The question is whether it has the political will.

There is now a huge structural gap — that is, a gap that won't go away even if the economy recovers — between U.S. spending and revenue. For the time being, borrowing can fill that gap. But eventually there must be either a large tax increase or major cuts in popular programs. If our political system can't bring itself to choose one alternative or the other — and so far the commander in chief refuses even to admit that we have a problem — we will eventually face a nasty financial crisis.

The crisis won't come immediately. For a few years, America will still be able to borrow freely, simply because lenders assume that things will somehow work out.

But at a certain point we'll have a Wile E. Coyote moment. For those not familiar with the Road Runner cartoons, Mr. Coyote had a habit of running off cliffs and taking several steps on thin air before noticing that there was nothing underneath his feet. Only then would he plunge.

What will that plunge look like? It will certainly involve a sharp fall in the dollar and a sharp rise in interest rates. In the worst-case scenario, the government's access to borrowing will be cut off, creating a cash crisis that throws the nation into chaos.

I know: it all sounds unbelievable. But would you have believed, three years ago, that the U.S. budget would plunge so quickly from a record surplus to a record deficit? And would you have believed that, confronted with that plunge, our leaders would offer excuses rather than solutions?


There is a good description of Lehman Brothers' Damocles model in this news story about Taiwan.

[Free reg. req'd.]

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:37 PM | Get permalink



Light blogging today.

Magpie is very busy outside the blogosphere.

While we're being so neglectful of our readers, make sure to go by Counterspin for the latest on those 'canned' letters from US soldiers in Iraq. (Also see this Magpie post.)

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:03 PM | Get permalink



Sunday, October 12, 2003

Israel's nuclear submarines.

At Daily Kos, Meteor Blades has an excellent post analyzing the implications of Israel's capability to launch nuclear weapons from its three German-built submarines.

Nobody should doubt that Israel would take out Iran’s nuclear capabilities. It destroyed the Iraqi reactor at Osirak in 1981. Pre-emptive strikes produce no squeamishness in Tel Aviv. Whether Israel is being “encouraged” in this direction by the United States or moving on its own can be debated endlessly with no resolution.

The question is what the diplomatic and military fallout will be if it does send its jets against Iran. Tehran has warned that Israel would pay a heavy price for such an attack. Many moderate Muslims who saw the Afghan-Taliban attack as justified, the Iraq attack as far less so, likely would see such a move against Iran by Israel – already regarded as a U.S. puppet - as clear evidence that America really is engaged in a crusade not against terrorists but Islam itself.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:12 AM | Get permalink



Forward into the past.

Since Wampum is snowed under and had to miss Flashback Friday this week, Magpie figured we'd pick up the slack and make our own visit to 1991. Since we're in Portland, Oregon — not Portland, Maine, like MB — we figured we'd look at newspapers from the west coast instead of the east coast papers she uses for Flashback Friday.

Casualties Mount in Battle for Afghan City
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Oct 1991

Hundreds of Muslim guerrillas have been killed in monthlong fighting against the Communist government for control of this strategic eastern city, hometown of embattled President Najibullah....

Allies Quit Northern Iraq Despite Kurdish Clashes
Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct 1991

Allied troops Thursday completed their withdrawal from the Iraqi border with Turkey, winding down their Kurdish support mission despite heavy clashes around the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah.

As locals scavenged wood and leftovers from the dusty site of the base near the Turkish town of Silopi, Lt. Col. Jerry Guess, a U.S. military spokesman, said the Iraqi Kurds are not being abandoned....

AT&T to Lay Off 300
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Oct 1991

Little Rock, AR - American Telephone & Telegraph Co. will lay off about a third of the employees at its computer manufacturing plant here, the communications giant said yesterday. About 300 people will be laid off over the next several months because of "current business conditions and changes in production forecasts...''

Baby Bells Not Ready to Launch Info Services
Seattle Times, 11 Oct 1991

New York - Though the nation's seven regional "Baby Bell" companies have won the right to immediately start providing information services, they say it could be months before they actually enter the business.

They also admit that despite years of fighting for the right, they don't know which services will prove popular or profitable.

The phone companies envision testing a multitude of services to homes and businesses over their lines, such as sports scores, news, weather reports and an electronic version of the Yellow Pages....

Microsoft's Profits and Sales Soar
Seattle Times, 11 Oct 1991

The Microsoft juggernaut rolls onward.

Redmond-based Microsoft yesterday reported its quarterly profits grew a whopping 64 percent over the same period a year earlier, while sales weren't far behind with a 57 percent gain....

Popularity of Arms Cut Plan Hasn't Raised Bush Ratings
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Oct 1991

Although President Bush's recent announcement of a unilateral reduction in nuclear forces was hailed as a breakthrough, it has apparently had little positive impact on Americans' overall opinions about his presidency....

Bush Aides Still Pondering Health Care Reform
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Oct 1991

Top Bush administration officials defended themselves yesterday against criticism that the White House is ignoring the nation's health care problems by failing to propose comprehensive reform.

"We will have our comprehensive plan in due course,'' White House budget director Richard Darman told members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

He said he personally hopes the administration will propose a plan before the 1992 election, but in any event, "I suspect we'll all be at a signing ceremony in the second Bush administration term....''

Bush Vetoes Bill to Extend Unemployment Benefits
Seattle Times, 11 Oct 1991

Washington - President Bush today vetoed a $6.4 billion bill that would have provided up to 20 additional weeks of unemployment benefits, calling it a "poorly designed, unnecessarily expensive program...."

Jobless-Benefit Applications Rise Again
Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct 1991

New applications for unemployment insurance benefits rose again in late September, the Labor Department said Thursday, as the recovery remained too weak to boost employment....

Fewer From Other States Migrating to California / Recession's poor job market blamed
San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Oct 1991

The phenomenal migration from other states that helped give California record population increases in the late 1980s has fallen dramatically because of the recession....

2nd Woman Expected to Testify Against Thomas
Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct 1991

In a highly charged confrontation to be played out today before a national television audience, a second woman who worked with Clarence Thomas is expected to join law professor Anita Faye Hill in telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Supreme Court nominee made sexual comments to her while they worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission....

Subtle, Secret Sexual Harassment Prevails in Workplace, Experts Say
Seattle Times, 11 Oct 1991

Sexual harassment - usually secret and subtle - is alive and well in the workplace, say those who hear the complaints. Often it goes unreported out of fear, lack of proof and lack of money.

It runs the gamut from profanity and constant leering to not-so-accidental rubbing shoulders in the hall to blatant demands for sex in exchange for favorable job situations. Occasionally, it's physical assault - grabbing breasts or buttocks....

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:18 AM | Get permalink




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