World Condemns North Korea Nuclear Test

By VOA News 25 May 2009
The international community responded swiftly with outrage and condemnation on Monday to reports of North Korea's nuclear test and firing of three short-range missiles.
President Barack Obama (file photo)U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's actions are violations of international law that constitute a "threat to international peace and security." Mr. Obama said North Korea's activities warrant action by the international community. The top U.S. military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, said the North Korean tests were not a surprise and are part of what he called growing belligerence on the part of Pyongyang. Mullen told CNN that it could take a couple of days to verify the test, but he had no reason to doubt North Korea's claims.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply worried and that any nuclear test would be a clear violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning North Korea from such acts. He said he plans to consult with the Council when it meets in a special session later Monday.North Korea says it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test that was more powerful than the country's first test two-and-a-half years ago. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reports that North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles in the hours after the nuclear test. Seismologists from around the world reported a tremor in northeast North Korea, near where Pyongyang conducted its first test in October 2006.Russia's Defense Ministry said the nuclear explosion had a force of up to 20 kilotons, the same size as the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. South Korean officials called Pyongyang's actions a "serious threat to peace and stability" in the region. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session immediately after news broke of the nuclear test. The Chinese government said it is "resolutely opposed" to its communist neighbor and ally's actions. It also urged Pyongyang to avoid actions that sharpen tensions.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (file)The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that six-party talks on North Korea are the only solution to the crisis.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana threatened a "firm response" to what he called "irresponsible acts" by North Korea.The Japanese government said it has set up a task force at the crisis management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office.Last month, North Korea threatened to restart reprocessing work at its once closed Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move was a response to international criticism of its April launch of a rocket it says was fired to put a satellite into space. The United States and other countries believe the rocket was a test launch for a ballistic missile.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
By VOA News 25 May 2009
The international community responded swiftly with outrage and condemnation on Monday to reports of North Korea's nuclear test and firing of three short-range missiles.
President Barack Obama (file photo)U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's actions are violations of international law that constitute a "threat to international peace and security." Mr. Obama said North Korea's activities warrant action by the international community. The top U.S. military official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, said the North Korean tests were not a surprise and are part of what he called growing belligerence on the part of Pyongyang. Mullen told CNN that it could take a couple of days to verify the test, but he had no reason to doubt North Korea's claims.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is deeply worried and that any nuclear test would be a clear violation of a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution banning North Korea from such acts. He said he plans to consult with the Council when it meets in a special session later Monday.North Korea says it successfully conducted an underground nuclear test that was more powerful than the country's first test two-and-a-half years ago. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also reports that North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles in the hours after the nuclear test. Seismologists from around the world reported a tremor in northeast North Korea, near where Pyongyang conducted its first test in October 2006.Russia's Defense Ministry said the nuclear explosion had a force of up to 20 kilotons, the same size as the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. South Korean officials called Pyongyang's actions a "serious threat to peace and stability" in the region. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency security session immediately after news broke of the nuclear test. The Chinese government said it is "resolutely opposed" to its communist neighbor and ally's actions. It also urged Pyongyang to avoid actions that sharpen tensions.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (file)The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that six-party talks on North Korea are the only solution to the crisis.European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana threatened a "firm response" to what he called "irresponsible acts" by North Korea.The Japanese government said it has set up a task force at the crisis management center of Prime Minister Taro Aso's office.Last month, North Korea threatened to restart reprocessing work at its once closed Yongbyon nuclear complex. The move was a response to international criticism of its April launch of a rocket it says was fired to put a satellite into space. The United States and other countries believe the rocket was a test launch for a ballistic missile.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

4 Arrested in New York Terror Plot

May 20, 2009, 10:55 pm
By Sewell Chan
Federal authorities arrested four men on Wednesday night on charges of plotting to bomb a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and to use antiaircraft missiles to shoot down military planes at a military base in Newburgh, N.Y., 60 miles north of New York City.
The charges, which include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo camp in Cuba.
The four defendants — whom federal authorities identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, in Orange County — are expected to appear in Federal District Court in White Plains, in Westchester County, on Thursday morning.
(See related criminal complaint and the United States attorney’s press release, both in PDF form.)
Lev L. Dassin, the acting United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement on Wednesday night that “the defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks.”
He added: “They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans. Fortunately, the defendants sought the assistance of a witness cooperating with the government. While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real.”
Political leaders responded to the news of the arrests with statements expressing relief.
“While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were – unbeknownst to them – fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that he had spoken with the New York office of the F.B.I. and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
“They have told me they have been monitoring this group for sometime and that the men arrested did not have any connection to other terrorists,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism foreign or domestic.”
See---http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com

Sudan President al-Bashir defies arrest warrant with trip to Eritrea

Sudan's president travelled to Eritrea on Monday, choosing one of Africa's most politically isolated nations for his first trip abroad since an international court sought his arrest on charges of war crimes in Darfur.

Last Updated: 8:44AM GMT 24 Mar 2009

The ICC charged al-Bashir on March 4 of leading a counter-insurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities Photo: AFP
The one-day visit followed Eritrea's official invitation to Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.
Eritrean television showed live coverage of al-Bashir being greeted at the airport in the Eritrean capital Asmara by his counterpart President Isaias Afwerki, along with drummers and dancers. Sudanese state television later showed live images of al-Bashir returning to Khartoum.

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Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said the visit was "important" and reflected Eritrean "solidarity ... with Sudan against the ICC." Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told The Associated Press that al-Bashir was accompanied by heads of security and intelligence and was there to discuss regional security.
The ICC charged al-Bashir on March 4 of leading a counter-insurgency against Darfur rebels that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. His government has been accused of unleashing Arab militiamen against Darfur civilians in a drive to put down a revolt by ethnic Africans in the region.
Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the conflict since 2003, according to the U.N.
Under the ICC charter, member states are bound to arrest those indicted when they enter their territory. Eritrea is not a signatory, however, and has vehemently condemned the indictment, making it a safe haven for al-Bashir to visit.
"It's unjustifiable and illegal and illogical and futile, the so-called ICC decision," said Mr Abdu. "We believe it's an extension and symptom of the ongoing world hegemony and domination by a few powers in this world."

The Harlem Miracle

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: May 7, 2009
The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. You go visit an inner-city school, job-training program or community youth center and you meet incredible people doing wonderful things. Then you look at the results from the serious evaluations and you find that these inspiring places are only producing incremental gains.
That’s why I was startled when I received an e-mail message from Roland Fryer, a meticulous Harvard economist. It included this sentence: “The attached study has changed my life as a scientist.”
Fryer and his colleague Will Dobbie have just finished a rigorous assessment of the charter schools operated by the Harlem Children’s Zone. They compared students in these schools to students in New York City as a whole and to comparable students who entered the lottery to get into the Harlem Children’s Zone schools, but weren’t selected.
They found that the Harlem Children’s Zone schools produced “enormous” gains. The typical student entered the charter middle school, Promise Academy, in sixth grade and scored in the 39th percentile among New York City students in math. By the eighth grade, the typical student in the school was in the 74th percentile. The typical student entered the school scoring in the 39th percentile in English Language Arts (verbal ability). By eighth grade, the typical student was in the 53rd percentile.
Forgive some academic jargon, but the most common education reform ideas — reducing class size, raising teacher pay, enrolling kids in Head Start — produce gains of about 0.1 or 0.2 or 0.3 standard deviations. If you study policy, those are the sorts of improvements you live with every day. Promise Academy produced gains of 1.3 and 1.4 standard deviations. That’s off the charts. In math, Promise Academy eliminated the achievement gap between its black students and the city average for white students.

Let me repeat that. It eliminated the black-white achievement gap. “The results changed my life as a researcher because I am no longer interested in marginal changes,” Fryer wrote in a subsequent e-mail. What Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone’s founder and president, has done is “the equivalent of curing cancer for these kids. It’s amazing. It should be celebrated. But it almost doesn’t matter if we stop there. We don’t have a way to replicate his cure, and we need one since so many of our kids are dying — literally and figuratively.”
These results are powerful evidence in a long-running debate. Some experts, mostly surrounding the education establishment, argue that schools alone can’t produce big changes. The problems are in society, and you have to work on broader issues like economic inequality. Reformers, on the other hand, have argued that school-based approaches can produce big results. The Harlem Children’s Zone results suggest the reformers are right. The Promise Academy does provide health and psychological services, but it helps kids who aren’t even involved in the other programs the organization offers.
To my mind, the results also vindicate an emerging model for low-income students. Over the past decade, dozens of charter and independent schools, like Promise Academy, have become no excuses schools. The basic theory is that middle-class kids enter adolescence with certain working models in their heads: what I can achieve; how to control impulses; how to work hard. Many kids from poorer, disorganized homes don’t have these internalized models. The schools create a disciplined, orderly and demanding counterculture to inculcate middle-class values.
To understand the culture in these schools, I’d recommend “Whatever It Takes,” a gripping account of Harlem Children’s Zone by my Times colleague Paul Tough, and “Sweating the Small Stuff,” a superb survey of these sorts of schools by David Whitman.
Basically, the no excuses schools pay meticulous attention to behavior and attitudes. They teach students how to look at the person who is talking, how to shake hands. These schools are academically rigorous and college-focused. Promise Academy students who are performing below grade level spent twice as much time in school as other students in New York City. Students who are performing at grade level spend 50 percent more time in school.

They also smash the normal bureaucratic strictures that bind leaders in regular schools. Promise Academy went through a tumultuous period as Canada searched for the right teachers. Nearly half of the teachers did not return for the 2005-2006 school year. A third didn’t return for the 2006-2007 year. Assessments are rigorous. Standardized tests are woven into the fabric of school life.
The approach works. Ever since welfare reform, we have had success with intrusive government programs that combine paternalistic leadership, sufficient funding and a ferocious commitment to traditional, middle-class values. We may have found a remedy for the achievement gap. Which city is going to take up the challenge? Omaha? Chicago? Yours?

Brooklyn bodega owner Salah Ahmed found guilty of attacking teen with hammer

BY Scott Shifrel AND Dave Goldiner DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn bodega owner was found guilty Wednesday of attacking a teen with a hammer in a wild fracas inside the East New York corner store.
Salah Ahmed, 36, faces up to 25 years behind bars for pounding Bunkless Bovian, 16, unconscious in a fight with another store clerk on April 14, 2008.
Ahmed, who prayed to himself moments before the jury read its verdict, looked stunned as he was taken into custody.
"We're obviously disappointed," defense lawyer David Epstein said.
"The verdict was against the weight of the evidence."
The panel of eight men and four women took just five hours to convict Ahmed of first-degree assault, which carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison.
A videotape of the fight showed Bovian and a pal fighting with a clerk, whom they accused of insulting them.
The argument woke up Ahmed, who was napping in a back room. He came out and whacked Bovian once in the head with a hammer.
The teen was placed in a medically-induced coma, but has mostly recovered.
He testified that his speech is still slurred, he suffers from headaches and he is no longer a star basketball player.
Ahmed was ordered held without bail until a May 28 sentencing.
The conviction was the latest stunning setback for Ahmed.
He confidently believed he would be cleared in the case because the video showed he was coming to the aid of the clerk.

See--http://harlemvoiceblogs.blogspot.com

I started fight, sez pal of hammer vic

By Scott Shifrel
Tuesday, April 28th 2009, 4:00 AM
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A teen whose pal was critically injured when a Brooklyn bodega clerk hit him in the head with a hammer last year admitted to jurors Monday that he helped sparked the melee.
Joshua Bloomfield, 16, went behind the counter to confront another clerk who said something about his mother, he told jurors in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
"I went back there and said what I had to say to him," said Bloomfield, later adding that he pleaded guilty in family court to assault in connection with the April 13, 2008, fracas.
"He put his hands on me - I grabbed him back."
The clerk then punched him, Bloomfield punched back and within seconds the clerk was threatening him with a knife and a 2-foot long stick, the youth testified. Another clerk, Salah Ahmed, 36, is charged with running out of a backroom of the East New York bodega and hitting Bloomfield's friend Bunkless Bovian in the head with a hammer.
"I heard Bunkless get hit, I heard him make a sound," Bloomfield said, adding that his friend walked outside before collapsing

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 26, 7:59 pm ET
GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases, and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
The six Canadian cases in Nova Scotia and British Columbia all had links to people who had traveled to Mexico, and all are the same swine flu strain. The six people have recovered, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
But "these are probably not the last cases we'll see in Canada," he said.
The news follows the World Health Organization's decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a "public health emergency of international concern."
A senior World Health Organization official said the agency's emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the spread of the virus before deciding whether to increase the alert for a possible pandemic, or global epidemic.
The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security.
Mexico's health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
See-.http://harlemvoiceblogs.blogspot.com/

US-POLITICS Summary

Reuters Friday, April 17, 2009; 11:04 PM
Obama reaches out to Cuba in new pitch to Americas
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to seek a "new beginning" in ties with communist-ruled Cuba as part of a new era of U.S. partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. Before addressing his counterparts in the hemisphere at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, Obama also initiated a handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most virulent critics in the region.

Clinton says U.S. welcomes Cuba's "overtures"
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Washington welcomed "overtures" from Cuban President Raul Castro, hours after he said his country was open for talks with the United States about "everything." "We have seen Raul Castro's comments and we welcome his overtures," Clinton told reporters in the Dominican Republic.

Obama stands next to Mexico in war on drugs
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama stood alongside Mexico's Felipe Calderon on Thursday and promised to help his "courageous" fight against ruthless drug cartels waging turf wars along the joint border. In his first trip to Latin America as U.S. president and fresh from his first big foray onto the global stage in Europe last month, Obama said Mexico and the United States both needed to strengthen and coordinate their drug war efforts.
From washingtonpost.com

Boon for tenants bane for landlords

BY Barbara Ross DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 5th 2009, 4:00 AM

More than 300,000 New York tenants could reap the rewards of a major court ruling that bars landlords who got special tax breaks from pushing apartments out of rent control.
The ruling found thousands of tenants have been overpaying for years and may be entitled to huge refunds.
Landlords, who are appealing the case, worry that if the ruling stands, they could face bankruptcy while shelling out refunds and lowering rents.

The ruling is rippling across major apartment complexes citywide from the Riverton Houses in Harlem to Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town below midtown.
The exact figure is not known, but officials estimate 350,000 rent stabilized units exist in developments that get tax breaks called J-51.
Those breaks, meant to encourage landlords to pay for necessary repairs, have been in effect for 54 years. Officals estimate that tens of thousands of such units have been deregulated.
Since 2005, tenants of Independence Plaza in Tribeca have battled in court to overturn rent hikes after discovering their landlord was receiving those tax breaks.
In that time, senior citizens like Elizabeth and David Harris watched the rent on their one-bedroom rise steadily. When they recently began receiving Social Security checks, the added income pushed them out of eligibility for a housing subsidy.
"It was frightening. I thought I was going to be out in the street," Elizabeth Harris, 84, said.

"Overnight, it went up by $800 a month. We weren't qualified for anything. I felt so terrible that I couldn't pay my rent," said David Harris, 70.
After the Daily News made calls, the owner, Larry Gluck, agreed to return the elderly couple to rent control-level payments.
But thousands of other tenants in similar circumstances across the city must wait to see if the recent decision stands.
Joseph Strasburg, president of the landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association, called the ruling "a seismic and unprecedented shift in the New York rent regulatory landscape."
The unanimous March 5 decision by the Manhattan Appellate Division directly involves tenants living in 4,400 deregulated apartments in Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town.
Owner Tishman Speyer Properties L.P. and deregulated tenants there have agreed to put all extra rent they pay above the stabilized level into an escrow account until the appeal is resolved.

If the ruling survives, Tishman Speyer will have to roll back rents for deregulated tenants, refund some $200 million in rent overcharges, and abandon plans to deregulate thousands more apartments until the tax abatements expire.
As word of the ruling spreads, tenants and landlords across the city have started calling around to ask what it means for them.
"People are very worried. They're concerned about potential overcharge liabilities, foreclosure," said RSA general counsel Mitch Posilkin.
The RSA tells landlords to "consult with their own attorneys, take stock of potential exposure" and consider following the Tishman Speyer plan of putting excess rents into escrow accounts.
Meanwhile, a group of 15 city and state lawmakers urged the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to notify every tenant in a tax break building of the court decision.
And they urged the agency to temporarily freeze all applications to deregulate more rent stabilized apartments when rents reach $2,000 and household income is $175,000 or more.

"Tenants may lose their homes because they don't know the ramifications of this," state Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) said. "It's DHCR's responsibility to protect the rights of tenants, not just landlords."
The RSA's Posilkin called the ruling "an enormous Pandora's box" and said that if owners must roll back rents and reimburse tenants, he said, the city's housing stock will deteriorate and its tax revenues will drop.
The case returns to the Appellate Division, which will decide whether it can move to the highest court, the Court of Appeals

At last! iPhone 3.0 software to introduce ... copy and paste!

BY Matt Marrone DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Tuesday, March 17th 2009, 5:38 PM
Warga/News
Apple unveiled its 3.0 software for iPhone and iPod Touch on Tuesday.
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For nearly two years, the iPhone was a must-have device with one very conspicuous missing feature: copy and paste.
Not anymore.
Apple unveiled the next generation iPhone and iPod Touch software - version 3.0 - at its Cupertino, Calif., campus Tuesday - and, proving the rumor mill true, announced that the sought-after function will at last appear on the groundbreaking gadget.
Copy and paste - long a baffling omission from the iPhone's operating system - wasn't the only highlight of Tuesday's event, though. Here's just some of what iPhone owners also have to look forward to:
• MMS support: In 3.0, iPhone users can finally send and receive multimedia messages instead of just standard text messages. Up until now, users were limited to emailing photos or uploading them via the Web.
• Homescreen search: A new secondary homescreen that allows users to search for keywords in contacts, emails, calendars and more in one simple interface.
• Push notification: In previous versions of the iPhone software, if users closed an application - other than built-in apps like Mail or iPod - the apps would stop running. Now, through push notification, apps can alert users to updates, new messages, etc., even when the app isn't open.
• Turn-by-turn apps: Another long-awaited feature, Apple will now allow developers to create map features that provide turn-by-turn directions.
• "In-App" purchases: Users can now download features from inside of applications - like additional game levels or eBooks.
• Peer-to-peer connectivity: Using Bluetooth, iPhone users can link up to play games - or pass along their business cards.
Unfortunately, iPhone 3.0 software won't be available until the summer - but you've waited this long, what's another few months?

Google Inc. launches new 'Undo Send' email feature for Gmail users

Google Inc. launches new 'Undo Send' email feature for Gmail users
by Catey Hill daily news staff writer
Friday, March 20th 2009, 5:58 PM
Sabo/News
Ever cranked out an email in a fit of rage, only to regret it later? Hit 'reply all' when you only meant to hit 'reply'? Sent an email to a VIP only to realize seconds later that you didn't attach the file?
These and myriad other email 'situations' can be extradinarily unpleasant. But for Gmail users, many of them can now be a thing of the past.
So those of you who tend to get yourselves into unpleasant email 'situations' every now and then, take note: Gmail has launched an 'undo send' feature.

But there's a catch - you only get five seconds to hit 'undo send.' After that time window, well, you're on your own.
To enable this feature, Turn on 'Undo Send' option in 'Gmail Labs' under 'Settings.'
Now, if the geniuses at Google could only create an 'Undo Send' for all those times you say something that doesn't quite come out right

Immigration crackdown written into the new stimulus law will damage New York's financial sector

ahjo4 Feb 23, 2009 7:01:51 AM Report Offensive Post Let me get this straight Americans are at unemployment levels that are a record they say in decades. The President has signed a Stimulus Bill to put AMERICAN CITIZENS back to work, in the bill is a provision that states any company taking this money must hire Americans first and this paper which is supported by Americans citizens says that hiring H1-B foreign workers before should be acceptable. You people still have NOT GOTTEN IT, this is America if any company claims they cannot find qualified workers here, shouldn't be in business here. It's not surprising that the people on this Editorial Board still wish to put their self-interest and the best interest of the wealthy before the taxpayers who are footing this bill.Shame on you, I can wait for your editorial defending illegal aliens. You people never fail to bite and disappoint the hand that feeds you. I hope you can sell you papers in countries like India, when Americans can't purchase it because they're broke.Shame on you people! From--nydailynews.com ----------

Monday, February 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM
Immigration crackdown written into the new stimulus law will damage New York's financial sectorwill damage New York's financial sector - and must be repealed immediately

Government’s New Online Cancer Risk Tool Omits Minorities

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: February 12, 2009
A new interactive online tool can help older Americans assess their risk for developing colon cancer. The catch is that it only works for whites.
That’s too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening.
The new screening tool, developed by the National Cancer Institute and available at www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk, asks roughly 20 questions, the first two about race and ethnic background.
If the user answers “Hispanic” or “Black or African-American,” a box of red text pops up that says, “At this time the risk calculations and results provided by this tool are only accurate for non-Hispanic white men and women ages 50 to 85.” The text refers readers to another Web site for more information.
“I’m frankly a bit taken aback,” said Gail Christopher, vice president for programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, after being referred to the site by a reporter. “This is not acceptable. N.C.I. can do better.”
N.C.I. officials said they are modifying the risk assessment tool so it will be applicable to blacks, Hispanics and Asians, but said the data they used to test the model’s precision were drawn from studies with mostly older white participants. As a result, they weren’t able to estimate relative risks for people from other racial and ethnic groups, or for those younger than 50.
“It will be more difficult to validate this model in other ethnicities, because data is more difficult to come by,” said Dr. Andrew Freedman, the N.C.I. epidemiologist who authored the risk assessment tool.
But Dr. Christopher said that even if there were insufficient data to develop a tool applicable to all ethnic and racial groups based on existing information, N.C.I. officials “should have at least been more forthright in the opening paragraph and acknowledged the racial disparity with this disease up front, and offered some advice to people who face a greater risk, to perhaps seek out a different form of examination.”
"This was a major faux pas," she added.
After questions of race and ethnic background are settled, the risk assessment tool turns to questions about lifestyle, including how often one gets physical exercise and how many fruits and vegetables one eats (not counting French fries). There are questions about how often one takes aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (with the exception of Tylenol, they reduce the risk of colon cancer), whether there’s any colon cancer in the family, and whether one has been in for a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, which reduces risk.
Men are asked if they smoke, since smoking increases their risk. Women are asked whether they still menstruate or take estrogen, since estrogen is associated with a lower risk.
The risk assessment tool isn’t appropriate for people with Crohn’s disease and some other inherited conditions. A good explanation of the risk factors and protective behaviors can be found at http://www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk/about-tool.aspx.

Obama's Brain Trust

Obama's Brain Trust

Interactive
Your key to the Cabinet
Meet the Cabinet members and key players in the Obama Administration

Interactive
Your key to the Cabinet
Meet the Cabinet members and key players in the Obama Administration

Conflicts overshadow talks on African Union's future

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - The African Union opened a summit Sunday officially devoted to developing transport and energy systems, but dominated by conflicts across the region and division over the bloc's future.
View: Headlines Only Include Summaries Include Photos
Al-Qaeda figure surrenders in Algeria: reports AFP - 57 minutes ago
ALGIERS (AFP) - A leading member of Al-Qaeda's North African branch has surrendered to Algerian authorities, several newspapers reported Sunday, citing security sources.
Africa delays moves towards federal government Reuters - 1 hour, 33 minutes ago
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - African leaders on Sunday again delayed concrete moves toward creating a United States of Africa, despite a long campaign by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Zimbabwe bust brings boom to SAfrican border town AFP - 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
MUSINA, South Africa (AFP) - The Popular Cheap Shop, the Musina Cheap Price Shop and the Bargain Centre: the signboards in South Africa's border town with Zimbabwe don't mince words. Or marketing themes.

Blacks and Latinos make up about 80% stopped and questioned by NYPD, study finds

BY CHRISTINA BOYLE and TINA MOORE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, January 16th 2009, 10:38 AM
Kyte/Getty/Getty Images
As the stats come in for 2008, the NYPD is on pace to have stopped and frisked 500,000 people - 80% of them black or Latino.
The NYPD is on pace to stop and question a record half a million citizens this year - about 80% of them black or Latino, a new report says.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, citing NYPD data obtained in a suit, said the vast majority of those stopped and questioned in 2005 through June 2008 weren't charged with any crime.
In 2007, for instance, the last complete year of data, cops arrested only 5.8% of the 472,096 people they stopped (27,632).
"The New York City Police Department continues to prey on African-American and Latino communities in New York City," Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said.
The center obtained half of the 2008 data but projected that 543,982 people will be stopped in the entire year if the NYPD maintained its pace.
Cops made fewer than 400,000 stops in 2005.
"The problem actually is getting worse," CCR lawyer Darius Charney said.
Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, said the number of minorities who were singled out under the policy is consistent with overall descriptions by race provided by victims and surviving witnesses of crime.
He pointed to a RAND Corp. study that found no racial profiling in its examination, "and warned against the kind of simplistic comparisons made by the center."
"Their assertions do not constitute a study of the data, but a restatement of accusations in its lawsuit," he added.
St. John's University student David Ourlicht, 21, sees it differently. He was stopped on the street three times by cops - once at gunpoint - and never charged with a crime.
The Manhattanite, who is half black and half white, was among 1 million people snagged in the NYPD's stop-and-frisk net since 2005, data released Thursday show.
"It's something that I have to deal with every day," Ourlicht said. "I can't trust the people that are supposed to protect me and that's scary." With Benjamin Lesser
tmoore@nydailynews.

Limbaugh: 'Segregationist' Sen. Reid Barred Burris

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 6:37 PMBy: David A. Patten
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday compared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to infamous Southern segregationists Lester Maddox and George Wallace, because he is blocking the appointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate.
Bristling over how the media has covered the Senate’s refusal to seat Burris, Limbaugh blamed “a few extremist liberal racists and others” for questioning whether President-elect Barack Obama and Burris are “authentically black enough.”
Conservatives, he said, do not think in such terms.
“You’ve got a guy who’s legit, he’s qualified, and according to the Chicago Tribune today he’s ‘authentically black,’” Limbaugh told listeners. “And a bunch of white people would not let him in the door, would not let him use the restroom or the drinking water. Now what are we to make of this?”
Had Republicans refused to seat a legally qualified African-American appointee, Limbaugh said, the media coverage would have been much different.
“If Harry Reid were a Republican … he would have been stoned and pilloried, they would have demanded his ouster for his lack of sensitivity,” Limbaugh charged.

Limbaugh continued his broadside against progressive hypocrisy on matters of race: “They are compassionate and feeling, and they love minorities and they want minorities to excel -- except, except when the minorities get too uppity. And then it’s time to revert to Bull Connor, or, in this case, Lester Maddox.
“What’s the difference in dingy Harry and Lester Maddox? George Wallace? Remember, all these great segregationists of the past are Democrats. It’s in the blood, and it’s showing up on the steps of the United States Senate,” Limbaugh said.
Lester Maddox is the late Georgia governor who defended states’ rights and was considered an advocate for segregation during the Civil Rights era. Bull Connor was the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Ala., who used fire hoses to attack civil-rights marchers. Wallace, a former governor of Alabama, was an opponent of desegregation who ran for the presidency on four occasions.
Limbaugh said that Democrats, by their treatment of Burris, are “in the process of delegitimizing themselves.”
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill the seat vacated by Obama. Limbaugh warned Democrats are on “thin Constitutional ice” in their refusal to accept Burris as a member of the Senate. From Newsmax.com

BAD CHOICE FOR CHANGE

By Melvin Redman

OBAMA CHOICE FOR


SECRETARY OF HOUSING UNDERMINES CHANGE

President elect Obama selected Shaun Donovan for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He is a disciple of Harvard Professor Howard Husock who wrote, America’s Trillion Dollar Housing Mistake: The Failure of America’s Housing Policy. Once Mayor Bloomberg, who is no friend of the poor, appointed him Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner, he sabotaged affordable housing in New York and masqueraded as its friend. Shaun Donovan’s history of destroying affordable homes, bodes ill for the majority of Americans.

As Mayor Bloomberg’s Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development he destroyed affordable housing. He acted as an ice breaker to open “frozen” poor and lower middle class communities in New York City. Provincial politicians created economic undeveloped frozen zones nationwide. They built public housing, or vertical slums, to isolate, not house the poor. Their decisions stifled development and cooled neighborhoods. He and other bureaucrats blamed the poor for destroying neighborhoods and conspired to remove them.

He also cooperated with deceptive landlords and managers to illegally remove tenants. Instead of using his agency to protect the weak, he closed help that centers other H P D commissioners opened to defend tenant rights. An honest cooperative under his department’s supervision is rarer than hens’ teeth. HUD officials exposed corruption at Lenox Terrace, Coop City, and other developments that they investigated before Alfonso Jackson and other corrupt reactionaries took over the agency.

New York State Attorney General Cuomo, Manhattan District Attorney Morgenthau, The Department of Investigation, The Department of Housing and Community Renewal, and black politicians refuse to protect tenants. They sell out their constituents for a trifle. Harlem residents re-elected Charles Rangel eighteen times but he did nothing to protect residents from avaricious landlords.

New York City Housing Court judges also abandoned housing residents during the Bloomberg years. The landlords/tenants court has become completely one sided under the jurisdiction of Administrative Judge Fern Fisher. She refused to post a Bill of Rights in courts. She rationalized that posting it took sides in landlord-tenant cases and denied the posting of any information to help tenants.

I appeared before housing court Judge Marcia Sikowitz after I implored Commissioner Donovan to adhere to the law. She never listened to my case, illegally charged me lawyer fees, and allowed the management at Franklin Plaza to steal my late father’s apartment which could have been prevented if Commissioner Donovan, or Attorney General Cuomo properly protected the public’s interest. Instead, they conspired to rid New York of undesirables and exposed thousands of tenants to intolerant judges.

As the Secretary of HUD, Donovan will push the poor into the streets throughout America in order to build shining cities on hills and create decaying slums in hidden valleys.



mlvnrdmn@yahoo.com

Sen. Malcolm Smith makes Albany history

Sen. Malcolm Smith makes Albany history
BY KENNETH LOVETT and GLENN BLAIN DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU
Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 2:42 AM
ALBANY - After two months of political bickering, Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith is set Wednesday to become the state's first black Senate majority leader.
Three dissident Democrats who held back their support for Smith since Election Day agreed Tuesday to a deal that makes them committee chairmen in exchange for backing Smith.
"We went through a difficult process," Smith said after a closed-door meeting with most of his members.
"This was not easy. Everybody was very passionate about their concerns."
Dissidents Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx), Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) and Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) said they were satisified.
Diaz wouldn't say if he got a commitment he sought that legislation to legalize gay marriage would not be brought to the floor this year for a vote.
"This clearly is a historic day for all of us," said Smith, who'll be the first Senate Democratic majority leader in 43 years.
As for the dissidents, Kruger will head the Finance Committee and Diaz will head the Aging Committee.
Espada Jr. will be vice president of urban policy for the Senate and head of the Housing Committee, among other things.
New Sen. Hiram Monserrate, the Queens Democrat facing a felony assault charge, was named head of the Consumer Protection Committee, though Smith said he will make a decision on his role within a day or two.
klovett@nydailynews.com

Kwanzaa festivities light city

BY KERRY BURKE AND DORIAN BLOCK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, December 27th 2008, 4:00 AM
For thousands of New Yorkers, the end of Christmas Thursday marked the beginning of the seven-day festival of Kwanzaa.
The African-American and Pan-African holiday is observed by more than 40 million people around the world from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. It is based on ancient harvest celebrations in Africa, called "first fruits celebrations," which were mostly held when the year ended and began.
Friday night, dozens met at the St. James Recreation Center on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx for a party of singing, dancing, poetry and food honoring the holiday.
"I grew up with Christmas, but when I heard about Kwanzaa, I felt it was something I wanted to share with my children," said Katherine Beltran, 34, a stay-at-home mother of four. "It brings back the idea of community."
That's the idea, according to the African American Cultural Center in California, whose director, Dr. Maulana Karenga, founded the holiday in 1966.
"It was created to reinforce African culture and restore it and reaffirm its importance and the importance of the bonds of its people," said Tulivu Jadi, assistant director of the center. "It also was created to introduce a body of values as the social glue that hold African-Americans together."
Kwanzaa is often marked by lighting a candleholder called a kinara, gathering with friends and family, gift giving, eating and decorating a home with African cloth and art. The seven principles the holiday celebrates are each represented by one candle in the kinara and include: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
Several Kwanzaa events are scheduled across the city tomorrow. They include:

A Kwanzaa celebration at 2 p.m. at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, at 9 W. 124th St.

The 21st annual Kwanzaa celebration at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at 208 W. 13th St. begins at noon and continues into the night. The event includes an African market, feast and drumming circle.

"Kwanzaa Fest 2008" will be held at the American Museum of Natural History from noon to 5 p.m. The festival features an international market, and singing, drumming, dance and spoken word performances.

On Tuesday, the National Park Service will lead an all-day celebration of art, writing and historical workshops and performances at the African Burial Ground National Monument at 290 Broadway in lower Manhattan, beginning at 11 a.m.

Community centers on edge of ax, leaving leaders worried about kids

BY CLARE TRAPASSO
Monday, December 22nd 2008, 3:55 PM
Smith for News
Joanne Smitherman, of Highbridge Gardens Association speaks at a Community Center Association meeting in Manhattan to figure out how to respond to city Housing Authority's plan to close 19 centers.
Smith for News
Reginald Bowman, president of NYCHA's Citywide Council of Presidents, adds his thoughts.
Smith for News
Smitherman, holds a list of centers slated to be closed.
Happy New Year. Now get out.
Nineteen community centers in public housing developments across the five boroughs are the latest items on the city Housing Authority's chopping block, according to community leaders.
The anticipated closures would eliminate after-school and teen programs for hundreds of the city's poorest children, advocates said.
Without the centers, local leaders fear they'll see a rise in neighborhood crime.
"Where will the kids go?" asked Joanne Smitherman, president of the Highbridge Gardens Residents Association in the Bronx.
"They'll be on the street. That's where you have all the problems."
Smitherman said the Housing Authority told her last month that her center was scheduled to close in early January.
"That meal that we serve in the community center is the only meal [some children] will get that day," she said. "It's going to be devastating."
Earlier this month, the Housing Authority said in a City Council budget hearing that it planned to phase out 18 community centers because of a $150 million budget shortfall.
An additional center is also expected to be closed, according to Reginald Bowman, president of the Citywide Council of Presidents of the New York City Housing Authority, which represents public housing development tenant associations.
The group is working on organizing a protest against the anticipated closures.
The proposed cuts are in addition to the 14 centers the agency shuttered earlier this year.
But NYCHA spokesman Howard Marder said nothing has been finalized.
The agency is looking for other city agencies or community organizations to step in and take over the centers, Marder said.
"If our sister agencies can come in and run a program, this would be an excellent way to keep these facilities open," Marder said. "But this is a plan that's just at the beginning."
Six centers in Manhattan, four each in the Bronx and Brooklyn, three in Queens and two on Staten Island are expected to close in January, according to Bowman.
This could mean pink slips for 236 workers, labor leaders said.

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 22, 9:52 am ET

WASHINGTON – It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going?
But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.
"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."
The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?
None of the banks provided specific answers.
"We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.
Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.
"We manage our capital in its aggregate," said Regions Financial Corp. spokesman Tim Deighton, who said the Birmingham, Ala.-based company is not tracking how it is spending the $3.5 billion it received as part of the financial bailout.
The answers highlight the secrecy surrounding the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which earmarked $700 billion — about the size of the Netherlands' economy — to help rescue the financial industry. The Treasury Department has been using the money to buy stock in U.S. banks, hoping that the sudden inflow of cash will get banks to start lending money.
There has been no accounting of how banks spend that money. Lawmakers summoned bank executives to Capitol Hill last month and implored them to lend the money — not to hoard it or spend it on corporate bonuses, junkets or to buy other banks. But there is no process in place to make sure that's happening and there are no consequences for banks who don't comply.
"It is entirely appropriate for the American people to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent in private industry," said Elizabeth Warren, the top congressional watchdog overseeing the financial bailout.
But, at least for now, there's no way for taxpayers to find that out.
Pressured by the Bush administration to approve the money quickly, Congress attached nearly no strings on the $700 billion bailout in October. And the Treasury Department, which doles out the money, never asked banks how it would be spent.
"Those are legitimate questions that should have been asked on Day One," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., a House Financial Services Committee member who opposed the bailout as it was rushed through Congress. "Where is the money going to go to? How is it going to be spent? When are we going to get a record on it?"
Nearly every bank AP questioned — including Citibank and Bank of America, two of the largest recipients of bailout money — responded with generic public relations statements explaining that the money was being used to strengthen balance sheets and continue making loans to ease the credit crisis.
A few banks described company-specific programs, such as JPMorgan Chase's plan to lend $5 billion to nonprofit and health care companies next year. Richard Becker, senior vice president of Wisconsin-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp., said the $1.75 billion in bailout money allowed the bank to temporarily stop foreclosing on homes.
But no bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money.
"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.
Others said the money couldn't be tracked. Bob Denham, a spokesman for North Carolina-based BB&T Corp., said the bailout money "doesn't have its own bucket." But he said taxpayer money wasn't used in the bank's recent purchase of a Florida insurance company. Asked how he could be sure, since the money wasn't being tracked, Denham said the bank would have made that deal regardless.
Others, such as Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Carissa Ramirez, offered to discuss the matter with reporters on condition of anonymity. When AP refused, Ramirez sent an e-mail saying: "We are going to decline to comment on your story."
Most banks wouldn't say why they were keeping the details secret.
"We're not sharing any other details. We're just not at this time," said Wendy Walker, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Comerica Inc., which received $2.25 billion from the government.
Heine, the New York Mellon Corp. spokesman who said he wouldn't share spending specifics, added: "I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those details."
The banks which came closest to answering the questions were those, such as U.S. Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Inc., that only recently received the money and have yet to spend it. But neither provided anything more than a generic summary of how the money would be spent.
Lawmakers say they want to tighten restrictions on the remaining, yet-to-be-released $350 billion block of bailout money before more cash is handed out. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the department is trying to step up its monitoring of bank spending.
"What we've been doing here is moving, I think, with lightning speed to put necessary programs in place, to develop them, implement them, and then we need to monitor them while we're doing this," Paulson said at a recent forum in New York. "So we're building this organization as we're going."
Warren, the congressional watchdog appointed by Democrats, said her oversight panel will try to force the banks to say where they've spent the money.
"It would take a lot of nerve not to give answers," she said.
But Warren said she's surprised she even has to ask.
"If the appropriate restrictions were put on the money to begin with, if the appropriate transparency was in place, then we wouldn't be in a position where you're trying to call every recipient and get the basic information that should already be in public documents," she said.
Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.
"A year or two ago, when we talked about spending $100 million for a bridge to nowhere, that was considered a scandal," he said.

Microsoft releasing emergency patch for perilous IE flaw

by Glenn Chapman – Tue Dec 16, 5:49 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Microsoft will release an emergency patch on Wednesday to fix a perilous software flaw allowing hackers to hijack Internet Explorer browsers and take over computers.
The US software giant said on Tuesday that in response to "the threat to customers" it immediately mobilized security engineering teams worldwide to deliver a software cure "in the unprecedented time of eight days."
According to researchers at software security firm Trend Micro, attacks based on the vulnerability in the world's most popular Web browser are spreading "like wildfire" with millions of computers already compromised.
Microsoft typically releases patches for its software on the second Tuesday of each month and rushing this fix to computer users out-of-cycle is testimony to the severe danger of the threat, according to Trend Micro.
"When the patch is released people should run, not walk, to get it installed," said Trend Micro advanced threat researcher Paul Ferguson.
"This vulnerability is being actively exploited by cyber-criminals and getting worse every day."
Trend Micro has identified about 10,000 websites that have been infected with malicious software that can be surreptitiously slipped into visitors' unprotected IE browsers to take advantage of the flaw.
A major Internet portal in Taiwan is among the legitimate websites unknowingly tainted with malicious software aimed at IE's weak spot, according to Ferguson.
Hackers can take control of infected computers, steal data, redirect browsers to dubious websites, and use machines for devious activities such as attacks on other networks, according to security specialists.
"What makes this so insidious is it takes advantage of a big gaping hole of IE, which has the largest install base of any browser on the market," Ferguson said.
IE is used on nearly three-quarters of the world's computers, according to industry statistics from November.
"At this time, we are aware only of attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability against Windows Internet Explorer 7," said Microsoft security response communications head Christopher Budd.
"Microsoft encourages customers to test and deploy this update as soon as possible. Microsoft's teams worked around the clock."
Ferguson said the flaw is being taken advantage of in "multiple versions" of IE not just the most current.
Trend Micro urges IE users to heed precautionary advice from Microsoft, or avoid using the browsers, until the patches are applied.
"There is a working flaw circulating in the criminal underground," Ferguson said. "It opens the window of opportunity that much wider to take advantage and there has not been real protection against it."
The "exploit" is similar to one used recently to steal user names, passwords and other information from people playing online games in China, according to Trend Micro.
A Chinese computer security firm that had discovered attacks taking advantage of the IE flaw released details last week after evidently thinking Microsoft had fixed the problem with routinely released software patches.
"It spread like wildfire from there," Ferguson said. "I guess they were trying to be responsible and share what they knew about what was going on, but they were mistaken about it being patched."
Up to 25 Iraqis accused in Saddam party plot

Advocates of blind fault TV skit about NY Governor

ALBANY, N.Y. – A "Saturday Night Live" skit portraying New York's blind governor as a bumbling leader didn't get a laugh from Gov. David Paterson.
Paterson's office said the skit ridiculed people with physical disabilities and implied that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities.
"The governor is sure that 'Saturday Night Live,' with all of its talent, can find a way to be funny without being offensive," Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield said in a statement Sunday. "Knowing the governor, he might even have some suggestions himself."
The skit that aired Saturday featured SNL cast member Fred Armisen as Paterson, who must appoint someone to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton. Armisen said he has three criteria for filling the job: economic experience, upstate influence and someone who is disabled and unprepared for the job — like himself. He held up a chart illustrating the state's job losses upside down.
National Federation of the Blind spokesman Chris Danielsen said the portrayal suggesting Paterson as befuddled and disoriented because of his blindness is "absolutely wrong."
No one from NBC, which produces SNL, could be reached for comment early Monday morning.
From Yahoo News --12-15-08

RAW DATA: Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Responds to Arrest of Gov. Blagojevich

STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN JESSE L. JACKSON, JR. ON THE ARREST OF GOVERNOR BLAGOJEVICH
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I was shocked and saddened to learn that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday by federal law enforcement officials.
The details of the corruption charges were staggering and stunning. If these allegations are proved true, I'm appalled by the pay-to-play schemes hatched at the highest levels of Illinois state government.
I think that I can speak for all Illinois residents when I express outrage at the thought that Illinois' now-vacant senate seat may have been put up for sale, offered to the highest bidder.
Sadly, yesterday's criminal complaint casts another dark cloud over a state already beleaguered by corruption and scandal. Clearly, the people of Illinois deserve better. They deserve to have their trust and confidence in government restored.
In light of yesterday's criminal indictment, I believe that the Governor -- in the best interest of our state -- should resign and forfeit his authority to make the senate appointment. The fact is: anyone appointed by the Governor at this point would be too severely tainted to serve the state effectively and without suspicion in the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, the Governor's fate is in the hands of the justice system. We must allow the process to run its course.
As it does, I want to address the rumors and reports about me and my involvement in this process.
I want to make this fact plain: I reject and denounce pay-to-play politics and have no involvement whatsoever in any wrongdoing.
I did not initiate nor authorize anyone -- at any time -- to promise anything -- to Governor Blagojevich on my behalf. I never sent a message or an emissary to the Governor to make an offer or to propose a deal about the U.S. Senate seat (period).
I thought -- mistakenly -- that the process was fair, above board and on the merits. I thought -- mistakenly -- that the Governor was evaluating me and the other senate hopefuls based on our credentials and qualifications. I thought -- mistakenly -- that the Governor was going to make a decision in the best interest of the state as well as the nation.
I thought -- mistakenly -- that the Governor was considering me based on my 13 years of working on behalf of the hard working people of the state as well as the nation. I thought -- mistakenly -- I had a chance and was being considered because I earned it.
Clearly, I was badly mistaken.
I did not know that the process had been corrupted. I did not know that credentials, qualifications and record of service meant nothing to the Governor. I did not know that the Governor and his cronies were attempting to use the process to extort money and favors in a brazen pay-to-play scheme.
I wanted to be considered for the appointment because I believe in public service. I believe that Illinois deserves another senator -- serving alongside Senator Dick Durbin -- who shares their values and will work to fix our economy; make our nation energy independent; provide health care to all; and provide our children with a world-class education.
That's what I shared with Governor Blagojevich on Monday, when I had the opportunity to meet with him for the first time in about four years. I presented my record, my qualifications and my vision. Despite what he may have been looking for, that's all I had to offer. And, that's what we discussed.
To the people of Illinois: I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you. I want to thank the thousands and thousands of people who supported me for the senate, writing letters, making phone calls, sending e-mails and circulating petitions.
I want to thank the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Defender, the SouthtownStar, N'Digo magazine, Kankakee City News for their editorial endorsements. I want to thank the business, labor, clergy, civic and community leaders and the thousands of honest, hardworking citizens of Illinois who supported me.
We did it right. We pressed to make this process public and to make your voice heard.
Know this: I spoke to the U.S. Attorney's office on Tuesday. They shared with me that I am NOT a target of the investigation and that I am NOT accused of any misconduct. In the days ahead, federal law enforcement officials want to meet and discuss what I know about the process.
I look forward to sitting down with them and cooperating fully and completely with this federal investigation.
I've retained the advice of legal counsel, Mr. James Montgomery, Sr., who held his own press conference earlier this afternoon. On his advice and due to the ongoing investigation, I will not be taking any questions.
See--Related Story-
http://davidsradiotv2000.blogspot.com

Who Needs a TV? I’m Watching on a Laptop

December 4, 2008
Basics
Who Needs a TV? I’m Watching on a Laptop
By LAURA M. HOLSON
I HAVE been compared to many things in my life; never, though, to Sasquatch.
But that is what Alan Wurtzel, president of research at NBC Universal, suggested when I told him I had gotten rid of my television set last year and started watching “30 Rock” and “CSI” on my laptop instead. “I hear about people like you,” he said, a hint of skepticism in his voice. “But the notion that people have forsaken watching cable and network television is an urban myth.”
Then he hissed what sounded vaguely like an insult.
“You probably read.”
Yes, I do enjoy The New Yorker or a John Irving novel from time to time. But just because I don’t have a television set doesn’t mean I don’t crave “Gossip Girl” and obsess over whether Serena will (finally!) get back together with Dan. It’s just that I don’t have a large television in my living room and a monthly payment to make to my cable company. I don’t need one: the major networks and many other broadcasters have made it easy to find their shows free online.
Most Americans still watch shows primarily on their televisions. I’ll concede that point to Mr. Wurtzel. But there is much to suggest that watching shows online is more than just a passing fancy. The Internet has proved to be an excellent promotional vehicle. NBC says 7 out of 10 viewers were spurred to watch some shows on television only after sampling them first online. At ABC, 8 percent of viewers they track — or about one out of every 12 people — watch network shows solely online.
Consider the following. My friend Louise uses a projector hooked up to her laptop to watch “Lost” on a white wall in her living room. My 24-year-old niece never owned a television set until I gave her mine. Now she uses it for DVDs and watches “America’s Next Top Model” online. And it’s not just for the cosmotini set. A 40-something executive I know watched the last presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama on his home computer.
Of course, my house wasn’t always television free. When I lived in Los Angeles, I had cable but was rarely home to catch my favorite shows. I paid extra for HBO but only to watch “Entourage.” Unlike other friends, I never subscribed to TiVo, knowing I would feel guilty if I let shows stack up.
The funny thing is, despite not having a television, I actually watch more network programming than I did when I had cable. The difference is that I am more selective. No more flipping channels just to see what’s on, the television equivalent of a one-night stand. Instead I am in a committed relationship.
For network television shows the best places to start are their home Web sites, including ABC.com, NBC.com, CBS.com and Fox.com, where shows are posted usually within 24 hours of being shown on television. ABC.com, in my experience, is one of the simplest to use. It was a pioneer in putting shows online, although stingy in the early days because it didn’t want to share its toys with other sites.
ABC.com also demands viewers be engaged, requiring them to click a button to continue watching the program after an ad ends. It is a deceptively smart strategy: I was forced to sit through a 30-second commercial — and click — to find out whether Mike Delfino actually died from smoke inhalation on “Desperate Housewives.” It’s only 30 seconds I figured (and I can watch the countdown) which kept me in my seat.
To save time, I usually stay away from sites like Veoh.com, Joost.com, Bebo.com or AOL. Quite simply, there is little there to entice me. Each has a similar syndicate of already-released movies and television shows, and can be confusing if you are not sure what to look for. The exception is Sling.com, which offers much of the same content, but with a more user-friendly setup.
Of course there is a plethora of sites with pirated content, but I don’t go to those because I don’t want to get busted.
Recently I was talking with Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive, who wanted me to visit the CBS channel on YouTube. But it was so cumbersome to find that Mr. Smith had to guide me on the phone as I sat in front of my laptop. MGM plans to offer movies there, too, but the list is not comprehensive.
The one standout is Hulu.com, a joint venture of NBC and Fox. It is well organized and simple to use. (Even Mr. Smith called it “the gold standard.”) It not only has current shows like “The Office,” “The Simpsons,” “24,” and “Heroes,” but a trove of classics like the original “Battlestar Galactica,” “Married With Children” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
The site, too, like others, has cable shows including the quirky “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Quite honestly, I never watched “The Daily Show” when I owned a television; I discovered it on Hulu. I can almost say the same for “Saturday Night Live,” which I gave up watching in the 1990s. During election season, though, I eagerly checked Hulu for both shows to see what I might have missed.
Of course, it wouldn’t be television without a blooper or two. So many online “Gossip Girl” fans showed up to watch last season’s shows, they threatened to crash cwtv.com. As a result the CW banned the show online, hoping viewers instead would watch it on their televisions. Fans protested, though, and the show reappeared online, much to my delight and that of my 14-year-old neighbor who agrees that Jenny Humphrey’s new model friend, Agnes, is a bad influence.
Then there’s iTunes. Apple’s media store has been selling TV shows for three years now, and buying is easy to do. The problem I have with iTunes is that you have to pay for the shows in order to watch them. With so many legal ways to get shows free, there’s little incentive for me to pay unless it’s something I can’t stream, like “Mad Men” or “Entourage.” And yes, while a series like “Lost” may require multiple viewings to fully appreciate them, do I really need to own episodes of “Two and a Half Men”?
Movies, too, pose a problem for entertainment companies who might want to put them on their sites. On Hulu and others, there are a number free — “Ordinary People” and “Men in Black” among them — but none are current.
“That’s a whole different business for us,” said Albert Cheng, a digital media executive at ABC. “We are still trying to figure out if there is a movie audience.” I am a dinosaur in this regard, so buying a $10 DVD at the Virgin Megastore and playing it on my computer works fine until downloading or streaming movies becomes easier.
While watching shows online works for me, I know it is not for everyone. Shows don’t appear until the next day, a deal killer for the truly obsessed. And it is hard to find live sports events (or delayed for that matter) online, particularly if it is a big game.
Besides, movies and sports events have more appeal when viewed on a large screen — that’s what big-screen TV is made for. No one is going to mistake their 13-inch laptop screen for a 50-inch high-definition plasma. I recently watched David Lean’s eye candy “Lawrence of Arabia” on Hulu and ached to experience it on my brother-in-law’s home theater in his den.
Speaking of him, I asked him recently if he would ever watch his beloved San Francisco 49ers football team, or any show for that matter, on a magazine-size laptop. He looked at me, incredulous. “Are you serious?” he asked. “Does anybody really do that?”
Mr. Wurtzel is probably smiling.

Rogue Dems win many concessions

BY KENNETH LOVETT DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Thursday, December 4th 2008, 9:42 PM
ALBANY - The month-long battle for leadership of the state Senate is seemingly over.
Three dissident Democrats who flirted with supporting a Republican to lead the Senate over their party's favorite, Malcolm Smith, are back in the fold.
"It is done," said holdout Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), who will be tabbed to head the Senate Committee on Aging.
That gives Smith the needed 32 votes to be elected the chamber's first Democratic leader in 43 years over Republican Majority Leader DeaSkelos, who was trying to hang on.
In exchange, the dissidents, Diaz, Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn and Sen.-elect Pedro Espada (D-Bronx), were promised a host of reforms - and leadership posts.
The agreement was reached after a final meeting brokered by upstate billionaire Thomas Golisano and Rep. Gregory Meeks.
Gov. Paterson and Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez an assemblyman, were also in the meeting for a time, sources said.
Smith spokesman Hank Sheinkopf said the meeting "resolved rules changes proposed by Sen. Smith, which will result in Senate reform and the election of Malcolm Smith as leader."
Among the changes, sources said, the position of Senate president pro tempore and majority leader will be decoupled.
Smith will lead the Senate and the Democrats as president pro tempore, while Espada will be named the less-powerful majority leader, making him the highest-ranking Latino leader in state government.
Skelos, like his predecessor, former Sen. Joe Bruno held both titles.

Kruger is expected to head the powerful Finance Committee, which will likely be given a $5 million budget. Committee chairmen get stipends of up to $15,000.
In addition, sources said, lawmakers will be seated alphabetically instead of by party, and the minority party will have more staff and financial resources and an easier time bringing bills to the floor for a vote.
"It's historic," Kruger said. "Everyone will be treated equally, fairly and equitably. The Gang of Three has made a permanent and indelible imprint."
One key issue for Diaz was legalizing gay marriage, which Diaz opposes. He said he's been assured the issue won't come to the floor.
Two long-time senators believe the deal can still fall apart. A vote on the new rules would be needed in January.

"I think there's going to be a lot of pushback" from veteran Democrats senators not wanting to cede power to the three dissidents, said one.