Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

"Adelphia Founder Sentenced to 15 Years"

By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison by a judge who blamed him for defrauding investors of his bankrupted cable company in one of the largest frauds in corporate history.

"Were it not for your age and health, I would impose a sentence far greater than I do today," U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand told the 80-year-old Rigas after the one-time high flying cable empire patriarch insisted he meant to do no wrong.

"Long ago, he set Adelphia on a track of lying, of cheating, of defrauding," Sand said of the elder Rigas.

"Regrettably for everyone, this was not stopped over 10 years ago."

"It got more urgent and culminated in one of the largest frauds in corporate history."

"US leading indicators suggest US economy cooling"

Mon Jun 20,12:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Another sign of US economic cooling emerged as the Conference Board reported its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.5 percent.

The report marked the fifth straight month without an increase in the index, an indicator of economic activity in the coming six to nine months.

In April, the index was revised to show no change compared with the initial estimate of a 0.2 percent decline.

The report was weaker than the 0.3 percent drop expected on Wall Street.

Two other indexes in the report from the business research group were higher.

The coincident index, indicative of current conditions, rose 0.2 percent, while the lagging index rose 0.3 percent.

The leading index has now declined at a 2.2 percent annual rate over the last six months.

It has declined by 1.9 percent over the last 12 months.

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said the United States is following a global cooling trend that may be linked to surging oil prices.

"The leading economic indicators are suggesting slower growth setting in during the third quarter," he said.

"This is not just a domestic phenomenon."

"Declines or slower increases appear in at least six of the eight countries for which the Conference Board calculates leading indexes."

"Energy prices are one factor driving this global trend."

"Of more concern is the level of confidence of both consumers and chief executives, which has been choppy."

Some analysts said the report was a clear indication of a slowing trend.

"While no one is forecasting a recession here, the fact is that the decline in the (index) is just what we had seen before the 2001 recession began," said Robert Brusca at FAO Economics.

"The main point of these comparisons is not to assert that a recession is coming but to show that the economy is responding to past Fed rate hikes and is slowing ... the Fed should be forewarned about future rate hikes and not ignoring signs of slowing."

But Morgan Stanley economists Ted Wieseman and David Greenlaw said in a note Monday that recent data may be indicating that a so-called soft patch in the US economy has passed.

"Economic data released the past week indicated that the sharp recent deceleration in factory activity may have come to an end, and also that consumers are perking up significantly after a disappointing May," they wrote.

"In addition, both inflation and inflation expectations remain generally well contained ... data on manufacturing activity, consumer spending and sentiment, and housing market strength provided further confirmation that the economy has returned to above-trend growth after the mild spring 'soft patch.'"

end quotes

I wonder what the "chicken entrails" index shows for the economy in the next three months?

Or that "goat liver" one that that other crowd somewhere is using?

Supposedly, by looking for white spots, or something, anyway, on the liver of a special goat that these priests sacrifice somewhere down there in the "ten mile square", they say, well, these priests can tell almost to the doller how much money any given "consumer" might have in his or her pocket at any given time, and ....

[Livyjr]

"US leading indicators suggest US economy cooling"

Mon Jun 20,12:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Another sign of US economic cooling emerged as the Conference Board reported its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.5 percent.

The report marked the fifth straight month without an increase in the index, an indicator of economic activity in the coming six to nine months.

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said the United States is following a global cooling trend that may be linked to surging oil prices.

"This is not just a domestic phenomenon."

"Declines or slower increases appear in at least six of the eight countries for which the Conference Board calculates leading indexes."

"Energy prices are one factor driving this global trend."

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said the United States is following a global cooling trend that may be linked to surging oil prices?

WOW!

This guy must be one of them rocket-scientists that I have heard they got down there in Washington, D.C., to know stuff like that, as the rest of us are just too simple to be able to see straight, or something like that, anyway:

"Oil Prices Hit New Intraday High Near $60"

By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Oil prices marched to new heights, hitting a new intraday high near $60 a barrel even as the president of OPEC said Monday the group will consider raising its output ceiling by half a million barrels as early as this week.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its output target by that amount just last week.

The move appeared to have little impact on prices, which have risen by almost $12 a barrel in the past month because of concerns about limited refining capacity and rising demand for gasoline and diesel.

Light sweet crude for July delivery climbed 90 cents to settle at $59.37 a barrel, a record close on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where oil futures have been traded since 1983.

Gasoline prices in the U.S. average about $2.13 a gallon, an increase of more than 40 percent over the past two years, but government data released last week showed that demand is up almost 3 percent from a year ago over the past four weeks at nearly 9.5 million barrels a day — a growth rate that surprised many analysts.

"The economy has accepted $50 oil."

"We accepted $2 gasoline too," said oil tycoon Boone Pickens, who runs a billion-dollar hedge fund that invests in energy commodities and equities.

"I think within a year from now, you're probably looking at $3 gasoline and you're probably looking at something over $60 for oil."

While soaring jet fuel costs have been a major problem for the airline industry, higher energy prices have not taken as much of a toll on the broader economy as many analysts had previously feared.

In the first three months of the year, the U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, according to the Commerce Department, slightly slower than the 4.5 percent pace a year earlier.

The prospect of another attempt by OPEC to cool prices did not impress brokers, who said the effort could actually backfire by highlighting the group's dwindling excess production capacity.

Still, "it looks like we might have difficulty holding these levels," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an oil broker at Fimat USA in New York.

"You're seeing a great deal of reluctance among buyers to pay these higher prices."

Oil analyst Andrew Lebow at Man Financial in New York said "once we're in this $55-$60 area, it's been kind of hard to justify."

"But it is what it is."

"It seems like we'll hit $60 at this point."

In London, Brent crude for August delivery settled 45 cents higher at $58.32 per barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange.

OPEC President Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah said Monday that "if the prices continue to the end of this week at the same level, I will start consulting my colleagues to release the 500,000."

Asked by reporters in Kuwait what he meant by the end of this week, the minister said Friday.

Last week the oil cartel agreed to raise its official production ceiling to 28 million barrels, starting July 1, but that failed to soothe traders because OPEC's output is already exceeding that level as producers seek to cash in on high prices.

Including Iraq, which is not bound by the quota system, OPEC is pumping close to 30 million barrels a day, or about 35 percent of global demand.

Another development brokers were watching on Monday was the threat of a strike by oil workers in Norway, the world's third-largest exporter.

A strike could begin as soon as Wednesday because of a salary dispute, potentially slicing the country's daily output of 3 million barrels by a third.

"If you take off 1 million barrels a day in this market, it's going to get ugly," said oil broker Tom Bentz of BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York.

"Let's just hope it doesn't happen."

While Nymex oil futures are more than 56 percent higher than a year ago, they are still below the inflation-adjusted high above $90 a barrel set in 1980.

Analysts said unlike the record prices last year, which were driven largely by concern over geopolitical events in oil-producing countries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela, this year's trend has more to do with speculative buying, continued supply fears and limited excess production capacity.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell less than a penny to $1.6456 per gallon, while heating oil futures rose a penny to $1.6618 per gallon.
____

Associated Press Writers Edith Balazs in Budapest, Hungary, and Gillian Wong in Singapore contributed to this report.

end quotes

"The economy has accepted $50 oil."

"We accepted $2 gasoline too," said oil tycoon Boone Pickens, who runs a billion-dollar hedge fund that invests in energy commodities and equities.

"I think within a year from now, you're probably looking at $3 gasoline and you're probably looking at something over $60 for oil."

You tell 'um there, T-Boone!

Yeah, go for it!

How about $35 or $40 per gallon in one year, instead?

To Hell with this nickel-and-dime stuff, here, T-Boone, go for the big bucks, why don't you?

And you know, America, that of course, we're being gouged, BUT ....

But, of course, as good citizens of CORPORATIA, we are also glad that it is us that get to be screwed here in the name of speculation and corporate profits, instead of some other poor suckers who don't even live here, and so ....

[Livyjr]

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said the United States is following a global cooling trend that may be linked to surging oil prices?

WOW!

This guy must be one of them rocket-scientists that I have heard they got down there in Washington, D.C., to know stuff like that, as the rest of us are just too simple to be able to see straight, or something like that, anyway:

"Oil Prices Hit New Intraday High Near $60"

By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - Oil prices marched to new heights, hitting a new intraday high near $60 a barrel even as the president of OPEC said Monday the group will consider raising its output ceiling by half a million barrels as early as this week.

Analysts said unlike the record prices last year, which were driven largely by concern over geopolitical events in oil-producing countries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela, this year's trend has more to do with speculative buying, continued supply fears and limited excess production capacity.

"Sunni Arab Role May Snag Iraq Constitution"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 26 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arabs submitted a list of 15 candidates for a Shiite-dominated committee drafting Iraq's constitution, but were having second thoughts Monday about a demand by legislators that they first win the backing of a larger Sunni group.

The demand appeared to be aimed at ensuring that the 15 candidates enjoy the widest possible support among the disaffected minority community to avoid any future opposition to the group — which could derail the drafting of the constitution.

"The issue must be dealt with in a transparent manner so we can have political figures who enjoy a genuine popular base," said Sunni Arab legislator and constitutional committee member Abdul-Rahman al-Noami.

Other Sunni Arabs, however, are divided over the endorsement process — with some complaining it could be time-consuming and others worried it would create further dissent.

The latest snag in efforts to give Sunni Arabs a bigger say in drafting the constitution will likely take days to resolve, further eroding the little time remaining for the charter to be drafted.

A deal last week ended a stalemate over Sunni Arab participation in the constitutional process.

It provided for creation of a five-member Sunni committee that would poll the community and produce a list of 15 candidates.

That five-member group was supposed to then present candidates for endorsement by a wider group of 70 community representatives.

But the Sunni committee submitted the list of 15 candidates on Sunday without first going to the larger group.

"There's no need for such a conference because it will just complicate things," said Nasir al-Ani, a key player in the negotiations that produced last week's deal.

The constitution must be drafted by Aug. 15 and approved two months later in a referendum.

If approved, it will provide the basis for general elections by Dec. 15.

Because the 15 Sunni Arabs are not elected members of parliament, they will join the 55 lawmakers in a parallel body, which will reach decisions by consensus and refer them to parliament for approval.

The 55 already include two Sunni Arabs and, beside the 15, will be joined by a single representative of Iraq's religious Sabian sect.

The Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has been reaching out to the Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted January's elections.

They won just 17 of the National Assembly's 275 seats, but the United States and the European Union have been pressing al-Jaafari to engage them in the political process.

Sunni Arabs make up between 15 percent and 20 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people.

The Shiites and the Kurds, the two communities that the Sunni Arabs had oppressed for decades, account for up to 80 percent.

Kurds are predominantly Sunni Muslims, but are secular.

[Livyjr]

June 20, 2005

"Someone Else's Child"

By BOB HERBERT

It has become clearer than ever that Americans do not want to fight George W. Bush's tragically misguided war in Iraq.

You can still find plenty of folks arguing that we have to stay the course, or even raise the stakes by sending more troops to the war zone.

But from the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely beyond military age themselves and were unwilling to send their own children off to fight.

It's easy to be macho when you have nothing at risk.

The hawks want the war to be fought with other people's children, while their own children go safely off to college, or to the mall.

The number of influential American officials who have children in uniform in Iraq is minuscule.

Most Americans want no part of Mr. Bush's war, which is why Army recruiters are failing so miserably at meeting their monthly enlistment quotas.

Desperate, the Army is lowering its standards, shortening tours, increasing bonuses and violating its own recruitment regulations and ethical guidelines.

Americans do not want to fight this war.

Times Square in Midtown Manhattan is the most heavily traveled intersection in the country.

It was mobbed on V-E Day in May 1945 and was the scene of Alfred Eisenstaedt's legendary photo of a sailor passionately kissing a nurse on V-J Day the following August.

There is currently an armed forces recruiting station in Times Square, but it's a pretty lonely outpost.

An officer on duty one afternoon last week said no one had come in all day.

Vince Morrow, a 10th grader from Allentown, Pa., was interviewed across the street from the recruiting station, on Broadway.

He said he had once planned to join the military after graduating from high school, but had changed his mind.

"It's the war," he said.

"Going over and never coming back."

"Before the war you'd just go to different places and help people."

"Now you go over there and you fight."

His mother, Michelle, said:

"I'd like to see him around awhile."

"It was different before the war."

"It's the fear of not coming home."

"Our other son just graduated Saturday and he was planning to go into the Air Force."

"They told him college was included and made him all kinds of promises."

"They almost made him sign papers before we had decided."

"We thought about it and researched it and decided against it."

Last week's New York Times/CBS News Poll found that the mounting casualties and continuing turmoil in Iraq have made Americans increasingly pessimistic about the war.

A majority said the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq and only 37 percent approved of the president's handling of the war.

What hasn't changed is the fact that the vast majority of the parents who support the war do not want their children to fight it.

A woman in the affluent New York suburb of Ridgewood, N.J., who has a daughter in high school and a younger son, said:

"I would not want my children to go."

"If there wasn't a war it would be different."

"I support the war and I think we need to be there".

"But it's not going well".

"It's becoming like Vietnam".

"It's a very bad situation."

" But we can't leave."

I don't know how you win a war that your country doesn't want to fight.

We sent too few troops into Iraq in the first place and the number of warm bodies available for Iraq and other military missions going forward is dwindling alarmingly.

The Bush crowd may be bellicose, but for most Americans the biggest contribution to the war effort is a bumper sticker that says "support our troops," and maybe a belligerent call to a talk radio station.

The home-front "warriors" who find it so easy to give the thumbs up to war endanger the truly valorous men and women who are actually willing to put on a uniform, pick up a weapon and place their lives on the line.

The president and these home-front warriors got us into this war and now they don't know how to get us out.

Nor do they have a satisfactory answer to the important ethical question: how do you justify sending other people's children off to fight while keeping a cloak of protection around your own kids?

If the United States had a draft (for which there is no political sentiment), its warriors would be drawn from a much wider swath of the population, and political leaders would think much longer and harder before committing the country to war.

E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com

[Livyjr]

"White House defends editing of climate reports"

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Thu Jun 9, 7:51 AM ET

The White House on Wednesday defended the actions of one of its key staffers who's publicly accused of editing government reports to downplay the link between "greenhouse" gases and global warming.

But some scientists reacted angrily.

It's "par for the course from the administration, in terms of interfering with science for political ends," said Luke Warren of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has criticized the Bush administration's science policies.

"U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan - Global-Warming Science Assailed"

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A01

Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action by the eight major industrialized nations to curb climate change.

Under U.S. pressure, negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe, set ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and set stricter environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Negotiators met this week in London to work out details of the document, which is slated to be adopted next month at the Group of Eight's annual meeting in Scotland.

The administration's push to alter the G-8's plan on global warming marks its latest effort to edit scientific or policy documents to accord with its position that mandatory carbon dioxide cuts are unnecessary.

Under mounting international pressure to adopt stricter controls on heat-trapping gas emissions, Bush officials have consistently sought to modify U.S. government and international reports that would endorse a more aggressive approach to mitigating global warming.

Last week, the New York Times reported that a senior White House official had altered government documents to emphasize the uncertainties surrounding the science on global warming.

That official, White House Council on Environmental Quality chief of staff Phillip Cooney, left the administration last Friday to take a public relations job with oil giant Exxon Mobil, a leading opponent of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

The wording of the international document, titled "Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development," will help determine what, if any, action the G-8 countries will take as a group to combat global warming.

Every member nation except the United States has pledged to bring its greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels by 2012 as part of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who currently heads the G-8 -- is trying to coax the United States into adopting stricter climate controls.

In preparation for the summit, negotiators are trying to work out the wording of statements on climate change and other issues that leaders of all eight nations are willing to endorse.

The language is not final, but the documents show that a number of deletions have been made at U.S. insistence.

Although the new statement by G-8 leaders may not dramatically alter the other nations' policies on global warming, what it says could mark a shift for the United States.

(The other G-8 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.)

U.S. officials pressed negotiators to drop sections of the report that highlight some problems tied to global warming, warn of more frequent droughts and floods, and commit a specific dollar amount to promoting carbon sequestration in developing countries.

One deleted section, for example, initially cited "increasingly compelling evidence of climate change, including rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures, retreating ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and changes to ecosystems."

It added: "Inertia in the climate system means that further warming is inevitable."

"Unless urgent action is taken, there will be a growing risk of adverse effects on economic development, human health and the natural environment, and of irreversible long-term changes to our climate and oceans."

Instead, U.S. negotiators substituted a sentence that reads, "Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe."

James L. Connaughton, who heads the Council on Environmental Quality, said the United States was in "extremely constructive discussions on preparing leadership text for the G-8 meeting" that would outline the world's climate change problem in a "succinct and strong" manner.

"It's very important to view [the deletions] in context," Connaughton said in an interview.

"The overall context is one of strong consensus about a shared commitment to practical action, as well as defined management strategies."

But environmentalists and Democrats criticized the administration for trying to water down the international coalition's initiative.

"The administration is pursuing a dangerous 'ostrich' policy: put your head in the sand and pretend nothing's happening," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said in an interview.

Some advocates are urging the seven other G-8 members to adopt their own global warming plan rather than accept a milder statement that they say would provide the Bush administration with political cover.

"The U.S. will just not budge," said Hans J.H. Verolme, director of the World Wildlife Fund's U.S. climate change program.

"We'd rather not have a deal than have a deal that lets George Bush off the hook."

Bush's top science adviser, John Marburger, said he is "impatient and frustrated" with such charges, because the administration is seeking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through technological advances and other voluntary measures.

"From the beginning, this administration has acknowledged the Earth is getting warmer and we're going to have to take responsibility for our emissions," Marburger said.

Critics claim the White House believes "climate change is not happening, which is not true."

Several officials involved in the negotiations said none of the document's wording is fixed, and it could change before the leaders adopt a final version for the summit.

Connaughton emphasized that the administration's suggested changes address the threat of rising temperatures and offer several proposals to mitigate climate change as well as air pollution.

"We are looking for economy of expression in a leadership text," he said.

The controversy follows recent charges by several climate specialists that Bush appointees are exerting undue political influence on federal global warming documents.

Last week, Rick S. Piltz, a policy expert and former Democratic congressional aide who worked until March in the federal office coordinating climate change, released documents showing that Cooney, the White House official, had edited the office's documents to highlight higher temperature's benefits and uncertainties surrounding global warming.

Before joining the administration, Cooney was an oil lobbyist.

In December, the administration issued new guidelines calling for federal officials to have final sign-off on a series of climate change assessment.

Several experts objected that the requirement undermines their independence, and senior scientist Eric Sundquist of the U.S. Geological Survey resigned as lead author on one report in protest.

In a May 12 letter from his personal e-mail account, Sundquist said the new rules may make it difficult "to communicate the best independent scientific judgment to decision makers."

NOAA Deputy Administrator James R. Mahoney, who is overseeing the government's 21 periodic climate assessments, said these concerns were unfounded because the government will publish the full reports before political appointees have a chance to alter them.

Researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

June 20, 2005

"Someone Else's Child"

By BOB HERBERT

The president and these home-front warriors got us into this war and now they don't know how to get us out.

E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com

"Durbin Defends Guantanamo Comments"

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A11

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) drew a White House rebuke yesterday for comparing the treatment of prisoners at the naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the interrogation tactics of the Nazis and the Soviet gulags.

But Durbin defended his comments and said conditions there were not worthy of a democracy such as the United States.

In a Senate floor speech Tuesday, Durbin cited an FBI report describing Guantanamo Bay prisoners chained to the floor in the fetal position without food or water and sometimes in extreme temperatures.

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control," he said, "you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."

By yesterday, Durbin found himself under attack from leading Republicans and their conservative allies.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan, asked about the statement, responded by saying:

"I think the senator's remarks are reprehensible."

"It's a real disservice to our men and women in uniform who adhere to high standards and uphold our values and our laws."

Later, Durbin came under attack on the Senate floor from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Warner said Durbin had committed "a grievous misjudgment" by comparing what may have happened at Guantanamo Bay to some of the most murderous regimes in history.

Durbin said his comments had been misinterpreted as an attack on the U.S. military, adding he did not even know who was in charge of the particular interrogation cited in the FBI agent's account.

"Sadly, we have a situation here where some in the right-wing media say I've been insulting men and women in uniform," he said.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth."

Durbin conceded that the regimes he had cited had committed horrors far beyond the techniques he had condemned at Guantanamo.

But he said it was "no exaggeration" to suggest that the techniques cited by the FBI agent were not acceptable in a democracy.

"This is the kind of thing you expect from repressive regimes but not from the United States," he said.

end quotes

Hang in there, Senator!

Because I for one agree with you, that this sick, twisted, perverted stuff most certainly is the signature of a very repressive regime, and I don't hear Scottie "BOY" McClellan denying that this crowd is not one, themselves!

Scottie "BOY" just don't like that being common knowledge, I guess, as if it were any kind of secret in the first place, anywhere in the world, and here as well!

[Livyjr]

Senator Frist is trying to use Religion to divide us.

"Frist Defends Remarks on Schiavo Case"

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A17

Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader and a heart surgeon, acknowledged yesterday that Terri Schiavo had suffered devastating brain damage and said his assertion three months ago that she was "not somebody in persistent vegetative state" did not amount to a medical diagnosis.

Frist (R-Tenn.), appearing on three network TV shows, agreed with this week's autopsy conclusion that the Florida woman had suffered severe, irreversible brain damage.

"I never, never, on the floor of the Senate, made a diagnosis, nor would I ever do that," he told NBC's "Today" show.

Some Democrats and doctors criticized Frist's March 17 Senate speech in which he said he was commenting on Schiavo's highly publicized case "more as a physician than as a United States senator."

In that speech, Frist said he had reviewed videotapes of Schiavo and noted that her brother "said that she responds to her parents and to him."

"That is not somebody in persistent vegetative state. . . ."

"There just seems to be insufficient information to conclude that Terri Schiavo is [in a] persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage, which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office here in the Capitol," Frist said in the speech.

He said his comments were also partly based on a conversation with one of several neurologists who had evaluated Schiavo.

Frist's speech, made two weeks before Schiavo died, came as Congress held a rare Easter weekend session to order federal courts to review Florida court decisions saying that her feeding tube could be removed.

Among those criticizing Frist's actions were 31 of his Harvard Medical School classmates, who sent him a letter saying he had used his medical degree improperly.

Yesterday, Frist was touting legislation to provide a health information technology system for U.S. hospitals, co-sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

But correspondents for ABC, CBS and NBC first asked him about the Schiavo autopsy findings.

"I never said, 'she responded' " to stimulation, he told Matt Lauer on "Today."

"I said I reviewed the court videotapes -- the same ones the other doctors reviewed -- and I questioned, 'Is her diagnosis correct?'"

". . . I think it is big news that she had totally irreversible brain damage, and we now have that information."

" . . . All we were arguing for on the floor of the Senate was to get an accurate diagnosis before you withdraw the feeding tube from a live person."

On ABC's "Good Morning America," Frist said:

"Looking at the court-appointed tapes, I raised the question 'Is she in a persistent vegetative state or not?'"

"I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not."

"I did say that certain tests should be performed to determine that before starving her to death."

"That was not done."

"The court acted."

"I respect the way they acted."

"I respect the pathologist's report yesterday."

"She had devastating brain damage," Frist said, "and with that, the chapter's closed."

end quotes

Frist?

He's the one that wants to be the next president, isn't he?

Got Karl Rove gonna work for him to make it happen, too, or so he thinks, anyway, and since America does what Karl Rove tells it to do, well, who knows, maybe that Frist will be right about that ......

[jeffmoskin]

NEW YORK - Oil prices marched to new heights, hitting a new intraday high near $60 a barrel even as the president of OPEC said Monday the group will consider raising its output ceiling by half a million barrels as early as this week...

The move appeared to have little impact on prices, which have risen by almost $12 a barrel in the past month because of concerns about limited refining capacity and rising demand for gasoline and diesel...

Light sweet crude for July delivery climbed 90 cents to settle at $59.37 a barrel, a record close on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where oil futures have been traded since 1983...

Gasoline prices in the U.S. average about $2.13 a gallon, an increase of more than 40 percent over the past two years, but government data released last week showed that demand is up almost 3 percent from a year ago over the past four weeks at nearly 9.5 million barrels a day — a growth rate that surprised many analysts...


"I think within a year from now, you're probably looking at $3 gasoline and you're probably looking at something over $60 for oil"

Look at the bright side - - - Since all our manufacturing went to China, the cost of energy isn't that important to what is left of our economy.

Also, since we now OWN our 51st state of Iraq, the market value of their oil is increasing.

We have an unrealized capital gain.

[amy]

[quote=Livyjr,Jun 20 2005, 07:49 PM]
"Frist Defends Remarks on Schiavo Case"

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A17

[b][color=red]Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader and a heart surgeon, acknowledged yesterday that Terri Schiavo had suffered devastating brain damage and said his assertion three months ago that she was "not somebody in persistent vegetative state" did not amount to a medical diagnosis.

Being a physician, I would asume that Frist would know that a completely accurate diagnosis of the extent of brain damage can only be done with an autopsy. There had been an accurate diagnosis on Teri, but his huge inflated ego would not allow him to accept other physiscians' diagnosis, which the autopsy verified. Aren't you pleased that he agreed with the autopsy report?

[jeffmoskin]

I fear that Frist, like Bush, listens to a "higher power"

This post has been edited by jeffmoskin: Jun 20 2005, 08:25 PM

[Livyjr]

"Frist Defends Remarks on Schiavo Case"

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A17

Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader and a heart surgeon, acknowledged yesterday that Terri Schiavo had suffered devastating brain damage and said his assertion three months ago that she was "not somebody in persistent vegetative state" did not amount to a medical diagnosis.

Being a physician, I would asume that Frist would know that a completely accurate diagnosis of the extent of brain damage can only be done with an autopsy.

There had been an accurate diagnosis on Teri, but his huge inflated ego would not allow him to accept other physiscians' diagnosis, which the autopsy verified.

Aren't you pleased that he agreed with the autopsy report?

Way back in 1787, when the United States Constitution was being debated, there was a lot of discussion about the Senate, and why we were having one in OUR federal government, when there was not really any model for it, outside of the House of Lords of England.

Now, in OUR contemporary age, we really do not receive the same kind of education that these framers of the Constitution had, which, in their case, was called "classical", in that it took in a fair swath of history, right on back to the Greek times and the "Amphictyonic Council", which most Americans today are likely completely ignorant of, because we are taught to be good consumers, instead of good gitizens.

Madison said about the Senate that it would be a body in government "sufficiently respectable for its wisdom and virtue", which was supposed to provide a safeguard for liberty!

I look at the actions of this Frist in connection with Terri Schiavo, where it certainly sounded like he was giving out a diagnosis to me, and I don't see either wisdom or virtue in Frist, just showmanship, and cheap partisan politics, instead!

Do you think he knows what an autopsy really is?

[Livyjr]

Look at the bright side - - - Since all our manufacturing went to China, the cost of energy isn't that important to what is left of our economy.

Also, since we now OWN our 51st state of Iraq, the market value of their oil is increasing.

We have an unrealized capital gain.

That's an unrealizable gain, isn't it, jeffmoskin, unless, of course, "Custer" Bush, or "WALKING EAGLE", as he is lovingly known among many of his most avid fans and supporters, can figure out how to get back out of Iraq without his tail feathers being singed right off up to his backside!

[Livyjr]

And speaking of "WALKING EAGLE, and his buddy Pataki, up there in New York State who is known as "HE WALKS, TOO", here is a real New York State story, for anyone who wonders if there is such a thing and professional ethics and integrity up here, where Pataki is trying real hard to "globalize" the state, which is to say, render its citizens SUPINE to these kinds of predators:

"Lies hid asbestos scandal - Ex-Schenectady man admits perjury to shield former bosses during Salvagnos' fraud trial"

By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, June 21, 2005

SYRACUSE -- A former Schenectady man, who worked for contractors convicted in the largest asbestos case in the nation's history, admitted Monday in federal court he lied at trial to protect his former bosses.

Kevin Pilgrim, 38, pleaded guilty to perjuring himself during last year's trial of Raul and Alexander Salvagno, who were found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Air Act and Toxic Substances Control Act.

The father and son, now serving lengthy prison terms, conducted illegal asbestos removal in up to 1,555 structures -- including colleges, schools and government buildings, most of them in the Capital Region -- and falsified up to 75,000 laboratory results, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found.

Pilgrim's guilty plea brings to a close the longest criminal environmental case in U.S. history.

He now faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced Oct. 14 by Judge Howard G. Munson in Syracuse.

A college pal of Alex Salvagno, also 38, Pilgrim was the first witness for the defense.

He testified he worked for the Salvagnos for four years at AAR Contractor Latham and Analytical Laboratories of Albany and never observed or participated in illegal asbestos activities, according to a statement released by Glenn T. Suddaby, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

He further testified he never saw indoor snowstorms (an industry term when so much asbestos is improperly released into the air it appears to be snowing in the work area), never saw workers removing asbestos without wearing respirators, knew nothing of falsified laboratory reports and did not know that Alex Salvagno secretly co-owned Analytical Laboratories of Albany, a purportedly independent laboratory that performed analysis on AAR projects to verify that asbestos had been properly removed, the statement said.

After the trial, EPA investigators continued to look into the case and into Pilgrim's testimony.

In his guilty plea, he admitted his testimony was a lie.

He acknowledged illegal asbestos removal, observing indoor snowstorms, seeing AAR workers not wearing respirators at numerous projects and being aware that lab reports were falsified.

Pilgrim, who now lives in Midvale, Utah, said Alex Salvagno contacted him repeatedly by telephone to inform him of the government's case and prep him on what he should say.

"He was a very close personal friend of Alex Salvagno, and Alex simply talked him into it, against his better judgment," Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig A. Benedict said.

Pilgrim was promised nothing by his former boss, said Benedict, who prosecuted the case.

As a condition of release before and during trial, Alex Salvagno was ordered "to have no contact whatsoever with any witnesses ... especially former or present AAR or ALA employees, and so, on the stand, Pilgrim denied having had any such contact," Benedict said.

Alex Salvagno "called him numerous times to feed him information about the trial and this is what you have to say and this is how you have to respond," Benedict said.

Salvagno and Pilgrim were classmates at the Rochester Institute of Technology before Salvagno dropped out.

Pilgrim graduated from Union College with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics.

While at Union, Pilgrim lived for a time with the Salvagnos.

Pilgrim held several positions at the Salvagno companies, including director of training at the laboratories, the prosecutor said.

"So, he best knew what the laws were because he had to teach people how to follow the law," Benedict said.

Pilgrim was also out in the field as a supervisor and at AAR as a project manager.

"He assisted in falsifying results and knew about it," Benedict said.

The five-month trial of Alex Salvagno and his 71-year-old father was the longest criminal environmental trial in U.S. history.

The jury found the Salvagnos ordered crews to do "rip and run" asbestos cleanups, exposing workmen to cancerous fibers.

Both companies are no longer functioning.

Alex Salvagno is serving 25 years in prison; his father, 19 years and 8 months, the longest terms ever meted out for environmental crimes.

They were also ordered to pay $25 million in fines and restitution.

"Dozens and dozens of abatement workers, their employees, now have a substantial likelihood of death or serious bodily injury from asbestos-related diseases," Benedict said.

Asbestos has been determined to cause asbestosis, a lung disease, and mesotheliioma, a form of cancer that is always fatal.

[Abu Beacon]

I fear that Frist, like Bush, listens to a "higher power"

Why do they always have to listen to Cheney?

A.B.

[Abu Beacon]

"WALKING EAGLE,

Not to be picky, but --

The name, to be really accurate, is WALKIN' EAGLE.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it.

A.B.

[jeffmoskin]

That's an unrealizable gain, isn't it, jeffmoskin, unless, of course, "Custer" Bush, or "WALKING EAGLE", as he is lovingly known among many of his most avid fans and supporters, can figure out how to get back out of Iraq without his tail feathers being singed right off up to his backside!

At the present time, yes, most assuredly, it is an UNREALIZABLE gain.

But after the (forcible) admission of the 52nd and 53rd states (Syria and Iran) to OUR Amerika, the checkerboard looks a lot different.

Problem is, we don't have a big enough army.

Maybe we can outsource soldiering to India and China. We've outsourced everything else.

[Livyjr]

Not to be picky, but --

The name, to be really accurate, is WALKIN' EAGLE.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it.

A.B.

Hhhhmmm!

Well, I won't argue the point, Mr. A.B., because you just might be right!

SO?

Did you hear why he has to walk?

[Livyjr]

Why do they always have to listen to Cheney?

A.B.

Is Cheney actually closer to God than George W. Bush is?

WOW!

That's something!

No wonder they have to listen to him, then!

God might punish them if they don't after all, because you know God, and that famous short temper of his .....

[Livyjr]

Maybe we can outsource soldiering to India and China.

We've outsourced everything else.

I was actually thinking of Mexico, myself, jeffmoskin, after what you said about all those Mexicans coming over our borders, anyway!

Hire them out by the bus load, to go and fight for George W. Bush in any number of places on the face of the earth, now, where he has enemies that need squashing, in the name of God, guts, glory, and the REPUBLICAN PARTY of OUR America, and the world, to boot!

We could call them Mameluks, maybe, or something catchy like that, and give them oodles and oodles of money .....

[Livyjr]

And speaking of WALKIN' EAGLE, and his buddy Pataki, up there in New York State who is known as "HE WALKS, TOO", here is a real New York State story, for anyone who wonders if there is such a thing and professional ethics and integrity up here, where Pataki is trying real hard to "globalize" the state, which is to say, render its citizens SUPINE to these kinds of predators ......

"NYRA's future is no sure bet - Racing organization still owes millions as deadline nears to meet guidelines to avoid federal prosecution"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, June 20, 2005

ALBANY -- Facing a deadline that could determine its fate, the New York Racing Association remains on shaky ground as it works to break free of criminal charges and clear itself of tens of millions of dollars in debts.

Federal prosecutors will decide in the coming days whether to drop felony charges, seek a criminal trial or give NYRA more time to get its house in order as it struggles to get out from under a December 2003 indictment in a massive tax fraud scheme.

The period of deferred prosecution agreed to by the U.S. attorney is set to expire July 1.

NYRA, a nonprofit corporation, is eager to extend its exclusive state franchise to run thoroughbred races at the Saratoga, Aqueduct and Belmont tracks and to build a big video lottery terminal casino at Aqueduct.

The franchise expires at the end of 2007, and competitive bidding is expected next year to see who will get the state's horse racing business starting in 2008.

But NYRA has broken or failed to meet several conditions laid down by prosecutors -- which were seen as a way NYRA could get off the hook from prosecution.

NYRA still owes the state about $72 million in loans, even as it is losing millions of dollars annually.

Audits suggest it hasn't met the requirement that it provide a reasonable return to the state treasury.

And it hasn't complied with a state order to cough up $8 million for horsemen whose purses were shorted.

Although essentially the same governing board oversees NYRA as when it got into trouble with the law, a new management team is in place.

They have steered NYRA toward meeting many of the demands of authorities overseeing it.

For instance, they reworked a television contract to come up with about $14 million needed to resolve its improper use of horse owners' money.

NYRA had secretly diverted that money to cover operating expenses.

Over the past 18 months, it operated under the direction of a court-appointed monitor.

NYRA officials say they've made scheduled semiannual payments on $3 million in fines for its role in helping dozens of NYRA clerks file fraudulent income tax returns.

However, it has yet to honor several other specific provisions agreed to under the signature of former Chief Executive Officer Barry K. Schwartz.

These provisions include an agreement to comply with all federal, state and local laws, including tax laws; to provide its audited financial statements to the New York State Racing & Wagering Board and the New York State Comptroller's Office; and to find a qualified partner if it couldn't get a video lottery terminal casino up and running at Aqueduct in 2004.

"We approved a process they did not follow," said Michael Hoblock, chairman of the Racing & Wagering Board, referring to the VLT casino management contract NYRA entered into with MGM Mirage last week.

"As far as we're concerned," he added, "it's a no-bid" contract.

He said he is frustrated NYRA is withholding its financial records and added that NYRA hasn't explained why it failed to meet the 2004 deadline.

NYRA's contracts to demolish parts of the Aqueduct facilities and hire an architect for the VLT casino also didn't meet bidding procedures, Hoblock said, and should be rebid.

Even NYRA's own security consultants are concerned about the demolition contract.

According to a confidential report by SafirRosseti, the demolition firm hired to tear down part of Aqueduct -- Seasons Contracting -- was run by a man the New York District Attorney's Office charged with fraud in 1995 for allegedly working with two reputed mob family members to set up bogus minority business enterprises to win public contracts.

The district attorney's office could provide no information about the case Friday.

"Part of the issue here is whether NYRA is required to dot the i's and cross the t's or whether they only need to be in substantial compliance of all the laws and rules affecting them," said Bennett Liebman, a former Racing & Wagering Board commissioner now specializing in racing law at Albany Law School.

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Eastern District, refused clarification and did not know if NYRA is current in its fine payments.

"We're studying the situation," he said.

A legal expert experienced with criminal prosecutions and with NYRA's predicament said the U.S. Attorney could bring a civil suit against NYRA -- alleging civil racketeering or fraud -- as a way to extend the monitorship beyond July 1.

Adding to the legal woes, NYRA's finances are in deep trouble.

NYRA officials say the association lost $10 million last year and is bound for losses this year.

NYRA also owes the account to pay purses for horse owners more than $8 million -- money that came from simulcast revenues and was supposed to be shared, according to Alan Foreman, a lawyer for the horse owners' association.

He said the state ordered the purse account problem to be settled, but NYRA said it would set a plan after the Belmont Stakes, which was run June 11.

Comptroller Alan Hevesi says NYRA calculated expenses inappropriately and shorted the state up to $15.3 million for two years.

And a new audit report expected soon will likely reveal up to $25 million more is owed, a source familiar with NYRA finances said.

Plus, NYRA owes $4.5 million in pension payments, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

The federal government attached liens to the three NYRA-run tracks last month because of the deficiency.

While meeting these obligations, NYRA also must continue making $500,000 payments to the federal government every six months to pay off its fines.

NYRA projects some of its liabilities can be met after its VLT parlor opens, although it will have to pay off MGM's $170 million loan to build the casino.

NYRA spokesman William Nader said the MGM contract was signed without the scrutiny of NYRA's new procurement officer, Michael Lagamma, hired to make sure NYRA complies with bidding requirements.

He would not say why the contract was not first cleared by Lagamma.

He said the MGM deal was agreed to three years ago, according to "the company's interpretation of the racing law at that point in time."

He would not say if the bidding procedure, in which NYRA did not advertise for bids, conforms with NYRA's current view of right and wrong.

NYRA Chief Executive Charles Hayward also wouldn't discuss the matter, except to say the procurement officer didn't examine the MGM deal because "it would seem immaterial to look at finished business," even though the contract wasn't signed until last week.

At a state Senate hearing last month, Hayward professed that NYRA is committed to best business practices and transparency.

He also told lawmakers he is optimistic that the association will be set free from the threat of prosecution.

"We have every expectation that NYRA will be successful in completing the deferred prosecution and that the indictment will be dismissed," he said.

On Friday, Hayward declined to say whether NYRA violated or honored the deferred prosecution agreement.

"Whether we fulfilled all the elements of the deferred prosecution agreement are (sic) going to be determined by the monitor, the U.S. Attorney and the judge," he said.

end quotes

I have to wonder, whether, outside of the LOOTERS, we have anyone else in BID-NESS up here, at all, and without the LOOTERS, would we even have an economy in this state?

"In New York State, corporate crime is OUR most important product!"