Sunday, May 15, 2011

The quaint and obsolete Nuremberg principles

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director Of IMF, Arrested Over Alleged Sexual Assault

Dominique Strausskahn

The Huffington Post/AP First Posted: 05/14/11 07:32 PM ET Updated: 05/14/11 09:58 PM

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested and is being questioned by police after allegations of sexual assault emerged on Saturday.

The New York Post initially reported that Strauss-Kahn was removed from an Air France flight just minutes before takeoff from Kennedy Airport.

According to The New York Post, a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn’s New York City hotel room at noon on Saturday. Sources claim that Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom and grabbed the housekeeper, forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

The New York Times later tweeted "Head of I.M.F. Arrested in New York and Accused of Sexual Attack."

Strauss-Kahn was considered a potential candidate in France's 2012 election.

The New York Times reports that Strauss-Kahn is a former economics professor, and started in the 1980's as a deputy in parliament, and then was a finance minister:

Mr. Strauss-Kahn eventually sought the socialist party’s presidential nomination himself in 2007 — calling for an “anti-Sarkozy front” — but lost to Segolene Royal. Months later he was tapped to run the I.M.F. and received Sarkozy’s support, which many critics called a strategy by Sarkozy to keep Mr. Strauss-Kahn away from the forefront of the socialist party.

Strauss-Kahn has blogged for HuffPost.

The Associated Press reports:

NEW YORK — The leader of the International Monetary Fund and candidate for president of France was pulled from an airplane moments before he was to fly to Paris and was being questioned Saturday by police in connection with a sexual assault of a maid at a hotel, police said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a candidate for president of France, was taken off the Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and was turned over to police Saturday afternoon, said Paul J. Browne, New York Police Department spokesman.

He was being questioned by the NYPD special victims office. No charges have yet been filed.

The 32-year-old woman told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel near Manhattan's Times Square at about 1 p.m. Saturday and he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and tried to sexually assault her, Browne said. She somehow broke free and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.

When New York City police detectives arrived moments later, Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his cellphone and other personal items, Browne said. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.

The NYPD discovered he was at the airport and contacted the Port Authority, who plucked Kahn from the Air France flight that had not yet departed. It wasn't immediately clear if the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn had been planning to leave Saturday afternoon, police said.

The maid was taken by police to an area hospital. John Sheehan, a spokesman for the hotel, said its staff was cooperating with the authorities in the investigation.

William Murray, a spokesman for the IMF in Washington, said the IMF had no immediate comment on the reports of Strauss-Kahn's arrest.

Strauss-Kahn, rejected by the French Socialists as their presidential candidate in 2006, gained international recognition as France's finance minister in 1997-99.

He is credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by taming its deficit and persuading then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to sign up to an EU pact of fiscal prudence.

A former economics professor, Strauss-Kahn joined the Socialist party in 1976 and was elected to parliament in 1986 from the Val-d'Oise district, north of Paris. He went on to become mayor of Sarcelles, a working-class immigrant suburb of Paris.

His first government post was industry minister under former President Francois Mitterrand. As finance minister, he reduced France's debt repayments through a raft of privatizations including the sale of shares in France Telecom SA and Air France.

Strauss-Kahn is a married father of four. His third wife, Anne Sinclair, is a former television presenter.

U.S. Oil Production To Speed Up, Obama Announces

Obama Oil

DARLENE SUPERVILLE and DINA CAPPIELLO 05/14/11 03:06 PM ET AP

WASHINGTON — Amid growing public unhappiness over gas prices, President Barack Obama is directing his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production by extending existing leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska's coast and holding more frequent lease sales in a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska. But the moves won't calm spiraling prices at the pump any time soon.

Obama said Saturday that the measures "make good sense" and will help reduce U.S. consumption of imported oil in the long term. But he acknowledged anew that they won't help to immediately bring down gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, and an oil industry analyst agreed.

"There is practically nothing that Washington can do that would materially change the price of fuel in this country," said Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov, noting that the United States produces about 5 percent of the world's petroleum while consuming about 20 percent. "Given that imbalance, there is simply no policy shift that could plausibly come from the federal government that can significantly change that dynamic."

An oil industry group praised Obama's move as a first step with a "couple of positive nuggets" but contended that more was needed to boost oil production. Erik Milito, upstream director for the American Petroleum Institute, called in a statement for more access to key shale reserves and construction of a pipeline that would import crude from Canadian oil sands.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who is opposed to drilling off the Atlantic coast, expressed concern about possible dangers to the environment. "I think it is disappointing he would pursue a strategy that comes with considerable risk while offering no hope of driving down gas prices," Menendez said in a statement.

Obama's announcement followed passage in the Republican-controlled House of three bills – including two this week – that would expand and speed offshore oil and gas drilling. Republicans say the bills are aimed at easing gasoline costs, but they too acknowledge that benefits won't come fast.

The White House had announced its opposition to all three bills, which are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, saying the measures would undercut safety reviews and open environmentally sensitive areas to new drilling.

But Obama is adopting some of the bills' provisions.

Answering the call of Republicans and Democrats from Gulf Coast states, Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that he would extend all Gulf leases that were affected by a temporary moratorium on drilling imposed after last year's BP oil spill. That would give companies additional time to begin drilling.

The administration had been granting extensions case by case, but senior administration officials said the Interior Department would institute a blanket one-year extension.

New safety requirements put in place since the BP spill also have delayed drilling in Alaska, so Obama said he would extend lease terms there for a year as well. An oil lease typically runs 10 years.

Lease sales in the western and central Gulf of Mexico that were postponed last year will be held by the middle of next year, the same time period required by the House. A sale off the Virginia coast still would not happen until 2017 at the earliest. But Obama said he would speed up environmental reviews so that seismic studies to determine how much oil and gas lies off the Atlantic Coast can begin.

To further expedite drilling off the Alaskan coast, where such plans by Shell Oil Co. have been delayed by an air pollution permit, Obama said he would create an interagency task force to coordinate the necessary approvals. He also will hold annual lease sales in the vast National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska's North Slope. Officials said the most recent sale was last year, but that they had not been held on any set schedule.

The moves come as Americans head into the summer driving season and gas prices remain high. A gallon of regular cost $3.97 on average nationwide Saturday, according to the AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's up from $3.81 a month ago and $2.88 a year ago, but it's about a penny less than a week ago.

The price of gasoline increased every day between March 23 and May 6 for a total of about 30 percent, essentially tracking a 35 percent rise in crude oil prices that started in mid-February as investors pushed more and more money into commodities. Refinery shutdowns also contributed. And gas prices tend to rise every spring as refineries follow federal regulations to produce summer gasoline blends that evaporate less readily but are more expensive to make.

Molchanov said global oil prices also have risen because the global supply and demand picture has tightened the past few months due to volatility in the Middle East and North Africa.

Even if the U.S. government started offering new leases in Alaska and new areas of the Gulf or off the East Coast, it would probably take at least a year to start drilling and then another five years for that to translate into barrels of production, the analyst said. Wells that can produce quickly tend to be small.

"Even if all that works out, it still would not materially change global oil supply, and therefore would not materially change fuel prices in this country or any other," Molchanov said. "In the grand scheme of things, none of this changes the reality of $4 gasoline at the pump."

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings of Washington, sponsor of the three measures that recently passed the House, said it was "ironic" that Obama "is now taking baby steps in our direction" after the White House and congressional Democrats criticized the bills.

"The president is finally admitting what Republicans have known all along, that increasing the supply of American energy will help lower prices and create jobs," Hastings said.

Philip Johnson, a petroleum engineer and University of Alabama professor, cautioned that new leases offer no guarantee that a company will find oil. Leases give a company permission to explore an area and set limits for what the company can do.

"You've got strong suspicions because you know what the underground structure looks like," he said. "But until you stick a hole in it you don't know what's in that structure."

Johnson noted, for instance, that while there are about 3,000 producing wells in the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. waters, about 50,000 wells have been drilled including many that have been emptied.

Obama on Saturday also reiterated his call on Democrats and Republicans to vote to eliminate $4.4 billion in taxpayer subsidies to oil and gas companies. Industry advocates, including most Republicans in Congress, have argued that doing away with the tax breaks will raise companies' cost of doing business, crimp their investment in exploration and production and lead to higher gas prices.

The 41 U.S. oil and gas companies that break out their federal taxes said they paid Uncle Sam $5.7 billion in 2010, more than any other industry, according to data compiled by Compustat. Exxon alone paid $1.3 billion.

The industry's federal tax bill would rise 70 percent without the subsidies, but it would remain highly profitable: Oil companies' combined pre-tax profits could hit $200 billion this year.

In the weekly Republican message, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby said it's time for Washington to get serious about the challenges facing the country, including straightening out its finances and tackling the gas price issue. She praised the House for passing measures to expand domestic energy production "because when we're talking about energy, we're talking about jobs."

"The greatest threat to our economy, job creation, and the future of our children is to do nothing," Roby said. "We have to act. It is what we were sent to Washington to do."

___

AP Business Writers Laura Impellizzeri in San Francisco and Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

National Puerto Rican Day Parade On Fifth Avenue, Sunday, June, 12, 2011

New York's landmark Fifth Avenue will once again shine with Puerto Rican pride and culture, as the 16th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade (54th annual Puerto Rican Day Parade since the event's inception as a local organization, will take place on Sunday, June 12, 2011. This year's theme is "Celebrating the Natural Beauty of Puerto Rico". Organization such as the Puerto Rico Conservation Trust and the Puerto Rico Chapter of the Sierra Club, have joined on the effort to raise awareness to preserved the environment and natural resources of the island, as Global Ambassador to the arts Actor John Leguizamo, said, "Let save the environment for the white people".

Another honoree, is Bronx's poet, Caridad de La Cruz, AKA, "La Bruja" as the Youth Godmother. See video bellow of "La Bruja" sharing ones of her poems as the news-conference.


video by Rafael Martínez Alequín

The Empire State Building Honor The Bronx's Week

Time to dust off your party shoes - it's Bronx Week!

Tuesday, May 10th 2011, 1:39 PM

Children wait to get their faces painted on Mosholu Parkway during the Bronx Week in 2007.
Enid Alvarez/News
Children wait to get their faces painted on Mosholu Parkway during the Bronx Week in 2007.

It's been four decades in the making and Bronx Week organizers say this year's celebration will not disappoint.

Bronx Week kicks off Thursday for 11 days of 120 special events.

In a first, the Empire State Building will light up in the blue, white and orange of the Bronx flag on Saturday night.

"This is the biggest party in the borough of the Bronx," said Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. "Everyone should come out and bring their families."

Bronx Historian Lloyd Ultan helped found the annual event in 1971 and called this year's lineup of festivities "amazing."

"And the very fact that the Empire State Building will be lit in our honor I think is recognition that the Bronx has something valuable to offer New York City and the rest of the world," he said.

Also new this year are an urban farm tour, a film festival, a hip-hop block party and free boat rides on the Bronx River.

The celebration starts Thursday with the annual Centenarian Celebration, a tribute to the borough's elders. And opening weekend festivities will include a tribute to Bronx veterans.

In addition, some venerable Bronx Week favorites will return.

Bronx DiVA Spa will once again combine a day of free pampering with information about domestic violence.

This year's Historic Trolley Tour will feature the life story of 17th century religious freedom fighter Anne Hutchinson, for whom the river and parkway are named.

The grand finale on Sunday, May 22, will feature a host of special events including the 40th annual Bronx Week Parade with more than 80 schools participating and performances by rap legend Big Daddy Kane, '80s R&B stars Force MD's and the salsa group Conjunto Imagen.

This year's Bronx Walk of Fame 2011 Induction Ceremony will honor actor Chazz Palminteri, singer and actress Irene Cara, TMZ co-executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere and model and actress Joy Bryant.

"Bronx Week is good for the Bronx," said Lourdes Valentin, of the Bronx Tourism Council. "It brings the Bronx together as a whole and keeps it a strong close-knit family."

For a complete listing of events, see Thursday's Daily News or visit www.ilovethebronx.com.

The Empire State Building will be light up in the official colors of the Bronx beginning on Friday, May 13, and continuing through Sunday, May 15

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Video editor accuses WABC-TV reporters of racial abuse

NEW YORK | Fri May 6, 2011 5:49pm EDT


(Reuters) - A video editor is suing three on-air reporters for ABC Television's affiliate in New York, alleging he suffered "abusive, offensive and demeaning" language because he is Hispanic.

Gerardo Lago made the complaint against Lauren Glassberg, Kemberly Richardson and Stacey Sager, three on-air reporters for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News, in a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York Supreme Court.

Lago also sued the station, American Broadcasting Co Inc, and ABC's owner, Disney Worldwide Services, seeking at least $18 million in damages.

Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, who said he was speaking on behalf of the defendants, declined to comment. An official at WABC-TV said the station had no comment.

Lago was the cameraman for Glassberg's "Neighborhood Eats" segment. On many occasions she told people being taped to excuse Lago "as he does not speak English," the lawsuit said.

Rosemarie Arnold, Lago's lawyer, said her client has a slight accent, but speaks "perfect English."

On July 15, 2009, Sager yelled at Lago about his editing of a story about a pipe bomb that detonated in front of a Starbucks restaurant in New York City and falsely blamed him for errors in the segment, the lawsuit said.

On June 21, 2010, Richardson yelled profanities at Lago while he was her cameraman, according to the complaint.

Lago has worked as a video editor, cameraman, or photographer for the station since December 19, 1989, the complaint said.

Executives at the station and the newscast failed to make any effort to stop the abuse, the lawsuit said. Officials branded him a troublemaker and placed him on medical leave, without evaluation, on October 28, the lawsuit said. Putting him on medical leave was "improper, because there is nothing wrong with him," Arnold said.

When he asked to return to work, his bosses ordered him to undergo an independent medical examination with a psychologist, Arnold said. Her client refused and they suspended him without pay on February 3.

(Reporting by Jennifer Golson; Editing by Greg McCune)

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly should run for President, Mayor Bloomberg cracks

Tuesday, May 10th 2011, 4:00 AM

Top cop Raymond Kelly has been touted as possible mayoral candidate in 2013.
Anthony Lanzilote for News
Top cop Raymond Kelly has been touted as possible mayoral candidate in 2013.

Raymond Kelly: Vietnam veteran. NYPD commissioner. Perfect presidential candidate.

At least that was the endorsement from Mayor Bloomberg - never mind that Hizzoner appeared to be joking.

"Kelly would make a great President," Bloomberg crowed after sidestepping a question about someone who is officially jumping into the White House race: Newt Gingrich.

The former speaker of the House is expected to enter the race for the GOP nomination Wednesday in an announcement on Facebook and Twitter. He'll then address his candidacy in a Fox News appearance.

Kelly, meanwhile, is frequently touted as a mayoral candidate. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) even floated his name earlier this year as his choice to run the FBI.

But, so far, there's been no presidential buzz.

"He already has the best job in the country - President Obama only thinks he does," quipped top NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly news-conference On NYC Security After Bin Laden's Death

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, after honoring nine uniformed members of the NYPD and one civilian who died of illnesses developed after September 11, 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center held a news-conference in front of One Police Plaza answering reporters question about security in the city after Osama Bin Laden's death.

video by Rafael Martínez Alequín

From Che to bin Laden


Jon Lee Anderson
Bolivian military officials display the body of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara after killing him, 10/09/67. (photo: Freddy Alborta/Getty Images)
Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker
Jon Lee Anderson begins: "There are some uncanny analogies between the story of Osama bin Laden's life and death and that of a another charismatic political outlaw, who, once upon a time, 'declared war' on the United States. Ernesto 'Che' Guevara."
READ MORE

Stucknation: Christie's Xanadu Nightmare Becomes Someone's 'American Dream'

Friday, May 06, 2011
News Staff: Bob Hennelly (Picture 2 Cropped) A rendering of American Dream, the replacement for New Jersey's Xanadu
By Bob Hennelly

You're an ambitious, high-profile Republican governor of a state in chronic budget crisis and in a nation with a sputtering recovery. The state's corrupt "pay to play" politics, left you a two-million-square-foot mall monstrosity named Xanadu that's yet to open. Its exterior is violently ugly and it is built on state land so close to the Big Apple that its value is through the roof. Worse yet, in just three years, the eyes of the world will be on the monstrosity because your brand new NFL stadium next door is hosting the Superbowl in 2014.

Who are you going to call? Who can fix this? The Air National Guard?

New Jersey Governor Chris Chrsitie dialed Triple Five, the Canadian developer of the Mall of America. The firm is a privately held, multi-faceted conglomerate owned by the the Ghermezian family, a can-do-clan of Persian Jews who left their native Iran in the 1960s for Montreal.

By 1981, they placed themselves on the mall map with the opening of their five million square foot West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, BC. They make mega malls into stand alone international tourist destinations that they say end up boosting the broader region where they are located. But invariably they also solicited some form of public subsidy and special consideration to pull it all off.

On Tuesday Gov. Christie told a crowd of reporters in the cavernous Xanadu shell that Triple Five's re-branding of the ill-fated mall as the "American Dream Meadowlands" was about more than just shopping.

“You have to give people a sense of optimism and hope that things are changing here. When we took over here in 2009 there was a real sense both in this region and across the state that this type of large-scale, private development couldn't happen again.”

Of course Christie attributes Triple 5's interest in the Meadowlands to his commitment to lower taxes and less regulation. He did sweeten the invitation with $200 million dollars in economic development aid funded by sales tax revenue from the complex once it opens. And he hopes he can get them to takeover the Sport's Authority's aging 20,000 seat Izod arena that's right next door to Xanadu.

Last summer Governor Christie told reporters that if the state extended any public subsidy to a developer to finish Xanadu he would see to it that taxpayers benefited from the deal in a tangible way. When pressed on that question at last week's Triple Five presser he said details and terms where still being worked out.

State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County, wants Governor Christie to release the terms of the deal and more specifics on the development itself.

“I remain concerned that this megamall development could become a nightmare for Bergen County residents and State taxpayers who will be footing the bill for needed public infrastructure improvements and development incentives for years," said Weinberg. "We ought to engage State taxpayers and local residents in a discussion of the merits and pitfalls of expanding Xanadu’s footprint, and investing more funds into an already costly development."

Christie's remarks at the "American Dream" event harkened back to a Reaganesque kind of optimism in the face of some long odds. The former Mills Corporation and than Colony Capital spent more than $2 billion dollars on Xanadu and neither could get it done.

Throughout New Jersey and the entire country, malls of every description are vacant and falling into disrepair. It's a kind of a Great Recession blight woven throughout our landscape. Bloomberg and Reuters reported that in the first quarter of this year vacancy rates at American malls were at their highest rate in a decade.

And than there's global warming and the role mallification might play in it.

To make the redo of Xanadu fly, you have to suspend the gravity of conventional wisdom with the razzle dazzle of show business At Christie's press conference there was just such a showman - Nader Ghermezian, the avuncular chairman of Triple Five now in his 70s. What he lacks in physical stature he makes up with in world-class salesmanship.

In halting dramatic voice he drew the reporters in. "Today we are proud to announce that we will be developing the world's largest and most comprehensive, retail, entertainment, amusement, recreation and tourism project ever built," said Ghermezian. "This project, by measurement, bar none does not exist anywhere."

Even though the concept of the 'shopping mall' is historically linked to the American experience these days the list if the world's ten largest malls are dominated by Asian projects.

The largest is New South China Mall in Donneguan, China at 6.46 million square feet. By comparison Triple Five's West Edmonton Mall in Alberta is 5.3 million and the company's Mall of America in Minnesota is 4.2 million square feet.

Triple Five says its ultimate build out of the complex, including the adjacent state-owned 20,000-seat Izod Center, and a possible hotel complex, will bring the total size of the project in at 7.5 million square feet, which Triple 5 says would make it the largest in the world.

In the first phase, Triple 5 is going to add another million square feet to Xanadu's existing 2 million square foot footprint. There will be a one-of-a-kind indoor amusement park under a glass dome with a view of the New York City skyline. There will be Hawaii themed water park with six foot waves, a 16-story indoor ski slope, and 26 screen movieplex.

“Half of the people that they are going to come to this projects are going to be from out of town, tourists, nationally and internationally,” said Ghermezian. He predicts the complex will draw 55 million people a year, and said his company's Mall of America in Minnesota is a well-established international destination. They offer 70 travel packages originating from 34 countries on 5 continents. Triple Five also says the project would employ almost 9,000 construction workers and create 35,000 permanent jobs.

And Ghermezian's says the prospects are even brighter with Newark Liberty Airport so close. He said Triple Five would work behind the scenes to encourage airlines to expand their Newark layover time for international flights and offer passing through tourists a way to check their bags at the Mall and have an easy link back to the airport.

Of course there were no critics at the presser. Observing it all was Captain Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack River Keeper who was glad to see some kind of progress on the moribund site. But he looked incredulous. In the age of global warming how could reporters not have asked about the impact of this mega-mall - purportedly visible from space - on the environment?

“I have some concerns about the extraordinary amount of energy this is going to use. We can’t move something like this forward thinking that it’s the 1900s,” said Sheehan.

NJ Sierra Club Chapter Director Jeff Tittel, a longtime Xanadu critic, was not invited to the rollout. By Tittel's calculation, between a $200 million dollar rail-spur and the infrastructure rebuild, the public already has $900 million invested in the mall project. He says Chrsitie's decision to sign off on something on the scale of the American Dream/Meadowlands had to be considered in the context of Christie's controversial decision to kill the rail tunnel under the Hudson between New Jersey and New York.

"The American Nightmare Mall will be the biggest source of greenhouse gasses in NJ after the Governor," said Tittel. "The Governor can give $200 -$350 Million to subsidize a mall, but will kill a mass-transit project. The irony is the tunnel could have been used to get people to the mall - now they will have to drive gridlocked Northern New Jersey. The developer should change the name to Xantac because of all the ulcers it will give to taxpayers stuck in traffic."

Triple Five spokesperson Maureen Bausch says Mall of America has a solid environmental record going back twenty years. "Our building in Minnesota was green even before it was cool to be green," she said. "We recycle over 70 percent of everything we use in that building, from the food in the food court that goes to the pig farmers, to all of our garbage."

But the environmental debate aside, what does a governor do with two million square foot white elephant? Evidently he has to find a three ring circus.

Economist James W. Hughes, Dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, was a critic of the initial public-private partnership that spawned Xanadu.

He says New Jersey is malled out. "In 1990 we had 20 square feet of retail space per capita. By 2010 it had doubled to 40 square feet. We are just an 'over stored' state and nation," said Hughes.

Dean Hughes said for the American Dream to fly with international customers boosters would have to count on a weak dollar. He concedes that if you are going to build any mall with the odds of making it it has to be the world's largest. "You would at least have a unique asset and by being unique like that it could grease the financial skids."

But Wharton Marketing Professor Steven Hock thinks Chrsitie's making a supersize mistake. Hoch says he understands Christie's political reasons to 'go bigger or go home' but says there is no business justification.

"I don't see 7.5 million square feet mall as an international draw in New Jersey. I just don't see it. There are so many other things going on," Hock says referring to the metro region's existing dynamism.

Hock predicts that if American Dream is built it will further undermine the rest of the region's retail space market. "It is just going to transfer the problem on to a whole bunch of other people," says Hock.

Well isn't that what politics is all about? What's Governor Christie supposed to do? Leave it vacant until the Superbowl as a shrine to the bankruptcy of American and global consumerism?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

My Reaction to Osama bin Laden's Death

Portrait, Noam Chomsky, 06/15/09. (photo: Sam Lahoz)
Portrait, Noam Chomsky, 06/15/09. (photo: Sam Lahoz)

07 May 11

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.

t's increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition - except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress "suspects." In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it "believed" that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn't know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence - which, as we soon learned, Washington didn't have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that "we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda."

Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin Laden's "confession," but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.

There is also much media discussion of Washington's anger that Pakistan didn't turn over bin Laden, though surely elements of the military and security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said about Pakistani anger that the US invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden's, and he is not a "suspect" but uncontroversially the "decider" who gave the orders to commit the "supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole" (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.

There's more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the "Bush doctrine" that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the US and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It's like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk ... It's as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes "Jew" and "Gypsy."

There is much more to say, but even the most obvious and elementary facts should provide us with a good deal to think about.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Raid Details Spark Conflicting Reactions In Europe

Osama Bin Laden

Changing details about Osama bin Laden's final moments have raised concern in Europe over the handling of the raid.

As the New York Times reports, there have been no official condemnations of the killing. However, some European sentiments are redolent of the Bush administration, when the U.S. came under fire for unilateralism, among other criticism.

Immediately after bin Laden's death was announced, it was reported that he was shooting at the time of his death and that he had possible used a woman as a human shield. Both of those claims are now being refuted. Pakistani officials have called the raid "cold-blooded," arguing that bin Laden did not resist arrest, and the human shield claim has been rejected.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel came under fire for saying that she was "glad" bin Laden was dead, prompting widespread condemnation, even within her own party. According to Der Spiegel, Germany's Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, told Die Welt, ""We must be careful, that we in the West -- with understanding of the relief felt -- do not send images into the world that could again lead to incitement or to the heroization of al-Qaida."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero went the farthest, becoming the first European leader to say openly that he would have preferred bin Laden stand trial. On Wednesday, Zapatero told Spanish Parliament, "Any democrat would have preferred to see him stand trial," according to the Telegraph.

Others have questioned the legality of the killing. Der Spiegel asked, "Is this what justice looks like?" in their analysis of the raid, joining a growing chorus of criticism. As the New York Times reports:

A columnist at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, Heribert Prantl, asked, “Which law governs the execution of Bin Laden?” He said that American law required trials before the death penalty and concluded, “The decision to kill the godfather of terror was political.”

Geoffrey Robertson, a prominent human rights lawyer in Britain who is currently defending the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was scathing in an interview on the BBC. Mr. Obama’s assertion that justice was done was “a total misuse of language,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is the justice of the Red Queen: sentence first, trial later

Friday, May 6, 2011

Osama Bin Laden Killed While Sitting On Toilet, Nation Likes To Imagine

NEW YORK—Osama bin Laden, 54-year-old leader of the international terrorist group al-Qaeda and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that took nearly 3,000 American lives in 2001, was killed early Monday morning in Pakistan while sitting on the toilet, the U.S. populace took great pleasure in imagining today. “Just thinking about the stupid look on that evil bastard’s face when those Navy SEALs kicked in the bathroom door and started blasting away—it’s so totally priceless,” said Queens, NY resident Rachel Sumner, one of 311 million Americans who reveled in a fictional scenario in which bin Laden met his gruesome and humiliating end while sitting on the commode, humming to himself, and reading a newspaper. “And him frantically trying to pull up his boxer shorts seconds before some badass Special Forces guy blows his head off—ha, ha! What a fucking moron.” Some Americans have disputed this fabricated version of bin Laden’s death, explaining they prefer to imagine the terrorist leader being surprised by Navy SEALs while wearing bright red lipstick, trying on ladies’ clothing, sashaying in front of a full-length mirror, and saying, “Who’s the prettiest little girl? Osama's the prettiest little girl!”

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Fidel Castro Slams U.S. For Killing Osama Bin Laden

More In World: Pakistan Army Warns U.S.... New Bin Laden Raid Info... Inside Bin Laden's Lair...

Fidel Castro

05/ 5/11 09:37 AM ET AP

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro has criticized the United States for the manner in which its forces killed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden, saying it executed him in front of his family.

Castro says in an opinion piece published Thursday in Cuban media that the raid inside Pakistan by a team of U.S. Navy Seals also violated that country's laws and offended its dignity.

The former Cuban leader says he abhors all forms of terrorism. He notes that he expressed solidarity with the United States despite decades of political differences following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But the 84-year-old revolutionary says the decision to kill bin Laden and bury him at sea "has turned him into a much more dangerous man."

Dad says medical marijuana 'cured' 2-year-old's cancer; pop slipped son pot oil as last resort

BY Philip Caulfield

Thursday, May 5th 2011, 11:08 AM

Mike Hyde said slipping small doses of medical marijuana into his son's feeding tube helped him recover from cancer.
ABC News
Mike Hyde said slipping small doses of medical marijuana into his son's feeding tube helped him recover from cancer.

Pot Poppa

Should children be treated with medical marijuana?

A Montana dad is claiming that medical marijuana helped cure his 2-year-old son's massive brain tumor.

Mike Hyde, 27, said he slipped a little cannabis oil into his toddler Cash's feeding tube in desperation after the boy stopped eating for 40 days. Chemo treatments were making him too sick to eat.

"Not only was it helpful, it was a godsend," Hyde told ABC News.

Hyde had used medicinal marijuana to treat his own attention deficit disorder, and he got Cash a card after doctors found a malignant brain tumor on his optic never in 2010.

After doctors started an aggressive chemo treatment, the tot lost his appetite and threw up 10 times a day, his dad said. The little boy also suffered septic shock, a stroke and internal hemorrhaging.

"When he started the chemo, he was so sick," Hyde said. "For the first six weeks, he was blind...It's the nastiest thing to see someone you love go through this."

After doctors inserted a feeding tube into Cash's stomach, Hyde said he mixed a little cannabis oil with olive oil and poured tiny doses into it, hoping to ease the boy's nausea and get him eating again.

Hyde never told doctors, because medical marijuana is illegal in Utah, where the boy was being treated. It is legal in Montana, where the family lives.

Miraculously, the boy recovered last fall.

"In two weeks he was weaned off all the nausea drugs, and he was eating again and sitting up in and laughing," Hyde said.

The thrilled dad said he wanted to tell his docs about his improvised herbal remedy, but he was afraid they'd take the stash away.

Cash's doctors weren't commenting, but experts said the dad's impromptu pot treatment but risky.

Dr. Linda Granowetter, a pediatrics professor at NYU, told ABC that the idea that pot could cure cancer was "ludicrous," and that it was dangerous that Hyde duped his docs about the dope.

"I think that the fact that he didn't have the rapport and ability to be honest with the doctor is very troubling," Granowetter said.

"It's awfully hard to gauge if a child would have a bad reaction," she added.

Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states and commonly used to treat nausea associated with cancer treatments, as well as glaucoma and other stomach illnesses.

The feds say the drug's medicinal benefits are all smoke and mirrors and have been cracking down on sellers across the country. Late last month, agents raided a slew of dispensaries across Washington, angering pot advocates.

Hyde said his doctors called the recovery "miraculous," and said the feds should light -- er -- lighten up.

"The only way for medical patients to benefit from cannabis is for us to have it legalized fully," Hyde said. "Until it's fully legalized, police and law enforcement will continue to harass and invade patients' rights, and take their medicine away."

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Bin Laden’s Compound: Marijuana in the Yard and Militant Landlords

Just saying, those sheep look pretty mellow.

Just saying, those sheep look pretty mellow.Photo: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound may have appeared no different from any other nondescript house in the middle-class neighborhood of Bilal Town, except for the high cement walls topped with barbed wire — and a few other distinguishing factors. Along with rows of cabbages and potatoes on the border wall of the compound, for instance, CNN's Nic Robertson discovered rows of marijuana plants. Pakistan makes roughly $4 billion a year from drug trafficking, although opium poppy is the preferred crop, leading some to believe that bin Laden partook of the plant to ease the pain from years of kidney problems. The men who lived in the compound with bin Laden, known there as Arshad Khan and Tareq Khan, also seemed wealthier than their neighbors, who were mostly shopkeepers, farm laborers, and Afghan refugees. They paid generous wages to the help, owned a red SUV and a white Suzuki jeep, and explained away the extra cash by saying that "they had a hotel in Dubai managed by their uncle who sent them money, or that they worked in the money-changing business," reports the New York Times.

If neighborhood children accidentally let a ball fly into the compound, the owners gave them 50 rupees to buy a new one. When local children began throwing balls past the cement wall on purpose, they kept on paying.

India Times also notes a distinguishing feature when it comes to the compound's owner. Hizbul Mujahedeen, a militant group active in Kashmir, allegedly owns a mansion nearby in Abbottabad. A Canadian newspaper also claims that Pakistan has tried to sweep the ownership under the rug by instructing patwaris, or land-registry officials, to stay quiet on the matter. A Pakistani police officer said that the hideout itself may have been used and owned by Hizbul, a group that has benefited from tolerance, if not support, from the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence service. If the connection was true, it would be the first time Hizbul, which focuses more narrowly on removing Indian forces from Kashmir, was linked to Al Qaeda's broader ambitions.

Behind High Walls, Model Neighbors Were Harboring a Fugitive [NYT]
Osama's hideout in Pakistan belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen: Report [India Times]
Bin Laden's HIGH security compound: Marijuana plants grew near hideout as servants made trips for 'lots' of VERY western Coke and Pepsi [Daily Mail UK]

Even a monster such as Osama Bin Laden deserved a better burial, say city Muslims

Originally Published:Wednesday, May 4th 2011, 4:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday, May 4th 2011, 10:28 AM

City Muslims were dissatisfied with Osama Bin Laden's burial at sea. Many felt the Al Qaeda leader should have been given a proper burial.
City Muslims were dissatisfied with Osama Bin Laden's burial at sea. Many felt the Al Qaeda leader should have been given a proper burial.

New York Muslims and community leaders are still shocked that the U.S. dumped Osama Bin Laden's body into the ocean.

No matter how evil - and even though Bin Laden didn't afford his victims a decent burial - many Muslims interviewed by the Daily News said sending his remains to a watery grave was wrong.

"All Muslims as good believers are against terrorists but the way they got rid of his body ... is not the way," said Hamed Nabawy, owner of The Fertile Crescent grocery in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn's Arab hub along Atlantic Ave. "We do not burn it. We do not throw it in the water. We bury it in the ground," said Nabawy, 52.

Mohamed Zohny, 69, owner of Islamic Fashion on Atlantic Ave., agreed.

"[Bin Laden] was a very bad man. I do not like the things he did. I do not believe in the things he said. It is better that he is gone," he said, but he added, "The body belongs to God. We have to bury it."

Ibrahim Hooper, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the debate "centers on the nature of the individual himself than on the actual burial procedures."

"There's a part of human nature that says even a person who has done bad and evil things deserves a decent burial," he said.

Still, all things considered, he said he thought the administration "went out of its way" to respect the Muslim burial traditions.

Just hours after Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on Sunday, his corpse was washed and wrapped in a white cloth, in accordance with Muslim traditions, and then pushed into the Arabian Sea, administration officials said. Officials said they feared that if he were buried, his grave would become a shrine to jihadists.

Brooklyn marketing consultant Ashraf Youseph said a burial 6 feet under would have been ideal but that the most important thing is that the terrorist mastermind is gone.

"He killed a lot of people," said Youseph, 52. "No matter what, he's guilty."

End Game: Somebody Bin Smoking Pot?

It's no wonder the locals in Abbottabad didn't know Osama Bin Laden was living there - they were too busy harvesting their ganja. Reporters at Bin Laden's million-dollar hideout discovered small plots of marijuana growing in the deserted lots on the compound's perimeter. (NYDN)

White House officials sought to correct the official account of the raid in Pakistan that ended in the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying he wasn't armed and that his wife was not killed. The new DOD narrative said that one of Bin Laden’s wives was shot in the leg as she charged members of the commando team on the third floor of the compound. (NYT)

“Obviously, some of the information was — came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated upon,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who told reporters that “resistance does not require a firearm” but directed questions about how bin Laden “resisted” to the Pentagon. (Politico)

Read More

Top DOE official under investigation for conflict of interest with owners of computer contractor

Juan Gonzalez

Wednesday, May 4th 2011, 4:00 AM

A top DOE official is under investigation for "potential corruption and conflict of interest" with an owner of a major computer contractor.
A top DOE official is under investigation for "potential corruption and conflict of interest" with an owner of a major computer contractor.

A top Department of Education official who supervised a major computer contractor is under investigation for "potential corruption and conflict of interest" with an owner of the firm.

In an April 14 interview under oath with probers for Special Commissioner on Investigation Richard Condon, the school official "denied having a personal relationship" with one of the two principal officers of Future Technology Associates (FTA), a Florida-based consulting firm with a $43 million contract to service the schools' computer system.

Four days after that interview, the DOE official's lawyer called Condon's investigators and retracted the original denial of a personal relationship, an affidavit filed by Condon deputy Gerald Conroy says.

Conroy's affidavit identifies the school official only as a "high-level" executive with "oversight" over the FTA contract.

Condon's office filed the affidavit to try to convince Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe to reconsider her recent decision to quash an SCI subpoena of FTA's co-owners, Tamer Sevintuna and Jonathan Krohe.

Two months ago, Jaffe denied the subpoenas and labeled Condon's investigation a "fishing expedition."

Conroy's new affidavit claims there are new "material facts" Jaffe should take into account. In addition to the retracted statement, Conroy points to an April 13 Daily News column.

That article revealed that Sevintuna and Krohe never told the DOE they owned a Turkish company, Krono Bilgisayar, that received more than $3.6 million between 2006 and 2009 for programmers who worked from Turkey to service DOE computers.

School system spokeswoman Marge Feinberg has said FTA had no authorization, as it was required to have, before it could subcontract its work.

As a result of The News' revelations, SCI has expanded its year-long probe of FTA and wants to know if Sevintuna and Krohe "are using a hidden ownership of Krono to profit egregiously at the expense of DOE," the Conroy affidavit said.

Just how huge those profits were is reflected in Turkish social security records The News obtained this week.

The records show one of the Turkish workers, Cem Arpaci, was paid $3,370 for the month of March 2011 by Krono Bilgisayar. Back here in New York, FTA billed the school system $22,400 for Arpaci's labor.

All told, at least six workers, including Arpaci, were on the DOE payroll in March as full-time consultants.

The wages Krono paid to all six totaled just $16,800, the Turkish records show.

Yet FTA got $110,400 from the DOE for those same six consultants.

That's a markup of more than 600%. The owners of the Turkish firm are receiving $93,600 more than the labor cost of those six workers each month!

On top of that, Krohe and Sevintuna each received more than $300,000 annually from the DOE as senior managers of the FTA project.

Lawyers for the two men did not respond to requests for comment.

Feinberg was also mum.

"We cannot comment on matters relating to FTA until the ... investigation is completed," the DOE spokeswoman said.

The burgeoning troubles with FTA comes on the heels of federal arrests connected to two other computer consulting scandals in the Bloomberg administration.

In December, four top consultants on the CityTime payroll project were charged with stealing more than $80 million through inflated payments and dummy companies.

Last week, DOE consultant Willard (Ross) Lanham was charged with bilking taxpayers of $3.6 million in another contract.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Taxis of the Future, not for persons on Wheelchairs


"The Taxi of the Future", Mayor Boomberg and the Taxi and Limousine Commission have selected the "taxi of yesterday" by choosing a vehicle that isn't designed to accommodate wheelchairs. The decision is a move backwards and violation of common sense and common decency. People on wheelchairs accordint to this deal "must learn to walk." Question the Mayor.
video by Rafael Martínez Alequín

Sunday, May 1, 2011

White House Correspondents Dinner: Obama Takes On Trump, Birthers, The Media, And More



Obama White House Correspondents Dinner

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama exercised his revenge Saturday after weeks of attacks from his would-be Republican challenger Donald Trump, joking that the billionaire businessman could bring change to the White House, transforming it from a stately mansion into a tacky casino with a whirlpool in the garden.

With Trump in attendance, Obama used the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner to mock the reality TV star's presidential ambitions. The president said Trump has shown the acumen of a future president, from firing Gary Busey on a recent episode of "Celebrity Apprentice" to focusing so much time on conspiracy theories about Obama's birthplace.

After a week when Obama released his long-form Hawaii birth certificate, he said Trump could now focus on the serious issues, from whether the moon landing actually happened to "where are Biggie and Tupac?"

"No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than 'the Donald,'" Obama said, referring to Trump's claims the same day that he was responsible for solving the issue.

For Trump's decision to fire actor Busey instead of rock singer Meat Loaf from his TV show earlier this month, Obama quipped: "These are the types of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir."

Trump chuckled at some of the earlier jokes, but was clearly less amused as comedian Seth Meyers picked up where Obama left off.

"Donald Trump often talks about running as a Republican, which is surprising," said the Saturday Night Live actor, entrusted with providing some of the comedy for the evening. "I just assumed he was running as a joke."

Story continues belowTrump stared icily at Meyers as he continued to criticize the real estate tycoon. The two men found themselves in the same room after an intense week of attacks from Trump, who has piggybacked on the birther conspiracies and even Obama's refusal to release his university grades to raise the profile of his possible presidential bid. And the birth certificate was clearly the key punchline for the evening, which typically offers the president a chance to show off his humorous side and a town consumed by politics and partisanship to enjoy a light-hearted affair. Obama's presentation started after the wrestler Hulk Hogan's patriotic anthem, "Real American," played. Images of Americana from Mount Rushmore to Uncle Sam were shown on the screen, alongside his birth certificate. And then he offered to show his live birth video, which turned out to be a clip from the Disney film, "The Lion King."

On the serious side, Obama took time to thank the troops for their service overseas and noted that the people of the South, especially Alabama, have suffered heart-wrenching losses.

"The devastation is unbelievable and it is heartbreaking," he said. He encouraged the journalists in the room to help tell the stories of those who have been hurt by the storms and saluted those who lost their lives while covering the news.

Other possible Republican presidential hopefuls in attendance were former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Rep. Michele Bachmann and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And stars such as Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson also were among the 3,000 people who attended.

The association was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended the dinner. Some of the proceeds from the dinner pay for journalism scholarships for college students.