Kingston, NY, 7 May 2009 -- The financial fields replete with sprouting "green shoots" should be viewed with suspicion, if not alarm, warns Gerald Celente, The Trends Research Institute Director. "They are not a mirage, but they are ephemeral."
Field Marshall Ben Bernanke and his Green Shoot Brigade have fertilized the economic landscape with trillions of sweat equity dollars extorted from today's public and the public of generations to come. Regardless of how depleted the land, heavy doses of dollars spread so thickly over the financial and government territories, will force "green shoots" to grow. But the fundamentals of the economy remain unsound. They will not be corrected by forced fertilizing barren acreage.
"'Green shoots' may sprout," said Celente, "but they will not flower. The economy cannot be coerced back into growth with tons of money manure." As the ancient parable puts it:
"A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." -- Luke 8:4-8
Now here this: it is inconceivable that the "green shoots" are signs of sustained economic recovery.
Celente said no one could have forecast that the government would not only intervene in the markets by pouring unprecedented trillions into bailout schemes, but that they would commandeer the whole free enterprise system.
"The 800-pound gorilla has ridden the elephant into the Oval Office, and are there for all to see. But few will call a spade a spade," declared Celente. "Benito Mussolini described Fascism as 'The merger of state and corporate power.' He suggested that, more appropriately, it should be called 'Corporatism.' By whatever name, Corporatism or Fascism, what it's not is Free Market Capitalism, much less Democracy," Celente said.
"Green shoots" can only be brought to harvest through real productivity. Pumping gigantic sums of money into too-big-to-fail financial institutions to jump-start the lending/borrowing cycle is to perpetuate a failed economic model. (See "The Greatest Depression," Trends Journal, Winter 2009.)
"We can extrapolate creatively from data, but cannot prophesize wild cards, such as acts of God, acts of nature, or acts of man that can only be described as 'schemes undreamed of.' While there have been warnings since the founding of the United States, no one, but no one, could have predicted the mega-merger of Wall Street and Washington that is now a fait accompli," said The Trends Research Institute Director.
Trendpost: With so much money being dumped into the system, there will be money to made ... and lost. The agile and the knowledgeable may be able to reap "green shoots" while they're sprouted. But beware!
"The Greatest Depression" -- that we forecast would begin to set in by the end of this year -- may have been postponed, but it has not been averted. When it does set in, it will do so with enhanced intensity and at a pace accelerated by complex financial finagling ... all under the guise of nation-saving action. Rather than let the failing industries fail and the failed banks go bankrupt, the government is deliberately bankrupting the nation.
The lesson to be learned from the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, is that nothing succeeds like failure. The greater their failure, the bolder they become. The more they lose, the more they take. The greater the chaos, the more control they exact. The bigger they fail, the harder we fall.
No act is too unthinkable or measure too draconian for the Washington-Wall Street Mob to concoct in order to maintain power, make money and cover their losses. While it is impossible to second-guess what the government will do next, it is absolutely certain that they will stop at nothing.
The "green shoots" will wither and conditions will deteriorate. Those who are prepared for the worst will not have been taken by surprise.
To schedule an interview with Trends Research Institute Director, Gerald Celente, please contact:
Laura Martin
The Trends Research Institute
lmartin@trendsresearch.com
www.trendsresearch.com
845.331.3500 Ext. 1
© MMIX The Trends Research Institute®
The Trends Research Institute P.O. Box 3476 Kingston, NY 12401
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Clayton 'i-house' is giant leap from trailer park
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_re_us/us_clayton_i_houseClayton 'i-house' is giant leap from trailer park
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 6, 2009
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes' new industrial-chic "i-house" is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player.
Architects at the country's largest manufactured home company embraced the basic rectangular form of what began as housing on wheels and gave it a postmodern turn with a distinctive v-shaped roofline, energy efficiency and luxury appointments.
Stylistically, the "i-house" might be more at home in the pages of a cutting-edge architectural magazine like Dwell — an inspirational source — than among the Cape Cods and ranchers in the suburbs.
The layout of the long main "core" house and a separate box-shaped guestroom-office "flex room" resemble the letter "i" and its dot. Yet Clayton CEO and President Kevin Clayton said "i-house" stands for more than its footprint.
With a nod to the iPod and iPhone, Clayton said, "We love what it represents. We are fans of Apple and all that they have done. But the 'I' stands for innovation, inspiration, intelligence and integration."
Clayton's "i-house" was conceived as a moderately priced "plug and play" dwelling for environmentally conscious homebuyers. It went on sale nationwide Saturday with its presentation at the annual shareholders' meeting of investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. in Omaha, Neb.
"This innovative 'green' home, featuring solar panels and numerous other energy-saving products, is truly a home of the future," Buffett wrote his shareholders. "Estimated costs for electricity and heating total only about $1 per day when the home is sited in an area like Omaha."
Maryville, Tenn.-based Clayton Homes, acquired by Berkshire-Hathaway in a $1.7 billion buyout in 2003, delivered 27,499 mobile or manufactured homes last year, a third of the industry total. Kevin Clayton thinks the "i-house" very quickly could represent more than 10 percent of its business.
"I think in 12 to 18 months it is possible," he told The Associated Press. "That is a lofty goal, but it is very possible. Retailers are saying they want the home on their lots tomorrow. I know the demand is there. How fast we capture it is really just determined by how affordable we can make it."
Clayton Homes plans to price the "i-house" at $100 to $130 a square foot, depending on amenities and add-ons, such as additional bedrooms. A stick-built house with similar features could range from $200 to $300 a square foot to start, said Chris Nicely, Clayton marketing vice president.
The key cost difference is from the savings Clayton achieves by building homes in volume in green standardized factories with very little waste. Clayton has four plants in Oregon, Tennessee, California and New Mexico geared up for "i-house" production.
A 1,000-square-foot prototype unveiled at a Clayton show in Knoxville a few months ago was priced at around $140,000. It came furnished, with a master bedroom, full bath, open kitchen and living room with Ikea cabinetry, two ground-level deck areas and a separate "flex room" with a second full bath and a second-story deck covered by a sail-like canopy.
"It does not look like your typical manufactured home," said Thayer Long with the Manufactured Housing Institute, a Washington-based group representing 370 manufactured and modular home-building companies.
And shattering those mobile home stereotypes is a good thing, he said. "I think the 'i-house' is just more proof that the industry is capable of delivering homes that are highly customizable at an affordable price."
The "i-house's" metal v-shaped roof — inspired by a gas-station awning — combines design with function. The roof provides a rain water catchment system for recycling, supports flush-mounted solar panels and vaults interior ceilings at each end to 10 1/2 feet for an added feeling of openness.
The Energy Star-rated design features heavy insulation, six-inch thick exterior walls, cement board and corrugated metal siding, energy efficient appliances, a tankless water heater, dual-flush toilets and lots of "low-e" glazed windows.
The company said the prototype at roughly 52,000 pounds may be the heaviest home it's ever built.
The final product will come in different exterior colors and will allow buyers to design online, adding another bedroom to the core house, a second bedroom to the flex room or rearranging the footprint to resemble an "L" instead of an "I."
"We thought of this a little like a kit of parts, where you have all these parts that can go together in different ways," said Andy Hutsell, one of the architects.
Susan Connolly, a 60-year-old accountant who works from her conventional Knoxville home, hopes to be one of the first buyers. She's seen the prototype and has been talking to the company.
"I have been interested in green construction and the environment in my own personal life," she said. "It is nice to have a group of people that have thought of everything. Where you don't have to shop around and go to different places ... to find the products you want."
"I think it is smart. It is fresh. It is kind of hip for a new generation of green-thinking homebuyers," said Stacey Epperson, president and CEO of Frontier Housing, a Morehead, Ky.-based regional nonprofit group that supplies site-built homes and manufactured housing, including Clayton products, to low- and moderate-income homebuyers.
"You know a lot of people don't see themselves living in manufactured (housing), but a lot of those people would see themselves living in an 'i-house.' I could live in an 'i-house,'" she said.
"Are we repositioning to go after a new market?" Nicely said. "I would think we are maintaining our value to our existing market and expanding the market to include other buyers that previously wouldn't have considered our housing product."
The company sees the "i-house" as a primary residence — three developers already have inquired about building mini-developments with them — that also could appeal to vacation home buyers.
Brian McKinley, president of Atlantis Homes of Smyrna, Del., a manufactured-home dealer that sells Clayton and other brands, said the "i-house" resembles high-end custom homes he sees along the Delaware-Maryland shore.
It represents a "new direction and an innovative application for what our industry can do," he said.
"I think there is a market," McKinley said. "The challenge is to find that market and then will they visit this home at one of our traditional factory-built home centers. I think they (Clayton) want to find that out, too."
___
Clayton Homes "i-house" tour: http://www.clayton-media.com/ihouse/
Chrysler's Plan?
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/chryslers-plan-send-pay-retirement-benefits-and-standards-down-drain
Mon, 05/04/2009
The same fearless, insightful news media that misrepresents Wall Street's raid on the U.S. Treasury as somehow necessary to save the economy has a story to tell about how the harm to hundreds of thousands of current and retired auto workers will be minimized by incorruptible public officials and knowledgable bankruptcy judges. Only it's not true. The wages of auto workers will be permanently cut, their hours lengthened, their benefits cut. And those who worked 25 or 30 years on the line, counting on lifetime medical care and a dignified retirement have already been sold out.
Chrysler's Plan? Send Pay, Retirement Benefits and Standards Down the Drain
originally published in Labor Notes
by Larry Christensen
The media consensus is that union auto workers escaped the government-imposed restructuring of their industry basically unharmed, exchanging a few dings for control of the companies. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Chrysler retirees—like me—were assured in 2007 that our retiree health care benefits, funded through the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association trust, would last 80 years.
Now we lose all dental and vision coverage as of July 1, and an independent analyst says the VEBA, our entire health coverage, will last only six years.
We are supposed to be reassured by the fact that the VEBA will own 55 percent of the equity in Chrysler. But what good is owning a company after the value has been taken out? Chrysler’s former owner Daimler has already written its 20 percent stake in Chrysler down to zero on its own books.
PUNISHING WORK
The turnaround plan will bring union auto workers much closer to the level of non-union workers. It will widen the two-tier wage structure introduced in the 2007 contract, guaranteeing that auto plants will fill up with second-class, disposable jobs. All workers hired for the next six years will start at $14 an hour and remain there at least until 2015. If that wasn’t bad enough, the rules limiting use of temporary part-time workers are relaxed.
The company will keep pushing out higher-wage workers, and those with less than 20 years’ seniority will receive lesser and lesser amounts of supplemental unemployment pay. It will become harder to refuse reassignment to a distant plant.
The deal will make life on the assembly line worse. Active workers, already working at punishing speeds, will see their relief time cut back. After two hours of work they will get 13 minutes break instead of 16; after another 1.5 hours another 13 minutes rather than 16. Their attendance procedure will be more strict. Their seniority right to bid on individual jobs is canceled, replaced by only the right to change work teams.
The dates of two of their vacation weeks will be dictated by the company. No overtime premiums will be paid until the 41st hour worked in a week—in other words, 12-hour days at straight time will soon prevail, especially for skilled-trades workers.
It gets worse. The deal includes a wage freeze through 2015 and the loss of all supplemental pay such as cost-of-living adjustments, Christmas bonuses, and productivity bonuses. All of these were substitutes for what used to be, in the dim distant past, yearly 3 percent base pay raises.
Chrysler also achieved its long-sought goal of completely collapsing skilled-trades classifications into electrical and mechanical only.
FAREWELL TO THE BALLOT
But the most hateful item in the deal cancels workers’ right to decide on their own contracts until September 2015.
The 2011 contract will be decided by top-level negotiations and then, if necessary, by binding arbitration—where the arbitrator is directed to take into account the labor costs of the non-union transplant car companies in the U.S., such as Toyota.
It is an awesome thing to watch a Democratic president enforce such terms on us, while having unconditionally bailed out undeserving banks with hundreds of billions of dollars.
As Canadian Chrysler workers have said, the active workers must vote with “a cannon to their heads” thanks to the collusion of the government, companies, and banks—and a UAW leadership that leads us ever farther from the militant attitudes of those who built our union under far more difficult circumstances.
Mon, 05/04/2009
The same fearless, insightful news media that misrepresents Wall Street's raid on the U.S. Treasury as somehow necessary to save the economy has a story to tell about how the harm to hundreds of thousands of current and retired auto workers will be minimized by incorruptible public officials and knowledgable bankruptcy judges. Only it's not true. The wages of auto workers will be permanently cut, their hours lengthened, their benefits cut. And those who worked 25 or 30 years on the line, counting on lifetime medical care and a dignified retirement have already been sold out.
Chrysler's Plan? Send Pay, Retirement Benefits and Standards Down the Drain
originally published in Labor Notes
by Larry Christensen
The media consensus is that union auto workers escaped the government-imposed restructuring of their industry basically unharmed, exchanging a few dings for control of the companies. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Chrysler retirees—like me—were assured in 2007 that our retiree health care benefits, funded through the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association trust, would last 80 years.
Now we lose all dental and vision coverage as of July 1, and an independent analyst says the VEBA, our entire health coverage, will last only six years.
We are supposed to be reassured by the fact that the VEBA will own 55 percent of the equity in Chrysler. But what good is owning a company after the value has been taken out? Chrysler’s former owner Daimler has already written its 20 percent stake in Chrysler down to zero on its own books.
PUNISHING WORK
The turnaround plan will bring union auto workers much closer to the level of non-union workers. It will widen the two-tier wage structure introduced in the 2007 contract, guaranteeing that auto plants will fill up with second-class, disposable jobs. All workers hired for the next six years will start at $14 an hour and remain there at least until 2015. If that wasn’t bad enough, the rules limiting use of temporary part-time workers are relaxed.
The company will keep pushing out higher-wage workers, and those with less than 20 years’ seniority will receive lesser and lesser amounts of supplemental unemployment pay. It will become harder to refuse reassignment to a distant plant.
The deal will make life on the assembly line worse. Active workers, already working at punishing speeds, will see their relief time cut back. After two hours of work they will get 13 minutes break instead of 16; after another 1.5 hours another 13 minutes rather than 16. Their attendance procedure will be more strict. Their seniority right to bid on individual jobs is canceled, replaced by only the right to change work teams.
The dates of two of their vacation weeks will be dictated by the company. No overtime premiums will be paid until the 41st hour worked in a week—in other words, 12-hour days at straight time will soon prevail, especially for skilled-trades workers.
It gets worse. The deal includes a wage freeze through 2015 and the loss of all supplemental pay such as cost-of-living adjustments, Christmas bonuses, and productivity bonuses. All of these were substitutes for what used to be, in the dim distant past, yearly 3 percent base pay raises.
Chrysler also achieved its long-sought goal of completely collapsing skilled-trades classifications into electrical and mechanical only.
FAREWELL TO THE BALLOT
But the most hateful item in the deal cancels workers’ right to decide on their own contracts until September 2015.
The 2011 contract will be decided by top-level negotiations and then, if necessary, by binding arbitration—where the arbitrator is directed to take into account the labor costs of the non-union transplant car companies in the U.S., such as Toyota.
It is an awesome thing to watch a Democratic president enforce such terms on us, while having unconditionally bailed out undeserving banks with hundreds of billions of dollars.
As Canadian Chrysler workers have said, the active workers must vote with “a cannon to their heads” thanks to the collusion of the government, companies, and banks—and a UAW leadership that leads us ever farther from the militant attitudes of those who built our union under far more difficult circumstances.
Van Gogh's ear was cut off by friend Gauguin
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/5274073/Van-Goghs-ear-was-cut-off-by-friend-Gauguin-with-a-sword.htmlVan Gogh's ear 'was cut off by friend Gauguin with a sword'
By Henry Samuel in Paris
05 May 2009
He is known as the tortured genius who cut off his own ear as he struggled with mental illness after the breakdown of his friendship with a fellow artist.
But a new study claims Vincent Van Gogh may have made up the story to protect painter Paul Gauguin who actually lopped it off with a sword during an argument.
German art historians say the true version of events never surfaced as the two men both kept a "pact of silence" – Gauguin to avoid prosecution and Van Gogh in a vain attempt to keep a friend with whom he was hopelessly infatuated.
In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans claim it was the sword attack, not Van Gogh's madness, that led him to commit suicide two years later.
The prevailing theory is that the Dutchman, who painted Sunflowers and the Potato Eaters, almost bled to death after slashing his own ear with a razor in a fit of lunacy on the night of December 23, 1888.
He is said to have wrapped it in cloth and handed it to a prostitute in a nearby brothel.
However, the new work from experts in Hamburg offers a very different version.
Gauguin, an excellent fencer, was planning to leave Van Gogh's "Yellow House" in Arles, southwestern France, after an unhappy stay.
He had walked out of the house with his baggage and his trusty épée in hand, but was followed by the troubled Van Gogh, who had earlier thrown a glass at him.
As the pair approached a bordello, their row intensified, and Gauguin cut off Van Gogh's left earlobe with his sword – either in anger or self-defence.
He then threw the weapon in the Rhône. Van Gogh delivered the ear to the prostitute and staggered home, where police discovered him the following day, the new account claims.
Gauguin had undoubtedly been staying with Van Gogh, but most experts think he had disappeared before the ear incident.
Although the historians provide no "smoking gun" to back up their claims, they argue theirs is the most logical interpretation, and explains why in his final recorded words to Gauguin, Van Gogh writes: "You are quiet, I will be, too".
They cite correspondence between Vincent and his brother, Theo, in which the painter hints at what happened without directly breaking the "pact of silence" made with his estranged friend.
He mentions Gauguin's request to recover his fencing mask and gloves from Arles, but not the épée.
Mr Kaufmann told the Daily Telegraph: "He writes that it's lucky Gauguin doesn't have a machine gun or other firearms, that he's stronger than him and that his 'passions' are stronger."
He makes reference to a French novel in which the narrator thinks he has killed his friend by cutting the climbing rope linking them.
"Afterwards, he says to himself: 'nobody has seen me commit my crime, and nothing can prevent me from inventing a story which would hide the truth'," said Mr Kaufmann. "This was a message to his brother."
He also pointed to one of Van Gogh's sketches of an ear, with the word "ictus" – the Latin term used in fencing to mean a hit. The authors believe that curious zigzags above the ear represent Gauguin's Zoro-like sword-stroke.
The historians also contend that, while Van Gogh clearly suffered from seizures, he had not gone mad at this stage.
"That was propaganda and all part of Gauguin's self-defence strategy," said Mr Kaufmann. "But it was a shock from which Vincent never recovered, led to the aggravation of his disease and paved the way to his suicide," he said.
Other Van Gogh experts, including those at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, disagree with the authors' claims. However, Nina Zimmer, the curator of a major Van Gogh exhibition in Basel, was less sure: "Perhaps they're right, but all the hypotheses are valid given the lack of material," she told Le Figaro.
Comic actor Dom DeLuise
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/05/MNG017F5NQ.DTLComic actor Dom DeLuise
Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Los Angeles - Dom DeLuise, the mirthful, moon-faced comic actor who was a regular on Dean Martin's television variety show in the 1970s and provided frequent comedic support in movies starring Mel Brooks and Burt Reynolds, has died. He was 75.
Mr. DeLuise died Monday evening at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said his agent, Robert Malcolm. Mr. DeLuise's wife and three sons were with him when he died. The family did not release the cause of death.
Brooks said his good friend "created so much joy and laughter on the set that you couldn't get your work done. So every time I made a movie with Dom, I would plan another two days on the schedule just for laughter.
"It's a sad day. It's hard to think of this life and this world without him."
Reynolds said in a statement: "As you get older and start to lose people you love, you think about it more, and I was dreading this moment. Dom always made you feel better when he was around, and there will never be another like him."
The Brooklyn-born entertainer, who got his start on stage and in children's television in the 1950s, emerged on TV variety shows in the 1960s.
The same decade, he launched his film career, including early roles in comedies such as "The Glass Bottom Boat." But he was best known for his movie work with Brooks and Reynolds.
Beginning with playing a greedy family priest in Brooks' "The Twelve Chairs" in 1970, Mr. DeLuise went on to appear in Brooks' "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie," "History of the World: Part I" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." He also played the mozzarella-oozing Pizza the Hutt in Brooks' "Star Wars" parody, "Spaceballs."
With Reynolds, Mr. DeLuise appeared in "Smokey and the Bandit II," "The Cannonball Run," "Cannonball Run II," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and "The End."
Until the 1970s, Mr. DeLuise was known primarily as a television personality.
While appearing in Meredith Willson's 1963-64 Broadway musical "Here's Love," Mr. DeLuise did a comedy routine as an inept magician, Dominick the Great, on Garry Moore's popular variety show.
That appearance helped pave the way for his becoming a regular on "The Entertainers," a short-lived variety show starring Carol Burnett, Caterina Valente and Bob Newhart that ran on CBS in 1964 and 1965. In 1966, Mr. DeLuise was a regular on "The Dean Martin Summer Show."
Two years later, he hosted "The Dom DeLuise Show," his own comedy-variety summer series on CBS. His wife, Carol Arthur, a Broadway actress whom he married in 1965, was one of the regulars.
In the early '70s, Mr. DeLuise was a staple on "The Dean Martin Show." But he didn't fare as well as the star of his own TV series. "Lotsa Luck," a sitcom in which he played a bachelor New York City bus company's lost-and-found department custodian, ran on NBC in 1973 and 1974.
He also starred in the 1987-88 syndicated sitcom "The Dom DeLuise Show," in which he played a Hollywood barber and widowed single father of a 10-year-old daughter. In 1991, he hosted the short-lived syndicated return of the classic comedy-reality show "Candid Camera."
Over the years, Mr. DeLuise appeared on Broadway a number of times. He even occasionally performed with opera companies, including appearing in the Los Angeles Opera Company's "Orpheus in the Underworld."
The son of Italian immigrants - his father was a city garbage collector, his mother a full-time homemaker - he was born Dominick DeLuise in Brooklyn on Aug. 1, 1933.
The third of three children, Mr. DeLuise developed an interest in acting after playing Scrooge in a junior high school production of "A Christmas Carol" and went on to graduate from the High School of Performing Arts in New York.
He spent summers at the Cleveland Playhouse, where he appeared in productions as varied as "Guys and Dolls" and "Hamlet."
In the early '60s, he was a semiregular on NBC's "The Shari Lewis Show," a Saturday morning children's show in which he played a bumbling private detective.
Mr. DeLuise, whose girth grew greater over the years, was a man who loved to eat. In the late '80s, he wrote a cookbook containing his favorite recipes, "Eat This: It'll Make You Feel Better," which was followed by "Eat This Too!"
Mr. DeLuise also wrote a number of children's books, including "Charlie the Caterpillar" and "The Pouch Potato."
In addition to his wife, Mr. DeLuise is survived by their three sons, Peter, Michael and David; his sister, Anne; and three grandchildren.
This article appeared on page A - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Quote of the Week
"Boys in their twenties are a waste of time. They have nothing to offer conversationally; they're immature. I feel like I have a better shot with someone in his thirties."Megan Fox in Elle Magazine
Indian Point
Last week there was a 'mishap' at the Indian Point nuclear power plant forty miles north of New York City. Turns out an underground pipe leaked 100,000 gallons of water that would be used to cool the reactor in case it overheated.
Back in March, Indian Point was given the fifth consecutive top safety rating by federal regulators. If the safest nuke plant our country has is leaking 100,000 gallons of cooling water, it's time to move on from this ridiculous energy source.
I'm asking you today to join me in calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a proposal to keep Indian Point open for another twenty years:
http://www.environmental-action.org/no-more-indian-point?id4=ES
This incident reminded me of my first experience with environmental activism. I was fourteen, and New York State proposed a nuclear waste storage facility eight miles from my high school. My friends and teachers and I went to town hall meetings, protests, and wrote letters. Eventually we won, and the proposal was shelved. But it was a hollow victory.
I realized the waste would have to go somewhere. If not my town then someone else's. Outside of the potential of a meltdown and the safety systems to fail (thanks to one small hole in one pipe), there's the reality that nuclear waste is toxic for tens of thousands of years.
Please join me in calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and tell them no more Indian Power Plant.
http://www.environmental-action.org/no-more-indian-point?id4=ES
After you've sent your email, help further by forwarding this along to your friends and family - and thanks for your work.
Sincerely,
Dan Stafford
Environmental Action Organizer
DanS@environmental-action.org
http://www.environmental-action.org
Back in March, Indian Point was given the fifth consecutive top safety rating by federal regulators. If the safest nuke plant our country has is leaking 100,000 gallons of cooling water, it's time to move on from this ridiculous energy source.
I'm asking you today to join me in calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a proposal to keep Indian Point open for another twenty years:
http://www.environmental-action.org/no-more-indian-point?id4=ES
This incident reminded me of my first experience with environmental activism. I was fourteen, and New York State proposed a nuclear waste storage facility eight miles from my high school. My friends and teachers and I went to town hall meetings, protests, and wrote letters. Eventually we won, and the proposal was shelved. But it was a hollow victory.
I realized the waste would have to go somewhere. If not my town then someone else's. Outside of the potential of a meltdown and the safety systems to fail (thanks to one small hole in one pipe), there's the reality that nuclear waste is toxic for tens of thousands of years.
Please join me in calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and tell them no more Indian Power Plant.
http://www.environmental-action.org/no-more-indian-point?id4=ES
After you've sent your email, help further by forwarding this along to your friends and family - and thanks for your work.
Sincerely,
Dan Stafford
Environmental Action Organizer
DanS@environmental-action.org
http://www.environmental-action.org
Rihanna's Nipples Have Hoop Rings!!!
As a break from more frivolous news, here's the news story of the month:
http://konformist.com/2009/rihanna-nude.jpg
Photo is courtesy of www.Egotastic.com
A foreign FM magazine cover featuring the Barbados babe...
Another shot, courtesy of TheHollywoodGossip.com...
Best Use of a Tux...
And while we're at it, two photos of Cassie, courtesy of PopCrunch.com:
http://konformist.com/2009/rihanna-nude.jpg
Photo is courtesy of www.Egotastic.com
A foreign FM magazine cover featuring the Barbados babe...
Another shot, courtesy of TheHollywoodGossip.com...
Best Use of a Tux...
And while we're at it, two photos of Cassie, courtesy of PopCrunch.com:
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Gaga 4 Gaga
I remember the first time I saw Britney Spears sing quite vividly. I was shopping for electronics with a pal of mine at a West L.A. Best Buy in October of 1998. And there I was, in front of a bunch of large screen televisions, when she appeared, shaking her nubile, flexible body to the beat of "Baby One More Time" while clad in a schoolgirl uniform. When the song was finished, I turned to my friend and gave this simple review: "You know what? I have a new favorite female singer."Little did I know that three months later, little Brit would have the number one single and album on the Billboard Charts, and would be on her way to becoming the biggest pop star on the planet. To my credit, I grasped how a then only sixteen-year-old Spears (something I didn't realize at the time of viewing, but the later revelation of which strangely didn't detract from her appeal) had already mastered the manipulation of video for mass consumption like few others. (Indeed, the entire video concept for the song reputedly came from Spears alone.) But in many ways, I (and others) clearly underestimated her musical talents. True, she rarely has written her own songs, and her voice isn't the most dynamic, but even if you want to dismiss her as pure product, the product she has put out over the last ten years holds up amazingly well. (I would even argue her music has stood the test of time far better than Eminem, who never quite fulfilled the potential of his skills.) And nowhere does that become more evident than when listening to "Baby One More Time" again, as it is one of those perfectly crafted pop songs where the success seems almost obvious in retrospect.
Thinks about it: has anyone changed pop music like Britney did since she hit the scene? For better or for worse, she is the one artist who has defined this decade in pop music. And while some may snicker at that opinion, there's a reason why even after quickie Vegas weddings, Fahrenheit 9/11 cameos, K-Fed, limo beaver shots and VMA meltdowns, the public still forgives her and hungrily laps up every new album of hers like it's an event. The 2003 kiss she shared with Madonna on MTV became a sensation in part because it was the passing of the baton, with even Madonna symbolically acknowledging, after twenty years, she had lost the crown as the Queen of Pop. No artist, male or female, has yet to come even close to ending her royal reign.
Of course, to some degree, she has won the title be default. In rock music, for example, even if you're a fan of Coldplay or Nickleback (and I'm not) it's not like their music caused any shocking shift in the music landscape. There's been no Nirvana and grunge, nor even a Nine Inch Nails and industrial rock. Even a band like Radiohead, who probably would make the best alternative case to Ms. Spears for artist of the zeroes, is more a unique quirk in the machine rather than a gamechanger.
For most of the decade, hip hop picked up some of the slack. It's remarkable that the gangsta sound could, so improbably, become the definition of pop music ten years after Straight Outta Compton. Unfortunately, rap music has become lazy, self-satisfied and derivative, aided in no small part by the devolution from NWA's authentic nihilistic social commentary to shallow celebration of thuggery and crass commercialism. My general reaction to rap music in recent years: okay, so you're bad ass, drive a Bentley and drink Cristal, when you have something else to say, let me know. (Indeed, the main reason behind the popularity of Kanye West is, for all the jokes of his raging ego, he's still more interested in sonic experimentation than repetitive boasts.) The declining sales of hip hop the last five years indicate there are millions who apparently agree. Maybe rap won't face a cultural massacre like hair metal did in the early nineties, but it definitely deserves to.
Meanwhile, the one bright light over the past decade has been female pop, rock and soul: Beyonce (either solo or in Destiny's Child), Gwen Stefani (either solo or in No Doubt), Pink, Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Christina Aguilera, M.I.A., Fiona Apple, Mariah Carey, Norah Jones, Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Katy Perry. I'm certainly forgetting deserved names here, and that's the point: females really have dominated the musical landscape. And though she's never been given the credit she deserves, Ms. Britney really is the key player in this battle of the sexes by making females the more marketable commodity.
Still, there appears to be a huge vacuum in the pop music landscape that needs to be filled, and I'm not the only one who's been grumbling about it. (I suspect the empty void in pop music is a large part of the YouTube craze caused by the UK's Susan Boyle, and yes, I admit it: I too sobbed like a little girl when I saw her sing.) Even if you give Britney her due, it still would be ten years since a real Next Big Thing has hit the musical scene. Napster didn't even exist back then. With no radical movement in rock or rap since, there's a real mass hunger for a new sound, and a new face, to change the face of pop.
At this point, Lady Gaga isn't exactly an obscure name in pop music: indeed, she already has two number one hits in "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" while her album The Fame has gone top five. Still, if you don't pay her too close attention, she could appear to be just another marketable pretty face, perhaps a bit more talented than average, and certainly a lot more attention-getting with her outrageous fashions, but nothing particularly remarkable.
To some degree, that's how I viewed her, at least at first. It didn't help that I usually caught her music in the background while doing something else, most often at my gym while working out. Despite this, I soon could tell she was fairly attractive and charismatic, had a good voice and had heard she was an amazing live performer. And while her musical style, usually described as elctropop or disco, may not be the favorite of an old hard rock fan like me, she certainly delivered it well, and I liked what I heard. All in all, she reminded me of Pink on her underrated first album, a promising talent who may just turn into something great with material that matched her gifts. Considering that I think Pink is one of the few real bright lights of the last decade, this was quite a positive assessment.
Cut to two weeks ago, and I'm driving around Las Vegas. A basketball game on ESPN AM radio is becoming a blowout, so I turn it to the FM, which I have set on a hard rock station. What I hear is a hard techno beat, and soon a sweet female voice cooing a quasi-rap. I have to admit, the song is a bit unusual for hard rock, but I like it. I mean, really like it. The closest thing I can compare it to is "Hella Good" by No Doubt, one of my favorite songs this decade. And as I continue listening, I get pissed that more rock bands don't try to do something a little more original like this one. And twenty-four seconds into it, that's when I hear it: "Can't read my, can't read my, no he can't read my poker face..."
As you can guess, the song was indeed "Poker Face" - a Grace Jones-esque number by Ms. Gaga. As it turns out, I picked up the song at the 2:18 mark of her video below, which is the only area of the hit I wouldn't immediately recognize. You can see and hear the whole video and song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAoPJxTvZOQ
It also turns out I wasn't listening to a hard rock station: someone I had been driving with last had left it on a Top 40 station. But "Poker Face" booms so hard, I didn't even notice, and for twenty-four seconds, a disco queen rocked harder than Fall Out Boy, John Mayer and Maroon 5 ever have combined.
This shouldn't be too surprising in retrospect. Lady Gaga's stage name comes from the Queen song "Radio Gaga" and The Fame album title is clearly a nod to the classic David Bowie song. While her major influences include Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, you can also hear the sound of GNR, Motley Crue and Def Leppard in her work. Tellingly, her often partner in crime, Lady Starlight (named after the 70s glam rock song by Sweet) is a DJ who specializes in hard rock like AC/DC and Iron Maiden.
Intrigued, I decided to check out more of her work. And sure enough, she has one particularly tasty rock song on her album titled "Beautiful Dirty Rich". She has another great piano song, so far unreleased but easy to find on YouTube, titled "Honest Eyes" that is worthy of being a single in its own right. The rest of the stuff found on The Fame, however, though having rock influences, is pretty much a blend of Europop, disco and dance music with a few more conventional pop songs in the mix, a combination that isn't my usual tastes. Likewise, lyrically, The Fame is nearly a concept album about the celebrity lifestyle and the search for fame. Some may find it a celebration of the celebrity game, others a satirical critique: my guess is that she means it as both. In either case, though she is quite witty, the subject is not something I find particularly interesting.
So with these caveats indicating I may not be the best audience for her work, let me give my opinion of it: if The Fame isn't the best album at least since Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and I think it is, it's definitely the most ambitious.
And really, wanting it is over half the battle in success. Take Alicia Keys, for example. Keys is a woman with a ridiculously amazing voice, jaw-dropping knockout looks, and an extremely gifted songwriter to top it off. In a more just universe, I suppose I would have written an article about her in 2007 when she released her last album, which was indeed incredible. But for all her gifts, there is nothing in her work that changes the face of pop music, it merely makes it better. Gaga, in contrast, wants to be the gamechanger, and she is.
The proof that she is a gamechanger is I don't even like her main musical style. I am not a fan of disco, dance or even what goes under the "electropop" label - a term you'll likely soon hear thrown around like "grunge", "alternative" and "gangsta" were in the nineties.
Of course, this reminds me of a funny story: one of my friends is a gay guy who enjoys having affairs with married straight men. (To each his own hobby.) At some point during these affairs, the other guy always tries to insist that he's not gay at all and is still straight. My friend always replies to this one with the same response: "Well, if you're not gay, why is my dick in your asshole?" The point here is I may continue to insist that I don't like electropop, but it's going to sound increasingly unconvincing with Gaga's musical dick up my ass.
I'm not going to pseudo-intellectualize why The Fame is a great album, I'm just going to say that since I listened to it, I can't get the addictively catchy tunes out of my head. That may be the simplest, and most honest, definition of what great music is, and in this case, it seems shrewdly by design. The album is almost as much "pop" as "electropop" in style, different enough to sound decidedly unique, yet familiar enough to be certified for mass appeal, and dabbling enough in as many genres to make everyone an eventual fan. The last time I heard an album so cynically crafted for blockbuster status was when Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones teamed up on Thriller. Frankly, if I didn't believe that Gaga really was the album's main songwriter, I'd suspect The Fame was cooked up in some secret laboratory by a group of evil scientists plotting to take over pop music.
Strangely, despite the obviously sinister plans behind the whole Lady Gaga scheme, others have been even slower than I to catch on. Her album has scored a 71 on Metacritic.com, an impressive number but nothing particularly amazing. Likewise, her album has done well, but has yet to sell a million copies after nine months. It isn't by a lack of effort by Interscope, which has already backed the disc with six videos. (They certainly believed in "Just Dance" enough to push it so the bubbly party tune turned into a deserved number one single.) It seems at this point, the only person who really believes that Gaga will be the biggest star on the planet is Gaga herself. You can see it in her confident strut as she strides through the "Poker Face" video like she's the hottest woman on the planet. (The last time I saw an outrageously dressed, leather-clad blonde prance through a video with such narcissistic arrogance was David Lee Roth in "Yankee Rose".) Living in Vegas, I see too many women walk with that same attitude, and find it to be totally unappealing. But in the case of Gaga, it works, because, by all evidence, she is the hottest woman on the planet.
And that's why, even if Gaga is the only one who believes she's the Next Big Thing, that's more than enough for me. So mark it down, I want to be on record so when it happens, I can smirk with the same self-satisfaction Jose Canseco gets every time one of his outrageous claims about steroids in baseball is found to be completely true. Here is my prediction: at some point before the end of the year, Gagamania is going to hit hyperspace, and she will become the biggest pop star on the planet. And by big, I don't mean merely the hottest pop star of the moment big, I mean so huge the entire music industry has to react to the phenomenon and transform.
This is a done deal. If Lady Gaga was a stock, I'd be raving like Jim Cramer in 2007 to buy. And I say this because I can see the dam is about to burst. Thanks to her over-the-top fashion sense (a bizarre combination of burlesque and tranny stylings, which have lead to opposing rumors that she's a former stripper and that she's actually a man) she's beginning to turn into a tabloid stable just over her outfits alone. Other musicians are dropping her name as the artist they admire (Madonna and Katy Perry are among her fans) and doing cover tributes to her work. (Kanye West and Common teamed up for an interesting rap version of "Poker Face" on YouTube.) Perhaps most important, she gave an audience of over 20 million American Idol viewers a taste of her Warholian live shows last month thanks to a stunning guest performance on the blockbuster bourgeois brain rot. She's just finished the first leg of her first solo tour, and no doubt by the end of the year, she will have seen a million faces and rocked them all. These are the kind of things that happen just as a pop culture hysteria blows up.
But the real reason I know it's going to happen is because I also know the only thing that has stopped her so far. Electropop, or whatever you want to call it, is basically disco, and while it is popular among women and gay males, heterosexual males are pretty resistant to it. An audience of women and homosexuals is enough to top the radio charts, but straight males still won't be buying the albums. Only a few artists (Madonna, Britney, Mariah Carey and the Pussycat Dolls come to mind) have managed to have disco hits popular among guys, and in those cases the women were sex symbols merely dabbling as part of a pop-music sampler plate. So it seems that Gaga's biggest roadblock right now is turning men into fans of her music.
That's why I suspect that once her latest single "LoveGame" begins dominating the radio waves, the battle will be over. The cut is even better than "Poker Face" and plays like it was ripped off the Midnight Express soundtrack. Gaga herself appears to know this is her home run, as in her opening verse, she boasts via lyrics that no doubt will soon be part of the pop culture lexicon: "Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick."
"LoveGame" is one of those rare sonic assaults that on first listening, it was though I had heard it both never before and a million times at once. I don't think I'm the only one who will react this way to it. Meanwhile, when it comes to figuring out what appeals to straight men in music, a few questions usually answer this question pretty conclusively:
1) Can you picture this song being played in a strip club as you are getting a lapdance?
2) Can you picture this song being played on ESPN in the background on a Sunday evening while NFL highlights are being shown?
3) Can you picture this song being played on the radio while in an awesome car chase with cops in any version of Grand Theft Auto?
Based on this simple acid test, "LoveGame" passes with flying colors, even more so than "Poker Face" or "Just Dance" does.
But as great as the song "LoveGame" is, the video may be even better. With everything from hot choreography to lesbian kissing, it's the kind of video they used to make back in the ancient days when MTV actually showed music videos rather than really bad reality shows. The YouTube link is below, and I think it speaks for itself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5-ZiNwv6kI
But let me just add the obvious here: the video's greatest asset is Ms. Gaga herself. As I've noted before, she's an attractive woman, albeit there's an oddball charm to her. I suspect if I were a nitpicker, I wouldn't label her a natural beauty like Beyonce or Christina Aguilera. Then again, I'm not a nitpicker, but even if I was, I'd say she uses what she's got better than anyone else. In "LoveGame" she uses it better than ever, and gives a sensual video performance that can only be compared to, you guessed it, Madonna and Britney Spears at their peak. Lady Gaga in "LoveGame" is Jessica Alba on a stripper pole sexy, Ursula Andress rising from the ocean in a bikini sexy. Needless to say, once this video is unleashed on the masses, I don't think she's going to have any trouble converting heterosexual males into fans.
Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the cheery pop ballad "Eh Eh" (with a title seemingly inspired by the unforgettable hook line to Rihanna's sultry hit "Umbrella") will do the trick, especially with her pinup girl charm in yet another great video. Maybe it'll come from another song that hasn't yet sucked me in yet, but eventually will. The point is, she's got so many weapons off this album at her disposal, it's only a matter of time, and it's gonna happen sooner rather than later.
So what do I think is going to happen by the end of the year? The same frenzy I have seen many times before. She will be the biggest pop star on the planet, with nobody even close. The days of albums selling 10 million copies or more appear to be over, but even that figure doesn't seem implausible. Meanwhile, every record label is going to be trying to copy the Lady Gaga sound, and Top 40 radio will become overloaded with electropop. Perhaps even more important, eventually there'll be some rock and rap artists so disgusted by the fad and their own irrelevance, they'll go out and record something really different in their own right. On this last count, I can only hope.
As for the future of Gaga, a quick fall is certainly a possibility. The rock era of music is notoriously ruthless for eating up its own, quickly chewing them up and spitting them out. Only the artist who can continuously reinvent themselves seem to last. But I wouldn't bet against her at this point. I suspect she may be holding the Queen of Pop title for quite awhile. This is why if I was to give her any unsolicited advice, I’d tell her to trust her instincts, because they clearly are working well for her. Oh, and one other thing, Gaga: buy some lipstick. You're gonna need it pretty soon when you get a big wet kiss from Britney...
Art student's car vanishing act
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8030766.stmSaturday, 2 May 2009
Art student's car vanishing act
Sara Watson took three weeks to transform the car
A design student made a battered old Skoda "disappear" by painting it to merge with the surrounding car park.
Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.
She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston.
The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.
'Just amazing'
Ms Watson, a second year student, said: "I was experimenting with the whole concept of illusion but needed something a bit more physical to make a real impact."
She was given the Skoda Fabia from the breaker's yard at local firm Recycling Lives.
Owner Steve Jackson described her work as "amazing".
"When I first saw the photos I was convinced it was something which had been done on the computer," said Mr Jackson.
"But when you look more closely you see the effort and attention to detail she has put into it. It is just amazing."
The Kentucky Derby: Seabiscuit Meets Syriana
By Dave Zirin
Some folks think the Kentucky Derby is one of the sports world's signature events, where horses are athletes to be appreciated for their power and beauty. Others consider the so-called sport of kings ostentatious nonsense, cruel to the animals and one more occasion for the super-rich to throw their money around. And then there are the little people--fewer and fewer as time goes by--the racetrack touts, the little old ladies and assorted winners and losers lined up at the OTB, making $2 bets and hoping to catch a break.
Each of those constituencies found something to believe in at the 2009 Kentucky Derby. This was an underhorse story of cinematic proportions: one part Syriana and two parts Seabiscuit, as the unknown gelding Mine That Bird came out of nowhere to win the Run for the Roses by eight lengths, overcoming greater odds than any horse in six decades. Competing against Hall-of-Fame trainers, the Sultan of Dubai and horses that are catered to like Texas debutantes, Mine That Bird was the tough and tiny horse that could.
Coming out of the gate, the diminutive gelding was squeezed by two larger horses and soon pushed so far to the the rail that he could barely be seen by the 153,000 in attendance. But jockey Calvin Borel used that inside track to his advantage, hugging the rail so closely there were practically sparks between the horse and the edge and rode to victory on the soggy track.
Before the race, the only press Mine That Bird received was for his journey to Kentucky, not his prospects. The horse from Roswell, New Mexico didn't land via flying saucer. He came 1,700 miles in a trailer hitched to the back of trainer Bennie "Chip" Woolley Jr.'s forty-year-old pickup truck. Woolley, a former bareback jockey, had driven the horse to the Derby despite having broken his leg several weeks earlier in a motorcycle accident. Wooley's crutches, black cowboy attire and camera-unfriendly dark glasses stood in stark contrast to the ostentatiously hatted Derby crowd.
And to the media who didn't know what to make of him before the race, the laconic Woolley broke out a smile beneath his broad, black Stetson. "They'll know me now, won't they?''
In an unscripted moment as he encountered Borel after the race, Woolley literally cast his crutches away to embrace the horse and jockey. "To be honest, I didn't have any real feeling that I could win the Derby. All I knew is that we'd be more competitive than anybody thought we would.'' In a sport where trainers have egos that would rival heavyweight-boxing champions, such an admission is more than remarkable: it's cinematic.
Such was the emotion of the race, Borel broke down in tears after crossing the finish line, recounting the recent death of his mother. "You got a hole, you got a shot,'' Borel said, of the way he skillfully guided Mine That Bird through the gaps between horses. "I rode him like a good horse.''
All of this cinematic drama unspooled against a backdrop of recession that saw the lowest attendance at Churchill Downs since 2004. Purel was flowing as fast as mint juleps as health officials issued assurances that swine flu would not impact the race.
Just as Seabiscuit thrilled Depression-era crowds in the 1930s, recession-plagued America now has its own thoroughbred. But while the humble, injured trainer, the volatile jockey, and little horse from nowhere all may all seem to be from central casting, one of the guys who owns Mine the Bird is more connected to central booking.
Mine that Bird is the property of Mark Allen, who, with a partner, bought the horse for $400,000. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Allen bought the horse with proceeds from the sale of VECO, his father's Alaskan oil business. His father, Bill Allen, was a central player in the Sen. Ted Stevens corruption trial and pleaded guilty in 2007 to bribing Alaska politicians. Part of his plea agreement was immunity for his son. Once Bill had Mark in the free and clear, he testified that the Mind That Bird owner was his personal bagman, paying off Alaskan legislators.
Part of Stevens's 2008 conviction--since voided because of prosecutorial misconduct--was failure to disclose gifts given to him by Bill Allen. (Stevens also once co-owned a piece of another Mark Allen horse, So Long Birdie.) Yikes. But as long as Mark Allen wasn't riding Mine That Bird to the payoff spots, the memories of a remarkable day will probably remain intact.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Some folks think the Kentucky Derby is one of the sports world's signature events, where horses are athletes to be appreciated for their power and beauty. Others consider the so-called sport of kings ostentatious nonsense, cruel to the animals and one more occasion for the super-rich to throw their money around. And then there are the little people--fewer and fewer as time goes by--the racetrack touts, the little old ladies and assorted winners and losers lined up at the OTB, making $2 bets and hoping to catch a break.
Each of those constituencies found something to believe in at the 2009 Kentucky Derby. This was an underhorse story of cinematic proportions: one part Syriana and two parts Seabiscuit, as the unknown gelding Mine That Bird came out of nowhere to win the Run for the Roses by eight lengths, overcoming greater odds than any horse in six decades. Competing against Hall-of-Fame trainers, the Sultan of Dubai and horses that are catered to like Texas debutantes, Mine That Bird was the tough and tiny horse that could.
Coming out of the gate, the diminutive gelding was squeezed by two larger horses and soon pushed so far to the the rail that he could barely be seen by the 153,000 in attendance. But jockey Calvin Borel used that inside track to his advantage, hugging the rail so closely there were practically sparks between the horse and the edge and rode to victory on the soggy track.
Before the race, the only press Mine That Bird received was for his journey to Kentucky, not his prospects. The horse from Roswell, New Mexico didn't land via flying saucer. He came 1,700 miles in a trailer hitched to the back of trainer Bennie "Chip" Woolley Jr.'s forty-year-old pickup truck. Woolley, a former bareback jockey, had driven the horse to the Derby despite having broken his leg several weeks earlier in a motorcycle accident. Wooley's crutches, black cowboy attire and camera-unfriendly dark glasses stood in stark contrast to the ostentatiously hatted Derby crowd.
And to the media who didn't know what to make of him before the race, the laconic Woolley broke out a smile beneath his broad, black Stetson. "They'll know me now, won't they?''
In an unscripted moment as he encountered Borel after the race, Woolley literally cast his crutches away to embrace the horse and jockey. "To be honest, I didn't have any real feeling that I could win the Derby. All I knew is that we'd be more competitive than anybody thought we would.'' In a sport where trainers have egos that would rival heavyweight-boxing champions, such an admission is more than remarkable: it's cinematic.
Such was the emotion of the race, Borel broke down in tears after crossing the finish line, recounting the recent death of his mother. "You got a hole, you got a shot,'' Borel said, of the way he skillfully guided Mine That Bird through the gaps between horses. "I rode him like a good horse.''
All of this cinematic drama unspooled against a backdrop of recession that saw the lowest attendance at Churchill Downs since 2004. Purel was flowing as fast as mint juleps as health officials issued assurances that swine flu would not impact the race.
Just as Seabiscuit thrilled Depression-era crowds in the 1930s, recession-plagued America now has its own thoroughbred. But while the humble, injured trainer, the volatile jockey, and little horse from nowhere all may all seem to be from central casting, one of the guys who owns Mine the Bird is more connected to central booking.
Mine that Bird is the property of Mark Allen, who, with a partner, bought the horse for $400,000. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Allen bought the horse with proceeds from the sale of VECO, his father's Alaskan oil business. His father, Bill Allen, was a central player in the Sen. Ted Stevens corruption trial and pleaded guilty in 2007 to bribing Alaska politicians. Part of his plea agreement was immunity for his son. Once Bill had Mark in the free and clear, he testified that the Mind That Bird owner was his personal bagman, paying off Alaskan legislators.
Part of Stevens's 2008 conviction--since voided because of prosecutorial misconduct--was failure to disclose gifts given to him by Bill Allen. (Stevens also once co-owned a piece of another Mark Allen horse, So Long Birdie.) Yikes. But as long as Mark Allen wasn't riding Mine That Bird to the payoff spots, the memories of a remarkable day will probably remain intact.
Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Republican VP candidate, congressman Kemp dies
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/02/kemp.obit/
Former Republican VP candidate, congressman Kemp dies
Story Highlights
Jack Kemp, former congressman and vice presidential candidate, dies at 73
Kemp announced in January he was battling cancer
Before politics, Kemp was a professional football quarterback
Kemp also served as secretary of housing and urban development (1989-1993)
5-2-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died Saturday at age 73 after a battle with cancer, his family announced.
Jack Kemp, a former congressman from New York, was the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 1996.
A onetime professional football player, Kemp served nine terms in Congress as a representative from New York and was former Sen. Bob Dole's running mate in 1996. He was a leading advocate of "supply-side" tax cuts, advancing the argument that cutting taxes would boost economic growth and yield more revenue for the federal government.
"The only way to oppose a bad idea is to replace it with a good idea, and I like to think that I have spent my life trying to promote good ideas," he told CNN in a 1996 interview.
Kemp "passed peacefully into the presence of the Lord" Sunday evening, a family statement said. He disclosed his illness in January.
"During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares," the family said.
Kemp quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965, before the merger that created the modern NFL. When he retired in 1970 after 13 seasons, the California native ran for Congress and represented the Buffalo area for 18 years in the House of Representatives. View photos of Jack Kemp's life »
"He championed free-market principles that improved the lives of millions of Americans and helped unleash an entrepreneurial spirit that all of us still benefit from today," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The 1981 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which cut marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 50 percent, bore Kemp's name as a co-sponsor. Critics mocked the policy as "trickle-down" economics and pointed to the decade's growing budget deficits as evidence that supply-side theories didn't work, but it has been GOP orthodoxy ever since.
Kemp mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988, losing the Republican primaries to George H.W. Bush. But once in office, Bush made Kemp his secretary of housing and urban development -- a post Kemp used to promote what he called an "empowerment" agenda of tax breaks for urban businesses and expanded home ownership.
Unlike many of the other conservatives of his era, Kemp actively courted African-American support. In 1992, he told CNN's "Larry King Live" that the GOP "could be a Lincoln party in terms of attracting black and brown and men and women of color and low-income status and immigrant status who want a shot at the American dream for their children."
Former Republican VP candidate, congressman Kemp dies
Story Highlights
Jack Kemp, former congressman and vice presidential candidate, dies at 73
Kemp announced in January he was battling cancer
Before politics, Kemp was a professional football quarterback
Kemp also served as secretary of housing and urban development (1989-1993)
5-2-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former congressman and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died Saturday at age 73 after a battle with cancer, his family announced.
Jack Kemp, a former congressman from New York, was the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 1996.
A onetime professional football player, Kemp served nine terms in Congress as a representative from New York and was former Sen. Bob Dole's running mate in 1996. He was a leading advocate of "supply-side" tax cuts, advancing the argument that cutting taxes would boost economic growth and yield more revenue for the federal government.
"The only way to oppose a bad idea is to replace it with a good idea, and I like to think that I have spent my life trying to promote good ideas," he told CNN in a 1996 interview.
Kemp "passed peacefully into the presence of the Lord" Sunday evening, a family statement said. He disclosed his illness in January.
"During the treatment of his cancer, Jack expressed his gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends, a gratitude which the Kemp family shares," the family said.
Kemp quarterbacked the Buffalo Bills to back-to-back American Football League championships in 1964 and 1965, before the merger that created the modern NFL. When he retired in 1970 after 13 seasons, the California native ran for Congress and represented the Buffalo area for 18 years in the House of Representatives. View photos of Jack Kemp's life »
"He championed free-market principles that improved the lives of millions of Americans and helped unleash an entrepreneurial spirit that all of us still benefit from today," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The 1981 tax cuts signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which cut marginal tax rates from 70 percent to 50 percent, bore Kemp's name as a co-sponsor. Critics mocked the policy as "trickle-down" economics and pointed to the decade's growing budget deficits as evidence that supply-side theories didn't work, but it has been GOP orthodoxy ever since.
Kemp mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988, losing the Republican primaries to George H.W. Bush. But once in office, Bush made Kemp his secretary of housing and urban development -- a post Kemp used to promote what he called an "empowerment" agenda of tax breaks for urban businesses and expanded home ownership.
Unlike many of the other conservatives of his era, Kemp actively courted African-American support. In 1992, he told CNN's "Larry King Live" that the GOP "could be a Lincoln party in terms of attracting black and brown and men and women of color and low-income status and immigrant status who want a shot at the American dream for their children."
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Konformist Klassic Komic Strip of the Month
Konformist Klassic Komic Strip of the Month: Captain Easyhttp://www.toonopedia.com/easy.htm
CAPTAIN EASY
Medium: Newspaper comics
Distributed by: Newspaper Enterprise Association
First Appeared: 1929
Creator: Roy Crane
Captain Easy is another of those characters like Nancy, Snuffy Smith and Popeye — he started out as a supporting player, and wound up taking over the strip.
The daily Wash Tubbs strip had been running five years before Easy made the scene — in fact, it was the very first successful straight adventure strip in American newspapers. During that time, it had become well established that Wash was an adventurous little guy, but not much good in a fight. Cartoonist Roy Crane, Wash's creator, tried out a couple of bigger guys as Wash's sidekicks, but they didn't quite click. On May 6, 1929, he introduced Captain Easy — and before long, Easy was the hero and Wash was the sidekick.
Taciturn and tough, Easy was a vagabond adventurer with a mysterious background. For his first three years, all that was known about him was that he hailed from the South — and that, mainly by his habit of addressing others as "Suh". In 1932, Wash tailed him on his first visit home, and got to meet his family — and his fiance. With Easy apparently on the verge of marrying and settling down, Wash took to the road. But Easy caught up months later, and rejoined him. All Easy would ever say about the incident was that there was not going to be any marriage.
In 1933, Easy got a series of his own. Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune, started Sunday, June 11, 1933, and dealt with Easy's adventures from before he hooked up with Wash. Like Winsor McCay, whose Little Nemo in Slumberland featured dazzlingly innovative design work, Crane reveled in crafting stunning layouts for his Sunday page. He treated the entire page as a work of art in itself rather than just a collection of panels.
But in 1937, his syndicate, Newspaper Enterprise Association (which also handled Alley Oop, Our Boarding House and other venerable strips), demanded that all Sunday strips be laid out according to strict guidelines, so they could be cut up and rearranged into different formats. This modular construction of Sunday comics has been the norm ever since, only one cartoonist, Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes, having succeeded in breaking free of it. Crane turned the Easy strip over to his assistant and long-time friend, Les Turner, and concentrated on the dailies. (He later said it had been a mistake for him to take on the work of doing both a daily and a Sunday.)
Meanwhile, over in the daily strip, Easy was quickly becoming the star, a process that was pretty much complete by the beginning of World War II. Easy enlisted in the U.S. Army, while Wash got married and settled down. After the war, Easy became a private detective, and had only occasional adventures with Wash.
By that time, Crane was no longer doing the strip — he'd passed the daily, as well, on to Turner in 1943, while he went over to King Features and created Buz Sawyer. The reason was ownership of his creation — NEA was the legal owner of the Tubbs/Easy strip, but King would allow him equity in his work. (A few years later, Milton Caniff would make the same career move, leaving Terry & the Pirates to create Steve Canyon.)
During the 1940s, the daily and Sunday strips merged, continuing to tell separate stories but both set in the present and both featuring Easy as the star and Wash as an inconstant sidekick. In 1949, both were retitled simply Captain Easy, although for years, many papers continued to use Wash Tubbs as the title of the daily.
Walt Scott (The Little People, Disney animation) drew Easy on Sundays, as Turner's assistant, during the 1940s and '50s. Mel Graff (Adventures of Patsy, Secret Agent X-9) began ghosting the Sunday strip in 1960. Turner retired in 1969, turning the operation over to his assistant, Bill Crooks. The strip ended in 1988.
During its six-plus decades, the Tubbs/Easy strip rarely got off the newspaper page, appearing in only a handful of Big Little Books and comic books. But even as it was ending its days in newspapers, it was picked up in reprint form by Flying Buttress Press, an imprint of NBM, which put out an 18-volume edition of the strip's Crane years. Several of those volumes are still in print, giving a new generation the chance to enjoy one of adventure comics' rip-snortin'est classics.
How to identify political parties
This little old lady calls 911. When the dispatcher answers she yells "Help, send the police to my house right away! There's a doggone Democrat on my front porch and he's playing with himself!":
"What?" the dispatcher exclaims.
"I said, there's a daggone Democrat on my front porch playing with himself and he's weird. I don't know him and I'm afraid. Please send the police!" the little old lady repeated.
"Well now, how do you know he's a Democrat?"
"Because, you dang fool, if he was a Republican, he'd be screwing somebody!"
"What?" the dispatcher exclaims.
"I said, there's a daggone Democrat on my front porch playing with himself and he's weird. I don't know him and I'm afraid. Please send the police!" the little old lady repeated.
"Well now, how do you know he's a Democrat?"
"Because, you dang fool, if he was a Republican, he'd be screwing somebody!"
You Tube In Egregious Censorship Of Alex Jones
http://www.prisonplanet.com/you-tube-in-egregious-censorship-of-alex-jones-channel.html
You Tube In Egregious Censorship Of Alex Jones Channel
Corporate gatekeeper claims that showing a print out of an article on live TV, something which happens on every mainstream TV news network every day, equates to copyright violation
Paul Joseph Watson & Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 4, 2009
You Tube has once again proven itself to be a corporate gatekeeper working to destroy free speech and the alternative media after it suspended the popular ‘Alex Jones Channel’ - primarily because Alex Jones showed a print out of a news article during a live show.
The Alex Jones Channel, started by a fan but since embraced as the “official” Alex Jones micro-site on You Tube, has routinely featured in the website’s most popular ranking charts and has collectively attracted millions of views for videos painstakingly catalogued and uploaded over the past two years.
Those videos are now completely gone after You Tube bosses deleted the channel, primarily because the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette complained that Alex Jones had shown a computer print out of one of their articles about the Poplawski cop killer incident last month.
To claim that showing a print out of an article is a violation of copyright is of course completely insane - not a day goes by without TV news anchors showing newspaper stories on live television. Indeed, C-Span’s popular Washington Journal program almost entirely consists of the host showing clippings of newspaper stories every morning.
The real reason for the deletion in undoubtedly the fact that Alex Jones has been on the forefront of exposing stories that have later become major national scandals, such as the MIAC report. Our coverage of the swine flu hoax has again propelled us to the top of the video ranking charts and this no doubt had You Tube’s corporate owners Google running scared. As we have previously documented - Google has intimate ties with the CIA and the military-industrial complex.
To counter such egregious censorship, we are encouraging everyone to subscribe to and bookmark the new Infowarrior channel and alert people to the fact that this will be the new home for Alex Jones on You Tube (at least until they invent a reason to pull that one too).
YouTube is engaged in a hunting expedition against Alex Jones and other truth tellers. Truth is no longer acceptable on the site as it transforms itself into a pale reflection of Hulu, a site owned and operated by NBC Universal (GE) and Fox Entertainment Group (News Corp), that is to say a joint venture by a corporation owned by a death merchant (GE manufactures attack helicopters and jet engines) and a disinformation platform owned by a notorious neocon, Rupert Murdoch.
In the Hulu-ized universe, there is no room for truth or alternative media — all channels will contain the same schlock and mindless pablum already available on cable and broadcast television.
YouTube, the emerging Hulu-ized version, has no use for Alex Jones and has specifically targeted him because his videos invariably draw a large (in the millions) number of people. His message is not welcome in a commercial space dominated by Wall Street bankers and the “entertainment” transnational corporations they own, operate, and use to disseminate their opiated propaganda.
YouTube is owned by Google, the mega-internet corporation that has as its motto “Don’t be evil.” Of course, for Google evil is a relative matter, especially when it comes to the corporation’s removal or omission of information from its services, especially in the totalitarian gulag of China.
Google is infamous for its politically motivated removal of information. In February 2003, Google stopped showing the adverts of Oceana, a non-profit organization protesting a major cruise ship operation’s sewage treatment practices. In October 2007, Google banned advertisements from Maine U.S. Senator Susan Collins’ reelection campaign because she criticized the Soros operation MoveOn.org. In April 2008, Google refused to run ads for a UK Christian group opposed to abortion.
In addition to taking down Alex Jones videos, YouTube has blocked videos produced by Wael Abbas, an activist who posted videos of police brutality, and the American Life League which is critical of Planned Parenthood.
YouTube has its agenda… and it fits in snugly with the agenda of the New World Order.
You Tube In Egregious Censorship Of Alex Jones Channel
Corporate gatekeeper claims that showing a print out of an article on live TV, something which happens on every mainstream TV news network every day, equates to copyright violation
Paul Joseph Watson & Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 4, 2009
You Tube has once again proven itself to be a corporate gatekeeper working to destroy free speech and the alternative media after it suspended the popular ‘Alex Jones Channel’ - primarily because Alex Jones showed a print out of a news article during a live show.
The Alex Jones Channel, started by a fan but since embraced as the “official” Alex Jones micro-site on You Tube, has routinely featured in the website’s most popular ranking charts and has collectively attracted millions of views for videos painstakingly catalogued and uploaded over the past two years.
Those videos are now completely gone after You Tube bosses deleted the channel, primarily because the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette complained that Alex Jones had shown a computer print out of one of their articles about the Poplawski cop killer incident last month.
To claim that showing a print out of an article is a violation of copyright is of course completely insane - not a day goes by without TV news anchors showing newspaper stories on live television. Indeed, C-Span’s popular Washington Journal program almost entirely consists of the host showing clippings of newspaper stories every morning.
The real reason for the deletion in undoubtedly the fact that Alex Jones has been on the forefront of exposing stories that have later become major national scandals, such as the MIAC report. Our coverage of the swine flu hoax has again propelled us to the top of the video ranking charts and this no doubt had You Tube’s corporate owners Google running scared. As we have previously documented - Google has intimate ties with the CIA and the military-industrial complex.
To counter such egregious censorship, we are encouraging everyone to subscribe to and bookmark the new Infowarrior channel and alert people to the fact that this will be the new home for Alex Jones on You Tube (at least until they invent a reason to pull that one too).
YouTube is engaged in a hunting expedition against Alex Jones and other truth tellers. Truth is no longer acceptable on the site as it transforms itself into a pale reflection of Hulu, a site owned and operated by NBC Universal (GE) and Fox Entertainment Group (News Corp), that is to say a joint venture by a corporation owned by a death merchant (GE manufactures attack helicopters and jet engines) and a disinformation platform owned by a notorious neocon, Rupert Murdoch.
In the Hulu-ized universe, there is no room for truth or alternative media — all channels will contain the same schlock and mindless pablum already available on cable and broadcast television.
YouTube, the emerging Hulu-ized version, has no use for Alex Jones and has specifically targeted him because his videos invariably draw a large (in the millions) number of people. His message is not welcome in a commercial space dominated by Wall Street bankers and the “entertainment” transnational corporations they own, operate, and use to disseminate their opiated propaganda.
YouTube is owned by Google, the mega-internet corporation that has as its motto “Don’t be evil.” Of course, for Google evil is a relative matter, especially when it comes to the corporation’s removal or omission of information from its services, especially in the totalitarian gulag of China.
Google is infamous for its politically motivated removal of information. In February 2003, Google stopped showing the adverts of Oceana, a non-profit organization protesting a major cruise ship operation’s sewage treatment practices. In October 2007, Google banned advertisements from Maine U.S. Senator Susan Collins’ reelection campaign because she criticized the Soros operation MoveOn.org. In April 2008, Google refused to run ads for a UK Christian group opposed to abortion.
In addition to taking down Alex Jones videos, YouTube has blocked videos produced by Wael Abbas, an activist who posted videos of police brutality, and the American Life League which is critical of Planned Parenthood.
YouTube has its agenda… and it fits in snugly with the agenda of the New World Order.
Swine Flu Crazies
By Jon Rappoport
www.nomorefakenews.com
MAY 3, 2009. The Swine Flu mess continues to evolve. And a mess it is.
Suppose you were a researcher in a lab, and on the first day of the media explosion about “possible Swine Flu,” you received a few swab samples from patients’ doctors in Mexico City. Your job was to find out what was there in those samples. Something new? Something important? Something ordinary?
THAT’S YOUR JOB.
Of course, in a sense, you’re just a cog in a machine. Why? Because you follow certain test procedures. You don’t question whether those procedures are useful or valid. Oh, maybe in the past you had doubts, but you buried those doubts. After all, you have a job to protect. You can’t start making waves.
Now, let’s freeze the frame right there. Are you, the lab researcher, perpetrating a deception if you employ procedures that don’t work, that turn up wrong answers? Are you just making a mistake? Are you being a robot? Are you committing a crime? Are you simply in denial? Are you, like millions of other people around the world, in their jobs, just a cog in a machine? Does it matter?
I’M JUST INTERESTED IN ONE THING. IF YOU SCREW UP, WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
OH, LET’S SEE. THE WORLD, DRIVEN BY THE MEDIA AND BY MEDICAL BUREAUCRATS, WILL START JAMMING UP THE AIRWAVES WITH FALSE PRONOUNCEMENTS ABOUT A NEW DISEASE. SCHOOLS WILL CLOSE. EVENTS WILL BE CANCELLED. PEOPLE WILL ENTER A STATE OF FEAR. SOME PEOPLE WILL BE QUARANTINED. OTHER PEOPLE, WHO AREN’T VERY SICK AT ALL AND WOULD ORDINARILY RECOVER ON THEIR OWN, WILL BE GIVEN HIGHLY TOXIC MEDICINES. THESE MEDICINES ON THEIR OWN WILL CAUSE FURTHER ILLNESS. YOU’LL ALSO BE CONTRIBUTING TO A STATE OF AFFAIRS IN WHICH THE SHEEP OF MANY NATIONS WILL MOVE ONE STEP CLOSER TO ACCEPTING THE ORDERS AND COMMANDS OF MEDICAL BIGSHOTS WITHOUT THINKING. AT ANY TIME. FOR ANY REASON. AND, ON TOP OF THAT, YOU’LL ALSO BE HELPING PEOPLE TO CONVINCE THEMSELVES THAT THEY’RE GETTING SICK WHEN THEY AREN’T, BECAUSE SUGGESTIONS OF ILLNESS-FEAR ARE IN THE AIR.
But you, in your lab, don’t really think about all that. You HAVE A JOB TO DO. You test the samples from the patients. Your test is a scientific sham. Somewhere down the line in the past, this test (called a PCR) was brought on board as a way to detect illness. It was never really designed to do that, but it was imported and employed anyway. A misleading test---and you’re using it. THAT’S YOUR JOB.
You analyze the samples and you find what? Tiny amounts of what can only be called genetic debris from the body. It’s there all the time. In this case, you find little gene sequences that suggest pieces of pig virus and bird virus and human virus---and you conclude that you have evidence of a NEW WHOLE VIRUS---A SINGULAR PIG-BIRD-HUMAN FLU VIRUS---and you (or your betters) give it a name. AH1N1. You’re utterly wrong. You have no evidence for your conclusion. But you draw that conclusion.
And now, the wheels really turn. Everybody thinks there is a new virus that is attacking people all over the planet.
Of course, as I say, there is no evidence for that. But who cares?
YOU DID YOUR JOB.
BUT THE TESTS ARE WRONG, INAPPLICABLE, USELESS, AND MISLEADING.
Then why are people using them?
Ask them.
I could give you another 20 pages on the whys and wherefores of it. But for now, I don’t care. I only care that it’s happening with “Swine Flu” before our eyes.
There are people out there who can only think in terms of “it’s a conspiracy” or “it couldn’t be a conspiracy.” They filter everything through one of those channels. They need to think, with clarity, about what is FALSE and what is TRUE first. Why? Because that paints the picture of what is going on. Then they can make up their minds about whether it’s conspiratorial or not.
For example, there are people who hear about a pig-bird-human combo virus that is brand new, and immediately they assume it’s been created in a lab. They assume it’s a biowar germ that’s gotten loose or was let loose on purpose.
BUT IS THERE A VIRUS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
WAS IT EVER REALLY FOUND IN A HUMAN? OR WAS THIS WHOLE FANTASY, AS I’VE DESCRIBED, THE RESULT OF A USELESS TEST AND A USELESS AND FALSE INTERPRETATION OF THE TEST?
Back in the mists of time, there was once the widely-held scientific notion that, in order to know a group of people had a certain disease caused by a certain germ, you had to find the actual whole germ in every one of those patients. It’s almost a truism, isn’t it? And then, on top of that, there was the notion that you had to find A LOT of that germ in each and every patient, because illness comes about when millions of a particular germ are doing their work in the body.
But now those two pillars have been toppled and hauled away. It doesn’t matter anymore. Now, if you do a PCR test on a patient, and you get hints of tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, TINY amounts of gene fragments, you can write script to your heart’s content. You can say people coughing in Malaysia are suffering from a pig-bird-cow-sheep-ox jumbo combo virus that is new, has never been seen before, and is dangerous, and needs to be treated with TOXIC PHARMACEUTICALS.
Drug companies, by the way, like that sort of script writing. It allows them to sell lots of meds.
JON RAPPOPORT
www.nomorefakenews.com
Jon Rappoport
116 Pleasant Street
Suite 328
Easthampton, MA 01027
Our telephone:
413.282.1000
Add us to your address book
www.nomorefakenews.com
MAY 3, 2009. The Swine Flu mess continues to evolve. And a mess it is.
Suppose you were a researcher in a lab, and on the first day of the media explosion about “possible Swine Flu,” you received a few swab samples from patients’ doctors in Mexico City. Your job was to find out what was there in those samples. Something new? Something important? Something ordinary?
THAT’S YOUR JOB.
Of course, in a sense, you’re just a cog in a machine. Why? Because you follow certain test procedures. You don’t question whether those procedures are useful or valid. Oh, maybe in the past you had doubts, but you buried those doubts. After all, you have a job to protect. You can’t start making waves.
Now, let’s freeze the frame right there. Are you, the lab researcher, perpetrating a deception if you employ procedures that don’t work, that turn up wrong answers? Are you just making a mistake? Are you being a robot? Are you committing a crime? Are you simply in denial? Are you, like millions of other people around the world, in their jobs, just a cog in a machine? Does it matter?
I’M JUST INTERESTED IN ONE THING. IF YOU SCREW UP, WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
OH, LET’S SEE. THE WORLD, DRIVEN BY THE MEDIA AND BY MEDICAL BUREAUCRATS, WILL START JAMMING UP THE AIRWAVES WITH FALSE PRONOUNCEMENTS ABOUT A NEW DISEASE. SCHOOLS WILL CLOSE. EVENTS WILL BE CANCELLED. PEOPLE WILL ENTER A STATE OF FEAR. SOME PEOPLE WILL BE QUARANTINED. OTHER PEOPLE, WHO AREN’T VERY SICK AT ALL AND WOULD ORDINARILY RECOVER ON THEIR OWN, WILL BE GIVEN HIGHLY TOXIC MEDICINES. THESE MEDICINES ON THEIR OWN WILL CAUSE FURTHER ILLNESS. YOU’LL ALSO BE CONTRIBUTING TO A STATE OF AFFAIRS IN WHICH THE SHEEP OF MANY NATIONS WILL MOVE ONE STEP CLOSER TO ACCEPTING THE ORDERS AND COMMANDS OF MEDICAL BIGSHOTS WITHOUT THINKING. AT ANY TIME. FOR ANY REASON. AND, ON TOP OF THAT, YOU’LL ALSO BE HELPING PEOPLE TO CONVINCE THEMSELVES THAT THEY’RE GETTING SICK WHEN THEY AREN’T, BECAUSE SUGGESTIONS OF ILLNESS-FEAR ARE IN THE AIR.
But you, in your lab, don’t really think about all that. You HAVE A JOB TO DO. You test the samples from the patients. Your test is a scientific sham. Somewhere down the line in the past, this test (called a PCR) was brought on board as a way to detect illness. It was never really designed to do that, but it was imported and employed anyway. A misleading test---and you’re using it. THAT’S YOUR JOB.
You analyze the samples and you find what? Tiny amounts of what can only be called genetic debris from the body. It’s there all the time. In this case, you find little gene sequences that suggest pieces of pig virus and bird virus and human virus---and you conclude that you have evidence of a NEW WHOLE VIRUS---A SINGULAR PIG-BIRD-HUMAN FLU VIRUS---and you (or your betters) give it a name. AH1N1. You’re utterly wrong. You have no evidence for your conclusion. But you draw that conclusion.
And now, the wheels really turn. Everybody thinks there is a new virus that is attacking people all over the planet.
Of course, as I say, there is no evidence for that. But who cares?
YOU DID YOUR JOB.
BUT THE TESTS ARE WRONG, INAPPLICABLE, USELESS, AND MISLEADING.
Then why are people using them?
Ask them.
I could give you another 20 pages on the whys and wherefores of it. But for now, I don’t care. I only care that it’s happening with “Swine Flu” before our eyes.
There are people out there who can only think in terms of “it’s a conspiracy” or “it couldn’t be a conspiracy.” They filter everything through one of those channels. They need to think, with clarity, about what is FALSE and what is TRUE first. Why? Because that paints the picture of what is going on. Then they can make up their minds about whether it’s conspiratorial or not.
For example, there are people who hear about a pig-bird-human combo virus that is brand new, and immediately they assume it’s been created in a lab. They assume it’s a biowar germ that’s gotten loose or was let loose on purpose.
BUT IS THERE A VIRUS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
WAS IT EVER REALLY FOUND IN A HUMAN? OR WAS THIS WHOLE FANTASY, AS I’VE DESCRIBED, THE RESULT OF A USELESS TEST AND A USELESS AND FALSE INTERPRETATION OF THE TEST?
Back in the mists of time, there was once the widely-held scientific notion that, in order to know a group of people had a certain disease caused by a certain germ, you had to find the actual whole germ in every one of those patients. It’s almost a truism, isn’t it? And then, on top of that, there was the notion that you had to find A LOT of that germ in each and every patient, because illness comes about when millions of a particular germ are doing their work in the body.
But now those two pillars have been toppled and hauled away. It doesn’t matter anymore. Now, if you do a PCR test on a patient, and you get hints of tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, TINY amounts of gene fragments, you can write script to your heart’s content. You can say people coughing in Malaysia are suffering from a pig-bird-cow-sheep-ox jumbo combo virus that is new, has never been seen before, and is dangerous, and needs to be treated with TOXIC PHARMACEUTICALS.
Drug companies, by the way, like that sort of script writing. It allows them to sell lots of meds.
JON RAPPOPORT
www.nomorefakenews.com
Jon Rappoport
116 Pleasant Street
Suite 328
Easthampton, MA 01027
Our telephone:
413.282.1000
Add us to your address book
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Stop using Hydroxycut products, FDA says
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/01/hydroxycut.fda.recall/
Stop using Hydroxycut products, FDA says
Story Highlights
FDA recalls Hydroxycut products after 23 liver injuries and one death
Hydroxycut products used as popular dietary supplement for weight loss
Damage from product: liver failure, jaundice, seizures, cardiovascular problems
By Saundra Young
5-1-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hydroxycut products, popular dietary supplements used for weight loss, have been linked to liver damage and are being recalled, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
The FDA has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries, including a death, linked to Hydroxycut products.
The FDA said it has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries linked to Hydroxycut products, which are also used as energy enhancers and as fat burners.
The reports include the 2007 death of a 19-year-old male living in the Southwest, which was just reported to the FDA in March. Other serious liver problems reported included liver damage that resulted in a transplant in 2002, liver failure, jaundice, seizures and cardiovascular problems.
The FDA is warning consumers to immediately stop using 14 Hydroxycut products manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Oakville, Ontario, and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, New York.
The company is voluntarily recalling the following products: Hydroxycut Regular Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Max Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Regular Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Drink Packets (Ignition Stix), Hydroxycut Max Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Liquid Shots, Hydroxycut Hardcore RTDs (Ready-to-Drink), Hydroxycut Max Aqua Shed, Hydroxycut 24, Hydroxycut Carb Control and Hydroxycut Natural.
According to the FDA, last year, Iovate sold more than 9 million units of Hydroxycut products, which were distributed widely to grocery stores, health food stores and pharmacies.
"The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risks. Adverse events are rare, but exist. Consumers should consult a physician or other health care professional if they experience symptoms possibly associated with these products," said Dr. Linda Katz, interim chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Liver damage is rare, but patients who experienced problems were taking doses recommended on the product label, the FDA said. Symptoms include brown urine, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, stomach pain, itching and light-colored stools.
The FDA has not yet determined what specific ingredients are responsible for the problems, because the products contain a variety of overlapping ingredients and herbal extracts.
Dietary supplements sold before October 1994 are not required to undergo any FDA review before going to market. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) required manufacturers to ensure a supplement to be safe before marketing. But manufacturers still don't need to register a product with the FDA or get approval before selling a supplement.
The agency can take action against an unsafe supplement once it's on the market. Since December 2007, any serious adverse event reported to the manufacturer must now be reported to the FDA within 15 days.
Stop using Hydroxycut products, FDA says
Story Highlights
FDA recalls Hydroxycut products after 23 liver injuries and one death
Hydroxycut products used as popular dietary supplement for weight loss
Damage from product: liver failure, jaundice, seizures, cardiovascular problems
By Saundra Young
5-1-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hydroxycut products, popular dietary supplements used for weight loss, have been linked to liver damage and are being recalled, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
The FDA has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries, including a death, linked to Hydroxycut products.
The FDA said it has received 23 reports of serious liver injuries linked to Hydroxycut products, which are also used as energy enhancers and as fat burners.
The reports include the 2007 death of a 19-year-old male living in the Southwest, which was just reported to the FDA in March. Other serious liver problems reported included liver damage that resulted in a transplant in 2002, liver failure, jaundice, seizures and cardiovascular problems.
The FDA is warning consumers to immediately stop using 14 Hydroxycut products manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Oakville, Ontario, and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, New York.
The company is voluntarily recalling the following products: Hydroxycut Regular Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Rapid Release Caplets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Max Liquid Caplets, Hydroxycut Regular Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Hardcore Drink Packets (Ignition Stix), Hydroxycut Max Drink Packets, Hydroxycut Liquid Shots, Hydroxycut Hardcore RTDs (Ready-to-Drink), Hydroxycut Max Aqua Shed, Hydroxycut 24, Hydroxycut Carb Control and Hydroxycut Natural.
According to the FDA, last year, Iovate sold more than 9 million units of Hydroxycut products, which were distributed widely to grocery stores, health food stores and pharmacies.
"The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risks. Adverse events are rare, but exist. Consumers should consult a physician or other health care professional if they experience symptoms possibly associated with these products," said Dr. Linda Katz, interim chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Liver damage is rare, but patients who experienced problems were taking doses recommended on the product label, the FDA said. Symptoms include brown urine, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, stomach pain, itching and light-colored stools.
The FDA has not yet determined what specific ingredients are responsible for the problems, because the products contain a variety of overlapping ingredients and herbal extracts.
Dietary supplements sold before October 1994 are not required to undergo any FDA review before going to market. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) required manufacturers to ensure a supplement to be safe before marketing. But manufacturers still don't need to register a product with the FDA or get approval before selling a supplement.
The agency can take action against an unsafe supplement once it's on the market. Since December 2007, any serious adverse event reported to the manufacturer must now be reported to the FDA within 15 days.
Justice David Souter to retire from Supreme Court
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/30/justice.souter.retiring/
Justice David Souter to retire from Supreme Court, source says
Story Highlights
Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, source says
Souter's replacement would be President Obama's first Supreme Court appointment
Souter, 69, was tapped by President George H.W. Bush, disappointed conservatives
Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices still on the bench
4-30-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After more than 18 years on the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring, a source close to Souter told CNN Thursday.
David Souter has served more than 18 years on the Supreme Court.
Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, the source said.
Filling Souter's seat would be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment -- and the first since George W. Bush's picks of Samuel Alito in 2006 and Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005.
Souter, 69, was tapped for the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, but disappointed many conservatives when he turned out to be a typical old-fashioned Yankee Republican -- a moderate, with an independent, even quirky streak.
Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices -- and the most liberal -- still on the bench. Retirements for John Paul Stevens, 89, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, have been rumored for years, with many expecting that one or the other would be the first to give a new Democratic president a Supreme Court vacancy.
Souter's decision came as something of a surprise, although he has long been known to prefer the quiet of his New Hampshire farmhouse to the bustle of the nation's capital.
Justice David Souter to retire from Supreme Court, source says
Story Highlights
Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, source says
Souter's replacement would be President Obama's first Supreme Court appointment
Souter, 69, was tapped by President George H.W. Bush, disappointed conservatives
Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices still on the bench
4-30-9
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After more than 18 years on the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring, a source close to Souter told CNN Thursday.
David Souter has served more than 18 years on the Supreme Court.
Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, the source said.
Filling Souter's seat would be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment -- and the first since George W. Bush's picks of Samuel Alito in 2006 and Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005.
Souter, 69, was tapped for the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, but disappointed many conservatives when he turned out to be a typical old-fashioned Yankee Republican -- a moderate, with an independent, even quirky streak.
Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices -- and the most liberal -- still on the bench. Retirements for John Paul Stevens, 89, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, have been rumored for years, with many expecting that one or the other would be the first to give a new Democratic president a Supreme Court vacancy.
Souter's decision came as something of a surprise, although he has long been known to prefer the quiet of his New Hampshire farmhouse to the bustle of the nation's capital.
Details on A-Rod's alleged pitch-tipping scheme
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/04/30/roberts.qa/
Thursday April 30, 2009
Details on A-Rod's alleged pitch-tipping scheme in Texas
Story Highlights
Roberts: Rangers people noticed Alex doing obvious signs to opposing hitters
Roberts: He'd tip a buddy on the other team and the player would return the favor
According to Roberts, some Rangers were aware of A-Rod's pitch-tipping
Alex Rodriguez allegedly made movements with his glove and leaned different ways to indicate pitch and location.
A report in the New York Daily News alleged that in a new book on Alex Rodriguez to be published this Monday by Harper Collins, the star tipped pitches when he was with the Texas Rangers, essentially signaling to friendly opponents what pitch was coming. SI senior writer Selena Roberts, who along with David Epstein broke the story in February about A-Rod's use of performance enhancing drugs, wrote the book and talked to SI.com about the allegations.
SI.com: The book claims that A-Rod tipped opposing players to pitches in the late innings of blowouts, an affront not only to teammates but also to the integrity of the game. How often was this practice performed and how does this affect his standing with his peers?
Selena Roberts: The pitch-tipping was often enough over three years to become a pattern noticeable by the ex-Rangers sources that I spoke to. Only a small number of Rangers knew about the quid pro quo that Alex was involved in and did not want it to spread around the clubhouse because it would have been devastating to the team.
SI.com: How did this pitch-tipping originate?
Selena Roberts: I don't know the history of how it has worked in the major leagues, but from my reporting and the people I spoke with on the Rangers, what they noticed was a pattern of behavior by Alex over a pretty lengthy period of time, two or three years, where it just became more noticeable that his mannerisms on the field were different in games that were already over, its 10-2, something like that. When games were already decided, they noticed this behavior with Alex where he would do very obvious signs, presumably to an opposing hitter who would be a middle infielder on an opposing team, where they believed that he would tip the signs.
SI.com: Why was he doing this?
Roberts: What this was all part of was a quid pro quo, according to the people I spoke with. Alex would tip his middle infielder buddy on the other team and the player on the other team would in turn tip Alex. What it was was slump insurance. You could count on your buddy to help you break out of your slump, if you're 0 for 3 or you've had a bad week. There was no intent to throw a game or change the outcome.
SI.com: How would he tip the pitches?
Roberts: If it was a changeup, sources say, he would twist his glove hand. To indicate a slider, he would allegedly sweep the dirt in front of him, and he would bend in the direction of where the pitch was going to be, inside or outside. I don't know that it's easy to decode. You're talking about people who see a player on an every-day basis, day after day, year after year. I don't know that it would be at all obvious to people who are watching or to a television audience. These are people who would know how to detect when things don't feel right. If it happened once or twice, people might say, Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe we didn't see what we thought we saw. But according to the people that I spoke with, this was a pattern of behavior.
SI.com: So if teammates noticed it, how did they handle it?
Roberts: At least one teammate in a very gentle way did say, "Hey, you might be tipping a little too soon out there." What would usually happen would be for Alex to signal the pitch to his teammates as the pitcher was in the windup; that way the batter is focused on the pitcher and not able to see the sign. However, these signs Alex would flash came before the windup and that made it more noticeable. This is the critical difference between signaling your infield as quarterback and giving away the pitch to the hitter: when you flash the sign. This was done to give the batter plenty of time to see it and figure out what to do about it.
But one player trying to be diplomatic told me that he said, "I think you're tipping a little too soon," and the response from Alex was, "What are you talking about?" I don't think Alex was irritated at the player; I think he felt that he had been scrutinized too closely, that someone else was trying to tell him how to do his job. These people who knew about it or witnessed it knew how it would play in the clubhouse if it became an issue. These were all reasons why it didn't become a bigger deal than it was, because people wanted to keep it under wraps.
SI.com: How many people knew about this?
Roberts: I think it was kept to a very small group of people. The people that are noticing this, it's not something that you want to tell anybody else. You want to keep it to yourself until it becomes something you can't ignore anymore. If this had been a situation where it was determining the outcome of a game, obviously it would have been a much different story.
Thursday April 30, 2009
Details on A-Rod's alleged pitch-tipping scheme in Texas
Story Highlights
Roberts: Rangers people noticed Alex doing obvious signs to opposing hitters
Roberts: He'd tip a buddy on the other team and the player would return the favor
According to Roberts, some Rangers were aware of A-Rod's pitch-tipping
Alex Rodriguez allegedly made movements with his glove and leaned different ways to indicate pitch and location.
A report in the New York Daily News alleged that in a new book on Alex Rodriguez to be published this Monday by Harper Collins, the star tipped pitches when he was with the Texas Rangers, essentially signaling to friendly opponents what pitch was coming. SI senior writer Selena Roberts, who along with David Epstein broke the story in February about A-Rod's use of performance enhancing drugs, wrote the book and talked to SI.com about the allegations.
SI.com: The book claims that A-Rod tipped opposing players to pitches in the late innings of blowouts, an affront not only to teammates but also to the integrity of the game. How often was this practice performed and how does this affect his standing with his peers?
Selena Roberts: The pitch-tipping was often enough over three years to become a pattern noticeable by the ex-Rangers sources that I spoke to. Only a small number of Rangers knew about the quid pro quo that Alex was involved in and did not want it to spread around the clubhouse because it would have been devastating to the team.
SI.com: How did this pitch-tipping originate?
Selena Roberts: I don't know the history of how it has worked in the major leagues, but from my reporting and the people I spoke with on the Rangers, what they noticed was a pattern of behavior by Alex over a pretty lengthy period of time, two or three years, where it just became more noticeable that his mannerisms on the field were different in games that were already over, its 10-2, something like that. When games were already decided, they noticed this behavior with Alex where he would do very obvious signs, presumably to an opposing hitter who would be a middle infielder on an opposing team, where they believed that he would tip the signs.
SI.com: Why was he doing this?
Roberts: What this was all part of was a quid pro quo, according to the people I spoke with. Alex would tip his middle infielder buddy on the other team and the player on the other team would in turn tip Alex. What it was was slump insurance. You could count on your buddy to help you break out of your slump, if you're 0 for 3 or you've had a bad week. There was no intent to throw a game or change the outcome.
SI.com: How would he tip the pitches?
Roberts: If it was a changeup, sources say, he would twist his glove hand. To indicate a slider, he would allegedly sweep the dirt in front of him, and he would bend in the direction of where the pitch was going to be, inside or outside. I don't know that it's easy to decode. You're talking about people who see a player on an every-day basis, day after day, year after year. I don't know that it would be at all obvious to people who are watching or to a television audience. These are people who would know how to detect when things don't feel right. If it happened once or twice, people might say, Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe we didn't see what we thought we saw. But according to the people that I spoke with, this was a pattern of behavior.
SI.com: So if teammates noticed it, how did they handle it?
Roberts: At least one teammate in a very gentle way did say, "Hey, you might be tipping a little too soon out there." What would usually happen would be for Alex to signal the pitch to his teammates as the pitcher was in the windup; that way the batter is focused on the pitcher and not able to see the sign. However, these signs Alex would flash came before the windup and that made it more noticeable. This is the critical difference between signaling your infield as quarterback and giving away the pitch to the hitter: when you flash the sign. This was done to give the batter plenty of time to see it and figure out what to do about it.
But one player trying to be diplomatic told me that he said, "I think you're tipping a little too soon," and the response from Alex was, "What are you talking about?" I don't think Alex was irritated at the player; I think he felt that he had been scrutinized too closely, that someone else was trying to tell him how to do his job. These people who knew about it or witnessed it knew how it would play in the clubhouse if it became an issue. These were all reasons why it didn't become a bigger deal than it was, because people wanted to keep it under wraps.
SI.com: How many people knew about this?
Roberts: I think it was kept to a very small group of people. The people that are noticing this, it's not something that you want to tell anybody else. You want to keep it to yourself until it becomes something you can't ignore anymore. If this had been a situation where it was determining the outcome of a game, obviously it would have been a much different story.
A-Rod mum on claims he used steroids in H.S.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gDyhPDBjnfHf9yHdoOLA9DsFnGAAD97T02G81
A-Rod mum on claims he used steroids while in H.S.
4-30-9
NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez refused to address allegations that he used steroids when he was a highly touted high school player and with the New York Yankees. Rodriguez admitted in February to using performance-enhancing drugs while with the Texas Rangers but insisted he stopped before he was traded to the Yankees in 2004.
He brushed off a question Thursday about some details from Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts' upcoming book "A-Rod" that cast doubt on his earlier statements.
"I'm not going there," he said after homering in an extended spring training intrasquad game in Tampa, Fla. "I'm just so excited about being back on the field and playing baseball. My team has won two games (in a row) up there and hopefully I can come back and help them win some more."
The Daily News reported in Thursday's edition that Roberts' book offers an unflattering portrait of the MVP slugger as a needy personality who wanted his ego stroked constantly.
The paper doesn't say how it obtained a copy of the Harper Collins book, scheduled to be released on Monday.
A high school teammate of A-Rod's told Roberts that the future No. 1 draft pick was on steroids as a prep player and his coach knew it — an allegation the coach, Rich Hofman, denied.
Rodriguez said he wasn't worried that the steroids issue was being brought up again.
"No. Not really," he said. "I'm in a good place. I think more importantly physically I feel like I'm getting better everyday. We've had a great week here. We've worked extremely hard, and I'm just very anxious to do what God put me on this earth to do, to play baseball."
In the book, an unnamed major leaguer is quoted as saying A-Rod and former Yankees pitcher Kevin Brown, who was named in the Mitchell Report, were seen together with human growth hormone — or HGH — in 2004.
The book also goes on to say that two anonymous Yankees said they believed A-Rod was using banned substances based on visual side effects, and that a clubhouse staffer said management had a suspicion that that the third baseman may have been juicing.
Rodriguez, in Florida rehabbing his surgically repaired hip, went 1-for-6 with two walks in the extended spring game. He had a long homer to left center in his sixth plate appearance.
He will play in another extended spring game Friday against Pirates minor leaguers at Pittsburgh's complex in Bradenton, Fla.
Rodriguez said he needs to run the bases at full speed and is still on target to return to the Yankees in May.
"I think the last thing I'm going to do here before I leave is sliding," he said. "I think sliding is probably the thing I have the most reservation about because you have to get on your hip and bounce on it a little bit. Everything else seems so far on schedule."
A-Rod mum on claims he used steroids while in H.S.
4-30-9
NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez refused to address allegations that he used steroids when he was a highly touted high school player and with the New York Yankees. Rodriguez admitted in February to using performance-enhancing drugs while with the Texas Rangers but insisted he stopped before he was traded to the Yankees in 2004.
He brushed off a question Thursday about some details from Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts' upcoming book "A-Rod" that cast doubt on his earlier statements.
"I'm not going there," he said after homering in an extended spring training intrasquad game in Tampa, Fla. "I'm just so excited about being back on the field and playing baseball. My team has won two games (in a row) up there and hopefully I can come back and help them win some more."
The Daily News reported in Thursday's edition that Roberts' book offers an unflattering portrait of the MVP slugger as a needy personality who wanted his ego stroked constantly.
The paper doesn't say how it obtained a copy of the Harper Collins book, scheduled to be released on Monday.
A high school teammate of A-Rod's told Roberts that the future No. 1 draft pick was on steroids as a prep player and his coach knew it — an allegation the coach, Rich Hofman, denied.
Rodriguez said he wasn't worried that the steroids issue was being brought up again.
"No. Not really," he said. "I'm in a good place. I think more importantly physically I feel like I'm getting better everyday. We've had a great week here. We've worked extremely hard, and I'm just very anxious to do what God put me on this earth to do, to play baseball."
In the book, an unnamed major leaguer is quoted as saying A-Rod and former Yankees pitcher Kevin Brown, who was named in the Mitchell Report, were seen together with human growth hormone — or HGH — in 2004.
The book also goes on to say that two anonymous Yankees said they believed A-Rod was using banned substances based on visual side effects, and that a clubhouse staffer said management had a suspicion that that the third baseman may have been juicing.
Rodriguez, in Florida rehabbing his surgically repaired hip, went 1-for-6 with two walks in the extended spring game. He had a long homer to left center in his sixth plate appearance.
He will play in another extended spring game Friday against Pirates minor leaguers at Pittsburgh's complex in Bradenton, Fla.
Rodriguez said he needs to run the bases at full speed and is still on target to return to the Yankees in May.
"I think the last thing I'm going to do here before I leave is sliding," he said. "I think sliding is probably the thing I have the most reservation about because you have to get on your hip and bounce on it a little bit. Everything else seems so far on schedule."
Konformist Babe of the Week: Susan von Seggern
(Even if she's off the market...)It's been a few years since The Konformist staff has seen Susan Mainzer, a publicist formerly of Green Galactic. Turns out, she is now married happily and doing well. Congrats Susan von Seggern, even if there's one less available babe in the USA...
http://www.greensceneusa.com/my-green-scene/Susan-Mainzer-m-80.html
Susan von Seggern
City: Los Angeles, California
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Status: married
Kids: none yet!
Pets: dog - Cooper
Place of Work: Freelance
Occupation: Publicist
Schools: New York University '90
General Interests: reading, saving the planet, music, yoga, meditation
About Me
I am an typical gen Xer, just turned 40, who realized that things were wrong on planet earth in my 80s punk rock teens. I started recycling in NYC in college - you had to take the papers to the recycling center then! It was also around that time when I realized that all of our decisions impact our world. When I moved to Los Angeles my first new car was a Geo Metro convertible, which in addition to being cute, also got 35/50 mpg. It only had an 8 gallon tank! I have worked at home for the last five years so no commuting! My fiance bikes to work. I have done PR for almost 20 years and am now working for various corporate, cause and cultural clients. Additionally my husband and I and some friends have have just started an organic gardening consulting service called Mulchmeister.
Green Passions
recycling, organic gardening - we grow peppers, tomatoes and herbs, we also have a tangarine tree, cooking organic, going to the farmer's market to buy local and organic, reading about ways to be more green, supporting politicians who understand the difficult future we face.
Favorite Green Places
Hollywood Farmers Market, all Thai vegan places in LA especially California Vegan since I can walk there, Griffith Park, Hollywood Reservoir, Runyon Canyon,
Favorite Green Products
all 7th Gen stuff, Ralphs (Kroger) Private Selection Organic (let's encourage the mainstream grocery stores to go green!), Earth Friendly Products Everyday Stain & Odor remover (seriously red wine and pet stains, no problem!), Britta pitcher, House Organic Tofu, very excited about my client Rock Row, the 1st LEED certified subdivision in LA! www.leangreenlivingmachine.com
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