http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10714
January 13th, 2008
U.S. spy chief: waterboarding would be torture to him
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell said in a magazine interview that waterboarding would be torture if it was used against him personally, but stopped short of condemning the controversial interrogation technique.
McConnell, the director of National Intelligence, was quoted in The New Yorker edition released on Sunday as defining torture as "something that would cause excruciating pain."
Asked if waterboarding -- the practice of covering a person's face with a cloth and then dripping water on it to bring on a feeling of drowning -- fit that definition, McConnell said that for him personally, it would.
"If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can't imagine how painful!" McConnell said in the article. "Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition, for me it would be torture."
But he rejected a suggestion that he personally condemned the practice.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has declined to rule on whether waterboarding is torture.
"You can do waterboarding lots of ways ... I assume you can get to the point that a person is actually drowning," McConnell said in the New Yorker article, which paraphrased him as agreeing that this would certainly be torture.
McConnell said he could not be more specific because "if it ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it."
The New Yorker article was published as the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives investigates the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing interrogations of al Qaeda suspects, at least two of whom are known to have been subjected to waterboarding.
The videotapes were made in 2002 and destroyed three years later, over fears they would leak.
Last month the Democratic-controlled House approved a bill that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, that are not allowed by the military.
President George W. Bush last year issued an executive order to allow the CIA to use "enhanced interrogation techniques" that go beyond the rules adopted by the U.S. Army. He has threatened to veto the bill passed by the House, if it is also approved by the Senate.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Chevy Malibu, Mazda CX-9 Pick Up Honors
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/13/ap4524718.html
Chevy Malibu, Mazda CX-9 Pick Up Honors
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
01.13.08
DETROIT - The Chevrolet Malibu and the Mazda CX-9 were chosen as the car and truck of the year at the North American International Auto Show.
The awards were presented Sunday, the first day of media previews for the show. It opens to the public on Saturday.
Four of the six finalists for the awards were GM products.
The Malibu, Cadillac CTS and Honda Accord were finalists for car of the year, while the CX-9, the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid were finalists for truck of the year.
GM was a double winner in 2007, but only nabbed one of the awards this year.
To be considered for the coveted honor, which often is used in automakers' advertising, vehicles must be new or substantially changed from the previous model. More than 50 new vehicles were eligible this year, but jurors winnowed that list to 15 cars and 13 trucks.
The winners were selected by a jury of 46 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada. Jurors consider a variety of factors, including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value.
The North American honors have been given annually since 1994.
Chevy Malibu, Mazda CX-9 Pick Up Honors
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
01.13.08
DETROIT - The Chevrolet Malibu and the Mazda CX-9 were chosen as the car and truck of the year at the North American International Auto Show.
The awards were presented Sunday, the first day of media previews for the show. It opens to the public on Saturday.
Four of the six finalists for the awards were GM products.
The Malibu, Cadillac CTS and Honda Accord were finalists for car of the year, while the CX-9, the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid were finalists for truck of the year.
GM was a double winner in 2007, but only nabbed one of the awards this year.
To be considered for the coveted honor, which often is used in automakers' advertising, vehicles must be new or substantially changed from the previous model. More than 50 new vehicles were eligible this year, but jurors winnowed that list to 15 cars and 13 trucks.
The winners were selected by a jury of 46 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada. Jurors consider a variety of factors, including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value.
The North American honors have been given annually since 1994.
Californian wins Mavericks big wave surf contest
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=AkFcHdtZHhQgLOIqkESW3geyubYF?slug=ap-bigwavecontest&prov=ap&type=lgns
Californian wins Mavericks big wave surf contest
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer
January 12, 2008
HALF MOON BAY, Calif (AP) -- A 24-year-old California surfer topped a daredevil contest Saturday that had competitors riding waves more than four stories tall.
Greg Long of San Clemente was among two dozen elite surfers who took part in the Mavericks Surf Contest -- considered the Super Bowl of big-wave competitions -- in Half Moon Bay, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.
After the contest was whittled down to six finalists, Long was crowned the winner. Grant "Twiggy" Baker of South Africa was second, and Jamie Sterling of Hawaii third. Baker won the event in 2006, the last time it was held.
On his first wave in the final heat of the competition, Long barely held his balance on his 9-foot, 6-inch royal blue surfboard. He took a late drop down the towering 40-foot wave before landing on the bottom and carving a fast turn to dodge a wall of whitewater crashing behind him.
He said he felt nearly weightless as he fell down the face of the wave, and thought, "I'm either going down hard or going to get a good one. Luckily it was the latter of the two."
Before the last wave, Long and his five fellow finalists agreed to split the $75,000 pursue, which would've been divvied up with the winner taking home $30,000 and the other finalists sharing the rest.
The original 24 entrants were broken into four groups of six surfers who competed in 45-minute heats during which each rider caught up to 10 waves. They were whisked out on jet skis to conquer the giant swells about a half-mile offshore.
Surfers were judged on their best two waves, and the top three scorers in each heat advanced to the semifinals.
Contest organizer Jeff Clark, who is credited with "discovering" Mavericks in 1975 and being the only person to surf there for the next 15 years, buzzed around near the competitors on a jet ski.
"The waves are good. The surfers are happy," Clark said from his jet ski. "That's the best part, the surfers are happy,"
Half Moon Bay surfer Ion Banner walked in from the first heat with a big smile across his face. He had air-dropped down a couple of waves during his heat -- meaning the wave was so steep he and his board lost contact with the water.
"I somersaulted down a couple of them," Banner said.
Worried about traffic in the small coastal town, organizers and local officials asked fans to watch the contest on the Web or a live broadcast at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
About 800 people were at the ballpark watching the big wave surfers, oohing and awing as they flew down the waves.
Jacob Towery of Palo Alto started surfing a couple of years ago and figured he could learn something from the big-wave riders, while avoiding large crowds at the beach.
"I think it's awesome," he said. "It's amazing. Huge waves, their cool moves and how they charge the waves."
Closer to the action in Half Moon Bay, thousands of spectators came out. Some perched on cliffs to watch the surfers through binoculars, while others gathered in front of a big screen on the beach.
The crowd groaned when Evan Slater, known for his spectacular wipeouts at Mavericks, took off late on a massive swell and fell through the air to the bottom of the wave. He was sucked back up into the churning mass of whitewater and tossed around. He surfaced quickly and was back in the lineup in seconds.
At least 30,000 people had logged onto the event's webcast, and during the second heat 1,000 new users per minute were logging on, contest organizers said.
Each winter, when huge, storm-generated swells batter the Northern California coast, the world's top big-wave riders are put on notice for Mavericks, which was first held in 1999. Organizers wait for ideal conditions before giving invitees little more than 24 hours to travel from wherever they are in the world to Half Moon Bay.
Associated Press Writer Ron Harris contributed to this report.
On the Net:
http://www.maverickssurf.com
http://www.stormsurf.com/
Californian wins Mavericks big wave surf contest
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer
January 12, 2008
HALF MOON BAY, Calif (AP) -- A 24-year-old California surfer topped a daredevil contest Saturday that had competitors riding waves more than four stories tall.
Greg Long of San Clemente was among two dozen elite surfers who took part in the Mavericks Surf Contest -- considered the Super Bowl of big-wave competitions -- in Half Moon Bay, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.
After the contest was whittled down to six finalists, Long was crowned the winner. Grant "Twiggy" Baker of South Africa was second, and Jamie Sterling of Hawaii third. Baker won the event in 2006, the last time it was held.
On his first wave in the final heat of the competition, Long barely held his balance on his 9-foot, 6-inch royal blue surfboard. He took a late drop down the towering 40-foot wave before landing on the bottom and carving a fast turn to dodge a wall of whitewater crashing behind him.
He said he felt nearly weightless as he fell down the face of the wave, and thought, "I'm either going down hard or going to get a good one. Luckily it was the latter of the two."
Before the last wave, Long and his five fellow finalists agreed to split the $75,000 pursue, which would've been divvied up with the winner taking home $30,000 and the other finalists sharing the rest.
The original 24 entrants were broken into four groups of six surfers who competed in 45-minute heats during which each rider caught up to 10 waves. They were whisked out on jet skis to conquer the giant swells about a half-mile offshore.
Surfers were judged on their best two waves, and the top three scorers in each heat advanced to the semifinals.
Contest organizer Jeff Clark, who is credited with "discovering" Mavericks in 1975 and being the only person to surf there for the next 15 years, buzzed around near the competitors on a jet ski.
"The waves are good. The surfers are happy," Clark said from his jet ski. "That's the best part, the surfers are happy,"
Half Moon Bay surfer Ion Banner walked in from the first heat with a big smile across his face. He had air-dropped down a couple of waves during his heat -- meaning the wave was so steep he and his board lost contact with the water.
"I somersaulted down a couple of them," Banner said.
Worried about traffic in the small coastal town, organizers and local officials asked fans to watch the contest on the Web or a live broadcast at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
About 800 people were at the ballpark watching the big wave surfers, oohing and awing as they flew down the waves.
Jacob Towery of Palo Alto started surfing a couple of years ago and figured he could learn something from the big-wave riders, while avoiding large crowds at the beach.
"I think it's awesome," he said. "It's amazing. Huge waves, their cool moves and how they charge the waves."
Closer to the action in Half Moon Bay, thousands of spectators came out. Some perched on cliffs to watch the surfers through binoculars, while others gathered in front of a big screen on the beach.
The crowd groaned when Evan Slater, known for his spectacular wipeouts at Mavericks, took off late on a massive swell and fell through the air to the bottom of the wave. He was sucked back up into the churning mass of whitewater and tossed around. He surfaced quickly and was back in the lineup in seconds.
At least 30,000 people had logged onto the event's webcast, and during the second heat 1,000 new users per minute were logging on, contest organizers said.
Each winter, when huge, storm-generated swells batter the Northern California coast, the world's top big-wave riders are put on notice for Mavericks, which was first held in 1999. Organizers wait for ideal conditions before giving invitees little more than 24 hours to travel from wherever they are in the world to Half Moon Bay.
Associated Press Writer Ron Harris contributed to this report.
On the Net:
http://www.maverickssurf.com
http://www.stormsurf.com/
I Got What America Needs Right Here
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_got_what_america_needs_right
I Got What America Needs Right Here
By Jimmy Carter
January 9, 2008 Issue 44•02
Sometimes I'm a little stupid, maybe, a little slow in the head, so I'm wondering if you can help me get something straight. Maybe you can help me understand one fucking thing right now, America, and explain to me what in the Christ is going on here. 'Cause, unless I'm missing something, this country is in the middle of a motherfucking shitstorm, and I have no fucking idea what you're gonna do to get out of it. I mean, are you seriously considering voting for one of these shitbags you got here in '08? Fat fucking chance.
Way I see it, America needs a president who's gonna somehow un-royally screw up the Middle East, do some serious cleaning up after you dropped your pants and took a steaming dump all over the fucking environment, and—boom!—restore dignity, honor, and all that shit to these United States.
See, I got solutions to all your problems—I got 'em right here in my big, hairy ballsack.
You better get down on your hands and knees and kiss Jimmy Carter's rosy-red Georgia-peach-picking ass and beg me to run your fucking country again, because there's no way I'm ever gonna come to you fuck-knobs and politely ask you if I might please be a presidential candidate in your precious fuckin' election. So you can just bite my cock. I've had it with you jerkoffs and your jerkoff candidates.
You actually seem to think one a' these assholes is gonna prance in and wave a magic wand and make everything all nice again. Look at you, sitting there like a common fucking schnook and eating all their bull about bi-fucking-partisanship, and how they have all the goddamn answers. Let me tell you something: These fags are dogshit compared to Jimmy fucking Carter, all right? I was arbitrating Mideast crises when this bunch was still sucking on their mamas' titties.
But who comes to me, huh? Fucking nobody. Why ask old Jimmy anything? What the fuck could he know about peace in the Middle East? It's not like he fucking won the Nobel Peace Prize for that shit. You myopic pricks. Back in '79, I sat Sadat and Begin right down and made those two dicklicks shake hands. It was beautiful—I had all the pieces lined up and I smiled and waved in my best fucking suit and tie right there on TV. And what do you do, you pieces of shit? You screw the whole goddamn pooch.
Cocksuckers.
Oh, what's that I hear? The weather's all screwy? You got a global warming problem? Boo-fucking-hoo! I was telling you morons to turn off your lights and unplug all your shit at night to conserve energy in 19-fuckin'-75, for chrissake. Gee, I wonder what woulda happened if we'd all switched to solar power like I fucking did back when we had a fucking chance to do something about it. Think we'd still be sucking Saudi Arabia's dick like a five-dollar whore? I sure as fuck didn't get no fancy Oscar for that little spiel, though, did I? No. But Al Gore, that cum-sucking pig, steals the shit from me and now he's the greatest thing since Jesus Christ made a fucking sandwich.
Well, he can lick my asshole right after George W. Bush, that fuck.
You want compassion? Somebody who's looking out for the little guy? Why don't you take a look at Jimmy Carter, 'cause unlike, oh, every motherfucking candidate out there, he spent the last fucking quarter-century building houses for the homeless. And what does he get for it? A fucking hernia. Some fucking gratitude, you selfish twats. You talk to me about compassion? I'll shove a crucifix so far up the Democrats' asses they'll be asking me to buy them dinner and kiss them good night.
Funny thing about me: I actually fucking know shit! Not like these goombas trying to weasel their way into the White House. I practically wrote the book on collapsing bridges, inflation, and the working poor, fuck-o. I even got a degree in nuclear engineering or some shit. You know how easy I could swoop down right now like a guardian angel and solve all your fucking problems? Snap. Bam. Do it in my fucking sleep. Just fucking try me.
So you want me to run for president again? Yeah, sure, absolutely, I'll do it. I'd be honored to do it—with my fucking dick in your mouth, you worthless scumbags.
You had your chance with Jimmy Carter, and you fucking blew it. So get fucked. Fucking country.
I Got What America Needs Right Here
By Jimmy Carter
January 9, 2008 Issue 44•02
Sometimes I'm a little stupid, maybe, a little slow in the head, so I'm wondering if you can help me get something straight. Maybe you can help me understand one fucking thing right now, America, and explain to me what in the Christ is going on here. 'Cause, unless I'm missing something, this country is in the middle of a motherfucking shitstorm, and I have no fucking idea what you're gonna do to get out of it. I mean, are you seriously considering voting for one of these shitbags you got here in '08? Fat fucking chance.
Way I see it, America needs a president who's gonna somehow un-royally screw up the Middle East, do some serious cleaning up after you dropped your pants and took a steaming dump all over the fucking environment, and—boom!—restore dignity, honor, and all that shit to these United States.
See, I got solutions to all your problems—I got 'em right here in my big, hairy ballsack.
You better get down on your hands and knees and kiss Jimmy Carter's rosy-red Georgia-peach-picking ass and beg me to run your fucking country again, because there's no way I'm ever gonna come to you fuck-knobs and politely ask you if I might please be a presidential candidate in your precious fuckin' election. So you can just bite my cock. I've had it with you jerkoffs and your jerkoff candidates.
You actually seem to think one a' these assholes is gonna prance in and wave a magic wand and make everything all nice again. Look at you, sitting there like a common fucking schnook and eating all their bull about bi-fucking-partisanship, and how they have all the goddamn answers. Let me tell you something: These fags are dogshit compared to Jimmy fucking Carter, all right? I was arbitrating Mideast crises when this bunch was still sucking on their mamas' titties.
But who comes to me, huh? Fucking nobody. Why ask old Jimmy anything? What the fuck could he know about peace in the Middle East? It's not like he fucking won the Nobel Peace Prize for that shit. You myopic pricks. Back in '79, I sat Sadat and Begin right down and made those two dicklicks shake hands. It was beautiful—I had all the pieces lined up and I smiled and waved in my best fucking suit and tie right there on TV. And what do you do, you pieces of shit? You screw the whole goddamn pooch.
Cocksuckers.
Oh, what's that I hear? The weather's all screwy? You got a global warming problem? Boo-fucking-hoo! I was telling you morons to turn off your lights and unplug all your shit at night to conserve energy in 19-fuckin'-75, for chrissake. Gee, I wonder what woulda happened if we'd all switched to solar power like I fucking did back when we had a fucking chance to do something about it. Think we'd still be sucking Saudi Arabia's dick like a five-dollar whore? I sure as fuck didn't get no fancy Oscar for that little spiel, though, did I? No. But Al Gore, that cum-sucking pig, steals the shit from me and now he's the greatest thing since Jesus Christ made a fucking sandwich.
Well, he can lick my asshole right after George W. Bush, that fuck.
You want compassion? Somebody who's looking out for the little guy? Why don't you take a look at Jimmy Carter, 'cause unlike, oh, every motherfucking candidate out there, he spent the last fucking quarter-century building houses for the homeless. And what does he get for it? A fucking hernia. Some fucking gratitude, you selfish twats. You talk to me about compassion? I'll shove a crucifix so far up the Democrats' asses they'll be asking me to buy them dinner and kiss them good night.
Funny thing about me: I actually fucking know shit! Not like these goombas trying to weasel their way into the White House. I practically wrote the book on collapsing bridges, inflation, and the working poor, fuck-o. I even got a degree in nuclear engineering or some shit. You know how easy I could swoop down right now like a guardian angel and solve all your fucking problems? Snap. Bam. Do it in my fucking sleep. Just fucking try me.
So you want me to run for president again? Yeah, sure, absolutely, I'll do it. I'd be honored to do it—with my fucking dick in your mouth, you worthless scumbags.
You had your chance with Jimmy Carter, and you fucking blew it. So get fucked. Fucking country.
Scorsese chronicles horror film producer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080111/ap_en_tv/film_scorsese_documentary
Scorsese chronicles horror film producer
By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer
Fri Jan 11, 2008
"Very often," says Martin Scorsese, "anybody who will listen to me, I'll start talking about a picture."
The latest conversation piece for Scorsese is the low-budget, WWII-era horror film producer Val Lewton. Scorsese has produced the new documentary "Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows," which he also narrates.
Written and directed by film critic, archivist and festival programmer Kent Jones, the film premieres Monday on Turner Classic Movies (8 p.m. EDT) and is followed by a marathon of Lewton's films.
The documentary came out of casual discussions between Scorsese and Jones, who have known each other since 1991 and have collaborated on other film projects. It's Jones' first film as the sole director, but one of many docs for Scorsese.
"We were talking about films and we said, `You know, we should do something about that one day,'" Scorsese says. "We've done other things, too, to try to point the way to certain kinds of films that were made in the past to younger people."
In the mold of legendary producer David O. Selznick (for whom he was an assistant), Lewton was so thoroughly involved in his films as to constitute a stamp of authorship — which is usually claimed by directors.
A Russian immigrant, Lewton worked his way up through Hollywood to eventually run a low-budget horror division of RKO, the studio that had previously released Orson Welles' films, most famously "Citizen Kane."
"Genius was out," Scorsese narrates in the documentary.
But Lewton turned out to be an unusually brilliant filmmaker. Despite meager budgets and, as Scorsese says, "terrible titles," he churned out 11 films for RKO in the `40s, including the cult classics "Cat People" (1942) and "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943) — both directed by Jacques Tourneur.
Tourneur, whose film noir "Out of the Past" (1947) is revered, was integral to establishing Lewton's simplistic style and melancholic, psychological tone.
"Lewton is really the force behind all of these films," says Scorsese. "But maybe the combination of (Lewton and Tourneur) brought out the best in each other in those two pictures."
Though often classified as horror, Jones believes Lewton's dark films were less genre convention than a "personal response to what was happening around him": WWII, the immigrant experience and the struggle for artistic success in Hollywood.
Scorsese recalls watching 1943's "The Leopard Man" as an 11 or 12 year old at the St. Mark's Theater in New York.
"That was the only film where the psychological tension got so strong that I had to leave the theater," says the director. A second trip elicited the same response, right around an especially eery and moody scene in which a woman escapes a tomb. "The murmurs were the thing," he adds.
Scorsese says that while making his Academy Award-winning film "The Departed," he watched Lewton's films continuously and found inspiration particularly for the police station scenes and those in which Matt Damon's character silently waits for response on a walkie-talkie.
Lewton and Tourneur's "Cat People" is famous for creating fright and tension often without showing the pursuing panther. One scene in which Simone Simon's character hears footsteps behind her on a dark, quiet street is especially renowned.
"What's happened is it's gone the other way in our society," says Scorsese. "We have to show everything and hear everything. Sometimes it works, but in the majority of cases, it's too noisy. ... The audience is becoming inured to everything — satiated."
Jones says Lewton was able to do more with less.
"It's more the simplicity of it," he says. "They're making use of what's there, instead of giving you the sense that they didn't have what they wanted. They made virtues out of it."
Lewton died in 1951 at just 46 years old. And despite his films' seeming disposability, they've endured for decades as strange, mournful flickers of light and shadow.
"They're part of a body of work that's inspiring to me, that I like to watch, that I continually marvel at," says Scorsese. "And that continually gives me joy and a sense of wanting to make films again.
"And that's something after making 21 or 22 features."
___
On the Net:
http://www.tcm.com/2008/vallewton/index.html
Scorsese chronicles horror film producer
By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer
Fri Jan 11, 2008
"Very often," says Martin Scorsese, "anybody who will listen to me, I'll start talking about a picture."
The latest conversation piece for Scorsese is the low-budget, WWII-era horror film producer Val Lewton. Scorsese has produced the new documentary "Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows," which he also narrates.
Written and directed by film critic, archivist and festival programmer Kent Jones, the film premieres Monday on Turner Classic Movies (8 p.m. EDT) and is followed by a marathon of Lewton's films.
The documentary came out of casual discussions between Scorsese and Jones, who have known each other since 1991 and have collaborated on other film projects. It's Jones' first film as the sole director, but one of many docs for Scorsese.
"We were talking about films and we said, `You know, we should do something about that one day,'" Scorsese says. "We've done other things, too, to try to point the way to certain kinds of films that were made in the past to younger people."
In the mold of legendary producer David O. Selznick (for whom he was an assistant), Lewton was so thoroughly involved in his films as to constitute a stamp of authorship — which is usually claimed by directors.
A Russian immigrant, Lewton worked his way up through Hollywood to eventually run a low-budget horror division of RKO, the studio that had previously released Orson Welles' films, most famously "Citizen Kane."
"Genius was out," Scorsese narrates in the documentary.
But Lewton turned out to be an unusually brilliant filmmaker. Despite meager budgets and, as Scorsese says, "terrible titles," he churned out 11 films for RKO in the `40s, including the cult classics "Cat People" (1942) and "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943) — both directed by Jacques Tourneur.
Tourneur, whose film noir "Out of the Past" (1947) is revered, was integral to establishing Lewton's simplistic style and melancholic, psychological tone.
"Lewton is really the force behind all of these films," says Scorsese. "But maybe the combination of (Lewton and Tourneur) brought out the best in each other in those two pictures."
Though often classified as horror, Jones believes Lewton's dark films were less genre convention than a "personal response to what was happening around him": WWII, the immigrant experience and the struggle for artistic success in Hollywood.
Scorsese recalls watching 1943's "The Leopard Man" as an 11 or 12 year old at the St. Mark's Theater in New York.
"That was the only film where the psychological tension got so strong that I had to leave the theater," says the director. A second trip elicited the same response, right around an especially eery and moody scene in which a woman escapes a tomb. "The murmurs were the thing," he adds.
Scorsese says that while making his Academy Award-winning film "The Departed," he watched Lewton's films continuously and found inspiration particularly for the police station scenes and those in which Matt Damon's character silently waits for response on a walkie-talkie.
Lewton and Tourneur's "Cat People" is famous for creating fright and tension often without showing the pursuing panther. One scene in which Simone Simon's character hears footsteps behind her on a dark, quiet street is especially renowned.
"What's happened is it's gone the other way in our society," says Scorsese. "We have to show everything and hear everything. Sometimes it works, but in the majority of cases, it's too noisy. ... The audience is becoming inured to everything — satiated."
Jones says Lewton was able to do more with less.
"It's more the simplicity of it," he says. "They're making use of what's there, instead of giving you the sense that they didn't have what they wanted. They made virtues out of it."
Lewton died in 1951 at just 46 years old. And despite his films' seeming disposability, they've endured for decades as strange, mournful flickers of light and shadow.
"They're part of a body of work that's inspiring to me, that I like to watch, that I continually marvel at," says Scorsese. "And that continually gives me joy and a sense of wanting to make films again.
"And that's something after making 21 or 22 features."
___
On the Net:
http://www.tcm.com/2008/vallewton/index.html
New ID Rules May Complicate Air Travel
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080111/D8U3VK8O0.html
New ID Rules May Complicate Air Travel
Jan 11, 2008
By DEVLIN BARRETT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses.
By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.
Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
The plan's chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff's deadline a bluff - and urged state governments to call him on it.
"Are they really prepared to shut those airports down? Which is what effectively would happen if the residents of those states are going to have to go through secondary scrutiny," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. "This is a scare tactic."
So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act's provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.
Maine officials said Friday they were unsure if their own state law even allows them to ask for a waiver.
"It certainly seems to be an effort by the federal government to create compliance with REAL ID whether states have an interest in doing so or not," said Don Cookson, spokesman for the Maine secretary of state's office.
The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes: The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states.
The Homeland Security Department and other officials say the only way to ensure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics such as the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.
Congress passed the REAL ID law in 2005, but the effort has been delayed by opposition from states worried about the cost and civil libertarians upset about what they believe are invasions of privacy.
Under the rules announced Friday, Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years, over which time the new requirements would gradually be phased in.
A key deadline would come in 2011, when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance, and the regulations would not take full effect for all Americans until 2017.
To make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, said Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.
By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant card, with the notable exception of those older than 50, Homeland Security officials said.
The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.
Among other details of the REAL ID plan:
_The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that if someone is rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked if that person tried to con the system again.
_The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.
_After Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks. State DMV offices would be required to verify birth certificates; check with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license; and check with the State Department to verify applicants who use passports to get a driver's license.
---
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov/
ACLU Web site opposing REAL ID: http://www.realnightmare.org/
New ID Rules May Complicate Air Travel
Jan 11, 2008
By DEVLIN BARRETT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses.
By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.
Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
The plan's chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff's deadline a bluff - and urged state governments to call him on it.
"Are they really prepared to shut those airports down? Which is what effectively would happen if the residents of those states are going to have to go through secondary scrutiny," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. "This is a scare tactic."
So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act's provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.
Maine officials said Friday they were unsure if their own state law even allows them to ask for a waiver.
"It certainly seems to be an effort by the federal government to create compliance with REAL ID whether states have an interest in doing so or not," said Don Cookson, spokesman for the Maine secretary of state's office.
The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes: The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states.
The Homeland Security Department and other officials say the only way to ensure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics such as the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.
Congress passed the REAL ID law in 2005, but the effort has been delayed by opposition from states worried about the cost and civil libertarians upset about what they believe are invasions of privacy.
Under the rules announced Friday, Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years, over which time the new requirements would gradually be phased in.
A key deadline would come in 2011, when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance, and the regulations would not take full effect for all Americans until 2017.
To make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, said Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.
By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant card, with the notable exception of those older than 50, Homeland Security officials said.
The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.
Among other details of the REAL ID plan:
_The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that if someone is rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked if that person tried to con the system again.
_The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.
_After Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks. State DMV offices would be required to verify birth certificates; check with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license; and check with the State Department to verify applicants who use passports to get a driver's license.
---
On the Net:
Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov/
ACLU Web site opposing REAL ID: http://www.realnightmare.org/
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Radiohead Finds Sales, Even After Downloads
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/arts/music/10radio.html
January 10, 2008
Radiohead Finds Sales, Even After Downloads
By JEFF LEEDS
LOS ANGELES — In a twist for the music industry’s digital revolution, “In Rainbows,” the new Radiohead album that attracted wide attention when it was made available three months ago as a digital download for whatever price fans chose to pay, ranked as the top-selling album in the country this week after the CD version hit record shops and other retailers.
The album, the first in four years from the closely watched British rock act, sold 122,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That represents a mixed result for the band. It’s a sharp drop compared with the debut of Radiohead’s previous album, 2003’s “Hail to the Thief,” but it’s far from a flop, considering the steep decline in music sales in the last four years and the typically weak sales in the post-Christmas period. “Thief” sold about 300,000 in its first week in 2003.
In any case the figures challenge the conventional wisdom that music fans no longer have an affinity for plastic. The sales of the album, which also snagged the top spot on the British weekly music chart, came despite the fact that “In Rainbows” — in the form of digital files — had been acquired by many fans after the band offered it in an unconventional pay-what-you-want offering through a Web site, inrainbows.com. The album was released on plastic CDs and vinyl LPs on Jan. 1, with the CD priced at $13.98, though it could be found for as little as $7.99 at outlets like Amazon.com.
Some retailers viewed the Radiohead figures as a sign of the continuing market for so-called physical products in the music business, where the popularity of iTunes, music blogs and other sites have made the digital file appear to be the coin of the realm. In particular they said even fans who received the digital files distributed by Radiohead may have decided to pay for the better audio quality versions on CD or LP.
“Having a physical, archival high-fidelity master recording that you can side-load into your MP3 player of choice for a similar price is significantly better than just purchasing zeros and ones,” said Eric Levin, owner of the independent record shop Criminal Records in Atlanta and founder of an 18-member alliance of independent retailers. “I feel like that’s what 75 percent of the people are saying.”
Mr. Levin said that at his store vinyl copies of “In Rainbows” outsold the CD by a wide margin. Demand for the album was such that some record shops put it on sale before the label’s planned “street date,” resulting in sales of about 9,000 copies the previous week.
But sales of the plastic and vinyl versions of the album also received a boost from digital services like iTunes, where the album sold about 28,000 copies. The iTunes service, which sells individual songs for 99 cents and albums typically for $9.99, had not carried any of the band’s previous albums, owing in part to Radiohead’s demand that its recordings be sold only as complete works.
But Bryce Edge, one of Radiohead’s managers, said the band decided to sell “In Rainbows” on iTunes because it expects that EMI, the British music giant that released the band’s first six albums, will soon post them for sale on the service, and it would be strange for the new album to be excluded. An EMI representative declined to comment.
The decision to release the music as a digital file so far in advance of the CD also allowed time for the music to circulate on free, unlicensed file-swapping networks. Big Champagne, a tracking service that studies file-sharing, estimates that the album was downloaded more than 100,000 times on free networks in the first 24 hours after Radiohead delivered it to fans who had preordered it from its Web site. But Eric Garland, chief executive of Big Champagne, said that by offering the music for as little as zero from their own site, Radiohead “stole market share” from pirate networks.
Mr. Edge said that sales of 100,000 copies of the album this week would be “almost certainly less than the number we would have achieved if we hadn’t” offered it as a digital download. But the band still came out ahead, he said, in part because it attracted so many fans to Radiohead’s Web site, where it collected e-mail addresses from fans looking to acquire the album.
The band has not said how many copies it distributed. Now that the CD is in shops, some fans who paid for the initial downloads may have been tempted to buy the album, in effect, for a second time. But Steve Gottlieb, chief of the independent label TVT Records, said he believed the sales mainly reflected fans who were acquiring the music for the first time.
“Radiohead is one of those really big groups that appeals to people outside the intensely pirating demographic of 16 to 29,” he said. “To the extent Radiohead still has a significant audience in its 30s and 40s, there’s a bigger audience of those people who will still pick up something at Best Buy or don’t want to bother with figuring out how to go to a Radiohead Web site and track it down.”
Still, Mr. Gottlieb said, the sales suggested that the band’s name-your-price offering, and fans’ subsequent free sharing of files, had taken a toll. “Clearly we can’t give it all away and expect to sell CDs,” he said.
But Radiohead will have yet more opportunities to gain fans. The band said yesterday that it planned to perform in more than 20 North American cities this year.
January 10, 2008
Radiohead Finds Sales, Even After Downloads
By JEFF LEEDS
LOS ANGELES — In a twist for the music industry’s digital revolution, “In Rainbows,” the new Radiohead album that attracted wide attention when it was made available three months ago as a digital download for whatever price fans chose to pay, ranked as the top-selling album in the country this week after the CD version hit record shops and other retailers.
The album, the first in four years from the closely watched British rock act, sold 122,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That represents a mixed result for the band. It’s a sharp drop compared with the debut of Radiohead’s previous album, 2003’s “Hail to the Thief,” but it’s far from a flop, considering the steep decline in music sales in the last four years and the typically weak sales in the post-Christmas period. “Thief” sold about 300,000 in its first week in 2003.
In any case the figures challenge the conventional wisdom that music fans no longer have an affinity for plastic. The sales of the album, which also snagged the top spot on the British weekly music chart, came despite the fact that “In Rainbows” — in the form of digital files — had been acquired by many fans after the band offered it in an unconventional pay-what-you-want offering through a Web site, inrainbows.com. The album was released on plastic CDs and vinyl LPs on Jan. 1, with the CD priced at $13.98, though it could be found for as little as $7.99 at outlets like Amazon.com.
Some retailers viewed the Radiohead figures as a sign of the continuing market for so-called physical products in the music business, where the popularity of iTunes, music blogs and other sites have made the digital file appear to be the coin of the realm. In particular they said even fans who received the digital files distributed by Radiohead may have decided to pay for the better audio quality versions on CD or LP.
“Having a physical, archival high-fidelity master recording that you can side-load into your MP3 player of choice for a similar price is significantly better than just purchasing zeros and ones,” said Eric Levin, owner of the independent record shop Criminal Records in Atlanta and founder of an 18-member alliance of independent retailers. “I feel like that’s what 75 percent of the people are saying.”
Mr. Levin said that at his store vinyl copies of “In Rainbows” outsold the CD by a wide margin. Demand for the album was such that some record shops put it on sale before the label’s planned “street date,” resulting in sales of about 9,000 copies the previous week.
But sales of the plastic and vinyl versions of the album also received a boost from digital services like iTunes, where the album sold about 28,000 copies. The iTunes service, which sells individual songs for 99 cents and albums typically for $9.99, had not carried any of the band’s previous albums, owing in part to Radiohead’s demand that its recordings be sold only as complete works.
But Bryce Edge, one of Radiohead’s managers, said the band decided to sell “In Rainbows” on iTunes because it expects that EMI, the British music giant that released the band’s first six albums, will soon post them for sale on the service, and it would be strange for the new album to be excluded. An EMI representative declined to comment.
The decision to release the music as a digital file so far in advance of the CD also allowed time for the music to circulate on free, unlicensed file-swapping networks. Big Champagne, a tracking service that studies file-sharing, estimates that the album was downloaded more than 100,000 times on free networks in the first 24 hours after Radiohead delivered it to fans who had preordered it from its Web site. But Eric Garland, chief executive of Big Champagne, said that by offering the music for as little as zero from their own site, Radiohead “stole market share” from pirate networks.
Mr. Edge said that sales of 100,000 copies of the album this week would be “almost certainly less than the number we would have achieved if we hadn’t” offered it as a digital download. But the band still came out ahead, he said, in part because it attracted so many fans to Radiohead’s Web site, where it collected e-mail addresses from fans looking to acquire the album.
The band has not said how many copies it distributed. Now that the CD is in shops, some fans who paid for the initial downloads may have been tempted to buy the album, in effect, for a second time. But Steve Gottlieb, chief of the independent label TVT Records, said he believed the sales mainly reflected fans who were acquiring the music for the first time.
“Radiohead is one of those really big groups that appeals to people outside the intensely pirating demographic of 16 to 29,” he said. “To the extent Radiohead still has a significant audience in its 30s and 40s, there’s a bigger audience of those people who will still pick up something at Best Buy or don’t want to bother with figuring out how to go to a Radiohead Web site and track it down.”
Still, Mr. Gottlieb said, the sales suggested that the band’s name-your-price offering, and fans’ subsequent free sharing of files, had taken a toll. “Clearly we can’t give it all away and expect to sell CDs,” he said.
But Radiohead will have yet more opportunities to gain fans. The band said yesterday that it planned to perform in more than 20 North American cities this year.
Starbucks goes on a diet
http://www.thatsfit.com/2008/01/03/starbucks-goes-on-a-diet/
Starbucks goes on a diet
Posted: Jan 3rd 2008
by Bethany Sanders
Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Healthy Habits, Diet and Weight Loss, Healthy Products
Are you Starbucks-addicted and looking to trim down in the New Year? You might appreciate this news. In 2008, Starbucks will be offering a new skinny latte that's fat and sugar free. Grand total calories in a "tall"? 90, down from 400, for a white chocolate mocha latte.
I don't drink coffee, nor have I ever (gasp) been inside a Starbucks, but I have my vices and I know what it means to sacrifice tasty treats for better health. The new skinny may be an alternative for those who need their coffee fix, and if not, Diet-Blog has a few other options for making that coffee habit a little more diet-friendly.
Starbucks goes on a diet
Posted: Jan 3rd 2008
by Bethany Sanders
Filed under: Food and Nutrition, Healthy Habits, Diet and Weight Loss, Healthy Products
Are you Starbucks-addicted and looking to trim down in the New Year? You might appreciate this news. In 2008, Starbucks will be offering a new skinny latte that's fat and sugar free. Grand total calories in a "tall"? 90, down from 400, for a white chocolate mocha latte.
I don't drink coffee, nor have I ever (gasp) been inside a Starbucks, but I have my vices and I know what it means to sacrifice tasty treats for better health. The new skinny may be an alternative for those who need their coffee fix, and if not, Diet-Blog has a few other options for making that coffee habit a little more diet-friendly.
Porn Providers Rethinking Next-Gen DVD Plans
Robalini's Note: Who would've guess the battle for for DVD standards would turn on "Jenna Haze Oil Orgy"?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2247595,00.asp
Porn Providers Rethinking Next-Gen DVD Plans
01.10.08
by Chloe Albanesius
LAS VEGAS—The adult film industry is still taking a wait-and-see approach to the Blu-ray /HD DVD wars. But while Blu-ray's perceived costs have pushed some companies into the arms of the HD DVD camp, Warner Bros.' decision last week to exclusively support Blu-ray has some thinking that the end of HD DVD is nigh.
Executives in the adult-film industry spoke Wednesday during the opening day of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2008, which briefly overlaps with the more mainstream Consumer Electronics Show ending Thursday.
"It could be a real sign that things will shift," Jeff Thill, director of video operations for the Hustler Video Group, said about the Warner decision. Thill said he sees no advantage of one format over the other, but is "leaning Blu-Ray" after Warner's announcement.
The Blu-ray camp, led by Sony, has been fighting Toshiba and its HD DVD format for years in a battle reminiscent of the VHS versus Betamax battle. In that fight, Betamax maker Sony's refusal to work with the porn industry helped usher in a VHS victory when the adult industry capitalized on the burgeoning popularity of VCRs and video rentals.
Hustler had some success recently with the Blu-ray release of Jenna Haze Oil Orgy, said Thill, who was on hand to showcase Hustler's latest releases at the annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
The company packaged the "Jenna" disc with an HD DVD and standard version in case users had trouble with Blu-ray, but has thus far not received any complaints. In March, Hustler will release its latest "Barely Legal" DVD in the Blu-ray format, he said.
Hustler has released two titles using the HD DVD format, Thill said. The company expects to release between 15 to 25 high-definition videos in 2008, most of which will probably be Blu-ray, Thill said.
Blu-ray is "a little bit of a headache" because of royalty fees, but it's "six of one, a half dozen of the other" with the format wars, he said. Blu-Ray also "sounds sexier," according to Thill, and there's "an important base in the gaming world" because the popular PlayStation 3 runs Blu-Ray while Microsoft has released an optional HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console, Thill said.
Vivid Entertainment, home to porn star Jenna Jameson, has also released videos on Blu-ray and HD, said David Peskin, Vivid's national sales manager. It currently has two Blu-ray titles and three HD DVD titles on the shelves.
Vivid was initially "conservative" with its high-definition re-order numbers, but is "starting to stock a little heavier" since sales have been promising, Peskin said. Vivid has seen Blu-ray sell more units online while HD does better in retail stores, he said.
The company doesn't yet have a format preference. "Both have surpassed expectations," he said, though Peskin also pointed to the PlayStation 3 connection as a plus for Blu-ray.
Some companies have had to bypass Blu-ray altogether. Jackie Ramos, vice president of DVD production for Wicked Pictures, "looked to Blu-ray" when the company was first exploring high-definition about a year ago, but had trouble finding a provider that would produce Blu-ray discs for the adult industry.
Wicked has since released about a half dozen HD DVD titles, but Ramos managed to track down some porn-friendly Blu-ray producers and is now "aggressively" looking at those options.
With the Warner decision, things are "a little more serious," Ramos said, and, to him, it makes sense to examine Blu-Ray should it become the industry standard.
Ramos also had concerns about the Blu-ray price point. There's a copyright aspect you can't get around with Blu-Ray, whereas HD DVD allows you to choose whether or not you want that copyright protection, he said. "With adult industry, HD DVD was friendlier price wise."
Ramos expects to select a Blu-ray producer in the next few weeks and hopes to release Wicked's first Blu-ray title in the next few months, he said. But he was not convinced that the porn industry was driving the debate as it did with VHS and Betamax.
"What really drives it is the availability of players" and what the consumers want, Ramos said. HD capitalized on that by selling cheaper players, but now that many of the major studios have jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon, "we'll have to see," Ramos said.
Albert Lazarito, vice president of Silver Sinema, also believes the consumer is key to winning the DVD battle. "With the Warner Brothers decision, the market will direct the outcome," he said. Lazarito is "more than confident that it won't be the adult realm" that selects a final DVD format.
Silver Sinema has been filming in HD because Blu-ray is too expensive, Lazarito said, but his company is "ready to go depending on how the market shifts."
Pink Visual was also turned off by the cost of Blu-ray, explained director of marketing Kim Kysar. "HD DVD was affordable; it was doable. Blu-ray was too expensive," she said.
Pink Visual will release its first HD-DVD video next week.
"Everybody's going to want to have both options," Kysar said. "Blu-Ray could be the next step, but not if nobody uses it and it stays too cost prohibitive."
Kysar also expressed concern about how much the camera would capture in high-definition, a sentiment echoed by Lazarito.
"Imperfections are modified," Lazarito said.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2247595,00.asp
Porn Providers Rethinking Next-Gen DVD Plans
01.10.08
by Chloe Albanesius
LAS VEGAS—The adult film industry is still taking a wait-and-see approach to the Blu-ray /HD DVD wars. But while Blu-ray's perceived costs have pushed some companies into the arms of the HD DVD camp, Warner Bros.' decision last week to exclusively support Blu-ray has some thinking that the end of HD DVD is nigh.
Executives in the adult-film industry spoke Wednesday during the opening day of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo 2008, which briefly overlaps with the more mainstream Consumer Electronics Show ending Thursday.
"It could be a real sign that things will shift," Jeff Thill, director of video operations for the Hustler Video Group, said about the Warner decision. Thill said he sees no advantage of one format over the other, but is "leaning Blu-Ray" after Warner's announcement.
The Blu-ray camp, led by Sony, has been fighting Toshiba and its HD DVD format for years in a battle reminiscent of the VHS versus Betamax battle. In that fight, Betamax maker Sony's refusal to work with the porn industry helped usher in a VHS victory when the adult industry capitalized on the burgeoning popularity of VCRs and video rentals.
Hustler had some success recently with the Blu-ray release of Jenna Haze Oil Orgy, said Thill, who was on hand to showcase Hustler's latest releases at the annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
The company packaged the "Jenna" disc with an HD DVD and standard version in case users had trouble with Blu-ray, but has thus far not received any complaints. In March, Hustler will release its latest "Barely Legal" DVD in the Blu-ray format, he said.
Hustler has released two titles using the HD DVD format, Thill said. The company expects to release between 15 to 25 high-definition videos in 2008, most of which will probably be Blu-ray, Thill said.
Blu-ray is "a little bit of a headache" because of royalty fees, but it's "six of one, a half dozen of the other" with the format wars, he said. Blu-Ray also "sounds sexier," according to Thill, and there's "an important base in the gaming world" because the popular PlayStation 3 runs Blu-Ray while Microsoft has released an optional HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console, Thill said.
Vivid Entertainment, home to porn star Jenna Jameson, has also released videos on Blu-ray and HD, said David Peskin, Vivid's national sales manager. It currently has two Blu-ray titles and three HD DVD titles on the shelves.
Vivid was initially "conservative" with its high-definition re-order numbers, but is "starting to stock a little heavier" since sales have been promising, Peskin said. Vivid has seen Blu-ray sell more units online while HD does better in retail stores, he said.
The company doesn't yet have a format preference. "Both have surpassed expectations," he said, though Peskin also pointed to the PlayStation 3 connection as a plus for Blu-ray.
Some companies have had to bypass Blu-ray altogether. Jackie Ramos, vice president of DVD production for Wicked Pictures, "looked to Blu-ray" when the company was first exploring high-definition about a year ago, but had trouble finding a provider that would produce Blu-ray discs for the adult industry.
Wicked has since released about a half dozen HD DVD titles, but Ramos managed to track down some porn-friendly Blu-ray producers and is now "aggressively" looking at those options.
With the Warner decision, things are "a little more serious," Ramos said, and, to him, it makes sense to examine Blu-Ray should it become the industry standard.
Ramos also had concerns about the Blu-ray price point. There's a copyright aspect you can't get around with Blu-Ray, whereas HD DVD allows you to choose whether or not you want that copyright protection, he said. "With adult industry, HD DVD was friendlier price wise."
Ramos expects to select a Blu-ray producer in the next few weeks and hopes to release Wicked's first Blu-ray title in the next few months, he said. But he was not convinced that the porn industry was driving the debate as it did with VHS and Betamax.
"What really drives it is the availability of players" and what the consumers want, Ramos said. HD capitalized on that by selling cheaper players, but now that many of the major studios have jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon, "we'll have to see," Ramos said.
Albert Lazarito, vice president of Silver Sinema, also believes the consumer is key to winning the DVD battle. "With the Warner Brothers decision, the market will direct the outcome," he said. Lazarito is "more than confident that it won't be the adult realm" that selects a final DVD format.
Silver Sinema has been filming in HD because Blu-ray is too expensive, Lazarito said, but his company is "ready to go depending on how the market shifts."
Pink Visual was also turned off by the cost of Blu-ray, explained director of marketing Kim Kysar. "HD DVD was affordable; it was doable. Blu-ray was too expensive," she said.
Pink Visual will release its first HD-DVD video next week.
"Everybody's going to want to have both options," Kysar said. "Blu-Ray could be the next step, but not if nobody uses it and it stays too cost prohibitive."
Kysar also expressed concern about how much the camera would capture in high-definition, a sentiment echoed by Lazarito.
"Imperfections are modified," Lazarito said.
Paramount in HD-DVD blow
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea637496-bd8d-11dc-b7e6-0000779fd2ac.html
Paramount in HD-DVD blow
By Matthew Garrahan and Mariko Sanchanta in Las Vegas
Published: January 8 2008
Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.
Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, which makes the Shrek films, came out in support of HD-DVD last summer, joining General Electric's Universal Studios as the main backers of the Toshiba format.
However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paramount is set to have a bumper 2008 with several likely blockbusters, including the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise, slated for release.
Paramount joining the Blu-ray camp would leave HD-DVD likely to suffer the same fate as Sony's now obsolete Betamax video technology, which lost out to VHS in a similar format war in the 1980s.
Warner's decision last week to throw its weight behind Blu-ray saw it join Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as backers of the Sony format.
The Warner move gives Blu-ray about 70 per cent of Hollywood's output, although the format's grip on film content will increase further when Paramount comes aboard.
It is unclear whether DreamWorks Animation has the same get-out clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp. However, Paramount and DreamWorks have a close relationship, with Paramount distributing DreamWorks Animation films.
The two companies also signed their HD-DVD contracts at the same time.
Meanwhile, Universal has declined to comment on its next- generation DVD plans following the Warner move.
Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, yesterday held out an olive branch to its rival in the next-generation DVD format wars following Warner's decision to back Blu-ray.
Sir Howard said the company would be "open to dialogue" with the rival high-definition HD-DVD camp to "grow the market". The move came as new figures showed that Blu-ray had opened up a decisive lead over the rival home entertainment format.
Sir Howard said: "We are not going to push people around. We'll talk to anyone . . . we have a lot of work to do to grow the market. We'll be systematic and open to dialogue at all times."
He added that Sony still had "a lot of work" to do to get Blu-ray "widely accepted" among American consumers.
Paramount in HD-DVD blow
By Matthew Garrahan and Mariko Sanchanta in Las Vegas
Published: January 8 2008
Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers' recent backing of Sony's Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.
Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, which makes the Shrek films, came out in support of HD-DVD last summer, joining General Electric's Universal Studios as the main backers of the Toshiba format.
However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paramount is set to have a bumper 2008 with several likely blockbusters, including the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise, slated for release.
Paramount joining the Blu-ray camp would leave HD-DVD likely to suffer the same fate as Sony's now obsolete Betamax video technology, which lost out to VHS in a similar format war in the 1980s.
Warner's decision last week to throw its weight behind Blu-ray saw it join Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as backers of the Sony format.
The Warner move gives Blu-ray about 70 per cent of Hollywood's output, although the format's grip on film content will increase further when Paramount comes aboard.
It is unclear whether DreamWorks Animation has the same get-out clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp. However, Paramount and DreamWorks have a close relationship, with Paramount distributing DreamWorks Animation films.
The two companies also signed their HD-DVD contracts at the same time.
Meanwhile, Universal has declined to comment on its next- generation DVD plans following the Warner move.
Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, yesterday held out an olive branch to its rival in the next-generation DVD format wars following Warner's decision to back Blu-ray.
Sir Howard said the company would be "open to dialogue" with the rival high-definition HD-DVD camp to "grow the market". The move came as new figures showed that Blu-ray had opened up a decisive lead over the rival home entertainment format.
Sir Howard said: "We are not going to push people around. We'll talk to anyone . . . we have a lot of work to do to grow the market. We'll be systematic and open to dialogue at all times."
He added that Sony still had "a lot of work" to do to get Blu-ray "widely accepted" among American consumers.
College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4086600&page=1
College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier
Researchers Find Women Drinking More, Wearing Less at College Parties
By DAN CHILDS and AUDREY GRAYSON
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 7, 2008
One might say Megan Holmes was a regular on the southern California college party scene.
"Some nights we were out till 2 in the morning, but some were short," she said. "On average we went to at least three or four a night."
But amid the crowds of young women in revealing themed costumes and free-flowing kegs, Holmes may have been the only one at these alcohol-drenched gatherings without a drink in her hand. Instead, she carried a stack of clipboards and a Breathalyzer.
Holmes, who is now working on her doctoral degree at UCLA, was part of a team of researchers who sought to take the study of college drinking to the next level by venturing inside a total of 66 college parties to see what was really going on. The research was published Thursday in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
"It wasn't shocking to me because I had just graduated college so I had seen most of this stuff going on before," Holmes said. But she adds that there were some surprises.
"Most shocking to me was that women at themed parties kept dressing less and less," she said. "When I was in college there were themed parties, but I never saw girls just wearing lingerie or just a bra and panties, and that was pretty common at the themed parties I saw."
These observations - along with dozens of Breathalyzer readings and surveys completed on the scene by college partygoers - defied the typical methods of research on college drinking, which normally use questionnaires administered days or months after the bottles have been cleared and the music has stopped.
Parties Getting Wilder?
The researchers had some sobering findings, among them that revelers at smaller parties tended to drink more. This could be explained by simple mathematics; the fewer drinkers on hand, the more booze there is to go around, they said.
But lead study author John Clapp, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at San Diego State University, says the behavior of women drinkers at themed parties was particularly notable.
"One of [the] most surprising things to us was the theme-party finding that women drank more at these," he said. "We started going to theme parties like toga parties or costume parties, with highly sexualized themes and with the women wearing not very much."
"What was surprising was it was one of few places that we know of that women actually outdrank men; we're not exactly sure why. It could have something to do with fact that they aren't dressed."
Not everyone feels the findings are a surprise. As for whether young women drink more during sexualized theme parties, Peter True, a senior at Boston University, said, "Definitely. They have to be that faded to go out wearing those ridiculous clothes, I'm 100 percent sure."
"There's a direct inverse relationship between how revealing their theme is and how drunk they get," he told ABC News. "At lingerie parties they drink the most. & They have to drink more if they wear less because they have to lower their inhibitions to be seen wearing that out."
The findings of the study seem to point to a combination of sexually charged themes and the presence of alcohol - an interplay that seems to result in a daringly permissive atmosphere.
The results of the surveys that the partygoers completed as part of the study showed that while 61.3 percent of respondents reported being at the party to socialize, and 45 percent reported having fun as a main motivation, nearly 40 percent of all respondents said they were at the party to get drunk. More than 21 percent said they were there to try to meet a sexual partner.
And the graduate students involved with the research say they feel college parties could be getting even sexier - and less inhibited.
"The most surprising thing that I've seen was how sexualized the theme parties are, kind of like the way Halloween parties have changed, the kind of costumes girls wear now," said Julie Ketchie, a doctoral student researcher who is now working with Clapp on similar research. "There are these girls walking down the street, and you can see their butts hanging out of their skirts."
"The theme parties, it's kind of like 'Spring Break: Girls Gone Wild' all the time."
Drugs, Alcohol Ubiquitous Threats
Of course, not all of the gatherings the researchers attend are out-of-control, inebriated blowouts.
"Some parties can be chill - 10 to 15 people watching football game and it's a BYOB thing, versus a larger party where they have kegs and drinking games," Ketchie said.
But Clapp notes that at the most lively parties, the breath tests from some students showed that they were putting themselves at risk.
"The alcohol levels we got from Breathalyzer tests were fairly high; it would meet the definition of legally drunk at pretty much every stage," Clapp said. "We had a range, with some people really, really drunk."
Clapp and his team report that in the surveys completed by partygoers, 32 percent reported playing a drinking game, and more than 70 percent report having access to illicit drugs. While the researchers were only able to confirm the availability of illicit drugs at 12 percent of these parties, alcohol remained a major factor; nearly 90 percent of all of the party guests who took a Breathalyzer test were intoxicated, with average scores near 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration.
And Clapp adds that the location of a party can often play a big part in how intoxicated its guests become. When drinking takes place at a bar, he says, the controlled nature of the establishment goes a long way in terms of keeping drinking behavior in check. But at house parties, discretion often goes out the window a point to which college senior True can personally attest.
"People get pretty messed up at most places, but at bars there's actually a sort of limit to how much you can drink because of price, and good bartender will cut you off, whereas a good frat bro probably won't," he said.
And when it comes to this type of celebration, True says he believes young men and women are equally affected by alcohol-soaked parties.
"I think guys can at least on the whole hold more alcohol," he said. "But in terms of how drunk you're getting I'd say it's about even; you see a wrecked girl throwing up in [the] street and a bro passed out on the couch pretty equally."
College Parties Getting Hotter, Boozier
Researchers Find Women Drinking More, Wearing Less at College Parties
By DAN CHILDS and AUDREY GRAYSON
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 7, 2008
One might say Megan Holmes was a regular on the southern California college party scene.
"Some nights we were out till 2 in the morning, but some were short," she said. "On average we went to at least three or four a night."
But amid the crowds of young women in revealing themed costumes and free-flowing kegs, Holmes may have been the only one at these alcohol-drenched gatherings without a drink in her hand. Instead, she carried a stack of clipboards and a Breathalyzer.
Holmes, who is now working on her doctoral degree at UCLA, was part of a team of researchers who sought to take the study of college drinking to the next level by venturing inside a total of 66 college parties to see what was really going on. The research was published Thursday in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
"It wasn't shocking to me because I had just graduated college so I had seen most of this stuff going on before," Holmes said. But she adds that there were some surprises.
"Most shocking to me was that women at themed parties kept dressing less and less," she said. "When I was in college there were themed parties, but I never saw girls just wearing lingerie or just a bra and panties, and that was pretty common at the themed parties I saw."
These observations - along with dozens of Breathalyzer readings and surveys completed on the scene by college partygoers - defied the typical methods of research on college drinking, which normally use questionnaires administered days or months after the bottles have been cleared and the music has stopped.
Parties Getting Wilder?
The researchers had some sobering findings, among them that revelers at smaller parties tended to drink more. This could be explained by simple mathematics; the fewer drinkers on hand, the more booze there is to go around, they said.
But lead study author John Clapp, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at San Diego State University, says the behavior of women drinkers at themed parties was particularly notable.
"One of [the] most surprising things to us was the theme-party finding that women drank more at these," he said. "We started going to theme parties like toga parties or costume parties, with highly sexualized themes and with the women wearing not very much."
"What was surprising was it was one of few places that we know of that women actually outdrank men; we're not exactly sure why. It could have something to do with fact that they aren't dressed."
Not everyone feels the findings are a surprise. As for whether young women drink more during sexualized theme parties, Peter True, a senior at Boston University, said, "Definitely. They have to be that faded to go out wearing those ridiculous clothes, I'm 100 percent sure."
"There's a direct inverse relationship between how revealing their theme is and how drunk they get," he told ABC News. "At lingerie parties they drink the most. & They have to drink more if they wear less because they have to lower their inhibitions to be seen wearing that out."
The findings of the study seem to point to a combination of sexually charged themes and the presence of alcohol - an interplay that seems to result in a daringly permissive atmosphere.
The results of the surveys that the partygoers completed as part of the study showed that while 61.3 percent of respondents reported being at the party to socialize, and 45 percent reported having fun as a main motivation, nearly 40 percent of all respondents said they were at the party to get drunk. More than 21 percent said they were there to try to meet a sexual partner.
And the graduate students involved with the research say they feel college parties could be getting even sexier - and less inhibited.
"The most surprising thing that I've seen was how sexualized the theme parties are, kind of like the way Halloween parties have changed, the kind of costumes girls wear now," said Julie Ketchie, a doctoral student researcher who is now working with Clapp on similar research. "There are these girls walking down the street, and you can see their butts hanging out of their skirts."
"The theme parties, it's kind of like 'Spring Break: Girls Gone Wild' all the time."
Drugs, Alcohol Ubiquitous Threats
Of course, not all of the gatherings the researchers attend are out-of-control, inebriated blowouts.
"Some parties can be chill - 10 to 15 people watching football game and it's a BYOB thing, versus a larger party where they have kegs and drinking games," Ketchie said.
But Clapp notes that at the most lively parties, the breath tests from some students showed that they were putting themselves at risk.
"The alcohol levels we got from Breathalyzer tests were fairly high; it would meet the definition of legally drunk at pretty much every stage," Clapp said. "We had a range, with some people really, really drunk."
Clapp and his team report that in the surveys completed by partygoers, 32 percent reported playing a drinking game, and more than 70 percent report having access to illicit drugs. While the researchers were only able to confirm the availability of illicit drugs at 12 percent of these parties, alcohol remained a major factor; nearly 90 percent of all of the party guests who took a Breathalyzer test were intoxicated, with average scores near 0.08 percent blood alcohol concentration.
And Clapp adds that the location of a party can often play a big part in how intoxicated its guests become. When drinking takes place at a bar, he says, the controlled nature of the establishment goes a long way in terms of keeping drinking behavior in check. But at house parties, discretion often goes out the window a point to which college senior True can personally attest.
"People get pretty messed up at most places, but at bars there's actually a sort of limit to how much you can drink because of price, and good bartender will cut you off, whereas a good frat bro probably won't," he said.
And when it comes to this type of celebration, True says he believes young men and women are equally affected by alcohol-soaked parties.
"I think guys can at least on the whole hold more alcohol," he said. "But in terms of how drunk you're getting I'd say it's about even; you see a wrecked girl throwing up in [the] street and a bro passed out on the couch pretty equally."
The Science of Toga Parties
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/the-science-of-toga-parties/?em&ex=1199768400&en=983a4d0f8e61b755&ei=5087%0A
January 5, 2008
The Science of Toga Parties
By John Tierney
Tags: alcohol, anthropology
Field work can be hell. But thanks to the dogged researchers who attended 66 college parties in Southern California, now at last it can revealed:
Playing drinking games at a party leads to increased levels of alcohol in the bloodstream.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the only result of the investigation reported in the January issue of January issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The researchers say their fieldwork, which involved studying more than 1,300 people at parties, is an improvement over past studies that relied on people’s recollections of getting hammered. These researchers made observations at the parties and brought along equipment to test students’ blood-alcohol concentrations (BrACs). One of the authors, J.D. Clapp of San Diego State University, summarizes the findings:
Both individual behavior and the environment matter when it comes to student-drinking behavior. At the individual level, playing drinking games and having a history of binge drinking predicted higher BrACs. At the environmental level, having a lot of intoxicated people at a party and themed events predicted higher BrACs. One of the more interesting findings was that young women drank more heavily than males at themed events. It is rare to find any situation where women drink more than men, and these events tended to have sexualized themes and costumes.
The researchers say they’re planning to do further investigations of themed parties, and I hope they’ll consider letting a journalist accompany them (if necessary, I would go in costume). I don’t know why women would drink more at themed parties, but I do have a hypothesis: Could it be a coping mechanism for dealing with the sight of guys like John Belushi dressed in togas?
January 5, 2008
The Science of Toga Parties
By John Tierney
Tags: alcohol, anthropology
Field work can be hell. But thanks to the dogged researchers who attended 66 college parties in Southern California, now at last it can revealed:
Playing drinking games at a party leads to increased levels of alcohol in the bloodstream.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the only result of the investigation reported in the January issue of January issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The researchers say their fieldwork, which involved studying more than 1,300 people at parties, is an improvement over past studies that relied on people’s recollections of getting hammered. These researchers made observations at the parties and brought along equipment to test students’ blood-alcohol concentrations (BrACs). One of the authors, J.D. Clapp of San Diego State University, summarizes the findings:
Both individual behavior and the environment matter when it comes to student-drinking behavior. At the individual level, playing drinking games and having a history of binge drinking predicted higher BrACs. At the environmental level, having a lot of intoxicated people at a party and themed events predicted higher BrACs. One of the more interesting findings was that young women drank more heavily than males at themed events. It is rare to find any situation where women drink more than men, and these events tended to have sexualized themes and costumes.
The researchers say they’re planning to do further investigations of themed parties, and I hope they’ll consider letting a journalist accompany them (if necessary, I would go in costume). I don’t know why women would drink more at themed parties, but I do have a hypothesis: Could it be a coping mechanism for dealing with the sight of guys like John Belushi dressed in togas?
Lisa Pease on Votescam 2008
Dear Activists,
It’s not fun to be reminded how important our election reform work is.
I have been slow to cry foul re NH, precisely because I deal in conspiracies and know how hard it is to prove things. But this data is REALLY provocative, and begs explanation:
Clinton Votes counted by optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Votes counted by optical scan 81,495 47.05%
Clinton Votes counted by hand 20,889 47.05%
Obama Votes counted by hand 23,509 52.95%
Source: Bruce O’Dell’s article re Election Defense Alliance’s compilation of the official NH numbers - http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_o__080110_obama_clinton_3a_remar.htm
You should also see Chris Matthews on the video on this page (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5535), saying that MSNBC’s own exit polls showed Obama up by 8%. (That doesn’t mean Matthews was right, but again, provocative as heck).
Fortunately for all of us, Dennis Kucinich requested a recount. I hope no one manages to block his request, and I hope the recount is transparently honest enough so that, whatever the results, people can readily accept them.
As early as next week, Rep. Rush Holt plans to introduce an emergency measure that will offer replacement funding for any state or county wishing to switch to a system that provides paper ballots and 3% audits by the November election.
While the thought that votes may have been switched in NH is scary, let’s ride the issue’s visibility to at least a minimal solution this fall, and a more robust one as soon as possible.
Stay tuned, and thanks again for all you do!
Lisa Pease
lpease@gte.net
Blog: http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/
Site: http://www.realhistoryarchives.com/
Book: The Assassinations
"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." - Thomas Jefferson
It’s not fun to be reminded how important our election reform work is.
I have been slow to cry foul re NH, precisely because I deal in conspiracies and know how hard it is to prove things. But this data is REALLY provocative, and begs explanation:
Clinton Votes counted by optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Votes counted by optical scan 81,495 47.05%
Clinton Votes counted by hand 20,889 47.05%
Obama Votes counted by hand 23,509 52.95%
Source: Bruce O’Dell’s article re Election Defense Alliance’s compilation of the official NH numbers - http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_o__080110_obama_clinton_3a_remar.htm
You should also see Chris Matthews on the video on this page (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5535), saying that MSNBC’s own exit polls showed Obama up by 8%. (That doesn’t mean Matthews was right, but again, provocative as heck).
Fortunately for all of us, Dennis Kucinich requested a recount. I hope no one manages to block his request, and I hope the recount is transparently honest enough so that, whatever the results, people can readily accept them.
As early as next week, Rep. Rush Holt plans to introduce an emergency measure that will offer replacement funding for any state or county wishing to switch to a system that provides paper ballots and 3% audits by the November election.
While the thought that votes may have been switched in NH is scary, let’s ride the issue’s visibility to at least a minimal solution this fall, and a more robust one as soon as possible.
Stay tuned, and thanks again for all you do!
Lisa Pease
lpease@gte.net
Blog: http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/
Site: http://www.realhistoryarchives.com/
Book: The Assassinations
"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." - Thomas Jefferson
Kucinich Asks for New Hampshire Recount
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
NH: "First in the nation"
http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/5307
NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting)
81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. People like to say "but we use paper ballots! They can always be counted by hand!"
But they're not. They're counted by Diebold. Only a candidate can request a hand recount, and most never do so. And a rigged election can easily become a rigged recount, as we learned in Ohio 2004, where two election officials were convicted of rigging their recount. (Is it just a funny coincidence that Diebold spokesman is named Mr. Riggall?)
We need to get the count right on election night. Right now, nobody in New Hampshire, except the programmers at LHS Associates and Diebold Election Systems, knows if we are getting it right or wrong. Our state officials and representatives know this. They learned all about it when computer security specialists Harri Hursti and Bruce Odell testified before the legislative subcommittee on e-voting in September 2007 (Hursti's testimony is shown in this video). Scientific reports about the vulnerabilities and risks with Diebold optical scanners have been available since 2003.
We love our state. It takes courage and strength to admit where we are going wrong and to fix it. May our state officials and representatives find that courage and strength soon. Before we lose the other 19% of our votes.
NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting)
81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. People like to say "but we use paper ballots! They can always be counted by hand!"
But they're not. They're counted by Diebold. Only a candidate can request a hand recount, and most never do so. And a rigged election can easily become a rigged recount, as we learned in Ohio 2004, where two election officials were convicted of rigging their recount. (Is it just a funny coincidence that Diebold spokesman is named Mr. Riggall?)
We need to get the count right on election night. Right now, nobody in New Hampshire, except the programmers at LHS Associates and Diebold Election Systems, knows if we are getting it right or wrong. Our state officials and representatives know this. They learned all about it when computer security specialists Harri Hursti and Bruce Odell testified before the legislative subcommittee on e-voting in September 2007 (Hursti's testimony is shown in this video). Scientific reports about the vulnerabilities and risks with Diebold optical scanners have been available since 2003.
We love our state. It takes courage and strength to admit where we are going wrong and to fix it. May our state officials and representatives find that courage and strength soon. Before we lose the other 19% of our votes.
Silvestro the Cat & New Hampshire Elections
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/71200.html
1-7-08: Silvestro the Cat & New Hampshire Elections
UPDATE JAN 9 9am PST: TOWN OF SUTTON CONFIRMS RON PAUL TOTALS WERE 31, NOT ZERO.
I just got off the phone with Jennifer Call, Town Clerk for Sutton. She confirmed that the Ron Paul totals in Sutton were actually 31, and said that they were "left off the tally sheet" and it was human error.
This is not an acceptable answer, especially because one of the most common forms of fraud in a hand count system is to alter or omit results on the reporting sheet. Hand count is lovely, transparent. They then fill out another reconciliation sheet, often in front of witnesses, and it looks fine. Then they provide a summary or media sheet with the incorrect results.
A Web site here: http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ has more on fraud techniques with hand counted paper ballots. You'll have to dig for it -- or Google, and the excellent research on this is Theresa Hommel from the state of New York.
NH municipalities hand count vs use Diebold machines:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/NH/state/Jan-08-votingsystems-NH.txt
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has the exclusive programming contracts for all New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote tomorrow.
Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody
Or at least a very large component in it.
Last fall, with the help of some New Hampshire citizens, Black Box Voting began working on a "New Hampshire Chain of Custody" project, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card in New Hampshire, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.
LHS Associates programs all the memory cards in New Hampshire and Connecticut; about all of Vermont's voting machines, and has a lock on almost all of Massachusetts as well.
RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE
In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.
The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.
VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP
One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.
Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.
WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG
Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!
NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY
Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.
Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.
IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.
LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.
Here is the YouTube video containing various footage taken by Black Box Voting and New Hampshire citizens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiaBqwqkXs
CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP
Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.
Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.
Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.
After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.
He may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.
I'll post the link to that in a follow up here, and welcome any of you techs to weigh in.
Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.
1-7-08: Silvestro the Cat & New Hampshire Elections
UPDATE JAN 9 9am PST: TOWN OF SUTTON CONFIRMS RON PAUL TOTALS WERE 31, NOT ZERO.
I just got off the phone with Jennifer Call, Town Clerk for Sutton. She confirmed that the Ron Paul totals in Sutton were actually 31, and said that they were "left off the tally sheet" and it was human error.
This is not an acceptable answer, especially because one of the most common forms of fraud in a hand count system is to alter or omit results on the reporting sheet. Hand count is lovely, transparent. They then fill out another reconciliation sheet, often in front of witnesses, and it looks fine. Then they provide a summary or media sheet with the incorrect results.
A Web site here: http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ has more on fraud techniques with hand counted paper ballots. You'll have to dig for it -- or Google, and the excellent research on this is Theresa Hommel from the state of New York.
NH municipalities hand count vs use Diebold machines:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/NH/state/Jan-08-votingsystems-NH.txt
John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has the exclusive programming contracts for all New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote tomorrow.
Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody
Or at least a very large component in it.
Last fall, with the help of some New Hampshire citizens, Black Box Voting began working on a "New Hampshire Chain of Custody" project, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card in New Hampshire, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.
LHS Associates programs all the memory cards in New Hampshire and Connecticut; about all of Vermont's voting machines, and has a lock on almost all of Massachusetts as well.
RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE
In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.
The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.
The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.
VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP
One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.
Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.
WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG
Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!
NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY
Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.
Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.
IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS
Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.
LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.
Here is the YouTube video containing various footage taken by Black Box Voting and New Hampshire citizens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiaBqwqkXs
CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP
Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.
Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.
Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.
After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.
He may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.
I'll post the link to that in a follow up here, and welcome any of you techs to weigh in.
Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.
Republicans STILL missing 65 precincts in results
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/71128.html
1-4-08: Eh? Iowa Republicans STILL missing 65 precincts in results
It isn't even a skillful magic show.
The Republican caucuses usually take only half as long as the Democratic caucuses, due to simpler procedures. Yet the Republicans are lagging behind the Democrats now by over TEN HOURS in having all their results in. Results delays are a red flag.
Alert CSPAN watchers caught TV screen shots of Giuliani vote totals going down by a couple thousand votes midstream in, I believe it was, Linn County. That needs a confirm; screen shot images were posted on various blogs, but if anyone recorded the coverage and can corroborate those screen shots, please let us know.
As many of us know, vote totals that go DOWN during the middle of the count can be an error, but also can signal an election theft tactic whereby votes from a candidate finishing very low in the pack are skimmed off and given to a favored candidate higher in the pack. If corroborated, the vote total shift will be another red flag.
And with the Republican race, I wouldn't look first at fraud in the number one position. I'd look for it in the area of repositioning candidates in the second through sixth spot.
- The delay in results is a red flag.
- The vote totals going down during the count is a red flag.
- The failure to release county results in live time, as promised in a Republican Party press release on Jan. 2, is a red flag.
- The failure to release precinct totals at all is a corrupt procedure. Note that the day before the caucuses, after much pressure, the Republicans did (belatedly) promise to release the precinct results on election night. They didn't.
In addition: I'm trying to get information on whether the public was kicked out of the room during hand counting in all locations, or just some.
I will be publishing some reports by caucus attendees in the "Front Lines" section later today.
There is absolutely no reason to consider any of the Republican caucus results to be credible.
I'm not saying they are wrong, I am saying the breakdown in checks and balances was stunning enough to call it not a magic show, but a bad magic show.
Bev Harris
1-4-08: Eh? Iowa Republicans STILL missing 65 precincts in results
It isn't even a skillful magic show.
The Republican caucuses usually take only half as long as the Democratic caucuses, due to simpler procedures. Yet the Republicans are lagging behind the Democrats now by over TEN HOURS in having all their results in. Results delays are a red flag.
Alert CSPAN watchers caught TV screen shots of Giuliani vote totals going down by a couple thousand votes midstream in, I believe it was, Linn County. That needs a confirm; screen shot images were posted on various blogs, but if anyone recorded the coverage and can corroborate those screen shots, please let us know.
As many of us know, vote totals that go DOWN during the middle of the count can be an error, but also can signal an election theft tactic whereby votes from a candidate finishing very low in the pack are skimmed off and given to a favored candidate higher in the pack. If corroborated, the vote total shift will be another red flag.
And with the Republican race, I wouldn't look first at fraud in the number one position. I'd look for it in the area of repositioning candidates in the second through sixth spot.
- The delay in results is a red flag.
- The vote totals going down during the count is a red flag.
- The failure to release county results in live time, as promised in a Republican Party press release on Jan. 2, is a red flag.
- The failure to release precinct totals at all is a corrupt procedure. Note that the day before the caucuses, after much pressure, the Republicans did (belatedly) promise to release the precinct results on election night. They didn't.
In addition: I'm trying to get information on whether the public was kicked out of the room during hand counting in all locations, or just some.
I will be publishing some reports by caucus attendees in the "Front Lines" section later today.
There is absolutely no reason to consider any of the Republican caucus results to be credible.
I'm not saying they are wrong, I am saying the breakdown in checks and balances was stunning enough to call it not a magic show, but a bad magic show.
Bev Harris
District Admits Ron Paul Votes Not Counted
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2008/010908_district_admits.htm
New Hampshire District Admits Ron Paul Votes Not Counted
Sutton township reported Congressman had zero votes, actual number was 31 Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The head clerk of the New Hampshire town of Sutton has been forced to admit that Ron Paul received 31 votes yet when the final amount was transferred to a summary sheet and sent out to the media, the total was listed as zero. The fiasco throws the entire primary into doubt and could lead to a re-count.
As we reported earlier today, an entire family voted for Ron Paul in Sutton, yet when the voting map on the Politico website was posted, the total votes for Ron Paul were zero.
Vote fraud expert Bev Harris contacted the head clerk in Sutton, Jennifer Call, who was forced to admit that the 31 votes Ron Paul received were completely omitted from the final report sheet, claiming "human error" was responsible for the mistake.
Two or three votes not counted could be a plausible mistake - but 31 votes for one candidate?
"The classic method for rigging a hand count is to write the wrong number on the form," Harris told the Alex Jones Show.
"They are counting everything in public real nice, they fill out a form in public real nice and then they transfer it to another form and they call that a summary sheet and then that is the one they send in," explained Harris.
"What happened is she said they did not transfer the number correctly and put zero instead of 31 - that is unacceptable as an answer."
With 100% of precincts now reporting, the map originally listed zero votes for Ron Paul as you can see below. It has now been updated to reflect the 31 votes Paul actually received.
The remainder of the 31 people in Sutton who voted for Ron Paul need to go public immediately with the charge of vote fraud and make it known that they were cheated out of their right to vote.
Harris estimates that it could cost the Ron Paul campaign as much as $67,000 dollars for a recount, but such a move could throw the entire primary into doubt, especially in light of the fact that Barack Obama appears to have been cheated out of a win by Hillary Clinton.
New Hampshire District Admits Ron Paul Votes Not Counted
Sutton township reported Congressman had zero votes, actual number was 31 Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The head clerk of the New Hampshire town of Sutton has been forced to admit that Ron Paul received 31 votes yet when the final amount was transferred to a summary sheet and sent out to the media, the total was listed as zero. The fiasco throws the entire primary into doubt and could lead to a re-count.
As we reported earlier today, an entire family voted for Ron Paul in Sutton, yet when the voting map on the Politico website was posted, the total votes for Ron Paul were zero.
Vote fraud expert Bev Harris contacted the head clerk in Sutton, Jennifer Call, who was forced to admit that the 31 votes Ron Paul received were completely omitted from the final report sheet, claiming "human error" was responsible for the mistake.
Two or three votes not counted could be a plausible mistake - but 31 votes for one candidate?
"The classic method for rigging a hand count is to write the wrong number on the form," Harris told the Alex Jones Show.
"They are counting everything in public real nice, they fill out a form in public real nice and then they transfer it to another form and they call that a summary sheet and then that is the one they send in," explained Harris.
"What happened is she said they did not transfer the number correctly and put zero instead of 31 - that is unacceptable as an answer."
With 100% of precincts now reporting, the map originally listed zero votes for Ron Paul as you can see below. It has now been updated to reflect the 31 votes Paul actually received.
The remainder of the 31 people in Sutton who voted for Ron Paul need to go public immediately with the charge of vote fraud and make it known that they were cheated out of their right to vote.
Harris estimates that it could cost the Ron Paul campaign as much as $67,000 dollars for a recount, but such a move could throw the entire primary into doubt, especially in light of the fact that Barack Obama appears to have been cheated out of a win by Hillary Clinton.
Votescam 2008
RMNews, The Uncensored National Rumor
http://www.rumormillnews.com/
THE ONLY RUMOR YOU CAN TRUST
RUMOR MILL NEWS AGENCY
P.O. BOX 1994
FREEDOM, CA 95019
TEL/FAX 831 722 1221
WHY WAS PRINCESS DIANA MURDERED?
http://www.dianaqueenofheaven.com/
Town sutton reported ZERO votes for Ron Paul... but family said they voted for Ron Paul... so how could Town Sutton report ZERO????
All it takes is one person to show there is a problem...
Town Sutton has now reported 31 votes for Ron Paul!!!!
How many votes did Ron Paul really GET???
There are many townships that show ZERO!!!
The town of Manchester reported 570 votes for OTHER..... who would vote for OTHER????
Obama was screwed too.... everyone needs to start protesting...
Hillary's people kicked Ron Paul and Obama's poll watcher OUT of everywhere.... This stinks to high heaven.... Boston Globe reported this!!
Keep checking in to Bev Harris' page... she is gathering new info all the time and updating....
Bev Harris' Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Contact Ron Paul... Contact Barak Obama... they were BOTH screwed by the ELITE who is picking our candidates for us... we must protest NOW before it gets to SUPER TUESDAY....
We need so many poll watcher that Hillary and her goons won't be able to throw them out!!!
Raye....
http://www.rumormillnews.com/
THE ONLY RUMOR YOU CAN TRUST
RUMOR MILL NEWS AGENCY
P.O. BOX 1994
FREEDOM, CA 95019
TEL/FAX 831 722 1221
WHY WAS PRINCESS DIANA MURDERED?
http://www.dianaqueenofheaven.com/
Town sutton reported ZERO votes for Ron Paul... but family said they voted for Ron Paul... so how could Town Sutton report ZERO????
All it takes is one person to show there is a problem...
Town Sutton has now reported 31 votes for Ron Paul!!!!
How many votes did Ron Paul really GET???
There are many townships that show ZERO!!!
The town of Manchester reported 570 votes for OTHER..... who would vote for OTHER????
Obama was screwed too.... everyone needs to start protesting...
Hillary's people kicked Ron Paul and Obama's poll watcher OUT of everywhere.... This stinks to high heaven.... Boston Globe reported this!!
Keep checking in to Bev Harris' page... she is gathering new info all the time and updating....
Bev Harris' Black Box Voting
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
Contact Ron Paul... Contact Barak Obama... they were BOTH screwed by the ELITE who is picking our candidates for us... we must protest NOW before it gets to SUPER TUESDAY....
We need so many poll watcher that Hillary and her goons won't be able to throw them out!!!
Raye....
Can Burt’s Bees Turn Clorox Green?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/business/06bees.html
January 6, 2008
Can Burt’s Bees Turn Clorox Green?
By LOUISE STORY
IN the summer of 1984, Burt Shavitz, a beekeeper in Maine, picked up Roxanne Quimby, a 33-year-old single mother down on her luck, as she hitchhiked to the post office in Dexter, Me. More than a dozen years Ms. Quimby’s senior, the guy locals called “the bee-man” sold honey in pickle jars from the back of his pickup truck. To Ms. Quimby, he seemed to be living an idyllic life in the wilderness (including making his home inside a small turkey coop).
She offered to help Mr. Shavitz tend to his beehives. The two became lovers and eventually birthed Burt’s Bees, a niche company famous for beeswax lip balm, lotions, soaps and shampoos, as well as for its homespun packaging and feel-good, eco-friendly marketing. The bearded man whose image is used to peddle the products is modeled after Mr. Shavitz.
Today, the couple’s quirky enterprise is owned by the Clorox Company, a consumer products giant best known for making bleach, which bought it for $913 million in November. Clorox plans to turn Burt’s Bees into a mainstream American brand sold in big-box stores like Wal-Mart. Along the way, Clorox executives say, they plan to learn from unusual business practices at Burt’s Bees — many centered on environmental sustainability. Clorox, the company promises, is going green.
But not even Clorox can sanitize the details of a fallout between Mr. Shavitz and Ms. Quimby that began in the late 1990s — when Ms. Quimby managed to buy out the bee-man for a low, six-figure sum. She has been paid more than $300 million for her stake in Burt’s Bees, and she spends her time traveling, refurbishing fancy homes in Florida and preserving large tracts of land in Maine. Burt himself, now 72, makes his home again in the converted turkey coop — expanded but without running water or electricity — but with $4 million or so to his name.
As unlikely as their journeys have been, Ms. Quimby and Mr. Shavitz are pioneers in an entrepreneurial movement that has lately won the affection of corporate behemoths.
Clorox was willing to pay almost $1 billion for Burt’s Bees because big companies see big opportunities in the market for green products. From 2000 to 2007, Burt’s Bees’ annual revenue soared to $164 million from $23 million. Analysts say there is far more growth to be had by it and its competitors as consumers keep gravitating toward products that promise organic and environmental benefits.
In the last couple of years, L’Oréal paid $1.4 billion for the Body Shop and Colgate-Palmolive bought 84 percent of Tom’s of Maine, which makes natural toothpaste and deodorant, for $100 million. Clorox is also creating eco-friendly product lines of its own.
Many corporate leaders have sold their shareholders on green initiatives by pointing out that they help cut costs — an argument that is more persuasive now, while energy costs are sky high. But as companies rush to put out more and more “natural,” “organic” or “green” products, consumers and advocacy groups are increasingly questioning the meaning of these labels.
Clorox, for one, will face plenty of skepticism. Environmentalists have long said that bleach is harmful when drained into city sewers. The disinfectant has become a stand-in for jokes about chemicals and the environment, and a new round seems to have begun this fall when the company acquired Burt’s Bees.
“Who likes Burt’s Bees now that it’s been bought by Clorox?” Alison Stewart, a host on National Public Radio, said in November. “You know, just slap some bleach on your lips, it’ll all be good.”
Clorox executives have been fighting what they call “misinformation” about bleach for years. The company says that 95 to 98 percent of its bleach breaks into salt and water and that the remaining byproduct is safe for sewer systems. And Clorox sells many products that have nothing to do with bleach — including Brita water filters, Glad trash bags and Hidden Valley salad dressings.
Still, after Clorox agreed to buy Burt’s Bees last fall, scores of customers called Burt’s Bees and accused the company of selling out. John Replogle, the chief executive of Burt’s Bees, says he personally responded to customers who left their phone numbers.
“Don’t judge Clorox as much by where they’ve been as much as where they intend to go,” Mr. Replogle says he told them.
For her part, Ms. Quimby is at peace with the Clorox deal. “I feel the fact that I was able to sell the company accelerated the process of land conservation in terms of what I could do,” she says. “So if there is any negative karma, I’m neutral.”
BACK in 1984, at the end of their first summer together, Mr. Shavitz suggested that Ms. Quimby use some of his beeswax to make candles. She did, and the candles sold for $3 a pair at a crafts fair. Ms. Quimby then started experimenting, making beeswax polishes for shoes and furniture from recipes she found in an old farmer’s manual. Those products found some fans, but didn’t sell well.
When the pair incorporated as a company — in 1989 or 1991, no one can quite remember when — Mr. Shavitz owned one-third and Ms. Quimby owned two-thirds, she says. The famous Burt’s Bees lip balm was born in 1991, and that item, a combination of beeswax and sweet almond oil, helped the company find a niche in personal care products.
Mr. Shavitz was still active in the company in 1993, when they moved its base to North Carolina. Sales had reached $3 million a year, and they wanted to find a state with lower taxes and more workers to keep their business growing, Ms. Quimby says.
During this time, the couple had a falling-out, their romance became strained, and Mr. Shavitz decided to return to Maine. It is unclear exactly when he moved back permanently; Ms. Quimby said it was in 1993, but in a written response to questions, Mr. Shavitz implied that it was later.
What is clear is that Mr. Shavitz lost out on a huge payday. In 1999, Ms. Quimby bought out his one-third share in Burt’s Bees by buying him a house in Maine. Much grander than a turkey coop, the home cost $130,000, Ms. Quimby says. She now calls that figure “embarrassing” considering how much she made from the company.
Mr. Shavitz did not respond when asked if he hired advisers to determine whether he had been paid a fair valuation for his stake. He sold the house in Maine a few months after Ms. Quimby bought it for him because, she says, he missed his turkey coop. (He has since enlarged it to about 12 feet by 20 feet.)
By 2000, Burt’s Bees was pulling in $23 million in revenue, according to the company. Ms. Quimby said she had always intended to sell the company and had received offers for quite some time before she put it up for auction in 2003. That year, AEA Investors, a private equity firm in New York, paid Ms. Quimby $141.6 million for an 80 percent stake in Burt’s Bees. If Mr. Shavitz had held onto the stake he traded to Ms. Quimby for $130,000, it would have been worth about $59 million.
At the time of that deal, Mr. Shavitz demanded more money and Ms. Quimby said she agreed to pay him $4 million. Burt’s Bees also pays Mr. Shavitz an undisclosed amount each year for using his name and image on its products. Through a Burt’s Bees spokeswoman, Mr. Shavitz declined to comment on any payments he had received or the reasons for his fallout with Ms. Quimby. When asked if he and Ms. Quimby were still friends, Mr. Shavitz said, “Sure.”
“What happened between us in our personal relationship in the past is history,” he said in a statement. “The magic of living life for me is, and always has been, the magic of living on the land, not in the magic of money.”
Under AEA’s watch, Burt’s Bees products expanded into stores like CVS, Walgreens and Target. AEA hired Mr. Replogle from Unilever, where he was general manager for the company’s North American skin care business, to be chief executive. This fall, AEA accepted Clorox’s bid. Ms. Quimby sold her remaining 20 percent share in Burt’s Bees to Clorox for about $183 million.
Ms. Quimby, 57, now runs Happy Green Bee, a company that makes organic clothing for children. She says she spent more than $50 million to buy 100,000 acres where she tries to restore the land to its natural state by blocking hunting, closing roads and dismantling bridges.
In the meantime, the task of defending Clorox’s purchase of Burt’s Bees has fallen on Mr. Replogle’s shoulders. He says that in six months, he will post a blog on the Burt’s Bees site about whether he thinks Clorox is making enough progress on its green initiatives. He says Burt’s Bees’ 380 employees have an opportunity to influence the direction of Clorox, a company that generated $4.8 billion in sales last year and employs 7,800 people.
Burt’s Bees maintains its founders’ green philosophies. Employees’ bonuses are based in part on how well the company meets energy conservation goals, and there are prime parking spaces for staff members who drive hybrid cars or carpool. It buys offsets for 100 percent of its carbon emissions and is working toward a goal of sending no trash to landfills by 2020.
Mr. Replogle calls his current job a “mission” and says he is trying to reinvent business with an idea he calls “the Greater Good,” based on the founders’ ideals. The premise is that if companies are socially responsible, profit will follow. Burt’s Bees not only prioritizes the natural origin of its ingredients but also emphasizes animal rights, responsible trade, employee benefits and the environment.
Like most natural-products companies, Burt’s Bees has the luxury of charging enough for its goods to pay for such causes. A 0.15-ounce tube of Burt’s Bees basic lip balm, for example, costs $3. The same-size tube of ChapStick, which uses synthetic ingredients, costs $1.69.
Burt’s Bees is not perfect, Mr. Replogle acknowledges. The company obtains all of its beeswax from hives in Ethiopia, so shipping the ingredient across the Atlantic adds to carbon emissions.
LATELY, Burt’s Bees has started to police its industry. The company’s research lab is full of competitors’ products labeled “natural,” and employees of Burt’s Bees test those assertions.
Burt’s Bees has also led a group of companies that have teamed up with the Natural Products Association to create a standard for natural personal care products, complete with stickers to label items that make the cut. To qualify, brands must create products that are at least 95 percent natural and contain no ingredients known to be harmful. The stickers will make their debut in April.
Consumers “walk down the aisle in the grocery stores’ health and beauty area, and they’re confronted with ‘natural’ at every turn,” says Daniel Fabricant, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the association. “We just don’t want to see the term misused any longer.”
To prove his own bona fides, Mr. Replogle grabs a bottle of Burt’s Bees avocado butter hair treatment, squeezes some onto his finger and dramatically licks it off. He then passes the tube to two Clorox executives so they can have a taste.
“If you can’t put it into your mouth, you shouldn’t put it on your skin,” he says. “I’d like to see other companies do that.”
Clorox says it is reshaping its product mix so that more of its products will be eco-friendly by its 100th anniversary in 2013. Two weeks ago, the company introduced Green Works, household cleaning solutions labeled as 99 percent natural. The last 1 percent consists of preservatives and fragrances.
Clorox says Green Works is more natural than all other cleaning products.
“It is the standard-setter,” says Beth Springer, vice president for strategy and growth at Clorox.
Green Works products are so new that outside groups have had little time to evaluate the company’s assertions. But Clorox says it believes that consumers will pay more for natural products. So, while they may be more expensive to produce, they will also be more profitable. Clorox research recently found that 53 percent of consumers planned to buy more eco-friendly products this year and that 47 percent were willing to pay 20 percent to 25 percent premiums for them.
While Clorox has decided to keep its brand off of Burt’s Bees products, its name is on the Green Works cleaning line.
“We spent a lot of time talking with consumers who wanted to keep their homes clean and healthy but wanted more natural alternatives,” Ms. Springer says. “And they confessed in most cases they were disappointed with having to pay more for products that didn’t work. So we concluded that we would initially bring it out with the Clorox brand name endorsing it because it gave people a belief in its efficacy.”
Then she lapses into Burt’s Bees speak as she continues.
“If we think about the Greater Good,” Ms. Springer says, “one lesson we’ve learned is, if you set your mind to the goal of more natural and sustainable practices, you might actually surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.”
January 6, 2008
Can Burt’s Bees Turn Clorox Green?
By LOUISE STORY
IN the summer of 1984, Burt Shavitz, a beekeeper in Maine, picked up Roxanne Quimby, a 33-year-old single mother down on her luck, as she hitchhiked to the post office in Dexter, Me. More than a dozen years Ms. Quimby’s senior, the guy locals called “the bee-man” sold honey in pickle jars from the back of his pickup truck. To Ms. Quimby, he seemed to be living an idyllic life in the wilderness (including making his home inside a small turkey coop).
She offered to help Mr. Shavitz tend to his beehives. The two became lovers and eventually birthed Burt’s Bees, a niche company famous for beeswax lip balm, lotions, soaps and shampoos, as well as for its homespun packaging and feel-good, eco-friendly marketing. The bearded man whose image is used to peddle the products is modeled after Mr. Shavitz.
Today, the couple’s quirky enterprise is owned by the Clorox Company, a consumer products giant best known for making bleach, which bought it for $913 million in November. Clorox plans to turn Burt’s Bees into a mainstream American brand sold in big-box stores like Wal-Mart. Along the way, Clorox executives say, they plan to learn from unusual business practices at Burt’s Bees — many centered on environmental sustainability. Clorox, the company promises, is going green.
But not even Clorox can sanitize the details of a fallout between Mr. Shavitz and Ms. Quimby that began in the late 1990s — when Ms. Quimby managed to buy out the bee-man for a low, six-figure sum. She has been paid more than $300 million for her stake in Burt’s Bees, and she spends her time traveling, refurbishing fancy homes in Florida and preserving large tracts of land in Maine. Burt himself, now 72, makes his home again in the converted turkey coop — expanded but without running water or electricity — but with $4 million or so to his name.
As unlikely as their journeys have been, Ms. Quimby and Mr. Shavitz are pioneers in an entrepreneurial movement that has lately won the affection of corporate behemoths.
Clorox was willing to pay almost $1 billion for Burt’s Bees because big companies see big opportunities in the market for green products. From 2000 to 2007, Burt’s Bees’ annual revenue soared to $164 million from $23 million. Analysts say there is far more growth to be had by it and its competitors as consumers keep gravitating toward products that promise organic and environmental benefits.
In the last couple of years, L’Oréal paid $1.4 billion for the Body Shop and Colgate-Palmolive bought 84 percent of Tom’s of Maine, which makes natural toothpaste and deodorant, for $100 million. Clorox is also creating eco-friendly product lines of its own.
Many corporate leaders have sold their shareholders on green initiatives by pointing out that they help cut costs — an argument that is more persuasive now, while energy costs are sky high. But as companies rush to put out more and more “natural,” “organic” or “green” products, consumers and advocacy groups are increasingly questioning the meaning of these labels.
Clorox, for one, will face plenty of skepticism. Environmentalists have long said that bleach is harmful when drained into city sewers. The disinfectant has become a stand-in for jokes about chemicals and the environment, and a new round seems to have begun this fall when the company acquired Burt’s Bees.
“Who likes Burt’s Bees now that it’s been bought by Clorox?” Alison Stewart, a host on National Public Radio, said in November. “You know, just slap some bleach on your lips, it’ll all be good.”
Clorox executives have been fighting what they call “misinformation” about bleach for years. The company says that 95 to 98 percent of its bleach breaks into salt and water and that the remaining byproduct is safe for sewer systems. And Clorox sells many products that have nothing to do with bleach — including Brita water filters, Glad trash bags and Hidden Valley salad dressings.
Still, after Clorox agreed to buy Burt’s Bees last fall, scores of customers called Burt’s Bees and accused the company of selling out. John Replogle, the chief executive of Burt’s Bees, says he personally responded to customers who left their phone numbers.
“Don’t judge Clorox as much by where they’ve been as much as where they intend to go,” Mr. Replogle says he told them.
For her part, Ms. Quimby is at peace with the Clorox deal. “I feel the fact that I was able to sell the company accelerated the process of land conservation in terms of what I could do,” she says. “So if there is any negative karma, I’m neutral.”
BACK in 1984, at the end of their first summer together, Mr. Shavitz suggested that Ms. Quimby use some of his beeswax to make candles. She did, and the candles sold for $3 a pair at a crafts fair. Ms. Quimby then started experimenting, making beeswax polishes for shoes and furniture from recipes she found in an old farmer’s manual. Those products found some fans, but didn’t sell well.
When the pair incorporated as a company — in 1989 or 1991, no one can quite remember when — Mr. Shavitz owned one-third and Ms. Quimby owned two-thirds, she says. The famous Burt’s Bees lip balm was born in 1991, and that item, a combination of beeswax and sweet almond oil, helped the company find a niche in personal care products.
Mr. Shavitz was still active in the company in 1993, when they moved its base to North Carolina. Sales had reached $3 million a year, and they wanted to find a state with lower taxes and more workers to keep their business growing, Ms. Quimby says.
During this time, the couple had a falling-out, their romance became strained, and Mr. Shavitz decided to return to Maine. It is unclear exactly when he moved back permanently; Ms. Quimby said it was in 1993, but in a written response to questions, Mr. Shavitz implied that it was later.
What is clear is that Mr. Shavitz lost out on a huge payday. In 1999, Ms. Quimby bought out his one-third share in Burt’s Bees by buying him a house in Maine. Much grander than a turkey coop, the home cost $130,000, Ms. Quimby says. She now calls that figure “embarrassing” considering how much she made from the company.
Mr. Shavitz did not respond when asked if he hired advisers to determine whether he had been paid a fair valuation for his stake. He sold the house in Maine a few months after Ms. Quimby bought it for him because, she says, he missed his turkey coop. (He has since enlarged it to about 12 feet by 20 feet.)
By 2000, Burt’s Bees was pulling in $23 million in revenue, according to the company. Ms. Quimby said she had always intended to sell the company and had received offers for quite some time before she put it up for auction in 2003. That year, AEA Investors, a private equity firm in New York, paid Ms. Quimby $141.6 million for an 80 percent stake in Burt’s Bees. If Mr. Shavitz had held onto the stake he traded to Ms. Quimby for $130,000, it would have been worth about $59 million.
At the time of that deal, Mr. Shavitz demanded more money and Ms. Quimby said she agreed to pay him $4 million. Burt’s Bees also pays Mr. Shavitz an undisclosed amount each year for using his name and image on its products. Through a Burt’s Bees spokeswoman, Mr. Shavitz declined to comment on any payments he had received or the reasons for his fallout with Ms. Quimby. When asked if he and Ms. Quimby were still friends, Mr. Shavitz said, “Sure.”
“What happened between us in our personal relationship in the past is history,” he said in a statement. “The magic of living life for me is, and always has been, the magic of living on the land, not in the magic of money.”
Under AEA’s watch, Burt’s Bees products expanded into stores like CVS, Walgreens and Target. AEA hired Mr. Replogle from Unilever, where he was general manager for the company’s North American skin care business, to be chief executive. This fall, AEA accepted Clorox’s bid. Ms. Quimby sold her remaining 20 percent share in Burt’s Bees to Clorox for about $183 million.
Ms. Quimby, 57, now runs Happy Green Bee, a company that makes organic clothing for children. She says she spent more than $50 million to buy 100,000 acres where she tries to restore the land to its natural state by blocking hunting, closing roads and dismantling bridges.
In the meantime, the task of defending Clorox’s purchase of Burt’s Bees has fallen on Mr. Replogle’s shoulders. He says that in six months, he will post a blog on the Burt’s Bees site about whether he thinks Clorox is making enough progress on its green initiatives. He says Burt’s Bees’ 380 employees have an opportunity to influence the direction of Clorox, a company that generated $4.8 billion in sales last year and employs 7,800 people.
Burt’s Bees maintains its founders’ green philosophies. Employees’ bonuses are based in part on how well the company meets energy conservation goals, and there are prime parking spaces for staff members who drive hybrid cars or carpool. It buys offsets for 100 percent of its carbon emissions and is working toward a goal of sending no trash to landfills by 2020.
Mr. Replogle calls his current job a “mission” and says he is trying to reinvent business with an idea he calls “the Greater Good,” based on the founders’ ideals. The premise is that if companies are socially responsible, profit will follow. Burt’s Bees not only prioritizes the natural origin of its ingredients but also emphasizes animal rights, responsible trade, employee benefits and the environment.
Like most natural-products companies, Burt’s Bees has the luxury of charging enough for its goods to pay for such causes. A 0.15-ounce tube of Burt’s Bees basic lip balm, for example, costs $3. The same-size tube of ChapStick, which uses synthetic ingredients, costs $1.69.
Burt’s Bees is not perfect, Mr. Replogle acknowledges. The company obtains all of its beeswax from hives in Ethiopia, so shipping the ingredient across the Atlantic adds to carbon emissions.
LATELY, Burt’s Bees has started to police its industry. The company’s research lab is full of competitors’ products labeled “natural,” and employees of Burt’s Bees test those assertions.
Burt’s Bees has also led a group of companies that have teamed up with the Natural Products Association to create a standard for natural personal care products, complete with stickers to label items that make the cut. To qualify, brands must create products that are at least 95 percent natural and contain no ingredients known to be harmful. The stickers will make their debut in April.
Consumers “walk down the aisle in the grocery stores’ health and beauty area, and they’re confronted with ‘natural’ at every turn,” says Daniel Fabricant, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the association. “We just don’t want to see the term misused any longer.”
To prove his own bona fides, Mr. Replogle grabs a bottle of Burt’s Bees avocado butter hair treatment, squeezes some onto his finger and dramatically licks it off. He then passes the tube to two Clorox executives so they can have a taste.
“If you can’t put it into your mouth, you shouldn’t put it on your skin,” he says. “I’d like to see other companies do that.”
Clorox says it is reshaping its product mix so that more of its products will be eco-friendly by its 100th anniversary in 2013. Two weeks ago, the company introduced Green Works, household cleaning solutions labeled as 99 percent natural. The last 1 percent consists of preservatives and fragrances.
Clorox says Green Works is more natural than all other cleaning products.
“It is the standard-setter,” says Beth Springer, vice president for strategy and growth at Clorox.
Green Works products are so new that outside groups have had little time to evaluate the company’s assertions. But Clorox says it believes that consumers will pay more for natural products. So, while they may be more expensive to produce, they will also be more profitable. Clorox research recently found that 53 percent of consumers planned to buy more eco-friendly products this year and that 47 percent were willing to pay 20 percent to 25 percent premiums for them.
While Clorox has decided to keep its brand off of Burt’s Bees products, its name is on the Green Works cleaning line.
“We spent a lot of time talking with consumers who wanted to keep their homes clean and healthy but wanted more natural alternatives,” Ms. Springer says. “And they confessed in most cases they were disappointed with having to pay more for products that didn’t work. So we concluded that we would initially bring it out with the Clorox brand name endorsing it because it gave people a belief in its efficacy.”
Then she lapses into Burt’s Bees speak as she continues.
“If we think about the Greater Good,” Ms. Springer says, “one lesson we’ve learned is, if you set your mind to the goal of more natural and sustainable practices, you might actually surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.”
'08 Movie Preview
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1579340/20080109/story.jhtml
Jan 10 2008 7:48 AM EST
'Indiana Jones,' 'Dark Knight' And More Flicks We Can't Wait To See: '08 Movie Preview
'Cloverfield,' 'Iron Man,' 'Wanted' also make our list.
By Shawn Adler
It is impossible to overstate the anticipation we feel for the blockbuster movies coming out in 2008. OK, that's not exactly true. We could say that we'd rather see "The Dark Knight" than peace in the Middle East. That would be an overstatement — but only a slight one!
So with all due exaggeration, embellishment and hyperbole, we present the 10 movies we're most looking forward to in the new year.
10. "Wanted" (June 27)
Unfulfilled SWM in dead-end job in search of position as top-level assassin. Must possess perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon. LDR with father OK. Desire for revenge in said father's death a huge plus. Wish to use violence purely for selfish and egocentric pleasures a must — fondness for S&M, D&D not deterrents. No experience necessary. Will train under two of industry's best: the Fox (Angelina Jolie) and Sloan (Morgan Freeman). Prefer TDH but willing to settle for Scottish and geeky (James McAvoy), provided applicant is willing to relocate. Will receive biquarterly reviews from Fates. No smokers.
9. "Cloverfield" (January 18)
Wanna learn all about "Cloverfield"? OK, but I have to ask: Do you know how to keep a secret? Yeah, so does J.J. Abrams. We've heard of making movies behind closed doors, but this is just plain ridiculous. Abrams' new project is so hush-hush it makes Area 51 look like Areas 1-50. In fact, there's not much we know about the flick beyond that it's a monster movie set in New York and that it centers on a group of five friends. Bring your Slusho! — everything is illuminated January 18.
8. "Hancock" (July 2)
Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... the Fresh Prince? The biggest movie star in the world, able to take down box-office records in a single blow, Will Smith returns to the July 4 weekend as a real-life Superman in "Hancock," the story of an abusive, alcoholic, would-be hero that everybody hates. Well, except for the wife of his PR rep, the man out to rehabilitate his image (Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman, respectively). She really doesn't hate him, if you catch our meaning. She really doesn't hate him, like, twice a day if they get the chance. But hey, saving the world means never having to say you're sorry. Might makes right when "Hancock" opens July 2.
7. "The Happening" (June 13)
How's this for a twist? Just two years after "Lady in the Water" made him persona non grata in Hollywood, M. Night Shyamalan basically went door-to-door peddling a new script and found his calling with ... a relationship picture? That's what star Mark Wahlberg called "The Happening," an R-rated story about the planet's last-ditch effort against humanity. The man who would be Hitchcock is back. How'd he do it? Spoiler alert: He was dead the whole time.
6. "Eagle Eye" (August 8)
Everybody wants to be James Bond. But who daydreams of being a James Bond villain? Superspy, meet your super ... student? Shia LaBeouf stars as a young kid mistaken for a terrorist and on the run with Michelle Monaghan in this flick from the mind of Steven Spielberg.
5. "Wall-E" (June 27)
It's R2-D2: The Movie, the story of a Waste Allocation Robot left alone on Earth for centuries to clean up mankind's garbage. It's mostly dialogue-free. It's a Pixar film from the director of "Finding Nemo." Need we say more?
4. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (November 26)
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. He believed it so much that he wrote "Benjamin Button" in reverse. The story of a man who's born the moment he dies and who ages backward, Button seems like a dream come true: What if you knew then what you know now? Well, for starters, you'd have a lot of explaining to do to the woman you fall in love with (Cate Blanchett). Some say youth is wasted on the young. We say it's wasted on Brad Pitt, a 44-year-old who still looks like the biggest kid in the candy shop. Under the direction of David Fincher, Pitt enters second childhood (and then oblivion?) November 26.
3. "Iron Man" (May 2)
Movie stars and flashy cars and life with the top down: Billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) lives the high life. So what do you get for the man who has everything? How about a biometric, weaponized, indestructible suit of body armor that can shoot rockets? And, oh yeah, it can fly. Alongside Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, the greatest superhero yet to get the movie treatment finally makes his way to the big screen when "Iron Man" opens May 2. Sing it with me: "Now the time is here/ For Iron Man to spread fear." (Cue legendary, kick-ass guitar riff.)
2. "The Dark Knight" (July 18)
Why so serious? What would it take to put a smile on that face of yours? What if we told you that the sequel to the best-ever comic book movie looks even better, with the introduction of the Joker (Heath Ledger) and Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart) into Batman's rogues' gallery. Don't laugh: Ledger's Glasgow smile and sing-song voice make for a terrifying-yet-realistic psychopath, someone who just wants to watch the world burn. Batman (Christian Bale) and the Joker, Harvey Dent and Two-Face — they're two sides of the same coin: costumed freaks who use violence and fear as a means to an end. Heads or tails, we win July 18.
1. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (May 22)
Nineteen years after he last rode into the sunset, the man with the hat is back. Throw me the idol, I'll throw you the most anticipated movie of 2008: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Will there be aliens? A son? A second chance at love with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen)? No rats, and definitely no snakes — X marks the spot May 22.
Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary
http://www.gregpalast.com/space-invaders-five-million-aliens-for-hillary/
Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary
Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?
by Greg Palast
Thursday, January 10, 2008
State Representative Russell Pearce of Mesa Arizona has warned us:
“There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country.”
How many? According to the Congressman’s office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans - they’re Mexicans!
Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who’ve swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!
Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican) politicians,[1] successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 - because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with “wrong” ID’s were handed what are called ‘provisional’ ballots - which were then not counted.
On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements.
And just in time. If not for these new ID laws, warns Senator Pearce and other Republicans across the nation, a dark wave of illegal aliens would vote again in our upcoming Presidential election.
Or maybe not. Maybe there aren’t five million illegal voters for Hillary or Obama or Edwards. Maybe there are just five hundred. Maybe there are none.
I called Senator Pearce’s office to get a couple of the names of these illegal voters. After all, it should be easy as pie to catch them: they have to give their names and addresses to register and vote. Odd thing, out of five million illegal registrants, the Senator, after a week of looking, couldn’t provide me the name of one. Not one.
Another Republican politician, this one in New Mexico, the sponsor of the voter ID law there, said on the floor of the State Legislature that she had the names of two illegal voters. Well, that’s a start.
I called her, Representative Justine Fox-Young (yes, that’s her name, and she has the ID to prove it).
Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered felony criminals [illegal voting is a jail-time crime in every state]. Do you have the names?
A. Oh, yes!
Q. Really? Wow! Did you turn these names over to the US Attorney?
A. Well, no ….
Q. You had evidence of a crime and you didn’t have the bad guys arrested?
A. Not exactly ….
Fox-Young promised to send me the names of the illegal voters. The names never arrived. But shortly thereafter, based on her claim, the Legislature passed, and Governor Bill Richardson signed, a voter ID law certain to knock out Hispanic citizens. (In fairness to Richardson, I should note that he forced the Republicans to drastically alter their bill.)
Our investigations team talked to some of New Mexico’s allegedly illegal voters.
In 2004, the Catholic Church organized a bus and caravan to take newly registered Chicano “low-riders” to a Roswell, New Mexico polling station. The white officials turned away several of the young Hispanics for presenting the wrong ID. Maybe the middle initial on the voter form was missing from the driver’s license, or “Jr.” was added. No perfect match, no vote: a gotcha! set of rules that seemed to apply only to voters of a darker hue.
One of the rejected young Chicanas said she wouldn’t return to try again to vote; one round of humiliation was enough. “They don’t want me to vote there anyway,” she said. And they don’t.
But hey, what’s wrong with requiring voter ID? I’ll give you a million reasons. Since 2004, when 300,000 citizens lost their right to vote because of ID challenges, the number of states that have passed voter ID laws has quadrupled. Expect the challenges to quadruple as well, to over a million in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Does ID challenges make a difference? In New Mexico, George Bush’s victory over John Kerry by 5,900 votes can be completely accounted for by minority provisional ballots rejected. ID was the key.
In Louisiana, the law says voters may be asked to produce a photo ID. A study conducted by the US Department of Justice discovered that Black voters are only one-fifth as likely to have photo ID’s as white voters. (That figure may be optimistic - as Justice took the survey before Black voters’ ID washed away with Hurricane Katrina.)
In New Mexico, in Louisiana, in Georgia, in Alabama and in Florida, it’s the same story. It’s not a random set of voters who lose out on ID challenges; it’s voters of color.
Four years ago, the Jim Crow era ended when biased impediments to voting were struck down by the courts and Congress: poll taxes, “literacy” tests, citizenship tests that blocked Blacks more than whites. From that time until now, almost every state has accepted your signature matched to prior records as proof you’re a legal voter. Now we’re going to change this system to prevent the crime of folks voting more than once and the crime of aliens voting. The odd thing about these crimes: they virtually don’t exist. Yet to prevent crimes that aren’t committed, we are allowing elections officials to commit a greater crime: stopping legal voters - especially new, young, Hispanic voters - from having their piece of our democracy.
Who was behind these viciously undemocratic, racist José Crow attack on brown-skinned voters? His initials are Karl Rove. In 2006, I smelled out the link to Rove, then White House political chief, when I reached out to the US Attorney for New Mexico.
That US Attorney, David Iglesias, had indeed investigated the “illegal” voters identified by Fox-Young, working from a list of 150 sent to him by Republican officials. After marching all over the mesas with the FBI, Iglesias found exactly zero cases to prosecute.
So, finding folks innocent, Iglesias did not arrest them. That was a mistake - at least for his career. Karl Rove, visiting New Mexico, heard from the state’s Republican Party chiefs that Iglesias was not bringing prosecutions and would not continue the witchhunt for “illegal” voters. Iglesias contends that Rove took the Republican complaint to the Oval Office. There, a man who goes by the alias, “The Decider,” decided to fire Iglesias and other US Attorneys who wouldn’t agree to phony prosecutions of innocent voters.
Iglesias told me, “This voter fraud thing is the bogeyman. It was designed to scare up, rile the [Republican] base. I looked into [the fraud allegations] …We didn’t find the evidence.”
I met with Iglesias at the park overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York. The wistful ex-prosecutor, who has returned to his former post with the Navy as a JAG lawyer, said, “Looking back, I mean I feel like I was set up; that they really felt that I would go forward with some half-baked prosecutions and hope for a guilty plea. That’s not what a legitimate federal prosecutor does.”
(Rove won’t respond to BBC’s requests for his views - nor respond to a subpoena from Congress to explain his involvement in the firings.)
Whatever Rove’s political motives, I did have to ask if there’s a legitimate reason for these new ID laws. I challenged the leader of the New Mexico Catholic Charities voter drive, Santiago Juarez, to answer Ms. Fox-Young’s charge that, without voter ID, his new citizens could steal elections by voting more than once using someone else’s name.
Santiago replied, “How do you organize thousands of people to vote twice? Hell, it’s hard enough organizing them to vote once!”
*********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, [2] Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Obtain the film on DVD of Palast’s investigations of US elections, including exclusive interviews with fired US Attorney David Iglesias, at [3] http://www.gregpalast.com/ Watch the trailer for [4] The Election Files here.
And sign up for Palast’s reports at [5] http://www.gregpalast.com/.
Funding for these investigations was provided by BBC Television, The Nation Institute and the Palast Investigative Fund, a not-for-profit foundation, [6] http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/
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[1] Image: http://youtube.com/watch?v=31csFyG6H2U
[2] Armed Madhouse: http://www.gregpalast.com/order-the-book
[3] http://www.gregpalast.com/: http://www.gregpalast.com/
[4] The Election Files here.: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fqhKmyjJOgw
[5] http://www.gregpalast.com/: http://www.gregpalast.com/
[6] http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/: http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/
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Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary
Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?
by Greg Palast
Thursday, January 10, 2008
State Representative Russell Pearce of Mesa Arizona has warned us:
“There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country.”
How many? According to the Congressman’s office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans - they’re Mexicans!
Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who’ve swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!
Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican) politicians,[1] successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 - because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with “wrong” ID’s were handed what are called ‘provisional’ ballots - which were then not counted.
On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements.
And just in time. If not for these new ID laws, warns Senator Pearce and other Republicans across the nation, a dark wave of illegal aliens would vote again in our upcoming Presidential election.
Or maybe not. Maybe there aren’t five million illegal voters for Hillary or Obama or Edwards. Maybe there are just five hundred. Maybe there are none.
I called Senator Pearce’s office to get a couple of the names of these illegal voters. After all, it should be easy as pie to catch them: they have to give their names and addresses to register and vote. Odd thing, out of five million illegal registrants, the Senator, after a week of looking, couldn’t provide me the name of one. Not one.
Another Republican politician, this one in New Mexico, the sponsor of the voter ID law there, said on the floor of the State Legislature that she had the names of two illegal voters. Well, that’s a start.
I called her, Representative Justine Fox-Young (yes, that’s her name, and she has the ID to prove it).
Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered felony criminals [illegal voting is a jail-time crime in every state]. Do you have the names?
A. Oh, yes!
Q. Really? Wow! Did you turn these names over to the US Attorney?
A. Well, no ….
Q. You had evidence of a crime and you didn’t have the bad guys arrested?
A. Not exactly ….
Fox-Young promised to send me the names of the illegal voters. The names never arrived. But shortly thereafter, based on her claim, the Legislature passed, and Governor Bill Richardson signed, a voter ID law certain to knock out Hispanic citizens. (In fairness to Richardson, I should note that he forced the Republicans to drastically alter their bill.)
Our investigations team talked to some of New Mexico’s allegedly illegal voters.
In 2004, the Catholic Church organized a bus and caravan to take newly registered Chicano “low-riders” to a Roswell, New Mexico polling station. The white officials turned away several of the young Hispanics for presenting the wrong ID. Maybe the middle initial on the voter form was missing from the driver’s license, or “Jr.” was added. No perfect match, no vote: a gotcha! set of rules that seemed to apply only to voters of a darker hue.
One of the rejected young Chicanas said she wouldn’t return to try again to vote; one round of humiliation was enough. “They don’t want me to vote there anyway,” she said. And they don’t.
But hey, what’s wrong with requiring voter ID? I’ll give you a million reasons. Since 2004, when 300,000 citizens lost their right to vote because of ID challenges, the number of states that have passed voter ID laws has quadrupled. Expect the challenges to quadruple as well, to over a million in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Does ID challenges make a difference? In New Mexico, George Bush’s victory over John Kerry by 5,900 votes can be completely accounted for by minority provisional ballots rejected. ID was the key.
In Louisiana, the law says voters may be asked to produce a photo ID. A study conducted by the US Department of Justice discovered that Black voters are only one-fifth as likely to have photo ID’s as white voters. (That figure may be optimistic - as Justice took the survey before Black voters’ ID washed away with Hurricane Katrina.)
In New Mexico, in Louisiana, in Georgia, in Alabama and in Florida, it’s the same story. It’s not a random set of voters who lose out on ID challenges; it’s voters of color.
Four years ago, the Jim Crow era ended when biased impediments to voting were struck down by the courts and Congress: poll taxes, “literacy” tests, citizenship tests that blocked Blacks more than whites. From that time until now, almost every state has accepted your signature matched to prior records as proof you’re a legal voter. Now we’re going to change this system to prevent the crime of folks voting more than once and the crime of aliens voting. The odd thing about these crimes: they virtually don’t exist. Yet to prevent crimes that aren’t committed, we are allowing elections officials to commit a greater crime: stopping legal voters - especially new, young, Hispanic voters - from having their piece of our democracy.
Who was behind these viciously undemocratic, racist José Crow attack on brown-skinned voters? His initials are Karl Rove. In 2006, I smelled out the link to Rove, then White House political chief, when I reached out to the US Attorney for New Mexico.
That US Attorney, David Iglesias, had indeed investigated the “illegal” voters identified by Fox-Young, working from a list of 150 sent to him by Republican officials. After marching all over the mesas with the FBI, Iglesias found exactly zero cases to prosecute.
So, finding folks innocent, Iglesias did not arrest them. That was a mistake - at least for his career. Karl Rove, visiting New Mexico, heard from the state’s Republican Party chiefs that Iglesias was not bringing prosecutions and would not continue the witchhunt for “illegal” voters. Iglesias contends that Rove took the Republican complaint to the Oval Office. There, a man who goes by the alias, “The Decider,” decided to fire Iglesias and other US Attorneys who wouldn’t agree to phony prosecutions of innocent voters.
Iglesias told me, “This voter fraud thing is the bogeyman. It was designed to scare up, rile the [Republican] base. I looked into [the fraud allegations] …We didn’t find the evidence.”
I met with Iglesias at the park overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York. The wistful ex-prosecutor, who has returned to his former post with the Navy as a JAG lawyer, said, “Looking back, I mean I feel like I was set up; that they really felt that I would go forward with some half-baked prosecutions and hope for a guilty plea. That’s not what a legitimate federal prosecutor does.”
(Rove won’t respond to BBC’s requests for his views - nor respond to a subpoena from Congress to explain his involvement in the firings.)
Whatever Rove’s political motives, I did have to ask if there’s a legitimate reason for these new ID laws. I challenged the leader of the New Mexico Catholic Charities voter drive, Santiago Juarez, to answer Ms. Fox-Young’s charge that, without voter ID, his new citizens could steal elections by voting more than once using someone else’s name.
Santiago replied, “How do you organize thousands of people to vote twice? Hell, it’s hard enough organizing them to vote once!”
*********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, [2] Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Obtain the film on DVD of Palast’s investigations of US elections, including exclusive interviews with fired US Attorney David Iglesias, at [3] http://www.gregpalast.com/ Watch the trailer for [4] The Election Files here.
And sign up for Palast’s reports at [5] http://www.gregpalast.com/.
Funding for these investigations was provided by BBC Television, The Nation Institute and the Palast Investigative Fund, a not-for-profit foundation, [6] http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/
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[1] Image: http://youtube.com/watch?v=31csFyG6H2U
[2] Armed Madhouse: http://www.gregpalast.com/order-the-book
[3] http://www.gregpalast.com/: http://www.gregpalast.com/
[4] The Election Files here.: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fqhKmyjJOgw
[5] http://www.gregpalast.com/: http://www.gregpalast.com/
[6] http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/: http://www.palastinvestigativefund.org/
[7] Share This: http://www.gregpalast.com/?p=1939&akst_action=share-this
Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee dead in Cuba
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080109/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/obit_agee
Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee dead in Cuba
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
1-9-8
Former CIA agent Philip Agee, a critic of U.S. foreign policy who infuriated American intelligence officials by naming purported agency operatives in a 1975 book, has died, state media reported Wednesday. He was 72.
Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives.
Granma, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, said Agee died Monday night and described him as "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world."
Bernie Dwyer, a journalist with state-run Radio Havana, said in a Tuesday message posted to a Cuba e-mail group that Agee's wife called him to say he had died after ulcer surgery in a hospital where he has he been since Dec. 15.
"He had several operations for perforated ulcers and didn't survive all the surgery," Dwyer wrote, adding that Agee was cremated Tuesday and that friends planned a memorial ceremony for him Sunday at his Havana apartment.
Agee's U.S. passport was revoked in 1979. U.S. officials said he had threatened national security. After years of living in Hamburg, Germany — occasionally underground, fearing CIA retribution — Agee moved to Havana to open a travel Web site.
The site, cubalinda.com, is designed to bring U.S. tourists to Cuba, offering package tours and other help that is largely off-limits to Americans because of the U.S. trade embargo. Agee opened the site in 2000 with European investors and a state-run travel agent as his partners.
There was no mention of Agee's death on the site Wednesday.
The author of several other books besides "Inside the Company," one of Agee's last essays was published in Granma International newspaper in 2003 and came shortly after a Cuban government crackdown led to the arrest of 75 leading dissidents and political activists.
"To think that the dissidents were creating an independent, free civil society is absurd, for they were funded and controlled by a hostile foreign power and to that degree, which was total, they were not free or independent in the least," he wrote.
Agee has been accused of receiving up to $1 million in payments from the Cuban intelligence service. He denied the accusations, which were first made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer and defector in a 1992 report.
Barbara Bush, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush — himself a one-time CIA chief — in her autobiography accused Agee's book of exposing a CIA station chief, Richard S. Welch, who was later killed by leftist terrorists in Athens in 1975. Agee, who denied any involvement in the killing, sued her for $4 million for defamation, and she revised the book to settle the case.
Agee's actions in the 1970s inspired a law criminalizing the exposure of covert U.S. operatives.
But in 2003, he drew a distinction between what he did and the exposure of CIA officer Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a prominent critic of President Bush's Iraq policy.
"This is entirely different than what I was doing in the 1970s," Agee said. "This is purely dirty politics in my opinion."
Agee said that in his case, he disclosed the identities of his former CIA colleagues to "weaken the instrument for carrying out the policy of supporting military dictatorships" in Greece, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
Those regimes "were supported by the CIA and the human cost was immense: torture, executions, death squads," he said.
Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee dead in Cuba
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
1-9-8
Former CIA agent Philip Agee, a critic of U.S. foreign policy who infuriated American intelligence officials by naming purported agency operatives in a 1975 book, has died, state media reported Wednesday. He was 72.
Agee quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years working mostly in Latin America at a time when leftist movements were gaining prominence and sympathizers. His 1975 book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary," cited alleged CIA misdeeds against leftists in the region and included a 22-page list of purported agency operatives.
Granma, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, said Agee died Monday night and described him as "a loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender of the peoples' fight for a better world."
Bernie Dwyer, a journalist with state-run Radio Havana, said in a Tuesday message posted to a Cuba e-mail group that Agee's wife called him to say he had died after ulcer surgery in a hospital where he has he been since Dec. 15.
"He had several operations for perforated ulcers and didn't survive all the surgery," Dwyer wrote, adding that Agee was cremated Tuesday and that friends planned a memorial ceremony for him Sunday at his Havana apartment.
Agee's U.S. passport was revoked in 1979. U.S. officials said he had threatened national security. After years of living in Hamburg, Germany — occasionally underground, fearing CIA retribution — Agee moved to Havana to open a travel Web site.
The site, cubalinda.com, is designed to bring U.S. tourists to Cuba, offering package tours and other help that is largely off-limits to Americans because of the U.S. trade embargo. Agee opened the site in 2000 with European investors and a state-run travel agent as his partners.
There was no mention of Agee's death on the site Wednesday.
The author of several other books besides "Inside the Company," one of Agee's last essays was published in Granma International newspaper in 2003 and came shortly after a Cuban government crackdown led to the arrest of 75 leading dissidents and political activists.
"To think that the dissidents were creating an independent, free civil society is absurd, for they were funded and controlled by a hostile foreign power and to that degree, which was total, they were not free or independent in the least," he wrote.
Agee has been accused of receiving up to $1 million in payments from the Cuban intelligence service. He denied the accusations, which were first made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence officer and defector in a 1992 report.
Barbara Bush, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush — himself a one-time CIA chief — in her autobiography accused Agee's book of exposing a CIA station chief, Richard S. Welch, who was later killed by leftist terrorists in Athens in 1975. Agee, who denied any involvement in the killing, sued her for $4 million for defamation, and she revised the book to settle the case.
Agee's actions in the 1970s inspired a law criminalizing the exposure of covert U.S. operatives.
But in 2003, he drew a distinction between what he did and the exposure of CIA officer Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a prominent critic of President Bush's Iraq policy.
"This is entirely different than what I was doing in the 1970s," Agee said. "This is purely dirty politics in my opinion."
Agee said that in his case, he disclosed the identities of his former CIA colleagues to "weaken the instrument for carrying out the policy of supporting military dictatorships" in Greece, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
Those regimes "were supported by the CIA and the human cost was immense: torture, executions, death squads," he said.
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