Not Allowing President Of Iran To Visit World Trade Center Is A Mistake

40% or more of Republicans to this day believe it was Saddam who was behind 9/11. That just is not true. It was Bin Laden. Saddam and Bin Laden did not like each other. Bin Laden always fantasized about toppling Saddam and erecting an Islamist regime in Iraq, like everywhere else. That is not any way to get along with a dictator.

But Bush-Cheney peddled the lie hard and that is how the war on Iraq was launched.

Ahmadinejad might not be a nice guy, but he also had nothing to do with 9/11. Like they say, just the facts, mam.

The CIA toppled a democratic regime in Iran and put in place a monarchy. That started the bad blood between the two peoples. The US backed Saddam to the hilt during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, just like it backed Bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

I am for democracy, and Ahmadinejad, although an elected leader, is only partly elected. There is this supreme council of hard core mullahs in Iran. Only those candidates approved by those mullahs get to run for president. But that still makes Ahmadinejad one step ahead of the Saudi king, Mubarak and Gaddafi.

And I don't see the nuclear crisis in black and white. If all the poor countries of the world were to want to grow at 10% a year as they should, there is no option but to harness nuclear energy to the hilt. And so there is a need to have a strong international body that will apply uniformly across the globe standards that all nuclear power plants including those in the US and France and Russia and China and elsewhere would have to meet if they can be allowed to operate, and that in a framework of a total nuclear disarmament, a goal that gets complicated by not all states being democracies. Perhaps the conversion to democracy will have to happen first. But there is no postponing the energy part.

The Energy Solution: Nuclear Energy

It is tough for women in Iran like in all the other Muslim countries. And Ahmadinejad will have to take some responsibility.

But this is not about analyzing the Iranian president or his country.

The state of Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. And that is reason enough to not bar this guy from going to visit the World Trade Center. He wants to go pay homage.

He might be responding to Obama's call that he will, as president, hold direct talks with the president of Iran. Reagan talked to Gorbachev, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev, Obama will talk to Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad responded by wanting to visit the World Trade Center. He wanted to send a message out directly to the American people that he feels their pain, that he is on their side, even though it has been impossible for him to talk to the leadership that just does not believe in dialogue and diplomacy.

This guy should be allowed to talk to the American people and reach out to the American people if he wants to.

Iran is a state with a standing army. America is a state with the most powerful standing army in the world. Ahmadinejad is many things but not stupid. The state of Iran would not get involved with something like 9/11. They did not for a fact. And that fact has to be stated.

There are those who imagine that in the long run Iran and America are going to be two democracies who get along with each other just fine. The two peoples get along just fine. I am one of them. As to how long a wait that will be is anyone's guess right now, but I believe that time span can be shortened through strong, but engaged leadership, an informed leadership that does not peddle the prejudice that it was Saddam and perhaps Ahmadinejad who were behind 9/11. To knowingly fudge the truth on 9/11 is a disrespect to those who died that day.

Like Rice said once, Iran is not Iraq. Well, Ahmadinejad is not Bin Laden.

Just like in America, there is a political spectrum in the Arab world. Bin Laden and the Islamists are the extreme right. They are the Arab KKK. Then there is the right wing. That would be the unelected leaders like the Saudi king, Mubarak, Gaddafi and the all and sundry monarchs. Then there are the semi-elected right wingers like this Iranian guy. You move further to the middle and you meet reformers. Sadly these variants of the right occupy a large chunk of the spectrum leaving little room for democrats and reformers.

To not be able to see the richness of the spectrum is to tie your hands behind your back in the political solutions department. To be able to see the richness gives you the ability to drive wedges between the various segments.

American right wingers also try to demonize China to the hilt. China says it is just a poor country trying to feed its people. Iran is also a poor country. Ultimately they need to get along with America. Deep down that is what they want. So small measures of trust building are a good thing.

The Arab masses were not behind 9/11.

In the mean time Ahmadinejad gets to watch this video of mine that has received more views than any other of the 600 plus videos I have uploaded at Google Video.



Video: World Trade Center

In The News

New York bans 'photo op' visit to Ground Zero by Iran's president Scotsman
Controversy swirls around Iranian leader's visit to New York AFP
Ahmadinejad heads to Columbia in NY Jerusalem Post
Iranian President Says He Will Not Insist on a Ground Zero Visit New York Times, United States Ahmadinejad said he just wanted to pay his respects at the site and was “amazed” by Americans who viewed his plans as insulting. ...... Mr. Pelley: Sir, what were you thinking? The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart, and you must have known that visiting there would be insulting to many, many Americans. Mr. Ahmadinejad: Why should it be insulting? Mr. Ahmadinejad: Well, I’m amazed. Mr. Ahmadinejad: You are representing a media and you’re a reporter. The American nation is made up of 300 million people. There are different points of view over there. ....... Bloomberg said it would be “inappropriate” for the Iranian leader to visit ground zero. .... particularly this guy who has expressed views that I find totally abhorrent” ..... Bloomberg said: “I think who Columbia invites is up to them. That’s what academic institutions do. ..... questions remained over whether the city had the legal authority or practical ability to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from going to the publicly accessible areas around the World Trade Center site. ....... But the city has evidently been defining “ground zero” narrowly, as the World Trade Center site itself, which is not open to the public because of the construction under way. ....... The police commissioner said that a visit to ground zero by Mr. Ahmadinejad would “adversely impact” public safety. ...... As the head of his country’s delegation to the United Nations, Mr. Ahmadinejad would ordinarily have the right to move fairly freely within Manhattan. The United States broke off relations with Iran in 1980 during the hostage crisis, but Iranian diplomats at the United Nations are permitted under diplomatic protocols to travel within 25 miles of Columbus Circle. Lower Manhattan is less than 5 miles from Midtown.
Iranian president still wants to visit WTC site Xinhua, China
Iran Spokesman: Ahmadinejad Won't Visit WTC WNBC, NY
Decision 2008: Iran's request has candidates speaking out WPTV, FL
Israel's friends are calling for the arrest of Iran's president in ... Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Iran Case Shows Ground Zero Access Tight The Associated Press
Ahmadinejad's Ground Zero Ploy TIME The shrill reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero is playing right into the Iranian President's hands. ..... his power base is made up mainly of Iranians who participated in the 1979 revolution, among whom the loathing of the U.S. runs very deep. Nothing energizes them more than the sight of their leader being excoriated by the hated Americans. ..... When TIME interviewed him last year, we asked if he had visited the site. His response: "It was not necessary. It was widely covered in the media." And he once wrote a letter to President Bush, suggesting that the attacks on the towers were the work of unspecified "intelligence and security services." ...... a transparently political stunt, aimed at the audience back home. ..... New York's tabloids hyperventilated. The Daily News shrieked: "If you even think of setting foot near Ground Zero, you can GO TO HELL!" The paper went on to describe Ahmadinejad as a "madman," and "an enemy of the U.S. in particular and of civilization in general." ...... American politicians — especially presidential hopefuls looking to score easy points — lit into the Iranian President with a candor they rarely show on the campaign trail. "It is unacceptable for [Ahmadinejad], who refuses to renounce and end his own country's support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation's history," said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani — who was New York City mayor at the time of the attacks — thundered: "This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring bin Laden's son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons." His fellow Republican candidate Mitt Romney described Ahmadinejad's request as "shockingly audacious." ...... It allows him to tell his fellow Iranians: "Look, I tried to be a nice guy, I wanted to lay a wreath on Ground Zero, but these Americans don't appreciate our compassion." And to the conservative mullahs and hard-liners of Iran, Ahmadinejad's stock rises when Americans put him down.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned from Ground Zero Times Online, UK
Local outrage over Ahmadinejad WTC request Newsday, NY
Ahmadinejad denied access to Ground Zero The Carpetbagger Report
Columbia University: Ahmadinejad Yes, ROTC No Yahoo! News
Ahmadinejad Is Not Allowed to Visit Ground Zero eFluxMedia
Furore over site visit Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Bush backs decision to reject Iranian leader's Ground Zero visit People's Daily Online, China
New Yorkers Try To Get Audience With Ahmadinejad WCBS-TV New York, NY
Anger as US uni lets Iran's Ahmadinejad speak Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
University urged to cancel Ahmadinejad speech Reuters
Iranian president's request to visit Ground Zero denied Resident Publications, NY
Ground Zeroout of bounds for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Bolton: Ahmadinejad's Proposed Ground Zero Visit "Nothing But ... National Review Online Blogs, NY
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Can't Go to Ground Zero, But He Will ... Gothamist, NY
STOP Ahmadinejad: Calling 1000's to Ground Zero Monday 10am! Town Hall, DC
New York: Iran's leader can't visit ground zero CNN International
NY nixes Ground Zero visit by Iran's leader USA Today
Iranian President's Visit to Ground Zero Denied FOX News
No way, no how New York Daily News, NY
US Denies Permission To Iranian President For 9/11 Site Visit AHN
New York Police Deny Ahmadinejad Ground Zero Visit (Update1) Bloomberg

Police deny Iran president's visit to Ground Zero Newsday
Nepal PM fails to woo Maoists back into govt Times of India his party would start collecting signatures for a campaign to convene parliament, bring a no-trust motion against Koirala and have two-thirds of the MPs declare Nepal a republic with the abolition of monarchy.
Jackson says Obama 'acting white' on civil rights case Newsday
Edwards' Wife Bashes Clinton Health Plan The Associated Press
Obama Face-to-Camera With Iowa New York Times In Mr. Obama’s successful Senate race in 2004, he heavily utilized the face-to-camera format.
Elizabeth Edwards: Hillary Clinton's health care plan 'remarkably ... Atlanta Journal Constitution

Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother

Obama 2008 has a big problem. Most of America does not know the guy. Even those who have heard of him do not know the outlines of his life story.

Health care is going to be President Obama's signature achievement.

When you put those two together, it is a no-brainer that Barack Obama needs to be talking about his mother much more than he has. Barack's mother died at the early age of 53 when she was between jobs and lacked health insurance.

The voters need a story, they need a story they can attach the Obama name to.

Bill Clinton sold his life story as much as he sold his policies in 1992, and that campaign was a classic. The story of how his father died before he was born, the story of his drunkard stepfather who fired a gun at his mother in his presence, the shot hit the wall.

You got the humanize the brilliant candidate's awesome policy stands with his life story, otherwise it comes across like you are trying to impress people with the smarts. Policy proposals become more palatable that way.

Barack Obama has a compelling, compelling life story. But he can count on the vast majority of voters not reading his autobiography.

The average voter today says, I don't know the guy. That is the ground reality.

Barack Obama is going to be a global citizen president in a globalized world. This guy is so fortunate for his diverse heritage. This guy grew up white. He is Midwest. He is what they call heartland, and I call hinterland.

Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In The News

Jesse Jackson: Obama needs to bring more attention to Jena 6 CNN International Jackson says Obama "acting like he's white" in Jena case .... Civil rights leader later applauded Obama for "speaking out" on issue ..... Obama hopes prosecutor will "reconsider the excessive charges" ... the arrest of six black juveniles in Jena, Louisiana, on murder charges ..... Obama needs to be "bolder" in his stances if he wants to make inroads in South Carolina. Obama currently trails rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in South Carolina by 18 points .... "If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena," the prominent civil rights activist said Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina, the The State newspaper reports. "Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment." ....... "He has remarkably transcended race, however the impact of Katrina and Jena makes America's unresolved moral dilemma of race unavoidable," he said. " I think Jena is another defining moment of the issue of race and the criminal justice system. This issue requires direct and bold leadership. I commend Sen. Obama for speaking out and demanding fairness on this defining issue. Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed." ..... after a black student asked the vice principal if he and some friends could sit under an oak tree where white students typically congregated. ..... Obama formally released a statement on the case Friday evening after one of the teen's charges was thrown out, saying, "I am pleased that the Louisiana state appeals court recognized that the aggravated battery charge brought in this case was inappropriate." ...... "When nooses are being hung in high schools in the 21st century, it's a tragedy. It shows that we still have a lot of work to do as a nation to heal our racial tensions. This isn't just Jena's problem; it's America's problem." ...... "There is no excuse for the way the legal system treated those young people. ... This case reminds us that the scales of justice are seriously out of balance when it comes to charging, sentencing, and punishing African-Americans." ..... Americans of all races are traveling to Jena because they believe that how we respond to the racial tensions in Jena says everything about who we are as a nation

Yahoo Mash: Playing Catch Up to Facebook and MySpace? PC World So far Yahoo’s social network strategy has been, well, lame. .... Nearly a year ago Yahoo unsuccessfully offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion. It originally tried to get into social networking business with the launch of Yahoo 360. But even by Yahoo standards, it failed. "Yahoo's social-networking service Yahoo 360 hasn't attained the position the company expected ..... calls Mash a "Wikipedia version of a social networking." .... Noticeably missing from Mash is the ability to send a private message to a friend as well as an effective search feature.
Morgan Stanley Profit Tumbles 17 Percent Washington Post the No. 2 U.S. investment bank was hurt by a global credit crisis and spun off its credit-card unit Discover .... the No. 2 U.S. investment bank was forced to write down nearly $1 billion worth of loans amid the summer's global credit crisis. ...... Stronger equity trading and investment banking fees helped drive revenue up to $7.96 billion from $7.06 billion a year earlier. ..... it may just represent the downside of management's much publicized efforts to increase risk levels ...... the second of four investment banks to report results this week. On Tuesday, Lehman posted a decline in profits that was smaller than had been expected. Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns report Thursday.
Alaska Airlines Plans To Provide In-Flight Wireless Broadband Next ... InformationWeek a satellite-based service .... Row 44's satellite-based system can function over land, water, and international borders
Intel WiMAX chips finally on the table New Zealand Herald by the middle of next year. .... 1.3 billion people to be in range of WiMAX wireless broadband networks by 2012, up from 750 million in 2010 and 150 million next year. .... Computer-makers Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Panasonic and Toshiba will embed WiMAX in their laptops, though computer giants Dell and HP are conspicuously absent from the line-up. ..... "WiMAX is less expensive than cellular infrastructure to roll out. ..... new standards such as 802.16J, which allows the range to be extended by using one base station as a relay to the main base station, means that coverage will continue to get even better .... Like New Zealand, Japan is selling radio spectrum in the 2.5GHz band which is likely to attract fierce bidding between established mobile players and new entrants betting on WiMAX.
IDF: Intel Promises WiMax Equipment by Next Year Wired News WiMax will bring "true mobile connectivity." WiMax will be a superior fourth generation network. WiMax will deliver broadband wireless internet service at speeds five times faster than 3G networks. .... With a planned $5 billion dollar build-out by Sprint, a growing ecosystem of WiMax device manufacturers, and some progress on the interoperability and standard fronts, the wireless technology is about to go public in a big way ....... consumers will see WiMax-enabled notebooks in 2008
Sprint Rethinking WiMax Venture Sprint Nextel Corp. is exploring new options for financing its ambitious plan to build a wireless broadband network known as WiMax
Big-name vendors lined up to offer WiMAX laptops Register Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba .... WiMAX, not HSUPA/HSDPA-augmented 3G, is the wireless technology that will bring mobile broadband to the masses.
WiMax Consumer Links Launched As Mainstream Adoption Gets Closer InformationWeek WiMax is expected to take off within the next few years. ..... a Mobile WiMax client device family called MiMax that includes a USB 2.0 device "that turns any laptop into a high performance Mobile WiMax client." The MiMax USB can be deployed worldwide and supports all planned Wave 2 certification profiles from 2.3 GHz to 5.8 GHz.
Verizon Wireless Expands Wireless Broadband Network to Oxford ... CNNMoney.com Oxford is the latest market to be added to the coverage, which is available to more than 210 million people across the country.
Anti-Syria Lawmaker Slain in Lebanon San Francisco Chronicle
Hewlett-Packard to install AOL services on PCs CNNMoney.com AOL said the portal will be set as the default homepage, and the toolbar and search will have default settings in various countries worldwide. All three features will be jointly branded.
Intel goes full speed on chip development San Jose Mercury News fresh evidence Intel has picked up the pace of technological development to the detriment of AMD. The new generation of plants will create circuits that are 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide, allowing chips to run faster and use less energy. ...... "Intel's strength is focusing on a goal and going like a bat out of hell." ..... "There really are some fundamental limits," said Moore, who suggested the limits may be reached within 10 or 15 years. "We will hit something that is fundamental.
Intel to ship next generation chips in November Xinhua
Intel Ups Performance, Lowers Power Use In Upcoming Mobile Chips InformationWeek Enabling smaller, faster mobile devices is the company's goal in developing chipsets that promise significant improvements in processor performance, power consumption, and size. ...... the chipmaker plugged WiMax, the chipmaker's favorite wireless broadband technology. ..... 2008 will be the "year of WiMax ..... accessing the Internet on smartphones and other small devices is not a pleasant experience for most consumers, which is why more than 60% of mobile phone subscribers with access to the Web don't use the feature. ...... Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, which would enable rich Internet applications to run outside the browser. "(Internet apps) become the first-class citizen of the desktop
Intel has new ideas for mobile computing CNET News.com Intel's a big company, with lots of money and smart people. It will need both to take over two separate industries. The company's official search for the next big thing is settling quite definitively on mobile computers. But this is actually two big things: not only does Intel want to create an entire new category of handheld computers called Mobile Internet Devices, it wants to set up a whole new network to service those devices. ..... Intel has been talking up WiMax for several years as an alternative to cellular networks and to the expense of wiring the world with high-speed cable.
Cisco Rides Global Wave for Business Video With 200th Digital ... CNNMoney.com using Cisco Digital Signage to communicate in real time in a dynamic and user-friendly way with employees, job candidates and clients across 70 of its offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. .... the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Google Is Still More Of A Threat To Madison Avenue Than To Microsoft InformationWeek
Yahoo Buying Zimbra, an E-Mail Service for Businesses New York Times Zimbra, a start-up that provides Web-based e-mail to businesses and institutions .... $350 million .... Zimbra, a 100-person start-up founded in 2003, specializes in providing e-mail and calendar software to small and medium-size businesses, universities and Internet service providers. The company said it had nine million users. ..... Businesses typically pay Zimbra $28 a user, though universities pay only $1 for each student and $8 for each faculty member. .... just days after Google completed its purchase of the e-mail management company Postini for $625 million .... e-mail, calendar, word processing and spreadsheets and now slide presentation software. ..... Yahoo is the dominant e-mail provider on the Web, and had 181 million visitors in August .... Google’s Gmail sites had 18 million visitors in August.
Wed 9/12 - Choosing Between Zimbra and Exchange
What Next for Microsoft in China? BusinessWeek several embarrassing defections of top China execs, including one who wrote a tell-all book in Chinese that was a big seller. ..... Chen, 50, improved relations with the Chinese government so much that President Hu Jintao had dinner at Gates' mansion during his U.S. trip last year before traveling to Washington to see President George W. Bush. ..... "Before it was us-versus-them; the people in Redmond didn't understand what was going on in China and vice versa." ..... the percentage of counterfeit software in China has dropped to 82% from 92% in 2003. ....... To combat piracy—as well as Microsoft's Ugly American image—the company over the past few years also focused on building relations with local partners.
Digg Goes Deeper with Social Networking Currently, 15% to 20% of Digg's audience are registered users. The vast majority of the 20-million-plus users, by Digg's count, just read the posted stories. ...... "We all have a short list of probably 5 to 10 people whom we feel compelled to share certain information with." ..... the community has been demanding more personalization and privacy for a while, even going so far as to build Digg applications for Facebook where they can discuss articles with smaller groups. ..... the Digg community's well-worn reputation for overwhelming Web sites with traffic
Oracle broadens telecoms foothold VNUNet.com Oracle’s president and general manager, Bhaskar Gorti ...... the Netsure deal is part of a wider strategy aiming to boost Oracle’s presence in vertical sectors. .... “Quite apart from its significant reach in utilities and financial services, the company also has a presence in 22 industry segments.” ... Oracle is focusing most of its efforts on the energy and telecoms sectors, and that by broadening its offerings in this way, Oracle hopes to see off growing competition from SAP. ..... “When [Oracle chief Larry] Ellison was asked at the end of last year about whether the pace of Oracle’s acquisitions would slow down, his answer was that the next 12 months would be similar,” said Mitchell. “Larry has huge plans and growing the vertical markets is a large part of the strategy.”
Oracle Announces Enhanced Business Process Analysis Suite CNNMoney.com featuring unique closed-loop support to improve collaboration between business analysts and IT. .... the latest BPMN and BPEL standards and more closely aligns business and IT users, leading to greater productivity, operational efficiencies and innovation. .... an agile application platform that responds quickly to changing business requirements, helps boost productivity and reduce the business strategy to implementation gap. .... optimized processes that span multiple departments, with hundreds of dependencies and a multitude of back office applications .... enables business and IT managers to automate multi-step processes and simulate workflows to identify organizational, structural and technical problems before they occur.
Foolish Forecast: Reading Oracle's Silence Motley Fool Revenues. $4.34 billion would keep the average analyst happy, and that would be a 19% increase from the year-ago period's $3.66 billion. ..... a remarkably steady combination of earnings growth on autopilot and stable margins. Oracle also generates copious amounts of free cash flow, which tends to be invested in major acquisitions that form the basis of the company's growth. ...... SAP AG's "strategy of trying to build everything themselves using a 1970s-era proprietary programming language ....... Not that two companies with more than a $5 billion market cap combined could hurt mighty Oracle too badly, but the silence is still interesting.
Sun Aims to Double Sales in China Wall Street Journal pushing the country past Japan as Sun's largest market in the region ..... Sun's revenue in the Asian-Pacific region in the year through June 30 totaled $2.37 billion, more than a sixth of Sun's total world-wide revenue of $13.87 billion. Revenue in Asia grew 11%. ..... The company has almost 1,000 employees across four cities in mainland China. ...... Globally, Sun has been struggling for most of the decade to regain business lost after the Internet bust decreased spending by longtime customers. But the company has made a comeback in the past year, swinging to net income of $473 million for the most recent fiscal year from a net loss of $864 million the year earlier. ...... China -- which is second only to the U.S. in number of Internet users at 162 million ... fast-growing emerging markets, such as India and Brazil .... The number of people accessing networks with their mobile phones or playing online games makes the demand for Sun's products "exponential ..... develop global open-document formatting standards, privacy laws and open-source regulations.
Health Plan Overhauled at Wal-Mart New York Times cut employee costs, expand coverage and offer workers thousands of cheap prescription drugs. .... Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart’s insurance will look a lot like that offered by many other American companies, but with some twists that even longtime critics described as innovative. ...... could represent a turning point for the retailer, the nation’s largest private employer. ..... Wal-Mart employees, many of whom work part time and earn less than $20,000 a year. ... unclear how many of the 125,000 Wal-Mart workers without health coverage would sign up ..... an upgrade for the 636,000 employees who already receive health insurance through Wal-Mart. ...... “parts of it, like the $4 generics, are game-changing for the industry.” ..... Two years ago, the Maryland legislature took the unusual step of requiring Wal-Mart — and only Wal-Mart — to increase spending on health insurance. The law was later overturned. ...... still high deductibles and lengthy waiting periods. ..... 50 ways to customize coverage, with varying trade-offs like higher premiums and lower deductibles. ...... an employee would pay premiums up to $79 a month, receive a health care credit of $100 and pay a deductible of $500 ..... pay premiums of $8 a month, receive a $100 health care credit, but pay a deductible of $2,000. .... many generic drugs will be available for $4, brand-name drugs will cost $30 to $50. .... About half of Wal-Mart workers have coverage from the company, while 40 percent more get their coverage elsewhere — through a spouse, a parent, a second job or a state program like Medicaid. About 10 percent have no health coverage.
Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site effective at midnight tonight. .... In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free. ....... our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising ...... many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com ..... “What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others ...... The Times’s site has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, far more than any other newspaper site. ..... “The business model for advertising revenue, versus subscriber revenue, is so much more attractive,” he said. “The hybrid model has some potential, but in the long run, the advertising side will dominate.” ........ The Wall Street Journal .. has nearly one million paying online readers, generating about $65 million in revenue. .... has talked of the possibility of making access to The Journal free online. ..... The Los Angeles Times tried that model in 2005, charging for access to its arts section, but quickly dropped it after experiencing a sharp decline in Web traffic.
Age of Riches: Hedge Funds and Private Equity Alter Career Calculus So he, too, decided to forgo an M.B.A.. Instead, he raised $5 million and started his own hedge fund ...... The fund now manages $300 million out of offices in New York and Dallas, and Mr. Hammond, 28, enjoys seven-figure payouts. ...... The flood of money into private equity and hedge funds over the last decade has made billionaires out of people like Kenneth Griffin, 38, chief executive of the Citadel Investment Group, and Eddie Lampert, 45, the hedge fund king who bought Sears and Kmart. These men are icons for the fast buck set — particularly the mathematically gifted cohort of rising stars known as “quants.” ....... bright enough to be top computer scientists or medical researchers are becoming traders instead, and they measure their status in dollars instead of titles. ....... Many of the brightest don’t covet a corner office at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. Instead, they’re happy to work at a little-known hedge fund run out of a two-room office in Greenwich, Conn., as long as they get a fat payday. ...... What sets the new crowd apart is the need for speed and a thirst for instant riches. ..... the changing nature of money-making ..... In many banks and investment boutiques, traders with math and science backgrounds now contribute more to the bottom line than the white-shoed investment bankers who long presided over Wall Street. And traders tend to be less likely to go to business school. ........ you may see M.B.A.’s less represented in the lists of the world’s richest people ...... The number of students who earned M.B.A.’s in 2005 was about 142,600 ..... Management fees charged by funds — typically 2 percent ..... At funds that manage $1 billion to $3 billion, people with just a few years of finance experience will make $337,000 this year ..... successful traders said in interviews that they relished the challenge of their jobs, in addition to the lofty paychecks. ....... because today there are more self-made millionaires — and billionaires — than ever before, 20-something traders seem bolder in their monetary ambitions ...... “Going to business school is a way for people to try to open the door, to try to get into a company or hedge fund. But if you’re already there, it doesn’t make sense to go.” ...... Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have changed their tune on business school. Instead of pushing all their young employees into M.B.A. programs, banks are telling the best ones to stay put. ...... learning a different product or a different group here at Citi would be more valuable ..... ......buying and selling companies“Most banking — and that includes private equity — is about deals and about relationships” involves relationships and company analysis skills. ..... If he were looking at someone who went to Harvard Business School after the two-year analyst program at Goldman, “I’d be suspicious,” he says. “I’d be saying, ‘What was it you were doing wrong that you couldn’t get a promotion at Goldman or did not pursue an opportunity with a private equity or hedge fund?’ ” ...... calculates the cost of going to a two-year business school to be at least half a million dollars for the average bank employee — $250,000 or more each year in lost salary, plus $50,000 a year in tuition and living expenses. ...... financial engineering. ..... says he likes to hire people fresh out of school so he can teach them himself. ..... “If you’re a superstar, and you’re very good, you’ll grow very rapidly in this field.” .... “If you are trying to raise money for a hedge fund, you will need that network” ..... math equations are likely to be scrawled on white boards around the office and young people hold the purse strings to millions of dollars in investor money ..... a billionaire by 40,” the magazine said. “Or, then again, they could be belly up and bust.” ..... he has seen people go to hedge funds and get fired in six months “because they couldn’t hack it.”
Rather Files $70 Million Lawsuit Against CBS
Wal-Mart Won't Carry $200 HD-DVD Player Wired News

Mandating Health Insurance: The Poor Have Too Much Money

I commend Hillary for the effort she has made with her new health care proposal. And I must give it to her that I have not had the opportunity to study it in great detail. I want to be able to read the original. But the fundamental premise of it is at some level offensive.

Mandating health insurance, how much sense does it make? The suggestion seems to be that the poor masses are sitting on piles of money, but instead of buying health insurance, they go ahead and spend it on beer and cigarettes. So the way to change that bad behavior would be make it illegal for them to not buy health insurance.

Granted she has talked of helping people with the money. What if you are given tax breaks? What if the government steps in and helps you out a little. Those good sounding suggestions sound like the voucher schemes the Republicans have for the schools in poor neighborhoods designed to pit the poor against the poor, and like Edwards' voucher scheme to help a few to vacate poor neighborhoods entirely. His cure for urban poverty is to help a few escape the neighborhood. See no evil is the cure to evil.

I get the impression Hillary has learned entirely the wrong lesson from her health care debacle in the early 1990s. She is reluctant to confront big pharma and the big dogs of the insurance industry.

Hillary's solution to the health care crisis seems to be give even more private and public money to the insurance companies. Make it the law of the land that the insurance companies must get richer.

She still does not understand that it is not particularl policy per se but the political style, the political methods used that will make positive change possible. Her proposal exhibits her lapse of judgment.

Edwards errs in the other direction. He makes it sound like he is going to nuke the insurance companies to get to universal insurance.

Barack has middle, sensible ground. With Hillary, the insurance companies get most of the chairs around the table. With Edwards, they get kicked out of the room. With Obama, the insurance companies get one of many chairs in the room.

That is one big reason Obama's health care plan is not too specific. It is evolving. He has a few basic benchmarks. But other than that he is open to listening to all parties concerned. He will take the stand, he will pick fights if he has to, but ultimately for him it is less about posturing or cowering, and more about actually getting the stuff done. He is serious about getting a solution.

Granted there are other positive details to what Hillary has put forth. But the central premise overclouds those good details. Go back to the drawing board, Hillary. Instead of surprising the people with a plan, she should make transparent the very process and the discussions that lead to her plan. She has repeated her 1993 mistake of doing seemingly big work in opaque ways.

The process is central to the possibility of a positive outcome. Hillary doesn't get it.

Health Care As A Spectrum
Health Care Options

In The News

Ten lynched in Bihar weren't thieves: Report Sify
Obama Proposes Tax Cuts for Middle Class and Elderly New York Times at least $80 billion a year in tax cuts to middle-class workers, homeowners and retirees ..... “end the preferential treatment that’s built into our tax code.” ..... eliminate income taxes for older taxpayers who make less than $50,000 a year ...... raise capital gains taxes on the wealthy, close corporate loopholes and abolish tax breaks that have saved hedge fund and private equity managers billions of dollars. ..... some C.E.O.’s make more in 10 minutes than a worker makes in 10 months ..... the nation’s “social compact is starting to crumble.” .... proposed major simplifications to the tax system, with a goal of making basic tax filing a five-minute exercise. ........ For about 40 million Americans without complex taxes, he said, the government would essentially send a bill based on electronic information from employers and banks. ....... would “adjust the top dividends and capital gains rate to something closer to — but no greater than — the rates Ronald Reagan set in 1986. ...... by eliminating income taxes for older Americans earning less than $50,000 a year, Mr. Obama said 22 million people would no longer need to file an income tax return.
Obama Casts Voters As Agents of Change The Associated Press By suggesting that the power of change rests with voters, the ad offers a subtle shift on the ongoing debate within the Democratic field over which candidate best represents a shift in direction. .... they don't believe we can actually change politics and bring an end to decades of division and deadlock. They don't believe we can limit the power of lobbyists who block our progress, or that we can trust the American people with the truth ..... "I've taken on the drug and insurance companies and won ... "I defied the politics of the moment, and opposed the war in Iraq before it began," he says.
Obama's New Ad: Change is Possible, Forget 'Cynics' Washington Post Obama is launching his most aggressive advertising campaign in the state, with a direct, stylish spot in which he speaks directly to the camera ...... "And that's why we face the same problems and hear the same promises every four years." ..... his largest ad buy to date.
Clinton's Unhealthy Choices Plan CBS News Only two groups of Americans should worry about Hillary Clinton’s new health-care plan: the healthy and the sick. ..... expands every government health-care program in sight, including the ones that are already insolvent. ...... Senator Clinton is being treated as a political genius for leaving all the unpleasant parts of liberal health reform for later. Her plan features no explicit rationing, and she even claims that it would create no new bureaucracies. (Then who’s going to keep track of whether everyone has complied with the mandate to get health insurance?)
Clinton's health plan is good politics Newsday the increasing problems of cost and coverage. .... While her overly-big, bureaucratic Bad Idea as first lady ran a forest-killing 1,300 pages, the Hillary Care II of her front-running presidential campaign is only a sketchy 10 pages. It's impossible to assess the full impact of the plan without at least a few more dead trees of data. .... a country where bold, ground-breaking ideas get headlines but only pragmatically leavened proposals become law. ....... the lobbyist-pounded crucible of Congress .... not the government-run "single-payer" system loved by many liberals, not the "market-driven" status quo dominated by health insurers that is preferred by many conservatives. ...... get coverage through cost-shrinking insurance pools ...... the insurance industry that devoured Clinton's first plan with a $100- million ad campaign ..... That her plan is similar to those of rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards and of groups such as the American Medical Association suggests it has mainstream appeal. ..... Clinton has liked to say she matriculated in the "school of smaller steps." .... one of the most breathtaking political comebacks in U.S. history, Clinton has shown she understands not only the art of the possible but the value of the pragmatic. .... down moderate Main Street.
Clinton's Health Care Headstart Washington Post Now, she is promising to start health care reform right away, too. ..... she suggested that her requirement that all Americans buy health insurance would be enforced by employers who would check to ensure that prospective workers were insured .... said she could imagine a system in which "you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as part of the job interview ? like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination." ..... "In my two campaigns for the Senate, I did not leave any attack unanswered."
Clinton leads pack as GOP target Los Angeles Times her less enviable role as the No. 1 target for Republican attacks. ..... Romney said: "HillaryCare continues to be bad medicine." .... "Fundamentally, I think she takes her inspiration from European bureaucracies," he said. .... Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said Republicans could "launch as many attacks as they like." ...... 78% of Republicans gave Clinton negative ratings. ..... "If you want to get Democrats going, say 'George Bush'; if you want to get Republicans going, say 'the Clintons ...... The Giuliani campaign now leads its website with an anti-Clinton video. ..... Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas said in an interview last spring that Clinton was shocked but appreciative when he apologized to her for saying mean things about her during her husband's tumultuous White House tenure. ... "I hated them," Brownback said. "I did -- and it was wrong." ..... Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, praised Clinton, saying she was a "brilliant woman -- brilliant intellectually, and she's brilliant politically."
Clinton Rejects Rival’s Attack on Luncheon New York Times her camp dismissed the broadside as signs of a “flagging campaign.” .... Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, however, did not let the attack pass quietly and responded. ..... “Increasingly negative attacks,” a spokesman, Phil Singer, said in a statement to Politico .com, “against other Democrats aren’t going to end the war, deliver universal health care or turn around John Edwards’s flagging campaign.” ....... Mr. Trippi used Mrs. Clinton’s efforts with big donors as a pitch for smaller donations. “You may not have $1,000,” he said, adding that donations of $25 to $100 would be welcome.
Trippi goes nuclear on Clinton Baltimore Sun Trippi, Howard Dean's 2004 E-genius, slammed HRC for holding a $25,000-per-bundler, homeland security-themed fundraiser in DC today. .... Tickets for the Clinton fundraiser are $1,000 a ticket and $25,000 per bundler. And for that money you get more than a meal — you get to attend one-hour breakout sessions in four different areas of homeland security that will include House Committee Chairs and members of Congress who sit on the very committees that will be voting on homeland security legislation.
Giuliani Says He's MoveOn's 'Worst Nightmare' Washington Post the former New York mayor calls MoveOn the "most powerful left wing group in the country" and designates himself their "worst nightmare."
Giuliani Hits MoveOn, MoveOn Whacks Back Washington Post John McCain says MoveOn should be "thrown out of the country."
Google Unwraps Presentations Washington Post does an extraordinary job of making a Web site look and work exactly like a disk-based application: You can move and resize images and text boxes by dragging them around with the cursor
Google Intros Gadget Ads Format InternetNews.com Google today announced Google Gadget Ads, non-traditional ad units with interactive, rich media capabilities. ..... The Gadget Ads can be Individual advertisers and agencies alike can develop the ads using Flash, HTML or both. They can incorporate real-time data feeds, images and video. ...... Advertisers will be able to choose between cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing models, as well as target their ads based on site context, domain, geography and demographics. ..... reaches 75 percent of unique Internet users. ..... Pepsi-Cola North America's Sierra Mist, Intel, Honda, Six Flags and Paramount Vantage. ... it bought ad-serving firm DoubleClick earlier this year and started offering video advertising last summer.
IBM, Google take aim at Microsoft's Office dominance Sify IBM announced the release of Lotus Symphony, a portfolio of free software tools for creating and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. .... Lotus Symphony also supports multiple file formats including Microsoft Office and ODF (Open Document Format), and can also output content in the popular PDF format. ..... "IBM is committed to opening office desktop productivity applications just as we helped open enterprise computing with Linux," Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM Software Group ....... "The lifeblood of any organisation is contained in thousands of documents. When those documents are based on proprietary software, only future versions of the same software will be able to access that intelligence," he said. ..... The presentation feature is available in 25 languages.
Amitabh and Abhishek at their jovial best ! India Target Father and son were shooting on adjacent sets, and unit members had a great time watching the two fool around. ....... the two kept paying each other mini-visits, sharing jokes and generally having fun. During one such break, Big B went to Abhishek's sets to see him perform when the director sent an assistant to call Big B for a shot. The poor assistant didn't realize that Abhishek's shot was on and he simply walked across to call Big B, coming in the way of Abhishek and the camera. ...... "Abhishek was at his jovial best, and declared in front of all that since the assistant had spoilt his shot, he too would go to the sets of Bhootnath to spoil their shot… and, he did actually go over to Big B's sets during his break. What followed next was hilarious. Abhishek got into Big B's costumes and got hold of the script. Next, he asked for the cameras to start rolling and started saying Big B's dialogues from the script. The entire crew was in splits as they watched Abhishek. Even Big B was amused. He turned to the director and said, 'Oh, You have got a new actor in my place, I should take your leave now.'" ..... the great rapport that the father and son share

Giuliani Says He's MoveOn's 'Worst Nightmare' Washington Post
Obama Economic Plan Includes Tax Breaks The Associated Press $80 billion annually in relief for workers, seniors and homeowners. ..... would give 150 million workers a $500 payroll tax credit, expand relief on mortgage interest, eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 and simplify returns so millions can file in less than five minutes. ..... would pay for his proposals by closing corporate tax loopholes, cracking down on international tax havens and raising the top rate on capital gains and dividends ...... Obama's plan to eliminate taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 annually would mean 22 million elderly would no longer need to file an income tax return or hire a tax preparer. ...... the IRS would send prefilled tax forms to 40 million workers who take the standard deduction and have a bank account. They would simply have to sign and return it, which Obama estimates would save more than $2 billion in tax preparer fees, 200 million hours of work and "an incalculable amount of headache and heartburn."
Giuliani Hits MoveOn, MoveOn Whacks Back Washington Post
Gallup: Giuliani dips, McCain edges up, Romney slips; Clinton's ... USA Today
China says it opposes threatening Iran with war Reuters
Commonwealth chief to press Musharraf on army role AFP
Taiwan seeks attention but China steals spotlight Guardian Unlimited
Google Launches AdSense for Mobile InformationWeek
Amitabh gets best actor award for 'Black' Hindu
Big-name vendors lined up to offer WiMAX laptops Register Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have all committed themselves to offering 'Montevina' Centrino laptops with on-board WiMAX wireless broadband support .... WiMAX, not HSUPA/HSDPA-augmented 3G, is the wireless technology that will bring mobile broadband to the masses. ..... By 2012, he forecast, some 1.3bn people worldwide will regularly find themselves within range of a WiMAX basestation, up from 750m in 2010 and 150m in 2008, though he conceded that the vast majority of the latter will be in the US.
Redline's RedMAX(TM) products chosen for first WiMAX network in Egypt Business Wire
OJ Simpson to face kidnapping, armed robbery charges AFP

At SEIU, Obama "Rocked The House" Atlantic Online his argument that Hillary Clinton is too polarizing, too calculating and too change-averse to pursue transformative policies. ..... Obama seems more popular with SEIU members than he does with SEIU executives, many of whom are said to favor Edwards. ..... “But the real key in passing universal health care is the ability to bring people together in a process that is open and transparent and builds real consensus, and I’ve got a track record of doing that.”
Obama: Reappraise Wall Street Values The Associated Press a "what's good for me is good enough" mentality has crept into parts of the business world while working men and women toil longer hours and still struggle to pay for health care, tuition and taxes. ...... former Commerce secretary Bill Daley, former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and University of Chicago economist Austan D. Goolsbee helped Obama with the speech ...... win support for an agenda for change. ...... more than $1 trillion worth of corporate tax loopholes. ..... there is greater income inequality now than at any time since the Gilded Age ..... markets need to be more open and transparent to keep the trust of investors and the public. He said that trust can be restored by federal action like:_ New mortgage rules with tough penalties for lenders who trick homeowners into loans they can't afford;_ An investigation of the relationship and business practices of rating agencies and their clients;_ A five-star credit card rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk for their credit card, including how easily the company can change the interest rate;_ A request that lenders show some flexibility to people trying to sell or refinance their homes.
Clinton unveils health insurance plan Los Angeles Times a plan that would require every American to have health insurance, offer generous subsidies to help pay for the policies and gingerly seek to tamp down rapidly rising medical costs. ...... she had learned the lessons of her earlier failure, pledging to do less mandating and more negotiating. ..... left key elements open to bargaining..... would require sweeping changes to, among other things, the nation's drug and insurance industries ..... Half of the $110 billion-a-year cost of Clinton's "American Health Choices Plan" would come from savings that she says she can squeeze from the current health- care system. ........ Clinton's savings from modernizing the system and improving clinical practices are highly uncertain but little different than those cited by other candidates .... all Americans would face an "individual mandate," a requirement that they have health coverage, just as most drivers are now required to have auto insurance. ...... Because of her history with the issue and her status as a former first lady, Clinton dominated news coverage Monday with her release of the plan. ....... a candidate who has spent much of the presidential campaign seeking to build a softer, less-combative image .... She was particularly fierce about insurers. ..... "Right now, insurance companies have free reign to cherry pick the healthiest patients and shut out anyone who seems to them like a bad risk," she said. "Insurance companies spend $50 billion a year on elaborate calculations and schemes to figure out how not to insure people. Fifty billion dollars trying to shut out those who need care the most." ...... Clinton took in $146,000 from drug companies and health product companies ; $991,000 from various health professionals, including doctors and nurses; and $353,000 from insurers
Bolder Than Obama, More Pragmatic Than '93-'94 Plan ABC News the free-rider problem that occurs when emergency rooms
Hillary's Health Care Do-Over TIME Instead of forcing people into big buying cooperatives — back then, she called them "alliances" — her new proposal allows people who like their health insurance to keep it. Her earlier plan would have established a big new government bureaucracy to determine things like what specific benefits should be required for all Americans; her new one does not. And while it contains a version of her earlier plan's controversial "employer mandate," requiring businesses to provide coverage for their workers, it exempts small employers. ..... only 48% of companies that employ fewer than 10 people provide health benefits .... Clinton is still likely to cross swords with the industry by requiring insurance companies to sell policies to anyone who applies and by barring them from charging sick people more. ..... allow people to buy into a government-run plan, similar to Medicare, which would amount to a test of both the support and feasibility of a "single-payer" system similar to Canadian and European systems. ........ The real battle will be convincing Democratic primary voters which candidate can actually turn his or her plan into reality. ..... The mismanagement of the effort in 1993 and 1994 has set back our ability to move toward universal health care immeasurably. ...... premium costs have risen 78% in the last six years, to an annual cost of $12,106 per family ..... the Massachusetts program, which is proving costlier and more difficult to implement than advertised.
Black Sacramento For Obama Bay Area Indymedia, CA "the only candidate that can unite people to get things done." ...... The Obama campaign said it is looking to win all of the early voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada —