Peace Flotilla Horror

I've just heard that this Peace flotilla had been intercepted by Israeli forces.

At least ten people on this flotilla have been killed.

I am stunned and horrified by these awful news.

I hope that there will be a full and honest investigation about what went so terribly wrong here.

Wall Street's View of the Bailout?

The New York magazine has released this fascinating article about President Obama and his relations with Wall Street while trying to enact reform.

I found this rather enlightening on part 5.

Another, not inconsistent, theory is that the money changers aren’t merely forgetful but mildly deluded. “They’ve created a narrative where irrational actions by a few people plus the nature of government intervention forced them to do things inconsistent with their free-market philosophy and regular way of handling their business,” offers a Democratic financier. “So, yes, they took the TARP money, but only because they had to. None of them are sitting there saying to themselves, ‘You know, I was responsible for this crisis. Therefore, I’m really grateful to the government that it stepped in.’ This is not the narrative they have in their heads.”

But one of the city’s most successful hedge-fund hotshots offers a different surmise: “The majority of Wall Street thinks, ‘Hey, you lent us money. We did a trade. We paid you back. When you had me down, you could have crushed me, you could have done whatever you wanted. You didn’t do it! So stop your bitching and stop telling me I owe you, because I already paid you everything! The fact that I’m making money now is because I’m smarter than you!’ I think that’s where you’ve got this massive disconnect. In simple human terms, the government is saying, ‘I saved your life, and all you did was thank me once. You should be calling me every day: Thank you. Thank you.’ The guy who saved the life expects more. And the guy whose life is saved says, ‘I already thanked you!’ ”

The New York Times' Litany of Failures

I do not understand why people call the New York Times the 'newspaper of record', as though they're somehow better than other newspapers.

They don't act like it.

Recently they accused Richard Blumenthal of repeatedly lying about his military service.

It made particular reference to one speech he gave in 2008 where it appeared that he stated he had served in Vietnam.

Maureen Dowd provided a column slamming him for it.

Slate magazine provided this list of nine comments by their writers slamming Blumenthal for this.

They also unleashed this article, which at first glance seems to be about a Vietnam War memorial in New York, but it's actually a polemic against Mr. Blumenthal. I can't quite get over this one.

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general and embattled Democratic candidate for senator, has probably already made plans for the Memorial Day weekend. He’s got a lot of campaigning to do, and some explaining, too.

But if he can find time, he may want to drive down to New York and visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Water Street in the financial district. There, he could learn a thing or two about that war from men who actually fought it — unlike Mr. Blumenthal, who has on occasion claimed to have been there, though the closest he may have gotten to a Vietnam experience is at Saigon Kitchen in Hartford. ...

I was a Vietnam-era soldier. But a Vietnam veteran? It never occurred to me to call myself that. Those are not misplaced words. They are a lie.

There's a lot more in there, but that should be enough to get a flavor of what is said.

Turns out actually Blumenthal was quite open about what he actually did during those days. He had earlier stated accurately in his 2008 speech that he did serve in the Vietnam era. Most local Connecticut reporters say he did not hide the facts of his military service.

Apparently this information was provided by the opposing campaign.

Clearly there are a lot of problems with how the New York Times dealt with this story as this Guardian article put it:

So by the weekend, when Blumenthal received the endorsement of Connecticut Democrats, three major problems had arisen in the Times's reporting:

• The Times had failed to reveal that Blumenthal, in the 2008 speech that was at the centre of its story, had accurately described his military service just minutes before saying he had served "in" Vietnam.

• An important source in that initial report, Jean Risley, who chairs the Connecticut Vietnam Veterans Memorial, said she had been misquoted.

• The little detail about Blumenthal's having lied about being on the Harvard swim team turns out to be almost certainly wrong.

Thankfully the Daily Howler provides us with this helpful reminder of all the times the New York Times has messed up in recent years. Whitewater, slamming Al Gore in 2000, accusing John McCain of having an affair on very weak evidence, Judith Miller. And how some people still seem to uncritically accept what they say.

Why do people give this paper some sort of creditability as though they are better than any other media source by calling them the 'newspaper of record' when all these things happen? I don't get it.

They certainly did not act like a newspaper of record in those instances. Why give them that honor?

(Thanks to the Guardian article for providing 'litany' for my title.)

Why BP Is Not Measuring the Extent of the Oil Leak?

Could it be to lower costs in any future court cases?

NYT Fail

It appears to me that the New York Times messed up on their story concerning Blumenthal. See here.

The Unconventional Mayor of Bogota

This looks interesting.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4891823/Bogota-Mayor-Antanas-Mockus-turned-city-into-a-social-experiment

US Corporations Dodge $60 Billion in Taxes

Here's how it all happens.