And by fathers, the Beast Who Slumbers emphatically does not mean L. Ron Hubbard, the ‘Father’ of Scientology. Today’s lead story is a chilling glimpse inside the full-fledged cult of Scientology as told by some of the cult’s former leaders themselves. And it’s only the first of a three-parter. Major ‘bulo  Tip of the Sombrero to the irreplaceable Unstable Isotope for bringing this must-read to his (and your) attention:

LEAD STORY: St. Petersburg Times-Former Cult Leaders Unmask the ‘Church’ of Scientology

Similarities to other churches, i. e. mind-control, beating members, lying about it, and threatening legal action, purely not coincidental:

This account comes from executives who for decades were key figures in Scientology’s powerful inner circle. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the church, are speaking out for the first time.

 Two other former executives who defected also agreed to interviews with the St. Petersburg Times: De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church’s spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, and Amy Scobee, who helped create Scientology’s celebrity network, which caters to the likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

 One by one, the four defectors walked away from the only life they knew. That Rathbun and Rinder are speaking out is a stunning reversal because they were among Miscavige’s closest associates, Haldeman and Ehrlichman to his Nixon.

 Now they provide an unprecedented look inside the upper reaches of the tightly controlled organization. They reveal:

 • Physical violence permeated Scientology’s international management team. Miscavige set the tone, routinely attacking his lieutenants. Rinder says the leader attacked him some 50 times.

• Church staffers covered up how they botched the care of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after they held her 17 days in isolation at Clearwater’s Fort Harrison Hotel.

• With Miscavige calling the shots and Rathbun among those at his side, the church muscled the IRS into granting Scientology tax-exempt status. Offering fresh perspective on one of the church’s crowning moments, Rathbun details an extraordinary campaign of public pressure backed by thousands of lawsuits.

• To prop up revenues, Miscavige has turned to long-time parishioners, urging them to buy material that the church markets as must-have, improved sacred scripture.

This Church also forces members to write ‘confessions’ and admissions of failings, documents that it then produces when someone dares make an allegation against the Church. 

Just read the whole damn thing and then come back to comment on this (tax-exempt) monstrosity. At least ‘bulo further understands why Tom Cruise and John Travolta seem so…weird.

New York Times-Paul Krugman on the Froomkin Firing

People who were wrong felt that they just had no choice but to fire the people who were right:

Now, you might think that the way things turned out — the total failure of movement conservatism in government, and the abrupt, humiliating end to the Permanent Republican Majority — would lead to some soul-searching. But that’s not how human nature works. Instead, it became more urgent than ever to assert that those who didn’t get with the program were flakes and moonbats, not worthy of being listened to, while those who believed in the right to the bitter end were “serious”.

As any readers of the ‘Sunday Papers’ segment know, ‘bulo generally steers away from citing commentary. But Krugman posits a plausible theory for a firing that otherwise defies logic.

The (UK) Independent-Blair Lobbies for ‘Secret’ Iraq Investigation

Bush’s poodle, now trying to reclaim some glory as he petitions to become EU President, has apparently succeeded in getting the British government to conduct its inquiry into the Iraq War in secret. This would ensure that Blair would not have to testify in public. Needless to say, this has not been greeted with universal hosannas across the Pond:

The row over the decision to hold the Iraq war inquiry behind closed doors escalated last night as it emerged that Tony Blair pressed Gordon Brown to keep it private.

 In a move that will deepen the outrage of families of British soldiers killed in Iraq, the former prime minister, one of the architects of the controversial war, wanted the hearings to be held in secret to avoid a public and media circus.

A public appearance by Mr Blair before the Chilcot inquiry would also damage his ambitions of becoming EU president, a role that needs the support of European countries that opposed the war.

Last Monday the Prime Minister announced the long-awaited inquiry into the war in an attempt to shore up his premiership and appease Labour backbenchers. But he immediately caused anger by revealing that the inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot and a panel of other privy councillors, would be held in private.

One reason why the Independent is such an excellent paper is that it usually provides informative sidebar articles to accompany a featured story. Such once again is the case here, and you will get more context and perspective on this entire sordid and disastrous affair by clicking on them from the link above. But here’s one you should not miss about the British use and coverup of, wait for it…, torture.

And, if you prefer the coverage by The (UK) Guardian, here’s more first-rate coverage of the coverup.

Financial Times-US & Russia Making Progress on Nuclear Arms Cuts

Cowboy diplomacy indeed appears to be as relevant as a fossilized cow-pie:

A new arms pact to follow the 1991 START treaty, which expires on Dec. 5, is at the centre of efforts by Mr Medvedev and US President Barack Obama to improve bilateral ties which sank to post-Cold War lows under the previous U.S. administration.

A successor treaty aimed at cutting long-range nuclear weapons amassed by the former superpower rivals during the Cold War arms race will be a major topic at talks between Mr Medvedev and Mr Obama in Moscow next month.

Proof that maybe the occasional turd-blossom emerges from a fossilized cow-pie.

Al Jazeera-What’s Really Happening in Iran

Although not technically from the Sunday paper, this thoughtful and nuanced analysis from Mark LeVine is essential reading for anyone trying to understand what’s really going on. Here are a few  ‘grafs to pique your curiosity:

Do the issues motivating the current protests ultimately derive from people’s anger at perceived fraud and not having their votes counted? Or do they, as seems increasingly clear, reflect a much deeper level of anger at, and even opposition to, the nature and governing ideology and practises of the Iranian political system?

What seems evident as the crisis deepens is that Ayatollah Khamenei, who most commentators have long assumed holds near absolute power in the country as Supreme Leader, is in a weaker position than previously believed. The collective religious and military leadership, along with the Revolutionary Guard, will likely have a lot of input into determining what course the government takes.

And it is certainly questionable whether these factions have shared core interests during this crisis, as the Revolutionary Guard – from whose ranks President Ahmadinejad emerged – is both culturally more conservative and economically more populist than much of the political and religious leadership.

The religious establishment is itself split into hard-line, moderate and more progressive factions, each of whose members are tied to factions within the economic, political and security elite, producing a complex and potentially volatile set of competing and contradictory loyalties and interests.

The Bush Administration and its media enablers succeeded in stereotyping Al Jazeera as the house organ of Al Qaeda. In fact, from what ‘bulo reads, it’s one of the very few journalistic organizations seeking to understand and explain the complexities (a word with which the Bush Administration was unfamiliar) of some of the world’s most intractable and explosive problems.

Chicago Sun-Times-Did ‘Deep Throat’ Try to Deep-Six “Deep Throat”?

Fascinating time-capsule story about how the highest higher-ups in the FBI, including J. Edgar himself and possibly Mark ‘the Watergate Deep Throat’ Felt, tried to stop “Deep Throat” from being released. Perhaps more than any film, “Deep Throat” brought pornography into the semi-mainstream and became one of the touchstones for the sexual revolution of the late-’60’s and early ’70’s.

And don’t ask El Somnambulo whether closing his Father’s Day edition with this story has any deep psychological underpinnings. Not even his shrink knows for sure.

The right-wing meme about the Lib’rul Media? Uh, not so much.

The Washington Post, whose editorial page has been moving further and further to the right, has fired Dan Froomkin, the best bleeping blogger in America, whose White House Watch was must-reading during the Bush years and even more so during the early months of the Obama Administration.

Perhaps Salon’s Glenn Greenwald (click and read the entire piece, it’s great) put it best:

 “All of this underscores a critical and oft-overlooked point: what one finds virtually nowhere in the establishment press are those who criticize Obama not in order to advance their tawdry right-wing agenda but because the principles that led them to criticize Bush compel similar criticism of Obama. Rachel Maddow is one of the few prominent media figures who will interview and criticize Democratic politicians ‘from the Left’ (and it’s hardly a coincidence that it was MSNBC’s decision to give Maddow her own show — rather than the endless array of right-wing talk show hosts plaguing television for years — which prompted a tidal wave of ‘concern’ over whether cable news was becoming ‘too partisan’). In general, however, those who opine from the Maddow/Froomkin perspective are a very endangered species, and it just became more endangered as the Post fires one if its most popular, talented, principled and substantive columnists.”

Froomkin has an excellent perspective on what journalists should do:

 “I think that the future success of our business depends on journalists enthusiastically pursuing accountability and calling it like they see it. That’s what I tried to do every day. Now I guess I’ll have to try to do it someplace else.”

El Somnambulo does not understand what is happening to journalism anymore. The very idea that a paper like the Washington Post would deep-six Froomkin is something ‘bulo just can’t get his head around.  

Ultimately, however, Froomkin will find a new home that is receptive to his audience while the WaPo will continue its drift towards journalistic obsolescence. The point is that it didn’t have to happen. When the final chapter on who killed newspapers is written, the answer will be simple. The newspapers themselves. 

Lead Story: Al Jazeera: Post-Election Rioting in Tehran

Recommended not just for the lead story, but also for the linked stories. Though it’s not what ‘bulo wants to believe, it appears at least possible that Ahmadinejad won fair and square:

Commenting on the dispute, Mehran Kamrava, director of the centre for international and regional studies at Georgetown University’s campus in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that Iranian elections are “notoriously unpredictable”.

“The Western media has been talking to people in north Tehran, who tend to vote overwhelmingly against Ahmadinejad,” he told Al Jazeera.

“But let’s not forget that many of the urban Iranians have priorities and proclivities that are not necessarily reflected in other areas of the main cities, and those people could easily have voted for Ahmadinejad.

The (UK) Economist: How the Rain Forest Might (Or Might Not) Be Saved

A brilliant in-depth briefing on the status, history and possible future of the Amazon Rain Forest. Must-reading for both those with an acute understanding of the issues and especially for those (like ‘bulo) with only a passing understanding of all the forces at play here. Here’s, in part, what created the problem in the first place:

All these places are part of the Amazon rainforest, an area one-and-a-half times the size of India, or nearly eight times the size of Texas. Most of it lies within Brazil. It is home to 20m Brazilians, or 10% of the country’s population. Many of them live a hardscrabble existence in places that are hot, wet, often disease-ridden and sometimes dangerous. These people have gone from being heroes who answered the government’s call to populate and subdue an empty region, to environmental criminals who are wrecking the planet, all the while standing on the same spot and doing what they have done for decades.

No government would think of condemning so many voters to persistent poverty in the name of saving trees. Moving them is impractical and would be unjust, since the state moved them in the first place, under a policy that began in the 1960s and lasted for 20 years. (Other institutions helped too; the World Bank provided a loan that financed a large migration from the south of the country to Rondônia state in the days before it cared about greenery.) A vast migration was accomplished with promises of free land, subsidies and a slightly menacing marketing campaign that exhorted people to ocupar para não entregar (“occupy it or lose it”). Parts of Brazil’s government still fret that covetous foreign powers may try to annexe the Amazon forest unless the country can find something useful to do with it.

Finding another way to assist this impoverished population earn a living is essential in any solution:

Efforts to commercialise forest products, from Amazon river fish to oils for use in cosmetics, are also under way. Amigos da Terra, in a study of these businesses, finds them to be profitable when they form clusters and turn out finished products. “I am convinced that in 20 years we will have a viable forest economy,” says Mr Smeraldi. “Only by then we will have lost a lot of forest.”

Speeding up this process is one of the motives behind the $1 billion donation for the Amazon announced in September by Norway’s government. The Brazilian government has set up an Amazon Fund for this money and any future donations. Norway will have no say in how it is used, but the amount of money it releases from the fund will be linked to Brazil’s success in slowing deforestation. Germany will give something to the fund too. Turid Rodrigues Eusébio, Norway’s ambassador to Brasília, says lots of other countries are watching Norway to see how the experiment goes, and will chip in if it is a success.

The Beast Who Slumbers encourages you to read the whole thing to develop an understanding of this essential issue.

Washington Post: The Untimely (It Should’ve Happened Much Earlier) Demise of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

A detailed and fascinating account of Rumsfeld’s last days as Defense Secretary, and a recounting of the latter portion of his disastrous reign:

Even with the heated speculation about Rumsfeld before the elections, the defense secretary’s exit stunned Washington. In bearing the brunt of attacks for the administration’s conduct of the Iraq war, Rumsfeld had to some extent shielded Bush from criticism. His departure confirmed what a damaging political liability he had become, although Bush was still unwilling to concede publicly that his defense secretary had made serious mistakes. To the contrary, the president praised Rumsfeld for having been “a superb leader during a time of change.”

Many of Rumsfeld’s friends were offended by the White House’s seemingly rushed and unceremonious handling of the announcement of Rumsfeld’s resignation. To his supporters, the day-after news conference — which concluded with the defense secretary being patted on the shoulder as Bush ushered him out of the Oval Office — was insensitive and unbefitting of Rumsfeld’s long career of public service.

To others, though, the end of Rumsfeld’s tenure came too late. A number of Republican lawmakers complained bitterly that Bush had not cut Rumsfeld loose before the election, when the move might have provided a boost at the polls for some GOP candidates. While presidential aides had anticipated some gripes about the timing, the extent of the anger within party ranks surprised them.

Good stuff from Bradley Graham, not the hatchet job you might expect or that, frankly, Rumsfeld deserves. Although the truth is more than damning enough.

NYTimes: Feuding Bank Regulators Key to Obama Policy

If the Beast Who Slumbers had a dog in this fight, it’d be Sheila Bair, Chair of the FDIC:

At a public meeting three weeks ago, John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, blasted a proposal to impose stiff new insurance fees on banks as unfair to the largest banks, which he regulates. The financial crisis stemmed in part from problems at small banks, he insisted.

Sheila C. Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the regulator for many smaller, community banks, could barely hide her contempt. The large banks, she said, had wreaked havoc on the system, only to be bailed out by “hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in government assistance.” She added, “Fairness is always an issue.”

Check out the photo of the two feuding bureacrats that accompanies this article, and one is reminded of Keith Jackson, “Whoa, Nellie, these two flat-out just don’t like each other.”

LATimes: Scientists Scramble to Save World’s Wheat from ‘Stem Rust’

Up to 80% of the world’s wheat could be wiped out if scientists can’t develop strain-resistant wheat:

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80% of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from eastern Africa. It has already jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind will inevitably carry it to Russia, China and even North America — if it doesn’t hitch a ride with people first.        

“It’s a time bomb,” said Jim Peterson, a professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it’s going to be here. It’s a matter of how long it’s going to take.”

Though most Americans have never heard of it, Ug99 — a type of fungus called stem rust because it produces reddish-brown flakes on plant stalks — is the No. 1 threat to the world’s most widely grown crop.

 

 Paging UI for scientific analysis… 

Cristiano Ronaldo: The epitome of the loathsome genius, Ronaldo is a legend on the pitch and legendarily off-putting off it. Preening, arrogant, a serial dater of vacuous blondes and incapable of looking after a £200,000 Ferrari without trashing it. A man of whom it can only be said: it’s a good job you’re pretty.

And, with this look at deserved celebrityhood, ‘bulo signs off for this week with this plea: Don’t hate bulo just because he’s brilliant at what he does. Brilliant people need love, too. And some can’t afford to pay for it.

Lead Story-The (UK) Independent: How the Freedom of Information Act and Investigative Journalism Brought Down the British Government

And, yes, this is precisely how El Somnambulo hopes that Delaware journalists will use their new access once HB 1 becomes law:

Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, in his first interview since the staggering scale of the abuse of public money by MPs first emerged four weeks ago, said the “controversy” demonstrated the true power of the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Thomas described the three-year struggle to publish MPs’ expenses as a complex legal saga involving a battle against “powerful forces”. He said: “The combination of the Freedom of Information Act and journalism had brought home the importance of transparency and accountability.”

The local media will soon have the tools to look into what has gone on behind closed doors for decades in Delaware. Please use them.

Washington Post: Why GM Is Doomed

They still believe in gaz-guzzling “sexy cars with charisma”:

If you were to believe that (GM Vice-Chair Bob)Lutz commissioned the Volt because he thinks the environment needs to be saved from carbon dioxide emissions, or that the United States has a moral obligation to lead a greening of the planet, you would be wrong. “If you look at most of the mainstream media, you get the impression that 95 percent of Americans today want a vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt or a [hybrid such as the] Toyota Prius,” says Lutz, until recently the former head of GM’s global product development and nowadays the company’s vice chairman and senior adviser. “And that, by God, the reason General Motors is in trouble, is that we have not offered a vehicle like that. But when you look at the reality, at today’s fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car.”

Why the Volt then? “Because it is an important symbol. We need it. It has a chance to change our image,” he says.

Got that? The reason GM is in bankruptcy has nothing to do with making cars that people don’t want to buy. Take it from Bob Lutz. He should know. He “drives a gas-thirsty 2009 Corvette, a dream car of muscle lovers.” He’s just like you and me. Except he makes about $40 mill a year.

NYTimes: How Wells Fargo Steered Blacks to Subprime Loans

They steered ’em to subprime loans even when the clients qualified for prime loans:

Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”

“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”

…The New York Times, in a recent analysis of mortgage lending in New York City, found that black households making more than $68,000 a year were nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as whites of similar or even lower incomes. (The disparity was greater for Wells Fargo borrowers, as 2 percent of whites in that income group hold subprime loans and 16.1 percent of blacks.)

“We’ve known that African-Americans and Latinos are getting subprime loans while whites of the same credit profile are getting the lower-cost loans,” said Eric Halperin, director of the Washington office of the Center for Responsible Lending. “The question has been why, and the gory details of this complaint may provide an answer.”

Let us not forget that banks like Wells Fargo and other ‘responsible’ lending institutions have been aided and abetted by the Tom Carpers of the world, who made it much more difficult for people victimized by these banking scams to declare, and emerge from, bankruptcy. The Beast Who Slumbers may just have to lumber on over to the Department of Elections website later today to see just how Wells Fargo showed its ‘appreciation’ to the fiscally-responsible Senator from Delaware. After all, as Dick Durbin said, they “run the place”.

LA Times: Could Ahmadinejad Lose Power in Iran?

Incisive and detailed analysis by the Times’ Borzou Daragahi into behind-the-scenes maneuvering before this week’s elections in Iran:

In addition to protecting their own considerable financial and political interests, which include control of key segments of foreign trade, private education and agriculture, Ahmadinejad’s behind-the-scenes opponents fear that a win by the incumbent will further isolate Iran internationally, weaken the middle class and give more power to the military and the Revolutionary Guard.

“We can’t run Iran like North Korea,” said Saeed Laylaz, a newspaper editor and analyst with contacts among the political elite. “A group of militarists cannot stuff this civilization into a can and put it away. Iran cannot make up for its lack of economic might with nuclear technology, missiles and proxy threats in Lebanon and Palestine and elsewhere.”

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering is an illustration of how power works within Iran’s complicated and fractured circle of power. But it also shows how much division Ahmadinejad has sown within the ruling establishment, where he is a lightning rod for anger and resentment from formidable political heavyweights among moderates and conservatives.

This is must-reading for those looking to really understand Iran as opposed to merely equating Ahmadinejad to Iran. It’s much more complicated than that.

San Francisco Chronicle: Schwarzenegger Considers Offshore Drilling to Help Plug Budget Gap

No, not a complete reversal of his previous opposition. This is actually a complicated story well-told by the Chronicle’s David Baker:

California law still blocks new oil drilling in waters controlled by the state, within 3 miles of shore. But the Tranquillon Ridge project would take advantage of a little-known and extremely specific loophole that allows tapping an oil field in state waters if some of the oil seeps into a federally controlled field, beyond the 3-mile line. Few other oil fields identified along California’s coast fit that description.

Many of the state’s leading environmental organizations support this proposal, but it is ironically complicated by an environmentally-friendly bureaucracy.

El Somnambulo also included this story for another reason entirely. While California is trying to do the right thing here,  it is a virtual certainty that not all states faced with major budgetary shortfalls will act in a responsible manner. Readers should keep their eyes open for long-term negative policy changes enacted to address short-term financial shortfalls. 

Chicago Tribune: Inspector General Stands Up to Mayor Daley

This, boys and girls, is how a State Auditor should function:

“I’m running this office as an independent entity — period,” he (Inspector General David Hoffman) said. “People need to believe that you’re independent of every other part of city government. Especially the mayor.”

Hoffman has demonstrated his independence despite having been appointed by the mayor to a four-year term in 2005. Needless to say, a reappointment is certainly questionable.

However, he demonstrates the essential role an auditor can and should play. In a state with as much political and financial in-breeding as Delaware, there is no excuse for having an auditor who doesn’t audit, except for the classic ‘low-hanging fruit’. Wow, school administrators are overpaid? Who knew?

If Delaware is ever to have a progressive government that works for all its citizens, an independent auditor with both determination and investigative know-how will be essential.

Delaware needs its own David Hoffman.

‘Bulo apologizes to his fan(s) for the relative lateness of this post. He was at the Arden Gild Hall last night, and comfortably blended in with those granola grannies while watching Marcia Ball and scorching opener, The Skyla Burrell Band, tear the roof off the place. So, he’s posting this and returning to Dreamland. 

LEAD STORY: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman (Wasilla, Alaska): Will The Anti-Christ Be a Homosexual?

Some stories just need to be read in their entirety. However, the Beast Who Slumbers will provide you a taste. He bets you can’t resist reading the rest. From Sarah Palin’s hometown ‘news’paper:

From a lost perspective, the reason sex sells, pornography is profitable, and prostitution is “the world’s oldest profession” is mankind’s desire of women. From Christianity’s position, it is part of the glue for the bond of marriage and the propagation of a godly heritage. But homosexuality does not regard this — in their unbridled lusts they burn for their own gender.

But consider this: The time is ripe for such a leader. Indeed, it should not be surprising that the one who is against everything Biblical and Christian should be a partaker of so great a sin; there is no greater way to reject the Creator than to reject your gender and his design for it. And at what other time have we seen such perversion come out of the closets onto our streets, threatening violence if we do not accept their ways?

Words fail ‘bulo, but he bets they won’t fail you. Comment away!

Boston Globe: ‘Non-Profit’ Hospitals Scamming Government for Indigent Care Funding

What a surprise. You’ve all heard how health care costs are so high because of what is spent to care for the uninsured. Turns out that hospitals have been scamming government for reimbursement that far outstrips the cost of care:

However, as hospitals have prospered and grown, so too has the value of the breaks on state, federal, sales, and property taxes they enjoy as charities. And that fact has triggered a growing debate, among policy makers and politicians, about whether the public is still getting its money’s worth from an exemption that dates to the 19th century and was created to encourage hospitals to treat the poor.

Today, in fact, the value of tax exemption far exceeds the amount the state’s leading hospitals spend on free care for the poor and other community benefits they report annually to the attorney general, a Globe review has found.

What’s more, hospital spending on free care is declining because of the state’s 2006 healthcare reforms. Today, hospitals typically spend about 1 percent of expenses on free medical care, as measured by the attorney general, half of what they spent before reform made insurance available to many more low-income people.

The gap between tax benefits and charity care varies widely among hospitals. The gap is widest at the most prosperous hospital companies. And some less profitable institutions actually spend more on charity than they save on taxes.

So, what does this have to do with Delaware. Well, let’s just see how Christiana Care describes itself:

Christiana Care is a private not-for-profit regional health care system and relies in part on the generosity of individuals, foundations and corporations to fulfill its mission.

In part. What kind of breaks on state, federal, and property taxes is Christiana receiving? Are they being reimbursed for more than their ‘charitable’ endeavors warrant? El Somnmabulo cannot trust any organization that has Wayne Smith, Delaware’s Newt Gingrich, as it’s ‘government representative’.

Were El Somnambulo a News Editor, he would assign one of his top reporters to dig into this. He hopes the News-Journal will do the same.

The (UK) Guardian: Expats Flock to Cuba After Obama Eases Travel Restrictions

Now, really, was THAT so hard to do?

Cuban-Americans are flocking home. “For me this is a real, concrete change,” said Estefania, hugging her mother at arrivals after two years away. “I am studying and working in Miami, and now, with the cash I am earning there, not only can I travel as often as I can to visit my family, but I can also give them more money and bring more supplies. This is real change for many Cubans.”

At some point, cooler heads will realize that the economic embargo is also nothing more than the last vestiges of Cold War thinking, and both Cubans and Americans will benefit from its overdue demise.

Washington Post: Obama Forces Overhaul of Auto Industry

Can the Obama Administration rescue Detroit from Detroit?  Maybe yes, maybe no.

In the space of five head-spinning months, the economic downturn and a few strong-willed financial officials in the Obama administration have done what legions of car executives, consultants and policymakers had failed to do in three decades: overhaul the U.S. car industry.

The irony being, of course, that Detroit’s intransigence, aided and abetted by the John Dingells of Congress, led to unplanned obsolescence that seemingly now only the government undo.

The (UK) Independent: World Leaders Tackle Global Warming With Urgency

Can you just imagine how much damage 8 years of Bush’s Global Warming Denial has caused our planet? And can you just imagine how much further along in recovery our planet would be had not the El Supremos stolen the election from Al Gore?

Eight years later (hopefully not too late), a sense of urgency has finally taken hold:

World leaders are to meet for an unprecedented second summit on climate change this year to try to get agreement on a tough new treaty by December, and may even get together for a third time before the end of the year.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is to call the world’s heads of government to New York in September to “galvanise political will” about what he describes as “the defining issue of our time”. And there are plans for another G20 summit to discuss the issue in the autumn.

These will follow a meeting of 17 key world leaders convened at the initiative of President Barack Obama immediately after the annual G8 summit in July. Observers cannot remember any similar progression of top-level meetings to address any issue over such a short period of time.

The moves come as pressure mounts on the leaders to reach agreement at December’s vital negotiations in Copenhagen, billed as the world’s last chance to get to grips with global warming before it escalates out of control.

Dubya: He kept the world safe from…nothing.

McClatchy Papers: California Cracks Down on Charitable Telemarketers

Good for California. Do you know that, when you get a call from a telemarketer on behalf of a police, fire, or other charity, the telemarketers often keep 90% of the funds that are raised? Have you ever noticed that, when the call is for a police charity, the person on the other end of the line almost invariably sounds like a police officer, even though they’re not? Do you feel guilty when you say  ‘no’ and hang up? Don’t.

Not only is it disgraceful that proceeds largely benefit the telemarketing firm, it is equally disgraceful, IESHO, that police, fire, and other organizations contract with these firms. It is almost an abuse of authority since the person receiving the call might feel like you’re paying for ‘protection’. ‘Bulo thinks that that’s, in part, what the RICO statutes are for.

LEAD STORY: Boston Globe: Bangor Volunteers Demonstrate the Ideal Way to Honor Memorial Day

Thank you to all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you to all of those who have served our country. Thank you to those who are serving our country today. Thank you to your families who sacrifice every day on your behalfs. And thank you to the wonderful volunteers of Bangor, Maine, who share our appreciation with each and every soldier who sets foot there. ‘Bulo, for one, resolves to do more to thank all those who don the uniform during the year ahead.

Washington Post: The National Guard & Re-Employment-the Saga of An American Teacher/Soldier

Craig Davenport’s brilliant profile on what awaits a National Guardsman–when he returns home looking for a job. 

New York Times: Guantanamo-How Rethugs Turn Everything Into a Wedge Issue

And how the D’s let them do it:

Armed with polling data that show a narrow majority of support for keeping the prison open and deep fear about the detainees, Republicans in Congress started laying plans even before the inauguration to make the debate over Guantánamo Bay a question of local community safety instead of one about national character and principles.

Talk radio and cable news hosts warned viewers that dangerous terrorists might end up in a neighborhood jail, with Sean Hannity of Fox News even broadcasting an online video from House Republican leaders that juxtaposed the security of the detainee camps with images of the twin towers in flames. And from California and Virginia to the small town of Hardin, Mont., Democratic lawmakers began fending off questions about whether they would admit terrorism suspects into their own communities.

Memo to Obama and the pantywaists in Congress: The Rethugs are never gonna change. So, come up with a plan relocating the detainees into red states, especially Kentucky, force it through an a party line vote, and bleep ’em.

Philadelphia Inquirer: How and Why a Downingtown Printing Plant Died–and the Hopes that Died With It

Jane Von Bergen recounts how every plant closing is different, how the factors causing the closings are disparate and sometimes seemingly coincidental, yet how the people suffering are wrapped up in the same nightmare. While this is about one plant, it could be about every plant, and the longstanding worlds within them suddenly being stilled:

Now, after 31 years, (Sam) Smiley has no work, and neither do the majority of the other 150 people laid off from the plant earlier this spring. On a beautiful March day, they turned in their employee badges, some gathering at Chelsy’s Tavern in Downingtown for one last round with friends.

There they were, another set of statistics, joining the 13.7 million other Americans who are unemployed and the 456,000 who lost jobs in manufacturing in March.

But why them?

The complex stew of decisions that led to their joblessness in March involves New Zealand’s richest man, the skyrocketing price of oil, the credit freeze, a botched integration of businesses under their roof, a mothballed printer, and a revolving cast of consultants and managers, evidence of an inconsistent focus on the plant’s printing business by a series of owners who saw it as an adjunct.

“The only reason we were closed is that nobody wanted us,” said Kenneth “Mike” Phillips, who worked there since 1982.

Yep, 150 people who were just pawns in a game of merger-and-acquisition that passes for capitalism in 21st Century America.

London Times: Half of House of Commons MP’s To Be Swept Away By Scandal

Could this ever happen in D. C., and wouldn’t it be cool if it could?

AT least half of the House of Commons’ 646 MPs will be swept away at the general election, as voters take revenge on the political classes for the expenses scandal.

The departure of 325 members of parliament as a result of forced resignations, retirement and defeat at the polls would represent the biggest clear-out of parliament since 1945.

As many as 30 will be forced to resign directly because of the expenses scandal, while whips expect more than 200 to quit because they are unable to cope with continued public anger. Up to 90 MPs will be voted out in the election.

Research conducted by The Sunday Times and Professor Colin Rallings, director of the elections centre at Plymouth University, suggests that about 170 Labour MPs will not defend their seats while 55 Conservatives are also expected to retire.

AT least half of the House of Commons’ 646 MPs will be swept away at the general election, as voters take revenge on the political classes for the expenses scandal.

The departure of 325 members of parliament as a result of forced resignations, retirement and defeat at the polls would represent the biggest clear-out of parliament since 1945.

As many as 30 will be forced to resign directly because of the expenses scandal, while whips expect more than 200 to quit because they are unable to cope with continued public anger. Up to 90 MPs will be voted out in the election.

Research conducted by The Sunday Times and Professor Colin Rallings, director of the elections centre at Plymouth University, suggests that about 170 Labour MPs will not defend their seats while 55 Conservatives are also expected to retire.

The scope of the corruption is epidemic, with MP’s from all the major parties having been caught using their generous taxpayer-funded ‘allowances’ for all sorts of personal luxuries. 

Maybe, just maybe, inspired by their across-the-pond counterparts, America’s highest-paid stenographers will rouse themselves from institutional self-pity to demonstrate why the American media deserves to survive. After all, does anyone think that this type of corruption doesn’t run rampant through the Halls of Congress? Or is it just considered less corrupt if bankers, war profiteers, and Big Oil are footing the bill for the freeloaders in the People’s Congress?

Or is it just too much bother to even go through the motions anymore?

McClatchy Papers: Speaking of Congressional Corruption and Kentucky…

You will not believe this one. How about getting the Feds to build an airport in your hometown and then leaning heavily on carriers to service the remote location against their will to keep the airport from having no planes fly into it?

If you are Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky), if you are the senior Rethug on the House Appropriations Committee, and if you live in the cozy hamlet of Somerset, KY, it’s simple to just stick the taxpayers with the bill. Here are the dirty details by the one journalistic outlet to out the John Murthas and Sen. Stevens’ of this world:

WASHINGTON — Lake Cumberland Regional Airport’s new $3 million, federally funded commercial terminal sat virtually empty for three years while renovations were completed and local officials struggled to persuade a carrier to provide service to rural Somerset, Ky., population about 12,000.

Next month, that long-awaited carrier, Locair, which now makes four 45-minute round-trip flights to Nashville, Tenn., each week, will add service from Somerset to Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday mornings and Friday evenings — the same days and times that government officials and companies with government contracts tend to travel to and from Washington.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Locair offers discounted fares starting at $39 on its nine-seat planes, and passengers initially will pay less than $200 per ticket thanks to a $1 million taxpayer-subsidized grant. Taxpayers could pay more than $2,000 per flight. 

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, which allocates funds for the grant program, said that Locair’s new service to his hometown is part of an important drive to spur development and tourism in southern and eastern Kentucky.

Other members of Congress have come under fire for using their influence to renovate near-empty airports in rural sections of their district.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who also sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has helped channel $150 million in federal funds to an airport in Johnstown that locals have dubbed “Fort Murtha.” Murtha considers the airport critical to plans to transform the area into a military nerve center.

Like the planned commercial flights from Somerset to Washington, the Johnstown airport is utilized largely by small commuter craft that fly back and forth to Dulles.

The air service industry is second only to the mining industry in contributions to Rogers’ campaigns.

McClatchy Papers, this time through the time-consuming, but essential, investigative reporting of Halimah Abdullah, is doing what any self-respecting ‘news’paper should do.

Serious readers who want to know what’s going on out of the spotlight need to read this one enduring beacon of what used to be American journalism. Every day.

And, while you’re there, please read the single best analysis of Cheney’s speech last week on torture. Fact-checking sure beats ‘he said/she said’ stenography.

That’s it for this week. Please take time to remember and honor those who paid the ultimate price to keep us free this Memorial Day.