"It's a non-starter," says William Matthies of consultants Coyote Insight and a longtime consumer electronics executive. "You've got the same thing coming to your home now. It strikes me as the same thing" as junk mail.
Thing is, some people like junk mail. And there's still people getting sucked in by email scams. I'm not sure enough of them can afford Lexuses to make this profitable. I just know it's enough to put me off Toyotas altogether.
For every company that ever dreamed of being able to talk directly to its customers, Toyota (TM) has found an answer.
It announced Wednesday that new Lexus vehicles will start being delivered later this year with a system that includes capability for voice messages sent directly from the automaker to its drivers.
Called Lexus Insider, the service will let Lexus send audio messages to participating owners on whatever subject it chooses, from tips on making the best use of the vehicles' features to suggestions for a scenic drive.
Toyota officials promise to be discerning and restrained.
"We're not going to barrage customers with marketing messages," vows Jon Bucci, vice president of Toyota's U.S. advanced technology unit.
The study was initiated by a coalition of legal, civil rights, and industry leaders who created the Madison Avenue Project. The Project was created in 2008 to address advertising’s deep-rooted racial bias and today, Cyrus Mehri, Project leader and prominent civil rights lawyer, called the findings “absolutely astonishing in this day and age.” Angela Ciccolo, Interim General Counsel of the NAACP, another project partner, commented that “the time has come to stand up to change this industry.”
You could be lazy and listen to it instead or reading it...
Interview of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives by Jim Lehrer Thursday, January 08, 2009 [TRANSCRIPT PREPARED FROM AN AUDIO RECORDING.]
P R O C E E D I N G S
MR. LEHRER: Madam Speaker, welcome. Do you agree with President-elect Obama that economic catastrophe of irreversible proportions is coming if an economic stimulus package is not passed soon?
SPEAKER PELOSI: I agree that we are in a deep economic recession, and that it is only getting worse. We've asked for a recovery package for over a year now, with some of the elements that President-elect Obama is proposing, and I do agree that we must act, and we must act now.
MR. LEHRER: Now what -- define now? How soon is now?
SPEAKER PELOSI: Now is to go through the accept the President’s -- President elect’s proposal, have Congress work its will on it, and have it signed, sealed, and delivered for the American people before we leave the Presidents' Day recess.
MR. LEHRER: That is your deadline?
SPEAKER PELOSI: That is my deadline, and if we do not have agreement and a bill by then, we won't have a recess. We cannot leave here without an economic recovery package for the American people, because, as the President-elect has said, the consequences are very severe. We lose 500,000 jobs a month -- a month, so this is long overdue. We begged President Bush to take action. The recession has only deepened. We must act, and we must act now.
I got other shit ta say...I just need to figure out an elegant way to say "This suck, and people feel so fearful for their lives and well-being, given as how the threat from the people that are supposed to protect them REALLY SEEMS ABOUT EQUAL TO THE THREAT FROM THOSE THEY ARE TO BE PROTECTED FROM, that it's no wonder people's brains fucking short-circuit under the stress." I mean, here in New York, cops seem to have a thing about shoving things up people's asses. Not quite as bad as being killed...
And there's talk that maybe Officer Johannes Mehserle may have mistaken his weapon for a taser. Fuck no...not as long as cops don't put tasers in their glock holsters. And why would he be tasering someone who's handcuffed and on the ground anyway?
No matter what, this is fucked up. And I have to figure out how to say that with the typical P6 dispassion...which I am not really feeling.
(01-07) 19:14 PST OAKLAND --The BART police officer who shot an unarmed man to death on a station platform early on New Year's Day quit the force Wednesday, avoiding an interview with police internal affairs investigators trying to get to the bottom of an incident that has prompted broad outrage.
Officer Johannes Mehserle, 27, was supposed to make a statement Wednesday about why he shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant as the supermarket worker lay face-down at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland, BART said.
Video recordings made by at least two BART passengers and shown repeatedly on TV news programs have prompted speculation that Mehserle fired without provocation or by accident after Grant and several friends were detained around 2 a.m. in the aftermath of a fight on a train.
Mehserle, however, did not show up for the scheduled interview at 11 a.m. - the same time the funeral for Grant began in his hometown of Hayward. Instead, the officer's attorney and the president of BART's police union appeared and handed over a short resignation letter, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.
"We were prepared to compel him to talk, but he resigned," Johnson said. "We're going to continue the investigation, with or without him. ... There are many investigations that go on without the key person."
The resignation prompted cheers and applause when it was announced at an afternoon rally at the Fruitvale Station, where several hundred protesters called for the officer to be arrested and charged.
The protest was peaceful in the daytime but turned violent after dark as groups of people wandered through downtown streets, smashing storefronts and cars, including a police car, and setting some cars ablaze. Police officers in riot gear fired tear gas to break up the
crowds, and BART temporarily shut down the Fruitvale, Lake Merritt and 12th Street stations.
Mehserle's resignation was effective immediately. Christopher Miller, an attorney for the officer, declined to say what Mehserle's explanation was for shooting Grant or why he had quit. He said Mehserle's defense would continue to be paid for by a statewide fund for police officers.
SUPPOSE Israel manages to prevent its campaign in Gaza from turning into a repeat of its disastrous war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. Suppose the army does not get bogged down fighting in the narrow streets of Gaza’s refugee camps and international outrage at the spiraling death toll does not force it to pull out with rockets still falling on Israeli towns. Suppose no soldiers are taken hostage and Hamas suffers enough damage to force it to accept a cease-fire on Israel’s terms. Then what?
Israeli leaders say often that the result will be to “re-establish deterrence” against Hamas, and by extension against Hezbollah and others. This harks back to the glory days when Israel defeated three Arab armies in 1967 and fought off surprise attacks from Egypt and Syria in 1973. The trouble is that “deterrence” does not exist.
NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.
HONG KONG — China has bought more than $1 trillion of American debt, but as the global downturn has intensified, Beijing is starting to keep more of its money at home, a move that could have painful effects for American borrowers.
The declining Chinese appetite for United States debt, apparent in a series of hints from Chinese policy makers over the last two weeks, with official statistics due for release in the next few days, comes at an inconvenient time.
On Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama predicted the possibility of trillion-dollar deficits “for years to come,” even after an $800 billion stimulus package. Normally, China would be the most avid taker of the debt required to pay for those deficits, mainly short-term Treasuries, which are government i.o.u.’s.
In the last five years, China has spent as much as one-seventh of its entire economic output buying foreign debt, mostly American. In September, it surpassed Japan as the largest overseas holder of Treasuries.
One of the down sides of all-digital news is things get disappeared. In this case, we had an article on the NY Times this morning about 7am (I still read that early, but I don't get to write all the time) at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/middleeast/09mideast.html.
Rockets Fired From Lebanon Into Northern Israel By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: January 8, 2009
JERUSALEM — Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza threatened to broaden on Thursday as at least three rockets were fired into the north of Israel from Lebanon.
The rockets, presumably launched in support of Hamas, could presage the opening of a second front. The Israeli Army, in a brief statement, said it “responded with fire against the source of the rockets,” which landed near the town of Nahariya. Two Israelis were slightly wounded, the police said.
Now, roughly 12 hours later, I see this at the same URL.
U.N. and Red Cross Add to Outcry on Gaza War By ETHAN BRONNER
The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.
Mr. Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border.
Now that the First Kids have started classes at Sidwell Friends in Washington, they are likely to face this decision in the years to come: Whether to join the school's Black Student Union. Or not.
Will their choice matter either way? Sure, it will, unfair as that might be.
With the election of their father, Barack Obama, as the nation's first black president, many are celebrating the dawn of a long-awaited "post-racial" America. And debates over the relevance of black groups and institutions, from BSUs to historically black colleges, are heating up once again.
In the case of the BSU at Sidwell, some post-racialists might wonder how Barack and Michelle can lead the nation toward a colorblind ideal if they don't steer their daughters away from black groups.
The Black Caucus is going through an identity crisis. In recent weeks, leaders of the caucus found themselves defending the need for their group, composed of 41 House Democrats. It also is in the midst of an uneasy generational shift, as the old lions of the civil rights era begin to give way to a younger generation of black politicians who do not want to be pigeonholed by race.
First, we have discussed the youngsters' concern for being pigeonholed by race.
When I asked Booker if he considered himself a leader of the black community, he seemed to freeze for a moment. “I’m Popeye,” he replied finally. “I am what I am.” He paused again, then tried to explain.
“I don’t want to be pigeonholed,” he said. “I don’t want people to expect me to speak about those issues.” By this, presumably, he meant issues that revolve around race: profiling by police, incarceration rates, flagging urban economies. “I want people to ask me about nonproliferation. I want them to run to me to speak about the situation in the Middle East.” Since the mayor of Newark is rarely called upon to discuss such topics, I got the feeling that Booker does not see himself staying in his current job for anything close to 20 years. “I don’t want to be the person that’s turned to when CNN talks about black leaders,” he said.
Mayor Booker, you ran for the position of New Black Leader of Newark just as surely as the Moses imagery in John McCain's ad harkens back to slave imagery in Southern minds. Your JOB is to speak aboutthose issues. I understand ambition; I know you git in where you fit in. But I also know Mayor of Newark is a stepping stone for you. That this is not the job you want.
It's as bad concern to raise in connection with the CBC, who for the most part are elected by Black folk, as it is for the Mayor of a pretty Black city.
Now, let's talk about the need for the group. The need for the group is tied up in common interests, and the fact that they are elected by Black folk who, in general, cannot fund them the way some other politicians are by their constituencies. I'm pretty comfortable calling the CBC more of a networking organization as a political one.
A number of them have accrued seniority that requires they be given significant power. I mean they aren't going to challenge the status quo beyond insisting more Black folk get into the game, they aren't going to challenge the rationale or goals implied by our national decisions. I think Charlie Rangel has the most juice and he's seriously not a radical. But that all that power is concentrated in the CBC is nervous-making in some circles because it makes the organization a political force for the first time. I think this would have come to pass whoever was elected...you just may not have heard about it.
Finally, yes, "Obama's election was a sign the country [is] moving beyond it's racially troubled past." But it's not a transformation it's a process...one which knuckledraggers who think they don't have to learn because it changed without them doing a damn thing different can inhibit.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama plans to name a chief performance officer with the task of finding government efficiencies. The Congressional Budget Office will also release its latest budget estimates, providing the first official predictions of the shortfalls tied to the economic slowdown and the fallen financial markets.
Oh, that's a new idea...
It's getting harder to hold my tongue until Mr. Obama assumes the office.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday braced Americans for the unparalleled prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come,” a stark assessment of the budgetary outlook that he said would force his administration to impose tighter fiscal discipline on the government.
WASHINGTON — Roland W. Burris, the would-be junior senator from Illinois, picked up the support of a key Democrat late Tuesday afternoon in his bid to occupy the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Mr. Burris, who was rebuffed by the Senate clerk earlier in the day, gained the support of Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the chairman of the Rules Committee, who broke with many of her Democratic colleagues and said that Mr. Burris should be seated despite having been appointed by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who is facing corruption charges.
Regardless of the charges against him, the governor still has the right to fill the Senate vacancy, Ms. Feinstein said, and keeping Mr. Burris from taking his seat could have implications for appointments by other governors.
TOKYO—Toyota is suspending production at all 12 of its Japan plants for 11 days over February and March, a stoppage of unprecedented scale for the nation's top automaker as it grapples with shrinking global demand.
The last time Toyota Motor Corp. halted production at all its Japan plants was in August 1993, when demand plunged because of a rising yen, and that was for only one day, according to the company.
A global economic downturn has hammered the auto industry in Japan and elsewhere, forcing carmakers to cut staff, lower production and delay new models. Major automakers in the U.S. had teetered on the brink of collapse until securing a multibillion dollar government lifeline.
This new game isn’t a war of attrition. It’s a struggle for confidence, a series of psychological exchanges designed to shift the balance of morale. The material destroyed in an episode can be replaced, but the psychological effects are more lasting. What is really important is how each episode ends, because the ending defines the meaning — who mastered events and who was mastered by them.
Yeah, all those dead people's morale is really crushed.
How the hell do you reduce missiles and ground invasions to a struggle for confidence? Is human life really that trivial to this guy?
Barack Obama’s election as president is prompting major changes in the nation’s black press, ushering in a series of firsts that editors say will reshape print, Internet, radio and television coverage aimed at African-American audiences.
Essence, the top-selling magazine among black women, will have a full-time White House reporter for the first time. Ebony magazine will add a White House reporter, either full time or as needed. Its sister publication, Jet magazine, will have a weekly two-page Washington report in every issue.
Tough. You get the bad news first...and there's a bag of it to spread around.
If Reid seats Franken (and Al started the public backlash against the RepublicanFantasy-Based Community, so I like the idea of him being in the Senate...not to mention that comedy requires a peculiar sort of intelligence Congress could really use. Hell, Congress can use any sort of intelligence) he'll have to seat Burress. Which, after his strong stance against anyone Blago appointed, will be a humiliation.
Which means Burress will have to watch his back. As will Bobby Rush. They will not want any indication that Rush's (frankly speaking) race-based threat succeeded. I advise both gentlemen to keep two words in mind: Cynthia McKinney.
UPDATED, 5:00 p.m. ET: Al Franken declared himself the winner of the Minnesota Senate race moments ago just hours after the state's canvassing board certified a final vote tally that put him 225 votes ahead of Sen. Norm Coleman.
"After 62 days, after the careful and painstaking hand inspection of nearly 3 million ballots, after hours and hours of hard work by elections officials and volunteers across the state, I am proud and humbled to stand before you as the next Senator from Minnesota," Franken told supporters today.
He added that the win was "incredibly humbling" and offered an olive branch -- of sorts -- to Coleman. "Norm has worked hard for this state and this country," said Franken before adding (although not saying directly) that he hoped Coleman would bow out of the race gracefully in order that "Minnesotans can continue to count on receiving excellent constituent services from their two Senators without interruption."
Coleman, as expected, will file a formal election contest within the next 24 hours.
"This process isn't at the end; it is now just at the beginning," said Coleman counsel Tony Trimble in a statement following the state canvassing board meeting. "We will contest the results of the Canvassing Board -- otherwise, literally millions of Minnesotans will be disenfranchised."
New pharmaceutical industry guidelines should stop most drug companies from distributing a wide range of trinkets and office supplies designed to keep their brand names before doctors as a subliminal inducement to prescribe high-priced drugs.
The new code, which kicked in on New Year’s Day, bars the free distribution of everything from pens to coffee mugs and staplers by some 40 drug companies that have agreed to the restrictions. That may seem like small potatoes, but in the aggregate the promotional products probably cost about $1 billion a year, as Natasha Singer reported in The Times.
New code? It's all voluntary. Haven't we learned yet? Voluntary "regulation" isn't regulation, it's marketing.
None of the steps yet contemplated by industry or professional groups would completely sever the medical profession and many individual doctors from their far more disturbing financial ties to the drug industry.
For nine days, as European and United Nations officials have called urgently for a cease-fire in Gaza, the Bush administration has squarely blamed the rocket attacks of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for Israel’s assault, maintaining to the end its eight-year record of stalwart support for Israel.
Mr. Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said the United States did not want a “one-way cease-fire” that allowed Hamas to keep up its rocket fire, and Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday echoed the point, declaring that only a “sustainable, durable” peace would be acceptable.
Many Middle East experts say Israel timed its move against Hamas, which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 24 days before Mr. Bush leaves office, with the expectation of such backing in Washington. Israeli officials could not be certain that President-elect Barack Obama, despite past statements of sympathy for Israel’s right of self-defense, would match the Bush administration’s unconditional endorsement.
“In this one, you can die as much as you like, but in real war it’s not possible,” he said. “The reality of military service is beyond what you think. Here you can go back and replay, but in real life if you get shot you get shot. So it’s an entertainment, but it makes you think.”
He turned back to the combat on the screen. In the cocoon of the headphones, he did not hear the sound of prices hitting the floor.
PHILADELPHIA — Amid the last-minute shopping bustle, the voice in the Black Hawk helicopter simulator shouted with an urgency that exceeded even the holiday mall frenzy.
At the Franklin Mills mall here, past the Gap Outlet and the China Buddha Express, is a $13 million video arcade that the Army hopes will become a model for recruitment in urban areas, where the armed services typically have a hard time attracting recruits.
Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics andhospitals.
Amalia Dominguez was 18 and desperate and knew exactly what to ask for at the small, family-run pharmacy in the heart of Washington Heights, the thriving Dominican enclave in northern Manhattan. “I need to bring down my period,” she recalled saying in Spanish, using a euphemism that the pharmacist understood instantly.
Michael Lewis and David Einhorn had two op-eds in the New York Times: one was long and the other is lo-o-o-ong. The lo-o-o-ong one is titled The End of the Financial World as We Know It, and it explains why greed is the least of the causes for this collapse. The long one is How to Repair a Broken Financial World, which sets forth some well-considered suggestions.
I think you should read them both. But if you don't, here are the suggestions I'm particularly fond of.
WASHINGTON — Tim Kaine, the Virginia governor who was a top contender to be president-elect Barack Obama’s running mate, has been tapped by Mr. Obama to become the next head of the Democratic National Committee, Democrats familiar with the decision said Sunday.
Mr. Kaine will succeed Howard Dean as the party chair when the party elects officers at its meeting here later this month. By tradition, the committee defers to the choice of a sitting president.
Mr. Kaine was elected governor in 2005, but is barred by Virginia state law from serving more than one term. His term expires at the end of 2009. Mr. Obama’s associates said Mr. Kaine will serve as party chairman while finishing his last year as governor, with an executive director running day-to-day-operations, which is not an unusual arrangement. At the end of his term, Mr. Kaine will work full-time in his new position.
The decision by Mr. Obama was first reported by the Washington Post on its Web site on Sunday afternoon.
WASHINGTON — Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, one of the country’s most prominent Hispanic politicians and President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be commerce secretary, on Sunday dropped out of consideration for that post. He attributed his decision to the ongoing investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico.
Mr. Richardson said that he would continue as governor, and he added, “Let me say unequivocally that I and my administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact.”
His decision came, he said, after he had concluded “that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.” Mr. Richardson said in a statement, released by the Obama campaign, that the investigation might last weeks or months.
JERUSALEM — Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night, opening a ground war against the militant group Hamas after a week of intense airstrikes.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the objective of the ground campaign was “to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas,” the militant Islamic group that controls the area, “while taking control of some of the rocket launching sites” that Hamas uses to fire at southern Israel.
“This will not be short. this will not be easy. I do not wish to delude anyone,” Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said in a televised statement, adding that the coming days will be difficult for the residents of southern Israel.
The United Nations Security Council called a special meeting for 7 p.m. Saturday in New York to discuss the Middle East crisis.
