theurbanhermit (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} theurbanhermit) wrote,@ 2009-01-07 16:38:00 |
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4386 - repost of 3013 and 3014
as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
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3013 [Jan. 25th, 2008|08:19 am]
Morning . . .
As if to reinforce the behavioral modification and tweaking point, I was unable to get to sleep last night - I lie in bed listening to the clock chime away 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM - the last I heard was 0330 . . . curious that, for the meal I had last night was about 1900 and I had bnothing with cafeine after 1000 . . .
Also, the left ear ringing tone was sharper and louder last night . . .
Someone trying to drive a point home . . . ?
Hmmmmm . . . Recalcitrint was a word introduced to me by Pelizzon . . .as if she knew the course of my life? Same with Anne Kupferman . . .
given my concern for humanity and US morals re: renditioning, i am curious about the pilots . . . especially with the SY WAYN spams . . .
but i must start the day . . .
with HU HR, is there still a purge going on? or are they simply sliding in the assimilated still . .. undercover of "transition" like so many and so much before
see preivous entries . ..
given the formerly didsappearing e-mails. .. i do wonder at the tampering with evidence aspect of hte hUMF . . . bu then again,m the SJC just ptotected them again, the corrupted investigators ("officers," they are alled). . . and this reflects the witness tampering before the fact, as happened at HLS . . . see previous entries. . .
more later, i am sure. . .
wait - - -
spam . . .
i mentioned the fake e-mails and supposedly sent myself one (again - but i did not) . . .
[me]@yahoo.com January 76% OFF Fri Jan 25, 2008 10k
ah - considering that 76% of HU hR's postings yesterday were blanked to the general public . . . well . . . toying? especially after the abt thing e-mail last night?
and also, given the increased colon talk of late by 2 work related people (which may clue to something i have made a note to spak of - yet another CA(org) MA/ME connection . . . ); we have in spam today -
Colon Cleanse Support Flush up to 20 lbs from your Colon & Enjoy a Flatter Tummy Fri Jan 25, 2008 4k
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oy . . .
more later, i am sure (signing off from deep in Bush COuntry) . . .
link post comment
3014 [Jan. 25th, 2008|01:52 pm]
well . . . nothing new from hu hr (actually, they probably hadve a lot if "internal only" postings today - reference yesterday); nothing new from abt; but MIT HR has put up:
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005048 Resource Development Cambridge MA Full Time
Administrative Assistant I mit-00004638 Department Of Architecture Cambridge MA Full Time
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architecture mught be a spyglasses tweak, for i spoke with a woman at 2d read about a david mccauly book this morning . . .
quite the day for licence plates today - very suggestive, too . . .
woah - from boston.com:
US Attorney General nixes special prosecutor in CIA tape case
Some in Congress wanted an independent look at the politically charged case. Meanwhile two Boston prosecutors who helped unravel corruption in the Boston FBI office were put on the investigation. (AP, 1:29 p.m.)
Trial of Whitey Bulger's former FBI handler postponed
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boston.com:
AG nixes special prosecutor in CIA case
By Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press Writer | January 25, 2008
WASHINGTON --Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday he doesn't plan for a special prosecutor to investigate whether the CIA broke the law when it destroyed videotapes of terror interrogations, defying some in Congress who want an independent look at the politically charged case.
Mukasey, in a 41-minute briefing with reporters, also ducked repeated questions about whether he considers waterboarding an illegal form of torture -- an issue expected to be at the top of the agenda when he appears next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Speaking tersely and in an even, low tone, Mukasey would not discuss whether he has seen any evidence that destroying the interrogation tapes violated court orders or otherwise interfered with any case. He said the ongoing criminal investigation, headed by career federal prosecutor John Durham of Connecticut, was opened on grounds of "some indication -- which is a lot less than probable cause -- some indication that there was any violation of any federal statute."
"And that's the only basis on which we proceeded," Mukasey said.
Asked if he has reconsidered his decision not to put a special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Mukasey said, simply, "No."
Mukasey was even more reluctant to discuss the act of waterboarding itself -- the interrogation tactic that is believed to have been shown on the destroyed tapes. The issue briefly stalled Mukasey's nomination as attorney general last October, when he said he did not know enough about it to say then that it should be outlawed by the United States.
"I understand there's interest in that," Mukasey said Friday, noting that he promised senators last fall that he would review the practice of waterboarding and "offer the view of whether the current program is lawful or not."
"That's what I said I would do," he added. "And I can't say any more, and I won't say any more."
He also refused to say whether he has completed his review, or if he would ever publicly announce his opinion of whether waterboarding is legal. Used during the Spanish Inquisition, waterboarding involves pouring water over a person's cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It was banned by the CIA and the Pentagon in 2006.
In his first congressional hearing since being sworn in, Mukasey is scheduled to testify Wednesday in front of the Senate Judiciary panel that threatened his nomination. Ten senators, led by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, demanded this week that Mukasey immediately clarify his stand on waterboarding, saying he has had "ample time ... to study this issue and reach a conclusion."
Mukasey also touched Friday on the administration's push for Congress to permanently allow U.S. intelligence officials to eavesdrop on overseas terror suspects without first seeking court approval. Such changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are under fierce debate in Congress, and without them, Mukasey said, "it certainly doesn't help" investigations.
Meanwhile, Durham recently added two veteran organized crime prosecutors from Boston to his team investigating the destroyed CIA tapes. James Farmer is the head of the criminal division and supervises the national security section for the U.S. attorney's office. James Herbert is the head of the state's Organized Crime Strike Force.
Durham and Herbert were part of a Justice Department squad that won national accolades for unraveling a decades-long corrupt relationship between the Boston FBI and the area's most ruthless gangsters. Farmer successfully prosecuted members of the Boston Police Department for extorting bribes from business owners in the neighborhoods they patrolled in the late 1980s.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan described Farmer and Herbert as "consummate professionals" who are not swayed by political forces.
"I have absolute confidence in their ability to exercise independent judgment," Sullivan said.
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Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Department of Justice: http://www.justice.gov
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what's important here is that hurtubees/manning got viuolent in 3/05, when it was okay to torture by the justice department . . . see previous entries . . .
boston.com:
Trial of Whitey Bulger’s former FBI handler postponed in Florida
Email|Print| Text size – + January 25, 2008 12:41 PM
(Globe file photo/2003)
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
A Florida judge granted a request today by former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. to postpone his Miami murder trial, setting a new trial date of June 23.
Connolly, 67, sought a delay of his state murder trial, which had been slated to start in March, after the judge who had been presiding over his case since his 2005 indictment recused herself earlier this month.
During a hearing this morning, Judge Stanford Blake, who was assigned to the case Thursday and is the administrative judge of the criminal division of Florida's 11th Circuit Court in Miami, agreed to postpone the trial for three months.
Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, is accused of plotting with longtime informants James "Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi to kill Boston financier John B. Callahan in 1982. Prosecutors allege the gangsters orchestrated Callahan's murder in Miami after Connolly warned them that the FBI planned to question Callahan, who could implicate them in another slaying.
Connolly, who is already serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 federal racketeering conviction, could face life in prison if convicted of the Florida slaying.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Michael Von Zamft estimated today that the trial could take two months.
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see previous entries . . .
the two are connected . . .
nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
Killer Expelled From Swedish Med School
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:41 p.m. ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- A medical student convicted in a 1999 murder with neo-Nazi links has been expelled from Sweden's leading medical school in a case that sparked debate over whether a killer can become a doctor after having paid his debt to society.
The Karolinska institute, known for awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine, revoked Karl Svensson's admission to its prestigious medical program this week after an investigation into his background, the university president said Friday.
Svensson, 31, was admitted last fall after his application to the program was approved, President Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson told The Associated Press.
However, the university knew nothing about his dark past until getting two anonymous tips that Svensson's original identity was Hampus Hellekant, an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer who had served seven years in prison for the murder of a labor union activist, Wallberg-Henriksson said.
He was convicted along with two other men in 2000 in the fatal shooting of a member of a far-left union, Bjorn Soderberg. Prosecutors said the killing was revenge for the Soderberg's public denouncement of a co-worker who belonged to a neo-Nazi organization.
''He had been enrolled for four months when this was revealed,'' she said.
The discovery put Karolinska in a difficult position because the legal framework is unclear on ''whether you should be able to receive a doctor's education with this type of background,'' she said.
In the end, Karolinska never had to address Svensson's criminal record because the background check found irregularities in the high school grades he submitted with his application, which was grounds to expel him.
The case triggered an emotional debate among faculty and students at the Karolinska institute. After local media started reporting on the case, Svensson told his 130 classmates about his background, Wallberg-Henriksson said.
''He said he was very interested in becoming a doctor and was determined to pursue the education and that he was not the same person today as he was then,'' she said.
''There was a lot of discussion. The course was divided in two camps. One camp thought he had paid for his crime, others felt uncomfortable,'' she said.
Karolinska students said that there had been mixed feelings about Svensson on campus.
''We talked about it when it emerged and it was in the paper,'' said Elin, 21, a biomedicine student who did not want her last name used because the topic was sensitive on campus.
''People felt it was strange that he should be allowed to become a doctor,'' she said. ''On the other hand, people change. Maybe he's become a better person.''
Wallberg-Henriksson said Svensson's only response to the expulsion was a letter to Karolinska in which he said he was dropping out of the program.
Svensson could not be reached for comment.
The National Agency for Services to Universities and University Colleges filed a police complaint in the case on Thursday. Stockholm police said Friday they had received the complaint and were likely to start a forgery investigation next week.
Education Minister Lars Leijonborg said in a statement on Friday that Svensson's case had prompted his ministry to ''discuss whether there is a need to change the regulations surrounding students who have committed crimes.''
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so what about students studying the psychological "torture" - oh, they;re covered by the ministry of truth - see above. . .
hmmmm . . . i just typed in washingtonpost.com on this computer at the library, where the woman who bears watching - watching the dating pagers on the library computers here?; there's one to my right as i type - well, the woman who bears watching got up and left hte room . . .
oh - the man to my right is poland; no wonder she was here . . .
anyway- i type in washingtonpost.com and i get streetwatchers.com?
oy . . .
washingtonpost.com:
Former White House Budget Director Dies
By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press
Friday, January 25, 2008; 1:11 PM
WASHINGTON -- Richard Darman, a former White House budget director who helped convince former President George H.W. Bush to renege on his no new taxes pledge, died Friday. He was 64.
Darman died in Washington after battling leukemia for several months, according to a statement issued by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a longtime Darman friend.
Darman was chief architect of a compromise designed to reduce the federal budget deficit. Although it drew praise from many economic analysts, the plan included tax increases that broke Bush's 1988 election promise, "Read my lips, no new taxes!"
Although the change of policy is partly blamed for Bush's re-election defeat to Bill Clinton in 1992, it contributed to balancing the federal budgets in the late 1990s.
A talented and tough negotiator, Darman sometimes drew criticism for being abrasive, intellectually arrogant and overly concerned with his standing in the White House pecking order. He had a reputation for being so crafty that "Darmanesque" became a word to describe maneuvering that was clever and Machiavellian.
Darman had a more playful side and was known for pranks. He once donned a gorilla suit to amuse his boss, the president.
Darman's hardball tactics on Capitol Hill in budget negotiations alienated many senior Republicans in Congress and many White House colleagues. He railed against budget gimmicks and called for serious steps to get the budget under control.
The government's huge budget deficits were "a mathematical representation of our wish to buy now, pay later _ or more accurately, buy now and let others pay later," he said. He criticized the nation's obsession with its current finances and "our reluctance to adequately address the future."
But those words were from the same man who earlier had served as a top political strategist for President Ronald Reagan and helped craft an economic policy that stressed tax cuts even as federal budget deficits were reaching record levels.
"Dick Darman was a brilliant, dedicated, and distinguished public servant, educator, and businessman who could direct traffic through the intersection of policy and politics as well as anybody I have ever known," said Baker, who worked with Darman under presidents Bush and Reagan.
Darman began his government career in 1971 as a deputy assistant secretary in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He later held high-level posts in the Defense, Justice and Commerce departments. He served as a top aide to Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who lost his job in the "Saturday Night Massacre" during the Watergate scandal.
Darman was deputy chief of staff to Reagan while Baker was running the staff. Baker became his mentor, which helped Darman survive in the Bush White House. When Baker switched jobs to become Treasury secretary, Darman went with him, becoming deputy Treasury secretary.
"He was absolutely brilliant at boiling down complex issues to their simplest forms," Baker said. "He always provided me with an unvarnished perspective that I needed to know, even if sometimes I didn't want to hear it.
Along with his jobs in many federal agencies, Darman taught at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.
At the time of his death, Darman was a partner in The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. He also was serving as board chairman at AES Corp., a power and alternative energy firm. In addition, Darman was board chairman of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The son of an industrialist, Darman was born in Charlotte, N.C. and raised in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1964 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard School of Business.
Darman is survived by his wife Kathleen Emmet, a writer, and three sons, William T.E. Darman, Jonathan W.E. Darman, and C.T. Emmet Darman.
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wow - harvard business school and the kennedy school of government (now K-school) . . .
see previous entries . . .
ah: and the smithsonian, too . . . not to mention north carolina . . . as i oft write: hiding the money trail . . .
oh, what a tangled . . .
ah - recall so many kevins in the news of late?
mainecopastnow.com:
Two charged from truck crash
By Erin Rhoda
(Created: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:53 PM EST) More Breaking News
| Text Size | Comment | Print | E-mail | Letter to the Editor |
OWLS HEAD — A rollover crash on Rt. 73 in Owls Head at 10:40 p.m. Wednesday prompted one arrest and one summons.
Kevin J. Johnston, 28, of Rockland was driving his black, 1993 Dodge pickup truck when his vehicle went off the road, rolled over and came to rest in a driveway. Johnston and two passengers, John T. Small, 38, and Timothy E. Ulvila, 21, fled the scene prior to police arrival, according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report.
Johnston and Ulvila were injured, with Ulvila’s being internal injuries to the chest and stomach. Alcohol and unsafe speed were factors in the accident. They were not wearing seat belts.
Ulvila was arrested Thursday on outstanding warrants for forgery, unpaid fines and fees and failure to appear and was charged with violating his conditions of release. Johnston was summonsed for leaving the scene, according to Knox County Sheriff Donna Dennison.
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oy . . .
last night (i forgot to mention) a Joe's Taxi wit hthe ME plate 10-227 picked up folks from work (harvard medical/cia). . . 10+227=237=57. . .
see previous entries . . .
at trhe library this morning, thayer elecreical (nathaniel thayer of the museum) and michaud electric (kelly michaud, now woods, from abt - see previous entries on both) were here when I was. the thayer man zapping things with an laser pointer . . .
and just ere i got here a dunbkin donuts drinking cqamo pant wearing man entered and got on the computer; he left when i did, too . . .curious. . .
brian at work is intriguing - claims colorado ties . . . and something's going down today between 4 and 5 PM with him - twice he made a point to take phone calls within earshot . . . he also asked what brought me to rockland, and i gave him the answer i solved when writing the ME journal: I pissed off someone at harvard law school . . . told him about 6/8 and the state house, police, etc . . . not to mention the high mucky muck boston lawyers and business folk . . .
oy . . .
i dod not mention that mike, who asked me the same and got the same answer, was fired twice . . .
MA plates abound: 21E D98 and (i love this one) M16 644 . . . m16 being the military gun and all . . .
5005 NJ was parked right behind work a while - and 5/2005 was when i left ME exile to be homeless in MA . . . and met blanton again, who said that i had "learned some new tricks" . . . see previous entries . . .
the ME plate BBCORY went by again, and I do wonder about false paper people evidence . . . for I am honest about my work history; ergo, might the long arm of the law (school) with dirty hands have fudged my personal records somehow . . . might be a class exercise, eh? cointelpro-ing the mkultrad? . . . and recall, CORI issues were of concern at Bred and Jams, in the shadow of Wiliam James Hall, in 2005 . . .
5880 NJ was parked a while - and 5/8/1980 I was in Windsor Gardens, next to Alice and Samantha Power . . .
and a moment later, 5990 NJ went by - coincidence?
the ME commercial plate drove up and parked: 776 104 (or 164). . . Catalano contracting; a white pickup . . .recall the HUPD spokespoerson is Stephen Catalano . . . is there an HUPD thing going on now? (again!) - see previous entries - the driver had a bluettooth phone earpiece and was drumming his pen on the dash . . . reminiscent of the bail bondsman of 04/05 - see previous entries . . .
a white pickup from Journey's End marina parked in front of breannan's - his truck, i think, sandwiching the parking of the white one . . . 5603 PH . . . 5/6/2003 . . . I was temping for viscusi as his Managing Editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty . . . the office at that time was in the building of Harvard Development (more money trail?) - and recall the walk by of perhaps the entire developm,ent staff one day when the union rep gave me a T pass . . . ah, the better to track . . . and don;t forget that when the viscusi office moved to 23 Everett, the HUPD officer asked about TV cameras in the room - see previous entries . . .
and lastly, carl from the brunswick house - the first b-houser to espy me when i got back to ME, walked by when i was out back on a buitt break . . . said he weas on his way to the brown bag . . .
ah now HU HR is on the board - with just under 50 % available to the general public . . .
32789 F-T 058 Manager of Digital Preservation and Repository Services
Harvard University Library Office for Information Services 01/25/2008
32787 F-T 056 Byzantine Assistant Curator
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dumbarton Oaks 01/25/2008
32786 F-T 056 Pre-Columbian Assistant Curator
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dumbarton Oaks 01/25/2008
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nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
Colorado Lawmaker Censured for Kicking
By DAN FROSCH
DENVER — In the week leading up to his first day on the job, State Representative Douglas Bruce, a Republican, got into a lengthy dispute with the Democratic speaker of the House over the time of his swearing in.
On the day he took office, Jan. 14, Mr. Bruce did something more contentious. He delivered a swift kick to the knee of a photographer for The Rocky Mountain News who was snapping his picture during a ceremonial prayer. Mr. Bruce refused to apologize. The paparazzi, he defiantly told members of the House, would not leave him alone.
The kick was captured by a television camera, splayed across the Internet and led to a legislative inquiry that ended Thursday when Mr. Bruce, an antitax crusader from Colorado Springs who was appointed by his party to fill a vacancy, became the first member of the Colorado General Assembly to face censure.
The 62-to-1 vote in favor of censure came as state Republicans appeared upset over the entire situation.
“What I find particularly disturbing is that after the incident, Representative Bruce failed to take responsibility for his own action,” said Representative Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch. Mr. McNulty is a member of a legislative ethics committee that unanimously recommended censure.
At a committee hearing last week, Mr. Bruce described the kick as “a nudge” intended to restore order in the House chambers that, he contended, was being disrupted by the news media crowd. He said he had warned the photographer, Javier Manzano, to stop taking his picture during the prayer.
In local news coverage of the incident, Mr. Bruce is seen standing with his head bowed and eyes closed. At one point he opens his eyes, appears to grow distressed and says, “Do not do that again!” before stomping down on the knee of Mr. Manzano, who was crouched at his feet.
“This wasn’t a field goal kick,” Mr. Bruce told the committee. “This was, you know, putting the bottom of my shoe against his exposed knee.”
Mr. Manzano told legislators he was simply trying to capture an image of Mr. Bruce during a spiritual moment.
“I did not foresee him losing his composure and kicking me,” Mr. Manzano said at the hearing.
The situation harks back to a day when Western statehouses were halls of brawling, boozing and ill repute. Some legislatures, like that of neighboring New Mexico, have not entirely shed that reputation. But though political divisions can be bitter here, modern-day Colorado lawmakers have mostly remained civil toward one another.
The manager of library services for the Colorado Joint Legislative Library, Molly Otto, said she found no evidence of any public censure dating back to 1881, the oldest records she could locate. The General Assembly was first convened in 1876.
Still, veteran lawmakers and members of the press corps here say the General Assembly used to be decidedly more rough and tumble, with a steady supply of beer and liquor available to legislators and occasional shenanigans and practical jokes.
“On the last day of the session, the air would be perfumed with alcohol,” said Fred Brown, a retired Capitol bureau chief for The Denver Post.
That all ended in 1972 with the passage of the state’s sunshine laws, which imposed stricter oversight of public officials, Mr. Brown said.
“The hallmark in Colorado is that you leave your debates at the door, and you might still be debating at the door, but you don’t try and isolate yourself,” said Jerry Kopel, a former Democratic state representative from Denver. “But Bruce really did start off on the wrong foot.”
Throughout it all, much to the exasperation of fellow Republicans, Mr. Bruce has maintained that he had done nothing wrong. In an interview this week, he insisted that he was the victim of a media conspiracy to provoke him and that legislators had singled him out because he led a campaign to pass a constitutional amendment in 1992 that requires voter approval of tax increases and limits state growth.
“I regret the whole thing happened,” he said. “They are wasting all this time labeling me as a belligerent wild man. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
Mr. Bruce has posted a seven-page rebuttal of the censure, called “The Nudge,” on his Web site (www.douglasbruce.com).
Just before he was censured, Mr. Bruce gave a speech on the House floor comparing himself to the main character in the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in which he said Jimmy Stewart plays a rookie senator who is hounded by the press until he physically attacks them.
Mr. Bruce’s colleagues were unmoved.
“You’re not Jimmy Stewart,” responded Representative Al White, Republican of Hayden. “This is not a 1939 movie. This is today. Your actions were wrong.”
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Colorado, Bruce, kicking the fimler? see previous entries . .. oy . . . viscusi and his "undercover" . . .wsa he perhaps undercover at harvard himself - recall ihe had a important role in the reagan white house . . .
cold war, military build up and all . . . and he did scoot harvard . . .
nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
TV Review | 'The Moment of Truth'
Fishing for True Confessions by Dangling a Pot of Gold
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
In the annals of reality television, “The Moment of Truth” may be a milestone. Fox has come up with a cash-prize competition that is neither a game of chance nor a test of knowledge. It’s a pseudo-psychological trial by ordeal in which the contestants trade candor for dollars.
The set is similar to those used on “The Weakest Link” and “Deal or No Deal,” but the object of this game is to prod seemingly nice people to admit bad behavior. As family members and friends look on, the contestant is asked a series of embarrassing personal questions by the host. Truthful answers, as determined by a polygraph, are rewarded by cash, from $10,000 for the first, relatively banal queries to $500,000 for the marriage-busting kind.
The novelty of “The Moment of Truth” is not the lie detector. That was the conceit behind “Meet the Parents” (2000), the hit Ben Stiller comedy. NBC borrowed it for a short-lived dating show in 2002, “Meet My Folks,” in which suitors were interrogated by the parents of the date-seeking contestant.
What distinguishes the Fox series is that it blends the cooked-up psychodrama of behavioral reality shows like “Big Brother” on CBS and “The Real World” on MTV with the regimented good family fun of nighttime game shows like “American Gladiators” and “Deal or No Deal” on NBC and “Power of 10” on CBS.
All game shows are by definition mercenary, but producers go to great lengths to try to dress up contestants’ cupidity as altruism. A man wants the money to buy his wife the diamond engagement ring he could never afford. A young woman wants to help her ailing mother buy a home.
Other game shows use wives, parents and siblings as advisers or cheerleaders to add some human warmth and humor to a prosaic and not especially taxing contest. Before picking the correct suitcase to win $1 million on “Deal or No Deal” Wednesday night, a contestant named Britney told the audience that her father was so nervous he placed Maxi Pads in his armpits.
“The Moment of Truth,” though, brings loved ones onstage to stir up hostility. On Wednesday’s premiere George, a racetrack marketing manager, was solemnly asked by the host, Mark L. Walberg, if he wears a hairpiece (yes), whether he had ever had a sexual fantasy while attending Mass (yes) and whether he has a gambling problem (yes) — as his boss, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s uncle looked on.
Ty, a personal trainer, said yes when he was asked if he has delayed having children because he is not sure that Catia, his wife of two and a half years, would be his “lifelong partner.” After he replied, a disembodied female voice delivered the verdict. “The answer is — ” (long, dramatic beat) “true.” The camera panned to Catia, who stopped smiling and murmured, “I’m dying here.” Her friend April turned to her and asked in a semiwhisper, “Is it worth $100,000 to learn that?”
As it turned out, Catia got nothing along with the information. When Ty replied no to the question of whether he had ever touched a female client more than was strictly necessary, the polygraph contradicted him, and he lost all his winnings.
Ty ran to his wife and tried to hug her. Catia submitted to his embrace but turned her cheek away, pursing her lips in a foreboding moue of lip gloss and recrimination.
Fox is renowned for callous programming. It was the network that put forth “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” and “Temptation Island.” But unfortunately, this new series is not quite as innocently ill-intentioned.
The premiere and promos suggest that future episodes strip contestants down in order to build them up, like EST or Marine Corps basic training. The producers devise questions after interviewing friends and family members, and they are posed to the contestant separately with a polygraph machine before the taping. On camera, estranged children, deceived spouses and misunderstood parents are given a chance to confront the contestant, leading to tearful concessions and, in some cases, reconciliation: “Dr. Phil” interventions in which candor and catharsis have price tags attached.
The exhibitionism is not new or particularly arresting. Viewers have been awash in these shame-free displays for years. The hokeyness is also all too familiar: smoke and mirrors (literally), overwrought music and well-scrubbed, overly rehearsed contestants who cry and laugh on cue.
The Fox version is actually quite tame compared with some foreign adaptations. The show’s creator, Howard Schultz, who was also the brain behind the plastic surgery edition of “Extreme Makeover,” sold the rights in several countries, including Germany and Britain. The Colombian version was canceled in October after a woman confessed on the show that she had hired someone to kill her husband.
But, at least at first, “The Moment of Truth” is hypnotic, and not just because the questions are so humiliating. (George replied yes to the question “Have you ever stuffed your pants to look better endowed?” The camera obligingly panned his trousers.) It is unusual to see people spew these kinds of daytime talk show confessions for cold cash, sums designated on an ascending triangular billboard reminiscent of the quiz show “Pyramid.”
And the consequences of truth are not as benign as they were on the old game show “Truth or Consequences.” Ordinarily contestants stand to lose their winnings. Losers on “The Moment of Truth” don’t go home merely empty-handed; they could return to a home filled with hate.
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
Fox, Wednesdays at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Howard Schultz, executive producer; Michael Maddocks, co-executive producer; Mark L. Walberg, host. Produced by Lighthearted Entertainment Inc.
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Oy . . .
so - i post of hte artcle that the government can;t control it contractors and they come out in force here in rockland . . .
more, i am sure, later . . .
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as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
----------------------------------------
as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
----------------------------------------
3013 [Jan. 25th, 2008|08:19 am]
Morning . . .
As if to reinforce the behavioral modification and tweaking point, I was unable to get to sleep last night - I lie in bed listening to the clock chime away 1 AM, 2 AM, 3 AM - the last I heard was 0330 . . . curious that, for the meal I had last night was about 1900 and I had bnothing with cafeine after 1000 . . .
Also, the left ear ringing tone was sharper and louder last night . . .
Someone trying to drive a point home . . . ?
Hmmmmm . . . Recalcitrint was a word introduced to me by Pelizzon . . .as if she knew the course of my life? Same with Anne Kupferman . . .
given my concern for humanity and US morals re: renditioning, i am curious about the pilots . . . especially with the SY WAYN spams . . .
but i must start the day . . .
with HU HR, is there still a purge going on? or are they simply sliding in the assimilated still . .. undercover of "transition" like so many and so much before
see preivous entries . ..
given the formerly didsappearing e-mails. .. i do wonder at the tampering with evidence aspect of hte hUMF . . . bu then again,m the SJC just ptotected them again, the corrupted investigators ("officers," they are alled). . . and this reflects the witness tampering before the fact, as happened at HLS . . . see previous entries. . .
more later, i am sure. . .
wait - - -
spam . . .
i mentioned the fake e-mails and supposedly sent myself one (again - but i did not) . . .
[me]@yahoo.com January 76% OFF Fri Jan 25, 2008 10k
ah - considering that 76% of HU hR's postings yesterday were blanked to the general public . . . well . . . toying? especially after the abt thing e-mail last night?
and also, given the increased colon talk of late by 2 work related people (which may clue to something i have made a note to spak of - yet another CA(org) MA/ME connection . . . ); we have in spam today -
Colon Cleanse Support Flush up to 20 lbs from your Colon & Enjoy a Flatter Tummy Fri Jan 25, 2008 4k
-------------
oy . . .
more later, i am sure (signing off from deep in Bush COuntry) . . .
link post comment
3014 [Jan. 25th, 2008|01:52 pm]
well . . . nothing new from hu hr (actually, they probably hadve a lot if "internal only" postings today - reference yesterday); nothing new from abt; but MIT HR has put up:
Administrative Assistant II mit-00005048 Resource Development Cambridge MA Full Time
Administrative Assistant I mit-00004638 Department Of Architecture Cambridge MA Full Time
----------------------------
architecture mught be a spyglasses tweak, for i spoke with a woman at 2d read about a david mccauly book this morning . . .
quite the day for licence plates today - very suggestive, too . . .
woah - from boston.com:
US Attorney General nixes special prosecutor in CIA tape case
Some in Congress wanted an independent look at the politically charged case. Meanwhile two Boston prosecutors who helped unravel corruption in the Boston FBI office were put on the investigation. (AP, 1:29 p.m.)
Trial of Whitey Bulger's former FBI handler postponed
---------
boston.com:
AG nixes special prosecutor in CIA case
By Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press Writer | January 25, 2008
WASHINGTON --Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday he doesn't plan for a special prosecutor to investigate whether the CIA broke the law when it destroyed videotapes of terror interrogations, defying some in Congress who want an independent look at the politically charged case.
Mukasey, in a 41-minute briefing with reporters, also ducked repeated questions about whether he considers waterboarding an illegal form of torture -- an issue expected to be at the top of the agenda when he appears next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Speaking tersely and in an even, low tone, Mukasey would not discuss whether he has seen any evidence that destroying the interrogation tapes violated court orders or otherwise interfered with any case. He said the ongoing criminal investigation, headed by career federal prosecutor John Durham of Connecticut, was opened on grounds of "some indication -- which is a lot less than probable cause -- some indication that there was any violation of any federal statute."
"And that's the only basis on which we proceeded," Mukasey said.
Asked if he has reconsidered his decision not to put a special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Mukasey said, simply, "No."
Mukasey was even more reluctant to discuss the act of waterboarding itself -- the interrogation tactic that is believed to have been shown on the destroyed tapes. The issue briefly stalled Mukasey's nomination as attorney general last October, when he said he did not know enough about it to say then that it should be outlawed by the United States.
"I understand there's interest in that," Mukasey said Friday, noting that he promised senators last fall that he would review the practice of waterboarding and "offer the view of whether the current program is lawful or not."
"That's what I said I would do," he added. "And I can't say any more, and I won't say any more."
He also refused to say whether he has completed his review, or if he would ever publicly announce his opinion of whether waterboarding is legal. Used during the Spanish Inquisition, waterboarding involves pouring water over a person's cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It was banned by the CIA and the Pentagon in 2006.
In his first congressional hearing since being sworn in, Mukasey is scheduled to testify Wednesday in front of the Senate Judiciary panel that threatened his nomination. Ten senators, led by Democrat Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, demanded this week that Mukasey immediately clarify his stand on waterboarding, saying he has had "ample time ... to study this issue and reach a conclusion."
Mukasey also touched Friday on the administration's push for Congress to permanently allow U.S. intelligence officials to eavesdrop on overseas terror suspects without first seeking court approval. Such changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are under fierce debate in Congress, and without them, Mukasey said, "it certainly doesn't help" investigations.
Meanwhile, Durham recently added two veteran organized crime prosecutors from Boston to his team investigating the destroyed CIA tapes. James Farmer is the head of the criminal division and supervises the national security section for the U.S. attorney's office. James Herbert is the head of the state's Organized Crime Strike Force.
Durham and Herbert were part of a Justice Department squad that won national accolades for unraveling a decades-long corrupt relationship between the Boston FBI and the area's most ruthless gangsters. Farmer successfully prosecuted members of the Boston Police Department for extorting bribes from business owners in the neighborhoods they patrolled in the late 1980s.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan described Farmer and Herbert as "consummate professionals" who are not swayed by political forces.
"I have absolute confidence in their ability to exercise independent judgment," Sullivan said.
------
Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
------
On the Net:
Department of Justice: http://www.justice.gov
========
what's important here is that hurtubees/manning got viuolent in 3/05, when it was okay to torture by the justice department . . . see previous entries . . .
boston.com:
Trial of Whitey Bulger’s former FBI handler postponed in Florida
Email|Print| Text size – + January 25, 2008 12:41 PM
(Globe file photo/2003)
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
A Florida judge granted a request today by former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. to postpone his Miami murder trial, setting a new trial date of June 23.
Connolly, 67, sought a delay of his state murder trial, which had been slated to start in March, after the judge who had been presiding over his case since his 2005 indictment recused herself earlier this month.
During a hearing this morning, Judge Stanford Blake, who was assigned to the case Thursday and is the administrative judge of the criminal division of Florida's 11th Circuit Court in Miami, agreed to postpone the trial for three months.
Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, is accused of plotting with longtime informants James "Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi to kill Boston financier John B. Callahan in 1982. Prosecutors allege the gangsters orchestrated Callahan's murder in Miami after Connolly warned them that the FBI planned to question Callahan, who could implicate them in another slaying.
Connolly, who is already serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 federal racketeering conviction, could face life in prison if convicted of the Florida slaying.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Michael Von Zamft estimated today that the trial could take two months.
========================================
see previous entries . . .
the two are connected . . .
nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
Killer Expelled From Swedish Med School
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:41 p.m. ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- A medical student convicted in a 1999 murder with neo-Nazi links has been expelled from Sweden's leading medical school in a case that sparked debate over whether a killer can become a doctor after having paid his debt to society.
The Karolinska institute, known for awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine, revoked Karl Svensson's admission to its prestigious medical program this week after an investigation into his background, the university president said Friday.
Svensson, 31, was admitted last fall after his application to the program was approved, President Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson told The Associated Press.
However, the university knew nothing about his dark past until getting two anonymous tips that Svensson's original identity was Hampus Hellekant, an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer who had served seven years in prison for the murder of a labor union activist, Wallberg-Henriksson said.
He was convicted along with two other men in 2000 in the fatal shooting of a member of a far-left union, Bjorn Soderberg. Prosecutors said the killing was revenge for the Soderberg's public denouncement of a co-worker who belonged to a neo-Nazi organization.
''He had been enrolled for four months when this was revealed,'' she said.
The discovery put Karolinska in a difficult position because the legal framework is unclear on ''whether you should be able to receive a doctor's education with this type of background,'' she said.
In the end, Karolinska never had to address Svensson's criminal record because the background check found irregularities in the high school grades he submitted with his application, which was grounds to expel him.
The case triggered an emotional debate among faculty and students at the Karolinska institute. After local media started reporting on the case, Svensson told his 130 classmates about his background, Wallberg-Henriksson said.
''He said he was very interested in becoming a doctor and was determined to pursue the education and that he was not the same person today as he was then,'' she said.
''There was a lot of discussion. The course was divided in two camps. One camp thought he had paid for his crime, others felt uncomfortable,'' she said.
Karolinska students said that there had been mixed feelings about Svensson on campus.
''We talked about it when it emerged and it was in the paper,'' said Elin, 21, a biomedicine student who did not want her last name used because the topic was sensitive on campus.
''People felt it was strange that he should be allowed to become a doctor,'' she said. ''On the other hand, people change. Maybe he's become a better person.''
Wallberg-Henriksson said Svensson's only response to the expulsion was a letter to Karolinska in which he said he was dropping out of the program.
Svensson could not be reached for comment.
The National Agency for Services to Universities and University Colleges filed a police complaint in the case on Thursday. Stockholm police said Friday they had received the complaint and were likely to start a forgery investigation next week.
Education Minister Lars Leijonborg said in a statement on Friday that Svensson's case had prompted his ministry to ''discuss whether there is a need to change the regulations surrounding students who have committed crimes.''
----------------
so what about students studying the psychological "torture" - oh, they;re covered by the ministry of truth - see above. . .
hmmmm . . . i just typed in washingtonpost.com on this computer at the library, where the woman who bears watching - watching the dating pagers on the library computers here?; there's one to my right as i type - well, the woman who bears watching got up and left hte room . . .
oh - the man to my right is poland; no wonder she was here . . .
anyway- i type in washingtonpost.com and i get streetwatchers.com?
oy . . .
washingtonpost.com:
Former White House Budget Director Dies
By WILL LESTER
The Associated Press
Friday, January 25, 2008; 1:11 PM
WASHINGTON -- Richard Darman, a former White House budget director who helped convince former President George H.W. Bush to renege on his no new taxes pledge, died Friday. He was 64.
Darman died in Washington after battling leukemia for several months, according to a statement issued by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a longtime Darman friend.
Darman was chief architect of a compromise designed to reduce the federal budget deficit. Although it drew praise from many economic analysts, the plan included tax increases that broke Bush's 1988 election promise, "Read my lips, no new taxes!"
Although the change of policy is partly blamed for Bush's re-election defeat to Bill Clinton in 1992, it contributed to balancing the federal budgets in the late 1990s.
A talented and tough negotiator, Darman sometimes drew criticism for being abrasive, intellectually arrogant and overly concerned with his standing in the White House pecking order. He had a reputation for being so crafty that "Darmanesque" became a word to describe maneuvering that was clever and Machiavellian.
Darman had a more playful side and was known for pranks. He once donned a gorilla suit to amuse his boss, the president.
Darman's hardball tactics on Capitol Hill in budget negotiations alienated many senior Republicans in Congress and many White House colleagues. He railed against budget gimmicks and called for serious steps to get the budget under control.
The government's huge budget deficits were "a mathematical representation of our wish to buy now, pay later _ or more accurately, buy now and let others pay later," he said. He criticized the nation's obsession with its current finances and "our reluctance to adequately address the future."
But those words were from the same man who earlier had served as a top political strategist for President Ronald Reagan and helped craft an economic policy that stressed tax cuts even as federal budget deficits were reaching record levels.
"Dick Darman was a brilliant, dedicated, and distinguished public servant, educator, and businessman who could direct traffic through the intersection of policy and politics as well as anybody I have ever known," said Baker, who worked with Darman under presidents Bush and Reagan.
Darman began his government career in 1971 as a deputy assistant secretary in the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He later held high-level posts in the Defense, Justice and Commerce departments. He served as a top aide to Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who lost his job in the "Saturday Night Massacre" during the Watergate scandal.
Darman was deputy chief of staff to Reagan while Baker was running the staff. Baker became his mentor, which helped Darman survive in the Bush White House. When Baker switched jobs to become Treasury secretary, Darman went with him, becoming deputy Treasury secretary.
"He was absolutely brilliant at boiling down complex issues to their simplest forms," Baker said. "He always provided me with an unvarnished perspective that I needed to know, even if sometimes I didn't want to hear it.
Along with his jobs in many federal agencies, Darman taught at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.
At the time of his death, Darman was a partner in The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. He also was serving as board chairman at AES Corp., a power and alternative energy firm. In addition, Darman was board chairman of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The son of an industrialist, Darman was born in Charlotte, N.C. and raised in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1964 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard School of Business.
Darman is survived by his wife Kathleen Emmet, a writer, and three sons, William T.E. Darman, Jonathan W.E. Darman, and C.T. Emmet Darman.
--------
wow - harvard business school and the kennedy school of government (now K-school) . . .
see previous entries . . .
ah: and the smithsonian, too . . . not to mention north carolina . . . as i oft write: hiding the money trail . . .
oh, what a tangled . . .
ah - recall so many kevins in the news of late?
mainecopastnow.com:
Two charged from truck crash
By Erin Rhoda
(Created: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:53 PM EST) More Breaking News
| Text Size | Comment | Print | E-mail | Letter to the Editor |
OWLS HEAD — A rollover crash on Rt. 73 in Owls Head at 10:40 p.m. Wednesday prompted one arrest and one summons.
Kevin J. Johnston, 28, of Rockland was driving his black, 1993 Dodge pickup truck when his vehicle went off the road, rolled over and came to rest in a driveway. Johnston and two passengers, John T. Small, 38, and Timothy E. Ulvila, 21, fled the scene prior to police arrival, according to a Knox County Sheriff’s Office report.
Johnston and Ulvila were injured, with Ulvila’s being internal injuries to the chest and stomach. Alcohol and unsafe speed were factors in the accident. They were not wearing seat belts.
Ulvila was arrested Thursday on outstanding warrants for forgery, unpaid fines and fees and failure to appear and was charged with violating his conditions of release. Johnston was summonsed for leaving the scene, according to Knox County Sheriff Donna Dennison.
----------------------------------------
oy . . .
last night (i forgot to mention) a Joe's Taxi wit hthe ME plate 10-227 picked up folks from work (harvard medical/cia). . . 10+227=237=57. . .
see previous entries . . .
at trhe library this morning, thayer elecreical (nathaniel thayer of the museum) and michaud electric (kelly michaud, now woods, from abt - see previous entries on both) were here when I was. the thayer man zapping things with an laser pointer . . .
and just ere i got here a dunbkin donuts drinking cqamo pant wearing man entered and got on the computer; he left when i did, too . . .curious. . .
brian at work is intriguing - claims colorado ties . . . and something's going down today between 4 and 5 PM with him - twice he made a point to take phone calls within earshot . . . he also asked what brought me to rockland, and i gave him the answer i solved when writing the ME journal: I pissed off someone at harvard law school . . . told him about 6/8 and the state house, police, etc . . . not to mention the high mucky muck boston lawyers and business folk . . .
oy . . .
i dod not mention that mike, who asked me the same and got the same answer, was fired twice . . .
MA plates abound: 21E D98 and (i love this one) M16 644 . . . m16 being the military gun and all . . .
5005 NJ was parked right behind work a while - and 5/2005 was when i left ME exile to be homeless in MA . . . and met blanton again, who said that i had "learned some new tricks" . . . see previous entries . . .
the ME plate BBCORY went by again, and I do wonder about false paper people evidence . . . for I am honest about my work history; ergo, might the long arm of the law (school) with dirty hands have fudged my personal records somehow . . . might be a class exercise, eh? cointelpro-ing the mkultrad? . . . and recall, CORI issues were of concern at Bred and Jams, in the shadow of Wiliam James Hall, in 2005 . . .
5880 NJ was parked a while - and 5/8/1980 I was in Windsor Gardens, next to Alice and Samantha Power . . .
and a moment later, 5990 NJ went by - coincidence?
the ME commercial plate drove up and parked: 776 104 (or 164). . . Catalano contracting; a white pickup . . .recall the HUPD spokespoerson is Stephen Catalano . . . is there an HUPD thing going on now? (again!) - see previous entries - the driver had a bluettooth phone earpiece and was drumming his pen on the dash . . . reminiscent of the bail bondsman of 04/05 - see previous entries . . .
a white pickup from Journey's End marina parked in front of breannan's - his truck, i think, sandwiching the parking of the white one . . . 5603 PH . . . 5/6/2003 . . . I was temping for viscusi as his Managing Editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty . . . the office at that time was in the building of Harvard Development (more money trail?) - and recall the walk by of perhaps the entire developm,ent staff one day when the union rep gave me a T pass . . . ah, the better to track . . . and don;t forget that when the viscusi office moved to 23 Everett, the HUPD officer asked about TV cameras in the room - see previous entries . . .
and lastly, carl from the brunswick house - the first b-houser to espy me when i got back to ME, walked by when i was out back on a buitt break . . . said he weas on his way to the brown bag . . .
ah now HU HR is on the board - with just under 50 % available to the general public . . .
32789 F-T 058 Manager of Digital Preservation and Repository Services
Harvard University Library Office for Information Services 01/25/2008
32787 F-T 056 Byzantine Assistant Curator
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dumbarton Oaks 01/25/2008
32786 F-T 056 Pre-Columbian Assistant Curator
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dumbarton Oaks 01/25/2008
---------
nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
Colorado Lawmaker Censured for Kicking
By DAN FROSCH
DENVER — In the week leading up to his first day on the job, State Representative Douglas Bruce, a Republican, got into a lengthy dispute with the Democratic speaker of the House over the time of his swearing in.
On the day he took office, Jan. 14, Mr. Bruce did something more contentious. He delivered a swift kick to the knee of a photographer for The Rocky Mountain News who was snapping his picture during a ceremonial prayer. Mr. Bruce refused to apologize. The paparazzi, he defiantly told members of the House, would not leave him alone.
The kick was captured by a television camera, splayed across the Internet and led to a legislative inquiry that ended Thursday when Mr. Bruce, an antitax crusader from Colorado Springs who was appointed by his party to fill a vacancy, became the first member of the Colorado General Assembly to face censure.
The 62-to-1 vote in favor of censure came as state Republicans appeared upset over the entire situation.
“What I find particularly disturbing is that after the incident, Representative Bruce failed to take responsibility for his own action,” said Representative Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch. Mr. McNulty is a member of a legislative ethics committee that unanimously recommended censure.
At a committee hearing last week, Mr. Bruce described the kick as “a nudge” intended to restore order in the House chambers that, he contended, was being disrupted by the news media crowd. He said he had warned the photographer, Javier Manzano, to stop taking his picture during the prayer.
In local news coverage of the incident, Mr. Bruce is seen standing with his head bowed and eyes closed. At one point he opens his eyes, appears to grow distressed and says, “Do not do that again!” before stomping down on the knee of Mr. Manzano, who was crouched at his feet.
“This wasn’t a field goal kick,” Mr. Bruce told the committee. “This was, you know, putting the bottom of my shoe against his exposed knee.”
Mr. Manzano told legislators he was simply trying to capture an image of Mr. Bruce during a spiritual moment.
“I did not foresee him losing his composure and kicking me,” Mr. Manzano said at the hearing.
The situation harks back to a day when Western statehouses were halls of brawling, boozing and ill repute. Some legislatures, like that of neighboring New Mexico, have not entirely shed that reputation. But though political divisions can be bitter here, modern-day Colorado lawmakers have mostly remained civil toward one another.
The manager of library services for the Colorado Joint Legislative Library, Molly Otto, said she found no evidence of any public censure dating back to 1881, the oldest records she could locate. The General Assembly was first convened in 1876.
Still, veteran lawmakers and members of the press corps here say the General Assembly used to be decidedly more rough and tumble, with a steady supply of beer and liquor available to legislators and occasional shenanigans and practical jokes.
“On the last day of the session, the air would be perfumed with alcohol,” said Fred Brown, a retired Capitol bureau chief for The Denver Post.
That all ended in 1972 with the passage of the state’s sunshine laws, which imposed stricter oversight of public officials, Mr. Brown said.
“The hallmark in Colorado is that you leave your debates at the door, and you might still be debating at the door, but you don’t try and isolate yourself,” said Jerry Kopel, a former Democratic state representative from Denver. “But Bruce really did start off on the wrong foot.”
Throughout it all, much to the exasperation of fellow Republicans, Mr. Bruce has maintained that he had done nothing wrong. In an interview this week, he insisted that he was the victim of a media conspiracy to provoke him and that legislators had singled him out because he led a campaign to pass a constitutional amendment in 1992 that requires voter approval of tax increases and limits state growth.
“I regret the whole thing happened,” he said. “They are wasting all this time labeling me as a belligerent wild man. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
Mr. Bruce has posted a seven-page rebuttal of the censure, called “The Nudge,” on his Web site (www.douglasbruce.com).
Just before he was censured, Mr. Bruce gave a speech on the House floor comparing himself to the main character in the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in which he said Jimmy Stewart plays a rookie senator who is hounded by the press until he physically attacks them.
Mr. Bruce’s colleagues were unmoved.
“You’re not Jimmy Stewart,” responded Representative Al White, Republican of Hayden. “This is not a 1939 movie. This is today. Your actions were wrong.”
---------------------
Colorado, Bruce, kicking the fimler? see previous entries . .. oy . . . viscusi and his "undercover" . . .wsa he perhaps undercover at harvard himself - recall ihe had a important role in the reagan white house . . .
cold war, military build up and all . . . and he did scoot harvard . . .
nytimes.com:
January 25, 2008
TV Review | 'The Moment of Truth'
Fishing for True Confessions by Dangling a Pot of Gold
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
In the annals of reality television, “The Moment of Truth” may be a milestone. Fox has come up with a cash-prize competition that is neither a game of chance nor a test of knowledge. It’s a pseudo-psychological trial by ordeal in which the contestants trade candor for dollars.
The set is similar to those used on “The Weakest Link” and “Deal or No Deal,” but the object of this game is to prod seemingly nice people to admit bad behavior. As family members and friends look on, the contestant is asked a series of embarrassing personal questions by the host. Truthful answers, as determined by a polygraph, are rewarded by cash, from $10,000 for the first, relatively banal queries to $500,000 for the marriage-busting kind.
The novelty of “The Moment of Truth” is not the lie detector. That was the conceit behind “Meet the Parents” (2000), the hit Ben Stiller comedy. NBC borrowed it for a short-lived dating show in 2002, “Meet My Folks,” in which suitors were interrogated by the parents of the date-seeking contestant.
What distinguishes the Fox series is that it blends the cooked-up psychodrama of behavioral reality shows like “Big Brother” on CBS and “The Real World” on MTV with the regimented good family fun of nighttime game shows like “American Gladiators” and “Deal or No Deal” on NBC and “Power of 10” on CBS.
All game shows are by definition mercenary, but producers go to great lengths to try to dress up contestants’ cupidity as altruism. A man wants the money to buy his wife the diamond engagement ring he could never afford. A young woman wants to help her ailing mother buy a home.
Other game shows use wives, parents and siblings as advisers or cheerleaders to add some human warmth and humor to a prosaic and not especially taxing contest. Before picking the correct suitcase to win $1 million on “Deal or No Deal” Wednesday night, a contestant named Britney told the audience that her father was so nervous he placed Maxi Pads in his armpits.
“The Moment of Truth,” though, brings loved ones onstage to stir up hostility. On Wednesday’s premiere George, a racetrack marketing manager, was solemnly asked by the host, Mark L. Walberg, if he wears a hairpiece (yes), whether he had ever had a sexual fantasy while attending Mass (yes) and whether he has a gambling problem (yes) — as his boss, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s uncle looked on.
Ty, a personal trainer, said yes when he was asked if he has delayed having children because he is not sure that Catia, his wife of two and a half years, would be his “lifelong partner.” After he replied, a disembodied female voice delivered the verdict. “The answer is — ” (long, dramatic beat) “true.” The camera panned to Catia, who stopped smiling and murmured, “I’m dying here.” Her friend April turned to her and asked in a semiwhisper, “Is it worth $100,000 to learn that?”
As it turned out, Catia got nothing along with the information. When Ty replied no to the question of whether he had ever touched a female client more than was strictly necessary, the polygraph contradicted him, and he lost all his winnings.
Ty ran to his wife and tried to hug her. Catia submitted to his embrace but turned her cheek away, pursing her lips in a foreboding moue of lip gloss and recrimination.
Fox is renowned for callous programming. It was the network that put forth “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?” and “Temptation Island.” But unfortunately, this new series is not quite as innocently ill-intentioned.
The premiere and promos suggest that future episodes strip contestants down in order to build them up, like EST or Marine Corps basic training. The producers devise questions after interviewing friends and family members, and they are posed to the contestant separately with a polygraph machine before the taping. On camera, estranged children, deceived spouses and misunderstood parents are given a chance to confront the contestant, leading to tearful concessions and, in some cases, reconciliation: “Dr. Phil” interventions in which candor and catharsis have price tags attached.
The exhibitionism is not new or particularly arresting. Viewers have been awash in these shame-free displays for years. The hokeyness is also all too familiar: smoke and mirrors (literally), overwrought music and well-scrubbed, overly rehearsed contestants who cry and laugh on cue.
The Fox version is actually quite tame compared with some foreign adaptations. The show’s creator, Howard Schultz, who was also the brain behind the plastic surgery edition of “Extreme Makeover,” sold the rights in several countries, including Germany and Britain. The Colombian version was canceled in October after a woman confessed on the show that she had hired someone to kill her husband.
But, at least at first, “The Moment of Truth” is hypnotic, and not just because the questions are so humiliating. (George replied yes to the question “Have you ever stuffed your pants to look better endowed?” The camera obligingly panned his trousers.) It is unusual to see people spew these kinds of daytime talk show confessions for cold cash, sums designated on an ascending triangular billboard reminiscent of the quiz show “Pyramid.”
And the consequences of truth are not as benign as they were on the old game show “Truth or Consequences.” Ordinarily contestants stand to lose their winnings. Losers on “The Moment of Truth” don’t go home merely empty-handed; they could return to a home filled with hate.
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
Fox, Wednesdays at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Howard Schultz, executive producer; Michael Maddocks, co-executive producer; Mark L. Walberg, host. Produced by Lighthearted Entertainment Inc.
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Oy . . .
so - i post of hte artcle that the government can;t control it contractors and they come out in force here in rockland . . .
more, i am sure, later . . .
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as always:
It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .
<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>
it makes more sense then. ....
or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>
may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>
and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
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