New York Daily News publisher hosts lunch for Fidel Castro with media elites

Thursday, September 18, 2008, the Publisher of the NY Daily News, Mortimer Zuckerman, hosted a luncheon in New York for brutal Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Invited guests included numerous media elites. Zuckerman has pursued and spent hundreds of hours with the totalitarian ruler as he detailed in a 2006 article. Rush Limbaugh has an acquaintance who attended yesterday's luncheon which is how Limbaugh was able to mention its occasion on his radio program today.

• Every person in Cuba is held prisoner by Castro, literally.

• Having Fidel Castro as a personal hero would be fine if Zuckerman were in another line of work. It's not fine to idolize a pillar of state controlled media and censorship as a US major daily publisher.
  
• The idea that any news or sports coverage in the paper is 'journalism' is imaginary.
  
• Why are former Nazi supporters any worse than present day Fidel Castro supporters? (sm)
  

Bankrupt Lehman Brothers lead alleged global warming deals

2/6/08 Reuters

• "SEC Denies Lehman Brothers Bid to Block Global Warming Shareholder Proposal;

Lehman Climate Policy Based on Erroneous Information Says Free Enterprise
Action Fund (Ticker: FEAOX)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission denied a bid by Lehman Brothers to block shareholders from voting
on a global warming-related shareholder proposal from the Free Enterprise
Action Fund (Ticker: FEAOX).

• "Lehman Brothers says it wants to make money from global warming, but basic information on which the firm relies and presents to shareholders is
  
• clearly erroneous," said Steve Milloy, portfolio manager of Action Fund Management...
  

"When a $34 billion company is touting misinformation as a basis for its
actions, it makes you wonder about the soundness of its business plan," Milloy
added.

• Lehman Brothers' management uses the so-called "hockey stick" chart, for example, to support the notion that "the Earth's mean temperature has risen sharply in recent decades."(1)
  

But the hockey stick graph was scientifically discredited long before Lehman
issued its February 2007 report.(2)

• "As shareholders, we expect that management will undertake reasonable due diligence before undertaking action with corporate assets," said AFM's Tom Borelli. "Corporate action and statements based on erroneous information may
  

not be 'sustainable' for shareholders or the environment," Borelli added.

• "Lehman Brothers should also be concerned about potential legal liability for false and misleading statements," said Milloy.
  

Based on the 2003 California case of Nike v. Kasky, citizens may sue
businesses over false or misleading statements.(3) The California Supreme
Court ruled that statements made on company websites are considered commercial
speech and therefore subjected to legal challenge.

"We think that Lehman is in way over its head when it comes to global warming
and that management is recklessly risking shareholder value," said Milloy.
"Shareholders will be looking for an explanation from CEO Richard Fuld at the 
annual shareholders meeting."...

References:

1. See Lehman's "The Business of Climate Change: Challenges and
Opportunities," p.6 (February 2007).

2. See e.g., U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, "Inhofe
Says NAS Report Reaffirms 'Hockey Stick' Is Broken" (June 22, 2006),
here

3. Kasky v. Nike, Inc., 27 Cal.4th 939, 947, 45 P.3d 243, 248, 119 Cal.Rptr.2d
296, 302 (Cal. 2002)

Baseball media choose to make Krod famous, PENALIZING OTHER GOOD PITCHERS WHO WEREN'T LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE THE 'OPPORTUNITIES'

Tim Marchman, NY Sun, adds some context: 9/12/08: "What really matters, though, is that...this value derives from context, which is very different

• from value deriving from innate excellence.

(Francisco) Rodriguez may have been wonderful in the clutch so far this year, but playing well in the clutch isn't really an inherent skill. Even if it were, it would be of dubious use —

• without save chances to give him this October, for instance, even magic Rodriguez talents would do the Angels no good.

This last would be most worth keeping in mind for the Mets, or any other team tempted to solve a bullpen problem quickly this fall

• by helping Rodriguez to set another record,

• as the best-paid reliever in baseball.

When a player's value depends on what happens around him, it's hard to say just what he's worth at all."

• (Just as post season opportunities "penalize" those who don't have them (as the mafia pushes), regular season opportunities are
• just as 'injurious' to players who simply
  
• aren't lucky). sm
  

Mayor Bloomberg secret meetings with media to 'clear a path' for third term- NY Times

NY Times, 8/22/08: "Even as he publicly remains coy about his political future, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has quietly approached some of the city’s most powerful media figures to assess

• whether their publications would endorse a bid to overturn New York City’s term limits,

• which could clear a path for him to run for re-election next year.

Over the last several weeks, Mr. Bloomberg has held confidential conversations with

• Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, which owns The New York Post;

• Mortimer B. Zuckerman, owner of The Daily News; and

• Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company,

to gauge their views on the issue, according to people familiar with the talks.

• The conversations are the clearest evidence to date that Mr. Bloomberg is seriously considering a challenge to the term limits law that will force him from office January 2010.

Such a move would upend New York’s political world and be a dramatic reversal for the mayor.

• He has voiced intense opposition in the past to making any changes to the term limits law, which restricts citywide elected officials and members of the City Council to two consecutive terms in office.

Given his popularity, a third-term campaign by Mr. Bloomberg could force mayoral hopefuls, like Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Representative Anthony D. Weiner and Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., to rethink their plans.

New York voters passed term limits in 1993, and polls show they remain strongly in favor of them,

• a major obstacle for any campaign by the mayor.
  

Mr. Bloomberg is trying to appeal to influential business leaders, especially in the news media,

• to sway public opinion in his favor,
  
• people familiar with the matter said.

Many of the city’s top business executives have privately said they are dissatisfied with the field of candidates who are likely to run for mayor next year, and are seeking a way to keep Mr. Bloomberg in office.

Mr. Bloomberg is hoping that

• newspaper publishers — and
  

• their editorial boards —
  

will back a campaign to ease the limits, giving him

• some political cover in what would certainly be a contentious battle.

About a month ago, Mr. Bloomberg sounded out Mr. Murdoch at a dinner at a restaurant in downtown Manhattan about whether The Post might support an effort to overturn the city’s term limits law.

• One person familiar with the mayor’s efforts to woo the three newspaper executives, who spoke anonymously because the talks were meant to be confidential, said Mr. Murdoch was inclined to lend his support given the absence of a strong alternative candidate for mayor.

A person close to Mr. Zuckerman said he was open to the idea of a third term for Mr. Bloomberg, and suspected The Post and The Times would be, too.

• “So it would be a clean sweep,” this person said.

Representatives of Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Sulzberger declined to comment, and a spokesman for Mr. Zuckerman could not be reached by phone.

• A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, also declined to comment.

“We don’t discuss personal conversations the mayor may or may not have with people,” Mr. Loeser said in an e-mail message....

The mayor could pursue several avenues to overturn term limits, but the most likely is through the City Council, which can pass legislation permitting a third term with or without a public referendum, said Randy M. Mastro, the former deputy mayor for operations under Rudolph W. Giuliani and a lawyer who has tried cases dealing with term limits.

• “That may have a certain political appeal to the mayor and City Council speaker,” Mr. Mastro said, “given that both face term limits.”

Of course a move by the City Council to ease or undo term limits — without ratification by voters —

• would be potentially politically explosive, and members of the Council could face a backlash if they supported it.
  

Another option for the mayor — a ballot initiative overturning term limits — would have to be completed in the next two weeks to be considered during this November’s election,

• which Mr. Mastro said “cannot be accomplished” because of the time needed to collect signatures and overcome various legal hurdles.

Those familiar with the mayor’s overtures to the publishers said

• he wished to avoid the kind of bruising confrontation with editorial boards
  

• that characterized his last push to revise the city’s election rules.

In 2003, the mayor tried to institute nonpartisan elections, spending millions of his own fortune to overturn the century-old system of Democratic- and Republican-dominated politics.

• But editorials in The Times, The Post and Newsday urged people to vote against the plan, which they did, overwhelmingly,
  

in a stinging defeat for the mayor.

• “He does not want to repeat that,” said a person familiar with the mayor’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity....

The idea that Mr. Bloomberg may be seeking a way to serve another term has set off intense chatter among the city’s leading politicians. Asked by reporters on Friday, Gov. David A. Paterson enthusiastically endorsed it, saying the mayor had expertly handled the city’s economic challenges.

• “So Mayor Bloomberg, if he wants to run for mayor a third time I think it’s a great idea,” said Mr. Paterson, a Harlem Democrat.

Of course, if the mayor decided to run again, it would eliminate him as a potential challenger

• to Mr. Paterson for governor in 2010."

NY Times, 8/22/08, "Bloomberg said to test a term-limit reversal," by Michael Barbaro and Tim Arango