The Biggest Thugs

I'm hopeful for B-rack, but the reality is that we are spiraling out of control. Make no mistake; what's going on in Amerikkka is nothing less than the biggest thugs committing the largest heist in history. For those of you who read here, I urge you to tune in to CNN's Lou Dobbs, virtually alone in the mainstream media in his unabashed calling out of this theft.

Remember, the mainstream media has a major role in this. They are a sham, when so much is at stake, they are not informing us of the reality happening right now.

Before he was elected, Howard Stern said that dumbya would bankrupt the country. Howard Stern! That has now come true, and dumbya's new record low approval rating does little to console a country out of control. Folks, if someone doesn't do something to reign in Congress to let them know this is insane, we are selling my daughter's generation down the river. And that pisses me off. It should piss you off as well.

And if it doesn't, you need to ask yourself and everyone you know why it doesn't.

Note to B-rack; you need to consult with David Cay Johnston. Now.

Courtesy of Dobbs today, here are the points every American needs to be aware of, the first major deconstruction of AIG:

$85 Billion for the first looting

$60 Billion for the second looting

NOW they are asking for an additional $27 Billion because AIG is struggling to meet the terms of its agreements.

"more money, cheaper rates, more flexible terms - it's historic, in US financial markets, where one institution has this much money available to it."
-Bill Bergman, Morningstar

Reduced interest rate on $60B as a result of this re-structuring

FED buys:

$40 Billion of preferred stock to be bought by treasury

$22 Billion from Fed to buy "toxic loans" ie: mortgage-backed securities

$30 Billion to guarantee credit default swaps, ie: unregulated insurance contracts that are in reality ultra risky bets, the highest stakes gambling in history.

==================

In the background, GM hits 60 year low for share price; bailiouts now heard... haven't they received 25B already???

Just Go NOW. PLEASE.

I watched B-rack's press con today, and remarked to Fish that it was such a relief to see a president (yes, he is my president, not the bozo there now) who's smart, articulate, deliberative, analytical, self-aware... and just poised. I then remembered that some kids' sports have a "mercy rule" whereby if one team is slaughtering another then the game is halted to avoid further embarrassment.

We outghta have a clause like that post-election, where we can just tell dumbya and his thugs to get the fuck outta Dodge now.


Art: Shephard Fairey for MoveOn.org

EVERYBODY'S an Expert

So I've been inundated with info about Barack, particularly the guessing game about cabinet nominees. Emanuel's already accepted CoS. Richardson's on the short list for SoS, and Volcker for the Treasury; personally, I sincerely feel that this country desperately needs David Cay Johnston advising economically. And Johnston's a Republican! Hillary was conspicuous by absence.

I would think Schumer's gotta be in there somewhere. But Tom Friedman needs to be tapped. He doesn't have micro down, but he has macro. Muhammad Yunis should be tapped for micro-lending. In an astounding turn-around, Mike Milken (!) is now working with Yunis on micro-lending; they already have a program up and going in Queens. Think about what this does for everyday folks who are hurting, or just have dreams of entrepreneurship, but no capital, no connections, no collateral. If America is to realize more fully its sloganeering rhetoric of "anything's possible" then that must include opportunity. This is a proven, sober and very economically sound path. It's humane, it has a heart. It's battle tested.

Here are a few more ideas:

1. SUSTAINABILITY CZARS - This needs to be a committee because it's so important. I agree with Tom Friedman that a "Green America" is energy forward, environmentally conscious, entrepreneurial, geo-political, and economically conservative AND stimulating. It'd take another essay to explain all of those, but, back on point, this committee should contain sub-committees on:

A. ENTREPRENEURSHIP - Entrepreneurs are the base, they are the ones taking the risks and developing the Google's of Green - HELP THEM. They are good for America, good for the economy. They are key in helping wean America off of our addiction to oil. OPEC's got us by the balls - this is the way out. That in turn gets us out of South Asia and our insane war mentality that has oil as its motive. The madness ends here, with a coherent strategy for sustainable energy.

These green companies who go on to develop and flower are good for the economy; they create jobs that people can feel good about as opposed to being just another cog in the wheel of corporate America.

B. HEALTH CARE - The number one reason for foreclosures, combined with this insane system of adjustable rate mortgages and derivatives, hedge funds, over-leveraging, etc., is health care issues. Bankruptcy's as well. This is a major economic, health and welfare issue. With tens of millions of boomers heading into retirement, our broken health care system is headed for crisis - it already is in crisis.

But Barack's plank on this issue will do nothing to solve the central problem, that is, the oligarchy that has a stranglehold on health care. This is because the oligarchy - comprised of insurance, HMOs and drug companies, are way to economically powerful. Any one of those three has lobbyists with deep pockets and banks of lawyers. Citizens can't possibly fight on that level.

Until Barack and congress decide to address this central problem, health care in America will loom as a major social and economic problem. There's no other way. Solution? Single payer. This is a major reason why I voted for Cynthia McKinney.

2. WARS - We need out of Iraq. The SoD must have a mandate on a clear plan for dis-engagement including infrastructure for Iraq. Most Americans aren't even aware of the reality that Iraqis don't have running water and electricity, let alone jobs and a viable economy that sustains living sanely. All of Iraq, save for ONE region: the oil producing south. What does that tell you about the lie the dumbya administration said: "It's not about oil." Bullshit. The plan must also include giving aid health care-wise to Iraqis as well as our service people. The Walter Reed scandal is shameful and more evidence of this administration's utter disregard of our young people who have suffered. When a person has been injured, it effects their whole family - COMPENSATE THEM, TAKE CARE OF THEM, IT'S THE LEAST WE CAN DO. This madness must end now.

In each case, there's massive amounts of work. The keys are:

1. To assemble good teams
2. Formulate clear plans - Budgets, schedules, reporting, accountability
3. Get them up and running
4. Communicate - The time has come for an administration to consistently communicate with us. Taking a page from Howard Dean, Barack's team mobilized on the Internet in the modern age. He and his advisers should not forget that. How easy is it to set up a Barack blog where the public could read updates, give commentary, etc.? Rahm Emanuel or whoever ends up being press sec could oversee this and staff it with people who monitor it. Companies - forward thinking companies - now do this, the most obvious example being Google.

These are my first ideas in the immediate blush of this post-election.

Good luck brothaman - you'll need it for this mess you've inherited.

More later.

Barack

My biggest fears have been waylaid; leading up to the election, I was telling friends how I wouldn't be surprised if Barack lost - hey, there are vast regions of this huge country that don't like my sort, let alone Blacks - and that if it came to a showdown, the devils would take a page from Florida and resort to some sort of trickery, as they did with Florida in Gore v. Bush. Neither's happened, Barack's the president, so a sigh of relief.

While I'm much happier that Barack's our president than the retardican alternative, I have problems with him, chief among them his recent advocacy of and voting for the bailout. Then there's his take on the healthcare crisis, one which will do nothing to break the oligarchy of HMOs, drug and insurance companies that dominate it with their lobbyists and lawyers.

But he is president now, and if I had a meeting with him I'd tell him to keep it simple. There's such a shitload of disasters he's inherited that his governance now becomes one of management. This is key. He's got to concentrate on a few, maybe a couple of things and take baby steps. Show some gains, get the team assembled for tackling the particular problem, get them up and running and then move on to the next. His biggest potential mistake will be if he tries to do too much.

He must also be honest and say that that's what he's going to do. Last, taking a cue from Howard Dean, his team was so savvy in terms of tapping the net. He should remember that.

I took Renee to the airport today, she's gone off to Hawaii for school, and I'm empty nesting, missing her already. But we have a Black prez. Just as I see a small light trying to break through in my daughter to find herself, I see a small ray of light for our country. Barack's slogan: "Yes we can." And as cynical a curmudgeon as I am, in this desperate time, I want to believe.

Go do your thing, brothaman.

And how did I vote? Well, I voted Black. Cynthia McKinney.

The Forever Fight

On the eve of this "historic" election, I question the whole shebang. One thing puts it into perspective, and that's the bailout. Both Obama and Old worn-out man (hereafter, Owom) advocated and voted for it. For years now I've tried to explain my side as an independent, mainly, how both of these parties have sold us down the river. And yet I see friends and relatives biting on the Obama plank as if termites.

That's no small thing. My old man came out of the service, and, with the aid of the GI Bill, he and moms bought a modest house at a reasonable price, just as tens of thousands of families in the post-war era did. They constituted the burgeoning middle class that the American style of capitalism would nurture and extract from in symbiotic (vampiric?) ecstasy. Note; I'm fully aware that that was also a Norman Rockwellian painting, mostly devoid of peeps of color.

That was the creation of American capital's greatest achievement: the middle class.

While there were of course hard interrogations of "the system," most notably the 60's & 70's, they did nothing to overturn the system of a corporate run state system.

And yet, for better or worse, there was economic prosperity in America, albeit at the expense of poor people of color throughout the world, via the new colonialism of global capital.

One of the things I've been telling folks, most notably at the local YMCA where in the steam room coffee housing it up has reached a fever pitch, is that under this administration, four decades of building a prosperous middle class has been trashed.

Let me say that should he win, Obama's election is nothing more than posturing, mere puffery and will do essentially nothing to create true change in America and the world it runs. This is because of the system of capitalism we have that caters to the political donor class (hereafter, "pdc"; thank you, David Cay Johnston) - that class of economic slobs who Obama and Owom helped bail out. Incidentally and lest ye think me fishes too much:

Obama's biggest contributors include Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, National Amusements, Inc. which is the parent company of Viacom and CBS, Citigroup and, Goldman Sachs which is "his number one banking contributor.
--John MacArthur, president/publisher, Harper's

I single out Barack here because it's a forgone conclusion that Owom is just out to lunch when it comes to anything modern, but of course he is just as guilty of taking from and in turn catering to and serving the whims of the pdc.

But as deluded, mislead and under influence of the ultimate narcotic, money (but in reality the chasing of money), at least those who invest and believe in our system have hope. Let's face it; realistically, it's peeps like me that have no hope.

Just look at health care, one of the major trains speeding down the tunnel toward us. There's a fundamental reason why health care will forever remain privatized and corporate controlled, and it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with capitalism American style. Too general? Okay, consider, the American health care system is dominated by three industries: HMOs, insurance and drug companies. Any one of those three is a major lobbying source with deep corporate coffers and armies of lawyers waiting to do their bidding. (Because it's their economic imperative; Surprise! Lobbyists and lawyers on this level don't live in East LA) Three of these giant industries together all working toward keeping the system in place (the root of "conservatism" is "conserve," after all) constitutes a tripartite oligarchy that is the bully of bullies. Within this system they cannot be beat.

And anyone who rails against socialism, consider, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the judicial and executive branches as well as congress has socialized health care - FOR LIFE.

But they refuse to give it to the American people.

I will advocate for Barack over the old, worn-out man simply because he's smarter, more modern and is at least capable of choosing a vp candidate. (again, within the context of our system) But people, my dear mudpeeps, family and friends, don't suffer under the illusion of anything fundamentally changing should Barack win.

Where is the kindness and intelligence that will save us...?

It's Comin', or, The 3 - 2 Slider

In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!

-Vin Scully

With all of the craziness going on with the economic meltdown and the theft of taxpayer money, it's fitting that I'm writing on a great sports moment to remind myself that humans also produce beauty. Despite the scandals that have rocked major sports (roids in baseball, the prosecution of the Atlanta Falcons' Michael Vick for dog fighting, and NBA ref Tim Donaghey busted for fixing games), I'm a romantic. I remember the love I had for athletes and sports as a kid, and that has carried over to adulthood.

I love sports because there's no pretension on the court or field; you can talk shit all you want, but at the end of the day, it's your performance that stands. As I've said before, in East Los we played seasonally, basketball, football and baseball. The latter was not my favorite to play, but this piece focuses on a great sports memory; Kirk Gibson's '88 home run, at Dodger Stadium in the lead game of the World Series. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the (second) shot heard 'round the world.

I happened to be watching the game by myself, and the moment was marked by high drama; Dennis Eckersley, Oakland's and the major league's run-away consensus lock as the ace reliever. Gibson, who would go on to garner the MVP Award, hobbled by knee injuries, was called up by manager Tommy Lasorda with one man on and the Dodgers' backs against the wall. They had to score.

The count would come down full, 3 and 2 with 2 outs. And then, in one of my favorite documentaries on Fox Sports, they cut to Dodger scout Mel Didier. In dramatic tones, he said that with the count full, Eckersley would fall back on his slider. The tape then cuts to Gibson, and he calls time, steps out of the box, then cuts to Gibson in-studio, recalling the moment Didier shared this to-be classic edge of information, and Gibby says two of the greatest words an athlete can say:

It's comin'.

But in a key and very shrewd move, before he called Gibson to come out, Lasorda told Gibson to stay out of view. Instead, he had "light-hitting" Dave Anderson on deck as the next batter. Thus, Eckersley was willing to live with putting Mike Davis on base. Davis then would steal second and put himself in scoring position.

It's why I love sports so much, the strategy, the out-thinking. The Dodger organization had given Gibson the edge he needed.

When the time came, Lasorda of course called up Gibson to pinch hit instead of Anderson, and the crowd went wild, affirming what Gibby had told himself if the time came; that their positive reaction would help him get past the pain.

When he connected on the as Didier predicted Eckersley slider, people in the neighborhood went crazy; shouts could be heard everywhere. Chills went up my spine as I pumped my fists in the air.

It's hard for people who don't love sports to understand, but watching great moments like Gibby's home run rivals anything in art for me. I find it endlessly fascinating to take highly trained athletes, put them in pressure cooker situations and watch what happens. It's even more drama and fun when you stake the game. A friend of a friend was at the game; when the shot found its way to the right field bleachers, he cried.

I remember Gibson circling the bases, doing his now famous fist pump. What a moment.

Jim Gray, a seasoned sports reporter for NBC, says in a documentary commemorating Gibson's home run, that he was at the game as a fan. With little hope left, he had to run a friend to the airport and left early. As the tape of the hit runs, the taillights of the cars who'd made their early departure can be seen exiting. Cut to Gray who then relives that moment:

[by the time they'd tuned him in on the car radio. legendary Dodger broadcaster] Vin Scully was breathless, and we both looked at each other. What idiots! We've just left history.
-Jim Gray

The Only Game in Town

On September 7, just as the Fed moved in on Fannie Mac, I wrote:

And perhaps the worst part? Aside from the fact that we're now laying the hugest pile of crap at the feet of future generations, if I had to bet, no one's going to lift a finger to stop the ongoing slaughter that's only going to be much more brutal now.

Boy, was I wrong. Not only has the brutality been much worse than I forecast, but they sure have lifted a finger, as we've seen with this disaster of an almost trillion buck bailout.

The thing that gets me is I'm sitting here listening to this blowhard Suze Orman on CNN, a so-called financial planner, who's wildly popular given the amount of tube time she gets. What galls me is how heavily invested she is in this ponzi scheme; all of her advice revolves around still staying engaged in this system. Where alternate methods would now seem to be the way out, she makes it seem as if this is the only way - to keep monitoring for good buys at fire sale prices, reducing credit card debt, etc. Basics that anyone with common sense should know.

But what about those alternatives? Localism is never spoken about in mass-media, nor is micro-finance, two ways communities can fight back economically.

Conglomeration is another. The only way economically disadvantaged communities have to fight back is by voting with their dollars. Buying from local merchants is only the beginning - for just as the empire of neo-colonial global capital extracts resources (ie: capital, human resources) out of communities and concentrates it in a very tiny percentage of the political donor class/economic elite is a system, so must localism be one.

But everyone's so invested in "the market" that they can't see anything else. The ones who may not have a lifestyle you or I would enjoy, such as communal living, are looked upon as wackos. I think a lot of them are nuts (for the most part, harmless nuts), but I also think the underlying premise - a non-mainstream way to opt out of this system - is valid.

From an economic standpoint, they've understood that conglomerating is a key ingredient. When will our local communities ever wake up? On the other hand, we can't ignore reality and say the communities are really "ours" until we fight economically, can we?

29807

Real Sports is one of the best produced and consistently interesting shows. It's simply journalism at its best. I say this in regard to a recent episode that dealt with the child labor being exploited in India in the manufacturing of soccer balls. It was of course, appalling.

What was so disturbing though was the complicity and utter throw your hands up by all parties involved, including Walmart and Mitre, the ball manufacturer that is soccer's Nike. But the representative from the US Trade Commission, our oversight, also said that it's just too hard to track. But HBO, with a camera crew, tracked the kids working like dogs down and made this point.

Like I've said before, we can talk about racial, gender and any other kind of equality til we're blue in the face, but kids are never included. This is one of the ugliest faces of global capital of which outsourcing is a partner in. These poor little Asian kids are like wounded birds, yet the empiric march of global capital continues unabated.

And what is "29807"? It's the sequence of the assigned UPC Code designating the United States as a destination for these Mitre balls. Real Sports found the balls at Walmart, despite the mega-corporation's explicitly stated "by-law" that it will not sell products that are made by child labor.

Burning Down the House

Without a doubt, this world is crazy beyond anything I could have ever imagined as a young man.

In a newsbreak, CBS just announced that the Fed has "taken over" Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. This will, by the announcer's clarion call, amount to "tens of billions of dollars" that will be paid by me and my fellow Americans.

As far as the government action, this isn't anything new. As David Cay Johnston has pointed out, the scams by corporations working in tandem with bought off government thugs runs deep. The pattern of government run taxpayer bailout really came to a head with the S&L bailout, but then most tend to overlook Lee Iacocca's theft when heading up Chrysler. Here's a Wiki excerpt:

Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a significant amount of money to turn the company around, Iacocca approached the United States Congress in 1979 and asked for a loan guarantee. While it is sometimes said that Congress lent Chrysler the money, it, in fact, only guaranteed the loans. Most thought this was an unprecedented move, but Iacocca pointed to the government bail-outs of the airline and railroad industries, arguing that more jobs were at stake in Chrysler's possible demise. In the end, though the decision was controversial, Iacocca received the loan guarantee from the government.

I'll say it clearly; this is gambling with the house's money, or, as gambler's say, a freeroll. Pretty remarkable "businessman" eh?

Although Iacocca is credited with Chrysler's resuscitation, not too long ago they ran it into the ground again. Now, it's off the public market, having been swept up in private equity. So, in effect, my money - hardworking Americans' money - went into propping up a huge corporation so that the oligarchs could profit - that is, gamble with our money - and then when they screwed up could bail out, conscience free and with their profits having been extracted and invested into private interests.

Folks, with this new Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle, and as if we weren't before, we are now up shitcreek so far that the future is even more bleak and uncertain than ever before. We've surpassed the stage of gambling, where a hustler who knows the basics can at least know what he's getting into.

Along with all of the other shit that's happened in the past eight years, this isn't gambling, it's something else. It's not even mortgaging because when you get down to it mortgages are gambling as well.

If any of you out there think I'm just being hyperbolic, think again: between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they control over FIVE TRILLION in loans.

We are truly in unprecedented times, folks.

And perhaps the worst part? Aside from the fact that we're now laying the hugest pile of crap at the feet of future generations, if I had to bet, no one's going to lift a finger to stop the ongoing slaughter that's only going to be much more brutal now.

For those who want to at least understand how we're getting screwed, NYT's Gretchen Morgenson has been one of the most high-profile journalists consistently sounding this alarm. Her latest article is sobering, but deserves archiving here if nothing else to prove that I'm not the only one who sees the pain ahead. Back in the day the saying was, "Right On," now all I can muster is "read on."





September 7, 2008
Mortgage Giant Overstated the Size of Its Capital Base

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and CHARLES DUHIGG
The government’s planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced as early as this weekend, came together hurriedly after advisers poring over the companies’ books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie’s accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.

The proposal to place both mortgage giants, which own or back $5.3 trillion in mortgages, into a government-run conservatorship also grew out of deep concern among foreign investors that the companies’ debt might not be repaid. Falling home prices, which are expected to lead to more defaults among the mortgages held or guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie, contributed to the urgency, regulators said.

The details of the deal have not fully emerged, but it appears that investors who own the companies’ common stock will be virtually wiped out; preferred shareholders, who have priority over other shareholders, may also wind up with little. Holders of debt, including many foreign central banks, are expected to receive government backing. Top executives at both companies will be pushed out, according to those briefed on the plan.

While it is not yet possible to calculate the cost of the government’s intervention, it could rise into tens of billions of dollars and will probably be among the most expensive rescues ever financed by taxpayers. The takeover comes on the heels of a rescue of the investment bank Bear Stearns, which was sold to JPMorgan in a deal backed by taxpayer dollars. Already, the housing crisis has cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars.

Both presidential nominees expressed support for the government’s plans to take over the companies. The chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who has long been critical of the mortgage giants, said on Saturday that Mr. McCain considered it an unfortunate but necessary step.

Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said as he campaigned in Indiana on Saturday that not acting could place the housing market in further distress. “These entities are so big and they are so tied into the housing market that it is probably true that we have to take steps to make sure they don’t just collapse,” Mr. Obama told an audience in Terre Haute, Ind. But he added that the government needed to take steps to guard against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ultimately profiting from the government assistance.

The big question now is whether the federal government’s move to take over Fannie and Freddie will restore investor confidence in the nation’s credit markets, help stabilize the stock market and keep loans flowing to creditworthy borrowers.

Fannie and Freddie, by buying mortgages, provide banks and other financial institutions with fresh money to make new loans, a vital lubricant for the housing and credit markets.

As a result of the government’s intervention, the cost of borrowing for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should decline, because the government will be standing behind their debts. Equally important, because the government is backing the companies, their buying and selling of loans will continue.

But the plan to bail out the firms will probably do little to stop home prices from falling further. And foreclosures are almost certain to rise.

Just a week ago, Treasury officials were still considering a wide variety of options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ranging from doing nothing to taking over the companies completely, according to people with knowledge of those discussions.

The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who won authority from Congress last month to use taxpayer funds to bolster the companies, always maintained that he hoped never to use that power. But, as the companies’ stocks continued to languish, some within the Treasury Department began urging Mr. Paulson to intervene quickly.

Then, last week, advisers from Morgan Stanley hired by the Treasury Department to scrutinize the companies came to a troubling conclusion: Freddie Mac’s capital position was worse than initially imagined, according to people briefed on those findings. The company had made decisions that, while not necessarily in violation of accounting rules, had the effect of overstating the firm’s capital resources and financial stability.

Indeed, one person briefed on the company’s finances said Freddie Mac had made accounting decisions that pushed losses into the future and postponed a capital shortfall until the fourth quarter of this year, which would not need to be disclosed until early 2009. Fannie Mae has used similar methods, but to a lesser degree, according to other people who have been briefed.

Representatives of both companies did not return calls or declined to comment.

On Friday, executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were ordered to appear in the offices of their regulator, James B. Lockhart, in separate meetings, and were told that the Treasury Department was exercising its authority to place the companies in conservatorship, which would allow for uninterrupted operation of the firms but would put them under the control of Mr. Lockhart.

The details of those plans continued to be worked out on Saturday, when the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, Mr. Paulson, Mr. Lockhart and key company executives met in Washington.

While Freddie Mac’s accounting woes make it easier for regulators to force the company into conservatorship, there was more resistance from Fannie Mae, according to people familiar with the discussions. However, given Fannie Mae’s declining financial condition, and the fact that even a slightly pessimistic statement from Mr. Paulson about the company’s finances would be likely to send its stock price into a tailspin, the company has few options but to concede to the government’s demands.

Both companies have the option of challenging the conservatorship and asking for a judicial review. Such a move, however, would probably be disastrous for their stock prices.

Accusations of improper accounting are not new for either company. Earlier this decade, both companies paid large fines and ousted their top executives after accounting scandals.

Freddie Mac’s current chief executive and chairman, Richard F. Syron, joined the company in 2003 after the former managers revealed they had manipulated earnings by almost $5 billion. The following year Fannie Mae’s chief executive, Daniel H. Mudd, was promoted to the top spot after that company was accused of accounting errors totaling $6.3 billion. People familiar with Treasury’s plan say that both men, as well as other top executives, will be forced to leave the companies.

The accounting issues that brought so much urgency to the bailout appear to center on Freddie Mac’s capital cushion, the assets that regulators require it to keep on hand to cover losses.

The methods used to bolster that cushion have caused serious concerns among the companies’ regulator, outside auditors from Morgan Stanley brought in by the Treasury Department and some investors. For example, while Freddie Mac’s portfolio contains many securities backed by so-called subprime and alt-A loans, which are one step up from the riskier mortgages, the company has not written down those loans’ values to reflect current market prices.

Executives have argued that because they intend to hold the loans to maturity, they need not write down their value. But other banks and financial institutions have written down the value of those securities, even if they continue holding them, under “mark-to-market” accounting rules. Freddie Mac holds roughly double the securities that Fannie Mae does.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have also inflated their financial positions by relying on deferred-tax assets — credits that the companies have built up over the years that can be used to offset future profits. Fannie maintains that its worth is increased by $36 billion through such credits, and Freddie argues that it has a $28 billion benefit.

But such credits have no value until the companies generate a profit — something they have failed to do over the last four quarters, and something that is increasingly unlikely within the next year. Moreover, even when the companies’ profits soared, such credits were often unusable because the companies also had large numbers of affordable housing tax credits, which themselves offset profits.

One analyst estimates the companies, in the future, would have to collect roughly double the profits of the past five years for the credits to become usable. Most financial institutions are not allowed to count such credits as assets in the manner used by Fannie and Freddie.

Regulators and auditors may question the companies’ use of deferred-tax credits because they cannot be sold to anyone else and they would disappear in a receivership. And, if those credits were not counted as assets, both companies would probably fall below the capital threshold they are required to hold.

Finally, regulators are said to be scrutinizing whether the companies were trying to manage their earnings by maneuvering the timing of reserves set aside to offset losses from defaulted loans. Each quarter, both companies have gradually increased their loss reserves — Fannie’s reserves today stand at $8.9 billion, and Freddie’s at $5.8 billion. However, regulators and auditors felt strongly that both companies should have identified larger potential losses immediately, and set aside much more from the beginning.

Other companies, like private mortgage insurers, have identified much larger losses and have set aside much larger amounts of capital. Fannie and Freddie, however, have delayed the recognition of such losses, dribbling out bad news with each quarterly announcement, suggesting a strategy to manage the recognition of losses.

Finally, regulators are concerned that the companies have mischaracterized their financial health by relaxing their policies on when to recognize a loss on a defaulted loan, according to people familiar with the review. For years, both companies have effectively done that when a loan is 90 days past due. But, in recent months, both companies said they would extend that to two years.

As a result, tens of thousands of loans that previously would have been marked down have maintained their value. The companies have injected their own capital into pools of securities, arguing that new business policies are helping greater numbers of borrowers.

Under conservative accounting methods, such a change in policy should not have any impact on the companies’ books. However, people briefed on the accounting inquiry said that Freddie Mac may have been using their new policy to delay recognition of losses.

“We have just had to nationalize the two largest financial institutions in the world because of policy makers’ inaction,” said Josh Rosner, an analyst at Graham Fisher, an independent research firm in New York, and a longtime critic of the government-sponsored enterprises. “Since 2003, when these companies’ accounting came under question, policy makers have done nothing. Even though they had every reason to know that the housing market’s problems would not be contained to subprime and would bring down the houses of Fannie and Freddie.”

Reporting was contributed by Stephen Labaton and Edmund L. Andrews in Washington; Jeff Zeleny from Terre Haute, Ind.; and Elisabeth Bumiller from Colorado Springs.

Bread & Roses (2000)

I've been aware of Ken Loach for a while now, his rep, his social conscience. But I remember I saw one of his "social realist" flicks many moons ago - I don't even remember which one it was - but I found myself thinking about pretty girls, good food and poker.

But I took a chance on Bread & Roses, (the title a nod to the women-led textile worker strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Kansas) mostly because of its subject matter; janitorial workers, mostly Latino, slaving away in one of those dreadful LA towers that can be described as soul-draining.

Now, movies about Latino immigrants have been done, most notably Greg Nava's El Norte (1983). But where I felt Nava dipped much too easily and overly much into melodrama,* I come away from "socially conscious films" with the same opinion I do of "socially conscious poetry." I find both teeth grinding.

Bread & Roses has moments of this, but the saving grace is its actors and director, who somehow manage to inject their movie with a thrust worth seeing. Loach is reputed for his work with non-actors, placing them in situations where they are often unaware of the arc and zenith of a scene by not providing the full script, doling it out in dribbles just before the scene to be shot.

Star Pilar Padilla is good, George Lopez, as a pinchi pendejo of a boss, and Adrien Brody as the token white boy activist who attempts to save mudpeeps from the remorseless capitalist machine, (and becomes a target of romance, of course) are all commendable. There are star turns via cameos in a party scene. (Benecio Del Toro, Chris Penn, Tim Roth, Ron Perlman...)

But the real light is Elipidia Carillo, whose beauty and natural acting immediately caught my eye.



From here, Roger Ebert:

The best scene in "Bread and Roses" argues against Sam, Maya and the union. It is a searing speech by Rosa, delivered by Carrillo with such force and shaming truth that it could not have been denied the Oscar--if the academy voters in their well-cleaned buildings ever saw movies like this. Rosa slices through Maya's idealism with hard truths...

I couldn't agree more. She's worth the price of admission.

When I was a college freshman, I marveled at the big dorms and the march of the ants every morning to campus. On my way down one time, the hordes were flowing by a bank of ivy. I spotted a figure in a large-brimmed hat bent over, weeding. I couldn't stop looking at him and he then stood up and looked right at me. He then had the most surprised look on his face, as if he couldn't believe someone who wasn't a peasant, was seeing him. Still walking, albeit slower, I glanced at the passing throng, who were completely oblivious to the invisible man. He was old, thin-wiry-muscled, Asian and had that cocoa brown leather skin one only gets from working in the sun. On those terms, he looked like my grandpa, a farmer.

There's a scene in Bread & Roses where the fellow worker who takes a shine to Maya is showing her how to do something. Some white people step right past them as if they weren't there, and he remarks to Maya that their uniforms have an extraordinary power - the power of invisibility.



* Though El Norte's cinematographer, James Glennon, is underrated; there's a scene lit by candles, reminiscent of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon's famous gambling scene. Kubrick, as legend has it, called up Zeiss and had them make ultra-fast f4 lenses as I recall so that he could shoot the scene lit only by the available candlelight. Years later, I would buy my first really serious SLR, a Contax, based in large part because it used Zeiss lenses. I still have it.

Drinking and Driving with Scotty

Poker's so big now that it's almost impossible to win any kind of tournament - the fields become so big that you in effect enter a lottery. The only ones who enjoy clause from this mass-effect are the high-rollers, but the downside is that they end up playing each other, with a few fish from time to time.

The cliche' is apt: Easy way to make a tough living.

There're a few exceptions, and one of them is what some regard as poker's most prestigious tournament: The WSOP's H.O.R.S.E. Championship, which I touched on here a while back. Here's a description:

the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Championship (a $50K buy-in and comprised of 5 poker games; Hold-em, Omaha Eight or Better, Razz, 7 Stud, and Eight or Better 7 Stud, thus the acronym)

At those stakes, H.O.R.S.E. gets rid of most suckers. The fact that it's poker's Pentathlon gets rid of the rest, with everyone and their dog being into Hold 'Em. What's left are the cream of the crop and a few exceptions, and since it's played over five different games, insofar as tourneys are concerned, it's the most prestigious title in terms of ability.

When the 2007 H.O.R.S.E. champion, the legendary Chip Reese took it all, many, including yours truly, thought all was right in Vegas. If nothing else, Reese had bona fides upon bona fides. He was a made man, a long time ago.

Then in a tragic/poetic twist depending on your view, Reese died last year. Poetic because Reese was a cash game player - it was how he'd made his living, and even though he had World Series wins many moons ago, the tourneys didn't yield as much cash for time invested. Like poker's theoretician, David Sklansky, they're stone cold killers who look at poker as a money venture above all others.

So we come to the recently completed 2008 H.O.R.S.E. tourney and Scotty Nguyen. A WSOP World Champion (1998), with this win he sets the bar high as the only person to win the main event and the WSOP's most prestigous title as well.

What was so gratifying was that last year, on cruise control to the final table, he blew it and let his ego take over, and in just a couple of hands when out to Phillip Hilm in 11th place. It was shocking to watch a player of his caliber meltdown, or "tilt" as is said. As an Asian, I hate to say, I was also rooting for him, but more, because he had the pedigree and bona fides, and is just so OG with his gangsta lean.

And then, he took a turn. At times belligerent, downright in-your-face intimidating and by appearances, just drunk, he even managed to rile the all-around nice guy Erick Lindgren, who along with Michael DeMichele and Lyle Berman (another poker great) comprised the final four.

It was really DeMichele - from what footage ESPN chose to air - that was tangling with Scotty. And though Scotty has since issued an apology, I don't think it excuses the numerous outbursts, table manners and outright infractions he committed, such as showing cards to the audience and berating players. Pro Layne Flack, who's Sotty's friend, was also out of line, being really "boisterous" in the audience.

But the WSOP has to assume responsibility; the tournament director should have gotten involved and snuffed it. He didn't, and what made it to TV was ugly.

I don't know if after ESPN's editors were through is the entire story, as Scotty alleges it is not, but again, even if it isn't, the infractions are there.

He's a great player, I've seen him play a lot, and he's always jovial, laughing and coffeehousing it up. But between last year's main event, and this year's H.O.R.S.E., he should do some vacationing.

Follow the Money: David Cay Johnston

A recent email from a friend that cited a NY Times article on corporate theft via tax evasion has prompted me to write about a crusader that is long overdue. I mentioned David Cay Johnston last year, but the truth is he is deserving of special mention, so here we are.

In 2005, I saw a very in-depth interview with Johnston on CSPAN's Book TV upon the release of his then just released Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else. The interview was fascinating because Johnston - a seasoned, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist formerly with the LA Times and now with the NY Times - was so far-reaching in his assessment, finding connections in ways that are revelatory as to how the system of American capitalism really works to the ultimate benefit of the rich few. It also helps that he's well spoken, with examples galore of corporate theft via the tax system and how that was aiding and abetting the system of funneling money from the majority underclass to the minority economically privileged.

I highly recommend watching the 6 part series of his vids on Youtube regarding his latest book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). Once again, Johnston exposes how corporations, wealthy individuals and government collude in a perfect storm of thievery.

And lest anyone think that Johnston is a wacko liberal expounding weird conspiracy theories, I heard him with my own ears say that he's a registered republican. I don't forget things like that.

For all of my mudpeep friends, here's a guy that not only talks shit but backs it up with hard investigative journalism and good old fashioned research. Although he doesn't address race explicitly, he gives peeps of color plenty of ammo to fight with, because what he's really talking about is classism. But in fact, in that aforementioned 6 part series of Youtube vids, he comes very close to talking about the ways poor (mudpeeps) are screwed over by the system. The difference maker is that Johnston is a surfeit of facts, knowledge and research, and in the best Columbo-esque fashion, he makes connections explicit that the power elite and their co-horts would prefer remain hidden behind the wizard's curtain.

One example stands out: How home alarm companies are related to youth crime, the driver of course being economic imperative. On a side note, Johnston said that the profit margin for the home alarm company services is over seventy percent!

And that's what's so fascinating about Johnston's work: its range. He even cites in the Moyers interview below how George Dumbya Bush's wealth was founded upon the bilking of the American public. He then cites professional sports, which is how Dumbya came upon his wealth, and the system of American funding of pro sports that enables the rich to get richer at the expense of tax payers. In fact, without taxpayer subsidies, professional sports would LOSE money. Perhaps even worse, he further cites how Dumbya (and I imagine his scumbag lawyers) used eminent domain to steal private property to build a new stadium (for his then Texas Rangers). It's clear: Dumbya's no great entrepreneur; he's a connected thief, who was directly responsible for wreaking havoc on innocent people, the American public and caused arguably more damage as one person than any Mafioso. All for profit.

I haven't read Free Lunch yet, but I can tell you that reading Perfectly Legal, while jaw-dropping is an exhausting exercise. I have this habit of placing Post-Its in my books where I like passages; Perfectly Legal got to the point where I literally ran out of Post-Its! As it is, I left the book half-unread because my head exploded from the outrage.

He even relates all of this corporate malfeasance to sustainability, specifically, local communities and their economic well being. In a Johnstonian analysis, this shit is out of control; healthcare, retailing, sports, impact on local communities... He gives new meaning to Watergate's infamous "Deep Throat" dictum: "Follow the money." Johnston's that hardcore, that good.

I put him right up there with Stephen Jay Gould. Seriously, the guy ought to be nominated for the Nobel in econ, he's that much of a complete badass. As a journalist, he embodies the best of America. And he puts these twits who write that distractive "freakonomics" and "tipping point" crap to shame. His work needs to be in schools.

Oh yeah, Lou Dobbs loves him. (Vid quality not the greatest)


Here's an interview he did with Bill Moyers upon the release of Free Lunch. He trashes Dumbya here. Some vid dropouts here, but the audio holds up.


And here's interview clips with the Progressive Book Club. (Very good vid quality)


If I get time, I'll post DCJ's aforementioned 6 part Book TV interview; you can find it for now on Youtube. I wish Stern would interview him - this guy needs to reach a wide audience.

Bernie Mac

Damn, what is this with death all of a sudden? I guess it's the Boomers gettin' old. But Bernie was only fifty...

Of all the debuts on Def Jam, Bernie's stands out.

"I ain't scared a you mothafuckers..."

"You don't understan'..."

"I whip my shit out the whole room goes dark. HIT ME!"

Ah, man, that dude had me rollin'!!! Rest up, B-Mac...

Jung Sungha

I'll write soon on Sungha, but in the meantime, something creative, something rousing.

Katt Breaking Down Gas Prices

A Worthy Advisor

...and I will leave. But the birds will stay, singing:
and my garden will stay, with its green tree,
and its water well.

Many afternoons the sky will be blue and placid,
and the bells in the belfry will chime,
as they are chiming this very afternoon.

The people who have loved me will pass away,
and the town will burst anew every year.
But my spirit will always wander nostalgic
in the same recondite corner of my flowery garden.

-Juan Ramon Jimenez

For Cousin Joey, George Carlin and Fred Haines

George Carlin

I can't believe this, especially after having just written about him, but a newsbreak just announced that Carlin just died.

I'll write more soon.

I Enjoy That

For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.

--George Carlin


Been on a Carlin kick recently, re-visiting my past... much like Magic Johnson was the player's player, Carlin's the comedian's comedian. Just past 70 now [!!!], I recently saw one of his HBO specials, and dude's sharper than ever. What an American treasure. Love him.

Kill the Mockingbird, Already

While we can all, I think for the most part/at least I hope, grasp that racism sucks, people often don't get what I mean when I rail against crazy liberals and their own particular, and peculiar, brand of racism. There, I said it. Again.

Maybe it's because of being raised in LA, where so-called liberalism runs rampant. Huh. Some don't believe me when I tell them that LA's about as segregated a city I know of. In many ways this veneer illustrates American phoniness all too well.

Roger, take it.

=====================
To Kill a Mockingbird

BY ROGER EBERT / November 11, 2001

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a time capsule, preserving hopes and sentiments from a kinder, gentler, more naive America. It was released in December 1962, the last month of the last year of the complacency of the postwar years. The following November, John F. Kennedy would be assassinated. Nothing would ever be the same again -- not after the deaths of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, not after the war in Vietnam, certainly not after September 11, 2001. The most hopeful development during that period for America was the civil rights movement, which dealt a series of legal and moral blows to racism. But "To Kill a Mockingbird," set in Maycomb, Alabama, in 1932, uses the realities of its time only as a backdrop for the portrait of a brave white liberal.

The movie has remained the favorite of many people. It is currently listed as the 29th best film of all time in a poll by the Internet Movie Database. Such polls are of questionable significance, but certainly the movie and the Harper Lee novel on which it is based have legions of admirers. It is being read by many Chicagoans as part of a city-wide initiative in book discussion. It is a beautifully-written book, but it should be used not as a record of how things are, or were, but of how we once liked to think of them.

The novel, which focuses on the coming of age of three young children, especially the tomboy Scout, gains strength from her point of view: It sees the good and evil of the world through the eyes of a six-year-old child. The movie shifts the emphasis to the character of her father, Atticus Finch, but from this new point of view doesn't see as much as an adult in that time and place should see.

Maycomb is evoked by director Robert Mulligan as a "tired old town" of dirt roads, picket fences, climbing vines, front porches held up by pillars of brick, rocking chairs, and Panama hats. Scout (Mary Badham) and her 10-year-old brother Jem (Philip Alford) live with their widowed father Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and their black housekeeper Calpurnia (Estelle Evans). They make friends with a new neighbor named "Dill" Harris (John Megna), who wears glasses, speaks with an expanded vocabulary, is small for his age, and is said to be inspired by Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote. Atticus goes off every morning to his law office downtown, and the children play through lazy hot days.

Their imagination is much occupied by the Radley house, right down the street, which seems always dark, shaded and closed. Jem tells Dill that Mr. Radley keeps his son Boo chained to a bed in the house, and describes Boo breathlessly: "Judging from his tracks, he's about six and a half feet tall. He eats raw squirrels and all the cats he can catch. There's a long, jagged scar that runs all the way across his face. His teeth are yellow and rotten. His eyes are popped. And he drools most of the time." Of course the first detail reveals Jem has never seen Boo.

Into this peaceful calm drops a thunderbolt. Atticus is asked by the town judge to defend a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), who has been accused of raping a poor white girl named Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox). White opinion is of course much against the black man, who is presumed guilty, and Mayelle's father Bob (James Anderson) pays an ominous call on Atticus, indirectly threatening his children. The children are also taunted at school, and get in fights; Atticus explains to them why he is defending a Negro, and warns them against using the word "nigger."

The courtroom scenes are the most celebrated in the movie; they make it perfectly clear that Tom Robinson is innocent, that no rape occurred, that Maybelle came on to Robinson, that he tried to flee, that Bob Ewell beat his own daughter, and she lied about it out of shame for feeling attracted to a black man. Atticus' summation to the jury is one of Gregory Peck's great scenes, but of course the all-white jury finds Tom Robinson guilty anyway. The verdict is greeted by an uncanny quiet: No whoops of triumph from Bob Ewell, no cries of protests by the blacks in the courtroom gallery. The whites file out quickly, but the blacks remain and stand silently in honor of Atticus as he walks out a little later. Scout and her brother sat up with the blacks throughout the trial, and now a minister tells her: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up, your father's passin'."

The problem here, for me, is that the conviction of Tom Robinson is not the point of the scene, which looks right past him to focus on the nobility of Atticus Finch. I also wonder at the general lack of emotion in the courtroom, and the movie only grows more puzzling by what happens next. Atticus is told by the sheriff that while Tom Robinson was being taken for safekeeping to nearby Abbottsville, he broke loose and tried to run away. As Atticus repeats the story: "The deputy called out to him to stop. Tom didn't stop. He shot at him to wound him and missed his aim. Killed him. The deputy says Tom just ran like a crazy man."

That Scout could believe it happened just like this is credible. That Atticus Finch, an adult liberal resident of the Deep South in 1932, has no questions about this version is incredible. In 1962 it is possible that some (white) audiences would believe that Tom Robinson was accidentally killed while trying to escape, but in 2001 such stories are met with a weary cynicism.

The construction of the following scene is highly implausible. Atticus drives out to Tom Robinson's house to break the sad news to his widow, Helen. She is played by Kim Hamilton (who is not credited, and indeed has no speaking lines in a film that finds time for dialog by two superfluous white neighbors of the Finches). On the porch are several male friends and relatives. Bob Ewell, the vile father who beat his girl into lying, lurches out of the shadows and says to one of them, "Boy, go in the house and bring out Atticus Finch." One of the men does so, Ewell spits in Atticus's face, Atticus stares him down and drives away. The black people in this scene are not treated as characters, but as props, and kept entirely in long shot. The close-ups are reserved for the white hero and villain.

It may be that in 1932 the situation was such in Alabama that this white man, who the people on that porch had seen lie to convict Tom Robinson, could walk up to them alone after they had just learned he had been killed, call one of them "boy," and not be touched. If black fear of whites was that deep in those days, then the rest of the movie exists in a dream world.

The upbeat payoff involves Ewell's cowardly attack on Scout and Jem, and the sudden appearance of the mysterious Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his first screen performance), to save them. Ewell is found dead with a knife under his ribs. Boo materializes inside the Finch house, is identified by Scout as her savior, and they're soon sitting side by side on the front porch swing. The sheriff decides that no good would be served by accusing Boo of the death of Ewell. That would be like "killing a mockingbird," and we know from earlier in the film that you can shoot all the bluejays you want, but not mockingbirds -- because all they do is sing to bring music to the garden. Not exactly a description of the silent Boo Radley, but we get the point.

This is a tricky note to end on, because it brings Boo Radley in literally from the wings as a distraction from the facts: An innocent black man was framed for a crime that never took place, he was convicted by a white jury in the face of overwhelming evidence, and he was shot dead in problematic circumstances. Now we are expected to feel good because the events got Boo out of the house. That Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell may be justice, but it is not parity. The sheriff says, "There's a black man dead for no reason, and now the man responsible for it is dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time." But I doubt that either Tom Robinson or Bob Ewell would want to be buried by the other.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is, as I said, a time capsule. It expresses the liberal pieties of a more innocent time, the early 1960s, and it goes very easy on the realities of small-town Alabama in the 1930s. One of the most dramatic scenes shows a lynch mob facing Atticus, who is all by himself on the jailhouse steps the night before Tom Robinson's trial. The mob is armed and prepared to break in and hang Robinson, but Scout bursts onto the scene, recognizes a poor farmer who has been befriended by her father, and shames him (and all the other men) into leaving. Her speech is a calculated strategic exercise, masked as the innocent words of a child; one shot of her eyes shows she realizes exactly what she's doing. Could a child turn away a lynch mob at that time, in that place? Isn't it nice to think so.

Just Plain Wrong

This is SO stupid, not to mention just wrong. If this amateur hour is SO great, try charging for it and see what happens.



The San Francisco Chronicle

June 5, 2008 Thursday
FINAL Edition

YouTube brings stardom down to earth

BYLINE: Jeff Yang

SECTION: Datebook; ASIAN POP; Pg. E1

For a generation of young artists, the existence of a never-before-seen mass audience of Asian Americans on YouTube represents an opportunity of game-changing proportions.

Christine Gambito - known to her hundreds of thousands of online fans by her YouTube handle, Happy Slip - describes her inauspicious foray into stardom like this: "All my life, my family has asked me to do these imitations of them. Whenever we all get together, after we pig out, and everyone's fat and bored, they'd say, 'Christine, get up there, do your imitation of Auntie!' So I realized that I really wanted to tell these little stories about my family, whether there was an audience for them or not. And I started shooting and editing these videos and uploading them to YouTube. Not knowing if anyone was even watching felt kind of liberating, in fact. I realized I could just do whatever I wanted."

But what she did - gently hilarious one-woman skits in which she portrays as many as a half-dozen members of her extended Filipino American family - proved to be wildly popular. So much so that, a year and a half later, her Happy Slip channel is the fifth most subscribed on YouTube.

To date, her videos have been watched more than 36 million times, with Asian Americans making up the bulk of her fan base though she does note that people from every ethnic background write her, "saying 'That's exactly my family, and I'm not even Filipino! It's like 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' - you don't have to be Greek to get it. Or fat.".

Gambito's experience is echoed by 22-year-old fellow YouTube star David Choi, whose popular videos feature him performing a mix of his original songs and captivatingly unlikely acoustic guitar arrangements of pop hits like Britney Spears
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' "Gimme More."

What really sent Choi's visibility through the roof, however, was a goofy one-off ballad he wrote celebrating his love for and obsession with YouTube itself. As it rocketed up the viewership charts, "YouTube A Love Song" got picked by the service as a front-page Featured Video. The video has since been seen nearly 1.9 million times, helping make him YouTube's 16th-most subscribed musician of all time, just ahead of, ahem, Britney.
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The overwhelmingly positive clamor inspired Choi to start work on an album of his own. It helps to know that he has a pre-existing consumer base of more than 40,000 subscribed fans eager to buy the end result, sight unseen.

As for Gambito, her days of late have been filled with going to network meetings and serving the role bestowed upon her by the Philippine government as an ambassador of tourism; meanwhile, Choi was hired by Warner Chappell as a staff songwriter-producer and got the chance to create a track for rising Interscope Records band Flipsyde.

But perhaps the most intriguing top YouTube personality is also one of the youngest: 17-year-old Kevin "KevJumba" Wu, who, over the course of just months, went from obscurity to YouTube's No. 1 most subscribed comedian and third most subscribed YouTuber of all time. Except that he's not, strictly speaking, a "comedian." In fact, most of his videos consist of nothing more than Kevin talking about stuff that Kevin finds interesting, weird or irritating.

And yet, they've received nearly 30 million views because Kevin just talking is, well, pretty hilarious. His deadpan vocal delivery, animated facial expressions and tendency toward unexpected digressions make for surprisingly mesmerizing video. But it's still hard to put a finger on just what makes him so appealing.

Until you realize: It's the confidence, exuding from every pore. Not cockiness - many of his rants, like "I need help with the Females," are drenched in self-deprecating humor - but casual ease. Comfort in his own skin.

In fact, Kevin is a little surprised to even be asked the question. "I don't feel alienated. I talk about being Asian, because it's who I am. And the majority of my subscribers are Asian, because they relate to what I'm talking about, and they back me up."

In short, in the media that his generation cares about most, Asian Americans aren't behind the curve - they're ahead of the game. So much so that Kevin took it in stride when Golden State Warriors point guard Baron Davis reached out to him, suggesting they do some videos together - an encounter that led to Kevin and Davis exchanging a series of challenges, eventually leading up to an epic staring contest that was won not by Kevin or Davis, but by an unexpected third entrant: actress and online video junkie Jessica Alba.

Baron Davis? Jessica Alba? And ... Kevin Wu? Why not? On the Internet, celebrities get exposed as real people Lindsay Lohan picks her nose! and real people get the exposure needed to turn them into celebrities.

And whereas Hollywood was built around epic personalities, larger than life icons, the next generation of content is rooted in authenticity: people just being people.

"You see that young Asian Americans are gravitating to YouTube, and it's clear that they represent an underserved market that's thriving online outside the confines of Hollywood and Madison Avenue," says Richard Frias, co-president of Digital Content Partners, a management firm that recently signed on to represent Gambito and Kevin in whatever future content endeavors they might choose to pursue. "There are no more hurdles. For those who have ever said they were not given a chance or that doors were closed to them for whatever reason - those days are over."

Handful of Memories: Cousin Joey

Moms was prescient enough when I was a kid to take me to New York, and while there we skipped over to Chi-Town to see my Auntie Frances and Uncle Joe who had a brownstone in Hyde Park near the University of Chicago, where they met. From Chi, my auntie, moms and my cousin Joey and I drove to Des Moines to see my Uncle George and Auntie Ann.

Here's one thing I remember about Auntie Frances & Unc Joe's; it was crawling with kids - 8 siblings! But I was lucky enough to share a room with my cousin Joey, a couple of years older than me, but seemingly light years ahead of me in everything. I'd lie there in the bottom bunk for what seemed like endless hours while he schooled me on the intricacies of dog fighting, the fighter plane type. I can remember that he was the first one to tell me who Eddie Rickenbacker was. Later, Uncle Joe, or "Unc" as I liked to call him, took us to see The Blue Max. Joey and I of course cracked up when George Peppard and Ursula Andress got it on.

Over the ensuing years we had a couple of big family shindigs, and I remember a couple of them the Chi-brood stayed at our joint. But for the most part, with so much space in between LA and Chi, we didn't really share much.

What's funny though is how, as I got older, I'd mention my cousins for any number of reasons, more often than not when issues of race would come up. This was more common when talking with other APAs about inter-racial marriages, because the majority of the time it's about Asian and white unions. And when I'd mention I had black relatives, they'd just smile, and say, "Oh, really?" Well, what are they supposed to say...?

Those couple of nights I spent in Joey's room are seared into my memory forever because of this:

A man had a dog named "Balls Itch." One day, Balls Itch got loose, and the man ran down the street yelling, "My Balls Itch, my Balls Itch!" When a policeman stopped him and said, "Hey Mister, my balls itch too, but if I were you I wouldn't run around advertising it!"

Joey had jokes, and I was in heaven, as he had me either in stitches or enthralled talking about the differences between bi-planes and tri-planes.

There's a great picture - somewhere - of Joey and I while on our trip to Des Moines, furiously pumping a water pump out in podunk somewhere.

He joined the army and served in Nam. He told me a few hair-raising stories when I saw him last in New York, where we shared dinner and a really solid conversation about life, politics, race... I remember turning back to look at him as he limped off and thinking that I was pretty damn lucky to be related to a guy like that.

That limp by the way is a whale of a story. I probably have a bunch of the details wrong, but Joey was driving when he saw someone whose car had broken down, so he pulled over to help. As he's standing there between the cars, talking to the driver, a drunk slams into the back of Joey's car and crushes Joey between the two cars. He drags himself to the embankment and angles his legs upward to slow the bleeding.

So of course, Joey went on to become a doctor.

Chi-town of course, like any major urban city, had its rough spots, and I remember Auntie telling me of hearing that one of his sisters was in trouble somewhere and he'd grab a knife and run out of the house.

In fact, one more memory has re-surfaced; when Joey and I were going to go out in the hood one day, I remember he handed me a small canister. I asked what it was, and he said, "just in case." Well, it was pepper spray, so of course, we being two young boys, we beat Jackass to the punch and had to find out what it was about. So we went into an alley and sprayed a bit into the air and then sniffed. Hahahahahahahahaha....

One more funny story: My Auntie Frances is afflicted with the "Yoshida Curse" - she loves to laugh. And of the eight Yoshida siblings, her and my mom are probably at the top of the heap. I remember Auntie telling of how she knew Joey was growing up because she said she picked up something to whup his ass with one day and Joey kept on dodging her and cracking jokes. She said she finally gave up and flopped in a chair because she was laughing too much!

I'm jealous of Joey's brothers and sisters, because he was so smart, so funny, and just a really solid, good guy. He was a good raconteur... I wish I could have known him better, but am truly grateful for the fond memories.

An Unspeakable Betrayal

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NY Times

Surrealism For Sale, Straight From The Source; André Breton's Collection Is Readied for Auction

By ALAN RIDING
Published: December 17, 2002

In photographs André Breton is rarely seen smiling. As the founder and undisputed leader of the Surrealist movement, he evidently took himself seriously. Between the 1920's and 1950's he alone defined the rules of Surrealism and tolerated no challenge to his authority. He encouraged rebellion against prevailing artistic and social norms, but artists and poets who fell out of his favor were summarily expelled from the movement.

On the other hand, he must have had loads of charisma.

Over the years, in addition to the artworks he bought, notably primitive sculptures from Oceania, hundreds of paintings, drawings, photographs and books were given to him by friends, followers and little-known artists seeking his blessing. When Breton died at 70 on Sept. 28, 1966, his small apartment at 42 Rue Fontaine in the Pigalle district of Paris was a veritable treasure trove. He had lived there since 1922. His heirs -- his widow, Elisa, and his daughter from an earlier relationship, Aube -- decided to touch nothing. ''My stepmother lived there, and it was her family environment,'' Aube Breton Elléouët, 67, explained. ''For 35 years we looked for an answer to what could be done with this collection. My father had never expressed himself on the subject.''

Now, two years after Elisa Breton's death, with the French government unwilling to buy the collection, the largest single record of the Surrealist movement is to be sold next spring at the Hôtel Drouot-Richelieu, where Paris auctions are held. One measure of the size of the sale is that the auction house, CalmelsCohen, plans at least six catalogs to cover the 5,300 lots. The auction, from April 1 to 18, is expected to raise $30 million to $40 million.

Books, which account for 3,500 of the lots, include some dedicated to Breton by Freud, Trotsky and Apollinaire as well as art catalogs and journals. Among the 500 lots of manuscripts are originals of some of Breton's writings as well as records of Surrealist ''games'' and experiments. Modern art is represented by 450 paintings, drawings and sculptures and 500 lots of photographs. And there are 200 examples of popular art and 150 works of primitive art, mainly from Oceania. (A description of the collection is online at breton.calmelscohen.com.)

To compensate for the inevitable dispersal of the collection, the entire contents of 42 Rue Fontaine have been recorded digitally and will be made available through a CD-ROM. ''Everything,'' explains a news release by Jean-Michel Ollé and Jean-Pierre Sakoun, who prepared the database. ''Paintings, objects, photos, manuscripts, books. Everything from the least important to the most, the historic and the everyday, the private and the public.''

The principal item not included in the auction is what is known as Breton's Wall, literally the cluttered wall behind his desk that was featured in many photographs and came to be considered a work of art -- the art of collecting -- in its own right. The wall was given by Mrs. Breton Elléouët to the National Museum of Modern Art at the Georges Pompidou Center in lieu of death duties owed to the government by the Breton estate.

The wall's shelves are crowded with dozens of Oceanic sculptures as well as Inuit objects and pre-Hispanic figures from Mexico. On the wall itself are paintings, engravings and drawings by the likes of Francis Picabia, Alfred Jarry, Roberto Matta, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Picasso, Joan Miró and Wassily Kandinsky. And tucked among them is the odd personal item, like a photograph of Elisa Breton.

Yet the collection to be sold in the spring reveals more about Breton's approach to art, since it includes not only major works, but also lesser works by long forgotten artists and even objects that Breton bought at auctions and flea markets or simply found while out strolling.

''My father had as much passion for a piece found on the bank of a river as for an important painting in his collection,'' Mrs. Breton Elléouët said.

Still, the auction will not lack important works, notably ''Danseuse Espagnole'' or ''Spanish Dancer,'' by Miró, Matta's ''Poster for Arcane 17,'' Magritte's ''Woman Hidden in a Forest,'' an untitled work by Arshile Gorky and ''Danger, Dancer,'' a painting on a photograph on glass by Man Ray. It also includes scores of less valuable works by equally famous artists, among them Picasso, Picabia, Arp, Duchamp, Max Ernst, Wilfredo Lam, Victor Brauner and André Masson. More than 100 original prints by Man Ray dominate the photography collection.

Notably absent is any work by Giorgio de Chirico, the Italian Metaphysical painter, with whom Breton fell out. And a postcard-size collage and gouache is the only work in the sale by Salvador Dali, easily the most famous Surrealist painter, who was expelled from the movement by Breton. The auction also includes no book by the poet Louis Aragon, another friend turned foe. The evidence is clear: Surrealist rebels were expurgated from Breton's life.

Breton himself, while he dabbled with collages and wrote poetry of considerable merit, was most famous simply for being Breton. He was above all immensely curious, his early poetry and interest in psychoanalysis serving as a springboard for Surrealism's constant exploration of the connections between poetry and life, chance, love and sexuality. To describe Surrealism as a sect is to ignore its enormous influence, but Breton himself was very much its guru.

''I believe it is into my thought that I put all my daring, all the strength and hope of which I am capable,'' he wrote in a letter to the art collector Jacques Doucet in December 1924, shortly after publication of the Surrealist Manifesto. ''It possesses me entirely, jealously and makes a mockery of worldly goods.''

Certainly while Surrealism today is best remembered through the works of Dali, Magritte, Miró and Ernst, visual art was not central to Breton's vision of the movement. Yet he undoubtedly had an eye for innovative art: it was at his insistence that in 1924 Doucet bought one of the landmark works of 20th-century art, Picasso's ''Desmoiselles d'Avignon,'' now a jewel in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

As an inspiration for Surrealism, though, Breton was drawn principally to Oceanic art, which he described as ''one of the great lock-keepers of our heart.'' While African art was the rage in Paris at the time, he felt it was too linked to human rituals and animals. He preferred Oceanic art ''for its immemorial effort to express the interpenetration of the physical and the mental, to triumph over the dualism of perception and representation.'' Put more simply, he considered it more mystical.

''Oceanic objects were Breton's companions all his life,'' said Pierre Amrouche, an expert on primitive art who is an adviser to the Breton auction. ''It was his family, a tribe of which he was the chief. The very first object he acquired was an Easter Island piece bought when he was 15 with money he was given for good school results.'' (The most valuable Oceanic work in the auction is ''Uli,'' a four-foot-high wooden ancestor statue from the South Pacific island New Ireland, with a sale price estimated at $600,000 to $800,000.)

When Breton traveled to Mexico in 1938 to visit the exiled Trotsky, he discovered pre-Hispanic art. And when he was himself exiled in the United States during World War II, he further developed his interest in American Indian and Inuit art, which also joined his collection. From 1941 to 1945, with Ernst, Dali, Matta and other Surrealists also in exile, New York became the temporary capital of Surrealism, although Breton never felt at home there: he never bothered to learn English.

His own political views were always on the left, but he was a true militant only of Surrealism. He joined the French Communist Party in 1927 and, unaccustomed to taking orders, was soon horrified by its dogmatism. He finally resigned from the party in 1935 (this was the main cause of his rift with Aragon, who stayed in the party), but after the war he was a vocal critic of France's involvement in wars in Indochina and Algeria and an outspoken foe of Stalinism.

Although Surrealism survived the war, with Breton himself returning to Paris to preside over it, by the 1950's and 1960's it had been overtaken by new art movements. Yet when Breton died, while Surrealist paintings hung on the walls of museums around the world, it was at 42 Rue Fontaine that the soul of the movement resided. Works were frequently loaned for exhibitions, but repeated efforts by his widow and daughter to win government backing for creation of a Breton or a Surrealist foundation came to nothing.

After Elisa Breton's death in early 2000 and the transfer of Breton's Wall to the Pompidou, Mrs. Breton Elléouët decided to make an inventory of the collection. ''That's when we became involved,'' Laurence Calmels, a partner in CalmelsCohen, recalled. ''We arrived at 42 Rue Fontaine, where nothing had changed except 'the Wall.' Breton's desk was as he left it, his pipe, the bag of tobacco, the books. There were paintings on walls, but we found many covered in dust in a mezzanine. There were cartons of documents. He kept everything. It took three months to do the inventory.''

It was only then, convinced that she had no alternative, that Mrs. Breton Elléouët reluctantly chose to sell the collection. ''A few works have been sold to the Pompidou and the new Primitive Arts Museum,'' she said. ''As for the rest of the collection, during 35 years of representations we received not a single proposal or offer of help.''

Michael Kang's The Motel

I haven't attended VC's Asian Pacific Film Fest for two years straight now. It's not that I have an aversion to APA films, but more of a general apathy. I just never see anything remotely exciting or worthwhile or even entertaining.

In fairness, this extends to black and Latino (American) filmmaking as well as national Asian cinema as well. For instance the so-called Tokyo and Korean new-waves are no-waves. Two exceptions: I liked Park's Oldboy, but didn't care for the other two in his "Revenge" trilogy. Then there's my friend Danny's documentary on Pancho Gonzalez, Warrior of the Court, which was better than I thought it would be.

In the end, movies are a real commitment - you decide to block out 3-4 hours of time inclusive of commuting. If it's a fest, even more. So, for me, it was just a matter of diminishing return, plain and simple.

So finally, my daughter picks out Michael Kang's The Motel, and not only was I pleasantly surprised, but really impressed. Perfect? No. Would I have done some things differently? Of course, but what was interesting was listening to Kang's - and Jeffrey Chyau's & Sung Kang's - commentary. How in certain scenes where I would have told the actors to do it differently, the way Kang justified it. That line between maudlin/just right... and the way people see it so differently...

But that's minor shit talkin'. For what I'm assuming is his first feature, he delivered. And while I'd heard of The Motel since it'd done so well at Sundance, my paranoia kept me away. So, thanks to DVD and a lack of good stuff, The Motel finally caught up with me.

Kang not only has good instincts/taste, but really knows what he's doing. He exudes the same confidence that Dayton/Faris did on Little Miss Sunshine. It's doubly satisfying; not only is it a solid flick, but I can at last point to an APA filmmaker and not feel embarrassed, but in fact, pretty proud. I hate to keep making this about me - hey, it IS my dumb blog after all - but as I was saying, for me, that's a breakthrough.

Believe Me, I know

Renee-

There's so much swelling in my chest that it's hard to get it all straightened out.

Parents and teens are in an awkward position, for it's the first time when kids begin to really see themselves, the world, and yes, their parents, in a different light. But with care and thought, a warrior, as Don Juan would say, traverses life with her cup overflowing. She has what she needs and then some.

Luis wrote about the challenge of dealing with his son Ramiro during his teen years, relating it to his own experience. And he says it much more eloquently than I ever could. His words mirror my thoughts and express the profound love and affection I feel for you. I hope they make sense.

With all my heart,

-dad


Twenty years ago, at 18 years old, I felt like a war veteran, with a sort of post-traumatic stress syndrome. I wanted the pain to end, the self-consuming hate to wither in the sunlight. With the help of those who saw potential in me, I got out.

And what of my son? Recently, Ramiro went up to the stage at a Chicago poetry event and read a moving piece about being physically abused by a step-father when he was a child. It stopped everyone cold. He later read the poem to some 2,000 people at Chicago's Poetry Festival. Its title: "Running Away."

There's a small but intense fire burning in Ramiro. He turned 17 in 1992; he's made it so far, but every day is a challenge. Now I tell him: You have worth outside of a job, outside the "jacket" imposed on you since birth. Draw on your expressive powers.

Stop running.

Luis Rodriguez
Always Running
La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.