Permanent link to MTA daily media news

The Rich are not different from you and me… (by Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors)
…they eat ramen noodles too. Harrod’s Pot Noodles ($43) come in a hand-flocked gold leaf cup.

America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout (by Chris Hedges at TruthDig, thanks to Susie at Suburban Guerilla)
We live in an age of moral nihilism. We have trashed our universities, turning them into vocational factories that produce corporate drones and chase after defense-related grants and funding. The humanities, the discipline that forces us to stand back and ask the broad moral questions of meaning and purpose, that challenges the validity of structures, that trains us to be self-reflective and critical of all cultural assumptions, have withered. Our press, which should promote such intellectual and moral questioning, confuses bread and circus with news and refuses to give a voice to critics who challenge not this bonus payment or that bailout but the pernicious superstructure of the corporate state itself. We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty. The methods used to attain what we want, we are told by reality television programs, business schools and self-help gurus, are irrelevant. Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification. The capacity for manipulation is what is most highly prized. And our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse.
Click through to read more.  Moral decay is what destroyed the Roman Empire, and I don’t mean sexual moral decay.  We have to address this problem, and we have to address it now.  NOW NOW NOW, as Lambert would say.

Can Democrats Govern? (Political Wire)
Jonathan Chait: “George W. Bush came to office having lost the popular vote, with only 50 Republicans in the Senate… [Nonetheless,] Bush managed to enact several rounds of tax cuts that substantially exceeded those in his campaign platform, along with two war resolutions, a Medicare prescription drug benefit designed to maximize profits for the health care industry, energy legislation, education reform, and sundry other items… Obama has come into office having won the popular vote by seven percentage points, along with a 79-seat edge in the House, a 17-seat edge in the Senate, and massive public demand for change. But it’s already clear he is receiving less, not more, deference from his own party.”
Some Democrats did their best to help right wingers derail the Bill Clinton presidency.  They pushed him as far as they could to the right.  Oddly enough, many of those anti-Clinton folks were early Obama supporters.  But now Obama has his own set of Blue Dogs to deal with.  Remind me again why it’s supposed to be a good thing to have conservatives in the Democratic Party?

Will the Grassroots Drop their Anti-Blue Dog Campaigns? (by Brian Beutler at TPMDC)
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid laid the smackdown on progressive grassroots groups that are marshaling their efforts against a group of conservative Democrats. But did the grassroots get the message?… AUC has been running ads in the states of conservative Democrats urging constituents to “call congress” and “tell them to support President Obama’s budget”. Late Friday, they sent me a statement saying, “we agree with Senator Reid that Democrats should not be impeded from moving forward on this transformative budget and this is not a fight between Democrats.”…

CAF, meanwhile, declines to comment on Reid’s remarks altogether. Last week, the group featured their “Dog the Blue Dogs” campaign prominently on their website’s home page, but today it’s nowhere to be seen. For their part, MoveOn did not respond to a request for comment. They’ve been running similar ads in many of the same districts as AUC, though MoveOn calls out the targeted senators and congressmen by name.

Financial Rescue Approaches GDP as U.S. Pledges $12.8 Trillion (Bloomberg)
The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s. New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.
Why don’t they just give us (well, why don’t we lend ourselves) the $42,105?  Oh, I know.  We’re not BANKERS.

Obama and Wall Street, Part 2 (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
Thomas Ferguson: [“Obama should save the banks, not the bankers.”]
Click through to watch the video.

Would thou were living at this hour (by Owen Paine at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
“The Bank is trying to kill me — but I will kill it.” And Old Hickory did just that, unlike someone kooling it up in the White House now. President Jackson took on the financial octopus of his era, and despite the bank’s aura of invincibility, he did kill it, after getting re-elected over the bank’s peacock, Henry Clay, by a rampant 18-point margin and running off two money-stooge Treasury secretaries. He stood against it and its invisible fortune, its circle of bought men, and the London banks behind it; dared it “take your best shot,” then after the bank did its damnedest, took steady aim — bang! Made of adamantine stuff, that towering bastard.

Hey, he gave ‘em fair warning. During his first year in office, king Andy set the bank’s president — the soft-handed fork-tongued slickster Nicholas Biddle, shown left — straight: “I never trusted banks — not after I read about the South Sea bubble.” Words to live by.

Obama’s Banking Rescue: O for Opaque (by Robert Kuttner, Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The American Prospect, writing at the Huffington Post)
It’s possible that the Geithner plan will “work” in the sense of re-starting the Wall Street bubble machine, this time with a limitless line of direct credit from the Federal Reserve. If that happens, it will defer an even more serious day of reckoning, as the cost of the Fed’s immense credit creation comes due. But the greater likelihood is that the plan will merely enrich some speculators, but neither bring zombie banks back to life, nor get a normal banking and credit system operating again. And then the administration will need to come back to Congress, this time with less credibility, with the economy in even worse shape, having burned through more than a trillion dollars.

We were promised unprecedented openness. In the most momentous area of policy for getting the economy functioning again for ordinary Americans, we have instead unprecedented secrecy, designed by and for Wall Street. We expected better of Obama.
Some of the Obamaphiles are finally waking up, and Joe Cannon wants apologies—from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com and from Robert Kuttner, quoted above.  Me, I want them to crawl on their bellies like reptiles and THEN beg forgiveness.

Tuesday: Reboot (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
Nicholas Lemann, who I know nothing about, has written Mad and Madder in The New Yorker that hints at why Obama may be reluctant to nationalize the banks.  Well, *another* reason that is independent from the fact that his banker backers have him by the junk: “Bank nationalization would drive the stock market down and increase the agita of people with 401(k) plans. Moderate Democrats in Congress would further soften in their support for the Administration’s legislation.”…

So, maybe Obama’s strategy, and we have to assume their is a point to all of this even though there is no policy that we can detect, is to make sure that the middle class doesn’t lose its temper.  Plunging 401k’s would definitely make some people peevish, including moi.  However, if we descend into the semi-darkness of a Japan style “lost decade” where the already devalued 401k’s do not regain any of their value, just so that the bankers don’t have to eat their losses, that would piss me off more.  Maybe Obama figures that his chances of being a president when that happens are very slim.  Fine.  But don’t expect your picture on any stamps or money.  Your name will be “Bush”.

Hard Line on Auto Aid Puts Bailed-Out Firms on Notice (Washington Post)
The administration’s decision to oust G. Richard Wagoner Jr. sharply ratchets up its control over companies receiving government assistance in the face of criticism about a lack of accountability over billions of taxpayer dollars. The government demanded Wagoner’s departure even though it does not own a stake in the automaker… Now the president’s aggressive move against GM has left some banking executives wondering whether they are next in line.
I’ll believe it when I see it.

They all have cushions like this:
ABC News: GM’s Rick Wagoner will receive a $20 million retirement plan. (Think Progress)
ABC News reports that Rick Wagoner, outgoing CEO of General Motors, will be eligible to collect $20 million in retirement benefits from GM, the company that lost tens of billions of dollars under Wagoner’s leadership… However, the Washington Post reported this morning that Wagoner would not be leaving GM immediately, “because if he leaves the company he is entitled to a multimillion-dollar pension that the government does not want to pay.” Additionally, under the already-standing TARP agreement between GM and the Treasury Department, GM Is not allowed to pay severence fees to senior executives. “That ban does not appear to apply to retirement benefits, however.”

Are there any other ways they’ve robbed ordinary citizens?  Glad you asked:
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: A Case of Outright Theft (by Mary at The Left Coaster)
The Boston Globe says that three of Bush’s Cabinet Secretaries approved the scam to switch the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation investment model from a conservative model (15-25% in Stocks and Real Estate) to a highly risky investment model (55% in Stocks and Real Estate) in February 2008. The Cabinet Secretaries that approved this switch? Treasury, Labor and Commerce. And who was Secretary of Treasury then? Why, that would have been Mr. Paulsen, the ex-CEO of Goldman, Sachs. And why was that a problem? Because it would be hard to believe that he and his friends wouldn’t have know about what had been happening in the late stages of the mortgage bubble.

Kick-Starting Employment (by J. Bradford DeLong, thanks to Economist’s View)
Unemployment is currently rising like a rocket… In response, central banks should purchase government bonds for cash in as large a quantity as needed to push their prices up as high as possible. Expensive government bonds will shift demand to mortgage or corporate bonds, pushing up their prices. Even after central banks have pushed government bond prices as high as they can go, they should keep buying government bonds for cash, in the hope that people whose pockets are full of cash will spend more of it… In addition, governments need to run extra-large deficits. Spending … boosts employment and reduces unemployment. And government spending is as good as anybody else’s.

Finally, governments should undertake additional measures to boost financial asset prices, and so make it easier for those firms that ought to be expanding and hiring to obtain finance on terms that allow them to expand and hire.

Asian Stocks Fall, Paring March Rally, on Policy Skepticism (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks fell, paring the regional benchmark index’s rally this month, amid concern government stimulus plans worldwide will take longer than some investors expect to revive global growth.

Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis (The Telegraph, U.K.)
Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin’s chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund. Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal.

China, Argentina to settle trade in yuan (MarketWatch)
China and Argentina have agreed to set up a 70 billion yuan ($10.24 billion) currency swap system that will enable trade between the two nations to be settled in the Chinese currency, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Monday… The agreement marks Argentina as the fifth nation to sign currency swap agreements with China following similar agreements with South Korea, Malaysia, Belarus and Indonesia. China ranks as Argentina’s second-largest trade partner.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s threat to walk out of global summit (The Times, U.K.)
President Sarkozy yesterday threatened to wreck the London summit if France’s demands for tougher financial regulation are not met… The French threat dramatically raised the temperature hours before President Obama arrives in London today. If carried through, it would ruin a summit for which Mr Brown and Mr Obama have high ambitions, believing it vital to international recovery. Mr Sarkozy, who blames the “Anglo-Saxons” for causing the economic crisis, told his ministers last week that he would leave Mr Brown’s summit “if it does not work out”.

A Rookie President (by Thomas Sowell, a conservative)
Barack Obama is a rookie in a sense that few other Presidents in American history have ever been. It is not just that he has never been President before. He has never had any position of major executive responsibility in any kind of organization where he was personally responsible for the outcome. Other first-term Presidents have been governors, generals, cabinet members or others in positions of personal responsibility. A few have been senators, like Barack Obama, but usually for longer than Obama, and had not spent half their few years in the senate running for President.

What is even worse than making mistakes is having sycophants telling you that you are doing fine when you are not. In addition to all the usual hangers-on and supplicants for government favors that every President has, Barack Obama has a media that will see no evil, hear no evil and certainly speak no evil. They will cheer him on, no matter what he does.
It’s a dangerous situation.

Few Blame Obama for Economy (Political Wire)
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that the number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since President Obama’s election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy. Interesting: “There is now a pronounced divergence between Democratic and Republican perceptions of the economy, a bigger partisan divide than the one that occurred 16 years ago after Bill Clinton took office. In early 1993, people in both parties were about equally likely to see the economy as improving, but now the number of Republicans who say it is souring is more than double that of Democrats.”
Yet.  Few blame him YET.

Obama’s Popularity Matters More in the Midterms (Political Wire)
Nate Silver built a statistical model that shows a president’s approval rating matters more than the economy — or the popularity of Congress itself — in determining his party’s fate in midterm congressional elections. According to past trends, Obama will need to sustain an approval rating in the range of 65 percent to avoid losing any ground in the House.

Obama signs massive wilderness bill (McClatchy)
President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law a giant public lands bill that puts former Fresno-area congressman John Krebs in rare and exalted company.

Guantanamo detainee to go free after Obama-ordered review (McClatchy)
The U.S. government on Monday agreed to release a Yemeni surgeon who reportedly treated al Qaida wounded at Tora Bora in Afghanistan under a new review ordered by President Barack Obama meant to empty the prison camps here by January 2010.

DHS secretary proposes forgiving post-Katrina, Rita loans (McClatchy)
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, acting on her recent trip to the Gulf Coast, proposed Monday that $1.27 billion in post-Katrina and Rita community disaster loans be forgiven.

DSCC: Republicans Pulled A “Hit And Run With Our Economy” (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
Touching all the spots still sensitive from the Bush years, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a new online effort on Tuesday pinning the economic malaise squarely on the shoulders of the Republican Party. Titled “They Broke It And Won’t Fix It,” the campaign is a clear reminder that the Democratic Party still sees political capital to gain from the previous administration. The accompanying video accuses Republicans of pulling a “hit and run with our economy” by following the policies of the George W. Bush.
Click through to watch the video.  I can’t get excited by these kinds of attacks.  I think we need to be educating, not attacking.

The He-Man Woman Haters Ride Again! (by myiq2xu at The Confluence)
Misogyny never dies.  From Greg Sargent: “Is the Rush Limbaugh strategy giving way to the Sarah Palin strategy? Multiple Democratic strategists say the party plans to increasingly elevate Palin in the same manner it has employed Rush for weeks, using her high-visibility, her social conservatism, and memories of her harsh attacks on Obama during the campaign to tar the GOP as partisan, obstructionist, and backward-looking…”

I guess this is part of the neverending campaign.  Obama needs to run against somebody so he can tear them down to make himself look good.  But Rush was apparently too tough for Teh Precious so he’s gonna try beating up on a woman instead.  Last time I checked the strategery of targeting the Big Fat Idiot only succeeded in pushing Limbaugh’s ratings through the roof. Let’s hope this plan is equally successful.

Murtha: ‘If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district.’ (Think Progress)
Criticism of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), whom Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) calls one of the “most corrupt members of Congress,” has been mounting recently over his aggressive efforts to steer money to his district. In a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Murtha used stark language to defend himself against charges of corruption: “…‘If I’m corrupt, it’s because I take care of my district,’ Mr. Murtha said.”

In Minnesota, it’s still November (Politico)
Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts. Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance – even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration.

Party Leaders Worried About Dodd (Political Wire)
Interviews with Democratic party officials and operatives in Connecticut “indicate there is deep concern back home over whether the incendiary American International Group bonuses issue has delivered a mortal blow to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT),” reports Politico. “Many of them describe a palpable fury among the party rank and file — anger that’s led some to wonder if the party would be better served with a different Democratic nominee in 2010 — though they note that, at the moment, Dodd still retains the loyalty of Democratic activists and the political class.” Meanwhile, the Hartford Courant notes that Dodd faced a “flurry of questions” yesterday about a report in the Washington Times that AIG executives solicited campaign contributions for him.

Despite McCain’s Comments, Senate GOP Not Offering Detailed Budget (by at The Note, ABC News)
Much has been made in recent days about divisions inside the House Republican caucus over how to frame the party’s opposition to President Obama’s budget. On Thursday, House Republicans did wind up offering the frame of an alternative budget — but then they were widely panned for not releasing a more detailed alternative to the Democratic proposals… According to a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate GOP’s plan remains the same: Republicans are planning to offer individual amendments to the Democratic budget but not a detailed, comprehensive budget of their own.

Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“It was not a budget in the sense that it had numbers. It was more budget-ish.” — From the Urban Dictionary.

Rep. Paul Ryan Concedes GOP Alternative Budget Would Increase The Deficit ‘A Lot’ (Think Progress)
Last week, the House GOP presented its alternative budget proposal. Members of the media, including conservative commentators, widely panned the document for being scant on details and appearing more as “campaign-style talking points.” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has said he will release yet another budget proposal, but this time with more specifics. Though Ryan has been most critical of the deficit impact of Obama’s budget, he has been unable to assess the deficit impact of his own budget. After being repeatedly asked this weekend by Bloomberg’s Al Hunt about “how large” the deficit would be under the Republican plan, Ryan finally respond, “A lot”.

S.C. Gov. Sanford proposes stimulus deal (McClatchy)
Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed a compromise with state lawmakers over accepting $700 million in federal stimulus money – one that would require diverting state funds to pay off debt and accepting Sanford’s suggested budget savings.

Former Cheney Aide Suggests That Hersh’s Account Of ‘Executive Assassination Ring’ Is ‘Certainly True’ (Think Progress)
Last month, The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh revealed in Minnesota that former vice president Cheney presided over an “executive assassination ring.” “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving,” Hersh explained. [Monday], CNN interviewed Hersh and former Cheney national security aide John Hannah. Although he expressed regret for revealing the story (calling it a “dumb-dumb”), Hersh stood by his initial statements. “I’m sorry, Wolf, I have a lot of problems with it,” he said about the assassination scheme…

Hannah replied that Hersh’s account of the assassination scheme “is not true.” Yet in the same breath, when asked about a “list” of assassination targets, Hannah echoed Hersh’s statements. Hannah said that “troops in the field” are given “authority” to “capture or kill certain individuals” who are perceived as a threat. “That’s certainly true,” he said.. Hannah didn’t directly dispute Hersh’s claim that Congress wasn’t informed about the assassinations. “It is extremely hard for me to believe,” he said.
Click through to watch the video.

GOP Convention Arm Sued For Allegedly Bilking Firm Out Of $760,000 (by Sam Stein at the Huffington Post)
The Republican National Committee entity in charge of coordinating this past summer’s convention in Minnesota is being accused by one of its vendors of failing to pay nearly $800,000 in expenses. In a complaint filed in January 2009…, 3 Dog Consulting, Ltd., alleges that it was not paid roughly $760,000 for fundraising services it did for the Minneapolis/St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, the non-profit group tasked with overseeing the convention.

Romney Already Laying Groundwork (Political Wire)
Mitt Romney “is building toward a White House bid in 2012 by judiciously engaging and disengaging with the national debate,” the AP reports. Though Romney insists “this is a quiet time,” Republican strategist Mary Matalin says she “can easily see a second campaign — and a more successful one, at that.”

Jindal may not like volcano monitoring, but this Republican does (McClatchy)
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Monday she’ll introduce legislation this week to establish regular funding for the Alaska Volcano Observatory, just one month after fellow Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized the stimulus bill pushed by President Baack Obama for containing spending for volcano monitoring.

Alaska Air cancels Anchorage flights as Redoubt spews ash (McClatchy)
With Mount Redoubt volcano continuing to spew a steady flow of black ash into the atmosphere, Alaska Airlines announced Monday afternoon that it is once again canceling all flights in and out of Anchorage until further notice.

Some Apologies from the Obamamedia Are in Order for Falsely Accusing New Hampshire Primary Voters of Racism (by Concerned Mother at No Quarter)
Today the American Association for Public Opinion Research Ad Hoc Committee on the 2008 Presidential Primary Polling released a pdf report on the methodologies utilized by pollsters during the Democratic primaries. It is a long report, and a cursory analysis of it is available at Pollster.com. Much of the report focuses on the discrepancy between the polls and the actual vote of the New Hampshire Democratic Primary. Many variables were operative, according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research, but the Bradley Effect was NOT one of them. In other words, all those claims from the media and political pundits that New Hampshire primary voters are racist are UNFOUNDED. It was so much race baiting by the Obamamedia.
So where’s my apology, David Sirota, for calling me a racist?

Silber is Gold: Keep a Valued Voice Going (by Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque)
Arthur Silber is back, after another terrible downturn in his health which kept him from posting for almost a month. As readers here know, Arthur depends on his blog to keep body and soul together in grinding circumstances of illness and poverty (thanks to the wonderful “safety net” our society provides; but hey, at least we’re not France, right?). It’s a touch-and-go, month-to-month existence, and several weeks of enforced silence are devastating in that regard.

I know you are probably saving all your money to help those poor execs at AIG who are suffering so much without their bonuses, or maybe you’re patriotically contributing your income to the trillion-dollar nest egg that Obama and Geithner have set aside for hedge fund gamesters to squeeze even more of our blood from the toxic-paper turnip. But if you do have any spare cash left over from the administration’s noble, progressive crusade to keep rapacious elites rolling in clover, then please consider sending something to help support Silber’s work. His is a truly unique, genuinely insightful, humane and provocative vision that we can’t afford to lose.  So scoot on over there and throw some coins in the hat, so we can hear that brave voice ringing out once more.
Susie Madrak could use your help, too.

‘Secret’ Tribune/Blago Talks Revealed — But Little Information Emerges
Based on newly released Illinois government documents, the Chicago Tribune Tuesday reported new details of the secret talks now-impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich held with Tribune Co. on a state purchase of the landmark Wrigley Field. 
The U.S. Attorney in Chicago has accused Blagojevich of using the possibility of a state purchase of the Chicago Cubs stadium — potentially saving the financially strapped Tribune Co. $100 million or more in taxes — as leverage to force out certain Chicago Tribune editorial writers. No writers were ever fired during the period that coincided with widespread newsroom layoffs and buyouts, and the editorial board and editors have said they never felt any pressure to change their editorial stance.

Tuesday’s story by Chicago Tribune reporters Todd Lighty and Robert Becker — posted on its Web site – adds previously unreported details to the back-and-forth between Blagojevich and is aides and Tribune Co. Chairman and CEO Sam Zell and his negotiators. The Tribune obtained the records through Freedom of Information requests. But the story is no smoking gun pointing to any inappropriate actions by Tribune Co., as the reporters acknowledge: “The documents leave much unsaid, and most of the people who could fill in the blanks would not comment.”

Did we mention the media don’t care about epic gun violence? (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair at Media Matters for America)
And that the press, aside from downplaying what have now become routine, gun-related killing sprees that dot the nation, has completely walked away from even raising the issue of gun control in the wake of the rampages? The latest proof came in the wake of the carnage that unfolded in Carthage, North Carolina, on Sunday when a heavily armed suspect, Robert Stewart, entered a local retirement home and began randomly shooting patients and employees with a high-powered rifle… The thin coverage the story has received nationwide has been rather astounding… By contrast, the flood that didn’t materialize as feared in Fargo, North Dakota, over the weekend received nearly 250 mentions during the same time span. So the flood that didn’t happen got more coverage than than the killing rampage that left eight people dead in North Carolina.

Matthews calls “very correct” McCain’s false claim that “firing” of Wagoner was “unprecedented in the history of this country” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

MSNBC finding rerun is wise prime-time strategy
MSNBC will continue airing Keith Olbermann’s talk show twice each weeknight in prime time, putting on indefinite hold a search for a new 10 p.m. program. That time slot has attracted attention ever since MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin suggested earlier this year he was on the lookout for a new show. Fans of the Internet show “The Young Turks” and of Air America’s Sam Seder have openly campaigned for their favorites… MSNBC may give up entirely on the idea of putting a new live show in that time slot, Griffin said.

Buchanan: Japanese and Koreans have taken down US auto industry “the same way the Japanese military took all those islands” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

After advocating death for AIG executives, Krauthammer rips Obama for ‘demanding’ GM CEO’s ‘head on a pike.’ (Think Progress)
Earlier this month, after the AIG bonuses controversy broke, Charles Krauthammer advocated unusual capital punishment for AIG executives, suggesting “an exemplary hanging or two” in Times Square and even a guillotine “party.” But today, after President Obama compelled GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign, Krauthammer regained his sense of civility, criticizing the administration for “demanding” Wagoner’s “head on a pike”… Like many other Fox pundits who have been railing against unions today, Krauthammer added that organized labor has “utterly destroyed the auto companies.”
Click through to watch the video.

In light of Spanish court’s considering investigation of Bush administration officials, O’Reilly asks his audience: “Should we boycott Spain?” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Hannity on auto bailout: “The administration is on a mission to hijack capitalism in favor of collectivism… The Bolsheviks have already arrived” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Beck portrays Obama, Democrats as vampires “going after the blood of our businesses,” suggests “driv[ing] a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Beck blasts studio lights “to show that I am such a supporter of Earth Hour” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

FNC’s Napolitano says Wagoner’s resignation is “an absolute power grab and it’s the road to fascism”, “this is Mussolini on the Potomac” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Fox News Blames Unions For Auto Companies’ Demise, Suggests Firing UAW Head (Think Progress)
When Detroit’s Big Three auto companies first came to Washington last fall to ask for bailout funds, conservatives immediately insisted the companies’ woes were the fault of the United Auto Workers (UAW). Even though the Senate Republicans effectively blocked a fair bailout deal, they pointed the finger at the UAW, falsely claiming it was “willing to make no concessions — zero.” [Monday], President Obama announced that the government will recommit to providing assistance to General Motors and Chrysler — but only if the companies presented restructured plans, including the firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Fox News and Fox Business was apoplectic, insisting that the UAW had never been forced to make concessions (a false claim) and that the union’s leader, Ron Gettelfinger, should be fired instead.
Click through to watch a compilation of the comments.

Howard Kurtz dictates quotes from Fox News execs (by Eric Boehlert at County Fair at Media Matters for America)
This gave us a good chuckle, reading the WashPost’s Kurtz. It’s in an article about Fox News and Kurtz faithfully goes through the pointless ritual of giving FNC bosses a chance to explain how the entire operation isn’t really a GOP movement-driven organization: “Fox executives maintain that the channel’s reporting is aggressive but not ideological. Senior Vice President Bill Shine says that ‘our reporters, people like Major Garrett, have been asking tougher questions’ than their rivals, such as scrutinizing efforts to increase White House involvement in the 2010 Census. As for the commentators, Shine says Hannity still has some liberal guests.”…

We just did a three-minute search on Nexis and found Hannity’s list of guests for the past week. We couldn’t find a single liberal. (A couple of Dems, yes. Liberals? No.) But we did see that Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Ann Coulter, J.C. Watts, Karl Rove, Hugh Hewitt, Newt Gingrich, Judd Gregg, Dick Morris, (radio nut) Mark Levin, and the WSJ’s Stephen Moore appeared on the show. Maybe when Hannity actually does have “some liberal guests” on his program Kurtz can publish an update.

On Fox Business, Varney predicts that government will “jack up the price of gas to make sure we buy the government car” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Fox Business contributor compares news of Wagoner resignation to “when you read Russia Today or the Moscow Times” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “[A] lot of this stuff that’s happening right out of Rev. Wright’s sermons…and a lot of what’s going to happen in education, right out of Bill Ayers’ curriculum“ (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “Based on what we’ve seen with General Motors and the banks, if he fails, America is saved. Barack Obama’s policies and their failure is the only hope we’ve got to maintain the America of our founding.” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh on requirements for federal aid to GM: “This is a union coup at the behest of the president. This is payback” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: “Is Hugo Chavez able to possess this man and go out and make speeches?” (video at County Fair at Media Matters for America)

Limbaugh: The Man Who Ate the G.O.P. (by Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair)
In an ailing radio industry, with a graying audience and a pro-government landscape, Rush Limbaugh should be shuffling off into irrelevancy. Instead, his outrageous attacks have everyone debating whether he’s the G.O.P.’s de facto leader, while the party shapes its ideology to fit his needs.

Nonprofit organizations seek federal stimulus funds (McClatchy)
The lure of millions of dollars of federal stimulus and recovery money drew nearly 200 nonprofit representatives to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation on Monday.
EVERYbody wants a handout.

AHIP and Blue Cross: We will treat everyone fairly if we can define fair (by DCblogger at Corrente)
Health insurers pull a fast one in proposed reform[:] “The industry says it will treat all people fairly in return for a government requirement that everyone has to buy their product. But they want to charge different prices for different levels of coverage… et if you read the fine print in their plan, it turns out that they’re reserving the right to charge different prices for different levels of coverage — a practice that would effectively keep us where we are, with sick (or potentially sick) people paying more for insurance.”

To keep workers, Kansas companies cut everyone’s salary (McClatchy)
Everybody at Pretech Corp. has taken a pay cut — but all the employees are working.

States aren’t spending funds to help rescue workers talk (McClatchy)
Nearly $1 billion intended to improve the ability of emergency workers to talk to each other has been sitting in the federal Treasury for 18 months.

Idaho Teacher Sells Advertising Space on Tests
In a cash-strapped Idaho high school where signs taped near every light switch remind the staff to save electricity, an enterprising teacher has struck a sponsorship deal with a local pizza shop: Every test, handout and worksheet he passes out to his students reads MOLTO’S PIZZA 14″ 1 TOPPING JUST $5 in bright red, inch-high letters printed along the bottom of every page.
Why won’t we provide the supplies necessary for educating the next generation?

KFC wants to sponsor pothole repairs
KFC, the fried chicken franchise, is offering itself as a corporate sponsor for pothole repair. An actor dressed as KFC founder Colonel Sanders and a road repair group got started this week in the franchise’s hometown of Louisville, Ky., filling up hundreds of holes. Many of the repairs are decorated with a white stencil saying the spot was “Re-freshed by KFC” — a play on KFC’s ad campaign stressing the freshness of their chickens. KFC spokesman Russell Dyer said the crew is using “regular asphalt,” not day-old biscuits. The franchise has issued an offer to mayors of cities nationwide, asking them to describe their street’s state of disrepair, with the intent of doing repairs in five cities.
Why won’t we provide the funds necessary to repair our streets?

Media Matters for America headlines

• Ignoring AIG, Fannie, and Freddie, Wash. Times editorial labeled Wagoner’s departure “unprecedented”

• Fox News’ La Jeunesse ignores effective tax rate to claim U.S. corporate tax “second highest in the world”

• Fox Nation says “yes” to “biased media” — calls Frank and Dodd a “[d]angerous duo”

• Fox & Friends graphic falsely claims, “Bill lets government set your salary”

• LA Times, Dobbs uncritically forward McCain’s false claim that Wagoner’s departure was “unprecedented”

• Boehlert: Norm Coleman’s a sore loser. Why won’t the press say so?

• Special Report allowed Fiorina to attack Obama without noting her role with McCain campaign

• Media promote claims of global cooling despite overwhelming consensus to the contrary

N. Korea to Indict Detained American Reporters
North Korea will indict two American reporters it detained this month on suspicion of illegally entering the country. “The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements,” North Korea’s official state news agency reported.

China rejects computer spy claims as “ghost of Cold War”
China on Tuesday rejected a report suggesting it may be involved in using computer networks to spy on exiled Tibetans and foreign governments, accusing its authors of being possessed by “the ghost of the Cold War.”

E.U. Poised to Establish Telecommunications Regulator
Starting in 2010, the new agency, together with the European Commission, will be able to reverse policies made by national regulators in E.U. countries.

High Court Won’t Consider Va. Decision That Barred Anti-Spam Law (American Constitution Society)
The U.S. Supreme Court today turned away Virginia’s request to review a lower court decision that invalidated the state’s anti-spam law. The Virginia Supreme Court concluded that the anti-spam law violated the First Amendment because it also prohibited political and religious messages from being sent via e-mail. The law in Virginia v. Jaynes was intended to bar unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Study: Enforcement spurs rise in Web sex arrests
More people have been arrested in recent years for sexually soliciting youths online, but the sharp increase comes from better enforcement, and the Internet remains a relatively safe social environment, researchers said in a new study.

Federal judge blocks charges in Pa. ’sexting’ case
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three northeastern Pennsylvania teenagers who appeared in racy photos that turned up on classmates’ cell phones.

Google Publishing Settlement Would Re-Write Nation’s Copyright System (American Constitution Society)
The Volokh Conspiracy’s Jonathan Adler notes recent commentary exploring a legal settlement that if approved by a federal court, would grant Google vast power to control digital publishing rights. Lynn Chu, with Writers Representatives LLC, maintains that if the legal framework were approved by a federal court, it “would permit Google to post out-of-print books for reading, sales, institutional licensing, ad sales, and other publishing exploitations,” by the online search engine giant. Chu notes that the settlement is fashioned between Google and only a “handful of authors and publishers,” but would cover every author and publisher in the nation…

Chu says the court should reject the Google settlement: “We already have a good system. It’s called the system of private property and free contract, designed for dispersed, autonomous individuals – not command-and-control centers. The U.S. Constitution grants authors small monopolies in their own copyrights. Author market power is talent-based and individual, not collective. The class action seeks to wipe all this out – just for Google. But U.S. law does not grant any single publisher monopoly power to herd all of us into its list.”

Check out the winners of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards
This year’s top prize, the IRE Medal, was given to WWL-TV in New Orleans for its investigation of a city-run housing nonprofit that falsely claimed to have fixed homes in need of repair after Hurricane Katrina, and the contractors who pocketed the money without doing the work.

Strib’s best journalism goes to paying customers first
Editor Nancy Barnes says the Strib wants to let print customers know that they’re getting something that others aren’t; thus, investigative projects, deeply reported nonbreaking news stories, and “beautifully written feature stories” won’t be rushed to the web. This is an experiment, notes the editor.

Bring Back Yellow Journalism (by Jack Shafer at Slate)
I wish our better newspapers availed themselves of some of the techniques of yellow journalism. Being rambunctious to the extreme, yellow journalism is misunderstood. At its best, yellow journalism was terrific, and at its worst, it really wasn’t all that bad.
I guess Shafer never watches Fox News or reads the Weekly Standard.

MIT cops suspended for dumping student newspapers
The two officers didn’t like the story about a colleague getting arrested for trafficking in prescription painkillers, so they put 300 papers in the recycling bin.

“This morning, I felt like something was missing,” says Detroit newspaper reader
Nancy Nester, 51, who has subscribed to both Detroit papers for four years, says “there was this feeling of emptiness” on Monday when there was no home delivery. She didn’t even bother to pick up the condensed print versions that were offered free. “I don’t have time to stop at the store.”

Auto Industry News Hits Just as Detroit Papers Begin Limited Delivery
Under a new distribution model, Gannett’s Detroit Free Press and MediaNews’ Detroit News this week limited their home delivery to Thursday and Friday, while only the Free Press arrives Sunday.

Philly newspaper union blasts execs’ “shocking” bonuses
The Inquirer and Daily News union says it now regrets encouraging members last summer to postpone their $25 raise. “Surely by December [when the bonuses to three senior execs were awarded], Philadelphia Media Holdings knew the company would soon declare bankruptcy, as it did last month, so the year-end cash rewards are shocking,” says the union.

NYT to Eliminate City Section
The New York Times plans to eliminate several weekly sections, including its stand-alone City Section, as well as possibly the regional weeklies in New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and Connecticut, and the Friday Escapes section. The timeline is unclear, but a staffer said that City has only four issues left.

Hartford Courant, 2 TV stations combine operations
Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co. said Monday that it is bringing together the operations of its newspaper and two television stations in Hartford, Conn. Richard Graziano, senior vice president and general manager of Tribune Co.’s WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV who also oversees Tribune Co. stations in Philadelphia and Washington, has been named publisher of the Hartford Courant, effective immediately.

The only US newspaper reporter in Havana is leaving Cuba
Tribune’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel is closing its Havana bureau and returning reporter Ray Sanchez to Fort Lauderdale.

Sun-Times Media Group Files For Bankruptcy Protection (Paid Content)
Chicago’s other big newspaper publisher, The Sun Times Media Group, has filed for bankruptcy protection… The company says it will continue to operate its 59 newspapers, including The Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun Times has been going through a great deal of turmoil lately, even by newspaper industry standards. In January, the company’s board was ousted by dissident shareholder, as The Sun Times’ stock price hovered around 8 cents.  The company’s last trade on March 30 was for 5 cents.

Jeremy Halbreich, chairman and interim CEO cited the “deteriorating economic climate, coupled with a significant, pending IRS tax liability dating back to previous management,” as the reason for the Chapter 11 filing. He said the company expects to exit the restructuring process sometime this year. In Feb. ‘08, The Sun Times had hoped to put itself up for sale or find a joint venture as it attempted a major turnaround. But none of that came to pass

Charter files for prearranged bankruptcy
Charter Communications Inc. on Friday filed for a prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy to get relief from its creditors, as the nation’s fourth-largest cable operator strives to keep its head above water and still compete with phone companies and satellite TV providers.

More Layoffs, Extended Furloughs At ‘Tampa Tribune,’ Siblings 
Media General Inc.’s Florida Communications Group (FCG) on Monday laid off 53 employees at The Tampa Tribune and its media siblings in the market.

“The Soloist” has a grim state-of-the-newspaper subtext
The average moviegoer probably won’t be touched by it, but people in the news business will be. “I know I was,” writes Roger Moore. “I left a preview of ‘The Soloist’ last night, sat in my car, punched the CD changer to a Beethoven piano concerto and fought off the tears.”

The AP Daily without the AP (by Jeff Jarvis)
Amazing that even the free Metro papers – which were pretty much the Associated Press freeze-dried onto paper – are dropping the AP. Even though they’re nothing but a bus-read, they don’t want – or can no longer afford – commodity content.

Detroit Media Partnership in E-reader Deal with Plastic Logic
Detroit Media Partnership, the joint operating agency of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, and Plastic Logic, in Cambridge, England and Mountain View, Calif., have announced a partnership for a digital content delivery program using the Plastic Logic reader. To be generally available in early 2010 following pilot projects later this year, the electronic reader features a large, thin, plastic display about the size of an 8.5 x 11-inch pad of paper and weighing less than many print magazines. The e-reader is based on the company’s plastic electronics technology and intuitive touch screen interface, among other as-yet-unannounced features.

The Plastic Logic reader will be offered for purchase or lease to the Detroit dailies’ subscribers as an alternative to paper delivery. The Detroit newspapers will also be among the first publications to test the new e-reader later this year. “Our goal is to provide a superior digital reading experience for users while also offering a versatile new delivery platform for the publishing industry,” Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta said at yesterday’s announcement.

Life’s Revival Continues; Time Inc. JV With Getty Images Goes Emerges From Beta (Paid Content)
Time Inc.’s Life magazine gets its full rebirth as a website today, as the company’s joint venture with Getty Images comes out of beta with 7 million images… The site, which is being sponsored entirely by Rolex for its first month, is organized along 1,000 galleries. “Curation” is Life.com’s underlying philosophy. Blau sought to emphasize that that the stress would be on professional photographers and content; the only real user-generated involvement would be celebrity curators like talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. As for Life’s other partnership with Google, an image archive launched in November, Blau also notes the key differences. “Google’s about image storing,” he said. “Life.com is about image finding… We deliberately wanted to make sure that this wouldn’t be seen as an ‘archival’ site. The photos are updated constantly and reflect the news, such as the recent flood fears on the midwest. It draws back to what the magazine originally was: capturing what was happening, but through photos, not text.”

While other sites struggle with paid content, Blau and company have that issue nailed down as well. The site will make most of its money from advertising—in addition to sponsorships like Rolex, within the next three- to six months Blau wants to have galleries that are specially sponsored by marketers. It will also have a major e-commerce function, whereby users create their own photo books from site images and then order them online.

Life.com

Esquire’s Latest Cover Stunt: A Mix-and-Match Flip Book
Meet President Barack George Timberlake

Forbes To Hand Out More Pink Slips; Second Round Of Cuts Targets 50 (Paid Content)
Forbes Media is planning on cutting another 50 jobs, MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka reports… The business mag has already slashed more than 60 jobs since last fall. Those job losses were attributed to the two phase process of combining the digital and print staffs. With that process completed about three months ago, it appears that this latest round can only be laid at the feet of the foundering economy.

It’s official: Internet surpasses radio.
Radio’s $100 million lead in 2007 evaporated last year as internet revenues grew 11% to $23.4 billion. That’s $3.9 billion more than radio. The internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, behind television and print. But radio is fighting back, targeting online ad growth. The RAB says off-air dollars accounted for 9% of last year’s radio revenue.

Senate joins the royalty fight.
Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and John Barrasso (R-WY) have introduced a resolution which, like its House counterpart, opposes any new royalty-based fee on radio. The effort comes as roughly 500 local broadcasters descend on Capitol Hill this week.

Radio One wants Sirius XM spectrum.
The FCC is trying to figure out how it will distribute 12 satellite channels set-aside for outside programmers as a condition for last year’s Sirius-XM merger. Radio One has a suggestion on how those channels should be divvied-up.

Local TV, Radio Face Even Tougher 2009
SNL Kagan Forecasts Ad-Revenue Slides of at Least 15%

CNN in Third Place in Prime Time for First Time
CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the cable news genre nearly three decades ago.

Disney, YouTube Announce Clips Deal For ESPN, Disney/ABC (by Staci D. Kramer at Paid Content)
It’s official—Disney Media Networks and YouTube have announced the revenue-sharing short-form deal we first reported last night. The deal with the Google video portal covers the launch of multiple ad-supported U.S.-only channels featuring content from ESPN and the Disney/ABC Television Group. Previews are up now; the ESPN channel will launch mid-April, ABC in mid-May.

—Full episodes still on the table…
—We were told emphatically that Disney would control the ad inventory…
—The ESPN video player, which share DNA with the ABC player, will be integrated into the ESPN channel and “will anchor a wide variety of exciting sports content and highlights” on YouTube Sports. But some ESPN content will be available through YouTube’s player…
—It’s not in the release but I’ve confirmed (again) that ABC and ESPN will be able to link back to long-form content on their own sites.

Microsoft Encarta Officially Succumbs to Wikipedia (Mashable)
Do you remember what came in between printed encyclopedias and Wikipedia? For many, the answer is Microsoft Encarta, which was distributed starting in the 90s via CD-ROM and more recently on the Web via MSN. Today, Microsoft announced that it’s discontinuing Encarta later this year, offering symbolic confirmation that Wikipedia is the world’s definitive reference guide… As PaidContent points out, the crowd-edited Wikipedia boasts 2.7 million entries in English versus just 42,000 for Encarta. Need further confirmation of why Wikipedia is simply a better model? News of Encarta’s discontinuation has already reached the product’s entry on Wikipedia.

Climate Culture Employs Social Media to Turn America’s Universities Green (Mashable)
Social media has been a great tool for spreading awareness about environmental and green issues. Most recently, social media was used to spread the word about Earth Hour and the cost of electricity use. Once again, social media is being used to make an impact on the environment, this time through college campuses across the U.S. Climate Culture, a green tech startup that helps people manage their energy usage and carbon footprint, and SmartPower, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting efficient and clean energy, have teamed up to officially launch the America’s Greenest Campus contest, which pits college campuses against each other to reduce their carbon footprint.

Mydeco: An All-in-One Tool for Home Design and Shopping (Mashable)
Mydeco is a comprehensive portal for home decorations and design. In terms of its shopping features, it has the essentials for every room of the house: everything from bedding to cutlery is available for purchase. Purchases are not made on Mydeco; they are completed through third-party vendors such as the UK’s B&Q (home improvement supplies). What makes the website stand out, however, is its vast array of tools for designing the perfect home, as well as its dedicated community.

20 Twitter Badges to Show Off Your Tweets (by Sean P. Aune at Mashable)
There are a number of ways to promote your Twitter account. You can add yourself to one of the many growing Twitter directories, advertise your brand, or, as I’ll discuss in this post, feature a badge with your Twitter information on your website, blog, or even in your email. Here are 20 embeddable badges and widgets that you can customize to include your tweets and, in some cases, those of your friends.

Daily Beast Still Has No Sales Staff
In the nearly six months since the Beast launched, the site has flirted with ads, running a number in the fall and some sponsored sections in February. But it hasn’t made a lasting commitment to an advertiser. For the past month, the site has remained chaste, carrying no ads at all.

Web ad revenue grew in 4Q but slower than in past
U.S. Internet advertising revenue climbed in the fourth quarter in spite of the poor economy, but the growth rate was sluggish compared to previous years, according to an analysis released Monday.

Reckitt-Benckiser to Shift $20 Million to Web From TV
Decision Driven by Need for More-Efficient Ad Rates

Mobile Ad Platform AdMob Launches iPhone Download Exchange (Mashable)
The AdMob exchange program works just like an advertising campaign – members of the network have ad spots for displaying either paid advertising or ads that are through the iPhone Download Exchange. AdMob already has over 1000 iPhone applications in its network, giving it a good starting point for its program. It’s also a smart program – it does not advertise applications that the user already has installed, targets based on geography and device (so iPod touch users don’t get apps that are only for iPhones), and generates detailed reports on the impression and success of the campaign. Members of the AdMob network can also control how often ads are either paid ads or Download Exchange ads.

Microsoft unveils partners for applications store
Microsoft Corp has signed up multiple software partners for its upcoming cellphone software marketplace, including Web music service Pandora, game publisher Electronic Arts Inc and social site Facebook.

Unpaid bills? Good luck starting future laptops
As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they’re faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?… LM Ericsson AB, the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops, announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with this issue by including a feature that’s virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on.

Small-screen browsers get bigger role
At CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade show this week, expect chatter about the mobile browser “wars,” with Opera Mini, long popular in Europe, expected soon to have more of a presence in the United States and a test mobile version of Firefox underway.

Google Starts Venture Capital Fund (Mashable)
Google has announced Google Ventures, a venture capital fund that “seeks to discover and grow great companies” in a “broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech and health care.”… [T]he official site claims that the fund is “able to invest amounts ranging from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars.” In other words, anything goes, and Google probably won’t be cheap if they see a good opportunity. On the other hand, Google has always been somewhat careful, acquisition-wise, so don’t expect Google Ventures to be burning money; as they say, their goal is to “build great companies” but also to generate “long term financial return.”