Daily Intel

Things to Be Thankful For This Year: No Marauding Monkeys

Jessica Pressler — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:52:00 GMT

In Cape Town, baboons have figured out how to get into people's cars.

This year, it might be hard to think of things to be thankful for. Many of us are still experiencing the effects of the Deepest Recession Since the Greatest Depression™,. Afghanistan, Iraq, and health care are still quagmirish. But in the words of former bailout chief Neel Kashkari: “As bad as it is today, it could have been so much worse.”

In this spirit, we've decided to be thankful for the things that did not happen this year. Here are three of ours:

• The economy did not entirely collapse, the social fabric did not entirely crumble, and we were not forced to storm the Palazzo Chupi and eventually eat Julian Schnabel out of desperation.
• John McCain and Sarah Palin were not elected. (We know that was last year, but it was November, and so it still counts.)
• We don't live in one of those places where attacks by marauding baboons spontaneously occur.

Put yours in the comments! Then sign off the Internet, and have a happy, long Thanksgiving weekend. We'll see you Monday.

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Filed Under: intel, holidays, neel kaskari, thanksgiving, the greatest depression

Powerful Old Men May Possess Selective Memory-Erasing Capabilities

Jessica Pressler — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:02:00 GMT

The Wall Street Journal today has a nice little story about the Wednesday 10, a sort of club of assorted New York muckety-mucks, like Mort Janklow and former NBC president Larry Grossman, who have been meeting regularly for dinners since 1957. There aren't any women in the group, although Bob Menschel of Goldman Sachs says that's just because the group was founded back in the day, and if they had formed it today, "it wouldn't occur to us not to include women." In fact, prominent women such as Barbara Walters, Gloria Steinem, and Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan have been invited to address the group as guests. However: It seems something mysterious happens to these female guests after the fact.

From the Journal:

Ms. Walters says she recalls nothing from the meeting she attended. Nor does Ms. Steinem.

And no one can ask Betty Friedan whether she remembers anything. Because she's dead. The Journal seems unbothered by this bizarre coincidence, so it's up to us to ask: Has this group of powerful old men developed the capability to destroy selective memories of individuals? And if so, is that power now in the possession of Goldman Sachs? Or are they just doing a little light roofie-ing in order to prevent them from experiencing trauma post a sighting of Mort Janklow walking around in a Venetian carnival mask with his wobbly bits out?

What Facebook Can't Give You [WSJ]

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Filed Under: white men with money,

Lou Dobbs Already Backpedaling on His Signature Issue

Dan Amira — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:50:52 GMT

The latest speculation making the rounds about Lou Dobbs's political future is that the former CNN anchor won't run for president in 2012, but will instead aim for a Senate seat. The New Jersey resident is considering a challenge to Democratic senator Robert Menendez in 2012 as "an intermediary step" to the White House, a surprisingly honest spokesman told the Times. But apparently Dobbs is aware that targeting the nation's only Hispanic senator might not reflect well on someone already burdened with a reputation for hostility toward Hispanic illegal immigrants. Maybe that's why Dobbs has already begun to reverse his outspoken opposition to what he used to call "amnesty," a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. The Wall Street Journal reports that in an overlooked interview with Telemundo last Friday, Dobbs "twice mentioned a possible legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., saying at one point that 'we need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.'" Looks like he's getting the hang of the politician thing already.

Lou Dobbs Weighs Senate Run, as a Steppingstone [NYT]
Dobbs Reaches Out to Latinos, With Politics in Mind [WSJ]

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Filed Under: it's never too early to talk about 2012, campaigns, elections, lou dobbs, politics

Magazine Publishers to Create ‘iTunes for Magazines’

Jessica Pressler — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:58:00 GMT

Publishers like Time Inc. and Condé Nast are reportedly banding together to build an "online newsstand" for digital content, similar to iTunes, which sounds like a fine idea. We hope there's a Genius component that recommends stuff, like "If You Like Adam Gopnick You Might Also Want to Try Monocle, Adam Thirlwell's The Delighted States: A Book of Novels, Romances, & Their Unknown Translators, Containing Ten Languages, Set on Four Continents, & Accompanied by Maps, Portraits, Squiggles, Illustrations, and a Variety of Helpful Indexes and This Sterling Silver Marrow-Scooping Spoon." [NYT]

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Filed Under: ink-stained wretches, adam gopnik, conde nast, time inc

Leaked 9/11 Texts a Gold Mine for Historians, Truthers, Voyeurs

Dan Amira — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:43:00 GMT

Throughout the day today, the website Wikileaks will be publishing over half a million messages sent from text pagers on 9/11. According to the website, they range "from Pentagon and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults to their operators as the World Trade Center collapsed." It's a little arduous sifting through all the computer gibberish in the documents, but the information contained within can be fascinating. CBS News's Dean McCullagh found messages discussing an evacuation to Mount Weather, "the government's sort-of secret bunker buried under the Virginia mountains west of Washington, D.C." He finds another that warned of a threat to Air Force One, and even one that seemed to celebrate the death of a disliked business executive onboard one of the doomed flights. Other texts refer to a bomb going off in the World Trade Center and military planes forcing down a commercial jet, which, as McCullagh points out, are sure to pique the interest of 9/11 Truthers.

Many other messages are personal, with no bearing on history. Just browsing ourselves, we found one that reads, "the coast is clear,lets go get some indian food right now," and another saying, "Please tell us you drove. Dad just called me about what is going on in the world, very scarey!" Another one highlighted by Wikileaks reads, "Honey wanted to tell you how much i love you. I was alittle worried.I Don’t want to lose you now that I got you back. You mean everything to me. You have my whole heart and life. Ilove you so much."

Obviously, the release of these messages raises questions about privacy. How did Wikileaks get all these texts in the first place? McCullagh says that they were either illegally copied from the archives of the pager companies and then shared with Wikileaks, or, more likely, obtained through "over-the-air interception" using technology which can be be both cheap and readily available. Kind of disturbing, no? Still, though reading these private, sometimes intimate communications might be distasteful or even repulsive to some, the voyeuristic impulse is also hard to resist.

9/11 tragedy pager intercepts. [Wikileaks]
Egads! Confidential 9/11 Pager Messages Disclosed [Taking Liberties/CBS News]
Wikileaks Says It Has Half-a-Million 9/11 Pager Messages [Threat Level/Wired]

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Filed Under: 9/11, september 11th, wikileaks

Judge Tells ‘Vexatious’ Bank to Shove It

Jessica Pressler — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:00:02 GMT

Perhaps with his windfall Greg can purchase a more flattering sweater.

Like many people who refinanced their homes using subprime loans in recent years, Greg and Diane Horoski, of East Patchogue, Long Island, fell behind on their mortgage payments, after Greg suffered health problems and the rate of their mortgage shot up from 10 to 12 percent. When they tried to renegotiate, their lender, OneWest and its IndyMac mortgage division, wouldn't budge. It was "like dealing with organized crime," Horoski said. Eventually, after the bank began the foreclosure process, the Haroskis took them to court. They drew an awesome judge.

According to the Post, Judge Jeffrey Spinner, of Suffolk County, Long Island, not only erased the $525,000 that the couple supposedly owed to OneWest, he delivered a heroic smackdown to the TARP-supported institution, condemning them in his decision for behavior he called "harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive." Actually, wait, that's not enough. OneWest's conduct was also:

"inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious," Spinner wrote. He canceled the debt because the bank "must be appropriately sanctioned so as to deter it from imposing further mortifying abuse against [the couple]."

OneWest is, naturally, appealing. But the decision may still make lenders think twice about how they treat homeowners, lest they come up against Spinner and his thesaurus.

Judge blasts bad bank, erases 525G debt [NYP]

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Filed Under: awesome things, business, judges, the greatest depression

Chace Crawford Supposedly Had Sex With Lorenzo Lamas’s Wife

Lindsay Robertson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:33:00 GMT

Shauna Sand says she had an affair with Chace Crawford when he was 18, after meeting him "at a college party." "He was so incredibly beautiful — I immediately fell in love with him!" the 1996 Playmate told Star. "I even gave him a key to my apartment." Rihanna is getting $500k to perform on New Year's Eve in Abu Dhabi. Rosie O'Donnell is not enjoying the single life. Cynthia Rodriguez's new boyfriend is a real-estate investor named Laszlo Fazekas. Courtney Love took her band to Scores. "She was saying she used to be a stripper and appreciated what the girls do," a source tells "Page Six." Danny Meyer took his family to one of his own restaurants the other night.

Mercedes Bass found herself with too many men at her dinner party. Ellen DeGeneres gave $10k and a car to a single mother in the Bronx. The founders of Twitter will probably win Media Person of the Year this year. Usher's new girlfriend, Grace Miguel, is causing problems with both his record company and his mother. Megan Fox was a no-show at Michael Bay's reunion for the Transformers cast and crew.

Phil Donahue empathizes with Oprah. The rest of thePussycat Dolls are not speaking to Nicole Sherzinger. Naomi Watts watched Woody Allen play clarinet. In a leaked audio tape, Jon Gosselin is heard complaining "I put my kids out there to every pedophile on the planet." Kanye West's girlfriend, Amber Rose, asked a stranger to help her zip up her dress. Tyler Perry gave $1 million to the NAACP. Tom Ford wants to make a movie every three or four years. Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom have bought a $4 million house. Amy Fisher's husband will fight Rodney King. Katie Couric's party dance was choreographed by Katie and her daughters.

The President Who Cried ‘Unprecedented’

Dan Amira — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:24:00 GMT

Obama has done an unprecedented number of burger-joint photo ops.

Maybe you've noticed that President Obama has a habit of referring to things he does as "unprecedented." With less than a year as president under his belt, he's used "the word at least 129 times in everything from major addresses to small speeches, statements, memorandums and proclamations." Compare that to George W. Bush, who used it only 262 times over eight years. (Then again, it is a five-syllable word, so.) But an in-depth investigation by Politico has revealed that, sometimes, the things Obama refers to as "unprecedented" are actually quite precedented.

Perhaps, as his critics claim, Obama truly believes everything he does is unprecedented, or maybe he just thinks it makes ordinary actions and events sound more impressive. Either way, the hidden danger here, according to Carol Lee, is that "by applying the 'unprecedented' label to a [sic] so many scenarios in government — from transparency to efforts to reduce the environmental impact of mountaintop coal mining — the Obama administration risks outsized expectations and overhype." Hmmm. Something tells us that outsize expectations aren't much of an issue at this point. More dangerous is when something that's actually unprecedented requires America's attention — like when Obama announces that an unprecedentedly large asteroid is hurtling toward the planet, and nobody bats an eye.

The White House's unprecedented use of 'unprecedented' [Politico]

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Filed Under: obamania, barack obama, unprecedented

Rajaratnam’s Brother’s Hedge Fund Was Also Being Investigated by the SEC

Jessica Pressler — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:36:31 GMT

Yesterday in a court filing, lawyers for Raj Rajaratnam made the case that it was unconstitutional for the SEC to wiretap the Galleon founder because they had already interviewed him during the course of investigating an "unrelated hedge fund." But actually, the WSJ tells us today, it was was related — literally. The fund under investigation, Sedna, was run by Raj's brother Rengan. It was closed in late 2007 because of losses and "the cost of complying with the SEC probe."

Rajaratnam's Brother Drew Scrutiny [WSJ]

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Filed Under: ballsy crime, business, hedge funds, raj rajaratnam

Could Hillary Clinton Replace Joe Biden on the Ticket in 2012?

Dan Amira — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

That's the latest "hot rumor" making the the rounds in Washington, according to U.S. News' Paul Bedard. Of course, the "hotness" of this rumor has to be taken with an enormous grain of salt — maybe the biggest grain of salt you've ever seen, the kind that could be a roadside attraction in northern Pennsylvania — as Hillary is, at any given time, rumored to be eyeing some job other than the one she currently holds. The logic behind the latest scuttlebutt is that Biden would be "too old" to run for president in 2012 (he'd be 70 by the time he took office; Hillary would be 65), and, as we've noted, Hillary's denials about wanting to run for president again are less than airtight. Plus, she'd likely be a bigger boost to President Obama than Joe Biden, since she's now incredibly popular — and Lord knows he might need a boost. Not to mention, the transition should be easy, since Hillary has already begun to embrace Biden's ceremonial role as the master of gaffes.

Could Hillary Clinton Replace Biden as Obama's VP? [Washington Whispers/U.S. News]

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Filed Under: secretary of awesome, 2012, hillary clinton, it's never too early to start talking about 2012, joe biden, politics, rumors

Democrats Prove They Too Can Fight Among Themselves

Adam K. Raymond — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:29:13 GMT

Democracy for America, a liberal P.A.C. founded by Howard Dean, is preparing to sink its claws into what it calls the “Insurance Industry Democrats,” those swarthy Dems who haven't come out full force for the Senate's health care bill. Watch out Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson, you're on the list! [Prescriptions/NYT]

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Filed Under: ben nelson, blance lincoln, democracy for america, health-carnage

Maybe Lou Dobbs Should Start His Own Political Party

Adam K. Raymond — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:20:07 GMT

Yesterday when Fred Thompson asked Lou Dobbs if he was weighing a presidential run, the former CNN anchor said, "Yes is the answer." Couldn't really be much clearer than that. But there is one thing that remains unclear — what party would Dobbs attach to his name?

Sure, he seems like a natural Republican, what with the fiery opposition to illegal immigration and the distaste for President Obama. But would he pass the party's purity test? Bay Buchanan, whose brother Pat ran for president as a Reform Party candidate in 2000, thinks the man who calls himself "Mr. Independent" may fit best in a third party. And so do a bunch of others.

"I would assume he's going independent, since he's made a very strong case that that's where he is," Buchanan told 'Politico'. "There's enormous movement out there, I think more so than when Pat ran. I think they've really given up on Republicans, they've given up on Democrats; so he would be stepping into something where a path had been laid. I think he can win."

Former Sen. Dean Barkley, the founder of the Minnesota Reform Party and the man responsible for Jesse Ventura's political career, thinks Dobbs would be a perfect candidate for his nascent party. "We were hoping he would have run last time," he said.

Clay Mulford, who ran Ross Perot's third-party campaign in 1992, thinks Dobbs's views put him in perfect position to steal votes from both Democrats and Republicans.

"There's a populist streak in the voting public that spans both left and right, and so you've got the combination of this protectionist element and immigration on one hand, on the right. And on the left you've got this anti-bailout, Wall Street, focus-on-Main Street kind of sentiment," Mulford said. "That streak in American politics is something that's often ignored."

A third party does seem like the way to go for Dobbs, if only because it would make for some mind-bending Palin/Obama/Dobbs debates in 2012.

Lou Dobbs mulls White House bid [Politico]

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Filed Under: it's never too early to start talking about 2012, illegal immigration, lou dobbs, politics

Jury in Gotti Trial Still Deadlocked

Adam K. Raymond — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:57:25 GMT

For the second time in five days the jury in John "Junior" Gotti's racketeering trial has declared itself deadlocked. And once again Judge Kevin Castel told them to get back to work. After the jury delivered a note to the judge saying it was "unable to reach a unanimous verdict," Gotti's lawyers asked for a mistrial. As Gotti blew a kiss to his supporters Castel denied the request and reminded the jury that even if this trial ends in Gotti's fourth mistrial, there will likely be a fifth trial. "This trial has been conducted at considerable expense and human effort to both the government and the defendant," he said. "If your deliberations do not end in a verdict, in all likelihood it would have to be tried again before another jury." [NYP]

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Filed Under: wwjgd?, junior gotti, kevin castel

Who's Eating Arugula With the President Tonight?

Adam K. Raymond — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:59:17 GMT

The White House released the list of the luminaries, dignitaries and shiny, famous folks expected to eat arugula with the president at tonight's state dinner and it's full of the names you'd expect. Most of the media types, political types and Hollywood types in attendance were early supporters of the President back when he was that Senator from Illinois. David Geffen and his boyfriend landed plum seats at Obama's table, along with Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Ambassador to India Tim Roemer and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. Oprah, notably, will be absent. But she sent Gayle King in her stead. All in all, it's an impressive list of powerful people who you'd expect to get to do things like eat dinner with the president, with the exception of one: M. Night Shyamalan. Who let him in?

State dinner guest list includes Washington, Hollywood stars [The Hill]

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Filed Under: white house, david geffen, john kerry, nancy pelosi, politics, president obama, state dinner

Washington Post Closes Bureaus In New York, L.A. and Chicago

Adam K. Raymond — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:19:50 GMT

The Washington Post plans to put plywood on the windows of its Los Angeles, Chicago and New York bureaus at the end of the year, leaving the paper with one domestic office in D.C. In a clear cost-cutting move, the paper will re-assign six reporters to Washington and lay off three news assistants. "The fact is we can effectively cover the rest of the country from Washington," Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said. [Washington Post]

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Filed Under: ink-stained wretches, media, washington post