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Second-Quarter 2012 Equity Market Commentary
By Natalie Trunow, Chief Investment Officer, Equities, Calvert Investment Management, Inc.
CIO, Equities
Despite a good corporate earnings season, strong negative headwinds from the eurozone, a slowdown in China, and the U.S. policy stalemate—which will likely worsen later in this election year—kept investors on edge during the second quarter and were a drag on equity markets globally. Apparent progress on the policy front in Europe helped drive a relief rally in June, but all major global equity indices still finished the second quarter in negative territory. For the quarter, the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500), Russell 1000, and Russell 2000 Indices returned -2.75%, -3.12%, and -3.47%, respectively, while international stocks fared even worse, with the MSCI EAFE and MSCI Emerging Markets Indices returning -6.85% and -8.77%, respectively. Value stocks held up better than growth names with the Russell 1000 Value Index returning -2.20%, while the Russell 1000 Growth Index returned -4.02%, though growth stocks still remain firmly in the lead year to date.
Within the Russell 1000 Index, the more defensive telecommunication services, utilities, and consumer staples were the top performing sectors in the second quarter while the financials, energy, and information technology sectors lagged. Despite a strong bounce this year, financials gave up some ground due to the reacceleration of negative investor sentiment toward the European economic and sovereign debt crisis. At the same time, fears of a significant slowdown in China have resulted in the energy, materials, and industrials sectors lagging the market for the year-to-date through the end of June.
Corporate Earnings Provide Lift to U.S. Equity Markets
While earnings estimates for U.S. companies were revised down in the first quarter, the U.S. corporate sector remained strong and provided some upside surprises for investors during earnings season. Markets found support in a string of good corporate earnings reports, with 69% of companies in the S&P 500 beating earnings expectations. Importantly, 67% of companies also beat their revenue estimates, which speaks to the improvements in the top-line numbers and overall improvement in the strength of the U.S. economy.
Manufacturing Continues to Drive Gradual Economic Recovery in the U.S.
While the overall economic picture in the U.S. continued to be positive, some economic indicators have begun to be impacted by the economic recession in Europe and a slowdown in the emerging markets. The manufacturing sector continued to provide a boost to employment and the U.S. economy during the second quarter, although some manufacturing activity data showed signs of slowdown late in the quarter and actually shrank for the first time in nearly three years in June, likely driven by near-term uncertainty about U.S. policy outcomes as well as the tumultuous global economic landscape.
Business inventories continued to increase and vehicle sales also remained strong as domestic demand continued to pick up. However, the pull-forward of economic activity due to unseasonably warm weather earlier in the year had an effect of dampening some economic data in the second quarter, including hiring and consumer spending. The unemployment rate edged back up to 8.2% as U.S. labor market improvements seemed to slow down somewhat, although public sector jobs accounted for a large portion of the losses. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims was up to 387,000 at the end of June. The total number of job openings, while dropping in the most recent data release, remained high, indicating firms may be reluctant to hire new employees due to global and domestic economic and political uncertainty in the near term. As a result, recent net job growth figures were driven more by the drop in layoffs than a pickup in hiring, a phenomenon observed last year as well. We believe that hiring is likely to resume once pending policy measures clear political hurdles and companies have better visibility for the next several quarters. The longer-term trend in employment data remained positive.
Personal incomes and consumer spending continued to increase modestly with data pointing to a slow gradual economic recovery in the United States, though investors seemed to focus more on the worse-than-expected employment numbers reported during the quarter rather than the increases in consumer spending and incomes. With fewer jobs being created than expected and sluggish income growth in the United States, we expect the recovery in the consumer sector to continue to be slow. That said, the U.S. consumer also continued to show signs of recovery during the second quarter. Consumer credit has been increasing and growth in unused credit lines at U.S. banks with more than $20 billion in assets, a potential gauge for future increases in business lending, increased 17% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Commodity prices, especially food and energy, have softened, driven by the global economic slowdown and the slowdown in China in particular. Gasoline prices also softened throughout the quarter, providing another source of support for the U.S. consumer. Consumer confidence, as measured by the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, rose to 79.3 in May, the highest level since October 2007, before pulling back in June, and confidence among U.S. small businesses rose to a 14-month high in April. At the same time, the U.S. service sector continued to show signs of recovery, a particularly encouraging development as the services sector represents a larger portion of the economy than does manufacturing, which has been the main driver behind economic recovery in the U.S. so far.
The previously reported first quarter GDP annual growth rate of 2.2% was revised down to 1.9%, but overall, U.S. economic data reported during the quarter, while somewhat less robust, were still generally positive.
Housing Market on the Mend and Could Provide a Positive Surprise for Investors
On the housing front, most data continued to point to an improving environment in the residential housing market with historically low mortgage rates and low home prices supporting housing activity. While housing prices are still in the process of bottoming out, housing activity has now been on the mend for several months. Though some activity seems to have been pulled forward into the earlier part of the year due to unseasonably good weather, given the significant size of the U.S. housing market and its impact on consumer wealth, confidence, and, indirectly, spending, any good news is doubly good for the U.S. economy as it leverages the positive impact on consumers, which represent two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
Confidence among homebuilders reached a five-year high during the quarter while new and existing home sales exhibited strong growth. Sales of new homes surged in May, rising 7.6% from the prior month to a 369,000 annual rate—a two-year high. As a result, inventory of new homes declined to 4.7 months of supply, the lowest since 2005. Meanwhile, the national mortgage delinquency rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted 7.4% in the first quarter of 2012, the lowest level since 2008, though the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure remained little changed from the prior quarter at 4.4%.
A low dollar has also been contributing to improvement in U.S. housing activity. According to data released by the National Association of Realtors during the quarter, international buyers accounted for 9% of total spending on residential real estate in the U.S. over the trailing 12-month period ending in March of this year. This represented a 24% year-over-year increase in sales to international buyers, who have been taking advantage of the weak dollar and historically low U.S. home prices.
Low Inflation Leaves Room for Accommodative Monetary Policy by Fed
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes released throughout the quarter suggested there was little change to the Fed's stance. Officials reiterated they were prepared to step in with an accommodative policy should economic conditions deteriorate, but did not believe further action was yet warranted. This so-called "Bernanke put" has provided support for U.S. equity markets so far this year with investors believing the Fed will provide future liquidity injections in the event the economy falters. The minutes also confirmed the Fed's commitment to maintain a low interest rate environment until 2014.
That said, statements from the Fed towards the end of the quarter communicated an increased concern about downside risks to the U.S. economy stemming from the European crisis. While the Fed still seemed to expect a continuation of a slow, gradual recovery in the overall U.S. economy and labor market, low inflation in the U.S. and globally has left room for further accommodative monetary policy.
The FOMC announced an extension of "Operation Twist" through the end of the year, whereby the Fed will continue purchasing Treasuries with longer maturities while selling short-term securities in an effort to further reduce long-term interest rates.
Outside of the U.S. the global easing cycle continued with the Reserve Bank of Australia cutting its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points and the Bank of England announcing a $150 billion liquidity program. Russia, India, and Brazil also cut rates during the quarter.
Banks Continue to Face Regulatory Scrutiny
J.P. Morgan acknowledged trading losses stemming from inadequate risk management at the firm and the market moving against its derivative positions linked to corporate debt. These losses, which were initially estimated at $2 billion, are now estimated to potentially go as high as $9 billion. This headline is likely to intensify the debate over the Volcker rule, which limits banks' ability to trade with their own capital and is set to take effect in late July pending agreement on the final details. Despite this being a significant setback for the banking industry, we believe that the U.S. banking system is generally in much better shape than its European counterparts. Having said that, the Volcker rule and increased regulatory scrutiny of the banking industry will likely continue to make the industry less profitable from a historical standpoint for some time to come. Additionally, the alleged LIBOR rate manipulation by global banks (investigations into the actions of several banks and financial institutions including Citigroup, ICAP, UBS, RBS, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank are ongoing) could become a widespread scandal and play out similarly to the Salomon Brothers treasury scandal, further crippling the banking sector and possibly intensifying the regulation surrounding it.
During the quarter, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke also gave a speech focusing on financial reform. He cited the need for banks to hold more capital, which would be part of Basel III—an international regulatory framework for banks. While a solid move toward fortification of the balance sheets of U.S. banks, the continued regulatory scrutiny also will continue to spell trouble for long-term profitability in the sector.
Meanwhile, Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 15 global banks during the quarter, including several of the largest U.S. banks. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Citigroup were all downgraded two notches, while Bank of America was cut one notch.
Recession Deepens Across Europe as Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis Intensifies
As we anticipated, markets seem to have overestimated the efficacy of the policy action in Europe and underestimated the possibility of a more severe economic recession in the eurozone. Considerable fiscal drag and austerity measures that have been implemented in Europe are likely to result in a more severe economic downturn, which will exacerbate the sovereign debt crisis through bond vigilante actions as well as potential further sovereign debt and European bank downgrades by credit rating agencies. Core European economies also continued to show signs of weakness, indicating they are not immune to the crisis engulfing the region.
German and French manufacturing PMI remained firmly in contraction territory while German bond spreads relative to U.S. Treasuries stayed wide during the quarter. Weak unemployment data in Germany mirrored the overall worsening unemployment picture in the region as the underlying economic fundamentals in the region continued to deteriorate. Eurozone manufacturing PMI sank further into contraction territory and the June reading of the Eurozone Index of Economic Confidence was the lowest since October 2009. Meanwhile, deflation in Europe is not out of the question, which could be a significant problem.
Political Turmoil in Eurozone
As if things couldn't get worse in the eurozone, during the second quarter the Dutch government collapsed after it failed to reach agreement on a budget that would bring its deficit in line with European Union (EU) limits, roiling the markets once more with political turmoil. Meanwhile, French and Greek voters made it clear they wanted some relief from austerity measures by supporting "pro-growth" political parties. French voters elected Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande as president, choosing a leader who vowed to incorporate growth-boosting measures across the eurozone and scale back the austerity measures built into the region's Fiscal Compact.
Greek voters also overwhelmingly rejected the two main parties in the outgoing coalition, instead casting votes for more extreme far-left and far-right parties, an outcome that led to a political stalemate with the country's political parties unable to form a coalition government. Elections in mid-June were framed as a referendum on Greece's status in the eurozone. The New Democracy party emerged victorious in the much-anticipated elections and was able to form a coalition government. The election results were followed by a global sigh of relief hoping Greece would adhere to the international bailout agreement, although the outcome does not change the underlying problems affecting the Greek economy and the eurozone as a whole.
Spain Requests Bailout for Banks
The banking crisis accelerated in Spain during the quarter with the country's financial system badly in need of a capital injection. Spain hoped its banks would be allowed to tap European Stability Mechanism (ESM) funds directly without additional austerity measures rather than having to seek a full bailout similar to those accepted by Greece, Portugal, and Ireland.
As pressure mounted on the country's financial institutions, the yield on 10-year Spanish sovereign debt continued to increase, breaking through the 7% barrier before receding at the end of the quarter. The Spanish government had to nationalize Bankia, Spain's fourth-largest bank, as Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks. Since Spain is simply "too big to fail" and too interconnected, it is hard to imagine the rest of the eurozone not experiencing significant aftershocks from any serious trouble that may be brewing in Spain. Furthermore, as evidenced by investor actions last year, the ability of bond vigilantes to significantly increase sovereign debt spreads for countries in economic trouble could further intensify the sovereign- debt crisis.
Eurozone officials agreed to a €100 billion bailout for Spanish banks. However, despite opposition from the IMF, the debt still went through the government, which will increase Spain's debt load. Not surprisingly, both Moody's and Fitch credit agencies downgraded Spain's credit rating by three notches while investors responded to the country's "admission" of the problems in its banking sector by pushing yields up even higher on Spanish sovereign debt. Concern also continued to mount that bailouts of eurozone countries that subordinate private government bond holders to official creditors were having the adverse effect of scaring away investors from the sovereign bond market, which could further accelerate and exacerbate the sovereign debt crisis and the likelihood of contagion.
Temporary Relief Due to Some Progress on the Policy Front
It became more apparent during the quarter that a deficit target of 3% of GDP by 2013 will not be attainable for many eurozone countries. Italy slashed its growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 during the quarter while the country announced that it would miss its deficit targets. Despite Germany's insistence that fiscal discipline is the best medicine for eurozone economies, the backlash against austerity measures led European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi to announce that a "growth compact" was needed to restore competitiveness in Europe.
Discussions continued throughout much of the quarter on how growth policies might be enacted in the eurozone, but little was put forth in terms of concrete proposals. After much nervous anticipation, market participants responded to the glimmer of hope coming from the European leaders' two-day summit held at the end of the June with what looks like a short-term relief rally. Viewed by many as the region's last chance to come up with concrete measures to combat the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, there were some important breakthroughs, with Germany appearing more flexible on many of the proposed solutions.
There was broad agreement to create a single bank supervisory body for the eurozone which would eventually allow bailout funds to recapitalize banks directly rather than first being channeled through the government, a move that would reduce Spain's debt burden once implemented. The leaders also announced that Spain's bailout loans would not receive preferential treatment over private creditors. Additionally, talks focused on more immediate steps to address the rising borrowing costs of Spain and Italy with further details expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. The 10-year yields on Spanish and Italian government debt responded favorably by declining at the end of the month. We believe that these steps, while important and heading in the right — just that, steps toward, but not a resolution of the crisis. This will be a long process that will continue to challenge countries, politicians, and markets in the short to medium term.
Growth in China Slows and the Risk of a Hard Landing Increases
The Chinese economy continued to show signs of slower growth during the quarter with the most recent reading for the HSBC China Manufacturing PMI indicating further contraction in June, the eighth consecutive month below 50. Since Europe is a large trading partner for many emerging market economies, especially China, the negative spillover effect on those economies from the European sovereign debt crisis and economic recession should not be underestimated.
Real GDP in China expanded 8.1% in the first quarter of 2012, the slowest pace since the first quarter of 2009, and below the consensus forecast of 8.4%. Real estate in particular appeared to be a drag on the economy, with residential property sales down 15.5% year over year in the first quarter-indicating the housing bubble in China may be bursting. Data also indicated industrial production in China was growing at a declining pace while new Yuan loans and M2 money supply also increased less than anticipated. Also worrisome, a New York Times article published at the end of the quarter claimed China deliberately misstated economic data to understate the true economic slowdown and its impact on the Chinese economy. It is therefore possible that the "hard landing" scenario is already in play and may take investors by surprise.
The Chinese government has responded with easing measures as the People's Bank of China cut its benchmark one-year bank lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.31%, signaling a shift to an accommodative monetary policy. The move was received positively by investors and helped ignite a rally in global equity indices. An accelerated slowdown will also increase the likelihood of further monetary policy easing.
Nevertheless, a hard landing in China—a more probable outcome than ever before—would have a significant negative impact on the global economy and investor sentiment. Commodities markets will likely be hit hardest.
We believe that the relief rally following the EU Leaders Summit at the end of the quarter, while a welcome sign, may be short-lived, as eurozone policymakers' promises are yet to be backed up by timely actions, and a whole range of upcoming policy decisions in the U.S. won't be resolved until later this year. Once we have more visibility into the "fiscal cliff" scenarios, however, market participants may feel better about investing in risky assets for the long term.
In the U.S., we believe that the housing sector can provide a positive surprise and support for the consumer and the economy overall, and that many market observers are not yet anticipating this scenario. If true, this should help investors gain the confidence in U.S. equities that we have all been waiting for.
Despite the resilient economic environment in the United States, the expiration of the Bush tax breaks and the payroll tax holiday along with debt ceiling negotiations expected later this year will likely be a significant negative for the economy. The Supreme Court upheld President Obama's healthcare law, the "Affordable Care Act." Despite the decision, healthcare is likely to remain a hot topic during election season and may make it more difficult for a budget deal to be reached prior to the "fiscal cliff." Despite healthy corporate earnings and continued gradual economic recovery in the United States, these looming developments in the political landscape will most certainly have a negative impact on U.S. GDP growth and are likely to be a source of volatility for the markets in the second half of the year.
We remain quite positive on the long-term (three- to five-year) prospects for U.S. equities and view potential near-term volatility as a buying opportunity given the relative attractiveness of current equity valuations and the health of U.S. corporate earnings.
Overall, while a global economic slowdown is likely having a marginally negative impact on the U.S. economy, particularly on the U.S. large capitalization companies, the U.S. is still likely to be able to stay on its path of slow economic expansion.
This commentary represents the opinions of the author as of 7/12/12 and may change based on market and other conditions. These opinions are not intended to forecast future events, guarantee future results, or serve as investment advice. The statistics have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but the accuracy and completeness of this information cannot be guaranteed. Neither Calvert Investment Management, Inc. nor its information providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.
Accounts managed by Calvert Investment Management, Inc. may or may not invest in, and Calvert is not recommending any action on, any companies listed.
Calvert Investment Management, Inc., 4550 Montgomery Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814
#12404 (7/12)


text: GALLERIES Karen Elson Emilie de Ravin Emilie de Ravin Anna Faris Anna Faris Hayden Panettiere Hayden Panettiere Olivia Wilde Olivia Wilde Coming Next OR 0 4 Back to Top ▲ Karen Elson Karen Elson Karen Elson Pics AskMen Editors Share on Facebook Share on Twitter 0 Shares The redheaded supermodel is famous for her avant-garde fashion spreads and for marrying Jack White of The White Stripes. Continue reading Karen Elson's profile. Next Page gallery Comments Show Comments More Like This Promoted Around the Web Special Features

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We're pleased to have design researcher and writer Jennifer Leonard as DESIGN 21's resident blogger.
I'm thrilled to get a slice of cyberspace every week to riff on the blooming notion of "design for social innovation." It was a synergistic moment in Japan, several months ago when my keynote at the IdcN (International Design Center Nagoya) on this very topic sparked an "A-ha" moment in the minds (in attendance) behind DESIGN 21. They approached me, I accepted, and the music began. Tra la la.
That fortuitous day, I spoke about my learning curve while researching and writing Massive Change, a book about the future of global design, and how my conversations with thought leaders across disciplines helped shape my unique point of view on design. By way of live-to-air dialogue for over one year with individuals who do not refer to themselves as "designers" (even though they apply their expertise to global problems, such as water shortage, mass transit, shelter, and disease), I came to see design as a global endeavor, born of intentions, grown by actions, and shared by one and all.
Somehow, some way, I began to seek out problems that were being attacked at the root, whose goals were not surface detail or shape or physical structure but something more along the lines of systemic change. Design – a glorious process and practice that often yields equally glorious products – began to take on the mixed consistency of fluid water, blue sky and rich soil. I soon realized I was no longer navigating "the world of design"; I was knee-deep in an elixir called "design of the world."
Here, my humanitarian instincts, journalistic sensibilities, and creative curiosity melded and found a safe space to learn through play. I talked to tissue engineers, epidemiologists, political scientists, social entrepreneurs, military analysts, chemists, architects, mayors, and economists, to name a few. I discovered the power and promise of design by way of human stories.
As I continue to pull toward me (or get pulled toward) such stories, I nudge my way closer to seeing this ever-growing, never-ending (and sometimes befuddling) design aesthetic for what it truly is. Ultimately, design for social innovation is a big picture that's reflective of reality today. It's not anything like the narrow view of happenings painted by conventional news media. It's more like a revolving panorama of anecdotes from all layers of life and all sorts of skill sets that individually and collectively give us reason to keep on keepin' on.
Design for social innovation is representative of daily events that cumulatively consider the greater good – of a city, a condition, a system, a culture, a nation, a world. It's about the people who rise up amidst adversity and push through obstacles. It's about those characters out there who give a damn and make an effort because their soul urges them to and won't let them rest if they don't. It's about the inventors and activists and artists and scientists who dream of a better tomorrow, and act on those dreams rather than let them shrivel up and die.
Design for social innovation is about sustainability in the truest sense – not just all things "green" of course but more, all things that grow. That means each and every one of us, the streets we travel along, the skies we jet-propulse through, the parks we hike in, the seas we swim in, the people we love, the children we teach, the food we eat, the water we drink, the sun we salute, the laws we live by, and all the other conditions we experience and shape each and every day. These are the human stories we need to tell more of.
Design for social innovation is shared. It's plural. It goes beyond self. It's about the choices we make when we have the luxury to choose. To quote my past work Massive Change, and to kick off this public exchange right here, right now, I'll ask, "Now that we can do anything, what will we do?"
Jennifer Leonard is a design researcher and writer at IDEO, in Palo Alto, California. Her craft is content creation; her art is "the interview" and her favorite tools include fine-tipped pens, hard-bound journals, her digital camera, her Sennheiser mic, a Marantz solid state recorder and Final Cut Pro. Prior to IDEO, Jennifer co-authored Massive Change, a book about the future of global design, and worked for several years as a print journalist, radio broadcaster and design critic. Her pieces have been published in Azure, Nylon, Saturday Night, Details, Form, Damn and Shift. She has spoken at design conferences around the world – Designmai (Berlin), World Design Congress (Copenhagen), Utrecht Manifest (Utrecht), IdcN (Nagoya), Luminous Green (Brussels) – and is a graduate of the inaugural year of the Institute without Boundaries, a design think-tank that once-upon-a-time lived inside the Bruce Mau Design studio in Toronto.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Leonard


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'Giant' Fall Classic Celebration
The World Series Trophy's annual trip to Upstate New York continues until the Hall of Fame closes on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Like past champs, The 2010 World Champion Giants are having their day(s) in Cooperstown with special events, guided tours and a public viewing of the 2010 World Series Trophy in the Library Atrium.
It's been a unique celebration so far as fans throughout the day have taken advantage of their chance to brush with history. Earlier today, Museum visitors got a special treat as the Hall connected with San Francisco live for a tour of AT&T Park and a lesson in Giants history via videoconference.
Among programs that are being offered all weekend are guided tours through the Hall of Fame, focused on the 129-year history of the New York/San Francisco Giants. The tours start at the Museum Membership Services Desk and begin at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Also still being offered is a chance to test your knowledge of one of baseball's oldest teams by answering trivia questions in Giants Jeopardy. That event will be offered at noon Sunday in the Bullpen Theater.
The other big event tomorrow are a pair Giants-centric Artifact Spotlights at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. in The Learning Center, allowing visitors a chance to see up close, artifacts not currently on display in the Hall and hear the story behind the historic items.
To cap off the Giants Celebration, visitors should also seek out Autumn Glory to see the exhibit displaying key items from the Giants 2010 Championship run. Included in the exhibit are Series MVP Edgar Renteria's bat from his game-winning home run in Game 5, staff ace and two-game World Series winner Tim Lincecum's Game 5 road jersey, Rookie of the Year Buster Posey's catcher's mask and spikes and much more.
All programs and activities are included with Museum admission, so for fans looking to get even more close than usual to history, the can by snapping their pictures with baseball's iconic trophy in the Home of Baseball.
Trevor Hayes is the editorial production manager at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
1 Comment
Hiya I gerade wollen eine enorme Daumen hoch für die schöne info Sie haben hier zu diesem Beitrag. I werden kommenden zurück , um Ihre Blog für mehr bald.


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Pastry Glam Pie Alpine Women's Casual Shoes
Sweet new shoes from Pastry, the Glam Pie Alpine is an athletically inspired boot that will definitely get you noticed when the temps drop. Vanessa and Angela Simmons, the daughters of Rev. Run of Run's House and Run DMC fame, launched a new line of footwear under the branch of Run Athletics called Pastry Footwear. Features a durable leather upper, padded ankle collar, thick rubber outsole and laces that pop with color.


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Drug Notes
UPMC Patient Education Materials
Calculators and Assessment Tools
Anatomy Navigator
Conditions Navigator
Dermatitis herpetiformis is an extremely itchy rash consisting of bumps and blisters. The rash is chronic, which means it continues over a long period.
Duhring disease
Dermatitis herpetiformis usually begins in people age 20 and older. Children can sometimes be affected. It is seen in both men and women.
The cause is unknown. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder . Dermatitis herpetiformis is also linked to gluten sensitivity (celiac sprue disease ) in the small bowel.
Symptoms of dermatitis herpetiformis tend to come and go. Symptoms include:
A skin biopsy and direct immunofluorescence test of the skin are performed in most cases. Your doctor may also recommend a biopsy of the intestines. Blood tests may be ordered to confirm the diagnosis.
An antibiotic called dapsone is extremely effective.
A strict gluten-free diet will also be recommended to help control the disease. Sticking to this diet may eliminate the need for medications and prevent later complications.
Immunosuppressive medications may be used, but are less effective.
The disease may be well-controlled with treatment. Without treatment, there may be a significant risk of intestinal cancer.
Thyroid disease may be found in many patients with dermatitis herpetiformis. Patients are also more likely to develop certain cancers of the intestines.
Call your health care provider if you have a rash that continues despite home treatment.
There is no known prevention of this disease. People with this condition may be able to prevent complications by avoiding foods that contain gluten.
Hull CM, Zone JJ. Dermatitis herpetiformis and linear IgA bullous dermatosis. In: Bolognia JL, Jorizzo JL, Schaffer JV, eds. Dermatology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Saunders; 2012:chap 31.
Habif TP. Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Elsevier Mosby; 2009:chap 16.
Kevin Berman, MD, PhD, Atlanta Center for Dermatologic Disease, Atlanta, GA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Bethanne Black, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
For help in finding a doctor or health service that suits your needs, call the UPMC Referral Service at 412-647-UPMC (8762) or 1-800-533-UPMC (8762). Select option 1.
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text: rgavrilov wrote:I would also like to have an option to pull basic data on a single toon.I only need spec->GS map.where spec is [specType (main/off), specName]The reason for both specType and specName is that I have seen w-h specs would not match to specs as shown on armory.E.g. a mage with main-frost/off-arcane, would have arcane shown first (on the toon page), followed by frost spec. As far as I see it there is no way to determine which spec is witch (when he respecs for example, or when both specs are from the same tree).


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50 3rd Street, San Francisco, 94103, United States of America – Show map
Excellent location – rated 9.1/10! (score from 627 reviews)
Rated by guests after their stay at Park Central San Francisco.
Everything about this place was First class. Definitely will be back.
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location, staff, luxury
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We could walk to terrific restaurants and shopping. The room was very comfortable and quiet.
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The location & the shower
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Ease of check in and the room quality was extremely good, especially for the price!
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Nice welcoming staff. Got an upgrade cause we had to wait about 20 min in line to get checked in as it was a busy day
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as a women travelling alone - the hotel made me feel safe. And I have to say the bed was so comfortable.
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Featuring a fitness center, Park Central San Francisco is conveniently located 460 ft from the Market Street-Kearny cable car stop. A flat-screen TV is available in each room.
A minibar and coffee machine are provided in each air-conditioned guest room. Each private bathroom comes with a bathrobe, hairdryer and free toiletries. A work desk is also included.
The hotel is pet-friendly and provides pet beds. Room service is available for breakfast from 6 am to 10:30 am and for dinner from 5:30 pm to 10:30 pm.
Park Central San Francisco features the MaSo restaurant, which serves fresh, locally sourced California cuisine. The bar and lounge serves specialty cocktails, local wines and light appetizers.
This property is within a 5-minute walk to Union Square and the Yerba Buena Gardens. Ghirardelli Square is 4.2 miles from the hotel.
Union Square is a great choice for travelers interested in Electronics Shopping, Theater and Luxury Brand Shopping.
We speak your language! Hotel Rooms: 676, Hotel Chain: Westin. This property has been on Booking.com since Apr 20, 2008.
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Fitness Center, Massage
Food & Drink
Restaurant, Bar
WiFi is available in the hotel rooms and costs USD 14.95 per 24 hours.
Private parking is available on site (reservation is not needed) and costs USD 54.75 per day.
Room Service, 24-Hour Front Desk, Express Check-in/Check-out, Tour Desk, Ticket Service, Baggage Storage, ATM on site, Concierge Service, Laundry, Dry Cleaning, Ironing Service, Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Center, Fax/Photocopying, Souvenir/Gift Shop, VIP Room Facilities
Paid WiFi, Newspapers, Safe, Non-smoking Rooms, Facilities for Disabled Guests, Family Rooms, All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)
Spanish, English
From 3:00 PM
Until 12:00 PM
Cancellation and prepayment policies vary according to room type. Please enter the dates of your stay and check what conditions apply to your preferred room.
Children and Extra Beds
All children are welcome.
All children under 17 years stay free of charge when using existing beds.
One child under 2 years stays free of charge in a crib.
One older child or adult is charged USD 25 per night in an extra bed.
The maximum number of extra beds/cribs in a room is 1.
Any type of extra bed or crib is upon request and needs to be confirmed by management.
Additional fees are not calculated automatically in the total cost and will have to be paid for separately during your stay.
Pets are allowed. Charges may apply.
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Based on 627 reviews
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Hotel Diva - A Personality Hotel
Latest booking: 27 minutes ago There is 1 person looking at this hotel.
Parc 55 San Francisco - a Hilton Hotel This downtown San Francisco hotel is 1 block from Union Square and the Hallidie Plaza, which features a cable car stop. The hotel offers massage services and a tour desk.
Score from 2166 reviews
Very good
Chancellor Hotel on Union Square This boutique Union Square hotel, on the Powell Cable Car Line, is just a 2-minute walk from cafes and shopping at Tiffany's, Macy's and other popular stores. All guest rooms have free Wi-Fi.
Score from 1023 reviews
Very good
This San Francisco hotel features an on-site restaurant and warmly decorated rooms with a 42-inch flat-screen TV and a CD player. The Golden Gate Bridge is just 6 miles away.
Score from 1497 reviews
Very good
This San Francisco hotel is in Union Square, a 5-minute walk from the Powell Street cable car line. It features an outdoor pool and rooms with an MP3 connection.
Score from 459 reviews
Very good
Everything about this place was First class. Definitely will be back.
It's in a great location.
Expensive for valet parking, it was about $50 for one night.
The location is central. It is clean.
The hotel is OK..BUT..what they show it as a discount they give at Booking.com, once you make the reservation and pay in fine print they ad $55 peer day parking, paid WİFİ, $ 15, and NO breakfast. They even said they might be out of slippers when we asked for it!! Concierge services are very mediocre.
I loved the view of the city and the bay from the room! The location is great too. Short walk to Union Square and many other attractions close by. Staff was very professional and attentive.
Chilled towels in workout room refreshing. Great shower head, floor to ceiling windows for excellent views.
Should have either bottled water or real cups for water in the exercise room, not little paper cones for water.
Free internet upgrade that came together with my room upgrade.
The consierge was very unuseful, the doorman gave me more good information than he did.
We could walk to terrific restaurants and shopping. The room was very comfortable and quiet.
Like all downtown SF hotels, the parking is so expensive.
The price and location.
Bathrooms could use a renovation.
The location & the shower
My husband booked & paid for my room through booking.com. He called & confirmed. When I arrived, my reservation could not be found. I was 'walked in' to an unstocked room that was hastily & unsatisfactorily cleaned. The following week, I realized I too had been charged for the room. It took four phone calls to get my refund.
Ease of check in and the room quality was extremely good, especially for the price!
Across from the ice machine, very noisy
Nice welcoming staff. Got an upgrade cause we had to wait about 20 min in line to get checked in as it was a busy day
Valet parking was expensive!
as a women travelling alone - the hotel made me feel safe. And I have to say the bed was so comfortable.
I did not have room service menu
Location, cleanliness, extra comfortable bed, and great staff
Beds very comfy. Staff great and put and cot bed in our room for no extra charge. Gym great.
Breakfast buffet was nice but expensive. Films $19us, seems very expensive.
The location is really good, close to the union square. Easily access to cable car and other public transportation.
The Staff is very unhelpful. I spent my new year's eve at Westin which turned out to be a very bad choice. Can you imagine all the floors and ceilings are shaking even when you are lying on the bed? It's 12:50 AM, I got to know there was a party on the 2nd floor. I lived on the 4th floor and I can still feel the passion downstairs. I had to call the express service and the man only offered to give me a pair of ear plugs! That's how they treat their guests. Before I tried to argue with him, he transferred me to the manager- Front desk. I pleaded her to turn down the speakers downstairs, and the manager promised she would contact them about it, and told me the party would be ended at 2 AM. AND all rooms had been booked so I can't be placed in any other room. WHAT? Alright. I waited for 20 minutes and the noise seemed to be louder. I had to call the manager again because I spent whole day outside and I was really tired. The manager just kept apologizing and promised us this day would be free. It's almost been a week, I still haven't seen any refund from them. Not to mention the broken hair dryer. and the leaking bath tub. BTW the luggage service is like a joke. I handed in the receipt card, and the staff took so long to give me the wrong bag without checking my identity. Me and other guests were really concerned about the management and safety of our luggage. Just stay away from them, it's not worth the money.
Great location, walking distance to everything. Clean hotel.
I felt the concierge was NOT well educated with Gluten Free restaurant options. He sent us to two restaurants that did not have GF. When working at a large hotel chain I would hope the concierge team should know all the nuances of speciality food.
The staff went out of their way to accommodate our requests to make our stay more comfortable. We would definitely stay there againn.
Location Clean Comfy Friendly Staff
Paying for WiFi Bland Decor
Pretty quiet, a few blocks from Union Square, good views, great bed and shower, friendly staff.
Computer and booking issues on their end when I tried to extend my stay.


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CARTE NOIRE Kenya Coffee
Expertly prepared with a single touch of a button, our Carte Noire Kenya will warm your heart and make your taste buds tingle. This sumptuous blend of Kenyan coffee beans offers a unique and velvety treat with subtle fruity undertones.
- This package includes 16 Carte Noire Kenya T DISCS, placing this treat of a coffee right at your fingertips
- This coffee makes a 4 fl oz cup
How to Make It
- Place your mug (6 fl oz) on the cup stand.
- Insert the Carte Noire Kenya Coffee T DISC into the brewer; when the green Auto light comes on, press the button.
- Allow the mug to fill, and take a sip of this sumptuous coffee.


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Jan, 2014
The tier one supplier Continental Automotive and HERE, formerly known as Nokia Maps, recently announced that they will intensify their Connected Car collaboration (they've been working together for a long time). The firms will focus on leveraging Continental's Electronic Horizon platform, future automated driving innovations, and intelligent transportation systems. They'll start by working on map … Read More
connected car, Continental Automotive, automated driving, intelligent transportation systems, Nokia Maps, Electronic Horizon, HERE


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School Programs
It's never too early to introduce new generations to the wonders of trees and forests.
TreePeople's programs for schools engage young people in Los Angeles to discover the science and significance of the urban forest, as they take part in protecting it.
Programs offered
Eco-tours (K-5th grade)
Every year, more than 10,000 elementary school students visit TreePeople's headquarters in Coldwater Canyon Park to discover firsthand how important – and fun! – it is to nurture the urban forest. Our Eco-tour educators lead classes on hikes, where adventure and discovery await. More...
Youth Leadership
The program equips teachers, students, eco-clubs and youth groups with the training, resources and support needed to carry out a variety of environmental projects including our new Project Toolkits. For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
Campus Forestry (K-12th grade)
TreePeople partners with schools throughout L.A. to make their campuses cooler, healthier and more fun by replacing concrete and asphalt with beautiful trees. Campus Forestry is run through our Forestry program. Schools have the option to enrich the experience with a curriculum developed by our Environmental Education staff.


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EPA Researchers @ Work |
Science forms the foundation of everything EPA does. It provides the information, tools, and innovations the Agency needs to meet its mission to protect human health and the environment. Behind that work are EPA scientists and engineers who explore the complex interrelationships between people and our environment. Click here to read about our women researchers. Click an image to meet our researchers and learn about the important work they do. |


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quote: Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!
quote: i know i'll get blasted for this, but maybe he didn't know the severity of the issue
quote:He knew the severity, that is why he covered it up.
quote:the coup/election that removed Carter from office
quote:be dragged to trial and officially desecrated in the court of law


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Mentor Graphics and STARC Partner to Develop Improved At-speed Test Methods for Nanometer Design
WILSONVILLE, Ore., Jan. 24, 2006 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced a joint development agreement with STARC (Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center), a research and development consortium co-founded by eleven major Japanese semiconductor companies. The joint development will focus on new at-speed delay test methodologies for IC designs that will increase outgoing chip quality levels by improving the detection of small delay defects during manufacturing test.
As nanometer technology moves to the 90nm and 65nm nodes, minor parametric variations give rise to an increase in delay-related defects in the manufacturing process. Many of these defects are subtle deviations leading to small delay variations that are difficult to detect using standard delay test techniques. To maintain high quality levels for tested devices, many advancements in at-speed test pattern generation technology have emerged. The development partnership between Mentor and STARC seeks to fulfill proposed delay defect detection requirements from STARC and its client companies by incorporating new technologies into Mentor's Automatic Test Pattern Generation (ATPG) IC test tools that will ensure the highest quality for tested chips.
"STARC's mission is to seek out new and effective technologies through joint research between universities and the industry, in order to achieve breakthroughs in semiconductor technologies," said Yasuo Sato, senior manager, Test Methodology Group at STARC. "As our member companies move to 90 and 65 nanometer technologies, improving manufacturing test is a critical requirement. We believe that this partnership with Mentor will satisfy that requirement and will result in a breakthrough at-speed test methodology."
"The proposals from the STARC consortium for improving small delay defect detection coincides with Mentor's development efforts in the area of at-speed test pattern generation," said Robert Hum, vice president and general manager for the Design Verification and Test Division at Mentor Graphics. "We are extremely pleased to be working closely with STARC, and look forward to continuing this development partnership to provide real solutions for STARC and our customers."
About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about $700 million and employs approximately 3,950 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.
Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information, please contact:
Carole Thurman
Mentor Graphics
Sonia Harrison
Mentor Graphics


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Sunday is America's annual concussion carnival, the Super Bowl. Steve Almond knows a lot about it—he wrote the book Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto.
Jon Wiener: Let's review the evidence. Are you sure that football players get head injuries that lead to brain damage—or is that just liberal whining?
Steve Almond: I'm sure it's liberal whining, but one of the stories that got obscured earlier this season was an actuarial report the NFL commissioned in response to the lawsuit filed by former players. The NFL's own actuaries estimated that 30 percent of former players are going to wind up with long-term cognitive ailments. In America's most famous workplace, the employers say that nearly a third of their employees will wind up with brain damage.
I've heard that football is big business. Is this true?
It's about $10 billion for the NFL, the tax-exempt NFL. The college game is probably more than that. There is the game of football, which is beautiful in many ways. Then there's this rapacious industry that has grown up around it, which is essentially American capitalism on steroids.
Were you ever a football fan?
Oh yeah. Forty years. And I still love the game. As a form of entertainment it's absolutely thrilling. It reconnects us to the intuitive pleasures of childhood. It's watching greatness, grace and heroism on display.
But for football fans, isn't part of the fun of the game witnessing the violence, the head injuries? "Hit 'em again, harder!"
Almost any fan you talk to will say, "I don't watch the game to see the violence." There's something disingenuous about that. I will say, as a recovering fan, that I did watch for the violence. That's part of the charge of football. It's a collision sport, which separates it from most other sports. That's why they replay all the big violent hits; that's the reason they have those parabolic microphones on the sidelines. You can hear it in the crowd when there's a big hit. Touchdowns get really loud cheers, but there's nothing like that "oooh!" sound of 50,000 people who've just watched a player suffer some kind of brain injury in a big hit. Football allows us to indulge in our blood lust without facing the blood part of it.
You say in your book that the problem goes beyond violence and includes racism. But isn't football a place where black people excel and become heroes—and also wealthy men?
There is a tiny sliver of the total number of men who want to play football who wind up becoming wildly famous. But the reason they become famous that they play a really violent sport that's a profound risk to their own health—for our entertainment. It's the most decadent kind of plantation system you can imagine. It's a highly monetized version of a slave auction. The only rubric by which these young African-American men are being judged by the representatives of the white owners—note the word—is how fast they can run, how high they can jump, how strong they are. Football is a way to control and channel our own misconceptions and distorted thinking about male sexuality, especially African-American males.
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Is there any way to make football safe for the players?
It's not a concussion problem. It's not a violence problem. Football has a physics and physiology problem. The physics are simple: mass times acceleration equals force. The players have gotten more massive, much bigger than they ever were, and they run faster than they used to. Therefore—do the math—the force is much greater than it's ever been in the game. But the brain remains what it always was, a soft organ encased in the hard shell of the skull. The players can no longer safely play the game because of the physics of our bodies. Any of these ideas about a different helmet or a rule change are just magical thinking. No responsible neurologist suggests the sport is ever going to be made safe, especially because the real danger is not concussions. It's the accretion of the hundreds and thousands of sub-concussive hits that leads to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, this form of dementia that's associated with football at every level—not just the big catastrophic hits, but the dozens of hits that are part of every single football play.
Read Next: The Super Bowl's military fables
Rabbi Leonard Beerman of Los Angeles, who died December 24 at age 93, was a great fighter for social justice and peace over the last sixty-five years. His lifelong commitment to nonviolence, Beerman explained, came out of his experience in 1947 in Jerusalem, when he joined the Haganah fighting for Israeli independence. "Luckily, I was spared" killing anyone, he told the Los Angeles Times. "And when I came back, I became a pacifist because of what I had seen: People transformed to just hating, hating, hating. It is no way for humankind to live."
In 1949 he began working as the first full-time rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple and soon became "one of the most important figures on the social-justice landscape in Los Angeles", says David Myers, who teaches Jewish history at UCLA and was a close friend of Beerman. He was fearless, even in the face of his own congregation: when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage in 1953, Beerman included them on his list of names read on the Sabbath during the Kaddish prayers, which honor the dead—despite angry protests from some.
In the 1960s he was a passionate critic of the Vietnam war; after Watts, he spoke out for black people in LA; after 9-11, he defended Muslims. He was co-founder of the Greater Los Angeles Partnership for the Homeless, and co-chairman of the Jewish Committee on Los Angeles Sweatshops. But he was best known as one of the nation's most prominent Jewish voices defending Palestinian rights and supporting a two-state solution in the Mideast. He met with Yasir Arafat in Jordan in 1983, and at Leo Baeck he did not allow the Israeli or American flags to be flown. "Nationalism and faith should not mix," he said.
When Reagan revived the Cold War in the mid-eighties, Rabbi Beerman helped organize the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race. Michele Willens, whose father Harold was a leading peace activist alongside Beerman, recalled that "Leonard and the Episcopalian Rev. George Regas of Pasadena's All Saints Church would speak at each other's entities on a regular basis, hold press conferences, and support pacifist initiatives. The center was considered hugely radical at the time, and both Leonard and Regas initially took heat from their own congregations. But it went on to great success."
Rabbi Beerman was also an important member of the Nation family. He was a member of the magazine's Circle of 100, the group of financial backers formed in 1979, and he presented the Nation Institute's Ron Ridenhour Award in 2007 to Jimmy Carter, declaring that "in the geography of Carter's conscience there are no borders." He had been scheduled as a featured speaker on the Nation Cruise this past December, but had to cancel because of poor health.
Over the last decade Rabbi Beerman was part of a small group of Jews in Los Angeles that met regularly to formulate a progressive voice on Israeli politics. David Myers was another. "For the most part," Myers explained, "it was a loud and unruly bunch in whose midst Leonard would initially remain silent. One wondered whether the great sage had been rendered mute in his advanced years. But then, just as the meeting was about to break up, typically without any consensus, Leonard would begin to speak. In perfectly formed, paragraph-length sentences, he would clarify, summarize, and propel forward the discussion, insisting that we never escape our obligation to speak truth to power. Those in attendance were simply stunned by the clarity of mind and of moral vision."
His last sermon, on Yom Kippur last October at Leo Baeck temple, made page one of the LA Times: "Another Yom Kippur," he said. "Another 500 children of Gaza killed by the Israel Defense Forces, with callous disregard for their lives."
Despite his courage and fierceness in denouncing injustice, he was a warm and modest person with a twinkle in his eye and wonderful sense of humor. Victor Navasky described him as "a soft-spoken and frequently funny crusader for peace and sanity." Richard Kletter, a writer living in LA, called Rabbi Beerman "a force for goodness in the world." That's the way I will remember him.
100 years ago, on Christmas Day, 1914, in the middle of World War I, British and German soldiers put down their guns and stopped killing one another. The terrible industrial slaughter had already taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men. But on that day, thousands of troops climbed out of the trenches in France and Belgium, sang Christmas carols, and exchanged food, gifts, and souvenirs. They traded German beer for British rum. They even played soccer. It's a unique event in the history of modern warfare.
It's unique in another way. Those who fought in wars—"the fallen"—are regularly remembered and honored, but remembering and honoring those who refused to fight is pretty much unheard of (except for commemorations sponsored by pacifist and anti-war groups). And yet, this season, the Christmas Truce of 1914 is being commemorated officially, especially in Europe, with a wide variety of government-sponsored memorial events.
"It's quite remarkable," Adam Hochschild said in an interview—he's the author of seven books, most recently the award-winning history of WWI, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918. "The Christmas Truce has always been marked unofficially. But this year every school in the United Kingdom received a packet of materials about it—photos, eyewitness accounts, student worksheets. There's a children's competition in Britain to design a memorial to the Christmas Truce, and one of the judges was Prince William. In Belgium a memorial soccer field was inaugurated, the British and German ambassadors came, and they are holding a soccer tournament in memory of those Christmas Truce soccer games, with youth teams from Britain, Germany, France and Austria."
Perhaps most amazing is the three-minute TV commercial running in Britain, featuring a high-budget reenactment of the truce, where, after a soccer game, a British soldier trades a chocolate bar with a German soldier. "It's from the supermarket chain Sainsbury," Hochschild said. "The commercial is for a commemorative chocolate bar. The proceeds from this chocolate bar will go to the Royal British Legion, the official veterans' organization. It's another kind of official commemoration of this startling outbreak of peace."
What is it about this refusal to fight that makes it safe to be officially commemorated? "I'm curious about that," said Hochschild, who wrote about the Christmas Truce for TomDispatch. "First of all, the Christmas Truce only lasted for a day or two. The war in its full fury resumed very quickly—and went on for another four years.
"Also the Christmas Truce did not represent a breakdown of military discipline. It was sanctioned by officers on the scene. Officers as high-ranking as colonels came out to greet their counterparts from the other side in no-man's-land."
Hochschild points to one additional factor: "Commemorating anything these days can be big business. First World War tourism in northern France and Belgium is a huge industry. In Belgium alone, the government of the Flanders region is investing $41 million in new tourist facilities for this four-year commemorative period. That's not counting private investment. I'm sure they are thinking, 'if we can add a few peace sites to the existing war sites, so much the better.'"
The other profit-making industry that's gotten involved is professional soccer. "It's a huge business," Hochschild says, "particularly in Europe. Five of the ten most valuable professional soccer teams in the world are in Great Britain, and it's no accident that the trade association for professional soccer is one of the groups financing this packet of information going to all the British schools. The European soccer association is sponsoring the tournament in Belgium."
But there are no official celebrations of many other events where soldiers refused to fight in World War I—the more radical and subversive acts. Hochschild lists several of these acts—of fraternization, desertion and even mutiny—that occurred later in the war: In the spring of 1917, after the Russian revolution, photos show Russian and German troops celebrating and dancing together in couples; on the Eastern Front, a million Russian soldiers deserted and simply walked home, and German soldiers began deserting in 1918; and in 1917, hundreds of thousands of French soldiers refused orders to attack. "These folks should all be celebrated," Hochschild says, "because they helped bring the war to an end."
Finally, Hochschild says, we ought to celebrate the anti-war leaders who opposed the war from the beginning and paid a heavy price: in Germany, Rosa Luxemburg spent more than two years in prison for opposing the war; in Britain, Bertrand Russell served six months in a London jail for his anti-war advocacy. And in the United States, Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for urging resistance to the draft; he was still in the Atlanta federal penitentiary in 1920, two years after the war ended.
Now the US government is planning an official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. It's being organized by the Pentagon, which has declared the purpose to be "to thank and honor veterans of the Vietnam War…for their service and sacrifice." But more than 1,000 people have signed a petition insisting that "no commemoration of the war in Vietnam can exclude the many thousands of veterans who opposed it, as well as the draft refusals of many thousands of young Americans, some at the cost of imprisonment or exile." Anti-war activists "are the real heroes that period," Hochschild says, "and we have to be sure to remember and celebrate them."
Read Next: Why no one remembers the peacemakers
Hidden in the Senate torture report are stories of some heroes—people inside the CIA who from the beginning said torture was wrong, who tried to stop it, who refused to participate. There were also some outside the CIA, in the military and the FBI, who risked careers and reputations by resisting—and who sometimes paid a heavy price. They should be thanked and honored.
But President Obama hasn't mentioned them. Instead, he praised the CIA officials who presided over the torture regime as "patriots."
We should "celebrate the ones who stood up for what was right," says David Luban of the Georgetown University law school, author of Torture, Power and Law. Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, author of the definitive book on Bush administration torture, The Dark Side, calls them "the real torture patriots."
The opposition to torture within the CIA was so strong, Mayer reports, that the CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, "conducted a serious and influential internal investigation." That led the Justice Department to "ask the CIA to suspend the torture program"—at least "until it could be reconciled with the law."
The heroes in the torture report include Ali Soufan, former FBI agent and interrogator of terrorists who, according to Lawrence Wright in The Looming Tower, came closer than anyone to preventing the 9/11 attacks. Soufan has argued publicly against torture and in favor of "rapport-building" as the best technique to get information from suspects. The CIA heavily censored his memoir The Black Banners in what Wright called an effort "to punish a critic and to obscure history." He was featured in a Frontline documentary made by Martin Smith and James Gilmore.
Another hero: Alberto Mora. As general counsel of the Navy in 2004, Jane Mayer reported, he tried to stop the torture program. He told his superiors at the Pentagon that the Bush torture policy violated the Geneva Conventions' prohibition of torture and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." He described the Bush program as "unlawful" and "dangerous," and warned that the torturers could face criminal prosecution. He was featured in the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side by Alex Gibney (which won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2007).
Some of the heroes were ordinary soldiers, like Sgt. Joe Darby, who first revealed the Abu Ghraib abuses. As a result," Luban points out, he "had to live under armed protection for six months." Others were high officials, like Philip Zelikow, an adviser to Condoleezza Rice, who, Luban reports, wrote an "anti-torture memo" that the White House "attempted to destroy."
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And there was Ian Fishback, an army captain who reported that his own unit was abusing Iraqi prisoners. Eventually he wrote an open letter to Senator John McCain, asking, "Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security?" His answer: "I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is 'America.' "
Finally we have the case of Guantaánamo prosecutor Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who refused to prosecute a teenager who had been abused in US detention in Afghanistan and Guantánamo. For that decision, Jameel Jaffer and Larry Siems report, Vandeveld was "barred from the prosecutors' office, confined to his residence and threatened with dismissal from the Army."
The Senate torture report describes CIA personnel "profoundly affected…to the point of tears" by witnessing torture, but it doesn't reveal the names of those whose protests led to the inspector general's internal investigation. We need to know who they are—so we can thank them for trying to do the right thing.
Obama has made it clear from the beginning that there will be no criminal prosecutions of the torturers, even though their actions violated the federal Torture Act. The least he could do is publicly honor those who tried to stop the crimes conducted in our name.
The ACLU has set up a web page with a petition to President Obama to "honor those who said no to torture."
Torture is a crime, a violation of the Federal Torture Act. Those who engaged in the torture documented in such exhaustive detail in the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report should be prosecuted, and those who conspired in that torture should also be prosecuted. They include UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo, says Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School at the University of California Irvine.
Yoo was co-author of the infamous "torture memo" of 2002, when he was Deputy Assistant US Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Bush Justice Department. In the memo he declared that—in the words of Jane Mayer in her book The Dark Side—"cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of detainees could be authorized, with few restrictions."
Yoo's memo "directly led to the torture policy that resulted," Chemerinsky said in an interview, citing Mayer's evidence. "That's being part of a conspiracy to violate a federal statute. Someone isn't excused from criminal liability just because they work for the federal government."
The Federal Torture Act defines torture broadly, as "an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering…upon another person within his custody or physical control." The penalty for violating the Torture Act is imprisonment "for not more than 20 years."
Most important for the case of John Yoo, the Federal Torture Act specifically includes conspiracy, stating that "a person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties…as the penalties prescribed for the offense." That means Yoo could be sentenced to up to twenty years in prison if found guilty.
"I think he should be," Chemerinsky said. "All who planned, all who implemented, all who carried out the torture should be criminally prosecuted. How else do we as a society express our outrage? How else do we deter it in the future—except by criminal prosecutions?"
Chemerinsky, an authority on constitutional law who has argued cases before the Supreme Court, is the founding dean of the law school at UC Irvine, a sister campus of Berkeley in the University of California System. He is the author of hundreds of law review articles and eight books, including most recently The Case Against the Supreme Court.
Yoo defended his work on torture in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News. "In 2002," he wrote, "I believed that the federal law prohibiting torture allowed the CIA to use interrogation methods that did not cause injury—including, in extraordinary cases, waterboarding—because of the grave threat to the nation's security in the months after the 9/11 attacks." He added that he was "swayed by the fact" that he believed "the CIA would use the technique only on top Al Qaeda leaders thought to have actionable information on pending plots." He said the Senate report was wrong in its conclusion that torture was ineffective in exposing plots, citing CIA head John Brennan's statements to that effect.
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But, Chemerinsky said, there's nothing in the federal torture law that provides an exception for "pending plots."
For a law school dean to call for the criminal prosecution of a law professor at another campus of the same university is unprecedented. When demands were raised in 2008 that Berkely fire Yoo, the dean of the law school at Berkeley at the time, Christopher Edley Jr., said that, while he agreed that "Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice during his government service," he believed that advocating "bad ideas" was protected by academic freedom, and such advocacy "would not warrant dismissal" from Berkeley. The only ground for dismissal, he said, was specified in the official university policy: "Commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrates unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty."
Chemerinsky's argument is that Yoo has committed a criminal act—conspiracy to torture—and that he should be put on trial for it.
Listen to the full interview with Chemerinsky, courtesy of KPFK radio:
Read Next: "Misery Made Me a Fiend: Latin America and the Torture Report"
The morning after a dark night for Democrats, California stands as the great exception to the national pattern of Republican power. In the state, not a single Republican was elected to statewide office. In the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles, the election of progressive Sheila Kuehl will transform the all-powerful Board of Supervisors to a pro-labor force.
Voters approved a sweeping transformation of the state's drug laws, reducing penalties for possession of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine to a misdemeanor instead of a felony. As a result of Prop. 47, 40,000 offenders a year—mostly young men of color—will get lighter sentences. Voters also reduced petty theft—stealing property worth $950 or less—from a felony to misdemeanor.
Governor Jerry Brown, elected to an unprecedented fourth term with 59 percent of the vote, is committed to fighting climate change; despite Republican control of Congress, he said, California already has the political will and financial resources to forge ahead with reducing carbon emissions.
In the Bay Area, San Francisco passed a $15 minimum wage, with support from 72 percent of voters. Anti-Chevron candidates in Richmond swept to victory despite Chevron's massive financial backing for a pro-oil-company slate. The Contra Costa Times called it "a resounding political defeat for the company and its campaign tactics." The city council had sued Chevron after a disastrous refinery fire. And a county south of San Francisco banned fracking.
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Last year the state legislature made it easier for women to get abortions, permitting nurses, Nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physicians' assistants who complete specified training to perform the procedure.
The state's gun control laws are among the strongest in the nation. All gun sales require a ten-day waiting period and are recorded by the state. Private sales of firearms are prohibited except through licensed dealers.
California Republicans have been stuck for years at around 40 percent of the electorate. Yesterday's results provided few signs that the pattern is changing.
Read Next: "People voted for Republicans last night—that doesn't mean they like them"
Sunday night Homeland returns to TV. That's good news for liberals, who like the show's politics because—unlike Fox's 24—it shows that, in the Middle East, sometimes US actions make more enemies than friends. Sunday's episode centers around the all-to-real situation where a drone attack on suspected terrorists in Afghanistan kills lots of civilians instead. Obama, we are told, is a fan of the show, and Bill Clinton told reporters that the show "created the notion of 'other' which was very important for the American people to sit down and watch." He and the show's star, the brilliant and compelling Claire Danes, both appeared at the 2013 Golden Globes—where, she said, Clinton "asked if I would come and meet him in some special room." (Can you really blame him?)
But I'm still unhappy about Claire Danes's meeting with CIA director John Brennan in a special room at the Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a year ago. She told the press afterwards, "It's always so thrilling and moving to meet the people who really do so much to protect and defend our country." She's talking about the people who didn't think ISIS would amount to anything, and before that informed our leaders that Saddam was building WMD. (That info came from "Curveball"—remember him?) And there was also that 9/11 business. But when you're on a publicity junket for your fall show, I guess you're supposed to be nice to everybody.
The show intersects with reality in a much more direct and compelling way: Claire Danes's character Carrie Mathison suffers from bipolar disorder, and her portrayal of her character's manic break in season one was awesome and frighteningly real. We learned how she did it in an unusual place: the op-ed page of The New York Times. The real-life model for Carrie's breakdown wrote the piece—she's the sister of one of the show's writers. "Bipolar extremes can be truly hard to watch," she wrote, "excruciating even in memory."
Reality has also posed a location problem for the show's producers. They considered making the new season about Israel and Palestine, but that was ruled out, show runner Alex Gansa said, because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "just such a difficult, difficult situation to dramatize and to explicate." He might have added: especially when you have AIPAC breathing down your neck. "The decision also proved wise on a more practical level," the Los Angeles Times reported, because "the violence in Gaza this summer forced two other series, FX's 'Tyrant'Tyrant and USA's 'Dig,' to pull up stakes." Tel Aviv, where Tyrant was in production, "was under missile fire and people were running into bomb shelters," the show runner explained. "It was not conducive to shooting." They moved to Istanbul.
Homeland's people also considered sending Carrie to head the CIA station in Istanbul, but the Turkish government insisted on reviewing all the scripts. They decided instead to make Carrie CIA station chief in Kabul, and to shoot in South Africa as a stand-in for Afghanistan. Cape Town, the LA Times explained, "offers a large Muslim community for background casting that can, with the help of Hollywood magic, pass for Afghanistan and Pakistan."
The cast is also finding inspiration in Cape Town. "It's very moving to be somewhere where a man like Nelson Mandela came to prominence," said Mandy Patinkin—his character, the morose Jew Saul Berenson, has at last left the CIA for a really good job with a private security contractor. "I'm reminded that I'm living in a place where horror was once in abundance and the boil has been lanced and life has improved." Will Carrie help the Afghans lance their boil and improve their lives? Obama will be watching—and so will Bill Clinton.
To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation, we talked with John Dean—he had been counsel to the president, and it was his Senate testimony that led to Nixon's resignation. His new book is The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It.
Jon Wiener: You set out to reconstruct the day-to-day history of Nixon's actions from the beginning of Watergate to the end, and you had a great source, the White House tapes. We know a lot about the tapes—the racism, the anti-Semitism, the plotting and scheming—but you listened to tapes no one else had heard before. How many tapes did you find–and how long did it take you?
John Dean: When I agreed to do the book, I was trying to figure out how anybody as savvy and intelligent as Nixon could have destroyed his presidency on a bungled burglary. But had I known how long it would take—four years—I might not have undertaken the assignment. I found a thousand conversations that no one had listened to except the archivists; there were partial transcripts for only 400. There isn't a page in this book that doesn't have something new to me—and I've been pretty close to the story since 1972.
What did you discover about the motivation for the original break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex: what were the burglars looking for? And, most important, did Nixon send them?
There's not a scintilla of evidence that Nixon had advanced knowledge. Nixon is concerned in the early days that he might have instructed Charles Colson to do this. But Colson tells him "no." The burglars' original mission was to break into McGovern's headquarters. That is traceable back to Nixon. He tells Haldeman to plant a bug in McGovern's headquarters. But the burglars started out that night with Gordon Liddy's original plan: to find financial information to embarrass Larry O'Brien, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, at his office in the Watergate complex. It's just as stupid as it sounds.
How bad would it have been if they had succeeded in finding that Larry O'Brien had taken illegal money? Would that have significantly damaged the McGovern campaign?
I really doubt it.
The first big decision was to pay hush money to the burglars. What did you learn about that?
Certainly Nixon knew it from the outset. On June 20, same day as the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap, Nixon suggests they set up a "Cuban committee" to raise money for the Watergate defendants. What's ironic is that that plan could have been legal.
You were the president's lawyer. When did he call you? What did you know, and when did you know it?
I don't see the president until eight months after the arrests.
That's when you told him "there's a cancer on the presidency." What did you learn from the tapes about his reaction to what you told him?
The conversation took an hour and forty minutes. The transcript runs seventy-six pages, single-spaced. You have to remember that, when I tried to convince him to end the coverup, I was a young lawyer in my 30s. I couldn't shake him by the lapels; I had to try to persuade him with facts. Listening to the tapes for the first time, I could hear my amazed frustration. I would raise points and he would bat them down. I say, "Bud Krough is concerned he committed perjury." He replied, "Well, John, perjury's a tough rap to prove." I tell him there's no telling how much money these guys will want—and it's an obstruction of justice to pay them. He says, "How much could they want?" I pulled out of thin air what I thought was a pretty hefty number—I said, "It could cost a million dollars over the next two years." I waited for him to say, "That's outrageous!" Instead, he said, "I know where we can get that." And I now know that after I left the room, he called his secretary Rose Woods in and asked her, "How much do we have in the slush fund that only you and I know about?'"
The burglary at the Watergate was actually the second one conducted by the White House plumbers unit—the first had been at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in Beverly Hills. It was Nixon's obsession with Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon papers that led him to create the plumbers unit. Did Nixon himself connect the dots between the Ellsberg break-in and the Watergate break in?
He doesn't connect them until I tell him on March 17, 1973—the Watergate arrests had been on June 17, 1972. One of the amazing things I discovered is that neither Haldeman nor Ehrlichman tell him about the jeopardy the White House has—that the same people now in the DC jail had also been used to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
Nixon's plan was to blame the whole thing on you, to say you ran the cover-up. It was your word versus the president's. Fox News still seems to be making this argument. Could that have worked at the time—send you to jail, and leave Nixon in the White House?
I had nothing to do with the break-in or the cover-up. But there's a good possibility it would have worked to blame it all on me—if the tapes hadn't come out.
Nixon knew all his conversations were being taped—including planning the cover-up and arranging for the hush money. Why did he keep talking?
Occasionally it's clear he knows he's recording himself. But 98 percent of the time he's oblivious—because he doesn't think anybody will ever get access to the tapes. In April he instructs Haldeman to remove the system, but Haldeman reminds him that "Henry Kissinger might write a different history than you, so you might want to have a good record of national security matters." He agrees with that. Then he says, "Let's destroy everything except the national security material." Haldeman says, "Sure," but then never does it—because he gets consumed by Watergate himself.
What did you conclude about the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap?
I concluded that "Who created the eighteen-and-a-half-minute gap?" is the wrong question. It's a mystery, but what difference does it make? The important question is what they erased. My book has a special appendix on that.
Finally: What was it like for you to spend four years listening to Nixon talking?
I told my wife Maureen, "Men in my family go deaf in their mid-70s, and I'm getting there. God forbid that the last voice I hear is Richard Nixon's." Fortunately, Jon, I can hear your voice, so I've come out the other side.
Read Next: Leslie Savan asks who's really to blame for the decline of the newspaper industry.
"Congratulations, Class of 2014, you're totally screwed"—that was the graduation message offered this season by Thomas Frank, Salon columnist and author of Pity the Billionaire. The average student-loan borrower graduating in 2014 is $33,000 in debt, according to the Wall Street Journal—the highest amount ever. And a new study of public universities shows that student debt is worst at schools with the highest-paid presidents.
The "most unequal" public university in America, according to the report, is Ohio State. Between 2010 and 2012 it paid its president, Gordon Gee, a total of almost $6 million, while raising tuition and fees so much that student debt grew 23 percent faster than the national average.
The only people on campus worse off than students with loans are the part-time faculty members—and they too were worst off at schools with the highest paid presidents. OSU, while paying its president $5.9 million, focused its faculty hiring on low wage part-timers, hiring 498 contingent and part-time but only forty-five permanent faculty members.
At the same time that the regular faculty has been shrinking, the number of administrators has been growing. During the period when OSU hired forty-five permanent faculty members, it hired 670 new administrators. A similar pattern is found throughout American universities.
The Institute for Policy Studies report, "The One Percent at State U: How University Presidents Profit from Rising Student Debt and Low-Wage Faculty Labor," examined the relationship between executive pay, student debt and low-wage faculty labor at the twenty-five top-paying public universities. Co-authors Andrew Erwin and Marjorie Wood reported that money spent on administration at the highest-paying universities outpaced spending on scholarships by more than two to one.
"The high executive pay obviously isn't the direct cause of higher student debt, or cuts in labor spending," Ms. Wood told The New York Times. "But if you think about it in terms of the allocation of resources, it does seem to be the tip of a very large iceberg, with universities that have top-heavy executive spending also having more adjuncts, more tuition increases and more administrative spending."
Why is this happening? "The motor force behind these trends is the hiring of 'professional administrators' whose primary commitment is to their own careers and advancement," says William R. Schonfeld, former dean of social sciences and emeritus professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine (where I teach history). "They take jobs as stepping stones to other positions higher on the ladder."
"To protect themselves," Schonfeld says, "they grow the bureaucracy. They are committed to goals which can be relatively quickly achieved—more funds raised this year from the immediate business community, as compared to building a strong foundation for long-term giving by alumni; new schools and academic units, as compared to the tedious and slow process of building true distinction."
The focus on quick results—not so different from corporations' focus on quarterly profits—is responsible for the increase in both the number of administrators and their growing salaries. At Ohio State, "We've been hiring financial VPs from Wall Street and HR heads from private corporations," says OSU's Harvey Graff, professor of english and history and Ohio eminent scholar in literacy studies.
Average pay for university presidents continues to rise, according to the annual Chronicle of Higher Education survey. Nine chief executives earned more than $1 million in total compensation in 2012–13, the Chronicle reports, up from four the previous year. The median total compensation of the 256 presidents in the survey was $478,896, a 5 percent increase over the previous year.
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So while university presidents are making huge salaries, Tom Frank explains, students "borrowed and forked over enormous sums in exchange for the privilege of hearing lectures…lectures that were then delivered by people who earned barely enough to stay alive. It is a double disaster of the kind that only we Americans are capable of pulling off."
The schools that followed OSU on the "most unequal" list were, in order, Penn State, and the universities of Michigan, Minnesota and Delaware.
What is to be done? The IPS study suggests that debt relief for college grads is the number-one task—and recommends Senator Elizabeth Warren's "Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act," which would refinance student loans at 3.86 percent—cutting almost in half the payments required of students currently carrying loans at 6.8 percent. Warren's bill would pay for the lower interest rates by adopting the "Buffett Rule," which would raise the marginal tax rate on income in excess of $1 million.
Also, the IPS study says, state legislatures should limit pay for administrators, and require that spending on non-academic administration be pegged to money spent on scholarships—the authors suggest the ratio should be two to one. "Bringing down spending on administration while increasing scholarships will help make college more affordable and discourage rapid tuition increases," the report argues. The authors also favor granting organizing rights to part-time adjunct faculty.
Read Next: Justine Drennan on the fight to save San Francisco's public university
August 8 will be the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation. That's a good target date for the long-overdue appointment of a new director of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California.
The library has been without a director for two and a half years, ever since the departure of Timothy Naftali in 2011. He presided over the installation of the new, historically accurate Watergate exhibit—his number-one duty after the Nixon Foundation agreed in 2007 to bring the library, which opened in 1990, into the National Archives presidential library system.
Before that, Nixon had been the only president to refuse to cooperate with the National Archives, which ran all the other presidential museums. In 1974, Congress insisted that the Archives, rather than Nixon himself, have control of all of his presidential papers and tapes. The result was a seventeen-year standoff during which the Nixon Foundation ran a private museum in Yorba Linda that served as the nation's center of Watergate denial, defying the National Archives.
Now the standoff has returned. The Nixon Library has no director because the Nixon Foundation, run by old-time Nixon loyalists and family members, blocked the appointment of the candidate selected by the National Archives: Mark Atwood Lawrence, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas in Austin. Lawrence is a respected middle-of-the-road scholar who was fully qualified for the job; he's the author of The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.
But the Nixon Foundation didn't want Lawrence. Ron Walker, chairman of the Foundation's board of directors, told Daniel Langhorne of the Orange County Register that he was concerned about Lawrence's "perspective" on Vietnam. "It was just different," Walker said. "I'm not going any further on that."
How different was it? Lawrence doesn't call Nixon a madman or a war criminal, but he does challenge those in the Nixon administration who argued at the time that an American defeat in Vietnam would do irreparable damage to US influence in the world. In the scholarly journal History: Reviews of New Books, the reviewer of Lawrence's book wrote that "for a subject that has all too often inspired overwrought critiques of the various parties involved in the conflict, it is refreshing to have a synthesis that adopts a more neutral and dispassionate view of the Vietnam War."
Lawrence wasn't exactly vetoed, but the foundation made clear their hostility to him, and eventually he withdrew his application.
The power to appoint directors of presidential libraries rests with the archivist of the United States, currently David Ferrio. He has been deferring to the Nixon loyalists and family members, but his responsibility is to the American people. The National Archives' mission is "to serve American democracy by safeguarding and preserving the records of our Government."
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The problem is now approaching a crisis because the foundation, which funds the exhibits and public programs of the museum, has announced plans for a $15 million renovation of the exhibits. Apparently, it prefers to do this without a director in place to oversee the historical accuracy of what it has in mind.
The number-one exhibit in need of revision, not surprisingly, is the one concerning Vietnam. Currently the museum devotes more space to the return of American POWs from North Vietnam than it does to the war itself. The result is an exhibit that suggests America was fighting in Vietnam to get our POWs back.
Redesigning the exhibits in Yorba Linda should be the work of a professional director committed to a nonpartisan and historically accurate museum, not one deferring to old-time loyalists and family members who want a shrine that celebrates the life of their hero. Archivist David Ferrio needs to make that appointment before the fortieth anniversary of Nixon's resignation on August 8.
Read Next: Will the State Department torpedo its last great program?


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