Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- two two most requested highlights by readers of this site, C.I.'s Friday and Thursday snapshots which take on Nir Rosen and his enablers such as Joan Walsh and Thomas E. Ricks.

"Iraq snapshot," "Gates and the absurd hearing (Ava)," "Freedom hating Buck McKeon" and
"Loretta Sanchez came prepared (Wally)" -- C.I., Ava, Kat and Wally report on the House Armed Services Committee hearing.

"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Little Julie From Jolly Farm" -- Isaiah's latest comic.


"Kat's Korner: PJ Harvey sets the standard" -- Kat reviews PJ Harvey's new album.


"PJ Harvey's online concert" -- Kat on PJ Harvey's online concert.

"brothers & sisters," "Happy V-Day" "The Cape," "Chuck, ObamaCare" and "No Ordinary Family, it all spins around" -- Rebecca, Mike and Stan cover TV.



"It's never as easy or remedial as he needs" & "THIS JUST IN! TYPICAL BARRY!" -- Cedric and Wally document No Surprise Barry.

"Corn Soup in the Kitchen"

"Can you bake a cherry pie, Nir Rosen?," "Katrina vanden Heuvel grow the hell up," "Michelle Goldberg and Esther Kaplan, shut up," "Don't be part of the silence," "Nir Rosen (Blog post)"
"the idiot joan walsh," "the responses online," "Danny The Pig Schechter," "What is Victor Navasky's problem with women?," "Nir Rosen, what a prick," "I retract my praise of Joan Walsh," "Thank you to Joan and to Anderson," "More lies from Libby Liberal," "He doesn't apologize," "The sexism of the press," "Daniel Luben's an idiot (at best)," "THIS JUST IN! THE NON-APOLOGY APOLOGY!" & "Nir Rosen continues his non-apology tour," "the disgusting nir rosen," "The piggies" and "The Repugnant Nir Rosen" -- some of the community commentary on Nir Rosen.

"A flunky scorned" -- Isaiah reaches into the archives for this one from the past.

Truest statement of the week

Uh, well first of all when I went to Crawford in 2005 it was a media circus. I remember like on the third or fourth day, there was this really cool AP photographer named Matt and he was down there constantly. And every day, I'd say, "Matt, is it a media circus yet?" And he'd go, "Not quite. Not quite." Then about Thursday, it was a media circus. He agreed that it was a media circus. And I think that -- You know, I used to think that the media was biased towards the right when Bush was president. And so a lot of that media -- and all the media, when they started to realize that I was like serious, I wasn't just a fluke and I wasn't going to go away, they like put the brakes on it and started to marginalize me, painting me as just a grieving mother or a slightly off-kilter because of my grief. And so that started to happen that summer. But still the so-called progressive liberal media, I was still like featured so many times on, you know, like Randi Rhodes or Stephanie Miller or Ed Schultz or whomever was considered on the left up until the Democrats came back into power in 2007. And then they didn't like it that I was saying the same thing about the Democrats that I said about the Republicans. So that came to an end. And I realized then when the Democrats came back into power -- and, you know, I'm just naming names. You know. Organizations like United For Peace & Justice and MoveOn. I realized then that they were not peace organizations. You know, United For Peace & Justice should really be United For Electing Democrats. And MoveOn really is like 'Let's Move On To Full Democratic Tyranny of Our Government.' And so, yeah, they didn't like somebody who realized that it was a systemic problem not a problem of political parties or -- You know, it wasn't just a problem for one side, it was a problem for the world. And so it's been hard -- especially since Obama's been elected because, especially in the beginning, I felt like I was one of the only people in this entire country who was saying, "No, he's -- First of all, why did you support him when he said he was going to send more troops to Afghanistan? When he said he was going to increase hostilities to Pakistan? And, you know, all of his hostile rhetoric against Iran and places like that. And his votes during the Senate? Supporting war, paying for the war, supporting the reauthorization of the Patriot Act for example? Things like that." I was like, "How can you? We have good candidates."

-- Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan interviewed by Abby Martin (Media Roots Radio) and you can stream it here.

Truest statement of the week II

Early on, I had a lot of dialogue with-with people like that. In fact, in August of 2005, MoveOn sent two really high ranking people in their organization, Tom Andrews from Win Without War and Glen Smith -- he's with MoveOn, I don't know in what -- but he's a Texan. And I knew both of them before. So they sent them. And we had a meeting in my trailer and they wanted me to support a bill that was not supportable. It was a -- it was a Democrat - Republican co-sponsored bill about getting out of Iraq eventually. And I was just like, "No, that's not what Camp Casey's about. That's not what the affiliated organizations" -- we called them the skin-in-the-game organizations, Veterans for Peace, IVAW, Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out; I said, "No, we're calling for an immediate end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan." And so that's when they basically just said 'Okay, you know, see you later if you won't support this awful bill then we're not going to support you.' And then when the 2,000 soldier was getting ready to be killed in Iraq, we were in Washington, DC calling for civil disobedience and then MoveOn like totally severed ties and said "No, we're doing a candle light vigil." And I said, "Okay, then there's going to be a 3,000th soldier, a 4,000th soldier, a 5,000th soldier if we don't start to get a little more radical with our demonstrations. And you're the one that has the major list. And then in '07 it was the -- No, it was '08. It was the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. United For Peace & Justice refused to call a demo in DC saying they didn't want to embarrass the Democrats.

-- Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan interviewed by Abby Martin (Media Roots Radio) and you can stream it here.

A note to our readers

Hey --

Another Sunday. It was a long one. We'll probably have a few more like that in the coming weeks, just FYI. We thank everyone who worked on this edition. The credit goes to Dallas and the following:


The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

What did we come up with?

• • Truest statement of the week
  This statement.
• 
  
  • Truest statement of the week II
  And this one are both by Cindy Sheehan. There was a chance of making this a radio thing ("short feature!" Dona cried out). However, we really felt these were the strongest statements of the week and went with "Truests" instead.
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Editorial: Continued war, continued silences -- both kill
  First, the photo. Jess just looked at it and said to me (Jim), people are going to think it's a UFO. That flashing colored light is the reflection of a squad car's flashing light. This is an editorial about the silences. They need to be called out and they need to end and the US left needs to be informed of the demonstration next month. Thus far, very few domestic left outlets have bothered to note the US, let alone that there's a demonstration being organized.
• 
  
  • TV: Mr. Tired And Dull
  Ava and C.I. tackle a new sitcom. Brendan e-mailed to say he's guessing Ava and C.I. will tackle entertainment programming between "now and March 19th because they'll guess that they'll reach more people about the demonstration that way." They're including the poster for the March demonstration in their TV articles these days to help get the word out. As for Brendan's guess, Ava says, "It is true that, with an entertainment program piece, we will reach people that might not otherwise hear about the demonstration. But we have no big plans. Nothing's mapped out. We may review a Fox entertainment show next week, but Sunday's so far ahead it'll depend on what we have to watch and read over if we do an entertainment show."
• 
  
  • The Lawbreaking JPMorgan Chase
  This is a piece I think is important and one that I think goes to how much time the left wasted in the last weeks. This is the sort of the story that has all the elements. It made a blip in the MSM. It could have done more than that if the so-called left media had bothered to cover it. But The Nation, The Progressive, Pacifica Radio, et al had other things to do.
• 
  
  • Oh those music mags . . .
  Our music magazine survey.
• 
  
  • Political Magazine Survey
  And our political magazine survey. We started with just a political magazine survey a long, long time ago. Then one of our regular readers learned she was deploying to Iraq. The survey articles are among her favorite. So, at her request, we have continued the political magazine ones and expanded to include the music mags. We try to do these at least once amonth.
  
• 
  
  • Roundtable
  Our roundtable. It's a grab bag.
• 
  
  • Crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste
  From Etan.
• 
  
  • Highlights
  And Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
• 
  

That's what we ended up with. Hopefully something in the mix appealed to (or enraged) you.

Peace.

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Editorial: Continued war, continued silences -- both kill

Do you remember the summer of 2005?

Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan camped out in Crawford, Texas. That's where George W. Bush was vacationing. He had said that the deaths in the Iraq War were for "a noble cause." Cindy wanted to know "what noble cause" her son Casey died for?

So she started Camp Casey and kick started the peace movement. But, as she explained to Abby Martin (Media Roots Radio) last week, even then there were 'peace' groups endorsing fake 'answers' to 'end' the Iraq War that really existed to increase the electibility of Democrats. She refused to sign on with those lies, but they continued. And, as she explained, that's why United For Peace & Justice -- a supposed peace organization dedicated to ending the Iraq War -- refused to hold a fifth anniversary demonstration in DC because "they didn't want to embarrass the Democrats." (To be clear, Cindy was drawing a line between the national leadership and the local and had much praise for local peace groups.)

So even then, even when the peace movement was at its highest wave, it turns out that some weren't in it for peace. Leslie Cagan was in it to elect Democrats. As she made clear in that laughable note she posted at UPFJ's website three days after the 2008 elections: "For more than six years, United For Peace and Justice and the antiwar movment have stood firm in our opposition to the war in Iraq. Our consistent work played a major role in turning public sentiment against the war, and that sentiment helped lay the foundation for the Obama campaign's success." Hilarious. And pathetic. (We first called it out here.)

But what can you expect? Leslie Cagan has no real talent of any kind and a woman with no talents and her looks rarely garners attention. By pretending to be pro-peace and against war, Cagan was able to receiving fawning profiles in The New York Times and elsewhere. Again, untalented, unattractive women aren't valued in this society. But Leslie managed to ride to fame by whoring out the peace movement.

She was far from alone.



And then, after Barack's election, she declared herself "tired" and "worn out" and retreated (in order to avoid calling War Hawk Barack out). You think Cindy Sheehan wasn't tired? How many times has Cindy broken down from exhaustion? How many times has Cindy been attacked from all sides?

Cindy didn't walk away. Cindy didn't excuse a War Hawk president.

But Cindy's the minority. The majority were Leslie Cagans.

Think back to the summer of 2005. Think of all the fire and brimstone Leslie Cagan, Tom Hayden, Danny Schechter and assorted others were serving up on Iraq. Yeah, they all lost interest long ago; however, that's not our point right now.

In the summer of 2005, if Bully Boy Bush had announced, "In three years, the Iraq War will be over," do you think everyone would have packed up and gone home?

We doubt it.

The slogan was "OUT OF IRAQ NOW!" It was not, "Out of Iraq in a few months or years."

But how the same 'outraged' 'leaders' did fall silent once Barack was in office. Many of them lied repeatedly claiming that the Status Of Forces the Bush Administration rammed through meant the Iraq War ended at the end of 2011. Three years from after the election -- if not the beatification -- of Barack.

Pretend for a moment that the SOFA did mean the end of the Iraq War. In December 2008, one month after the eleciton, alleged peace movement 'leaders' were happy with an Iraq War that would continue for three more years and saw no reason to call that out and to organize and demonstrate against it.

The term for those leaders is "WHORES."

And the tambourine
It's playing for free
It's telling me trust in the Lord
Sing Hare Krishna or Jesus or Mithra
It doesn't matter anymore
They say got relieves
If I'd only believe
But I just can't whore
Honey, I'm trying
To deal with the dying
And I can't score
-- "Bigger Than Real," written by Janis Ian, first appears on her album Restless Eyes

Now the SOFA never meant the Iraq War ended. If you tried to tell the truth on that (C.I.'s told the truth on that since Thanksgiving Day 2008 when it passed the Iraqi Parliament), you were attacked and savaged. It's 2011 now. And what do we know?

We know that the plan is to either extend the SOFA or to move US soldiers out from under the Defense Department and place them under the State Department to allow the continued occupation of Iraq.

This is not a secret. These options were covered in opening hearings this month. For the Senate Armed Services hearing, you can refer to C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot," Ava's "In appreciation of Lindsey Graham (Ava)," Wally's "It's a bi-partisan hole (Wally)" and Kat's "John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Jim Webb." For the Senate Foreign Relations hearing, you can refer to C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot," Ava's "The forgotten covert wars on Latin America (Ava)," Wally's "It's a boom economy!" and Kat's "Senate Foreign Relations Committee." And last week, we offered a discussion on both hearings in "Face The Press."

Yesterday, translating Arab-language media outlets, C.I. reported, "Al Mada notes the secret talks taking place to extend the Status Of Forces Agreement and cites Qassim Mohammed Jalal as the source for the extension meetings currently taking place between Nouri's reps and the US inside the Green Zone. Qassam Mohammed Jalal is part of the National Coalition. He is a member of Parliament's Commission on Security and Defense."

Will the Iraq government go along with either option? That's guess-work. But that is what the US government is shooting for, an extended SOFA (or new agreement) or switching the soldiers under the umbrella of the State Department. That's continued war and continued occupation.

You can say "NO!" Even while our 'leaders' are silent, you can say "NO!" Next month,

A.N.S.W.E.R. and March Forward! and others will be taking part in this action:

March 19 is the 8th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Iraq today remains occupied by 50,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of foreign mercenaries.

The war in Afghanistan is raging. The U.S. is invading and bombing Pakistan. The U.S. is financing endless atrocities against the people of Palestine, relentlessly threatening Iran and bringing Korea to the brink of a new war.

While the United States will spend $1 trillion for war, occupation and weapons in 2011, 30 million people in the United States remain unemployed or severely underemployed, and cuts in education, housing and healthcare are imposing a huge toll on the people.

Actions of civil resistance are spreading.

On Dec. 16, 2010, a veterans-led civil resistance at the White House played an important role in bringing the anti-war movement from protest to resistance. Enduring hours of heavy snow, 131 veterans and other anti-war activists lined the White House fence and were arrested. Some of those arrested will be going to trial, which will be scheduled soon in Washington, D.C.

Saturday, March 19, 2011, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, will be an international day of action against the war machine.

Protest and resistance actions will take place in cities and towns across the United States. Scores of organizations are coming together. Demonstrations are scheduled for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and more.

Click this link to endorse the March 19, 2011, Call to Action.

TV: Mr. Tired And Dull

Does Matthew Perry have a death wish? Maybe not, but his career sure does. The actor shot to fame as Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends. He quickly fell down to earth with Studio Yada-Yada -- a career destroying move for so many. Apparently he walked away from that experience with the mistaken impression that the problem was the 60 minute format and not his endless monologues hence Mr. Sunshine.



When we watched the first episode we were dismayed by how awful it was and wondered why they didn't go out of order and open with the strongest episode? Having watched three additional episodes, we can see they did go with the strongest one.

Everything about this show is wrong -- including that Perry co-created it. It's probably a good idea to leave funny to people who know funny. For example, Perry's character Ben works at an areana. Are you hearing it? The sound of half-wits insisting, "This'll be great! New plotlines every week! New vistas! New characters!" From Shirley's World to Jake In Progress, when the hell has that ever worked?

In sitcoms, you either ignore the job or give the audience a job they can relate to. Those are your choices. On Friends, Chandler's job was so bland and unimportant that (repeatedly) friends pulled a blank on what it was he did. That's one way to go. Courtney Cox was a chef on Friends and is a real estate agent on Cougar Town. They may not be high glam jobs, but they are relatable. That's the other way to go. Instead, the 'creative' team behind Mr. Sunshine wants to fool themselves that audiences are going to relate to someone who would go home at the end of the work day complaining about the hoops a second-tier Justin Bieber (guest star Nick Jonas) put him through culminating with scoring a teenage girl's number.

But it's doubtful anyone would relate to Ben if he were a cop, waiter or delivery man. Chandler was sarcastic and, yes, bitchy. But his cutting humor was, as he himself explained, a defense mechanism developed in childhood (as was his smoking habit). Ben? No back story. So what you're left with is sarcastic and bitchy but before you think "Joan Collins," know that Joan would never be filmed with those bulging bags under her eyes the way Perry was.

Watching him bully and bitchy a Latino janitor (Jorge Garcia), you switch between noticing Ben is not charming or endearing and registering all the physical flaws the camera cannot hide. If you have an extra moment, you may notice the bad body wave perm he's sporting. These are not the blocks with which a successful sitcom is built. And were Chandler to walk up to Ben, we believe he'd take one look at the hair and say, "This way to the green room, Miss Rossellini. I loved you in Blue Velvet."




For the debut, the 'laughs' came from a boss (Allison Janney) terrified of clowns -- and, get this, the boss is also racist! (ha-ha-ha!) -- and the fact that a circus elephant was loose. Amidst all of that, Ben's friend with benefits (Andrea Anders) dumps him for his friend (James Lesure) -- with whom he, presumably, had no benefits.

Perry walks through the pages of the script offering nothing. Filmed in front of a live audience, he'd never get away with it and, other than chemical enhancement, a live audience has always been the only thing that gave Perry's performances spark. (If you doubt us, check out his films -- but do so at your own risk.) A live audience might also reign in some of Janney's beyond-over-the-top moments.

The whole show's beyond-over-the-top if you stop to think about it. Janney's character owns and runs the arena (which most likely was built with tax payer money) and she's in the midst of a scandal, garnering negative press over a dog track she invested in where a dog just bit a person. Drugged out on various pills, her character has a photo-op with kids in an attempt to pick up some good press and change the story. However, spooked by circus clowns, she picks up a child, apparently to hide behind, and then, as the clowns approach, hurls the young boy to the floor, screams and runs off as camera flashbulbs go off repeatedly.

Follow that?

What you may not follow is that the press decides not to run the story. Why? Ben offers them the kind of laughable bribes that only a mid-size venue manager can. In other words, we're supposed to believe that a few tickets and substandard swag convinced a room full of press not to go with what is surely the local story of the day, something that will be picked up by networks and that, yes, could make a career. Something especially true in already media-concentrated region which San Diego (the show's setting) is.

We shared our concerns with two acquaintances working on the show and were told (repeatedly) that Janney is not playing a racist. No, she's playing someone who "stumbles over racial issues" and who "is racially insensitive." That is funny. Not the character they're describing but the fact that they think there's really such a difference. Here's a funny sitcom premise: Producers and bad writers convince themselves they can do racist jokes as long as they hide behind the claim that she's not really racist.

Want to laugh some more? They were unaware that Perry's character refers to Crystal (Janney) as "borderline racist" in the first episode. And that's when Ben is speaking to Crystal's son.

At the end of the first episode, Ben stops an underling who remembered his birthday to ask the underling's name and then mutters, "Already forgot it." We wouldn't be at all surprised if, in a few weeks, people feel the same way about this show.

The Lawbreaking JPMorgan Chase

January 17th, JPMorgan Chase breathlessly announced, "JPMORGAN CHASE REPORTS FOURTH-QUARTER 2010 NET INCOME OF $4.8 BILLION, UP 47% OVER PRIOR YEAR, ON REVENUE OF $26.7 BILLION; $1.12 EARNINGS PER SHARE. FULL-YEAR 2010 NET INCOME OF $17.4 BILLION, UP 48% OVER PRIOR YEAR, ON REVENUE OF $104.8 BILLION; $3.96 EARNINGS PER SHARE." They make a lot of money and, as the House Veterans Affairs Committee learned last Wednesday, they break a lot of laws.

Calling borrowers (whose loans you have assumed, JPMorgan Chase did not originally make the loans themselves) at three and four in the morning is against the law. As the Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Jeff Miller noted in his opening remarks, they also broke the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act which has been around "in various forms since the war of 1812." They did so by harassing active duty service members and their families and by overcharing them.

And if you couldn't make those overcharged payments? They foreclosed. Foreclosure took place on at least eighteen homes.

But, JPMorgan Chase, in the form of Stephanie Mudick, wanted to insist the foreclosure wasn't really like foreclosure because JPMorgan Chase didn't sell the homes to an outside buyer, JPMorgan Chase just took over the ownership of the homes and kicked the veterans and veterans families over.

Oh, the family lost their home but a Century 21 sign didn't go up in the front yard so it's no harm, no foul?

Julia and Captain Jonathan Rowles offered testimony about their five year battle with JPMorgan Chase where they were repeatedly harassed with phone calls, repeatedly threatened, repeatedly forced to prove that he was active duty (forced to prove that every 90 days), overcharged and received no help at all. At one point, the family traveled from South Carolina to Colorado just because one JPMorgan Chase employee said he could fix the whole thing. They arrived there, on their own dime, spent a few days speaking to the man and he couldn't help them. Nor could any of the 'experts' they were told to phone or that phoned them.

US House Rep. Timothy Walz was curious about these tele-'experts' and wondered what the chance was that a number of the Rowles' phone calls were 'addressed' by employees at a JPMorgan Chase call center in the Philippines. As with so many questions put to her, Mudick couldn't provide a "yes" or a "no" but she did admit that was a possiblity. If that took place, Mudick explained, it would have been the Rowles' fault because the customer should always make sure they are speaking to an expert on the phone.

JPMorgan Chase is the one paying and allegedly training their phone staff. Seems like that responsibility would fall on the ones answering the phones, not the customers. And we fail to see how this reconciles with the corporation's claim, "At JPMorgan Chase, corporate responsibility is about what we do every day in our businesses and how we do it."

Next go round, maybe JPMorgan Chase will blame their overcharging on the customers as well?

In her opening statements, Mudick told the Committee that JPMorgan Chase had identifed $1.8 million in overcharges the corporation had made, $1.8 million they overcharged military families. That's their audit, who knows what numbers an outside audit would produce.

But, Mudick wanted the Committee, the Rowles and the press to know, not to worry because they were going to repay the overpayments and they would even tack on 7.5% interest.

US House Rep. Michael Michaud wasn't impressed with that meager amount, "You heard the Rowles went through a lot. And you mentioned errors. And originally when I heard about it, I figured, yeah, it was for people to make errors but what the Rowles went through -- five years of harassing phone calls, three or four o'clock in the morning is just beyond errors. And you heard some of my colleagues talk about arrogance, greed within JPMorgan and, actually, Mr. [US House Rep Cliff] Stearns mentioned the fact that JPMorgan received -- I know they paid it back -- $25 billion of the TARP funding [US government bail out of the bank industry at the end of 2008]. Mr. Diamond, the CEO for JPMorgan, received a bonus in 2007 of $28 million. Last year, almost $16 million bonus. And you're paying these individuals seven-and-a-half percent interest? I think there is a disconnect when you look at the bonuses received to the CEOs and what you have done to individuals who have served this country very well. I'm sure that the CEO for JPMorgan has a very nice home he probably can cater Christmas parties, Thanksgiving parties at his very elegant home and he can probably sleep very well at night."

Stephanie Mudick felt that 7.5% was ample (that averaged out to a $70 payment for each overcharged customer) because "[. . .] most of the, uh, service members who were impacted by this, uh, are-are not even aware that they overpaid. And in part, that's because the amount they overpaid was not-not material to them." You swipe money from most people's pockets, its "material to them." Whether its five dollars, fifty dollars or five hundred dollars. And you swipe money from someone's pocket? That's theft. And it's against the law which makes JPMorgan Chase's behavior very "material."

The Committee appeared largely unimpressed with the statements from JPMorgan Chase's Vice President of Customer Service (Mudick). They were even less impressed when US House Rep. and Ranking Member Bob Filner attempted to determine Mudick's role at JPMorgan Chase and the power she had or did not have to fix anything.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Uhm, how many executive vice presidents are there at Chase? Or, let me put it another way, how high are you up in the heirarchy there?

Stephanie Mudick: Uh, I am a member of Chase's Executive Committee which is fewer than a hundred employees at Chase -- at JPMorgan Chase.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: And what does the 100 people do? I mean, that's the highest policy making thing in Chase?

Stephanie Mudick: Uh, there is an Operating Committee which is a group of approximately 20 people.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: How many executive vice presidents are there?

Stephanie Mudick: I don't have the answer to that question, sir, I'm sorry.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: But you'll find out for me, right?

Stephanie Mudick: I will indeed.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Could you fix things if we need to ask? I mean, you're here on behalf of Chase so I assume that means you can fix things. Can you fix things? I mean, you said you weren't aware of that hotline number [a JPMorgan Chase number to deal with SCRA problems which Julia Rowles testified was just an answering machine passed off as a hotline and one that has now been disconnected for months]. Can you find it out right away? Can you call someone and say, "What's going on there?"

Stephanie Mudick: Uh, together with-with my colleagues -- There is -- I would say --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Okay, so you can't fix things.

Stephanie Mudick (Con't): -- there are many -- Excuse me, sir. I would say that we try and fix whatever --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Okay, the Rowles testified that they didn't have any statements for a year, you hadn't cashed their last mortgage check. Can you fix that today?

Stephanie Mudick: Uh --

Raking Member Bob Filner: You said you were going to make them whole. They've brought up several questions. Can you fix that?

Stephanie Mudick: We are trying to fix --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: I don't want a "we." You? Can you fix that?

Stephanie Mudick: I can, together with my colleagues causes changes to be made in our organization. Uh -- and with respect to the Rowleses -- Uh, uhm, you know,,we are trying to figure out how we can come to an agreement --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Come to an agreement because of a lawsuit. But you said you were going to make them whole. As I read your statement, your average payment to make people whole was seventy dollars. Does that make people whole who've gone through this stuff?

Stephanie Mudick: The-the median payment is $70 and-and let me explain to you how-how we get to that number.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Because you're just dealing with the amount of interest you overpaid plus some fees, that's all you're dealing with. You're not dealing with any human costs or any emotional costs or any pain and suffering as they would say. You're just dealing with the amount of interest and fees that you overcharged. Right? I mean that's what it says here [holds up Mudick's prepared statement] anyway.

Stephanie Mudick: Congressman, most of the, uh, service members who were impacted by this, uh, are-are not even aware that they overpaid. And in part that's because the amount they overpaid was not-not material to them.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: I can't believe that there's nobody else going through what the Rowles did. But, you know, I mean, you can't make the changes, you're not making them whole. Why should -- You broke the law. Your bank broke the law. Shouldn't someone go to jail for that?

Stephanie Mudick: Uh --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: And who should? Who should? Who's responsible? Are you as the executive v.p. who was given us by the bank to answer for this? Should you go to jail?

Stephanie Mudick: Uh, we are doing a review internally in order to --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: I want to know --

Stephanie Mudick: -- figure out --

Ranking Member Bob Filner: -- who's responsible?

Stephanie Mudick: -- who's responsible for what happened.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: Are you going to tell us who? Are you going to give us a person? Or people? That are responsible?

Stephanie Mudick: Well we will certainly hold those folks who are resposible for this accountable.

Ranking Member Bob Filner: I want to know about you. You broke the law. How are we going to hold you accountable? Are we going to know who did what when?

And those important questions found no answers at last week's hearing. They still linger in the air. Will JPMorgan Chase get away with breaking the law? Will their measely seventy dollar mediam payments qualify as 'compensation' to the families who suffered? And what's to prevent it from happening again? The Rowles' attorneys proposed upgrading breaking the the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to a felony and that might be one way of ensuring that it's not 'accidentally' and repeatedly broken again. Another thing could be a week of Congressional hearings on this issue.

C.I., Ava, Wally and Kat attended the hearing last week and we utilized C.I.'s notes, their memories and the reporting the four had already done last week. You can read their reporting in the following:

"Iraq snapshot"
"The crooks get away with it (Ava)"
"JP Morgan Chase's song and dance"
"Grading the new Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee"

Oh those music mags . . .

Launching a new magazine is never easy. Classic Rock Presents "AOR" and, a cardboard sleeve (not in our photo) announces "BRAND NEW MAGAZINE." Don't look for it to be around for long. There's very little truly classic about the magazine. Our hopes were high regarding Pat Benatar who's featured in a tiny cover photo. We weren't impressed by the feature which was a book excerpt. We love Pat Benatar's book Between A Heart And A Rock Place but we were expecting a feature article or interview. Our mistake. See, the only thing "classic" about the magazine is its effort to restore "classic" sexism. Page after page, it's nothing but men except for Pat and Heart's Ann Wilson. With Pat and Ann, they had to overcome every hurdle while the bouncer of this magazine apparently mistook it for Men's Night and let in everything standing with a cock.



Q wants to figure out the best 250 albums from 1986 to 2011. Why? Because it was a slow music month and they had to fill an issue somehow. (Short version? Radiohead's OK Computer is the best album EVUH!!!!) It's a pedestrian issue which should chant "We will, we will, bore you!" when you open the cover.

Smash Hits is gone from publishing on US shores. It existed as a glossy pin up magazine in the 80s featuring cute pics of Madonna and fold outs of sexy, squinted eyed Corey Hart and his curly black chest hairs. In many US outlets, you can find a new Smash Hits as an import. It's "64-PAGE SPECIAL EDITION" dedicated to and covering Lady Gaga. Fans of LG should rush to grab this, it's an instant collector item.

MOJO features Neil Young on the cover and a CD of various artists covering Neil. PJ Harvey's new album gets a rave review from Peter Paphides: "Of all her many guises -- doomed blues siren; righteous rock vixen; tormented Victorian ghost -- this may be her most powerful. A broken Britannia for a broken Britain. It turns out that, more than ever, Polly Harvey was made for these times." Let England Shake drops Tuesday. (Kat reviews the album here.) And Neil? Not present. Phil Sutcliffe speaks to various musicians who played on the classic album Harvest. But it's not a complete loss, the tired story features some amazing photos of Neil by Henry Diltz.

A complete waste is the latest Spin. It's now bi-monthly. So possibly they should stop 'end of the year' issue. "The Best of 2010" was tired for a January issue. It's especially tired for a "JAN/FEB 2011" issue. While it's audience wants the new, Spin's serving up 2010 for the first sixty or so days of 2011. Along with being tired, the 'articles' are little more than extended photo captions.

M Music & Musicians features Keith Urban on the cover and swears it will help you with "Getting closer to the heart of the matter." We didn't really see that in the brief article by Chris Neal which failed even on technical issues. Jeff Tamarkin's two page feature on Annie Lennox offers much more and how can you not like an interview whose opening question is: "Why make a holiday album?" Annie offers this on awards, "It's a huge compliment, obviously, and very nice, but I don't consider myself that person. How do you grade a voice? It's like a dog show. How do you grade a dog? It's not about that. Bob Dylan is probably not the best singer in the world, but he's Bob Dylan."

Her former band mate, Dave Stewart, gets a mention in the strongest article in the latest Rolling Stone -- page 18, Patrick Doyle's article on Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart's arena tour notes Dave's produced Stevie's In Your Dreams due out May 3rd. Those fearing Rod will be cracking out 'the great American songbook' for the tour can breathe easy, he says he'll be doing the hits and "deep [album] tracks." He wants to duet with Stevie on "Leather & Lace" and she'd like them to sing "The First Cut Is The Deepest" and "Reason To Believe." The cover story is The Rolling Stone Interview with Elton John and the sad thing there is that Elton's ready and willing to talk about anything but Austin Scaggs offers the most mundane and obvious questions.

No magazine this round up scores a worth-buying. At best, a few offer 15 minutes worth of scanning. At worst, less than a minute. We'll hope it was just a slow month and the winter lethargy because otherwise the state of rock writing is on life support.