engraved and retouched and edgewiped and pudden-padded
Wondering how Mitt Romney manages to pay under 14% of his income in tax? Confused by all this talk of ‘carried interest’? Eileen Appelbaum lays it all out very clearly in this piece, carried by US News, which also lays out the case for why this income should not qualify for the reduced rates charged on investment income:
Why Carried Interest Should Not Be Taxed at the Capital Gains Rate – Economic Intelligence (usnews.com).
Odd image of the day: A billboard, off I-690 (which runs through the middle of Syracuse) with an ‘In Memorium’ message for Joe Paterno.
This article about PhoneDog’s suing of a former employee, Noah Kravitz, over his twitter account is interesting in itself (they’re claiming rights to the account followers, as a customer list, and seeking compensation on that basis). However, what caught my eye was the claim in the RTÉ sub-heading that Kravitz “must pay” $2.50 per user, which matched rather too well what PhoneDog are listed, later in the piece, as seeking.
A quick search reveals that the case is still being litigated. Thus, the ‘must pay’ is merely the claim being made by his former employer, and no damages have yet been assessed. Indeed, if what Kravitz says is correct, it looks like this is a counter-suit aimed at balancing out his claim for a share of PhoneDog’s advertising revenue.
RTÉ’s headline is fine, but the sub-heading implies that the suit has been settled, and compensation levels set. I’m not sure how much copy-editing RTÉ employs before adding news articles to its site, but this is something that could have been caught (and easily corrected) by a good copy-editor – or caused by poor editing that sought to simplify an overly complex construction in the draft lead.
Labour Senator John Whelan has called for a Seanad debate on media ownership policies. The development that has brought this issue into focus is the firing of journalist Sam Smyth from Today FM. While the station has claimed that the firing was merely part of a re-organization of the station’s schedule, an attempt “to improve the programming quality and its relevance to audience”, there is widespread suspicion that the station’s controlling shareholder, Denis O’Brien, is behind the decision.
O’Brien is taking legal action (for defamation) against Smyth over comments he made in other outlets about O’Brien’s business activities. The Moriarty Tribunal, into political corruption in Ireland in the 1990s, “found that Mr Lowry had assisted Mr O’Brien in his bid to secure a mobile phone contract for Esat Digifone,” according to the Irish Times.
Journalistic independence from powerful forces is, on some level, a standard that can never be fully achieved – but a diverse media, with a broad range of owners and structures, can help. In this regard, Whelan’s right to draw attention to the recent announcement by Noel Curran, the Director General of public service broadcaster RTÉ, that the network will include investigative journalism as one of its six core areas in the years to come.
It feels a little unfair to pick on someone when they’re down – Dana’s trailing the field in the presidential campaign, behind even Mitchell – but this is a fairly basic thing.
Background: Dana Rosemary Scallon became a US citizen shortly before running for president of Ireland in 1997.
The red herrings: Dana’s sister claimed during court proceedings in 2008 that Dana had actively decided not to bring that fact to the attention of the electorate. Dana claims that dual citizenship is possible, and points to De Valera, who was a US citizen by birth.
The real issue: While US courts have recognized dual citizenship in certain situations for some time, the process of becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States involves an oath renouncing one’s other citizenships:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.
There’s a legal question here: adopting US citizenship through naturalization is understood in US law, at least, to require the surrendering of other citizenships (whether or not the other countries recognize that act as taking place.
There’s also a moral question: this is a formal oath, sworn by someone who proclaims herself to be a devout Christian, which includes the phrase “without any mental reservation.” Either Dana perjured herself, or… actually, I’m not sure there’s an ‘or’ here.
Dana’s not going to be president (she’s currently 100/1 on Paddy Power) in large part because so much of what she claims to stand for – an insular and shallow version of Irishness, dog-whistling to Irish conservatives still smarting over equal pay for women and the decriminalization of homosexuality – is unpopular and increasingly a marginal perspective. However, she has wrapped this up inside a constitution-toting package, proclaiming the defense of the Irish constitution as her primary platform, and it turns out she’s already sworn to defend that of another country, and she claims not to even remember that oath? Really? Irish law – where citizenship is automatic for those, such as Dana, who are born abroad to parents born on the island of Ireland – may not recognize the renunciation of Irish citizenship, but surely Dana feels a shiver when she contemplates the oath she swore before god.
From Just Foreign Policy: FCNL has established a toll-free number: 1-877-429-0678. Urge your Rep. and/or Senators to press the Supercommittee to end the wars and cut the military budget. In talking to your Rep., urge support for the Lee-Campbell bipartisan letter to the Super Committee on cutting military spending.
Turns out that all Facebook user accounts, outside of the US and Canada, are overseen by its European headquarters in Ireland. That means that it’s subject to Irish data protection rules, and the Irish data protection commissioner has now launched an investigation. This is one to watch.
Jim Ellinger of Austin Airwaves does great work supporting community radio near and far. Their most recent project involves supporting the establishment of community radio on the island of Borneo. They’re looking for donations of equipment and cash. Check here to see if you can help.
It appears from the report in tomorrow’s Irish Times that Anglo Irish Bank is accusing former CEO David Drumm of engaging in fraud to secure his visa to the United States:
Anglo alleges that Drumm devised the “loan” from his wife “as a ruse” to qualify for an “E-2 Treaty Investor Visa” to live in the US and to use the cash in his business accounts as his “personal piggyback to spend on personal expenses.”
If true, Drumm could have more serious problems than a failed bankruptcy scam (both Anglo and the bankruptcy trustee are opposing his attempt to be discharged from bankruptcy, on the basis that he lied repeatedly, claiming that “Drumm “testified falsely” and engaged in a pattern of conduct to conceal from and defraud Anglo, Dwyer and other interested parties, the bank claimed.
In her complaint, Dwyer claimed that Drumm failed to disclose transfers of property, materially understated the value of assets and concealed property.”).
Interesting to see the library at U Michigan publishing copies of orphaned works, even if the copies are to be restricted to on-campus users. This is similar to the policy of the Free Music Archive in including orphaned works in their collection. Institutions such as these (the FMA is backed by WFMU) are usually wary of breaking the law, given their fiduciary responsibilities and the risk of financial penalties from civil suits. In the case of genuine orphaned works, however, the risk should be low – given that attempts to actively seek out rights holders have failed (and in the case of U Michigan, they note that most of the works are low-circulation scholarly works, with limited economic potential) – and the organizations are taking the view that, on balance, their charge to make creative works available outweighs the limited potential for financial costs. An emerging venue for copyright activism and and debate.