Bernard Madoff’s new inmates in Butner, North Carolina include:

Omar Abdel-Rahman, the terrorist known as the “Blind Sheik” who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and former Adelphia Commmunications [sic] Chief Executive Officer John Rigas… former U.S. Naval Intelligence Analyst and convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard; former Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico; and Russell Weston, the perpetrator of a 1998 U.S. Capitol shooting that left two U.S. Capitol Police officers dead.

Honestly, though, why is the former chief of Nasdaq being roasted on a spit while other traders and financiers who were probably complicit in similar schemes, less audacious perhaps and more legalistic, have wholly escaped punishment or any sort of accountability? One could argue that the deregulation of derivatives, pushed by Larry Summers and Paul Volcker, among others, caused more damage than Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. But for now, though it is speculative, one could make that argument.

Free Press has been cooking up new business models for journalism, and are even considering “micropayments” to bolster Internet news content. The Wall Street Journal originally tried out that scheme, only to recently make it free for the public. Google is an ambiguous villain in this picture, and it’s certainly a force that cannot be ignored. This is going to take some time.

Good move, Aussies. Perhaps my country should follow suit. Bottled water, in my opinion, has always been a terrible idea, in terms of waste and unsustainability, in addition to the fundamental unfairness of paying good money for something that should be free to the entire human race. Compounded to that is the picture of (at least) a billion or so people in the world who lack something as basic as clean drinking water while Westerners like us have the luxury of bottling it up and selling it at a profit.

The Declaration of Independence, as translated by H.L. Mencken in 1921. Happy Fourth.

After six years of military occupation, US forces have finally handed over sovereign control to the Iraqis of their major cities, including Baghdad. Prime Minister Maliki is said to declare tomorrow National Sovereignty Day. Two huge issues remain: the status of Kirkuk, the oil-rich Kurdish-dominated city in the north, and the Embassy in the Green Zone. I do not have any prescriptions, as I am not one to issue or advocate policy, nor am I in any position to do it. All that my capacities can lead me to do is try to report what appears to be happening, with respect to Iraqi affairs and whatever else. The troops have been over there for a long time, and it is good that we have really begun to let the Iraqis take back their own country, which is something that should have taken place immediately after the overthrow of Saddam.

The Beeb reports today that “Israel has approved the construction of 50 new housing units in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank,” a decision that “came hours before Defence Minister Ehud Barak was due to fly to the US.” This follows the snub by Netanyahu to George Mitchell and his non-offer to the Palestinians of quasi-statehood. This is all either deliberately provocative or simply unreasonable. In either case the US government ought to rethink its special relationship, and soon. Words are nice but actions speak louder.

Western journalists have been more or less banished from Tehran for the time being. Michael Slackman reports from Cairo:

Iran’s government said Sunday that it had arrested Iranian employees of the British Embassy, while the police in Tehran beat and fired tear gas at several thousand protesters who joined a demonstration at a mosque in support of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi.

This is said to be an escalation between the Iranian authorities and Britain (which incidentally played a major role in the 1953 MI-6/CIA coup against Mossadegh). The United Kingdom has been accused, on the basis of no evidence, of instigating the demonstrations of the past two weeks.

A ribald look at our news media complex from across the Pond.

Religious fanaticism and worship of force equals this.