Category: North America

Get the Lead out.

A (belated) follow-up: Last year, I posted here about the efforts by major chemical companies to bury Deceit & Denial, the recent work by public health historians David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, which found that said companies knowingly obfuscated, downplayed, and generally lied about the fact that some of their products caused cancer. A few weeks ago, the other shoe dropped, when — relying on the documents unearthed by Rosner & Markowitz — a Rhode Island jury found lead paint manufacturers guilty of “public nuisance.” “The verdict on the issue of liability paves the way for a potential damage award of millions of dollars in cleanup and mitigation costs.” And, since then, California has reinstated a class-action case against the lead paint industry, and insurance companies are looking to drop the policies of lead paint manufacturers, since they “didn’t disclose the dangers of lead paint when they purchased their policies.”

Diebold Another Day.

“Let’s make this clear, folks. The docs Heller is accused of exposing were important evidence. First, they show that Diebold and their attorneys, Jones Day, conspired to mislead the California secretary of state, and that the lie they told was material, and resulted directly in the disenfranchisement of voters. Second, another document demonstrates that Diebold lied to the secretary of state when it represented that certain problems with its software were ‘fixed.’ This document, the release notes for the new software, showed that the problems were not fixed. Third, the documents showed that Diebold had been advised by Jones Day that what it had been doing with its uncertified software was illegal. Fourth, the documents show that Jones Day advised Diebold that it was subject to criminal prosecution. So in a nutshell, Diebold was defrauding the state government and taxpayers of California, and disenfranchising the voters of California. And the documents PROVE it.”

In keeping with recent GOP tales of hounding whistleblowers and using the long arm of government to attack critics, Stephen Heller — the man who exposed some severe shadiness on the part of voting machine maker Diebold and their corporate lawyers, Jones Day — is now facing now three felony counts for raising the alarm. “Heller’s lawyer believes the 2 year wait to file charges was due to the then-impending 2004 election, and that Diebold and their attorneys didn’t want the information to be made public in the lead up to the election.” Flashback: Diebold’s right-wing CEO guaranteed Dubya would win Ohio in the last campaign, and he may well have delivered. (Via Medley.)

Dakota goes South.

Something wicked this way comes: Bucking to challenge Roe v. Wade in the Roberts court, the pro-life South Dakota legislature pass a bill outlawing abortion (with no exceptions therein for rape, incest, or non-fatal threats to the mother’s health), and it seems pro-life Gov. Mike Rounds will sign it. On the bright side, even many pro-lifers doubt the Dakota bill will pass constitutional muster — “‘If you’re just reading the law as it stands now, South Dakota’s law doesn’t really stand any chance under Roe or Casey . I have to agree with those who think it’s remote,’ said Chuck Donovan, executive vice president of the Family Research Council and a former lobbyist for the National Right to Life Committee.” Update: Mississippi follows suit.

Greenhouse Doghouse.

Shunned by Dubya and spurred on by Bill Clinton, the rest of the world comes together to limit greenhouse gases and extend the Kyoto treaty. “Brushing aside the Bush administration’s fierce protests, all the industrialized nations except the United States and Australia were near an agreement Friday night to embark on a new round of formal talks aimed at setting new mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions after 2012, when the existing pact known as the Kyoto Protocol expires.“

The Sinners Inside.

Big concert week in these parts: After Goldfrapp on Monday, the inimitable Depeche Mode held their Garden stand. (A happy confluence: I’ve seen DM several times over the past fifteen years, but never right under the Knicks championship banners.) The openers this time ’round were The Bravery, a spirited New York outfit who are basically a synth-friendlier version of Franz Ferdinand or The Strokes. They played most of the songs off their solid first album, including “Public Service Announcement,” “Fearless,” “An Honest Mistake,” “Give In,” and (my personal fave) “Tyrant.” Then, the main act:

The Setlist: A Pain That I’m Used To / John the Revelator / A Question of Time / Policy of Truth / Precious / Walking In My Shoes / Suffer Well / Damaged People (Macro) / Home / I Want It All / The Sinner In Me / I Feel You / Behind The Wheel / World In My Eyes / Personal Jesus / Enjoy The Silence

1st Encore: Somebody (A Question of Lust) / Just Can’t Get Enough / Everything Counts

2nd Encore Never Let Me Down Again / Goodnight Lovers

So, as you can see, their new album — Playing the Angel — was featured heavily in the first half of the show. While I like Angel a good deal, and DM’s anti-Dubya screed “John the Revelator” has the makings to be a stadium-shaking call-and-response showstopper akin to “Personal Jesus” and “NLMDA,” I’d say some of the album’s best songs haven’t yet found their legs live. “Precious” is their best single since “Enjoy the Silence,” IMHO, but it sounded a bit washed-out at MSG (perhaps partly because Martin plays the keyboard hook on guitar. “The Sinner in Me” had a similar problem — that inexorable stalker-beat that drives the track should’ve been much, much louder.) And “I Want it All” never really gets going, particularly coming as it does after “Home,” which is Martin at his most saccharine. (Frankly, I would have taken pretty much any other Mart-track in the catalogue over it.)

But, right around halftime, with the surprisingly good version of “I Feel You,” the show turned into a hit parade, with the band pulling out all the stops to get the crowd — who, like me, are getting a mite long in the tooth these days — up and dancing. “Personal Jesus” (with Pump Mix), “Enjoy the Silence,” “NLMDA” (with Aggro), “Everything Counts”…heck, they even dusted off “Just Can’t Get Enough.” Ok, sure, it’d have been nice to hear some obscure gem like “Get the Balance Right,” “Monument,” or “Ice Machine,” but the hits are hits for a reason, and all of ’em have been honed over years of live play into remarkable feats of showmanship. (My own geek-out moment was at the double-beat start of “Behind the Wheel” — I’d looked at the setlists before going, but had completely forgotten that it was in there.)

All in all, a grand show. Ok, Dave Gahan probably still overdoes the sing-along thing (particularly this far into the tour), but, on the flip side, he seemed happy, healthy, and energetic. I caught ’em on the back half of the Devotional tour in ’94, and Dave was on auto-destruct, flubbing songs and boozing with abandon. Now, though, DM look to be in top form and in bright spirits…well, as bright as their spirits get.

Oh, one more thing: lose the “giant orb of gloom,” as the NY Post dubbed it. Over on the left side of the stage, the band had a big ball looking almost exactly like ET’s mothership, which flashed words — “guilt” “dissipate,” “suffering” — appropriate to a given song. Other than the timer on “AQOT” and the stock ticker on “Everything Counts,” it was almost inevitably goofy. At best, it shows somebody backstage has a thesaurus; at worst, it’s self-parody. (And, truth be told, the its/it’s grammatical error during “The Sinner in Me” was driving me nuts.)