RSF Press China on Pod Fraud Press Mess

Projected growth of Greater China iPod and PMP accessory industry. Source: China Sourcing Reports.

China IPod Maker, Journalists in Dispute: The journalists who had their assets frozen, in a dispute over their reporting on labor conditions in the factory that makes the Apple iPod, have had their cause taken up by Reporters Without Borders.

A media advocacy group on Wednesday urged Apple Computer Inc. to intervene in a dispute over alleged labor abuses by an iPod manufacturer in China.A media advocacy group on Wednesday urged Apple Computer Inc. to intervene in a dispute over alleged labor abuses by an iPod manufacturer in China.

Newsflow Opportunity

Positive Press on Iraq Is Aim of U.S. Contract:

U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq.

Retail Rapture Futures

Via Business Insurance:

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Online financial futures exchange HedgeStreet.com has launched hurricane damage futures that will allow investors to place bets on the amount of property damage hurricanes may cause in the United States, exchange officials said Thursday.

Astroturf Installers Wanted

From the shill watch: The latest alert arrives in the old Gmail inbox from The Freelance Work Exchange — a slimy little operation that specializes in placing homeworkers with astroturfing and “viral marketing” operations.

Two individuals are needed to undertake a forum posting campaign. You will be responsible for posting a minimum of 30 posts on forums per day. You will spread these out over 5 different forums. You should have the ability to spark debate, and have a friendly writing tone. Please send a quote per post you will make.

Anti-Peje Archivist

Historical prices on a Lopez Obrador victory. Source: Tradesports.

In the battle of the Mexican Netroots, perhaps the best organized attempt to counter the “vote by vote” Web video campaign is Andrés López Rivas, aka Ciberactivo, a 24-year old systems engineer from Monterrey who blogs at Mexico in Danger.

PAN out to hire this kid to run the south of the border equivalent of the Bloggers for Dean project coordinated by James Moore of Second Superpower fame. I’m going to see if I can interview him.

It’s a useful resource for reality-testing the charges made by the “resistance” of blatant media bias, and for getting an overview of how North American editorial pages have viewed the current crisis.

Greg Palast: Florida & Mexico

Via Electoral Fraud in Mexico.

See also this recent study from the Center for Economic Policy Research

An Analysis of Discrepancies in the Mexican Presidential Election Results.

Shotgun Wedding With the Deutsche Borse?

Euronext faces merger vote call (FT):

Euronext’s largest shareholder said on Wednesday that it intended to force the exchange to hold a vote on a merger offer from Deutsche Börse that currently exceeds a bid from the NYSE Group which was agreed by Euronext’s management in June.

The activist shareholder is once again a hedge fund — a high-flying philanthropic hedge fund with former ties to the Yale endowment, if I remember correctly.

Times Visits a Parallel Mexico

A group of Mexican scientists and other academics have discovered highly anomalous patterns in the PREP running computer tally of election results — patterns that strongly suggest human or algorithmic intervention.

Mexico’s Recount (Times):

For eight weeks, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made his claim of electoral fraud the basis for what threatens to become a permanent protest of Mexico’s presidential election. Yesterday, Mexico’s electoral tribunal kicked away the foundations of his claim. In a recount of 9 percent of polling places, the judges found no evidence of widespread fraud and too few errors to change the results.

Actually, the court rejected the majority of the protests on the grounds that the representatives of the Coalition had no standing to bring them, and did not investigate the charges at all.

The electoral tribunal has not yet declared that Felipe Calderón, of the ruling National Action Party, is Mexico’s next president. It has until Sept. 6 to rule on whether President Vicente Fox and business groups interfered illegally in the election. No one should ask Mr. López Obrador to concede before this ruling. But it is time for him to end the protests and pledge to respect the tribunal’s final decision.

The Tribunal’s final decision, note, will also take into account the Coalition’s general complaints, most importantly that PAN, Fox and the media broke numerous election laws governing campaign funding, inflammatory negative campaigning, and interference by the executive in the campaign.

No Pay, No Pal

Lies, Damn Lies, & Forward Looking Statements: quote of the week.

Amisil has not received a single distribution from Clarium, while he [Mr. Thiel] has skimmed tens of millions of dollars out of Clarium into his own pockets. Theres been no pay for us, and hes been no pal.

Explains Mr. Savett, Esq.,

The New Market Machines Radio: Rainy Day, Dream Away

Today on The New Market Machines Radio:
You would think that transitioning from northern hemisphere fall to southern hemisphere spring would get easier after the first few times you do it, but it always takes a psychic toll.

Since we are out rustling up my Brazilian resident visa today, enjoy a nostalgic musical interlude, in which I recreate my college DJ days with a set of songs that, for me, define the Brooklyn-B-burg-East Village axis of evolution.

Shake Your Bote For the Vote

EL SENDERO DEL PEJE AL 2006:

“This is what we’re fighting for, boys.”

Next Quarter Brings NYSE-Next Test

Euronext Posts 63% Rise in Net; NYSE Vote Is Set for December (W$J):

PARIS – Pan-European stock-market operator Euronext NV said Wednesday that strong trading activity at its cash equities and derivatives business helped lift second-quarter net profit by 63%. … The company also said the plan to merge with NYSE Group Inc. will be put to a shareholder vote in early December. It aims to complete the merger in the first-quarter of 2007, it said.

The New Public Broadcasting

Broadcast Chief Misused Office, Inquiry Reports

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.

The State Dept. had apparently cited national security in an effort to prevent the report from becoming public — threatening prosecution if members of Congress exercised their oversight powers.

In providing the report to the members of Congress, the State Department warned that making it public could violate federal law, people who have seen the report said. On Tuesday, Mr. Berman released the summary.

Flogging Smog

Biggest-Ever Emissions Trades: $1 Billion Deal Benefits Beijing

WASHINGTON — The World Bank and 11 utilities, banks, trading firms and others have put together the largest greenhouse-gas emission trades in history, a $1 billion deal that will help two Chinese chemical companies reduce emissions believed to cause climate change by the equivalent of 19 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Which GNU for You?

Open Warfare in Open Source (FindTech GPL Insight): The usual excellent collection of readings on the ongoing conflict over the GPL v. 3 …

The proverbial “line in the sand” between camps supporting the current GNU General Public License and those promoting v3 was nowhere more apparent than at LinuxWorld, according to this piece [from BW]. On one side is the Free Software Foundation’s Richard Stallman. On the other is Linux creator Linus Torvalds, who is concerned that the digital rights management provisions in the new license are too restrictive.

Backroom Dealings Maintain the Status Quo Mexico

“I’m against Peje the Lizard”

La CROC cambia de cachucha: ahora Felipe es “el bueno”; antes era AMLO, y poco antes, Madrazo: Unafuente (’one source’) is a great news aggregating blog that collects the whole range of coverage on the issues of the day.

Among today’s posts: Signs of cracks in the Lopez Obrador coalition?

The Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) shifted the support it gave the PRD by endorsing Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the elections to the PAN candidate Felipe Calderón, after assuring itself that the elections court would declare the latter the winner of the presidential contest, according to La Jornada. The leadership of that organization said it felt “aggrieved” by the methods the PRD candidate has used in his “civil resistance.”

The New Market Machines Radio Lies!

The blogosphere is lying to you! The New Market Machines Radio in particular is riddled with errors!

Yesterday’s edition, for example, misidentifies Glenn Reynold’s interlocutor from Crooked Timber at a recent Cato Institute discussion of Reynold’s new book.

I also misattribute to BusinessWeek’s man in Hong Kong the statement that the Indian congress had repudiated data on the use of polluted water for soft drink bottling — making my whole rant on that point kind of dumb, or at least premature. He stated, correctly, that the public health authorities had reported those results to the congress.

Monkey Business

Vigilante consumer report: the service at AirGorilla is failing the “monkeys with typewriters” test.

I need to have my return itinerary in hand to get my visa from the Brazilian Consulate.

We have not had time to apply for my permanent residency visa, and besides, my wife sent the original of our marriage certificate to Brazil for a business transaction my father-in-law is handling for us.

Rock the Vote

The “vote by vote” Netroots campaign kicks into high gear on El Sendero today.

Pesticide in Coke: The Real Thing?

In the latest edition of The Pod People, on NMM Radio, I note a recent BusinessWeek podcast interview with its man in Hong Kong on Coke and Pepsi’s PR nightmare in India … and give them a good tongue-lashing for their crappy reporting.

Now that I have a chance to try to fill in the blanks myself, I’m even madder.

Thain to Borsa: “Tag Along”

Italian exchange invited to Euronext deal (Investment News): Well, well, well …

The New York Stock Exchange wants to add Borsa Italiana to the mix as it prepares to vote on its merger with Euronext, according to published reports. “It’s in the interest of Borsa Italiana to join with Euronext and be part of our deal…. We have already anticipated this possibility in the structure of our accord,” said John Thain chief executive in an Italian newspaper yesterday.

Interesting. This must be NYSE’s response to signs that an all-European exchange “federation” is getting some traction.

Style Points

I have to say that I’m finding my $2x annual subscription to the AP Stylebook 2.0 to be a good investment.  Take this e-mail update today:

An AP Stylebook entry has been updated. Editor’s Note: Changes in AP style, reflecting names as used by the Indian government that have gained favor internationally and in everyday speech.

Today’s update:

Mumbai: India\’s largest city, formerly known as Bombay. (Also, Chennai, formerly Madras.)

St. Lopez Obrador

BukaneroZ (Mexico) provides a good example of a meme gaining traction in the anti-Peje blogosphere in Mexico, ridiculing and decrying the use of religious imagery in the public presentation of the rebel candidate and the picketing and leafleting of what the opposition considers to be political pulpits.

SAN PEJE, Santo Patrón de los plantones y de las revueltas. Si, aunque no lo crean ahora en catedral estan vendiendo escapularios con la imagen de San Peje, el motivo, posiblemente más campaña q lo apoye en su estupida pelea por la presidencia. Tal vez pienza que con esto el logrará cuando menos un favorcito del cielo o de plano tener un puesto a la derecha del Señor (perdon si ofendo algún cristiano, catolico o similar), el cual en mi opinión ya lo bateo de ahi y ni siquiera el diablo lo quiere por desmadrozo. La fotografia es de la primera plana de Diario Monitor.

“You’re not going to believe this, but they are selling scapulars in the cathedral now with images of Lopez Obrador. …”

Euronext Plays Down Plan B

WSJ.com:

PARIS (Dow Jones)–Pan-European bourse operator Euronext NV (29064.AE) Monday said it remains committed to its planned merger with NYSE Group Inc. (NYX) following weekend reports that is discussing an alternative three-way tie with Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE) and Borsa Italiana.

The dark Italian stallion candidate is still waiting around, though, like that blond Amish guy at the end of Witness.

The Business reported Sunday that Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and Borsa Italiana are in talks to create a pan-European stock market which it said could scupper Euronext’s NYSE deal.

The paper said the deal has the firm backing of management at the German and Italian stock exchanges, but has yet to receive support from the Euronext board.

The Euronext s