Appointment of CEO May Point to Barnes & Noble's Future: Electronic Commerce

Apple Board of Directors member and Harwinton Capital chief Jerry York died on Thursday at the age of 71. The executive had suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage at his Pontiac, Michigan home a day earlier. He had been rushed to hospital and was in critical condition during his stay....

Indian capital looks to phase out famous green and yellow motorised three-wheelers, citing pollution and rude drivers

The Indian capital's streets are notorious for the swarms of green and yellow autorickshaws – and for their surly, betel nut-chewing and overcharging drivers.

But their days may be numbered after Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, said she wanted to see the three-wheelers phased out within five years.

Amid uproar in the state assembly, she said that no ban would be imposed "immediately". But Dikshit's comments signalled the likely start of a long campaign to prepare public opinion for the demise of one of the capital's best-known sights.

"Autorickshaws are not a good option. They are uncomfortable and pollute [the] environment. Autorickshaw drivers are unruly and harass passengers," she said.

The authorities in the congested city are struggling to find ways to handle increasing levels of traffic brought on by India's economic boom. Three times as many cars, buses and motorbikes clog the country's roads as 15 years ago. Laws intended to restrict the number of autorickshaws in Delhi are widely flouted. Though the city has 55,000 registered, at least another 25,000 operate illegally.

Most of their drivers are poor and live in the city's slums. "If they ban us what will we do for work? I've children to feed," said Mohammed Imran Khan, a driver from the southern Delhi neighbourhood of Nizamuddin.

Dikshit said that the city was looking at introducing electric cars or electric motorbikes to replace the autorickshaws.

"I was recently told that cycles are fitted with electric motors. This will be good for travelling short distances," she said.

Dikshit has repeatedly said that making Delhi a world-class city is a key aim. The city has already tried to limit the number of cycle rickshaws. But India's supreme court ruled last month that capping their numbers was illegal.

The defenders of the motorised versions point out that, as the vehicles run on compressed natural gas, their contribution to air pollution in the city is minimal compared with cars. Others argue that rickshaws fulfil an essential function in ferrying people short distances to metro stations or bus stops.

Dikshit has another Delhi icon in her sights: the famous brusqueness of the capital's inhabitants. She hopes to bring about a major "cultural change" before Delhi hosts the Commonwealth games this autumn.

"We have to do some things that are extremely basic like keeping the city clean, giving our citizens the culture of politeness and sharing and caring for each other, so that the world goes back with an impression that they have been to a truly civilized city," she said.

Khan said he was always polite and never overcharged.

"I don't even spit when people are in my rickshaw," he said. "That's how polite I am."

• India
• Pollution

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ITV's new chief executive will pocket £16.8 million if he hits all his performance targets by 2015, according to the broadcaster's annual report released today.

The Prudential chief executive has turned down an offer from Société Générale of a seat on the French bank’s board a day after the announcement drew fire from shareholders

BBC News Online was initially devised in 1997 as a response to CNN’s online news page, claims its creator and former Editor-in-Chief, Mike Smartt. “The reason that the BBC decided to go online was that CNN went online in 1996. And because the BBC doesn’t do anything in a hurry, it took it a very long [...]

René Obermann, Deutsche Telekom’s chief executive, underlined the company’s long-term...

China Mobile on Thursday claimed it is still interested in selling the iPhone and upcoming iPad tablet, according to AFP. The carrier is said it expects to strike a deal with Apple sometime in the near future, although chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou declined to explain reasons for the delays....

Website has no objection to Ceop button 'in principle' but meeting online child protection team next month

Facebook has told the home secretary, Alan Johnson, it has "no objection in principle" to an anti-paedophile panic button, but would not commit to installing the feature. After a meeting today the website said it had revealed to the home secretary details of its "more robust reporting system".

It said its alternative to the Ceop button had been developed "by analysing millions of reports submitted by users over the years".

Today's talks between Johnson and the UK's most-visited social networking site were in response to the backlash against the site in the wake of the murder of Ashleigh Hall.

The schoolgirl was killed by serial rapist Peter Chapman, who posed as a teenager on the site and lured her to her death.

After he was convicted of murder Ashleigh's mother criticised the site for not doing enough to protect youngsters from predatory paedophiles.

Johnson said representatives of the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) would meet Facebook representatives in Washington DC next month to discuss the issue.

Johnson said he was pleased with the outcome of talks today.

In a statement he said: "We had a frank exchange of views in which I emphasised that including the Ceop abuse reporting button on their site has the potential to transform child protection – and that the company should put this above all other considerations.

"Facebook told us they have no objection to the principle of including the Ceop button on their site and that they have now agreed to a high level meeting with Ceop in Washington on April 12 to discuss this issue further.

"[Minister] Alan Campbell and I reiterated our view that Facebook must find a way to use this button. I am pleased that the meeting with Ceop is taking place and await the outcome with interest."

In a statement Facebook said it "would explore" adding the Ceop button to its safety centre and would discuss proposals with Ceop at the meeting.

Last week senior police officers criticised Facebook for repeatedly refusing to sign up to a panic button, with the chief executive of Ceop, Jim Gamble, saying police had been asking the company to do so "for too long".

Last year 267 reports were received about suspicious activity on Facebook, 43% of which related to cases of suspected grooming. In 81% of cases the individuals targeted had to make their reports to Ceop through other websites, because Facebook does not have the direct link button.

Children use the button to make reports to Ceop's specialist police teams about suspected abuse, grooming and severe bullying. Although Bebo and MSN have adopted the button, Facebook has refused.

On 11 March Facebook threatened to sue the Daily Mail over the newspaper's allegations that 14-year-old girls who create a profile on the social networking site could be approached "within seconds" by older men who "wanted to perform a sex act" in front of them.

• Facebook
• Child protection
• Digital media
• Social networking
• Internet

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Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of Prudential, has abandoned his controversial proposed second directorship at Société Générale, the French bank, to head off a deep rift with shareholders.

The “location wars” between rival mobile check-in services, the unmet expectations of the Twitter keynote and the hordes of newbies crowding out regulars (as they do every year) were some of the leading threads at SXSW this year. And — rightfully so — everyone was talking about them. Meanwhile, from the outside, skeptics pooh-poohed geeks getting drunk on promo budgets while pretending that changing the world had anything to do with why they were there. Also fair. But somewhere in between those two takeaways fall my three highlights from SXSW, which I think showed us the way social technology will work in the near future:

Foursquare tattoos seemed as ubiquitous at SXSW as people staring down at their phones when they walked into a room.

• While the competition among location-based services will hopefully result in a winner, loser or combination thereof sooner than later (because honestly, who cares), using either Foursquare or Gowalla in Austin this past week was a really cool experience. Rather than seeing scattered updates from the few friends you have who happen to avidly use social media, at SXSW location-based services were able to take a larger-scale pulse of where people were moving. So as you walked down the hall, the wisdom of crowds would tell you that 300 people were listening to a session in Ballroom D, or that 200 were already drinking over at Six Lounge. Sure, that just pushes hordes towards hordes, but it also reveals a vibrant ecosystem — and felt completely different than using mobile social sites at home.

• It was totally awesome to have reliable and quick AT&T phone service and mobile Internet. As I tweeted on my first day in town, “My breakout stars of #sxsw so far: excellent, ubiquitous Wi-Fi and great AT&T service. No joke.” And trying to use my iPhone upon returning to San Francisco has made it all the more obvious how awful we have it by comparison. It’s no fun to be a second-class mobile citizen after you’ve gotten a taste of what could be. I completely support MG at TechCrunch’s take: “Dear AT&T, Whatever You’re Doing At SXSW, Please Do It In San Francisco.”

A snapshot of Austin check-ins from SimpleGeo's Vicarious.ly mashup

• You’ve undoubtedly heard horror stories about exposing the backchannel of audience conversation during conference panels and how that detracts and distracts from the core content. But I had a really excellent experience engaging with tweets during the panel I moderated. First of all, the crowd helped direct us to choose a less unwieldy hashtag than the one assigned — #contentme instead of #contentrelevanttome. Then I kept a Twitter search page open to see what people were saying. When the tweetstream was drowned out by fun facts about coincidences on Hunch given by panelist Hugo Liu, the company’s chief scientist (for instance, if you tell Hunch you like to dance, there’s a very high correlation that you’ll also say you like using Macs), it got harder for me to pick out audience questions. So I asked them to direct the questions to me by mentioning @lizgannes in a tweet. When I got too many questions to process, I was able to choose the ones that had been retweeted by other people on Twitter (who may have not even been in the room).

That’s kind of a long story, but the point is that I hadn’t actually planned to do any of it. But because so many people in the room were using Twitter at the same time, we were able to use it to better tweak the panel on the fly in order to address their needs. (Though I did feel afterwards that I should watch a video of the panel; multitasking is damn hard!)

Top photo courtesy of Flickr user schatz.

Spring sale for SMBs

Paul Maritz, ex-Microsoftie and current president and chief executive officer at VMware, is learning just how much fun it is to compete against his former employer....

Offloading malware protection to the cloud

China Mobile on Thursday claimed it is still interested in selling the iPhone and upcoming iPad tablet, according to AFP. The carrier is said it expects to strike a deal with Apple sometime in the near future, although chairman and chief executive Wang Jianzhou declined to explain reasons for the delays....

Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, who died while defusing device, and Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes recognised for gallantry in Helmand province

Two army bomb disposal experts were today awarded the George Cross for the bravery they displayed in dealing with Taliban explosives in Afghanistan.

One of the pair, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, of the Royal Logistic Corps, was killed as he attempted to defuse a device in October.

Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, of Telford, Shropshire, and also of the Royal Logistic Corps, received his award for what was described as "the single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan".

In August the 30-year-old dismantled seven insurgent bombs by hand without any protective clothing so four seriously injured soldiers, and the bodies of two dead comrades, could be recovered from the area.

In October he told the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, who was making a visit to Afghanistan, that more troops were needed on the ground.

The chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said: "As one of our top two operational honours, the George Cross is awarded only rarely. Its recipients must have displayed the very highest levels of gallantry.

"The actions of Staff Sergeant Hughes and the late Staff Sergeant Schmid meet this most demanding test in full measure. Their selfless commitment, unswerving devotion to duty and unsurpassed courage are both awe-inspiring and humbling."

The George Cross ranks with the Victoria Cross as Britain's highest award for bravery.

It is presented to civilians and members of the armed forces who carry out acts of great heroism while not in the presence of the enemy.

A total of 161 people, including the two soldiers whose awards were announced today, have received George Crosses.

Schmid, who was known as Oz, was born in Truro, Cornwall, but lived in Winchester, Hampshire, with his wife Christina and five-year-old stepson, Laird.

He died as he attempted to disarm an improvised explosive device (IED) near Sangin, in central Helmand province, on 31 October, a week before he had been due to fly back to Britain.

Over the summer he took part in Operation Panther's Claw, a British-led offensive to clear populated areas in central Helmand of Taliban fighters.

During his five months in Afghanistan he made 64 IEDs safe and found 11 bomb-making centres.

After his death Lieutenant Colonel Rob Thomson, the commanding officer of 2 Rifles Battle Group, described him as "simply the bravest and most courageous man I have ever met".

Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Bex, the commanding officer of the counter-IED task force, said Schmid was a "legend" whose "gallant actions and sacrifice will never be forgotten".

At Schmid's funeral, held in Truro Cathedral, his widow called on world leaders to do more to protect soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

"Olaf, and troops like him, join to serve traditional warrior values, to passionately protect the country they love, its ideals and especially their families, communities and each other," she said.

The last George Cross recipient was Royal Marines reservist Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, from Birmingham, who risked his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on a live grenade in Afghanistan in February 2008.

• Military
• Afghanistan

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc promoted the executive who spearheaded the development and launch of its Nook electronic reader to be its new chief executive, as the largest specialty U.S. bookseller seeks to accelerate its push into digital books.

Sean FitzPatrick, former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, is arrested for questioning over his role in the collapse of the lender, which was nationalised following a spate of scandals

More than one in four Americans suffer from a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at any given time, according to estimates from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Over our lifetime nearly one half of us suffer from such disorders. Unfortunately, nearly two thirds of our behavioral and emotional problems are never diagnosed or treated, even though in many cases effective treatment is available. More than 80 percent of people with major depression, for example, benefit substantially from a combination of medication and counseling.

When I served as editor in chief of Psychology Today , readers often asked me to direct them to screening tests for mental health problems. I looked for such tests on the Internet, which seemed the ideal tool for helping people find answers to questions about their mental health: Is this down feeling I’m experiencing normal? Why do I shout at my wife and kids all the time? Is my drinking out of control? Should I be seeing a therapist? I found the Internet riddled with thousands of homemade tests, but none had been scientifically validated. Worse, many of them served as marketing vehicles for videos, books or services--sending the test taker straight to a sales pitch. No broad, reliable, consumer-friendly test seemed to exist.

[More]

MrShaggy writes "Credit Suisse made headlines this summer when it estimated that YouTube was costing Google a half a billion dollars in 2009 as it streamed 75 billion videos. But a new report from Arbor Networks suggests that even though Google is approaching 10 percent of the net's traffic, it's got so much fiber optic cable it is simply trading traffic, with no payment involved, with the net's largest ISPs. 'I think Google's transit costs are close to zero,' said Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist for Arbor Networks and a longtime internet researcher. Arbor Networks, which sells network monitoring equipment used by about 70 percent of the net's ISPs, likely knows more about the net's ebbs and flows than anyone outside of the National Security Agency."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MrShaggy writes "Credit Suisse made headlines this summer when it estimated that YouTube was costing Google a half a billion dollars in 2009 as it streamed 75 billion videos. But a new report from Arbor Networks suggests that even though Google is approaching 10 percent of the net's traffic, it's got so much fiber optic cable it is simply trading traffic, with no payment involved, with the net's largest ISPs. 'I think Google's transit costs are close to zero,' said Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist for Arbor Networks and a longtime internet researcher. Arbor Networks, which sells network monitoring equipment used by about 70 percent of the net's ISPs, likely knows more about the net's ebbs and flows than anyone outside of the National Security Agency."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brandon Holley, the 43-year-old editor in chief of Yahoo!'s Web site for women Shine, is profiled in this morning's New York Times. Holley was once editor of Jane magazine at Condé Nast before the sassy women's magazine was shut down in July 2007. Now she works out of her Red Hook, Brooklyn home.

Shine is doing well as it approaches its second anniversary (No. 2 in traffic behind Glam Media) and Holley insists editing the site is a "great job." But she and some of the original editors of the site had a hard time transitioning from the glitzy print world to stay-at-home blogging and editing. Two of her eight original editors quit since the site's launch.

Read the rest of this story »

See Also:

• Condé Nast Executive Says Pay Walls Are A Bad Strategy
• Monocle's Tyler Brûlé: Old Media 'Farts' Distracted By iPad, Twitter
• The Future Of Publishing

· Last-ditch talks under way between BA and union
· Cabin crew due to begin three-day walkout on Saturday

A three-day strike by British Airways cabin crew is still planned for this weekend but last-ditch peace talks are continuing between the airline and union.

BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh, met the joint general secretary of the Unite trade union, Tony Woodley, this morning but they failed to reach an agreement. It is understood that Walsh submitted a new offer but Woodley raised strong objections. However, Woodley has returned to the TUC for more talks after discussions with representatives of Unite's cabin crew branches, Bassa and Cabin Crew 89.

Walsh and Woodley have been holding discussions at the headquarters of the TUC in central London. If there is no breakthrough this afternoon it is likely that the first walkout by BA cabin crew in 13 years will begin on Saturday.

BA has pledged to fly 65% of its passengers to their destinations by using a fleet of chartered jets and 1,000 volunteer cabin crew.

Earlier this week, Woodley said Unite would suspend the strikes if BA put a previous formal offer to the union back on the table. BA had withdrawn the offer last Friday after Unite set strike dates for the three-day walkout starting on Saturday, and a further four days of industrial action starting on 27 March.

Representatives of Bassa had warned that members were unlikely to accept the offer anyway. It included a three-year pay deal and the partial repeal of staffing cuts that triggered the dispute.

Walsh had indicated that BA was unlikely to put the same offer back on the table and would present a tougher one instead. That appears to have happened this morning, with Walsh claiming the dispute has already cost BA nearly £30m that now needs to be reclaimed through any future agreement.

• British Airways
• Airline industry
• Trade unions
• Transport

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· Crozier guaranteed at least £3.2m in first three years
· Grade got £2.26m in last year, plus £400,000 from options

Michael Grade left ITV with £2.7m in his pocket at the end of last year, while incoming chief executive Adam Crozier is guaranteed to get £3.2m over the next three years and could trouser more than £16m by 2015 if he hits all his performance targets.

Grade picked up £2.126m in salary and annual bonus for his last year as executive chairman of the broadcaster, and also sold shares worth a further £401,567 under the company's share options scheme, according to ITV's 2009 annual report, published today.

The ITV board also awarded him a further £167,000 to cover the remainder of his contract – which expires next month – but calculated the payoff as if he were merely non-executive chairman of the firm.

Crozier, whose move to ITV from the Post Office was announced in late January, will receive a salary of £775,000 a year – £50,000 less than Grade got in his last year – and is being awarded a £200,000 cash sum as a "golden hello" for joining the company. He will also be awarded £420,000 worth of shares when he joins on 26 April, which he can collect over the next 18 months.

Coupled with his pension contributions and other benefits, Crozier will pick up about £860,000 a year – before any bonuses – on top of his golden hello, meaning he is guaranteed at least £3.2m over the next three years.

But he will also take part in the company's short-term cash bonus scheme – which could net him a further £1.16m a year – and is expected to spend £775,000 of his own money buying ITV shares.

ITV also outlined the long-term incentive plan it has designed for Crozier. He is being offered up to 4,115,044 shares in ITV – worth £2.26m at today's share price – that he can collect in 2013 "subject to delivering stretching outperformance". He will not have to buy the shares – they are what are termed in the City "nil cost options" – but they will be awarded depending on the firm's financial performance.

Up to 75% will vest only if ITV delivers better than average returns than a comparator group of companies including BSkyB and the Daily Mail & General Trust. He will get all the shares if ITV's performance is in the top 25% of its peer group and none if its performance is below average. The remaining options will vest "subject to the achievement of strategic measures", ITV said.

ITV insiders said that if he meets all the performance criteria – which would require a significant increase in ITV's share price performance – Crozier could pocket more than £16m over the next half decade.

Archie Norman, who took over from Grade as ITV non-executive chairman at the start of the year, is being paid a basic salary of £300,000 a year over his three-year term. Norman has also been awarded 400,000 ITV shares a year, and bought 380,000 when he was appointed in November last year.

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• Adam Crozier
• Michael Grade
• ITV
• Television industry
• Media business
• ITV

Richard Wrayguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

A radical Palestinian group with suspected ties to al-Qaeda killed a worker in southern Israel today when it fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip, just as Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the EU’s deputy foreign policy chief, was visiting the blockaded territory.

Steve Riggio has signed off as CEO of bookseller Barnes & Noble to become the company's Vice Chairman. Replacing him at the helm will be William Lynch, who has heaps of experience in e-commerce under his belt and was previously President of B&N's main website (bn.com). The company also announced the promotion of COO Mitchell Klipper to chief executive of the company’s retail group, which encompasses the Barnes & Noble retail business and the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers business.

In his first public comment on the suit, HTC chief Peter Chou said the company...

Steve Riggio has signed off as CEO of bookseller Barnes & Noble to become the company’s Vice Chairman. Replacing him at the helm will be William Lynch, who has heaps of experience in e-commerce under his belt and was previously President of B&N’s main website (bn.com).

The company also announced the promotion of COO Mitchell Klipper to chief executive of the company’s retail group, which encompasses the Barnes & Noble retail business and the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers business.

William Lynch joined Barnes & Noble in February 2009 as President of Barnes & Noble.com and has been responsible for the company’s core online business since then. Lynch launched the company’s digital commerce platform as well as the nook, Barnes & Nobles’ eBook Reader. You know, the device that won the Best New Gadget Award 2009 at the recent Crunchies show (and boy, do they know how to show off their pride properly).

Prior to Barnes & Noble, Lynch was Executive Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of HSN.com. From 2004 to 2008, he was CEO of IAC subsidiary Gifts.com, which he co-founded.

From 2000 to 2004, he was VP and General Manager, E-Commerce, for Palm., where he oversaw all of the company’s Web properties, including Palm.com, the Palm Online Store, the Palm Software Connection and the Palm.Net wireless ISP.

In short: he’s all about digital, baby.

CrunchBase InformationBarnes & NobleInformation provided by CrunchBase

Palestinian president appeals to EU foreign policy chief to pressure Israel over housing settlements

Israel faced new international pressure over the deadlocked Middle East peace process today with a visit by Lady Ashton, the European Union's new foreign policy chief, to the blockaded Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Ashton was touring United Nations offices, schools and refugee camps but had no plans to meet representatives of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, in line with a long-standing boycott by the EU and US.

Minutes after she arrived, a rocket fired from Gaza killed a Thai farm worker in the southern Israeli village of Netiv Ha'asara. Israel Radio reported that responsibility for the attack had been claimed by the radical Palestinan group Ansar al-Sunna. Hamas has tried to enforce a de facto ceasefire since last year's war.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, asked Ashton for EU intervention to put pressure on Israel to freeze building in the settlements and Jerusalem. Earlier she held talks in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and tomorrow will be in Moscow to join a meeting of the Middle East quartet – Hillary Clinton for the US, the UN's Ban Ki-Moon, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov and Tony Blair, the quartet's special representative.

Ashton is one of the most senior western political figures to visit Gaza since Hamas took power. Only two EU foreign ministers have been to Gaza since last year's war. Foreign officials are regularly refused entry by Israel or stay away because their governments do not recognise Hamas. The EU is the largest contributor of aid to the Palestinians, delivering €1bn (£890m)a year, and is often described as a "payer but not a player" in the Middle East.

Under heavy pressure to show her mettle after criticism of inexperience and a poor start to her high-profile job, Ashton has said she would push for the launch of Palestinian-Israeli "proximity" talks as a prelude to formal negotiations. But diplomats admit they do not know how to get from indirect to direct talks, let alone how to break the current impasse caused by the East Jerusalem row.

The UN says the blockade of Gaza has left hundreds of thousands living in poverty. The head of the UN's refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, said Palestinians were hoping for a single outcome from Ashton's visit – a lifting of the Israeli siege.

Her arrival in the Middle East comes after the row last week between Israel and the US, following Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in the occupied West Bank.

The decision, which was announced during the visit of the US vice-president, Joe Biden, was described by one of Barack Obama's closest aides, David Axelrod, as an affront to the US that could undermine peace efforts in the Middle East.

Last night the US president said Jerusalem's new settlement homes "weren't helpful" in carving out a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but stressed Washington remained a committed ally of Israel.

"Friends are going to disagree sometimes," he told Fox News.

• Israel
• Palestinian territories
• Gaza
• Lady Ashton
• Middle East
• European Union

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Europe's privacy watchdogs have outlined exactly what the meanings are of the two terms on which the whole EU Data Protection Directive hangs. It said that organisations need more guidance now because of the complexity of modern business.

The U.S. Postal Service temporarily blocked the mailing of a bulk newsletter from anti-gay group Family Research Institute advocating against the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, saying the content was "obscene" and "incited force-able resistance against the government," KKTV reports:

"Local postal officials sent the newsletter to Washington for review. Wednesday morning, the United States Postal Service Pricing and Classifications board overruled the local interpretation that the newsletter violated guidelines for a non-profit bulk mailing rate. FRI will now be allowed to mail out their newsletter at a non-profit rate, which is 3 cents less than the standard mailing rate."

Read the content of the mailing (I think it's obscene too, but not for any reasons that would get it banned from mailing), AFTER THE JUMP...

****CONTENT OF MAILING FROM ANTI-GAY FAMILY RESEARCH INSTITUTE****

Dear Supporter,

Well, a Democrat is President, and gays-in-the-military is up again for debate! This month’s newsletter deals with this issue, as do the excerpts of the following Feb. 8 letter from a Captain to Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

“This letter is in response to your shocking statement last week that you advocate homosexuals openly serving in the military services. I seriously question the wisdom of your position... I am a retired Navy Captain... and... in my more than 31 years of active duty, I commanded two ships, served as Executive Officer on two ships, commanded Coastal Squadron ONE (Swift Boats) in Vietnam, and was Chief Staff Officer on an Amphibious Squadron.... I received a Juris Doctorate from the Hastings College of Law. Like you, I encountered homosexuals throughout my Navy career and in civilian life. Unlike you, I do not find they are more deserving than non-homosexuals or that they constitute a viable or necessary body of troops for the defense of our country.

“My experience is Naval... the best analogy to a ship at sea is a prison.... During my enlisted service, homosexuals seemed to be a clumsy lot. They had a tendency to repeatedly fall headfirst down an engine room ladder. Some were even known to trip on deck and “fall” overboard. The crew had a way of policing themselves to eliminate homosexual advances.... It has been my experience that if sexual favors are available aboard ship, some enterprising sailor, petty officer, or officer will find a way to take advantage of the offer. There is usually a senior/junior relationship in such exchanges and the senior partner will reward the junior with preferential treatment, such as duty assignments, watches, leave, liberty, and advancement. Such preferential treatment can’t be hidden from other crewmembers and tends to destroy the chain of command, discipline and morale. If a Chief Petty Officer, for example, is having sexual relations with a non-rated sailor, it will have an adverse impact on those petty officers between the two in the chain of command.... That sexual misconduct in the Navy exists to this day is obvious. I recall that a lesbian ring was discovered on the USS NORTON SOUND back in the late 60’s or early 70’s. At about the same time my wife, now a retired Navy Commander,... was aware of many cases of homosexuality involving the WAVES assigned to the Barracks. I also recall that one of the cruisers returning from the First Gulf War reported 40% of the female crewmembers were pregnant after a six-month deployment.

“In all my years of service, I never encountered a Commanding Officer who ‘asked’ a subordinate if he was a homosexual.... In regard to heterosexual behavior, the UCMJ also proscribes common law marriage under the heading of Unlawful Cohabitation (with or without evidence of sexual intercourse). It sanctions adultery and prostitution (for both the prostitute and the patron). In the case of an officer, merely “consorting with a notorious prostitute” constitutes an offense, again even without evidence of sexual intercourse. The problem is that common law marriage is legal in 11 states and the District of Columbia. I don’t believe that adultery is a criminal offense in any state today. And in my home state of Nevada, even prostitution is legal. I don’t recall you asking Congress to legalize heterosexual sodomy, adultery, prostitution, or common law marriage. There are many punitive articles in the UCMJ that have no relationship to the satisfactory performance of military duties, yet you single out homosexuals for preferred treatment. Again, I must ask ‘why?’

“The argument I hear most often expounded by the homophiles is that the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy deprives the military of outstanding young men and women who want nothing more than to defend their country and that they have the ability to operate a radar, or a gas turbine, or a gun as well as a heterosexual. That can’t be true.... But, even if it were true, are homosexuals really worth the administrative problems they would create by their mere existence? The Navy, today, does not willingly accept GED holders... Minor criminal records are a bar to enlistment. Visible tattoos and piercings are not permitted. Are these aberrations more damning than sodomy? Is it your contention that cohabitors, adulterers, prostitutes, young men and women with tattoos, those with only GEDs, or the obese cannot serve as well as homosexuals? If so, what is your empirical evidence to support such an argument? If we get to pick and choose which laws we uphold, which laws are next on the line to ignore? Carnal Knowledge? I would think a service man or woman who has sex with a minor (Carnal Knowledge) could perform military duties as well, if not better, than a homosexual. At least we don’t have children in combat, or in the military at large, for them to accost....

“Have you considered the likelihood that some of the homosexuals will request sex change procedures... Do you also advocate same-sex marriage or ‘partnerships?’ Will the homosexual’s partner be entitled to dependents’ benefits, including health care, BAQ, military base access, and commissary and exchange privileges? Will they be entitled to military housing? Would they be entitled to sex change procedures at government expense? “While serving as Executive Officer on USS CATAMOUNT (LSD-17) in 1967, one of the Radarmen was arrested by local police. While inventorying his personal effects a photograph of the sailor performing fellatio on another male was discovered. The police turned the photo over to the Shore Patrol, who forwarded it to me. During an investigation it was determined that five of the ship’s Radarmen were involved in a male prostitution ring. They declared that while in Radarman Class ‘A’ School at Treasure Island, their instructors convinced them that they could augment their military pay by providing homosexual services to gays in San Francisco. They took advantage of the opportunity presented and continued such activity in San Diego. CATAMOUNT sailed absent several Radarmen and the Class ‘A’ School lost several instructors. Are these otherwise competent Radarmen the type of sailors you want on your ships? I hope not!

Lawrence R. Jefferis, Captain, U. S. Navy (Ret.), Las Vegas, NV 89117

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