March 20, 2004

I know I said I wouldn't likely discuss my next project here anymore, but...

Over the past few days I've been setting up my link portal. I've been working out the templating system and found I can do what I want to pretty straightforwardly. I set this stuff up locally first, of course.

As of this morning, approx. 2 AM, I had a look that paralleled P6 and the reBlog, my other ongoing experiment.

Today I decided to pretty much take the day off. Went to visit my daughter. Went to show her what I was doing. Found the link portal had been reconfigured.

Fortunately I was just playing, and fortunately I still have the changes I made locally to the templates. In fact, I'm even further along than the site on the server. And it's basically my fault; it looks like the setup script was run again because it had been changed from a single language to a multi-language configuration. You're just not supposed to leave setup scripts laying around your site, but I was SERIOUSLY not looking to go public for a while.

On the other hand, I know from experience if you leave anything at all on a server, Google will find it unless you specifically tell it not to. And it only works because Google is being nice…it's easier to write a spider that ignores robots.txt than one that obeys it.

This is the most typical sort of security lapse—sloppiness due to assuming no one is interested. And I'm not totally discounting the possibility I did something stupid because it was late and I was tired. I don't know for sure how nuts to get about this.

Well, the whole directory tree the portal lived in is gone, as is the database, and user account the scripts used. And I'll be thinking in terms of tightening up security and recovery capability around here.

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Quote of note:

Americans should realize that when politicians talk about activist judges or states' rights, they shouldn't be taken too seriously. They don't really care about that stuff. They just think no one will vote for them if they speak their minds.

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Hiding Behind the Constitution
By WILLIAM B. RUBENSTEIN

LOS ANGELES

Neither Democrats nor Republicans have distinguished themselves in the debate over gay marriage. Politicians of both parties — led by President Bush, with his proposed amendment banning gay marriage — have avoided the main issue and sought refuge in the abstractions of the Constitution. Instead of asking what kind of society we want, they argue about what our structure of government can permit.

Politicians generally like a constitutional discussion because it allows them a way to avoid controversial topics by reframing them in terms of the two organizing principles of our system of government: separation of powers and federalism.

First, consider the Republicans. They have a simple message: gay marriage is all about "judicial activism" — that is, judges who overstep their bounds. A February report from the Senate Republican Policy Committee is representative of the strategy. Called "Judicial Activism Forces Same-Sex Marriage on Nation," it uses the title phrase five times. (Memo to Republicans: the mayor of San Francisco is not a judge.)

…Whether or not you agree — and Republicans themselves didn't seem to mind judicial activism when it delivered the presidency to George W. Bush — Republicans have managed to redirect the conversation. Their rhetoric is a way for Republicans to run to the center. They can appease their conservative base by opposing gay marriage, but their reasons for doing so will not offend more moderate Republicans.

The Democrats aren't much better. They too have a simple message: gay marriage is all about states' rights. John Kerry, for example, has said that "the issue of marriage should be left to the states."

…Whether or not you agree — and Democrats themselves have long favored the use of federal power to guarantee civil rights, even in family law, for African-Americans — Democrats have succeeded in shifting the debate. Their rhetoric allows them to claim the center: they can placate their liberal base by not opposing gay marriage, but by leaving it to the states they don't risk alienating more moderate Democrats.

It should not be surprising that the controversy over gay marriage has turned into a debate about the structural principles in the Constitution. This is how slavery was debated for America's first 100 years, and the rights of African-Americans and women were discussed in these terms for the next hundred.

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Clinton Aides Plan to Tell Panel of Warning Bush Team on Qaeda
By PHILIP SHENON

Published: March 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 19 — Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation — and how the new administration was slow to act.

They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy; and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.

One official scheduled to testify, Richard A. Clarke, who was President Bill Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the Qaeda threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led.

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Imported drugs are a reality, panel is told
By Mark Sherman, Associated Press, 3/20/2004

WASHINGTON -- A government panel exploring whether prescription drugs can be safely imported got a clear answer yesterday from consumer advocates who said Americans are already doing it to cope with skyrocketing drug bills.

"It's a reality now because the United States government has failed to develop a model that assures drugs are affordable to Americans," Gail Shearer of Consumers Union said at the panel's first meeting at Food and Drug Administration headquarters in suburban Maryland.

Laurie Young of the Older Women's League said her members are angry about FDA's "refusal to make what is a common practice legal."

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AIDS drug's high cost spurs doctors' boycott
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff, 3/19/2004

In an unusually combative display of physician anger, AIDS specialists in Boston and elsewhere across the nation are protesting a drug maker's steep price increase by boycotting that company's medicines, shunning its sales representatives, and severing research relationships.

Organizers say that 250 doctors and other health care workers in the United States are participating in the action that targets Abbott Laboratories, which in December boosted the wholesale price of a month's supply of the AIDS drug Norvir from about $50 for a daily 100-milligram pill to more than $250. The protest includes physicians from some of the best-known HIV practices in the country, including Fenway Community Health Center in Boston and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, based in Los Angeles. Doctors championing the boycott contend that Abbott increased the price of Norvir, among the first members of a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, in part to persuade doctors to prescribe a newer AIDS pill made by the company. Abbott executives respond that they are attempting to derive a fair return on a medicine originally designed to be taken many times daily but now typically used only once or twice a day to enhance the effectiveness of other companies' drugs.The action comes amid intensifying opposition to high drug prices by patients and insurers and, industry analysts said, could signal a new brand of militancy among doctors who have been loath to use tools of protest more commonly associated with political and social activists. "If this is an effective mechanism, I suspect there's going to be a move of many more physicians across the country to use this kind of mechanism to attempt to control drug prices," said Kenneth Kaitin, director of the Tufts University Center for the Study of Drug Development. "To not carry Abbott drugs and not allow Abbott sales reps in, if that catches on, that's going to send shudders through the industry."

The protest is of sufficient concern to Abbott that the firm sent a vice president from its Illinois headquarters to Boston to meet with Fenway physicians after the protest began.

Dr. Stephen L. Boswell, Fenway's executive director, said he does not begrudge Abbott a reasonable profit. "But this is beyond any reasonable, justifiable increase," he said. "People depend on these drugs for their lives. We're going to object whenever we think what drug companies are doing is unreasonable and not in the best interest of the patients we're caring for." Physicians at Fenway and other clinics involved in the protest are refusing to prescribe Abbott's products whenever possible, so long as equally effective options exist from other companies. The impact, so far, of the drug boycott is unclear, with industry analysts saying that it is too early to assess.

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Charges Dropped Against Muslim Chaplain
By LARRY HOBBS, Associated Press Writer

MIAMI - The Army's allegations last year were grave: A military chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was linked to a possible espionage ring and eventually charged with mishandling classified information. Six months later, all charges against Capt. James Yee have been dropped.

"Chaplain Yee has won," his attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Washington, said in a statement Friday. "The Army's dismissal of the classified information charges against him represents a long overdue vindication."

Yee now faces only minor punishment and should be back at work soon. If convicted of all the original charges, he could have faced dismissal from the Army and a maximum of 14 years in prison.

In dismissing the charges, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which operates the detention center, cited "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence" if the case proceeded. [P6: Yeah, right.]

Yee's attorney rejected the notion that security concerns played a role and said Yee is owned an apology. Some Asian-American activists supporters of Yee, a 35-year-old Chinese-American, have accused the government of racial and religious profiling.

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I must say though, that I like the developing pattern of quoting the presidential opponent when you do a story about one of the candidates. As long as the quote is relevant.

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Bush Heads to Florida to Rally Voters
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) is trying to whip up support in Florida, the state that gave him the White House in 2000, while Republicans send out hundreds of volunteers in a massive voter registration drive.

Bush makes his 20th visit to Florida on Saturday as president to attend in Orlando what the campaign calls the first grass-roots mobilization rally in his quest for re-election. He was last in Florida a month ago, throttling up his re-election bid by opening the Daytona 500 auto race, NASCAR (news - web sites)'s most prestigious event.

On the eve of Bush's appearance, Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign said the president has left a trail of broken promises.

"President Bush's economic policies have failed Florida," said Rep. Kendrick Meek, Kerry's state campaign chairman. Bush's "corporate buddies have shipped 70,000 Floridian manufacturing jobs overseas and now it's time for Mr. Bush to get the pink slip."

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Chomsky chooses, propounds Promethean Political Position.

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Chomsky backs 'Bush-lite' Kerry (20 Mar 04)
MATTHEW TEMPEST
Guardian

Noam Chomsky, the political theorist and leftwing guru, yesterday gave his reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party's presidential contender, John Kerry, calling him "Bush-lite", but a "fraction" better than his rival.

Professor Chomsky - a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a renowned chronicler of American foreign policy - said there were "small differences" between Senator Kerry and the Republican president. But, in an interview on the Guardian's politics website, he added that those small differences "can translate into large outcomes".

He describes the choice facing US voters in November as "the choice between two factions of the business party". But the Bush administration was so "cruel and savage", it was important to replace it.

He said: "Kerry is sometimes described as 'Bush-lite', which is not inaccurate. But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes."

He reserved his especial venom for the Bush administration's plans for the health sector: "The people around Bush are deeply committed to dismantling the achievements of popular struggle through the past century no matter what the cost to the general population."

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March 19, 2004

WEST AFRICA: PEACE PROSPECTS PULLING REFUGEES HOME

After years of civil war, thousands of West Africa's refugees are now streaming home through a recently-opened route between western Liberia and southern Sierra Leone to embrace peace prospects in their homelands. At a meeting on voluntary repatriation and sustainable reintegration in Africa earlier this week, UNHCR identified Liberia and Sierra Leone as two West African countries where large-scale refugee returns have been or could soon be taking place, in view of ongoing peace initiatives.

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AFRICA/GLOBAL: ASYLUM-SEEKING WOMEN CONFRONTED WITH SPECIFIC OBSTACLES

Many of the tens of millions of people who have been displaced from their homes are women fleeing oppressive norms and violence. Some are women who may have opposed their oppression and stood up to the state, society, their husband or their relatives. Some are women whose only "wrongful" act was to have sex outside marriage or who have been raped. Some are women who have insisted on their right to choose for themselves which man or woman to love. Some are women who, consciously or unconsciously, through their actions or words, have transgressed social mores and therefore fear punishment from the state, from their communities or their families.

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AFRICA/GLOBAL: SHELL LEADS INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CAMPAIGN AGAINST UN HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS

One of the hottest topics at the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) - Geneva, March 15 to April 23 - will undoubtedly be the future of the proposed Norms on Business and Human Rights. Approved last August by a UNHCR Sub-Commission of human rights experts, the Norms make the human rights obligations of transnational corporations explicit and suggest further steps towards corporate accountability. Corporate lobby groups such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have launched a fierce counter-campaign aiming to kill off the proposal, with self-proclaimed Corporate Social Responsibility champion Shell in a leading role.

…The most vocal opposition has come from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Employers Organisation (IEO). On the national level, groups like the US Council for International Business (USCIB) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) campaign heavily to get the Norms sidelined. The ICC, which calls itself the 'world business organisation' and has hundreds of large multinationals in its ranks, stubbornly claims that voluntary industry initiatives are sufficient to protect human rights. [P6: HAH!] Stefano Bertasi from the ICC`s Paris headquarters explains: "We don't have a problem at all with efforts that seek to encourage companies to do what they can to protect human rights. We have a problem with the premise and the principle that the norms are based on. These Norms clearly seek to move away from the realm of voluntary initiatives... and we see them as conflicting with the approach taken by other parts of the UN that seek to promote voluntary initiatives."

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WAR OF WORDS AS RWANDA MARKS GENOCIDE

A bitter war of words has erupted between Rwanda and France just weeks before the central African nation marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide of 800,000 people. Western heads of state are due in the capital, Kigali, next month to commemorate the 100-day slaughter, which was sparked by the assassination of Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, on 6 April 1994. What should be a moment of sombre reflection is, however, being marred by a furious exchange of accusations, centred on a murder mystery that is as central to Rwanda's history as the Kennedy assassination is to that of the United States.

Last week the French newspaper Le Monde reported that the current Rwandan leader, Paul Kagame, was responsible for the shooting down of the presidential jet as it approached Kigali airport in 1994. The allegation, based on an as-yet unpublished judicial investigation, contradicts the widely held belief that Hutu extremists carried out the attack to trigger a pre-meditated elimination plan against the Tutsi minority.

President Kagame launched a counter-attack in which he accused French troops of being "directly" involved in the massacres. "They [the French] knew about it. They supported it. They provided weapons, they gave orders and instructions to those who carried out the genocide," he told Radio France International on Tuesday. "They also took part in the operations directly: at checkpoints on roads to identify people according to their ethnic background, by punishing the Tutsis and showing favouritism to the Hutus."

The intrigue was heightened by the sudden "discovery" of a key piece of evidence in a filing cabinet in New York. After denying for years it had the presidential jet's flight recorder, United Nations officials said last week that they had found it. The fiasco is another embarrassment for the UN, which was accusing of standing by in 1994 as extremists butchered Tutsis and moderate Hutus in their homes.

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UNIFICATION OF AFRICA TAKES ANOTHER STEP
Irungu Houghton

On March 18th 2004, 256 citizens step forward and assume their new role as pan African parliamentarians. The inauguration of the pan African parliament in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this week is a major significant step for continental unity.

We in Africa must celebrate the inauguration but immediately place on its agenda the challenge of negotiating better global terms for Africa around debt, trade and aid. Yet, this is only half the agenda. The pan African Parliament must be empowered with research and communications facilities to legislate laws, monitor compliance of African states to agreed standards of governance and human rights and lastly, popularise the major protocols and instruments of the African Union. It must be enabled to receive representation by individuals and associations representing interests affected by international or continental public policies or practises. Simply, it must be able to intervene decisively to protect human rights in member states.

The treaty establishing the pan African Parliament states its vision as "a common platform for African peoples and their grassroots organisations to be more involved in discussions and decision-making on the problems and challenges facing the continent". The Parliament shall provide oversight for the budget of the AU, harmonisation of policies towards regional integration and make recommendations that promote human rights, democratic institutions and good governance among other functions. During the first five-year term of its existence, the Parliament shall "exercise advisory and consultative powers only [article 11]". Most African countries have nominated five legislators of which one must be a woman from national parliaments and deliberative organs.

The three-day event will be presided over by AU Chairperson H.E. President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique in the presence of several heads of state and citizens past and present. The spirits of Yaa Asantewa, Nkrumah, Ben Bella, Bibi Titi, Nyerere, Mbuya Nehanda, Sobukwe and Kenyatta will, no doubt, be there to see this long unfulfilled dream come to fruition. Yet, the revitalisation of state Pan-Africanism occurs in a rapidly changing international policy context.

The hope of new approaches to old problems of inequitable trade relations and inadequate aid flows over 2001-2 were severely punctured by a return to aid scepticism, a pervasive anti-terrorist lens and the subsequent undermining of multi-lateralism in 2003. In 2004, these developments unfortunately seem set to continue crowding out national sovereignty and dominating the policy discourse on and in Africa for the next three years. It is in this context that the pan African parliament and other organs of the AU must act and do so urgently.

On the surface, it would seem that the experience of parliamentary representation at national levels could strangle the potential of the new Parliament. At a rough estimate, across Africa there are over 9,210 national parliamentarians elected from Africa's population of over 700 million people. That is, one legislator for every 76,000 people. However, most poor people in Africa, parliaments and legislative bodies seem disconnected from the day-to-day realities and challenges they face.

If the crisis of relevance seems stark in some national contexts, then at regional levels the challenge for parliamentarians is multiplied. 265 nominated legislators in a continent of over 700 million people (one pan African MP for every 2.6 million people) does not embody a high capacity for representative democracy, much less "a platform for African peoples and their grassroots organisations". For example, this compares unfavourably with India where 795 MPs represent one billion people (one MP per 126,000 people).

For the first five years and until members are elected by universal adult suffrage, the credibility of the pan African Parliament cannot rest on their representational quality but on the issues they espouse, the causes they champion and the changes they bring to the lives of ordinary people across Africa. By doing this, the pan African Parliament can deepen its credibility and relevance to African peoples struggling with poverty and injustice across the continent.

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Quote of note:

Not to be browbeaten by the attack on the World Trade Center and for the American way of life to continue, said Amadhila, President Bush appeared on television and urged the Americans not to stop going to the malls and shop. “The emphasis of his message was for the Americans to go out and shop. American life, so it seemed, is determined by their buying power. It is as if they measure their lives on what they spend. This was totally strange to me. The realization then dawned on me that America is completely a consumer society.”

Small Bite at the American Pie – From a Namibian Living in America
2004-03-19
By Catherine Sasman
WINDHOEK

YOU can call Americans patriotic, but you should never accuse them of being class-conscious. They are by and large in denial about the stark divides that exist between the rich and the poor, and issues of class are at best acknowledged in hushed tones.

It is inconvenient to talk about it, and considered rude when brought up in conversation. And yet, class stratification is at the heart of the American society, where a man’s social standing can be judged from how tightly his collar fits around his neck; or where obesity is viewed as a disease of the ‘lower classes’.

“You could say I’ve lived and worked with people from all social classes in America,” said Tangeni Amadhila, a Namibian who lived and worked in the belly of this capitalist beast for five years.

She joined her American husband who was attached to a university in Washington DC with their two children.
“Because of my husband’s work connections we could live in what can be considered a rich neighbourhood. But because money was tight, I worked amongst the ordinary every-day Americans.”

“Talk about social division is very economic. Neighbourhoods strictly cater for certain economic classes. Values are widely different. Living in a rich neighbourhood was like a dream world where your every whim is satisfied,” said Amadhila.
Enter the world of closed facades, uniformly trimmed lawns and scrubs, where children barely 16 years of age - as a rule – cruise along the streets of suburbia in convertible BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, SUV (sport utility vehicles) Cadillacs, Ford Explorers and Lexus.

“All these cars are in abundance at schools. Children there drive the most expensive cars. These cars are especially manufactured for that market. And parents are mollified in the belief that the bigger the car the less harm will come to their children when they are in accidents.”

But as abundant as the big expensive cars are, so are the accidents, continued Amadhila. And yet if parents can afford such expensive toys for their children, then it is almost compulsory for the children to have them.

“In that world children are strongly steered to be like adults. I think it can be very confusing for them because it is as if they are put in two worlds and it is expected of them to perform equally well in both realities,” she added.

“As an African going to America it was a complete culture shock concerning raising children. Although the Americans always focus on children and call them precious, I detected a sense of hypocrisy because I thought the society there just tries to keep up a glossy image.”

So, for example said Amadhila, it is against the law in America to leave children younger than 12 alone without supervision at all times. “If a child turns 12 you can leave other children with that one - for no longer that one hour. At the end of the day you as a parent feel imprisoned by having to drag your children along with you wherever you go. I feel under those conditions children also do not have any space to breathe and grow. When a child turns 16 he or she is considered a young adult. They can then get a driver’s licence. At 18 the young Americans can be conscripted to war and given a licence to kill people in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they are not allowed to buy alcohol or go into a nightclub.”

Conversely, said Amadhila, children are often left to their own devices. “Because time in America is money, a precious commodity, the average Americans do not give the time of day to their families.”

“I have worked as a teacher at a day school for two years. There you start understanding the concept of the American family life. By the time children turn six weeks they get enrolled into day-care. Rich parents work very hard and long hours to maintain their lifestyles, so they would drop off their children by 6:30 in the morning and pick them up at 5:30 in the afternoon. Even if parents work from home they still prefer to have their children in day-care. At the end of the day the children are more attached to you as the teacher with very little attachment to their parents. After weekends some children would come back with nappy rashes because the parents just don’t seem to know how to deal with their children. And then they wonder why kids there murder their parents!”

What is of all importance to Americans, according to Amadhila, is to make as much money as possible and that means work and more work.

“Americans work. Their work culture is in stark contrast to ours. In the more elementary job categories most workers get only two weeks holiday and four days sick leave per year. If you are sick for longer than four days you get unpaid leave. And if you do not go to work you do not get paid. If you come late, money is deducted from your hourly rates. However, I have also noticed that foreigners fill many of these elementary positions. Americans in these positions are often very unreliable because there are so many jobs available. If you work hard you can end up with two or three jobs. One of the best occupations there is nursing because it pays well. A large proportion of the American population is old because of their good lives and good medical facilities.”

Despite the little time available for children, America experienced a baby boom after September 11, 2001. “I think the devastation of the World Trade Center brought about a new realisation of the importance of family life,” said Amadhila.
“I was in Washington on that day. The aftermath of that was very strange. Every house and car was sported with an American flag. I would not say it was patriotism reawakened. Instead I think it was an aroused sense of standing up as a united America. The government perpetuated that. But being a foreigner I became fearful of the vigour with which non-Americans were held under suspicion. There was a gulf of feelings of belonging or not belonging,” she noted.
Amadhila mentioned that after 9/11 living in America felt like living in “any other African country” – devoid of democratic choices. “Everyone had to give in to the rest of society not to be treated as a terrorist. It was a matter of either you are in with the crowd or you are not. Media practitioners were sacked if they questioned subsequent government policies, and there were many incidences where the government directly interfered in radio and television broadcasts.”

The conclusion for Amadhila on the state of democracy in America is that it is a double-edged sword. “I felt for the families who lost their loved ones but perhaps it happened that way as a wake-up call to the world to what is occurring daily in other parts of the world even though they do not get the same media coverage. Losing lives through violent acts remains senseless.”

Not to be browbeaten by the attack on the World Trade Center and for the American way of life to continue, said Amadhila, President Bush appeared on television and urged the Americans not to stop going to the malls and shop. “The emphasis of his message was for the Americans to go out and shop. American life, so it seemed, is determined by their buying power. It is as if they measure their lives on what they spend. This was totally strange to me. The realization then dawned on me that America is completely a consumer society.”

Another culture shock for Amadhila was the supreme rule of creditworthiness. “It was the most terrible time for me when I first arrived there. I could not open a bank account because I did not have a social security number. The social security number is your gateway to becoming a person in the USA. You get it at birth if born there. Without it you are a non-entity for all practical purposes.”

Another big shock was when she applied for a credit card. “The shock was that you have to have a credit history to shop. Coming from Namibia I had no credit history. That, in a sense, is the Catch-22 for the poor in America whose background does not allow them to build up credit. The discrepancies also come in where the rich become richer on credit and the poor remains poor because they cannot come into riches.”

Fitting into the American way of life, Amadhila got a second job as a credit controller dealing with credit applications for customers at a retail outlet. “A good example of how serious Americans take the matter of credit history was when a multimillion dollar – in US terms – football player in a major league wanted to buy something from us. Though the item was well in the range of his budget he could not get the item because he did not have a credit history. He had to bring in his sister to buy the item for him,” she mused.

The reason, she guessed, was because the system is closely guarded. “Social control is immensely tight. It is all geared to make you a conforming citizen and every cog in the social set up turns against you if you are against the system.”
Although her experience in America has taught her a lot about the way the world of money and power works, Amadhila noted with a sign of relief that she is happy to have returned to Namibia. “In Washington I visited the zoo with my children. I looked at the animals in their cages and I felt like those animals – caged in a world of plastic and fantasies. One of the first things I did on return was to go to Etosha where the animals still walk proudly and free – and I knew I was back home.”

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Aren't We All Mostly 'Europeans'?
New Era (Windhoek)
COLUMN
March 19, 2004

THE debate on who is African and who is not, rages on unabated. How do you define and describe an African? Via colour, language, or culture? So how do you incorporate your culture in your daily activities? What do you do to affirm and validate yourself as an African, as a Namibian? How frequent?

A simple closer look at all of us in our daily routines reveals that we are mostly Europeans in our outlook on contemporary culture. We pride ourselves and feel educated when speaking European (English, German, French, Portuguese); we dress European (tuxedos, business suits, ties, mini skirts, are all European inventions).

Also take a look at the inner labels on our clothing: Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Reeboks, Puma, DKNY, Calvin Klein, Adidas, Ralph Lauren, Polo, etc. Where is the African clothing to affirm our pride? Where is an African store the size of Edgars brimming with African attire? We smell European (who makes your favourite perfume and make-up: Estee Lauder, Lancome, Loreal, Avon, Brut?)

We love German bread and beer, Italian pasta and pizza, American hamburgers, Chinese food. Ever seen a Chinese person at a kapana outlet? Walk around Windhoek or any other big town, and there are European restaurants galore, and no Namibian and/or African establishments. Should there be one or two, go ask the owner about how much support they get from us .

Are you one of those that specialise in western movies and books, and shy away from reading black magazines and watching African movies? When was the last time you went out of your way to see an African movie, in fact, when was the last time an African movie was featured at the movie theatre? Do you ever see any at the video rental shop? Are you one of those who proclaim that they can only be treated by a white doctor, or deal only with a white lawyer, or that only use a white mechanic for their car? Wow, how African!

Do you have children that can recite all the "Harry Potter" books backwards, yet know little or nothing about your own family tree or culture? How much is your mother tongue used at home? Is it even known by your children? Or are they members of the English-only Namibian generation on the rise?

How many Europeans do you know of, who have African names, here or in Europe and/or America? Still proud of your European (Christian) name? Does it help you be more African? Is there a country in Europe where they use any of our languages?

Also, in which native local language do we find the word "dollar" that embodies our pride in our currency? We really could not find a word in one of our Namibian languages to describe our money?

It is common and accepted that our constitution was imported from the West. Our judiciary is modelled after some Roman/Dutch law. Why? How do these foreign ideologies serve us really? Do they in any remote way reflect and embody our own genuine values, morals, beliefs and priorities?

Ask any rural area owner of cattle what his/her desired retribution for a stolen goat is, and they will surely tell you they want it replaced with five goats primarily, not a prison sentence for the offender. The system that punishes offenders without compensating the victims is not indigenous to our way of living. We do need to rewrite these rules and regulations in order to fit our own ideals and desires.

Even though Big Brother Africa had no real redeeming value, it was good that Africans got a chance to re-evaluate their values, beliefs and priorities. Watching the African Nations Cup soccer matches really gave one a sense of belonging to this continent. However some local brothers feel that Arabic-Africans in the northern countries of Africa are not really Africans! Who is?

Let's connect in other arenas of life in Africa. If being African, culturally and otherwise, is so important, please start acting it out. Actions speak louder than words. Show pride in your culture, your language, your history, and your future!

Yep, we Africans were once colonised and oppressed and enslaved. The last wave of this humiliation has lasted more than 500 years. In many spheres of life we are still affected and influenced by these experience: most things in life that are bad are deliberately termed black: a black day, if a horrendous tragedy should take place; dressing in black when mourning; pressuring someone to do something against their will is to blackmail; dark and sinister is how we describe anything not so good-natured; lose favour in the community, and you are blacklisted; lose favour in the family, and you are the black sheep; anything traded outside the white-controlled economic mechanism is supposed to be gotten on the black market. Need more examples?

On the other hand, tell a "small" lie, and it's a white lie. It is common to hear or read about white and some lighter-skinned children described as pretty as angels. What about the dark-skinned and pretty? Ever see black angels depicted in religious scriptures? All colours are clean, not just the white colour. Our children grow up despising black dolls, and idolising white skin, using bleaching chemicals. But Europeans spend endless hours in the sun and in tanning salons, trying to look like us. Who is confused, and who is confusing whom?

Yep, we are now free enough to assert and validate ourselves. Let's show the rest of the world what it means to be African. If we do not know how, let us learn! How long before we stop using Europe as a measuring standard? How long before we dress, eat, smell, talk African? How long before we drive an African-made car? How long before we have our constitution written to reflect our own values, beliefs, history, aspirations, goals, mores, ethics?

It is definitely wrong to shun our own roots in favour of foreign cultures. We are surely capable of excelling in the world having the best of both worlds. Take the best Europe has to offer and use it with our own best. If you have to integrate in any way, make sure you contribute and participate in deciding on the final outcome, instead of just being spoon-fed or force-fed any foreign theme. At least 50 percent of the outcome must reflect your own original output. We can take advantage of all the advances around us without losing our own foundation. Hopefully Africans will now take it to heart and start practicing what they preach! Unless it is all just talk! I pray not!

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Just trying to figure out what's in there and how it works I was fooling around with the Network thing…seeing who knows the people I know. Saw a familiar name from, damn, 10-15 years ago. A pre-Internet, dial up BBS name.

Turns out Eric McGill knows both EJ Flavors and James Knox. Eric gave me my first highly conscious conversation about the intersection of Black and Gay (it took some drawing out, because it was in a public forum I was moderating). And he gave me the opportunity to create one of my best lines.

He in Cali, I in NY were talking about something or other when he felt it necessary to let me know he's gay, and I'm like "So?" He said since a lot of straight men get uncomfortable once they find that out he felt he'd get it out of the way. I told him it wasn't an issue, and besides if his dick was long enough to threaten me I'd have heard of him before that point.

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MEDICARE - SCULLY DIDN'T ACT ALONE: Scully may not have been acting alone when he threatened a government employee into keeping his silence. The WP reports, "Richard S. Foster, the government's chief analyst of Medicare costs who was threatened with firing last year if he disclosed too much information to Congress, said last night that he believes the White House participated in the decision to withhold analyses that Medicare legislation President Bush sought would be far more expensive than lawmakers knew." The Administration previously claimed Scully "had acted unilaterally and that he was chastised by his superiors when they learned of the blocked information and the threat." However, in an interview last night, Foster said "he understood Scully to be acting at times on White House instructions, probably coming from Bush's senior health policy adviser," Doug Badger. "I just remember Tom being upset, saying he was caught in the middle. It was like he was getting dumped on," Foster said.

MEDICARE … BIG SPENDING TO RAM THROUGH MEDICARE BILL: The Hill reports "as Congress scrambled last year to pass a Medicare prescription-drug bill, consumer giant AARP and the pharmaceutical industry spent heavily to influence the controversial measure." According to government lobbying records "AARP spent $20.9 million last year on lobbying activities, while the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent about $16 million."

MEDICARE … ETHICS PROBE IS OFFICIAL: Roll Call reports, the House Ethics Committee has established a special investigative subcommittee to probe whether Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) was offered a bribe for his vote when conservatives were trying to ram the Medicare prescription drug bill through Congress last November. The Committee will "have jurisdiction to conduct a full and complete inquiry into alleged communications received" by Smith which offered financial support for his son's congressional campaign in return for a yes vote from Smith.

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One Year After

One year ago, President Bush began the war in Iraq. Most Americans expected military victory to come quickly, as it did. Despite the administration's optimism about what would follow, it was also easy to predict that the period after the fall of Baghdad would be very messy and very dangerous. In that sense, right now we're exactly where we expected to be.

It's nonetheless important to remember that none of this might have happened if we had known then what we know now. No matter what the president believed about the long-term threat posed by Saddam Hussein, he would have had a much harder time selling this war of choice to the American people if they had known that the Iraqi dictator had been reduced to a toothless tiger by the first Persian Gulf war and by United Nations weapons inspectors. Iraq's weapons programs had been shut down, Mr. Hussein had no threatening weapons stockpiled, the administration was exaggerating evidence about them, and there was, and is, no evidence that Mr. Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Right now, our highest priority is making the best of a very disturbing situation. Even our European allies who opposed the war want to see Iraq stabilized and turned over to its citizens — even if they don't necessarily see Washington as the force to do that. The other possibility, an Iraq flung into chaos and civil war, open to manipulation by every unscrupulous political figure and terrorist group in the Middle East, is too awful to contemplate.

This is a good moment to take stock of what has been accomplished and what has not, especially since the day is rapidly approaching when the United States hopes to turn over the governing of Iraq to the leaders of the nation's three major ethnic or religious groups — who have shown no serious signs of being able to cooperate.

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Another Writers Guild President Resigns
by The New York Times

LOS ANGELES, March 18 - For the second time since January, a president of Hollywood's largest writers' union, the Writers Guild of America, West, has resigned.

Charles Holland, who took over from Victoria Riskin after she resigned in January, became a figure of controversy after questions arose over his claim of having served as a Green Beret and having played football under a scholarship at the University of Illinois.

He made the claims in an interview with the guild's magazine, but subsequent searches of military and university records failed to substantiate either claim. Military records show that Mr. Holland served in the National Guard in Illinois and Massachusetts. The university had no record that he played football. But Mr. Holland, whose credits include writing for "JAG,'' maintained that he had not lied about his background.

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I…I just can't believe it!

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Ex-USA TODAY reporter faked major stories
Fri Mar 19, 9:29 AM ET
By Blake Morrison,USA TODAY

Seven weeks into an examination of former USA TODAY reporter Jack Kelley’s work, a team of journalists has found strong evidence that Kelley fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories, lifted nearly two dozen quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he gave for the newspaper and conspired to mislead those investigating his work.

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Postwar violence threatens Iraq stability, U.S. resolve
Fri Mar 19, 9:29 AM ET

One year after the start of the war in Iraq, only a cockeyed optimist would feel entirely good about its aftermath. The violence still plaguing the country was tragically illustrated this week by bombings in Baghdad and Basra, which claimed more than 10 lives.

Important progress is evident. Saddam Hussein is in custody awaiting trial. The adoption of a provisional constitution and plans for elections next year show a political system sputtering to life. The country's economic lifeblood - oil - slowly is coming back on tap. Roads, schools and health clinics are being rebuilt.

Yet those achievements are overshadowed by an insurgency that has proved to be more determined and widespread than U.S. military planners had anticipated before the war. As of today, the first anniversary of the invasion, the U.S. military toll stands at more than 560 deaths and 3,000 injured. Fatalities are averaging more than 40 a month since last May, when President Bush declared major combat operations over.

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The $33,000 Per Hour Consultant
And other seamy sweetheart deals hiding in corporate annual reports.
By Michelle Leder
Posted Friday, March 19, 2004, at 7:12 AM PT

…But before you chuck your 10Ks in the trash, give them a quick read. You'll get a sense of whether your company really has learned its lesson from the past few years. If you own shares in the cruise line Carnival Corp., for example, check out the 10K's description of the consulting contract it signed with A. Kirk Lanterman, who resigned as chief executive of Carnival subsidiary Holland America last November. Carnival will pay Lanterman nearly $167,000 each month for the next 15 years. In exchange, he is required to work a grand total of five hours a month. That's $33,000 per hour!

Stanley Works' shareholders who read their 10K closely will find an equally ridiculous deal. Former CEO John M. Trani, who attracted controversy two years ago when he proposed moving the Connecticut-based company to Bermuda to avoid taxes, will do even better than Lanterman, at least over the short term. Trani resigned on Jan. 1 and began collecting $243,750 a month under his retirement agreement. After two years, the fee drops to a meager $113,742 a month. In retirement, Trani is earning four times as much as the CEO who replaced him, John Lundgren.

Gannett's 10K suggests the nation's largest newspaper company needs a better payroll manager. It plans to pay former Chief Financial Officer Larry Miller $600,000 a year under a consulting contract signed last year when Miller retired. That's $40,000 more than Miller made when he was working full time for the company, and now he only has to work half time. Under the contract, Gannett will also continue to pay for Miller's car and his membership at a local country club.

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Mass rape atrocity in west Sudan

More than 100 women have been raped in a single attack carried out by Arab militias in Darfur in western Sudan.

Speaking to the BBC, the United Nations co-ordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, said the conflict had created the worst humanitarian situation in the world.

He said more than one million people were affected by "ethnic cleansing".

He said the fighting was characterised by a scorched-earth policy and was comparable in character, if not in scale, to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"It is more than just a conflict. It is an organised attempt to do away with a group of people," he said.

Arab militias, backed by the government, have driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, in retaliation for a rebellion launched a year ago by two armed groups.

They accused the Arab-dominated government of ignoring the black African inhabitants of Darfur.

More than 100,000 people have fled across the border into Chad, but have continued to face cross-border raids.

Attack

Mr Kapila said 75 people were killed in the attack on the village of Tawila at sunrise by Arab militiamen two weeks ago.

"All houses as well as a market and a health centre were completely looted and the market burnt. Over 100 women were raped, six in front of their fathers who were later killed," he said.

A further 150 women and 200 children were abducted.

This attack a fortnight ago is one of many across the arid territory.

Village after village is being razed to the ground by the militias, he said.

To compound the problem, aid agencies can only reach small parts of Darfur and are subject to attacks.

Mr Kapila called for more aid and for urgent international intervention to bring about a ceasefire in the war.

Shock

"I was present in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, and I've seen many other situations around the world and I am totally shocked at what is going on in Darfur," he told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"This is ethnic cleansing, this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis, and I don't know why the world isn't doing more about it."

The fighting in the west of Sudan has intensified as government peace talks to resolve the 20-year war with southern rebels are nearing an end.

But the UN is concerned that this conflict could undermine the peace talks in Kenya.

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Publicity Campaign Under Scrutiny
Bush Administration Releases Fake News Reports Touting Medicare
ABCNEWS.com

W A S H I N G T O N, March 15— The Bush administration has rolled out a $100 million campaign to publicize its new Medicare law, which is supposed to assist elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines. But part of the campaign is proving to be as controversial as the law.

Federal investigators are examining pre-produced television news stories, written and paid for by the government, which have the appearance of legitimate news segments delivered by independent reporters. Recorded in both English and Spanish, they were sent to local television stations across the country to publicize the new law.
The tape even includes a suggested lead-in for anchors to read. But it's up to local news stations to decide whether to air the stories, voiced by those posing as reporters, in their news programs.

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S-Train:

It is the rich telling the middle and low-classes that they need to save and tighten up the bootstraps. Rich folks tell regular folks that jobs are being created; you just got to look hard. You should see the number of applications I receive now. And you should see what some of these people used to do. Project manager, executive secretary, accountant, senior Unix server admin, systems engineer, biomedical engineer, high-school teacher, etc. In fact, the biomedical engineer works for me. We have talked much. He's happy to be working somewhere but I can tell his pride and pockets have taken near death blows. And then I hear some rich people tell me that my business provides manufacturing jobs. Come on! Don't use my business for your stupid stats. We prepare soups, subs, and drinks. Leave the manufacturing to the car companies, steel mills, and other real manufacturers.

I am comfortable. I am in the upper-middle class. And I make sandwiches for a living. I pour soup for the rich and the poor. I grill the sub for the rich and the poor. I am not better than someone below my income. And I will always make sure my workers, my employees, MY PEOPLE are taken care of proper. And that is something that the rich could do more of. Like it or not, when you have lots of money, people want to partake. That's life. Do you have to share? No. Do you have to take care of your folks as a CEO? No. But when can affect so many folks' lives in a positive manner.....

WHY NOT??????????????

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Enemies of the States
If you're against Bush, you're against America.
By William Saletan
Posted Thursday, March 18, 2004, at 3:18 PM PT

If you oppose George Bush's policies, or if you're supported by anybody who opposes George Bush's policies, you're anti-American.

That was the message of the 1988 presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush, who suggested that his opponent from Massachusetts was against the Pledge of Allegiance. Now it's his son's campaign message, too.

Facts don't matter when you run on this theme. In June 1988, George H.W. Bush said of Michael Dukakis, "I'll never understand, when it came to his desk, why he vetoed a bill that called for the Pledge of Allegiance to be said in the schools of Massachusetts. I'll never understand it. We are one nation under God. Our kids should say the Pledge of Allegiance."

The bill Dukakis vetoed didn't "call for" the pledge to be said. It imposed criminal penalties on teachers who failed to start the day by leading students in the pledge. The Massachusetts Supreme Court told Dukakis it was unconstitutional. But never mind. According to Bush, Dukakis was against saying the pledge and being one nation under God.

…Kerry points out what everyone knows: The Iraq war was an American operation dressed up as a "coalition of the willing," in which Britain was the only other country to play a major role. Cheney calls this "contempt" for "friends of the United States." Nineteen Italians get killed in a war that Bush and Cheney started against the will of most Italians, but it's Kerry, not Bush, who has shown contempt for Italy and other "friends of the United States." Better yet, the foreign leaders with whom Kerry has consorted don't just oppose Bush's policy in Iraq; they "oppose America's objectives." If Jacques Chirac imagines that what he opposed in Iraq was Bush's method of achieving objectives shared by France, he fails to understand that Bush's policies, by definition, are America's objectives.

Just like it says here in our Constitution, Jacques: L'etat c'est moi.

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March 18, 2004

Poland was 'misled' over Iraq WMD

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski says his country was misled about the alleged threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

However he also defended the decision to go to war in Iraq and said he had no plans to withdraw Polish soldiers.

Poland was a strong supporter of the US-led invasion and has the fourth-largest contingent of occupying troops.

The remarks came a week after the Madrid bombings and as public support for Poland's role in Iraq is declining.

"Of course I feel a certain discomfort that we were misled about weapons of mass destruction," Mr Kwasniewski told journalists on Thursday.

He refused to point the finger of blame at either the US or the UK, and insisted the decision to go to war had been the right one.

"Iraq today, without Saddam Hussein, is a much better place than Iraq with Saddam Hussein," the Polish president said.

Poland has been one of Washington's staunchest allies on Iraq.

Warsaw contributed combat troops to the invasion and now commands a 9,500-strong multinational force in central Iraq.

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4 Black College Teams are ‘March Madness’ Players
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2004
By: RON THOMAS, BlackAmericaWeb.com

"You’ve come a long way, baby," is the best way to congratulate all four teams from historically black colleges that will play in the NCAA basketball tournaments this week.

Look at the collective 6-36 early season record of Alabama State and Florida A&M in the men’s bracket and Hampton and Southern universities in the women’s bracket. It’s remarkable that any of them will be participating in the annual national frenzy called "March Madness."

Now all four need a miracle to stay alive in the tournaments because the selection committees gave each of them the last of 16 seeds in their region.

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Calpundit is no more. Instead it's Kevin Drum at Political Animal, hosted by The Washington Monthly.

Adjust your settings accordingly.

And on that not, I need to do something automated with my blogroll one day. I think I'll explore Bloglines.

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Today in the NY Times it says:

The third straight weekly decline in jobless benefits raised hopes that a lengthy stretch of layoffs is coming to a close, setting the stage for businesses to finally begin rehiring laid-off workers.

President Bush, under attack by Democrats for what they say is the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover, is counting on his three rounds of tax cuts to finally start generating new jobs.

and

The unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent last month. The overall rate remained stable only because 392,000 Americans gave up looking for work and were no longer counted in the labor market .

As we follow this saga, fully aware of the skill at picking which particular statistic to discuss already shown by Conservatives, we need to consider whether or not we want to say "rehiring laid off workers " = "creating new jobs."

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In Speech, Cheney Attacks Kerry's Record on the Military
By NICK MADIGAN and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., March 17 — In a blistering critique of Senator John Kerry's record on military issues, Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday portrayed the Democratic presidential candidate as weak, inconsistent and a threat to the security of the nation.

"Whatever the explanation, whatever nuances he might fault us for neglecting," Mr. Cheney said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here, "it is not an impressive record for someone who aspires to become commander in chief in this time of testing for our country."

He added: "The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample doubts about his judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security."

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Rise in Hispanics and Asian-Americans Is Predicted
By REUTERS

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) — The Hispanic and Asian-American populations in the United States are expected to triple by 2050, when non-Hispanic whites would account for the barest majority, according to a Census Bureau report to be released Thursday.

Hispanic-Americans would make up nearly a quarter of the nation's population at mid-century, the report says.

"This is going to be the workforce that sustains us as a nation, so we can make choices today that are dramatically going to change the outlook 20 or 30 years from now," Sonia Perez of the National Council of La Raza said Wednesday, referring to coming national elections.

The number of Hispanic-Americans should rise to nearly 103 million from about 36 million, and their share of the population would nearly double, to 24.4 percent from 12.6 percent, the bureau report says.

Asian-Americans, who now make up 3.8 percent of the populace, would represent 8 percent by mid-century, it says. Their numbers would increase to more than 33 million from nearly 11 million.

The American population over all should also continue to grow, to about 420 million in 2050 from 282 million in 2000, the report says. But non-Hispanic whites would add only moderately to their numbers, to 210 million from 196 million. They would make up just 50.1 percent of the population in 2050, compared with 69.4 percent four years ago, when the last census was taken.

The black population is projected to rise to 61 million from 36 million, raising its share of the total population to 14.6 percent from 12.7 percent.

The American population will be generally older, with child-bearing rates remaining low as those born between 1946 and 1964, the baby boom generation, begin to turn 65 in 2011. By 2030, about one American in five will be 65 or older.

As the baby-boom generation moves toward retirement and seeks payments from Social Security, the largest source of new workers will be young Hispanics, said Roberto Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center.

"Financing the old age of the baby boomers would be more difficult without a growing Hispanic population," Mr. Suro said.

Over all in the United States, women will continue to outnumber men, with 6.9 million more women than men in 2050, compared with 5.3 million more in 2000.

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Panel Vote Draws Battle Lines for Pay-as-You-Go Tax Cuts
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

WASHINGTON, March 17 — Setting up a potential showdown with the Senate, Republicans on the House Budget Committee rejected legislation on Wednesday that could have imperiled the extension of the tax cuts that are a centerpiece of President Bush's economic program.

The committee, in a 24-to-18 party-line vote, turned down a Democratic amendment that would have blocked future tax cuts unless they were paid for with money from spending cuts or increases in other taxes.

In a nod to conservative members of the panel concerned about what they call runaway spending, the committee voted to adopt new rules forcing lawmakers who want to increase spending for entitlement programs like Medicare to find other spending cuts of the same amount. It also voted to institute tough five-year caps on spending for discretionary programs, which essentially cover everything outside of Social Security and other entitlement programs. One outside liberal group, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the caps would lead to the lowest level of spending on domestic discretionary programs, as a percentage of the economy, since 1963.

A handful of moderate Republicans signaled Wednesday that they might break with their party leaders on whether to make it tougher to enact tax cuts. But assuming the full House goes along with the committee, the vote on Wednesday sets up a clash with the Senate about the future of Mr. Bush's tax cuts.

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Inquiry Set on Bribery Claim in Medicare Vote
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, March 17 — The House ethics committee voted on Wednesday to start a formal investigation into accusations of bribery surrounding last November's vote on the Medicare prescription drug law, signaling that an initial fact-finding inquiry might have produced evidence of wrongdoing.

The panel, formally known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, met behind closed doors. Afterward, it issued a statement saying it had established an investigative subcommittee to conduct "a full and complete inquiry" into the bribery claims. The accusations were made by Representative Nick Smith, Republican of Michigan.

Mr. Smith, who is retiring, voted against the Medicare bill. Immediately after the vote, he said some lawmakers and groups had tried to induce him into voting for the measure with promises of financial support for the House candidacy of his son. He said there had been no specific offer of money, but his remarks prompted the ethics panel to begin a fact-finding inquiry last month.

Mr. Smith issued a statement on Wednesday saying that he would "cooperate fully with the inquiry" and that he would make no further public comment.

The panel's decision comes amid mounting criticism from Democrats and some watchdog groups about the lack of ethics inquiries in the House. Since 1997, when the House approved a rule barring ethics investigations based solely on complaints from outsiders, House Democrats and Republicans have had what some describe as an unofficial truce on ethics inquiries.

But Mr. Smith's accusation provoked an outcry from Democrats, including Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip. In January, Mr. Hoyer sent a letter to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, urging him to seek an inquiry. At the time, Mr. Hoyer said that if Mr. Hastert did not ask for an investigation, a Democrat would initiate one.

Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the majority leader, accused the Democrats of promoting an ethics investigation for political reasons.

"I think what they are doing is very, very dangerous," Mr. DeLay said then.

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As Quickly as Overnight, a New Democratic Star Is Born
By MONICA DAVEY

CHICAGO, March 17 — In his quest for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, Barack Obama was, by many measures, supposed to lose. One opponent was a multimillionaire pouring his own cash into the race. Another was a loyal statewide official who was expected to bring the party's ward troops out in force on election day.

But Mr. Obama, a state senator from Chicago, awoke Wednesday to a deluge of national attention, a result of his overwhelming victory the night before by margins unforeseen by any polls or guesses. John Kerry called. So did Senator Tom Daschle and Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic national chairman. And the phone kept ringing.

Overnight, Mr. Obama, a former civil rights lawyer, has become a treasured commodity in the Democratic Party nationally, in part because Democrats see the Illinois seat as one they may easily snatch back from Republicans in November, and in part because Mr. Obama would be the only black member of the Senate.

"I think it's fair to say that the conventional wisdom was we could not win," Mr. Obama told a ballroom packed with his supporters late Tuesday night. "We didn't have enough money. We didn't have enough organization. There was no way that a skinny guy from the South Side with a funny name like Barack Obama could ever win a statewide race.

"Sixteen months later we are here, and Democrats from all across Illinois — suburbs, city, downstate, upstate, black, white, Hispanic, Asian — have declared: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"

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U.S. Official Says Spanish Government 'Mishandled' Reports on Bombing
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, March 17 — The Bush administration said Wednesday for the first time that the Spanish government had mishandled early information about the Madrid bombing when it played down evidence that Islamic extremists were behind the plot.

The strongest public statement came from Richard L. Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, who said in a television interview that the Spanish government initially "didn't get what information did exist out to the public."

He suggested that the Spanish government had clung to the supposition that a Basque separatist group, ETA, was responsible and failed to tell the public about emerging evidence that Islamic extremists might have detonated the bombs that killed about 200 and injured hundreds of others Thursday. In separate interviews, he twice said Spain "mishandled" the matter, The Associated Press reported. As a result, he said, the governing party was ousted in elections Sunday.

"I think the vote that propelled the Socialists into power in Spain, as I understand it, was a protest by the people against the handling of the terrorist event by the sitting government of Spain," Mr. Armitage told a Philadelphia radio station.

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Spain's Losing Party Plans to Sue Movie Director for Slander Over a 'Coup' Accusation
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

MADRID, March 17 — Spain's defeated conservative party said Wednesday that it was going to sue Pedro Almodóvar, the country's most celebrated movie director, because he had accused the government of trying to hatch a "coup d'état" the day before the election.

The Popular Party said in a news release that Mr. Almodóvar had committed "slander and libel."

Appearing at a screening for the press of his new movie, "Bad Education," in Spain on Tuesday, Mr. Almodóvar, an opponent of the Iraq war, called the defeat of the conservatives a "liberating" moment that will usher in a new era of democracy.

Mr. Almodóvar referred to a rumor circulating on the Internet that accused the government of petitioning the Spanish king on the eve of the election to postpone the voting. The rumor, still swirling around Madrid, held that the king refused the request, saying it would constitute a de facto coup d'état.

"We have to understand something terrifying," Mr. Almodóvar told reporters for the news channel Telecinco about the P.P., the Popular Party. "The P.P. was about to, at midnight Saturday, bring about a coup détat. I don't want to be polite or delicate. I'm not trying to throw stones, but you have to see how the P.P. has been operating."

The government has flatly denied the rumor and all political parties have said there is no truth in it. In a television interview on Monday, Mariano Rajoy, the Popular Party's defeated candidate for prime minister, called the allegation a "colossal lie" and added that "there are people who should watch what they say and be more patriotic." [P6: Sound familiar?]

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Quote of note:

Mr. Bush has said publicly that he believes that Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons; Mr. ElBaradei says he does not yet have evidence of a weapons program.

You know, people…in evaluating this stuff you need to keep in mind whose judgement has a historical record of accuracy. ElBaradei is a honest, reasonable man. He didn't play chickenshit hem-and-haw politics with his reporting on Iraq like Blix did.

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U.S. Said to Seek Iran's Nuclear Details by June
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, March 17 — The head of the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, said Wednesday that President Bush and his aides had told him they regarded June as "an important deadline" for Iran to reveal all the details of its clandestine nuclear program. But he said Mr. Bush had left unclear what action he might take if Iran failed to do so.

After a 45-minute meeting with Mr. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, Mr. ElBaradei also said he sensed that the administration was "still mulling" some kind of direct dialogue with Tehran on its nuclear program and other issues.

In an interview after the meeting, Mr. ElBaradei said the subject of Iraq's weapons programs — so contentious a year ago — never even came up Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Instead, the discussion, which Mr. ElBaradei said had covered Pakistan and North Korea as well as Iran, centered on their somewhat different proposals for controlling the world's supply of fissile material for nuclear weapons, and keeping it out of the hands of both terror groups and rogue nations.

Mr. ElBaradei said he pressed Mr. Bush to help him get his inspectors into Pakistan to take samples of its nuclear material, which he needs to match up with traces of nuclear material found in Iran. It is a network created by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb, that is suspected of supplying Iran with the materials and technology to make atomic weapons.

Mr. Bush has said publicly that he believes that Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons; Mr. ElBaradei says he does not yet have evidence of a weapons program.

Iran's account of its nuclear activity has constantly changed. Last year it admitted that it had hidden 18 years of nuclear development programs. It conceded this year that it had experimented with an advanced type of centrifuge apparently supplied by Mr. Khan's network.

Senior American officials have said they will decide in June whether to seek sanctions against Iran in the Security Council.

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Didn't it set off this particular round of intifada?

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Report of the Fifth Special Session
(17-19 October 2000)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Official Records, 2000

Supplement No. 22

II. Resolution adopted by the Commission at its fifth special session

S-5/1. Grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel

The Commission on Human Rights,

Meeting in special session,

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
Recalling Security Council resolutions 476 (1980) of 30 June 1980, 478 (1980) of 20 August 1980, 672 (1990) of 12 October 1990 and 1073 (1996) of 28 September 1996, and taking note of Council resolution 1322 (2000) of 7 October 2000,

Recalling also its previous resolutions on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, the most recent of which was resolution 2000/6 of 17 April 2000,

Taking note of the report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Giorgio Giacomelli (E/CN.4/S-5/3), submitted on 17 October 2000, regarding his mission undertaken in accordance with Commission resolution 1993/2 A of 19 February 1993,

Condemning the provocative visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif on 28 September 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the Likud party leader, which triggered the tragic events that followed in occupied East Jerusalem and the other occupied Palestinian territories, resulting in a high number of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians,[P6: emphasis added]

Gravely concerned at the widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights perpetrated by me Israeli occupying Power, in particular mass killings and collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures which constitute war crimes, flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity,

Taking into account the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977, and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials of 1990, which prescribe that such officials should, inter alia, "minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life" and "ensure that firearms are used only in appropriate circumstances in a manner likely to decrease the risk of unnecessary harm",

Bearing in mind the outcome of the Sharm el Sheikh summit of 17 October 2000,

1. Strongly condemns the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force in violation of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupying Power against innocent and unarmed Palestinian civilians, causing the death of 120 civilians, including many children, in the occupied territories, which constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity;

2. Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to put an immediate end to any use of force against unarmed civilians and to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;

3. Calls upon the international community to take immediate effective measures to secure the cessation of violence by the Israeli occupying Power and to put an end to the ongoing violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories;

4. Affirms that the Israeli military occupation in itself constitutes a grave violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people;

5. Also affirms that the deliberate and systematic killing of civilians and children by the Israeli occupying authorities constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of the right to life and also constitutes a crime against humanity;

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Georgia's President Risks Showing Warlord Who's Boss
By SETH MYDANS

TBILISI, Georgia, March 17 — Two months after taking office, President Mikhail Saakashvili has touched off his first crisis by doing something that would seem quite unremarkable elsewhere: driving through his own territory.

He was stopped Sunday by armed men at the border of the renegade province of Adzharia, touching off a series of events that left his government in a standoff with the warlord who runs the province, Aslan Abashidze.

A confrontation was bound to come sooner or later, analysts say. But in attacking the problem directly by trying to cross the provincial border, Mr. Saakashvili has raised the possibility of armed conflict and put his young administration to a harsh test.

"If he succeeds in this he is very strong," said Ghia Nodia, a leading political analyst. "And if he is seen as a loser, this will of course become the beginning of a big problem for him also in Tbilisi."

The standoff is of keen interest to both Moscow and Washington, which have important interests in Georgia. It carries echoes of the proxy conflicts between the superpowers during the cold war.

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Quote of note:

Ending Chinese and Japanese currency intervention carries a new set of risks. A rising yen could potentially snuff out Japan's economic recovery. Many in China fear that floating the yuan and eliminating capital controls could damage China's weak banking system. And if China and Japan were to stop intervening in currency markets, the United States government would need to find other buyers for billions of dollars worth of Treasury bonds.

But American manufacturers would welcome a rise in any Asian currency. A steep decline in the dollar against the euro over the last year has done little to stimulate American exports, because of Europe's weak economic growth.

Hoping the Yen, if Not the Yuan, Will Show Muscle
By EDUARDO PORTER

Even as the Japanese government battles traders in the foreign exchange markets to keep the yen's exchange rate from rising against the dollar, a number of economists on this side of the Pacific are hoping that the markets will win.

With China showing no signs of bending to demands from Washington to let the yuan rise, economists say that an increase in the yen's value against the dollar could help spur American exports and reduce the yawning trade gap.

"It would be good for the United States trade balance," said Ernest H. Preeg, the top trade expert at the Manufacturers Alliance, a business research group in Arlington, Va. "It would be good for U.S. jobs and the manufacturing industry.''

A stronger yen tends to make Japanese exports to the United States more costly, and also gives American exporters a greater competitive edge in Japan.

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Quote of note:

"Americans are going to get ripped off…Insurance is not like other products. The policies are complex legal documents. Most people can't look at an insurance policy and tell whether they have a good one. It's hard to compare prices because coverage can vary greatly. You need someone looking out for the customer. The insurance companies aren't going to do that."

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New Momentum for Letting U.S. Help Regulate Nation's Insurers
By JOSEPH B. TREASTER

The prospect that Washington will seize a role in the regulation of insurance is gaining momentum after more than 150 years of control by the states.

At a meeting that ended Tuesday in New York, state regulators were given an outline of proposed steps for federal oversight and several leading regulators suggested in interviews that while they preferred to remain fully independent, giving ground to Washington seemed inevitable.

The message, said Ernst Csiszar, the president of the state regulators' association, was unmistakable: "Either you do it, or we do it."

Over the weekend, Representative Michael G. Oxley, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, spelled out plans for legislation later this year that would create a council of federal and state officials to oversee insurance nationally with a presidential appointee as its head.

Mr. Oxley's legislation, to be discussed at a hearing in Washington in late March, would force the states to adopt uniform standards and permit the market to determine insurance prices rather than have them determined by regulators as is generally the case now.

That is music to the ears of many of the biggest insurers. Once content with sluggish state regulation as long as it remained relatively lax, they have been campaigning for a single federal regulator to replace those in each of the states as competition with banks and mutual fund companies has intensified. The insurers say they want efficiency: one-stop shopping and quicker approval of new insurance and investment products. Their critics say that they want less regulation and that customers would suffer.

One force driving the initiative is a desire to end what Mr. Oxley called "the travesty of price controls" in the insurance industry by allowing the market to set prices. He said his changes would increase profits for an industry that has been lagging behind banking and other financial service businesses and would give customers more choices.

But consumer advocates are worried. They say Mr. Oxley's proposals gravely undermine protections for insurance customers. J. Robert Hunter, a former insurance regulator in Texas and now the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, is particularly concerned about letting insurance companies set their own prices.

"Americans are going to get ripped off," Mr. Hunter said. "Insurance is not like other products. The policies are complex legal documents. Most people can't look at an insurance policy and tell whether they have a good one. It's hard to compare prices because coverage can vary greatly. You need someone looking out for the customer. The insurance companies aren't going to do that."

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March 17, 2004

I just got linked by an article in The Black Commentator. That pleases me rather inordinately.

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Again, much more detail at Moving Ideas.

You're not against this bill, are you? Because if you are, I'd love to hear why. Especially if you're willing to answer three or four questions.

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FAIRNESS: The Civil Rights Act of 2004

For forty years the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has attempted to level the playing field in job opportunities, education, housing, voting and other areas. On February 11, 2004 civil rights leaders and Democrats introduced a multi-year initiative before Congress in an attempt to pass a sweeping update of the nation's laws barring discrimination.

Sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., George Miller, D-Calif., and John Conyers, D-Mich., in the House, the FAIRNESS Act is an effort to counteract the potentially devastating impact of several U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding civil rights protections.

Take Action: Learn how you can support the Act at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

The Act includes the following provisions.

Title I: Equal Access to Public Services and Fair Treatment for the Military
1. Enhances protections against discrimination in federally funded services.
2. Protects state employees who serve in the military from discrimination based on their military status.
3. Provides students with necessary protections from harassment based on race, gender, national origin, color, and disability.
4. Ensures significant and effective remedies to deter discrimination.

Title II: Protection for Older Workers
1. Provides appropriate remedies for all victims of age discrimination in employment, including state employees.
2. Confirms that older workers may seek relief from practices that have unjustifiable discriminatory effect based on age.

Title III: Access to the Courts and Effective Remedies
1. Prevents employers from forcing workers to sign away their right to a day in court.
2. Provides victims of discrimination based on sex, disability or religion with remedies equal to those available for other forms of discrimination.
3. Ensures appropriate and effective remedies.

Title IV: Equal Pay for Equal Work
1. Enhances enforcement of the Equal Pay Act.

Title V: Fair Treatment for Workers
1. Confirms Congress' intent that all workers have adequate remedies for unfair labor practices.

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Rather than go on a rant about how people need to simply ignore other people's personal choices when it is not physically possible for those choices to have any impact one them, I'll just point you at Moving Ideas for much, much more documentation on this issue.

My advice to anti-abortion rights activists: don't have an abortion.

My advice to anyone else: think carefully before you put yourself in a position where you need to consider an abortion. You ought to be having safe sex anyway.

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In Danger: A Woman's Right to Choose - The Unborn Victims of Violence Act | 3.15.04

On March 4th, the House of Representatives passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (HR 1997) by a margin of 254-163. The bill now heads to the Senate. If passed, the act will make it a crime to kill or harm an embryo or fetus while attacking a pregnant woman, therefore charging the criminal with two separate and punishable crimes. This is widely viewed as a win for anti-abortion advocates because it gives rights to an embryo or fetus at any stage of development. Those in opposition believe that this act could conflict with current Supreme Court rulings that govern a woman's right to have an abortion. Pro-choice advocates point out that:

This Bill Dangerously Separates the Fetus and the Pregnant Woman
Creating a separate offense for injury to the fetus would grant the fetus legal rights separate from those of its mother. The legislation would modify the current legal structure by recognizing the fetus as a legal victim and granting it an unprecedented status in federal law.

* Memo on Attempts to Create Fetal Rights: The Unborn Victims of Violence, American Civil Liberties Union
* Do Fetal Rights Limit Mothers' Rights (PDF), National Conference of State Legislatures

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I intend to follow the links they claim prove their case. I suggest you do the same.

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Small Business Bunk

President Bush yesterday held an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to tout his Administration's record on small business and health care issues. But AP reports, having no proposal to address the uninsured, the President "did not mention the estimated 43 million Americans who have no health coverage." Additionally, not only did he obscure his record, he also managed to once again mix a taxpayer-funded event with election-year politics, opting to put one of his campaign donors on stage and promoting the agenda of one of his party's major financial backers. Here is a rundown of the event:

HEALTH-CARE CLAIMS VS. FACTS: With health insurance premiums skyrocketing, the President touted his so-called "Association Health Plan" proposal that he said would save small businesses money and improve health coverage by allowing small businesses to band together across state lines and "share risk." But a study by Mercer, Inc. shows that the White House plan would actually result in increased administrative costs and higher premiums for 80% of small businesses. Additionally, the� Congressional Budget Office and Urban Institute estimate that AHPs and similar proposals would result in thousands of people who previously had coverage becoming uninsured.�Finally, as Consumers Union notes, the proposal could reduce overall health benefits by allowing health plans to "escape state benefit mandates such as mammography screening, well-child care, cervical cancer screening, drug abuse treatment, mental health benefits, and bone marrow transplants" while "cherry-picking" only the healthiest populations for coverage. The President refused to address these problems, and instead chastised opponents of his plan as "special interests." Of course, one of the groups opposing the plans is the Republican Governors Association — an organization of which he used to be a member. See a state-by-state chart of how the proposal could affect you.

TAX CUT CLAIMS VS. FACTS: The President touted his $1 trillion plan to make his tax cuts permanent, saying the previous "tax cuts pertained directly to small business owners." He said, "when you hear people say we cut individual income taxes, or tax on the rich, really what you ought to put in your mind is these were taxes to help the entrepreneurial class of America. Small businesses benefit." But the facts tell a different story. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, only 3.7% of small businesses are subject to the top tax-rate cuts that made up the bulk of the President's 2001 tax cut. All told, small business owners "would be far more likely to receive no tax reduction whatsoever from the Administration's tax package than to benefit" in any way. In his 2003 tax cut, the President promised that small business owners would receive an average tax cut of $2,042. But that average purposely included a "small number of wealthy individuals who have some small business income" — and in reality 79% of small business owners received less than what the President promised.

MIXING OFFICIAL EVENTS WITH CAMPAIGN EVENTS: While the event yesterday was an official taxpayer-sponsored White House event, that did not stop the Administration from using it as a platform to mix in a little campaign activity. Specifically, the President had Bill Fairchild of the Associated Builders and Contractors on stage with him. Fairchild is not only a campaign contributor to the President's re-election campaign, but the group he represented is a major financial backer of the President and the President's party. The group, which has pushed for the President's health plan in Congress, has given more than $2.7 million in hard money and more than $89,000 in soft money to Republican candidates (including the President) since 2000.

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Walter at Idols of the Marketplace suggests a simple response to any demands that Kerry speak up on which foreign leaders might support him.

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Obama routs Democratic foes; Ryan tops crowded GOP field
Hynes, Hull fall far short across state
By David Mendell
Tribune staff reporter

March 17, 2004

Barack Obama, an African-American state senator and former civil-rights lawyer from Hyde Park, won a landslide victory over six competitors Tuesday to assume the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, setting the stage for a crucial contest in November that could tip the balance of power in Congress.

Obama, 42, whose initial campaign strategy was to build a coalition of blacks and liberal whites, instead surprised even his strategists by amassing broad support from throughout the party.

He won over not only urban black voters, but also many suburban whites. With 89 percent of precincts reporting around the state, Obama led his next closest rival, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, by 54 percent of the vote to 23 percent, as expected strong support for Hynes from Chicago's Democratic machine failed to materialize.

"At its best, the idea of this party has been that we are going to expand opportunity and include people that have not been included, that we are going to give voice to the voiceless, and power to powerless, and embrace people from the outside and bring them inside, and give them a piece of the American dream," Obama said in declaring victory.

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When movies and plays set out to shock and awe, minor details like, oh, plot and acting can be left in the dust
Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

We are what we see.

In an entertainment culture suffused with spectacle, the desire to be dazed, dazzled, carried away and left speechless has never seemed more compelling. In movie houses and theaters, rock concert arenas and horse-filled tents, visual amazement abounds and overwhelms. Language, lyrics, character and narrative make way for sensory superabundance.

Buffeted by world events too menacing to fathom, we've become eager, wide- eyed witnesses, our faces longingly pressed to ever larger windows. We want to be enveloped and transported by intensity now, not merely diverted. Consider some of our current fixations.

The two most-discussed movies of the season, Mel Gibson's flesh-flaying "The Passion of the Christ" and Oscar behemoth "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," depend dominantly on their overpowering imagery. Their stories aren't so much dramatized onscreen as dynamically, hyperbolically illustrated.

Cirque du Soleil, which may well be the defining theatrical aesthetic of the age, continues to blanket the globe in lavish, lyrical and immersive entertainments. With its fluidly choreographed feats and amplified scores sung in dreamy, pounding chants, Cirque (and Cirque-descendant shows such as "Cavalia") has become a universal language of astonishment and trance. Watching and listening to these productions, the audience gets swallowed up inside the shows' deep, plush pockets.

"The Lion King," Disney's mega-hit musical now installed at the Orpheum Theatre for a long run, offers audiences the delicious double pleasure of reveling in spectacle and rejoicing in the way it's made. The "Circle of Life" opener, the stuff of instant Broadway legend, announces the terms and conditions of the show's experience in unmistakable terms. By filling the theater's stage and aisles with a universe of masked and costumed animals and human-puppet hybrids, director Julie Taymor makes artifice, the wonder of making believe, the production's defining force.

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See this to understand the title reference.

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Killing Iraq With Kindness
By IAN BURUMA

One year later, most of the stated reasons for invading Iraq have been discredited. But advocates of the war still have one compelling argument: our troops are not there to impose American values or even Western values, but "universal" ones. The underlying assumption is that the United States itself represents these universal values, and that freedom to pursue happiness, to elect our own leaders and to trade in open markets, should be shared by all, regardless of creed, history, race or culture.

Some might question whether America is as shining an example of these good things as is often claimed. Nonetheless, spreading them around is certainly a more appealing policy than propping up "our" dictators in the name of realpolitik. Still, history shows that the forceful imposition of even decent ideas in the claim of universalism tends to backfire — creating not converts but enemies who will do anything to defend their blood and soil.

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Quote of note:

Jamaican officials said they would not recognize Haiti's new government until the issue was discussed at a meeting of the 15-member Caribbean economic bloc, the Caribbean Community, or Caricom, later this month.

Hardball.

Still Little League, but…

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Haiti's New Leader Said to Pick Cabinet, Shunning Politicians
By KIRK SEMPLE

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 16 — Haiti's interim prime minister, moving quickly to prevent the country from sinking into further disarray, reportedly settled on a list of cabinet members on Tuesday amid a regional quarrel over Jamaica's decision to receive Haiti's exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, who was appointed last week, faces the task of forming an interim government that can begin reactivating the public and private sectors and winning the confidence of the Haitian people, who have suffered through months of political uncertainty. Mr. Aristide fled into exile on Feb. 29 under pressure from rebels and the American and French governments.

Officials involved in the cabinet selection said Mr. Latortue had decided on at least 12 ministerial posts on Tuesday plus several other cabinet members. The prime minister is expected to make the formal appointments on Wednesday.

The ministers chosen so far, according to officials close to the selection process, are mostly technocrats who have not been deeply involved in politics; the exclusion of politicians has reportedly angered some of the country's political parties on Tuesday, including Mr. Aristide's Lavalas Party. Mr. Latortue has said he intends to build a government of national reconciliation. The cabinet will run the country until elections are held.

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Little Job Creation Is Found in Audits of Tax-Break Zones
By MICHAEL COOPER

ALBANY, March 16 - An East Harlem business reported receiving half a million dollars in state economic development tax breaks, even though it created only two jobs that paid a total of $14,080 a year. Six Staten Island businesses reported losing jobs, but claimed $15,600 in tax breaks. Three Queens businesses also lost jobs, but claimed $40,000.

Those claims were included in audits of three economic development zones in New York City that were released here on Tuesday by the state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi. The audits are the latest in a series that have been called flawed by the Pataki administration.

The comptroller has been examining Empire Zones, the struggling areas where businesses are given tax breaks for making investments and creating jobs. Mr. Hevesi released an audit last week charging that businesses in eight zones elsewhere in the state got tax breaks even though they lost jobs. The audits released yesterday suggested that businesses in city zones were even less successful in creating jobs.

Only 15 percent of the businesses in the East Harlem zone met or exceeded their targets for creating jobs, the audit found, while 38 percent created fewer jobs than they had projected and 46 percent added no jobs or lost some. In a zone on the north shore of Staten Island, 20 percent of the businesses met or exceeded their job targets, while 34 percent fell short of their goals and 46 percent added no jobs or lost them.

The zone in South Jamaica, Queens, was slightly more successful, the audit found. Thirty-nine percent of the businesses there met or exceeded their job targets, while 16 percent created fewer jobs than they had projected and 45 percent added no jobs or lost some.

Charles A. Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, which oversees the zones in conjunction with local boards, charged that the audits demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of how the program works. He said the program gives tax breaks only for jobs created, not on projections.

But officials at the comptroller's office said that their audits were based on the annual reports filed by the businesses within the zones, and that the businesses themselves reported getting tax breaks but not creating jobs.

Corporation officials said that some tax breaks could be granted for reasons other than job creation, and that the auditors would do better to look at the tax forms filed by the businesses. They also noted that some loopholes were closed after the period audited, from 1999 to 2002.

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We don't need a probe, we need a decision. And the right decision would be a reevaluation of the bill with the real cost estimates taken into account.

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Call for probe into Medicare estimate grows
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson joined Democrats on Tuesday in calling on the department's inspector general to investigate whether the Medicare chief pressured a subordinate to withhold estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.

Those estimates -- higher than those projected by congressional budget analysts -- have yet to be made public or turned over to congressional Democrats who have requested them, although Thompson said his staff is gathering the documents.

With the Bush administration's efforts to showcase the new Medicare prescription drug law slowed by a steady stream of accusations by Democrats about ethical improprieties in drafting, passing and promoting the law, Thompson spent more than an hour to address a range of criticism.

Thompson did not dispute the thrust of the story, reported by the Associated Press in June, that Thomas Scully, who ran the Medicare agency until December, threatened to fire his top actuary, Rick Foster, if Foster released his calculations to Democrats. Scully said his comments were "heated rhetoric in middle of the night."

But the matter has taken on a new life because the administration projected in the budget it submitted to Congress last month that the 10-year cost of the bill would be $534 billion, instead of the $395 billion estimate used in writing the legislation. Foster estimated in June that a version similar to what became law would cost $551 billion, according to a document subsequently obtained and released by House Democrats.

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He's too small a person for The Big Lie technique to apply.

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Campaign Gets More Personal
Bush Airs Attack Ad as Kerry Accuses Him of 'Credibility Gap'

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 17, 2004; Page A09

CHARLESTON, W.Va., March 16 -- The presidential election took a sharply personal turn Tuesday, as President Bush aired a new television ad accusing Democrat John F. Kerry of turning his back on troops in Iraq while Kerry accused the administration of creating a "credibility gap" by misleading the public on issues including weapons of mass destruction and the cost of a new Medicare drug benefit.

"Nothing is more important than telling the American people the truths about the economy, health care, and issues of war and peace," Kerry told an audience in Huntington, W.Va. "This president's misleading misstatements have produced a credibility gap as big as the New River Gorge," a West Virginia natural attraction.

Bush's TV ad accused Kerry of voting against legislation to pay for military needs in Iraq after originally supporting the U.S. invasion.

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Oh?

On January 16, 2003, the Bush Administration announced it would cut access to health care benefits for 160,000 middle-income veterans due to budget constraints.

In other cases, injured solders were denied active duty pay and medical benefits.

"The people who ordered up this war are the ones who ought to finance its aftermath. Yet when the Senate had a chance to vote on Oct. 2 for an amendment that would pay the postwar costs by temporarily reducing the tax cut for the wealthiest slice of Americans -- the less than 1 percent who made $400,000 a year -- it was rejected, 57-42."

Under Bush, Body Armor For Troops In Short Supply: By asking for the money for body armor in a supplemental appropriations bill 7 months after the war began, the Administration is acknowledging that troops spent the most dangerous period of the war WITHOUT this armor.

“When the Saddam Hussein government collapsed, U.S. troops in Iraq figured the war was over, except for some mopping up. But as the acting secretary of the Army, Les Brownlee, acknowledged to Congress last week, ‘we simply were not prepared’ for the insurgency that developed in early summer, prolonging the war and taking the lives of hundreds of American soldiers. One 3rd Infantry soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Eric Wright, put it this way in Iraq last June: ‘What was told to us was that we would fight and win and go home.’ It's not that simple.”

List made easy by DBunker.

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Quote of note

"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

- Frederick Douglass

Yeah, it's unusual for a "Quote of note" to come from outside the article I'm referring you to. But it was my first reaction.

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Ethics Truce Frays in House
Democrats Torn Over Investigating GOP
By Charles Babington and Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 17, 2004; Page A01

A seven-year ethics truce between congressional Republicans and Democrats has begun to fray under the weight of mounting alleged abuses by House GOP leaders and tensions among Democrats over how aggressively to pursue the matters.

Some Democrats and outside groups think the reported wrongdoings have reached a critical mass that cries out for investigations and reforms. Democratic leaders, however, are wary of breaking the long cease-fire that has protected both parties from the types of ethics charges and countercharges that roiled Congress and toppled two speakers in the 1980s and '90s.

Central to the debate is the House ethics committee, largely dormant since the unwritten truce took effect but rousing in recent days to defend itself against the rain of criticism. Watchdog groups are demanding that the secretive panel show more vigor in pursuing published reports of questionable behavior by lawmakers, and they want an end to the House-approved 1997 rule that bars ethics inquiries based solely on complaints from outsiders.

Some Democratic activists also are seething, convinced their elected officials are letting Republicans flout ethical standards in ways that were unthinkable when the GOP took control of the House in 1994. Republicans had attacked the entrenched Democrats' abuse of the House bank and post office and vowed to end Congress's "cycle of scandal."

The recent allegations touch top lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and several committee chairmen. They involve suggestions of bribery and threats on the House floor, illegal use of campaign funds, misuse of a federal agency for political purposes, conflicts of interest, and strong-arm tactics against lobbyists and campaign contributors.

Yet prominent Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) -- who this month decried "the fraying of the moral fiber of what goes on here" -- have repeatedly declined to press ethics charges or make them a political priority. Pelosi said she does not think leaders should bring ethics charges against lawmakers from the opposing party.

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March 16, 2004

It's the referral logs again. I see someone hit P6 looking for little "L" libertarians and I MUST examine the result set of that query.

Edward Cone, by way of Jeremy at Jeremy's Jeremiad!

The libertarian consensus is not a utopian movement. It’s a mindset, not a policy, vague but recognizable on sight – yet it has to be grounded in reality to work. A starting point is the fact that personal freedom demands personal responsibility and self discipline. This isn’t about abdicating moral authority, it’s about privatizing it. At our house we home school the kids, we just outsource the academics.

Principles endure, but needs and resources change, so solutions under the libertarian consensus need to be dynamic instead of static. Entrenched interests, served by both major political parties, are dug in against liberty. We need to root them out without dismissing the various good ends toward which they set off before getting trapped in their trenches.

Part of the dynamic worldview is accepting the law of unintended consequences. That’s key to its counterutopianism. Less regulation might lead to more litigation, for example. Ending the Drug War would save lots of money that is now spent on interdiction, enforcement, and incarceration, but it will cost money, too, to invest in healthcare for drug users and public education about the consequences of drug use.

The libertarian consensus doesn’t mean government spending and social programs are going to go away. Responsibility for yourself does not preclude responsibility to your neighbors and nation. People want to be left alone, but that’s an amorphous concept. There’s “left alone,” as in, adults who aren’t hurting anyone else should be left alone, and there’s “left alone,” as in, left alone to die, or left alone without any real opportunity to join the productive populace, or left alone when your job goes to Vietnam.

Uncle at Say Uncle

It should be noted that I am not a Libertarian but I do like some aspects of Libertarianism. However, Libertarianism can't work. Clayton Cramer opined that he watched the TV show Cops just to remind him of why Libertarianism cannot work. You will always have the lowest common denominator ruining it for everyone. Face it, not everyone is nice guy like me.

… This is why I refer to myself as a libertarian with a small L. Libertarianism has some good ideals:

Small government
Personal responsibility
Valuing liberty among all else

All good stuff!

But other things that need work:

Opposing all welfare
Opposing public education
Wanting to ban all taxes
Aligning themselves with some of the whacko militia groups

You have to work on this stuff guys to be taken seriously. Yes, welfare, education, taxes and other things need some major work. But we can't do without them.

David Hitt at The Hittman Chronicles:

Libertarians come in two primary flavors: Capital L Libertarians, and small L libertarians. Capital Ls demand that Libertarianism be pure. There is no room for compromise, or incrementalism. If something violates Libertarian dogma, even a little, it must be rejected, no matter how pragmatic it may be.

Small L libertarians, like me, believe in the basic principles of Libertarianism, but temper it with pragmatism. We see nothing wrong with making incremental changes, snatching back our freedom a bit at a time, the way it was taken from us. We don't consider "compromise" a filthy word.

You might think that the Big Ls and the small Ls would be happy to work together. You would be wrong. Big Ls despise the small Ls, and see them as traitors to the cause. They call us LINOs, Libertarians In Name Only, and scream "Statist!" at us every time we propose anything that isn't pure enough for them. ("Statist" is the worst insult one Libertarian can hurl at another. It's almost as bad as calling a Democrat a capitalist.)

It may seem strange that people would reject help from others who agree with them on 90-95% of the issues, so let me give you a specific example. The subject of drunk driving came up on an FSP mailing list. A drunk driver who manages to make it home without killing himself or someone else, or damaging property, hasn't committed any crime in the perfect Libertarian world, and so should not be punished. Few people will accept the idea that he should be allowed to continue driving drunk until he does kill or maim someone, except for the big Ls. They insisted that there should be no penalty until after the damage was done. (We specified, early on, that we were talking about people who were really drunk, not the ridiculous .08 that the feds have forced on the states.) And they insisted that when the drunk did finally kill or maim someone, he should only be charged with that crime. Adding to the penalty for "having the politically incorrect amount of alcohol in their bloodstream" was unconscionable, and akin to convicting someone of a hate crime. The concept of reckless endangerment was rejected. We set up a private poll, and the vote was 7-2 to eliminate all drunk driving laws. I was one of the two, and on viewing the results, I could feel my small L suffering even more shrinkage.

Glen Whitman's Libertarian Page

What's this I hear about "minarchism" and "anarcho-capitalism"?

Libertarians come in two main flavors: minarchists and anarchists.
Minarchists believe that government should be reduced to the smallest size necessary to protect individual rights of person and property. Minarchists are willing to tolerate a low level of taxes and some other forms of government power (such as the power to subpoena witnesses), even though these practices are strictly speaking violations of individual liberty, because they are necessary to prevent even greater violations of individual liberty that would take place otherwise. Minarchists usually support a state-run military, police force, and justice system.

Anarchists (or anarcho-capitalists, a term used to distinguish them from anarchists of the socialist or bomb-throwing variety) oppose the existence of any government, even a small one. Anarcho-capitalists frequently argue that having a government at all necessarily violates the non-aggression ethic (see definition 2 above). They contend that it is a violation of individual liberty to take people's money or property from them, even if the money or property will be used to defend their remaining money and property. Anarcho-capitalists usually envision private enforcement agencies and courts that would compete for the voluntary business of individuals seeking protection against the violation of their rights by others.

In case you're wondering, I consider myself a minarchist.

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Time magazine, at the bottom of the page:

As the Bush team sorts out its internal mechanics, it will press the advantage of incumbency. Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month. [P6: Emphasis added]

Libertarians: Did you give them permission to spend your money on this?

These are the people who want to hobble the free speech rights of a grass roots campaign that us spending its OWN money. Will Bush's campaign pay the salaries of the government workers who will be diverted because of his presence? Or for the time DHS staff spends looking for this crap?

This is ill.

You know, I got my tech spot to write about programming issues. I'm working on the aggregator and community site where I can do my race and society stuff. I could see this site in particular going into full-on anti-incumbent oratory mode. Because it's occurring to me that NO one is THIS foul unless they actually see nothing wrong with what they are doing.

I'll never be Counterspin Central. I don't think most Republicans are evil. They are just very badly, very, very sadly wrong.

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There's a college freshman, a philosophy major running a blog. That alone should let you know how deep the doo-doo is capable of becoming. Said college freshman is apparently a big-L Libertarian.

Where's the Three Strikes laws when you need it most?

Said blog is named Hot Abercrombie Chick! and immediately joins the list of unlinked references.

Common arguments in support of welfare often say something to the effect that the needy require assistance to live, state welfare programs serve the greater good, etc. And of course there are others--maybe not better arguments, but still others. This is a general counter-argument that will probably cover most common arguments in favor of state-supported welfare, and is made under the assumption that we find theft, burglary, and destruction of others' properties to be somehow immoral.

The question is this:
If, in any situation, we find it justifiable for any person or group to take the property of any other person without the consent of the other (whether by force, or threats of jail, etc.), we cannot argue that there is anything intrinsically wrong with that act. On what, then, do we base our objections to theft?

Do you consent to live in this country under the rule of law, you little Y & R refugee? If so, pay your taxes. If not Get Out.

Why do I act as ignorant as you? After all you have inexperience as an excuse.

Because I remember Two Wongs Make It White.

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Ezra at Pandagon very gently fisks Will Safire…yeah, I know, easy target. One can afford to be polite.

Presumably unaware of the presence of a live microphone, Senator John Kerry, campaigning last week in Chicago, let loose with his opinion of Republicans opposing him as "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen."

My first reaction — like that of millions of parents and schoolteachers around the country — was to wince at a prominent politician's use of "you know," a halting interjection that has been cluttering the speech of teenagers for years.

Only later, as the rest of the Kerry condemnation sunk in, did I wonder: Was it wise for a candidate for president to characterize Republicans — tens of millions of American voters, including even veterans — as thieves and liars? And if the double slur had been part of a pour-it-on strategy, was it tactically smart to take the low road so early?

Paragraph 3, meet paragraph 1. He knows exactly what John Kerry said. Paragraph 1, could you please enlighten paragraph 3?

"Sure. John Kerry gave his 'opinion of Republicans opposing him as "the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen.'"

Now paragraph 3, what's wrong with what you said?

"Um, I said John Kerry smeared all Republicans instead of the few people John Kerry is actually running against?"

"Good, keep going..."

"I accused him of consciously taking the low road when he was expressing a private thought unaware of a live mic?"

"Also true. Anything else?"

"I took an accidental comment directed at a small group of people and misrepresented it as a political strategy designed to smear half the nation."

"Good, good. Don't you feel better now?"

"Kind of. I also feel like slime though."

"Yeah, not much to be done about that."

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And the winner of the 2004 Bloggies award for Best Meme is:

Oh, read it yourself. I'm gonna pretend the other nominees are listed in finishing order.

I'm…I'm heartbroken, I tell you…

Well, not really. It looks like I'm up for another hellacious traffic spike.

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I picked up on this from a post at Steve Gilliard's News Blog. This is no different than what the Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out as regards environmental issues. Like Florida 2000 (the "citizens riot" whose participants were bussed in), it's just another expression of the fundamental approach the Republican party is taking toward disagreement: shout 'em down, shut 'em up.

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Warping Mideast judgments

By Steven Heydemann, director of the Center for Democracy and the Third Sector at Georgetown University

March 14, 2004

Intelligence failures in Iraq point to the dangers of letting politics influence research.

Appointed officials with a partisan political agenda used their influence to silence dissenting opinions. They selectively played up evidence that supported predetermined conclusions. Expertise was sacrificed for the sake of political expediency, with unfortunate results.

Ignoring these lessons, partisan critics are now working to politicize university-based research on the Middle East--and, by default, every other world region.

Exploiting the language of accountability and playing on post-Sept. 11 fears about terrorism, Islam and the Middle East, these critics have persuaded Congress to consider a politically appointed advisory board to "evaluate" the work of area studies centers that receive funds from the Department of Education through a program known as Title VI.

Federal funding for Middle East centers is incredibly modest--centers at 17 universities get about 10 percent of Title VI funds, with grants that average only about $500,000 per year. Yet federal support is important in persuading universities to back centers with their own resources and to attract additional money, typically private.

Why create a politically appointed advisory board for Title VI now?

Why impose this extra layer of control over a single program at the Department of Education, an agency of the executive branch that is hardly underregulated?

Critics claim that Middle East studies have gone off the rails. On one hand, they say the field is insular and self-interested, caught up in theoretical fads to the neglect of public service. On the other hand they see it as too political, harboring views and opinions they define as anti-American because they are critical--sometimes abrasively so--of the administration's policies in the region.

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S-Train:

Rico and I were enforcers in the gang we belonged to. And he's right. We know all about terrorism. We didn't use bombs but we had our weapons of choice: intimidation, physical brutality, and the willingness to go there. For those who don't know what that means, I'll make it simple: doing things that other people can't or won't do. And that's what terrorists do. They go there. They escalate to higher and higher levels of violence and intimidation

So how do you fight those who are willing to go there? Well, you can escalate also to higher levels of violence and intimidation towards them. And I can't knock it. It's an instinctive reaction. But many times that leads to a circular pattern of destruction. Incident, retaliation, and counter-retaliation is par for that course. But you know what stopped gang enforces like Rico and I? It wasn't the rival gangs. It wasn't necessarily law enforcement. It was the community. When they stood up to us, we faded. When 25 - 30 hard workin' men and women from UAW Local 22 showed up when we were "roughing up" a couple of drug addicts that owed money, we stopped in our tracks. And what made it worse for us is that they marked us. They got our nicknames and gang affiliation. We were basically screwed.

The community has the power to kill terrorists. For the terrorists are born and raised in the community. When the regular folks change their minds, the fools have no power. Yes it is a hard, tough, nasty road. But it is a road that has to taken. The war on terrorism has to be a smart war on terrorism. Hard questions need to be asked and answered at home and abroad. Uncomfortable situations have to be endured. But winning the community wins the war.

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After suffering the humiliation of unreleasing a release candidate, I finally got a nice new feature of MTClient almost working. Copy from web browser, paste with HTML intact.

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Partisan Debate Only Escalates as Kerry Quotation Is Corrected

By JODI WILGOREN
ASHINGTON, March 15 — The White House stepped up its attack on Monday over Senator John Kerry's recent claim to have international support for his presidential campaign, as Mr. Kerry deployed high-profile Democrats to defend him.

The escalating argument came amid revelations that the weeklong controversy was based on an inaccurate transcript provided by a reporter covering the Florida fund-raiser where Mr. Kerry made a similar remark. As Vice President Dick Cheney and Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, continued to criticize Mr. Kerry on the issue, the reporter — one of two allowed to attend the event on behalf of the press corps … said Monday that he had made a mistake when transcribing his recording of the session.

The inaccurate quotation was widely reported, including on several occasions in The New York Times.

Patrick Healy, the Boston Globe reporter who covered the fund-raiser, had quoted Mr. Kerry as saying: "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but, boy, they look at you and say, `You have got to win this; you have got to beat this guy; we need a new policy.' Things like that."

Mr. Kerry said on Sunday that he had used the word "heard," not "met," prompting Mr. Healy to revisit the recording. On Monday, he sent out a corrected transcript, clarifying that the quotation actually began, "I've met more leaders who can't go out and say it all publicly."

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Their economic plans have impact. Just not the impact they want us to believe 

Deficit Study Disputes Role of Economy

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: March 16, 2004

ASHINGTON, March 15 —When President Bush and his advisers talk about the widening federal budget deficit, they usually place part of the blame on economic shocks ranging from the recession of 2001 to the terrorist attacks that year.

But a report released on Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that economic weakness would account for only 6 percent of a budget shortfall that could reach a record $500 billion this year.

Next year, the agency predicted, faster economic growth will actually increase tax revenues even as the deficit remains at a relatively high level of $374 billion.

The new numbers confirm what many analysts have predicted for some time: that budget deficits in the decade ahead will stem less from the lingering effects of the downturn and much more from rising government spending and progressively deeper tax cuts.

Administration officials do not dispute the basic thrust of the agency's estimate, but they still say that faster growth and spending restraints can reduce the deficit in five years. [P6: So could waving your hands really fast]

[Bullshit elided]

The Congressional report, though, concludes that the "cyclical" problems of slower growth are a tiny part of the overall budget problem. The Congressional agency estimated that slower growth reduced tax revenues by $53 billion in 2002, accounting for a third of the budget deficit that year. In 2003, the agency estimated that subpar growth cut tax revenues by $68 billion. The overall budget deficit in 2002 swelled to $375 billion as a result of spending on the Iraq war and Mr. Bush's tax cuts.

But this year, with the economy expanding, the Congressional agency predicted that lingering weakness would drain only $30 billion in tax revenues while the deficit hits $477 billion, less than the White House had forecast, but still a record.

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I guess you just pay the fine then 

European Regulators Back Proposed Microsoft Ruling

By PAUL MELLER
RUSSELS, March 15 - European antitrust regulators are united behind Mario Monti, their top antitrust official, on his proposed finding that Microsoft has abused its dominant position in the software market, the European Commission said Monday.

Barring an 11th-hour settlement, the commission, the year-round administrative arm of the European Union, will rule as soon as March 24 that Microsoft is an abusive monopolist and will order the company to change the way it sells its software in its 15 member nations.

A meeting of national regulators broke up around midday on Monday after a brief discussion of the ruling, a commission spokeswoman, Amelia Torres, said. "The member states unanimously backed the commission's draft decision,'' she said.

All that remains is for Mr. Monti, the European Union's commissioner for competition, and his senior officials to determine the size of the fine to impose on the company. The commission can fine a company as much as 10 percent of its global annual sales, in Microsoft's case around $3 billion. People close to the case said the fine might range from 100 million euros to a billion euros - $123 million to $1.23 billion at current exchange rates.

The national regulators are expected to meet or conduct a conference call next Monday to discuss the proposed fine. Two days later, Mr. Monti and the 19 other European commissioners may make a final decision. This can be delayed if the commission thinks that a settlement is within reach.

… The provision concerning Media Player is considered the harder of the two to settle because it questions an essential part of Microsoft's business model that has allowed it to develop highly successful programs like the word-processing package Word and the Outlook e-mail program.

The company argues that Media Player cannot be stripped from Windows because the operating system would not work properly without it.

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Goddamn sellout 

Quote of note:

On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published new calculations showing that the budget deficit now stems almost entirely from tax cuts and spending increases rather than from lingering effects of the economic slowdown.

Another Quote of Note:

Adjusted for inflation, the average family's debt, including a mortgage, has climbed from $54,000 in 1990 to $79,000 last year. Mortgage foreclosures, credit card delinquencies and personal bankruptcies are all at near record levels.

Mr. Greenspan's view is that household balance sheets are "in good shape," and perhaps stronger than ever, because the value of people's homes and stock portfolios have risen faster than their debts.

And another:

But the main reason for that new wealth has been rising prices for real estate and stock, and those prices have climbed in large measure because interest rates are at their lowest level in more than 40 years.

… "The day of reckoning is not now, but maybe five years from now," said James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. "To go down Greenspan's route is like saying there is a free lunch. The fallacy is that net worth has gone up because debt went up. And that doesn't give me a good feeling."

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Greenspan Shifts View on Deficits

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
ASHINGTON, March 15 —Consumer debt is hitting record levels. The federal budget deficit is yawning ever larger. The trade gap? Don't even ask.

Many mainstream economists are worried about these trends, but Alan Greenspan, arguably the most powerful and influential economist in the land, is not as concerned.

In speeches and testimony, Mr. Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, is piecing together a theory about debt that departs from traditional views and even from fears he has himself expressed in the past.

In the 1990's, Mr. Greenspan implored President Bill Clinton to lower the budget deficit and tacitly condoned tax increases in doing so. Today, with the deficit heading toward a record of $500 billion, he warns more emphatically about the risks of raising taxes than about shortfalls over the next few years.

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Hey, half the respondents were Republicans 

Nation's Direction Prompts Voters' Concern, Poll Finds

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER

Published: March 16, 2004

eorge Bush and John Kerry enter the general election at a time of growing concern among Americans that the nation is veering in the wrong direction, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows. Mr. Bush faces unrest over his management of the economy, while the public has doubts about Mr. Kerry's political convictions.

Americans do view Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry as strong leaders who share their moral values and have a clear vision of where they want to take the country, the poll found.

But while the candidates are starting on roughly equal ground on those critical generic measures of leadership, the poll found that nearly half of respondents have not yet formed an opinion about Mr. Kerry. That result suggests that Mr. Bush has an opening to mold public opinion of his largely unknown challenger.

Already, most voters think Mr. Kerry is a politician who says what people want to hear, the poll found, rather than what he believes —the line of attack Mr. Bush has used against him in speeches.

The last quoted line is right interesting, I think.

Let's take a look at the poll question which lead to that line.

63. Do you think John Kerry says what he really believes most of the time, or does he say what he thinks people want to hear?

	What he believes	What people want to hear	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	33	57

Now let's compare that to the equivalent question about Bush.

49. Do you think George W. Bush says what he really believes most of the time, or does he say what he thinks people want to hear?

	What he believes	What people want to hear	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	51	45	4

Hm. Not that big a gap.

How about another couple of comparisons?

57. How much do you think John Kerry cares about the needs and problems of people like yourself -- a lot, some, not much, or none at all?

	A lot	Some	Not much	None	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	25	45	11	10	9

43. How much do you think George W. Bush cares about the needs and problems of people like you -- a lot, some, not much or none at all?

	A lot	Some	Not much	None	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	28	35	19	17	1

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59. Do you think John Kerry has strong qualities of leadership, or not?

	Has	Does not have	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	61	27	12

45. Do you think George W. Bush has strong qualities of leadership, or not?

	Has	Does not have	DK/NA
3/10-14/04*	67	32	2

Again, don't bank on pundits and polls this year. Just note the spin.

Posted by P6 at 09:12 AM
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March 15, 2004

Why Aaron gets more traffic and links than I do 

You should read this.

Why We Fight

Fool that I am, I followed one of the many, many links to Lileks.

So what do I hope I'll tell my child? Simple. It's over. We won.

"We"?

And, other than savagely decimating straw men of your own devising, your contribution to the war effort would have been…what, precisely?

As one of the people dragged into the previous Gulf War by the previous President Bush, out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, while folks like you stayed home thinking what a sucker I was, gotta say, that first person plural kind'a gets on my nerves.

Just a wee bit.

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The post-mortem on Al Sharpton's campaign officially begins 

Lester also writes at Vision Circle.
Sharpton: Time's Up!
Al Sharpton's campaign represented the last in a dying tradition of black leadership.
By Dr. Lester K. Spence

"It's all about identity." With that phrase Al Sharpton announced that he was running for President. Running to change the identity of the Democratic Party on the one hand, and to increase the self-esteem of black people on the other, Sharpton looked to finish the job that Jesse Jackson couldn't. Sharpton supporters saw his attempt as something that black people sorely needed to inject a sense of urgency for their issues into the Presidential race. Sharpton had a long history of agitating the powers that be on behalf of black men and women. He would speak for those who couldn't speak themselves, for those burned time and time again by Democratic promises.

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I know it's an experiment. I don't care. 

Back in January I was complaining about commercials coming to the web, saying it will still suck if the content is TV commercials. Well, between the Nutrigrain commercial and this Molson's ad I've decided to suspend judgement.

That was Glenn I heard talking 'bout it.

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Even the reification of an ancient Chaos Lord doesn't have that level of hubris 

via Atrios.

Bushism of the Day
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Monday, March 15, 2004, at 9:24 AM PT

"God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear."—Los Angeles, Calif., March 3, 2004 (Thanks to Tanny Bear)

Got a Bushism? Send it to [email protected].

For more, see "The Complete Bushisms."

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If you go to his site, you'll see he DID name names 

Calma abajo, Norbizness

It always feels weird when you start travelling down some 2-hour research-driven internet Moebius strip, trying to figure out how blogospheric opinion can go from "today, we are all Spainards" to "Spain is a bunch of cowardly, craven, terrorist-loving assholes" in 72 hours (no, I'm not naming names).

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The Bushista's reelection chance are slim if this pattern holds 

Time magazine:

In a survey by Republican pollster Bill McInturf and Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, 63% of Americans polled said they were following the race more closely now than in October of the past two presidential contests.

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We do not need this. We really don't 

Report: Syria seals off Iraqi border after Kurds threaten violence
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Syria on Monday sealed of its borders with Iraq after Iraqi Kurd fighters threatened to enter the country if violent clashes between security forces and their Syrian brethren were not brought to an end.

…Kurdish leaders in Syria on Saturday called on Masoud Barazani, one of the Kurdish leaders in Iraq, to help them in what they called "a massacre."

According to Kurdish sources, isolated exchanges of gunfire continued overnight Sunday in several towns, but in general, the violence was diminishing. The sources claim that demonstrations continued in the city of Haleb and that two Kurds were killed during the exchanges of fire in the northern town of Hassake.

The legal advisor of the Paris-based National Council for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Syria, George Sara, said that Syrian security services were conducting mass arrests, claiming that 100 people have been detained in Damascus.

Sara claimed he could not determine the exact number of people killed during the riots, but that his organization estimated the number to be between 60 and 100. He expressed disappointment with the lack of coverage of the riots in the western media, but asserted that Kurdish media in Turkey began showing interest on Sunday.

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We risk "pro-business" becoming understood as anti-human 

Workers see few benefits from pro-business policies
Mon Mar 15, 6:43 AM ET

As the U.S. economy keeps expanding without creating new jobs, politicians, labor leaders and average Americans increasingly blame "outsourcing" - work U.S. firms transfer to low-wage countries. The practice has become so highly charged that a Nebraska executive in line to oversee a Bush administration effort to boost factory jobs backed out last week following reports that he had outsourced operations to China.

Tying all of the nation's economic woes to outsourcing is simplistic. Many economists estimate that only about 1 in 100 layoffs are caused by outsourcing. By contrast, the bulk of job losses stem from domestic factors.

Even so, the focus on outsourcing helps highlight a broader economic concern that Corporate America has failed to address: Policies that are good for business have not been good for workers in recent years.

While Washington has showered tax cuts on U.S. businesses to spur them to grow, executives have not created new jobs or shared their increased prosperity with workers. Instead, the tax benefits largely have fattened companies' bottom lines. The growing disparity between corporate and worker fortunes requires a re-examination of strategies for stimulating the economy.

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Yes it will be ugly and no, I can't wait 

O'Reilly, O'Franken, oh no!
By Dante Chinni

WASHINGTON – Tired from a long, hard winter? Looking for a sunny getaway that won't break the family budget? Camp X-ray at Guantánamo Bay in tropical Cuba has fun for everyone.

Or at least, that was the word from Fox News last week. "Another young Afghan boy is saying that, contrary to complaints from Human Rights Watch, he had a wonderful time as a detainee at Guantánamo Bay," a Fox anchor reported. Fourteen-year-old Asad Olad returned from a 14-month stay at Gitmo with rave reviews. "[H]e spent his days watching movies, playing football, and going to class, where he says he was fascinated by lessons on the solar system," the anchor said.

Yes, better living through incarceration. We should all be so fortunate.

Asad's comments are not the issue here. If they are true, they are true and it's great he had such a fulfilling experience. But it seems odd to focus on one or two positive comments from detainees in a sea of negative comments and complaints of abuse.

But Fox doesn't concern itself with such trivialities. America, or more specifically the Bush administration, rarely does wrong; Democrats and "liberals" are making a mess of things; and the press is biased and untrustworthy.

In fact, many Fox segments aren't reports so much as little bits of media/societal deconstruction. Hollywood isn't full of "real people," but liberals. Women's magazines, like Cosmopolitan, are selling a liberal agenda. And were the media too easy on John Kerry for his open-mike slip about Republican "crooks" and "liars"? All of this, of course, comes under the heading of "fair and balanced" reporting, which is "a way of life" at Fox, according to its website.

Unhappy with Fox's characterizations of the news, liberals are fighting blather with blather - launching Air America, a radio network to offer their own picture of the world. It'll be a small, four-city operation when it debuts March 31, but it has big aspirations. "We are going to put it to Bush," says Al Franken, who will host one of the shows on the new network. "Bush is going down in November, and then we're putting it to the rest of the right-wing media."

All of which means, one assumes, that Franken and Co. will be dealing in the same one-sided, selective reporting that appears in Mr. Franken's books and the works of Michael Moore, another provocateur on the left.

So it is in 21st century America, where choice reigns even when it comes to what sort of news you are looking for. Don't like what you're hearing about the world on CNN? Try Fox. Is The Washington Post too conservative? Tune in Air America.

Of course, on its face, there is nothing wrong with any of this - though Fox's "fair and balanced" masquerading is at best good for a few laughs and at worst painfully dishonest. Opinion journalism has long been considered an important part of presenting a full picture of the news. That's why there's a section of the paper devoted specifically to it.

But we're seeing something different today. Traditional old-line outlets are being abandoned, according to a new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. (I work for the Project and participated in researching and writing the report.) In the past 10 years, the number of people tuning in to network evening newscasts has fallen from more than 40 million to less than 30 million. Between 1990 and 2002, daily newspaper circulation declined at a rate of 1 percent a year. And remember, both those drops happened as the national population grew - meaning that the declines are actually much steeper than they appear.

Where are people turning? To smaller outlets that allow for more customizable news, and often to sources that validate viewpoints more than illuminate the larger world.

Opinion journalism is becoming less a way to round out the average American's news meal and more its main course. We've been living in the world of instant spin for some time, but we're now entering the world where the line between news and spin is vanishing. And of all the disquieting trends in journalism, this may be the most troubling because it touches on this country's ability to make decisions as a people.

Everyone has opinions, but for those opinions to be worth something, they have to be based on facts so that we can come up with an accepted version of reality. That's how democracy works. Some of the media are entering an age where facts are based upon opinion. And reality? Well, that all depends on whom you get your news from.

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A father-son chat 

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Today's winner 

…of the Sad but True Award is The Boondocks.

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Discussion? DISCUSSION? We don need no steenkin discussion! 

CRISIS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
A flawed college plan
Monday, March 15, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

THE GOVERNOR's proposal to cut freshman enrollments at the University of California and the California State University systems by 10 percent this fall, and instead send an estimated 8,000 students to community colleges, threatens a public university system that has played a dominant role in California's evolution.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the state can no longer afford to subsidize UC and CSU to admit the same number of students as it has in the past. But this proposal has less to do with affordability and more to do with Schwarzenegger's priorities. He made the decision to return $4 billion in vehicle license fees -- much of it no doubt going to graduates of UC and CSU who have benefited many times over from the state's investment in them. If even one-tenth of that amount had been retained by the state, it would have covered the $46 million that allegedly will be saved by funneling some of the state's brightest students to community colleges.

Schwarzenegger's plan will undermine the state's Master Plan for Higher Education, which has served the state so well for nearly a half-century. The Master Plan committed the state to admit the top 12 1/2 percent of the high school graduating class to UC campuses, and the top 33 percent to CSU. "The problem is that if we drop below 12 1/2 percent . . . we will have broken a social contract that California has had with young people for 40 years,'' says UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl.

The proposal might have been acceptable if it had emerged after broad and open discussions with university, business and intellectual leaders of the state. But, unfortunately, there has been no such discussion.

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It's always about those colored people, isn't it? 

Candidates Narrow Focus to 18 States
Battle Has Begun In Most-Contested Areas of Nation

By Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 15, 2004; Page A01

The election-night mapmakers created an indelible image of political America in 2000: red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats, and a handful of states, crowned by disputed Florida, that remained competitive until the very end. Campaign 2004 begins where 2000 left off.

Strategists for President Bush and Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) already have conceded a majority of the states to one another, with the election likely to turn on battles in fewer than 18 states.

The principal battlegrounds range from familiar swing states of Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania to new arrivals of Nevada, West Virginia and Minnesota that reflect changing demographics or the clash of cultural values that can affect voters' behavior as much as the unemployment rate.

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Here's a graphic I stole from that Washington Post that breaks out the red/blue competitive states from the white, assumed to be non-competitive states.

Given the quality of predictions emanating from the punditry class the last few years, everyone in the white states should take these predictions with a grain of salt. Come to think of it, that applies to everything from economics to sports.

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Busted, disgusted, can't be trusted 

RUMSFELD DISHONESTY CAUGHT ON FILM: The most vivid display of the Administration's widening credibility gap came when CBS's Bob Schieffer asked Rumsfeld "If Iraq did not have WMD, why did they pose an immediate threat to this country?" Rumsfeld retorted, "You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'immediate threat.' I didn't...It's become kind of folklore that that's what happened." Schieffer repeated his question but Rumsfeld challenged the reporter saying, "If you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em." At that point, NYT columnist Tom Friedman read Rumsfeld his own words, pointing out that the Defense Secretary had told Congress on 9/19/02 that "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people" than Iraq and that "some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent [but] I would not be so certain." According to the transcript of the show, Rumsfeld replied "Mm-hmm. It--my view of--of the situation was that he--he had--we--we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that--that we believed and we still do not know--we will know." American Progress has posted a video clip of this exchange.

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Just a random thing I found interesting 

Slatre has an analysis/review of an upcoming Nike brand promotion ad.

And that's what makes the spot so fantastic. Without words (except for the voice-over from the play-by-play guys, who are just there to add to the realism), it expresses the fundamental essence of the brand: soulful sporting excellence. What makes it work is the economy of expression. The campaign is titled "What If?"—but Nike wisely omits these words from the spot. In fact, there's no explanation given at all. A lesser marketing team would have spelled it all out for us in a voice-over: "What if Lance Armstrong had taken up boxing instead of cycling? What if Andre Agassi's mom had given him a baseball glove, not a tennis racket?" Nike lets it stand on its own.

Compare this to the recent Adidas campaign in which female fighter Laila Ali is seen boxing against her own father, Muhammad. (To see the spot, click here, then click on the big box that says "Impossible.") Adidas seeks nearly the same brand niche as Nike (innovative shoe technology, ultimate athletic performance) yet always seems one step behind. The "Ali vs. Ali" ad is, like the Nike ad, a carefully crafted piece of sci-fi. But it's cluttered, first by a voice-over that doesn't really add much—"Impossible isn't a fact. It's an opinion." —and second by its slightly muddled message. Why is she fighting her father? He's not the obstacle blocking the path to her dream, is he? Is she really going to slug him, Parkinson's and all? Is the Greatest about to concuss his own daughter?

By contrast, the Nike spot is clear, simple, engrossing, and brilliant.

I am fascinated by the techniques used to insinuate ideas into people's heads.

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Well, I'll be going to the newsstand today 

I got particular bugs up my whoopsidaisy; I guess it can be summed up as actively providing rational support and removing irrational obstacles. Education rates among the primary areas that need this approach.

Education is always a big thing to Black folks. Going back to Jim Crow days there was one of those things, almost a jingle, everyone knew:

A naught's a naught
a figger's a figger
All for the white man
None for the nigger

Really kind of strange
Not really funny
But when you can't count
You never have money

Don't quote me, that's from a distant memory of something Skip Gates published.

Before I get too side-tracked, let me link to this week's U.S. News and World Report's special issue on Unequal Education It's the reason I'm going to the newsstand (that and the hope that JLA/Avengers #4 is around). It's online, but it's something I'm going to want to absorb thoroughly—dead trees are still the way to go in such a case.

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March 14, 2004

You're surprised? 

David Neiwert at Orcinus:

The Hatch act If there were any doubt that Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is one of the most duplicitous figures in American politics, it should have been erased with his most recent performance, blindsiding Democrats by kicking the push for an investigation into Republicans' theft of internal e-mails out of the Judiciary Committee.

Remember, it was only a few weeks ago that Hatch was playing the role of honest Republican, voicing his deep concern and regret over the thefts and promising to do what he could for an investigation. Indeed, his extremely pliant position had earned Hatch the wrath of fellow conservatives, who went so far as to call him a "traitor" for daring express a modicum of basic decency.

That was all just the setup for last `week's stunt -- which effectively killed any chance of the Senate supporting a Justice Department investigation into the matter. Democrats were gulled into believing Hatch was on their side, and then given the shaft when they weren't expecting it. Now any probe is left in the hands of the Republican sergeant-at-arms of the Senate.

Now Hatch can tell the people betrayed by him that he was pressured into killing the Judiciary vote -- and he gets to be a hero to those same conservatives who were willing to draw and quarter him a few weeks ago. Quite a slick routine, really.

Here's what Hatch said:

With no Democrats and about a half-dozen Republicans present, committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, announced Thursday evening the panel would not be able to reach agreement and he would leave it up to the Senate sergeant-at-arms William Pickle to decide what to do.

"We cannot get together," Hatch said. Addressing Pickle, he said, "Do whatever you think is right."

Pickle told Reuters he needed to "digest what I just heard" before making a decision. Earlier in the day, he said he thought a referral to the U.S. attorney's office, though not the Justice Department itself, was probably the best course of action.

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Another damn list 

In Their Own Words: Iraq's 'Imminent' Threat
January 29, 2004
Download: DOC, PDF, RTF

The Bush Administration is now saying it never told the public that Iraq was an "imminent" threat, and therefore it should be absolved for overstating the case for war and misleading the American people about Iraq's WMD. Just this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan lashed out at critics saying "Some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent'. Those were not words we used." But a closer look at the record shows that McClellan himself and others did use the phrase "imminent threat" – while also using the synonymous phrases "mortal threat," "urgent threat," "immediate threat", "serious and mounting threat", "unique threat," and claiming that Iraq was actively seeking to "strike the United States with weapons of mass destruction" – all just months after Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that Iraq was "contained" and "threatens not the United States." While Iraq was certainly a dangerous country, the Administration's efforts to claim it never hyped the threat in the lead-up to war is belied by its statements.

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Man, between this and the Washington Post's rundown of the Bushista's economic errors, Kos and Wampum and Compassiongate cataloging the flip-flops a truly bizarre possibility occurs to me:

Suppose it becomes impossible for politicians to get away with lying?

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People of color should be in charge 

That title doesn't mean what you're thinking.

D.C. Thornton at the rather appropriately named dcthornton.com says:

I want a leader with crystal-clear understanding that crimes against humanity must be AVENGED, not appeased. John Kerry is not an avenger, he is an appeaser.

As much as I'm not all enamored about President Bush on a lot of domestic issues, I must give him credit on national security and terrorism: He gets it.

Matthew Yglesias at the equally appropriately named matthewyglesias.com says:

Most Europeans were plenty serious about terrorism before this happened. So was the Democratic Party. It was George W. Bush who, along with José Maria Aznar, Tony Blair, and Silvio Berlusconi who decided that terrorism was such a serious problem that it should be pretty much ignored except insofar as it was a useful rhetorical prop for the selling of an unrelated war.

D.C also say (same post):

The day John Kerry presents a kick-ass anti-terror plan that beats current strategy is the day I'll support him and vote for him. It's not going to happen though, because Kerry sees terrorism as a police matter instead of a national security matter, and he wants to render our sovereignty and military impotent before a weak and spineless United Nations.

and

It's a life-or-death situation in the world today. You can lay down in denial and die if you want to. Just get the hell out of the way so the rest of us can fight to live.

I say I'm more concerned about getting struck by lightning than getting caught up in a terrorist attack because the odds are greater. And the weak and spineless United Nations is Bush's only hope right now. And the current plan ain't so hot. Kerry doesn't need a kick-ass plan. He just needs one that doesn't set the majority of nations against us. And I'm not talking governments, I'm talking the people—the citizens. I am by no means even familiar with Spanish politics, but I do know enough of the population was against getting involved in Iraq that Aznar's party was by no means assured of reelection, even if that bomb hadn't gone off.

The other thing, the thing that I'm absolutely sure of, is that the guys D.C. doesn't like have the exact same outlook he has…that they are fighting crimes against humanity.

Setting aside the terrorist tactics for 15 seconds (not even a as much as a minute because they genuinely stink to high heaven) I can see how they feel they are under assault by the USofA and its culture. The Religious Right© in our own country feels the same way (proof of the common roots of Islam and Christianity that the extremists in each have the same visceral reaction).

What I want in people responsible for wielding the puissant force of our nation and economy is someone who can see not only the shades of gray but the full spectrum of reality. The Bushistas fail this test. Miserably.

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Excuses, excuses. 

Jeanne D'Arc at Body and Soul (and her commenters!) dissect Diebold.

Machiavelli's Prints

Has anyone noticed that the defense of electronic voting machines seems to have moved in a new direction? We started with the "don't worry your pretty little heads" argument, implying that only paranoids and conspiracy nuts worried about twenty percent of Americans -- and more in a few key states -- voting in this year's presidential election on machines that offered no hard evidence that the votes cast were the ones counted, and that denied voters the possibility of a recount in a close election (which this one almost certainly will be). Unfortunately for the makers of electronic voting machines, a lot of the critics were disappointingly sane, downright reliable, in fact. And after big problems with the machines in recent primary elections in both California and Florida, even people who don't really care that much about this kind of stuff are starting to notice.

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Mithras is the man! 

He has a whole bag of links to folks who whipped up some campaign posters using the "Sloganator." I absolutely LOVE that the signs have "Paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc." at the bottom.

Honestly, after we hijacked their newspaper spamming mechanism, you'd think they'd have learned.

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Should have stayed in the "Free Speech Zone," I guess 

As Al-M says:

If there are regulations against exercising one's First Amendment rights, we've got a real problem here.

Worker Suspended for Anti-Bush Message

A state maintenance worker was suspended after he displayed a sign with the word "traitor" on a snowplow while helping provide security for President Bush's motorcade, the Ohio Department of Transportation said.

Michael Gerstenslager was asked to park a snowplow on an entrance ramp to block access to a highway that the president's motorcade used to go from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport into downtown Cleveland on Wednesday.

A state trooper in the president's motorcade saw the sign and reported it to the state's transportation department, ODOT spokeswoman Lora Hummer said. (link)

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The Pan-African Parliament has a full plate and it hasn't even started up yet 

Dogs of War to Nip at Heels of Continental Parliament
Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 13 (IPS) - When the new Pan-African Parliament is inaugurated in Ethiopia next week, it will confront a host of challenging issues - not least the role of mercenaries in Africa.

”Mercenaries are now topical. They are in the news,” Frene Ginwala, the Speaker of South Africa's National Assembly, told journalists in Johannesburg on Friday (Mar. 12).

Ginwala was referring to the 79 suspected mercenaries who were arrested in Zimbabwe and the oil-rich West African nation of Equatorial Guinea this week. Along with four of her colleagues in the legislature, the speaker will represent South Africa in the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), which is to hold its first session from Mar. 15 to 20 in Addis Ababa.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea said the 15 suspects detained in his country were ”an advance team” seeking to topple the government. He claimed they were linked to the other 64 suspects who were arrested in Zimbabwe after the ageing U.S.-registered Boeing 727-L100 they were traveling on was impounded at Harare International Airport on Mar. 7.

On Wednesday, Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, claimed that Equatorial Guinea's opposition leader - Severo Moto - had offered the mercenaries around 1.9 million dollars and oil rights for toppling Nguema.

The country is currently the third largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, yielding 350,000 barrels of oil per day.

Moto, who is based in Spain, has denied the allegations.

Mohadi also said the plane was believed to have been hired by South African mercenaries and western security agents. The Zimbabwean government, which is at odds with the United States and the European Union, is threatening to execute the alleged mercenaries.

The detainees say they are security guards who were hired to protect mining firms in the strife-torn central African countries of Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

South Africa's Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed that 20 of its nationals are amongst those arrested in Zimbabwe. The others come from Angola, Namibia, the DRC and Zimbabwe.

Ginwala said there were instruments in place to curb the activities of mercenaries in Africa. "Already the African Union does not recognise takeovers or coups, including those made by mercenaries. We operate within that parameter. Also there are international instruments that forbid forceful removal of governments," she told reporters.

Barend Geldenhuys, another South African member of the PAP, said "It's our responsibility to influence the Pan-African Parliament to address the issue."

His colleague Mninwa Mahlangu added that South Africa had committed itself to restoring peace on the continent.

Various factors have conspired to undermine these good intentions, however.

Since the demise of apartheid, South Africa has played an active role in bringing peace to a number of African countries - including the DRC, Burundi, Liberia, Mozambique and Angola.

But the end of segregation also led to the retrenchment of troops by the new government. Overnight, many found themselves on the street, with little prospect of employment elsewhere.

"These are people who are well trained...(but) under the new dispensation their services are not required. They found themselves without jobs. And it (military work) is the only job they can do," Geldenhuys told IPS on Friday.

Local security firms estimate that about 1,000 of those former soldiers are now working in Iraq - "protecting ministers and other senior government officials," according to Geldenhuys.

The PAP member said he had no qualms about South African soldiers guarding oil fields overseas. "What's not acceptable is for them to overthrow a foreign government. That gives a bad name to South Africa," he added.

In a bid to address this situation, South Africa has introduced tough laws to deal with mercenaries - often referred to as "dogs of war".

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad says that if the South Africans detained in Zimbabwe are involved in mercenary activities, then they will be contravening the Foreign Military Assistance Act. This forbids the involvement of South African nationals in military activities outside the country without authorisation from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which was replaced by the African Union (AU) in 2002, also took a tough stance on mercenaries. Rolf Stainer, a German mercenary, was extradited from Uganda to Sudan for supporting Anyanya rebels in south Sudan in the early 1970s.

The OAU condemned the legendary French mercenary Bob Denard, who was involved in several coups in the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoro. It also put pressure on Executive Outcomes, a now defunct mercenary firm, to pull out of Sierra Leone and Angola.

At least two of the alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe have been linked to Executive Outcomes, which was previously based in South Africa's capital - Pretoria. The company folded in 1999 amidst bad publicity and scrutiny by the national parliament.

Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Joan Miranda was quoted by state-owned radio as saying he believed the mercenaries had belonged to the feared 32 Battalion (also referred to as the "Buffalo Battalion") which spearheaded South Africa's clandestine offensive in Namibia and Angola during the 1970s and 80s. Angolan refugees made up a large component of the battalion, which was disbanded at the demand of the African National Congress - now South Africa's ruling party.

It is likely that South Africa's Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will raise the issue of mercenaries when she leads her country's delegation to the inaugural session of the PAP.

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Unforseen consequences 

via Dean Esmay

Assuming the projected victims have been paying child support prior to active duty and pick it up again when they're able to, this needs to be addressed.

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Will Some Reservists' Homecoming Be a Jail Cell?
By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks

More than 100,000 reservists are currently stationed in Iraq, as well as 2,500 members of the Illinois National Guard. Many will remain on active duty for as long as 18 months. But will some Illinois fathers' homecoming be a jail cell?

It's difficult to believe, but the answer may be "yes."

It happened after the first Gulf War. Some of the more than 250,000 reservists called up returned saddled with large child support arrearages they were unable to pay. As interest and penalties on the overdue support piled up, many spent years trying to dig themselves out of debt, while often facing unremitting government harassment. Some lost their driver's licenses and business licenses. Others had their passports and bank accounts seized and their taxes intercepted. Some even faced jail.

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Optimus died, R2D2 lives! 

This may be the ultimate case mod.

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Product Description

The 912 will be available for purchase in summer 2004. In the interim, we'll use this opportunity to educate and inform you on the 912 and this explosive new market segment.

White Box Robotics has been working very closely with VIA Technologies, Inc. to create and define an entirely new industry called PC-BOTS. Read more: www.viatech.com/en/robotics/pcbots.jsp These robots are powered by an industry standard VIA Mini-ITX mainboard. This mainboard along with other hardware (hard drives, CD-Burners, DVD drives, web cams, etc.) are then installed in the White Box Robotics 912 mobile platform. The end result is an amazingly high-tech, functional mobile robot!

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This ought to make some folks feel better 

Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters
White Slavery in the Mediterranean, The Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 Robert C. Davis

Description
This is a study that digs deeply into this 'other' slavery, the bondage of Europeans by north-African Muslims that flourished during the same centuries as the heyday of the trans-Atlantic trade from sub-Saharan Africa to the Americas. Here are explored the actual extent of Barbary Coast slavery, the dynamic relationship between master and slave, and the effects of this slaving on Italy, one of the slave takers' primary targets and victims.

Sample chapter (PDF)

There's this review in The Guardian

In the absence of detailed written records such as customs forms Prof Davis decided to extrapolate from the best records available indicating how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time and calculate how many new slaves were needed to replace those who died, escaped or were freed.

To keep the slave population stable, around one quarter had to be replaced each year, which for the period 1580 to 1680 meant around 8,500 new slaves per annum, totalling 850,000.

The same methodology would suggest 475,000 were abducted in the previous and following centuries.

"Much of what has been written gives the impression that there were not many slaves and minimises the impact that slavery had on Europe," Prof Davis said in a statement this week.

"Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear."

The scope and powerful impact of 1,000,000 people over 300 years. 3,300 people per year. I'm not trying to compare miseries here, but there is a contingent out there that will add this to the "Africans sold their own people" (like EVERYONE ELSE didn't) and will even use the "Muslim Masters" in the title for propaganda purposes.

Just don't do it anywhere around me.

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Damn. I missed it 

Bush Site Unplugs Poster Tool By Chris Ulbrich
10:37 AM Mar. 12, 2004 PT

The Bush-Cheney presidential campaign disabled features of a tool on its website Thursday that pranksters were using to mock the Republican presidential ticket.

The tool originally let users generate a full-size campaign poster in PDF format, customized with a short slogan of their choice. But Bush critics began using the site to place their own snarky political messages above a Bush-Cheney '04 logo and a disclaimer stating that the poster was paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc.

The campaign changed the tool Thursday so that users could no longer enter their own messages, but only select from a pull-down list of states and coalition groups. The campaign didn't respond to requests for comment.

The poster tool has been up and running since December, but Ana Marie Cox, editor of the Washington political gossip blog Wonkette, turned it into a weapon of mass satire this week when she devoted several posts to the inner workings of the device she dubbed the "Sloganator."

At Cox's request, close to 200 Wonkette readers sent in slogans which they had slipped through the system. Among them: "Run for your lives," "They sure smell like old people," and the Orwellian, "A boot stomping on a human face forever."

Cox also published lists of words the tool was allowing and, perhaps more tellingly, those it was not. Not surprisingly, it rejected the usual four-letter words and sexual lingo, but it also banned more innocuous terms like "stupid," "evil," "terrorists" and "Iraq."

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I haven't forgotten you all 

I've been busy programming. Much progress.

Posted by P6 at 07:13 PM
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Ignore this 

Just claiming ownership of the blog on Blogstreet.

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Reclaiming 9/11 

Swopa at Needlenose has storyboarded a very nice response to the Bushista's hijacking og 9/11 for demagogic purposes.

Hat tip to Ezra at Pandagon.

I'd like to talk about the creativity that went into it, but truth isn't creative. It's necessary as hell, but creative? Nah.

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Not much I can add 

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Hitting them where they live 

Want free tickets for Beyonce? Alicia? Just take this HIV test . . .
Program focuses on high-risk groups like young blacks
Lynette Clemetson, New York Times
Sunday, March 14, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- Nicole and Chalome Bergan had given up any hope of attending the hottest concert around, a show featuring Grammy winners Beyonce, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott. But five hours before the concert began on Friday night, the sisters learned that they were getting in. Free.

All they had to do was brush a salty cotton swab around in their mouths and answer some very personal questions about sex.

The sisters were winners in a program called Rhythms for Health, which doles out concert tickets to fans willing to be tested for HIV. The testing, being conducted along with the Ladies First tour in 14 cities in the next month, is one of several programs nationwide that are taking HIV testing to places like amusement parks, church parking lots and neighborhood fairs to reach people who might not otherwise be tested.

"We're strongly encouraging people to think very creatively about outreach," said Dr. Robert Janssen, the director of the Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's a real opportunity to get to people who may be at high risk and not know they are infected."

Organizers of the promotion believe that linking testing to the Ladies First concerts -- shows that are heavy on girl power and that draw young, predominantly black hip-hop fans -- is a sure way to reach a few major at- risk groups.

Though blacks make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they make up roughly 54 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases, a recent study by the disease centers showed. And blacks account for 72 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases among women. In a separate agency study of teenagers infected with AIDS, roughly 51 percent were black.

To reduce the numbers, the Black AIDS Institute, a national education organization and sponsor of Rhythms for Health, in the last year has offered HIV screening at Six Flags amusement park in Dallas and conducted HIV testing at the annual conventions of the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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'He's dead, Optimus." 

Robot race suffers quick, ignoble end
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, March 14, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ

Primm, Nev. -- A robot race across the Mojave Desert turned into a parade of frustration Saturday, as 15 driverless vehicles spun their wheels, flipped over and encountered rocks and ruts that befuddled sensors and baffled programming.

The Grand Challenge event was supposed to be a 10-hour sprint across the desert, with a $1 million prize to the designers of the first driverless vehicle to transit 142 miles of sand and rock from Barstow (San Bernardino County) to Primm, Nev., just across the state line.

But shortly after 11 a.m., Anthony Tether, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon office that put up the prize, took the stage at a casino near the supposed finish line to announce: "The Grand Challenge ended about 10 minutes ago when the last 'bot went out.''

Despite the race's somewhat comic end -- the robotic dirt bike entered by an Albany man toppled two feet from the starting gate -- Tether said the competition had advanced DARPA's aim of spurring the development of driverless combat vehicles capable of fighting desert wars without putting soldiers in harm's way.

"It exceeded our expectation by the amount of people who showed up, and by the types of people who showed up,'' said Tether, saying the agency would probably stage a new challenge in a year or so after the volunteers have time "to get their batteries recharged.''

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Time for The Second Reformation 

THE STATE
A Novel Tack by Cardinal
To keep accused priests' files secret, Mahony is asserting a type of confidentiality privilege that one scholar says 'just doesn't exist.'
By William Lobdell and Jean Guccione
Times Staff Writers

March 14, 2004

Enmeshed in a high-stakes battle to maintain the secrecy of church documents involving priests accused of molesting children, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has adopted a legal strategy more aggressive than that of any other bishop in the country, according to scholars and attorneys.

At the center of the fight are thousands of pages from priest personnel files that Mahony has succeeded for more than a year and a half in keeping from prosecutors, lawyers for victims and the public.

Officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles concede that the files include evidence that Mahony and other church leaders improperly handled some cases involving abusive priests.

"We believe that our early decisions were correct at the time they were made but, as our understanding grew, we concluded that those early decisions had generally been too tolerant," said spokesman Tod Tamberg. "In retrospect, then, some of our early policies were mistakes."

Tamberg said that, overall, Mahony should be seen as a national leader in reforming the church's sexual abuse policies. But the cardinal's opponents say that, if all the files became public, they would hobble his leadership of the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States.

To keep the files secret, Mahony's legal team is pushing a novel argument in both criminal and civil courts — a claim of what his chief lawyer, J. Michael Hennigan, has called a "formation privilege" between a bishop and his priests.

The archdiocese asserts that the privilege stems from a bishop's ecclesiastical duty to provide a lifetime of formative spiritual guidance to his priests. As claimed by the archdiocese, the privilege would require that sensitive communication between a bishop and his priests involving counseling — including documents relating to sexual abuse of minors — be kept confidential.

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A nice summary of the repercussions the Iraq invasion had on US diplomacy 

Quote of note:

Dmitri K. Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a largely Republican think tank, warned in a recent essay that the Bush administration was trying to do too much when it made democracy in the Middle East one of its major goals.

"The pursuit of [a] universal democratic utopia, as attractive as it may seem, is damaging vital U.S. interests," he wrote. "The principal problem is the mistaken belief that democracy is a talisman for all the world's ills, and that the United States has a responsibility to promote democratic government wherever in the world it is lacking."

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IRAQ: ONE YEAR LATER
Strengths, Limits of U.S. Foreign Policy Evident

By Doyle McManus and Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writers

March 14, 2004

When the United States invaded Iraq a year ago this week, the action transformed American foreign policy in the Middle East and around the world — but not always as its strategists intended.

The fall of Baghdad after only 21 days of combat gave the world a vivid lesson in the scope of U.S. military might. But the difficulties that followed in Iraq — a year of uphill battles against political chaos, economic collapse and a stubborn insurgency — provided an equally striking lesson in the boundaries of American power when it comes to waging peace.

"Iraq is about our limits rather than our reach," said Lee Feinstein of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The burden of building a new Iraq, said Graham Allison of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, has sapped U.S. resources from other foreign policy priorities — including the pursuit of terrorists elsewhere.

…The yearlong experience in Iraq has wrought other far-reaching effects on U.S. foreign policy:

• The war was the first test of what has been called the Bush doctrine, the assertion that the United States may launch a preventive war against any country thought to hold weapons of mass destruction if it consorts with terrorists. But the war also has been the only instance of that rule being invoked; Iran, North Korea and Syria, which all arguably qualify, have not been attacked. As a result, scholars aren't sure whether Iraq was the beginning of a pattern or, as now appears possible, merely the high-water mark of an assertive policy.

• The war put other countries on notice that they had better shape up — and, Bush aides argue, produced an immediate effect on Libya, whose mercurial leader, Col. Moammar Kadafi, announced the end of his efforts to build chemical and nuclear weapons. But the hoped-for "demonstration effect" doesn't seem to have worked on North Korea, Iran or Syria — at least, not yet.

• The war ruptured U.S. relationships with Cold War allies such as Germany and France, ties that only now are being repaired. In the eyes of much of the global public, it made U.S. foreign policy appear aggressive and menacing, a dent in the nation's image that may take years to repair.

• The war accelerated a remarkable — and risky — shift in U.S. policy in the Arab world. For half a century, the United States sought stability in the world's most important oil region by supporting friendly dictators, but now the Bush administration says it has ambitious plans to promote rapid political change leading to democracy — even in conservative monarchies such as Saudi Arabia.

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He must think this is a loser for Democrats 

David Broder is complementing Barney Frank

In a March 4 speech, Frank took what has become a commonplace of political conversation, something that President Bush, Sen. John F. Kerry and scores of lesser lights constantly discuss -- namely, the frustrating job market -- and probed it in a depth one rarely hears from a politician.

By doing so, he carried the jobs debate to a level where the policy choices become so basic -- and challenging -- that ordinary pols and pundits fear to tread.

… A fundamental shift has occurred, he says. "The ability of the private sector in this country to create wealth is now outstripping its ability to create jobs. The normal rule of thumb by which a certain increase in the gross domestic product would produce a concomitant increase in jobs does not appear to apply."

That is the basic reason, he suggests, for this jobless recovery -- why month after month the economic growth figures spell boom, and month after month unemployment remains stubbornly high and more thousands become so discouraged they give up the search for work.

… When I asked him in an interview Thursday if he was sending a message to Kerry, Frank said, "It's a message for all Democrats. What I'm saying is we're in a situation now where we need the government, and where is it? We've cut taxes, we've criticized bureaucracy, we've almost condemned the public sector. I'm saying it's time to talk positively about government and use it to do what the private economy is no longer doing."

His proposal is to tax some of the wealth the private sector is now producing so abundantly -- "a fairly small percentage," he said, without being specific -- "and use it to employ people on socially useful purposes."

Frank urges that we "take some of the wealth that is being created by this wonderful thing, this increased productivity, this new technology and the ways of using it, and all this innovation, and let us use it for our own undisputed public purposes. Let us give cities and states more money so they can have more people policing, fighting fires, cleaning up the environment, repairing facilities that need to be repaired, enhancing train transportation, building highways, helping construct affordable housing in places where that is a crisis, helping pay for higher education for students."

Two points to Barney for being the one to mention the elephant in the corner.

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