May 01, 2004

In the comments to a post about the torture of Iraqi prisoners:

I wonder if cbs really understands the perdicament they have caused for the united states. The country they call home of the free and the brave.

How can you say the CBS caused the problem?

These people WILL get home and WILL discuss their treatment…treatment that actually happened. We have photographic evidence. Now, if this hadn't come out, the USofA would be denying it ever happened. YOU would be denying it ever happened, just more propaganda from the other side. What kind of problems do you think THAT would cause the USofA?

CBS didn't cause a problem, they've provided an opportunity. The USofA can now show there are some things it simply won't defend or deny, some things that are beyond the pale, that it has at least a modicum of what others might call honor.

---

Yes I disappeared yesterday. I told you I'd be at the Bowery Poetry Club to watch devorah major do a reading.

It was my first time at BPC and though due to the company I think I'd have had a good time in the middle of a skunk cabbage patch the club itself is pretty cool. By day it looks like one of those little dark cafes that really wants to spill out onto the sidewalk. I'm lurking around the sidewalk, thinking "Oh, this is going to be a cheesy, cramped thing."

Around 6:30 devorah pulls up in a cab. I give her a hug (I like that part) and we head for the door and find the big white guy (he's bigger than me, and I'm 6'2", 185 lbs...trust me, I'd cap his ass if it came to it) is guarding the door rather than just hanging out. Pleasant guy, though. He was right in the middle of a cigarette/laugh our asses off break...possibly because I was hanging with one of the performers but he's cool. Everyone at BPC is cool…the owner, Bob Holman is exceedingly cool. The young woman behind the coffee shop counter is cool, and exceedingly cute…if I was in the market I just might have sold out.

Speaking of said coffee shop, they do really good sandwiches.

Hanging with devorah in a poetry venue is always interesting because you get to meet the most astounding array of people. You meet poets, social activists, musicians, educators, publishers and above all the people who are impressed with her work. You meet a lot more of that last category of people after the reading. Tonight, in the crossover category of poet, educator and social activist, I met Maha El Said, Professor of English at Cairo University, Fullbright visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and a woman that likes laughing more than anyone I've met in the last year. She's in New York to do a thing called "American Pop Culture in Cairo" this Friday at The Graduate Center at CUNY. I may check it out; it would be a good thing to have a better understanding of how our culture is seen from inside another culture. I suspect there are subtle impedance mismatches along the lines of the way each race category in the USofA is seen from inside the others:

Yes, it's a repeat but I think it makes the point.

Plus I don't have time to be creative. I got people to see, things to do this weekend. I will post more later, maybe tomorrow.

---

April 30, 2004

Nancy vetoes 'Ronald Reagan University'

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Nancy Reagan is just saying no to the idea of a Ronald Reagan University in Colorado.

Organizers wanted to name a proposed 10,000-student university after the former president, but his wife issued a statement Thursday effectively killing the idea.

"We do not support the creation of a separate university," she said.

Federal law gives former presidents or their spouses final say over the use of the president's name as long as either is alive, said Terry Walker, the founding president of the university.

The rejection was a shock, Walker said.

"I'm just sitting here watching Fox News and recovering with a scotch in my hand. When I wake up tomorrow, maybe I'll think about it some more," he said.

---

This is going to sound crass, but I can't help but wonder how many of Reagan's supporters will feel bittersweet when the Reagans pass. It's obvious they want to use his name and just as obvious Nancy ain't having it. When they pass, the Ronald Reagan Memorial University will return, I'm sure.

---

Yeah, right.

Yet another string of studies confirms what any high school senior or parent who has just weathered the college admissions mating dance already knew — it's a cutthroat competition where money matters more than ever. Teenagers from wealthy families are beating out middle- and working-class youngsters, both at top private colleges and flagship state universities whose historic mission of broad access is receding into memory. The trend means that "smart poor kids," as the educator Terry Hartle bluntly puts it, "go to college at the same rate as stupid rich kids."

A lot of not-so-secret factors are at play in this market. In pursuit of competitive advantage, well-off parents spend thousands of dollars on test prep courses, college admission summer camps and "dress for success" counseling. They are more adept than their less well-heeled rivals at working the system; that brings results, especially at prestigious universities.

At the other end of the spectrum, the inequity is worsening as cash-starved state schools are forced to raise tuition — an average of 14 percent last year. For fall 2003, for example, community college fees in California rose to $18 a class hour from $11. Though that typically amounts to only about $100 a semester, enrollment was more than 100,000 below the state's projections. Why? Sticker shock scares away poorer students from even applying.

---

From Dream to Nightmare
By BOB HERBERT

Published: April 30, 2004

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll found that only a third of Iraqis believe the U.S.-led occupation is doing more good than harm. The poll was taken in late March and early April, and it's a safe bet that if the results have changed at all in the past few weeks, they've only gotten worse.

There is nothing surprising about the poll's findings. The U.S. primed Iraq with a "shock and awe" bombing campaign, then invaded, and is attempting to impose our concept of democracy at the point of a gun.

Why would anybody think that would work?

Since then we've destroyed countless homes and legitimate businesses and killed or maimed thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including many women and children. That was a lousy strategy for winning hearts and minds in Vietnam and it's a lousy strategy now.

Equally unsurprising is the erosion of support for the war among Americans. There's no upside. Casualties are mounting daily and so are the financial costs, which have never been honestly acknowledged or budgeted.

Mr. Bush has enmeshed us in a war that we can't win and that we don't know how to end. Each loss of a life in this tragic exercise is a reminder of lessons never learned from history. And the most fundamental of those lessons is that fantasy must always genuflect before reality.

---

I am not trying to hear this.

---

Some Blacks and Hispanics Criticize Kerry on Outreach
By JODI WILGOREN

HILADELPHIA, April 29 — For weeks, Senator John Kerry savored a Democratic Party that was unified in rallying behind his presidential candidacy. But in recent days, influential black and Hispanic political leaders whom the campaign had counted on for support have been openly complaining that Mr. Kerry's organization lacks diversity and is failing to appeal directly to minority voters.

Even as Mr. Kerry spoke here on Thursday to the National Conference of Black Mayors — an appearance his community outreach team viewed as critical to building a network of minority support — two influential Latino leaders circulated harsh letters expressing concern about the campaign's dealings with minorities.

And in interviews over the last week, more than a dozen minority elected officials and political strategists voiced concerns about what they said was the dearth of representation in Mr. Kerry's inner circle and worried that he was taking black and Hispanic votes for granted.

"The reality is that we're entering May and the Kerry campaign has no message out there to the Hispanic community nor has there been any inkling of any reach-out effort in any state to the Hispanic electorate, at least with any perceivable sustainable strategy in mind," Alvaro Cifuentes, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee's Hispanic Caucus, said in an e-mail message to party leaders provided by a recipient who insisted on anonymity. "It is no secret that the word of mouth in the Beltway and beyond is not that he does not get it, it is that he does not care."

Separately, in a letter addressed to Mr. Kerry, Raul Yzaguirre, the president of the National Council of La Raza, denounced the "remarkable and unacceptable absence of Latinos in your campaign."

"Relegating all of your minority staff to the important but limited role of outreach only reinforces perceptions that your campaign views Hispanics as a voting constituency to be mobilized, but not as experts to be consulted in shaping policy," wrote Mr. Yzaguirre, whose group is among the oldest, largest and most influential representing Hispanics.

---

Tell me his programs help or don't help enough or cause damage. Do NOT tell me you think he needs you or your people on his staff.

Y'all still carrying job descriptions from The Me Decade. That's the one that made all of us citizens lose faith in all you politicians. New day, y'all. Or it betta be, anyway.

---

I guess when I quoted from the mail CBS News got over the 60 Minutes II piece I should have noted most of the mail they got was supportive, but what struck me was that there was anyone that approved of it at all.

---

Jeanne D'Arc has the round-up. Just some stuff that leaped out at me-

From The Guardian:

US military in torture scandal
Use of private contractors in Iraqi jail interrogations highlighted by inquiry into abuse of prisoners
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday April 30, 2004
The Guardian

Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation.
The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees.

According to lawyers for some of the soldiers, they claimed to be acting in part under the instruction of mercenary interrogators hired by the Pentagon.

from the CBS News mailbag:

Why in God's name would you choose to air such a story at this time? This is something our country didn't need to know now. Everyone in this country is hanging on for dear life to support the troops, and you have taken all our faith in goodness away. How many more reports can we watch like this before support fades?

We are losing our fight with other countries to support us, and now you have just sealed it. ... We've just lost the goal of helping anyone over there because of this show, and God help us. You are no better then those who did these horrible acts. Your reports are bringing down this country.
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

I find it very wrong that our soldiers mistreated confined Iraqis. What I find even more destructive is that you do not find the time to report what has been accomplished with what the good soldiers have done. You have your own agenda and report as you feel fit.
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

Was I supposed to be horrified by the report of Iraqi prisoners being positioned in "pornographic" positions and humiliated by American soldiers? I was not. During your report, all I could think of was the murder, torture, maiming, burning and beheading of innocent civilians, women and children included, carried out by terrorists and supporters of Saddam Hussein. At least these men were men of war.

They had to pose for pornographic pictures? So what. We cannot imagine sitting at home on our couches the horrors our soldiers must face every day. Why not focus your attention on the unfair practices of our enemy?
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

Are you guys nuts? Do you think showing this is going to help the Americans in captivity and our other allies? I fully understand the need for an open and free press, but you have to balance that with the lives of our own people. You are just going to infuriate an already bad situation. How would you feel if your son's life was on the edge of a knife somewhere in a Baghdad hole?
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

I resent your story on the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners held by the American soldiers in Iraq. Certainly the evidence of mistreatment of those prisoners by a small minority of soldiers is unacceptable. How dare you make an attempt to poison this country against the very military personnel who are risking their lives to protect this country -- whether or not you may agree with the politics. What you did not see were American soldiers dragging an Iraqi along the streets in Iraq being flogged by Iraqi citizens. Perhaps you should interview Iraqis guilty of such greater travesties and see how their countrymen feel. Do you really think they care?
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

At one time I would have condemned the way they were treated, but after recently seeing them burning Americans there, I say they should give those troops medals. An eye for an eye.
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

What an atrocity! Should these pictures have been shown? We were appalled when we saw people hanging from the bridges after being attacked and burned. It makes us sick to see the women and children of war and the devastation they live in; the people lying in hospitals with no medical attention or medicine. Then you show something like this.

Is it going to help our soldiers who are there? I doubt it. Those people who are fighting us with every ounce of their strength are only going to use this as fuel for their fires. No doubt it will be broadcast in Iraq and all other countries around, and the photos all over the front pages of their papers within a couple of days. Yes, I think the people involved in this should be severely punished. I don't much think that will satisfy the people in Iraq who see this.
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

While tens of thousands of U.S. men and women serve their country in the Battle of Iraq, 60 Minutes II has the audacity to violate their character by showing the disgusting actions of "several" of their comrades to foreign prisoners.

Not only do you "report" the incident, you distastefully show the pictures that only serve to brand all our loved ones in uniform. You leave little doubt, both past and present, of your liberal agenda and desire to taint this military action.
--[Name Redacted because I ain't tryna hear no lawsuits]

---

The poet of the day is devorah major.

Third Poet Laureate of San Francisco, winner of a Black Caucus of the American Library Association First Novelist Award for An Open Weave, and a winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence for street smarts, spoken word performer, community activist, educator…the woman simply excels at being human and humane. Here she is, in her own voice

• this poetry thing
• fillmo'e street woman (with Opal Adisa Palmer)
• i want to be

and in yours:

the yes to life
by devorah major(‘97, ‘98, ‘01)

i did
ask to be born

when i was in that universal space
between where i had been and here
when i was riding on x star in y galaxy
on the plateau where birth
meets passing on
i know
i was one who pulsed
shone sang cajoled yelled
cried and pled yes
yes i want a tongue
yes i want to breathe
yes i want to dance
i want to be born

of course, i didn't know
what i was asking for
had no idea of hunger or pain
could not conceive of the word for despair
or the thought of utter aloneness

had yet to understand
how suffer and celebration
could sleep so close together

no i didn't know
but i begged and begged
until i got what i asked for
every tongue tip mouth full
feather touch soft belly
pitted crag
breezy, gravelly
moment
out of life

i wanted it then
i want it now

Copyright © devorah major.

---

Yeah, memes and crap. But we all really should like The Swan to this site. Every time someone wants to read about that truly disgusting abuse of women called The Swan, every time someone googles The Swan the first link in Google should take them to this site rather than anything FOX set up for The Swan.

---

What, you say? Why, suck up to Mark Fiore.

---

What's wrong with Curves?
Ruth Rosen
Thursday, April 29, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

FOR WOMEN of a certain age, Curves -- a physical-fitness chain -- seems like a blessing. No men, no mirrors. No expensive membership fees, no complicated dance-step routines.

Just walk in and change into your frumpiest sweats. Get a 30-minute complete workout on a circuit of hydraulic machines, arranged in a sociable circle so you meet other women. Nothing to remember: A pre-recorded voice tells you when to switch machines and do aerobics on rubberized mats. Get dressed and you're out the door.

What's not to like? Curves is inviting, rather than intimidating. Unlike many gyms, Curves fitness outlets don't feel like "meat markets" or look like nightclubs. By offering easy and accessible exercise, Curves helps some 2 million overweight and overworked middle-age women lose weight, get fit and improve their health -- just what public-health officials hector us to do.

Not surprisingly, Curves is wildly successful. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, it now boasts 7,500 outlets and is the fastest-growing franchise in the world.

There are 68 outlets within 25 miles of downtown San Francisco. Most of them are tucked away in nondescript strip malls or office buildings, which keeps monthly membership fees as low as $29. Such modest locations also enhance the profits of franchise owners, who pay $29,000 to open a Curves outlet, plus a monthly royalty fee of $395. (For many women, it's a relatively inexpensive and convenient way to start a small business.)

So is there any reason why you shouldn't rush out to join this Wal-Mart of gyms that's helping so many women improve their health?

Well, yes. The owner, Gary Heavin, has given at least $5 million of his profits to some of the most militant anti-abortion groups in the country.

---

SF Chron:

Despite the proud, self-congratulatory mood, the country and its leaders face some daunting challenges. Among them: a growing economic divide between haves and have-nots, which often mirrors the still-separated lives of many whites and blacks, an "unemployment rate as high as 42 percent, ... high levels of violent crime and HIV/AIDS that affects one in nine of the population." (Xinhua) "The struggle to eradicate poverty has been and will continue to be a central part of the national effort to build the new South Africa," Mbeki said in his inaugural speech this week. "Endemic and widespread poverty continues to disfigure the face of our country. It will always be impossible for us to say that we have fully restored the dignity of all our people as long as this situation persists." (Xinhua)

Chain-smoking former President F. W. de Klerk, "the man who ended more than 300 years of white rule in South Africa when he handed over power to Nelson Mandela a decade ago," is now, at 68, one of the nation's elder statesmen. De Klerk, who says he is concerned about economic and political inequities, blamed poverty for the country's crime wave and told a reporter, "If we win the war against poverty, the risk of retreat from democracy diminishes, and South Africa can become a First World country." (Telegraph)

Alluding to the ANC's dominance in the government, though, he warned that "[t]he results [of the recent elections] show that our democracy is not very healthy, with too much power in the hands of one party. What we need is a realignment ... to move away from predominantly racially based and ethnically based politics toward values-based and values-driven politics. Only then will we be able to say we have truly become what we set ourselves as the goal in our constitution: a nonracial, multiparty democracy." (Telegraph)

---

April 29, 2004

I'll take these guys any day.

via Mousemusings

---

via Hellblazer

Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2004; Page A17

The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI's methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now.

The lawsuit was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but the case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said. The group was allowed to release a redacted version of the lawsuit after weeks of negotiations with the government.

"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it."

---

Accused soldier's kin say he's scapegoat
By David Dishneau, Associated Press Writer

HAGERSTOWN, Md. --Family members of a soldier accused of abusing Iraqi war prisoners said Thursday that he was being made a scapegoat for commanders who gave him no guidance on managing hundreds of Iraqis with just a handful of poorly equipped troops.

Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick is one of six members of the 800th Military Police Brigade facing courts-martial for allegedly humiliating the prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. CBS's "60 Minutes II" broadcast pictures of the alleged abuse and an interview with Frederick Wednesday; the other soldiers' names have not been released.

Frederick's uncle, William Lawson, said the Army was treating his nephew unfairly.

"They're trying to portray him as a monster," said Lawson, of Newburg, W.Va. "He's just the guy they put in charge of the prison."

Frederick's wife, Martha, of Buckingham, Va., said her husband, in Iraq since April 2003, told her his unit wasn't provided proper training and equipment.

"I feel like things are being covered up. What has come to light has fallen on the burden of my husband," Martha Frederick said.

Military officials said Chip Frederick, 37, and at least some of the others are from the 372nd Military Police Company, a unit of the 800th based in Cresaptown, in western Maryland. The charges against them include dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person.

Some of the soldiers were smiling in the photographs obtained by CBS, which showed naked prisoners stacked in a human pyramid and being forced to simulate sex acts.

---

Mr. Bush chuckled at the suggestion that he and Mr. Cheney had chosen to be interviewed together so they could prop each other up or prevent discrepancies in their answers. "If we had something to hide, we wouldn't have met with them in the first place," he said.

Okay, let's think about the topics on which the Bushistas have refused to speak.

---

Catholic Priest Who Aids Church Sexual Abuse Victims Loses Job
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

wenty years ago, the Rev. Thomas Doyle warned the nation's Roman Catholic bishops about the church's looming sexual abuse nightmare. Since then, he has become a hero to the victims, speaking out on their behalf and helping them in legal cases in recent years.

In doing so, Father Doyle also became a thorn in the side of the church hierarchy.

In the latest chapter of his turbulent career, Father Doyle was quietly removed from his job as an Air Force chaplain in a clash with his archbishop over pastoral issues.

He lost his endorsement as a chaplain from the Archdiocese of Military Services in September, a decision that until now had not become public. The leader of the Archdiocese of Military Services, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, said Father Doyle had flouted his guidelines about requiring daily Mass for Catholics on military bases and other pastoral issues.

But the demotion has outraged abuse victims and their advocates, who point to the last several years of scandals as affirmation of Father Doyle's longstanding concerns. They say they suspect he was reassigned in retaliation by the church hierarchy. And it has produced a messy coda to a military career that Father Doyle said he loved deeply.

---

One day I'm going to assemble all the bizarre organism enhancing tech that I know is under development and write up a story about what it might be like to have all of them.

---

A Glimpse at the Future of DNA: M.D.'s Inside the Body
By ANDREW POLLACK

cientists have developed what they say could become the world's smallest medical kit: a computer, made of DNA, that can diagnose disease and automatically dispense medicine to treat it.

The computer, so small that one trillion would fit into a drop of water, now works only in a test tube, and it could be decades before something like it is ready for practical use. But it offers an intriguing glimpse of a future in which molecular machines operate inside people, spotting diseases and treating them before noticeable symptoms even appear.

"Eventually we have this vision of a doctor in a cell," said Dr. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel, who led the work, published online yesterday by the journal Nature.

DNA's role is to store and process information, the genetic code. So it is not surprising that it can be used for other computing tasks as well, and scientists have in fact used it to solve various mathematical problems. But the Israeli scientists said theirs was the first DNA computer that could have a medical use.

The computer, a liquid solution of DNA and enzymes, was programmed to detect the kind of RNA (a DNA cousin) that would be present if particular genes associated with a disease were active.

In one example, the computer determined that two particular genes were active and two others inactive, and therefore made the diagnosis of prostate cancer. A piece of DNA, designed to act as a drug by interfering with the action of a different gene, was then automatically released from the end of the computer.

---

G.I.'s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi Captives
By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, April 28 — American soldiers at a prison outside Baghdad have been accused of forcing Iraqi prisoners into acts of sexual humiliation and other abuses in order to make them talk, according to officials and others familiar with the charges.

The charges, first announced by the military in March, were documented by photographs taken by guards inside the prison, but were not described in detail until some of the pictures were made public.

Some of the photographs, and descriptions of others, were broadcast Wednesday night by the CBS News program "60 Minutes II" and were verified by military officials.

Of the six people reported in March to be facing preliminary charges, three have been recommended for court martial trials, having completed the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, a senior Pentagon official said late Wednesday. The decision on convening courts martial is now up to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq.

The other grand jury hearings, called Article 32 proceedings under military law, have been delayed at the request of defense counsel.

The CBS News program reported that poorly trained American reservists were forcing Iraqis to conduct simulated sexual acts, among other things, in order to break down their will before they were turned over to others for interrogation.

Charges against the soldiers included assault, cruelty, indecent acts and maltreatment of detainees, Pentagon officials have previously said.

Gary Myers, the lawyer for one of the enlisted men charged, said in an interview that the military had treated the six soldiers as scapegoats and had failed to address adequately the responsibilities of senior commanders and intelligence personnel involved in the interrogations.

Top officers at the prison, including a brigadier general, face administrative review, officials said. They are no longer stationed at the prison, Abu Ghraib near Baghdad.

Mr. Myers said the accused men, all from an Army Reserve military police unit, had been told to soften up the prisoners by more senior American interrogators, some of whom they believe were intelligence officials and outside contractors.

"This case involves a monumental failure of leadership, where lower-level enlisted people are being scapegoated," Mr. Myers said. "The real story is not in these six young enlisted people. The real story is the manner in which the intelligence community forced them into this position."

Mr. Myers represents Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick of the Army Reserve, who has been charged in the case and who was interviewed by "60 Minutes II." He complained of a lack of training and admitted that dogs had been used to intimidate prisoners.

In one photograph obtained by the program, naked Iraq prisoners are stacked in a human pyramid, one with a slur written on his skin in English. In another, a prisoner stands on a box, his head covered, wires attached to his body. The program said that according to the United States Army, he had been told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. Other photographs show male prisoners positioned to simulate sex with each other.

"The pictures show Americans, men and women, in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners," states a transcript of the program's script, made available Wednesday night. "And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing or giving the camera a thumbs-up."

The CBS News program said the Army also had photographs showing a detainee with wires attached to his genitals and another showing a dog attacking an Iraqi prisoner. The program also reported that the Army's investigation of the case included a statement from an Iraqi detainee who charges that a translator hired to work at the prison raped a male juvenile prisoner.

At the Abu Ghraib prison, where the photographs were taken, American forces have been holding hundreds of Iraqis since the American-led invasion of Iraq. The prison is infamous as a site where Saddam Hussein tortured prisoners while he was in power.

In March, the United States military first announced that the six enlisted soldiers from the 800th Military Police Brigade were being charged in the case, but few details were released.

An official confirmed that Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who ran the prison, had been reassigned.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief spokesman for the American military command in Baghdad, told reporters that the investigation of Abu Ghraib prison began in January after a soldier came forward.

"I'm not going to stand up here and make excuses for those soldiers," General Kimmitt said. He said that "if what they did is proven in a court of law, that is incompatible with the values we stand for as a professional military force, and it's values that we don't stand for as human beings."

He added: "This does not reflect the vast majority of coalition soldiers, vast majority of American soldiers that are operating out of Abu Ghraib prison."

---

The USofA starts magazines, radio stations and such in an attempt to influence public opinion in the Middle East. What grounds do we have to complain when others do the same?

---

U.S. Protests Broadcasts by Arab Channels
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON, April 28 — The Bush administration, frustrated by what it calls "inflammatory" reports by Arabic television channels, has in recent days protested to foreign government officials, confronted Arab news executives and put together a list of supposed abuses.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell brought up American concerns about Al Jazeera, a channel based in Qatar, with Qatar's foreign minister earlier this week, saying "the friendship between our two nations is such that we can also talk about difficult issues that intrude in that relationship, such as the issue of the coverage of Al Jazeera."

---

Inflation Picks Up as Economy Expands
By KENNETH N. GILPIN

Published: April 29, 2004

The American economy expanded at a solid 4.2 percent rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department reported today, but growth was somewhat slower than economists had expected and new signs emerged that inflationary pressures were building.

The report on economic growth added weight to the case that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates later this year before the November elections. But some analysts say policy makers at the central bank are unlikely to act before their August meeting because the economy does not appear to be expanding at too torrid a pace and inflation, while rising, is moving off a very low level.

---

GOP Summit Fails to Find Agreement on Highway Bill
By Jim Abrams
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 29, 2004; 5:29 PM

Republican lawmakers and the White House on Thursday were unable to come up with a dollar total for a much-delayed highway and transit bill touted as the biggest jobs and economic stimulus legislation Congress will consider this year.

"Lots of numbers were discussed," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., after a meeting in his office that included House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and top GOP transportation and tax-writing lawmakers.

"The general agreement is that we are going to work with numbers in a bill that can be enacted into law," Frist said.

The White House, concerned about the growing budget deficit, has rejected both the six-year, $318 billion bill approved by the Senate earlier this year and the $275 billion bill passed by the House this month. The administration has put a $256 billion ceiling on the legislation and threatened a presidential veto of anything that exceeds that and worsens the deficit.

Meanwhile, the latest extension of the previous highway bill expires Friday, and a senior Republican, Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, said Thursday he would block another extension because of what he called Democratic delaying tactics on the new bill.

The House earlier this week unanimously voted to extend the 1998-2003 act for another two months, the third such extension since the act first expired last September. The failure of the Senate to follow suit would cut off, as of Saturday, all federal highway money flowing to the states and result in the layoffs of thousands of Transportation Department employees.

---

Is there anyone that reads emails with random words for the subject matter?

And no, I don't have to read it to delete it. That's what Thunderbird is for (and anyone who cracks a "cheap wine" joke will be giving away their age...).

---

It doesn't corrupt, it enables one's original nature. Case in point, via Netwoman.

---

Man Pleads Innocent To Internet Stalking

SEATTLE (AP) -- A South Carolina man arrested on an Internet stalking charge has pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court.

Robert James Murphy, 38, of Columbia, S.C., would not comment after leaving the courtroom with his lawyer Thursday. He remained free on $50,000 bond.

Murphy was arrested earlier this month and charged with 26 counts of using his computer "to annoy, abuse, threaten and harass" Joelle Ligon, 35, of Seattle, who saw him in court for the first time in 13 years.

"He didn't give me any eye contact," Ligon said after the brief hearing.

"He has been a faceless entity to me," she said. "I wanted to see him, and I wanted him to know that I was looking at him."

The government retained the right to randomly search Murphy's computer pending trial, which was tentatively scheduled for July 6. If convicted, he could face as much as two years in prison for each count.

Murphy is the first person to face charges under a federal law, adopted in 1997, that equates sending obscene e-mail to making obscene telephone calls. The charge covers e-mail in the 11 months ending last April.

"The assaults (Ligon) suffered are no less real" because they were committed electronically, assistant U.S. attorney Kathryn A. Warma said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Warma and FBI Agent Marie Gilliam teamed up to make what appears to be the first use of a 1997 amendment to federal telecommunications law outlawing cyberharassment.

"There is no precedent for it, as far as I know," Warma said.

Ligon said she started dating Murphy in Salt Lake City when she was 15. They broke up 13 years ago when she was 22.

Investigators believe Murphy began sending obscene and sexually explicit messages and pictures to Ligon and her co-workers in 1998, tracking her from his computer as she moved from state to state and job to job.

Ligon said she deleted and ignored the messages for four years, then began saving them as evidence and approached police, eventually gaining the help of the FBI, U.S. attorney's office and King County prosecutors.

Her efforts also led to enactment of a state ban on cyberstalking that was signed into law by Gov. Gary Locke last month.

---

Former Iraqi Soldiers to Replace U.S. Marines in Fallujah
10 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Baghdad Area

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 29, 2004; 8:50 AM

FALLUJAH, April 29 -- A new agreement aimed at ending the three-week long siege of Fallujah was announced Thursday under which a force of former Iraqi soldiers and commanders will be mustered into a "Fallujah Protection Army" and replace U.S. Marines in and around the embattled city.

…The Fallujah plan announced Thursday is the product of three days of discussions between American commanders and four former Iraqi generals. An agreement was reached Wednesday night and implementation, which could take several weeks, is expected to begin Friday, said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment in Fallujah.

The agreement is not a cease-fire plan similar to the one in effect now. It does not depend on insurgents turning in weapons or halting hostilities.

---

Quote of note:

Payne says she was too overwhelmed that fall to think about politics. The factory where she worked, owned by Procter & Gamble, had refused to put her on a steady day shift, so she had to leave her mildly retarded teenage daughter alone in the evenings. It was a potentially dangerous situation, throwing Payne into a frantic scramble to reconcile job and family. She might have been wooed to the polls if she had been convinced that Gore would try to fund child care sufficiently, or broaden job training to upgrade her skills, or address the chronic deficiencies of health insurance for low-wage workers. But her personal crisis drowned out the candidates.

King, a widower with three children, always felt divorced from public issues. "I don't do politics well," he told me. He failed to vote in 2000, and he skipped last February's New Hampshire primary as well, he said, because he had just been laid off from a boot factory. On primary day, he noted, "I was out looking for a job."

Of course, King wasn't looking for a job during all the hours that the polls were open, and Payne probably could have found enough mental energy to cast a ballot. But they didn't feel engaged enough to bother. Government looked indifferent, and voting seemed irrelevant to their struggles. Nothing they heard from candidates suggested otherwise. This is the cycle that Democrats must break.

---

Why John Kerry Needs the Needy
By David K. Shipler

April 25, 2004

John Kerry needs Caroline Payne and Tom King. Neither voted in the last presidential election, despite their special stake in the outcome. Both are single, working-poor parents and thus reflect an irony of electoral demographics: They are the Americans who most need government services and are most vulnerable to cutbacks — and they are also the ones least likely to vote.

In 2000, Payne and King both lived in New Hampshire, a battleground state that Al Gore lost to George Bush by only 7,211 of the 569,081 ballots cast. If they and others like them had voted in their economic interests, chances are that Gore would have won the state's four electoral votes and Bush would not be in the White House today.

Historically, the lower a person's income is, the greater his support for the Democrats — but the less likely he is to vote. This pattern presents Kerry with both a problem and an opportunity. If families who earn less than $25,000 a year had been persuaded to participate in the last presidential contest at the same rate as those earning more than $75,000, an additional 6.8 million people would have voted — most of them probably for Gore.

Nationwide, the turnout of eligible voters in the last presidential election ranged from a high of 75% of those in households earning more than $75,000 a year to just 38% of those under $10,000. Support for Bush also declined with income, running from 54% of those earning over $100,000 down to 37% of those under $15,000, according to exit polls.

---

'I Want to Know the Ugly Truth'
By Monica Gabrielle
Monica Gabrielle is a member of the Family Steering Committee. Website: www.911IndependentCommission.org

April 29, 2004

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will sit down this morning with the entire 9/11 Independent Commission to give their account of events leading up to Sept. 11 — a day that took the life of my husband, along with 3,000 other innocent people. Bush and Cheney will appear together because they refuse to appear separately. It will be behind closed doors because they don't want to speak publicly. There will be a "note taker," no recorded transcript.

But I want to know the whole ugly truth. My husband, Richard Gabrielle, died on the 103rd floor of Tower 2 that day; I want to know what was done beforehand to prevent it from happening, and I want to know what we're doing to prevent it from happening again. My great fear is that their answers will never find their way to the public.

I can't be at the meeting. I'm not allowed in. But if I were, this is what I would ask.

For President Bush:

1. Why was our nation so utterly unprepared for an attack on our own soil?

2. On the morning of 9/11, who was in charge while you were away from the National Military Command Center? Were you informed or consulted about all decisions made in your absence?

3. At what time were you made aware that other planes were hijacked in addition to Flight 11 and Flight 175? What was your course of action?

4. Beginning with the transition period between the Clinton administration and your own, and ending on 9/11/01, specifically what information about terrorists, possible attacks and targets did you receive?

5. Please explain why no one in our government has yet been held accountable for the failures leading up to and on 9/11.

6. From May 1 until Sept. 11, 2001, did you receive any information from any intelligence agency official that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack this nation on its own soil? That terrorists were planning to use airplanes as weapons? That New York City landmarks were being targeted?

7. What defensive measures did you take in response to pre- 9/11 warnings and/or threats from 11 nations about a terrorist attack, many of which cited an attack in the continental U.S.?

8. From May 1, 2001, until Sept. 11, 2001, did you or any agent of the U.S. government carry out any negotiations or talks with Bin Laden, an agent of Bin Laden or Al Qaeda?

For Vice President Cheney:

1. On Sept. 11, when did you first become aware that the U.S. was under attack?

2. The Hart-Rudman report, released in January 2001, predicted a terrorist attack within the U.S. Yet the White House set aside report recommendations and announced in May that you would study the issue of domestic terrorism. Apparently, responsibility was then passed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency director. Congress had been willing to support the recommendations. What happened?

3. Besides ensuring the succession to the presidency, is there a defense protocol in the event our nation is attacked? What is it and was it followed?

4. What subsequent actions did you take to defend our nation?

a. Did you have open lines with the Secret Service, NORAD, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense?

b. Who was in the Situation Room with you?

c. Was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or anyone at the Pentagon informed that we were under attack? If so, at what time was the Pentagon informed? If not Rumsfeld, who?

d. Why wasn't the Pentagon defended?

e. Did you consult with President Bush about all decisions?

5. Please describe any discussions/negotiations between the Taliban and either public or private agents before Sept. 11 regarding Bin Laden and/or rights to pass a pipeline through Afghanistan, or any other subject pertaining to Afghanistan.

---

Shriver Wields Growing Influence
California's first lady emerges as a powerful partner with her governor husband. 'Arnold and I are a team,' she says.
By Peter Nicholas
Times Staff Writer

April 29, 2004

SACRAMENTO — Bobby Shriver wolfed down a burger at a restaurant near his office in Beverly Hills as he took stock of what's ahead for his little sister, his brother-in-law and the state of California.

There's a $14-billion budget shortfall and difficult decisions about raising taxes, cutting spending or both. "The honeymoon is over," he said, but no one should underestimate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Maria Shriver. "Arnold's a very hard-headed guy, and Maria's a very hard-headed girl. And they're going to make something work," he said.

Arnold and Maria. Since the recall election six months ago, the governor's office at times has seemed as much hers as his. Shriver is rapidly emerging as a full — if unelected — partner with her husband in running California.

Some lawmakers confide that when they can't get the answer they want from Schwarzenegger's administration, they go to Shriver. Many briefing papers are passed to Shriver. Political strategy can be vetted by Shriver. Some job candidates interview with Shriver. Legislative diplomacy is a Shriver staple.

---

Supreme Court Curbs AQMD in Smog Battle
In an 8-1 ruling, U.S. justices say the Southern California air quality agency went too far in making private firms buy low-pollution vehicles for fleets.
By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer

April 29, 2004

Southern California air quality officials overstepped their authority when they required private trash haulers, bus lines and other companies to purchase low-pollution vehicles for their fleets, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The 8-1 decision significantly sets back a broad effort by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the regional smog agency, to expand its reach and tackle the biggest sources of smog-forming exhaust: cars, trucks and other motor vehicles.

The federal government has primary authority over those pollution sources, and local regulators assert that federal officials are not doing enough to help clean the air in Southern California.

The ruling could also forecast trouble for other efforts by California officials to press the state's authority to push new air pollution regulations, some legal experts said.

Because Southern California has the nation's worst pollution problem, regional smog officials — responsible for air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties — have long had the right to set tougher standards than the federal government for factories, power plants and other stationary sources of pollution.

But that authority does not help in handling emissions from cars, trucks and other vehicles, which account for about 70% of the region's smog.

---

Sorry kids. That ain't faith, it's fear.

---

Marines Find Faith Amid the Fire
Four members of Echo Company are baptized on the battlefield in Fallouja -- at a school from which they've been fighting insurgents.
By Tony Perry
Times Staff Writer

April 29, 2004

FALLOUJA, Iraq — On Monday, Echo Company battled insurgents for two hours. One Marine was killed and 15 were wounded in the latest and bloodiest of numerous skirmishes.

Then four Marines — from the battle-hardened company, part of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division — asked a Protestant chaplain to arrange a battlefield baptism.

"I've been talking to God a lot during the last two firefights," said Lance Cpl. Chris Hankins, 19, of Kansas City, Mo. "I decided to start my life over and make it better."

To give the occasion even greater significance, the Marines chose to have Wednesday's baptism in the courtyard of a bullet-riddled school that they used in their fight with insurgents.

---

April 28, 2004

Halle Berry files for divorce

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Actress Halle Berry has filed for divorce from her husband, R&B singer Eric Benet, a spokeswoman said.

Publicist Karen Samfilippo confirmed the filing Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court but declined to comment.

The couple were married about three years and separated in October. This is the second divorce for the actress, who was previously married to former baseball outfielder David Justice.

Tabloids speculated about Benet's faithfulness from nearly the moment the "X-Men" star married the singer in January 2001.

The two met in 1999 at a party to celebrate the premiere of Berry's HBO movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," about the first black woman nominated for a best-actress Oscar with 1954's "Carmen Jones."

Berry won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for the Dandridge role. She then became the first black woman to win a best-actress Oscar for her work in 2001's "Monster's Ball."

---

Quote of note:

FOX Television declined to comment.

---

Elton John Says 'American Idol' Vote Is 'Racist'
Tue Apr 27, 2:17 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - British Rock star Elton John (news), a guest judge this month on the U.S. talent hunt TV series "American Idol," said on Tuesday that he found the voting by the national viewing audience "incredibly racist."

John, who heard the wannabe pop stars perform his songs during an appearance on the FOX TV show, added his voice to a chorus of dissent that followed last week's shock exit of black vocalist Jennifer Hudson, considered one of the top talents among those vying for a recording contract.

"The three people I was really impressed with, and they just happened to be black, young female singers, and they all seem to be landing in the bottom three," said John, commenting on the tally in which the lowest vote-getter is eliminated.

"They have great voices. The fact that they're constantly in the bottom three -- and I don't want to set myself up here -- but I find it incredibly racist," John said at a news conference promoting his Radio City Music Hall concert backed by an orchestra of students from London's Royal Academy of Music and The Juilliard School of New York.

The show often gets more than 20 million people voting.

The other two singers grouped in the bottom three of the seven remaining "American Idol" finalists last week were black divas La Toya London and Fantasia Barrino.

The results moved show host Ryan Seacrest to remind viewers that the series was a talent hunt and not a popularity contest.

"America, don't forget you have to vote for the talent," Seacrest said before closing the show. "You cannot let talent like this slip through the cracks."

---

U.S. Forces Keep Pressure on Rebels in Falluja and Najaf
By EDWARD WONG

Published: April 28, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 28 — The American military made an aggressive push in its two-front war in Iraq today, continuing an aerial bombardment of guerilla positions in the volatile city of Falluja while tightening its grip on roads surrounding the southern holy city of Najaf, where a rebel Shiite cleric has sought refuge.

American forces appeared to be getting increasing help from a shadowy new vigilante group in Najaf that might be responsible for the deaths of seven armed supporters of Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric, according to residents of the city. An American commander said `there may be some validity` to reports of attacks by the vigilantes. [P6: Special forces + media control = vigilantes]

A resident of the nearby town of Kufa calling a relative in Baghdad said members of the Mahdi Army were staging fake funerals in the town so they could use coffins to carry surface-to-air missiles into the golden-domed mosque in Kufa, where Mr. Sadr preaches every Friday. The resident reported the existence of the vigilante group, known as the Thulfikar Army, earlier this week. Occupation officials have warned that the Mahdi Army is stockpiling weapons in mosques, shrines and schools.

The fierce fighting in Falluja showed once again that the "ceasefire" marines and insurgents were supposed to be honoring was one in name only. An American commander said the definition of ceasefire was flexible, possibly explaining why there had been so much shooting and bombardment in the last two days.

"Although this is a ceasefire, they're not purely defensive rules of engagement," Maj. Gen. John Sattler, director of operations for the United States Central Command, said in a conference call from Qatar. "In other words, if in fact the insurgent forces start to make attempts to set up weapons systems, to re-supply units that are within the town, the marines have it within their rights to go in and take pre-emptive measures, i.e., strike against these units."

---

G.O.P. Protesters Plan to Infiltrate Convention as Volunteers
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Published: April 28, 2004

It is accepted as an article of faith among protesters planning to demonstrate against the Republican National Convention this summer that agents seeking to undermine their efforts have infiltrated their ranks. But now the protesters are talking about infiltrating the convention to undermine the event itself.

"Really?" said Kevin Sheekey, president of the New York City Host Committee, when told that protesters were talking about flooding the ranks of volunteers to disrupt convention operations.

The city is obligated to find a total of 8,000 New Yorkers to volunteer to help things run smoothly, and would-be protesters are hoping that by signing up, they can work from the inside during the convention, scheduled Aug. 30 through Sept. 2.

"A lot of people are talking about it in general," said William Etundi Jr., a founder of counterconvention.org, a Web site that serves as a bulletin board for anti-convention activities. "The Republicans are coming to New York City, so maybe the real New York should come to them."

---

Gore Giving Over $6 Million to Democrats
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 28, 2004

Filed at 8:19 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, drawing from his 2000 campaign accounts, said Wednesday he will donate more than $6 million to five Democratic Party groups and help John Kerry fight President Bush's ``outrageous and misleading'' re-election bid.

The former vice president pledged to donate $4 million to the Democratic National Committee. The party's Senate and House committees each will get $1 million, and the party from Gore's home state of Tennessee would receive $250,000.

The Democratic Party in Florida, site of the divisive 2000 election recount, will get $240,000 from a separate Gore campaign account. Republican campaign committees still hold a fund-raising advantage over Democrats.

---

Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials
Tue Apr 27, 8:53 AM ET
By Doug Tsuruoka

People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs.

Blogs, short for Web logs, are personal online journals. Individuals post them on Web sites to report or comment on news especially, but also on their personal lives or most any subject.

Some blogs are whimsical and deal with "soft" subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion.

As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what's reported in some blogs is questionable.

Still, a panel of folks who work in the U.S. intelligence field - some of them spies or former spies - discussed this month at a conference in Washington the idea of tracking blogs.

"News and intelligence is about listening with a critical ear, and blogs are just another conversation to listen to and evaluate. They also are closer to (some situations) and may serve as early alerts," said Jock Gill, a former adviser on Internet media to President Clinton (news - web sites), in a later phone interview, after he spoke on the panel.

Some panel and conference participants, because of their profession, could not be identified. But another who could is Robert Steele, another blog booster. The former U.S. intelligence officer said "absolutely" that blogs are valid sources of intelligence and news, though he said authenticating the information in blogs "leaves a lot to be desired."

---

I mean, from an entrenched, corrupt point of view.

---

Spending More on Medicare Ads Than Cheaper Drugs

The White House today announced it will be spending another $18 million of taxpayer money on television ads promoting its new Medicare bill. Not only was the last round of ads criticized by government regulators as misleading, but the White House is on track to spend more Medicare money on television ads ($80 million) than its own FDA commissioner says is necessary to create a safe system to import cheaper, FDA-approved prescription medicines from abroad ($58 million).

---

Sept. 11 Could Not Have Been Prevented Without Accruing A Lot Of Overtime

Esteemed members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, good afternoon. As National Security Advisor, my job is to coordinate the efforts of America's intelligence and defense agencies and report directly to the president. I was, and continue to be, in a unique position to understand the threats and dangers our nation faces. It is with utmost confidence and sincerity that I assure each and every one of you that there was no way the federal government could have prevented the horrific events of Sept. 11 without accruing an enormous amount of overtime.

My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of all those who died on that terrible day. Our prayers continue to be with you. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing we could have done to predict al-Qaeda's evil plot, without requiring many, many people to stay in the office past 5 p.m.

According to federal law, government employees must be paid time-and-a-half for any work hours beyond 40 and double-time on weekends. Ladies and gentlemen, preventing Sept. 11 would have required hundreds of thousands of unbudgeted overtime hours and, in several cases, overtime plus compensatory paid vacation. Again, may I address the family members of Sept. 11 victims: That tragic day changed us all, but you paid the highest price.

The world was a different place before the day of those horrific attacks. Due to tragic budget constraints before Sept. 11, it was impossible to authorize unlimited overtime pay to defend our country from international and domestic threats. Our nation was in the midst of a fiscal crisis and operating under massive jobs-and-growth tax-cut measures. Turning back the hands of time is impossible, just as it would have been impossible to find money to cover thousands of hours of intelligence-agency overtime. Truly, the bottom line weighed heavy on our hearts and minds.

Predicting what happened on Sept. 11 would have necessitated the hiring of numerous new employees—many of them highly paid specialists in such esoteric fields as Islamic history and Middle Eastern languages.

But it was not simply a matter of incurring additional labor costs. Had we been able to allocate sufficient funds for overtime pay, we would have faced a second significant obstacle. In retrospect, I see it as a tragic coincidence that the dramatic increase in terrorist chatter and threat information coincided with the arrival of the summer, when keeping our vast offices up and running beyond the eight-hour workday would have necessitated substantial central-cooling expenditures.

The brave men and women who work for Central Intelligence, the FBI, the Department of Defense, and the Office of the Vice-President are overworked civil servants, trying to juggle family, personal, and professional lives. We did everything in our power to convince them to spend some of their free time working on issues of national import, but in the summer months, it was difficult to make them see the gravity of al-Qaeda's threat.

For years, we understood that the al-Qaeda network posed a serious danger to the U.S. In the months leading up to Sept. 11, I was in constant contact with CIA Director George Tenet, whose operatives had some leads suggesting possible large-scale, mass-casualty attacks on U.S. soil. Following those leads was cost-prohibitive.

In order to identify and apprehend the Sept. 11 hijackers before they struck, our agents would have had to have logged thousands of hours of the most mundane intelligence analysis. Consider, for example, the logistics of implementing the three-phase strategy to eliminate al-Qaeda. It involved a mission to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increased diplomatic pressure, and increased covert action. It would have been very expensive. The covert action would have entailed the time-consuming translation from Arabic of e-mails, phone transcripts, and bugged conversations. Arabic is an extremely difficult language that only a small number of government employees know. Completing the translations might have involved flying capable employees in from great distances.

Once a series of conversations has been translated, analysts must wade through endless pages of talk of dinner dates, computer purchases, travel plans, and weather reports, searching for anything of national-security interest. Each conversation must not just be recorded, transcribed, translated, and read. It must also be analyzed and formed into a report, which must be typed and copied and collated. Then the report must be discussed, and if action is deemed necessary... You see where I'm going here. We're talking about a massive accrual of hours in all levels of government, top to bottom.

The worst part is, 999 times out of 1,000, the operatives come up with nothing. It's very hard to pay people time-and-a-half when they can't tell you the exact location, date, and method of an imminent terrorist attack. But, considering the high priority President Bush placed on counterterrorism from the day he took office, I assure you that we would not have hesitated to schedule the overtime hours, had we known that a massive terrorist attack was definitely going to happen.

Yes, Mr. Tenet and his top deputies did receive a briefing paper labeled "Islamic Extremist Learns To Fly" in mid-August. Yes, an in-depth investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui might have led the government to the al-Qaeda cell in Germany that planned the Sept. 11 attacks, but the fact remains that we can never be sure. I believe that, during investigations such as this, it's important to stick with what we do know. Ladies and gentlemen: Had that lead been followed, a lot of people would've been working a lot of very long hours.

---

'I got a story I really need to tell'
North Wales deputy chief constable Clive Wolfendale has been criticised for performing a rap to his force's black police association.

He gave his rendition of the rap to the inaugural meeting of the North Wales Black Police Association (NWBPA), with Rukhsana Nugent, the group's secretary.

Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips said: "Presumably this was an attempt to get down with their supposed culture. How wrong. How patronising. How demeaning."

But NWBPA chairman Roger Benedict said Mr Wolfendale's rap had the support of all its executive members and was a way of delivering a "strong positive message".

---

Here go da rap, with positive messages specifically noted.

I'm just a white boy called the Deputy CC
They said I'd never make it as a bitchin' MC
You got it all wrong, cos now here I am
Giving it for real in the North Wales BPA jam

They call me Roxy, or Ms Dynamo on stage
Unlike my brother here, I never look my age
I'm goin' to spill it all about the boys in blue
Show you what it's like within the not-so-solid crew

So listen! Watch a doin' here today
Checkin' what the Heddlu Gogledd Cymru gotta say
Put away your cameras and your note pads for a spell
I got a story that I really need to tell

Bein' in the dibble is no cakewalk when you're black
If you don't get fitted, then you'll prob'ly get the sack
You're better chillin', lie down and just be passive
No place for us just yet in the Colwyn Bay Massive

The Beeb Man stuffed us with the Secret Policeman
It's no good moanin' cos' he found the Ku Klux Klan
Job ain't what it used to be; it's full of blacks and gays
It was just us white homies in the really good ole' days

So what we bothrin' with this stinkin' institution
No love, no heart, no sense, no proper constitution
No-one loves the coppers cos' we're rotten to the core
Cross between the devil and a governmental whore

What is the purpose of a black association?
It's just another stupid race relations job creation
We got our meetings and our various sub-committees
Packed with some do-gooders and a lot more Walter Mittys

Forget all of that bulls**t an' I'll tell u why we're here
Things are sometimes better than they usually appear
The New World Order means the streets are gettin' hot
Trust in one another is really all we got

The BPA is sayin' that we're all in the same boat
Black or white in blue, we're all wearin' the same coat
If this don't happen then the lot of us are screwed
Caught up in the mis'ry of the international feud

So Roger, Nick and Larbi will you give us one more chance
Danny and Silvana, I'd really like to dance
To Essi and to Imdad I want to give a hand
Let's hear it for Ms Dynamo and all her backin' band

There's no time for jam tomorrow, we need the jam today
That's why we launchin' our association in this way
Thank you all for coming and remember what we say
Support your local sheriff and the North Wales BPA.

---

Damn. People should make sure they don't do poorly when they mean well.

---

Important Message from Moreover Technologies

For the past several years Moreover Technologies has been providing free headline Webfeed services to hundreds of thousands of Websites including the one from which you’ve just arrived. As of April 1, 2004, Moreover has transferred control of this service to a new entity, FeedDirect, who will continue to operate the service. As part of this transfer it is necessary for Website operators who wish to continue utilizing the free service to register with FeedDirect to obtain replacement code. Failure to do so may result in the termination of the service without further notice.

Be assured that FeedDirect is offering a full complement of free Webfeed categories to meet the needs of all kinds of Websites. Also, the service will continue to operate at the same high standards that Website operators and visitors to their Websites have come to expect from Moreover.

Please visit www.feeddirect.com to register for your free headline Webfeed

---

Note that FeedDirect is ad-supported.

---

Kerry Turns Tables on Bush and Cheney Over War Records
By JODI WILGOREN

Published: April 28, 2004

CLEVELAND, April 27 — As he spent a second day touring hard-hit industrial areas to highlight recent job losses, Senator John Kerry and his campaign escalated their attack on the Bush administration over the military records of the president and vice president.

After an hourlong rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where Mr. Kerry hammered President Bush on the economy, his aides offered reporters a provocative four-page handout headlined, "Key Unanswered Questions: Bush's Record in the National Guard." By afternoon, Mr. Kerry himself had stoked the fire.

"I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard — and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do — criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served," Mr. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, told a reporter for The Dayton Daily News. "I think it's inappropriate."

---

Second Time Around, Bush Is Forgoing a Visionary Agenda
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, April 27 — George W. Bush ran for president four years ago on a platform of meaty domestic policy ideas, including tax cuts of historic proportions, the creation of Social Security investment accounts and a demand that school systems document their performance through increased testing of children.

This time around, in his race against Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mr. Bush has so far offered little in the way of major new proposals. The few efforts he has made to set out a fresh, visionary agenda, like his call in January for a manned mission to Mars [P6: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!] or his plan to overhaul the immigration system, have disappeared from his own speeches and hardly show up on the national radar screen.

What he is left with is a list of proposals that he has been trying for the last several years to push through Congress, like his energy bill and his plan to restrict lawsuit awards against doctors and corporations, plus smaller-bore ideas that, however important and worthy, are hardly the kind that define a presidency.[P6: I beg to differ. Small-bore ideas are exactly the right size for him]

---

$5 Billion in Antiterror Aid Is Reported Stuck in Pipeline
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOEL BRINKLEY

WASHINGTON, April 27 — More than $5 billion in federal money to help communities brace for terrorist attacks has not yet reached the local authorities and remains stuck in the administrative pipeline, Congressional officials said Tuesday.

That is more than 80 percent of the money approved by Congress to help cities, counties and states since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and efforts to prepare for possible attacks may be lagging as a result, a new Congressional analysis has found.

"The money's sitting there waiting for them," said Representative Christopher Cox, Republican of California, chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, which prepared the assessment. "They can't spend it. Nothing happens."

The Sept. 11 attacks revealed alarming gaps in the ability of local officials to respond to terrorist attacks on major urban areas, and Congress responded with an investment of billions of dollars in grants. The money is intended to help so-called first responders buy chemical and radiological detectors, improve their emergency communication systems, expand training and take a variety of other steps to help deter terrorist attacks and respond to them.

Mr. Cox's committee staff found in its assessment that while the Department of Homeland Security was doing a much better job of speeding along local grants for the vast operation, a huge bottleneck had developed at the state and local level.

Many states have such cumbersome procedures, and their needs are so ill-defined, that it can take months or sometimes years for federal money to reach local police, fire and emergency response teams, the analysis found.

---

IBM's old PS/2 line (not Playstations, you little snot-nosed brat) tried pulling in mainframe technology. The Microchannel architecture was a direct swipe and downsizing of the bus they used in mainframes. It was a very good design, and if IBM hadn't been such proprietary assholes with their licensing terms…but that's a wide-spread disease. Had it not been for that disease, we could all be hating Digital Equipment for monopolizing the world with CP/M 32.

---

I.B.M. Plans to Build Servers That Act Like Mainframes
By STEVE LOHR

Published: April 28, 2004

I.B.M. plans today to announce new server computers that behave more like mainframes and are priced as low as $1,500. The servers will be able to run as many as 10 operating systems on a single machine. One processor can divvy up the workload - packing the capability of several machines into one - by building several virtual machines that run on the underlying hardware. It is a technology that has existed for decades in the mainframe market long ruled by I.B.M.

The first of the server computers, which uses I.B.M.'s virtualization engine technology, will begin shipping next month, and the prices of some models will range up to $1 million. The machines, I.B.M. said, are the result of a three-year research and development effort.

"Much of the technology is harvested from our mainframe business," said William Zeitler, senior vice president of I.B.M.'s computer systems group.

---

Those Illegal Farm Subsidies

America's lavish handouts to its farmers harvest poverty throughout the developing world. And they are illegal as well. That's the conclusion of a World Trade Organization panel that heard Brazil's challenge to the cotton subsidies that belie this nation's commitment to free and fair trade.

Cotton is far from the only crop that American farmers are able to dump on the international market at low prices thanks to federal subsidies. But it is one of the most outrageous cases. Brazil was wise in choosing it as the first target in the developing world's challenge of the roughly $1 billion a day in subsidies that rich nations dole out to their farmers. If the preliminary ruling stands, as expected, it may mean the beginning of the end for European and American practices that provide their farmers an unfair advantage.

In addition to Brazil, an agricultural superpower, some of the world's poorest nations, including the West African republics of Mali, Benin and Burkina Faso, are vindicated by the W.T.O.'s decision. Cotton is West Africa's cash crop, the one economic activity in which the region has a competitive advantage. By underwriting much of the costs of America's 25,000 cotton farmers with checks that can total $3 billion a year, Washington erases that advantage. Aided by American experts who are critics of this warped system, Brazil convincingly argued that in the absence of subsidies, the United States would have produced and exported substantially less cotton than it did in recent years. Consequently, growers elsewhere would have enjoyed greater market share and higher prices.

The glaring contradiction between American farm subsidies and the principles underlying the global trade system has long posed a moral and political problem for Washington. Now it is also a legal problem. Instead of digging in its heels and spending years appealing the panel's ruling, the Bush administration needs to seize upon it as a reason to negotiate the surrender of rich nations' trade-distorting farm subsidies.

---

Justices to Hear Challenges to Post-9/11 Presidential Powers
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, April 28 — The Supreme Court is to hear arguments today in two cases of historic importance, involving the limits of presidential power and the balance between individual freedom and national security.

What the justices decide in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld v. Padilla will be of huge importance to President Bush and his top advisers. Perhaps more important, the court's rulings in this pair of cases could affect American presidents and American law for many decades.

The cases arise from the Bush administration's response to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Part of that response has been the open-ended detention of people whom the administration has labeled "enemy combatants."

President Bush and his aides have argued that they are operating within the Constitution and, indeed, doing what they have to to fulfill their duty to protect the country. Those who disagree have argued that Mr. Bush and his aides are shredding the very Constitution they have sworn to uphold.

---

Specter Wins Pennsylvania Senate Primary
By JAMES DAO

PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, April 28 — Senator Arlen Specter, a four-term Republican known for his centrist stands, turned back a ferocious challenge from his party's right wing on Tuesday, barely defeating Representative Patrick J. Toomey in the Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Specter led Mr. Toomey by 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent. Turnout was weak.

Mr. Specter told weary supporters in a hotel ballroom here shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, "Now is the time, having settled our family disagreement within the Republican Party, to unite, to re-elect President Bush, to maintain the Republican majority in the United States Senate."

Mr. Toomey conceded defeat and urged his supporters to unite behind the Republican ticket.

"I intend to do everything I possibly can to help both President Bush and Senator Specter be re-elected, and I urge you all to do that as well," Mr. Toomey said in Allentown.

Social and fiscal conservatives from across the nation had rallied to Mr. Toomey's cause, portraying the race as a struggle for the party's future and a chance for conservatives to dominate Washington more completely than at any time since the New Deal.

But Mr. Specter, 74, touted his long record of winning federal money for Pennsylvania, his seniority and his support from the Republican establishment, including President Bush. His campaign criticized Mr. Toomey, 42, as "far out," and broadcast commercials featuring Mr. Bush.

---

As the sole remaining targets of the West's economic expansion, the Southern nations have the same sort of leverage Black folks in Montgomery had during the bus boycott. Only it takes longer for a national economy to feel the pain than it took for Miz Daisy to realize she couldn't live without clean clothes or Mr. Gilmore to remember most of his customers were those very darkies he despised.

Complaint of note:

Decision-making in the two financial bodies is far removed from the principle of one country-one vote.

The 46 sub-Saharan African countries, for example, have only two executive directors representing them at the World Bank and IMF, while eight northern nations have a single executive director each.

Directors from countries of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations now control more than 60 per cent of votes at the bank and fund, while the U.S. administration has veto power over any extraordinary vote.

The bank and IMF each have 184 board members from developed and developing countries and 24 members who represent countries or groups of nations.

That system has deprived more populous nations like India and China, which combined represent more than 2.3 billion people of the world's six billion people, of an influential say while giving countries like the United Kingdom, France and the United States greater clout.

---

Southern Nations Demand More Power in IMF, World Bank
Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - As several thousand people protested outside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) here Saturday, a coalition of developing countries also complained loudly about the democracy deficit at the two institutions.

"We are greatly disappointed by the lack of visible progress in respect of voice and participation and voting power of developing countries in the two Bretton Woods institutions," Sudanese Finance Minister al-Zubeir Ahmed al-Hassan told reporters as he read a statement on behalf of African countries.

Others said they were alarmed at how the two organisations responded to developing countries' calls for democracy in the IMF and World Bank.

"There is also the issue of principle," Ewart Williams, governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, told reporters.

"We are either universal institutions or we are not. You cannot on the one hand say this is a participatory institution, that democracy should be the order of the day, that transparency and accountability should be the order of the day, and then on the other hand say that there should be sacred cows."

Ewart was reading from a statement by finance and economy ministers from the Group of 24 (G24), which operates as an association of minority shareholders in the IMF and Bank. It said, ''the under-representation of developing countries in the decision-making processes of these institutions should be seriously and promptly addressed".

The ministers called for a more equitable form of representation, and said the executive boards of the IMF and the World Bank should appoint an expert group to work on the issue and produce a report within six months.

Decision-making in the two financial bodies is far removed from the principle of one country-one vote.

The 46 sub-Saharan African countries, for example, have only two executive directors representing them at the World Bank and IMF, while eight northern nations have a single executive director each.

Directors from countries of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations now control more than 60 per cent of votes at the bank and fund, while the U.S. administration has veto power over any extraordinary vote.

The bank and IMF each have 184 board members from developed and developing countries and 24 members who represent countries or groups of nations.

That system has deprived more populous nations like India and China, which combined represent more than 2.3 billion people of the world's six billion people, of an influential say while giving countries like the United Kingdom, France and the United States greater clout.

But officials from the two bodies and from the G7 have argued that the poverty reduction strategy papers -- policy documents that borrowing countries must prepare before they can qualify for loans -- already give borrowers "a voice in bank-fund assistance programmes in their countries".

The calls for reform come as the World Bank and IMF hold their bi-annual spring meetings, which coincide this year with their 60th anniversary. The Washington-based organisations were founded in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Their critics have also been meeting here all week, distributing 'unhappy' birthday cards and holding demonstrations. Protesters on Saturday banged on pots and pans outside the IMF and bank buildings in downtown Washington, imitating past protests in Argentina.

Saturday's demand also come amid renewed accusations that the selection process for the top jobs within the financial bodies' is opaque and non-democratic.

The IMF is set to decide on a new candidate to replace Horst Koehler, who resigned Mar. 3 after being nominated for the German presidency.

Developing countries and civil society groups have argued the selection process gives rich nations a monopoly on nominating and selecting the leaders of the two institutions.

Traditionally, a European has led the IMF while the World Bank presidency is given to an American.

"Ministers are particularly concerned that the selection process for the managing director of the IMF continues to fall far short of the standards of good governance, transparency and inclusiveness widely advocated by the IMF and the World Bank in their relations with member countries," said the G24 statement.

"This is inimical to the legitimacy, accountability and credibility of the institutions."

The strongly worded statement demanded an open and transparent selection process to "attract the best candidates regardless of nationality".

That, added the group, would simply follow recommendations made in April 2001 by a World Bank-IMF joint working group on how to choose the managing director.

But although the two organisations' executive boards adopted the recommendations as guidance for the future, they were never implemented.

The European Union has already settled on a candidate, former Spanish finance minister Rodrigo Rato, to head the IMF. Rato, who served as a minister in the conservative government of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday.

He must be officially named to the post by the IMF executive committee.

The nomination debate is likely be repeated next year, when World Bank President James Wolfensohn is due to end his second term in office.

---

Expats Explore Independent Way Forward
Katherine Stapp

NEW YORK, Apr 26 (IPS) - As the United Nations prepares to assume leadership of peacekeeping forces in Haiti, human rights and immigrant groups in the United States met Saturday to chart a path beyond the Caribbean island's latest political crisis.

Fighting has subsided since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted Feb. 29, although intense controversy persists surrounding the circumstances of his departure -- which he describes as a ”kidnapping” by U.S. officials, a charge Washington denies.

Elections are due next year, but the island's neighbours in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) still do not recognise the interim government led by President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.

Haiti is now patrolled by a multinational force of 3,600 troops from the United States, France, Chile and Canada. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for this number to be beefed up to 6,700 soldiers and more than 1,600 international police officers when the United Nations takes over Jun. 1.

”As deplorable as the situation may seem, there is in Haiti today a thirst for change, from the smallest locality to the urban areas,” said Jocelyn McCalla of the New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR).

”Unfortunately, what's often communicated in the media is that Haitians are always at each others' throats and this is not the case,” he said.

At a one-day conference at New York University's law school organised by McCalla's group, panellists discussed the need for a ”social contract” to bridge the chasms of race and class that have left Haiti one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

---

Quote of note:

As a cultural phenomenon, she adds, Rastafarianism is caught up in an ongoing process of 'Cubanisation'. According to the researcher, there are three manifestations of the movement in Cuba: the religious rastas, the philosophical rastas, and the rastas who are making a fashion statement.

Not THAT much different than here.

---

Socialism's Rastas
Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Apr 10 (IPS) - Long dreadlocks stuffed into trademark red, black, green and yellow tams (knitted caps), which sometimes carry a symbol of an Afro-Cuban religion or even a U.S. flag, Bob Marley t-shirts and camouflage pants -- that is the typical look of Cuba's young Rastafarians, a growing urban presence.

The rastas of this socialist island nation are mainly found in Havana and tend to be young Afro-Cuban men from poor neighbourhoods, who seem to carry reggae music in their blood.

''People don't look on us kindly,'' Yosvany Reyes, a 27-year-old craftsman, told IPS. ''In Cuba people don't know very much about what being a Rastafarian means. They generally think we're dirty drug addicts or bums who just wander around the streets not doing anything.''

''They think we're like rock 'n rollers or rappers, people who just have a different look or have adopted different cultural codes. But being a Rastafarian is a way of thinking, a philosophy, another way of looking at life,'' he said.

Reyes can be seen just about every afternoon chatting with his girlfriend and three or four ''brothers'' on a bench in Parque Central, a busy park in Old Havana. He defines himself as a ''pure Rastafarian'', but says not all of the local rastas are like that.

''It's true that evil can be found in many people. There are young people who adopt the Rastafarian symbols as a way to make a living. They know that young black men who look like us are a great attraction for the tourists,'' he said.

Reyes complained that these ''false'' Rastafarians, who he said are often involved in prostitution and drug -- including cocaine -- rackets, are responsible for society's distorted image of the movement.

---

Quote of note (and point of comparison):

”The levels of frustration and anger in the Afrikaner community are not only leading to emigration and a brain drain from South Africa, but also to social ills such as alcohol and drug abuse, family violence, the breakdown of our social fabric and ultimately to desperate acts of sedition such as those allegedly planned or perpetrated by the Boeremag,” Roodt told journalists at the Apr. 26 briefing, held in Johannesburg.

”The levels of frustration and anger in the Afrikaner community are not only leading to emigration and a brain drain from South Africa, but also to social ills such as alcohol and drug abuse, family violence, the breakdown of our social fabric and ultimately to desperate acts of sedition such as those allegedly planned or perpetrated by the Boeremag,” Roodt told journalists at the Apr. 26 briefing, held in Johannesburg.

---

Dreaming of a White(r) Christmas
Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 27 (IPS) - It is 10:00 am, and the organisers are getting impatient. They have sent out invitations to over 200 journalists, most of them foreign correspondents. To their dismay, however, only a handful arrive at the Apr. 26 news briefing organised by the 'Volksversetaksie' - a pressure group which claims to articulate the grievances of Afrikaans-speaking whites, or Afrikaners.

”It's disappointing that foreign journalists have not turned up for this important briefing,” observes Dan Roodt, the leader of Volksversetaksie (or 'National Protest Action').

Afrikaners account for most of the 4.3 million whites in the country, which has a population of over 44 million according to government figures. Descended from the Dutch settlers who made South Africa their home in 1652, Afrikaners upheld the country's system of racial segregation, apartheid, for 40 years until the advent of democracy a decade ago.

Now, they see themselves as an endangered species.

…During the press conference, Roodt criticised the government's policy of affirmative action, also called 'black empowerment', which is intended to undo some of the economic devastation caused by apartheid. He described it as racism in reverse. [P6: Because we all know the correct direction for racism to flow in]

”Our youth has become unemployable in the country of their birth and hundreds of thousands must now do menial labour in Britain, despite their excellent education and skills. The blight of poverty and unemployment now affects 15 percent of Afrikaners, a direct result of government race policies,” Roodt claimed. [P6: My heart bleeds…]

Between 30 and 40 percent of South Africans, most of them black, are currently unemployed according to various estimates. Many are unable to find jobs because of the poor education that was provided for blacks under apartheid. [P6: Somehow the unemployment ratio between the Black and white communities in SA is the same as here.]

---

Netherlands, Denmark 'Most Committed'
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 27 (IPS) - The Netherlands and Denmark received top rankings for the second year in a row in the annual Commitment to Development Index (CDI) designed to measure the degree to which the world's wealthiest countries pursue policies that benefit the planet's poorest people.

Due to changes in the Index's methodology, the United States jumped from number 20 for 2001 to number seven in 2002 -- the last year for which full data on all of the Index' criteria are available -- largely on the basis of its relatively open immigration policies and the inclusion of private contributions in calculating the total amount of aid that it provides to poor countries.

Britain led all Group of Seven (G-7) nations in fourth place, followed by Canada, which also improved its standing over 2001 due to more liberal immigration policies, Germany and France which tied with the United States in seventh place.

As in last year's Index, Japan finished last among the 21, despite its status as the world's second biggest aid donor. Just above it in ascending order were Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece and New Zealand.

The Index, released Tuesday by Washington-based 'Foreign Policy' magazine and the Centre for Global Development (CGD), is based on numerical calculations covering seven different national policies -- aid, investment, migration, environment, security, technology and trade -- that influence the welfare of the world's poorest nations.

In assessing an overall score for trade policy, the Index gives the greatest weight to the degree to which donor countries protect their home markets, through tariffs, quotas, and subsidies from developing country imports. It also measures how much rich nations import from poor countries, with additional points being granted for imports from the poorest nations and for manufacturing imports.

In this category, the United States topped the list for the second year in a row, while Norway, which retains particularly high tariffs on agricultural products, scored lowest.

On technology, Index researchers calculated government support for research and development (R&D) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), although spending on defence-related R&D, in which Washington is dominant, was discounted by one-half.

According to this calculation, Austria and Canada came out on top with R&D spending of 0.9 percent of GDP, while Greece and Ireland, with 0.3 percent of GDP, landed in the cellar. The United States, with its defence R&D discounted, ranked only eighth on the list.

For security, points were accrued for participation in peacekeeping operations and forcible humanitarian interventions that had been authorised by multilateral bodies, such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) from 1993 to 2000. Participation was assessed according to the size of the donor countries' defence budgets and the percentage of its standing forces committed to such efforts.

As a result, Norway scored at the top of the pack, followed closely by Britain and Australia (due largely to its 1999 intervention in East Timor). Japan and Switzerland scored the lowest in this category, while the United States, despite having committed more than 50,000 troops to interventions in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, ranked in the middle.

The environmental score was based on a two-thirds weight given to the estimated harm done to the global commons -- through, for example, greenhouse gas emissions, low gasoline taxes and subsidies for fish -- by individual countries. The remaining one-third was based on contributions to environmental initiatives, such as ratification of major treaties and donations to funds that help poor countries improve the national and global environments.

Under this methodology, Switzerland scored first for the second year in a row, primarily on the strength of its low greenhouse gas emissions, while the United States came dead last as a result of its high greenhouse gas emissions and its continued boycott of the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce them. Australia and Canada also received low scores, while the European Union (EU) was led by Germany and Austria, followed by France and Britain.

The net inflow of people from poor countries to wealthy ones between 1995 and 2000 accounted for nearly two-thirds of the Index's migration score, while the rest was determined by the amount of aid host governments provide to refugees and asylum seekers and the percentage of students from developing countries among the total foreign-student population.

Using this new methodology, the Index found that Canada received the highest marks followed by the United States and Australia. At the other end of the spectrum, Japan scored lowest, followed by Spain, Belgium and Finland.

On investment, the Index tried to measure what donor governments do both to facilitate investment flows to poor countries and to ensure such investment promotes development. It weighed the degree to which countries provided political risk guarantees and other incentives to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) and whether those incentives were modified by environmental or worker-rights conditions to be followed by investors.

The Netherlands, Germany and Australia all received top scores in this area, while Ireland and New Zealand ranked lowest.

Finally, the Index's aid component assessed total official assistance -- including grants and low-interest loans -- as a percentage of the donor country's GDP. All aid that was ''tied'' to the purchase of goods or services from the donor nation was discounted by 20 percent, and debt payments by the recipient to the donor on past aid was also subtracted.

In addition, the choice of recipient countries was also considered, with aid to countries seen as relatively poor but well-governed getting more credit than aid to middle-income countries and those with corrupt and unaccountable governments.

Donors that gave aid in amounts of less than 100,000 dollars lost points on the grounds that such practices tend to create unnecessary administrative burdens for poor countries.

Countries that offered tax incentives for private charitable contributions were given bonus points, as were nations that generally had lower taxes, on the assumption that post-tax income leads to more private contributions.

According to these calculations, Sweden ranked first among donors, followed closely by Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway. New Zealand ranked last, followed by Greece and the United States. Aside from the Netherlands, EU countries were led by France and Belgium. (END/2004)

---

April 27, 2004

A while back I explained the real reason the site is named Prometheus 6. I had nailed down Fireworks and was making all these animated graphics and such. I really like the flaming hand and wanted to use it as a header graphic. The original name for the site was to be "The Hand," but I was on Blogger and that name was taken, so I had to come up with another name to fit the graphic. Focusing on the fire instead of the hand gave me Prometheus. The "6" just popped into my head at random.

Little did anyone know how close you came to reading 'The X-Ray Eyeball."

It didn't really match my mood the day I set it all up, though.

---

April 27, 2004 - For Immediate Release
Contact: Jack Loftus 646-654-8360

NIELSEN MAKING LARGEST-EVER SAMPLE INCREASES AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICANS & HISPANIC-AMERICANS

More Representative Samples; People Meter Measurement Offers Demographics

New York, April 27, 2004 – Nielsen Media Research is implementing the largest increases in its samples of African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans in the history of the television measurement service.

The increase in samples will produce more stable data and greater levels of demographic information about African-American and Hispanic-American television audiences than is currently available.

In addition to providing national and local samples that are larger and more representative of the African-American and Hispanic-American populations, Nielsen will be collecting ratings data from these sample homes with a People Meter, the state-of-the-art electronic, data-collection system that provides overnight, demographic ratings information.

Sample Expansion - National

In nationwide television measurement, Nielsen Media Research is doubling the size of its National panel from 5,000 households to nearly 10,000 households. As part of this expansion, the number of African-American TV households in the sample will grow from 670 households to 1,200. That is approximately 12% of the sample. When the sample expansion is completed in 2006, the number of African-Americans in the sample will have grown from 1,820 when the expansion began to approximately 3,200.

The number of Hispanic TV households in the National sample will increase from 540 when the sample expansion began to 1,000 TV households when the expansion is completed in 2006. That means that the number of Hispanic-Americans in the sample will have grown from 1,850 to approximately 3,585.

“This is the largest expansion of African-American and Hispanic-American TV households in the history of the Nielsen television measurement service,” said Susan D. Whiting, president and CEO of Nielsen Media Research. “Just as important,” she added, “is that our recruitment efforts have resulted in a higher success rate in recruiting African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans into our samples, thus improving the overall quality of these important sample groups.”

Sample Expansion - Local

As part of its sample expansions, Nielsen is introducing People Meter measurement into the top 10 markets. Nielsen began with Boston in May 2002, and will continue with New York on June 3, 2004. Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco will follow later this year. People Meters will be introduced into the remaining five markets in 2005 and 2006.

African-American Sample – Los Angeles & New York

In Los Angeles, the number of African-American TV households in the sample will increase from the existing 55 set-meter homes to 77 People Meter homes. In LA, African-American TV households make up 9.6% of the total People meter sample. The population estimate of African-American TV households in LA is 8.8%.

In New York, the number of African-American TV households in the sample will increase from 104 set-meter homes to 166 People Meter homes. In NY, African American TV Households make up 20.8% of the Local People Meter sample. The population estimate of African-American TV Households in NY is 17.3%.
Hispanic-American Sample – Los Angeles & New York

In Los Angeles, the number of Hispanic-American TV households in the sample will increase from 155 set-meter homes to 265 People Meter homes. In LA, Hispanic-American TV Households make up 33.1% of the total Local People Meter sample. The population estimate of Hispanic-American TV households in LA is 31.3%.

In New York, the number of Hispanic-American TV households in the sample will increase from 86 set-meter homes to 144 People Meter homes. In NY, Hispanic-American TV Households make up 17.9% of the total Local People Meter sample. The population estimate of Hispanic-American TV Households in NY is 16.1%.

Innovation in Technology

Nielsen Media Research’s technology for measuring television viewership is an example of excellent design, constantly improved. Today’s data collection systems from Nielsen Media Research can keep pace with hundreds of channels – broadcast or cable, analog or digital, satellite or terrestrial, PC or TV delivered, timeshifted or live – scanning every channel every 2.7 seconds to accurately report the tuning status of every television set within the sample household. Nielsen can use the conventional phone line to download data from sample homes, or it can use cellular. The data are then transformed into the “overnight” ratings and are reported by Nielsen the next morning.

---

This was going to be a comment elsewhere, but I decided I wanted to say it out loud, in general.

The first requirement is that you pursue what you think is the most important thing in the world. Without purpose there is no resolve. This most important thing can be a person, a principle, whatever. And it doesn't matter why it's the most important thing to you. All that matters is that it's something you enjoy, can see clearly, and see coming about.

Choose carefully…your will in related areas will be as strong as the area's relationship to your focus, and your will in general will get stronger from the exercise but only in this one thing you can be unbreakable.

Second is an understanding that unbreakable will does not guarantee success in any particular thing. Recently I posted a quote here: "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." I would add basically reliable data, a cup of intelligence and a pinch of detachment to the recipe for experience.

Now, add that experience to measured patience (measured because you don't want to wait so long you're actually being jerked) and unbreakable will. That's how you get guaranteed success.

Third is some advice on providing resources for a developing will, as opposed to development of will.

• Develop the practice of doing as little as possible when affecting things. It will require you to understand this most important thing as a process, make you understand the importance of change, timing and balance. Keeping the use of your resources as low as possible means you'll have more resources to deal with the inevitable unexpected.
• When dealing with important issues, do not experiment. Use techniques you are comfortable with the the point of reflexivity. When you have time, are playing around or whatever, push yourself to find your limits…experiment&make shit up…practice until you got the new stuff down to the point of reflexivity.
• Watch out for habits. Literally. When you see yourself acting from habit, pay attention to what triggered it and what need it fulfills. As long as you react from habit you can be manipulated, which is the antithesis of unbreakable will.
• Recognizing defeat and yielding before you're too damaged to try again later is an exercise of will. Fighting on until you're broken is, shall we say, a bad example to set before your subconscious.

---

Abiola at Foreign Dispatches responds to an interesting meme; what books on this particular list have you read? My answers are bolded.

Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot [P6: did the play]
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Brontë, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago [P6: saw the movie]
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales [P6: This or Collected Works, not sure which]
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
[Shakespeare, William - Othello [P6: I added it to the list myself, sue me]
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace [P6; Oh HELL, naw]
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [P6: This is the first fiction book I ever read, unless you count The Illiad and The Oddessey, predigested for third graders]
Voltaire - Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five [P6: Player Piano was better]
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass [P6: Highly recommended, Eidolons in particular]
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard - Native Son

The only one I regret not having read is Things Fall Apart.

This list would make a decent canon, I think.

---

phill at Enigmatic Musings of a Cynical Mind proves how aptly named his blog is.

I want to say you bloggers with a sense of humor are all that keep me from vomiting into my cable connection. Please keep being funny.

---

I actually didn't shiv a gitz about the Iraq flag flap until some links in an entry by Steve Gilliard reminded me how seriously people take this symbolism crap. Made me wonder how folks would feel watching their kids pledge allegiance to this:

---

ADMINISTRATION USES FEDS TO INTIMIDATE SENIORS:

According to newly released details, last October the Bush administration took the extraordinary step of stopping and searching a bus full of seniors on their way back from purchasing cheaper medicines in Canada. The intimidation move, which FDA officials note is "not consistent" with past practice, came at the very same time the White House and pharmaceutical industry were working to remove provisions from the new Medicare law that would have formally provided seniors access to lower-priced medicines from abroad. Details of the administration's heavy-handed tactics only emerged this month after Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) demanded answers in a letter to the FDA – an agency whose complicity with the drug industry has come into question since the Bush administration took office.

---

Man, this is so good, I want to just lift the whole article.

---

Justice Department Fails to Address 9/11 Intelligence Failures
Kate Martin
Center for National Security Studies
April 19, 2004

Download Article (PDF) 47KB

The hearings last week before the 9/11 Commission (formally the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States) highlighted domestic intelligence failures by the FBI and CIA before September 11. The independent, bipartisan commission was created by Congress in late 2002 and is due to release a report this July with an account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks and recommendations to guard against future attacks.

The hearings raised two key questions: 1) were legal barriers responsible for the pre-9/11 intelligence failures, and if so, are they still in place; and 2) is there a need for a new domestic intelligence agency? This essay explains why legal barriers were not responsible for the intelligence failures. The Department of Justice's insistence that legal barriers are to blame – and in turn that the Patriot Act was the correct response – is misleading at best and a distraction from the real intelligence failures at worst.

…The Staff Reports describe Attorney General Ashcroft as ignoring these problems before September 11. While the Attorney General did make some public pronouncements about the importance of counter-terrorism, there is no indication that he paid any attention to the red flags raised by Reno concerning the FBI's counter-terrorism work. Even after the CIA briefed him on July 5, 2001 that a "significant terrorist attack was imminent" he did nothing because he said he "assumed the FBI was doing what it needed to do." There is no explanation as to how he could have assumed this, given the multiple documents in the Justice Department's files concerning the FBI's problems and the fact that it only had an acting Director at that time.

Instead of addressing these findings, Attorney General Ashcroft went on the offensive before the Commission on April 13 and testified that the "wall" between law enforcement and intelligence was responsible for the 9/11 intelligence failures and that the Patriot Act has broken down that wall.

Neither claim is correct.

The "Wall." The "wall" metaphor is shorthand for the recognition that separate authorities govern law enforcement and foreign intelligence investigations targeted against Americans. These authorities, designed to prevent a recurrence of domestic spying by the FBI and CIA, always recognized that international terrorism was both a law enforcement and intelligence matter. Contrary to the repeated mischaracterization by the Attorney General and others, the law never prohibited sharing information between law enforcement and intelligence communities; to the contrary, it expressly provided for such sharing. While the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was interpreted to mean that prosecutors could not direct foreign intelligence wiretaps, as opposed to criminal wiretaps, the 9/11 failures had nothing whatsoever to do with the inability of prosecutors to direct such surveillance. [2]

None of the 9/11 failures to share information can be laid at the feet of the law. The claim is being used to obscure bureaucratic failures and to shore up support for the now controversial Patriot Act. As former Attorney General Reno recognized and as confirmed by the Staff Reports, the obstacles were "not legal barriers, but traditional agency cultures and the lack of interoperable technology." She noted that at the FBI, "agents are not trained to share information with other agencies. Nor are they evaluated and rewarded based on their ability to generate and share information that other agencies might find useful." This was true even after the FBI had identified prevention of terrorism as one of its top priorities in 1998 and recognized that it needed to improve its intelligence capabilities. [3]

Thus, Ashcroft's claim that a 1995 memorandum issued by then-Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick created the wall that was "the single greatest structural cause for September 11th" is both false and misleading. Separate procedures for law enforcement and intelligence surveillance have been on the books since at least 1978. . What's more, as pointed out by Commission Member Slade Gorton, Ashcroft's Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson affirmed the Reno Justice Department procedures in August, 2001. And few commentators have noticed that the Gorelick memo in fact required information from a then pending terrorism prosecution to be shared with intelligence officials. [4]

---

via TalkLeft
Site Stats Down

Our sitemeter has been down almost all day. It's a pain, because TalkLeft takes forever to load when Sitemeter is not working. There's one way we can always tell if it's us or Sitemeter....We check Instapundit whose sitemeter is on the same server. His sitemeter is down now too. [This has nothing to do with our hosting company which is the great Hosting Matters--only with Sitemeter which uses its own servers to compute site stats.]

---

Colin Powell explains Iraqi sovereignty.
And the US secretary of state came up with a definition of Iraqi that Alice in Wonderland's Red Queen would surely understand:

But in an interview with Reuters news agency, Mr Powell said that while the new government would take full sovereignty over the country, it would have to give some of it back to the Americans so that the US would still be in command of its own troops.

"I hope they [the post-June 30 'sovereign' Iraqi government] will understand that in order for this government to get up and running - to be effective - some of its sovereignty will have to be given back, if I can put it that way, or limited by them," Mr Powell said.

"It's sovereignty but [some] of that sovereignty they are going to allow us to exercise on their behalf and with their permission."

[That was one of the of the finest examples of doubletalk we've seen recently.]

Speaking in Washington, Mr Powell said the coalition did not mean to "seize anything away" from the planned caretaker government.

"It is with the understanding that they need our help and for us to provide that help we have to be able to operate freely, which in some ways infringes on what some would call full sovereignty," he said.

---

…but Atrios has the text of the email Dr. Fletcher M. Lamkin of Westminster College sent out in response to Dick Cheney's thinly veiled stump speech (which he may not have been able to give had he been honest in the first place:

Fletcher Lamkin told The Associated Press that Cheney's staff approached him last week about using Westminster as the backdrop "for a major foreign policy address. Nothing was said about a stump speech."

---

I call them the "anti-abortion rights mob" instead of the pro-life movement because they don't strike me as being pro-life.

Quote of note:

Event organizers have planned for one day of the event to focus on lobbying members of Congress and the Bush administration representative told the Washington Times that funding such activity is a misuse of taxpayer dollars.

The Bushistas weave reelection activities throughout their taxpayer funded activities…some of those activities are only thinly-masked campaigning…so this strikes me as straight up hypocrisy and cowardice, brought on the the unexpected (to the closed-minded) success of the recent pro-choice march.

The Times reports that USAID has planned to spend $190,000 on the conference.

The free market solution, of course, is to pay for it your damn self. I mean, if overriding people's personal decisions is all that important to you.
Bush Admin. Scraps Agency's Plans to Back Pro-Abortion Conference
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 26, 2004

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Just one day after a few hundred thousand abortion advocates gathered in the nation's capital, the Bush administration is pulling the plug on a federal agency's plan to support an international conference that is backing abortion.

The Global Health Council, which is organizing the four-day conference, expected to receive support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The "reproductive health" conference features several pro-abortion groups and other political groups that are spending millions to defeat Bush, which led the Bush administration to scrap the funding plans.

"We expect they will be notified officially" today, a senior government official told the Washington Times. "The conference has increasingly moved from a teaching forum to a platform for expressing partisan political views."

---

As soon as I give enough of a shit to make audio entries, you will receive confirmation that I am indeed the whitest sounding sumbitch on the planet. Although I'm from Southeast Texas, I have the most perfectly blanched out, nasal, suburban voice imaginable.

This facility of mine comes in X-tra handy for one of my favorite party games: The Rap Lyrics Translator. Someone hands me a famous line from a song, and I try to extemporaneously convert it into middle-management speak. All of the below lyrics are relatively old school (1985-1995); the first should be obvious, but can get you started.

The obvious one is "I am an aficionado of exceptionally large female posteriors; on this subject, I am neither able to prevaricate nor make pretense."

---

Quote of note:

"Children need to have role models. We need to honor people who have done great things. It is pretty hard to ignore that he was responsible for some major changes in this country and the world. He brought the economy back and started us on a different path on how we think of limited government. He defeated communism and brought America back in how we think of ourselves. Even his critics would have to give him credit for that."

That stench you now smell is the full-of-shitness becoming evident.

---

Doyle Vetoes Reagan Highway
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: 1A
Thursday, April 22, 2004
By Anita Weier The Capital Times

Gov. Jim Doyle has vetoed a bill that would have designated U.S. 14 from the Illinois border to Madison as the Ronald Reagan Highway.

Doyle said he vetoed the bill Wednesday because it would violate the precedent of only Wisconsin-born citizens or state residents having the honor of a state highway or bridge named after them.

But state Sen. Bob Welch, R-Redgranite, who authored the bill with fellow conservative Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, called the governor's decision "partisan and very petty."

"Ronald Reagan was one of our greatest presidents. [P6: Matter of opinion, there…]We have a chance to join a lot of other states in honoring him. We do that for other great people," Welch said this morning.

---

Body and Soul:

There's an interesting article in today's Christian Science Monitor about a proposal to revive an old American tradition and allow non-citizens to vote:

Historically, citizenship has not be a requirement for voting. When the nation was first founded, a man just needed to be a property owner to cast a ballot. As an incentive to settle the West, many states and territories required people to simply be a "resident" for one to two years.

Granting voting rights was seen as a way to get newcomers engaged in the civic process. In 1848, Wisconsin established a model that other states soon followed. It simply required residents to declare their intention of becoming citizens before being allowed to vote. Up until the 1920s, when a powerful, antiimmigrant backlash swept the country, 22 states and territories allowed legal immigrants to vote in local elections.

"It was a proven pathway to civic education, political education, and citizenship by giving people a stake in their communities," says Ron Hayduk, a political scientist at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Now with that as a background, along with an historical and more than a few references of more recent vintage, one may gain a clue as to why so many Black folks simply do not feel welcome in their own nation.

---

This is incomplete, obviously.

ON THE NATURE OF GOD
Earl Dunovant
Copyright © 2003

There has never been a human culture that lacked a spiritual element. Even Neanderthals, not human in the strict sense, left evidence of spiritual concerns. What the reason for this is, I don't know; it may not even be profitable to speculate on it. But the universality of the spiritual impulse makes it seem to me as absolute a part of human nature as standing erect and speech.

This is not to say there are no individuals lacking the spiritual impulse, nor to say that these people are less than human. Saying that would make no more sense than saying a mute person isn't human. And just as one can lose the ability to walk by various means, one can lose the ability…or maybe just the interest…to express the spirit by various means. These exceptional people do not make the spirit any less fundamental to the nature of humanity, no more than people permanently injured in an accident makes walking less fundamental to our physical nature.

I see people as constantly questing after the spirit. Even atheists tend to constantly seek to dispute the issue, a gesture that strikes me like a paraplegic trying to convince people that no one can walk. I've often wondered if they would prefer to be proven wrong.

Generally the quest, and the disputes, center on the nature of God (which for now I will only define as "that which the spiritual impulse makes us seek and question"). That there is something we are seeking and questioning is beyond dispute. The interesting questions to me were, since we're all human, why aren't we seeking the same thing? Since we're all human and all living on the same planet under the same laws, why don't we see this universal thing the same way? Simply put, why don't we agree on the nature of God?

---

Where's my integrity, just posting stuff like this with no background checking, no verification…

---

Desperate to Distract from President's Failed Record on Jobs and Security, Bush-Cheney Unleash Misleading Attack, Says Kerry Campaign
4/26/2004 11:47:00 AM
To: National Desk
Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-712-3000, both of John Kerry for President

WASHINGTON, April 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Kerry Campaign Spokesperson Chad Clanton issued the following statement today in response to the new, misleading attack ad being run by Bush/Cheney 04:

"George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are trying to tear down John Kerry, a decorated war hero, with their misleading ad campaign. Not only are these attacks false, Cheney himself tried to cut many of the same weapons systems that the Bush campaign is now attacking John Kerry on. Bush and Cheney are the ones who sent our military to Iraq without basic equipment like body armor and with no plan for bringing the troops home. It's time for Bush and Cheney to stop misleading and start telling the truth."

THE FACTS:

I. THE FACTS ABOUT CHENEY'S CUTS TO KEY MILITARY PROGRAMS

Cheney Proposed Cutting Weapons Programs That Were Important to Success in Iraq. In 1990, Cheney proposed cutting 90 C-17 Air Force cargo transport planes and 14 B-52 bombers. Cheney also sought the retirement of two Navy battleships, two nuclear cruisers, and eight nuclear-powered attack submarines. In 1991, Cheney scrapped the Navy's A-12 Stealth attack plane, a fighter that was proclaimed to be a key part of the future of navy aviation in advanced stealth technology. (Newday, 2/5/91; NY Times, 1/8/91; Boston Globe, 4/27/90; Boston Globe, 1/30/90)

C-17s and B-52s Vital to Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to Defense Daily, "From January through mid-April C-17s in the Central Command's Middle East theater of operations conducted 2,600 missions, carrying more than 23,000 personnel, and more than 73 million pounds of cargo." An analysis by Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that the Air Force B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers dropped nearly two-thirds of the total bombs in the war. (Defense Daily, 5/21/03; Copley News Service, 7/3/03)

Cheney Cut Thousands of Active-Duty, Reserve, and Civilian Forces. In January 1990, Cheney banned the hiring of any new civilian personnel in the Defense Department through the end of September, which left more than 65,000 jobs vacant. Under the budget proposed in 1990, the Pentagon would have reduced active military personnel by 38,000; selected reserves would have fallen by 3,000. The budget called for the deactivation of two Army divisions. Long range, the Pentagon planned to reduce its work force by 300,000, including about 200,000 military personnel and 100,000 civilians. In 1991, he called for reduction of 200,000 active and reserve military personnel over two years. In 1992, Cheney called for cutting 500,000 active-duty people, 200,000 reservists, and 200,000 civilians over five years. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2/2/92; Chicago Tribune, 2/20/91; 1990 CQ Almanac, p. 672; Washington Post, 1/13/90; Boston Globe, 1/30/90)

Reserves Being Used at "Unprecedented Rate" in Iraq. National guardsmen and reservists will soon make up 40 percent of the total U.S. force in Iraq. Reservists are being used at "unprecedented rate," according to Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the Army National Guard. Tasked with homeland security missions and combat rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of the part- time soldiers mobilized in the first days after September 11 have yet to be deactivated. An internal Army National Guard survey of 5,000 soldiers in 15 states recently presented a disturbing forecast: The rate at which Army Guard members leave the force after extended deployments could nearly double to 22 percent. (U.S. News & World Report, 2/9/04; Chicago Tribune, 2/9/04)

II. THE TRUTH ABOUT KERRY AND CHENEY RECORDS

Kerry is a Strong Supporter of America's Military; Has Supported More Than $4.4 Trillion in Defense Spending & Voted for "Largest Increase in Defense Spending Since the Early 1980's. He has support 16 of the 19 defense authorization bills since elected to the Senate. John Kerry is a strong supporter of the U.S. Armed Services and has consistently worked to ensure the military has the best equipment and training possible. In 2002, John Kerry voted for a large increase in the defense budget. This increase provided more than $355 billion for the Defense Department for 2003, an increase of $21 billion over 2002. This measure includes $71.5 billion for procurement programs such as $4 billion for the Air Force's F-22 fighter jets, $3.5 billion for the Joint Strike Fighter and $279.3 million for an E-8C Joint Stars (JSTARS) aircraft. Kerry's vote also funded a 4.1 percent pay increase for military personnel, $160 million for the B-1 Bomber Defense System Upgrade, $1.5 billion for a new attack submarine, more than $630 million for Army and Navy variants of the Blackhawk helicopter, $3.2 billion for additional C-17 transports, $900 million for R&D of the Comanche helicopter and more than $800 million for Trident Submarine conversion. The current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner (R-VA) stated: "The defense spending increase for FY03 is the largest increase in defense spending since the early 1980's- reflecting the importance of defending the homeland and winning the global war against terrorism" (2002, Senate Roll Call Vote no. 239; Websites of U.S. Senators Warner, Daschle, Dodd accessed 7/25/03)

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PROGRAMS JOHN KERRY IS BEING ATTACKED ON:

APACHE HELICOPTER: The Kerry Record

Kerry has supported $13 billion in defense authorizations for the Apache

THE CHENEY RECORD: Terminate The Apache; According to the RNC, AH-64 Apache Helicopters Were Crucial to Operation Iraqi Freedom.In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, Cheney said, "This is just a list of some of the programs that I've recommended termination: the V-22 Osprey, the F-14D, the Army Helicopter Improvement Program, Phoenix missile, F-15E, the Apache helicopter, the M1 tank, et cetera." In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Cheney said, "The Army, as I indicated in my earlier testimony, recommended to me that we keep a robust Apache helicopter program going forward, AH-64...I forced the Army to make choices...So I recommended that we cancel the AH-64 program two years out." (Cheney testimony, Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, 6/12/90; Cheney Testimony, House Armed Services Committee, 7/13/89; Kerry's Military: As He Would Like It," 7/18/03)

AEGIS SHIPS: The Kerry Record

Kerry has supported at least $53 billion defense authorizations for the Aegis program

THE CHENEY RECORD: Cheney Cut Program, Costing Jobs. Cheney plan cut 9 of original 25 ships planned, putting shipyard in jeopardy (States News Service, 8/14/90; Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/24/90)

BRADLEY FIGHTING VEHICLES: The Kerry Record

Kerry has supported at least $8.5 billion in defense authorizations for the Bradley program

THE CHENEY RECORD: Bush-Cheney Budget Terminated The Bradley. "Major weapons killed include the Army's M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Navy's Trident submarine and F-14 aircraft, and the Air Force's F-16 airplane. Cheney decided the military already has enough of these weapons." (Boston Globe, 2/5/91)

BLACKHAWK HELICPTERS: The Kerry Record

Kerry has supported at least $13 billion in defense authorizations on versions of the Blackhawk.

THE CHENEY RECORD: Terminate The Black Hawk. The Pentagon's internal budget deliberations recommended termination of the Black Hawk program under Secretary Cheney." (Aerospace Daily, 5/15/90)

B-2 BOMBER: The Kerry Record

Kerry has supported over $16.7 billion in defense authorizations for the B-2 program

THE CHENEY RECORD: Cheney Proposed Cuts to B-2 Program, According to the RNC, B-2s Were Crucial to Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to the Boston Globe, in 1990, "Defense Secretary Richard Cheney announced a cutback... of nearly 45 percent in the administration's B-2 Stealth bomber program, from 132 airplanes to 75..." (Boston Globe, 4/27/90; From RNC Research Memo, "Kerry's Military: As He Would Like It," 7/18/03:

C-17 CARGO JETS: The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least $34.5 billion in defense authorizations for the C-17

THE CHENEY RECORD: Cutting C-17 Program. In 1990, Cheney proposed cutting 90 C-17 Air Force cargo transport planes (Newsday, 2/5/91; NY Times, 1/8/91; Boston Globe, 4/27/90; Boston Globe, 1/30/90)

F/A-18 FIGHTER JETS : The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least $60 billion in defense authorizations for the F/A-18 and F-18

THE CHENEY RECORD: Cutbacks Hit Industry Hard: Workers and the industry were hit hard by Cheney's decision for "major cuts" in the F/A-18 program and upgrades to the F-18 in the late 1980s (Flight International, 6/27/90; Los Angeles Times, 12/17/89; Aerospace Daily, 5/26/89; Aviation Week and Space Technology, 5/1/89)

F-16 FIGHTER JETS: The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least $25 billion in defense authorizations for the F-16.

THE CHENEY RECORD: Cheney Proposed Cutting F-16 Aircraft, According to the RNC, F-16s Were Crucial to Operation Iraqi Freedom. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Cheney said, "If you're going to have a smaller air force, you don't need as many F-16s...The F-16D we basically continue to buy and close it out because we're not going to have as big a force structure and we won't need as many F-16s." According to the Boston Globe, Bush's 1991 defense budget "kill(ed) 81 programs for potential savings of $ 11.9 billion...Major weapons killed include(d)....the Air Force's F-16 airplane." (Cheney testimony, House Armed Services Committee, 2/7/91; Boston Globe, 2/5/91; From RNC Research Memo, "Kerry's Military: As He Would Like It," 7/18/03.)

TOMAHAWK MISSILES: The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least $6 billion in defense authorizations for the Tomahawk missile program.

THE CHENEY RECORD: No New Missiles Requested Even As Stocks Depleted Before Gulf War, Cutbacks Lead To Layoffs: Cheney's defense budget was so pared-down that it didn't include any funds for more Tomahawk missiles in 1991, despite stocks rapidly diminished by the military action in the Persian Gulf. Cuts in 1990 led to layoffs throughout the nation. (Washington Post, 2/5/91; Aerospace Daily, 1/23/91; AP, 6/20/90)

C-130 CARGO JETS: The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least at least $12 billion in defense authorizations for the C-130

THE CHENEY RECORD: Move Hurricane Plane Out of Dept. of Defense, Move Considered Dangerous. In 1990, Cheney pushed a potentially dangerous move by trying to shift the WC-130 Hurricane Hunter planes from the Department of Defense and into the Department of Commerce. The WC-130 is used to track Hurricanes and warn coastal residents in time to evacuate the area. In July 1990, Cheney ordered that the Air Force halt all WC-130 flights by October 1, 1990 and turn the mission to the Commerce Department. Reed Boatright, a spokesman for the Commerce Department said, "we are not in a position to accept planes either financially or infrastructure wise." According to Jerry Jarrell, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, "It would be devastating" if the Commerce Department was unable to pick up the WC-130 after Cheney released it from Defense. Today, the WC-130 remains at Defense. (UPI, 7/11/00)

PATRIOT MISSILE SYSTEM: The Kerry Record

Kerry supported at least $10 billion in defense authorizations for the Patriot program.

SOURCES ON KERRY SPENDING: Congressional Quarterly Almanacs, 1986-2002; House Armed Service Committee Authorization Conference Report Summaries; Conference Reports for Defense Authorizations, FY1986 -- present

http://www.usnewswire.com/

---

Cheney Questions Kerry's National Security Judgment
DNC Chairman Says 'Call off the Republican Attack Dogs'
The Associated Press
Monday, April 26, 2004; 2:00 PM

FULTON, Mo., April 26 -- Vice President Cheney said Monday that Sen. John Kerry "has given us ample grounds to doubt" his judgment on national security…

---

Hm.

Vice President Dick Cheney as recently as January referred to the trucks as "conclusive" proof that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction. CIA Director George J. Tenet later told a Senate committee that he called Cheney to warn him that the evidence was increasingly suspect.

Then there's the British American Security Information Council's findings (hit the appendix if you're lazy, that's what appendices are for), The Carnagie Endowment for International Peace's findings (the full report is linked below the fold, but here's the two page summary if you're lazy; that's what two page summaries are for).

The Atlantic

The record is littered with unduly confident and conclusive administration assertions about Iraqi WMD, as well as about Saddam's much-touted but unproven ties to al Qaeda. Bush, Cheney, and Powell purported to be certain of "facts" about which the intelligence was far short of certain. They omitted the intelligence agencies' caveats, cautions, and dissenting views. And they stretched the findings of Hans Blix and his U.N. inspectors, who now appear to have been far closer to the mark than the administration officials who portrayed them as patsies. Examples:

• Bush and others repeatedly stressed that Iraq "could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year" if it "is able to produce, buy, or steal" highly enriched uranium, as he told the U.N. on October 7, 2002. He ignored the intelligence community's view that Iraq was highly unlikely to get enriched uranium in less than five years.
• "Iraq ... has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon," Bush said in the same U.N. speech. Previously, Cheney had said (on August 26, 2002) that "we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons" and (on September 8, 2002) that "we do know, with absolute certainty, that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon." Neither Bush nor Cheney disclosed that the State Department doubted these claims or that the State and Energy departments thought that (as we now know) the aluminum tubes had nothing to do with uranium enrichment.
• In his now-famous January 28, 2003, assertion that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Bush ignored the CIA's strong doubts that Saddam had done any such thing.
• "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," which could be turned over to terrorists and used to kill "thousands or hundreds of thousands" of Americans, Bush told the nation on March 17, 2003. He ignored the intelligence community's view that Saddam was unlikely to turn such weapons over to terrorists.
• "We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, and VX nerve gas," Bush said on October 7, 2002. He ignored a September 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency statement that "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons."
• Just over two weeks ago, Cheney touted as "conclusive evidence" of Iraqi WMD programs two flatbed trailers, found last spring, that he said were mobile biological weapons labs. This certitude appears indefensible in light of Kay's testimony the next day that these trailers were to produce hydrogen for weather balloons, or perhaps rocket fuel#8212;not biological weapons—and that this was the consensus view of intelligence officials.

Some 30 more-or-less overblown administration statements are catalogued in a 106-page January 8 report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Washington Post, Aug 2003

This article is based on interviews with analysts and policymakers inside and outside the U.S. government, and access to internal documents and technical evidence not previously made public.

The new information indicates a pattern in which President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their subordinates -- in public and behind the scenes -- made allegations depicting Iraq's nuclear weapons program as more active, more certain and more imminent in its threat than the data they had would support. On occasion administration advocates withheld evidence that did not conform to their views. The White House seldom corrected misstatements or acknowledged loss of confidence in information upon which it had previously relied:

• Bush and others often alleged that President Hussein held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, but did not disclose that the known work of the scientists was largely benign. Iraq's three top gas centrifuge experts, for example, ran a copper factory, an operation to extract graphite from oil and a mechanical engineering design center at Rashidiya.
• The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of October 2002 cited new construction at facilities once associated with Iraq's nuclear program, but analysts had no reliable information at the time about what was happening under the roofs. By February, a month before the war, U.S. government specialists on the ground in Iraq had seen for themselves that there were no forbidden activities at the sites.
• Gas centrifuge experts consulted by the U.S. government said repeatedly for more than a year that the aluminum tubes were not suitable or intended for uranium enrichment. By December 2002, the experts said new evidence had further undermined the government's assertion. The Bush administration portrayed the scientists as a minority and emphasized that the experts did not describe the centrifuge theory as impossible.
• In the weeks and months following Joe's Vienna briefing, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and others continued to describe the use of such tubes for rockets as an implausible hypothesis, even after U.S. analysts collected and photographed in Iraq a virtually identical tube marked with the logo of the Medusa's Italian manufacturer and the words, in English, "81mm rocket."
• The escalation of nuclear rhetoric a year ago, including the introduction of the term "mushroom cloud" into the debate, coincided with the formation of a White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a task force assigned to "educate the public" about the threat from Hussein, as a participant put it.

Two senior policymakers, who supported the war, said in unauthorized interviews that the administration greatly overstated Iraq's near-term nuclear potential.

"I never cared about the 'imminent threat,' " said one of the policymakers, with directly relevant responsibilities. "The threat was there in [Hussein's] presence in office. To me, just knowing what it takes to have a nuclear weapons program, he needed a lot of equipment. You can stare at the yellowcake [uranium ore] all you want. You need to convert it to gas and enrich it. That does not constitute an imminent threat, and the people who were saying that, I think, did not fully appreciate the difficulties and effort involved in producing the nuclear material and the physics package."

---

Victims' Rights Victory
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A20

OPPONENTS OF rash efforts to amend the Constitution scored an important win last week, when Senate backers of a "victims' rights" amendment pulled their proposal and agreed to pass a statute instead. The amendment -- which would have given an undefined class of victims constitutional rights in criminal trials on a par with those the Bill of Rights grants to defendants -- was headed for a much-deserved defeat. So sponsors Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) decided to throw their weight behind a bill instead, an alternative long supported by amendment foe Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). The result was compromise legislation that passed the Senate Thursday with only a single negative vote.

A constitutional amendment on this subject was never necessary -- unless, that is, the goal was to diminish protections for the accused in criminal trials. Congress can provide for victims anything that doesn't infringe upon defendants' trial rights, using its normal legislative powers.

---

U.S. to Change Tactics After Gulf Attacks
Assaults on Oil Terminals Lead to Tighter Security

By Josh White and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A16

A pair of nearly concurrent suicide bombing attacks on oil terminals in the Persian Gulf on Saturday -- the first waterborne assaults since the United States invaded Iraq -- has spurred the American military to significantly tighten security and change engagement tactics.

The attacks did little damage to the Iraqi Khawr al Amaya and al Basra oil terminals in the northern Gulf, but one explosion killed two Navy sailors and a Coast Guardsman, Nathan Bruckenthal, 24, a Herndon High School graduate and the first member of the U.S. Coast Guard to be killed in combat since Vietnam. Both attacks came from small boats that approached separate oil terminals at sea, using tactics similar to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 off the coast of Yemen.

Naval officials said the attacks -- one from a dhow, or small sailing boat, and the other involving two speedboats -- were unprecedented during Operation Iraqi Freedom and caused immediate concern about increased versatility on the part of insurgents and terrorists fighting coalition forces. Pentagon officials said the attacks had not come entirely as a surprise, since intelligence reports had predicted for some time that such assaults could occur.

Though thwarted, the attacks exposed a potential weakness in naval security and prompted the tight enforcement of wide exclusionary zones and the examination of boarding and interception procedures. A senior military officer at the Pentagon said the attacks also prompted the dispatch of an emergency response force of about 50 Marines to the terminals, with orders to remain in the area for the near term.

"Before this, we had something posted advising boaters to stand clear of the area, but now enforcement will become more stringent," the officer said. "We're going to be more inclined to shoot first."

---

April 26, 2004

Prosecutor Named to Probe Senate Files Case
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A04

The Justice Department tapped a U.S. attorney from New York yesterday to investigate whether laws were violated when two Senate Republican aides accessed Democratic computer files on strategy for blocking President Bush's judicial nominations.

The probe will be conducted by David Kelley, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York -- a choice that appeared to satisfy Democrats, who had pushed for a tough prosecutor who would conduct an aggressive probe free of influence from Washington.

In a letter to Judiciary Committee leaders, Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella called Kelley an "experienced prosecutor of the highest integrity and independence" and added, "We are confident the investigation will be handled in a thorough, fair, impartial and professional manner."

Kelley took his current position after his predecessor, James B. Comey Jr., left to become deputy U.S. attorney general. Senate Democratic staffers said Kelley is a Democrat.

The department's action came in response to a three-month investigation by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William H. Pickle, who found early last month that the two GOP staffers systematically downloaded and leaked thousands of Democratic files dealing with judicial nominations.

---

Scalia Rebukes Justices on Prayer Case
By ANNE GEARAN

WASHINGTON - Two of the Supreme Court's most conservative members delivered an unusual public rebuke to more liberal justices Monday, accusing them of ducking an important church-state fight over mealtime prayers at a taxpayer-funded military college.

Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, said the court should have taken the case to answer for the first time whether its ban on school-sponsored prayer for young children and high schoolers applies to college students as well.

Scalia delivered a polite but blunt critique of what he suggested are flimsy reasons for avoiding an appeal on behalf of the Virginia Military Institute, which is part of the state's university system.

The VMI case also gave the court an opportunity to rule on the constitutionality of traditional religious observance in military institutions, Scalia said.

"The weighty questions raised by petitioners ... deserve this court's attention," he wrote in protest.

Writing separately, Justice John Paul Stevens countered that the VMI case may be important, but suffers from procedural and other problems. He said Scalia is "quite wrong" in his characterization of why the court rejected the case. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joined Stevens.

---

Ronn at { a burst of light } is into poetry, among other things, so he's taken note that this is National Poetry Month, and that April 30, 2004 is Poem in Your Pocket Day, in New York City at least.

New Yorkers are encouraged to carry a poem in their pocket and share it with friends, family, coworkers and classmates. Public schools throughout the five boroughs will highlight poetry on this day through readings, poetry workshops and specifically designed lesson plans. Tuck a poem in your pocket and see what surprises may come your way.

Ronn also has an original idea:

I thought it would be a great idea if bloggers did something similar on April 30th:

To commemorate the end of National Poetry Month, blog about your favorite poem and provide at least one link to other poems and/or a bio of the poet.
Since I have several poets that I love (and to publicize my reinvigorated business site), I will post several poems and Black Lion Publishing will give away books by at least two poets (poets to be determined).

Okay, so Friday I'll do some poetry posts (mostly other folks' poems).

---

---

U.S. Shifts Position on Fallujah
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 25, 2004; 12:40 PM

BAGHDAD, April 25 -- Backing away from warnings that a new U.S. offensive on the city of Fallujah may be imminent, U.S. officials on Sunday announced that the occupation authority has shifted to a "political track" in an attempt to defuse the month-long crisis.

"The end state is what we need to be focused on. If it can be achieved through a political track, that's always good," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy director of operations, told a news conference. "I think we are going to show some combat patience and see if we can deliver this on a political track."

---

Catholics Question Abortion Focus
Some Want Church to Address Issues Such as Death Penalty

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 26, 2004; Page A02

A question has been gnawing at Frank A. McNeirney since he read that some Roman Catholic bishops want to deny Communion to Catholic politicians, such as Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, whose public positions are at odds with church doctrine.

"Does this only apply to abortion?" asked McNeirney, 67, of Bethesda. "What about the death penalty?"

After retiring as a trade magazine editor a dozen years ago, McNeirney founded a nonprofit organization, Catholics Against the Death Penalty, which has 1,200 members across the country. It's a mom-and-pop operation, run by McNeirney and his wife, Ellen, out of their home on a shoestring budget. They are the first to acknowledge that it has nowhere near the political clout or public visibility of the nation's antiabortion groups.

But McNeirney is not alone in questioning whether the church's political vision has become myopic, focusing too narrowly on abortion.

Some Catholic publications, educators and elected officials are also warning that church leaders may appear hypocritical or partisan if they condemn Kerry because he favors abortion rights while they say nothing about Catholic governors who allow executions, Catholic members of Congress who support the Iraq war or Catholic officials at all levels who ignore the church's teachings on social justice.

---

Stalling in Sudan . . .
Monday, April 26, 2004; Page A22

TWO WEEKS AGO, Sudan's government agreed to a humanitarian cease-fire in Darfur, a region in the western part of the country. The cease-fire was necessary because of the government's own actions: It has carried out aerial bombings of civilians and armed a militia that has terrorized villages, burning crops, raping women and flailing men with studded whips. As many as 1 million people have been chased from their homes and have no food stocks to support themselves. Doctors Without Borders, an intrepid charity that has 30 foreign staffers in Darfur, reports that malnutrition among children is rising precipitously. The aim of the cease-fire is to allow food deliveries before the rainy season makes roads impassable, probably six weeks from now. If the world misses that window, mass starvation becomes probable.

The cease-fire, however, has not been honored. Sudan's Islamic and Arab government has a long history of denying humanitarian access to civilians as part of its long war with Christian and animist Africans in the south. It is applying those same tactics to Darfur, whose people, though Islamic, share the southerners' aspiration for regional autonomy. A senior United Nations official who was supposed to visit Darfur under the terms of the cease-fire has been denied a visa. A U.N. delegation was delayed at the border.

Exiles from the region claim that the government's purpose in stalling humanitarian visits is to cover up evidence of its atrocities. It is attempting to conceal mass graves, collecting bodies from the sites of known atrocities and hiding them elsewhere. It is removing militia leaders so that U.N. inspection teams won't question them and issuing death certificates in their names so that nobody will seek them out elsewhere. It's bad enough that evidence is being destroyed while the cease-fire is not implemented. It's worse that a million people are running out of food.

---

This is what y'all conservative types are asking for, right?

---

Some Finding No Room at the ER
Screening Out Non-Urgent Cases Stirs Controversy

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 26, 2004; Page A01

DENVER -- It's not the heart attacks or stabbings that alarm Norman Paradis. It's the minor maladies, the daily deluge of coughs, colds, toothaches and even hangnails that clog his emergency room.

As the provider of last resort, hospital emergency departments across America have for decades accepted thousands of truly non-urgent cases and swallowed the cost. For the most part, the patients have nowhere else to go, no insurance and no money.

That is starting to change. University of Colorado Hospital, where Paradis works, is leading the way on a controversial solution -- weeding out the people with bumps and scrapes so it can devote more time and resources to serious, life-threatening traumas and, also, to paying customers.

Officials here say its 15-month-old system of medical screening, or "triaging out," could go a long way in easing the financial strains that have forced hundreds of emergency departments to shut down in the last decade. But many in the health care profession call it a callous, greedy and shortsighted maneuver that puts a greater burden on neighboring clinics and hospitals -- all at the ultimate expense of the working poor.

Under the new policy, University hospital demands partial payment up front from non-emergency patients who seek treatment in the ER. For some, including Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, the fee is a small cash co-payment; insurance pays the rest. For the uninsured, however, the charge can be a few hundred dollars -- money many don't have. So they leave, toting a list of low-cost clinics in the area.

Rather than being a remedy, many argue, medical screening is a symptom of much of what ails America's health system.

---

April 25, 2004

The number of skinheads in the US has doubled in the past year.
By Brad Knickerbocker

MARYSVILLE, WASH. - It was a Saturday morning recently when Jason Martin heard a knock at his front door. As he stepped outside, he was astounded to find 200 people there cheering, then singing "God Bless America," and praying the "Lord's Prayer" together.

"It made me feel very humble, very received, very respected, very encouraged," he recalls. Later that day, more than 500 people in town marched and rallied in support of Mr. Martin, an African-American minister who had wakened up three nights earlier to find a cross burning on his front lawn.

Pastor Martin's story - especially how his community responded to a frightening example of bigotry - is an important chapter in the Pacific Northwest's evolution from recurring racism and hate to what experts say is an inspiring model of how communities can reverse this troubling legacy of national life.

There is clear evidence that such models are needed.

There's been a second cross-burning in Washington State. Racial profiling has become an issue in Portland, Ore., where there have been two recent instances in which black motorists pulled over by white police officers were shot and killed. There have been several episodes of hateful literature distributed in the region, most recently last week in a suburb of Portland where white supremacist tracts were included in bags of candy meant to attract kids.

[P6: I'm sorry, but I feel the need to make a special point of this.

white supremacist tracts were included in bags of candy meant to attract kids]

Also, the West Virginia-based National Alliance - one of the largest and most active white supremacist groups in the country (it inspired Timothy McVeigh and is behind much of the "white power" music aimed at young people) - has become very active in the Northwest, leafleting in many communities and showing up at antiwar rallies with big signs saying "No More Wars for Israel." The idea here, says one observer who tracks hate groups, is that 9/11's massive attack on the United States, plus fighting in Iraq against people described as unchristian and nonwhite, will attract those with racist attitudes.

Why the recent activity among racist groups in the Northwest?

"I think much of it is that the Northwest is the last part of the US to experience diversity," says Randy Blazak, a sociologist at Portland State University who studies such groups. "They've been relatively immune to it but suddenly the 'white homeland' ain't as white."

---

Has it occurred to anyone that Karen Hughes, rather than Karl Rove, was the true evil genius?

---

Karen Hughes, an adviser to President Bush, appeared on CNN today to provide a counterpoint to the anti-Bush sentiment on the Mall. She praised the president on his "very strong record for women," saying he has employed more women in senior-level staff positions than any other presidential administration. She also said that abortion-rights activists were moving against what she said was popular momentum, particularly since the terrorist attacks of 2001, in favor of anti-abortion policies. "I think that after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life," she said. "President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions. And I think those are the kinds of policies the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy and, really, the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."

---

Thank you for the invitation.

Understand that from my perspective there is no issue of a master's religion. I don't worship, I participate. When I think of religion at all it's usually because I'm amazed by the shallowness of its pursuit by most folks. And the conflict…I have studied more religions and philosophies than most people know exist and the core behavior they all call for is much the same…yet people go to war over whether Krishna, Jehovah or Quetzoquatl said be good. And as far as joining any church, one might as well join the He-Man Woman Haters Club in that you get some socializing and some rules and some hierarchy, and still have to figure out what to do next.

Frankly, religion is not an active issue, positive or negative, in my life so there's little point in my going through all that text. But I do appreciate the invitation.

---

US tips toward restraint in Fallujah
Over the weekend, US forces around the insurgent city held off from assault in favor of more pinpointed security measures.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The US Marine sniper hadn't slept all night, but it was hard to tell under the layers of camouflage face paint.

He was back at home base after a night battle that left some 30 insurgents dead. "Recon found [the insurgents], they were engaged, and then Specter gunships let loose," said the sniper. "They are no more."

The sniper is at the sharp end of an increasingly successful hunt for guerrillas that is giving US Marines pause as they weigh the possibility of an all-out assault on Fallujah.

Tuesday, US troops will begin joint patrols with Iraqi security forces inside Fallujah in an attempt to gradually restore control over the insurgent stronghold without a major attack. Fallujah presents US officials with a difficult nut to crack. They cannot cede control of the city to the 2,000 or so insurgents now there. But a full-scale assault - accompanied by likely civilian casualties - could turn large segments of the Iraqi population against the US, and derail plans to construct a democratic stronghold in the Middle East.

Tough threats from US commanders that insurgents in Fallujah had just "days not weeks" to hand in their weapons gave way over the weekend to a less strident tone.

"If we don't do this absolutely correctly, we will incur damage to the end state we seek," warns Col. John Coleman, chief of staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that controls western Iraq.

Instead of bringing enough stability to hand over control to a future Iraqi government, he says the stand-off over Fallujah is a very complex "small war" and "we're deep in it."

---

THE WORKING POOR
Sun Apr 25, 9:40 AM ET Add Top Stories - Chicago Tribune to My Yahoo!
By Tim Jones Tribune national correspondent

…Theresa and Rocky Ware toil in the ranks of the working poor, a growing category of millions of Americans who play by the rules of the working world and still can't make ends meet.

After tapping friends and family, maxing out their credit cards and sufficiently swallowing their pride, at least 23 million Americans stood in food lines last year--many of them the working poor, according to America's Second Harvest, the Chicago-based hunger relief organization. The surge in food demand is fueled by several forces--job losses, expired unemployment benefits, soaring health-care and housing costs, and the inability of many people to find jobs that match the income and benefits of the jobs they lost.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, reported recently that 43 million people are living in low-income working families with children. Other government data show the number of people living below the official poverty line grew by more than 3.5 million from 2000 to 2002, to 34.6 million. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) reported that the number of Americans who don't know where their next meal will come from--categorized as "food insecure"--jumped from 31 million to 35 million between 1999 and 2002.

"The reach of the economic slowdown has really pulled in a lot of folks who never expected to be poor," said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "What you see now is families turning to private relief for what often is a very small amount of help."

"This is not just a function of unemployment. A larger percentage of Americans are working poor, and the numbers have been growing for nine years," said Robert Forney, CEO of America's Second Harvest. "This could be the low-water mark for the economy, but for a whole lot of Americans--40 million of them--the option of [earning] a living wage and benefits? Forget it."

---

In the course of just looking around, probably because I have religion on the brain at the moment, I noticed an interesting devotional blog by a thoughtful Catholic writer. Let it be said I an so NOT feeling her piece on obedience, but that's fine: one more slot in Heaven for a more deserving soul, I guess. However:

Three proofs Jesus was Irish: He never got married; He was always telling stories; he had 12 drinking buddies.

Three proofs Jesus was Jewish: He went into his father's business; He lived at home till he was 33; His mother thought he was perfect.

Three proofs Jesus was Puerto Rican: His first name was Jesus; He was bilingual; He was always being harassed by the authorities.

Three proofs Jesus was Italian: He talked with his hands; He had wine at every meal; He worked in the building trade.

Three proofs Jesus was black: He called everybody brother; He liked the Gospel; He couldn't get a fair trial.

Three proofs Jesus was a Californian: He never cut his hair; He walked around barefoot; He started a new religion.

Three proofs Jesus was a woman: He had to feed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was no food; He kept trying to get the message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it; Even when he was dead, he had to get up because there was more work to do.

…we do appreciate the light touch

---

This time it was Atrios. Given that I understood him the first time I'm just going to link to today's clarification. But I'm also linking to Alan Brill at The Right Christians because I'm as with his view of Christianity as I am Al-M's view of Islam and because (being in the middle of it) he's collected just about all the links you'll need to get the whole story. Atrios links to the rest.

I've had all manner of occasions to say stuff about religion in general, and recently I've been on a bit of an anti-theocracy rant. I've been, and remain, very critical of much that the Catholic Church is doing. Yet one doesn't want to get stupid and confuse the institution with the faith. Nor does one want to fail to call a spade a spade when the Christianites start flinging distortions around.

As a result I've decided to share the apolitical test I use to sort the Christians from the Christianites. It's very simple and actually applies to all religions across the board; I'm just writing in the Christian metaphor.

Here's the test: If you are trying to arrange things such that people have no choice but to obey the Word of God, you are among the fallen. You are a Christianite.

You should live as your teachings direct, let the Word shape your life and let your life shape the world. But trying to remake the world such that everyone must obey God is more than God Itself chose to do. If the Creator chose not to compel, by what right do you attempt to do so? You overreach—the very action that landed Lucifer in Hell.

---

WEAPONEERS OF WASTE
A Critical Look at the Bush Administration Energy Department’s Nuclear Weapons Complex and the First Decade of Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship

The old Cold War nuclear doctrine held that a nuclear arms race was necessary to prevent democracies from capitulating to communist totalitarians, whose ruthless leaders could only be “deterred” from “aggression” by nuclear “counterforce” threats of personal (and possibly preemptive) incineration in their underground command bunkers. While this theory has had a resurgence of late, with Saddam or Osama in the role of the bunkered implacable, the stewardship paradigm for the nuclear weapons complex initially dispensed with the requirement for a credible nuclear target – none being readily at hand in the early-to-mid-1990s – or indeed any tangible intersection with real world conflicts. The quest for new nuclear weapons knowledge had to continue, we were told, because of its intrinsic interest to those charged with maintaining the present base of knowledge.

Without fresh “challenges,” the nuclear weapons stewards might lose focus, become bored, and wander off the DOE reservation, and then where would we be? In other words, the nuclear arms race, at least technologically, would have to continue unilaterally, albeit quietly (without nuclear test explosions), so that the United States would always have a qualified cadre of people ready to … resume the arms race.

Portraying this tautological new paradigm as a “prudent hedge” against uncertainty appealed to middle-of-the road Clintonites, who were looking for politically respectable ways to neutralize opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty negotiations thrust upon them by the Democratic Congress in 1992. They warmly embraced stewardship, as did many liberal and moderate mainstream supporters of the test ban treaty. Even traditional conservative boosters of the nuclear weapons complex seemed content to play along, using the program to shovel national security pork into their districts while they awaited the arrival of a more propitious political alignment, one in which they could dispense with arms control altogether.

From the low of $3.4 billion in FY 1995, U.S. spending on “nuclear weapons activities” rose steadily, reaching $5.19 billion (including allocated program administration funds) in FY 2001, the last budget prepared by the Clinton administration.
Under the Bush administration, the upturn in nuclear weapons spending has continued, to $6.5 billion in FY 2004, far surpassing the $4.2 billion (in FY 2004 dollars) that represents the average yearly Cold War spending on these activities.

---

I read at Pandagon about a Robert Novak column wherein Republican Senators consider shutting down the government if Tom Daschle doesn't let them have their way. That's such a stupid idea I had to read it for myself…thought maybe it was a bit of Jesse's satire.

Nope.

I don't get to Townhall.com very often, so I thought I'd read the whole column. Novak has quite the little gossip column going there. Made me think that if the whole of conservative punditry were the blogosphere, Novak would be Wonkette.

Seriously.

---

The NLPC's mission seem to be to undercut organized labor and Jesse Jackson whenever possible.

---

Coca-Cola Company Urged to Ditch Jesse Jackson
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
April 22, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A group that monitors corporate ethics says the Coca-Cola Co. is "finding out the hard way" that cooperating with the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- and contributing to his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition -- doesn't stop Jackson from complaining or protesting.

Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, is urging the Coca-Cola board of directors to stop giving money -- and stop making policy concessions -- to Jackson.

The National Legal and Policy Center has been monitoring what it calls Jackson's "shakedown" tactics for years.

In 2001, the NLPC filed a formal IRS complaint against Jesse Jackson's Citizenship Education Fund, alleging that it violated several tax code provisions. The complaint is still pending.

In 2002, Toyota stopped public support for Jackson's organizations in response to an NLPC request.

In 2003, NASCAR ended its support for Jackson, apparently in response to an NLPC-led protest, which generated extensive media attention and mobilized thousands of NASCAR fans.

In late 2003, the New York Stock Exchange denied Jackson use of the Exchange floor for a fundraising event, in response to NLPC pressure.

NLPC, as part of its mission to support ethics in public life, sponsors both corporate and government integrity projects. In 1993, NLPC successfully sued Hillary Rodham Clinton's secret health care task force to open its meetings and records.

---

Woodward at War
By RUSH LIMBAUGH
April 21, 2004; Page A18

…Frankly, I don't understand why the president or anyone else in the administration who supports the war against Iraq would give Mr. Woodward the time of day. Surely they had to know that his reporting methods, and his popularity with the "beautiful people" inside the Beltway for whacking Republican after Republican, would result in the inevitable anti-Bush, antiwar screed.

---

The Wrong Debate on Terrorism
By RICHARD A. CLARKE
Published: April 25, 2004

…Finally, we must try to achieve a level of public discourse on these issues that is simultaneously energetic and mutually respectful. I hoped, through my book and testimony, to make criticism of the conduct of the war on terrorism and the separate war in Iraq more active and legitimate. We need public debate if we are to succeed. We should not dismiss critics through character assassination, nor should we besmirch advocates of the Patriot Act as fascists.

---

How about besmirching advocates of Patriot II? I like besmirching them…

---

Help Students, Not Banks

Faced with soaring tuition and dwindling aid, record numbers of students who would excel at college are no longer applying. If the trend persists, this country could easily return to the time when the poor were locked out of higher education and college was hardly a given for middle-class families.

…The government offers two basic college loan programs. The direct loan system, developed under the Clinton administration, allows students to borrow from the government through their schools. It actually makes a small profit by cutting out the banking middlemen.

This program competes with the Federal Family Education Loan Program, under which private banks receive generous federal subsidies to make student loans that are guaranteed by the taxpayer. The cost of the program is hotly debated. But recent estimates place it at more than $3 billion a year.

The Clinton administration wanted to expand the direct loan program, phase out the F.F.E.L.P. and put the savings into Pell grants and other student aid programs. This would have been the wisest course. The banking industry blocked the move in Congress and declared all-out war on the direct loan program. The banks have benefited, as have politicians more interested in pleasing the banking lobby than in helping the largest number of students at the lowest possible cost.

---

Quotes of note:

Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which handles policy on environmental issues, said she was "not aware of any White House discussion about this movie with anyone — none at all."

and

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." - Dr, Carter G. Woodson

This "unasked for" memo, the security staffer that illegally confiscated a reporter's tape recorder because he knew Scalia would disapprove, these are examples that demonstrate Negroes aren't the only ones targeted for miseducation.

---

NASA Curbs Comments on Ice Age Disaster Movie
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Urgent: HQ Direction," began a message e-mailed on April 1 to dozens of scientists and officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

It was not an alert about an incoming asteroid, a problem with the space station or a solar storm. It was a warning about a movie.

In "The Day After Tomorrow," a $125 million disaster film set to open on May 28, global warming from accumulating smokestack and tailpipe gases disrupts warm ocean currents and sets off an instant ice age.

Few climate experts think such a prospect is likely, especially in the near future. But the prospect that moviegoers will be alarmed enough to blame the Bush administration for inattention to climate change has stirred alarm at the space agency, scientists there say.

"No one from NASA is to do interviews or otherwise comment on anything having to do with" the film, said the April 1 message, which was sent by Goddard's top press officer. "Any news media wanting to discuss science fiction vs. science fact about climate change will need to seek comment from individuals or organizations not associated with NASA."

Copies of the message, and the one from NASA headquarters to which it referred, were provided to The New York Times by a senior NASA scientist who said he resented attempts to muzzle climate researchers.

---

The RSS excerpt

The Multilevel Marketing of the President
Can old-fashioned door-to-door politics combined with an Amway-style organizational pyramid get George W. Bush re-elected?

is appropriate because the Bush economic program is like a huge Ponzi scam where the rich guys were the first in and so get paid hand over fist.

Still, the article is interesting too:

''It's my fault we're behind,'' Betty confessed, her voice lowered to a whisper. ''When they asked me to be the county chair, I said, 'Well, sure.' Everybody does their turn, right? But I thought it would start in August or September, like it usually does. Not in February!''

The Bush campaign, Betty said, instructed her to recruit 643 volunteers. Not 640 volunteers or 650, but 643. I wondered aloud what the big deal was. What would they do if she didn't hit her deadlines?

''Well, they can't fire you, right?'' she asked me, sounding uncertain. ''They can't fire a volunteer.''

Wrong, Betty. The only way they can't fire you is if you're paying the bills.

Later, after the chicken dinner and a short speech in which Betty pleaded with her neighbors for help with the campaign, I ran into Kevin DeWine, a state representative and a cousin of Ohio's senior senator, Mike DeWine, a Republican. I recounted my conversation with Betty.

''That's the difference between 2000 and 2004,'' DeWine said. ''In 2000, they said, 'Yeah, sure, we'll use your local headquarters, whenever you can get it up and running, great.' This year, it's, 'Yeah, we'll use your headquarters, and we need it open right now, and we want phone banks and mailing lists, da-dah, da-dah, da-dah. . . . ' '' He ticked off imaginary demands on his fingers. ''I think it's because the president could lose, and they're nervous. And they should be.''

Another interesting chunk:

Rove and his associates are known as a controlling bunch, and it has to be frustrating for them to know that so much of what could ultimately decide the race -- an ambush in Iraq, a spike in gas prices -- is entirely beyond their control. They crave something more empirical, some new formula with which to guarantee victory in November. And they think they've found it in the reassuringly hard data of street-level politics.

I find it interesting that all the political strategies are designed to compel victory rather than convince people.

---

I could definitely get with having my whole library in my pocket the way iPod users walk around with their whole music collection. If the thing had full text search I'd be willing to spend a month or so with my books, a scanner and a razorblade. But $380 bucks…then I have to rent the book?

---

Even in Bright Light, an E-Book That's Easy on the Eyes
By TODD ZAUN

Published: April 22, 2004

While hand-held electronic books have been around for years, such gadgets have never really taken off. One reason is that their small display screens are simply not as easy to read as an ordinary paperback.

Now Sony has an electronic book, the Librié, that it says is just as easy on the eyes as the paper version.

Sony's electronic reader is about the same size and weight as a slim paperback and can store hundreds of novels, texts and reference books. But what sets the device apart is its screen, which was developed by Philips Electronics and looks almost exactly like paper. Covered in a thin film of electronic ink developed by an American company, E Ink, the screen renders letters that appear as sharp and clear as those on a printed page. The screen can be read from almost any angle, and it does not fade in bright light.

The Librié draws power only when the user presses a button to turn the page, so the four AAA batteries that power the device will last a long time - some 10,000 page turns, the company says.

Sony plans to begin selling the reader next month in Japan for about $380. Users will be able to download electronic books for less than $5 each from a Web site set up by Sony and a group of Japanese publishing companies. At least initially, the works will be rented rather than purchased and thus will disappear from the device after 60 days. The idea of renting the books is a concession to publishers who are worried about unauthorized copying.

Sony says it will wait to see how well the Librié sells at home before deciding whether to offer it in the United States and Europe.

Todd Zaun

---