firehand

Prometheus 6   

Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same

July 19, 2003

Okay, even Texas isn't this bad

We either have to stop Texas newspapers rom being delivered to Nigeria or stop Nigerian newspapers from being delivered to Texas.

You think DeLay is part Nigerian?

Police 'kidnap' Nigerian governor

Claims that top official was deposed on tycoon's orders
Festus Eriye: Lagos

Nigeria has been rocked by claims that a state governor was abducted by police and hurriedly replaced on the strength of a fake letter of resignation.

Governor of the southeastern state of Anambra, Chris Ngige, claims that 200 policemen descended on his office and "captured" him last Thursday.

Then, while they detained him, Ngige's apparent letter of resignation was presented to the state house of assembly.

It was read by the Speaker, swiftly debated and hastily adopted. The Anambra assembly then directed that the chief justice swear in the deputy governor as the new governor.

However, when the judge could not be reached at such short notice, Deputy Governor Okechukwu Udeh announced that he was taking over anyway, in order to prevent a power vacuum.

But Ngige was able to trick his captors and inform his countrymen that he had not resigned. In doing so, however, he threw Anambran, and Nigerian, politics into disarray.

Many of those now accused of being behind the attempted ouster of the governor are known associates of powerful figures in the presidency and other top figures in the ruling party.


[Listening to: Rely On Me (HOUSEMUSIQUE - Deep Underground House Grooves from NETMUSIQUE) - Petalpusher ]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 11:47:03 PM |

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I found my RSS reader

I installed the alpha version of Feedreader, an open source RSS reader. It has an option to suppress ALL popups, and I can make those annoying telltale windows fade out after just five seconds—fast enough that I can ignore them.

SharpReader wouldn't even start up, and I have the latest version of .NET installed on XP Home over here. Don't matter now, though.

[Listening to: Knee Deep (HOUSEMUSIQUE - Deep Underground House Grooves from NETMUSIQUE) - Nordix Trak 3 ]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 09:41:51 PM |

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Startin' Stuff Week, Day Five

This has actually been a pretty productive series of posts as far as I'm concerned. See, I've been in reparations discussions before, and they've never been pretty. This is the first time I've seen the discussion proceed rationally. I don't know if people are just respecting that it's my blog and therefore giving me that last word at times, or if they genuinely see the overwhelming superiority of my analysis.


It's my house
We play by my rulez
The first rule is "I never lose in my house"



I was going to sum up the week in this post, but figured, nah. Maybe I'll post links to all the Startin' Stuff posts at the end of this one. I'll figure that out by the time I get to the bottom of the page.

I started typing up what "we" have learned from the discussion, then said to myself, nah. The fact is most folks who've visited P6 this week haven't expressed an opinion at all. That's the norm in online discussions, and to talk about what "we" have learned under those circumstances is one of the more hubristic gestures I can think of, especially since the discussion took place in the comments and a significant fraction of readers in the BlogNet don't click links.

So I started thinking about what I saw. I mean, since that's all I could write in any summary anyway. And I'm not limiting it to what happened here on P6…I'm including the couple few things I linked to in the process of writing the series. I'm also slipping in a few thoughts that sort of hang over the edges of the discussion.

I saw there was pretty much no point in basing a reparations argument on slavery. I think there is a combination of reasons for this, but the critical one is that most non-Black folks reject the idea out of hand. No argument will sway them on that point. And the reason for that is that everyone takes this race stuff personally, no matter how much they deny it. Your average person wants to know why I should "pay for" something I didn't do. They note that my ancestors came here after slavery was ended, that I never owned slaves, nor did any of my ancestors. There is hardly ever a discussion of justice, or debt, or ethics.

I've also seen that most folks, Black and white, want the discussion to revolve around slavery if it has to exist at all. And I've seen that's an error. Slavery wasn't the only damaging event, unless you realize that Jim Crow was implemented to have the same impact as slavery without all the legal problems. Jim Crow essentially divided slavery into its component parts and named each part individually. Those parts that could be successfully challenged (which boiled down to defining humans as property) were disposed of in order that the overarching structure could be maintained. I've seen reasonable people will see this when its pointed out, but that you must rhetorically sever slavery from Jim Crow, redlining, etc. American Slavery was so evil, even when the factors that made it the worst implementation of slavery in all known history are unknown, and we all identify so strongly with our assumed race, that no one really wants to look at it and everyone assumes you're talking about their personal actions in the discussion. It's actually something of a toss-up who wants to forget slavery ever happened more. But we can discuss Jim Crow. And since it was so recent, since it was within the lifetime of most living Americans, a reparations argument based on it can be more successfully supported.

I've seen that a major argument against reparations is that we shouldn't do it because we don't know how to do it correctly. My response is we should do it, and therefore we must figure out how to do it correctly. Doing it correctly involves recognizing that cash payments should not be the goal. I've seen too many broke-ass lottery winners in the news to think cash is the cure. Doing it correctly means recognizing that since the damage was done environmentally, structurally, reparations must either change the mainstream structure or help create an African American environment and structure that strengthens our communities so that we can withstand the forces generated by the mainstream structures.

I've seen that I can, and we must, create the argument such that the assault we point out is pointed out impersonally. And though many Black folks resist this idea they want white folks to accept personal responsibility for the racism around them, if we want reparations we must give up on that entirely. This doesn't weaken the argument and loses no one anything but a little personal satisfaction.

Finally, I've seen that the ethical argument about the why of reparations must be kept separate from the legal arguments over how, who "pays" and why the "payer" is obligated to make the payment. The legal argument is to be made on legal terms using an accounting metaphor.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

These are the Startin' Stuff Week posts in chronological order:

http://www.prometheus6.org/archives/001235.html

http://www.prometheus6.org/archives/001210.html

http://www.prometheus6.org/archives/001192.html

http://www.prometheus6.org/archives/001184.html

This is a post that links to the asshole whose assholery I touch on in the third post.
http://www.prometheus6.org/archives/001204.html

And don't forget the comments. The first three posts have some good ones. I have no idea why no one commented on the fourth post.

[Listening to: sofa surfing mixset (HOUSEMUSIQUE - Deep Underground House Grooves from NETMUSIQUE) - shapeshifter ]


LATER: One more thing. We touched on the very valid case Hawaiians have for reparations and the similarity of their case to that of American Indians. I said I felt the African American case was different enough that the Hawaiian case wouldn't be useful as a "test case" for reparations for Black folks.
[Listening to: Deep Underground House Grooves from NETMUSIQUE) - destination australia 001 (mixset by halo) (HOUSEMUSIQUE ]


LATER-LATER Reading this Sunday morning with a near total lack of sleep, I see a major contradiction in the idea that everyone wants the reparations discussion to revolve around slavery, yet everyone wants to forget slavery ever happened. So be it, because it's the simple truth and as an old email sig I used to use said, "I refuse to be the only consistant human being on the planet."

Finally…I promise this time… I'd like to include part of a comment I left at MaxSpeak the other day:

there are any number of configurations this country can assume given economic parity (the same sort of wealth distribution in the Black communities as the white ones…I'm not foolish enough to believe poverty will be eliminated altogether). Some of them you would not like at all, and I strongly suspect most of the unpleasant ones would be unpleasant because of unresolved racial issues.


[Listening to: You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else - smooth grooves vol. 4]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 07:02:44 PM |

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I am so going to regret this

I just spent a couple of minutes reading Negrophile.

You know, I post exactly what I feel like posting here because I think it's what's on my mind at the time. And every morning I run through the news…basically the NY Times, but I'm trying to expand, look at more regional news presenters. I'm a purely Internet phenomenon in that I wouldn't even have access to a lot of this stuff without it.

When I'm not quoting news stories and making pithy and/or snarky comments about them, I write my own stuff about issues dear to me. And I'm a writer, I have no doubt about that.

Over at Negrophile, George pulls together articles, the majority of which are right up my line. Things I'm concerned about, things I find important. Worse, they tend to be written as I aspire to write. By telling folks about Negrophile I could easily lose half or more of my audience. But there you are.

[Listening to: Get Up And Get Down - Dramatics]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 12:12:08 PM |

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Keeping up with the future

It looks to me like a goodly chunk of Campaign 2004 news can be gotten from two sources: The Daily Kos and The Scrum.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 06:40:14 AM |

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Startin' Stuff Week, Day 4.5

Since I skipped a day on you, I'm giving you a bonus piece (aren't you lucky?). Derreck Z. Jackson is one of the strongest, clearest, most unrepentant progressive voices in the nation. Though I do have a nit or two to pick with this editorial, I'll save it for my final post in this series later on today. For now, I turn the page over to Mr. Jackson.

Where is the apology for slavery?

By Derrick Z. Jackson, 7/11/2003

THERE IS a simple reason American presidents will not apologize for slavery. An apology for the past means asking white Americans to take responsibility for the present. One hundred and forty years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that remains a task too heavy for presidents to perform. The truth remains too terrible for Americans to bear.

Twice in five years a president has gone to Africa. Both said how terrible slavery was. In 1998, Bill Clinton said, ''going back to the time before we were a nation, European Americans received the fruits of the slave trade. And we were wrong in that.''

This week President Bush called slavery ''one of the greatest crimes of history.'' Bush went so far as to speak directly about the ''captors.'' He said, ''Small men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice.''

Bush admitted that while physical slavery is dead, the legacy is alive. ''My nation's journey toward justice has not been easy, and it is not over,'' Bush said. ''The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation.''

That sounds like progress, except for one thing. It might be novel for American presidents to go on political safari to Africa to condemn slavery. But they are not the first to say slavery was bad.

This is not merely from the usual suspects of Cliff Notes history, like Lincoln's emancipation and Jefferson's laments of slavery even as he allegedly made a baby with one. John Adams said, ''Negro slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude.'' The slave owner James Monroe still called the international slave trade ''abominable.'' John Quincy Adams in 1820 called slavery ''the great and foul stain upon the North American union.''

Even though he was a slave-owning president, James Madison called slavery an ''evil'' and a ''dreadful calamity.'' After he signed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, President Millard Fillmore said, ''God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it.''

James Buchanan, who preceded Lincoln as president, said 31 years before he took office that slavery was ''a great political and a great moral evil.'' He added, ''It is, however, one of those moral evils, from which it is impossible for us to escape, without the introduction of evils infinitely greater. There are portions of this Union in which, if you emancipate your slaves, they will become masters.'' As president, he realized too late that his denial did not stop the infinitely greater ''evil'' of disunion.

A century and a half later, presidents are still calling slavery evil, but we endure the legacy partially because presidents do not hold Americans responsible for fully understanding it.

It all starts with understanding. Understanding starts with an apology. An apology would be the start of a new America. Anyone can acknowledge that evil existed. An apology is personal. If a white president of the United States were to apologize for slavery, it would say that the nation officially recognizes that white wealth before the Civil War came from what this nation did to black people (and Native Americans in the process).

It would officially recognize that European-Americans, whether they come from a long line of American citizens or whether their parents came over dirt poor from Europe in the 20th century, continue to benefit from a white privilege that allowed them to move up the ladder into the suburbs. Meanwhile, slavery's replacement, segregation, blocked generations of African-Americans from building up wealth because of redlining, intellectual capital through inferior public schools, and political capital through disenfranchisement.

As Bush came amazingly close to saying - perhaps because he said it from the safety of his safari and not in front of racist Bob Jones University in the 2000 campaign or while filing a Supreme Court brief against affirmative action - racial bigotry is not over. Because of that, an apology would mark the official end to the I-didn't-own-any-slaves denial of this country. An apology would say not only yesterday's wealth, but today's wealth, was built on yesterday's evil.

An apology would acknowledge that slavery's damage still requires repair. To some people, the repair would be cash reparations to black people. Some call it fully funded public schools. Some call it affirmative action. Some call it serious enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. Whatever form the repair takes, the president needs to deliver his message in America, not just Africa, to Americans, not just Africans.

Calling slavery evil is as old as the Founding Fathers. It would be original to tell America that the white privileges bestowed by the tragic mistake of the Founding Fathers are over. The reason one of the greatest crimes in history has not yet resulted in a great apology is because the reward for the crime remains too great.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is [email protected].


This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 7/11/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 06:03:49 AM |

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Editorial run

The Marketing of Political Clout
Hearings on President Bush's judicial nominees have stumbled upon another slippery rock in the fetid landscape of politicians' soliciting corporate America for donations.

Going Home, to Red Ink and Blues
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
If the budget crisis persists, and it is likely to so long as Washington is distracted and unhelpful, towns like Yamhill, Ore., will lose some of their heart and vitality.

The Founders and the Fedayeen
By MARY BETH NORTON
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has compared postwar Iraq to postrevolutionary America. But the comparison rings hollow.

Keeping Head Start strong and successful
(By Julius B. Richmond and Judith Palfrey)
THE BUSH administration's proposal to shift the Head Start program to the states should win an award for the worst domestic policy proposal of the year. To understand why, let's review the history of the program and the commitment the nation has made to enhance the development of its young, poor children.
[p6: keep the way Head Start is being treated in mind every time someone says affirmative action should be based on economic status instead of race]

Malpractice distraction
NO ONE need shed tears for the malpractice reform bill that was defeated in the US Senate last week. It would have done little to affect the forces driving up insurance premiums for doctors. With it out of the way, Congress should back new ways of fairly compensating patients and their families who suffer from avoidable bad outcomes without requiring them to take their doctors to court.

Cartoons
The Boondocks once again cuts through the chaff.
Jeff Danziger could conceivably be arrested for espionage behind this one.
David Horsey shows that Bill Bennett still influences the administration.

[Listening to: Space Jam - Brown Starr]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 05:45:16 AM |

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The only thing we know

I am not an economist by any stretch. But this I know: the economy itself will die if there are insufficient consumers. And Tax cuts don't create more consumers—only jobs can do that.

Outlook Better or Worse? Depends Who's Talking
By DANIEL ALTMAN

In the debate about tax cuts and federal budget deficits, both sides are making arguments that can never be proved.

After the White House announced forecasts for record deficits on Tuesday, Democrats rushed to accuse President Bush of guaranteeing future cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits. They have also asserted that the disappearance of $6 trillion in federal surpluses will push up long-term interest rates and dampen spending by consumers and businesses.

But because there is no second chance at history, Democrats can only guess at what might have been had the policies of the Bush administration not been enacted.

Similarly, Republicans have contended that the tax cuts they pushed will generate millions of jobs that would not otherwise have existed. But that contention, like the eventual outcome for the economy, can only be compared against an unknowable alternative.

"We're in the middle of an experiment right now," said John H. Makin, director of fiscal policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a research group. He joined other economists in saying there may be some truth to all three notions — the higher interest rates, the strain on federal programs and the extra jobs — but to what extent depends largely on the frame of reference.


[Listening to: Chitlins Con Carne - Kenny Burrell]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 05:27:43 AM |

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The business of American is giving it up to business

House Panel Acts on Pension Calculations
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
After Democrats stalked out, a House panel approved legislation that would provide some relief for companies that offer traditional pensions.

[Listening to: Frederick Lies Still - Galliano]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 05:23:57 AM |

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Interrogations to be taped in Illinois
By Maura Kelly, Associated Press, 7/18/2003

CHICAGO -- Governor Rod Blagojevich signed a bill yesterday requiring police to tape interrogations and confessions in murder cases, calling it a key step in reforming Illinois' death penalty system.

''It is our moral duty to restore the integrity of the criminal justice system as we know it today in Illinois,'' said Blagojevich, whose predecessor gained national headlines for his attack on capital punishment.

The law requires police to use audio or videotape when they question murder suspects; agencies will have two years to come up with procedures.


Two years? How about two weeks? Send they ass to Radio Shack for some camcorders.
[Listening to: Joy & Pain - COUNT Basic]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 05:10:05 AM |

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Coup on Tiny African Islands Felt in Texas Oil Offices
By SIMON ROMERO

HOUSTON, July 18 — A coup this week in the West African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is reverberating in the corporate suites of the energy industry here, oil company executives said today. Officials from several companies said they were anxiously monitoring events on the potentially oil-rich archipelago, a former Portuguese colony on the Equator in the Gulf of Guinea.

Exxon Mobil of Irving, Tex., the world's largest oil company, and Chrome Energy, a small Houston-based oil and gas company controlled by Nigerian investors, have secured options for oil exploration in the waters off São Tomé, an area just south of oil-rich Nigeria that geologists estimate could hold up to six billion barrels of reserves.

ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and TotalFinaElf are among the other big oil companies that have shown interest in bidding for licenses to explore other areas in auctions scheduled for October. This interest has sent expectations soaring in São Tomé and Príncipe, ae two-island country of 1,000 square miles and 160,000 people where the main export crop is cocoa and the average annual income is $280.

"Oil has created dreams of grandeur for a tiny place that has been on the margins of global affairs for many years," said Gerhard Seibert, an authority on São Tomé at the Institute of Tropical Scientific Investigation in Lisbon. "The army and the political and business elites sense something coming and want a part of it."

…Still, most cabinet members, including the oil minister, Rafael Branco, were being held captive today, adding to uncertainty over the effect the coup may have on oil exploration. The coup has already affected São Tomé's fragile economy: The World Bank said this week that it would suspend all aid to the nation as long as the coup leaders remained in power.

…No oil is expected to be extracted from São Tomé until 2007 or 2008, but the country has nonetheless become a international flash point, leading experts on West Africa to speculate it was only a matter of time before jostling for power ahead of the oil rush would evolve into political instability. Revenue from licensing agreements alone could reach $200 million in the next two years, an amount about four times the size of the national budget.

&hellip"The age of oil is upon São Tomé, so some level of friction is to be expected," he said.

[Listening to: Melting Pot - DJ Yamaguchi]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 05:03:12 AM |

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Guess the coolest gear gonna be uptown

A Hip-Hop Fashion Bridge Across the Atlantic
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

BOBIGNY, France — Mohamed Dia still remembers his first pair of Nikes: a "Dallas" model in gray with the Nike curve in white.

Mr. Dia, now a 29-year-old businessman and fashion designer, was 12 years old and living with his four brothers in a foster home not far from his mother's apartment in Sarcelles, a rough Paris suburb.

"It was a group home for kids whose parents couldn't take care of them," Mr. Dia recalled in an interview in a warehouse he uses in Bobigny, a Paris suburb. "I was rather pathetic. I dressed in used clothes that people donated at Christmas. I had no idea about clothes, but I knew I had to have Nikes."

It took three months of savings — and a hefty contribution from his mother — to buy the $160 pair of shoes.

Now Mr. Dia wears his own brand of clothing, which is sold in four Dia stores in France and is carried in 700 others. Sales are projected at $19 million to $22 million this year, up from $13 million in 2002. He drives a black Mercedes and has bought an apartment in Paris for his mother.

In an effort to break into the American market, Mr. Dia is negotiating to open a store on 125th Street in Harlem with a special line for the United States. He will open the shop with Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born hip-hop singer and composer.

[Listening to: Missing - Everything But The Girl]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 04:56:56 AM |

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Ugh

The NY Times has an article on the Coulter thing. Go find it if you want to read it.

[Listening to: Song For My Father - Horace Silver]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 04:52:59 AM |

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Certain fools better hope very few foreign leaders think as I do

U.S. May Be Forced to Go Back to U.N. for Iraq Mandate
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON, July 18 — The Bush administration, which spurned the United Nations in its drive to depose Saddam Hussein in Iraq, is finding itself forced back into the arms of the international body because other nations are refusing to contribute peacekeeping troops or reconstruction money without United Nations approval.

With the costs of stabilizing Iraq hovering at $4 billion a month and with American troops being killed at a steady rate, administration officials acknowledge that they are rethinking their strategy and may seek a United Nations resolution for help that would placate other nations, like India, France and Germany.

… "It's increasingly clear there was really some underestimation of the number of people who would be required after the regime fell, and the length of time required to stay there," said Paul Saunders, director of the Nixon Center, a nonpartisan research organization whose honorary chairman is Henry A. Kissinger.

Mr. Saunders said there were two reasons for the United States to go back to the United Nations.

"It would be helpful to diffuse responsibility for this massive undertaking, and share any dissatisfaction with others and not be the sole target ourselves," he said. "Externally, it's also helpful in rebuilding some of the relationships that were strained in the dispute over going in."


I would like to see a UN mandate and international assistance so that some of the troops can get home to their families. However, I'm not sure it isn't in the national interest of a great number of nations to letthe USofA go it entirely alone. It's pretty obvious it will break the aura of invincibility the neo-conmen have been striving for. The United States of America will be forced to abandon raw force as the preferred method of influencing other nations and return to the method preferred by those to be influenced—bribery. Also, who really wants to walk up and stand n front of the bulls-eye as Saunders admits would happen?

[Listening to: Uptown Feelin' - Maktub ]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/19/2003 04:46:08 AM |

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July 18, 2003

The shit storm never ends

Liberia: Rebels Capture Key Bridge
VOA News
18 Jul 2003, 20:39 UTC

Rebels in Liberia have captured a strategic bridge outside the capital, Monrovia, in the latest round of fighting with government troops.

The rebels took the Po River Bridge Friday, breaking down one of the last main lines of defense before the city center.

Liberia's government accuses them of mounting a new advance on Monrovia, but rebels of the group, Liberian's United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), say they are only defending their own positions.

In a statement Friday, the rebels said if government troops continue to attack their positions they will be forced to overrun the capital. This latest
round of fighting has raised fears of a collapse in the shaky cease-fire between the rebels and government troops.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 07:36:46 PM |

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Ahh, Kobe

Kobe Bryant Charged
- Action 10 News WTHI Staff
7/18/2003 4:20:50 PM

Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant was formally charged today with felony sexual assault.

The Eagle County, Colorado District Attorney announced the charges during a press conference Friday afternoon.

The charges stem from Bryant's alleged assault of a 19-year-old female Vail area hotel concierge.

The incident is alleged to have taken place on June 30th when Bryant was in town for knee surgery.

In a statement released by Bryant's attorney, the NBA star admitted to adultery, but said the encounter was not forced.

He's due in court on August sixth.


posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 06:32:51 PM |

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Okay, this is WAY out of hand

I suppose they should be happy the Capital police were called instead of declaring them terrorists and calling Homeland Security.

The Republican Extremists are totally fucked up and totally out of control.

House Democrats Storm Out of Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Calls Capitol Police to Restore Order

By Juliette Eilperin and Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 18, 2003; 4:06 PM


Months of political tension in the House of Representatives erupted into open warfare today when Democrats stormed out of a Ways and Means Committee session and the panel's chairman called in the Capitol Police.

The day began with a fairly ordinary procedural fight over an otherwise-innocuous pension bill. Committee Democrats complained that the Republican majority had not given them enough time to review a substitute bill that they had received shortly before midnight Thursday. Most of the Democrats then moved to a nearby library to plot strategy after they demanded that Republicans read the legislation line by line.

Infuriated, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) instructed the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the ornate library. Republicans said Democrats were being disorderly and did not have the right to occupy the libary.

After the one remaining Ways and Means Democrat got in a spat with a GOP committee member, Thomas dispensed with the reading of the bill altogether and pushed through the legislation, without a single Democratic vote.


Later: Leah at Eschaton notes that this sort of crap has been going on for a while. I'll be honest, I didn't know. It seems the House Republicans are not only trying to redistrict the Democratic Party out of existance, but are actively preventing elected Democrats from representing their constituency.

Nancy Pelosi has introduced a resolution condemning the garbage I initially posted about. Leah posted the contact information for Pelosi, minority whip Steny Hoyer, and Charles Rangel, who is the ranking minority member on the Ways and Means Committee. You have to get behind these folks.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 06:30:48 PM |

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Rain delay

The final post in the Startin' Stuff Week series will be delayed for one day because I ain't feeling it at the moment.Between a fairly substantial Racism post, a couple of NewSpeak to Ebonics translations, four days on reparations and enough comments that I'm surprised at the number of folks that read and actually consider what I write, I think I've done well this week and can slack off for a day.

This would be a good time to say how cool it is to know what you write is actually read. I've only had one problem commenter and that seems to have passed. Everyone else has been thoughtful and reasonable in dispute and agreement.

Well, there was that one case where someone (and I remember exactly who it was, but that's unimportant) said all they knew about Black folks came from sitcoms and asked me for suggestions to learn more. I think I was supposed to become irrational at that point.

Anyway, I think it's a good thing to appreciate those that show you appreciation.

[Listening to: Beyond Time - Blank & Jones ]

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 02:20:16 PM |

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Editorial run

They've Paid Their Debt; Let Them Vote
By Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza
In the state of Alabama, if you commit a felony, you forever lose the right to vote. It's a tough law, passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, and some people think it's time it was eased. But when the state Legislature tried to do just that last month, passing a bill to make it easier for those who have served their time to regain their voting rights, Republican Gov. Bob Riley vetoed it.

Passing It Along
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Our national debt is growing and supporters of President Bush are getting concerned. They will get more concerned when the debt affects the president's credibility.

Delusions on Korea
If President George W. Bush maintains his refusal even to explore the possibilities for a deal to remove the nuclear threat from North Korea, he will be gambling with the safety of all Americans.

Fire Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz
H.D.S. Greenway Boston Globe
BOSTON Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stands at the head of the table. He has outmaneuvered all his cabinet rivals and taken over many of the functions that used to belong to the State Department, the CIA, even the Justice Department. He dominates the Cabinet as no secretary of defense has done since Robert McNamara. He is also articulate, refreshingly if undiplomatically blunt, with a no-nonsense approach.

His deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, is often mentioned as the most brilliant person in government. He is at the top of his game. He has seen his vision of toppling Saddam Hussein fulfilled, and he is an intellectual force behind a whole new way of looking at U.S. foreign policy.

But for all of that, both should be fired. Here's why.

The Iraq campaign, of which they were in charge, has been grossly mishandled. I use the word campaign because the overthrow of Saddam's army and regime was only the opening phase in what has to be, if this country is to maintain any credibility, an open and democratic society in Iraq. This may yet happen, but the current leadership of the Pentagon, through a fatal combination of hubris and incompetence, has so far bungled the job. If there were any accountability in the Bush administration, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz would be asked to resign.

Cartoons
Tom Toles gives us the vocabulary builder word-of-the-day
Jeff Danziger on the state of Californian politics
David Horsey reports on the latest trends in health care

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 09:46:11 AM |

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Just fucking stop, okay?

Honest, I been trying to cut back on the salty language here, but I've pretty much had it with the phony feel-good stories. Besides, how much good did the last statue demolition do?

U.S. Soldiers Blow Up Saddam Statue
By JAMIE TARABAY
Associated Press Writer

4:51 AM PDT, July 18, 2003

TIKRIT, Iraq -- With a thunderous explosion from 12 pounds of plastic explosives, the U.S. military toppled a 30-foot statue of Saddam Hussein on horseback from its perch overlooking the dictator's hometown Friday. Soldiers also defused a huge homemade bomb near Baghdad's airport.

Pvt. Reshaun Richardson of the 555th Combat Engineering brigade, known as the "Triple Nickel," pushed the button that sent the Saddam statue pitching over near the gate to his former palace compound in his northern hometown of Tikrit.

"It felt real good," said Richardson, of Dothan, Ala. "There were lots of smiles around, and I had the biggest of them all."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 09:21:02 AM |

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WTF?

This is what happens when you hit a random newspaper. You run up on stories that just confuse the funk out of you.

I was like, okay, class action because of reducing welfare benefits…which is ended by sanctioning the cuts?

I finally figured out the class action was a delaying tactic, and I suspect no one really expected it to end differently anymore than any NYC residents expected the courts to turn back a recent transit fare increase.

Minnesota wins USDA waiver on its welfare cuts
Mary Lynn Smith
Star Tribune
Published 07/18/2003

Minnesota state officials said Thursday that they now have federal permission to implement cost-cutting welfare reforms that could reduce welfare payments to 21,000 poor families.

That should put an end to a class-action suit filed on behalf of those families, the officials said. However, attorneys for Legal Aid, the group that filed the suit, weren't ready to quit.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a letter sent to state officials, has approved cuts in welfare payments passed this year by the Legislature. Those cuts involve the Food Stamp program, which the USDA oversees. Legal Aid attorneys said Thursday they had just learned about the USDA letter and couldn't comment.

"I don't know that everything is fully resolved," said Ralonda Mason, an attorney with St. Cloud Area Legal Services. "The reason we filed the lawsuit is that we believed it was very important that the state follow the law and get a waiver [permission for the welfare changes], because we're talking about changes that will mean very deep cuts that will be very painful."

"If the state has [received a waiver], and it appears that they may have, then that's a good thing," Mason said, adding that federal approval for the cuts doesn't necessarily mean the suit will end. The suit challenges changes in the Minnesota Family Investment Plan (MFIP).

…Now, Legal Aid attorneys are eager to know whether the state will require about 7,000 welfare recipients to repay nearly $1 million in welfare payments. The recipients received the payments after Ramsey County District Judge Judith Tilsen issued a temporary restraining order this month, stopping the cuts before the state could implement them.

One of Tilsen's primary reasons for issuing the restraining order was her concern over whether the cuts were legal without a federal waiver.

Families would lose $125 a month for each person who receives Social Security payments for disabilities.

State Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno said Thursday that state officials have not yet decided whether to ask for the money back. It likely will be one of the issues discussed during a scheduled hearing Monday in Ramsey District Court, he said.

…Along with the planned cut in benefits this month, state officials are scheduled to implement two other reductions in welfare benefits:

? A $50-per-month reduction in benefits for families receiving federal housing subsidies. That cut, set to take effect Sept. 1, will affect about 11,000 Minnesota families, according to Legal Aid attorneys.

? Lowering the percentage of working welfare recipients' earned income that is not counted in calculating welfare benefits, from 38 percent to 35 percent.

Only two other states have tried to cut welfare benefits to families who also receive disability payments -- with mixed results. A similar plan was overturned in West Virginia, but another is proceeding in Idaho.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 09:13:15 AM |

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Oh, this is just ugly

Man, I could feel sorry for Scott McClellan. If the press had been this hard on ol' Ari, he'd have no hair left at all.

QUESTION: Regardless of whether or not there was pressure from the White House for that line, I'm wondering where does the buck stop in this White House? Does it stop at the CIA, or does it stop in the Oval Office?
QUESTION: Bottom line it for me bruh. Who da man, Tee or Prez?
Scott McClellan: Again, this issue has been discussed. You're talking about some of the comments that -- some that are --
Scott McClellan: uhh... uhh...

QUESTION: I'm not talking about anybody else's comments. I'm asking the question, is responsibility for what was in the President's own State of the Union ultimately with the President, or with somebody else?
QUESTION: You heard me, boy. Is Prez the man or is he fronting for somebody else?
Scott McClellan: This has been discussed.
Scott McClellan: uhh... uhh...

QUESTION: Well, that's an excellent question. That is an excellent question. (Laughter.) Isn't the President responsible for the words that come out of his own mouth?
QUESTION: Youse a little punk muhfugga, ain't you? (Laughter) Can't your boy back up alla that mouth?
Scott McClellan: We've already acknowledged, Terry, that it should not have been included in there. I think that the American people appreciate that recognition.
Scott McClellan: Come on, man…stop messing with me…
QUESTION: And so when there's intelligence in a speech, the President is not responsible for that?
[p6: Obviously, if there's intelligence in a speech it's not a speech by Dubya.]

[p6: Sorry. I just had to field that one myself. Carry on…]
QUESTION: Let me come back to your "nonsense" statement here, and let me slice it as thinly as I possibly can, just growing out of what Scott asked. Is it nonsense to say that the White House wanted this information included in the State of the Union and negotiated with the CIA to find a way to put it in to the State of the Union?
QUESTION: Look, bitch. I gotta smack your ass up to get a straight answer outta you?
Scott McClellan: I'm sorry?
Scott McClellan: Stooooop!

QUESTION: Is it nonsense to say that the White House wanted this information in the speech and went through negotiations with the CIA on a way to get it in the speech?
QUESTION: [SMACK!!]
Scott McClellan: That there were discussions? Speech drafts go -- we've stated that these speeches go out to the principals, it goes out to the State, it goes out to DOD, it goes out to CIA, when it's going through the drafting process.
Scott McClellan: Aaaaagh!!


…and it goes downhill from there.

I can't watch anymore. This is the last Black English Month press conference translation I'm doing.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 02:48:04 AM |

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Our first 21st century colony

I said it before, and I'll say it again: John Constantine at Hellblazer finds the scariest stuff...

We are now a client state

Britain has lost its sovereignty to the United States
David Leigh and Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday July 17, 2003
The Guardian

Britain has by now lost its sovereignty to the United States and has become a client state. As Tony Blair flies in to Washington today to be patted on the head by the US Congress, this is the sad truth behind his visit. No surprise, therefore, that the planned award to him of a congressional medal of honour for backing the US invasion of Iraq has been postponed. To be openly patronised in that way, under the circumstances, would be just too embarrassing.


Okay…didn't congressional medals of honor used to be limited to, like, actual heros who actually fought in actual wars? But it gets worse. Well, for Britain it does, anyway…

These points lead inexorably to the fifth fact about our loss of sovereignty. Britain can no longer fight a war without US permission. Geoff Hoon, Britain's defence secretary, said humbly last month that "the US is likely to remain the pre-eminent political, economic and military power". Britain would concentrate, therefore, on being able to cooperate with it. "It is highly unlikely that the UK would be engaged in large-scale combat operations without the US," he said. As Rumsfeld brutally pointed out, however, the US could easily have fought the Iraq war without Britain.


Of course they won't be in any large-scale combat actions without the USofA. Somebody has to start the damn things.

Want more?

At the height of the Iraq fighting, David Blunkett went to Washington to be praised by John Ashcroft, the US attorney general, for what he termed Blunkett's "superb cooperation".

Blunkett agreed that the UK would extradite Britons to the US in future, without any need to produce prima facie evidence that they are guilty of anything. But the US refused to do the same with their own citizens. The Home Office press release concealed this fact - out of shame, presumably. Why did the US refuse? According to the Home Office, the fourth amendment of the US constitution says citizens of US states cannot be arrested without "probable cause". The irony appears to have been lost on David Blunkett, as he gave away yet more of Britain's sovereignty.


Blunkett is no fool. Why would anyone expect the USofA to guarantee British citizens rights that the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act took away from its own?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 02:12:43 AM |

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The Tonite Show

Gabrielle Union (who needs no introduction to any brother) is a guest. Jay Leno asks where she's from and she says, Omaha, Nebraska. He asks, big family, little family? She says, "Oh big family. We're one of the biggest Black families in Nebraska." Leno says, "You may be the only Black family in Nebraska."

ba-dum-bump!

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 12:35:55 AM |

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But mommy, I want one now

waaaahhhh!!!

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/18/2003 12:20:41 AM |

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July 17, 2003

Oh really?

I was torn about whether or not to include that last paragraph. The absurdity of it is what made me include it. I mean, businesses have been watching for what, eight and a half months, laying people off, all them bad economic indicators…and people are going to gain confidence now because of something that supposedly happened last November?

Recession Is Over; Jobs Aren't Trickling Down
By DANIEL ALTMAN

The recession that began in March 2001 ended eight months later, the National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group that tracks the business cycle, concluded in a report released yesterday.

Cheers, if any, were faint.

Economists said the announcement was not a surprise, and politicians said it offered little comfort to the millions of Americans without jobs.

"We've declared victory over the recession, and we're still laying off a couple hundred thousand workers a month," said Representative Pete Stark of California, ranking Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. "If it weren't so painful for so many people who are out of work, it would be hilarious. But it isn't. It's not funny."

Still, Representative Jim Saxton, Republican of New Jersey and vice chairman of the committee, in a statement called the economic research bureau's decision "a reasonable one."

The recession preceding the recent one lasted from July 1990 to March 1991 in the bureau's chronology. A year after it ended, the nation's economy embarked on six consecutive months of job growth. This time, 20 months after the recession's formal end, payrolls are still shrinking.

"Most households, most individuals, will really not believe that it is a recovery until we see that job growth as part of the picture," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management. But she added, "The official declaration of the end should help confidence on the part of businesses, investors and consumers."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 11:48:47 PM |

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Don't write us, we'll write you

White House E-Mail System Becomes Less User-Friendly
By JOHN MARKOFF

Do you want to send an e-mail message to the White House?

Good luck.

In the past, to tell President Bush - or at least those assigned to read his mail - what was on your mind it was necessary only to sit down at a personal computer connected to the Internet and dash off a note to [email protected].

But this week, Tom Matzzie, an online organizer with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., discovered that communicating with the White House had become a bit more daunting. When Mr. Matzzie sent an e-mail protest against a Bush administration policy, the message was bounced back with an automated reply, saying he had to send it again in a new way.

Under a system deployed on the White House Web site for the first time last week, those who want to send a message to President Bush must now navigate as many as nine Web pages and fill out a detailed form that starts by asking whether the message sender supports White House policy or differs with it.

The White House says the new e-mail system, at www.whitehouse .gov/webmail, is an effort to be more responsive to the public and offer the administration "real time" access to citizen comments.


Effort to be more responsive, huh? Take a look at the process (courtesy of the NY Times) and tell me if the lamest web designer in the world would be unable to tell this is no more or less than an obstacle course.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 11:27:57 PM |

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May he have the same success in Michigan

Regents vote down proposal to stop funding ethnic-themed events

University of California regents handed fellow board member and activist Ward Connerly a defeat Wednesday, voting down his proposal to stop funding ethnic graduations and gay freshman orientation.

Connerly, who led the fight to drop race-based admissions some years ago, had tried to withdraw his item, which had come under heavy criticism. But fellow regents insisted on a vote, defeating it 6-3 in committee.

…UC officials say sponsoring events such as ethnic graduations is legal because the decision to give money is not based on racial criteria but on how many students will be served. They note the events are open to all students.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 11:20:01 PM |

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<insert clever title re: inversions>

One day ibyx and I are going to have a long, interesting conversation. Right now my thoughts are somewhat chaotic for non-blog reasons but (assuming I don't lose the thought connection overnight) this post, and a conceptual inversion of the issues it raises, will be in my mind as I write tomorrow's last "Startin' Stuff Week" post.

Despite the fact that I am Jewish, my experience of antisemitism in the US has been rather benign and easy to dismiss as the ignorant knee-jerk rants of poor white kids who I knew were getting smacked around by angry frustrated fathers at home. I had a much keener appreciation of the virulence of racism. Maybe it was watching Gone with the Wind, or seeing an old black and white photograph of a lynching, or old racist caricatures of slaves, or just studying US history at school -- but I got it. I got how ugly and evil and creepy and violent racism is -- as it was acted and spoken and felt in the US. I mean, the evil of it -- when you really let yourself understand what "ordinary" white folk perpetrated against black americans -- the evil of it chills me deeply and primally like a story of ancient horror by Lovecraft.

In any case, it was in my early twenties -- watching Shoa -- that I first understood that Jews were the target of hate that deep and old and evil as well. So now I find myself a bit of an anomaly politically. Firmly on the left in terms of US policies, and firmly on the left in terms of Israeli policy, but I also consider myself a Zionist. I am in favor of a Palestinian state, yes. But I am also acutely sensitive to the reality that many "friends" of the Palestinians use [unconsciously or not] legitimate criticism of Israeli policy as a convenient pressure valve for an enmity they have been carrying deep in their bones for centuries.


Said post will probably be late, because I have two important appointments, one of which is to hang out with my daughter. I place no time limits on that one.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 11:02:38 PM |

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Where's Ari when you really need him?

Busy, Busy, Busy has indeed been busy. First, Mr. Beard gives us Mr. Bush's answer to the burning question of the day. I, troublemaker that I am, was unsatisfied with that, so I decided to see if I could approach the source. I tried to get in contact with Ms. Rice. I figured, you know, a sista might give a brotha some rhythm, knowwhatI'msayin?

Nope.

So I did the next best thing. I went to The Unofficial Official Simulator, authorized by the Official SImulation Act of 2002:

The Official Simulation Act of 2002 created the Dept. of Official Simulation (DoOS) and tasked it with minimizing time wasted on media availability by certain U.S. Government officials who have been designated as essential to national security.

DoOS makes available for press conferences and interviews simulated officials virtually identical to the originals with regard to talking points, lucidity and veracity.


I just had to Ask Condoleezza Rice! This is what I got back:

Your question was:

How did those 16 words get into the SOTU?
Answer:

I think you'll see more of that kind of activity, a kind of deepening of the relationship at various levels. That was the nature of this. Every regime in the world needs to be responsible, and every regime in the world should be responsible to its own people. Look, the truth of the matter is, though, unless you know where you're going, unless you're clear about where you're going, you will go nowhere.
We've not yet been in a position where the parties were ready to come together in a rather high-profile way because conditions on the ground have just not permitted it. I mean, there's a big agenda there.

We do have a number of instruments of national power and we are employing them already. As the president has said, "The one option that we do not have is to do nothing." The United States is unequivocal in its resolve to do what we must to insure ourselves. As the President said, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.


Now that's what I expected.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 08:44:15 PM |

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SOTU photo essay

A couple of other blogs have noted the White House web site has a photo essay up that shows Mr. Bush's hands hard at work, checking every word of the SOTU address. The one with The Lie (and to the Homeland Security operatives in the audience, I've saved copies of all six pictures with accompanying captions, so if you're gonna raid me, can you do it, like, Sunday and get it over with?).

I decided to check the other pictures in the essay, and I can't resist bringing one more picture to the fore.

Created from many opinions, details and revisions, a draft is reviewed by President Bush, Counselor Karen Hughes, Chief of Staff Andy Card and National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice (holding the notebook, foreground) in the Oval Office, Thursday, Jan. 24.


Look who's in the mix. Condoleezza Rice. I think. See, I'm not sure whether they actually didn't want to show her, thought we'd realize brown hands that close to Mr. Bush could only belong to her, or (because she actually is incredibly intelligent—maybe not smart but incredibly intelligent) she arranged for some plausible deniability for herself (that wasn't me, it was the housekeeper!).

LATER: Okay, it looks like that was the 2002 SOTU stuff. Interestingly enough, the 2003 stuff only shows him interacting with the speechwriters and Karen Hughes, though "[s]ketching notes in the margin of speech drafts, President Bush [still] rewrites portions of the address in the Oval Office." Last year Ari Fleischer, Andy Card and Condi Rice represented as well.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 08:28:00 PM |

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I know this is totally irrelevant

I have to share.

A married couple are driving along a highway doing sixty mph with the wife behind the wheel. Her husband suddenly looks over at her and says, "Honey, I know we've been married for twenty years, but I want a divorce." The wife says nothing but slowly increases the speed to seventy mph.

He then says, "I don't want you to try to talk me out of it because I've been having an affair with your best friend, and she's a better lover than you are." Again the wife stays quiet but speeds up as her anger increases.

"I want the house," he insists, pressing his luck. He says, "I want the car, too," but she just drives faster and faster.

By now, she's up to ninety mph.

"All right," he said. "I want the bank accounts and all the credit cards, too."

The wife slowly starts to veer toward a bridge overpass piling. This makes him a bit nervous, so he says, "Isn't there anything you want?"

The wife says, "No, I've got everything I need."

"Oh, really," he says, "so what have you got?"

Right before they slam into the wall at a hundred mph, the wife smiles and says, "The airbag."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 07:56:28 PM |

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Politics make you feel peevish?

Anne Zook is simply right about this. And I didn't know she had posted this when I wrote "if the government isn't doing the right thing and you are are responsible for taking action somehow, even if its just voting the bastards out" a couple of posts down.

Yeah, we suck.

Words of wisdom from Canada. It's time we all stopped tolerating, even supporting, regimes filled with thugs, criminals, and psychotics. And that goes double for the USofA, okay?

If, for example, we'd stood up publicly and said we were sorry we put Hussein in power and we were sorry we'd given him missiles and we were sorry we'd shipped him the materials to create biological weapons and we sorry we'd sold him the materials to make other weapons and by the way, we're going to Iraq and take him down because we created a monster...well, I think I could have supported that war. (We'd have to promise never to do it again, of course.)

Look at Pakistan and India. Exactly how did these two countries become such a danger to themselves and others? How did they get the money and technology to build nukes? Aside from nukes, exactly where did they get the armaments to wage, if they choose, all-out war on each other?

If you're really curious, look in the mirror.

They got it from us.

We "negotiated" a sort of temporary "peace" between the two of them. We give them money not to kill each other.

But there are strings attached, you see. Most of the money we give them, they're contractually required to spend buying weapons and military technology from USofA corporations.

Yep, you heard me. We enforce peace by demanding that they become more and more heavily armed all the time.

We suck, don't we?

We don't have to suck. We need to demand, from our leaders and from the media, that we be given easy access to the terms of these agreements while they're in negotiation. If they're too ashamed of what they're doing to let the world see it, then they shouldn't be doing it. (All governments should be required to do this.)

We need to demand that our local newspapers carry this material, in full, on a timely basis. We need to read it, discuss it with each other, and send feedback to Washington.

We need to demand that our government stop tying "diplomacy" to the interests of huge corporations and conglomerates including or most especially the defense industry.

And we need to dismantle about 50 percent of the military-industrial complex. Enough is enough, okay?

And you. You're at fault too, okay?

It's more than just national politics. State and local politics are also crucial. They're immediate, too. The decisions being made by a neighborhood council that you might not even know exists can directly affect your life 24 hours from now.

Your urban or suburban city council is negotiating deals and dealing with issues that you care about. You don't see much about it in the papers until after it's a fait accompli because most people pay no attention to local politics, so the papers quit covering it. That's a serious mistake, that "not caring" thing. From mayors can come governors, congressmen, and senators, okay? From them come presidential candidates.

I'm just saying. When they put a landfill in the empty field down the street from your house, don't come crying to me. You should have been paying attention.

Ahem.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 07:06:39 PM |

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How many words was that?

Mark Fiore does it again!

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 05:55:36 PM |

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Damn, I have to change the template again

I decided I was serious about my blogging tool, but it wasn't intended to be a client for Blogger which is why I was waffling about finishing it. Meanwhile I really, really want spell checking and less manual HTML typing. So I broke down and installed w.bloggar.

One day's worth of posting and it really hard to consider going back to the web interface. So I have to update the template with a button acknowledging the software.

Now I have to look into an RSS aggregator. I need one that doesn't play favorites between the Rich Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication formats. I think the first one I need to check is SharpReader, a .NET based program that has an available plug-in to launch w.bloggar. It's only at version 0.9.2 but the feature list looks good and it's under active development.

What I really want is an aggregator whose embedded browser uses my pop-up blocker.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 04:29:09 PM |

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Hard to be specific

liminal liberal is a very, very good blog. Sista ain't just playing at politics like I feel I am sometimes. She's giving up a better idea of a reasonable middle-class Black person than I am.

I can't even point at a specific post. I mean George had a link that sent me there but I read the whole page and it was all impressive.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 04:12:49 PM |

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Startin' Stuff Week, Day Four

From the comments to the link to that asshole, I draw the following fragment:

Your idea that not only the perpetrator of an injustice but also others who benefited from it should shoulder the burden of repairs has no factual basis in law.


And on a discussion board I frequent a friend asked me to look in on a reparations "discussion" on another board

Well.

Based on the comment that discussion, I feel I need to say something to white folks.

It ain't personal. The debt owed to Black Americans isn't owed by you, or your ancestors, even if they were slave owners. It is owed by the United States of America and the states that created the more detailed repressions like literacy tests for voting when you provide unequal education.

I understand the argument that reparations made (and I'm using the word "made" rather than "paid" because as I said at the outset I'm not looking for cash unless the right thing is rejected) by the government are ultimately made by the citizens of the nation. But (and this is where the comment fragment comes in) you know, if you buy shares of General Motors, you acquire its liabilities as well as its assets. Citizenship is much the same…if the government isn't doing the right thing then you are responsible for taking action somehow, even if its just voting the bastards out. That's a running theme here and in fact all over the left side of the BlogNet (see Bush, Dubya).

The next argument I anticipate is that being born here leaves one no choice but to be a citizen. I read that as "I didn't ask for these benefits, so why should I have to take the liabilities?" which is much like asking "I didn't make the sun shine on my face so why should the back of my head be in shadow?" It's a package. SOMEone will shoulder those liabilities and so far it's been us. All I ask is a fair distribution.

Another argument questions why should an immigrant bear the liabilities created before their arrival. To this, I refer back to the corporate example.

See, this reparations discussion doesn't take place in isolation, as its opponents would like. I don't need to build a case for shared liability strictly within the confines of the discussion of the ethics of reparations. In the ethical discussion, I need to build a case for the rightness of reversing the effects of oppression.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 03:36:03 PM |

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Okay, this has gotten out of hand

Walter at idols of the marketplace found one Mark Shultz was visited by the FBI. because someone turned him in over his choice of reading material…a printout of a web article critical of Bush, Fox News and Rupert Murdoch.

Trippi's partner speaks up: "Any reading material? Papers?" I don't think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: "I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that."

You don't want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?

The partner speaks up again: "Maybe a printout of some kind?"

Then it occurs to me: I was reading. It was an article my dad had printed off the Web. I remember carrying it into Caribou with me, reading it in line, and then while stirring cream into my coffee. I remember bringing it with me to the store, finishing it before we opened. I can't remember what the article was about, but I'm sure it was some kind of left-wing editorial, the kind that never fails to incite me to anger and despair over the state of the country.

I tell them all this, but they want specifics: the title of the article, the author, some kind of synopsis, but I can't help them -- I read so much of this stuff.

"Do you still have the article?" Probably not, but I suggest we check behind the counter. When that doesn't pan out, I have the bright idea to call my dad at work, see if he can remember. Of course, he can't put together a coherent sentence after I tell him the FBI are at the store, questioning me.

"The FBI?" he keeps asking. Eventually I get him off the phone, and suggest it may be in my car. They follow me out to the parking lot, where Trippi asks me if there's anything in the car he should know about.

"Weapons, drugs? It's not a problem if you do, but if you don't tell me and then I find something, that's going to be a problem." I assure him there's nothing in my car, coming very close to quoting Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite: "There's nothin' in my trunk, man."

The excitement of the questioning -- the interrogation -- has made me just a little bit giddy. I almost laugh out loud when they ask me to pop my trunk.

There's nothing in my car, of course. I keep looking anyway, while telling them it was probably some kind of what-did-they-know-and-when-did-they-know-it article about the buildup to Gulf War II. Trippi nods, unsatisfied. I turn up some papers from the University of Georgia, where I'm about to begin as a grad student. He asks me what I'm going to study.

"Journalism," I say. As I duck back into the car, I hear Agent Trippi informing his partner, "He's going to UGA for journalism" in a way that makes me wonder whether that counts against me.

Back in the store, Trippi gives me his card and tells me to call him if I remember anything. After he's gone, I call my dad back to see if he has calmed down, maybe come up with a name. We retrace some steps together, figure out the article was Hal Crowther's "Weapons of Mass Stupidity" from the Weekly Planet, a free independent out of Tampa. It comes back to me then, this scathing screed focusing on the way corporate interests have poisoned the country's media, focusing mostly on Fox News and Rupert Murdoch -- really infuriating, deadly accurate stuff about American journalism post-9-11. So I call the number on the card, leave a message with the name, author and origin of the column, and ask him to call me if he has any more questions.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 02:09:27 PM |

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Editorial run? Editorial run? We don' need no steeking editorial run!

Having O.D.ed on "16 words" smackdowns while failing to deliver cartoons the other day, I'm skipping the editorials today.

Pat Oliphant is brilliant here. It is a concise summary of the shortsightedness of the Republican Extremist economic plan.


He is also brilliant here:


Tom Toles


Jeff Danziger

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 06:57:05 AM |

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Creativity assistance

Renee Hopkins announced on Corante's IDEAFLOW: creativity & innovation that she is now hosting a list and description of over 200 creativity assitance techniques.

Below are listed a number of creativity techniques to help with creative thinking. Like most tools these creativity techniques all have there good and bad points. I like to think of these creativity techniques as tools in a toolbox in much the same way as my toolbox at home for DIY. It has a saw, spanner, hammer, knife and all sorts of other things in it, they are all very useful, but you have to pick the right tool (creativity technique) for each job. We will try and provide a little guidance along with each tool to let you know whether it's best used for cutting paper or putting in nails.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 06:12:34 AM |

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Governments abandon their citizens

If ever a task was appropriate for governmental support, this is one. And I'm not just complainig about the USofA this time.

Global AIDS Fund Finding Few Answers to Its Cash Shortage
By JOHN TAGLIABUE

PARIS, July 16 — Representatives of countries contributing to a fund to support the global struggle against AIDS and other diseases that are ravaging the developing world met in Paris today but made little progress toward easing a cash crisis expected later this year.

The United States secretary of health and human services, Tommy G. Thompson, the chairman of the fund's board, said that approval of projects costing $1.6 billion were pending at the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Roughly 40 percent of them, costing $750 million, would likely be approved when the fund's directors meet in October, he said, yet only $400 million has been pledged.

Addressing a one-day conference, which accompanied the International AIDS Society Conference in Paris this week, Mr. Thompson said the fund needed $3 billion by the end of 2004. `'I hope we can negotiate this into real money by October," he said.

At the same time, governments were upstaged by private donors, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would pay $100 million into the fund immediately. The foundation originally pledged $50 million as a first installment and a further $50 million over the next 10 years, making it a larger donor than Britain or Germany, which pledged between $40 million and $48 million.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 05:56:59 AM |

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Well? What did you expect?

Lack of Pre-9/11 Sources to Be Cited as Intelligence Failure
By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON, July 16 — American intelligence agencies failed to obtain reliable human sources inside the Afghanistan training camps run by Al Qaeda before the September 2001 attacks, according to government officials who have read an unreleased Congressional report on intelligence lapses in the months before the hijackings.

The absence of such sources left counterterrorism officials largely blind to Osama bin Laden's specific intentions before the attacks and contributed to what the joint intelligence committees concluded in their report was a lack of knowledge about Al Qaeda even as the agencies for years collected information that showed the terror network hoped to strike inside United States.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 05:51:21 AM |

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Setting them up to know them down

Not trying to be a wet blanket or anything, but now would be a good time to understand the difference between statuitory and procedural law. Statuitory law sets the rules. Procedural law determines how the rules are enforced.

Understand that the change allowing increased ownship levels is not being challenged. The enforcement of that rule is being challenged…but that's like not enforcing a rule that allows people to walk into a bank and pick up whatevercash is laying around.

This amendment is one the White House can safely opposed and later yield on.

House Panel Adds Voice to Opponents of Media Rule
By JACQUES STEINBERG

The recent decision by federal regulators to loosen media ownership rules, already under fire in the Senate, took another blow in Congress yesterday. This setback was dealt by the House Appropriations Committee, which approved a budget amendment that would make it harder for big broadcasting companies to acquire more television stations.

The vote represented a defeat for Michael K. Powell, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, who has led the effort to change the rules. It was also a rebuke to the Republican House leadership and the Bush administration, strong supporters of the commission's efforts.

A White House spokeswoman, Claire Buchan, said last night that the "president's senior advisers would recommend a veto" if a bill including the amendment ultimately reached his desk.

By a vote of 40 to 25, with 11 Republican members deserting their leaders to join the 29 Democratic committee members, the appropriations committee approved a measure that would effectively block the commission from enforcing a new rule that would permit broadcasters to own stations that reach more total households across the country than they do now.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 05:46:23 AM |

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July 16, 2003

Two confessions

1. Fred at rantavation doesn't really do screeds like I said here. I just like the word. He does do some long posts sometimes but they're well thought out and well written. And besides, who am I to talk about long posts? Huh?

2. My first posts and comments will have a bunch of typos. I edit the hell out of them. If Earthlink counted incoming bandwith like they count outgoing bandwidth, or worse if Blogger counted it, I'd look illiterate as hell.

I have to decide if I'm really going to stop stalling with this blogging tool I started or if I'm just going to use w.bloggar or something.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 08:59:31 PM |

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Startin' Stuff Week, Day Three

I generally don't address strawmen, but this is from that ridiculousness I pointed to yesterday:

We all know there is so much white guilt floating around that if you could only transform it into electrical power, America would be freed of its dependence on fossil fuels. But, come on now. Reparations?!


Every time someone talks about white guilt over the past, I have to wonder: just who's making them feel guilty? It's not like anyone is lying about what happened…

And I also wonder, is guilt the only possible response?

See, I don't want white guilt. Guilt and gratitude are both like shirts. Fine and comfy while new, but wear them too long and they get all stank.

But I'm not letting anyone forget the realities of what brought us all to this pass. Especially since I can think of an alternative to guilt.

The alternative is acknowlegement of the truth. And a choice to act responsibly. A choice to live up to your professed morals.

I need to give white folks this alternative because frankly I'm not even considering feeling gratitude because someone decided to give me what I'm owed.


I recall wondering if I might be missing something. Were these people seriously demanding that damages should be paid 140 years after slavery ended? What ever happened to the statute of limitations? What ever happened to common sense?


Yes, you are missing something. Roughly 100 years of Jim Crow, government mandated segregation and disenfranchisement, red lining and denial. Roughly 100 years of socially sanctioned assaults on the liberty and dignity of a people whose efforts fueled the development of this nation and to the degree that the USofA has impacted world history, every nation on the planet.

Think about it… what would the USofA look like without having had the labor of Black Americans to fuel its economy? I'm not talking about that nonsense that pops up occasionally about a Black man invented this or that so they wouldn't exist without us… that's a nice thing to tell children to build their pride, but just as SOMEbody would have invented the lightbulb if Thomas Edison's grandmother had died in labor all those things would have come about sooner or later.

I'm saying without the capital generated by Black labor, this nation could not have industrialized when it did. And meanwhile Europe would have chugged along its historical track, producing all the wars it ever did, all the ethnic purges of gypsies and Jews… there would not have been a nation in a position to intercede in Europe's various wars. More importantly, there would have been no nation in a position to intercede economically after those wars.

A people that important to the history of the world deserves more than to have its concerns summarily dismissed.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 02:10:13 PM |

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Sitting duck

You probably know Scott McClellan is the neo-Ari, Mr. Fleischer's replacement.

I was thinking about doing something ill to the transcript of his first press conference, but I decided not to. Too easy. Whole big chunks of it would have come down to:

McClellan: Yo, dog, I ain't said dat. Dat was Ari. Not me, man, go riff on his ass.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 12:23:42 PM |

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Like I ain't got enough to do

When I blogroll a site I usually look down its blogroll to see if I spot something new to me. From The Black Hand Side I picked out Endaikeio, self-described as a "Neo-Culture and Lifestyle Magazine" built on Moveable Type (isn't everything?). Looks to be 2 issues old.

Very nice start.

The content is very good. No complaints there at all. I always hit political pages first and that was good enough to make me at least scan everything else.

The design is attractive…I generally don't like splash pages, but I'll look at a pretty sista whenever…with couple of teeny, tiny layout inconsistancies that I may be the only one in the world to notice. And the quarterly issue concept gets sort of blurred when all the articles are listed without differentiation in the sidebar. Nothing critical that will take away from the quality of the work.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this one.

Another new MT based ezine effort, this time plucked from the referral log, is Negrophile. At this point it's just the blog-format front page, which is how P6 started. I'm not sure what's planned for the site because it's not as developed as Endaikeio. It may not even be fair to expose it at this point if an ezine rather than an intricate blog like P6 is what's in the works. But it's attractively designed… which I keep mentioning because I HATE garish web sites, of which there are too damn many… and the blogging is well written, so whichever way it goes it looks to have promise.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 09:35:53 AM |

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Book review

Over at Silver Rights (which I continue to read and whose author remains my sista whether she like it or not, though I allow her to set the terms) there's an excellent review of "Passing", a novel set in 1920s America by Nella Larsen. Though it's not today's entry for Startin' Stuff Week, this excerpt from J's review shows its timing to be quite appropriate

People who put great store in the idea of race often become apoplectic when told race is largely a social construct. They point out the obvious differences in appearance between Asians and Africans or Indians and whites. However, they ignore the greater similarities between members of different so-called races and the much broader array of differences among members of the same so-called race. Nella Larsen's novel Passing is a no holds barred debunking of the myth of race.

The short novel revolves around two women. Irene Redfield and Clare Bellew grew up together as part of Chicago's light-skinned 'black' elite at the beginning of the twentieth century. Though Clare is from a poor single parent family with an alcoholic, ne'er-do-well father, her fair skin makes her acceptable to the petty bourgeoisie and professionals who inhabit the schizoid circle.

As young adults, the two go their separate ways. Irene marries an identifiably African-American physician, has two sons and relocates to New York. She fills her time with charity work for "the race." Clare marries a virulently racist white man to escape her abusive relatives and has spent the last 12 years passing for white. She has a daughter.

… I find a secondary theme of the 182-page book as interesting as passing. Irene is in continuous negotiation with American society of the 1920s over her place in it. She is willing to accept second-class status as long as there are persons worse off than herself, i.e., the majority of Negroes, and she can enjoy the creature comforts that come with affluence, such as servants and fine clothes. An additional sop is her ability to pass for white when family members or friends who are darker are not with her.

However, it is impossible to make such an accommodation in a time when de jure segregation in much of the country and even lynching are the norm. The harsh reality of racial discrimination has impacted Irene's husband, Brian, and is driving a wedge between them. The more realistic Brian wants to decamp to a less discriminatory society, Brazil, or at least face up to the fact of the horrid treatment accorded even 'nice' Negroes. His wife resists doing so.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 08:12:42 AM |

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The real Nigeria

The Country That a President Never Gets to See
By MARC LACEY

… Other would-be tour guides took a more prosaic approach. World leaders do not ordinarily spend time in gas lines, but that is just where Franklin Okoye would have directed the president.

If he had, Mr. Okoye, a civil servant, pointed out, he would have been forced to cancel all his talks with Nigeria's politicians, and scrap the ceremonial functions as well. Instead, Mr. Bush would have sat in his limousine all day long inching toward the pump, perhaps sticking his head out into the choking smog from time to time to curse the fact that an oil-lush country has too little gas to go around.

"This is the real Nigeria," fumed Mr. Okoye, who spent six frustrating hours baking in his Honda Prelude recently as he sought to fill his tank after the stations opened after an eight-day strike. There was pandemonium as drivers tried to force their way, or buy their way, into the front of the unruly queue.

Nigeria presents the best and worst that Africa has to offer. The continent's most populous nation, it is a former military dictatorship that has become a democracy, albeit a flawed one that sometimes barely seems to function. As one of the world's great oil exporters, it is a rich place that is often shockingly poor. It is nationalistic and yet deeply divided by ethnic rivalries. Mr. Bush could see little of this from Abuja, the shiny capital where politicians retreat to "run" the country.

In the decidedly grittier world most Nigerians inhabit, the president would eat delicacies from the street, things like goat head and pounded yam, and he would quench his thirst with water that did not come from a bottle, or even a tap. If there was time, he might fetch that water himself, balancing a plastic jug on his head, to get an idea of how so many African women start their days.

He would also spend time out of the big cities, since most Africans live in rural areas. He would be stopped at a checkpoint deep in the bush by children with guns.

But not everything would be so grim. Some slum dwellers in this sprawling city said they would give him palm wine and keep him out late at a music joint. And he would have seen, after waking up from a night's sleep on a straw mat laid out in the corner of some small hut, his arms and legs covered with mosquito bites, that Africans are a hardy lot.

"Somebody like him doesn't understand sufficiently what we go through every day," said a man who identified himself as Sheik Muhammad, and who said he would gladly serve as Mr. Bush's tour guide, especially since he has no job.

"I'd take him around to the neighborhoods around Lagos," he said. "I'd tell him that these are real Nigerians. They wake up at cock crow and work until sunset and they still barely make enough to live."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 06:59:19 AM |

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About time, Skip

Rebuilding Harvard's African Studies Dept.
By SARA RIMER

After a year of turmoil that saw two of its biggest stars defect to Princeton University, Harvard's celebrated Afro-American studies department will be refocused and expanded to include an African language program and a new major in African studies, the chairman of the department, Henry Louis Gates Jr., said yesterday.

Professor Gates, who at one point was so unhappy about the acrimony between his department and the Harvard president, Lawrence H. Summers, that he too weighed offers to leave, said he had appointed five new faculty members, including two African scholars, one a critic of African literature and one a linguist.

His recruits also include a linguistic anthropologist who is one of the country's leading experts on hip-hop. Hip-hop had figured in the turmoil in Professor Gates's department, with Cornel West, one of the stars to leave Harvard, complaining that Mr. Summers had, among other things, been critical of his recording of a hip-hop CD entitled "Sketches of My Culture."

& Harvard is by no means the first university to merge African and African-American studies in one department, and to offer a major in African studies. But for the university to take such a step is a recognition that the African-American experience in the United States must be understood in relationship to Africa and the diaspora, several scholars said yesterday.

"This is where we're going these days in African-American studies," said John Thornton, an African historian who will join the African-American studies department at Boston University this fall. "It's been a trend intellectually. In the past 15 years, more and more people who are doing African-American history are increasingly interested in the African equation. On the other side, there are more Africanists who are recognizing that there is an American side to what they do."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 06:53:18 AM |

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Oh, c'mon

I hope no one expects me to believe this.

Robot balloon escapes

Two airports have been alerted after a giant robotic balloon escaped from a science centre in South Yorkshire.

Staff at the Magna Science Adventure Centre, in Rotherham, were forced to inform aviation authorities after the "flyborg" floated off into the sky as it was being moved.

The 13-feet long airship can expand to four times its usual size as it flies, and could fly for a week before it deflates.

Both Manchester and Sheffield airports were informed of its escape.

Freak gust

The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles.

A spokesman for Magna said: "Two technical staff were moving a flyborg - an artificially intelligent flying robot airship filled with conventional party-balloon gas - into the main Magna building.

"The airships, constructed of lightweight polymer film, were tethered all the time to the people moving them but they had to be untethered to take the flyborg through the visitor attraction's entrance doors.

"The two technicians held on to the airship's gondola but were surprised by a very strong freak gust of wind which ripped the airship out of their hands and sucked it up into the air, leaving them holding the gondola."

The airship, which is valued at �15,000, was designed by Professor Noel Sharkey, a BBC Robot Wars judge, and his team at the Creative Robotics Unit at Magna for indoor flying robot exhibitions.

Staff have offered a reward for its recovery.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 06:44:58 AM |

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Fred at rantavation nails it at the end of a longish screed:

Here's the hidden bit you won't see on the Weekly Standard: The Republicans aren't pro-military, they're pro-military hardware. They don't care one whit about the cannon fodder, they want to make sure that Lockheed Martin, et al (paying for that propaganda website with our tax dollars--the ones not funding the school mandates) are getting enough orders for the F-22, JSF and jdams to stay profitable, while the soldiers, their families and the veterans and their families get just enough gruel to keep from revolting. And just enough talking points to be pro-GOP.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 06:19:50 AM |

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I can relate

Interracialism Went Well Beyond the Bedroom
By BRENT STAPLES

Walk the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello around dawn (before the tourists come) and you enter a 19th-century landscape where you half expect to meet The Founder himself, out on one of those brisk constitutionals for which he was known. These paths and gardens were alive with Jefferson descendants last weekend, for a new version of a family reunion. There were white Jeffersons, descended from Thomas and his wife, Martha. Alongside them � and in some cases looking just like them � were white, brown and black Jeffersons, descended from the children that the nation's third president is now presumed to have fathered with his slave mistress, Sally Hemings.

Old-guard Jefferson descendants are fighting this new reality. But historians at Monticello itself, near Charlottesville, Va., have increasingly rendered them irrelevant by showing that the Jefferson family � and the early world it built � was a mixed-race enterprise, not just in the sexual sense, but at all levels of daily life. It was therefore fitting that the guest list at the most recent reunion did not end with the Jefferson bloodline but sprawled all over the Monticello family tree. Present were descendants of Burwell Colbert, the slave who fluffed Jefferson's deathbed pillows, and Wormley Hughes, the head gardener, to whom Jefferson entrusted his exotic plants. The most talked about ancestor this time around was Sally's half-brother, the master carpenter John Hemings, who had helped to build Monticello and whose last service for Jefferson was to build his coffin.

This new chapter in the plantation's life was masterminded by the historians Lucia Stanton and Dianne Swann-Wright, who have been working for a long time to flesh out the lives of the slave workers who built and ran the plantation while Jefferson carried out his research in horticulture, architecture and design. The two historians have so far interviewed more than 150 descendants for a documentary project about the lives of Monticello's slaves. When finished and compiled, these histories will provide the sharpest picture yet of how black residents of Monticello lived before and after emancipation.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 01:08:17 AM |

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Leading Democrats Go AWOL on Overtime Vote

So I stole the title of the post from the Voice. It's late.

Union of Lost Souls
by Nikos Valance
July 16 - 22, 2003

There are millions of men and women in America who not only work hard every day but also put in overtime. Sometimes the overtime helps to pay the bills. Sometimes it helps them stay a little ahead of the game or to save for things they otherwise couldn't afford, like a college education or a bigger house for a growing family. There was once a time in America when these men and women believed they could depend on Democrats in Washington to defend their interests and to battle to protect their rights.

That time is apparently gone. On Thursday, the House of Representatives�with seven Democrats absent, including presidential candidate Richard Gephardt�voted 213 to 210 to approve new regulations that would cut off a universe of Americans�anywhere from 1 million to 8 million�from guaranteed overtime pay. Under the new rules, backed by the Bush administration and campaigned for heavily by business lobbyists, those employees would still have to put in extra hours. They just wouldn't get any extra pay. Instead, some would qualify for comp time�try paying the rent with that�and others would simply be reclassified as executives, even if they wield little managerial authority.

Where were the Democrats? Nowhere to be found. Gephardt was in Iowa getting an endorsement from the International Order of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, promising veterans of the picket line they'd be part of a new American prosperity. Among the leading Democratic contenders, neither Gephardt nor senators John Edwards, John Kerry, or Joe Lieberman returned repeated Voice calls for comment. The office of Representative Dennis Kucinich, a staunch labor supporter who voted against the measure, at least returned a call, as did former Vermont governor Howard Dean's office. Dean spokesperson Tricia Enright says of Gephardt's absence, "It's disgraceful. . . . Don't votes like this keep people off the picket lines?"

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 01:01:39 AM |

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Invisiblog

Found in the Village Voice article The Sharer of Secrets.

Aggregated from the Invisiblog site:

invisiblog.com lets you publish a weblog using GPG and the Mixmaster anonymous remailer network. You don't ever have to reveal your identity - not even to us. You don't have to trust us, because we'll never know who you are.

features
Each anonymous weblog hosted by invisiblog includes the following features:

  • untraceable publishing via Mixmaster
  • PGP-verifiable posts
  • XHTML-compliant markup
  • monthly archives
  • built-in full text search engine
  • rss 2.0 feed
  • automatically pings weblogs.com and blo.gs
Hell, if I had known about this service before Blogger, I might be using it. I don't know how editing old posts would work. But this is an interesting service.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 12:57:20 AM |

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I can relate

We all got them. And it's interesting that this shows up so soon after I posted the pictures of two of my great grandfathers.

But my relating isn't just a matter of it being the same ol' same old for all Black folks. Since I'm not really an anonymous blogger (P6 is a brand name), I invite the curious and/or nosy to google my last name: dunovant. If you want to narrow it down (it was a popular middle name for a while), add "general" or "gen" to the search.

Confederates in My Attic
by Thulani Davis

Some years ago, when my grandmother died at 94, she was writing a novel based on her life. She left only a few pages and an outline, but her life was indeed novel material. The daughter of Chloe Curry, a cook and tenant farmer who had been enslaved in Alabama, and Will Campbell, a white Mississippi Delta cotton farmer, she was born at the end of Reconstruction and was raised by this pair, who stayed together until his death early in the 20th century. Since I started searching for more clues to the lives of my grandmother and her mother for a book two years ago, I have, for the first time, come face to face with my white ancestors.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/16/2003 12:47:07 AM |

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July 15, 2003

What a coincidence

Reflections on Reparations

July 15, 2003

by Burt Prelutsky



You read it and got questions, bring 'em.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 08:08:44 PM |

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I know this is ridiculous

I don't care, because I needed a laugh when I ran across Hulk's Diary

Saturday, March 22, 2003
It took Hulk two weeks to realize that "dnL" drink and "7up" were the same.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 07:28:12 PM |

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You find interesting stuff by looking at the searches that find your site

Like today's search is: "black discrimination" newspaper articles

I found:
The Office of Human Relations Programs, University of Maryland
From the specific page the search located:

Past Student Essay Contest Winners

Suparna Paul, First Place Winner, 2000

Implications of Interracial Dating

Interracial dating, like many other issues, has an array of both positive and negative implications. We can further educate ourselves about them by taking an active interest in and learning from the experience of those who have experienced it. This will allow society members to have open minds and appreciate the initiatives of those who choose to date outside of what conventional society would recommend. Various aspects and experiences have shaped my views of interracial dating. These include my personal experiences, those of close friends, and educating myself by reading books and periodicals on the subject. As a student leader involved in various student groups on campus, including the Asian American Student Union (AASU), I have personally seen and experienced society�s reactions to interracial dating. I find it particularly interesting that when a student group, such as the AASU, holds a Community Meeting to discuss the topic of interracial dating, several individuals attend. These students voice their opinions about their beliefs that interracial dating should be more widely accepted.

However, these are the same individuals that, during the occurrence of actually seeing a member of their community dating outside of their race, disapprove of it behind the person�s back. This situation, unfortunately, is common and occurs within every ethnic group.

The events that have shaped my perspective on interracial dating include my experiences with actually having interracially dated. Though there are both positive and negative impacts of dating outside one�s own race, unfortunately and more often than not, the negative ones are more obvious. For example, I have experienced the stares from random passersby and even from friends and acquaintances. It is my belief that many of the stares are not meant to be negative; these people are simply curious of things they have not experienced. The implications of interracial dating stem far beyond simply dating. Those couples whose relationships result in marriage often find that stereotypes of being different reach to their children and to generations beyond. These young children do not realize society�s prejudices of them and it can lead to their questioning of their backgrounds. The parents of these children should make extra attempts to make them feel that they are not different, but special. They should be proud of their mixed heritage and feel more empowered being multi-ethnic and having the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of two or more cultures simultaneously.

It is an unfortunate circumstance for those children whose parents� interracial marriage ends in divorce. Society often makes the victims of those marriages feel that the result was partially due to the two individuals� different backgrounds. For example, I have a friend whose mother is Caucasian from the United States and father is from Spain. His parents divorced when he was young after he spent most of his childhood in Spain. His mother brought him back to the United States and under the divorce agreement, he would visit his father in Spain twice a year, during winter and summer holidays. Unfortunately, his parents had each put a stigma on the other to portray the other in a negative light. His mother would refer to his father as �those Spanish� and vice versa as "those Americans." Having come from a mixed background, he had to handle the hate of his parents overseas. However, he also had the gift of growing up in both cultures.

In addition to having different nationalities, religion also plays a large role in interracial dating. Before an interracial couple gets married, they must think about which faith they will choose to instill in their children. The most popular options include: keeping the mother�s faith, keeping the father�s faith, teaching the children a combination of the faiths, or educating the children on both/all religions and letting them choose upon maturity. However, no matter which option they choose, the couple must remember that circumstances change and they must keep open minds through the years to be flexible with their decisions. For interracial couples, it is imperative to look past the differences and find the similarities within each other.

Even more important is how the participants of interracial relationships view themselves, their partners, and their relationships as an entity. As in any relationship, each partner must have good self-esteem and a positive view of his or her partner for it to be successful. A negative self-image or low self-esteem can result in hopelessness and loss of faith. It is helpful for all couples to hold onto a firm belief and enthusiasm to make the relationship a success. Interracial dating can be a very positive experience for many people, should they choose to accept the challenge. It is very helpful to have the support network of friends of family who approve of and encourage the relationship. However, both partners should be dedicated to keeping open minds and, like all marriages, even more dedicated to make the marriage last.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 06:00:38 PM |

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You find interesting stuff by looking at the searches that find your site

Like today's search is: "black discrimination" newspaper articles

I found:

www.fyah.com: For A New Generation of Black Wordsmiths
From the specific page the search located:

Power. Looking at what Black people in this country have accomplished with the Word, attests to its power. Without the word, revolution is just bloody war. The victor is usually the mightiest in number and resource. However, add the word as weapon and freedom for all makes sense, contradictions stand out, greatness is revealed, rights are won, ignorance is slaughtered.
Is it any wonder enslaved Africans in America were forbidden by law to learn to read and write?
Teach an �animal� to read and write and you got David Walker (1785-1830) proclaiming in his Appeal, whites �want us for their slaves, but some of them will curse the day they ever saw us�my color will root some of them out of the very face of the earth.� Then you have Nat Turner (1800-1831) agreeing with Walker by drastic action that �every dog must have its day.�
Teach a �nigger� to read and write and you got W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) urging that the upliftment and advancement of the race is dependent upon the development and cultivation of the Black intellect�on Black empowerment, not accommodation to Whites.
Teach a �Negro� to read and write and you got Alain Locke writing about the New Negro �molding a new American attitude.�
Teach a �Colored� to read and write and you got James Baldwin proclaiming �we will burn your house down.�
Teach a �BLACK� to read and write and you got Amiri Baraka, and Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni� �niggah can you kill?�
Black literature has gone through many transitions just as the times and people change. The literature of a people reflects the psychosis of the times in which they live. Perhaps if we trace Black literature�s journey from when the first Africans were brought to this land in chains, through slavery and Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance, through the Realism/Naturalism era, the Black Power/Black Arts Movement, the Woman�s Movements, to the Me era of the 80�s and finally to this Hip Hop age�perhaps if we take a close look at where we have been, we will better understand where we are, and where we are going. To chart and analyze Black literature�s course in great detail is FYAH�s mission. However, to go forth with this mission we must first know the shoulders that we stand upon today. We must first understand where we were yesterday, ten years ago, thirty, fifty, four hundred�we must be able to look all the way back and understand the order.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 05:32:47 PM |

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Kucinich responds to N.A.A.C.P. on missing the forum in Miami

Just received by email two minutes ago

DENNIS AND THE NAACP EVENT

Kucinich supporters have asked why the Congressman didn't attend the NAACP candidates' forum in Miami on Monday afternoon. He couldn't attend because the forum conflicted with his responsibilities as a voting member of Congress, and there were key Medicare votes late yesterday in the House.

When there have not been conflicts with Capitol Hill duties, Dennis has repeatedly attended candidates' forums held by civil rights and equal rights groups, including ones organized by the NAACP and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. (The Rainbow forum was on a Sunday.) Dennis has shined at these events, because he is a fighter for civil rights -- as he's shown year after year on Capitol Hill through his leadership role in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It's Dennis who is leading the fight to abolish the racially-biased death penalty.

Due to conflicts with his Congressional duties, Rep. Kucinich recently had to miss a candidates' forum on the environment in Los Angeles and a "Democracy Rising" rally in Baltimore -- when Dennis stayed in Washington to vote against Medicare privatization, which passed by a single vote. Unlike other presidential candidates, he is a fulltime Congressperson who has not missed a vote so far this session.

Yesterday afternoon, our campaign released this statement to the media: "Congressman Kucinich has the utmost respect for the NAACP, its leadership, its members and its mission. He regrets his absence from this afternoon's candidates' forum. His duties as a member of the United States House of Representatives required that he be in Washington today for votes. Important votes are scheduled on Medicare prescription drugs and agriculture spending. Congressman Kucinich strongly believes that it is wrong to campaign across the country on the issue of expanding healthcare coverage and then miss one of the most important healthcare votes in years."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 04:10:52 PM |

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Just to let you know

While sorting out lies about uranium, let's no forget lies about the budget.

As you listen to and read about budget deficits and such, and mind-boggling numbers like billions (1,000,000,000) and trillions (1,000,000,000,000) get bandied about, here's a couple of hints to help you wrap your mind around the depth of the hole we're being pushed into.

You know how much one hundred dollars is, right? And you know how thick a $100 bill is, right? Well, one million dollars is a stack of $100 bills a little more than a yard high. One billion dollars is a 1000 meter stack of $100 bills. That's a bit more than ten football fields. A trillion is a thousand of those stacks.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 03:17:38 PM |

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Startin' Stuff Week, Day Two

Ibyx asked a question in the comments to yesterday's reparations post that was quite good, and honestly I like my response to it (narcissism is not evil—remember that), so I decided to elevate the whole thing to a post.

The question(s):

As a white jewish liberal female who is in some sense feels neither "us" nor "them" in this particular case [though I would never deny the privilidge my skin color affords me] I have found the concept of reparations a little odd when I have heard it discussed by folks advocating on its behalf. It just feels a little off to me. I mean, no how no way is the white american establishment going to get behind any serious cash dispersal to black americans across the board. And I don't see any feasible way to ensure appropriate investment in the black community the way that Earl describes. I think the idea of reparations is a good one -- if only because it would mean an official acknowledgement and taking responsibility. But I can't see any realistic way to move forward that has a snowball's chance in Hades.

If you actually had an administration which was willing to at least discuss the issue *in principle* then maybe you develop some kind of model. I don't know, maybe college scholarships across the board???

As I write this I realize I am missing the point of this post a little. I get that. I could just erase this but I want to wrangle with the issue and try to get my head around what it means to make reparations. What Prometheus advocates in this post is what I want for all folks -- regardless of skin color. As a progressive liberal does that mean that because resources are limited it is morally incumbent upon me to advocate that that black americans get first dibs? Like if we can't afford universal healthcare then we should at least provide for black americans? [I am not being flip... I can see a real moral case that could be made here.]


My response:
I've noticed this government doesn't do a damn thing on principle. The government responds to pressures applied by the people. Sometimes those pressures are electoral; all too often they are financial. In neither case will the government formulate a clear stance on an issue before the people do so and act on that stance. That's why reparations proponents can't wait for an accomodating government to consider this. They must create a clear analysis and compelling platform in order to draw enough support to exert the pressures government responds to.

My position is, keep in mind that the damage caused by official government actions must be addressed. As a progressive liberal you need to see that resources are artificially limited and uncreating those limits will allow agovernment policy that addresses this to be shaped.

Now if the necessary actions for Black folks are things you'd like to see for everyone, fine. add that to the mix that you're pushing for. But frankly, that's not the case. Black people are in a different position relative to the society as a whole than white folks are so the required actions will be different of necessity, though the result may be the same.

So I say, push for the correct results for everyone, but don't pretend the same actions will have the same results when applied to different conditions. Give Black people what we need to draw even with the rest of society, and don't let those efforts be blocked by false claims of racism.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 11:34:22 AM |

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What? No cartoons?

Well, we can't have that.

Not when Tom Toles goes all subtle today after making me laugh yesterday (in my head I hear the nurse speaking in Sister Mary Elephant's voice).

And while Ben Sargent looks into the progress made on the 9/11 inquiry, Jeff Danziger show us the Shrub's foreign policy decision making strategy.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 10:22:11 AM |

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Republican Non-Extremists

This is why I rail at Republican Extremists, not Republicans in general. Being a member of that party does not force on to be a hypocritical asshole (though it does seem to make advancement within the part much more straightforward).

Ratliff sides with Democrats on redistricting
Republican ally gives Democrats enough votes to keep any map from Senate floor
By Ken Herman and Laylan Copelin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, July 14, 2003

Texas Republicans' effort to draw new congressional districts took a direct, potentially fatal hit on Monday from one of their own.

Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, announced he has signed on with 10 Democrats who have said they will vote to keep any redistricting map from the Senate floor.

…Dewhurst spent time behind closed doors on Monday with Ratliff, who said any move to slalom around the two-thirds provision would be "the most serious mistake (Dewhurst) could make."

Ratliff also said the redistricting process is tearing at the legislature's bipartisan tradition.

"I will not be a part of the destruction of that spirit for the sake of a theoretical marginal partisan gain in the Texas congressional delegation," he said.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 09:42:04 AM |

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Obviously I need to switch to Movable Type

The things you see in BlogNet…

New sidebar links
posted July 14, 2003 at 10:23 am ET

I redid the "not recommended" links on the front page of the site. I'm using Movable Type to manage them.

Movable Type is the new way to do absolutely everything, BTW. I use it for my weblog, my bookmarks, my grocery shopping list, and my address book. I no longer need TiVo or my email application...I run everything through MT. Going to movies these days is easy with MT. It checks my vision, does root canals, makes my travel plans, transports me back in time, and balances my checkbook. Even expensive hookers are a thing of the past with Movable Type (although it doesn't go down as often as Blogger does). Thank you MT, you've made my life worth living again!

So yeah, new sidebar links. Check out the new ones if you're into reading words and clicking links.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 09:12:50 AM |

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Dean is really working the net

I guess it would be more accurate to say his supporters are really working the net. They are building a "blogging network" to support their organizing efforts. It's built on the Drupal CMS, which is a pretty powerful base to work with. I looked into it a little while back and found it has as much community-building functionaliy as conversation support functionality.

Looks to me like Dean has a lock on the geek vote.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 08:43:06 AM |

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What the hell is THIS about?

I'm over quoting here because I didn't hear about this agreement before. This really looks like a multi-level image play. The four guys in the "agreement" are the DNC's recognized players. Agreeing "not to meet on the same stage" makes the DNC's debates look like a bigger deal because they will be the only ones able to pull all the candidates together. The appearance of all nine candidates in one place is a more newsworthy event than the appearance of some fraction thereof. I also get the sense it casts the other five as also-rans, though I can't rationally explain that perception on my part.

Democratic appearance deal falls apart

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards changed their minds and decided to appear with other Democratic presidential candidates at the NAACP's presidential forum on Monday.

Kerry's aides said the Massachusetts senator initially refused to take part in the forum to honor a verbal agreement quietly reached with three of his rivals - Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Under the agreement, the candidates would not share a stage other than during six debates being organized by the Democratic National Committee
.

That would mean convincing the various groups that invite them to speak to give each candidate a designated time instead of having them appear together.

…The NAACP was one such group and had invited all nine Democratic candidates to their convention on Monday.

Such forums are supposed to give the candidates a chance to woo Democratic voters, but the campaigns have received so many invitations this year that the forums are creating scheduling headaches. All nine candidates agreed that the Democratic National Committee would sponsor six official televised debates beginning in September.

Even though that agreement did not prevent the candidates from appearing at any other events, Kerry aides said four of the campaigns took it a step further in an attempt to bring order to their overall schedules.

Edwards originally said he would skip the NAACP forum because of scheduling conflicts, as did Gephardt, Lieberman and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Their decision irked NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, who said, "Anyone running for national office is a fool to ignore this group."

Kerry initially agreed to attend the convention but - to honor his informal agreement with Edwards, Gephardt Lieberman - said he would not participate unless he could address the audience without the other candidates on stage.

But Edwards decided late Sunday to cancel his campaign events Monday in Iowa to participate and Kerry then agreed to take part, too - under the ground rules set by the NAACP.

Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton were scheduled to appear all along.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 08:31:05 AM |

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Symbolic gestures

Rear Admiral Barry Black makes history
By David Person

Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

While President Bush, the compassionate conservative, was on the African continent dodging the heat from misleading Americans about Iraq�s efforts to buy uranium for weapons of mass destruction, one of Africa�s sons was making history the right way in the U.S. Senate.

Rear Admiral Barry Black officially became the first African-American in history to serve the U.S. Senate as its chaplain last week. He will probably be the black with the highest profile in the Senate chambers on any given day.

Some days, he may be the only black person there.

The bad news is that the U.S. Senate is the most white, patrician body in our government. Eighty-five of its 100 members are white men (Make that 86 and 101 if you count Vice President Dick Cheney), two members are Hawaiian and one is Native American.

Black will be bringing some much-needed color to this very vanilla body.


There's a big difference between "bring color to this… body" and bringing color to the support staff of this body. I understand wanting to give the good admiral props, and I'm not trying to take anything from him. But let's not get carried away.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 08:18:55 AM |

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More on that N.A.A.C.P. forum in Miami

NAACP leader criticizes President Bush, brother on affirmative action
2003/07/14 03:34 PM EDT

By CORALIE CARLSON, Associated Press

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (July 14, 2003 2:30 p.m. EDT) - The leader of the NAACP criticized President Bush and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, for challenging race-conscious admissions in colleges and vowed to work to unseat the president in 2004.

Speaking at the 94th annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, chairman Julian Bond praised the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the use of race as a factor in university admissions policies.

… "The court struck down the points but upheld the principle," Bond said Sunday. "Since the opponents kept telling us that this was all about principle, I'd say we won!"

Bond said he believed affirmative action policies will continue to be challenged. He also promised the civil rights group would be watching states that no longer use affirmative action policies, including Florida, to monitor their commitment to achieving diversity.

Bond criticized the Florida governor for his One Florida program, under which state universities can no longer consider race or gender in admissions decisions. High school students are instead guaranteed admission if they are in the top 20 percent of their graduating class.

…Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas apologized Monday to the NAACP for the snubbing local officials gave former South African President Nelson Mandela 13 years ago.

…That snub led to a three-year black tourist boycott of the Miami area.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 08:11:34 AM |

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Editorial run

Oh, I am enjoying this one. Bush, Ashcroft and his judicial packing ilk are the single biggest threat to the freedom of Americans since 1776. And if the mainstream is at risk, Black folks really have a problem. I want them gone, and will support any effort to make it so.

Pattern of Corruption
By PAUL KRUGMAN

More than half of the U.S. Army's combat strength is now bogged down in Iraq, which didn't have significant weapons of mass destruction and wasn't supporting Al Qaeda. We have lost all credibility with allies who might have provided meaningful support; Tony Blair is still with us, but has lost the trust of his public. All this puts us in a very weak position for dealing with real threats. Did I mention that North Korea has been extracting fissionable material from its fuel rods?

How did we get into this mess? The case of the bogus uranium purchases wasn't an isolated instance. It was part of a broad pattern of politicized, corrupted intelligence.

16 Words, and Counting
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

After I wrote a month ago about the Niger uranium hoax in the State of the Union address, a senior White House official chided me gently and explained that there was more to the story that I didn't know.

Yup. And now it's coming out.

Based on conversations with people in the intelligence community, this picture is emerging: the White House, eager to spice up the State of the Union address, recklessly resurrected the discredited Niger tidbit. The Central Intelligence Agency objected, and then it and the National Security Council negotiated a new wording, attributing it all to the Brits. It felt less dishonest pinning the falsehood on the cousins.

What troubles me is not that single episode, but the broader pattern of dishonesty and delusion that helped get us into the Iraq mess � and that created the false expectations undermining our occupation today. Some in the administration are trying to make George Tenet the scapegoat for the affair. But Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a group of retired spooks, issued an open letter to President Bush yesterday reflecting the view of many in the intel community that the central culprit is Vice President Dick Cheney. The open letter called for Mr. Cheney's resignation.

Uranium Quicksand

In trying to defend the indefensible in its depiction of Iraq's nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration is now making a legalistic argument that would be laughable if the matter were not so serious. Because the British government believed in January that Iraq had been trying to import large quantities of uranium from Africa, top administration officials are saying, Mr. Bush was technically correct when he cited the British concerns in the State of the Union address. The explanation conveniently glosses over the fact that long before Mr. Bush delivered the speech on Jan. 28, American intelligence officials had concluded that the British charge was probably unreliable.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 01:11:48 AM |

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Was this smart?

Truth, I don't think either of the three named have a real shot at the nomination.

No-Show Equals No Vote, Irate N.A.A.C.P. Hosts Say
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

MIAMI BEACH, July 14 � Leaders of the nation's most prominent black civil rights organization attacked three Democratic presidential candidates today for failing to show up for a forum that the group held here at its annual convention.

The six Democratic presidential contenders who did attend the forum by the N.A.A.C.P. appeared on a stage alongside empty chairs with placards bearing the names of the three who did not attend: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio.

President Bush did not attend either � a chair was placed on the stage for him, too � but his absence was not unexpected, particularly since he has not been to a convention of the N.A.A.C.P. since he took office.

It was the absence of the Democrats that appeared to cause the biggest stir among the delegates who were attending the meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

"You now have become persona non grata," the N.A.A.C.P president, Kweisi Mfume, said, referring to the candidates who did not attend. "Your political capital is the equivalent of Confederate dollars."

Georgia F. Allen, the president of the Virginia Beach chapter of the N.A.A.C.P, agreed. "I would say to the African-American community nationwide not to even consider voting for any of the candidates who did not attend this forum," she said.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 01:03:28 AM |

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That's it, ask them questions

A Shifting Spotlight on Uranium Sales
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, July 14 � The White House defense of President Bush's State of the Union speech comes down to this: The president was technically accurate when he cited a British report alleging Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa, but he never should have said it.

The evidence "did not meet the standards we use for the president," said Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and the minder of Mr. Bush's pronouncements. That is putting it politely. American intelligence agencies questioned the accuracy of the British report, and even doubted their own evidence.

… But if the White House's changing � and sometimes contradictory � time line of events leading up to the speech is to be believed, Ms. Rice's aides knew as early as October that some underlying evidence was suspect. The C.I.A., according to that time line, changed its assessment of the reliability of that evidence three times in four months � enough to make clear that there was reason to doubt the quality of the evidence.

That has led to questions that Mr. Bush and his aides have still not answered. Why did Mr. Bush's aides keep coming back to the Africa case as "an emblematic example" of Mr. Hussein's surreptitious activities, as one administration official terms it, if so many in the intelligence world were questioning it?

Further, how did it survive so many drafts of the State of the Union speech in January, only to be thrown out, days later, by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who found the evidence so thin that he dared not take it to the United Nations for his own presentation?

By the time Mr. Powell made it to the C.I.A. to prepare his own case against Iraq � three nights after the State of the Union address � the intelligence agencies were "not carrying it as a credible item," he said in an interview. How it met Mr. Bush's standards and not Mr. Powell's is one of the mysteries the White House has not addressed.

The answer, some in the intelligence world say, is that the evidence did not change � but the political environment around it did.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 12:59:27 AM |

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Let's see now, who else can we piss off?

Conflict on Iraq-Syria Border Feeds Rage Against the U.S.
By DEXTER FILKINS

ALHERI, Syria, July 14 � On this desolate stretch of desert along the Iraqi frontier, tensions with the American soldiers just across the border are running so high, Syrian soldiers say, that four villagers have been shot by American soldiers in the past month.

Soldiers on the Syrian side of the border said American soldiers shot dead two cousins, one Iraqi and one Syrian, as they crossed into Iraqi territory about three weeks ago. Since then, they said, two other Syrian civilians have been wounded in separate incidents this month. The Syrians said that American helicopters and planes routinely violate Syrian airspace while patrolling.

The events described at this Syrian border post are the latest in a series of incidents along the frontier. They include the American attack, on June 18, on a convoy suspected of ferrying loyalists of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader.

That incident, along a smugglers' route about 30 miles from here, and the others have apparently fueled intense anti-American rage in the villages on the border. Among the signs of that anger is a series of video discs circulating through the villages exhorting viewers to attack the Americans in Iraq.

Indeed, the locals here say the anger is high enough to prompt young Syrians to go across the border to stage attacks against Americans soldiers. It is unclear whether the four villagers shot in the recent incidents had crossed into Iraq with that intention.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 12:54:54 AM |

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The Empire Strikes Back

White House Shoves Back on Bush Claim
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, July 14 � The White House mounted an aggressive campaign today to contain what several Republicans said was a potentially worrisome dispute over President Bush's use of suspect information in pressing for a war on Iraq.

As part of their offensive, White House officials released new information to buttress Mr. Bush's claim, attacked the credibility of his Democratic critics and accused the news media of a "feeding frenzy."

After weeks of declining to disclose such information, Mr. Bush's aides described a chronology that they said mitigated Mr. Bush's citation of unsubstantiated British intelligence in his State of the Union address on Jan. 28. The president referred to the intelligence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa to further a nuclear weapons program as one reason in making his case for invading Iraq.

Today Mr. Bush, personally addressing the issue for the fourth time in six days, asserted at the White House that questions about the evidence he used did not undercut his overall case for war.

At the same time, Mr. Bush's political advisers pushed back against Democratic presidential contenders who have in recent days accused him of losing credibility on what had been seen as his strong suit, foreign affairs. The Republican National Committee issued a statement tonight asserting that "Democrats politicize war in Iraq," while party leaders declared that Democrats did not have the standing to challenge Mr. Bush on the subject.



Excuse me, but what the hell does "Democrats did not have the standing to challenge Mr. Bush on the subject?" I mean, since we have to look at the meaning of each word individually and in context and all I thought I'd ask.

The standing? My 16 year old grand niece has the standing to challenge Mr. Bush on any subject she sees fit, all right? This isn't American anymore? You have to have "standing" to hold a public servant responsible for the words he speaks? You have to have "standing" to point out when a simple question is simply being evaded?

As for a media "feeding frenzy" one should note that they only come about when there's blood in the water. When there's something to eat, know what I'm saying?

My rule for debate applies here: first ad hominem loses. And I haven't seen such a pack of losers as the Bushistas before in my life.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 12:51:30 AM |

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The positive side of loony, excessive tax cuts

The negative side being they can just slide this into the black box program category.

Funding for TIA All But Dead
By Ryan Singel

The controversial Terrorism Information Awareness program, which would troll Americans' personal records to find terrorists before they strike, may soon face the same fate Congress meted out to John Ashcroft in his attempt to create a corps of volunteer domestic spies: death by legislation.

The Senate's $368 billion version of the 2004 defense appropriations bill, released from committee to the full Senate on Wednesday, contains a provision that would deny all funds to, and thus would effectively kill, the Terrorism Information Awareness program, formerly known as Total Information Awareness. TIA's projected budget for 2004 is $169 million.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 12:18:20 AM |

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Ashcroft to courts: "You're not the boss of me!"

U.S. Will Defy Court's Order in Terror Case
By PHILIP SHENON

ASHINGTON, July 14 � The Justice Department said today that it would defy a court order and refuse to make a captured member of Al Qaeda available for testimony in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui.

The department acknowledged that its decision could force a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Moussaoui, the only person facing trial in the United States in connection with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In court papers, the department said Attorney General John Ashcroft had determined that testimony from the accused terrorist Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a confessed participant in the Sept. 11 attacks, "would necessarily result in the unauthorized disclosure of classified information" and that "such a scenario is unacceptable to the government."

"The government recognizes that the attorney general's objection means that the deposition cannot go forward and obligates the court now to dismiss the indictment unless the court finds that the interests of justice can be served by another action," the department said in the papers filed in Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va.

Bush administration officials have said for months that if Mr. Moussaoui's indictment were dismissed, his prosecution would almost certainly be moved to a military tribunal, where Mr. Moussaoui would be expected to have fewer rights to gather testimony from witnesses like Mr. bin al-Shibh.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/15/2003 12:15:02 AM |

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July 14, 2003

The Liberal Media, Redux

Demosthenes at Shadow of the Hegemon, like CalPundit, is good for a non-hysterical view of the ongoing stories floating around the BlogNet. Not that I object to hysteria, mind you, I just think it's a good thing to step back once in a while to make sure you're hysterical about the right thing.

Tonight Demosthenes is suggesting the big story isn't so much the Bushista lies as the media calling them on their lies:

In my opinion, (as I've mentioned earlier) it isn't Bush's lies about that subject, or their relationship to war, or even the public's reaction. It's the media, appropriately enough, that is the true story here. The story is in their willingness to explore these sorts of question; when they discover something, it's also in their reluctance to simply regurgigate the President's spin, as had been the case in the past. While the story is often (and, in my opinion, erroneously) framed as a Bush v. Democrats issue, the fact that the issue is making it onto the cover of Time and into the pages of newspapers shows a media that is, perhaps, more willing to attack Bush. In fact, in many respects it is the covers and headlines that are key- as others have pointed out, many people pay more attention to the headline than they ever do the article, and the headlines have been predominantly uncritical of Bush even when articles include critical elements. (The controversy over the CBS "lied" headline also centers around this point- that they felt confident enough to overstate instead of massively understate speaks volumes)


But it seems it's also about how the Bushistas are mis-handling the whole mess. He's got a really interesting example in the election of Pierre Trudeau.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 11:42:34 PM |

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Let's see now
We got idols of the marketplace, already linked and blogrolled today.
We got The Black Hand Sie, same.
We got The Storm new to the mix.
We got Plucky Punk's Happy Land added late because I checked my mail late.
And from the Star Trek mirror universe we got PrometheusSpeaks.

That ought to be enough new reading material for a couple of days.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 11:26:17 PM |

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And you thought Black English Month was over

You HOPED it was…

But no......

Transcript courtesy of Talking Points Memo

Questioner: Does the President consider the whole Niger uranium story finished?
Questioner: So, now that Prez is busted big time, he ain't talking to us no more?
Fleischer: I think as far as the President is concerned, he's moved on. The President --
Fleischer: Yo, man, he got his fingers in his ears, he's going nahnahnahnahnahnah... yeah, I'd say he's too through with you

Questioner: What do you mean, "moved on"? That we shouldn't get to the bottom of it?
Questioner: Too through? You saying we just gotta go for the ol' okeydoke and let it lay like that?
Fleischer: I think the bottom has been gotten to. The President has explained and said, and the Director of Central Agency has said --
Fleischer: Yup.

Questioner: Who's to blame for the misinformation?
Questioner: But somebody lied,man. Who was it?
Fleischer: Well, I think everybody went through this last week, and you can refer to the statements that have been made on it.
Fleischer: I ain't getting in that shit, dawg. Next.

Questioner: But there are some questions, Ari, that haven't been answered yet. Who, specifically, can you tell us, in the White House, asked for that line to be put in, given that this came out of the Cincinnati speech?
Questioner: I got your next right here, son. Why was the lie cool for the State of the Union address but not that speech in Cincinnati?
Fleischer: Which line was taken out of Cincinnati?
Fleischer: Which lie?

Questioner: Well, given that the information relating to the uranium in Niger was not included in the Cincinnati speech because the evidence wasn't there or intelligence wasn't there -- so who made the decision? Was it the speechwriters, the NSC, to put it into the State of the Union?
Questioner: The lie about Nigeriens selling bomb shit to Iraq. You had the lie then and didn't use it. Who decided to use the lie, man?
Fleischer: When you say "it," the information from the Cincinnati speech, which you just accurately said would have applied to Niger and to uranium, was not in the State of the Union. It's a different issue. You had an apple in Cincinnati and an orange in the State of the Union. They are different issues
Fleischer: The Cincinnati lie that we ain't used is a different lie than the one in the State of the Union. Keep that shit straight.

Questioner: Right. But as I understand it, the matter of the issue -- the intelligence was discussed prior to the Cincinnati speech. And what's been reported all over the place is that a recommendation was made not to include that in the Cincinnati speech. And, yet, it was included in the State of the Union address.
Questioner: Yeah, but I'm hearing y'all used the same material to make up each lie. So why was the State of the Union lie good enough to tell and the Cincinnati lie wasn't?
Fleischer: Be precise. When you say, it was not included in Cincinnati, but that was included in the State of the Union -- again, let's be -- I'll walk you through it. But the precision is crucial, because that's the heart of understanding what was taken out of Cincinnati and included in the State of the Union.

The reference that the CIA recommended be taken out of the Cincinnati speech was very specific to the country of Niger and to the quantity of uranium that Iraq sought from Niger, specifically the country of Niger. The language in the State of the Union was very different. The language in the State of the Union said, sought uranium from Africa -- not just Niger -- because there was other reporting about other countries beyond Niger, in Africa. So it would be erroneous to report or to say that the language in Cincinnati, they tried to get it back into the State of the Union. Different language, different meaning, different implications, different facts.

Fleischer: Oh, that's easy. The Cincinnati lie was about some specific Africans. The State of the Union lie wasn't… it was about some random Black folks. There's ALWAYS some Black folks doing crime of some sort, so we figured nobody could prove we wuz wrong.

Questioner: Ari, so who -- okay, fine. Who asked that the language about uranium in Africa be put into the State of the Union speech?
Questioner: Aight, so who decided the lie about Black guys should be used?
Fleischer: It was based on the NIE, by the reporting that we had at the time from the CIA, and it went through the vetting process, through the regular NSC process, speechwriting process.
Fleischer: Yo, a whole buncha mufuggas looked that over after the lie was put in there.

Questioner: Ari --
Questioner: Ya know that ain't what I asked, dawg.
Fleischer: And as you know, it was not objected to in the final analysis.
Fleischer: If the shit made it past alla them, I'ma get they back. That's my job, son.

Questioner: Ari, the whole premise for the White House saying that the President's statement shouldn't have been made was because you found out that the -- specifically the Niger information was not credible. So if you knew that that part in October, why did you let him say it given that now you're saying, yes, there was other information about Africa but that, in and of itself, did not hold up and didn't lend itself to --
Questioner: On the real, son, I ain't feeling you. You saying the State of the Union lie shouldn't have been told because you couldn't pin that shit on nobody. But you knew that in October. What up, man, seriously?
Fleischer: No, we said it didn't rise to a Presidential level. That's what we've said, that in hindsight, we now realize it did not rise to a Presidential level. There is still -- it would be also erroneous for anybody to report that the information about whether or not Iraq sought uranium from Africa was wrong. No one can accurately tell you that it was wrong. That is not known.
Fleischer: Nah, ma. You got it wrong. I'm saying we should have had someone else say dat. And how you gonna say I'm lying? You can't prove it's a lie. How you gonna say I'm lying if you can't prove it?

Questioner: In his statement Friday, the CIA Director said that he had alerted the White House officials several times to the fragmented nature of that intelligence, and, yet, Dr. Rice said on Friday and repeated again yesterday that neither she nor the President was aware of any concerns about the quality of the intelligence underlying the charge. Which is it?
Questioner: 'Cordin to Tee, SOMEbody lying. You gonna keep fronting or you gonna come clean?
Fleischer: I think the CIA Director's statement speaks for itself. I mean, he explains in there very directly that the information in the State of the Union dealing with the broader question of whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa was not vetted the way it should have been by the CIA. And it was based on CIA documents, as has been very well and publicly reported. I mean, there's nothing new here that hasn't been discussed last week.
Fleischer: I ain't getting in that at all, son. I go home for good after this one, know what I'm saying?

Questioner: But in his statement he says that not once, but, in his words, several times, the White House was alerted to concerns about the quality of the intelligence. He meets with the President every day, he's meeting with him now. Did that subject never come up in any of these meetings?
Questioner: You're still here now, man. Heh. So, Tee's saying he told all y'all that shit was wack. You tryna tell me he never told Dubya to his face when he see the boy every day? Is that what you trying ta say?
Fleischer: The fact that it's fragmentary is what means that it should not have been -- risen to the Presidential level. There's all kinds of information that is available that may -- may not be true. And I've always talked about intelligence being mosaic. Some parts of the mosaic are very clear. Those parts that are the most clear are absolutely concrete is what should rise up to the Presidential level. There's many other pieces of intelligence in the mosaic that certainly may be true, they may be fragmentary, but they should not necessarily rise to the President's level. We're the ones who acknowledge that.
Fleischer: Hell if I know. All I know is Tee be giving Prez all manner of information, including some shit you have to think about. You know you ain't really supposed to give Dubya shit you need to think about.

Questioner: Didn't the White House know, from Tenet, that that information was fragmentary and uncertain? The White House knew that from Tenet, correct?
Questioner: But did Tee say sompin like, "yo we heard this. It ain't locked down, but keep it in mind" or some such?
Fleischer: The information specific to Niger and the quantity sought --
Fleischer: When Tee talked ta him about Niger --

Questioner: -- included in the speech, forget Niger.
Questioner: -- We're past that, son. Fuk Niger, know what I'm saying?
Fleischer: No, because the NIA did not say that. And as Director Tenet has pointed out, the speech had been vetted by the CIA, and it was not taken out.

But, look, let me back up a second. Let me back up a second. The issue is, the President said that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa. That still may be absolute fact. The point is, it just didn't rise to the President's level.

Fleischer: All I know is what the NAI said. It didn't say "fuk Niger." And if Tee didn't complain about us saying some random Africans was selling bomb shit to Iraq, I don't know what your beef is with me. Take that shit up with Tee next time you see him, aight?

Besides, you don't know. You don't. It might be some Black guys in Africa selling that bomb shit.


Questioner: Nobody here knew that that -- that the information that was included in the speech about uranium from Africa was based on fragmentary evidence. Nobody here understood that.
Questioner: All I'm sayin is y'all came out and said that shit like it was gospel.
Fleischer: Keith, that's why there is a vetting process. There is information that we get from the CIA and that we talk to the CIA about. Then a speech gets written. It gets shopped to the CIA for them to review. And if the CIA has objections, it comes out.
Fleischer: It ain't my fault we got busted. That shit was supposed to be cleaned up before we ever got to this point, and now I gotta handle it on my last day.

Questioner: Well, if only the CIA knew -- the White House understood that to be accurate, firm, information and only the CIA knew that, in fact, it wasn't. Is that what you're saying?
Questioner: What I'm wondering is, does Prez believe everything he hears unless somebody tells him different?
Fleischer: I'm not sure I follow your question.
Fleischer: Whut?

Questioner: In other words, I'm trying to figure out if the White House understood at the time that this was uncertain information -- because if they did, then somebody here is also responsible, not just Secretary Tenet.
Questioner: I'm tryna figure out if he's a liar or just stoopit.
Fleischer: No, it's a process, and the process is we had the NIE in hand. The NIE said it explicitly, as you know. It gets written, it gets sent to the CIA, and nobody from the CIA said, take it out. I think the Cincinnati example actually underscores everything we've been telling you, because in Cincinnati, Director Tenet said, take that out. Had, for the State of the Union, somebody said, take that out, it, too, would have been taken out.
Fleischer: I guess he's stoopit.

Questioner: But Rice and people here -- forget "take it out," "don't take it out" -- the people at the White House understood that to be certain information based on firm evidence; is that correct, or not?
Questioner: So Tee is the only one that coulda schooled the boy? Even though he told other people who was supposed to look that shit over too?
Fleischer: The NIE stated it directly. And then what happens in the drafting process, the information is then sent back to the originating agency. And they review it and they didn't take it out.
Fleischer: Look, this book we ain't letting you see says Iraq was tryna buy bomb shit from some Black guys. Tee's people put it in there. They said it, and they never took it back.

Questioner: Why not, though?
Questioner: Duhh…

Questioner: So if the NIE states it, then it's firm information?
Questioner: So Prez believes everything he reads unless somebody tell him different?

Questioner: Ari, if the Cincinnati speech underscores the process, doesn't Secretary Powell's speech a week after the State of the Union undercut the process here? Because Secretary Powell looked at the totality of what the President said -- not Niger, just Africa -- considered it and said, this is insupportable. Now, what changed in the week's time between the time the President uttered the words in the State of the Union and the time that Secretary Powell presented his evidence that made everybody suddenly feel nervous about the evidence?
Questioner: Son, why could Colin see that shit was foul a week later, then?
Fleischer: The exact answer that Dr. Rice gave to you when you asked it last week, and that's been in the pool report from last week. No difference. I'm not going to say anything different. It's what she said.
Fleischer: Fuk that, you heard what Condi said. I ain't getting on her bad side. Not me, maannnn…

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 10:00:37 PM |

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You know what I think?

I think the Bush administration is gonna regret practically begging the whole left side of BlogNet to fisk every statement they make.

And I think they will be fisked because they made it clear the only way to get the truth out of their statements is to parse each word individually.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 08:50:25 PM |

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Quote number one ...

"I will remind Al Gore that Americans do not want a White House where there is 'no controlling legal authority.' "

-- George W. Bush
March 7th, 2000

I have to admit, he's certainly done that…

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 08:36:15 PM |

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Talk about shit-starting

Eschaton is on this 16 words thing like white on Bush.

Um, white on Condi.

Um. Rice.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 05:48:41 PM |

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Bush Opens Door to Troops, Liberians Trade Charges
Mon July 14, 2003 04:49 PM ET
By David Clarke and Steve Holland
MONROVIA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said Monday he was open to sending a limited number of U.S. troops to Liberia, where rebels and the government accused each other of breaking a fragile truce.

Bush has come under intense international pressure to help end 14 years of almost nonstop war in a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century.

"Any commitment we have would be limited in size and limited in tenure," Bush said in Washington after talks with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Bush also said Liberian President Charles Taylor, a former warlord who has been indicted for war crimes, would have to leave first. Taylor has insisted he will only go after peacekeepers arrive.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 05:47:20 PM |

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Now here's a constitutional amendment I can get behind

Courtesy of CalPundit's twisted sense of humor.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 05:32:12 PM |

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This is a reprint

The Imaginary Candidate

Ladies and gentlemen, my opponent is correct when he says everyone would rather pay fewer taxes than more. Truthfully, I feel the same, but as a public servant it will be my duty to serve you correctly. That sometimes means telling you the truth when you may not want to hear it. I'm afraid this is one of those times.

You have to pay taxes.

Let's take a break from all the economic theory and look at the reality on the ground. Do you want highways? Do you want new drugs tested for safety or do you trust the pharmaceutical companies that charge more for an allergy remedy than you'd likely pay for illicit drugs to make sure you're safe? Should we have an army? Do you want airliners inspected thoroughly, you're sure the safety checks won't be reviewed in the next round of cost cutting? Do you want unemployment assistance after that same cost cutting round? Do you want protection from criminal? Do you want everything deregulated, so that there's an Enron in every vital service you rely on?

Then you want a government. Maybe a more responsive government is what you need.

There is a cost to running a government, and again my opponent is correct in saying that cost depends on what a government does and how it does it. He has expressed his ideas on how it works. But he doesn't seem to take reality into account. And he doesn't take your need and desires into account either.

Think of all the things you need your government to do, and the things you want it to do. You're a citizen and your desires are as valid as those of my opponent's supporters. Think of what a government is capable of (I assure you, my opponent has given it ample thought!), and ask yourself does this man's plan leave the government enough resources to help you? I am asking you to make it personal because you will be affected by your decision more than either of us. Will your unemployment, if (God forbid) you should need it, expire before you can find work? Will it be available at all? Will your family's health suffer because you can not afford a doctor or the medicine she prescribes? Will the money you've already paid into social security be there when you retire? Will you have to invest your nest egg on your own, competing with people that trade for a living … people as good at their job as you are at yours? Will you come up short because a nation you helped make the richest, most powerful that ever existed won't be able to afford to pay you back? This is the future his tax cut plan is devising for you.

Ladies and gentlemen … citizens … I want you to forget about John Kennedy for a moment. I want you to decide what you want your country to do for you. And tell me, so I can make it so. No matter what a bunch of people who already have all you want say, it can be so.

But you'll have to pay taxes.

And so will they.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 05:12:07 PM |

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Eric V. Copage is the author of the best-selling series of Black Pearls books and most recently of "Soul Food: Inspirational Stories for African Americans." He also runs a web site called The Greatest Migration. It's still a work in progress, but already it's got some valuable web resources links… Eric looks in different places than I do, so he finds different stuff. Check his links page now or wait a week or two when I get around to stealing some of them.

What Eric is trying to do is best explained in his own words from the home page:

Welcome to the Greatest Migration�, a community of faith and action. By faith we don't mean adherence to a single religious belief. Some of us are Christian, others Moslem or Buddhist or Jewish, but that doesn't matter. Nor are we talking about faith in a specific political ideology or economic system or membership in a particular social or civic organization. By faith we mean our shared confidence that through daily concrete, positive action we of African descent can complete the most important leg of our journey toward spiritual fulfillment, material prosperity and political empowerment by 2019. That date marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African to the British colonies that would become United States.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 04:01:41 PM |

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Startin' Stuff Week

I'm not exactly sure if I can do this for a week… there's so much to react to that starting stuff seems a little redundant sometimes. But I know one topic I can throw out there that can easily be stretched into a week of shit and flames.

Reparations.

There, I said it. Wanna make something of it?

The thought of writing something on reparations came to me while reading idols of the marketplace this morning:

Honestly, I couldn't care less whether a U.S. President, Democrat or Republican, aplogizes for slavery. We all know that it was a crime against humanity. We all should know that this nation stands at the apex of power due in large part to the unpaid labor of many of my ancestors. But no apology will return to Africans and Africans in America what was taken from them. No apology will erase the torture heaped on black men and the degradation of black women. No apology will recover the lost opportunities or stifled ambition of people who were denied the basic fundamentals of the Bill of Rights and Constitution. No apology will bring better schools, create employment opportunites, or increase the life expectancy of many in the black community. It is certainly will not bestow honor and dignity on those who survived slavery and Jim Crow. They created their own dignity and did the best they could under circimstances that I could never imagine. Circumstances that existed as late as a generation ago. My fifty-five year old mother tells me of times when she and her siblings wanted to visit a local amusment park but could not since it was not the "colored day."


The opponents of reparations for Black Americans insist that all the damage was done by slavery, and done so long ago that reparations to affected partied are impossible. Disregarding for the moment that I am a party affected by slavery, Walter wrote a key sentance in that quote above: "Circumstances that existed as late as a generation ago."

It's not just slavery that caused damage that needs redress. It's the state laws that blocked voting rights. It's the funding policies that forced Black school districts (again, mandated by law) to use hand-me-down books given to them by white school districts after they were worn out or outdated. It's the federally mandated red-lining that practically forced down the property values of Black folks when they… finally… were allowed to buy homes under the GI bill.

And I'm only talking about government policies that directly impacted Black folks' Black people's ability to advance across the board. If, somehow, reparations could be gotten for the hostile environment that kept Black people in a fight-or-flight state 24/7, literally eating away at us physically, wearing down the repair mechanisms that would let us live as long as the majority, if the embarrassment of being followed in stores for no reason could be assessed, if that level of behaivior could be quantified, then I'd be standing next to the more radical reparations proponents demanding like 3.5 times the GNP.

As things stand, though, I'm not looking for a check. What I'm looking for is honor for Black folks. I'm looking for the treatment of Black folks to fully reflect out rights under the Constitution and Bill of Rights (which is why I am so hostile toward Bush and Ashcroft). I'm looking for Black people to have opportunity to match our ambitions. I'm looking for better schools, employment opportunities, health care.

I'm looking for a society that willfully damaged my people to willfully set about correcting that damage instead of willfully shirking the responsibility of fixing what their people broke.

Do this, and that is all the reparations I'll be looking for. Give us schools, and teachers, give us medicines we can afford, give us respect. If you have to give it to everyone else, fine, I have no beef with that. I'm saying that this must be done for Black people if the mainstream is not simply lying about their committment to the morality they espouse.

And if that is too much, I'll take a couple hundred grand, yeah. But truthfully, money is the least expensive offer no matter how big the check.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 03:20:52 PM |

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I really don't know what to say to this

Marriage may tame genius
Thursday, 10 July 2003
Creative genius and crime express themselves early in men but both are turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, a study says.

Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work.

The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein, who wrote in 1942: "A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so."

"Scientific productivity indeed fades with age," Dr Kanazawa says.

"Two-thirds (of all scientists) will have made their most significant contributions before their mid-30s."

But, regardless of age, the great minds who married virtually kissed goodbye to making any further glorious additions to their CV.

Within five years of making their nuptial vows, nearly a quarter of married scientists had made their last significant contribution to history's hall of fame.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 12:05:05 PM |

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Computer voting

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/12/politics/main562983.shtml

…Voters using SERVE can register to vote and cast their ballots from any computer using Microsoft Windows with Internet access. Local election officials will use the system to process voter registration applications, send ballots to voters and accept voted ballots instantly. Long delays in counting absentee ballots, a factor in the disputed 2000 presidential election, would be relegated to the past.

Security remains the top concern for the system's coordinators and fodder for critics.

"I think Internet voting is a good idea for this population if you can assure security, but I'm not confident that they can do that," said John Dunbar, a project manager at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. "It wouldn't take much for some smart hacker to send around a virus that lays in wait for someone to issue a vote."

Other computer security experts call the project an open invitation to election tampering.

"We're opening up a whole host of opportunities for voter coercion and voter fraud," said Rebecca Mercuri, a research fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who specializes in studying electronic vote tabulation.

Mercuri said even the most secure systems can be cracked, hacked or left vulnerable to Internet viruses, leaving the ballot contents and the voter's identity open to perusal.

"If we have this going on in commerce and all other transactions on the Internet, why would people think we can avoid it in voting?" she said. "This is just an experiment that's doomed."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 11:58:59 AM |

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One resource for immediate use

AntiRacism.net is run by Art McGee.

That's all I need to know (that's an endorsement).

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 10:14:18 AM |

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Giving in to the inevitable

So I've decided link whoring isn't the greatest sin known to man ("Hunting for Bambi" far supasses it).

Still, all things in moderation is still the rule of the day. One doesn't want to go linking to any random folks. So I'm giving a little more thought to some questions asked by an old friend, to wit:

> c) what's your _motivation_
I guess my motivation is to counter particular ideas. Some I counter by logic, some by rhetoric, some by example.

> b) what's your objective
With p6 I studying the "Tao" of BlogNet, think out loud and have fun with stuff once in a while.

> a) who is your target demographic
never thought about it beyond "the kind of people who read blogs."

I answered the questions in reverse order because that's the order in which I originally considered them. And these are my answers, in the fewest words possible. But I'm going to inflate the word count for a minute.

My motivation
When I watch TV, talk to folks or whatever I have a bad habit; I listen to them and refer what I'm hearing back to my understanding of events and the way the world works. Worse, I check to make sure the statement makes sense in light of my understanding of how physical reality works. When you do this, it becomes apparent how much crap is spewed and called information. You watch and see people accept what they are told and modify their understanding of events rather than using their understanding to test and challenge new claims. This is SO not a good thing

Because of this, I do two things here at P6. I relay things that point at what I see as the truth. They rarely point at absolute truth (the cartoons being a big exception to this) but tend to point at a place from which you can see the truth. The other thing is, I write some original material. The vast majority of the original material is intended to map some social complexity to the simple physical reality that it actually is. Doing this tends to verify everyone's observations and shitcan most of the explanations.

This is the major reason I've decided to seek out some reciprocal linking. There's no use doing all that in an empty room, and as chaotic as is the business of tracking link counts (how many service will do that for you? And the Ecosystem seems to be the official numbers but just yesterday N.Z. Bear ran the system twice and P6 dropped seven links between the first and second runs) folks still pay attention to them as a sign of authoritativeness.

My objective
P6 wasn't intended to be my final effort. It was a way to understand blogging, both the physical act (what kind of software is needed) and why the craze took off. I have a great interest in social software, remote learning and other digital methods of connecting and strengthening people. This his how blogging came to my attention and this bias has a lot to do with the angle at which I approach all this.

Everything has its own Tao, a way of operating which is determined by its original nature. The BlogNet is no diferent. For instance, I don't know what Technorati was intended to be but I use it as kind of a beeper. You see who linked to you, check them out and respond, which they see,and so on. Technorati, to me, is a conversation enabler, as is the detail report from the Ecosystem. They don't scale for these purposes, though; I can't see any of the "Higher Beings" or "Mortal Humans" recognizing a new link among the hundreds in their reports.

Anyway, Prometheus 6 is/was a tool to investigate how BlogNet could be best used to add or modify ideas in the public debate space, and such investigations need to be done from the inside so I jumped on in.

My target demographic
I'm letting this one work itself out. My own approach to things is less about explaining how to deal with something as to remove things as elements of concern… to counter error by pointing out its unreality rather than its opposite. An example of this was my rendering of Ari Fliescher's absurdities into Ebonics.

It ain't but so many folks can roll with that. I'll take 'em all.

Prometheus 6 isn't specifically about racial issues, but as a Black man I couldn't avoid interest in them if I wanted to. And though I will expound on racism I have little use for discussing racists that have no impact on me (which, much to their dismay, includes the vast majority of them). I'll deal with issues of social justice as a Black partisan. My goals tend to match those of the activist community, but my philosophical underpinnings tend to be mad different, so I differ with them about a lot of the stuff that should happen between the beginning and the end.

What does all this have to do with link whoring?

This is all the stuff I'll be taking into account while looking at sites to reciprocate links with. General political blogs are easy to locate, those that immersed on a Black gestalt are lower profile and therefore harder to locate. I've already found a couple to link to: idols of the marketplace and The Black Hand Side strong enough that I've blogrolled them immediately (yeah, I know I'm easy, and to Kamau: I can't find an email address on your site so if you see this through some link reporting system, consider it a reciprocal link request). Take a look at them and if you can refer me to similarly strong voices, I'd appreciate it.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 09:07:51 AM |

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Cartoons

Welcome Ann Telnais to the must-be-checked-out list.


and Drew Sheneman (and when you go to the page, make sure to click the "next page" link).


And Matt Davies, too

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 02:16:39 AM |

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Meanwhile, back on the homefront

Compromise Seen as Harder to Find on Medicare Drugs
By ROBIN TONER and ROBERT PEAR

ASHINGTON, July 12 � Agreement in Congress on a final compromise bill to add prescription drugs to Medicare could be far more difficult to negotiate than it seemed just a few weeks ago, with both sides in the debate digging in for a fight over important provisions, lawmakers and strategists in both parties say.

For 40 million elderly and disabled Americans on Medicare, that means the long-promised drug benefits, which could cover one-third or more of a beneficiary's costs for prescriptions, are still a legislative work-in-progress, not a sure thing.

Differences between the Senate and the House bills have become more apparent in the two weeks since the competing versions of the legislation were adopted. Now conservative House Republicans and Senate Democrats are issuing ultimatums, threatening to oppose the final legislation if it does not address their concerns.

Congressional leaders are forming a conference committee in an effort to reach a consensus on the legislation. But the magnitude of the task has already delayed the expected completion of the work to September or later, from late July, as the Bush administration had hoped.

Administration officials say they remain optimistic about the Medicare legislation, a centerpiece of President Bush's domestic agenda and one he wants to deliver before the 2004 presidential election.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 02:01:22 AM |

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Trapped in the System
By BOB HERBERT
A miscarriage of justice put Ryan Matthews on death row in Louisiana. The question now is how to free him.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 01:58:43 AM |

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Not really

Back From Africa: Bush's Promises Will Be Watched
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
President Bush made a lot of promises to Africa during his weeklong visit there. Now, back home again, he has to make good on them.

… But it is hard to assess the depth of his commitment. His trip had a dutiful, check-off-box quality that suggested a limit to his passion. He did not visit a single rural village. He stopped by no urban slums. Sticking to his AIDS and trade message, he did not focus on other, equally compelling issues, like the need to bring clean water to much of the population.

Then there is the question of whether Mr. Bush's trip was really about domestic politics, about appealing to black voters who have spurned him or � more likely � to moderate white voters, especially women, who might respond to a message of compassion.

… Largely because of budget pressures created by the administration's own policies � from tax cuts to increased spending for the military � money for Africa will be extremely tight. Last week, a House subcommittee moved to cut financing for Mr. Bush's main economic aid proposal, known as the Millennium Challenge Account, to $800 million from the $1.3 billion he had sought for next year. The same subcommittee voted to finance Mr. Bush's AIDS plan at about $2 billion next year, about what Mr. Bush now says he wants but $1 billion less than allowed under the legislation creating the program.

On the trade issues, Mr. Bush will confront intense pressure from powerful constituencies as he is getting his re-election campaign into gear.

Granting African countries increased access to the American textile market, for example, would run into opposition from lawmakers representing southern textile-producing states that have already lost many jobs to lower-cost nations. Cutting agricultural subsidies has proven to be a very tough sell to Congress, where farm-state lawmakers from both parties hold considerable sway.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 01:53:23 AM |

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…and rightly so

Democrats Attack Credibility of Bush
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

ASHINGTON, July 13 � Democratic presidential candidates offered a near-unified assault today on President Bush's credibility in his handling of the Iraq war, signaling a shift in the political winds by aggressively invoking arguments most had shunned since the fall of Baghdad.

In interviews, town hall meetings and television appearances, several Democratic presidential candidates, who had been sharply divided over whether to go war, declared that President Bush's credibility had been harmed because of his use of unsubstantiated evidence in supporting the looming invasion of Iraq in his State of the Union address in January.

They also criticized the administration for what has happened in postwar Iraq, especially the continued deaths of American military personnel, which many attributed to Mr. Bush's failure to enlist the help of the United Nations in conducting the war. They questioned the failure to uncover the nuclear, chemical or biological weapons Mr. Bush had cited in pressing for war.

"The most important attribute that any president has is his credibility � his credibility with the American people, with its allies and with the world," Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who voted for the war resolution last fall, said in a telephone interview today. "When the president's own statements are called into question, it's a very serious matter."

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 01:50:10 AM |

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A Tale of Two Africas
By Joseph Siegle
Joseph Siegle is the Douglas Dillon Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a co-author of a forthcoming book on democracy and development.

July 13, 2003

WASHINGTON � Neither Kenya nor Zimbabwe was on President Bush's Africa itinerary last week. Yet the two countries exemplify the diverging trajectories shaping the continent today.

Kenya experienced a democratic breakthrough with December's first successful transfer of power after 40 years of one-party rule. Since then, Kenyans have had more reason for optimism than at any time since the early days of independence in the 1960s.

In Zimbabwe, optimism has been displaced by misery. This is almost entirely caused by the increasingly autocratic rule of its leader, Robert Mugabe. In his attempt to cling to the power he's held for 24 years, Mugabe has driven his once-promising country into the ground.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 01:46:14 AM |

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You still have to watch your mouth when you're a public figure

On Race, Baker Swings With Grace
By Joan Walsh

SAN FRANCISCO � Six years ago, I wrote an homage to Dusty Baker that hailed his approach to race as a key to his success in leading the middling San Francisco Giants to the National League West title that year, over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Headlined "Dusty's way," the article quoted Giant team members praising Baker's unrivaled ability to take players and coaches from all over the world and turn them into a first-place team by talking about race, not hiding from it.

Now Baker, the Chicago Cubs' manager, is in danger of becoming the poster boy for "reverse racism," thanks to a pregame riff with beat writers about whether warm-weather baseball is tougher on whites. "It's easier for most Latin guys and it's easier for most minority people because most of us come from heat," Baker said earlier this month. "You don't find too many brothers in New Hampshire and Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan We were brought over here for the heat, right? Isn't that history? Weren't we brought over because we could take the heat?"

The reaction to Baker's comments burned up sports-talk radio phone lines for a day, then the wildfire spread to the studios of right-wing demagogues on cable television and radio. Rush Limbaugh called Baker a "disciple" of Leonard Jeffries, the notorious City College of New York professor known for crackpot theories about "ice people" and "sun people." Fox's Sean Hannity said that because a white manager would have been fired for Baker's remarks � a debatable point � Baker must be punished.

I've known Baker professionally for 11 years, and as usual, the right-wing broadcast bully-boys are dead wrong. But the issue may be with us for a while: Baker will attract international attention at Tuesday's All-Star game as National League manager. So his views on race could be a story for a while � but let's get it straight. If Baker's going to become famous as a race relations symbol, it should be as a role model, not a pariah.

Baker is to the multiracial world of baseball what Bill Clinton was to the splintered, disabled Democratic Party: He does the impossible every day; he makes sure fractious rivals get along; he shows us how it's supposed to work. One of four African American managers, he speaks fluent Spanish and still hangs out with his white high school "homeboys" from Sacramento. He's married to a native San Franciscan of Filipino descent. He put together multiracial management teams, first in San Francisco, now in Chicago � reuniting this year with bench coach Dick Pole, who's white, and third base coach Wendell Kim, the only Asian field coach in major league baseball, who worked for Baker years ago in San Francisco. He brought with him to Chicago black and Latino coaches from the Giants. "If you can't find somebody on my staff you can talk to, you're not trying," he told me when I asked him in 1997 about his racially diverse management staff.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 01:45:01 AM |

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Modified fisking

Since my tranlation of Ari Fleischer-speak into Ebonics the other day I've noticed similar translations to everyday-speak have been popping up. This may be a good thing; we've had Republican extremists translating events into NewSpeak for years now. Bring things back to earth, keeping it real, may be a partial antidote to the toxic political and economic ideas that have brought the nation to these straits.

CenterPoint

I disavow responsibility for any action of a Cabinet Member - I only appoint them, I do not tell them what to say.
When a Cabinet Member screws up, his action stands on its own merit. I refuse to take responsibility for any indiscretion committed by a Cabinet Member.


But once he 'fesses up to his own stupidity, I am privileged to announce I have ultimate faith in him, and that closes the matter. It makes us all look invincible. It is a simple matter of reciprocal bootstrapping. He certifies I did nothing wrong, by thrusting himself on the sword, as any loyal soldier would - and I parry any criticism of him by asserting my continual confidence in him. It is the ultimate confidence game.

[paraphrasing] President George W. Bush (2003)


Liberal Oasis

Everyone seems to have caught Tenet�s thinly veiled F-You to Condi at the end of his statement:

�[CIA] officials who were reviewing the draft remarks on uranium raised several concerns about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence with National Security Council colleagues.

[Translation: my team tried to push back on Condi�s team]

Some of the language was changed.

[and we got a weak concession]

From what we know now,

[I�m maintaining I wasn�t fully in the loop at the time]



Talking Points Memo

Risen has other sentences that capture the essence of the situation with equally grand understatement.

The legalistic defense of the phrasing seemed to signal a shift in the focus of the White House's strategy in dealing with the political fallout over Mr. Bush's public use of evidence that was based in part on fabricated documents and in part on uncorroborated reports from abroad.

(Dr. Jones' fitness to practice medicine has been called into question since his qualifications were based in part on a forged diploma and in part on long, probing study of Marcus Welby, MD.)

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 12:36:34 AM |

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Stagger Lee lives on
Author Cecil Brown probes the shooting behind the songs
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Sunday, July 13, 2003
�2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

Stagger Lee shot Billy over a $5 Stetson hat, or so the song goes. Everybody knows the fate of Billy Lyons, but it was East Bay author Cecil Brown who tracked down the actual turn-of-the-century shooting that launched a thousand songs.

Lee Shelton, a pimp called Stack Lee, was convicted of the murder of William Lyons, whom Shelton shot with a .44 Smith & Wesson after Lyons took his Stetson hat in a downtown St. Louis saloon on Christmas night 1895.

In his new book, "Stagolee Shot Billy" (Harvard University Press), Brown uses the incident as a starting point for an absorbing, far-ranging exploration of its subsequent recounting in hundreds of versions, including a 1958 No. 1 hit by Lloyd Price.

The song has been recorded many times, many ways, by musicians from Ma Rainey to Mississippi John Hurt, from New Orleans pianist Archibald to Bob Dylan. In December, Brown watched Taj Mahal play the song in his honor with Hawaiian musicians at Yoshi's.

But to Brown, who first heard his uncles sing the song in a North Carolina tobacco patch as a boy, "Stag-O-Lee" is more than a song, it's an African American myth that speaks to the heart of the black male experience in America.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 12:01:45 AM |

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July 13, 2003

My work here is done

Cal Pundit sums up the whole 16 words nonsense:

…Likewise, Bush's problem is not that a single 16-word sentence of dubious provenance made it into his State of the Union address. His problem is that he promised us that Saddam was connected to al-Qaeda, he promised thousands of liters of chemical and biological weapons, he promised that Saddam had a nuclear bomb program, and he promised that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators. But that wasn't all. He also asked us to trust him: he couldn't reveal all his evidence on national TV, but once we invaded Iraq and had unfettered access to the entire country everything would become clear.

But it didn't. We've had control of the country for three months, we've had access to millions of pages of Iraqi records, and we've captured and interrogated dozens of high ranking officials. And it's obvious now that there were no WMDs, no bomb programs of any serious nature, and no al-Qaeda connections.

So while the uranium is only a symbol, it's a powerful one. George Bush says we live in an era of preemptive war, and in such an era � lacking the plain provocation of an attack � how else can the citizenry make up its mind except by listening to its leaders? In the end, we went to war because a majority of the population trusted George Bush when he presented his case that Iraq posed an imminent danger to the United States and the world.

Uranium-Gate is a symbol of that misplaced trust. If George Bush's judgment had been vindicated in Iraq, a single sentence in the State of the Union address wouldn't matter. But it hasn't, and he deserves to be held accountable for his poor judgment by everybody who believed him.

And that's why those 16 words matter.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 11:29:13 PM |

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This is fucking bizarre

The participants here, especially the men, are some truly troubled individuals.

Oh, and blame John Constantine for this. Well, for my seeing it, I don't think it was actually his idea…

Bizarre Game Targets Women: Hunting for Bambi

(July 10) -- It's a new form of adult entertainment, and men are paying thousands of dollars to shoot naked women with paint ball guns. They're coming to Las Vegas to do it. This bizarre new sport has captured the attention of people around the world, but Channel 8 Eyewitness News reporter LuAnne Sorrell is the only person who has interviewed the game's founder.

George Evanthes has never been hunting. "Originally I'm from New York. What am I going to hunt? Squirrels? Someone's cats. Someone's dogs? I don't think so," said Evanthes. Now that he's living in Las Vegas , he's finally getting his chance to put on his camouflage, grab a rifle and pull the trigger, but what's in his scope may surprise you. He's not hunting ducks or even deer. He's hunting woman. Naked women.

"I've done this three times," says Nicole, one of the three women allowing themselves to be shot at. "I've done this seven times," says Skyler, another woman participating. "I've done it seven times," says Gidget the third woman.

Hunting for Bambi is the brain child of Michael Burdick. Men pay anywhere from $5000 to $10,000 for the chance to come to the middle of the desert to shoot what they call "Bambi's" with a paint ball gun. Burdick says men have come from as far away as Germany. The men get a video tape of their hunt to take home and show their friends.

…Burdick says hunters are told not shoot the women above the chest, but admits not all hunters follow the rules. "The main goal is to be true as true to nature as possible. I don't go deer hunting and see a deer with a football helmet on so I don't want to see one on my girl either," said Burdick.


"True to nature?"

This is some sick shit.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 10:56:12 PM |

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Should I just block referers from .sa?

This net.sa person was looking for "fuk Brazile woman."

Wrong blog.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:57:05 PM |

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Good news for Africa, if true

Contrary to American foreign policy, it's not the lack of acceptance of Frankenfoods that hurt Africa's economy. It's the system of U.S. and European farm subsidies that depress the market for African foodstuffs, plus an overall economic policy that treats foreign economies as a capacitor for Western economies.

Romano Prodi Pledges "Revolution" in Subsidy System

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
July 12, 2003
Maputo

The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, insisted in Maputo on Friday that the European Union is dismantling its system of agricultural subsidies.

Addressing the heads of state of the African Union (AU), Prodi said that last month European agricultural ministers adopted "a far reaching reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The reform will revolutionise the way the Union supports its farmers and will make the CAP more trade- and development- friendly".

However, details of the CAP reform are so far very sketchy.

The subsidies have been bitterly attacked for distorting agricultural markets, depressing prices, and ruining farmers in the third world.

All that was in the past, Prodi claimed. The CAP reform "spells the end to the old subsidy system, which significantly distorted international trade and harmed developing countries".

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:35:48 PM |

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The transition will be interesting to watch

Now that Mbeki's term is up. it will be interesting to see if his initiates will continue or if the collective turns to a different direction.

The George Dubya of Africa

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
July 13, 2003
By Ranjeni Munusamy
Johannesburg

Even as he relinquishes the reins of the African Union, Thabo Mbeki is regarded with suspicion by other African leaders. Those who watched events in Maputo know that the rupture between Libya and SA is widening.

On the opening day of the African Union summit in Maputo, Mozambique, this week, the continent's heads of state gathered on the stairs outside the conference centre for a group or "family" picture.

President Thabo Mbeki was the first to break away from the group. He stuck his pipe in his mouth and walked off across the courtyard towards the dining hall.

…With the fundamentals of the union established at its inaugural summit in Durban last year, the Maputo assembly had to deal with getting the right people in the right positions to shape it into a powerful, multilateral force.

…The question of a 50-50 representation of women on the commission became a major sticking point, with countries particularly in patriarchal North Africa arguing against gender tokenism. Eventually they gave in.

…First and most urgent is the setting up of the peace and security council, which would be responsible for conflict-management and peacekeeping deployments.

Mbeki was determined to get at least half of the member states to ratify the protocol for its establishment before his term of office as AU chairman expired. Only 12 of the 53 states arrived in Maputo armed with a ratification note.

Movement on the protocol for the establishment of the Pan African Parliament is also proceeding at a snail's pace. Mbeki also wanted the summit to agree on the draft protocol on the African Court of Justice.

…Mbeki commandeered the organisation with a firm hand when it was still malleable enough to be moulded according to anyone's needs and wishes - Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi the most willing and able.

While most other African leaders humour Gadaffi, Mbeki stared him down, making it clear that the AU was not about to be turned into a platform for the Brother Leader's theatrics. Most of Gadaffi's proposals for the AU, which would have steered it towards his grand plan for a United States of Africa, have been systematically squashed and thrown out.

The man Gadaffi had heavily invested in to lead his charge, former interim chairman of the AU commission Amara Essy, now finds himself jobless, bitter and wondering what he did that led Mbeki to call for his head.

…Gadaffi landed up supporting the man Essy had been up against, former president of Mali Alpha Konare.

Gadaffi says there is no tension between him and Mbeki and that they are completely in synch. But those who watched events play out in Maputo know that the rupture between Libya and South Africa is widening.

Gadaffi wants Africa to speak with one voice in international relations - his - and as a super-state that can defiantly contest the hegemony of the US.

Mbeki also wants Africa to operate as a homogenous entity, but he wants the 53-member states to unite around development, poverty eradication, economic growth and prosperity, democratic governance, stability and technological advancement - all of which is envisaged in his New Partnership for Africa's Development.

Gadaffi is not particularly interested in any of this. His proposals to the summit included changing the date of Africa Day from March 2 to September 9 (the day of the signing of the Sirte Declaration which led to the establishment of the AU); setting up five regional offices for the AU (one in Libya); and a provision to increase the term of office of the AU presidency beyond one year.

This is a forward-planning initiative on Gadaffi's part for a time when he might take over.

He also wants the seat of the Pan African Parliament to be in Libya, opening the way for a two-horse race with South Africa.

…Ironically, it is Mbeki, not Gadaffi, who is viewed by other African leaders as too powerful, and they privately accuse him of wanting to impose his will on others.

In the corridors, they call him the "George Bush of Africa", leading the most powerful nation in the neighbourhood and using his financial and military muscle to further his own agenda.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:30:58 PM |

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A rather practical idea

At this point even the grafters ought to get with this. You need people to graft from… in other words, they need to unite to save the golden goose if for no other, better, more ethical reason.

Unite Against Graft, Says Kibaki

The Nation (Nairobi)
July 13, 2003
By Pps
Nairobi

Let us fight tribalism and poverty together, he tells African Union

President Mwai Kibaki has called on African countries to unite against corruption, tribalism and poverty, which he termed enemies of unity in the continent.

The President said most of Africa's problems were caused by poor governance.

He said the unity exhibited by Kenyans in the last elections represented the aspirations of African people in fighting the problems afflicting them.

"This is what the Kenyan people united for. Corruption, tribalism and poverty are the real enemies to an integrated Africa. We must fight these ills together," he said.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:18:55 PM |

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Summit Opens in Abuja With Tributes to Founder's Legacy
allAfrica.com
NEWS
July 13, 2003
By Tamela Hultman
Abuja

The sixth Leon H. Sullivan Summit opened Saturday in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, with President George Bush praising the "vision" of the event's late founder.

Sullivan, a dynamic Baptist preacher who established the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) - a self-help and jobs training program now operating in 30 states and more than 15 countries, including Africa - organized five previous summits to build bridges between Africans and Americans, particularly African Americans.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo lauded Sullivan's belief in Africa's future and appealed to participants to carry on that legacy. "I challenge all of you here to see yourselves as midwives for the rebirth of Africa," he said.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:15:01 PM |

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Bridges burnt ahead of you

We Don't Want Him in Nigeria' : Hand Him Over to War Crimes Court - Yusufu

Vanguard (Lagos)
July 12, 2003
By Blessyn Okpowo, Deputy Editor

Alhaji Mohammed Dikko Yusufu, former Inspector General of Police and Presidential candidate of the Movement For Democracy and Justice MDJ, needs no introduction. He was a close ally of President Obasanjo in his first coming as military head of state. Yusufu has remained an international figure even in retirement especially in security circles. At home, he remains a reference point in the human rights and pro-masses struggles by the nation's progressive forces. He spoke on the asylum debate for Charles Taylor.

I don't think it is a wise idea to ask Mr. Charles Taylor to come to Nigeria. He is a wanted man by the international community. He is wanted for war crimes by the international court, so if he is coming here, he should come only to be handed over to the War Crimes Tribunal. The whole world can not be going to one direction and we go to a different direction. We cannot be bigger than the world. The man committed atrocities against his own country men, he killed innocent citizens from his country who dared raised a voice against him. He turned innocent children into guerrilla soldiers and destroyed their lives. All this was because he wanted to stay in power.

He even killed innocent Nigerian journalists who went to cover the Liberian war because according to him Nigeria was supporting his opponents. Now that the tide has turned against him he wants to turn to Nigeria for refuge. If he comes here, he should be handed over to the War crimes tribunal. How do you explain the presence of Charles Taylor in Nigeria to the families of those Nigerians who died in Liberia because they wanted to restore peace in there? How do you explain his coming to Nigeria to the children of those two journalists (Krees Imodibe and Tayo Awotusin) whom he killed in cold blood for no other reason than the fact that they are Nigerians?

I know people will talk of Nigeria playing the brother's keeper. But you can not keep a brother who is a murderer. If you have a brother who is a criminal, you don't protect him simply because he is your brother. You make him face the consequences of his actions. He should be made to face the law and that is what we should do to Taylor.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:12:54 PM |

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What's wrong with this picture?

Speak, Sistah, Speak!
Africanizing our Historically Black Institutions
By Sistah Dr.Safisha Nzingha Hill

The Blacker the College the Sweeter the Knowledge, is a common saying heard among students who attend Black institutions, as well as many proud alumni. Our institutions have, from their inception, served a unique mission, in educating the masses of Black folk, thus creating the Black middle class. We have done much with little and have educated some of the nations brightest minds. Alumni of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU�s) have gone on to graduate, professional and law schools in numbers surpassing black counterparts from predominantly white institutions. A number of historically black institutions now offer graduate level degrees as well as professional degrees in a variety of fields. Research indicates that black students attending HBCU�s are generally more satisfied, and are able to successfully compete in the workforce. They tend to be more loyal to their institutions, and have closer relationships with fellow students, and with faculty and staff. There is however one major issue that is long past due of being addressed in regards to the original mission of our institutions, that of educating us Black folk, about us.

It�s a shame that Black students, attending a Black college, seldom can enroll in a course about Black history, Black sociology, Black psychology, Black literature, Black religion, or Black music. Yet Black students, attending a Black college are required to take courses on western civilization, U.S. history, western humanities, American literature, and English literature in order to graduate. Meanwhile Black students at predominantly white colleges have a better opportunity to at least minor in Black Studies, and many can receive bachelor degrees in Black Studies, as well as masters and doctorates. Now what is wrong with this picture?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 09:07:07 PM |

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Those 16 words

Yes, those deadly words, those stealthy words that stalked President Bush relentlessly until, in a moment of exhastion the President let his guard down and the words got past him. Only George Tenet stood between those 16 words and the State of the Union speech.

But it doesn't matter, because it was just 16 words, right?

Jesse did the math

In fact, Bush only devoted 74 words of his entire address to the idea that Saddam was actively producing any weapons of mass destruction - the 74 word portion which contains the Niger lie, the aluminum tube lie, and the assertion that the IAEA provided a report which claimed Saddam was actively pursuing nuclear weapons - a report which the IAEA disavowed.

The remaining 1,068 words focus on the regime's deception over the nature of their WMD and programs. The problem with this section is that it rests on the assumption that the regime was active maintaining and/or developing stockpiles of WMD. Those 74 words, 16 of which are an avowed lie, are the core of this argument. Bush said that we led a "coalition to disarm" in his speech. Not a coalition to liberate, or free, or any of the other "primary" goals which Bush barely mentioned (if at all) - a coalition to disarm.

When a significant portion of the core of the disarmament argument - the existence of an active and ongoing program to develop WMD - is, at best, dishonest, then how can we trust this President on other matters of national security?

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 01:43:41 PM |

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Why I love editorial cartoons

Just click through and read this thing.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 12:08:36 PM |

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Racism
or
The Only Possible Choices


In a past essay I discussed Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Motivation and pointed out that the mainstream, by its rejection and disruption of Black people's most fundamental social requirements (on which the required behavior is based), make achieving the stated requirements for full acceptance placed on Black people is made much more difficult.

In this essay I want to discuss the human response to this condition. Being human, our responses must fall within the range of what is possible-a requirement that is easy to miss.

In "Social Structures and Anomie," Robert K. Merton explained that a society presents people with a definition of success (the end) and acceptable methods of attaining success (the means). According to Robert K. Merton's "Dream Machine," an excellent exposition of Merton's ideas:

In American society, argues Merton, the "goal" guiding it all is a vision of how life ought to be: the so-called American Dream. On the one hand, this dream is a particular vision of what constitutes success: wealth, respect, a good job and family, a house in the suburbs. On the other hand, this vision also instructs us that through hard work, anyone can make it. If someone fails to succeed, therefore, the American Dream informs them that they simply need to work harder and be patient.

Stripped of specifics, the end, the goal set by the American Dream is to become independently wealthy, to be able to do nothing and have everything. The means, according to the American Dream is personal effort, particularly in the areas of education and employment. That these means were for the most part unavailable to Black people for most almost 400 years needs no support or explanation.

What may need explanation is the idea that there is a pattern to the possible reactions to this situation. As explained in "Cool Pose: The Dilemma Of Black Manhood In America" by Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson:
"Merton identifies individual modes of adaptation that can be used in pursuing societally valued goals: conformity, innovation, retreatism, ritualism, and rebellion. Success in achieving goals by conforming to legitimate, conventional means is possible only in the absence of institutionalized barriers, such as racism, or by chance. For the black male, then, conformity is not as effective an adaptation as innovation (creating illegitimate or unconventional means to achieve the same goals). Retreatism, in which both the culturally mandated goals and the conventional means are rejected, is also attractive to black males who have given up on the system. Giving up, withdrawing, or refusing to play the game may seem more sensible than continually beating one's head against the wall. Rebellion, in which both goals and means are replaced by new, subcultural goals and means, is also a popular strategy, as indicated by the Black Power Movement. Being tough and substituting a violent life style for more conventional adaptations are also forms of rebellion. Thus, blocked opportunities can result in criminal behavior and antisocial personalities."

So, conformity being (to put it charitably) a less than optimal approach, Black people had only innovation, retreatism, ritualism, and rebellion as possible approaches to living in the USofA. Of ritualism, which isn't mentioned in the quote from "Cool Pose," probably because it's pretty hard to defend from a mainstream perspective, is:
But not everyone in society remains committed the American Dream. Many, in fact, resign themselves to the fact that they will never reach their goal. Just as Merton argues that those who are remain committed to society's goals can take two paths, so too does he theorize the rejection of society's goals can be of two sorts.

First, individuals may reject society's goals, but remain committed to society's institutions of advancement. Rather than value education or work as means to success, such individuals come to see the "means" as ends in themselves! For example:

"I may not be wealthy, but education is good for its own sake"
"Hard work is good in itself, not for where it gets you"

Both are examples of Merton's path of ritualism.
Ritualism is the response the mainstream prefers without realizing it represents a fundamental rejection of the American Dream. It is also the approach promoted by the incarnation of Christianity most practiced by Black people. Humans who choose this approach are at least a bit out of step with the mainstream because their valued end� work� is different than that of the mainstream� retirement.

Ritualism as a valid response is losing traction in the Black community. Partly due to our absorbing the commercialism that saturates pop culture Black people pursue the end presented by the American Dream to an unprecedented degree. If nothing else changes-if a ritualist accepts the goal of the American Dream and retains his methods, which are already compatible with the American Dream, he becomes by definition a conformist.

Ritualism being the acceptance of the means and rejection of the ends of the mainstream, innovation is the rejection of the means and acceptance of the ends. An innovator wants the same things the conformer wants, she just sets about getting them differently. This is only a workable response where a society values the end more than the means to it (another reason ritualism is out of vogue in the Black community-we see it simply doesn't match the reality of day to day life in the USofA):

While innovation occurs in part as a response to blocked opportunities, Merton also stresses that it requires a society in which the "ends" of material success are valued far more than the "means" or rules of getting there. As an example, he cites the mainstream example of competitive athletics, arguing that in America, "winning the game" is often more important than "playing with the rules." This leads to subtle and not-so-subtle forms of cheating, both on the field (hurting one's competitor) and off the field (colleges subtly breaking rules to attract strong athletes).

This, of course, isn't limited to athletics. National and cultural rhetoric aside, the actual operating procedure seems to be
Well it's not the plan
And it's not the thought
It's not the kickback
It's if you get caught
You get to keep what you gain as long as no one asks how you got it or you can convince all challengers your actions fell within the rules. Innovation is the response of both creators and criminals. An argument could be made that innovation rather than conformity is the response preferred by the mainstream by taking Progress� another Defined Good of Western society� into account.

The path of innovation can be blocked in any number of ways, most pertaining to knowledge and opportunity. One may also be an innovator in the space in which one is free to do so and find that one's innovations are of little to no assistance in physically surviving. This would still be of used in maintaining one's mental and emotional balance though, and many people find the combination of minimally assured physical survival plus personal innovation sufficient.

Of the remaining possible responses, retreating and rebelling, retreating may be physically impossible for a healthy growing human to accept. Growth and expansion strike me as biological imperatives of the early stages of our lives.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 11:45:02 AM |

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The goal is in sight

Hey, maybe it would work.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 11:10:37 AM |

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Rumsfeld on Meet The Press

Caught a piece of it out of the corner of my eye.

I can't wait to get my hands on a transcript.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 11:01:25 AM |

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Howard Dean to blog this week

Lawrence Lessig is vactioning, and has turn his blog over to Howard Dean (yes, THAT Howard Dean) for the week.

A new guest blogger: Howard Dean

Yesterday, I completed a draft of a new book. Tomorrow, Bettina and I leave for our first vacation in a very long time (and, as we expect, the last vacation the two of us will take alone in a very long time).

So it is time for me to take a break from this space too. But I�ve arranged for a much more interesting guest blogger while I�m gone: former governor, and presidential candidate, Howard Dean.

This is, I believe, the first time a presidential candidate has been a guest blogger. But it is an obvious extension of blogs and the process of becoming President. Campaigns are all about meeting different groups and talking about ideas. Where better than a blog?

I have great respect for Governor Dean, and especially the clarity of his voice. I have even greater respect now that I see the doctor makes house calls. So Governor, welcome to this tiny server at Stanford: You�ll find perfect acoustics provided by MovableType, and an interesting mix of views provided by the readers.

And to everyone else, enjoy the week of something totally different. Dean is on starting Monday. I should be back the week following.

One ground rule: I�ve had a policy of not editing comments of others, regardless of abusiveness. That is not my policy for my guests. You may disagree with the views you read here. But if you are reading them here, then you at least should respect the fact that they are being expressed here. It is important to me that blog-space everywhere become a place where more of this kind of conversation can occur. So trolls, please save your abuse for my return.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 10:25:52 AM |

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Working on stuff

Right now I'm working on another one of those racism essays. In the process of pulling together a few good quotes I found a souple of excellent resources: Paul's Crime and Justice Page and CrimeTheory.com.

I found several useful quotes for this essay at CrimeTheory.com, but I'll be exploring Paul's Crime and Justice Page for a while, in particular the Abuse of Power by Corporate and Governmental Elites, ore Elite Deviance, pages. At the site's home page I found this very interesting statement:

I get irritated that Philip Morris spends $2 million on domestic violence programs, then $108 on advertising to tell out about it. Then there's, Nike which paid Michael Jordan more for endorsing its trainers ($20 million) than the company paid its entire 30,000-strong Indonesian workforce for making them.


The Nike/Michael Jordan case is an example of what's wrong with our relationship with the rest of the world, while Philip Morris case is an example of what's wrong with out relationship with ourselves.

Another very interesting section of the site is Black Genocide? Preliminary Thoughts on the Plight of America�s Poor Black Men

Our aim in this article is to offer an examination and preliminary defense of the claim that poor African American men are subjected to conditions of life that are sufficiently destructive to amount to an instance of genocide. To make our case, we define the term genocide and apply measures of this phenomenon to the life experiences of poor black American men. Our focus is on grossly disproportionate death rates among this group, which we examine as one of a number of products of social deprivation. The emphasis is on understanding indirect genocide (which involves creating life conditions which destroy a group and facilitate black on black violence), and the problem of inferring direct intent because of ideological racism


I thought that would be a good thing to share.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 10:16:51 AM |

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