Prometheus 6

About a week ago I saw this on a mailing list

For any of you who really gives a damn, talk with, and listen to, teenagers about what is going on in high school. Talk to teenagers about what is happening in middle school. If you really want to loose sleep, talk with kids in elementary school.

Things are off the chain and loving parents have a right to be concerned about the madness that is going on.

So-called "homophobia" doesn't have jack s*** to do with it.

"Divide and conquer" doesn't have a thing to do with it.

Your kid thinking he/she is gay because they feel close to a friend, and being blasted with the overt sexual imagery going on, has a lot to do with it.

Yes, sir, I am quoting you from Afroam. But you won't mind because I bring corroboration of sorts. I'm sure parents around the country are terrified.

U.S. Is Set to Sell Jets to Pakistan; India Is Critical

By THOM SHANKER and JOEL BRINKLEY

WASHINGTON, March 25 - The United States will sell F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan in a deal that State Department officials said Friday would improve regional security. But the decision was immediately denounced by India as adding a fresh element of instability to relations between the nuclear neighbors.

The size of the arms sale has not been decided, State Department officials said, although Pakistan previously said it was seeking about two dozen of the planes, which can be used in ground or air attack roles and have a maximum range of more than 2,000 miles.

Illegal Nuclear Deals Alleged
Investigators say Pakistan has secretly bought high-tech components for its weapons program from U.S. companies.
By Josh Meyer
Times Staff Writer
March 26, 2005

WASHINGTON —  A federal criminal investigation has uncovered evidence that the government of Pakistan made clandestine purchases of U.S. high-technology components for use in its nuclear weapons program in defiance of American law.

Federal authorities also say the highly specialized equipment at one point passed through the hands of Humayun Khan, an Islamabad businessman who they say has ties to Islamic militants.

Even though President Bush has been pushing for an international crackdown on such trafficking, efforts by two U.S. agencies to send investigators to Pakistan to gather more evidence have hit a bottleneck in Washington, said officials knowledgeable about the case.

The impasse is part of a larger tug-of-war between federal agencies that enforce U.S. nonproliferation laws and policymakers who consider Pakistan too important to embarrass. The transactions under review began in early 2003, well after President Pervez Musharraf threw his support to the Bush administration's war on terrorism and the invasion of neighboring Afghanistan to oust Pakistan's former Taliban allies.

I have to admit they handled the Schiavo attack well.

Good Judgment
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A14

NEITHER CONGRESS nor President Bush acquitted themselves well last weekend in enacting a law to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. But in the days that have followed, one institution of American government has distinguished itself in its handling of the matter: the federal courts.

As you see, a judiciary that does its job is a strong bulkward against extremists. It's the reason the judiciary has been under attack for so long.

Conservatives tell court domestic partner rights are illegal
- By JIM WASSERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, March 25, 2005
(03-25) 19:41 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

Lawyers for two groups opposed to same-sex marriage told a state appeals court Friday that a domestic partners law giving gay couples nearly the same rights as married spouses is illegal and should be overturned because lawmakers undermined the will of voters.

The law, which was signed by former Gov. Gray Davis and went into effect Jan. 1, represents the nation's most sweeping recognition of domestic partner rights after Vermont's recognition of civil unions for gay couples. It grants registered couples virtually every spousal right available under state law except the ability to file joint income taxes.

McDonald's is considering outsourcing its drive-thru ordering. There's only one reason to even consider routing your order from Ronald's nose to the kitchen via India...to automate the kitchen processes as well.

That's what they're called...not jobs, kitchen processes.

Automating or outsourcing the order taking was the hard part. The food preparation is an assembly line deal anyway. And I can think of several business cases for this. Rest stops along interstate highways would provide flawless service 24/7. Operating hours can be extended at manned shops as well.

But god. Outsourcing McDonalds. That's got to be symbolic of something.

Because if he isn't lying this:

Rebel Leader Forms New Kyrgyzstan Government
By David Holley
Times Staff Writer
9:58 AM PST, March 25, 2005

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan —  Kyrgyzstan's new authorities moved swiftly today to assert power a day after taking over the institutions of government, but local media reported a statement by ousted President Askar A. Akayev denouncing his political foes and vowing to return to this Central Asian nation.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, appointed acting president and prime minister today by the former opposition, said that swiftly restoring order in the country was the top priority.

"We have to form a government which is going to resolve all the problems," Bakiyev told reporters. "Above all we need to preserve stability. You can see what kind of unrest started yesterday, and we cannot allow this."

Bakiyev announced appointments of Cabinet ministers later today. Roza Otunbayeva, another key former opposition leader, was named acting foreign minister. Bakiyev and Otunbayeva indicated that new presidential elections could be expected in June.

...requires a response.

Medicaid Deal Worth $66 Million To Iowa
Associated Press
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A07

DES MOINES, March 24 -- Iowa has struck a deal with federal officials that allows the state to retain $66 million in Medicaid funding it would have lost this summer because of a crackdown on an accounting gimmick.

Donna Folkemer, a Medicaid specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Iowa is the first to strike an agreement that replaces money lost by the accounting change. "There are discussions going on between many states and the federal government," she said.

For years, Iowa and other states used an accounting practice -- awarding state money to hospitals and nursing homes, and then moving it back again -- to boost federal Medicaid matching funds. But Medicaid officials have told states that such transfers will not be allowed past July 1.

Quote of note

Noting that an Islamic militant group had said 11 insurgents were killed, Goldenberg said: "I would tell you that somewhere between 11 and 80 lies an accurate number."

Sounds like twelve.

Anyway...

Doubts Surface On Iraq Raid Toll
Claim of 85 Rebel Deaths Questioned

By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, March 25, 2005; Page A13

BAGHDAD, March 24 -- New details about an intense battle between insurgents and Iraqi police commandos supported by U.S. forces cast doubt Thursday on Iraqi government claims that 85 rebels were killed at what was described as a clandestine training camp.

Quote of note:

Barbara Coulter Edwards, the Ohio Medicaid director, estimated that her state would have to pay the federal government $340 million in 2007. This, she said, exceeds the expected savings by $55.7 million.

"To come up with that money," Ms. Edwards said, "we are having to take benefits away from other people. I don't think it was deliberate by Congress, but the consequences are painful for states and for our beneficiaries."

Cost-Cutting Medicare Law Is a Money Loser for States
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, March 24 - In passing the new Medicare law, Congress intended to relieve states of prescription drug costs for low-income elderly people. But as states do the arithmetic, many find that they will lose money, because they will have to give back most of the savings to the federal government.

Too Much Capital: Why It Is Getting Harder to Find a Good Investment
Published: March 25, 2005

THERE is too much capital in the world. And that means that those who own the capital - investors - are in for some unhappy times.

That thesis may sound inherently unlikely, but it explains a lot. Those with capital find they must pay high prices for investments that are likely to produce only a little income. The relative importance of things other than capital, like commodities and cheap labor, has grown.

Evidence of the capital glut can be seen in interest rates. Market rates are low, and even when central banks set out to raise short-term rates, longer-term rates are slow to move. Little additional yield is available to those who buy very risky bonds. For the same reason, stock prices are high. Profit disappointments may not cause the stock market to plunge, since the capital will have to go somewhere. But the return on the underlying investments is likely to be below what investors have expected.

Trading Places: Real Estate Instead of Dot-Coms
By MOTOKO RICH and DAVID LEONHARDT

Real estate-crazed Americans have started behaving in ways that eerily recall the stock market obsession of the late 1990's.

In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early-21st-century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings where developers pitch condos to eager buyers.

Five years ago, the cable channel CNBC sometimes seemed like a backdrop to daily American life. Its cheery analysis of the stock market played in offices, in barbershops, even in some bars. Today, "Dude Room," "Toolbelt Diva" and other home-improvement shows are the addictive fare that CNBC's exuberant stock shows once were.

Okay, so I stole a Tom Toles cartoon.

I should have moved on, but there were two more too good not to share. Having stolen one already though, I have to do the work of making thumbnails and links.

Only you have to go see this one today before it disappears behind the financial firewall.

Quote of note:

If you think it's silly to put so much weight on a close textual analysis of conservative punditry, bear in mind that this is how conservatives chose George W. Bush as their 2000 nominee. It may have seemed to the outside world that we all woke up one day, long before the first Republican primary, to discover that the entire GOP establishment had coalesced all at once around Bush. In fact, Bush's anointing resulted from just the sort of subterranean machinations that we're seeing today.

That Rumbling Is Cheneymania
The columns hyping the VP seem to plead for Bush's OK.
Jonathan Chait
March 25, 2005

Why Schiavo's Parents Didn't Have a Case
By Andrew Cohen
Andrew Cohen is CBS News' legal analyst.
March 25, 2005

Terri Schiavo's parents did not lose their federal case because they didn't try hard enough. They didn't lose their case because everyone conspired against them. They didn't lose it because Congress ticked off the judiciary over the weekend with its over-the-top custom-made legislation. They didn't lose it for lack of money or because they failed to file a court paper on time. They didn't lose it because the laws are unfair or because bureaucrats sometimes can be arbitrary and capricious.

The Schindlers lost their case and their cause —  and soon probably their daughter —  because in the end they were making claims the legal system has never been able or willing to recognize. They lost because they long ago ran out of good arguments to make   those arguments having been reasonably rejected by state judge after judge   and thus were left with only lame ones. And they lost because in every case someone has to win and someone has to lose. That's the way it works in our system of government. It isn't pretty, and sometimes it's unfair. But it's reality.

Scientists Find Soft Tissue in T-Rex Bone
Thu Mar 24, 2005 05:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Paleontologists forced to break the creature's massive thighbone to get it on a helicopter found not a solid piece of fossilized bone, but instead something looking a bit less like a rock.

When they got it into a lab and chemically removed the hard minerals, they found what looked like blood vessels, bone cells and perhaps even blood cells.

For various reasons I've been spending a little more time at The American Street than I have in the past. Recently Dave Johnson sensed something wrong in the discussion about the biomass.

You're doing it again. You're not seeing what is really going on. You are missing the bigger picture. You are looking at trees and missing the forest. Do you really, after all this time and all these defeats, think the Right is stupid?

You mock the Republicans for blatantly acting politically, and ignore that they ARE ACTING POLITICALLY. In other words, they're acting in the way that will in the long term gain them more support for their candidates and issues.

You mock their politicians for flocking to this because of a Republican talking points memo telling them this will gain them a political advantage, yet you do not see that THIS WILL GAIN THEM POLITICAL ADVANTAGE.

You re nitpicking details and ignoring the larger narrative. They are  trying to save this poor woman.  They are  defending this poor woman s family.  Meanwhile, you are pointing out discrepancies in the finer details.  What about her husband?  you ask when they talk about her parents.  She can t feel pain,  you say, when they accuse Democrats of starving her to death. How many people hear that they are trying to save this poor woman? Everyone. How many people, over time, will pay attention to the nitpicking details?

CNN sounds like Fox on this issue. They're playing in the background and their coverage has crossed the line into sensationalism. I just had to say that.

I'm getting pretty fucking tired of these idiots invoking the civil rights movement to support everything from invading countries to keeping an iconic biomass alive.

The Supreme Court denied the stupid appeal without comment.