Prometheus 6

In recent years, there have been frequent comparisons of overall profits of American companies with the wages of American workers — and the profits have appeared to be doing much better. But the figures are distorted by inclusion of the overseas profits, and thus may overstate the differential.

Bulging Profits in U.S. Often Originate Overseas
By FLOYD NORRIS

AMERICAN companies have been very profitable in recent years — but not necessarily because of the American economy.

Government estimates indicate that profits of companies operating in the United States — whether American or foreign — have risen at an average annual rate of 7 percent in the current decade.

You remember what happened when he visited New Orleans, right?

Nothing.

Bush Visits Site of Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis
By PAM BELLUCK

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 4 — President Bush surveyed the pancaked concrete, contorted steel and hulks of half-sunken cars Saturday morning on a visit to the bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River.

Expressing condolences to the families of the victims and “prayers to those who wonder about whether they’ll ever see a loved one again,” the president promised to make it a priority to rebuild the bridge “in a way that not only expedites the flow of traffic but in a way that can stand the test of time.”

Why the iPhone is like Barack Obama

After careful consideration, I've decided that I feel very similarly about two new products that have been recently introduced to the American market: the iPhone and Barack Obama. I don't have time for a thorough, prosaic explanation, so for now, I'll reduce it to the language of the board room meetings that no doubt produced them both -- bullet points.

PROS
- black (in a field where white has been the norm)
- sexy
- sounds great
- light years ahead of the competitors

CONS
- functionality hindered by necessary but regrettable attachment to a bloated, corrupt legacy organization that controls access to consumers
- first generation product; unproven in a real-world environment

FINAL ANALYSIS
- i want to believe, but i'm still skeptical
- will wait until next generation deployment, when the bugs are ironed out, before i decide to adopt

I am about to hold up a Republican as an example.

There's a reason the insane ones have been hectoring Sen. Obama with race baiting innuendo . It's because it worked. And I don't think it had to.

The video below is of Mitt Romney. He was doing a radio interview, and they had a camera in the booth, and about ten minutes in (it's a 20 minute video) the host really got him going on Mormonism.

Romney handled that poorly as a politician but did pretty damn well as a man. And if the Republican Party weren't a morally bankrupt cabal bent of fixing all wealth permanently in the hands of their corporate masters, it might have done him some good.

I got a lot of the programming I need to do today done, so you get more posts that I thought you would. But that's not the good news.

I got politics in mind. I'm looking into the various Presidential candidates now, starting with the front runners in the hope that a couple of players will drop out before I get to them. And who better to start with than Sen. Obama? Huh? Who?

That's not the good news either, though it's not bad news.

The good news is, folks are recognizing he's been campaigning to Black folks, yet hasn't scared the white folks off (we disregard the insane ones for the moment).

There is bad news, which is that I got issues. And there's okay news, which is those issues aren't terminal. I will get to them after a suitably dramatic pause.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was conducted by Dr. Malaz Boustani, a geriatrician at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He said he noticed that a significant number of his hospitalized patients appeared confused when they were taking medications to reduce acid reflux.

To explore the link, he looked at 1,558 black Indianapolis residents who had taken part in other studies through the school. None had dementia when the study began.

Acid inhibitors may raise dementia risk
A study of elderly blacks indicates that those who are chronic users are more likely to develop the disease. The drugs inhibit a chemical involved in memory.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
Times Staff Writer
August 4, 2007

Elderly African Americans who are chronic users of acidinhibiting medications in the family that includes Zantac, Pepcid and Tagamet have 2 1/2 times the normal risk of developing dementia, Indiana researchers reported Friday.

Roldan said based on his aptitude test scores, his job specialization-cannon crew, an on-the-battlefield position right behind the infantry line-and what he knows of friends that have enlisted, he was expecting about a $5,000-signing bonus. Because he agreed to ship out for training within 30 days and enlist for three years, he said he received an extra $20,000 on top of that money, making the offer one that was too good to pass up.

"There's not many 18-year-olds walking around with $25,000 in their pocket," he said proudly.

Army offers $20,000 'quick-ship' bonus to attract recruits
By Karoun Demirjian
Tribune staff reporter
8:15 PM CDT, August 3, 2007

Struggling to fill the ranks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is now trying a new incentive: offering new and returning enlistees up to $20,000 "Q.S." bonuses in exchange for a promise to ship out quickly to basic training within 30 days of signing on the dotted line.

The bonus—"Q.S." for "quick-ship"—has already had some success in the 10 days since the army started offering it.

With less than two months to go until the end of the federal fiscal year, the army is scrambling to make recruiting goals of 80,000 new active soldiers in basic training before September 30.

Questions raised about Alaska lawmakers, oil
By Steve Quinn, Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska — One former state representative is guilty of bribery. Three more await trial on similar charges. The state's lone congressman is under federal investigation for corruption. A U.S. senator just had his home searched by the FBI.

This is not exactly the Alaska that Vic Fischer had in mind when he helped draft the state's constitution more than 50 years ago.

"Greed is rampant," said Fischer. "The character of the politicians has changed a lot. I'm very disgusted."

The wave of government corruption allegations has brought national attention to a state that touts its beauty and rugged landscapes, wild salmon and spectacular Northern Lights.

Fischer, current lawmakers and political analysts say the cases are evidence that the state is reaping what it sowed from years of lax oversight and a cozy relationship with the oil industry.

Davis was scheduled for execution on July 17, but the day before the execution, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a 90-day stay of the sentence. During that period, the board said, it plans to consider the evidence that Davis and his attorneys say casts doubt on his guilt.

Five of the trial witnesses testified to the clemency board, but no appeals court has expressed a willingness to hear testimony from those witnesses or even to hold a hearing in the case.

Condemned Man's Appeal Accepted
Trial Witnesses in 1989 Georgia Police Killing Have Recanted
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; A06

MIAMI, Aug. 3 -- The Georgia Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the appeal of a condemned police killer now that most of the key witnesses against him have recanted and, in some cases, said they lied under pressure from police.

A lower-court judge had ruled last month that the recantations and other evidence discovered since Troy Davis's 1991 conviction and death sentence were insufficient grounds for a new trial.

But in a 4 to 3 vote, the Georgia Supreme Court in Atlanta agreed to hear oral arguments between prosecutors and defense attorneys on whether Davis should get a new trial.

La. Town Fells 'White Tree,' but Tension Runs Deep
Black Teens' Case Intensifies Racial Issues
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; A03

JENA, La. -- Here in the woodsy heart of Louisiana, town leaders were looking for a fresh start, a way to erase the recent memory of Jim Crow-like hangman's nooses dangling from a shade tree at the local high school. So they cut the tree down.

But after the events of the past 12 months, that attempt by white officials about two weeks ago to heal the town's deep racial divide before the start of a new school year might be too little, too late.

A few weeks after the nooses were discovered in September, an arsonist torched a wing of Jena High School. Race fights roiled the town for days, culminating in a schoolyard brawl that led the LaSalle Parish district attorney to charge six black teenagers with attempted murder for beating up a white teenager who suffered no life-threatening injuries.

“During our investigation, Chauncey Bailey was murdered, and it turns out that the evidence in that case also linked the same individuals we were looking at in the other two prior murders to that case,” said Lt. Ersie Joyner of the Oakland Police Department.

Asked whether there were any regrets about not moving faster to arrest the suspects before Mr. Bailey was killed, Assistant Chief Howard Jordan said that the Oakland Police Department’s resources were “very thin” and that the long-term investigation involved the cooperation of neighboring departments.

“Today was the best day we had, that we could have done this with the coordination of our allied agencies,” Mr. Jordan said. “We weren’t just kind of waiting around.”

7 Arrested in Death of Oakland Newspaper Editor
By JESSE McKINLEY

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 3 — A day after a prominent newspaper editor was shot to death downtown, the police here on Friday arrested seven men and seized several weapons that they suspected were used in his killing and those of two other men.

Oakland police officials said they suspected that the men were part of a group operating “a very violent criminal enterprise” out of a neighborhood bakery.

Officials: Boehner disclosed ruling on classified case
Lawmaker says remarks on spying did not reveal anything secret
By CAROL D. LEONNIG and ELLEN NAKASHIMA
Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the Bush administration's wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by lawmakers this week to expand the president's spying powers.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, disclosed elements of the court's decision in remarks Tuesday to Fox News as he was promoting the administration-backed wiretapping legislation. Boehner has denied revealing classified information, but two government officials privy to the details confirmed that his remarks concerned classified information.

Court: FBI Violated Constitution in Raid
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 3, 2007; 2:18 PM

A federal appeals court today ruled that the FBI violated the Constitution during a search of Rep. William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office last year and ordered the agency to return all privileged materials.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia did not say that a raid on a congressional office was unconstitutional. But it ruled FBI agents skirted the law when they viewed paper documents during the May raid before giving the Louisiana Democrat an opportunity to challenge whether the papers were protected under the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause.

The court, however, stopped short of ordering the return of all seized documents:

The Carry came into focus when private-equity firms, also known as buyout firms, recently began to sell themselves to the public. The transactions forced the firms, which are lightly regulated, to disclose how much their managers earn. The amounts were staggering. Last month, when Blackstone Group, the nation's largest private-equity firm, completed its initial public offering, co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman pocketed $684 million.

Lawmakers were not only dazzled by the amount but also disgusted by how little Schwarzman and other private-equity managers pay in taxes.

Wall Street's Lucrative Tax Break Is Under Fire
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 3, 2007; A01

The most controversial tax break on Wall Street, known simply as the Carry, is not authorized by any law and was never approved by Congress.

Instead, it grew quietly over several decades, hinted at but never directly addressed in obscure court cases and arcane regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

Unchallenged by lawmakers, it swelled into a benefit that, by one back-of-the-envelope estimate, spares a small band of the country's richest and most powerful financiers $6 billion a year in personal income taxes.

In Political Pariahs, Joe Klein says of the DLC

It is curious and noteworthy that the most powerful moderate organization in either party has become a pariah. In a way, this is just the latest edition of the fight between Northern liberals and Southern moderates that has befuddled the Democrats since... well, since Ted Kennedy challenged the incumbent President, Jimmy Carter, in 1980. But it's also a consequence of the smug ideological xenophobia that currently afflicts activists in both parties—although, in fairness, the Democrats are playing catch-up to the wing-nut avidity cultivated by Karl Rove as a conscious governing strategy in the Republican Party. The Republicans don't even have a DLC equivalent.

Joe's error is in thinking the DLC is a moderate organization. As he says, the Republicans went over the event horizon long ago...and the DLC held essentially Republican positions. That would put then right on the edge as Conservatives...as professed liberals and progressives that makes them  absurd.
 

The agency is seeking to replace the 79-year-old Goethals Bridge, he said, which is outdated and in need of constant maintenance.

“The bridge is structurally sound,” he said. “We’ve taken great pains to keep that bridge and all of our bridges structurally sound. But obviously as the bridge gets older more problems could develop.”

In Ways Large and Small, Many Bridges Meet Definition of ‘Deficient’
By RUSS BUETTNER and SEWELL CHAN

More than 2,000 bridges in New York State meet the federal government’s definition of “structurally deficient,” from the heavily traveled on-ramps of the Brooklyn Bridge to a 28-foot span across Trout Brook near the Canadian border.

The sweeping Senate immigration bill, which included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, was defeated by opponents who said it would reward knowing lawbreakers and the employers who hired them. But many legislators, including some who opposed the broader bill, see the student measure differently because it would benefit immigrant teenagers who are illegal only because of decisions their parents made when the children were young.

“It’s unfair to make these young people pay for the sins of their parents,” Mr. Durbin said.

In Increments, Senate Revisits Immigration Bill
By JULIA PRESTON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — When a broad immigration bill failed in the Senate in June after a vitriolic national debate, many legislators said the issue was dead, perhaps until President Bush left office. But already some of the less contentious pieces of the bill are returning to life.

It is not clear whether this is the front edge of a trend in which women will gradually move ahead of men in all age groups. Typically, women have fallen further behind men in earnings as they get older. That is because some women stop working altogether, work only part time or encounter a glass ceiling in promotions and raises.

For Young Earners in Big City, a Gap in Women’s Favor
By SAM ROBERTS

Young women in New York and several of the nation’s other largest cities who work full time have forged ahead of men in wages, according to an analysis of recent census data.

The shift has occurred in New York since 2000 and even earlier in Los Angeles, Dallas and a few other cities.

“I’m delighted there was an explanation that didn’t involve fraud,” Dr. Gearhart said.

Within Discredited Stem Cell Research, a True Scientific First
By NICHOLAS WADE

The world of stem cell research was set reeling two years ago when its most successful practitioner, the Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk, was found to have fabricated much of his work. But according to a new post-mortem of his research, he did achieve a scientific first, though not the one he claimed.

Dr. Hwang said he had derived embryonic stem cells from the adult cells of a patient, but the claim was discredited after parts of his research were found to have been faked. A team of Boston scientists has now re-examined stocks of Dr. Hwang’s purported embryonic stem cells and arrived at a surprising conclusion: His embryonic stem cells were the product of parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, meaning they were derived from an unfertilized egg.

A team led by Kitai Kim and George Q. Daley of Children’s Hospital Boston reports this conclusion today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

They'll say a mortgage lender isn't really a bank.

Yesterday, Accredited Home Lenders Holding, a San Diego-based subprime mortgage company being acquired by Lone Star Funds, said that its own sale was in jeopardy and that bankruptcy was possible. Its shares lost more than a third of their value.

“Several of our competitors have recently stopped originating loans or sought protection under bankruptcy laws,” Accredited Home Lenders said in public filings. “We may suffer a similar fate.”

American Home Mortgage Says It Will Close
By ERIC DASH

American Home Mortgage Investment, the troubled mortgage lender based in Melville, N.Y., will close today, making it the latest company to fail this year as loans made to home buyers, some even with solid credit histories, go bad.

Newspaper Editor Is Killed in Possible ‘Targeted’ Attack
By JESSE McKINLEY

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 2 — The editor of a prominent African-American newspaper here was killed on a downtown street Thursday morning in an attack the police described as “targeted.”

The victim, Chauncey Bailey, was shot multiple times at short range while walking in an open-air parking lot just three blocks from the Alameda County Courthouse and several city buildings.

Roland Holmgren, a spokesman for the Oakland Police Department, said the killing occurred about 7:25 a.m. and involved a single gunman, clad head to foot in black and wearing a mask. Mr. Holmgren said Mr. Bailey, 57, was shot in the head and upper torso with a rifle or shotgun and died at the scene.

If They Ain't There, The Media Just Don't Care

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not my favorite people. I've written several posts criticizing their jealous grandstanding, their showmanship, and camera chasing. But the Jena Six controversy has opened my eyes. The relationship between Sharpton, Jackson, and the media is as consensual as sex on a conjugal visit. As long as Sharpton and Jackson stayed away from the Jena Six controversy, the mainstream media ignored it almost entirely.

I was just asked how to get from Staten Island to downtown Brooklyn without taking the subway. This is theoretically possible...so I looked up NYC transit maps and found HopStop.com, with fully integrated transit maps and Google Maps (including the 360 degree street view, which they offer you at transfer points...fragging brilliant, if you ask me) for Boston, Chicage, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC into a web interface that plots door to door trips for you.

AND it has a developer API.

The New York City part is seriously useful, and when the Metro North, LIRR and New Jersey services are out of beta it ought to be seriously impressive. You might want to investigate it if you live in one of the cities it serves up.

But here we have two public-school cases, both involving the rights of students, and both decided within days of each other, with Justice Thomas writing concurring opinions in each case, concurrences that no other justices joined. Don't you think that someone, somewhere, might have asked Thomas: "Um, so you ask what the Framers would have thought about speech in school but not what they would have thought about voluntary integration. Why not?"

Here's our guess: The question is not asked because it does not yield an answer Justice Thomas would like. There is no way to make an argument, at least with a straight face, that the 14th Amendment was originally understood to prohibit voluntary school integration. No way.

Originalist Sins
The faux originalism of Justice Clarence Thomas.
By Doug Kendall and Jim Ryan
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007, at 5:16 PM ET

Jan Crawford Greenburg, in her recent book Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, has—along with several other Supreme Court commentators—demolished the once broadly held view that Justice Clarence Thomas simply follows the lead of Justice Antonin Scalia. Indeed, if Greenburg's book is to be believed, it's closer to the other way around. With this appropriate reassessment of Thomas' intellectual role on the Supreme Court, a broader claim has been advanced by his supporters that Thomas is a model originalist: a principled justice with a fixed judicial method. He is more radical than Scalia—even his supporters will admit that—but that is simply because he is so principled, they contend. Whereas Scalia will dilute his originalism with a dollop of stare decisis, Thomas likes his served straight up, even if it means upsetting decades of settled precedent. 

This notion that Thomas is radical but principled is half right. To be precise, the first half is right: He is radical. But he does not seem very principled.

David Frum of the National Review

In the past, Republicans could win elections despite their unpopularity among ethnic minorities. But with the huge surge of immigration since 1980 - and especially since 2000 - the voting map of the United States has been redrawn in ways inherently deeply unfavorable to the GOP.

Think about that. Think about why it will be "inherently deeply unfavorable to the GOP." That unpopularity wasn't, and isn't, a problem in their mind because it was a major plank in their campaign platform.

And, increasingly, the Republican Party has become a covert exercise in identity politics for white men.

Anyway Frum is mad at Dubya. He says white people will be outnumbered in the future and it's all George W. Bush's fault.