Prometheus 6

Undercover Black Man

In the Internet Age, anyone can be a political saboteur... a “dirty trickster,” a smear artist, a faceless character assassin... from the comfort of one’s home.

But if you don’t want your true identity discovered, you better be slick about it. Slicker than the asshole who launched a website called Power 2 Obama.

Hanging out last week amongst the rabid Obama-haters at the No Quarter blog, I saw a suspicious comment with a link to Power 2 Obama. So I went and checked it out.

It pretends to be a black-power site – with a red, black and green flag with a fist on it. Power 2 Obama has photos of Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and (until recently) Malcolm X and Huey Newton under the heading “The Cabinet.”

UBM found him out by offering money. What Real American can resist that?

Enron may be gone, but its legacy lingers in the work done by politicians who did its bidding. And Gramm, who once told corporate contributors, “I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that’s ready money,” is now the chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain.

The Petro-Manipulators
Timothy Egan

Anyone who lived on the West Coast during the phony energy crisis of 2000 and 2001 cannot help thinking of Texas and two of its worst products — Enron and a politician not named George Bush — as gas creeps up toward $5 a gallon this summer.

What happened during the great energy heist at the start of the new century was like an extended bad dream, part “Twilight Zone” and part “Chinatown,” the extraordinary 1974 film about water manipulation and long-buried secrets.

There is a precedent for such government endeavors, but not since the New Deal. In the 1930s, the government created the Home Owners Loan Corporation to buy mortgages and modify them. In three years, it bought a fifth of the country’s home loans, said Alex J. Pollock, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“We won’t need to do anything of that magnitude here,” he said.

The American Enterprise Institute's assurances fill me with confidence. 

“There is no silver bullet,” said the official, Steve O’Connor, a senior vice president of the association. “There is no single solution to the housing crisis. It will take multiple tools to turn the housing market around, and it’s going to take time.”

As Bill Evolves, Mortgage Debt Is Snowballing
By VIKAS BAJAJ

When Congress started fashioning a sweeping rescue package for struggling homeowners earlier this year, 2.6 million loans were in trouble. But the problem has grown considerably in just six months and is continuing to worsen.

More than three million borrowers are in distress, and analysts are forecasting a couple of million more will fall behind on their payments in the coming year as home prices fall further and the economy weakens.

The bill has been opposed by every scientific society that has voiced a position on it, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science. AAAS CEO Alan Leshner warned that the bill would "unleash an assault against scientific integrity, leaving students confused about science and unprepared to excel in a modern workforce."

Jindal, who was a biology major during his time at Brown University, even received a veto plea from his former genetics professor. "Without evolution, modern biology, including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn't make sense," Professor Arthur Landy wrote. "I hope he [Jindal] doesn't do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors."

Louisiana passes first antievolution "academic freedom" law
By John Timmer | Published: June 27, 2008 - 02:13PM CT

As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of "academic freedom," single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven't made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

The text of the LSEA suggests that it's intended to foster critical thinking, calling on the state Board of Education to "assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories." Unfortunately, it's remarkably selective in its suggestion of topics that need critical thinking, as it cites scientific subjects "including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

Oddly, the last item on the list is not the subject of any scientific theory; the remainder are notable for being topics that are the focus of frequent political controversies rather than scientific ones.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

If CareFirst is not fulfilling its charitable public-health mission -- a charge by the District that CareFirst firmly rejects -- then why is the mayor seeking and accepting CareFirst money for a purpose that has nothing to do with public health?

Tainted Money For D.C. Schools
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, June 28, 2008; A15

What to think about the nonprofit D.C. Public Education Fund created by Mayor Adrian Fenty? It is supposed to have a good purpose: raising funds in the private sector to help the public schools with their operating budgets.

Fenty is said to be following the lead of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who tapped well-heeled New Yorkers for money for schools after he was elected.

But is Fenty going about it the right way?

Should he, for example, solicit money for his private D.C. Public Education Fund from an organization that the District government is suing?

I don't talk politics with my daughter but so often, but it came up kind of organically a week or so ago. She's an Obama supporter (of course...) and she has her rational reasons for it, but she recognizes the charisma thing has had its impact. She says the case is more of the same with the potential for getting worse vs. getting rid of the Bushisms with the "potential for something awesome" to happen.

Me, I don't do charisma so I've been able to assess things as good and the bad, as strategic master strokes and rank, amateurish errors in his campaign. It's not easy for a politician to actually impress me.

Drawing forth this reaction impresses me.

Dobson's judgment was based on Obama's keynote address at a "Call to Renewal" conference on June 28, 2006. In fact, this speech was impressive in many respects. As an evangelical and conservative who has deep concerns about Obama's policies and political philosophy, I nonetheless welcome such a statement by a leading Democrat. 

[S]upporters of the court’s decision were already pressing their case, with similar lawsuits in the offing in three Chicago suburbs, Mr. LaPierre said. He said his group was also considering challenging gun ordinances in New York City, which has a strict permit system for guns, and where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is a vocal opponent of guns. 

Challenges to Bans on Handguns Begin
By JESSE McKINLEY

SAN FRANCISCO — Using the new judicial muscle provided by the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the right to bear arms, the National Rifle Association and another pro-gun group sued San Francisco and its housing authority on Friday to invalidate a ban on handguns in public housing.

The lawsuit said the ban violated the Second Amendment and “renders responsible, law-abiding adult public housing residents especially vulnerable.”

No wonder y'all are so religious...you need to be saved.

Patrick Kelly, 41, is set to be the third alleged member of the so-called ''Mineola Swingers Club'' to stand trial. He and five others are accused of teaching children as young as 5 to have sex with each other and dance provocatively for crowds as large as 100 people.

Reporters, ADA don't have to discuss relationships
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:01 a.m. ET

TYLER, Texas (AP) -- Two news reporters will not have to answer questions about their alleged relationship with the state's lead prosecutor in a case involving an East Texas swingers club, a judge ruled Friday.

KLTV reporter Danielle Capper, Tyler Morning Telegraph reporter Casey Knaupp and Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy don't have to hand over their cell phone records or e-mails. Judge Jack Skeen Jr. also ruled that they can be questioned during a hearing on Monday, but they cannot be asked about their personal lives.

''The questions are limited to what I see as legit,'' Skeen said.

NY Times

This advertisement is meant to draw attention to Mr. McCain’s “Lexington Project,” a plan he announced this month to give the United States energy independence by 2025. The script encapsulates many elements of that proposal, but also describes it as “bipartisan,” which would seem to imply that Democrats do or would support it, or were consulted in its elaboration. But Democrats, following the lead of their presumed nominee, Senator Barack Obama, have already condemned Mr. McCain’s call for a summer gas tax holiday, the first step in his effort to lower prices at the pump; in addition, they say that he has in the past opposed incentives intended to encourage development of solar and wind energy. Mr. McCain also avoids using the word “offshore” in reference to drilling for oil and gas to increase domestic supplies, an essential element of his plan that has drawn criticism not only from Democrats but also from some Republicans, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.

Remember this ?

Well, add this 3-D, no goggles, everyone in the room sees it display to the mix.

Sometimes I think about the whole “government of the people, by the people and for the people” thing and wonder what happened. So far, the greatest damage to that ideal has been caused by the foolish decision to extend constitutional rights to corporations. Corporations are collective entities, and as such have more force than any of the humans they compete with. They simply have the upper hand, economically speaking. Giving them constitutional rights insures they have the upper hand politically and culturally as well.

tavis's final tjms commentary

In April 2008, Tavis announced his decision to clear a few things off his plate so that he could devote his time and attention to some exciting and empowering projects that various divisions of his company, The Smiley Group, Inc., have underway.

After 12 years as the resident political commentator and social critic for the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Tavis offered his final commentary on Thursday, June 26, 2008.

...somehow I find this

You know things are bad when middle-class Americans have to give up their boats

to be a really fucked up metric.

This Recession, It's Just Beginning
By Steven Pearlstein
Friday, June 27, 2008; D01

So much for that second-half rebound.

Truth be told, that was always more of a wish than a serious forecast, happy talk from the Fed and Wall Street desperate to get things back to normal.

It ain't gonna happen. Not this summer. Not this fall. Not even next winter.

This thing's going down, fast and hard. Corporate bankruptcies, bond defaults, bank failures, hedge fund meltdowns and 6 percent unemployment. We're caught in one of those vicious, downward spirals that, once it gets going, is very hard to pull out of.

The decision isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It doesn't allow the ability to buy guns from coin operated vending machines, which seems to be the N.R.A.'s goal. We have the individual right of ownership affirmed, and the locality's right to restrict transactions and concealed carry.

You're still going to get more dead people, though.

Deadly Consequences -- But the Right Call
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 27, 2008; A17

Few landmark Supreme Court rulings have been so widely predicted as yesterday's decision striking down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns. The mere fact that the court agreed to hear the case was a pretty good indication that the justices were itching to make some kind of big statement about the Second Amendment. Questions from the bench during oral arguments in March left little doubt as to which way the wind was blowing.

This case, for me, is one of those uncomfortable situations in which my honest opinion is not the one I'd desperately like to be able to argue. As much as I abhor the possible real-word impact of the ruling, I fear that it's probably right.

Existing Drug Reverses a Form of Mental Retardation in Mice
Scientists hope medication could treat learning disorders caused by autism
By Nikhil Swaminathan

A drug already on the market for a completely unrelated condition could be used to treat a form of mental retardation linked to autism—if the results of a study in mice hold up, researchers report.

Until then, there's David Brooks to contend with.

Brooks knows he's dealing with a collective...you know because he keeps making up names for them he thinks is flattering.

In the 1950s, divorce rates were low and jobs were plentiful, but over the next few decades that broke down. The social revolutions of the 1960s and the economic revolution of the information age have emancipated the well-educated but left the Sam’s Club voters feeling insecure.

That's okay. And he finally says what we've been saying in response to HIS apologist ravings over the last seven-plus years.

Conservatives have offered almost nothing. The G.O.P. has lost contact with its own working-class base. This is the intellectual vacuum that “Grand New Party” seeks to fill.

(Grand New Party is the book he's pimping today)

If you can bet on a hope (not my terminology, people, see below) BEFORE the opening and affect that opening, why even pretend that 'starting point' has any significance at all?

World Stocks Sag as Oil Price Surges
By JULIA WERDIGIER

LONDON — Oil reached $142 a barrel, a record high, in trading overnight and world stock indexes declined as Wall Street braced for markets to open a day after a painful 358-point plunge in the Dow.

American markets were poised to open nearly unchanged, based on bets placed by investors ahead of the 9:30 a.m. bell. Investors are hoping the Dow Jones industrial average will recover some of its losses from Thursday, when downgrades on banks and automakers dragged the blue-chip index toward bear market territory — and its lowest close since September 2006.

Fuels on the Hill
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Regulating futures markets more tightly isn’t a bad idea, but it won’t bring back the days of cheap oil. Nothing will. Oil prices will fluctuate in the coming years — I wouldn’t be surprised if they slip for a while as consumers drive less, switch to more fuel-efficient cars, and so on — but the long-term trend is surely up.

Most of the adjustment to higher oil prices will take place through private initiative, but the government can help the private sector in a variety of ways, such as helping develop alternative-energy technologies and new methods of conservation and expanding the availability of public transit.

But we won’t have even the beginnings of a rational energy policy if we listen to people who assure us that we can just wish high oil prices away.

Your Brain Lies to You
By SAM WANG and SANDRA AAMODT

FALSE beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. Thus it seems slightly less egregious that, according to another poll, 10 percent of us think that Senator Barack Obama, a Christian, is instead a Muslim. The Obama campaign has created a Web site to dispel misinformation. But this effort may be more difficult than it seems, thanks to the quirky way in which our brains store memories — and mislead us along the way.

I suppose it's too much to ask to recognize McCain is hostile to every interest these women support.

Diane Mantouvalos is an anger-shaker. The night before Clinton announced the suspension of her campaign, Mantouvalos was at home in Miami checking posts on her blog and sensing a mood that went beyond disillusionment, beyond sadness, beyond "I'm upset and bummed out." As co-creator of Hireheels.com, which describes itself as "a forum of power chics for Hillary," Mantouvalos hangs out on the sassy edge of the blogosphere. Feeling more empowered than embittered, the public relations consultant wondered: "Wouldn't it be great if we could thread all of these disparate factions and form one coalition?" A brassy coalition of rebels.

On June 8, the evening after Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential contest to Barack Obama, Mantouvalos organized a conference call with some 40 bloggers, political activists and other hardened loyalists of the New York senator's, in what became "a jam session of very intense opinion" -- about the party, its leadership, its presumptive nominee, the media. Five hours later, Mantouvalos, age "north of 35," had built a new Web site, JustSayNoDeal.com, which has become a clearinghouse for the renegade forces that are now confounding Democratic Party officials and Obama campaign operatives.

Hey, every party has its crazy people.

.confusion: ICANN opens up Pandora's Box of new TLDs
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: June 26, 2008 - 12:11PM CT

By next spring, businesses and other organizations will be able to apply for any top-level domain they can possibly think of, like arstechnica.awesome or google.thegoogle. Joking aside, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted today in Paris on a measure that significantly expands the scope of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), allowing organizations to apply for almost any domain suffix they can dream up.

More than 70,000 ColorOfChange.org members have stood up to Fox for using race-baiting and fear to convince Americans that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not "one of us" (if you don't know what Fox has done, just keep reading--we'll give you the whole story below). It's a great start, but we're still missing your voice--and we need it.

If we can get to 100,000 signatures, we will go after Fox head-on: We'll deliver the petitions to Fox News headquarters in New York, shaming the network in front of their competitors' news cameras. Then we'll turn attention to their advertisers.

But first, we need your help. Can you take 30 seconds to add your voice and invite your friends and family to do the same?

http://colorofchange.org/foxobama/

That said, y'all backed the second place finisher. You can stay loyal to the Clintons if you want but you need to recognize that. Because the Clintons aren't the only folks that made Obama bite his tongue. You need to think about what would happen if Obama endorsed a primary challenger in your district.

Barack Obama tells Hillary Clinton supporters to 'get over it'
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last updated: 10:13 AM BST 24/06/2008

At a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus last week, reported by ABC News, Mr Obama urged women who had backed Mrs Clinton to support him against John McCain, the Republican nominee.

Unfortunately, high-speed communications and bold initiative do not always go hand in hand. With such an abundance of information available simultaneously at all levels, micromanagement can creep unnoticed into the chain of command and pull it apart.

IT vs. initiative: The Internet age comes to the battlefield
Tyler Boudreau
06.25.2008

On a late summer night of 2004 in al Anbar province, Iraq, just south of Abu Ghraib, an observation post (OP) of four Marines was shot at briefly from the shadows. The Marines made out two silhouettes in the distance, returned fire, and pursued them into the darkness. One of the Marines said to the others as they searched the area, "I think I got one!" But no sign of them was found. Moments later, in a small tent several miles away, I read their report on my computer delivered by email.