You've probably seen this at Atrios' place. You should link it and post it anyway. And blogroll The Voice Unheard, because it's it's Sgt. Ferriol's blog.

The Item - Liberal views force soldier out of military

I am writing this in response to a series of letters published by The Item, beginning with my own letter on March 14, 2003 titled "Bush Shows Arrogance Not Leadership." In it, I discussed the relevance of United Nations approval prior to the War in Iraq, as well as the consequences of "going at it alone." Following the printing of my letter, a pair of readers retaliated by attacking my loyalty and ability to "cover their son's back."

Every so often Candicissima at Kitty Power finds something that just cracks me up.

WARNING: It's a Liquid Generation site. For Ghodsake, don't look at this at work. It's not really bad, but someone's gonna get pissed, I guarantee you.

Last one for a while. You've heard Prince Charles was alledged to be involved in something so scandalous that it was denied without even being specified. Neil Gaiman was kind enough to give more details on what didn't happen:

Hat tip to Brad DeLong

Rosemary at Dean's World talks about the difference between tolerance and acceptance. I ain't got a lot to add.

Daniel Drezner discusses an article by Robert Reich that shows how manufacturing jobs are disappearing worldwide, not just in the USofA…and the culprit isn't China. It's a change in manufacturing itself.

So when you hear the reason the promised job creation hasn't materialized is China's currency manipulation, you'll know it's bullshit. And Matt Yglesias' satire aside, it's something that will be increasingly disruptive.

Negrophile points to an article on the results of those Republican poll watchers placed in predominantly Black districts in Kentucky.

And George also points to a discussion of the unequal treatment of Pvts Lynch and Johnson. Between the orginal story, all its subsequent mutations, the recent rape story that I'd consider if it were HER spreading it, and Pvt Lynch's own protestations of feeling used over the whole issue, I'd just wish the whole damn thing away. I'm DAMN sure not watching the movie, anymore than I'm watching The Elizabeth Smart Story.

LATER: Catching up IVb: Bell Rings Out, about one of my intellectual heroes Derrick Bell, links to a serialization of Soul of a Citizen at WorkingForChange. It will be published weekly, and they've gotten to the introduction in two parts, and chapter one in two parts.

These links are as much to remind me as to tell everyone else about it.

Cobb again, but it's Ghetto Games. He just mentions Open Chest, but goes into detail on Suicide, Slap Boxing and Stomps.

Ah, memories…

Start with Cobb, like I often do. He said something in commenting about Dr. Dean that is just too true:

As frustrated as I get with my boy Phelps, I got him in this category. It's why I don't mind getting frustrated with him.

Cobb also says something that's almost true:

I say "almost" because he USED TO want it himself. You don't get some of the insights he's shown otherwise. And there's some shitheads in search of power with bulletproof souls and a willingness to be a provocateur that look like race men until you really look (you should not volunteer to identify any for me, because not everyone in search of power is a shithead and because I've noticed anyone who WANTS to identify them usually is one themselves).

Funny thing is, I am a Race Man, but since I've called myself The Race Guy a couple of times recently, folks tell me they don't think of me as such. I think the definition of Race Man in the general view includes "bearer of bad news," or "he who brings the conflict to the fore," and I'm really not that

I had no idea what this movie is about. Not very cosmopolitan of me, I know. But I believe I'll see it at some point because of some serindipitous stuff I found during a web search on SAT scores by socioeconomic class.

I wond up on a web site listing books by NYU professors, and since I'm being The Race Guy this week one leaped out at me:

Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are
Despite the many social changes of the last half-century, many Americans still "pass": black for white, gay for straight, and now in many new ways as well. We tend to think of passing in negative terms--as deceitful, cowardly, a betrayal of one's self. But this compassionate book reveals that many passers today are people of good heart and purpose whose decision to pass is an attempt to bypass injustice, and to be more truly themselves.

Passing tells the poignant, complicated life stories of a black man who passed as a white Jew; a white woman who passed for black; a working class Puerto Rican who passes as privileged; a gay, Conservative Jewish seminarian and a lesbian naval officer who passed for straight; and a respected poet who radically shifts persona to write about rock 'n roll.

The stories, interwoven with others from history, literature, and contemporary life, explore the many forms passing still takes in our culture; the social realities which make it an option; and its logistical, emotional, and moral consequences. We learn that there are still too many institutions, environments, and social situations that force honorable people to twist their lives into painful, deceit-ridden contortions for reasons that do not hold.

From there I went to the professor's NYU website (which looks suspiciously like an unbranded MT weblog, but I digress), where I found this entry:

So now The Human Stain is on my radar.

…unless you, you know, leave them behind.

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 8, 2003; Page A01

HOUSTON -- When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary" status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best urban school district.

Just a year later, the high school has been downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.

Austin is one of more than a dozen Houston high schools caught up in a burgeoning scandal about the reliability of their dropout statistics. During a decade in which, routinely, as many as half of Austin students failed to graduate, the school's reported dropout rate fell from 14.4 percent to 0.3 percent. Even a Houston school board member calls the statistic "baloney."

If this were any other school district in the nation, few people would pay much attention. But Houston is the political springboard for U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige. He was school superintendent here before moving to Washington, and what originally began as an argument over dropout data has expanded into a debate about the administration's entire approach to educational reform.

Love, Internet Style
By DAVID BROOKS

The Internet slows things down.

If you're dating in the Age of the Hook-Up, sex is this looming possibility from the first moment you meet a prospective partner. But couples who meet through online dating services tend to exchange e-mail for weeks or months. Then they'll progress to phone conversations for a few more weeks. Only then will there be a face-to-face meeting, almost always at some public place early in the evening, and the first date will often be tentative and Dutch.

Online dating puts structure back into courtship. For generations Americans had certain courtship rituals. The boy would call the girl and ask her to the movies. He might come in and meet the father. After a few dates he might ask her to go steady. Sex would progress gradually from kissing to petting and beyond.

But over the past few decades that structure dissolved. And human beings, who are really good at adapting, found that the Internet, of all places, imposes the restraints they need to let relationships develop gradually. So now 40 million Americans look at online dating sites each month, and we are seeing a revolution in the way people meet and court one another.

New York Times/CBS News Poll

Thirteen months before the 2004 election, a solid majority of Americans say the country is seriously on the wrong track.

9/11 Panel Issues Subpoena to Pentagon
By PHILIP SHENON
The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks stepped up pressure on the administration to cooperate in handing over documents it received prior to the attacks

You Linux types know that Caldera, an ex-Linux vendor, bought the rights to the Unix source code from SCO, changed its name to SCO and started demanding licensing fees from Linux users (not vendors) with deep pockets.

Microsoft was the first to pay up.

They've "suspended" SGI and IBM's Unix licenses (both companies, as well as Novell—who owned the source code at the time and sold said licences—say that's not possible). There's legal action between them, IBM and Red Hat. And in the middle of this, they got $50 mil is private equity funding, showed heir first profit (due to the Microsoft license) and …remember this…told the SEC their business model would be to profit from licensing their intellectual property.

I read this morning on Slashdot that SCO will be giving people financial incentives to move from Linux to a proprietary OS with a "stronger IP basis."

Most likely Windows.

Check the article at Computer Business News Online

Of course, it's not insane. Windows STILL isn't the mission critical OS for major corporations, it's the cost efficient on for small to mid-sized ones. I don't know the details of the licensing agreement SCO has with MS, but no matter what it's more than they made from Linux…now it's more than they ever will make from Linux. And if folks are driven back to Unix they win that way too.

Only the evidence is they have no case. And they can't offer incentives for Windows large enough to compete with free.

I'm an unrepentant carnivore, and I'm not supposed to find this amusing, but I do.

Now if we can get something similar going about Frankenfoods, I'm in.

via NathanNewman.org

It might be time for all eight of you to leave. This way we can just build a fence around the place.

Alternatively, the local authorities might, like, HANDLE this shit. That would be good.

Judi Villa and Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 7, 2003 12:01 AM

"That's the one. Let's get him."

With those words, two skinheads punched a Black man to the pavement in a grocery store parking lot, then pummeled and kicked him some more, solely because of his race, Phoenix police say.

"The only good people in this world are White purebred people," Nathan Greeson told police when he was arrested after the June attack on Leroy Willis. "We do things to keep this world pure and poison free."

Both attackers pleaded guilty.

White supremacists are increasingly moving into Arizona, particularly from the Pacific Northwest, and with them has come a rise in activities, from meetings to beatings to murders. Police and those who monitor hate groups warn if something isn't done now, the problem will surge out of control.

Just checked http://localfeeds.com out of curiousity and wound up at the site I stole this from.

I am pro HDTV. I think cool science fiction shows with big explosions and such are great on HDTV. I am anti broadcast flag because it's pointless and will just make my TV more expensive.

I didn't know there was a way to rebel and get increased communication functionality at the same time.

Arnold Kline is calling for this exercise in "civil disobedience. " I have to learn about this tech before I buy in, but Mr. Kline links to what looks like a good place to start learning.

Are we all done with Dr. Dean? Apparently not.

The Calpundit crew had a lot of fun with it. And Walter at idols of the marketplace gives his opinion of the prospects of Dean's success at getting disaffected Southerners to come over (seems he sees a difference between NASCAR dads and Battleflag Bearers). Whole bags of newspaper articles are being written.

And you know what? Most Black folks seem to know where he was coming from, whether or not they feel it was an effective gesture.

I am, however, totally loving the conversation. I just hope it doesn't get pulled up short.

Because this is going on largely in the white communities where, to be brutally frank, it needs to take place. The article below, fully presented because I got it by email rather than off the web, has the key statement from my personal perspective…one that, from the comments, I suspect my boy S-Train will cop to as well.

My RSS reader is damn near choked. I wrote two articles for Open Source Politics, which is nice because that's what I've promised them and I haven't quite been up to it recently. And there's this whole bag of interesting stuff I want to respond to (among which is NOT Kim duToit's rant about American men, which I have tangentally encountered).

And I DO have a couple of posts in mind that will take a bit of shaping, and I DIDN'T get to the kid's place to finish configuring her new system so I can reclaim by latop (complete with lion cub wallpaper and a new assortment of software I have no idea why she'd want, but I told her she could do as she saw fit).

And couple of friends suggested I rejoin the mailing list I had been on for…geez, I don't even remember how long, but dropped as pointless a couple of months back. I still don't kknow if it has a point, but the arguments are amusing as hell, so I'll probably stay in deep lurk for a while. But I've seen some 20 messages already.

But the BIG delay is will be due to George having dipped into the wish list and pulled out a two-fer. I had finally gotten Cryptonomicon (which I've gotten to because I need to know what the hell is the big deal) and Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (which is one of the kinds of science fiction I enjoy, and is an easy read).

Both get bumped for Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.

But even that waits, because he also sent Cowboy Bebop-The Movie. Yeeaaaas! I'll be repossessing the first five disks in the six disk set from the Kid (she never got her hands on disk six) and running through all seven-the complete Japanese TV series and the movie. Thsis weekend, after watching Matrix III (and I don't care what the critics say. I'm all about the explosions and shit).

You do not want to specifically target getting "the Bubbas and the Blacks" together. You want to talk self-interest to each group without reference to the other, and the getting together will handle itself.

A new course needed in Iraq

By Wesley Clark, 11/6/2003

MY 34 YEARS in the Army taught me to steel my spine, but not my heart, whenever I hear news of American casualties. On Tuesday I read about Sergeant Ernest Bucklew, who was headed home to attend his mother's funeral when his Chinook helicopter was shot out of the sky en route to Baghdad. Fifteen American soldiers died alongside him.

For the sake of every member of our armed forces, we need a plan to end the conflict in Iraq. Retreat is not an option. Withdrawal would be a disaster for America, a tragedy for Iraq, and a crisis for the world. It would destroy our credibility, give terrorists a new haven, and throw the Middle East into greater turmoil. No matter how difficult it will be, we need a "success strategy."

Success won't be easy, but only success can honor the sacrifice of our soldiers and allow the troops to come home. Success means that Iraq is strong enough to sustain itself without outside forces. Success means that representative government has taken root. Success means that Iraq's economy and civil society are healthy again.

Congress just gave the administration an $87 billion check to continue down the path that we're on. But President Bush still has no strategy to succeed. I do.

Schwarzenegger Woos the Special Interests

November 7, 2003

When I read "1st Benefit Is Set for New Gov." (Nov. 4) I was appalled by the spin and outright lies put forward by Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and his spokesman, Rob Stutzman. First the candidate lied by stating he would take no special-interest money, then he did exactly that. Now Stutzman tells us that "voters know they have sent a man to Sacramento who cannot be bought" while that man is busy selling access for dollars to repay the $4.5 million in low-interest loans he used to bombard us with television advertising.

If the independently wealthy, well-funded and famous Schwarzenegger has to borrow millions to run for governor, what chance does an ordinary, idealistic candidate have? Some call it fund-raising, but I call it bribery on layaway. We need public financing of elections, as in Maine and Arizona, which has increased voter participation and candidate diversity in state elections. Clean-money candidates don't owe anyone except voters and the thousands of people who gave $5 to get their candidate qualified for public financing. Do you think Schwarzenegger feels he owes favors to those who give him $21,200 a pop? You bet!

Nick Gleiter

Sherman Oaks

Don't Cheer Quite Yet

November 7, 2003

"We've seen a real turnaround this year," Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said this week, "and the recovery is clearly solidifying." Not so fast, please.

Just as the administration was embarrassed in Iraq by prematurely stating "mission accomplished," so it may regret declaring economic triumph. Yes, consumers are still buying pretty vigorously and productivity is zooming. Low interest rates play a big role, and some credit may well be due to hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts directed mainly to the wealthy. The nation enjoyed a modest rise of 57,000 new jobs in September.

But there's still a "but" in the good news. Almost 2.6 million jobs have disappeared since President Bush entered office. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the unemployment rate will remain above 6% next year, not including the 2.1 million long-term jobless who've given up looking for work. The normal, historical rate for creation of new jobs in an expansion is 250,000 to 300,000 a month ? a number out of reach in this "recovery."

Dr. Dean may have catalyzed something.

I still haven't endorsed anyone, but I've unendorsed Gephardt because by blowing off the people Dean identified he made himself unelectable.

And again, I don't want to hear a damn thing about race when talking down there. People's self interest should be raised to a level that overshadows all that noise.

Howard Dean's remarks about the need to appeal to white Southerners could certainly have been better phrased. But his rivals for the Democratic nomination should be ashamed of their reaction. They know what he was trying to say ? and it wasn't that his party should go soft on racism. By playing gotcha, by seizing on the chance to take the front-runner down a peg, they damaged the cause they claim to serve ? and missed a chance to confront the real issue he raised.

A three-sentence description of the arc of American politics over the past 70 years would run like this: First, Democrats and moderate Republicans created institutions ? above all, Social Security and Medicare ? that provided a measure of financial security to ordinary working Americans. The biggest beneficiaries of these institutions were African-Americans and working-class Southern whites, and both were part of the moderate-to-liberal coalition that dominated American politics until the 1960's.

But the right opened an increasingly effective counterattack, with a strategy that included using racially charged symbolism to get Southern whites to vote against their own economic interests. All Mr. Dean was saying was that Democrats need to understand and counter this strategy.

I know these are fighting words. But the reliance of modern Republican political strategy on coded appeals to racism is no secret. Controversies over efforts to remove the Stars and Bars from the top of the South Carolina Statehouse, and to reduce its size on the Georgia flag, played a significant role in Republican victories in 2002. And the evidence that race is still a crucial factor is as fresh as Tuesday's election.

Southern Comforting

By Debra McCorkle, AlterNet
November 6, 2003

Howard Dean was obviously born north of the Mason-Dixon Line. He proved it with the well-meaning but badly-stated desire to "want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Howard, if you were a southerner, you would never call your future constituents rednecks! You would win them over by descriptions of your grandma's fried apple turnovers, or recalling a moment in which you begged Jesus Christ to help you, or by confessing your love for a Johnny Cash song. See, that's how I haven't gotten run out of my southern town yet for my liberal views. I bury that horse pill of Democratic leanings in a sweet potato soufflé of my genuine southern life. I refuse to believe that the South really belongs to the Republicans. I just tend to think that the conservatives mix the stuff that concerns the citizenry with a heaping spoonful of Dixie Crystal sugar. They sweeten that iced tea while a candidate from Vermont sticks a glass of Lipton Instant in our faces with two cubes of ice and a packet of Sweet and Low and tells us to drink it. It's just not the same, Howard.

…tell 'em to ask Cryptome.

Cryptome received a visit today from FBI Special Agents TR and CK from the FBI Counterterrorism Office in New York, 26 Federal Plaza, telephone (212) 384-1000. Both agents presented official ID and business cards. SA Renner said that a person had reported Cryptome as a source of information that could be used to harm the United States. He said Cryptome website had been examined and nothing on the site was illegal but information there might be used for harmful purposes. He noted that information in the Cryptome CDs might wind up in the wrong hands.

I have no idea why anyone would add oil of bergamot to perfectly good black pekoe.

No idea at all.

This is an old post from the Blogger site. I'm resurrecting it as part of an explanation of why I've been ragging on Libertarians recently.

One reason I decided to write about this is that recently my daughter told me I'm a libertarian. I said something about a thought I had, and not talking about it out loud because people might think I'm a libertarian and she calmly said, "But you are a libertarian."

Jay Allen has set up a new home for MT-Blacklist. There's an RSS feed for plugin change announcements as well as the general weblog discussions. And version 1.61beta is up with some pretty significant changes.

LATER: I added the latest blacklist changes RSS feed to the ol' aggregator and was horrified to see titles like sex-lover.org. Turns out I need the weblog feed instead. For some reason I thought blacklist changes was for updates to the plugin rather than the blacklist itself.

via Kelley at Suburban Blight
Atlanta hip-hop group sues FOX

Atlanta-based hip-hop group Arrested Development has filed a trademark infringement suit against FOX Broadcasting Co., Imagine Films Entertainment Inc. and New World Communications of Atlanta Inc. for their use of the band's name as the title for FOX-TV's new series -- "Arrested Development" -- which premiered this month.

The law suit was filed on Oct. 16 in DeKalb County Superior Court and is on an expedited schedule. The band's legal counsel is Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton LLP

"Over the past 14 years, the two-time-Grammy-Award-winning band has built a solid reputation in the entertainment industry," said Todd Thomas of Arrested Development. "The use of our name by FOX is not only confusing to the public, but also has the potential to significantly dilute what the 'Arrested Development' name means to our fans. FOX has no more right to use 'Arrested Development' for its show than a band would have to name itself after one of FOX's sit-coms."

Natasha at Pacific Views

Since this is "found money" they really ought to treat it as an endowment, never touching the principle. And if a couple of other stupidly wealthy folks kicked in, this could be the beginning of a truly independant media outlet. Which ought to scare the pants (or flight suit) off of quite a number of people.

By Paul Farhi and Reilly Capps
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 6, 2003; Page A01

National Public Radio will announce today the largest donation in its history, a cash bequest from the will of the late philanthropist Joan Kroc of about $200 million.

The bequest from the widow of the founder of the McDonald's fast-food chain both shocked and delighted people at NPR's headquarters in Washington yesterday. It amounts to almost twice NPR's annual operating budget. "No one saw this coming," said one person.

The nonprofit organization, which will disclose details of the bequest at a news conference this afternoon, called the donation the "largest monetary gift ever received by an American cultural institution" in a brief announcement to its staff yesterday.

The gift was such a surprise to NPR officials that they were uncertain what the money would be used for. The organization's board is expected to meet in the next few weeks to decide what to do with the windfall. An NPR spokesperson declined to comment yesterday.

NPR, best known for its daily news programs "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," cut back on some of its music and cultural programs earlier this year, and there was speculation yesterday that Kroc's money could be used to restore those offerings. It could also be used to expand NPR's news programs, which are heard by about 22 million people weekly.

Chris at Interesting Times, a Dean supporter, has the text of an addition to a speech Dean just gave where he takes a better shot a this. In fact, he has a whole lot about the Dean/Confederate flag dustup.

Meanwhile, Digby's extended discussion is on point.

Tristero thinks this is an absolutely brilliant ploy designed to turn the Confederate flag into a wedge issue to split the Reasonable Republicans from the Racist Right.

Now, my advice.

Mr. Dean, you must remember Mr. Kucinich. He's catching flak from your colleagues because he represented a notoriously race-conscious district years ago. If they won't let him off the hook for that, they're not going to forget your Confederate flag statement, and anything you say that can be spun as racist will be used against you. And Black folks will be watching as they may not have had you said NASCAR Dads.

When I suggested you say their name, this wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it's a start, and the attention CAN work to your advantage.

You need to have a catalog in your own mind of those issues that benefit the people in the South that truly should see voting Democratic as the self-interested move. You need to do the same as regards Black folks' concerns and note the significant overlap. And you need to lead with the overlap issues when speaking to these groups. You can do this because that overlap is HUGE.

You should say "to benefit people like you" to each group. Let them assemble the people like them in their own mind. And using the same terminology ("people like you") to push the same agenda to people who see themselves on opposite sides, showing both will objectively benefit from said agenda, is a true "uniter, not a divider" move. If pushed to identify exactly who "people like you" are, the correct answer is "Americans."

Good thing I posted that opinion about Den yesterday. I wouldn't want to seem like a copycat. Now that I've started, though…

Incidentally, this is why I haven't endorsed anyone yet. It's important to see their positions, the inevitable problems and challenges, and how they respond. Handling this would be better than letting it blow over, but the handling must be subtle.

Nope. His main mistake was using the flag as a reference at all. As I said yesterday, it accurately indicates a particular demographic, so condemning the flag will be taken as an insult by them. It would have been much better to find another way of indicating them.

  This one is for Mark.  

via Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes "The BitKeeper to CVS gateway was apparently hacked in an attempt to add a root exploit back door to the Linux kernel, according to the linux-kernel archive. The change was in the file kernel/exit.c and changed the user ID of a process to root under the guise of checking the validity of some flags. The core Linux BitKeeper kernel repository was not at risk, and in fact it was the BitKeeper CVS export scripts that detected the unauthorized modifications to CVS. The changes were falsely attributed in CVS to long-time Linux developer davem (David Miller). Users of the BKCVS repository should resync their trees to remove the offending code if they had replicated it since yesterday."
do you KNOW what the repercussions would be if this had gotten through? A built-in back door to every Linux box that ran the new kernel. The mind boggles.

Naked Twister. Not work safe, and I don't remember how I stumbled onto it.

I have been asked my opinion of Howard Dean's 'guys with Confederate Flags in pickup trucks' comment. I haven't blogged about it, but I do have several not necessarily connected opinions.

I don't think it goes over too well with those guys because it sounded a bit pejorative to me.

I don't think it goes over well in the Black communities because it sounds like support for declared enemies.

I think it clearly and precisely identified a specific population that Democrats need to address. I think "disaffected Southerners" identifies them almost as well and is far less open to reproach.

What I personally think of Dean going forward will be greatly influenced by how he sets about attracting this demographic. I think they recognize themselves as a demographic and so SHOULD be specifically addressed. But if he excuses racism in any way, even implied, he goes into the same bucket with Nixon. There's a great number of issues of concern to disaffected Southerners that can be addressed constructively, that will benefit people across the board.

Black folks must always promote their agenda such that all people are included in the pool of beneficiaries. A similar approach should be taken with all appeals to disaffected Southerners.

A couple of things have been pulling me away from the keyboard.

Yeah, yeah, been there, done that, had the discussion. I just thought you might be interested in how our Presidential candidates are mapped, though.

Seems someone has been following the most recent Political Compass outburst and plotted the scores of great numbers of bloggers (hat tip to Nathaniel Newman).

Arthur Silber at The Light of Reason

Joah Marshall at Talking Points Memo

Atrios links to an Australian site that has the transcript and a RealAudio file of the speech itself…which I have not listened to…

Remember when I said I didn't understand bloggers because I somehow found myself categorized as a large mammal? Well, I'm still such, but now I'm a bit more comfortable with the rating.

As soon as I found out how the TTLB Ecosystem worked I figured N.Z. Bear should be counting unique links rather than all the links in a page. I even suggested it on the Bear's page.

It has happened. Now maybe I'll pay attention to the thing.

As work shifts, internship in India the new rite of passage

By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff, 11/4/2003

What a global role reversal.

An increasing number of US students are going to India to intern at top information technology services firms or to participate in tours that allow them to network with the country's corporate elite.

The shift reflects a sea change: For years, students from India and elsewhere in Asia have been nabbing internships at US companies, thinking that was where the action was.

Michael Anders, 24, of Cambridge, spent last July, August, and the first week of September in Bangalore for a stint at the corporate headquarters of Infosys Technologies Ltd. The company, which reported revenue of $754 million in its latest fiscal year, is India's second largest exporter of software and technical services, with more than 19,000 employees worldwide.

Court Won't Hear Alabama Justice's Appeal Over Ten Commandments
By David G. Savage
Times Staff Writer

November 4, 2003

WASHINGTON ? Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Monday lost his bid to enlist the Supreme Court in support of his campaign to keep the Ten Commandments on display in the state courthouse.

Without comment, the justices refused to hear Moore's final appeal of rulings that required him to remove the 5,300-pound monument from the rotunda of the state Judicial Building in Montgomery.

This Can't Go On
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Academic economists often cite Stein's Law, a principle enunciated by the late Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Nixon administration. The law comes with various wordings; my favorite is: "Things that can't go on forever, don't." Believe it or not, that's a useful reminder.

For we're now led by men who think that macho posturing makes Stein's Law go away. On issues ranging from budgets to foreign policy, they insist that we can sustain the unsustainable. And when challenged to explain how, they engage in magical thinking.

Somewhere buried in the archives of the Staten Island Museum is a reel-to-reel Betamax format video tape of a documentary on Sandy Ground. Me and the boys shot it as part of a joint project between the Museum and the NY Public Library some 30 years ago.

There is a certain defiance in the new coat of white paint along the bottom half of the A.M.E. Zion Church in Rossville on Staten Island. All around it, development waits impatiently.

Just past the woods and weeds in the backyard of the church lies a fresh batch of town houses. Opposite the 19th-century church's front door is a row of tightly packed two-year-old homes.

The Rev. Janet Jones, pastor of the church, is undeterred. "We intend to be around for a while," she says.

The church sits in the center of Sandy Ground, a community built by free blacks who came to the southern end of Staten Island in the decades before the Civil War. It is the oldest continuously held settlement established by free blacks in North America, according to local historians.

"Few people know about Sandy Ground, even including some of those who actually live here," said Sylvia Moody D'Alessandro, one of the founders of the Sandy Ground Historical Society, a demure five-room museum down the block from the church.

Indeed, Doreen Cruz, 41 and white, lives across the street from the church but did not know its origins. "I had no idea about the history," said Ms. Cruz, who moved into the neighborhood from Brooklyn two years ago. "I did wonder what was the story with the church, since it sort of stands out in the neighborhood."

Though the church is historically black, less than 1 percent of the neighborhood's population today is black. The oldest Sandy Ground homes, some of them dating back 150 years, stand as remnants of a history tracing to the early 19th century. "There is a sense of responsibility, to keep ? as best we can ? the heritage alive," said Olivia Moody, 56, a descendant of one of the community's original black families. "There aren't many of us left around here anymore."

It is now time to give thought to what country I can move to quickly and safely.

Under pressure from Republican and conservative groups, CBS is expected to announce as early as today that it is canceling its plans to run a two-part mini-series in November deconstructing the Ronald Reagan presidency, two people close to the decision said last night.

They said the film would most likely instead be handed over to CBS's pay-cable sibling, Showtime.

The announcement would perhaps the first time a major broadcast network has ever removed a completed project from its schedule because of political pressure and under the threat of an advertising boycott.

Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford Law Clinic Sue Electronic Voting Company
Student Publishers and ISP Aim to Stop Diebold's Abusive Copyright Claims
Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

San Francisco - A nonprofit Internet Service Provider (ISP) and two Swarthmore College students are seeking a court order on Election Day tomorrow to stop electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Systems, Inc., from issuing specious legal threats. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford Law School are providing legal representation in this important case to prevent abusive copyright claims from silencing public debate about voting, the very foundation of our democratic process.

Diebold has delivered dozens of cease-and-desist notices to website publishers and ISPs demanding that they take down corporate documents revealing flaws in the company's electronic voting systems as well as difficulties with certifying the systems for actual elections.

Swarthmore students Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith have published an email archive of the Diebold documents, which contain descriptions of these flaws written by the company's own employees.

"Diebold's blanket cease-and-desist notices are a blatant abuse of copyright law," said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "Publication of the Diebold documents is clear fair use because of their importance to the public debate over the accuracy of electronic voting machines."

Not like I could have gotten a ticket if I knew in advance…

By Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 11/3/2003

NEW YORK -- For more than a century, the Cannon, a pristine violin insured for millions and the crown jewel of the Italian city of Genoa, had been kept in a guarded vault, taken out and played by a select few on rare occasions. Once the possession of 19th-century virtuoso Niccolo Paganini and crafted by one of the great violin makers of all time, it had never been touched by anyone who wasn't classically trained.

Tonight, the instrument -- nicknamed for its deep, loud sound -- will be in the hands of Regina Carter, a Detroit-born jazz violinist, who will perform with it in a jazz and classical concert at Lincoln Center. The violin traveled 4,000 miles Friday from Italy to Manhattan under the protective gaze of a caretaker, driven from Kennedy Airport by police escort as though it were a head of state.

How Carter became the first jazz musician and first African-American to play one of the world's most famous violins is a story with many chapters. First, it is a story of a female musician who yearned to explore the perfect acoustic instrument and of a European city that wanted to keep and protect what many believed to be the quintessence of beauty. It is a tale that crosses race, musical styles, and several centuries.

"Everybody thinks this is all glamorous, but it's not when you know what happens behind the scenes," Carter said, "and I know what went on behind the scenes."

Report: Medical Competition Won't Cut Costs
By Vicki Kemper
Times Staff Writer

1:44 PM PST, November 3, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Competition between Medicare and private managed-care health plans will do little to control medical spending or ensure more consistent, coordinated care for the nation's elderly and disabled, an independent panel reported today.

The conclusions of an expert panel of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, strike at the heart of Republican arguments for more private-market competition in Medicare. But the report also undercuts the position of some liberal Democrats that Congress should add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare but otherwise leave the program much as it is.

A "hybrid model" of fee-for-service Medicare and private health plans is "far superior to much of the present debate," said Mark Schlesinger, a professor at Yale and Rutgers universities who chaired the panel.

"There is no evidence ? repeat, no evidence ? that private plans would reduce long-term (spending) growth rates," Schlesinger said. "For Medicare to remain a vital program, it needs to rely in equal measure" on traditional fee-for-service and managed-care plans.

And given the tendency of some private plans to "cherry pick" the healthiest patients, "there is no way to say [head-to-head competition between Medicare and private plans] will not produce a death spiral" for traditional Medicare in some parts of the country, he added.

Bush Uses Good Economic News for Tax Cut Message
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 ? President Bush campaigned on the economy and other domestic issues today in Alabama, where he called for permanent tax relief and said the entrepreneurial spirit is "what America's all about."

Mr. Bush used an appearance at a family-owned crane company in Birmingham to deliver his message, in a speech that touched only briefly on the campaign in Iraq and did not specifically mention the loss of 16 American soldiers on Sunday in a downed helicopter.

"It is essential for those politicians in Washington to know that individual income tax relief is incredibly important for job creation, not only because it stimulates demand but because it provides a vital boost in the arm for the small-business sector," the president said to applause.

"We've got a consistent and effective strategy, and we're making progress," Mr. Bush said. "Our third-quarter economic growth was vibrant, and that's good. Inflation is down, and that's good. After-tax incomes are up. People are keeping more of their own money [P6: that far fewer of them have any money to keep need not be mentioned here], and that's really important for economic growth."

I had reason to run past the National Libertarian Party's web site today. After reading their platform, I wound up with a few questions.

Is this limited to physical force? Would psychological or economic coercion count? Would this include not forcing anyone to accept the fundamental principle? If so, how can one enforce this without initiating force?

What about involuntary trade? To participate in society, one must have hot water, electricity…food. Anyone who calls the acquisition of these things voluntary is simply too silly to talk to. So, are these things outside the purview of government?

Taxes supported the building of energy generation facilities, oil pipelines, etc. Pollution is created by inefficient combustion of fuel and careless dumping of garbage (which government authorities haul away from your house) and inductrial wastes (which corporations uniformly deny until confronted with evidence beyond the ability of individuals to procure). Health care for the masses are delivered through government owned hospitals. Decaying cities actually were largely caused by government intervention in the for of GI loans. And poverty just is. The great increase in poverty we're seeing now is the result of people being laid off.

In other words, I'm not seeing the causation.

This could have gone under "Politics," I guess.

MB at Wampum discusses Jane Galt's accusation that Democrats are playing the race card…and discovers it's Jane that's doing the dealing.

LATER: It's Dwight Meredith, not MB. I forgot Dwight, ex of P.L.A., is blogging at Wampum nowadays.

The results of the inquiry?

MB then discusses the reasons for opposing Brown's nomination. Reasons no one would be surprised about, if it were a white candidate.

By insisting on making the discussion of Brown (and Estrada) a racial issue, Republicans are looking for a racial preference, differential treatment for these candidates because of their race. Which doesn't surprise me.

Coob rudely quotes me without issuing a trackback.

Where is there anything in the quote about the common man controlling the government?

What it says is, the elite must be prevented from walking off with the store. Isn't that what it says?

Let me check again…

Yup. That's what it says.

XML-RPC question.

If someone could point me to instructions on how to tell if a post returned by metaWeblog.getRecentPosts has been published I'd really appreciate it.

A Slave to His Time and Place
In protecting slavery, Jefferson shielded a system that nurtured him economically and politically.
By Garry Wills
Garry Wills' latest book, "Negro President: Thomas Jefferson and Slave Power," will be published this month by Houghton Mifflin.

November 3, 2003

Americans are blessed, but ambiguously blessed, by the extraordinary generation of men (yes, all men) who shaped our republic in the 18th century. They formed such a brilliant galaxy of talents that they hover far above us. At times, it seems that the only way to remedy their Olympic remove is by rocket assault, which brings them crashing down to Earth. Usually the fuel is humanizing (but trivializing) scandal, which leads to an overemphasis on such matters as Thomas Jefferson's sexual liaison with Sally Hemings.

In this famous tale, too much has been made of sex and too little of slavery. The real point of the story is that Hemings was available to Jefferson because he owned her ? he never had to acknowledge her, educate her, bring her within the circle of his family or free her. The issue is not his sexual continence but the fact that he used his property at his will.

And that raises the larger question ? not what he did for or to her or her family, but what he did about the institution of slavery.

Overall, Race No Factor for Low-Scoring UC Applicants
By Rebecca Trounson, Stuart Silverstein and Doug Smith
Times Staff Writers

November 3, 2003

Latinos with low SAT scores are admitted to the University of California at rates only slightly higher than whites and Asians, while blacks who score poorly are significantly less likely to get in, according to a Times analysis.

All told, the groups underrepresented on UC campuses ? African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans ? are admitted with below-average SAT scores at the same rates as whites and Asians.

The analysis of freshman applicants to UC over the last two years offers a complex portrait of admissions at the public university, the state's most prestigious system of higher education.

The university's admissions practices have come under scrutiny in recent weeks amid a growing debate over the disclosure that hundreds of students were admitted to UC Berkeley last year with scores of 1000 or below on the SAT.

It's not like I pay that much attention to William Safire, but it strike me that in today's editorial he shows a distinct lack of imagination.

Although such a retreat under fire would be euphemized as an "accelerated exit strategy," consider the consequences to U.S. security of premature departure:

Set aside the loss of U.S. prestige or America's credibility in dealing with other rogue nations acquiring nuclear weapons. Iraq itself would likely split apart. Shiites in the south would resist a return of repression by Saddam's Sunnis and set up a nation under the protection of Iran. Kurds in the north, fearing the return of Saddamism, would break away into an independent Kurdistan; that would induce Turkey, worried about separatism among its own Kurds, to seize the Iraqi oil fields of Kirkuk.

One result could well be a re-Saddamed Sunni triangle. Baghdad would then become the arsenal of terrorism, importer and exporter of nukes, bioweapons and missiles. There is no way we can let that happen. Either we stay in Baghdad until Iraq becomes a unified democratic beacon of freedom to the Arab world ? or we pull out too soon, thereby allowing terrorism to establish its main world sanctuary and its agents to come and get us.

Our dovish left will say, with Oliver Hardy, "a fine mess you've got us into" ? as if we created Saddam's threat, or made our C.I.A. dance to some oily imperialist tune, or would have been better off with our head in the sand. Most Americans, I think, will move past these unending recriminations, reject defeatism and support leaders determined to win the final Iraq war.

Conservative Anglicans Won't Recognize Gay Bishop
By REUTERS 8:00 AM ET
Conservative Anglicans on Monday said the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the U.S. had split the church in two.

Still assembling that program.

Having now announced it twice, I better produce something, huh?

I have felt this way. Frequently.

A Manifesto for the Thoughtful Asshole

Imagine you are engaged in heated debate with a nitwit. Perhaps he insists that the tiny amount of electromagnetic radiation produced by small appliances is life-threatening. Maybe he claims that science - science! - proves that ancient, unprincipled medical practices are still relevant today. Possibly he asserts that telepathy and ESP are firmly grounded in modern physics. You've probably been taught to suffer such brainlessness, to be "open-minded" lest you endure the scorn of a society that ham-handedly stuffs tolerance down your throat. Maybe you've even managed to convince yourself that there is benefit in listening patiently to views that conflict violently with common sense. After all, how can you accurately judge a person's ideas unless you hear their entire line of reasoning? Didn't everyone call Einstein crazy? Don't you risk missing out on a superior and revolutionary way of thinking? It's best, it might seem, to simply hear them out before passing judgment.

My friends, do not fall into this trap. These people are not latter-day Einsteins. They are the slobbering, gibbering cretins you believe them to be. Do not be tricked into equating unbiased thinking with uncritical thinking. Do not be ashamed of dismissing them out of hand. No! Break free of the chains of open-mindedness! Throw down the shackles of undiscriminating tolerance! Refuse to endure another instant of sanity-eroding idiocy!

This all assumes, of course, that you are not a moron. If you are a moron, you should listen to your betters. You should also go far, far away - this very instant, mind you - and never trouble us again.

I deleted your trackback because I got a 404 page on the other side of the link. Send one that works and I'll leave it there.

As to whether you hit a nerve or not, see this and this. Fact is, I'd never read your defense of Limberger. Fact is, I called you a crakka-ass crakka in mid-August. Follow the links to find out why.

And no, your weak-ass page gets no link. Figure out the trackback thing.

No one knows what it is.

…One difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that here, in general, commanders in the field talk to reporters openly, candidly and on the record ? a product, presumably, of the practice of embedding reporters with the troops early on.

But today in Baghdad, where the Coalition Provisional Authority can better control access to information, the atmosphere has become very different. It is almost impossible for a journalist to talk to any official from the authority without getting the approval of a public information officer.

Recently, when an army major and the head of operations of an American agency here sought to take a reporter for coffee at the Rashid Hotel, where senior American personnel live and eat, a sentry told them that no reporter could enter the hotel without an escort from the press office.

The American officials were more astonished than the reporter.

I grant that he raises issues that need some thought

…What I'm getting at here is that when you find yourself in an argument with Europeans over Iraq, they try to present it as if we both want the same thing, but we just have different approaches. And had the Bush team not been so dishonest and unilateral, we could have worked together. I wish the Bush team had behaved differently, but that would not have been a cure-all ? because if you look under the European position you see we have two different visions, not just tactical differences. Many Europeans really do believe that a dominant America is more threatening to global stability than Saddam's tyranny.

The more I hear this, the more I wonder whether we are witnessing something much larger than a passing storm over Iraq. Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of "the West" as we have known it ? a coalition of U.S.-led, like-minded allies, bound by core shared values and strategic threats?

The problem, old boy, isn't the "dominant" part. It's the "dishonest and unilateral" part combined with the "dominant" part. One part or the other can be dealt with. The combination is threatening as hell.

What do Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, George Bush and possibly Elizabeth Smart have in common? Ask Maureen Dowd (who I think for the brief but entirely appropriate reference to Ms. Smart).

This is an annual thing at the NY Times, but the first paragraph is troubling and worthy of reporting in and of itself.

As New York City teems once more with a boom-time population of eight million, its signature Dickensian dichotomy brims before our eyes: poverty and homelessness are on the rise even as the streets hum with ambitious newcomers and the average price of a Manhattan apartment rockets toward the million-dollar mark. The city's clashing mix of opulence and opportunity, hard labor and raw daily indigence has rarely been so palpable. Neither has the need for some down-home charity. For all its resilience after the Sept. 11 disaster, the city finds 18 of 100 residents impoverished.

The time could not be riper for The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, the annual plea to concerned readers to extend some basic charity to the many New Yorkers caught in harsh straits. For 91 years, the fund has channeled millions of dollars to time-proven institutions facing the problems that hammer upon the poor.

Homelessness has become an endemic problem lately for city children; the statistical drop in welfare rolls is illusory for working mothers on minimum wages. Charities working with the Neediest Cases Fund find grandparents becoming primary caretakers in the most troubled families, where poor nutrition generates school failure and dangerous child obesity.

Every penny donated ? The Times pays all administration costs ? helps seven local charities bolster the neediest. These are the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service; the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York; the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens; the Children's Aid Society; the Community Service Society of New York; the UJA-Federation of New York; and the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies.

Please send your checks to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11245. You also may contribute using a credit card online at www.nytimes.com/neediest, or by telephone at (212) 556-5851, extension 7.

At Least 14 Killed in Separate Attacks Against U.S. Troops
By REUTERS 5:45 AM ET
At least 13 soldiers were killed when a U.S. helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad on Sunday. Meanwhile, a bomb planted on a road in Baghdad killed one G.I.

The category should be "NOT Seen online."

NBC runs The Chris Matthews Show on Sundays around these parts. And they…in general…post transcripts on the web.

In general.

I've been waiting for the October 18-19 transcript to be posted. You see, at the very end of the show Matthews asks his guests to tell him something he doesn't know. One of his guests that week, and unfortunately I don't remember her name because I wasn't really watching the whole show, said she had beetold by her contacts in the White House that they hoped the press doesn't simply accept whatever the Bush regime comes up with as a result of the Valarie Plame outing scandal. I've been checking for that transcript every day ever since.

Today I see they posted the transcript for October 25-26. They skipped the transcript I'm interested in altogether.

It's things like this that make me interested in TiVo and the like.

I've been writing…more like assembling…software this weekend. With bith the news and my life being pretty quiet I figured it was a good time to start work on a personal make-my-life-easier project.