As you know, P6's motto is

In general, I feel that's more warning than anyone I don't know deserves, and people who know me (whether they like me or not) already understand it.

Well, in the comments to Seriously TroublingI got this response to something I said:

As for this:

Open your eyes. This coming from someone--me--who you KNOW is reasonable.

Except when you aren't reasonable, right? As I understand it, you are reasonable until you read something that pisses you off enought that you don't care if it is true or not, right?

Obviously we're talking social and psychological phenomena, not physics or math.

I thought about it, and the person who said this has been hanging tough and I feel deserves an actual explanation of the thought processes. The response is here instead of the comments just 'cuz.

It's been said that you can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. The fact is, all of us have positions we didn't reason ourselves into. I'm pretty aware of which positions I hold that were not reasoned into, and it'll be harder than hell to move me out of them.

It is possible, though. You have to present me with information I didn't have before or prove it more likely that things operate differently than I understand them to. If your explanation is no more likely than mine, I see no reason to give mine up. And if I see you feel my explanation is no more likely than yours and you choose to not accept mine, I won't dispute you much further.

Roughly 30 minutes ago things fell into place with a loud, resounding click that echoed across the land.

The chances of there being any blogging or responding to comments tomorrow are about zero. I am required by law to celebrate.

Hat tip to Hellblazer

Hurricane force winds whipped up the northeast today and yesterday, generated by enormous blasts of hot air during the latest Senate filibuster.

GOP senators seemed unconcerned about the dire consequences of their actions as they complained that the Democrats had blocked only 4 (what amounts to 2 per cent) of President Bush's judicial nominees, as opposed to the "collosal job" done by the Republicans in blocking 63, or a whopping 20 percent of Clinton's nominees during his tenor.

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Of course it's not political news. What did you think?

By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 11/14/2003

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have harnessed newly discovered cells from an unexpected source, the spleen, to cure juvenile diabetes in mice, a surprising breakthrough that could soon be tested in local patients and open a new chapter in diabetes research.

The MGH scientists injected diabetic mice with the spleen cells. The cells migrated to their pancreases, prompting the damaged organs to regenerate into healthy, insulin-making organs, ending their diabetes.

This is among the few documented cases of a major organ regenerating itself in an adult mammal. The research also finds a potential use for the spleen, long considered an organ with no apparent purpose.

"This shows there might be a whole new type of therapy that we haven't tapped into," said Dr. Denise Faustman, MGH immunology lab director and lead author of the new study, which appears today in the journal Science. "We've figured out how to regrow an adult organ."

Dr. George King, Joslin Diabetes Center research director, who was not involved in the research, said: "That you could just take spleen cells, infuse them, and somehow the pancreas is regenerated, that's exciting . . . The next step is to see if it can be done in humans."

The Limits of Eloquence

By Michael Kinsley
Friday, November 14, 2003; Page A29

…President Bush's recent speech committing the United States to a "forward strategy of freedom," declaring that "the advance of freedom is…the calling of our country," and that "freedom is worth fighting for, dying for, and standing for" (an odd anticlimax, by the way) is being heralded as eloquent. Which it is. Some of the finest eloquence that money can buy. A beautiful endorsement of an activist foreign policy that goes beyond protecting our interests to advancing our values.

The eloquence would be more impressive if there were reason to suppose that Bush thinks the words have meaning. One test of meaning is the future: what the words lead to. As even some admirers of the speech point out, the details of this "forward strategy of freedom" are missing, except for pursuing our current military adventure in Iraq -- which was sold to the country on totally non-Wilsonian grounds. But meaning can also be tested by looking at the past. Eloquence is just a hooker if it will serve as a short-term, no-commitments release for any idea that comes along.

…A man who sincerely has changed his mind about something important ought to hold his new views with less certainty and express them with a bit of rhetorical humility. There should be room for doubt. How can your current beliefs be so transcendentally correct if you yourself recently believed something very different? How can critics of what you say now be so obviously wrong if you yourself used to be one of them? But Bush is cocksure that active, sometimes military, promotion of American values in the world is a good idea, just as he was, or appeared to be, cocksure of the opposite not long ago.

…And what should you do if you are a supporter of a politician who changes his mind on one of the fundamental questions of democratic government? George W. Bush's powers of persuasion are apparently so spectacular, at least to some, that almost all the pro-Bush voices in Washington and the media have remained pro-Bush even when "pro-Bush" means the opposite of what it did five minutes ago. The Comintern at the height of its powers, in the 1930s, couldn't have engineered a more impressive U-turn. If places like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page had been as enthusiastic about nation-building back in 2000 as they are now, Al Gore might be president today.

A Hero for Telling the Truth

By Richard Cohen

Friday, November 14, 2003; Page A29

Against all expectations -- but not against my better judgment -- I've taken a liking to Jessica Lynch. Initially she brought such a rush of cynicism to my head I thought I would swoon from vertigo. But to the undoubted horror of the White House, the Pentagon and everyone at Fox News, she has refused to play the propaganda puppet and has, shockingly, told the truth. She is a hero -- not for what she did in Iraq but for what she did on the "Today" show.

There, as in other places, she denied that she emptied her rifle into the enemy, as initial reports had it, and instead conceded that she did not fire her rifle at all. She rued that her rescue has been videotaped and used to suggest that the operation matched the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. She thanked the troops who had snatched her back to safety -- her heroes, she said -- but lamented the use to which the video was put.

I confess that I was totally unprepared for such refreshing candor -- and I bet the entire Military-Industrial-Television-Publishing Complex was too.

…"and rightly so."

Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers
By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 ? The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's representatives.

Fraud Didn't Enrich Officers, Authorities Say
By MICHAEL WILSON

It all started in a barbershop in the Bronx. Between the bustle of four chairs, a Ms. Pac-Man machine and the Spanish soap operas on the little television, prosecutors said, two owners of the barbershop, one of them a former police officer, came up with a way to be paid for automobile accidents that had never happened.

Over two years, prosecutors said yesterday, the scheme grew to include four police officers and a dozen civilians, who filed claims for necks and backs that had never been sprained, for chassis that had not been bent. They cheated seven insurance companies out of almost $230,000, the authorities said, by filing the fake reports and sending the supposed drivers to medical clinics pretending they had been hurt.

All four officers were arraigned yesterday and pleaded not guilty.

The indictments came one year after three officers in Brooklyn were charged in a similar auto insurance case. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly praised the investigation that uncovered what he called a betrayal of the department.

But for all their trouble, and all the trouble they are now in, the officers got little back from the operation, no more than $1,000 each over two years, prosecutors said.

This image

which I cropped from this cartoon is brilliant. And soooo useful.

I want to nominate Tom Toles for the Nobel Prize.

Washington Post

Press Statement

Zambia has been host to the first ever Southern Africa Social Forum held at the Mulungushi Conference Center, from Sunday, 9 November, till today, 11 November.

We have been meeting as anti-globalisation activists, social movements, NGOs and unions opposed to neo-liberalism and corporate-led globalisation. We have drawn our inspiration from the growing international anti-globalisation movement as symbolized in the form of the World Social Forum, and from its African counterpart, the African Social Forum.

http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?category=Editorial

Akong Charles Ndika

In less than a year, the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be celebrating its 40th anniversary. This comes at a time when there is growing consensus all over the continent on the need for Africa to have ownership of its development. In tune with this, African heads of states in June 2003 committed their leadership to the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which centres on African ownership and management of the agenda, strategy and process of the continent's development. In fact, the overarching goal is for ?Africa to claim this millennium?.

The AfDB is tasked with co-ordinating and facilitating NEPAD. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is widely regarded as the premier financial and development institution of Africa. The Bank started operations in 1966 with a clear mandate to promote the economic and social development of its regional members and to promote international dialogue and understanding of development issues relevant to Africa. Within its general policies, the AfDB emphasised the importance of planning an energy sector for social and economic development, and indicated the intention to provide energy services to the maximum number of households at the least economic and environmental cost. This was to be done through loans, equity investments, and technical assistance to regional member countries. This envisaged regional leadership has remained a pipe dream, however, as institutions of global economic governance like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund provided external influences on Bank operations.

New Urgency, New Risks in 'Iraqification'

By Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 14, 2003; Page A01

At least four factors forced the administration to overhaul its military and political strategy in Iraq, despite the danger that a new approach might actually diminish U.S. control over the country's future.

The foremost factor is security -- from an Iraqi opposition that has become more intense, more effective, more sophisticated and more extensive. The other three are the failure of the Iraqi Governing Council to act, the looming U.N. deadline of Dec. 15 for an Iraqi plan of action and the U.S. elections just a year away, according to administration and congressional officials and U.S. analysts.

All four factors produced a new sense of urgency in Washington. "In an atmosphere of heightened violence and instability, Iraq urgently requires a new political formula. The U.S. administration, increasingly alarmed at the turn of events, is considering a range of options. This will be its second chance to get it right; there may not be a third," the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan watchdog, warned in a report issued yesterday.

Rumsfeld, on Asia Tour, Hints of Shifts in U.S. Forces There
By THOM SHANKER

TUMON, Guam, Nov. 13 ? Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld opened a six-day tour of Asia and the Pacific on Thursday, hinting at substantial changes in how American forces are deployed in the region.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the American military was emerging from an era of "static defense" built around a global chain of giant bases. Instead, he said, forces will be repositioned regularly among a potentially larger number of bases as required to meet any threats.

In his first trip to Asia since returning to the Pentagon for a second tour as defense secretary, Mr. Rumsfeld stressed that he was carrying no formal proposals for discussion in coming days with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.

But he said preliminary planning had evolved to the point where it was important to discuss "important conceptual changes" in talks with these two vital American allies.

Chrétien Leaves at Ease, Even if Bush Is Displeased
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

OTTAWA, Nov. 13 ? The departing prime minister, Jean Chrétien, defended keeping Canadian troops out of Iraq, pushing for gay marriage and liberalizing drug laws in an interview this week that made clear his lasting differences with the Bush administration.

"I don't think a kid of 17 years old who has a joint should have a criminal record," he said flatly on Monday in the broad-ranging interview in his elegant official residence as he prepared to retire after 10 years in office.

While careful not to gloat about his decision not to send Canadian troops to Iraq, Mr. Chrétien, who is 69, was not apologetic either. "Of course he was not happy," he said, recalling President Bush's obvious displeasure. "I did not expect him to send me flowers."

Democracy would "take time to penetrate in the spirit of the people" in Iraq, he said. In the meantime, he advised giving a larger role to the United Nations, similar to that in Afghanistan, where Canada has 2,000 troops.

Mr. Chrétien insisted that "relations are not bad at all" with the United States, and he still keeps a photograph of himself and President Bush in the foyer of his residence on the Ottawa River. But his positions left him clearly at odds with Washington on issues defining the core values of the two nations, ranging from Iraq and his support for the Kyoto climate treaty, to his proposed bills to expand marriage rights and decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

Such stances may well mark Mr. Chrétien in history as a social activist and a leader who helped define the Canadian character as separate from that of its powerful southern neighbor, a place that even he seemed surprised to inhabit.

G.O.P. Leader Solicits Money for Charity Tied to Convention
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

It is an unusual charity brochure: a 13-page document, complete with pictures of fireworks and a golf course, that invites potential donors to give as much as $500,000 to spend time with Tom DeLay during the Republican convention in New York City next summer ? and to have part of the money go to help abused and neglected children.

Representative DeLay, who has both done work for troubled children and drawn criticism for his aggressive political fund-raising in his career in Congress, said through his staff that the entire effort was fundamentally intended to help children. But aides to Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.

And so campaign finance watchdogs say Mr. DeLay's effort can be seen as, above all, a creative maneuver around the recently enacted law meant to limit the ability of federal officials to raise large donations known as soft money.

"They are using the idea of helping children as a blatant cover for financing activities in connection with a convention with huge unlimited, undisclosed, unregulated contributions," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington group that helped push through the recent overhaul of the campaign finance laws.

Other lawmakers may well follow Mr. DeLay's lead. Already Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, is planning to hold a concert and a reception in conjunction with the convention as a way of raising money for AIDS charities.

Because I posted this I am obligated to post this followup.

The Associated Press
11/13/03 9:29 AM

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- The oldest of four boys allegedly starved by their adoptive parents had developed a serious eating disorder long before he was placed in the custody of child welfare officials, according to confidential state records cited in a newspaper report Thursday.

The Division of Youth and Family Services reports, obtained by the Star-Ledger of Newark, show that by age 2, Bruce Jackson regularly gorged on food and vomited it. A few years later, he consumed an entire bottle of Scotch and his grandmother's blood pressure pills, the newspaper reported.

Okay, it's but so funny because of the reality behind it. But it really sums up the Republican judicial nomination strategy well.

http://democrats.senate.gov/bedtime_story.pdf

Hat tip to Hesiod at Counterspin Central

Orcinus

It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that conservatives, subtly but unmistakably, are fomenting violence against liberals for the 2004 election. And if they succeed in doing so, America will be facing what has always been considered unthinkable here: a serious manifestation of fascism.

…I concluded previously that it seemed likely that any manifestation of fascism was some ways off, perhaps as long as a generation, if these trends were left unchecked. Now it appears that the timetable is moving much faster than that -- and countervailing forces are so far slow in coalescing, in no small part because of the utter, Stalinist ruthlessness of their opponents.

…This is not mere hyperbole; it is an exercise in eliminationism. As Buzzflash recently observed, talk like this is part of an increasing trend in conservative rhetoric: Pat Robertson wishing to "nuke" the State Department, Bill O'Reilly saying Peter Arnett should be shot, Coulter wishing Tim McVeigh had set off his bomb at the New York Times Building, John Derbyshire wishing for Chelsea Clinton's demise. Unsurprisingly, the same kind of talk is now heard on the "street" level, and it often pops up on talk radio. As we learned in Oklahoma City, eventually this kind of "hot talk" translates into all-too-real tragedy.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that conservatives are less and less inclined to rely on "intellectual" or political exchanges, and are turning more to an eliminationist strategy that seeks to demonize liberals and make them social outcasts -- and concomitantly, acceptable targets for violence because of the "damage" they cause the nation through their ostensible treason.

Already, this eliminationism is manifesting itself in the nation's military, where anyone deemed insufficiently supportive of the Bush administration is likely to face recrimination.

Hat tip to TalkLeft

Years before Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001 that the IRS asked the SEC to investigate the firm : 2.5
Number of SEC investigations of Enron that resulted : 0
Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

The California Grocery Workers Strike
The Wal-Mart Distraction
By MICHAEL SCHWARTZ

…But in the end this fight is about more than the grocery workers of Southern California, it's about the working class fighting to hold onto the gains they have won over one hundred years of struggle. This is not a simple dispute between supermarket employees and their employers. A line has definitely been drawn in the sand; all the employers are on one side and all the employees are on the other. These companies have joined together in an act of corporate solidarity. They know which side they're on in this war; the question is which side are we on?

Think about it, multi-billion dollar corporations who are supposed to be in "competition" with each other have joined together to try and crush their employees. They would rather lose tens of millions of dollars a week in the short term in the hopes of stealing hundreds of millions from their employees in the long term. This is not someone else's fight; we all have a stake in it.

I was more than willing to let Kim DuToit's absurdity (you know which one I'm talking about) pass into obscurity, but Ampersand at Alas, A Blog has perhaps the second best response to it I've seen.

My first real programming job (as opposed to several programs I'd implemented while managing a department that had nothing to do with programming) was creating an ISAPI extension as a web based data warehouse front end. It was all reporting; the data entry was restricted to narrowing down the dataset that was returned.

I learned a lot…not all, but a lot…of the things pointed out in this article. But I also learned that people look at a browser and still want to see all this webby stuff.

As the article implies, a successful web application is designed more like an application than a web page. But it's also cute. Make sure you lay out your pages such that you can add cuteness…after the functionality is nailed down.

Hat tip to Jay Allen

River at Baghdad Burning (the REAL one)

…I think it's safe to say that when you put a bunch of power-hungry people together on a single council (some who have been at war with each other), they're going to try to promote their own interests. They are going to push forward their party members, militias and relatives in an attempt to root themselves in Iraq's future.

"Bremer noted that at least half the council is out of the country at any given time and that at some meetings, only four or five members showed up."

Of course they're outside of the country- many of them don't have ties in it. They have to visit their families and businesses in Europe and North America. For some of them, it sometimes seems like the "Governing Council" is something of an interesting hobby- a nice little diversion in the monthly routine: golf on Saturdays, a movie with the family in London on Fridays, a massage at the spa on Tuesdays, and, oh yes- nation-building for 5 minutes with Bremer on the Xth of each month.

…People have been expecting this for some time now. There's a complete and total lack of communication between the Council members and the people- they are as inaccessible as Bremer or Bush. Their speeches are often in English and hardly ever to the Iraqi public. We hear about new decisions and political and economical maneuverings through the voice-overs of translators while the Council members are simpering at some meeting thousands of miles away.

We need *real* Iraqis- and while many may argue that the Council members are actually real Iraqis, it is important to keep in mind that fine, old adage: not everyone born in a stable is a horse. We need people who aren't just tied to Iraq by some hazy, political ambition. We need people who have histories inside of the country that the population can relate to. People who don't have to be hidden behind cement barriers, barbed wire and an army.

…Another problem is the fact that decent, intelligent people with political ambition refuse to be a part of this fiasco because everyone senses that the Governing Council cannot do anything on its own. Bremer is the head and he's only the tip of the iceberg- he represents Washington.

A national conference is a good idea, but it will fail as miserably as the Puppet Council, unless? there's a timetable. The occupation forces need to set a definite date saying, "We're going to begin pulling out on *this* month, next year- let's get organized before that." A timetable is vital to any progress, if any is going to be made. Only then, will things begin to move forward.

Prominent, popular politicians and public figures don't want to be tied to American apron strings- this includes lawyers, political scientists, writers, and other well-known people. Not because they are American apron-strings per se, but because this is an occupation (by American admission, no less). No matter how much CNN and the rest try to dress it up as a liberation, the tanks, the troops, the raids, the shootings (accidental or otherwise), and the Puppet Council all scream occupation. If it were French, it'd get the same resistance? just as if it were a Saudi, Egyptian or Iranian occupation.

It is also vital that all interested political parties be allowed to be a part of the national conference. Any political conferences in the past have been limited to American-approved political and religious parties which have left a large number of political groups outside of the circle- groups that have more popular support. Furthermore, the conference can't be run and organized by occupation forces (troops and the CPA). If there's one thing Iraqis are good at- it's organizing conferences. Why should vital political decisions critical to Iraq's independence be made under the watchful eyeball of an American Lieutenant or General? Everyone wants a democratic Iraq, but that just isn't going to happen if people constantly associate the government with occupation.

I just recognized a possibly offensive pun in the title to this post. I know I got gay readers. at least one of whom I'm SURE would tell me if I screwed up. Or maybe I'm oversensitive from exhaustion.

I'm going to bed. Somebody tell me tomorrow.

C.I.A. Report Suggests Iraqis Are Losing Faith in U.S. Efforts
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 ? A bleak top-secret report by the Central Intelligence Agency suggests that the situation in Iraq is approaching a crucial turning point, with ordinary Iraqis losing faith in American-led occupation forces and in the United States-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

The report, sent to Washington on Monday by the C.I.A.'s Baghdad station chief, suggests that the situation is creating a more fertile environment for the anti-American insurgency. Officials said the report was adding to the sense of urgency behind the administration's reappraisal of its policies in Iraq.

The officials said that the report, dated Nov. 10, had been explicitly endorsed by L. Paul Bremer III, the top American official in Iraq, and that the warnings it spelled out had been a factor behind Mr. Bremer's abrupt return to Washington for consultations this week.

The C.I.A. and the White House refused even to confirm the existence of the report, which was first disclosed by The Philadelphia Inquirer. But government officials outside those agencies said its conclusions were among the darkest intelligence assessments distributed since the American-led invasion of Iraq in March.

"It says that this is an insurgency, and that it is gaining strength because Iraqis have no confidence that there is anyone on the horizon who is going to stick around in Iraq as a real alternative to the former regime," one American official said.

The latest C.I.A. report follows earlier intelligence assessments that warned American commanders in Iraq of increasing resentment among ordinary Iraqis. The picture those reports presented was very different from the public view presented by administration officials. In particular, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has repeatedly spoken of the opponents of the American-led occupation as "dead-enders, foreign terrorists and criminal gangs."

But the Nov. 10 situation report was described by the officials as reflecting a more formal assessment. They said Mr. Bremer's unusual endorsement was intended to give the document added credibility.

Say it's about religion. Don't claim condoms don't protect against STDs as they did in Africa.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 ? The nation's Roman Catholic bishops, acknowledging that American Catholics pay little heed to their teaching on contraception, launched an effort today to reinforce the ban on birth control and linked it to the anti-abortion campaign.

Holding their regular meeting in Washington, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops tackled another sexuality issue today. They approved the text of a brochure that lays out the church's condemnation of same-sex unions.

The contraception question was introduced by the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, the bishops' anti-abortion committee, which proposed the writing of an easily understandable booklet. The booklet would address questions about the church's teaching on marriage and sex, why "natural family planning" ? seeking or avoiding pregnancies according to the fertility cycle ? is acceptable and why it believes birth control is wrong.

It would also examine the "relationship between contraception and abortion" by pointing out that there is a link between abortion and failed contraception, and the potential for some contraceptive drugs to be "abortifacient."

Intending to write an article about K12 (but preferably K3) teaching techniques I ran across an embarrassment of riches about other shit entirely. In particular, the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies makes me want to open my skull and pour the whole site in. But my body clock says it's late and I've done a lot today; my brain feels like a saturated sponge and I can't even begin to write, much less absorb a bunch of stuff when all I really wanted was documentation of what I know.

Doing some Delphi stuff, supposed to be figuring out some details on table-less CSS design, having this discussion on OSP with a guy who seems to be trying to convince me that Democratic senators shouldn't oppose right wing extremist minorities because it would be racist (hey, does RIGHT WING EXTREMIST explain anything??) and I should be working on two more articles for OSP this week...

...and my body clock absolutely refuses to synchronize with worldtime.

bah.

LATER: Well, I figured out my CSS issues (damn punctuation mark), made some more progress on my Dephi project (I can retrieve and maintain MT blog configuration, I can retrieve posts, and publishing ought to be simple now that I got the rhythm), now that it's clear I won't be trying to answer ill-defined questions the conversation at OSP looks to be over. Maybe I can do two articles tomorrow. If I can sleep thru my pop heading out for dialysis, I'll probably be cool tomorrow.

…when he ain't doing politics.

F.B.I.'s Reach Into Records Is Set to Grow
Someone else can point out that Patriot II is still creeping up. And that, as it is the creepiest legislation in the history of creepdom, that its creeping is rather appropriate.

Explosion Rocks Italian Police in Iraq
Someone else can point out another ally is about to bail for their own good.

U.N. Estimates Israeli Barrier Will Disrupt Lives of 600,000
Someone else can point out that this was Sharon's plan all along.

Never Love a Stranger
Someone else can point out that Safire is an ass.

U.S. Aide in Iraq in Urgent Talks at White House
Someone else can point out that it took too long for Rove Bush Cheney to realize the coup has failed and to revert to a good ol' war of conquest.

Congress Is Nearing Approval of Record Pentagon Spending
Someone else can point out that by giving all the money to the rich guys and paying the working class enough to support the government with its taxes, the Bushistas have no choice but to do to Iraq what it will do to any other swamp that has resources they want.

Hold the Vitriol
Someone else can point out that even grown-ups get tired of spoiled, selfish children constantly kicking them in the shins and shit.

NY Times:

…In recent weeks, President Bush has declared that his administration is making great progress in its diplomatic effort to disarm both countries, putting together coalitions of neighboring countries to pressure the two surviving governments of what he famously called the "Axis of Evil."

But the essence of the Central Intelligence Agency report about North Korea is that that country is speeding up its weapons production. And Iran's decision to allow the international agency into facilities that were previously closed to inspectors may, diplomats said, blunt Mr. Bush's effort to seek some kind of sanctions in the United Nations, leaving Iran with an advanced nuclear infrastructure that could be restarted at a moment's notice.

Taken together, the reports show that Iran and North Korea have each dabbled in separating plutonium ? one path to a bomb ? and have each set up centrifuges to enrich uranium. The difference, as the C.I.A. told Congress, is that North Korea has fully mastered the complexities of detonating a bomb, perhaps with the help of some of its nuclear suppliers like Pakistan. There is no evidence that Iran has made that much headway.

"The Iranians did a lot better at this than Saddam Hussein did," one administration official said. "But not as well as Kim Jong Il," he added, referring to the North Korean leader.

Washington Post;

…Of course, this non-conversation about immigration reform has a lot in common with other non-conversations -- about Social Security reform, say, or health care reform -- that happen in Washington all the time. What makes it different is the deeper level of absurdity into which immigration policy has lately sunk. Consider this: Violent gangs of smugglers regularly cross the Mexican border into this country, where they conduct shootouts in broad daylight. At the same time, a whole new, post-Sept. 11 visa bureaucracy now regularly prevents distinguished scientists and pianists from visiting this country at all. In other words, you can get in if you're a gun-toting thug, but not if you're a visiting professor of neurology.

And consider this, too: American agriculture is now utterly dependent on the labor of millions of illegal immigrants. As a result, business lobbies have recently persuaded both right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats to back bills that would make it easier for companies to get temporary visas for their migrant workers, without whom they could not function. Yet this logical method of legalizing a huge swath of the underground economy -- which would be extremely useful from a "homeland security" point of view too -- is considered so politically explosive that few in Congress believe it can even be discussed so close to an election. Millions of illegal immigrants are here, in other words -- and 11/2 million more enter every year -- helping to keep food prices, restaurant bills and leaf-raking costs low, yet it's considered "controversial" even to admit that they exist.

Government Outgrows Cap Set by President
Discretionary Spending Up 12.5% in Fiscal '03

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; Page A01

Confounding President Bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels.

The sudden rise in spending subject to Congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year. Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip. Before those two years, spending increases of this magnitude occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, 1966 to 1968.

The preliminary spending figures for 2003 also raise questions about the government's long-term fiscal health. Bush administration officials have said fiscal restraint and "pro-growth" tax cuts should put the government on a path to a balanced budget. Bush has demanded that spending that is subject to Congress's annual discretion be capped at 4 percent.

But the Republican-led Congress has not obliged. The federal government spent nearly $826 billion in fiscal 2003, an increase of $91.5 billion over 2002, said G. William Hoagland, a senior budget and economic aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Military spending shot up nearly 17 percent, to $407.3 billion, but nonmilitary discretionary spending also far outpaced Bush's limit, rising 8.7 percent, to $418.6 billion.

…is to stop putting people who think war is a proper means to peace in office. Or get them out as soon as you get a chance.

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; Page A01

JERUSALEM, Nov. 11 -- Three years into war with the Palestinians, Israelis are losing patience with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. With violence continuing and peace efforts at a months-old impasse, members of Sharon's government are voicing dissent, activists are pursuing independent peace initiatives and opinion polls show his approval ratings sinking.

The military's top general has publicly challenged Sharon's handling of the conflict, and long-dormant peace groups and dovish politicians are showing signs of rejuvenation. A memorial service for slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 1 drew 100,000 people and turned into the largest peace rally since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.

"After three years, it's time to rethink," said Asher Friedberg, a political science professor at the University of Haifa. "Both sides are tired of what's going on. We're at a dead end."

Israeli pollsters and political analysts said the confluence of events and trends has produced the sharpest divisions within the Israeli leadership and among the populace since the first months of the uprising. Political leaders and analysts said the dissatisfaction among Israelis is exacerbated by mounting concern over the deterioration of the U.S. occupation in Iraq and its potential for inflaming the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Blair Defends Bush Partnership
President's Visit Seen as Chance to Explain Policies

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 12, 2003; Page A19

LONDON, Nov. 11 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing a wave of protest over President Bush's planned state visit here next week, pleaded Tuesday with the British public to give Bush -- and himself -- a chance to explain anew their policies on Iraq and terrorism.

"What I say to them is, just listen to the argument," Blair said in an interview with six American news organizations. "Try not to believe that myself or President Bush are sort of badly motivated people who want to do the worst, just try and look at it from the perspective that we are talking on."

Go ahead, play Mark Fiore's new game.

Japan and E.U. Threaten U.S. on Import Sanctions
By THOMAS CRAMPTON,
International Herald Tribune

HONG KONG, Nov. 11 ? A day after the World Trade Organization ruled that American steel tariffs are illegal, Japan and the European Union threatened the United States today with billions of dollars' worth of sanctions. China and South Korea threatened similar action if Washington retained the tariffs on imported steel.

In its ruling, the W.T.O. rejected a United States appeal of a ruling in July that said the tariffs are illegal.

Japan's economy, trade and industry minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, said in a statement today:

"Should the United States refuse to terminate its illegal practice, we will notify the W.T.O. of our retaliatory measures based on the overall losses. We do hope the United States will accept the ruling and terminate the measures immediately."

China, the world's largest steel producer, warned that strong action would be taken if the tariffs remained in place.

China welcomes "the W.T.O.'s ruling and hopes the U.S. government can remove as soon as possible the safeguard measures on steel that are detrimental to W.T.O. rules," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said at a news briefing. "With respect to the further measures taken by various parties, it will depend on the attitude that the United States will take."

via dKos:

Or, my first Instapundit link. Credit where due.

Calpundit linked it, it's not my fault…

Truth, I didn't blog on this (um, that Nazi school raid that tuned up nothing) because all I knew was what I saw on TV…which was a blurry tape. I just didn't know enough to comment intelligently.

I check the RSS reader and see all these posts titled Veterans Day. So this is mine.

Hey, I live in a time warp. I don't notice holidays birthdays or any of that crap.

Taylor Seen as Still Meddling in Liberia
A bounty offered by the U.S. for the warlord's capture indicates peace accord's fragility.
By Solomon Moore
Times Staff Writer

November 11, 2003

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa ? A $2-million bounty approved last week by the U.S. government for the capture of former Liberian President and international war crimes fugitive Charles Taylor comes amid reports that the exiled leader is making persistent efforts to meddle in the affairs of the fragile nation.

The measure specifies that $2 million will be used "for rewards for an indictee of the Special Court in Sierra Leone," which is seen as a clear reference to Taylor. The money would be given to anyone responsible for delivering Taylor to the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, following the precedent of war criminals captured after the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Rwandan genocide.

The action against the warlord is an indication of Taylor's continuing influence and the fragility of Liberia's nearly 3-month-old peace accord as the West African nation awaits the arrival of 11,500 United Nations peacekeepers in the coming weeks. Those troops will reinforce 4,500 soldiers, many of them Nigerians, already on the ground.

Nigeria, which gave Taylor asylum in August to hasten peace efforts in Liberia and to protect him from a U.N. war crimes indictment for his involvement in a war in Sierra Leone, is one of the United States' major oil suppliers and a key political ally in Africa. Nigerian leaders heightened security around Taylor's villa in the city of Calabar over the weekend and warned that they would not tolerate any breach of territorial integrity, making imminent U.S. military action unlikely.

But the reward, which was signed into law Thursday by President Bush as part of an $87-billion spending bill to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, is a clear shot across the bow for Taylor and his supporters in Liberia. It is also meant to be an inducement for Nigerian officials to turn over Taylor to the war crimes tribunal, said U.S. congressional aides who requested anonymity.

Countering the Radical GOP

By E.J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003; Page A25

Our foreign policy debate right now pits radicals against conservatives. Republicans are the radicals. Democrats are the conservatives.

That jarring but shrewd perspective, offered by Anthony Lake, President Clinton's former national security adviser, explains much that is strange in our national discussion. And while Lake is critical of President Bush's policies, he does not use the word "radical" to make a partisan point. He is also critical of his own party's newly discovered conservatism.

…His son's democratic imperialism is genuinely radical. What Bush 43 calls for is very different from the transformation of Germany and Japan after World War II. By thrusting war on the rest of the world, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan made unconditional surrender and their long postwar occupations inevitable. By contrast, the war in Iraq was an optional war for the United States. We now learn from Bush's latest speech that it was less a war about immediate threats posed by Saddam Hussein than a bold experiment in support of a grand theory. "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East," Bush said in his speech, "will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution."

… But Lake is right to say that conservatism in foreign policy is not enough. He offers a useful metaphor: "If you had a house that was being knocked down, in whole or in part, you probably wouldn't just use the old plans to rebuild it. You'd want new plans for new conditions."

Instead of simply defending the old institutions, this means that those who support them should insist on their reform. Much has changed since the United Nations was founded more than 50 years ago. The original mission of NATO died with the Soviet Union. The United States and its European allies need to work out a new division of labor in facing terrorist threats and humanitarian disasters. The global financial institutions need change. The United States and Europe need to come to terms on agricultural subsidies that make a mockery of their claims of standing for either free or fair trade. Democrats, Lake argues, "need to be thinking large, and they're not."

U.S. Loses Appeal On Steel Tariffs
WTO Decision Lets EU Retaliate

By Paul Blustein and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 11, 2003; Page A01

The World Trade Organization issued a final ruling yesterday that the steel tariffs imposed by President Bush violate international trade rules, raising expectations that the White House will soon repeal the tariffs to avoid imminent European retaliation.

The WTO decision gives the European Union and several other countries the right to impose retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars worth of American exports unless Bush reverses the decision he made in March 2002 to give American steelmakers protection from imports. Such sanctions could be the largest ever applied in a WTO case.

That leaves Bush with an unpleasant political choice less than a year before the next presidential election. If he abides by the WTO ruling and rolls back the steel tariffs, he would anger voters in key steelmaking states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. But if he maintains the tariffs, he would risk angering industries in other states that would be hurt by the retaliatory duties. The EU's list of targeted products includes many that were clearly chosen for their political impact: Tariffs on citrus fruit, for example, would hit the pocketbooks of voters in Florida, and the duties on textiles would hit industries based in the Carolinas.

I feel my headline is more reasonable than that of the NY Times or the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune:

TalkingPointsMemo

Live by the word game, die by the word game.

Andrew Sullivan arguing that no one said the threat was imminent (emphasis added) ...

Webster?s, well-known dictionary manufacturer, defining ?imminent? ?

Some curveballs hang too temptingly over the plate.

Erica at Swirlspice pointed to a discussion of obesity at Dean Esmay's joint that I missed when I was skipping stuff this weekend…the reminder was right timely because of a "conversation" elsewhere that desperately needed the objectivity provided by Chuck Forsberg's Adiposity 101 page.

Thank you Dean for the link, and Erica for the representation. You both have greatly assisted in my maintaining a reputation for omniscience.

Ex-Officials Now Behind New Voting Machines
Those who led the state's ballot-count reforms now work for the firms making the equipment.
By Tim Reiterman and Peter Nicholas
Times Staff Writers

November 10, 2003

As secretary of state in 2001, Bill Jones moved to rid California of the type of antiquated voting machines that helped throw the presidential election into turmoil in Florida. Then last year he sponsored a successful $200-million industry-backed bond measure that gave counties money to buy high-tech replacements.

Now, the former elections chief is a paid consultant to one of the major voting machine firms vying for that business.

One of his former top aides has become a vice president for business development with the same company, Sequoia Voting Systems. Another former employee is working on Sequoia business strategies.

In the comments to On Cheney, in response (I believe) to:

comes this conversation:

…and because this isn't about Cheney I'm responding to both with a new post.

To begin with, it's pretty easy to hate someone from whom you'd receive benefit if you could just get along, even if you're fully aware that you would benefit. It's difficult to ACT OPENLY on that hatred. Black people in the Jim Crow South made huge amounts of money for white people that hated them. And they hated those white people right back.

See, not allowing Black folks to eat in your establishment wasn't an obstacle to selling them food. Racists had a monopoly on EVERYTHING.

And let's be clear: racism is about power;specifically, it's about collective, as opposed to individual, power; precisely, it's about economic power. The base individual emotions are tools by which it is implemented. Hatred, greed, paternalism (and this one is pointed directly at folks who 'want to end affirmative action because it sends the message to black people they can't get ahead without help'…your concern for Black people is a transparently thin cover for self interest), self interest and raw, amoral profiteering are appealed to or supported by racism.

Yesterday I posted a link to an article that I called the most likely demographic fuure of the country. Today, Brent Staples has an editorial explaining California politics as a reaction to that demographic future…or a rather dystopic view of it.

Which Founding Father Are You?

Think I've been joking?

Read or watch.

Living on Borrowed Money
By BOB HERBERT

It's interesting that so much attention is being paid to the modest job creation numbers for October, and so little is being given to a much more significant issue that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is homing in on.

Over the past couple of decades, Mr. Edwards said last week, "the American dream of building something better" has been replaced by the reality of "just getting by."

It has become increasingly difficult to get into ? or stay in ? the middle class. In speeches, reports and interviews, Senator Edwards has been pointing out that despite income gains, most families have been unable to save money and are dangerously vulnerable to setbacks like job losses and illnesses.

Citing statistics from an influential recent book, "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke," by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, he noted that over the past 30 years home mortgage costs have risen 70 times faster than the average father's income. So you end up with two parents working like crazy just to keep the family economically afloat.

With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms
By FOX BUTTERFIELD

LYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 6 ? After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime.

In the past year, about 25 states have passed laws eliminating some of the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences so popular in the 1980's and 1990's, restoring early release for parole and offering treatment instead of incarceration for some drug offenders. In the process, politicians across the political spectrum say they are discovering a new motto. Instead of being tough on crime, it is more effective to be smart on crime.

In Washington, the first state in the country to pass a stringent "three strikes" law by popular initiative a decade ago, a bipartisan group of legislators passed several laws this year reversing some of their more punitive statutes.

One law shortened sentences for drug offenders and set up money for drug treatment. Another increased the time inmates convicted of drug and property crimes could earn to get out of prison early. Another eliminated parole supervision for low-risk inmates after their release.

Taken together, these laws "represent a real turning point," said Joseph Lehman, the secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, who was a major supporter of the legislative changes. "You have to look at the people who are behind these laws," Mr. Lehman said. "They are not all advocates of a liberal philosophy."

When Subsidies to Lure Business Don't Pan Out
By LOUIS UCHITELLE

INDIANAPOLIS ? A huge, light-gray building, trimmed jauntily in blue, rises from the rolling, grassy fields on the far side of the runways at Indianapolis International Airport. From the approach road, the building seems active. But the parking lots are empty and, inside, the 12 elaborately equipped hangar bays are silent and dark. It is as if the owner of a lavishly furnished mansion had suddenly walked away, leaving everything in place.

That is what happened. United Airlines got $320 million in taxpayer money to build what is by all accounts the most technologically advanced aircraft maintenance center in America. But six months ago, the company walked away, leaving the city and state governments out all that money, and no new tenant in sight.

The shuttered maintenance center is a stark, and unusually vivid, reminder of the risk inherent in gambling public money on corporate ventures. Yet the city and state are stepping up subsidies to other companies that offer, as United once did, to bring high-paying jobs and sophisticated operations to Indiana. Many municipal and state governments are doing the same, escalating a bidding war for a shrunken pool of jobs in America despite the worst squeeze in years on their budgets.

Because America is as African as it is European.

Black covers the whole African diaspora, in my view anyway.

I'm Black, and I'm American. Two different sets of qualities.

If you haven't seen that crap Kim DuToit wrote, I got two links for you.

Norbizness sums it up. It's short. Just read what Norbizness wrote, don't bother clicking thru the link to the original.

Then check out how The Philosoraptor responds to it all. It's long and worth every minute.

(He got no comments, so email him some approval)

If I were Howard Dean, after declining matching funds I would do the following to make folks understand how serious I am about the need to uproot Bush:

- I'd promise to limit my primary spending to the same levels as the other candidates
- Then I'd pledge the excess would be given to the Democratic candidate for the Presidency if I didn't win it myself

Calpundit has posted a fascinating analysis of Dick Cheney by John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and friend of Cheny's youth.

You should check it out. I still think little of Cheney, but it's food for thought.

Bobby Jindal may be world famous soon. He is a Republican, and Indian (as in Asian), possibly the next governor of Louisiana and proof that the whole idea of "race" in the south still resolves to two factions: Black and White.

The Washington Post had each of the Democratic candidates online for chats and questions last week. You can got to the index page for the talks or go straight to the individual transcripts:

Carol Moseley Braun

Wesley K. Clark

Howard Dean

Sen. John Edwards

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt

Sen. John F. Kerry

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman

Al Sharpton

A REALLY interesting article from the October 5 NY Times magazine. Magazine articles tend to be long, so get comfortable enough for five pages on the most likely demographic future of the country.

The building at 59-21 Calloway Street in Corona, Queens, is grandly named the Calloway Chateau, but it is really the 21st-century version of Ludlow Street, the first stop off the long-haul plane from Bukhara or Bombay. You put your bags down here, a half-hour's drive on the Grand Central Parkway from J.F.K., and pause to gather breath for the journey into the hinterland.

The residents of the Calloway Chateau are brown, white, black and olive; Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist. Joseph Salvo, director of the population division at the City Planning Office, calls what's happening in Queens ''probably the greatest social experiment in history.'' It is the most ethnically diverse county in the country. In 1990, there were 243 census tracts in Queens County that were predominantly white; by 2000, the number had dropped to 116. For the past 10 years, Salvo, along with two colleagues, Arun Peter Lobo and Ronald Flores, has been charting with great specificity where different ethnic groups settle in New York. They have found that there are an increasing number of areas, dubbed ''melting-pot tracts,'' in which no single group dominates. The bar for being classified a melting-pot tract is high: there must be three separate groups who account for at least 20 percent of the population. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of melting-pot tracts in the city rose from 64 to 84. More than half of them are in Queens.

The Calloway Chateau is in Tract 437, in Corona. The tract is Hispanic-dominated as a whole (it is 52 percent Hispanic), but it is also significantly white, Asian and black. The number of people in Tract 437 who identify their ancestry as ''United States or American'' (173) are outnumbered by those who list their ancestry as ''sub-Saharan African'' (199). ''Then you break it up by block,'' Salvo says, ''and you got the U.N. in there.''

Five of the blocks within the tract have been classified as melting-pot blocks. One of those is Calloway Street. Of the 907 residents of the block, 29 percent are Hispanic, 23 percent are white, 23 percent are Asian and 19 percent are black. ''This is extraordinary,'' Salvo says, even for Queens. ''These percentages are not typical.''

Despite this astounding diversity, groups tend to stay within enclaves in the borough; even in mixed blocks, one group or another predominates in each individual building. When I read out the list of nationalities residing in the Calloway Chateau -- Uzbeks, Afghans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Koreans, Filipinos, Ukrainians, Russians, Argentines, Colombians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Peruvians, African-Americans, Guyanese -- Salvo draws in his breath. ''If you look at this building relative to all the buildings in Queens, this is going to stand out. Here is a rather extraordinary example of the melting-pot concept.'' While the Census Bureau doesn't compile data at the level of the individual building, it is quite possible that, for its size, the Calloway Chateau is the most diverse building in New York City.

I could have just posted the headline, since they "declined to provide further details." the rest of the article is a recap of what we know, and hence a waste of at least one tree.

Published: November 9, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 9 ? American forces have detained 18 people in connection with a rocket attack earlier this month on the hotel where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz stayed when he visited the country, a military spokesman said today.

The First Armored Division, which is responsible for security in and around Baghdad, made the arrests, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. George C. Krivo, who declined to provide further details.

Thsi is simply a continuation of the problem I pointed out in "The Funding Gap" at Open Source Politics.

If there is any grand, elegant logic behind the federal government's dispersal of more than a billion dollars in college aid, then Maria Hernandez is humble enough to confess that it has escaped her.

Consider her point. Poverty is hardly a rarity among the students of California State University at Fresno, where she is the director of financial aid. Many come from families working in the fields nearby, on farms where students spend their summer and winter vacations harvesting peaches and sugar beets to stay in school.

About three hours and a world away sits Stanford. Far fewer of its students are poor, yet the federal government gives it about 7 times as much money to help each one of them through college under one program, 28 times as much in another and almost 100 times as much in a third, government data show.

"Pretty sad," if you ask Ms. Hernandez.

Similar discrepancies emerge across the nation, adhering to a somewhat counterintuitive underlying theme: The federal government typically gives the wealthiest private universities, which often serve the smallest percentage of low-income students, significantly more financial aid money than their struggling counterparts with much greater shares of poor students.