The Phantom of the Fed
By DANIEL GROSS

Published: June 27, 2004

EARLY this week, the Federal Reserve Board will raise the federal funds rate, breaking the seal on the worst-kept secret since the Marc Anthony-Jennifer Lopez wedding.

During the past year, the Fed kept rates low even as the economy expanded and as signs of rising prices - in oil, rolled steel and Upper East Side co-ops - became more evident. The reason was that Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman, and his colleagues feared the specter of deflation. And it seemed that they had good reason to do so.

The core Consumer Price Index, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, was falling sharply, to a year-over-year rate of 1.1 percent in December 2003 from 2.7 percent in November 2001. That usually does not happen when the economy is accelerating out of a recession, and signs of unwanted slack abounded, from the labor market to industrial capacity.

But in recent months, a chorus of voices, including some within the Federal Reserve, has suggested that technology, globalization and the Fed's own recent aggressive actions may have skewed the numbers on which it relies.

As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Companies Write Checks
By GARDINER HARRIS

The check for $10,000 arrived in the mail unsolicited. The doctor who received it from the drug maker Schering-Plough said it was made out to him personally in exchange for an attached "consulting" agreement that required nothing other than his commitment to prescribe the company's medicines. Two other physicians said in separate interviews that they, too, received checks unbidden from Schering-Plough, one of the world's biggest drug companies.

"I threw mine away," said the first doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concern about being drawn into a federal inquiry into the matter.

Those checks and others, some of them said to be for six-figure sums, are under investigation by federal prosecutors in Boston as part of a broad government crackdown on the drug industry's marketing tactics. Just about every big global drug company — including Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth and Bristol-Myers Squibb — has disclosed in securities filings that it has received a federal subpoena, and most are juggling subpoenas stemming from several investigations.

The details of the Schering-Plough tactics, gleaned from interviews with 20 doctors, as well as industry executives and people close to the investigation, shed light on the shadowy system of financial lures that pharmaceutical companies have used to persuade physicians to favor their drugs.

Quote of note:

"We're using the video from MoveOn.org to show our supporters the type of vitriolic rhetoric being used by the president's opponents and John Kerry's surrogates," said Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

…A disclaimer was added to the beginning of the Web spot on Saturday afternoon to explain that the video contains "remarks made by and images from ads sponsored by Kerry supporters." The disclaimer also accuses Kerry of failing to denounce those who have compared Hitler to Bush.

So, if we're all denouncing folks who compare folks to Hitler, the Bush campaign would have to denounce itself.

Anyway…

Hitler Image Used in Bush Campaign Web Ad

2 hours, 45 minutes ago

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Adolf Hitler's image has surfaced again in the White House race. President Bush 's campaign contains online video, removed from a liberal group's Web site months ago and disavowed, that features the Nazi dictator.

The Bush Internet video, which was sent electronically to 6 million supporters, intersperses clips of speeches by Democrats John Kerry, Al Gore and Howard Dean with the footage of Hitler.

Democrats want the video pulled from the site. Campaign aides said it would remain.

Republicans had criticized the group MoveOn.org in January because it briefly posted an ad contest entry that linked Hitler and Bush. It showed images of Bush with text saying, "God told me to strike at al-Qaida," before turning to images of Hitler with the words, "And then He instructed me to strike at Saddam." The submission ended with the words, "Sound familiar?" on a black and white screen.

The group later said the entry was in "poor taste" and pulled it from its site.

The 77-second video on the Bush-Cheney re-election site splices footage of Kerry, the presumptive nominee, and his 2004 rival Dean along with 2000 nominee Gore and film director Michael Moore. The spot calls them Kerry's "Coalition of the Wild-eyed." Clips of Hitler's image are seen throughout the spot.

Green Party Refuses to Back Nader for President
Sat Jun 26, 2004 05:25 PM ET

By John Rondy
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Reuters) - The Green Party on Saturday refused to back Ralph Nader in his independent run for the White House, a move that could reduce his chances of being a factor in this year's election.

Delegates to the half-million-member party's presidential convention voted to nominate party activist David Cobb, a California lawyer who led the delegate count going into the meeting.

On the second round of voting, Cobb captured 408 delegates, more than the 385 needed to gain the nomination.

"What you have here before you are working class people who have demonstrated that it is possible to build a political party on principles and values -- without corporate money and without selling out," he told a lively crowd after he won the nomination.

I've spent most of the day learning the technical underpinnings of Drupal. I gave myself a project, to create a plug-in that renders the weekly archive sidebar box. What I came up lets you choose between weekly and monthly links, or both (for completeness) and will generate the archive pages as well.

I have to admit, I'm finding PHP to be an amusing language.

The Live Discussion Threads box is next, and now that I'm familiar with what must be done it will be a quick job.

My real concern was the "Convert Line Breaks" filter in Drupal is pretty weak and templating is no joke. Drupal, Wordpress and ExpressionEngine all require you to be comfortable with PHP to really get creative. In looking for a lazy way out I found James Seng's project. James is way out in front of me, having handled the line break issue, and modified the comments module to handle comments from unregistered users (which was the next major project) and a number of other changes that. And he's come up with a lighter-weight templating system, which I've yet to look at. He modified the distribution files while I'm writing plug-ins, but since I'm at the beginning of this leg of the journey I'll have a lot less work if I build on what he's done.

Do you know how screwed we'd be if every country had their own Dick Cheney?

Imagine the run-up to the invasion. The US presents it's case, and France disagrees. The US says, we'll go it alone if we have to, and Cheney-France says, "Fine. Help yourself." At the Security Council vote, Cheney-Germany and Cheney-France say "It's not in our interest to vote for your invasion, and you said you don't need our approval anyway" and deliver a veto each. Cheney-Russia decides to abstain while Cheney-China suggests the two vetoes mean there's no point in continuing the voting.

Cheney-USA invades and punks Cheney-Iraq. Insurgence proceeds, the USofA asks for help and all the Cheneys around the world say, "Sure. At cost plus percentage, and you don't get to audit our books."

See, when the USofA started that "we will go it alone if we have to" crap, they never expected to go it alone. They expected others to feel compelled (by economic necessity if nothing else), to be pulled along in their wake, as it were. And it might happen here.

But a world of Cheneys would recognize that the USofA was tying itself down militarily, economically and politically (international politics) in ways that, without help from the other major players, it can not support.

NATO Settles Dispute Over Training Iraqi Forces
Sat Jun 26, 2004 09:05 AM ET

By John Chalmers

…U.S. Senator Richard Lugar warned NATO at a conference in Istanbul that its reputation would stand or fall on its commitment to act in Iraq, which he described as "the central theater in the war on terrorism."

"If the new, sovereign Iraqi government were to ask NATO to come in, the alliance could refuse only at its own peril," the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said.

"Will it step up to its role as the defense arm of the Transatlantic community or step off the world stage and risk becoming irrelevant?"

Isn't this exactly what Bush said to the U.N., pre-invasion? The same U.N. he's needs to pull his fat from the fire now?

And when you read the American press spinning this all as a victory for Bush, understand what the dispute was:

President Bush is eager to share the burden in Iraq and is under pressure in an election year to obtain more international support for Baghdad, whose interim government is due to be sworn in when the U.S.-led occupation ends on June 30.

But he has lowered his ambitions for NATO support, partly because many European allies are militarily overstretched but mainly because France, Germany and other opponents of last year's invasion oppose an overt alliance role.

Diplomats said troop training in the violence-plagued country was the "lowest common denominator" that Washington and its closest allies could hope for.

Nevertheless, talks on even this role became bogged down on Friday as the United States and Britain pushed for a detailed and enthusiastic response to Allawi, while France and Germany favored a vaguely worded -- but still positive -- reply.

There were differences over whether NATO should train Iraqi officers inside the country under a NATO flag, or limit its role to training outside Iraq and acting as a clearing house for national efforts. There were also disputes over whether to open the door to a more far-reaching NATO military involvement later.

…as well as how it was resolved.

Diplomats said the agreed statement was vaguely worded and most details of NATO's training task would be negotiated later.

Quote of note:

In their private talks and a joint U.S.-EU statement, European leaders made clear their disquiet over both the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the U.S. military abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail.

The statement pointedly stressed "the need for full respect of the Geneva Conventions."

Bush Declares End to Iraq Rift at EU Summit
Sat Jun 26, 2004 12:03 PM ET

By Steve Holland
NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS, Ireland (Reuters) - President Bush declared an end on Saturday to Western rifts over Iraq but won little in his search for European military help and took heat over prisoner abuse.

"The bitter differences of the war are over," Bush told a news conference, which was delayed by anti-American protests staged around the lightning U.S.-EU summit in Ireland.

Fenced off from his detractors by 2,000 soldiers and 4,000 police -- a third of the Irish security forces -- Bush holed up in a picturesque western Irish castle with European Union leaders before flying to Turkey ahead of a NATO summit.

An EU-NATO commitment to train Iraqi security forces was the most concrete sign of any new transatlantic unity.

But it fell way short of Washington's original goal of getting NATO troops into Iraq, and diplomats said it may be just the lowest common denominator the two sides can live with.

I am convinced the lawyers interviewed for this piece are employer-side lawyers. In fact,

"It is a real blockbuster," said Georgene Vairo, a professor at Los Angeles' Loyola Law School. "Think about the attorneys' fees in a case where you have a class as huge as you have here."

Plaintiffs' lawyers are often looking for profitable new areas of litigation. And if the Wal-Mart case moves forward, Vairo said, attorneys are bound to be searching for other big companies that may be vulnerable to discrimination suits "and see what they can make of it."

In the past, many attorneys have been reluctant to try to bring massive class-action cases for fear that the courts would deem them unwieldy.

Now, "it's not going to be unthinkable anymore," said Lynn Bersh, an employer lawyer at Reed Smith Crosby Heafy in San Francisco. "The path has been laid."

It's specified in the last case.

The reason I think so is, these are really stupid things for the claimant's side to say on record.

Wal-Mart Lawsuit Could Pave Way for Other Massive Job-Bias Claims
More class actions against big firms may have their day in court. But obstacles abound.
By Lisa Girion
Times Staff Writer

June 26, 2004

Numbers talk. For lawyers and employers, 1.5 million shouts.

That's how many current and former employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could be swept into a gender discrimination lawsuit that was transformed by a federal judge into a nationwide class action this week.

If U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Jenkins' decision withstands Wal-Mart's promised appeal, the giant retailer will be facing the nation's largest workplace discrimination suit — and the possibility of a settlement or jury award running into the billions of dollars.

The prospect of such a huge liability — or big pay day — is reverberating through the ranks of employers, employees and lawyers on both sides of the bar.

…The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that the world's largest company pays female employees less than men for the same jobs, passes them over for promotions and retaliates against those who complain.

A study of Wal-Mart payroll data by the plaintiffs last year showed that women earned an average of 5% less than male counterparts with inferior education, experience and performance reviews.

Quote of note:

"Except under very limited circumstances, U.S. government experts do not and cannot participate in WHO consultations in their individual capacity," Steiger wrote. Civil service and other regulations "require HHS experts to serve as representatives of the U.S. government at all times and advocate U.S. government policies."[P6: emphasis added.

If you don't think political intrusions in scientific affairs is a critical error, I strongly suggest you look into Lysenkoism and the impact it had on the study of biology and genetics in Russia.

Unless you LIKE the idea of the USofA falling behind in the long term, of course.

---

Administration Tries to Rein In Scientists
Health and Human Services Department orders vetting of experts on panels convened by the U.N.'s health agency.
By Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writer

June 26, 2004

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency.

A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.

Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to implement the request thusfar, saying it could compromise the independence of international scientific deliberations. Denis G. Aitken, WHO assistant director-general, said Friday that he had been negotiating with Washington in an effort to reach a compromise.

The request is the latest instance in which the Bush administration has been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas of scientific deliberation. It has been criticized for replacing highly regarded scientists with industry and political allies on advisory panels. A biologist who was at odds with the administration's position on stem-cell research was dismissed from a presidential advisory commission. This year, 60 prominent scientists accused the administration of "misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge for political purposes."

The president's science advisor, Dr. John Marburger, has called the accusations "wrong and misleading, inaccurate."

The newest action has drawn fresh criticism, however, as the request has circulated among scientists.

"I do not feel this is an appropriate or constructive thing to do," said Dr. D.A. Henderson, an epidemiologist who ran the Bush administration's Office of Public Health Preparedness and now acts as an official advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "In the scientific world, we have a generally open process. We deal with science as science. I am unaware of such clearance ever having been required before."

Physical capital is the stock of products set aside to support future production and consumption. In the national income and product accounts, private capital consists of business inventories, producers' durable equipment, and residential and nonresidential structures. Financial capital is funds raised by governments, individuals, or businesses by incurring liabilities such as bonds, mortgages, or stock certificates. Human capital is the education, training, work experience, and other attributes that enhance the ability of the labor force to produce goods and services. Bank capital is the sum advanced and put at risk by the owners of a bank; it represents the first "cushion" in the event of loss, thereby decreasing the willingness of the owners to take risks in lending. See investment. [Back to top]
www.house.gov/budget_democrats/glossary.htm

I've been thinking about Google recently. I've been considering their two latest experiments and it's pretty interesting. I've come to the conclusion they'll let Orkut die because they've found what they want in GMail.

You remember the noise about who owns the personal information you enter into Orkut? And the occasional addition, like degrees of friendship…all in the hope you'd add enough stuff to let them see patterns in your connections and those in the overall community (remember, it's still an experiment). And the data is as rigidly selected as any dating service's profile, self chosen persona stuff. Not but so usefull.

But with GMail, they get up to a gig of a range of information about you a social networking profile could only dream of providing. A database whose value is limited only by developing data mining techniques.People dying…paying…to be invited—if they're smart they'll keep it invitation only like LiveJournal. And all without a jot of new (to them) tech.

Yahoo!, MSN, etc. are playing catch-up while Google is setting up a different game than they think.

What makes property property is your ability to deny others the use of it.

Senate Passes Toughened Copyright Laws
Fri Jun 25, 2004 08:41 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed two bills on Friday that would carve out a larger role for law enforcers in the entertainment industry's struggle to limit unauthorized copying of its movies and music.

People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could face jail time, while hackers and industry insiders who distribute copyrighted works before their official release date would also face stiffened penalties under one bill.

A separate measure would allow prosecutors to file civil suits in copyright cases, rather than criminal suits which require a higher standard of proof.

Copies of hit movies frequently show up on the Internet while they're still in theaters, thanks to pirates who sneak camcorders into movie theaters to tape films directly off the screen or industry insiders who leak copies to tech-savvy hackers.

Under a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, those found guilty of such behavior would face up to three years in prison for a first offense, or five years if it was done for profit. Repeat offenders could spend 10 years behind bars.

Movie studios and other copyright holders would be able to sue for damages.

A similar bill was approved by a House of Representatives subcommittee in March.

Another bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont would allow the Justice Department to use the same legal tactics as the recording industry, which has sued more than 3,000 people for distributing its music online.

Movies, recordings, have always been property. They had the same arguments over cassette and VCR recorder, and as a result there's a tariff added to every cassette and VCR tape to account for the fact that there WILL be copying. And in the end VCRs have been a blessing to Hollywood.

Performances aren't property. Recordings, material in which a performance is fixed, is property. We could always make copies, but we at least had to be in the physical presence of a recording.

Not anymore.

In order for the "free market" in recordings to continue, extra-market controls must be established. Without those controls the market will not support the existing players as they currently operate.

These industries are fighting for their lives. But their enemy is Inevitability.

Here's an economic fact for you to consider: gathering the information to make these pronouncements is no joke. The fact is, it takes years to get it together enough to consider the figures reliable.

---

1st-Quarter Growth Slashed, Inflation Up
Friday June 25, 9:10 am ET
By Andrea Hopkins

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy grew much more slowly than previously thought in the first quarter while inflation was higher, a government report showed on Friday.

The surprise downward revision to gross domestic product -- which measures total output within the nation's borders -- cut growth to a 3.9 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2004 from the 4.4 percent reported a month ago and below the 4.1 percent pace in the final quarter of last year.

The government also ratcheted up a key gauge of inflation, confirming an acceleration in price rises that has fueled expectations the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates from 1958 lows next week to head off inflation.

The core price index for consumer spending -- a favorite of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan that cuts out volatile food and energy prices -- gained at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the quarter, a bump up from the 1.7 percent reported a month ago.

Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds seesawed after the report, torn on whether to focus on the slower growth or the faster inflation. The dollar slipped against the euro.

"It is a bit surprising that inflation was worse and consumption was up less," said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Securities.

Iraq war 'will cost each US family $3,415'
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday June 25, 2004
The Guardian

The United States has spent more than $126bn on the war in Iraq, which will ultimately cost every American family an estimated $3,415, according to a new report by two thinktanks.

The report, published yesterday by the leftwing Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus also counts the human costs.

As of June 16, before yesterday's nationwide attacks, up to 11,317 Iraqi civilians and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers or insurgents had been killed, according to the report, which is titled Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War.

The death toll among coalition troops was 952 by the same date, of which 853 were American. Some 694, were killed after George Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1 last year. Between 50 and 90 civilian contractors and missionaries and 30 journalists have also been killed, the report says.

In a separate USA Today/ CNN/Gallup Poll released last night, for the first time a majority of Americans said the US-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake. In all, 54% of those polled said the move was a mistake, compared to 41% three weeks ago.

"We are paying this enormously high price for failure," Phyllis Bennis, the report's lead author, said yesterday. "It's not as if we are becoming more safe. It's not as if we are bringing peace to Iraq or democracy to the Middle East."

Quote of note:

Automated trains are by no means new. In San Francisco, Bay Area Rapid Transit trains have been completely automated since the 1970's. And New York City had a fully automated train between Grand Central and Times Square for two years in the early 1960's. More recently, driverless, computer-controlled train lines have emerged in Paris, London, Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and elsewhere. The New York City subway, however, continues to depend on the same antiquated system of signal lights, caution flags and speed limits.

"We are seriously behind," Mr. Ghaly said.

Next Stop for the Subway, a Fully Automated Future
By MICHAEL LUO

The subway of the future was rumbling back and forth on the Canarsie line in Brooklyn the other day. Not sleek or silent, it seemed no different from any other train. But its innards set it apart, making it groundbreaking for a transit agency long dogged by a Luddite image.

After several years of installation work and testing, New York City Transit is finally close to unveiling its first computer-controlled train line. A rollout of the $287 million system will begin in October and continue through next spring on an overhauled L line. At first, train operators will remain in control, but when the computer-based system becomes fully operational, probably sometime in May, trains will essentially drive themselves from station to station in fully automatic mode.

The spacing of trains, their speeds and when they start and stop will be entirely controlled by a complicated system of onboard and remote computers that communicate with each other via radio signals. Operators will continue to ride in the front cab in case of emergency, but their only job will be to push a button in front of them periodically to alert the rail control center that they are paying attention.

And if all goes according to plan, in a few decades hence, all New York City subway trains will run in the same way, without human help.

"This is a revolution," said Nabil N. Ghaly, chief signal engineer for the transit authority.

Although the system's benefits mainly center on being able to run more trains at higher speeds, the most important advancement will be in safety, supporters said.

"The whole idea is to eliminate human error," said Joe Bauer, a train operator instructor who has been helping test the new system.

More than a decade ago, a subway train with a drunken motorman aboard barreled through a railroad switch in Union Square and derailed, killing five people and pushing transit officials to begin exploring options for automating their aging system.

Justices, in 5-4 Vote, Raise Doubts on Sentencing Rules
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

Published: June 25, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 24 — The Supreme Court invalidated the criminal sentencing system of the State of Washington on Thursday in a decision that also cast doubt on whether the 20-year-old federal sentencing guidelines can survive a constitutional challenge.

Bitterly split in a 5-to-4 decision that cut across the court's usual ideological lines, the justices continued a profound five-year-long debate over the respective roles of judges and juries in criminal sentencing. In this case, they ratcheted that debate up to a new level that left the federal guidelines in constitutional limbo and cast doubt on the validity of thousands of sentences, at both the state and federal level.

Sentencing in about a dozen states is likely to be affected by the ruling.

In a separate decision, the court rejected the retroactive application of a 2002 death penalty ruling, placing as many as 100 inmates in five states back on death row.

In the Washington guidelines case, Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion held that the Washington system, permitting judges to make findings that increase a convicted defendant's sentence beyond the ordinary range for the crime, violated the right to trial by jury protected by the Sixth Amendment. The facts supporting increased sentences must be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, Justice Scalia said.

via Foreign Dispatches

"How To Abuse Accounting Identities," by Tom Nugent of The National Review:

What the senators and media don't get is the basic equation that defines the role of government deficits in the economy: The federal government deficit = non-government savings (of net financial assets). That's fact, not theory, a.k.a. an "accounting identity." Non-government savings include that of both residents of the U.S. and foreigners. If the federal budget deficit of $450 billion about equals the current account deficit, it means that all the net financial assets added by the deficit are being saved by foreigners, who desire to hold all those dollar-denominated U.S. financial assets and are willing to net export to us in order to get them.

This data indicates is that the federal deficit is too small for the U.S. domestic sector to save anything! Domestic savings are low because the budget deficit is too low. Low and unobtainable savings means low demand, excess capacity, and low levels of employment. In other words, to get adequate demand from a healthy economy, a much larger federal budget deficit is needed. Unfortunately neither political party sees the light on this one, and both proclaim a sincerity to balance the budget -- which would totally choke off what growth we do have, as it would actually drain domestic income and savings and further reduce demand.

Er, no. Which leads me to wonder what kind of fools have entrusted their money to PlanMember Advisors, Inc. and/or Victoria Capital Management. If my name were, say, "Ramesh Ponnuru" I would be very embarrassed to be appearing in the same publication as this kind of thing.

Even an economics tyro like me can see this is nonsense.

Thomas E. Nugent is executive vice president and chief investment officer of PlanMember Advisors, Inc. and chief investment officer for Victoria Capital Management, Inc.

No joke, if this guy was involved in managing any of my investments I'd suddenly be worried about his competence.

In fact, the most likely theater will be this one or this one, based on the number of screens they're running it on.

---

Fahrenheit 9/11: Crying, Laughing, Shouting at the Screen
Moore's Bush polemic hits raw nerve in New York
June 24th, 2004 12:00 PM

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 opened in select theaters on June 23rd. If the drawn faces of audience members leaving some of the first screenings in New York City are any indication, this film fucks you up. (Hey Fahrenheit marketing people, put that blurb on your poster!) Those people willing to speak—many were dumbstruck and declined to talk, walking off in dazed silence—responded with intense emotion.

"I cried," said Tom Allsup. "And I cried again."

"People laughed, but were polite," says Sheila Schwid.

"We talked back to the screen," says Casey Krugman.

Or, as one attendee joked, "I laughed, I cried, I wanted the Bush family dead!"

Pundits and critics have had their chance to weigh in, but for the most part those professional culture watchers know whether they're sitting on the left or the right side of the theater before they enter. It's audiences that will ultimately decide whether Moore has succeeded with his latest film. We talked with people as they exited Fahrenheit 9/11 to take their pulses and check their temperatures.

A National Plan Without the People?
Jane Regan

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 21 (IPS) - Haiti has a new, all-embracing plan aimed at pulling the country out of its economic, social and political rut with new roads and schools, policy changes and millions upon millions of dollars.

The only problem, critics say, is that it was written behind closed doors, it follows a neo-liberal economic recipe and is little more than ”disguised colonialism” because of the large role played by international institutions.

The Cadre de Cooperation International (CCI) or Interim Cooperation Framework, a draft summary of which was released earlier this month, does have a generally neo-liberal economic orientation. It calls for more free trade zones (FTZs), stresses tourism and export agriculture, and hints at the eventual privatisation of the country's state enterprises.

But it also promises broad social and economic interventions, including the immediate repair or building of hundreds of kilometres of roads, the promotion of alternative energy sources and a radical improvement of the education system.

The CCI -- which represents the first time that donors and lenders have sat down with one another and with the government to coordinate efforts in this overwhelmingly aid-dependent country -- will be used to orient the aid ”pledging conference” scheduled for Jul. 19-20 in Washington, DC.

Donors and lenders like the World Bank and the European Union are expected to make financial commitments to Haiti during those two days.

The plan was developed over the past six weeks by about 300 mostly foreign technicians and consultants, some 200 from institutions like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, and the rest mainly government cadres.

That means that a two-year social and economic plan for a country of eight million has been drawn up by people nobody elected.

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and his ministers were hand-picked last March to run the country by an eight-person ”Council of Eminent Persons” who had backing from the world's powers -- led by the United States and France and backed by the United Nations Security Council.

Can self-rule bring security?

Thursday, the US handed over the last 11 Iraqi ministries while insurgents attacked six cities.

By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD – For the past month almost everyone associated with the US-led occupation of Iraq has been focused on the June 30 handover. Town-hall meetings are held across Iraq explaining the interim government's powers and Coalition Provisional Authority staffers scuttle about the fortified Green Zone, preparing to hand over their jobs to State Department officials, planning vacations, and looking for new jobs.
But for most Iraqis the changing of the political guard comes down to one question: Will greater sovereignty mean more security? "This could be a big improvement if we really do get sovereignty and the power on our own to deal with the terrorists,'' says Sheikh Mohammed Bakar al-Suhel, chairman of the Baghdad City Council. "But we're going to have to see."

Truth About Iraq Finally Has Its Pants On
Robert Scheer

June 22, 2004

"We have no credible evidence that Iraq and Al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States," reports the staff of the bipartisan 9/11 commission in demolishing one of the Bush administration's main arguments for invading Iraq. Now the administration and its spinmeisters are reduced to playing cheap semantic tricks to justify one of history's great bait-and-switch operations, arguing that they never said explicitly that Iraq was collaborating with Al Qaeda to harm the U.S.

The administration was perfectly happy when more than four out of five Americans polled, as we went to war, said that they believed Saddam Hussein had something to do with the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. We are now to believe that the dozens of prominent references by President Bush and his top officials to "linkages" between Al Qaeda and Iraq were all taken out of context by a confused public.

For example, the administration is now saying that when Bush announced on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln that the defeated Hussein was "an ally of Al Qaeda," he didn't mean they actually helped each other. When Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations that Al Qaeda was operating inside Iraq, he apparently assumed people knew that he was referring to an affiliate called Ansar al Islam that was operating in the northern "no-fly" zone patrolled by the United States and outside Hussein's control.

And when Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Meet the Press" that by attacking Iraq "we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11," he was only helpfully pointing out that Iraq is in the Middle East too.

Yeah, right. The reality is that Bush and company have turned the language of lying into a fine art, always leaving themselves a shred of deniability in case the truth catches up.

Justice System Is 'Broken,' Lawyers Say
With soaring prison populations, especially of minorities, the U.S. must seek alternatives, bar association urges.
By Henry Weinstein
Times Staff Writer

June 24, 2004

The American criminal justice system relies too heavily on imprisoning people and needs to consider more effective alternatives, according to a study released Wednesday by the American Bar Assn., the nation's largest lawyers' organization.

"For more than 20 years, we've gotten tougher on crime," said Dennis W. Archer, a former Detroit mayor and the group's current president. But it is unclear, he said, whether the U.S. is any safer for having 2.1 million people behind bars, including 160,000 in California.

"We can no longer sit by as more and more people — particularly in minority communities — are sent away for longer and longer periods of time while we make it more and more difficult for them to return to society after they serve their time," Archer said at a Washington news conference. "The system is broken. We need to fix it."

Both the number of incarcerated Americans and the cost of locking them up are massive, the report said, and have been escalating significantly in recent years.

Between 1974 and 2002, the number of inmates in federal and state prisons rose six-fold. By 2002, 476 out of every 100,000 Americans were imprisoned, according to Justice Department statistics. That compares with 100 per every 100,000 in Western European countries such as England, Germany and Italy.

In 1982, the states and federal government spent $9 billion on jails and prisons. By 1999, the figure had risen to $49 billion.

The study was launched in response to an August speech by Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, in which he urged the association to study "the inadequacies — and the injustices — in our prison and correctional systems."

Kennedy, who was appointed to the high court by President Reagan, said last year that "our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long." He called for the abolition of mandatory minimum sentences, saying the system gives prosecutors too much power to, in effect, determine sentences by the nature of the charges they file.

He also made pointed remarks about the demographics of the nation's inmates. "Nationwide, more than 40% of the prison population consists of African American inmates," Kennedy said. "In some cities, more than 50% of young African American men are under the supervision of the criminal justice system."

That reality is not likely to change, according to the group's study. Based on trends, a black male born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of being imprisoned during his lifetime, while the chances for a Latino male are 1 in 6, and for a white male, 1 in 17.

Offbeat Dollars for Scholars
Some find help with their college education in the darndest places. If you're tall or a southpaw or can summon a duck, you've got a shot.
By Rebecca Trounson
Times Staff Writer

8:39 PM PDT, June 24, 2004

The annual duck celebration in Stuttgart, Ark., was winding down — the Queen Mallard beauty pageant was over and the world's best duck dog had been determined. Then Daniel Duke stepped onto the Main Street stage.

Duke, a teenage veteran of more than a dozen duck-calling contests, wowed the judges with his renditions of the four required blasts: hail, feed, comeback and mating. Duke, from the nearby town of Brinkley, triumphed — and bagged one of the nation's more unusual college scholarships.

"I knew I had a shot at it," the 19-year-old said of the $1,500 award, which he hopes to use to attend the University of Arkansas. "And I think it's pretty great you can get a scholarship for calling ducks."

Others might, too.

With the cost of a college education rising relentlessly, students are scrambling for scholarships. Some win awards based on financial need or exceptional smarts. Some are gifted athletes. Others get help from foundations, companies or service clubs.

Bratton IDs Officers in Beating
The eight at the scene are placed on desk duty. Chief says three are being investigated for excessive use of force.
By Andrew Blankstein, Megan Garvey and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers

June 25, 2004

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Thursday identified the eight officers involved in the controversial capture of a suspected car thief — including the LAPD officer videotaped by TV news cameras repeatedly striking the African American suspect after he appeared to surrender.

The officer seen striking the man 11 times with a flashlight was identified as John Hatfield, 35, a seven-year veteran of the department.

"I got nothing to say to you guys," Hatfield said Thursday afternoon, answering the door to his apartment in a converted Victorian house in Redondo Beach. He was dressed in shorts, T-shirt and a backward baseball cap.

"You guys are going to have to talk to my attorney," he said. "You're going to have to talk to the [Los Angeles Police Protective] League."

Hank Hernandez, the league's general counsel, said Thursday that the distance from which the video was taken made it difficult to fully understand the circumstances of the arrest.

"What concerns the league, and we have seen it time and time again, is that influential people in the community and the media will express opinions based on their review of a videotape that is not based on the entire facts of the incident," Hernandez said.

Daniel at The Bonassus attended a breakfast hosted by CARE International on the ongoing genocide in the Sudan. He's written up notes on the presentations by columnist Nicholas Kristof, CARE Secretary General Denis Caillaux and Peter Dut (one of the "lost boys" of Sudan) .

Interesting close:

What We Can Do
The event was organized by CARE, so unsurprisingly one of the options offered for action on Darfur was giving to CARE. I don't know about the relative efficiency of CARE's operations compared to other aid organizations, so I can't really say whether this is the best place to donate. But it sure can't hurt.

A more compelling point was made by Kristof: the marginal utility of your charity dollar in Darfur is off the charts in comparison to donations to most other causes. Hundreds of thousands of people, at a minimum, are going to die in the next few months for lack of access to clean water and sewage systems, and helping them is simply far less expensive than helping people in Iraq or in the US. It's more than worth taking this point to heart.

You must read all of it.

Poker With Dick Cheney
Transcript of The Editors' regular Saturday-night poker game with Dick Cheney, 6/19/04. Start tape at 12:32 AM.

The Editors: We'll take three cards.

Dick Cheney: Give me one.

Sounds of cards being placed down, dealt, retrieved, and rearranged in hand. Non-commital noises, puffing of cigars.

TE: Fifty bucks.

DC: I'm in. Show 'em.

TE: Two pair, sevens and fives.

DC: Not good enough.

TE: What do you have?

DC: Better than that, that's for sure. Pay up.

TE: Can you show us your cards?

DC: Sure. One of them's a six.

TE: You need to show all your cards. That's the way the game is played.

Colin Powell: Ladies and gentlemen. We have accumulated overwhelming evidence that Mr. Cheney's poker hand is far, far better than two pair. Note this satellite photo, taken three minutes ago when The Editors went to get more chips. In it we clearly see the back sides of five playing cards, arranged in a poker hand. Defector reports have assured us that Mr. Cheney's hand was already well advanced at this stage. Later, Mr. Cheney drew only one card. Why only one card? Would a man without a strong hand choose only one card? We are absolutely convinced that Mr. Cheney has at least a full house.

Yup, I did it before.

Now Nathan Newman says it too. Just neater.

Avery at Stereo Describes My Scenario

Racism is sort of like a mild cuss word in the sense that it gets too much use to be of any real meaning. There was once a time when hearing the word "bitch" on televison was shocking. Heads snapped to attention and jaws dropped in amazement. Nowadays, while some people may find it offensive, it's not exactly a surprise. We hear it so much that it's become almost passe. Same principle applies to racism.

We're quick to draw the word racism or racist, but what does that really mean? I've said before that to some people, any time someone of a different race is uncourteous or shows some sign of dislike, the problem is automatically race. And I've also already said that everybody has the right to dislike anybody else for any reason. So then how can I tell the difference between somebody disliking me as an individual vs. somebody disliking me for phenotypical reasons? Honestly, I can't. Unless they just jump out of the cake and do something totally outrageous, then there's no way for me to tell. What's more, I don't want to know. If they don't know me, then the problem is theirs, not mine.

There's a kind of racism that is really powerless; the best way to react to it is to recognize it as powerless and act accordingly. It's what you should do when someone tries to boost themselves by dragging you down, for whatever reason. And you actually do get to use the time and energy you've not wasted…it really adds up.

Appeals Court Keeps Stay on Media Rules
Thu Jun 24, 2004 02:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court refused on Thursday to allow loosened federal media rules on media ownership to take effect, dealing a blow to large media companies like News Corp. that are hoping to expand.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the new rules would not take effect until the Federal Communications Commission better explained how it came up with them.

"The Commission has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits for local television ownership, local radio ownership, and cross-ownership of media within local markets," the court's 218-page opinion said.

The FCC last year lifted a ban on a company owning both a newspaper and television stations or radio outlets in a single market. It also agreed in many cases to allow a company to own two television stations in a single market.

The FCC said it eased the rules to help broadcasters compete against pay television services. But opponents fear the rules would only allow media conglomerates like Tribune Co. and News Corp. to grow even bigger to the detriment of local news reporting and diverse viewpoints.

Cheney Utters 'F-Word' in Senate - Aides
Thu Jun 24, 2004 06:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said on Thursday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself," the aides said.

"I think he was just having a bad day," Leahy was quoted as saying on CNN, which first reported the incident. "I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor."

"That doesn't sound like language the vice president would use but there was a frank exchange of views," said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems.

According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.

Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.

Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win lucrative contracts in Iraq after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

During their exchange, Leahy noted that Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of President Bush's anti-abortion judges, the aides said.

That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb," aides said.

According to Senate rules, profanity is not permitted in the chamber. But when the exchange occurred between Leahy and Cheney, the Senate was not in session so there was technically no foul.

Yahoo and Microsoft have already lost the marketing battle. It looks like Google's unique reputation has given them the ability to spawn a trend when they feel like it.

Microsoft Boosts Storage Capacity in E-Mail War
Thu Jun 24, 2004 02:13 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. plans to give paying customers for its Hotmail e-mail service 2 gigabytes of storage and boost the size limits on free accounts, matching similar moves earlier this month by rival Yahoo Inc., the company said Wednesday.

Microsoft also said that it will roll out free e-mail and anti-virus protection to all the 170 million MSN Hotmail customers worldwide that will both scan and clean incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and worms before they can enter a customer's inbox.

The changes will start early in July, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said.

Yahoo "The playing field has changed," said Blake Irving, vice president of communication services and member platform for MSN. "We're going to take storage off the table as an issue."

Hotmail is the second most popular e-mail service after Yahoo Mail, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The Internet audience research firm does not yet track Google's Gmail.

Microsoft will boost storage to 250 megabytes for users of its free MSN Hotmail and also increased the size of attachments that can be sent with e-mails, to 10 megabytes from 1 megabyte previously. Users of the free MSN Hotmail before had 2 megabytes of storage capacity.

Senate Republicans Reject House Debt Limit Plan
Thu Jun 24, 2004 01:47 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under Democratic pressure, Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a plan pushed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives designed to avoid an embarrassing election-year vote on the nation's rising debt.
The Senate decision is a blow to House Republicans, who rammed through the measure on Tuesday. It would have allowed for an increase in the $7.384 trillion debt ceiling without a separate vote on the House floor.

The House had tacked the plan on to the must-pass defense spending bill which provides support for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate Republicans need the cooperation of Democrats to move that bill along.

"I can commit ... that we will not bring back a bill that contains provisions that were in the House-passed bill pertaining to the debt ceiling issues that we must face sometime in the year," said Ted Stevens of Alaska, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman.

Democrats want a separate debate and vote on the debt limit. They were so angry at the House move that they had threatened to hold up discussions on the defense spending bill.

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd, of West Virginia, said his "blood boiled" when he heard of the plan.

"I'm saying these things so that Republican leadership in the House in particular understands that sneaking the debt limit in an appropriations bill is not going to get by," Byrd added.

I DON'T GET PEOPLE... ESPECIALLY IN AN ELECTION YEAR

I originally envisioned politics being a larger part of this blog. You know, regular entries on interesting political happenings or issues as part of the mix because I've always been into that stuff. It just has never worked out that way for whatever reason. I'm very liberal so of course that colors my viewpoints on everything, but the ONE thing I never wanted this blog to be was a walking advertisement for the Democratic Party or for John Kerry. Being a true liberal or a true conservative ideally would have nothing to do with the current incarnations of the Democratic or Republican party.... unfortunately it doesn't seem to work out that way either. The current atmosphere in politics is all about is my team winning and kicking the other's teams ass! That's the mentality of the sports fan which is fine for sports but stupid and destructive when actual important issues are being decided. That sort of mindset just drains my soul.... so I thought why bother trying any political stuff since it seems like people are only looking for opinion reinforcement anyway... but this whole Fahrenheit 911 "controversy" is symbolic of something larger, when we will have forgotten about the movie a month after it's out but the overlying problem still exists.

British television has always been superior to American television, but I hear their food sucks. I've never felt the one made up for the other.

But there's this article, BBC revises guidelines after Iraq coverage issues and it strikes me that is you like news that is actually done as a public service as in Ye Good Olde Days, you could do worse than Great Britain.

After visit to refugees, doctors' group asserts Sudan is practicing genocide
Says world response needed now in Darfur
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Correspondent | June 24, 2004

The violence in the Darfur region of Sudan includes systematic killings, rape, pillaging, and destruction of villages that ''are clear indicators of genocide," according to a report issued yesterday by Physicians for Human Rights.

A delegation from the Boston-based advocacy group visited the neighboring country of Chad last month and interviewed non-Arab refugees from the Darfur region, who gave firsthand accounts of being assaulted and chased while their wells were poisoned, livestock stolen, and villages burned by an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, working with the Sudanese government.

''What we determined, based on a number of testimonies, is that there are clear indicators of genocide," investigator John Heffernan said. ''The main point here is a consistent program of targeting non-Arabs."

Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which the United States has signed, any member country is obligated to stop or prevent genocide if it is identified. The international genocide convention, adopted in 1948, defines genocide as actions intended to destroy a racial, national, religious, or ethnic group.

Soldiers' abuse claims lead to probe in Israel
By Dan Williams, Reuters | June 24, 2004

TEL AVIV -- The Israeli army grilled a group of ex-conscripts yesterday over a photo exhibition they say documents abuses of Palestinians by troops and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The army said it was probing the allegations raised by "Breaking the Silence: Soldiers Tell About Hebron" -- a display of photographs and videotaped accounts collected by the four troopers in the flashpoint city.

But exhibition organizers accused authorities of hushing up criticism of Israel's action to suppress the 3-year Palestinian uprising.

"I think there is an attempt here to prevent other soldiers from breaking the silence," said Giora Salmi, director of the Tel Aviv gallery staging the exhibition.

One picture from Hebron, where troops guard 500 hard-line settlers who live ensconced among 150,000 Palestinians, shows soldiers lounging near a blindfolded detainee.

In another, a Palestinian is caught in the cross hairs of a sniper rifle. Several photographs are of anti-Arab graffiti scrawled by settlers on Hebron homes.

The confessionals also contain serious charges.

In one video, a soldier whose face and voice are obscured recalls a comrade firing tear gas into Palestinian crowds in Hebron, unprovoked. "He got a big kick out of it," the soldier says.

Salmi said the four organizers were interrogated and released by military police, who confiscated one of the exhibit's videotapes Tuesday.

A military spokeswoman said they had been called in to testify in a criminal investigation of the allegations. "The Israel Defense Force sees in the exhibit a need for continued concern with moral issues," she said.

One of the organizers, Yehuda Shaul, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that his superiors in Hebron showed little interest in holding soldiers to the army's code of conduct.

"For them, the slogan 'war is war' was a satisfying answer to everything," said Shaul, a former noncommissioned officer.

Palestinians and human rights groups have frequently accused the Israeli Army of using excessive force and overlooking abuses by troops and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials say security forces have been strained by Palestinian suicide bombings and that infractions are rare.

Remark on food bank users draws fire
US official fends off calls to resign
By Malia Rulon, Associated Press | June 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- A senior Agriculture Department official's comment that people who eat at food banks are "taking the easy way out" was taken out of context, an agency spokeswoman said yesterday, after five members of Congress called for his resignation.

Eric Bost, the department's undersecretary for food and nutrition programs, was quoted in a June 6 story in The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch about the growing use of food banks as saying he was skeptical of claims that food needs among the poor were increasing.

"There's a bump, but how much of that is due to people taking the easy way out? I don't know," he said.

Bost told the newspaper that food-stamp enrollment is up because of government outreach to eligible people. He also said that since many food pantries don't require documentation of income, not everyone receiving provisions is truly in need.

Yes, hubris.

US drops UN bid on war crime protection
Measure said lacking necessary support
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press | June 24, 2004

UNITED NATIONS -- Facing global opposition fueled by the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, the United States dropped its attempt to renew a UN exemption shielding American troops from international prosecution for war crimes.

Yesterday's move raised concern that Washington might carry out its threat to shut down or stop participating in UN-authorized peacekeeping operations.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters that every request would be examined ''both in terms of voting for a peacekeeping mission" and providing Americans to participate. A key factor will be ''what the risk might be of prosecution by a court to which we're not party," he said.

While the United States won praise for not pushing for a vote that would have deeply divided the UN Security Council, the Bush administration suffered a defeat in its lengthy battle against the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.

Oh, you think that's reasonable? Then check this out:

US to give troops immunity in Iraq
Abandons attempt at UN resolution
By Robin Wright, Washington Post | June 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and sovereignty returns to Iraq, US officials said.

The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the yearlong occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from ''local criminal, civil, and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."

Markey aims to block transfers of suspects
By Jessica E. Vascellaro, Globe Correspondent | June 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Representative Edward Markey yesterday introduced legislation to stop the CIA from sending suspected terrorists to countries that torture their prisoners -- a policy called ''extraordinary rendition" that allows the agency to skirt US laws by sending suspects to places that use harsher methods of interrogation.

Bush wants control of AIDS programs
By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post | June 24, 2004

PHILADELPHIA -- President Bush proposed yesterday that the executive branch assume significant control over the program that has been the backbone of federal assistance for Americans infected with AIDS.

Bush said that the $2 billion Ryan White Care Act, since 1990 the government's largest subsidy of medical and other services specifically for HIV-infected people in the United States, ''takes too little account of the most urgent needs." He said the administration should have greater power to decide where the money is distributed and how it is spent, focusing more on paying for medicine and doctors' visits rather than social services for people who are sick.

Bush made his proposals at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church, a black church near City Hall, during a speech that interwove themes of AIDS and religion. Bush speaks often about a law the administration pushed through Congress last year to combat the epidemic in Africa and the Caribbean, but yesterday's remarks focused more on his philosophy for curbing the epidemic domestically. ''We will continue to confront the disease abroad, and we will confront it here at home, as well," he said. ''These efforts are not mutually exclusive."

AIDS activists have argued that Bush has largely sought to freeze spending on the Ryan White Care Act, and yesterday, the president did not pledge any expansion of the program. Instead, Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who accompanied him, said the solution is to ask Congress, which must renew the program next year, to give HHS far more discretion to target the way the subsidies are used.

---

Give this program to Bush and they'll claim all the money should be spent on abstinence programs.

Beating by LAPD Officer Airs on TV
The case is seen as a test for Bratton as parallels are drawn to the Rodney King incident of 1991.
By Richard Winton, Jill Leovy and Andrew Blankstein
Times Staff Writers

June 24, 2004

The televised beating of a suspected car thief Wednesday by a flashlight-wielding Los Angeles Police Department officer was described by a top department official as "Rodney King-esque," drawing comparisons with the 1991 beating of an African American man by LAPD officers that led to catastrophic riots a year later.

Television news crews in helicopters recorded the early morning car chase that ended in Compton shortly before 6 a.m. when about half a dozen LAPD officers ran after an African American man who bolted from a stolen Toyota Camry.

On the videotape, the unarmed man appears to surrender after sprinting a short distance along the concrete-lined Compton Creek channel, raising his arms and starting to crouch.

As two officers are restraining the suspected thief on the ground, a third officer is seen delivering a quick kick to the suspect and then striking him 11 times in the upper body with a flashlight. A short time after the man is handcuffed and in custody, three officers can be seen exchanging handshakes.

The LAPD and FBI have opened investigations.

The case is seen as a key test for LAPD Chief William J. Bratton, who has spent the last two years trying to improve relations with South L.A. communities, particularly African Americans, with the aim of trying to temper lingering anger and resentment over past police brutality. He and Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn promised a quick and thorough investigation.

Bill aims to deny appointee Kerry post
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff | June 23, 2004

The state Senate is expected to consider a bill today that would leave Massachusetts without one of its two US senators for at least four months next year while politicians prepare for a special election to replace John F. Kerry if he wins the presidency.

Common Cause, a public interest watchdog group, and Governor Mitt Romney urged lawmakers yesterday to allow Romney to appoint a temporary seat holder to represent Massachusetts until a special election is held, but Democrats in the Legislature rejected the idea because they fear it would give Republicans a political advantage.

"Particularly, in [the] world today, when you are talking about homeland security, we can't afford to not have the ability to immediately appoint a senator, especially in the event of a catastrophe," Romney said in Washington, D.C., where he was testifying on the issue of same-sex marriage.

Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause, and Secretary of State William F. Galvin, a Democrat and the state's chief election officer, also have called for lawmakers to allow the installation of a temporary senator during the special process. Both had advocated a six-month election process that would allow a wider field of candidates and accommodate federal requirements such as distributing ballots to military personnel.

"I am quite sure I'll be in federal court," said Galvin, who said he anticipated civil suits to force a longer election process. "The rights of voters come ahead of parties and candidates."

In hope of a Kerry victory, Democrats have crafted a bill that calls for a special election within 120 to 145 days after a senator declares he or she is vacating the seat. The Democrats' legislation strips Romney of his authority to name a senator who would serve until the next statewide election in 2006. The bill, scheduled to be taken up today in the Senate, also bars a temporary appointee until voters can choose a replacement.

Kobe Case: He should go to jail---not for ripping old girl’s Virginia with his whacker on the downstroke (it happens to the best of us, Kobe) but for being too stupid just to call a hooker.

It turns out he knows the Joe Boxer dancing dude. There's a teaser on an upcoming Africana article on the other side of the link.

Why do we have two hands?

Some Libertarians are a problem too. Anyway, here's today's absurdity:

Cynthia Tucker, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's editorial page editor, recently wrote an article claiming that free markets make health care expensive. She states:

In a country where capitalism is the state religion, it's hard to get people to admit that the profit motive doesn't improve every enterprise. Americans seem to think there is no problem that cannot be solved by some resourceful entrepreneur. But we're experiencing a crisis of faith in at least one area -- health care. The soaring cost of hospitals and medicines suggests that capitalism is sometimes at odds with the common good."

This is why liberals don't excel in economics.

Well, last year a whole bag of economists signed a statement (pdf) saying the Bush tax cuts and economic proposals are full of Bushwah. I assume that makes them liberals.

How many economists are in that bag? I don't know, I didn't feel like counting that high. It was easy counting the Nobel Laurates that signed off on it, thought. There were eleven of them.

Sounds to me like a great number of liberals excel in economics.

Then Shay says there are "huge crunches [the] systems in Canada and France are currently facing." Every time I've heard that I've asked where that "information" came from. Nothing findable, much less documentable, was ever given to me, so I've given up. I write that off as a statement of faith.

Tucker ignores that when government got even more involved in health care in the 1980s (giving us HMOs), supposedly to reduce costs, instead the costs shot up.

Assumption: She truly believes this.
Response: Correlation does not imply causation. In fact, assuming the assertions here are facts, she could have the causation entirely reversed: costs rose, so the government decided to allow HMOs based on the promise of lower costs.

Next time the topic comes up, I'll talk about the role a for-profit health care system plays in rising costs. Prepatory study topic: what under what conditions does a for-profit venture voluntarily keep the price of its products stable?

She willfully ignores some facts: One, the American Medical Association works with state legislatures to limit doctors' licenses. Fewer doctors means higher doctor salaries, which means higher prices for us.

"To limit doctors' licenses"???

How, pray tell? By…testing their knowledge?

Two, malpractice insurance has gotten way out of control and tort reform is needed here.

Another statement of faith.

Three, doctors receive almost the same training whether they want to fix broken bones or do neurosurgery, which jacks up prices for all specialties.

Too.

Bizarre.

Four, insurance companies are forbidden by law from charging fat people more money, even though they are mainly responsible for USA's health problems. This is a penalty on people who take care of our bodies, while overweight people don't pay the full costs of their choices.

I hope you FINE AS HELL, be talking about folks like that…

I can't be sure, but I can't believe the law forbids charging fat people more money for insurance. I sort of thought that's what actuarial tables and health exams were for, and the "no pre-existing conditions" clauses.

Silly. Silly.

Major experimentation with converting this blog to Drupal. I found a TREMENDOUS Perl script that, after I shook out a bug in the trackback conversion, sucked down every post from P6/Green without a burp. I did it with the current site.

Okay, I have to start with an absolutely clean database for it to be truly burp-less. And because of the way I posted and converted other sites (see the title) it will not be straightforward rewriting the old URIs to new, Drupalled ones. I'm still working on that , and a couple of other issues I'm probably making a bigger production than necessary about.

But you can see pretty much what the new site will be capable of now. You can set up a user account and access stuff immediately. If you do, don't get attached. It all gets blown away.

Because Dubya Said So!
Why prolong this insidious war? Gouge the economy? Rape the environment? Only one retort left

It's somewhere around 1977 and I'm about 10 years old and I'm up past 10 pm watching juicy riveting prime-time "Magnum, P.I." (or whatever), and of course right at that moment I want nothing more from the universe than to stay up another hour and watch even more TV so as to feel, you know, older, and wiser, and somehow cooler.

And right about then my mother walks in and says hey kiddo, time for bed, and I plead and whine and protest and say no no no please please please why why why, and she says, slightly exasperated and motherly, well, because I said so.

She had her reasons, of course. After all, you gotta set some ground rules, gotta establish the boundaries and make the wee ones understand that the world ain't always full of clear explanations and justifiable details, and sometimes you, as the dumb oppressed plebe, you just gotta shut the hell up and do whatever the elders say because, well, they said so.

You loathed that line then, and you'll hate it even more now.

Yes, the line has returned with a nasty vengeance. Let us watch as this all-encompassing mantra of childhood, this absolutely invidious comeback line you simply are not allowed to question, let us watch how it mutates, in a twist of raging egomania, into the Bush administration's most bestest catchphrase du jour.

Let's watch, for example, as the bipartisan 9/11 commission -- the one that Bush finally, reluctantly, whiningly, after nearly three years, agreed to allow to exist at all -- let's watch as they emerge after months of investigation with a report that declares, once again and for the 500th time, that there was no collaboration whatsoever between Saddam and al Qaeda in the 9/11 attack. Duh.

Of course, when the 9/11 commission's report came out, BushCo was quick to reply: Um, well, we never actually claimed, you know, verbatim or whatever, that 9/11 was orchestrated by Saddam and al Qaeda, you know, together.

Except, of course, yes you did, Dubya. Repeatedly. Ad nauseam. In this very memo to Congress, outlining your reasons for leading America into this brutish hellpit. And also on just about every newscast and interview and mumbled speech, hint and gesture and Dick Cheney's pallid snicker, all resulting a huge majority of misguided and fear-pummeled Americans who honestly believed not only that Saddam had a role in 9/11 but also that he pretty much piloted those doomed planes himself, and that's why we needed to blast the living crap out of his piss-poor nation and earn ourselves huge gobs of global scorn while generating more anti-U.S. hatred among terrorists than Osama could have ever dreamed. Go, team!

Oh but here's Dubya, in an AA-grade bout of denial, summing up the entire point quite nicely: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda."

See? That's all you need to know. There was a connection because I say there was a connection. We stomped into war for justifiable reasons because I say there were justifiable reasons. Nearly 1,000 U.S. soldiers have died for my oily and ultraviolent petrochemical corporate cronies because I say they should die. End of story and off to bed now, you little punkass American suckers.

And lo, "Because I said so" spreads like an ugly rash through BushCo's increasingly teetering, imploding administration, as they desperately cling to any tattered shreds of whatever the hell it was that they claimed was the original reason that they shoved this nation into an economic tailspin and launched us into a brutal, violent, unwinnable war that, by most every measure, we've already lost.

Iran Agrees to Release British Sailors
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 23, 2004; 9:01 AM

ISTANBUL, July 23 -- Iran on Wednesday said it intends to release eight British servicemen who had strayed across the maritime border from Iraq in three patrol boats two days earlier.

However, after initially reporting that the Britons would be released Wednesday, Iranian state media said they might not be freed until Thursday because of the late arrival of a British delegation to pick them up.

A team of British diplomats landed in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan Wednesday and was being taken to the petrochemical center of Bandar Mahshahr for the handover of the British sailors and marines, a state-run Iranian television station reported.

Pushing aside earlier reports that the sailors and marines would be put on trial, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces said Iran had accepted the explanation that the intrusion was accidental.

GOP Nominee Fights Calls to Exit Contest
Ex-Wife Alleges Coerced Sex in Public
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 23, 2004; Page A04

Republicans suffered a significant setback in their bid to hold on to the open Senate seat in Illinois as GOP nominee Jack Ryan yesterday tried to fight off calls to quit the race after allegations by his ex-wife that he had pressured her to perform sexually in front of other people.

In Quality of New Jobs Is Focus of Election-Year Debate, the Washington Post presents the two views of the jobs Bush wants credit for:

"Despite the well-advertised pick-up of job growth, recent trends in real wage income remain very disappointing," lamented Stephen S. Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, in a June 7 memo to clients. "This, in my view, underscores one of the most serious shortcomings of this recovery -- an unprecedented shortfall of the most important piece of personal income growth," wages and salaries.

Over the first 29 months of the economic recovery, total wages and salaries have risen less than 3 percent after adjusting for inflation -- a fraction of the 9 percent gains of the previous six upturns, Roach said. That works out to a $280 billion income gap between where workers are and where they should be, he concluded.

CIBC World Markets, a Toronto-based investment banking firm, reached a similar conclusion in a report issued Monday. That study found that U.S. job creation since late 2001 has been concentrated in low-paying industries such as hospitality, education and personal services, while job losses have hit higher-wage sectors such as transportation, manufacturing, utilities and natural resources.

"The message is clear: The vast majority of the jobs that evaporated during the job-loss recovery were high-quality jobs," the CIBC study concluded.

and

The Bush campaign has countered with a different base for comparison. Average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, have risen 2.4 percent since Bush took office. But, the campaign adds, at this point in President Bill Clinton's first term, average hourly earnings had risen just 0.1 percent.

When benefits are included, total compensation rose 1.1 percent from December 2003 to March 2004, and is up more than 13 percent since Bush's inauguration, the campaign says. At this point in Clinton's first term, total compensation was up 10.5 percent.

Most important, campaign officials say, is that real disposable personal income -- the amount of money in people's pockets after taxes -- is up 10 percent since 2001, compared with a 7 percent increase under Clinton. That measure, which is adjusted for inflation, includes wages and salaries, rental income, interest and dividend payments and the proceeds from the president's tax cuts.

Do you feel like you have ten percent more money to spend than you had in 2001? And how much of the increased value of benefit packages is attributable to higher rates on lesser coverage?

Memo on Interrogation Tactics Is Disavowed
Justice Document Had Said Torture May Be Defensible

By Mike Allen and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 23, 2004; Page A01

President Bush's aides yesterday disavowed an internal Justice Department opinion that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible, saying it had created the false impression that the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law.

Responding to pressure from Congress and outrage around the world, officials at the White House and the Justice Department derided the August 2002 legal memo on aggressive interrogation tactics, calling parts of it overbroad and irrelevant and saying it would be rewritten.

In a highly unusual repudiation of its department's own work, a senior Justice official and two other high-ranking lawyers said that all legal advice rendered by the department's Office of Legal Counsel on the subject of interrogations will be reviewed.

The fact is, we've seen evidence of culpability go all the way up to Rumsfeld. If it's was a false impression, it was one everyone shared.

<free-association>
You are watching what happens when a universally held false impression is planted in a field specially prepared and fertilized to support it. It's like an algae bloom. Or maggots in dead meat
</free-association>

Anyway, check this:

A Feb. 7, 2002, memo signed by Bush saying that he believed he had "the authority under the Constitution" to deny protections of the Geneva Conventions to combatants picked up during the war in Afghanistan but that he would "decline to exercise that authority at this time."

This means the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law, just that it wasn't going to use them now.

Are we going to let that go?

Military lawyers and policy officials alike were preoccupied during their deliberations by the possibility that officers, intelligence officials and law enforcement authorities could be prosecuted for violating the constraints of U.S. law or international conventions protecting detainees.

Don't you think there's a reason for that? Don't you think that reason is in the thousands of other documents that legitimately can't be declassified? And maybe a few which, like these could have been?

This selective declassification thing is really stupid, by the way.

World-wide people are like, "Oh you didn't know, you just coincidentally want to exempt your consultants from all legal restraint."

…he was talking about the wealth building education and subsidy program that created the definitive economic divide between Black and mainstream America. About how the United States of America itself served as the extended family for those who had full citizenship.

Some may have wondered why I brought it up again. I brought it up just a few days earlier in connection with my reaction to a speech given at the Take Back America conference. And I had to know someone would disagree, because I said something…real about The Greatest Generation.

I expected to have a bit of a discussion, but another one of those "division of labor" things happened; In the comments of the fist linked post up there, Chrissy rather simply and directly stated my the Greatest Generation wasn't so great for Black folks. That let's me ignore that thread for a minute so I can state directly why I've got this bug up my butt.

We're in the midst of a culture war. I don't think I'm actually supposed to say that out loud but Conservatives and the Religious Right have already done so, which makes it sort of a fact on the ground. When someone declares war on you, you're at war—there's no real need to declare it back.

Now, let's assume one side or the other has won the culture war. What exactly have they won?

They have won the right to define the Ideal Americans. Their culture becomes the norm, and any variance from it will be seen as an aberration, an illness or a crime…no matter how many times it happens, even if physically obstructing the process is the only thing that keeps it from happening.

It's not that simple and binary in real life, of course, but it's a decent working model for what I need to discuss. I'd have to go all Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung to be rigorous in my presentation, and I'm willing to do that. I just want to get this out there right now.

Up until, say, the mid sixties, the Ideal American for the middle class types was The Cowboy (it needs caps because nothing like The Cowboy ever actually lived. It's an archetype, a capitalized essence). Strong, independent, a fighter, a conqueror actually. John Wayne and Gene Autry were Cowboys. James Dean was a Cowboy too. And Elvis. And Shaft.

Cowboys ain't making it no more.The world is too complex for a Cowboy. And we're making new myths.

This isn't the sort of thing that someone sits down and decides to do. It's one of them emergent quality things. And circumstances definitely have an effect on both input and output. But once you see it happening you can add a few things to the mix consciously.

Between the Right's defining morality as the nuclear family, and the Left's mythologizing the Greatest Generation, I'm seeing the possibility of an Ideal American that has nothing to do with Black folks' lives. Again.

At the Take Back America conference, Robert Borosage said

African Americans left segregated communities to fight for this country. Japanese Americans left intern camps

It is correct to emphasize this. Whether of not I think it a bright idea, Black folks have always leapt to the defense of the nation, have always wanted to be part of the mainstream. It is correct that white folks be made aware of that, and be made aware it is still the case.

A gesture to those I just pissed off: just making observations, and anyone who is honestly observing will see it as clearly as I do.

They came home and passed the GI bill opening up college and training to an entire generation. They subsidized housing to create the American dream. They organized unions to insure that profits and productivity were shared. For 25 years, they built the broad middle class that made America strong, and we all grew together.

You do NOT get to build that myth. You do not get to create a Golden Age that has no signs the nigras was ever here. You do not get to pretend everyone who made the sacrifice got the rewards or even the appreciation.

No, no, no.

Now, I can't predict what that Ideal American will be like at this point. I can say with great certainty it will not be as the Right would have it. You'd have to stuff too many genies into too many bottles. And even if you could manage that, the memory of what was will change the nature of the game. A person's memory fades, but a people's memory…let me put it this way: you still celebrating Easter?

What I would like to see is a post-modern persona there: based on truth, and identified with what can be, instead of being based on an idealized past and identified with what should be. I'd like the Ideal American to be aware of how important he is to the process; that he's a vital part but not the whole story.

Bush Loses Advantage in War on Terrorism
Nation Evenly Divided on President, Kerry

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 22, 2004; Page A01

Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush's once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry concerning who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Exactly half the country now approves of the way Bush is managing the U.S. war on terrorism, down 13 percentage points since April, according to the poll. Barely two months ago, Bush comfortably led Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 21 points when voters were asked which man they trusted to deal with the terrorist threat. Today the country is evenly divided, with 48 percent preferring Kerry and 47 percent favoring Bush.

With fewer than 10 days before the United States turns over governing power to Iraq, the survey shows that Americans are coming to a mixed judgment about the costs and benefits of the war. Campaign advisers to both Bush and Kerry believe voters' conclusions about Bush and Iraq will play a decisive role in determining the outcome of the November election.

The shift is potentially significant because Bush has consistently received higher marks on fighting terrorism than on Iraq, and if the decline signals a permanent loss of confidence in his handling of the fight against terrorism, that could undermine a central part of his reelection campaign message.

Tobacco Buyout Favors Big Growers
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2004; Page A02

More than two-thirds of the $9.6 billion tobacco-grower buyout approved by the House would go to only 10 percent of the people and companies eligible for any compensation, according to a study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

The buyout of tobacco growers and holders of government "quota" rights to market tobacco would give at least $1 million to 463 companies, individuals or estates, the report found, and would provide more than $8 million to one North Carolina company.

The study, based on information from the Department of Agriculture obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and scheduled to be released today, showed that the overwhelming majority of recipients -- 354,000 of the 437,000 eligible -- would collect only $1,000 a year over five years.

"The House buyout plan is an incredible rip-off of the taxpayer, mostly to benefit a handful of large tobacco interests and tobacco companies," said Ken Cook, president of the research and advocacy group.

"I really didn't think the control of tobacco quotas would be so concentrated because I had heard and half-swallowed the rhetoric of this being about small farmers," he said. "But this is no different than with commodities like cotton and rice, where the big players control a huge part of the industry."

LIL' KIM BARRED FROM ST. KITTS GIG BY JUDGE

Hip-hop superstar Lil' Kim was been barred from leaving her native America to perform a gig in the Caribbean by a federal judge on Friday.

Judge Gerard Lynch told the hitmaker she could not travel to the island of St. Kitts to perform alongside Busta Rhymes and Ginuwine on Saturday.

The 29-year-old faces charges of lying to a grand jury over an gunfight incident in February 2001 outside radio station Hot 97 in Manhattan, which reportedly involved members of her entourage.

Her lawyer Mel Sachs argued that the rapper was already contracted to do the performance and "a substantial amount of money was involved."

However, Judge Lynch said: "The ability to escape jurisdiction, if someone is so inclined, is too easy, too tempting and too much risk."

Quote of note:

Lawmakers said they wanted to stop that initiative from demolishing the existing system's guarantee that general elections include candidates with stark political differences.

"It's not a bug, it's a feature."

Anyway…

Legislators Unite to Derail Primary Initiative
Both sides push an alternative to the ballot measure, which would replace party primaries with one open to all.
By Jordan Rau
Times Staff Writer

June 22, 2004

SACRAMENTO — United in their desire to preserve the power of political parties, Democrat and Republican legislators moved Monday to undermine an upcoming ballot initiative that would abolish primary elections as they are now practiced.

In a twist that brought charges of disgraceful and sneaky behavior, they not only offered a competing measure but fused it with a potentially popular proposal to reduce state debt.

"It's a very cynical, calculated strategy," said Kevin Spillane, a consultant to the campaign that in May placed on the Nov. 2 ballot an initiative called the Voter Choice Open Primary Act.

That initiative would replace the current system of party primaries with one primary election open to all candidates and voters. The two candidates who won the most votes would then fight it out in a general election. Presidential elections as well as those for political party posts would be exempted.

The proposed constitutional revision now racing through the Legislature, however, would require that any political party that held a primary be allowed to field its top vote-earning candidate in the general election. Backers openly admitted that that language, if added to the state Constitution, would contradict the Voter Choice initiative on the ballot.

Quote of note:

Mr. Krar's arrest was the result not of a determined law enforcement effort against domestic terrorists, but of a fluke: when he sent a package containing counterfeit U.N. and Defense Intelligence Agency credentials to an associate in New Jersey, it was delivered to the wrong address. Luckily, the recipient opened the package and contacted the F.B.I. But for that fluke, we might well have found ourselves facing another Oklahoma City-type atrocity.

The discovery of the Texas cyanide bomb should have served as a wake-up call: 9/11 has focused our attention on the threat from Islamic radicals, but murderous right-wing fanatics are still out there. The concerns of the Justice Department, however, appear to lie elsewhere. Two weeks ago a representative of the F.B.I. appealed to an industry group for help in combating what, he told the audience, the F.B.I. regards as the country's leading domestic terrorist threat: ecological and animal rights extremists.

Hmph.

---

Noonday in the Shade
By PAUL KRUGMAN

In April 2003, John Ashcroft's Justice Department disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a chemical weapon — a cyanide bomb — big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000-square-foot building.

Strangely, though, the attorney general didn't call a press conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the arrest of William Krar, its owner. He didn't even issue a press release. This was, to say the least, out of character. Jose Padilla, the accused "dirty bomber," didn't have any bomb-making material or even a plausible way to acquire such material, yet Mr. Ashcroft put him on front pages around the world. Mr. Krar was caught with an actual chemical bomb, yet Mr. Ashcroft acted as if nothing had happened.

Incidentally, if Mr. Ashcroft's intention was to keep the case low-profile, the media have been highly cooperative. To this day, the Noonday conspiracy has received little national coverage.

At this point, I have the usual problem. Writing about John Ashcroft poses the same difficulties as writing about the Bush administration in general, only more so: the truth about his malfeasance is so extreme that it's hard to avoid sounding shrill.

Race Issue Surfaces in Kobe Bryant Rape Case
Mon Jun 21, 2004 08:21 PM ET

By Judith Crosson
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - Lawyers for Kobe Bryant want to ask prospective jurors in his rape trial their views on interracial dating, injecting race into the already highly charged case, prosecutors said on Monday.

The issue surfaced as lawyers for both sides hammered out questions for jury selection in the Eagle, Colorado case against the NBA star.

Bryant, who is black, is accused of raping a 19-year-old white woman last summer at a resort near Vail, Colorado where she worked and he was staying.

"This was not a relationship. This was not a date," Deputy District Attorney Dana Easter told Judge Terry Ruckriegle as she argued against allowing the defense to ask potential jurors about their views on interracial dating.

U.S. Count of Terrorism Deaths Off by Hundreds
Mon Jun 21, 2004 09:24 PM ET

By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several hundred more people died from international terrorist attacks last year than the 307 fatalities the State Department originally reported, a U.S. official said on Monday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, spoke as the department prepared to release revised terrorism figures after its embarrassing June 10 announcement that its original count of last year's attacks and deaths was wrong.

The admission dented the claim by President Bush's administration that Washington is winning the war on terrorism, an argument key to his re-election campaign.

The U.S. official said the department would revise up its figure on the number of deaths last year by "several hundred" but he said the figure would not exceed the 725 fatalities reported in 2002.

He said the number of international terrorist attacks for 2003 also would rise to the "ballpark" of 200, above the 190 the department reported in its "Patterns of Global Terrorism" annual report on April 29 and the 198 it counted for 2002.

Iran Will Prosecute British Sailors
Tue Jun 22, 2004 06:07 AM ET

By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian state television said on Tuesday Iran would prosecute eight British sailors seized in its waters, a move likely to fan a minor border incident into a diplomatic crisis.

The British government immediately demanded an explanation from Tehran of the report. British officials have neither been given access to the men, detained Monday with their three boats, nor told where they are being held.

Quoting unnamed Iranian military sources, Iran's Arabic language news channel al Alam said the eight men were to be prosecuted on charges of "illegally entering Iran's waters."

"The British military officials were arrested after they entered 1,000 meters into Iranian waters. The British confessed that they were arrested when they were inside Iran's waters."

A Foreign Office spokesman in London said British officials were "trying to get the Iranians to explain" the report.

"They have got to come up with some answers to our questions and we are pressing them for answers," he said. Iranian officials have neither confirmed nor denied the al Alam report on prosecuting the Britons.

HP Launching Digital Camera Test Program at Hotels
Mon Jun 21, 2004 08:25 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is launching a test program to put its digital cameras in the hands of guests at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. (FHR.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) (FHR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as the world's No. 2 computer maker seeks to expand its reach in digital photography and printing.
Hewlett-Packard said on Monday that it will provide five of its HP Photosmart R707 digital cameras to each of 10 Fairmont Hotels, including ones in New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, Miami and Hawaii.

Starting this week and running through Sept. 20, guests can check out the cameras, take pictures and print them using an HP Photosmart 245 photo printer installed at the hotels, Palo Alto, California-based HP said.

NASA May Offer Million-Dollar Private Space Prizes
Mon Jun 21, 2004 04:40 PM ET

By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Within hours of the first private flight to outer space on Monday, a NASA official said the agency might offer millions of dollars in prizes to encourage commercial missions to orbit the Earth or land on the moon.

Michael Lembeck of NASA's office of exploration systems said such prizes would go to private explorers for such landmarks as "the first soft landing on the moon, or for returning a piece of an asteroid to Earth."

"What we're looking for is innovation like what Burt Rutan brought to the table today," Lembeck said, referring to the legendary aerospace pioneer who designed the rocket plane SpaceShipOne that entered outer space 62 miles above the Mojave Desert in California.

Lembeck said NASA would consider offering $10 million to $30 million in prizes to encourage private investors to develop space vehicles. There was even discussion of offering "a couple hundred million dollars for the first private orbital flight," he said in a telephone interview.

Such prizes appear compatible with the vision for space exploration released last week by a White House commission that studied President Bush's plan to send Americans back to the moon and possibly to Mars.

Compassion ain't his strong suite.

Bush Tries Compassion as He Courts Ohio Voters

By Caren Bohan

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio, President Bush sought to portray his domestic agenda as compassionate and aligned himself with a welfare measure enacted under Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Speaking at a center for people with drug and alcohol addictions, Bush also highlighted an initiative that would give grants to states to pay for counseling and other services for married couples receiving government assistance.

The marriage proposal is linked to a bill that would renew the popular Welfare Reform Act, first enacted under Clinton in 1996, which is now stalled in Congress.

The original legislation overhauled welfare laws to replace a system of cash grants with requirements that recipients work or receive job training.

"Congress needs to get the welfare bill to my desk," Bush said. "It's a bill that will encourage work and it will encourage compassionate programs at the same time."

Democratic challenger John Kerry's campaign said, however, that the Bush administration itself deserved the blame for holding up the welfare bill by opposing a provision to boost funding for child-care.

I have an associate…friend of a friend…who feels the "nuclear family" is a short-term glitch in the history of humanity. He feels kinship has always been tribe-wide and three generations deep. This is a restatement of the famous "It takes a village to raise a child" proverb, a sentiment that gets but limited support from the mainstream. Black folks love the concept, especially since it often boils down to free emergency babysitting.

It is literally true, though. No one has the personal resources to raise a sane human being from childhood without assistance. Never mind sane, just keeping a child alive is beyond the individual ability of most. Burroughsian fantasies aside, neither you nor the child would be very pleased to see the way the wolves you thought would raise you stare at your soft underbelly after a hard day of not catching rabbits. In our civilized times, it's even worse. We are so interdependent we're almost a single entity.

The runs directly against American mythology. America is the land of opportunity, where a man can go as far as his with, skill and maybe a little luck will take him. The land where personal responsibility is the watchword.

Ha.

Your average American doesn't realize he was raised by a village, that his wealth and education was sponsored. And they forget why:

The GI Bill: The Post-War Boom in Housing & College Enrollment

Produced by Scott Williams

Bill Tuttle: The history of the GI Bill in some ways begins with the WWI veterans, who were promised a bonus in 1919 payable in 25 years, 1944, but in 1932 there was a great depression and they were broke. They wanted the bonus immediately. So they marched to Washington. And the bonus marchers were met with military force, led by General Douglas MacAuthur, and major Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Major George S. Patton, the bonus marchers were routed from Washington, it was a terrible, terrible thing. Men who had fought for their country in W.W.I who were being tear gassed and beaten with billyclubs by the military and by the police in Washington in 1932. There was a lot of concern with veterans, because veterans are viewed potentially unstable elements, potentially dangerous people. Because veterans come back to the country. They know how to use arms. They know how to kill people. They are angry. A lot of them feel they have given the best years of their lives to their country, they are not getting much back.

Narrator: To avoid problems again after W.W.II, the American Legion pushed for new veterans benefits, which resulted in Roosevelt signing the GI Bill in 1944.

Bill: A lot of politicians didn't want it. They thought that service people didn't deserve it. And there were a lot of very conservative politicians who thought it would be terrible for the country to send these service people, these veterans, to colleges and universities to be taught by left wing professors.

Bill: It's interesting, it addressed four issues. And one was called readjustment allowances. So when the GIs came back, a lot of them couldn't find work immediately. So one part of the GI Bill was 52 weeks of a readjustment allowance of $20 a week to help them live until they could find work. Another part of the GI bill addressed the concerns and needs of the disabled veterans. Special training programs for them. And then of course there was education and there was housing.

Narrator: College and Universities were flooded with scholars eager to use the GI Bill for their education.

Bill: The educational benefit was up to 48 months, four years of college or vocational education for the veterans. And what it meant was a lot of veterans who would never have thought about going to college did, because they had an opportunity to do it. And the tuition and fees were paid up to $500 a year, well $500 would pay your tuition at Harvard in 1946, so with the GI Bill you could actually afford to go to best college or university in the country.

I saw Katie Kouric interviewing Michael Moore this morning, and you'd think people would consider the man is a story-teller when they try to trip him up.

She went with "Don't you think it would have been more even-handed to show Saddam's dark side instead of just regular Iraqi kids and such?" He was like, you guys have done such a great job of that already. You've had thousands of hours of Saddam, and people complain about two hours of Iraqis as normal humans.

Don't look for a transcript of this one.

Meanwhile, from the comments a few links to some background on "Move America Forward":

Here's some useful info about the anti-Fahrenheit 9/11 campaign group 'Move America Forward' (MAF). The one that's been pressurising movie theaters not to show the film. Turns out, it's nothing more than a front for a GOP-linked public relations firm, Russo Marsh and Rogers. Yet for some inexplicable reason, the fact that RM+R set up MAF is not mentioned anywhere on the MAF website! I can't imagine why...

Furthermore, this firm made a couple of million dollars from GOP politicians in 2001/2002. What a surprise.

See The truth about Move America Forward
plus the wackos at Russo Marsh and Rogers who are behind the Move America Forward fake campaign.
plus More useful info about Move America Forward

Rwanda Says Congo Troop Build Up 'Hostile Act'
Mon Jun 21, 2004 07:26 AM ET

By Finbarr O'Reilly
KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda said Congo's troop build-up near its border was a "hostile action" and vowed to defend itself against its giant neighbor.

"From this side of the border it is a hostile action," Rwandan army spokesman Patrick Karegeya said on Monday. "We look at it in the historical context of the region."

Rwanda has twice invaded Congo, in 1996 and 1998, backing Congolese rebels to hunt down Hutu extremists responsible for the 1994 genocide who Rwanda said posed a threat to its borders.

Military and diplomatic sources say Kinshasa has flown up to 10,000 government troops to eastern Congo in the past week.

The troop movements near the Rwandan and Ugandan borders follow a week-long insurgency in the strategic eastern town of Bukavu earlier this month which Congo's President Joseph Kabila said was backed by Rwanda.

Diplomats say some in Kinshasa fear another Rwandan attack.

Lawyer Wants Bush on Witness Stand Over Iraq Abuse
Mon Jun 21, 2004 09:06 AM ET

By Michael Georgy and Matthew Green
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should take the witness stand at the trial of a U.S. soldier charged with abusing prisoners in Iraq, the soldier's lawyer said on Monday.

Policies adopted in Bush's "war on terror" created a climate encouraging cruelty, said lawyers for U.S. soldiers accused of subjecting detainees to sexual humiliation and physical abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

"No one can suggest with a straight face that the MPs (military police) acted alone," said defense lawyer Guy Womack, representing Specialist Charles Graner, who faces the most serious charges of the soldiers to be court martialed.

"They were directly under the supervision of military intelligence officers," he told reporters after a pretrial hearing.

Pretrial hearings were held on Monday for Specialist Charles Graner -- who faces the most serious charges of all the Abu Ghraib accused -- and Sergeant Javal Davis.

Davis's defense counsel Paul Bergrin said Bush and Rumsfeld sidestepped the Geneva Convention, encouraging abuse that stretched down the chain of command to the soldiers at Abu Ghraib, notorious as a torture center under Saddam Hussein.

He said his client -- accused of jumping on a pile of prisoners and stomping on their feet -- was instructed on a daily basis to soften up Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence.

"Bush gave a speech declaring his war on terror and said the Geneva Convention no longer applied," he told reporters after an impassioned address in the court room.

High Court Limits Patient Suits Vs HMOs
Mon Jun 21, 2004 11:08 AM ET

By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that patients cannot sue health insurance companies under state law for refusing to pay for doctor-recommended medical care, a decision that could affect millions of patients.

The justices ruled that a 1974 federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, completely pre-empted such lawsuits brought in state court by patients who seek damages over the denial of appropriate medical care.

The decision was a victory for the U.S. Justice Department and insurers, which warned that allowing the lawsuits would drive up health care costs. Millions of Americans have medical insurance through employer-provided health plans governed by the 1974 federal law.

At issue was a 1997 Texas law that allowed patients to sue over their medical treatment. Nine other states -- Arizona, California, Georgia, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and West Virginia -- have similar laws.

The state laws have become important as Congress has been unable in recent years to adopt national legislation that would allow patients to sue their health maintenance organization in federal court for medical malpractice.

Supporters of the state laws argued that patients should be able to sue their managed care plans for the harm caused when needed health care has been denied.

School Foils Cheats by Blocking Phone Signals
Mon Jun 21, 2004 08:12 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Mobile phone-savvy teenagers tempted to cheat their way through exams by sending text messages or scanning pictures of tests could be thwarted by a device that jams signals inside the school walls.

The Enrico Tosi Technical Institute school in northern Italy has found a way to foil the next generation of would-be tricksters with the help of military technology.

"Most schools try and confiscate phones before exams, but this way we can be sure nobody slips through," said Benedetto Di Rienzo, the head of the school in Busto Arsizio which is testing the devices for the Education Ministry during exams this week.

The box-like units, called C-Guard, were developed by experts from the military and defense industries for Netline Communications Technologies. They jam signals in an 80-meter (262-foot) radius in enclosed spaces.

Scientists Urge Shift to Non-Food Crops
Mon Jun 21, 2004 09:19 AM ET

By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - Farmers of the world must shift quickly to growing plants for industrial uses such as oils and plastics to replace petrochemicals as the climate warms and crude supplies run out, British scientists said on Monday.

"In the next 20 to 50 years we have to reverse our dependency on fossil fuels," said Alison Smith of Britain's John Innes plant research center. "We must breed for sustainability."

At a news conference, she complained that in the past there had been a lack of coherent thinking, but that was now changing in the face of the looming crisis.

Ian Crute, director of the Rothamsted plant-breeding center in Hertfordshire, said it was not a matter of switching wholesale out of growing crops for food but of correcting the balance.

"We have an opportunity here...to substitute our dependency on fossil fuels," he added at the introduction of a report by private scientists on non-food crops entitled "Growing the Future."

Not only was oil running out, but the world's population was predicted to grow sharply over the next half century and had to be fed. This would put huge strains on the world's economy.

"We have to get more productivity out of less land," he said.

The report noted that plants could produce plastics, fuels, oils, medicinal drugs, insulators, fibres and fabrics, many of which are currently made from crude oil.

The Myth of the Rebel Consumer
by Rob Horning

…Williams finds it preferable to conceive of ourselves as "users", rather than "consumers"; individual users that acquire goods in order to put them to creative use to fulfill our social needs. Such a designation corresponds well to that trend amongst cultural studies theorists for celebrating the creative potential inherent in buying things (See Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, University of California Press, 1984; John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture, Unwin Hyman, 1989, or Paul Willis, Common Culture, Open University Press, 1990). Our purchases can express subversion, radical appropriation, or collective affiliation. That's right: I can use my thrift store purchase of a Herb Alpert record to express my dismay at the current state of the music industry, and you can use your coffee grinder at home to thumb your nose at Starbucks. We can make important demands for social change by restructuring our collective consumer demands. We can use our dollar to demand free-range chickens and hormone-free milk; and if that doesn't succeed in transforming America into a more humane society, we can even write a letter to Mother Jones to voice our frustration.

But by making pseudo-political statements through the manufactured artifacts of our culture, through the exercise of our free choice, are we truly users, or are we simply being useful? Expressing our politics through what we buy is no politics at all; at best it is but a vote of assent for the existing economic arrangements. Were we to value such a debased notion of freedom, we would be celebrating the way capitalism tries to cheat us out of more meaningful freedoms, foremost of which is the freedom to question the way modes of production are organized. If we forget that what we buy is insignificant as long as we continue to buy something, then we fall prey to one of our society's favorite myths: that corporations actually value their customers as individuals, that they really believe that the customer is right.

…In truth, this view aligns with the pluralism that modern corporations themselves have come to endorse. One needs only think of the proliferation of cable channels or the user-driven commercialized infotainment available on the Internet. Subversive uses and appropriations are already incorporated into the structure of these systems — corporations don't mind how you play as long as you play on their field.

For as long as we play on their field, we continue to be the sorts of people their industries require. And for my purposes, that is what consumerism is: a series of behaviors that identifies us to the existing order and fixes us in it while granting us a sense of identity that feels natural, that feels autonomously constructed. Never mind if these identities seem conformist or mass-produced — we won't know enough about anybody else besides ourselves to notice. Our access to goods allows us to build an identity without the hassles of dealing with actual other people. Again, we are all creative and sensitive people. The unique, imaginary playpens we each construct for ourselves in our narcissistic world of goods proves to ourselves just how creative and sensitive we are. Consumerism is the driving social force that seeks to ensure that each of our playpens remains isolated from the others; it is the wet nurse that comes when we cry, hungry for real experience, only to feed us more formula.

Quote of note:

Hundreds of those discharged held high-level job specialties that required years of training and expertise, including 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists.

Eighty-eight linguists were discharged, including at least seven Arab language specialists.

Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative advocacy group that opposes gays serving in the military, said the loss of gays and lesbians serving in specialized areas is irrelevant because they never should have been in those jobs in the first place.

Key military specialists discharged under 'don't ask, don't tell'
- BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, June 20, 2004

(06-20) 23:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

Brian Muller, an Army bomb squad team leader who served on a security detail for President Bush, said he was dismissed from duty after deciding to tell his commander he's gay.

"I didn't do it to get out of a war -- I already served in a war," Muller, 25, said in an interview. "After putting my life on the line in the war, the idea that I was fighting for the freedoms of so many other people that I couldn't myself enjoy was almost unbearable."

The exodus of soldiers like Muller continues even as concerns grow about military troop strength, according to a new study. Some 770 people were discharged for homosexuality last year under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The figure, however, is significantly lower than the record 1,227 discharges in 2001 -- just before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Since "don't ask, don't tell" was adopted in 1994, nearly 10,000 military personnel have been discharged -- including linguists, nuclear warfare experts and other key specialists.

The LA Times asks:

Their reticence raises a more fundamental and interesting question: To come together as a nation, must Americans chant their allegiance? The United States existed for more than a century before Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, wrote the pledge for school celebrations of Columbus Day. His simple oath expresses this nation's core belief in "liberty and justice for all." But it is not the indispensable rule book that is the Constitution, nor is it a national symbol like the American flag. Why not just dispense with the obligatory vow before school begins or the Board of Supervisors convenes?

Quote of note:

All in all, the fund has received more than $19 billion and has functioned as a piggy bank for the occupation authority, which has displayed a marked reluctance to account for money spent. Last November, for example, Congress — with Halliburton in mind — banned the use of taxpayers' money for any more large noncompetitive contracts. So the CPA simply dipped into the DFI to pay Halliburton.

A Hammer Falls on Iraq's Piggy Bank in the Fading Days
By Andrew Cockburn

June 20, 2004

Now that Iraqi insurgents have discovered precisely where to aim their body blows at oil export facilities, Iraq is going to need all the money it can find. So it seems a pity that in its final days, the U.S.-dominated Coalition Provision Authority has gone on a shopping spree, gaily spending the hoard of Iraqi cash it controls.

Like everyone else in Iraq, the insurgents have long recognized that oil, almost the country's only revenue resource, is the key to power. Since the beginning of the occupation, there have been no less than 125 sabotage attacks against oil pipelines. Until recently, most were in the northern oil fields, where little production goes for export, but lately, attacks have shifted to the southern fields, whence come 85% of Iraqi exports. Such gloomy realities appear to have little effect inside the CPA, where, reportedly, an "end of school" atmosphere has taken hold. This was most vividly expressed at a meeting last month at which it was decided to hand out almost $2 billion in Iraqi assets — not American dollars but Iraqi money over which the U.S. authorities have assumed responsibility — to a host of "deserving" causes.

The Dream in Transition
Budget realities undermine the old model of higher education. More nonpublic funding is the future.
By Kevin Starr
Kevin Starr is university professor of history at USC and state librarian emeritus. His "Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003," will be published in September by Alfred A. Knopf.

June 20, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO — Two recent developments underscore the crisis — and transformation — facing the University of California. One is negative: Because of budget shortfalls, up to 7,600 California students otherwise eligible for admission to UC may be diverted this fall to two-year community colleges for the first half of their undergraduate experience. The second development, more positive in tone, is the recent announcement by UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale that UCLA is launching a $250-million fundraising initiative to increase the number of endowed professorships to 330 — out of a total faculty of 1,700 tenured and tenure-track professors — as well as to recruit and retain talented graduate students.

Quote of note #1:

The tendency of contemporary American voters to focus so myopically on current economic conditions is eerily reminiscent of the description provided by a distinguished foreign observer of U.S. politics, Moiseide Ostrogorski, more than a century ago: "Of all races in an advanced stage of civilization, the American is the least accessible to long views. … Always and everywhere in a hurry to get rich, he does not give a thought to remote consequences; he sees only present advantages…. He does not remember, he does not feel, he lives in a materialist dream."

Quote of note #2:

As it happens, Republican presidents have historically been remarkably successful at profiting from voters' economic forgetfulness.

Economic Amnesia Buoys Incumbents
By Larry M. Bartels
Larry M. Bartels directs the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics in Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

June 20, 2004

PRINCETON, N.J. — Sen. John Kerry was on the campaign trail last week, attacking President Bush's management of the economy. It's a tough sell, given the notable upturn in economic conditions in recent months. The government's latest figures show robust growth in disposable income and gross domestic product; jobless claims are down to pre-recession levels; the Federal Reserve said industrial production surged in May; and the Conference Board's index of leading indicators is up again.

Kerry contends that this overdue improvement from a dismal baseline is insufficient to merit Bush's reelection. As his economic advisor, Gene Sperling, put it, "If you get D-minuses for 3 1/2 years in college, one semester of a B-minus does not get you on the honor roll."

Unfortunately for Kerry, the history of economic voting in presidential elections suggests that a good semester or two is often enough to make voters overlook an otherwise undistinguished record of economic stewardship. Over the last 14 election cycles, each percentage point of real-income growth during the year of the election has translated into a substantial 4-percentage-point increase in the incumbent party's popular vote margin. But real-income growth during the earlier years of each president's term has had no effect on election outcomes. Lackluster sophomore and junior years seem to be irrelevant, as long as the economy is rolling in the months leading up to the election.

In a reversal, job growth fades for women workers
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK - Stephanie Brown, a single mother of a 2-year-old, was recently laid off as a bank teller in Lansing, Mich. Despite sending out a flurry of résumés, she's finding the hunt for a new job - especially one with benefits - difficult.

"It's been weeks, and I haven't had one bite on my résumé," says Ms Brown. "And I've got quite a lot of experience in office and clerical work."

Brown's predicament is part of a growing phenomenon in the American workforce: Job insecurity among women.

For decades, even in the worst of times, women continued to steadily join the workforce, catching up to men in terms of the percentage of the population with a full-time paycheck. But during the most recent downturn, more women left the workforce than came in for the first time in more than 40 years. One economist calls it the first equal-opportunity recession.

Now, as the economy recovers, the central question is whether job growth among women will pick up again and how quickly. That could help determine whether the number of women joining the workforce has finally peaked. At the least, structural changes in the economy seem to have made it just as difficult for women as for men to find a good job with benefits.

1.9 million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election
It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost
- Greg Palast
Sunday, June 20, 2004

In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. "Spoiled votes" is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate.

This year, it could get worse.

These ugly racial statistics are hidden away in the mathematical thickets of the appendices to official reports coming out of the investigation of ballot-box monkey business in Florida from the last go-'round.

How do you spoil 2 million ballots? Not by leaving them out of the fridge too long. A stray mark, a jammed machine, a punch card punched twice will do it. It's easy to lose your vote, especially when some politicians want your vote lost.

While investigating the 2000 ballot count in Florida for BBC Television, I saw firsthand how the spoilage game was played -- with black voters the predetermined losers.

Florida's Gadsden County has the highest percentage of black voters in the state -- and the highest spoilage rate. One in 8 votes cast there in 2000 was never counted. Many voters wrote in "Al Gore." Optical reading machines rejected these because "Al" is a "stray mark."

By contrast, in neighboring Tallahassee, the capital, vote spoilage was nearly zip; every vote counted. The difference? In Tallahassee's white- majority county, voters placed their ballots directly into optical scanners. If they added a stray mark, they received another ballot with instructions to correct it.

In other words, in the white county, make a mistake and get another ballot; in the black county, make a mistake, your ballot is tossed.

Virginia OK's Scholarships for Public School Integration Victims
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2004
By: Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers approved $1 million last week to fund scholarships for now middle-aged people who were denied an education when public schools shut down in the late 1950s to avoid racial integration.

Nearly 100 former students from Prince Edward County, where public schools closed for five years, stood in the gallery and burst into applause after the House approved the funding, 94-4. The Senate later approved the measure 36-0.

"I feel like crying. I'm so emotional, so happy," said 57-year-old Rita Moseley, who was sent 150 miles across the state to continue her education when schools in the county closed.

Gov. Mark R. Warner's office estimates that 250 to 350 former students, now middle-aged, could receive several thousand dollars each under the statewide scholarship program. The money could be used toward a high school diploma, a GED certificate, career or technical training, or an undergraduate degree from a Virginia college.

Legislators had initially provided $50,000 for the Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Fund, but Warner amended the budget to increase the funding to $1 million.

Billionaire philanthropist John Kluge last month pledged $1 million of his own money if the state would match it.

Chappelle Lets Rude Crowd Have It
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2004
By: Associated Press

Dave Chappelle got so angry with the crowd last week at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium that the stand-up comic walked off the stage for nearly two minutes. Upon his return, he told the audience, "You people are stupid."

What got the comic so riled up? According to Chappelle, it was audience members who wouldn't "shut up and listen - like you're supposed to."

The temptation to stop right there is tremendous.

I was going to be pretty much off the air today, being Father's Day and all that. The daughter's not feeling up to it though, which is to say I got stood up.

Does that stop me though? Of course not. I been getting less and less stressed about writing on weekends anyway.

Totally on another topic, my link reorganization project has definitively become a major site upgrade. I'd said for quite a while I wanted some community features here, and since I'm changing so much around I figure I might as well do the whole nine. I still haven't decided how crazy I want to get with keeping permalinks intact, basically because there's but so many of my posts I myself am impressed with.

I've been fooling around with different server side scripts. What I've settled on is:

Drupal : because it supports, well, everything. I can give registered users a blog and let unregistered users comment (as 'Anonymous', which I am cool with.) Registered users will also be able to vote on articles, blog posts and comments. A simple forum will be part of the site so users can start conversations even if they have no blog (I haven't figured out how to give them things out). And any page can be "bound" into a book that not only has hierarchical navigation but a print mode…which is what attracted me in the first place.

The test site isn't fully configured, but you can fool around in there, secure in the knowledge it will all be blown away before I start getting productive. I think I'll have to do some actual coding to get exactly what I want but not nearly as much as I expected to.

A vice president unbound
Nation & World
By Gloria Borger

It would, of course, be very satisfying if we could tie up all the bother-some questions in a neat knot and put them to rest. As in: Was there a "collaborative relationship" between al Qaeda and Iraq? Did Iraq have anything at all to do with 9/11? Did our leaders "lie" to us or "mislead" us intentionally about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction to make the case for war? Or was it just a case of lousy intelligence?

Forget it. After all the investigations, all the reports, all the commission findings, we are no closer to figuring this thing out beyond a shadow of a doubt. All we have is shadow.

…Here's the deal: The question of any Iraq-al Qaeda tie is now a matter of politics, not intelligence. It's a fight about credibility, as Cheney complained--both his and the president's. "I don't feel persecuted," he said. "I don't need to…The press is, with all due respect, there are exceptions, oftentimes lazy, oftentimes simply reports what somebody else in the press said without doing their homework."

It's about exaggerating or lying or misleading if you're an anti-Bush Democrat. And if you're a pro-Bush Republican, it's about fighting the war on terror, about the administration's credibility. And, as Cheney added last week, it's also about the "vaunted New York Times " and a media bias in which news outlets "fuzz up" the facts. "Sometimes it's ignorance," he told me. "Sometimes it's malicious." Other words used: "irresponsible" and "outrageous." Here we go again. Attacking the media never hurts in a campaign.

The Washington Post begins a three part series with a status check on the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears
Missed Opportunities Turned High Ideals to Harsh Realities
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 20, 2004; Page A01

…In many ways, the occupation appears to have transformed the occupier more than the occupied. Iraqis continue to endure blackouts, lengthy gas lines, rampant unemployment and the uncertain political future that began when U.S. tanks rolled into Baghdad. But American officials who once roamed the country to share their sense of mission with Iraqis now face such mortal danger that they are largely confined to compounds surrounded by concrete walls topped with razor wire. Iraqis who come to meet them must show two forms of identification and be searched three times.

The Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. entity that has administered Iraq, cites many successes of its tenure. Nearly 2,500 schools have been repaired, 3 million children have been immunized, $5 million in loans has been distributed to small businesses and 8 million textbooks have been printed, according to the CPA. New banknotes have replaced currency with ousted president Saddam Hussein's picture. Local councils have been formed in every city and province. An interim national government promises to hold general elections next January.

But in many key quantifiable areas, the occupation has fallen far short of its goals.

The Iraqi army is one-third the size U.S. officials promised it would be by now. Seventy percent of police officers have not received training. When violence flared across the country this spring, many soldiers and policemen refused to perform their duties because U.S. forces had failed to equip them, designate competent leaders and win trust among the ranks.

About 15,000 Iraqis have been hired to work on projects funded by $18.6 billion in U.S. aid, despite promises to use the money to employ at least 250,000 Iraqis by this month. At of the beginning of June, 80 percent of the aid package, approved by Congress last fall, remained unspent.

Electricity generation remains stuck at around 4,000 megawatts, resulting in less than nine hours of power a day to most Baghdad homes, despite pledges from U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer to increase production to 6,000 megawatts by June 1.

Iraq's emerging political system is also at odds with original U.S. goals. American officials scuttled plans to remain as the occupying power until Iraqis wrote a permanent constitution and held democratic elections. Instead, Bremer will leave the Iraqis with a temporary constitution, something he repeatedly promised not to do, and an interim government with a president who was not the Bush administration's preferred choice.

The analysis is already flawed, and the reason it's flawed is illustrated by the subtitle of the article: "Missed Opportunities Turned High Ideals to Harsh Realities."

I feel it's kind of late in the day to claim "High Ideals" were the motivation for the invasion. Unless, of course, you subscribe to Neocon ideals (and given the lies and misdirections the administration has been caught in, a reasonable person would still be hard pressed to agree).

As Genocide Unfolds

THE BUSH administration is waking up to Darfur, the western Sudanese province where Arab death squads have herded African villagers into refugee camps and are waiting for them to die. Two weeks ago Andrew Natsios, the administration's top aid official, estimated that at least a third of a million refugees are likely to perish for lack of food or basic medicines, and earlier this month Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged to the New York Times that the death squads have been supported by Sudan's government. Mr. Powell added that State Department lawyers are determining whether the killing, which the administration has already characterized as ethnic cleansing, may qualify for the term "genocide" -- a determination that would impose moral, political and arguably also legal obligations to intervene in Darfur.

Which is not to say most straight folks actively approve of gay folks sharing their rtuals…

Foes Riled by Limited Outcry Over Gay Union

Evangelical leaders expected anger would rise up nationwide to support amendment banning gay marriage, but that has not happened.

…but that imposing on other humans isn't your average person's most driving motivation. Or even your average person's motivation at all.

A Bow to Lady Luck
By James K. Glassman

Sunday, June 20, 2004; Page F01

Heard the one about the monkey and the typewriter?

"If one puts an infinite number of monkeys in front of (strongly built) typewriters and lets them clap away, there is a certainty that one of them [will] come out with an exact version of the 'Iliad,' " writes Nassim Nicholas Taleb in a recent book, "Fooled by Randomness."

The monkey typist story is an old one, and the key word is "infinite." But Taleb takes this hoary tale a step further. "Now that we have found that hero among monkeys, would any reader invest his life's savings on a bet that the monkey would write the 'Odyssey' next?"

Taleb's point is that the past frequently tells us nothing at all about the future, even though many of us believe it does and make investments accordingly. "Think about the monkey showing up at your door with his impressive past performance. Hey, he wrote the 'Iliad.' "

…Taleb's argument is that people are often tricked, mainly by the architecture of their own brains, into thinking that things that happen at random are actually happening by design. Adam Smith, the great Scottish economist and philosopher, wrote more than two centuries ago of "the overweening conceit which the greater part of men have of their own abilities [and] their absurd presumption in their own good fortune."