I decided to see how far I can push my investigation of IP 170.150.100.150. The ARIN WHOIS server allows wildcard searches. The results are returned in typographical IP order (IP considered as a string rather than a number or structure). This is the relevant part of a search on 170.*:

The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. CHASE2 (NET-170-148-0-0-1)	170.148.0.0 - 170.148.255.255
The New York Times NYTCO (NET-170-149-0-0-1)	170.149.0.0 - 170.149.255.255
Deposit Guaranty National Bank DGNB (NET-170-15-0-0-1)	170.15.0.0 - 170.15.255.255
NordicTrack NORDICTRACK (NET-170-151-0-0-1)	170.151.0.0 - 170.151.255.255
Public Service Company of Colorado PSCO (NET-170-152-0-0-1)	170.152.0.0 - 170.152.255.255

You folks who will be protesting probably know this, but you folsk who intend to watch the protests may not. This via email:

I wouldn't count on anything being safe, considering that the reports of the arrests last night (I've heard variously 250, 250+, and 264) were mostly in the East Village. I haven't heard too many details yet (I live in the West Village) except that all you had to do was be there whether you had a bike and were part of the demonstration or not -- at least one legal observer was arrested, and who knows how many pedestrians who were there because it was a nice evening and that's where you go. Damn! If the Republicans want arrests to make the Democrats look bad, they're gonna get arrests, regardless. "Critical Mass" has been doing these bike rides for months with no problems.

I got tied up in stuff and didn't get to the Critical mass demonstration yesterday. I figured it would be no big deal, since these guys do this in San Francisco like every week. Pisses people off, but…

I was wrong;

100 Cyclists Are Arrested as Thousands Ride in Protest
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD

Thousands of cyclists rode through the streets of Manhattan last night in an anti-Republican, pro-environment display of bike power that ended in more than 100 arrests by the police after the ride blocked some streets.

Despite tension over police warnings to obey traffic laws against blocking traffic and running red lights, the cyclists - numbering 5,000, the police say - did just that in a meandering course that started at Union Square and wound its way to the West Side, Central Park, Midtown and the East Village.

I mentioned posting the IP information of trolls the other day so I thought I'd share this story that did not turn out as I thought it would.

Looking at the stats for The Niggerati Network I saw a HUGE page load number for yesterday. It turns out one "user" was responsible for most of it. I figure spider or spammer, right? Being made curious by the types of URLs tried (they weren't in general links that could be found on the front page) I decided to find out which it was.

My tools in such cases are the WHOIS servers for the four Regional Internet Registries: the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), the Latin American and Carribean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC) and the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC). I grabbed the IP of the offending party (170.150.100.150) and, proceeding in most-likely-offender order, started with ARIN.

LATER: Just in case: the bit at the end is humor, such as it is. Sorry, I'm kind of desensitized on race to the point that I'll joke like that. But I had someone else who I have no doubts about flinch under a similar joke, and I'm seriously not sure how the Professor took it. So in the world's first display of Black Liberal Guilt, I'm making it clear, and will likely keep such humor confined to the Other Site.

---

Check the letter Brad DeLong wrote to the L.A. Times about Type Two Tim's econonsense. I insert relevant portions of my own rant.

Been saying for a while this requires a layer of poor folks to support the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Check this chart, which I picked up at MaxSpeaks.

Check how consistent the poverty rate is. I'm not talking just for Black folks. Check the very first table, the one for everybody.

Max:

The poverty rates in the 1970s, under the old, awful, dependency-inducing welfare system, are comparable to the rates under the new, liberating welfare reform.

The poverty rate for 2003, 12.5 percent, is higher than the rate in 1979 of 11.7 percent.

Preemptive rebuttal to 'We're coming out of a recession, so it's not fair to compare current numbers to non-recession numbers.': The recession ended in 2001. 2003 is touted by Bushists as the turnaround year. If anything, '03 gives away too much, since it could have shown a large increase in good things from a low base.

I actually posted two entries at The Niggerati Network. After rehashing the start of the Racism series I decided that wasn't the way I wanted to go. So I started over.

MoveOn.org has the first of ten prospective ads, one per week, posted.

Quote of note:

One guy, who identified himself as a former member of the American military, said he hates Team USA because the team doesn't "represent the America he fell in love with." I asked him to describe the America he fell in love with, and he said, "it was a country you could walk the streets without worrying about being mugged."

So there once was a time when a man or woman could walk the streets without worrying about a wild gang of NBA players whacking them over the head with a bottle and taking their wallet or purse? That must've been a glorious time, because you can hardly go anywhere these days without looking over your shoulder wondering whether Tim Duncan or Stephon Marbury is stalking you.

The haters can't handle the truth

Okay, not really because he's protecting his own interests and those of his cohort.

But damn…

In his remarks, Greenspan said that the projected doubling of the U.S. population over the age of 65 by 2035 would add to the government's budget deficit woes.

But he said it was important to be careful in how those deficits were addressed. He said that relying entirely on an increase in the payroll tax on workers to deal with the funding shortfall in Social Security and Medicare would make it more costly for employers to hire workers.

Making it more costly to live is MUCH better than making it more costly for corporation to pay folks.

Greenspan acknowledged that any decisions to trim benefits or boost payroll taxes could be difficult politically, but he said those decisions must be made and made quickly to give baby boomers time to adjust.

Probably because I'm going to be on the spot, but I've been thinking about this protest march thing. Specifically the predictions of trouble and confrontations.

Who made those predictions?

Quote of note:

Some residents said the indictments were unjust. Others said they would further endanger an already dangerous neighborhood.

Nicole Thomas, a resident of the Remeeder project, said the drug crews in her building protected residents from rival crews in nearby neighborhoods. "The people who got arrested are the same people who protect us and our kids," she said. "Nobody here feels more safe" after the arrests.

I actually feel drug prohibition is more damaging to society than drugs. This quote is a perfect example of why I feel that way. That plus Iran/Contra.

Mieka Johnson, 26 and a resident of Remeeder, said her cousin and uncle were arrested. She disputed the district attorney's estimate of the drug operation's revenue. "We live in crumbling, roach-infested buildings," she said. "These cops are talking about people here making $11 million. None of us here are making that kind of money."

Stupid comment of note:

Organizers of the weekend marches said that the city was unintentionally encouraging protesters to gather in the park by declaring it off-limits.

"They are coming Saturday and they are coming Sunday, and Mayor Bloomberg may well be creating Central Park as the free-speech center of New York City," Brian Becker, national coordinator of the Answer Coalition, said at a news conference.

Reasonable sounding response of note:

"We welcome people to the park, and hopefully the weather will be good," Mr. Bloomberg said. "There's a lot of people in the park - there's roughly a quarter of a million people in the park on a normal Sunday afternoon - and this will just add to that. So it will be crowded but it will be a lot of fun."

Federal Regulators Find Problems at 4 Big Auditors
By FLOYD NORRIS

The new regulatory body for the United States auditing industry said yesterday that its initial inspections of the Big Four accounting firms had found "significant audit and accounting issues" in work done by all four firms.

It added that it had found problems in the quality control systems at each firm but said it retained confidence in all of them.

Inspection reports on the four firms were released by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which was established by Congress in 2002 in the wake of the failures of Enron and WorldCom and the collapse of Arthur Andersen, the auditing firm that had certified the books at both companies.

Quote of note:

approved the use in Iraq of some severe interrogation practices intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.

If it's torture in Iraq, it's torture in Gitmo and Afghanistan.

Anyway…

Army's Report Faults General in Prison Abuse
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 - Classified parts of the report by three Army generals on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison say Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former top commander in Iraq, approved the use in Iraq of some severe interrogation practices intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan.

I'm almost ready to give a sidearm, an M16 and 2000 rounds of ammunition to every refugee.

---

Militias infiltrate camps, Darfur refugees tell UN envoy
By Nima Elbagir, Reuters | August 27, 2004

GENEINA, Sudan -- Angry Darfur refugees told the UN's top envoy in Sudan yesterday they are still not safe because the Janjaweed, the Arab militias who drove them from their homes, are among security forces guarding refugee camps.

"There is no security in the camp. There are still disturbances. There are still rapes," Adam Abdallah told UN envoy Jan Pronk and Sudan's foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail.

Report finds steep rise in classifying of documents
By Jennifer C. Kerr, Associated Press | August 27, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Government secrecy has increased sharply in the past few years -- keeping Americans in the dark about information they should be able to access, says a report released yesterday by a coalition of watchdog groups.

It found the federal government created 14 million new classified documents in fiscal year 2003 -- a 26 percent increase over 2002, and a 60 percent increase over 2001. Those numbers cover more than 40 agencies, but exclude the CIA.

At the same time, the government is declassifying fewer documents, the report said. Some 43 million pages were declassified in 2003 -- a significant decrease from 100 million pages in 2001.

This is the campaign finance reform the Bushistas pushed for, so this is what they got.

I repeat: 527s are to the political process what unions are to the economic system…the best means to counter the concentrated economic force of the wealthy, the best means for the populace to have a voice.

To Bush and the neocons, that means they have to go.

Bush says he'll sue to curb outside ads
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff | August 27, 2004

ALBUQUERQUE -- President Bush plans to sue in federal court to stop the unlimited, unregulated political spending of so-called 527 groups that have waged $63 million in negative television commercials against him this year, and most recently gave rise to a veterans' coalition now assailing Democrat John F. Kerry's military record, the White House said yesterday.

But...

Quote of note:

Despite being a suspected war criminal, Marko Boskic, 40, was able to enter the United States four years ago under his own name and moved to Peabody, where he hardly kept a low-profile. Boskic had repeated run-ins with the law that led to numerous arrests on charges of drunken driving and serious assaults.

Anyway…

War crimes suspect charged in Boston
Peabody man tied to Bosnian mass execution
By Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | August 27, 2004

A Peabody construction worker accused of being one of the executioners who slaughtered some 1,200 Bosnian Muslim men in 1995 was charged yesterday with entering the United States illegally by claiming refugee status and not revealing his role in a notorious Bosnian Serb Army unit that took part in the worst massacre of civilians in Europe since the end of World War II.

Revenge Really Is Sweet, Study Shows
Thu Aug 26, 2004 08:47 PM ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revenge feels sweet, and Swiss researchers said on Thursday they have the brain scans to prove it.

In a study investigators said might help explain how social norms arose and regulate behavior, brain centers linked to enjoyment and satisfaction lit up in young men who punished others for cheating them.

Dominique de Quervain of the University of Zurich and colleagues tested 15 male students, telling them they were doing an economic study. The men all sat in positron electron tomography, or PET scanners, that recorded brain activity.

Pentagon Opposes Independent Prison Abuse Probe
Thu Aug 26, 2004 06:12 PM ET

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday opposed calls for an independent investigation of prisoner abuse from human rights groups and a key congressional Democrat, who said such a probe was the only way to get to the truth.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into U.S. prisoner detention and interrogation operations after two Pentagon reports this week greatly expanded the scope of culpability in the prisoner abuse scandal.

"The investigations either completed or under way and the rigorous oversight by Congress provide the department and the public a thorough examination of the facts," said Matt Waxman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs.

Staying the course and all that rot…

Nearly 36 Million Americans Live in Poverty
Thu Aug 26, 2004 09:38 PM ET

By Andrea Hopkins

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 1.3 million Americans slid into poverty in 2003 as the ranks of the poor rose 4 percent to 35.9 million, with children and blacks worse off than most, the government said on Thursday in a report that fueled Democratic criticism of President Bush.

Despite the economic recovery, the percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose for the third straight year to 12.5 percent -- the highest since 1998 -- from 12.1 percent in 2002, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report. The widely cited score card on the nation's economy showed one-third of those in poverty were children.

I think if I was hanging out me and Cobb would have a lot of fun and a lot in common. I think Avery capable of surpassing us both.

He ain't done it yet. But in discussing the Confederate Battle Flag (cbf in his vernacular) he may surpass where I was at his age.

And I know, I know, "it's not about believing in what they were fighting for, it's about recognizing their bravery in fighting for what they believed in." But that's just stupid. What they were fighting for is wrong, and whatever bravery they displayed is sullied because they were being brave in an unjust cause. Put it like this: when you see a Palestinian throwing rocks at a tank, you don't think about how brave he is, even though I'd say that it takes a certain amount of bravery (and foolishness) to go against an armored vehicle with some hand-sized stones. That ain't no adulterating woman. Ain't no stoning a tank.

American 'gentlemen' sweep Olympic 200
- NANCY ARMOUR, AP Sports Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2004

There was no flexing. No preening. No embarrassing displays with the U.S. flag.

Bernard Williams must have learned a thing or two at the Sydney Olympics, because he his American teammates were on their best behavior Thursday after sweeping the 200 meters.

…"I had my fun in 2000 and I made a lot of people angry," Williams said. "It's not fun when you're making people angry at the same time. I learned how to do it right."

Williams was on the 400-meter relay team four years ago that posed and preened during a victory lap and then clowned on the medals stand. A bare-chested Williams draped himself in a flag then, flapping it as though he were a bird.

Nate at Cincinnati Black Blog is rightously pissed at Hamilton County Prosecutor and Southwest Ohio chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign Mike Allen and so is having a grand time reporting on the sexual harassment lawsuit that made the man fly all the way back from The Big Apple to confess to an extramarital affair.

That's not why I linked, though. This is:

Every now and then it helps to publish some people's emails.

Funny, but I didn`t see any mention of Rape in The lawsuit. Mike Allen and Maybe Pat Dewine are guilty of Infidelity, But, They know who Their Fathers Are ! Allen and Dewine Financially Support Their Children ! Allen and Dewine Know How Many Chidren They Have! Allen and Dewine are Employed and Pay Taxes ! The Woman That Allen and Dewine Associate with are not Crack Whores, Spitting Out Babies(Like Rats) every Nine Months ! and the last time I saw Allen or Dewine, They Had Taken a Bath and Didn`t Smell Like Something from A Slave Pen !!!!! Boycottcincinnati ? Just Another Dark Gang Of Thugs ! I don`t have to call you "Niggers" You already do that to yourselves !!!!!

Quote of note #1:

Charlie Daniels recently angered some Arab-Americans with a song that included the lyrics "This ain't no rag, it's a flag, and we don't wear it on our heads." And Lynyrd Skynyrd is known for waving a giant Confederate flag during their rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama."

Giant Confederate flag. That's what you support by voting Republican.

Quote of note #12

"I don't think anyone coordinated it this way," said Brandon Winfrey, who helped organize the Lynyrd Skynyrd party.

Right. The G.O.P. plans everything. It's just their plans are all fucked up.

Anyway…

G.O.P.'s Southern Strategy? Cranking Up Lynyrd Skynyrd

Even if, like the USofA, you're not really a democracy but think you are.

Quote of note:

At the organizers' request, the NYPD is also shutting down side streets between 15th Street and 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue on the east side of 7th Avenue and between 8th and 9th on the west.

These side streets will serve as feeder lines into the main march up 7th Avenue.

The organizers are expected to assign groups that want to march together to specific side streets.

Sources: NYPD, protest group agree on rally site
March route also set for Sunday
From Jamie McShane
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York City Police Department (NYPD) and representatives for United for Peace and Justice have agreed on a site for a protest rally this weekend, as well as the route for the march that will precede it, sources familiar with the situation told CNN Thursday.

Otherwise I'd get upset when people get paid for writing about what I've said for years.

Well, as Dick Cheney knows, you can get anything done if you don't care who gets the credit.

Says what I think quite eloquently.

---

Tricky Timing

… would just add that I think the "Kerry waitied too long" CW that's forming is a media driven excuse that lets them off the hook. They know that they are responsible for allowing these assholes to be taken seriously at all and instead of taking responsibility for failing at their job they are blaming the victim. It's an old story with these guys. "Oh he should have fought back a week earlier." Well, if the press were in the business of journalism instead of bloodsport entertainment, they would have investigated these guys before they gave them hours and hours of airtime to spread their filthy little psychodrama all of over airwaves. The people who waited too long were the journalists.

A sane, respected family man does six months in Iraq.

Quote of note:

Last month Guindon and his team were awarded Army combat honors after carrying out more than 100 missions.

Save us all from military honors.

Airman dies day after return from duty in Iraq

MERRIMACK — A decorated member of the New Hampshire Air National Guard killed himself at his home Wednesday, just a day after returning from a six-month tour of duty in Iraq.

Tech. Sgt. Dave Guindon, 48, of Merrimack was a member of the 157th Air Refueling Wing based in Newington. In Iraq, he and four other members of the unit provided security to Army convoys. They returned Tuesday.

According to the state medical examiner’s office, Guindon died Wednesday afternoon of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

You don't want to be one of these jurors.

Thought the Quote of Note:

Forensic exam results from state lab analyst Mary Jane Burton scarcely figured in the trial.

Burton worked at the state lab during the 1970s and 1980s, and, contrary to department policy, she kept samples of items she tested, often taping them to her worksheet. The evidence that cleared Whitfield came from Burton’s files, as well as evidence that cleared at least two other men in the state of rape charges.

---

…indicates there may have been other means of preventing this travesty.

I got no beef with the jury. As one juror said, they did their best. But he also said

Had DNA testing been available back then…Whitfield would never have been charged.

Now we know. Now we have the means not only to prevent such things from happening but to verify and undo many wrongs.

Jurors revisit decision that put wrong man in jail for rapes

Stuff I found in storage that even I didn't know was there:

- About 5 different audio sequencing programs
- Seven discs of royalty-free samples…basslines, drum loops, sexy moaning voices...
- The Art of Cooking on a Windows 95/98 CD-ROM, unopened (I used to like cooking; I think I was trying to recapture that)
- Studyworks Mathematics Tutorials, covering Algebra I and II, Geometry (my favorite!) Trig, Precalc, Calculus and Statistics. It's a Windows 95/Win 3.1 (!!) disc, and being a Windows 3.1 thing I actually have more confidence that it will run under XP Pro than the Art of Cooking disk)
- Starship Titanic

This is information some 60% of the population is dying to have. But I'm afraid you won't find it very satisfactory. The Niggerati Network was found by The TDT Observer Review at the same time as another blog, Not Counting Niggers.

I ran across two interestingly named blogs today, while checking so see which of my favorite blogs had been updated. I hadn't expected to find blogs with the names Not Counting Niggers and The Niggerati Network. However, I wasn't surprised since anything goes in the Blogosphere.

Don't bug on "Not Counting Niggers." It's a progressive blog, and named after a WW II era essay by George Orwell.

Gen. J.C. Christian, Patriot has offered to replace Alan Keyes as the Republican candidate for Senator in Illinois.

You must read his letter to State Senator Dave Syverson. Ya can't go wrong, folks.

Even better, Senator Syverson answered him.

First, you need to understand how we got to this point. Jack Ryan was not my choice in the Primary, but it seemed to be the choice of many in the Party. It is unfortunate after he won the Primary the media acted improperly by going after custody hearing documents. When Ryan withdrew, we sought out a number of individuals to take his position, several that I supported. Individuals like Edgar, Rauschenberger, and Dillard to name a few. However, all of these individuals turned down the request to fill that appointment. So, with ninety days left in the campaign, the State Central Committee met to go through a number of names of individuals who might be interested in running. Of the seven or eight that were considered, a few were excellent prospects but they had no personal resources, and nothing committed from the National Republican Committee. These individuals would have no way to get their message out in that short period of time. So, the State Party whittled the list down to two for us to choose from, one choice was Alan Keyes and the second was Andrea Barthwell. If you read about the problems that Barthwell had and the fact that she had no resources or organization, there wasn't much of a choice to make.

Alex at Heretical Ideas has the right idea about Dean's rant…and about Dave Chapelle's humor:

When Dean Esmay made this post, my jaw dropped. I honestly don't know what he was thinking when he posted it. The explanation he gave a few days later, I admit, didn't make much sense to me either, where he tried to pawn off his race-baiting by saying "well, Dave Chappelle does racist humor, too!" Why? Because while some of Dave Chapelle's humor skates close to the racist edge, it never really goes over (except in the horrible "Real World" skit in the first season of the show--although I suppose it was equally racist to blacks and whites).

One of Alex's commenters nailed it totally, though:

…will be familiar to some folks.

By the way, I've decided Niggerati.net gets one substantial post per day, and maybe a technical update (like I just fixed a problem converting line breaks to <br /:> tags, which makes writing MUCH simpler). That will help folks keep up, though it will slow the introducton of topics on my part. Most of the tech stuff will be here at good ol' scattered Prometheus 6.

via Left is Right

Social networks.

I'm coming to the conclusion they are a cross between Match.com and Usenet.

I registered for Tickle though so I could take their 56 question Original Inkblot Test. Free, but don't be looking for me there because social networks in general don't hook me.

Earl, your subconscious mind is driven most by Reserve

You approach the world with reserve because unconsciously, and perhaps consciously, you like to be in control. You keep your emotions to yourself and you may seem mysterious or enigmatic to others.

You're often very cautious about truly expressing yourself. Even people who have known you for some time may find it hard to get close to you.

The reserve is 100% conscious, by the way.

Quote of note:

The issue arose on Monday when The Seattle Times wrote about Gregoire's time in the Kappa Delta sorority at the University of Washington and her decision to work from within the group to oppose its discriminatory membership rule.

…The Times later said that neither Sims nor his campaign was the source for the newspaper's original story on the sorority. One of the Times editors was a sorority sister of Gregoire's, said political editor Tom Boyer.

Race surfaces in Wash. governor primary
By David Ammons, Associated Press Writer | August 26, 2004

TACOMA, Wash. --The issue of race has surfaced in the contest between the two top Democratic rivals for governor, roiling a contest that had until this week been relatively quiet.

Cops to cut down tree that draws crime
August 26, 2004

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. --Okaloosa County sheriff's deputies think they have found a solution for getting rid of drug dealers and prostitutes who congregate under a giant oak tree: chop it down. The sheriff's office is seeking permission to have the tree removed from a county right of way on Cypress Street.

"We're not attacking the tree," Deputy Don Hess said. "The tree hasn't hurt anybody."

But Hess said it provides cover for drug dealers and prostitutes and their customers. He said 30 to 40 arrests per month stem from criminal activity at the oak.

So far county officials have stood up for the tree, but that resolve may be crumbling.

Suspensions lifted over blackface dispute
Georgia fraternity, student group agree to apologize
By Associated Press | August 26, 2004

ATLANTA -- A Georgia State University fraternity that had members in blackface at a party and a black student group that responded with a flier that alluded to lynching will both be allowed back on campus after the groups agreed to apologize.

University officials said Tuesday that the two groups have reached an agreement that ends their suspensions from campus.

The agreement, announced by vice president for student services Hazel Scott, calls on Pi Kappa Alpha and the Black Student Alliance to apologize jointly to the school community and submit letters of apology to the student newspaper. Pi Kappa Alpha also must implement a diversity and sensitivity training program and not permit any of its members to paint their faces black again.

Old Warriors Giving Their Last, Worst Shot

By Tina Brown
Thursday, August 26, 2004; Page C01

Bob Dole's nasty swipe at John Kerry's war wounds this week made you understand why Viagra has been losing market share to Cialis. The sight of that bitter old face piling on to protest that Kerry did not bleed enough is instant detumescence.

This direct language is what was needed from the media all along.

Closer to the Truth
Thursday, August 26, 2004; Page A22

TWO NEW OFFICIAL reports on the treatment of foreign prisoners have dragged the Bush administration and Pentagon brass a couple of steps closer to facing the truth about how and why U.S. soldiers and interrogators committed scores of acts of torture and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. An Army investigation released yesterday showed that culpability for the criminal mistreatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison lay not just with a handful of reserve soldiers but with more than two dozen military intelligence officers and civilian contractors. On Tuesday a panel appointed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld demolished the fiction, clung to until now by President Bush, Mr. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's whitewashers, that prisoner abuse in Iraq was an aberration for which no senior officials were responsible. "The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," said the report of the panel chaired by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels."

Incidents Grew in Severity, Report Says
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2004; Page A17

Forty-four separate incidents are graphically recounted in the new Army report on abuse committed by U.S. soldiers against Iraqis in their custody at the Abu Ghraib prison. They include direct physical assault of inmates, required nakedness, forced sexual posing and an alleged sexual assault.

…In mid-September, Abu Ghraib was hit by mortar shells, killing two soldiers and wounding 11 others. Immediately after the attack, two Iraqis were brought in, and military intelligence soldiers were seen hitting one of them. When a military police officer told them to stop, the soldiers insubordinately told him that it was not his concern. "We are the professionals; we know what we are doing," they said, according to the report.

A Failure in Leadership, All the Way Up the Ranks
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2004; Page A01

What began several months ago with the emergence of shocking photographs showing a handful of U.S. troops abusing detainees in Iraq has led this week to a broad indictment of U.S. military leadership and acknowledgement in two official reports that mistreatment of prisoners was more widespread than previously disclosed.

The reports have served to undercut earlier portrayals of the abuse as largely the result of criminal misconduct by a small group of individuals. As recently as last month, an assessment by the Army's inspector general concluded the incidents could not be ascribed to systemic problems, describing them as "aberrations."

Abuse Report Widens Scope of Culpability
Generals Point to Contractors, Military Intelligence Soldiers

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 26, 2004; Page A01

Three Army generals said yesterday that an array of sometimes shocking detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison came in part at the hands of more than two dozen military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors, widening the scope of the international scandal as one Army general conceded that some of the acts qualified as torture.

So you can already buy HGH (Human Growth Hormone) to make your kid some four inches taller and fifty pounds heavier. And you can buy a better education, better equipment and medical care.

I can't say this is all bad, but I can say it would suck if only the wealthy could have it. And it would be worse to do it strictly for cosmetic reasons.

Geneticists have tried to improve apples over the last 50 years, producing larger, prettier species that just aren't as tasty or as interesting as they used to be; it would be a tragedy if we did to humans what we've done to apples.

Building Better Bodies
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

For a glimpse of what post-human athletes may look like beginning in the 2012 or 2016 Olympics, take a look at an obscure breed of cattle called the Belgian Blue.

Group Will Rally in Park or Not at All, Leader Says
By DIANE CARDWELL

The lead organizer of the largest rally planned for the Republican National Convention said yesterday that the rally would not be held if a judge upheld a ban on protesters using the Great Lawn in Central Park on Sunday.

Leslie Cagan, national coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, which sued to try to force the city to grant a permit to rally in the park, told a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan that if the antiwar coalition was not allowed on the grass of the Great Lawn, "then we simply can't have the rally."

Ms. Cagan said later that the group still planned to march up Seventh Avenue past the convention site at Madison Square Garden. But her testimony, at a hearing before Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann, made it seem unlikely that the group would be able to rally afterward, as has been planned for more than a year. The rally would be held one day before the start of the convention.

Dean asks:

So, to answer my own question: Do you know what annoys me most about black people? That poor white trash can't make the jokes that they pay Dave Chapelle millions of dollars to make every day. How sad is that?

The problem, again, is that Black people are allowed to make nigger references that white people can't.

But let's be honest about who is making those decisions, okay? Who, exactly, is paying Dave millions of dollars to make those jokes? And more importantly, who is watching that they are willing to pay all that money?

Don't even try to tell me the Black demographic is generating all that loot. It's like all the people in Dean's comments that like Black people but hate the culture they associate with Black people. White people pay for the production of that culture, not Black people. White people fund rap music by their purchasing more than Black people do. You want rap to go away, raise your children right.

I only indulge because I spent some time yesterday on the Vanguard News Network Forum reading a thread that showed a lot of concern over cross-breeding.

Hormone-Charged Birds Force Out Rivals in West
Wed Aug 25, 2004 09:38 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hormone-fueled songbirds are steadily forcing out a rival species in North America's Northwestern fir forests and threatening the more timid warblers with extinction, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said high levels of testosterone may explain the aggressiveness of the Townsend's warbler, which has been steadily displacing its more timid sister species, the hermit warbler, for thousands of years.

Kerry Wins Backing from Nobel Economics Laureates
Wed Aug 25, 2004 08:31 AM ET

By Michael Conlon
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - John Kerry won the endorsement of 10 Nobel Prize-winning economists on Wednesday as he attacked President Bush for policies that he said have led to the creation of only low-paying jobs.

The Democratic presidential nominee released a letter from the economists saying the Bush administration had "embarked on a reckless and extreme course that endangers the long-term economic health of our nation."

They cited "poorly designed" tax cuts that instead of creating jobs have turned budget surpluses into enormous budget deficits, a "fiscal irresponsibility threatens the long-term economic security and prosperity of our nation."

Quote of note:

Ginsberg served as the Bush campaign's long-time chief outside counsel. He disclosed on Tuesday that he also gave legal advice to the Swift Boat group, which has attacked Kerry's record in television commercials and a book.

Bet you the legal advice was about how to make sure th elinks back to the bUsh campaign weren't traceable.

Anyway…

Bush Campaign Lawyer Quits Over Ties to Ad Group
Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:43 AM ET

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - A top lawyer for President Bush's re-election campaign resigned on Wednesday after disclosing he provided legal advice to a group that accusing Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry of lying about his Vietnam War record.

Check out Republicans have forfeited the aliegance of Black America at The Niggerati Network.

Dean Esmay has had an interesting conversation going the last two days.

Black People: Aren't They Annoying?
So here's a question for my white (and other) readers: Have you ever noticed how annoying black people can be?

I mean, seriously. Just admit it: sometimes black folks, they get on your nerves. You want to be all "color doesn't matter" and you want to be all "that nasty crap is in the past" and so on and so forth. You also want to sit there saying, "well I don't discriminate!" and "I don't care about color!" and all that. But come on, you big fat liars. Tell the truth.

Black people: don't they annoy you sometimes?

Tell me all about it. I dare you, you cowards. Come clean. Sometimes, aren't they annoying?

Is SF Soft On Hate Crime?
- Emil Guillermo, Special to SF Gate
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Washington, DC -- It's all over but the sentencing.

But I've still got a lot of problems with the case involving that mob of unruly white teens who beat up five Asian American teens in San Francisco back in June 2003.

Just last month, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy found the defendant, a juvenile, to have committed two felony hate crimes against Asian Americans.

But the judge gives him a break this week.

He won't be sentenced as planned Aug. 25.

Instead, sentencing will be pushed back to September or later. And the proceedings, which have been open to the public by legislative exception due to the nature of the crimes, may be closed.

FIRST LADY SNUBS P. DIDDY

First Lady Laura Bush stunned organizers at Monday night's grand opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati by refusing to appear alongside rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

Bush -- wife of President George W. Bush -- was scheduled to join actress Angela Bassett and U2 frontman Bono at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but refused to be snapped with hip-hop mogul Combs.

Insiders claim Bush was eager to avoid publicity with Combs, who subsequently axed his appearance at the event after news of the First Lady's decision broke.

A source tells Page Six, "Her reps made it very clear to Freedom Center that they would not have Laura Bush appearing in the same photo-op as P. Diddy.

The L.A. Times has another one of those Heritage Foundation ads editorials but a Type 2 Economist. It's titled Presto, a Better Jobs Picture, and with a name like that you can tell you need to be suspicious of its contents.

Presto, a Better Jobs Picture
By Timothy Kane
Timothy Kane is a research fellow in macroeconomics in the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation.
August 25, 2004

Few people missed the headlines when the latest employment figures were unveiled earlier this month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The addition of only 32,000 new jobs, or 200,000 fewer than expected, alarmed everyone. Stocks swooned, reporters wrote economic obituaries and President Bush's political opponents crowed.

Quote of note:

Two months ago, Bush told the graduating class at the U.S. Air Force Academy that a clash of ideologies should not be viewed as a fight between civilizations or religions. He called Islam a religion that "teaches moral responsibility that ennobles men and women." Fine words, those, and incompatible with letting one of his generals get away with preaching bigotry.

Three-Star Bigotry

August 25, 2004

A Defense Department investigation has found that a top Army general violated Pentagon rules with his anti-Muslim remarks to Christian groups, yet one Pentagon official dismissed the errors as "relatively minor." That obtuseness reflects a stunning inability to understand how much the comments have hurt the United States abroad.

If you see this post, you are indeed doomed.

This is being prepared in MTClient 1.60, and it may well work because P6 is running a severely mutated version of Drupal…it's why anonymous commenting exists, and it supports Movable Type's XML-RPC extensions as well. At some point in the near future I'll see if the file upload works as well.

Niggerati.net, on the other hand, is running vanilla Drupal 4.4.2. I've installed w.bloggar so I can post remotely over there. It's not as convenient as MTClient (for instance, all drafts are automatically saved to one name so you can't have several posts in the works). On the other hand, the damn thing works...Drupal supports the Blogger API.

As I said, back to Pascal. MTClient needs to be multi-protocol or Drupal needs to support the MT interface.

Kerry-Edwards 2004: Top Quid Pro Quos of the Bush Administration
8/24/2004 12:29:00 PM

---

To: National Desk, Political Reporter

Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-464-2800, both of Kerry-Edwards 2004, Web: http://www.johnkerry.com

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following fact sheet was released today by Kerry-Edwards 2004:

John Kerry: "For four years, we've heard a lot of talk in Washington about values. But values are not just words. They're what we live by. They're the choices we make. ... Every step of the way, George W. Bush has put the narrow interests of the few ahead of the interests of most Americans."

Quote of note:

All in all, these excuses merely provide cover for poor performance and, in particular, Bush's ineffective policy choices. The president's repeated tax cuts did have an effect on growth and jobs; after all, throwing hundreds of billions of tax cuts at the economy has to do something. However, Bush's tax cuts for the rich raised the GDP in 2003 by just 0.1 percent, far less than the impact of the tax cuts on the middle class or the rise in defense spending. Better choices -- like aid to the states, one-time tax cuts aimed at lower and middle-income families, and extended unemployment insurance -- would have gained us 2 million more jobs by this year and left us with just half the fiscal deficit.

Excuses, Excuses

Quote of note:

Aref, 34, the leader of an Albany mosque, and Hossain, 49, a pizzeria owner, were arrested in a sting operation in which authorities said they agreed to help an FBI informant launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile as part of a fake plan to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat.

…The judge chided the government, saying the case is much weaker now than it first appeared. He said the two were not plotting violence and are not a danger to the community.

"The evidence in this case appears less strong today," Homer said. "There is no evidence…to support the claim that Mr. Aref has any contact with any terrorist organization."

"There still is no evidence of Mr. Hossain's involvement with any terrorist organization," he said.

Lynne d. Johnson added it to her links listing at BlackThoughtware.org. George Kelly of Negrophile and AllAboutGeorge not only linked but posted there today.

I'm talking about the soft launch you're tired of hearing about: The Niggerati Network.

I have a good feeling about the site. Besides George and myself there are four other contributors working out how they want to work it. Because NN right now has no form

This is dragging on too long. Subpoena Novak. He should have been the first and the last.

---

Time Reporter Answers Questions About Plame Leak

Cooper Reaches Deal with Justice Department to Avoid Jail

By Carol Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 24, 2004; 4:13 PM

Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper has avoided the threat of jail by agreeing to be interviewed yesterday by Justice Department prosecutors investigating whether White House officials illegally leaked the identity of a covert CIA operative to journalists.

Time magazine said in a statement today that Cooper agreed to give a deposition "because the one source the special counsel asked about," Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, had waived a confidentially agreement he had with Cooper. The statement from Time spokesperson Diana Pearson said that Libby also had agreed to allow the magazine to disclose its agreement with him.

Reforming Intelligence: A Forgotten Report
Pressure builds on the Bush Administration to release a post-9/11 reform document
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER/WASHINGTON

Has the White House been sitting on a credible proposal for serious intelligence reform for more than two years? Knowledgeable government sources say that a classified March 2002 report from GOP foreign policy eminence Brent Scowcroft, produced for President Bush, proposed reforms similar to key recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Among them: making the current position of Director of Central Intelligence into the national intelligence czar, with authority over a separate CIA director and all or most of the $40 billion annual intelligence budget. One government source said the document contains little sensitive national security information and that its secret status is largely cover for the White House to avoid releasing a potentially embarrassing report.

Slavery Under Glass
New black-history museums try to balance authenticity and uplift
By RICHARD LACAYO/CINCINNATI

Although most visitors to the new Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, will approach it from the side facing downtown, that's actually the rear of the building. The glass-walled main entry is on the other side, facing south across the banks of the Ohio River. The center turns its face in that direction for good reason. The river is at the heart of the story it will tell. In the mid-19th century, those waters were a fateful dividing line. Separating free-soil Ohio from slave-owning Kentucky, they were a desperate crossing point for runaway slaves. The river's north banks were the site of persistent low-intensity warfare between abolitionists and armed slave owners, who were permitted by law to pursue their human "property" into free states. In that era of escalating confrontation, Cincinnati and nearby towns became important way stations in the Underground Railroad, the informal network of safe houses, sympathetic whites and free blacks who helped conduct escaped slaves to safety.

Israel Urged to Change Stand on Geneva Convention
Tue Aug 24, 2004 11:51 AM ET

By Mark Heinrich
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hoping to avoid sanctions, Israel's attorney general wants Israel to consider applying to Palestinians the Fourth Geneva Convention safeguarding the treatment of occupied people, political sources said Tuesday.

It was another sign of emerging Israeli disquiet about potential exposure to international sanctions following a World Court decision in July that declared illegal its barrier built across Palestinian farmland in the West Bank.

Israel has said previously the Geneva Convention's clauses on occupation do not apply to it because Jordanian and Egyptian control over the West Bank and Gaza before 1967 was not internationally recognized.

How can a Black person work for the Republican Party and not expect to be the gatekeeper for Black folks?

Ex-worker sues RNC for discrimination
By Emily Fredrix, Associated Press Writer | August 23, 2004

WASHINGTON --A former field director is accusing the Florida Republican Party of racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit.

Nadia Naffe also named the Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney '04 in the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Tampa.

Naffe says she was fired from her job, which she held from August 2003 to April of this year, after she complained about being assigned to work with black organizations, events and issues. Naffe, 25, of Tampa, was the only black field director at the time. She said she was told, "You understand your people."

Alleged vigilantes show videos of US, UN contacts
By Paul Haven, Associated Press | August 24, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Three Americans accused of torturing prisoners at a private jail played videos at their trial yesterday showing a top Afghan official pledging his full support to the alleged vigilantes, then sending his security force on a raid with them.

The videos, and one showing NATO peacekeepers in a separate raid, were part of the defense's effort to prove that the counterterrorism operation had the backing of the Pentagon and Afghan officials and was not a rogue mission as the prosecution alleges.

D.C. Thornton links to James Hudnall's detailing the connections of intent etc. between progressive populist action groups and the Democratic Party. The gentlemen feel Mr. Hudnall has presented evidence of major hypocrisy on the part of Democrats.

Or check out this statement from a Democrat website.

The Democratic Party is partnering with MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Campaign for America's Future, and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans to organize a massive public mobilization. On Wednesday, May 14, join us by calling and emailing your representatives in Congress to let them know that the majority of Americans oppose more irresponsible tax cuts that go overwhelmingly to the wealthiest sliver of Americans.

On the part of Regnery Publishing, I mean. By shorting Barnes and Noble they instantly feed the right's conspiracy machine and create instant buzz. And people hungry for something to actually examine are stuck listening to spin on TV.

Anyway…

Barnes & Noble Says 'Unfit' Sellout Not Its Fault
Mon Aug 23, 2004 07:51 PM ET
By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Controversial book "Unfit for Command," which fires an election-year salvo at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's war record, has claimed one unintended victim -- bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc.

Barnes & Noble, the world's largest bookseller, on Monday issued a statement saying it had sold out of the book and, in effect, held up its hands in surrender to what it called "thousands of complaints" from both supporters and detractors of the book.

Quote of note:

"I think it is smart to have the Giulianis and the Schwarzeneggers," said Representative James C. Greenwood of Pennsylvania. "Obviously, this race is going to be settled by the moderate voters of both parties. My lament is the party has not tried to figure out how to do that year-round."

G.O.P. Centrists to Speak at Convention, but Will They Be Heard?
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 - To the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, the ideological bent of some of the speakers set to star at the Republican National Convention is proof that there is plenty of room for diverse points of view under the Republican umbrella.

The tactic is now clear.

Form some really obviously pandering organization and call it a 527. Have the organization do some really tacky things. When people complain about the pandering and the lies, blame 527s collectively for making it possible.

It's the same thing that was done to redefine racism and affirmative action programs: smear the description so thinly, make it cover so much that it becomes impossible to specify them in any meaningful way. The intent is to assign a level of credibility to any organization that fits under these particular regulations, regardless of what they actually say. It doesn't matter if they are all discredited or all acknowledged.

We should be clear that what we are now calling 527 organizations started out with a different name: populist action groups. We should be clear what the Republican machine, The Mighty Wurlizter, is targeting and why.

Populist action groups are the return of a nightmare to the upper classes. They are to the political process what unions were to the economic process: a means of countering massively centralized power. This is a natural evolution in our political economy. And conservative folks will be needing such a voice one day as well, so they ought to be just as concerned over the twisting of intent within the letter of the law as progressives are.

We can't stop wealthy people's attempts to add weight to their end of the lever via 527s. But we can make th eeffort useless by how we judge them. We should consider them valid to the degree they represent an actual constituency. If those six and seven figure donations Bush claims are driving them are the major source of funding we are not talking about a populist action group. We've talking an unsupported personal vendetta.

And hold the organizations to Truth in Advertising laws; hold them legally liable for documentable falsehoods and active deception. That alone would silence, for example, the SBV crew.

---

Quote of note:

The Bush campaign strongly denied any ties to the new group and said that to the contrary, the Kerry campaign had benefited from millions in advertising financed by advocacy organizations with links to the senator's election drive. A Bush spokesman, Scott Stanzel, also called attention to remarks Mr. Bush made Monday about 527 committees.

"The president's view is very clear," Mr. Stanzel said. "His position is that all unregulated soft money is wrong for the process."

Businesses Plan Attack on Edwards

Defense Leaders Faulted by Panel in Prison Abuse
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 - A high-level outside panel reviewing American military detention operations has concluded that leadership failures at the highest levels of the Pentagon, Joint Chiefs of Staff and military command in Iraq contributed to an environment in which detainees were abused at Abu Ghraib prison and other facilities, Defense officials said Monday.

The report, set to be released Tuesday, does not explicitly blame Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the misconduct or for ordering policies that condoned or encouraged it. But the panel implicitly faults Mr. Rumsfeld, as well as his top civilian and military aides, for not exercising sufficient oversight over a confusing array of policies and interrogation practices at detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq, officials said.

Of course they are.

Though Dubya doesn't specify whose system they're bad for. It's the Republican Fund Raising System the 527s are bad for, in the same way that new, highly effective competition is always bad for an established power.

Anyway…

President Urges Outside Groups to Halt All Ads
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and KATE ZERNIKE

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 23 - President Bush said on Monday that political advertisements run by a broad swath of independent groups should be stopped, including a television advertisement attacking Senator John Kerry's war record. But the White House quickly moved to insist that Mr. Bush had not meant in any way to single out the advertisement run by veterans opposed to Mr. Kerry.

Check this!

Blackball

You might notice something missing from Hardball With Chris Matthews soon: Republicans. " Hardball may seem more like badminton during the Republican National Convention," threatens a GOP insider. What's up? The GOP thinks Matthews has gone over to Sen. John Kerry 's side and is too critical of the Bush campaign's editing of a Hardball interview with Kerry posted on the party's negative site, www.kerryoniraq.com. As payback, they've stopped urging Republicans to appear on the show. Hardball executive producer Tammy Haddad dismisses charges Matthews is biased: "We beat everybody up." So far, nobody from the White House has told her of the show's being blackballed.

Hardball has a blog, called Hardblogger. I found an interesting bit of backstory on Bill Rood's bearing witness to the SBV's false witness.

You know Bill Rood by now, right? the Chicago Tribune editor that was the only officer on the only other boat that was on the scene when Kerry got that Silver Star.

Anyway, Keith Olbermann says

It's not big news outside of the midwest, but the Trib has been locked, for weeks, in a death-grip struggle over a panoply of bewildering issues, with the city's Democratic Mayor, Richard M. Daley. In Chicago, where pure partisan politics has devolved into a primary-based beauty contest, Daley is a small-d Dem. But outside of it, he's as Democratic as John Kerry or Bill Clinton. There are no questions about where his loyalties or his national self-interests lie. You will see his late father cast a vote for George Bush sooner than you'll see him do it (not impossible given Illinois's history of post-mortem election returns, but still unlikely).

I'm sorry, but when I read

"He's got himself into this wicket now where he can't extricate himself because not every one of these people can be Republican liars,'' said Mr. Dole, whose right arm was left limp by a war injury. "There's got to be some truth to the charges," he said.

…my first reaction was, "I've seen that line of reasoning before…"

It was from people defending The Bell Curve. In particular, it came from people who hadn't read the book, people who liked what they heard it said. The argument was, "well, even if THAT'S wrong, there's just so much there it can't all be wrong." The Bell Curve was, in fact, the first of a spate of cornerstones and doorstops published by the Right Wing Think Tank Industry, including The End of Racism…books whose most impressive aspect was their appearance of weightiness.

Progressives' work will not be done with this election.

From
The Right's New Wing
Diverse and well funded, the next generation of conservatives is winning battles on campus. But not all are fighting for George W. Bush
By JOHN CLOUD

…Three main conservative groups have reshaped student politics:

--The Young America's Foundation (YAF), a Herndon, Va., organization, founded in 1969, that sponsored 200 conservative lectures across the country last year (in addition to the National Conservative Student Conference). At many schools, those speeches have become the biggest events of the semester. Last year at Duke, for instance, YAF speaker Ben Stein, an ex — Nixon aide and former Comedy Central host, attracted 1,500 people, 200 of whom had to be turned away — a bigger crowd than the one that had come to hear Maya Angelou two months earlier. With its $13 million annual budget, the foundation — run by a former Reagan Administration adviser, Ron Robinson — is now the nation's largest advocacy group devoted to student politics. (This YAF is not to be confused with another conservative group, Young Americans for Freedom, which flourished in the '60s and '70s.)

Economic Models Predict Bush Election Win
Mon Aug 23, 2004 02:25 PM ET

By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite an embarrassing failure in their forecasting four years ago, political scientists and economists are again predicting the outcome of the presidential election, and most foresee a win for President Bush.

"If this election follows historical patterns, it looks very likely that Bush is going to win," said Ray Fair, a Yale University economist whose model is built mainly around gross domestic product growth and predicts that Bush will take 58.5 percent of the vote.

Current polls show a very close race with many suggesting that Democratic nominee John Kerry may be slightly ahead.

Louisiana Judge Reopens Ballot in Congressional Race
Mon Aug 23, 2004 01:48 PM ET

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) - A Louisiana judge on Monday ordered state officials to reopen the ballot in a U.S. congressional race and allow new candidates to enter because of a last minute party switch by the district's incumbent.
District Court Judge Allen Edwards ruled that Rep. Rodney Alexander sought to manipulate the ballot system when he switched his affiliation from Democrat to Republican shortly before the sign-up period ended on Aug. 6.

His switch gave the state's 5th district voters a field of two Republicans and one low profile Democrat.

Democrats had filed a lawsuit seeking Alexander's removal from the race because of his late party switch, or a ruling that would allow them to field a stronger Democratic challenger.

I'm not going to make it to the Million Billionaire's March next Saturday. I just remembered there's two hours of Yu-Gi-Oh! coming on at 11:00.

A man has to have priorities.

Bush Says 'That Ad' Attacking Kerry Should Stop
Mon Aug 23, 2004 02:53 PM ET

By Adam Entous
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Under pressure from Democrats and Republican Sen. John McCain, President Bush on Monday called for ads attacking John Kerry's record in Vietnam to be stopped along with others run by independent groups, and said Kerry should be proud of his war service.

"That means that ad and every other ad," Bush said when asked if he wanted to bring a stop to commercials by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which accuse Sen. Kerry of lying about his war record in Vietnam.

Bush said Kerry "served admirably" in Vietnam, adding: "He ought to be proud of his record." But Bush stopped short of directly condemning the charge that Kerry lied about his actions.

I have come to the conclusion that Pat Buchanon is much like Sigmund Freud: he draws really questionable conclusions from really excellent observations.

Quote of note:

Enter the "cakewalk" neoconservatives. Though disastrously wrong about Iraq's receptivity to U.S.-imposed democracy, and though they face disgrace and oblivion if Bush loses, they have one last card to play: That is to have America widen her wars with Afghanistan and Iraq with a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. For the neoconservatives, Iraq was simply Phase II of "World War IV" for imperial domination of the Middle East and serial destruction of the regimes in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

The neocons have not abandoned this imperial project. Nor has Bush removed a single one from power, though they may yet cost him his presidency. And the neoconservative commentariat is again beating the drums for war – this time on Iran.

I've been picking out the protests and such I want to semi-attend (semi because I'm going as photographer/writer rather than participant).

Friday, August 27th

• 7pm Critical Mass Against the RNC - North Union Square (16th St. and 4th Ave.) Critical Mass is an international event held in hundreds of cities on six continents that occurs on the last Friday of every month when bicyclists spontaneously come together to ride the ordinarily car-clogged streets of their cities.

Saturday, August 28th

• 5:00-7:45 Ring-Out against the RNC -RINGOUT's World Trade Center/Ground Zero Observance: Join us in ringing bells in a giant ring around the WTC site! 3,000+ small bells will be given out free & bring your own larger bells! If you want to help us or want participant updates, email us at [email protected]. www.RingOut.org

You may notice I have little trust in the government of Sudan.

---

Nigeria Wants AU Troops to Disarm Darfur Rebels
Sun Aug 22, 2004 05:46 PM ET

By Dino Mahtani
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday proposed to give a greater role to African Union (AU) troops in restoring peace to Sudan's Darfur region on the eve of talks between the Sudanese government and rebels.

Obasanjo, who is also AU chairman, said the international force should disarm Darfur rebels as part of a deal that would see the government disarm the Janjaweed, a pro-government militia accused of driving a million people from their homes.

"I believe that the AU protection force with the observers and government of Sudan must work together to garrison the rebels and put them in a position where the arms are collected," Obasanjo said on live television show on Sunday. "Concurrently the government of Sudan must lay heavily on the Janjaweed."

Vietnam Vet Says Has No Proof for Claim Kerry Lied
Sun Aug 22, 2004 07:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A veteran who disputed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam war record acknowledged on Sunday he had no proof to back his charge that Kerry fabricated the reports of enemy fire that won him two medals.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Van Odell, a member of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that has spearheaded a campaign against Kerry's service record, said his was one of seven eyewitness accounts and he was not being directed by President Bush's campaign.

He has charged that then Navy Lt. Kerry, a Swift boat commander, fabricated the "after-action" report saying he faced enemy fire on March 13, 1969, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart for being wounded while pulling a fellow soldier to safety.

They started out so well…

End to ban on reimported drugs is good medicine

The state of Illinois is about to become a federal lawbreaker — and proud of it.

Last week, it announced that in September it will help residents buy medicine from pre-screened pharmacies in Canada and Europe. That violates a ban against reimporting U.S.-made drugs from other countries. But when a prescription drug for heartburn, Aciphex, costs more than twice as much in the USA as it does in Ireland, Illinois figures being a scofflaw is worth it.

Illinois represents the most brazen defiance to date of the federal ban, imposed because of safety concerns about reimported medicines. Its action shows how far politicians and consumers will go to cope with sky-high prescription drug bills at home. The steep difference in costs explains why seniors ride buses to Canada and Mexico to buy medicines, Canadian mail-order pharmacies thrive and other states have helped residents buy drugs abroad, but not as extensively as Illinois intends.

Quote of note:

Private plans will be discouraged from participating in Medicare if they have to get insurance licenses and sign contracts with doctors and hospitals in nearby states where they have never done business, Ms. Dennett said.

"In many rural areas", she said, "providers are unwilling to contract with Medicare managed care plans," even at the rates paid by the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program.

Insurers Object to New Provision in Medicare Law
By ROBERT PEAR

ASHINGTON, Aug. 20 - A major obstacle to the success of the new Medicare law has emerged in recent weeks: private insurers have told the Bush administration that they will not expand their role in Medicare if they have to serve large multistate regions, as the White House wants.

July job figures decline in six swing states
By Peronet Despeignes, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Twenty-two states reported a drop in payroll jobs last month, double the number for June, according to new Labor Department statistics. Among them were six of the states that could decide this fall's presidential election.
The declines in most cases were slight, but they drove home the frailty of the jobs recovery and highlighted risks to President Bush's re-election strategy. The White House has been counting on consistent, robust growth by now to restore confidence in the economy and counter grim news from Iraq.

The battleground states showing job losses in July were Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New Mexico, according to Labor Department figures released Aug. 20. Battleground, or swing, states are those expected to be close in this fall's election, and they are drawing the bulk of both campaigns' attention.

Insurgents showing no sign of letting up
By Jim Michaels and Charles Crain, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — Nearly two months after the establishment of a sovereign Iraqi government, the violent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces show no sign of flagging.

A USA TODAY database, which analyzed unclassified U.S. government security reports, shows attacks against U.S. and allied forces have averaged 49 a day since the hand-over of sovereignty June 28, compared with 52 a day in the four weeks leading up to the transfer.

Iraqi guerrillas are relying heavily on weapons that allow them to attack and then slip away, such as roadside bombs and mortars. In June and July, U.S. and Iraq forces were attacked with 759 roadside bombs and uncovered at least 400 others before they exploded.

Novak is the only one who published this leak so he should have been the first one…the only one, in my opinion… spoken to.

'Time' reporter being unfairly punished in debacle over CIA leak

Fri Aug 20, 7:29 AM ET

When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (news - web sites) stand arm-in-arm on the stage of Madison Square Garden in 13 days basking in the thunderous cheers from the Republican convention, a prominent White House correspondent may reluctantly be missing the festivities. Time magazine's Matt Cooper could spend the GOP convention and perhaps the entire fall campaign in federal detention.

…Punitive leaks have been a constant of Washington life, regardless of which party is in power. But what adds a sad irony to this story is that Cooper was not the journalist who unmasked Valerie Plame's undercover career. That role was obligingly played by conservative columnist Robert Novak, who in July 2003 reported that Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Niger on Plame's recommendation to investigate purported Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium.

The last actual technical bug has been located and exterminated; the XML icon and link to the site's RSS 1.0 file is at the bottom of the left column.

That's not to say there's not still techie stuff to do. For full-text search to be really useful I need to return text fragments around the located terms rather than just the first X characters as I do now. And I need to write up usage docs…the search is a custom module using MySQL's FULLTEXT indexes and works in boolean mode. That means you can specifically exclude words, shift the weight assigned to the indiviual terms and other coolnesses.

But very little of any upcoming work will be visible. Setting the site up for the fourth time has convinced me change is inevitable so I'll be sneaking in the data scrubbing I started before. Next change is going to be sane.

I can't bring myself to put "right" in the same title with David Gergen at the moment, but he's right:

Time to face the real issues

By David Gergen

On May 10, 1940, As Britain trembled at Hitler's sweep across Europe, the king summoned a new prime minister to power. The next few days were a turning point, as Winston Churchill rallied his people and they valiantly held off the Nazi onslaught. Central to his leadership, as biographer Martin Gilbert points out, was his decision to form a unity government--one in which political rivals were forced to put aside old hatreds and, together, face the future. Churchill told his fellow citizens: "Of this I am quite sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future."

Depression Spreads to the Market
Peyman Pejman

BAGHDAD, Aug 20 (IPS) - Seventeen months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, many Iraqi traders say the economy is stagnating.

Last year in August the streets of Baghdad were bustling with commercial activity. Almost at every corner sat a man exchanging money or selling something, usually an imported commodity.

Shops were stacked ceiling high. Many were so full that owners showcased their goods on the pavement.

Those days seem gone. Inventories are low and shop owners spend more time chatting with friends than pitching a sale.

Traders and merchants blame primarily the worsening security situation for the economic slowdown.

"The security is not good. People see the explosions and killings, and they are afraid to go out," says Nahez Abdel Wadood, manager of an airconditioners shop. "People used to stay out till 10 pm. Now no one goes out after 7 pm."

For Powell, signs point to political revival
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | August 22, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Two months ago, it hardly seemed a secret that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell intended to retire. He was on the losing side in numerous tugs of war against hawks in the administration.

As the nation's chief diplomat when diplomacy was overshadowed by war, Powell struggled to persuade allies to join a conflict that he hoped to circumvent. His credibility was tarnished by inaccuracies in his speech to the United Nations laying out the case against Saddam Hussein -- a speech aides say he was reluctant to give.

This one isn't like global warming, where much is speculation (thogh solid, detailed speculation totally in line with our understanding of climatology). The destruction of the life-bearing capability of American coastal waters is real…documented…and here now.

Seven thousand and more square miles of ocean simply dies, for two, three months every year. The affected area grows larger every year. And it's a direct result of human activity.

Now, I grant we didn't know this would happen when we began using the chemicals that poison the sea. I place no blame for past actions taken in ignorance. But the ignorance is over now…we know.

Frederick Company Fires Employee Who Taunted Bush
By Jessica Valdez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page C06

Glenn Hiller wasn't surprised by the scattered screams and cuss words he heard after he heckled President Bush at a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday.

But the Berkeley Springs, W.Va., resident never expected what happened the next morning, when he was fired from his $35,000-a-year job as a graphic designer.

He said his boss at Octavo Designs, a Frederick-based advertising and design company, told him he had embarrassed and offended a client who provided tickets to the rally.

"She told me my actions reflected badly on the company," Hiller said. He said he had worked at Octavo for five months.

Can we acknowledge that condemning 527 ads in general is a different thing than condemning statements taken out of context?

$63 million spent disputing current policy choices is one thing. $2.5 million spent on personal attacks supported only by the fading memory of those who couldn't make any charges stick when their memories were fresh and deceptive partial quotes is another. Right?

I like facts.

The Slow Boat Veterans can't support the charges that Kerry isn't entitled to his medals. Now they want to claim his testimony before Congress was traitorous somehow.

I want to suggest you go to the source. Democracy Now! has the audio of his testimony as well as the full transcript so you can find the full statements that the Slow Boat of veterans selectively quote. I would suggest you simply disregard any implications supported by a fraction of a sentence.

Podesta needs practice at the fine art of lying. A couple terms in the acting school Reagan attended ought to do it.

O'Neil is practiced and smooth. He makes charges that Stephanopolis didn't handle nearly as well as Chris Matthews handled Malkin. He accused Podesta of not dealing with the issues he raised then when Stephanopolis said to focus on the Bronze Star citation he starts by "reviewing" the unestablished Purple Heart charges.

He's good. A liar, but good at it.

O'Neil referenced an article in today's Washington Post article, effective because most folks don't read the Washington Post. But look at the conclusion the article draws:

An investigation by The Washington Post into what happened that day suggests that both sides have withheld information from the public record and provided an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, picture of what took place. But although Kerry's accusers have succeeded in raising doubts about his war record, they have failed to come up with sufficient evidence to prove him a liar.

Like most of Bush's campaign promises, what is actually done comes up short of what he promises.

Quote of note:

In his bid for a second term, Bush is reprising much of the health care agenda he ran on in 2000

So why should you believe he'll keep the "compassionate conservative" promises THIS time?

Anyway…

Bush Health Care Plan Seems to Fall Short
Gap Grows Between Hard Data, Projections for Covering 10 Million Uninsured
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page A04

If the Republican-controlled Congress enacted President Bush's entire health care agenda, as many as 10 million people who lack health insurance would be covered at a cost of $102 billion over the next decade, according to his campaign aides.