Technology already exists to stabilize climate, say experts
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
By GreenBiz.com

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Existing technologies could stop the escalation of global warming for 50 years, and work on implementing them can begin immediately, according to an analysis by Princeton University scientists.

The scientists identified 15 technologies — from wind, solar, and nuclear energy to conservation techniques — that are ripe for large-scale use and showed that each could solve a significant portion of the problem. Their analysis, published recently in Science, indicates that many combinations of these 15 technologies could prevent global emissions of greenhouse gases from rising for the next five decades.

There's something I really don't understand.

I know y'all feel Black folks get an unfair advantage, that underprivileged white people are just as deserving, yada yada. What I want to know is, if what Black folks got was so cool why didn't you say "give me some of that" instead of "stop giving them that"?

You changed the political and cultural direction of the country in a single election. Don't tell me you wouldn't have gotten what you asked for.

I actually did post something at The Niggerati Network yesterday, History 101. It was just very, very late.

I made up for it by posting today's thing, Why affirmative action failed, a bit early.

I got six invitations and I think the site is yelling at me because they've been sitting there a while.

Feel the Hate
By PAUL KRUGMAN

"I don't know where George Soros gets his money," one man said. "I don't know where - if it comes from overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from." George Soros, another declared, "wants to spend $75 million defeating George W. Bush because Soros wants to legalize heroin." After all, a third said, Mr. Soros "is a self-admitted atheist; he was a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust."

They aren't LaRouchies - they're Republicans.

The suggestion that Mr. Soros, who has spent billions promoting democracy around the world, is in the pay of drug cartels came from Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, whom the Constitution puts two heartbeats from the presidency. After standing by his remarks for several days, Mr. Hastert finally claimed that he was talking about how Mr. Soros spends his money, not where he gets it.

Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot

Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many problems to make it reliable, starting with the political partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is making matters worse by withholding basic information about the service, and should suspend it immediately.

The Defense Department is encouraging soldiers to use absentee ballots or fax votes directly to local officials, when possible. But it also provides an alternative: Omega Technologies, a private contractor, will accept soldiers' faxed and e-mailed ballots on a toll-free line, and then send them to the appropriate local elections office. Handling ballots is always sensitive, but especially so when, as in this program, they are not secret. An obvious concern is that votes for a particular candidate could be reported lost in transit, or altered.

Technically we have more than two parties and there are definitely those I would prefer to the Conservative Party.

But if it could be arranged I'd love to see the Conservative Party become the name brand over the Republican Party.

New York Republicans are well aware that their little-known candidate for the United States Senate has a slim chance of defeating Charles E. Schumer, the popular Democratic incumbent. "We know it's an uphill fight,'' Gov. George E. Pataki said on Monday during an event in Manhattan for the candidate, Howard Mills, a state assemblyman.

Not that this doesn't please me, it just shouldn't have been necessary to got to the brink this way.

And Section 8 still has the wrong goal. It should be subsidizing home ownership rather than being a perpetual source of rental income. But anything is better than suddenly inflating the rolls of the homeless.

Anyway…

U.S. to Restore Much of Planned Cuts in Housing for Poor
By DAVID W. CHEN

Saying that they had averted a major housing crisis, New York City officials announced yesterday that the federal government had agreed to restore almost all the $55 million that had been scheduled to be cut under a recent regulatory change affecting the government's main housing program for the poor.

Bush Outlines Plan for a 2nd Term and Attacks Kerry's Record
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and RICHARD W. STEVENSON

George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination to run for a second term as president last night, outlining proposals that he vowed would create jobs, expand health care and broaden educational opportunities, while he battered Senator John Kerry for what Mr. Bush said was a weak and wavering record on national security and the economy.

Same promises as last election.

Iraq War Veterans Want Debate on Iraq, Not Vietnam
Thu Sep 2, 2004 02:36 PM ET

By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraq war veterans on the sidelines of the Republican convention say they are sick of the bickering over the Vietnam War records of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry and want a serious discussion of Iraq and veterans' issues instead.

"We want to force both candidates to give us some answers here," said Paul Rieckhoff, a platoon leader in Iraq and executive director of Operation Truth, which is lobbying to highlight the Iraq war as an election issue.

"Bush hasn't really given us a clear focus on how he's going to change things and Kerry hasn't given us a clear idea what he will do differently," he said.

That Colored Fella has a full-content RSS feed.

I had to harass the man into giving up the RSS address.

The site loads really slow, on this end of the net anyway, so I may have to subscribe to his comment feed as well.

It's at the Village Voice site.

Hot Girls, Frisky Delegates: RNC Diary of a Strip-Club Waitress

I work as a clothed cocktail waitress at a strip club on Manhattan's far West Side. I haven't been able to reveal the name of the club, or its exact location, because I haven't wanted to get fired, so let's just say it's one of several upscale topless venues that have sprung up in recent years along Eleventh and Twelfth avenues. It's not far from Madison Square Garden and, this week, the GOP convention.

via The Corsair

Sorry dude, but you did.

Well hang me for a KKK member. I don't like the way black people talk to the movie screen when I go to a movie. I don't like the overly loud rap music (even though honest to God, I do love Dr. Dre--Hahaha! Yeah, 9 duece, def row records, creepin' while yer sleepin', niggaz with attitudze, no Loc, niggaz on the motherfucking mission..."), don't like the way black comedians can make fun of me but I can't make fun of them back. I hate the way the vast majority of poor kids in lousy schools in America are white kids but we aren't supposed to notice. I hate the way that a kid who grows up in Detroit in a shitty neighborhood and a crappy school but happens to be white gets no break, but a pampered black kid like Oliver Willis gets all the special deference because his skin is maybe one shade darker than my sister's, but a pale Arab or Asian kid gets assumed to be "privileged" no matter how poor or fucked up his upgringing is.

Abiola at Foreign Dispatches says this editorial was first published by the Wall Street Journal. I'm glad it was published somewhere a cheapskate like me could get at it.

September 03, 2004
IT is doubtless not the most tactful question to ask on the day of the official Republican nomination of George W. Bush for president, but might it not be better for American conservatism if Bush failed to win a second term?

…Many Conservatives today would agree that it would have been far better for their party if Major had lost the election of 1992. For one thing, the government deserved to lose. The decision to take the UK into the European exchange rate mechanism had plunged the British economy into a severe recession. For another, Labour's Neil Kinnock had all the hallmarks of a one-term prime minister. It was indeed Kinnock's weakness as a candidate that finally enabled Major to scrape home with a tiny majority of just 21 out of 651 seats in the House of Commons. Had Kinnock won, the exchange rate crisis of September 1992 would have engulfed an inexperienced Labour government and the Conservatives, having replaced Major with a more credible leader, could have looked forward to an early return to office.

It has been said:

Meanwhile, lazy editors of presumptuous publications mischaracterize what's real about black Republicans. I'm starting to see why Thomas Sowell spends so much ink. It really is a fight over who owns the race.

A fight over who owns the race.

Got an answer for ya, dawg.

No one.

I will say that in about 12 months I'm going to stop being a black Republican and just become a Republican.

Don't wait.

Now, why would somebody decide to tell folks I said something I didn't?

P6 has a snarky report on Project 21's recent interview on C-SPAN.

He suggests that blacks are not led astray, hoodwinked or bamboozled by white liberal politics. That is putatively because political organizations like the NAACP are directed by blacks. So he finds it credible when Mfume suggests that Project 21 is a make believe black organization. Why? Because it takes money from white people.

I'm really not in the mood to return snark for snark. But I wonder how it is that any black people could possibly be possesed of their own minds if they are willing to accept assistance from whites. I wonder if Kwesi knows whether or not the pipes that bring water into his house were laid by blacks or whites. Because if he has been drinking white water for all of these years, I don't know that we can trust his opinion, as a black man.

By the way, wasn't there some white guy who went by the name of Springarn? I heard he had something to do with the NAACP. No maybe my memory is bad. Maybe it was Moskowitz or something like that. Nah. Couldn't be.

What this has to do with the post he linked to is beyond me.

In the comments Darryl mentioned the lead article in The Black Commentator this week: Bush's Black Attack Dogs. Typical strongly worded opinions with well documented support. I thought I'd quote some of that, see what sort of thing folks attribute to me this time. Just an experiment…

The sham of GOP Black voter outreach is over and the true Republican mission has begun: suppress the African American vote, by any means possible. To that end, the Bush men have enlisted the mercenary services of Black front groups invented by rightwing foundations in the Nineties to push for school vouchers and other elements of the Republican agenda. These bought-and-paid-for servants of the Hard Right took to the airwaves in August calling themselves People of Color United and spending a rich white Republican man’s money to attack Democratic presidential nominee JohnKerry as “rich, white and wishy-washy.”

I haven't been paying as much attention to the RNC as I suppose I should. I considered going to the joint in Midtown but I'm not so into the mechanics of politics that I'm willing to actually watch them make the sausage. There are exceptions…

Today I made one of my random visits to Eschaton and noticed folks talking about Zell Miller's convention speech, saying it's over the top. I had to go look for it; natural place is CSPAN. A 16 minute video clip, it seemed to me like just the sort of thing the your typical Fox News viewer would lap up.

But someone in the comments mentioned a meltdown on Hardball. So I found another 16 minute clip, this time at Hardblogger, the Hardball blog. Mr. Matthews posted the clip or it's posted under his name or whatever. You have to scroll down to the entry dated September 2, 2004 | 1:57 a.m. ET.

Leak Probe More Than 2 Years Old
Pro-Israel Group's Possible Role at Issue
By Susan Schmidt and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 2, 2004; Page A06

For more than two years, the FBI has been investigating whether classified intelligence has been passed to Israel by the American Israel Political Action Committee, an influential U.S. lobbying group, in a probe that extends beyond the case of Pentagon employee Lawrence A. Franklin, according to senior U.S. officials and other sources.

The counterintelligence probe, which is different from a criminal investigation, focuses on a possible transfer of intelligence more extensive than whether Franklin passed on a draft presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran, the sources said. The FBI is examining whether highly classified material from the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic intercepts of communications, was also forwarded to Israel, they said.

I'll just be suffering the pop-unders at The Raw Story today. Having found Dara Purvis, I think the time will be well spent.

Behind the rhetoric: Bush is bad for Blacks
By Dara Purvis | RAW STORY COLUMNIST

…This bizarre belief that blacks are being led around by white liberals saw its flip side in one of the funniest moments C-SPAN ever has aired, when a representative from Project 21 (an organization of black conservatives) came to defend the group against charges that it was a front for the same old white conservatives that normally espouse opposition to affirmative action and other socially conservative views. This accusation is bolstered by the fact that Project 21 is a subsidiary of the National Center for Public Policy Research, an association of those same old white conservatives formed at the height of Reagan-mania. The clear and concrete link between the NCPPR and the very creation of Project 21 led prominent blacks like Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, to say that the group is a "make-believe black organization."

The Raw Story bills itself as "The Liberal Alternative to Drudge." That's fine for marketing purposes, but that's not what it is. It's much slicker, uses much more reliable sources and has original material that's thoughtful. For example, check out Why Jon Stewart is my personal hero:

Over the course of my meager lifetime, I have done more or less everything I could to avoid thinking about, analyzing, discussing or becoming involved in politics. Many will find this stance to be “unpatriotic.” After all, it is politics that govern our everyday existence, yes? Certainly. However, unlike many of my fellow Americans, I have never felt the warm hand of democracy gently holding my own. Instead, I have felt little more than an occasional smack from the unfriendly and often horribly intrusive fist of government.

In this case, the nation is…Zembla! The press there is run by the King, by the way. and this morning he quotes a really interesting interview between Bush 41 and Imus of radio fame:

Imus: “The other day the President admitted to making miscalculations regarding this war in Iraq and I’ve got to thinking about that and it’s just my opinion but the miscalculations were made by the ‘my way or the highway foreign policy team of Donald Rumsfeld and vice President Cheney and all these neo-cons, all of that advice that he apparently took. You would agree with that, wouldn’t you?”

Bush: “Look, I told you I don’t like to differ with my son, his team or anything else. I have to surrender. I have to have my own opinions in a blind trust as Doonesbury said about me one time in which case it’s true. If I said something to you, I took differ for me the President, everybody would rush over to the New York times or to Maureen or to somebody else and say look, the President differs. What do you say down in the white house pressroom about the nutty father unleashed out there. We don’t need that. I had my chance.”

Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: September 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 - The Pentagon's policy office, where a lower-level analyst is under suspicion of passing secrets to Israel, was deeply involved in deliberations over how the United States should deal with Iran, its conservative Islamic government and its nuclear weapons ambitions - all issues of intense concern to Israel as well.

The analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, a Farsi-speaking specialist on Iran in the office, participated in a secret outreach meeting with an Iranian opposition figure, had access to classified intelligence about Iran's nuclear program and was one of many officials involved in drafting a top-secret presidential order on Iran.

Chalabi, Claiming Exoneration, Plans Another Comeback
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

AGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 1 - In his first public appearance since an Iraqi judge ordered his arrest three weeks ago, the Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi announced his return to Iraq's political scene on Wednesday, saying that criminal charges against him had been dropped.

But later on Wednesday, the judge, Zuhair al-Maliky, said in an interview that the case had not been completely closed and that Mr. Chalabi might still need to appear for questioning.

Speaking at a news conference at his former headquarters here, Mr. Chalabi claimed a victory in what had been a struggle with the new Iraqi government, which has in recent weeks ordered two raids on two of Mr. Chalabi's main offices.

Software Service Aims to Outfox Caller ID
By KEN BELSON

Like most bill collectors, Marvin Smith is always seeking ways to get chronic debtors to pay up. When he calls the first time, he typically hears excuses and requests for more time. When Mr. Smith calls again, the debtors often block his calls using ordinary caller ID technology from the phone company.

That means he then visits in person, a time-consuming and sometimes dangerous task. But Mr. Smith, who runs a collection agency in Austin, Tex., says he may have found a solution: a new computerized service enabling him to create false outbound phone numbers with a click of a mouse, so he can skirt the call blockers.

It's time for the UN to move on Iran, right (like anyone's going to join THAT effort after the major screw-up that is Iraq)? Because you're as sure they have nuclear ambitions as you were about Iraq.

But it's too soon to decide on Darfur.

Too Early to Decide on Darfur Sanctions - Powell
Thu Sep 2, 2004 01:08 AM ET

By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The international community must keep pressure on Sudan over a humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region, but it is too early to say whether sanctions should be imposed, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday.

Reacting to a new U.N. report on Darfur, Powell said there was some progress in the humanitarian situation, but much more must be done by Sudan to end militia attacks.

Bangladesh Hangs Two Ex-Policemen for Rape, Murder
Thu Sep 2, 2004 06:40 AM ET

DHAKA (Reuters) - Two former policemen convicted of the rape and killing of a teenager were executed by hanging in a north Bangladesh jail early on Thursday.
Senior prison official Mohammad Azizul Haque said it was the first time that a member of Bangladesh's police force had been hanged.

"The two, Moinul Hoq and Abdus Sattar, were hanged one minute past (Wednesday) midnight," he said at the Rangpur jail, 219 miles north of Dhaka, where the sentences were carried out.

The incident in the northern town of Dinajpur in 1995 sparked protests across the country by women and human rights groups, driving the authorities to arrest the offenders and put them on trial.

Three killed, 17 injured in stampede at IKEA store in western Saudi Arabia
-
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

(09-01) 09:17 PDT RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) --

Hundreds of shoppers drawn by a discount offer rushed into an IKEA branch in western Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, causing a stampede that killed three and injured 17, security officials said.

A Saudi and a Pakistani were among those killed, the officials said. The nationality of the third person killed was not given.

After furniture giant IKEA's branch in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah announced that it was offering credit vouchers to the first 250 clients Wednesday, some shoppers camped outside Tuesday night. Once the doors opened, the crowd surged forward, causing the stampede.

Quotes of note:

In California, Mexican American students gained 4 points for an average verbal score of 441 and 3 points for an average math score of 453. Other Latino students saw a 2-point rise in verbal for an average of 445 and a 1- point gain in math to 452. American Indians had a 2-point gain in verbal scores to 488 and a 4-point math gain from last year to 494. African American students remained steady in verbal at 434 but gained 3 points in math to an average of 432.

Both Asian and white students, who make up the largest population of test- takers in California, saw a drop in average scores, but both groups still outscored the others by far.

Nationally, Mexican American and other Latino students saw the most growth in test-taking, and their scores rose faster than the average. Mexican American students saw their average scores rise 3 points on the verbal test to 451 and 1 point on the math test to 458. Other Latino students gained 4 points on the verbal test, rising to 461, and 1 point on math, with a 465 average this year. American Indians saw even larger increases, with a 3 point gain in verbal scores to 483 and a 6-point math gain from last year to 488. African American students dropped 1 point to 430 in verbal and gained one point to 427 in math.

Analysis: While world has changed, Bush stays the same
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief

…Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, a Democrat, said he admired Bush for "the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.''

"He is not a slick talker, but he is a straight shooter,'' Miller told the receptive delegates. "Right now, the world just cannot afford an indecisive American ... In this hour of danger, our president has had the courage to stand up.''

Bush's detractors call the image a façade.

In his keynote address, Miller said: "Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are.'

Tonight, Democrats will hold Bush to the same standard.

Compton Enjoys a Big Day at the Open
Though Serena Williams wins as expected, Haynes pulls off another upset to reach the third round.
By Diane Pucin
Times Staff Writer

September 2, 2004

NEW YORK — Two Compton women made noise Wednesday at the U.S. Open.

On the grand stage at Arthur Ashe Stadium Court, Serena Williams played tennis in micro mini shorts and had to send a runner to the locker room to fetch her purse.

Why? Williams had forgotten her earrings in her purse. "I really believe in accessorizing," said Williams, who has talked far more about clothes than tennis this week and who conquered Lindsay Lee-Waters in a second-round match,6-4, 6-3.

Later, on the Grandstand Court, where the fans can reach out and touch the players and the afternoon shadows move as fast as the tennis balls, Angela Haynes brought a noisy gathering to its feet.

Thank you.

"All I'm asking you to do is tell your friends and neighbors: Be careful of somebody whose position shifts in the wind," Bush said this week at a rally in West Virginia.

You should also be careful of people whose "consistency" allows them to keep lying after they have been caught lying.

Anyway…

Despite Claims, Bush Wavers on Decisiveness
By Janet Hook and Edwin Chen
Times Staff Writers

September 2, 2004

NEW YORK — By the time President Bush mounts the podium tonight to accept his party's renomination, few viewers will have missed the Republican National Convention's central message: He is a strong, decisive leader who, unlike Democratic opponent John F. Kerry, steers a steady course through shifting tides of public opinion.

That's the collective "you," referring to the whole dodgy crew on Pennsylvania Ave.

By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday the time had come for the United Nations to take punitive action against Iran for its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Speaking to reporters flying back with him from a one-day trip to Panama, Powell said he would urge members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at its board meeting on Sept. 13, to refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

"We still believe that the Iranians are not fessing up to everything. They still have a program that, in our judgment, is a nuclear program designed to develop ultimately a nuclear weapon," said Powell.

Trish Wilson's post, linked below, reminded me of a common problem the various civil rights movements face. I wrote it up at The Niggerati Network to get it out of my system.

Since I didn't get real creative I posted an old essay of mine, written while I was working stuff out a decade ago.

Mike at Trader Mike noticed the charges against Kobe Bryant are being dropped.

Quote of note:

The Kansas Court of Appeals rejected Limon's appeal in 2002. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law criminalizing gay sex and returned Limon's case to the state courts.

But in a 2-1 decision in January, the Kansas Court of Appeals noted that the U.S. Supreme Court case involved consenting adults and sided with the state again. Limon then appealed the state Supreme Court, which could rule as early as October 15.

Official justifies harsher penalties for gay sex
Says promoting traditional values is reason enough

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- The state can punish illegal underage sex more harshly when it involves homosexual acts, even if the only goal is promoting traditional values, a state official told the Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Antigone at XX has responded to a post on female political bloggers by Matt Stoller at BOP with a magnificent recasting of his statement in racial terms.

Trish Wilson, also posting at XX, gave her response, and I am totally feeling it:

A couple of days ago, Matt Stoller, a progressive blogger and pro-feminist man, picked up the “woman blogger” live wire and it’s still sparking. There were two things he wrote that offended some women bloggers who have stumbled upon the latest incarnation of this debate. I quote them below. Bold is my emphasis.

The Food Pyramid Scheme

If your mother ever told you that eating sweets would spoil your dinner, she was right. The government should heed her wisdom - and pay less attention to the sugar lobby - when it issues revamped nutrition guidelines next year. The preponderance of scientific evidence, much of it cited in a report issued last week by the advisory committee on the new guidelines, shows that the more sugar you consume, generally in the form of "added" sugars like high-fructose corn syrup, the less likely you are to eat adequate amounts of nutritious food. The report also persuasively connects obesity to sugar, especially sugar-sweetened beverages.

Yeah, I know what happened, but DAyum!

SLEAZE, CONTINUED: Partisanship seems to have hardened even further in August, it appears. I've now gotten many emails defending the honor of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat vets and claiming that they had nothing - nothing - to do with the Bush campaign. Please. Do I think the vets have a right to say what they believe? Of course they do, and 527s are fine with me. Free speech and all that. Am I exercising a double-standard by not worrying about the Kerry-backed 527s? Hardly. I don't recall my being soft on MoveOn.org and all the other hysterical anti-Bush screeds; and their connections to the Kerry campaign are obvious. But there is something different between cheap, ugly shots at presidential policy and quibbling with a man's war medals. And it is surely naive to believe that the Bush campaign was unaware of this and that their Texas cronies didn't help finance and produce the ads. If this had never occurred on Bush's watch before, you might dismiss it. But obviously it is an old tactic he deploys whenever he needs to. I said so in the 2000 campaign, long before I endorsed Bush. Here's my take on his pandering to the Bob Jones crowd in South Carolina. Again, I haven't changed my mind. I just haven't rented it out to partisanship. I owe no apologies to people who want me to.

He's really going to pull out the "compassionate conservative" thing? What next, claiming to be a uniter, not a divider?

Anyway…

Upbeat Republicans Revive Bush Theme of Compassion
By TODD S. PURDUM
Published: September 1, 2004

Facing perhaps three times the television audience that saw its sharp-edged speakers on Monday, the Republican National Convention circled back last night to President Bush's winning 2000 campaign theme of "compassionate conservatism," portraying him as not only hardheaded but also bighearted enough to lead "the most historic struggle my generation has ever known," as his wife, Laura, put it in a prime-time speech.

Quote of note:

This is a carefully modulated strategy, Mr. Bush's advisers said. It reflects what they say is the necessity of running a negative campaign against Mr. Kerry - and the difficulty of doing that when the relatively few voters in play are likely to be disengaged independents who have historically been alienated by sulfurous politics, and who have been bombarded with negative advertisements from both sides this year.

Loves Dogs, Hates Kerry: A Two-Prong Campaign Tactic
By ADAM NAGOURNEY

With Rudolph W. Giuliani's pummeling of John Kerry on Monday and last night's softer tribute to President Bush by Laura Bush, the Bush campaign has laid out for the convention what White House aides said was the two-sided template of its election strategy.

Ever since the right started the nonsense about Kerry not having a platform, which you can only believe if you pretend he never responded to all the Republican attacks, I've been waiting to hear l'il Georgie's campaign platform.

The NY Times discusses what it's expected to be a little and I'm not coherent enough right now to get into detail with it but these things sort of stuck out.

When he took the stage in Philadelphia in 2000, Mr. Bush faced a much easier political and economic terrain, with a federal budget surplus of more than $150 billion that was projected to keep growing. Mr. Bush argued that the surplus was "not the government's money" but "the people's money," and he built his convention speech and his campaign around the promise of a huge tax cut.

On that, he clearly delivered, pushing through nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts: even more than he first promised.

So I haven't posted anything this morning.

This is like telling "yo mama" jokes and snapping on people who ain't even involved.

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A GOP delegate handed out bandages with purple hearts on them Monday night at the Republican National Convention in a swipe at Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites)'s war record, but national GOP officials have asked him to stop.

The bandages were handed out by Morton Blackwell, a longtime GOP activist from Virginia, with the message: "It was just a self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it."

Kerry won three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a bronze star for his service in the Vietnam War. A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been attacking Kerry as a liar through campaign ads and media interviews, but Kerry's wartime experiences have been backed by crewmates and official records.

I thought it would be a good idea to explain the name of The Other Site. Consider it a gesture to the more sensitive among us.

Last Friday I called out Alan Greenspan as a sellout. Today, The American Progress Fund's Action Report got all that and more. Here it go, with their original formatting and everything.

Last Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan repeated his call to slash Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age on America's seniors. He also proposed reigning in Medicare benefits. Greenspan claims such action must be taken immediately to avoid unmanageable budget deficits. But he presented a false choice between raising payroll taxes on workers and reducing benefits. What Greenspan didn't mention is his support for extending President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy indefinitely – at a cost of $1.5 trillion over 10 years. This, despite evidence in the president's own budget analysis that his tax cuts are largely responsible for projected federal budget deficits. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the impact of the president's tax cuts on the deficits is three times the impact of the projected Social Security shortfall.

After Citing Doubt, Bush to Say 'We Will Win' Terror War
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:19 a.m. ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- President Bush said Tuesday "we will win" the war on terror, seeking to quell controversy and Democratic criticism over his earlier remark that victory may not be possible.

In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Bush said, We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win.

In this different kind of war, we may never sit down at a peace table," Bush said. "But make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win."

Those statements differed from Bush's earlier comment, aired Monday in a pre-taped television interview, that "I don't think you can win" the war on terror. That had Democrats running for the cameras to criticize Bush for being defeatist and flip-flopping from previous predictions of victory.

Everyone should link catastrophic success to the definition of its synonym: pyrrhic victory.

So I'm on this convention daily email alert mailing list run by The National Journal. They published this item this morning:

POLLS
The MBA Approach To WH 2004
The latest Gallup Tuesday Briefing bypasses normal horse-race matchups to see which candidate investors think would be best for the market. President Bush gets the nod with a 41 percent plurality, while 36 percent predicted John Kerry would boost their portfolios. And 21 percent said that November's outcome won't affect the investment climate.

According to Gallup's Steve Hanway, "those who think a Bush win would be positive are more optimistic about their personal investment situations and the overall economic situation: the Index of Investor Optimism score for these investors is 184, compared with a -17 score among those who think a Kerry win would be positive."

The figures in that last paragraph are so bizarre. For one group to score 184 and the other -17 means one of two things: I don't understand the scale by which these measurements were taken or the report isn't just being spun, it's being centrifuged.

The actual Gallup Tuesday Briefing is paid content, hence there is no chance in hell I've seen it. I did find a nice concise summary (pdf) courtesy of Union Bank of Switzerland, who is The Gallup Organization's partner in the endeavor.

This is how summary opens:

INVESTOR OPTIMISM CONTINUES TO SLIDE IN AUGUST, ACCORDING TO UBS INDEX

I would not be inclined to yell at Bush for finally saying something sane about the insane situation he and his cohort have created if his team hadn't immediately unsaid it.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One that Mr. Bush was speaking about winning the war "in the conventional sense" and that his comments underscored the reality that ridding the world of terrorists would take decades.

Did Bush misspeak? I doubt it; I don't see him as leaving anything to chance in this interview any more that in any other long-scheduled appearance he's made. Mr. Lauer will have submitted his questions in advance and the responses will have been crafted to fit the needs of the political moment.

Which means Scott McClellan knew he would be asked for clarification and so had a ready answer.

This is not the first time Bush has made a statement that was finessed into something other than what a reasonable person would assume (though, properly speaking "finesse" hasn't been applicable since Ari Fleischer quit…the man's skills were amazing. I just hope he outlives all his ex-employers because the political tell-all would be better than George Stephanopolis'.). But have you noticed the mess happens here but the finesse happens there?

That's because people who get their political news from The Today Show are a different crew than those who get it from The Nightly News. When you're more concerned about the message you send than what you actually say you can take a layered approach to staying on message. You can speechify in a way that the political freaks among us—but only the political freaks among us—know runs counter everything else he's said. Meanwhile we political freaks know there's been no change in the decision process no matter how it's being explained (bet you even Conservatives will agree with that one). So we're looking more to see how he's going to talk his way out of this one than anything else.

I do wonder, though, what would have happened if, when Mr. Bush made the statement, Mr Lauer asked, "So when did you figure that out?"

Anyway…

Bush Cites Doubt America Can Win War on Terror

Taiwan Cancels War Games, Mirrors China Move
Tue Aug 31, 2004 06:45 AM ET
By Tiffany Wu

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has called off annual war games as a goodwill gesture after arch-foe China canceled its military drills, Taiwan officials said on Tuesday.

Analysts said an exchange of peaceful gestures by the rivals would help ease tension in one of the most dangerous flashpoints in Asia, although Beijing has yet to confirm it has scrapped its exercises.

"China has canceled the military drills on Dongshan island, so we have decided that we will cancel the September 9 Han Kuang exercises," Chen told reporters on board a chartered plane to Hawaii, at the start of a six-day trip to Latin America.

Former Aide to N.J. Governor Will Not File Lawsuit
Mon Aug 30, 2004 10:46 PM ET

By Mark Egan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former aide to New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey who said he was sexually harassed by the politician will not file a lawsuit against his former boss, the man's lawyer said on Monday.

Israeli national Golan Cipel, once employed as New Jersey's top homeland security official, believes there is no need to sue the governor after his announcement that he will resign over the homosexual affair, Cipel's lawyer Allen Lowy said.

"This was about Gov. McGreevey taking responsibility and about justice. By resigning, Mr. Cipel feels that Gov. McGreevey has indeed admitted his wrongdoings because there is no other logical or rational justification for the governor's resignation," Lowy said in a statement, adding that his client never wanted money for his silence.

Investors Bet for Bush Over Kerry
Mon Aug 30, 2004 08:43 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Opinion polls show support for President Bush and his Democratic rival as almost dead even, but as the Republican convention began on Monday investors trading presidential futures did not believe the race would be nearly so close.

Trading in the Iowa Electronic Markets showed Bush pulling ahead of his rival, Democratic Sen. John Kerry, with a 54.8 percent probability of victory, compared to a 45.4 percent for Kerry.

The Iowa presidential futures contracts, which were launched by professors at the University of Iowa to study the forecasting power of markets, have had an average 1.37 percent margin of error in predicting the winner of the popular vote, a better record than most opinion polls.

At Talking Points Memo:

A nice find by Andrew Sullivan on President Bush's Freudian slip about the Swift Boat Ads...

I loved Bush's comment yesterday about the smear-ad: "I can understand why Senator Kerry is upset with us. I wasn't so pleased with the ads that were run about me. And my call is get rid of them all, now." "Us"?? I thought Bush had nothing to do with it.

Nice catch...

There is nothing…NOTHING…I enjoy more than seeing a hypocrite hoist by his own petard.

Congressman Ed Schrock has made a habit of rendezvousing with gay men via the MegaMates/ MegaPhone Line, an interactive telephone service on which men place ads and respond to those ads to meet each other. What makes this story more amazing? Congressman Schrock not only voted for the homophobic Marriage Protection Act, but he also signed on as a CO-SPONSOR of the Federal Marriage Amendment!

Ed Schrock has a voting record that the most right wing conservative would be proud of. The Christian Coalition gave him a 92% rating in their 2003 voting guide.

Israel, Iran Trade Threats As FBI Investigates Spying
U.S. Ally Said to Have Received Documents on Tehran
By Molly Moore and John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 30, 2004; Page A18

JERUSALEM, Aug. 29 -- Israel and Iran traded significantly escalated threats of military attacks in recent months as the FBI investigated allegations that a Pentagon official passed secret U.S. policy information about Iran to Israeli authorities.

Israel has warned that it could launch strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities to thwart the country's advancing weapons program. In response, Iranian Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said earlier this month: "If Israel should dare to attack our nuclear installations, we will come down on its head like a heavy hammer crushing its skull."

A Neglected Obligation

HEALTH CARE for many Native Americans in this country sinks to Third World levels. According to a draft report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, deaths from alcoholism are 770 percent more likely among Native Americans than the general population; from tuberculosis, 650 percent; and from diabetes, 420 percent. In some tribes, one in two people suffer from diabetes. The Indian Health Service, primary health care provider for more than 1.6 million members of federally recognized tribes, is so underfunded that it spends only $1,914 per patient per year, about half of what the government spends on prisoners ($3,803) and far below what is spent on the average American ($5,065).

Georgia Man Drives Home with Headless Friend
Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:16 AM ET

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia man who drove home with a friend's headless body after a truck accident then went to bed while the remains dangled out the window faces charges including vehicular homicide and drunk driving, police said on Monday.
John Hutcherson, covered in blood and visibly inebriated, was arrested in bed on Sunday morning after a local resident out on a stroll observed a headless, bloody body hanging out of the 21-year-old man's truck, Cobb County police said.

Hutcherson was due to make an initial court appearance on Monday.

Police said that Hutcherson and his friend, identified as Francis Brohm, 23, were returning from a bar outside Atlanta early Sunday morning when their black 1992 Chevrolet Z-71 pickup hit a curb near a telephone pole.

Media silent on Kerry's cancer
Sunday, August 29, 2004

I am a former cancer victim in my third year of what I hope to be a successful remission. It is therefor disturbing to find that apart from ABC's Peter Jennings' inquiries about Sen. John Kerry's fairly recent encounter with prostate cancer, the issue appears to have been totally avoided by the media.

Kerry is seeking the presidency. Is that a responsible undertaking for anyone who could well be faced with a recurrence of cancer? Is Kerry truly confident that Sen. John Edwards, a first-term senator, is ready and qualified to replace him should that happen a year or so into a President Kerry's first term in office?

Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes

Planner Carolyn Smith has a long history of battling for her San Diego neighborhood
UNION-TRIBUNE
August 29, 2004

In 1974, a San Diegan named Carolyn Smith wrote a letter.

She did so because her high school English teacher had given her an assignment: Write a government official and get a response. But Carolyn also wrote San Diego City Councilmen Leon Williams and Jim Bates because of her own fervent beliefs.

CalTrans, she wrote, must be stopped from blasting Highway 252 through Southcrest, a poor neighborhood.

Williams and Bates replied, in agreement.

Carolyn earned an A.

And CalTrans, after bulldozing dozens of homes, abandoned the project.

In this shorthand version of the story, there were happy endings all around. Unless you lived in Southcrest.

African Americans: divided over semantics
By Rachel L. Swarns
The New York Times

SILVER SPRING, Md. — For a moment, the Ethiopian-born activist seemed to melt into the crowd, blending into the sea of black professors, health experts and community leaders considering how to educate blacks about the dangers of prostate cancer. But when he piped up to suggest focusing attention on African immigrants, the dividing lines were promptly and pointedly drawn.

The focus of the campaign, the activist, Abdulaziz Kamus, was told, would be strictly on African Americans.

"I said, 'But I am African and I am an American citizen; am I not African American?' " said Kamus, who is an advocate for African immigrants, recalling his sense of bewilderment. "They said 'No, no, no, not you.' "

This is what TomPaine.com says about it:

Just in time for the RNC, a new imperial scandal. The Israeli spy story is a diversion; the real narrative is deeper. Neocon foot soldiers, unwilling to accept the obvious failure of their policies as America is bleeds blood and treasure in Iraq, continued their twisted dream from their protected perch in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Here's the long-awaited piece by Josh Marshall, Laura Rozen and Paul Glastris.

Iran-Contra II?
Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation.
By Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen, and Paul Glastris

On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI is investigating a suspected mole in the Department of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization, classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the investigation, according to U.S. government officials, is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

Abiola at Foreign Dispatches visited Andrew Sullivan recently, it seems.

The Triumph of Hope Over Experience

Andrew Sullivan is back, and still clinging to the hope that Bush will repudiate the authoritarian-statist drift of the GOP in favor of the Goldwater vision of old. I say he's wasting his time: we've had 4 years to see what Bush had to offer, and there's no good reason to imagine the man will change his spots should he be given a second term. Why should he, when he can interpret such an outcome as a vindication of his governance?

Not only can Bush and crew see a second term as validation of their policies…ALL of them, from the war to the secrecy to the reduction of your rights…they would be justified in doing so.

Phil at Enigmatic Musings of a Cynical Mind showed me this on-point essay on The Four H's

You see, The Hustler, in his infinite wisdom, is simply striving to be independent. Independent of what or whom is immaterial. He’s making the effort. His choices may not be sound, and they may not even be doing much to get him there, but he’s working at it, like a prisoner using a plastic fork to chisel his way to escape. He is doing his part to make living his dream possible. To put it tritely, I really can’t knock the hustle. He may not have a nine to five, and he may not be supporting his children, and he may not have an education, but he’s working in spite of all that. (Note: My usage of the masculine pronoun does in no way imply that women cannot and are not hustlers. In a lot of cases, we do it the best.) Further, my recent experiences have taught me that a lot of these “legit” job working folks running around knocking the hustle are really just Half-Assers perpetrating a fraud.

Bush, Blair nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Two of the architects of the Iraq war, United States President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, are among nominees for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Nominations for the prestigious award close tomorrow.

After sending thousands of soldiers to war and failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Mr Bush and Mr Blair have been put forward to receive the Nobel peace prize.

They were nominated by Jan Simonsen, an independent member of Norway's Parliament who says the pair got rid of a dictator and made the world safer.

"Bush and Blair definitely still deserve it," he said.

"Even though they haven't found those weapons they got rid of a dictator and made the world more safe. They got rid of a madman."

The weekend is over, back to work.

The latest post at The Niggerati Network is The physics of social space.

Understand the perspective is still under development. And the reason it's being developed at all is I feel we've given racism a privileged, almost primal, place as a personal motivator, and we should not. I feel it's entirely derivable from known universal human traits and tendencies.

Some folks will read that and understand me to mean we can manipulate or compensate for those traits and tendencies. Others will read that and understand me to mean we can't do anything about it because it's part of human nature. I have no intention of saying what I mean by that in any greater detail for quite a while.

Quote of note:

But Israeli officials also acknowledged that Iran is a vital security issue for them as well as for the United States, and that the views of Washington policy makers and analysts are of great interest to Israel.

There's a story circulating on the net about McGreevey's stupidity that is cast in a somewhat different light by all this.

Israel Denies Spying Against U.S.
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 - News that the F.B.I. has been investigating a Pentagon official on suspicion of passing secrets to Israel has caused a diplomatic scramble here, with officials rushing to deny spying on Washington and to assure the United States of its friendship.

Bush Takes On Direct Role in Shaping Election Tactics
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ELISABETH BUMILLER

President Bush will accept his party's nomination in New York this week on the crest of a campaign that aides say reflects an unusual level of involvement from the president himself, particularly in driving attacks on Senator John Kerry that have characterized his re-election effort since the spring. [P6: Can you say "swift boat" children? Of course you can]

Several aides said Mr. Bush viewed this as the campaign of his life and had intervened on matters as large as the themes it should strike and as small as particular shots of him in his television advertisements. While making sure Mr. Kerry is challenged at every opening, they said, the single most consuming concern for Mr. Bush is that there is an elaborate get-out-the-vote operation in November in anticipation of a contest as tight as the one in 2000.

Columnist Has Ties to Anti-Kerry Book
By JACQUES STEINBERG

Among the stoutest defenders of "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," the best-selling book arguing that Mr. Kerry lied about his record of service in Vietnam, is the columnist Robert Novak.

In his syndicated columns and on the CNN program "Crossfire," Mr. Novak has lauded the book and referred to veterans who criticize Mr. Kerry - most notably John E. O'Neill, the book's co-author - as "real patriots."

Unmentioned in Mr. Novak's columns and television appearances, however, is a personal connection he has to the book: his son, Alex Novak, is the director of marketing for its publisher, the conservative publishing house Regnery.

Gay Republicans say they are unlikely to back Bush, GOP platform
Many upset at president's support for Marriage Amendment, a draw for evangelicals
- Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Monday, August 30, 2004

New York -- At a convention where Republicans intend to showcase their unity behind the re-election of President Bush, the party's major gay group isn't exactly sticking to script.

Leaders of the Log Cabin Republicans said Sunday the group is unlikely to endorse Bush next week in the wake of the move by a conservative-dominated GOP platform committee to strongly support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and oppose legal recognition of gay civil unions.

Demand for School Improvement Is Losing Steam
Education holds decreasing political interest for an aging population.
By Arthur Levine

August 30, 2004

The baby boomers put education on the national agenda, and now they are taking it off.

School improvement has been a staple of the last five presidential campaigns. But this may be the last time it is a priority in the platforms of either political party. In exit polls in the early presidential primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, school improvement placed fourth on the list of voter concerns, after healthcare, the economy and the war in Iraq/terrorism.

The rise and decline of school improvement as a national issue have been driven largely by demographics. Constituting nearly 30% of the nation's population and more than 60% of its voters, baby boomers — Americans born between 1946 and 1964 — have had a strong effect on shaping the U.S. agenda.

Off-the-Rails Drug Policy
August 30, 2004

The journey of the "Rx Express," a train that made its way from San Diego to Vancouver last week, was a made-for-TV news event, adding a little color to the growing revolt against the government's refusal to let U.S. consumers legally buy prescription drugs from abroad.

Trains and buses full of mostly seniors intent on buying sacks of lower-priced Canadian drugs are becoming almost commonplace. So are state legislatures defying federal law to help their residents order drugs from across the border through the mail. This craziness continues because Congress and the Bush administration are paralyzed by the lobbying power of pharmaceutical manuf

The second paragraph says "[w]ithout offering many specifics".

Not unusual. Bush never offers specifics. You need to understand what you have to own in order to benefit from this "ownership society." Because we're not talking your hoopty. We're not even talking your house.

We're talking straight-up class warfare, with the wealthy taking the first shot.

President Bush's plans for a second term threaten a devastating series of far-reaching challenges to the viability of the Democratic Party itself. Under Bush's slogan of an "ownership society," the Republicans intend a long-term effort, using changes in Medicare, Social Security and taxes to pit better-off and worse-off Democrats against each other, offering all-but-irresistible incentives for some to desert the others -- and any progressive national coalition.

Network With No Strings Attached
SkyPilot's wireless technology is attracting attention because of its low cost and ease of installation.
By James S. Granelli
Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2004

RENO — Four weeks without a glitch, and Mike Efstratis was sold on wireless.

He was impressed from the start: After watching the simple installation take all of five minutes, the general manager of Tanamera Commercial Development figured he had found a low-cost, high-speed Internet service for the office and the company's commercial and residential building projects.

In fact, Tanamera may sever the industrial-strength, high-capacity line that runs to its headquarters and the hard-wired phone lines in its construction trailers. Efstratis is arranging to ditch his digital subscriber line at home and replace it with an antenna.

Quote of note:

"It depends on where you sit," said Kim Wallace, chief political analyst at Lehman Bros. "If you've got a college degree and a job that's paying $70,000 or better, your answer almost invariably has to be yes…. Everybody doing less well than that, on both the education and economic front, is probably going to answer no."

Better Off Than 4 Years Ago? Nation Is Divided
By Warren Vieth
Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2004

WASHINGTON — Linda Caterino and Bill Ellis don't need a stack of government statistics to tell them whether the nation is better off than it was four years ago. All they need are their own eyes.

First quotable quote:

The president, who was campaigning in West Virginia, called the war a "catastrophic success."

That would be the same thing as a pyrrhic victory, wouldn't it?

Second quotable quote:

As the protests took place, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in New York and was honored at an Ellis Island rally, where he praised Bush's leadership in the war on terrorism, calling him "exactly the leader we need for these difficult times."

Keep in mind the YOU are not part of Dick Cheney's "we" unless you're invited to (or can afford to pay to attend) one of these little soirees.

Third quotable quote:

[Bush] noted in a Time magazine interview in today's editions that he still would have gone into Iraq, but with different tactics, had he known "that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day."

I actually enjoyed myself yesterday. I'll go into a little photographic detail about the march (and the bell ringing thing too) later this week. Right now I have some thoughts on marches in general.

See, in the process of watching and photographing I got myself interviewed twice by journalists from Down Under...the only ones foolish enough to ask me something. Saturday's interviewer, from New Zealand, actually, asked me "What do you think of all this?" meaning the whole protest thing this week.

I mentioned that what they're calling "civil disobedience" this week is actually "breaking the law to gain attention for your cause." That real civil disobedience targets unjust laws, and that's not what's being done here.

So I have this in mind as I'm wandering about all day. Two things struck me. First I was really surprised that some of the people that showed up, had signs, were marchers, did not want their picture taken. Me, I feel like if I'm going to represent I'm just going to do it. But yesterday one of the legal observers drifted away when he saw me with the camera. As it happens I'd already taken a shot with him in it and it has to go I know the brother objects, even though I didn't when I took the shot. And today a guy gathered the unsold salad bar that was going to be thrown away and made take-out for protesters instead. Cool, but I overheard him being interviewed and he wouldn't say where he worked. And a matronly white lady hesitated then let me take her picture. I was actually walking away when she grabbed my arm and said, "The FBI already has pictures of me from years ago, so what's one more, right?"

In a way writing is easier than photography. I have a couple hundred photos to process now. The fact that it's digital makes it faster but you still have to make the same sort of decisions: what's good, what's good if cropped, who gets to see which ones...

RINGOUT's World Trade Center/Ground Zero Observance went pretty well. One Pauline Oliveros composed a score with the bells as instruments, though because everyone was so spread our and all the little bells were ringing it was hard to catch the tune. There was a little rhythm in the ringing…

Lot of cops. LOT of cops.

Lot of people too, though I'm sure the bells caught folks' attention and people who were out playing and vacationing jumped in on the spur of the moment.

And fluorescent lime green baseball caps were everywhere. Those were the legal observers and tomorrow they will be important. If you're out protesting or even just watching keep your eyes open for lime green baseball caps and if crap jumps off, get behind the observers.

I should probably be talking about the demonstration (as opposed to protest march, as opposed to civil disobedience which none of this actually is) but there were more cops than necessary for such a quiet display. All the really needed was a few traffic cops to keep the sidewalks clear. And I overheard a sergeant saying something like 200 cops were there. Also overheard one talking about they could send most of them home…that was a good thing.