I'm saying he was never a Democrat.

I've completed a module to search for books at Amazon.com. It's very basic, you can search search on title, author, publisher or keywords and the links returned have my Associate ID embedded (of course) so the site gets commissions and stuff. I figure if I'm going to piss everyone off by being all honest and shit I better work out a means to make my soapbox self-supporting. Amazon's been having associate system-related grief this weekend, so I don't know if the generated links will work by the time you see this. But it's them, not me, honest. I got more Amazon-related stuff in mind, but I'm going to put it on hold so I can figure out how I want forums and weblinks to work. Then I'll have the minimum functionality I need to do what I have in mind for The Niggerati Network. And I've already started on my next version of MTClient.

This is amusing.

Thomas Frank reviews four books in the New York Times: The Great Divide
Retro vs. Metro America, The Uncivil War How a New Elite Is Destroying Our Democracy, Who We Are Now The Changing Face of America in the Twenty-First Century and Myths of Free Trade Why American Trade Policy Has Failed.

I suggest skipping to the last page of where he covers the books that have my his approval. It just makes more sense to point out to folks that, regardless of their future aspirations, they are in the economic position that is receiving fire in this class war than it does to harden positions based on issues most of us really have no personal doubts about.

Quote of note:

In addition, the gap in punishment between blacks and whites widened. While blacks and whites received an average sentence of slightly more than two years in 1984, blacks now stay in prison for about six years, compared with about four years for whites. The report attributed this disparity in part to harsher mandatory minimum sentences that Congress imposed for drug-related crimes like cocaine possession. In 2002, 81 percent of offenders in such cases were black.

81 percent of those convicted were Black. The precision is needed because drug use across the racial veil has been proven to be equal on a percentage basis. The only reason for such an imbalance is one is looking for problems only on one side of the veil. And that is significant. Anyway… Sentencing-Guideline Study Finds Continuing Disparities

Quote of note:

"We don't have any population of Asians," Mr. Jarvela said, and Census statistics largely bear him out. Here in Barron County, the 2000 census counted just 145 people of Asian descent, less than 1 percent of the population. Mr. Jarvela said he had never heard about clashes between white and nonwhite hunters, but he added that because northern Wisconsin was very large, "if you happen to have an incident, nobody knows about it."

Worlds Collide in North Woods Hunting Ground By STEPHEN KINZER and MONICA DAVEY Published: November 28, 2004

In three decades, St. Paul has drawn at least 25,000 Hmong immigrants, transforming it into the Hmong capital of America. Even there, it has not always been an easy fit, with so many Hmong refugees arriving so rapidly, often with no English and little education or urban job skills. The Hmong are from large farming families from the hills of Laos, where the Central Intelligence Agency recruited many of them to be part of an anti-Communist secret army during the Vietnam War.

And after the Feds tie up all that money, who will everyone else borrow from?

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Vast Borrowing Seen in Altering Social Security By RICHARD W. STEVENSON WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts. The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt.

Senator Frist Tightens the Screws Flexing their new muscles, Congressional Republicans seem intent on reigning as a dissent-smothering monolith. First, House G.O.P. members slavishly obeyed the maneuver by Tom DeLay, the majority leader, to render his control of the caucus ethics-proof by making it possible for a party leader to keep his post even if he is under indictment. His counterpart in the Senate, Bill Frist, was more discreet but no less ham-handed. He has engineered a rules change designed to cow the few Republican moderates who may still be willing to nip back at demands for party fealty. The rule undercuts members' independence by giving Dr. Frist the power to fill the first two vacancies on all committees. This hobbles seniority, which has been the traditional path to power. The leader now has a cudgel for shaping the "world's greatest deliberative body" into a chorus line. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, chronic Republican maverick, got to the heart of the matter in skewering her leader's accomplishment: "There is only one reason for that change, and it is to punish people."

Politicians Seek Debate on Blair's Iraq 'Misconduct' Wed Nov 24, 2004 08:16 AM ET By Mike Peacock LONDON (Reuters) - Parliamentarians will table a motion on Wednesday demanding a debate on Prime Minister Tony Blair's "gross misconduct" in leading Britain to war against Iraq. The impeachment motion, the first one to be tabled since the mid-19th century, has been signed by 23 members of parliament (MPs) from various opposition parties. But even if a debate is granted, any attempt to accuse Blair of "high crimes and misdemeanors" is doomed to fail in the elected House of Commons, where his Labour party has a majority of more than 150 seats. "We must make a stand or watch the democracy that we have fought for so often against foreign enemies be subverted from within," Welsh nationalist MP Adam Price said.

States Pull Out of Talks to Cut Aircraft Pollution Tue Nov 23, 2004 05:09 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. state and local air pollution control officials said on Tuesday they are pulling out of five-year-old talks to develop a voluntary program for reducing pollution from aircraft engines. A pollution-fighting deal with the aviation sector -- which is expected to see a doubling of nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions by 2030 -- could not be reached, and the officials said they told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) so on Monday. Major airports already have NOX emissions that are greater than those by large stationary sources, like refineries and power plants.

But you know what?

Some Thoughts on Bigotry Commentary by Martin Kelly November 24, 2004 This column abhors all discrimination against black people, women and homosexuals on account of colour, gender or sexuality. However, it also denies the existence of concepts called ‘racism’, ‘sexism’ and ‘homophobia.’ The words ‘racism’, ‘sexism’ and ‘homophobia’ are rooted in Marxist thought. As a life-long anti-Marxist, one cannot endorse or approve of anything that started as a Marxist construct designed to ensure Marxism’s ascendancy by creating divisions. There is a very much more suitable and ancient word to describe those who despise black people, women and homosexuals on account of colour, gender or sexuality. That word is ‘bigot’, and common humanity, not Marxist political correctness, should at all times inform the conservative to disavow and shun bigots.

Alarm raised on Asia's males Risks seen from 'surplus' numbers By Michael S. Schmidt, Globe Correspondent | November 26, 2004 The explosive growth of male populations in China and India could threaten social order in those countries as well as international security, according to a book by two academic researchers. In "Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population," Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer predict that by 2020, males 15 to 34 could outnumber females by more than 60 million in China and India combined. Hudson said men at the lower ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, who already are predisposed to violence [P6:???], will be the least likely to find partners because they lack the job skills, money, and looks needed to attract wives. These men will not create families that would give them a stake in the established rule of law, she contends.

Black colleges find new market in appeal to Latino students At Texas school, success evident in campus influence By Dana Calvo, Globe Correspondent | November 26, 2004 HOUSTON -- More Latinos are attending black colleges than ever before -- changing the way student bodies look, expanding the dance music at parties, and, in some cases, helping to attract more Latino professors to the faculty. From 1976 to 2001 -- the most recent data available -- the number of Latino students enrolled in black colleges has nearly doubled, from 3,442 to 6,665, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But here, at Texas Southern University, the numbers are even more dramatic. With 498 Latino students enrolled this fall -- about five percent of TSU's entire undergraduate student body of 9,585 -- specialists say it has one the largest populations of Latino students of any black college in the country.

Quote of note:

Few schools had the cash on hand to lend to their students, and so the program wasn't very popular. But in the last few years, loan companies have started enticing colleges with favorable deals. A university doesn't even have to put up its own money up front -- it can borrow the cash from a bank. The loans are the same federally guaranteed loans that banks offer, and college finance officers report receiving dozens of phone calls from counterparts at other schools who want to know how it's done. This is how it works: The university makes a loan to a graduate student, either with its own money or borrowed funds. At some point, the school sells the loan to a bank, which pays a premium for it and then eventually collects from the student. This premium is what provides the bulk of the school's profit.

Let me say a little about leaders and leadership in general before getting back to that Seattle Times op-ed. We are social animals, and thus hierarchical. Over the years I've heard you humans discussing possible ways of organizing socially as though you had no body…as though your physical nature had no constraining power over your plans. We will have leaders. A while back (never mind how long ago; according to Perseus Development I'm older than over 98% of bloggers and that's all you need to know) I was asked just what I thought a leader was anyway. I said they come in three models: sparks, channels and flames. Sparks ignite folks into action. Channels, which I would call wayfinders now, are the first ones, the ones that carve a path to a new destination. Flames shine a new light on things, bringing new knowledge and hence new possibilities.

17 Parties Demand Iraq Elections Postponed Seventeen Iraqi Political Parties Demand Postponement of Elections Until Polling Places Secured The Associated Press Nov. 26, 2004 - Seventeen political parties on Friday demanded postponement of the Jan. 30 elections for at least six months until the government is capable of securing polling places. The parties, mostly Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular groups, made the call in a manifesto signed at the home of Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, who said he believed the government was waiting for such a request before seriously addressing the question of whether an election could be held by the end of January. Parties of the majority Shiite community strongly support holding the elections on time but there is widespread doubt within the minority Sunni community because of insurgent unrest in Sunni regions of central and northern Iraq.

Quote of note:

The contested law allows American companies to receive proceeds from duties levied on foreign rivals for alleged "dumping" -- selling goods at below-market prices, making it impossible for American producers to compete. The WTO backed claims that the amendment breaks trade laws by punishing exporters to the United States twice because they are first fined, and then those fines are passed on to their competitors.

WTO Approves Sanctions on U.S. Exports By Jonathan Fowler Associated Press Writer Friday, November 26, 2004; 1:11 PM GENEVA -- The World Trade Organization on Friday approved sanctions on a wide range of American exports intended to punish the United States for failing to repeal what it considers protectionist legislation. The Bush administration indicated it would live with the new duties.

Quote of note:

The news that Graham had sought whistle-blower assistance and protection -- and that FDA managers had sought to undermine his credibility -- was first reported yesterday in the online edition of BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal. In that account, Devine said the FDA was "employing a classic law of whistleblower reprisal -- the smokescreen syndrome -- which shifts the spotlight from the message to the messenger. The agency attempted to discredit Dr. Graham rather than provide any scientific evidence contradicting his conclusions."

Attempt to Discredit Whistle-Blower Alleged Group Says His FDA Colleagues Made Calls By Marc Kaufman

New High-Tech Passports Raise Snooping Concerns By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 - The State Department will soon begin issuing passports that carry information about the traveler in a computer chip embedded in the cardboard cover as well as on its printed pages. Privacy advocates say the new format - developed in response to security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks - will be vulnerable to electronic snooping by anyone within several feet, a practice called skimming. Internal State Department documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Canada, Germany and Britain have raised the same concern.

This does NOT counterbalance the FDA screw-ups. This is about people who tried a drug, improved by their own estimate, and want to continue with it despite risks having been found. The FDA story is about risks being found and the information being withheld by order of the FDA. Many See Hope in Parkinson's Drug Pulled From Testing By ANDREW POLLACK With his condition deteriorating from Parkinson's disease last year, Steve Kaufman gave up making improvements to his home in Algonquin, Ill. "I couldn't even hold a nail stable," he recalled. Earlier this year, after taking an experimental drug in a clinical trial, Mr. Kaufman built new kitchen cabinets and an outdoor deck. He was so steady he could walk across a narrow piece of lumber like an Olympic gymnast on the balance beam.

Debtor Nation Robert B. Reich November 24, 2004 The holiday buying season is upon us. You might as well spend your cash now because the dollar is dropping like a stone in international currency markets. It’s dropped nearly 30 percent since 2001, and is now at a record low. Even without the recent dour pronouncements of Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary John Snow, the greenback is likely to fall further. And the reason is simple: We’re living beyond our means. American consumers are deep in debt. The nation is importing more than we’re exporting. Most importantly, the federal budget deficit is out of control. Nearly all of the increase in public debt over the last four years -- some 1 trillion dollars -- has been financed by foreigners, lending us the money.

It was almost a toss-up for the quote of note:

Begun in 1999 as the Major Broadcasting Cable network, Black Family Channel will keep elements of the gospel programming that was part of its original mission. Music programs and documentaries also remain in place. Following a plan of adding programming blocks, the channel was launching five new Thursday night shows this week. An "urban kids programming block" of three new daytime shows debuted last Saturday. Among the new series: a talk show about teenage issues; a series celebrating spoken-word artists; and "Souled Out," a critical look at the messages in music videos. The channel also plans to reinstate and increase its coverage of football games at historically black colleges, temporarily dropped while the new schedule was developed.

I picked this one because I want this venture to succeed. Wildly. I get the sense they still need work, but it's just starting out. This and Radio One's buying a controlling interest in Tom Joyner's media company maybe be the beginning of something. Or maybe not. See the second quote of note below the fold. Black Family Channel Starts 8 New Shows Revamped Black Family Channel Starts Slate of Eight New Programs That Keep Values in Mind The Associated Press

Considered in greater detail at The Colorblind Society.

Lawyers say principal won't seek charges Saturday, November 13, 2004 By PATRICK JOHNSON and MARY ELLEN O'SHEA Staff writers SPRINGFIELD - Lawyers representing a black school principal who said he was abused by city police said yesterday that they are no longer seeking criminal charges against the officers. John S. Ferrara, who with Perman Glenn III is representing Douglas G. Greer, principal of Robert M. Hughes Academy Charter School, said pursuing a criminal complaint could get in the way of an internal investigation by the Police Department and city solicitor. Glenn said Thursday night that they had filed the applications for criminal complaints in court.

At Negrophile, George linked to an op-ed in The Seattle Times, 'Be light to ourselves': Black America must look inward for solutions by Aaron Counts and Larry Evans which may influence me in the near future. I think the article worthy of a couple of posts

Over the course of the recent presidential campaign, we saw how each candidate tried to ingratiate himself with various voting groups. And while NASCAR dads and Latinos were a big focus this year, we continue to witness each major election year the efforts that the parties make to court the black vote. It's less a wooing than a predictable arrangement, as office-seekers vie for the endorsement of one African-American organization or another by snuggling up to the heads of these groups.

Prof. Spence who writes at Vision Circle (yeah, that's still Lester but when you know a person has earned his title you oughta give it up once in a while) has an article titled Race, Religion and the DNC at Africana.com. Good stuff…he considers two possible reasons the DNC hasn't gotten religion from Black folks, and why they should. He also presents a third option, but that's the DLC position.

Get In Where Ya Fit In:

ANOTHER BROTHER THAT NEEDS A SWIFT BOOT TO HIS REAR... THE REV. JESSELEE PETERSON Yeah I hadn't heard of him either until a few days ago when I read some Salon article blurb. I was planning on doing another "Brother's that need a foot up their ass" entry for a while now and the current front runner had been jackass Alan Keyes but when I saw this guy's website he took the cake, the ice cream... Hell the whole birthday celebration. Read on to hear about what the right reverend is up to...

This his second inductee. His first was equally apt.

A while ago Abiola Lapite moved Foreign Dispatches to Typepad and something or other must have come up because I didn't adjust my RSS reader until the other day when I started selecting still-active blogs for the blogroll. I wonder what I missed. This is what I didn't miss:

Worse than Useless The agreement the European powers arrived at with Iran is looking so bad that surely no agreement at all would have been better.

Actually, it's pretty much in line with the non-proliferation treaty that the most of the rest of the world has signed onto. It doesn't forbid research or development, it just requires monitoring.

I happened to read Baldilocks before Solotude today.

Black groupthink for Condi Thoughts painted by Solomon in A Racial World. Toshi and I were drinking our white grape juice tea (mmmm mmmm...) when we saw a short blurb about Condi Rice on CNN. My wife got that deep thought look on her face. When I see that look, I know she's about to drop some serious stuff about something. She and said the following:

I don't particularly care for Condi's views. You know how much I hate the two-party system but Solo, I would vote for that woman in a heartbeat if she ran in 2008. I would register as a Republican, baby. The importance of having a black person and woman to boot, in the Oval Office trumps all my views. (emphasis mine)

Red state:

Jim Crow rides crimson tide Tuesday, Nov 16, 2004 By John Brummett …Like other Southern red states including Arkansas, Alabama chose in the overtly racist 1950s to pass a constitutional amendment presuming to interpose state constitutional law decreeing segregation. The foolhardy notion was to fend off federal court rulings requiring racial integration of schools. It was foolhardy because states can't defy the federal government, considering that the Union won. Arkansas repealed its pointless but symbolically destructive amendment - narrowly - in 1990. This year the Alabama Legislature referred Amendment Two to the voters to take out of the state's constitution the three most egregious vestiges of racism in its segregation amendment. They were that schools must be segregated, that a poll tax had to be paid and that a right to an education at taxpayer expense did not exist for an Alabama child. (And you thought the purpose of a constitution was to grant, not void, rights.) The idea of the latter was to make sure no lawyer, judge, outside agitator or godless liberal could ever say under constitutional imprimatur that Alabama bore any responsibility to its black children's schooling. Alabamians voted Nov. 2 on whether to repeal. With nearly 1.4 million votes cast, it appears that Amendment Two failed by about 2,500 votes. The typical Alabama voter marked a ballot for Bush and segregation.

Blue state:

Banned in Boston: American Indians, but Only for 329 Years By KATIE ZEZIMA BOSTON, Nov. 24 - It is a prejudicial, archaic concept that prohibited Native Americans from entering a city for fear members of their "barbarous crew" would cause residents to be "exposed to mischief." But it is more than notions and phrases in Boston. A ban on Indians entering Boston has been the law since 1675. Mayor Thomas M. Menino took a step toward repealing the ban on Wednesday, filing a home rule petition. Mr. Menino said a repeal would remove the last vestiges of discrimination from a vibrant, diverse city that is looking past old racial conflicts.

Quote of note:

The idea of an independent drug safety office was also endorsed this week by the editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association, who said it was unreasonable to expect the same agency that approves drugs "also be committed to actively seek evidence to prove itself wrong." Similar proposals have been floated in the past, usually after a high-profile controversy involving a particular drug.

Idea of Drug Safety Office Is Already Hitting Snags By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 - Despite calls from medical experts and a prominent Republican senator for an independent office to monitor drug safety, the idea, prompted by the Food and Drug Administration's handling of the painkiller Vioxx, is already running into obstacles on Capitol Hill.

Quote of note:

"You're dealing with processes that take place in one's head," Mr. Donner said. "We can't arrest people for wearing certain clothes."

Dutch Try to Thwart Terror Without Being Overzealous
By CRAIG S. SMITH

AMSTERDAM, Nov. 18 - His telephone was tapped, his apartment was watched and many of his friends were already behind bars, so the Dutch authorities were not surprised by evidence that it was Mohamed Bouyeri, a Dutchman of Moroccan descent, who murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in broad daylight one morning this month. Yet they had been powerless to stop the crime.

It is a problem faced by most European governments as radical Islam spreads across the Continent: how to arrest suspected militants before they act, without trampling on individual rights or risking charges of discrimination.

The government of the Netherlands has come under criticism for missing Mr. Bouyeri when Islamist death threats were made against Mr. van Gogh. But stopping him would have meant assessing guilt before the crime, Justice Minister Jan Piet Hein Donner said in an interview.

Quote of note:

At Mr. Singh's table, dinner is not a political statement. Nor is it an opportunity to reflect on the impromptu harvest festival that started the whole thing more than 300 years ago. "I can assure you, nobody is sitting down and thinking of the Pilgrims and the Indians and the corn," he said. "Neither are we spectacularly saying, 'Oh, gosh, Americans have taken over everything, and we don't care for that.' It's just a huge eating escapade."

Turkey Is Basic, but Immigrants Add Their Homeland Touches By KIM SEVERSON ATERSON, N.J. - For all those struggling to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table, consider the plight of Yaser Baker, a restaurateur in this city's Arabic shopping district.

2 Top Officials Are Reported to Quit C.I.A. By DOUGLAS JEHL WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 - Two more senior officials of the Central Intelligence Agency's clandestine service are stepping down, intelligence officials said Wednesday, in the latest sign of upheaval in the agency under its new chief, Porter J. Goss. As the chiefs of the Europe and Far East divisions, the two officials have headed spying operations in some of the most important regions of the world and were among a group known as the barons in the highest level of clandestine service, the Directorate of Operations. The directorate has been the main target of an overhaul effort by Mr. Goss and his staff. Its chief, Stephen R. Kappes, and his deputy resigned this month after a dispute with the new management team.

Lawmakers OK antipiracy czar Buried inside the massive $388 billion spending bill Congress approved last weekend is a program that creates a federal copyright enforcement czar. Under the program, the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law. Intellectual property law enforcement is divided among a range of agencies including the Library of Congress, the Justice and State departments and the U.S. Trade Representative. It is hoped that designating a single overseer to coordinate copyright law enforcement will put some cohesion into the federal effort, said one Senate Appropriations Committee aide.

Dolphins Protect New Zealand Swimmers from Shark
Mon Nov 22, 2004 09:52 PM ET

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of New Zealand swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark, media reported on Tuesday.
Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 300 feet off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand's North Island when the dolphins herded them -- apparently to protect them from a shark.

"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).

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I know dolphins mean well, but I keep telling them humans get a big head about shit like this.

Congress Adds $300 Mln for Heat Bills of Poor Mon Nov 22, 2004 04:23 PM ET By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress approved a $300 million boost in emergency funds to help poor and elderly Americans pay home heating bills that are expected to be sharply higher than last winter. The government last week forecasted colder weather than normal in the U.S. Northeast and in other parts of the nation this winter. That, plus an increase in energy prices, mean the average home heating oil bill will jump 37 percent from last year and natural gas will be 15 percent higher, according to Energy Information Administration estimates. Lawmakers included the money -- half of the $600 million boost initially sought by consumer advocates -- in legislation cleared last weekend to fund the government.

Bush Cabinet Moves Seen as Stifling Dissent Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:08 PM ET By Alan Elsner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush is moving to concentrate power as he begins his second term, placing trusted members of his inner circle in key positions, but some analysts believe he risks stifling healthy debate within his administration. "It is understandable that this president, like any president, wants his decisions to be taken as writ," said William Galston, a government professor at the University of Maryland, who served as a domestic policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton. "However this president is running the risk of restricting the range of debate within the administration very seriously," Galston said.

Hat tip to reader PTCruiser. Long but worthy quote of note:

Rice and McKinney are roughly the same age. Both can point to significant academic accomplishments. Both have had prominent careers in public life. But they are very different in the most fundamental of senses. While each woman came of age in the South at the time when the civil rights movement was entering its most critical stage, Rice was never an activist while McKinney was. While Rice left her native Alabama for California and began to move in conservative political and corporate circles, McKinney stayed deeply rooted in her native Georgia and became one of the state's best-known African-American figures. While Rice was appointed to increasingly powerful positions by her patrons in the Republican Party, the corporate world and the Bush family, McKinney won election to the state Legislature and then to five terms in the U.S. House.

Prof. Mark Anthony Neal has an article up at PopMatters titled The Real Nigger Show that you should read. I hesitate to excerpt it because he's more drawing a picture of a pattern than drawing attention to the specific events in the pattern. But, of course, I'll excerpt it anyway.

Boskin notes in his book that the "minstrel show became the most popular fare throughout the country... Shuffling and drawling, crackling and dancing, wisecracking and high-stepping, the white minstrel man welded the image of the black male to material culture, laid the foundations for its entry into the electronic media of the following century, and carried it to audiences on three continents" (75-76). In other words white male performances of blackness -- faces donned with burnt cork in an attempt to "represent" the realities of black life and culture -- became one of the most popular forms of American entertainment in the 19th and early 20th century. In the absence of "real" contact with African-Americans, the minstrel stage became the site of authentic blackness for many white Americans, so much so that Mark Twain could remark in his autobiography that the minstrel stage was "the real nigger show -- the genuine nigger show -- the extravagant nigger show".

You remember him from Politically Incorrect (which died on moving to broadcast TV). He's Redd Foxx to John Stewart's Richard Pryor. I got a link by email to the site for his HBO series, Real Time. It presents several interesting quote from his guests, and transcripts of his "New Rules" monologue.

New Rule: Stop claiming you have an "agenda." It's not an agenda. It's a random collection of laws that your corporate donors paid you to pass. The American people were not clamoring for a cap on medical malpractice awards. If a surgeon leaves an Altoids box in my chest cavity, I want to see him in debtors' prison.

New Rule: Kerry campaign manager Bob Schrum must switch careers. He is now 0-for-8 in presidential campaigns. The Washington Generals had a better record against the Globetrotters. Seriously, Bob, politics isn't the kind of business where you can have absolutely no proof of success and keep getting asked back. Or is it? [photo of George W. Bush] Hey, we lost! We deserve a few jokes.

Governor supports clemency revisions for felons BY JASON GROTTO AND DEBBIE CENZIPER [email protected] TALLAHASSEE - Thousands more felons could regain the right to vote in Florida under a series of changes supported Tuesday by Gov. Jeb Bush and members of the state Clemency Board. Bush said the board plans to introduce revisions in early December, including easing restrictions in clemency rules so that more people can get their civil rights restored. He also said he may beef up the state's overburdened clemency staff so it can handle the thousands of cases waiting to be decided. ''It's not a science,'' Bush said. ``We sit up there in judgment of people and it's not an easy thing to do.'' Bush's comments Tuesday follow a four-part Herald investigation of problems in Florida's system for restoring the civil rights of felons. Though Bush previously declined to be interviewed by The Herald, he did answer questions Tuesday at a meeting of the Florida Cabinet.

Quote of note:

A black plastic pipe, stretching a tenth of a mile down the ridge, delivered the booze to a livestock watering trough. From there, the moonshiner could fill plastic jugs, jars or whatever, "just like you were at a filling station," said Jason Brown, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent stationed in Rabun County. Was it rough stuff? Probably. Could you get legal stuff more cheaply? Certainly, but that's not the point. "It's all about heritage," Brown said. "It's a link to the past."

Police blow up moonshine still By MARK DAVIS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/23/04 RABUN COUNTY — State and local authorities stumbled across a small piece of private enterprise Monday as they poked about in the ridges above Lake Rabun. So they did what any cop would do.

Boy fights weapons infraction
By JEN SANSBURY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/23/04

The parents of a 9-year-old suspended for having a small, dull knife in class say DeKalb County school officials have gone overboard on discipline.

Fourth-grader Jason Simmonds will be back at Marbut Theme Elementary School on Monday after a four-day suspension for "possession of a weapon" because of a tiny black pouch he took to school last week.

…One side of the pouch that Jason took to school holds a pocketknife-style mechanism with a flip-out file, bottle opener and a dull 1-5/8-inch blade.

"I've got butter knives that are sharper than that," said Jason's mother, Carol Simmonds. It was confiscated by a substitute teacher after Jason twirled it around on his pencil and it dropped onto the floor.

Associate Superintendent Frankie Callaway said Marbut officials did not suspend Jason because of the knife alone.

"It had a second item inside that could have harmed the child himself or other children," she said.

Callaway initially said she was informed the compact toolkit included "a corkscrew with a point on it."

Then she said she was told it had four items: an "Army knife," a bottle opener, a file and a pair of scissors.

Bush Wants to Bolster CIA but Doesn't Offer Specifics He seeks a 50% increase in spies and analysts. No time frame or funding is set. Many are skeptical. By Greg Miller and Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writers November 24, 2004 WASHINGTON — President Bush has ordered what may be a major expansion of the CIA, calling for the beleaguered agency to add thousands of analysts and spies as part of an ongoing buildup in the war on terrorism, according to a White House memorandum released Tuesday. But the directive set no timetable for the changes and offered no indication that the White House intended to ask Congress for the massive funding increase such a plan would require.

If It's Supernatural It Isn't Science by Edward J. Larson Edward J. Larson teaches the history of science and law at the University of Georgia and is the author of "Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory" (Random House, 2004). November 24, 2004 National media attention focused on suburban Cobb County, Ga., last week as a federal court heard constitutional challenges to a school district policy requiring that a biology textbook carry this disclaimer: "Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered." Plaintiffs complain that the disclaimer, which is similar to others popping up in school districts from Alabama to Wisconsin, violates the separation of church and state. But scientists themselves call evolution a theory. Why can't a school district?

Quote of note:

But the opposition was more muted than in past meetings, and leaders of the movement to save the trauma center seemed resigned. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who helped organize much of the opposition, was unusually conciliatory in remarks to the board. She said afterward that she considered the outcome a victory, because the supervisors said they would try to reopen the trauma unit as soon as possible. "It will not be shut down; it will just be suspended," Waters told reporters after the meeting. "I think we've had something of a win." Although both Waters and Burke referred to the action as a suspension, not a closure, the head of the county's Emergency Medical Services Agency said hospital regulations make no such distinction. Carol Meyer, whose agency oversees the county's trauma network, said the unit will be closed, and the county will have to reapply to restore its trauma designation if and when it reopens.

Still here

Eric's response to Jon Sobel (quoted at the end of the previous post):

However, I never held up Project 21 as an authoritative source on anything, I received a press release from them that brought up very salient points that have only now been partially addressed with the apology from Sylvester for calling blacks, ANY blacks, Uncle Tom and Aunt Jemima.

I gave my own opinions, which still stand: racism is racism regardless if the target is liberal, conservative, middle, or apolitical.

This made me respond:

I gave my own opinions, which still stand: racism is racism regardless if the target is liberal, conservative, middle, or apolitical.

Talking about this post, and bring you directly to the point-
Eric Olsen

Let me see if I get all of this straight: racism is fine as long as the object of the racism is "not on your side," which I assume is determined by political position.

Project 21 has "no credibility" because there are white people involved at some level, or because it is a conservative organization? Weren't white people involved in the founding of the NAACP?

Who determines legitimacy? And who determines who is and who isn't "politically aware"?

And when is "simple caricature" that includes "racist symbolism" okay? Is that also determined by political position?

I figured there were two comments there that could be responded to: the second and the fourth. The first is a spin that he would have to justify rather the me explain, defend or take any kind of responsibility for. The third is simple proof he did not get all of this straight. Mac was whacking any Project 21 references for the moment, so that left number four…in a less noisy environment I would simply have asked "where has anyone said that?" But I didn't have a less noisy environment so I wrote this instead.

I didn't start this one, though.

A common tactic in the public debate is to try to anger the opposition. The idea is, he who loses his temper first is cast as undisciplined and therefore undependable. I don't like the tactic because it interferes with education, but I have used it on occasion to set up an incorrigible fool for the benefit of others. Fortunately for most, my standard for incorrigibility is rather high.

I mention this because if you check the thread you're going to have to wade through a whole bunch of tactics.

And it looks to me like Eric has taken my approach to analysis as a tactic called "hold their feet to the fire"…he would not be the first.

The thread is/was the nonsense challenge to Black civil rights organizations to rear up in defense of the honor of Dr. C. Rice over some cartoons.

Femi Kuti - Beng Beng Beng Shit's hot. From the 1999 album Shoki Shoki, and it's downloadable/buyable, track at a time. We may have found another sin to indulge.

Quote of note:

Perfect 10 says Google is providing unauthorized access to thousands of its copyrighted pictures. The company charges a monthly membership fee of $25.50 for its Web site. Google displays the images from rogue Web sites operated in foreign countries, according to Perfect 10's lawsuit. The search engine also provides links to password hacking sites that provide ways to gain illegal access to Perfect 10's Web site, the suit alleges.

Tell your buddies to stop spamming our blogs and Google won't find your stuff so fast. Anyway… Adult Site Sues Google for Infringment November 22, 2004 By Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP)—A Web site that sells photos of naked women is suing Google Inc., alleging that the online search engine leader is destroying its business by distributing links and passwords that provide free glimpses of the nude models.

Suspect in shooting of hunters in Wisconsin says he was fired at first, court documents say - ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, November 23, 2004 A man suspected in the killings of six hunters told investigators he began firing after a shot was fired at him and some of the victims called him racially derogatory names, according to documents filed Tuesday. …A hunter approached and told Vang he was on private property, and Vang started to leave as other hunters approached, the statement said. Vang said the hunters surrounded him and some called him racial slurs. Vang said he started walking away but looked back to see the first hunter point his rifle at him and then fire a shot that hit the ground 30 to 40 feet behind him, the statement said.

Quote of note:

In only a few weeks, they have exhibited an arrogance that may have served them well on Capitol Hill but is inappropriate — and counterproductive — within the agency. Because the CIA is a secret agency, the turmoil caused by these four staffers is not particularly visible to the public, to the executive branch and to congressional supervisors. But turmoil it is.

Newcomers' Chokehold on the CIA By Thomas A. Twetten Thomas A. Twetten was associate deputy director and then deputy director of operations at the CIA from 1988 through 1993. November 23, 2004 The CIA and the intelligence community have been under close congressional oversight for about 30 years. This has sometimes saved the agency from momentary enthusiasms that could have gone badly awry. It has served as a healthy check on the executive branch. Even within the agency, most professionals recognize it as an important, if occasionally frustrating, reality.

Stupidity of note:

Similarly, FDA drug safety advisor Curt Furberg said his invitation to participate in an FDA meeting about Vioxx in February was rescinded after the agency found that Furberg had "a point of view" on the drug and had done some research. The FDA has to be "pretty careful about" letting such people play an active role in drug safety discussions, an FDA spokesman said. This defense, however, only highlights the problem: the agency's absurd insistence that only scientists who haven't studied a drug and have no point of view about it should be entitled to attend meetings to decide how it should be regulated.

The CIA was just told to operate the same way. In fact, it should be pretty familiar to anyone who's been into corporate management. The whole Bush administration's approach comes straight from the "don't try this at home" section of the management science textbooks. The management style is called "firefighting," and i goes something like this

1. Do what you feel like doing
2. Catch as many broken pieces as you can before they hit the ground
3. Assign someone to clean up the mess made by the pieces hitting the ground
4. Go to step one

Oh, yeah. The link. An Ailing, Failing FDA November 23, 2004

Abbas Vows to Follow Arafat's Hard Line The new head of the Palestine Liberation Organization says he will not budge on questions about Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. By Ken Ellingwood and Maher Abukhater Special to the Times 1:29 PM PST, November 23, 2004 RAMALLAH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas, the newly named head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, vowed today to pursue Yasser Arafat's goals of achieving a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and securing a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees. Abbas, nominated by leaders of the PLO's dominant Fatah movement as its candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority, in effect launched his election campaign with a speech during a memorial ceremony for Arafat.

This is a container for those random posts I 'm fairly pleased with.

Felons list audit faults state [Registration required] A new state audit criticized how Florida put together a central voter database and a felons list that was sent to election supervisors this year. BY GARY FINEOUT [email protected] TALLAHASSEE - A new audit shows that Florida's attempt to rid the voting rolls of felons this past election season was marred by lax oversight by the Department of State, which failed to follow legal settlements and relied on seriously flawed data when it put together the controversial felons list. The audit, conducted by Kirby Mole, the inspector general who reports directly to Secretary of State Glenda Hood, says no evidence exists to suggest that state officials deliberately intended to purge black voters more aggressively than Hispanic voters.

Quote of note:

How many injured and ill soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines - like Chris Schneider - are left off the Pentagon’s casualty count?

Would you believe 15,000? 60 Minutes asked the Department of Defense to grant us an interview. They declined. Instead, they sent a letter, which contains a figure not included in published casualty reports: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."

Many of those evacuated are brought to Landstuhl in Germany. Most cases are not life-threatening. In fact, some are not serious at all. But only 20 percent return to their units in Iraq. Among the 80 percent who don’t return are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinal injuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases. None of these are included in the casualty count, leaving the true human cost of the war something of a mystery.

Iraq: The Uncounted

You, too, are hauling your carcass that distance. And you got bigger logistics problems than the people who, after all, are at home. Offensive Launched South of Baghdad More Than 5,000 U.S., British and Iraqi Troops Involved in Raids By Anthony Shadid Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, November 23, 2004; 1:05 PM BAGHDAD, Nov. 23 -- More than 5,000 U.S., British and Iraqi troops launched an offensive Tuesday against a swath of territory south of Baghdad where armed insurgents have roamed through the streets, imposed stringent Islamic law and carried out kidnappings and summary executions at checkpoints along the main roads. The campaign began with a series of raids this morning in Jabala, a town east of the most restive region, which Iraqis have dubbed the "Triangle of Death." The U.S. military said in a statement that it had detained 32 men believed to be insurgents. In the past three weeks, it said, U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested nearly 250 insurgents.

Nearly Half of HIV Adults Are Women, Report Says By Patricia Reaney Reuters Tuesday, November 23, 2004; 9:52 AM LONDON, Nov 23 - Women make up nearly half of the 37.2 million adults living with HIV and in sub-Saharan Africa the proportion rises to almost 60 percent, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. "Increasingly the face of AIDS is young and female," said Dr Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Kevin Drum

IS OUR ADULTS LEARNED?....In a recent Gallup survey, only 35% of Americans said they believed evolution was "a scientific theory well-supported by evidence." The other 65% either disagreed or weren't sure. Depressing, isn't it? Maybe so, but on the scale of human ignorance, is it really that bad? After all, according to an NSF survey done in 2001, 25% of Americans think the sun goes around the earth. That's depressing.

Abiola at Foreign Dispatches is right

I do think it's telling just how little people manage to retain of the science they learned in school, and I offer it as more ammunition in support of the contention that what schools ought to most concentrate on is teaching the capacity to think critically, not a Gradgrindian stuffing of students' heads full of facts they'll forget soon afterwards.

Ambra at nykola.com is right.

I believe the Creed of the Modern Thinker is applicable to the cause of liberal morality:

"Everything is okay as long as you don't hurt anyone to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your knowledge."

Poppycock.

It IS poppycock. Because she just defined Libertarianism, not liberal morality.

Stop Relying On The Party (Or, How We Can Win) As this Brand Democrat deal has ramped up - way more than I ever expected - I keep hearing from the odd person or two that I should take this to the DNC or Dean or Other Important Democrat. Why? I'd be thrilled if the official Democratic Party adopted some of the ideas we've presented or if President Clinton called me up tomorrow, but that's beside the point. Stop waiting for the party to fix things, because that's not going to happen. Yes, they have a lot of power, but they are nothing without us, their constituency. When the GOP was the party essentially lost in the wilderness, post-Goldwater, Republicans didn't sit around waiting for the RNC to craft a strategy for them. They went ahead and did it anyway. Some of the things worked, some of them didn't. The things that worked caught on, and were integrated into the party message and ideology - this is the opportunity we have now.

I don't think Atrios will mind my lifting the entirety of this post. Requisite hat tip to Republic of T.

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Marriage Rights Re-run

I've noticed that with many issues, during the peak of discussion/debate, people get a bit smarter about them but then as the issue fades away the stupids begin to take hold of the issue again and discussion of it gets dumber and dumber.


Two big myths about the rights (and responsibilities) conferred by marriage are that they a) can mostly be duplicated by private contract between two parties or b) are almost purely financial. These are both false, as a great number of rights given to people once they have a state-sanctioned marriage are specific rights granted by the state which could not possibly be duplicated by contract and which are not simply financial issues such as tax treatment. In addition, many of the falsely named anti-marriage amendments will make illegal plenty of arrangements would be possible simply through private contracting...

So, to remind us, I'll rerun a post I did awhile back:

In 1999, the GAO prepared a report listing all of the rights and benefits of civil marriage. They came up with 1,049 of them. You can read their list here.


Here's a shorter list. Obviously, if gay people had these rights civilization would end.

This is from tonypierce.com + busblog. It all appeared contiguously ina single post, but blockquoting it like this, it's like found poetry.

somebody asked me in the comments why i was defending ron artest even though i have often said that as a Christian i believe in Jesus's invitation to turn the other cheek. and i can understand the gentleman's confusion. and good for him for paying attention because i believe the context of my writing about turning the other cheek was in regards to the pro-war red staters who, along with the president, identify themselves as Christian even though Christians believe in turning the other cheek. so, the question must be, how can i defend ron artest for attacking those who didnt strike him first, while not supporting president bush for doing the same thing to iraq?

In commenting on Universities Record Drop In Black Admissions, Molotov says:

We predict that the black graduation rate will significantly increase, because of the better match between schools and students' abilities. Affirmative action costs blacks in future income, because unqualified folks at certain elite schools drop out when they would have done well at other academic institutions.

This is absurd.

It seems they've found the guy that threw the first beer on Artest. I saw more of the mess on CNN this morning and noticed something interesting. Check this clip at Cincinnati Black Blog. If you ignore the amusing special effect, you'll see the first guy Artest charged, the guy in the blue smock, just turned Artest's forward motion toward some hapless random individual. The guy in the blue smock is a cop. Has "POLICE," all caps, printed on his back.

E. J. Dionne's Talking Sense On Court Choices in today's Washington Post is a good read. It's about issues raised by Justice Stephen Breyer in a series of lectures at Harvard University, specifically on the error that is strict constructionism (it seems the good Justice was less direct than I in his description, but he gotta work with them folks).

Breyer's master concept is "active liberty." He argues that the point of our Constitution is democracy -- to guarantee "the principle of participatory self-government" that gives the people "room to decide and leeway to make mistakes." He suggests that justices who focus primarily on the Constitution's text and "the Framers' original expectations narrowly conceived" miss the Founders' basic intention. Their purpose, Breyer says, was "to create a framework for democratic government -- a government that, while protecting basic individual liberties, permits citizens to govern themselves, and to govern themselves effectively."

Attempt to Block Rule On Overtime Thwarted Provision Deleted From Spending Bill By Amy Joyce Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page E03 An attempt to block the Bush administration's proposed changes in overtime rules was killed before the 2005 spending bill received final congressional approval over the weekend. Democrats attached an amendment to the Senate's version of the bill that would have overturned the overtime regulations, which went into effect in August. The amendment, which would have prevented any worker previously covered by overtime from losing that protection, was deleted in a conference committee. The White House had threatened to veto the entire $388 billion spending bill if the overtime amendment was included.

Poul Anderson wrote one of my favorite novels, Brain Wave. It's out of print and only available as an downloadable secured ebook. In the book, the motion, materials and energies of the galaxy are such that a field that suppresses a broad class of reactions is generated and the Earth happened to be in that field when life developed. Then the Earth came out of that field, and neural activity was greatly affected…anything with a brain got massively more intelligent. One of the lead characters is developmentally disabled, and this is how he experienced the change:

It was funny the way he kept thinking things tonight. Usually he just went along, especially when he was as tired as now, but - maybe it was the moon - he kept remembering bits of things, and words sort of formed themselves in his head like someone was talking. He thought about his bed and how nice it would have been to drive home from work; only of course he got sort of mixed up when driving, and there´d been a couple of smashups. Funny he should have done that, because all at once it didn´t seem so hard: just a few signals to learn, and you kept your eyes open, and that was all.

Around September of last year a number of media outlets made of point of decrying identity politics. Partly inspired by the flap over MEChA during Cruz Bustamente's run for Governor in California, identity politics was cast as the reason Progressives didn't connect with the mainstream. Well, it turns out all politics are identity politics and as proof I present Mr. Barak Obama. Obama's bipartisan appeal is blatantly race-based. The power of his oratory is based partly in what he says and partly in the fact that a Black man is saying it.

Here's the interesting thing though: You can't slide the deuce of spades between what Obama's and Powell's biographies represent to the America and American politics.

Both men have a biography that is part Abraham Lincoln allegory, part child-of-immigrant-makes-good story, and part rags-to-riches story all. It's everything every American wants to believe every American can achieve because most Americans, irrespective of race or politics, really do identify with the nation. That identification is why we all find racism so embarrassing.

I just read an email exchange wherein a public figure was said not to be Black, irrespective of physical evidence. Which, of course, evoked the "what is Black anyway" question, and the "well, certainly not you" rejoinder, and aahhh…

Can we all agree it's possible for a Black person to be totally fucked up? That way we don't have to have the discussion about whether or not to "de-list" they ass. We just get on with identifying and responding to the error.

And while I'm at it, can we agree that an editorial cartoon of, say, Dr. Condoleeza Rice that did NOT have prominent lips and a gap in the teeth would not be recognized? Since I'm addressing silly distractions that should never have been considered seriously in the first place, I just though I'd mention that.

via Oliver Willis:

MALKIN’S OUT: Sometime back, Molly Ivins was dropped as a regular on The Pilot’s op-ed page for being “too stridently anti-Bush,” to quote Hartig’s e-mail letter to Lilley.

Michelle Malkin had been added, giving another voice to the conservatives. But readers often took issue with her seemingly mean-spirited rantings and suggested that she be dropped.

Well, she’s outta here, silenced for being “too stridently anti-liberal,” the assessment of the editorial board, Hartig said.

“I was really put off by her penchant for name-calling and ad hominem attack. I think we can do much better,” said editorial writer Don Luzzatto.

Says fellow editorial writer Bronwyn Lance Chester: “I think she habitually mistakes shrill for thought-provoking and substitutes screaming for discussion. She’s an Asian Ann Coulter.

“I also think that, like Coulter, she says outrageous things just to get TV appearances and book deals. She’s the worst of what’s wrong with punditry today. She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse.”

Hopefully it's the start of a trend.

Quote of note:

In a statement, Traffic said it was "determined to promote the title respectfully," given the sensitivity of the subject.

That's actually not possible.

Anyway…

'Docu-game' recreates JFK assassination
Associated Press
Published on: 11/21/04

GLASGOW, Scotland — A British company said Sunday it was releasing a video game recreating the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.

The Glasgow-based firm Traffic said "JFK Reloaded" was an educational "docu-game" that would help disprove conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death. The game is due to be released Monday, the 41st anniversary of the shooting in Dallas.

Traffic said the game challenged players to recreate the three shots fired at the president's car by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository.

If there was no desire to look at anyone's tax return, the provision would not have been there.

If it were so innocent, it would never have been said some anonymous staffer stuck it in when no one was looking.

Mr. Scofield said he found it strange that senators felt they were taken by surprise. He noted that the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Bill Young, Republican of Florida, had discussed it briefly on the House floor, and that the language had been available since Thursday for Senate staff members to read.

So stop, okay?

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G.O.P. Says Motive for Tax Clause in Budget Bill Was Misread

Quote of note:

Civil rights cases made up a tiny fraction of the Justice Department's total of 99,341 criminal prosecutions in 2003. The study found, however, that only civil rights and environmental prosecutions were down from 1999 to 2003 as the total caseload rose by about 10 percent.

Enforcement of Civil Rights Law Declined Since '99, Study Finds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (AP) - Federal enforcement of civil rights laws has dropped sharply since 1999, as the level of complaints received by the Justice Department has remained relatively constant, according a study released Sunday.

Criminal charges of civil rights violations were brought against 84 defendants last year, down from 159 in 1999, according to Justice Department data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

G.O.P. Constituencies Split on Tax Change
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 - Stephen Moore, the president of a conservative fund-raising group, wants to overhaul the tax code. So do Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group.

They just don't agree on how to do it.

Even though it will be months before President Bush proposes an overhaul of the income tax, key Republican groups are already divided about how or even whether to proceed. Regardless of which path Mr. Bush pursues, he is likely to be pulled by conflicts between parts of his political base.

John McCain:

MR. RUSSERT: More American troops? SEN. McCAIN: I've said that for--since a year ago last August. MR. RUSSERT: How many more do you think we need, Senator, in all honesty? SEN. McCAIN: I would say at least 40,000 or 50,000 more, but... MR. RUSSERT: Where are you going to find them? SEN. McCAIN: I think you can find them, but it's an enormous strain. We also have to plan on increasing the size of the Army and the Marine Corps. Among others, General McCaffrey is a guy I admire. He says the--you need to increase the Army by about 80,000 and the Marines by 20,000 to 30,000. I don't dispute that. He and others tell me that that's about the right numbers.

And this is for Iraq.

Education today: readin', writin', rentin' Goal is to get kids in top public schools - Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, November 22, 2004 The Anderson family, fresh from Texas, figured they would rent a place in Orinda for six months and then buy a home. Nearly six years later, they're in their fourth rental and have experienced everything from ancient kitchens to raw sewage in their showers in a house they dubbed "Andersonville Horror." And yet they continue to rent for one simple reason: The schools in this wealthy East Bay suburb are among the best in the state. "Whatever it takes," said Melanie Anderson, who stays at home to care for the couple's two school age children. "If we have to keep renting, we will keep renting."

It Doesn't End With Fallouja November 22, 2004 A Marine general commented last week after his men ousted nearly all Iraqi guerrillas from Fallouja that the two weeks of fighting had "broken the back of the insurgency." If only it were that simple. Marines did a good job of purging enemies from the city, but as the general spoke, flames and smoke rose in other Sunni Triangle cities in the north and west; foreigners and Iraqis were beheaded, shot or killed by suicide bombers; and political parties vowed to boycott national elections that the Bush administration has put forth as a harbinger of democracy in a nation where the concept is a stranger. More than 50 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Fallouja fight, which began Nov. 8 in one of the cities where Sunni Muslims are the majority, and the U.S. death toll in Iraq has now passed 1,200. An estimated 1,200 insurgents were killed in Fallouja as well.

Quote of note:

In the Compton Courthouse, the barriers between people that exist elsewhere seem to have been reconfigured into one enormous, invisible shield—with lawyers and judges, clerks and court reporters all together on the same side. Public defenders vie for Compton assignments because jurors here are more likely to be wary of the police and to sympathize with defendants. They love to tell the story of the colleague whose homeless client was charged with felony assault for allegedly pelting police officers with rocks. He concluded his closing argument with: "Wah, wah, wah." (His client was acquitted of the charge.) "If you've been through the rabbit hole the other way, you tend to have a different take on things," says Andy Thorpe, a longtime public defender. Prosecutors seek out Compton because a win here enhances their credibility. "I tell my trial lawyers if they can successfully prosecute a case in Compton," Kay says, "they can do it anywhere."

I know Germany is considering pretty much abandoning the U.S. capital markets. They say it's just as easy and less stressful to raise capital elsewhere. That would be bad. I know that even discussing the possibility of a run on dollars means things are really iffy. I know the handling (or non-handling) of any future invasions and the national debt and deficit will be what the world watches. What I don't know, given that it's human reactions more than rational economic considerations that drive decisions, is what is the tipping point? Worldwide effects of sinking dollar Its decline to a nine-year low is impacting everything from the price of goods at Wal-Mart to the vigor of Europe's economy. By David R. Francis | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Powell Starts New Mideast Peace Mission Powell Tries to Revive Mideast Peace Talks As Israel Weighs West Bank Pullback Before Elections The Associated Press Nov. 21, 2004 - Secretary of State Colin Powell embarked Sunday on a mission to revive the Middle East peace process after Yasser Arafat's death, saying he will ask Israel to help with the upcoming Palestinian election to pick a successor. Israel said it would consider pulling back troops from disputed areas in the West Bank. On his way to the Middle East, Powell told reporters on his plane that U.S.-Palestinian cooperation in setting up the elections "will encourage a degree of cooperation that can spread into other areas." "This is a moment of opportunity," Powell said. "I'll be encouraging both sides to do everything they can to make sure that this election comes off and that the maximum number of Palestinians get the opportunity to participate."

Bush fund-raisers won appointments Many recognized after 2000 race By Sharon Theimer, Associated Press | November 21, 2004 WASHINGTON -- One-third of President Bush's top fund-raisers during his 2000 campaign or their spouses were appointed to positions in his first administration, from ambassadorships in Europe to seats on policy-setting boards, an Associated Press review found. The perks for 246 ''pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 also included overnight stays at the White House and Camp David, parties at the White House and Bush's Texas ranch, state dinners with world leaders, and overseas travel with US delegations to the Olympics and other events, the review found.

Quote of note:

His idea was a twist on the current technique for research cloning. Before implanting the DNA from a skin cell into an egg, scientists would turn off a gene that helps direct the formation of the trophectoderm, an outer layer of cells that is crucial in the first stages of development and which eventually forms the placenta. With this gene silenced, the trophectoderm does not form properly. All the cells eventually die, but scientists can still harvest embryonic-type stem cells from the mass, according to Dr. Felix Beck, a professor at the University of Leicester and one of the authors of a scientific paper in May that described how the gene affects the trophectoderm in mice. "The embryo is forming," Hurlbut said. "And unless it forms itself properly, it is not an embryo."

Quote of note:

During one recent meeting, scientists disagreed on such basic issues as whether it would be unethical for a human embryo to begin its development in an animal's womb, and whether a mouse would be better or worse off with a brain made of human neurons. "This is an area where we really need to come to a reasonable consensus," said James Battey, chairman of the National Institutes of Health's Stem Cell Task Force. "We need to establish some kind of guidelines as to what the scientific community ought to do and ought not to do."

Of mice, men and in-between Scientists debate blending of human, animal forms By Rick Weiss In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood in their veins.

NFL dropout Ricky Williams chilling in Sierra He's been found studying the healing arts - Tom FitzGerald, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, November 21, 2004 Grass Valley , Nevada County -- He's no longer Ricky Williams the football player. He plans to become Ricky Williams the holistic healer. It's been more than 10 months since Williams, one of the premier running backs in the National Football League, last ran off tackle for the Miami Dolphins and four months since he suddenly announced his retirement at age 27. Then he dropped from sight. But now Williams has turned up about as far away from professional football as you can get, as a student of the ancient Indian medical system known as Ayurveda. In the Sierra foothills, no less.

Falwell's School Joins Others in Teaching Law to Their Flocks The legal program at the reverend's university represents the latest effort by the religious right to change American society. By Emma Schwartz Times Staff Writer November 21, 2004 LYNCHBURG, Va. — What Debra Meador read disturbed her. It didn't seem right that schoolchildren were once barred from holding prayer groups after class. Or that the Ten Commandments couldn't be displayed in a government building. So at 34, the human relations specialist from Lynchburg made good on a longtime interest by enrolling in law school. But unlike most prospective lawyers, she applied to only one place.

Wal-Mart Effect Moves Into the Grocery Aisle A Supercenter is changing shopping habits in the Coachella Valley …A typical Supercenter does $400,000 a week in food sales, said Jonathan Ziegler of PUPS Investment Management in Santa Barbara. At that rate, he said, the La Quinta store will siphon about $20 million a year in food sales from grocery stores in the area. But at the same time, the Supercenter will bring in as much as $850,000 a year in municipal sales tax revenue, the city of La Quinta calculates. And it laid out the welcome mat, giving the developer $2 million in infrastructure improvements as an incentive.

How much sales tax revenue did the stores that are having $20,000,000 a year in sales siphoned from them bring in?

Bill Clears Way for Government to Cut Back College Loans By GREG WINTER and DIANA JEAN SCHEMO The federal government will be able to require millions of college students to shoulder more of the cost of their education under the new spending bill approved yesterday by the House and Senate. The government moved to change its formula for college aid last year, but was blocked by Congress. Now, however, no such language appears in the appropriations bill lawmakers are considering, clearing the way for the government to scale back college grants for hundreds of thousands of low-income students. Nearly 100,000 more students may lose their federal grants entirely, as Congress considers legislation that could place more of the financial burden for college on students and their families.

Mr. Bush's Better World Sunday, November 21, 2004; Page B06 THE BUSH administration shrugged its shoulders last week at the genocide in Sudan's western province of Darfur. At an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. Security Council in Kenya, it sponsored a resolution that not only failed to advance those that passed in July and September but actually stepped back. The veiled threat of sanctions on Sudan's government was dropped. So was the demand that Sudan's government disarm and prosecute its allies in the Janjaweed death squads, which have burned villages, raped and murdered their inhabitants, and left nearly 2 million people homeless and at risk of starvation. The Bush administration presents this abdication as a triumph. It argues that, by tolerating a weak U.N. resolution on Darfur, it was able to secure a unanimous 15-0 Security Council vote and that this may bring about peace in the separate conflict between Sudan's Muslim-led northern government and the Christian and animist southern rebels.

The Washington Post Ombudsman on those cartoons of Dr. Rice that so perturbs people who really don't like any other Black folks:

I could tell from the mail I got, particularly on the Rall drawing, that at least some of it was from people who had been told about it and were probably part of a campaign, although clearly many people didn't need anyone to tell them what to do. Setting aside last week's episode, this kind of thing has happened before in which a special-interest group picks something that appeared only on the paper's Web site and uses it as part of a campaign or mass e-mailing to make a point. That damages the paper in the process because large numbers of people are told that something appeared in The Post. On the other hand, as one reader argues, "The Post's responsibility is the same regardless of where the strip appeared."

Children Pay Cost of Iraq's Chaos Malnutrition Nearly Double What It Was Before Invasion By Karl Vick Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, November 21, 2004; Page A01 BAGHDAD -- Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government. After the rate of acute malnutrition among children younger than 5 steadily declined to 4 percent two years ago, it shot up to 7.7 percent this year, according to a study conducted by Iraq's Health Ministry in cooperation with Norway's Institute for Applied International Studies and the U.N. Development Program. The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from "wasting," a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.

The Power-Values Approach to Policy Move to State Raises Rice's Profile By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 21, 2004; Page A08 Condoleezza Rice, whom President Bush nominated last week as his next secretary of state, was pegged early in her career as a disciple of the "realist" school exemplified by Henry A. Kissinger, more concerned with great-power relations than moral issues. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, she has been viewed as an enabler of the "neoconservative idealism" that believes evil governments must be confronted -- and toppled.

I think I'd like to hear that from Dr. Rice's own mouth.

At their core, her speeches and writings reveal a determined individual willing to knock aside established doctrines, especially in this period of international turmoil, but grounded in a strong belief in American values and the essential good of U.S. power.

Congress Agrees on Tight Budget for U.S.
$388 Billion Spending Bill Bars Officials From Requiring Abortion Services

By Dan Morgan and Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 21, 2004; Page A01

Congress reached final agreement last night on a $388 billion spending bill funding 13 government departments and dozens of domestic agencies in 2005, after last-minute objections from abortion rights advocates threatened to delay or derail the entire measure.

House passage came on a vote of 344 to 51. Later in the evening, the Senate gave its approval, 65 to 30.

I'm sorry but the Democrats wimped out again.

The abortion language remained in the spending bill, but late yesterday, Senate opponents agreed not to block its consideration after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) promised to schedule a vote in the near future on a bill drafted by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to repeal the provision.

They settled for a promise to vote on repealing the provision some time in the future.

I'm investing in coat hanger manufacturers.