When George reported on Eric Rice's problem with Google's beta search that suggests what you might be looking for I dashed over to look up my name.

I'm safe.

Quote of note

The beating allegedly occurred on Aug. 22, 2003 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while the inmate was handcuffed and lying chest down on the ground under the physical control of two other correction officers, prosecutors said.

Justin Volpe was is a Staten Islander too.

Anyway…

Prison guard charged with violating prisoner's civil rights
December 10, 2004, 6:44 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) _ A federal Bureau of Prisons lieutenant was charged in an indictment with violating an inmate's civil rights by injuring him with excessive force at a Manhattan prison, prosecutors said Friday.

Quote of note:

“In mainstream American society and culture, whiteness remains an ever-present and unexamined state of mind and body, a powerful norm so pervasive that it is rarely acknowledged or even named,” says guest curator Maurice Berger. “By refusing to mark whiteness—to assign it meaning—we are also refusing to see a vital part of the interpersonal and social relations of race. In the end, any discussion of race that does not include an analysis of whiteness will be, at best, incomplete. ”

Photo Exhibit Examines Race and Racism
Dec 10, 2004 2:57 pm US/Eastern

It's the part of the conversation on race that doesn't usually get talked about -- what it means to be white.

But whiteness as a racial category is a crucial part of the discussion, said the curator of a new exhibition that focuses on the topic.

"It's assumed on the part of many white Americans that it's the job of people of color to deal with the issue of racism," said Maurice Berger, curator of "White: Whiteness and Race in Contemporary Art," which opened Friday at the International Center of Photography.

"What I'm arguing is that since white people are part of the structure of race and racism…that white people and whiteness itself must come into the dialogue fully, openly, in order for us to have hope that certain kinds of prevailing attitudes and ideas are going to change."

The show, featuring 10 pieces ranging from photo essays to sculpture and video, will be shown at the ICP through Feb. 27.

ColdType.net has a bag of articles, essays and ebooks and such, Adobe Acrobat format and free for downloading.

I actually went there to check out Target Iraq: What The News Media Didn't Tell You by Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich. I wound up reading a lot of Joe Bageant's stuff.

Evangelical born-again Christians of one stripe or another were then, and are now, 40% of the electorate, and they support Bush 3-1. And as long as their clergy and their worst instincts tell them to, they will keep on voting for him,or someone like him,regardless of what we view as his arrogant folly and sub-intelligence. Forget about changing their minds.These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything remotely resembling reasonably balanced sources and, in fact, consider even CBS and NBC superliberal networks of porn and the Devil’s lies. Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld’s Holy War and their absolute duty as God’s chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. In other words, just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal.

The P.U.-litzer Prizes For 2004
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet
Posted on December 10, 2004, Printed on December 11, 2004

The P.U.-litzer Prizes were established a dozen years ago to provide special recognition for truly smelly media performances. As usual, I've conferred with Jeff Cohen, founder of the media watch group FAIR, to sift through the large volume of entries.

And now, the 13th Annual P.U.-litzer Prizes, for the foulest media performances of 2004:

Real Reform for Social Security
By DAVID BROOKS

Before we get lost in the policy details, let's be clear about what this Social Security reform debate is really about. It's about the market. People who instinctively trust the markets support the Bush reform ideas, and people who are suspicious oppose them.

Close.

People who instinctively trust the markets support the Bush reform ideas. People who realize instinct isn't a sound basis for economic policy oppose them.

The people setting the tone for the opposition to the Bush Social Security effort depict the financial markets as huge, organized scams where the rich prey upon the weak. Their phrases are already familiar: a risky scheme, Enron accounting, a gift to the securities industry, greedy speculators preying upon Grandma's pension.

Quote of note:

What I am trying to demean is the idea that we have a powerful coalition behind us: of the 28 allied countries that still have troops in Iraq at this moment, only eight have more than 500. Most are there as window dressing. And because of language and equipment difficulties, some contingents - like Macedonia's 28 or Kazakhstan's 29 - may be more trouble than they are worth.

Brother, Can You Spare a Brigade?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

VILNIUS, Lithuania

My (unsanctioned) mission on behalf of President Bush to drum up more coalition troops for Iraq is finally paying off.

I'm now at the end of my four-nation tour of the "coalition of the willing" (I'm skipping such other important members as Tonga, with 45 troops in Iraq, and Moldova, with 12). Since the White House has emphasized how firmly our partners are standing behind us, I interviewed the leaders of the Baltic nations and tried to get each of them to commit to sending 1,000 or more troops.

Beggar, Serf, Soldier, Child
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

DAKAR, Senegal — They stand at my taxi window, scrawny and unwashed, holding up empty tomato tin cans. They scratch their scabby arms. They wipe their running noses. Listlessly, they chant verses from the Koran. More often, they dispense with the formalities and beg: "Cent francs, ma tante, cent francs, cent francs."

These are the talibes, or beggar boys, of Senegal, dispatched onto the streets by religious leaders, called marabouts, and ordered to collect a daily quota ranging from 250 francs to 650 francs (50 cents to $1.30), along with whatever else is dropped in their tin cans: sugar cubes, biscuits, milk powder, kola nuts. If they fail, they face a beating.

Quote of note:

Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., has no immediate plans to pull the CDs from its shelves, spokesman Guy Whitcomb told The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail. He said the company will investigate the allegations.

Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics
Fri Dec 10,11:54 PM ET
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which promotes itself as a seller of clean music, deceived customers by stocking compact discs by the rock group Evanescence that contain the f-word, a lawsuit claims

The hit group's latest CD and DVD, "Anywhere But Home," don't carry parental advisory labels alerting potential buyers to the obscenity. If they did, Wal-Mart wouldn't carry them, according to the retailer's policy.

The TEXTFILES.COM BBS Timeline
A Collection of Events and Infamy of BBS History

Welcome to TIMELINE.TEXTFILES.COM.

This site is affiliated with the BBS documentary currently in pre-production. To ensure that the documentary covers as many aspects of the story of the BBS as possible, it is vital that a good solid chunk of history research be done. This site has been put up as an aid to coming up with a good linear timeline of the events of BBSes over the past 25 years.

I am asking anyone associated with BBSes to look over this timeline, let me know about any major events that have occured that I've missed, and generally send in corrections and suggestions. While it will never be truly complete, it can serve as an excellent jumping-off point for more research.

Doubts Are Raised on Push for Anthrax Vaccine
By ERIC LIPTON

In ordering a new $877 million anthrax vaccine last month, the federal government said it was a major step toward creating a "bioshield" to protect Americans from germ warfare. But delivering that protection may be difficult: the vaccine is unproven in humans, the maker has legal and accounting troubles, and health officials are not prepared to distribute the vaccine quickly if it is needed.

Bush administration officials, as well as the top executives at VaxGen, the manufacturer in California, say they are confident they can fulfill their promise.

A Tribe in Botswana Follows a Leader Called Woman
By SHARON LaFRANIERE

AMOTSWA, Botswana - Mosadi Seboko's first name is not really a name. Rather, it is a reflection of her father's shock when he first saw her. Translated from Setswana, the local language here, it means simply "woman."

Her father was chief of the Baletes, one of the eight major tribes of Botswana, who settled in this region just south of the nation's capital, Gaborone, more than a century ago. In the Balete royal family, it is a given that the chief's firstborn child will be a boy so that he can inherit the throne.

"My dad said: 'Well, it's a woman. What can I do? It's my child,' " Ms. Seboko said.

Quote of note:

Now things are very different. The typical American employer is no longer General Motors. It is Wal-Mart. Private businesses are providing their workers with less and less in the form of defined-benefit pensions, health insurance, and other forms of insurance against life’s economic risks.

Social Democracy, Anyone?
J. Bradford DeLong
December 10, 2004

…The post-WWII period stands as a reference point in America’s collective memory, but it was in all likelihood an aberration. In the early postwar decades, foreign competition exerted virtually no pressure on the economy, owing to the isolation of America’s continental market from the devastation of WWII. At the same time, the war left enormous pent-up demand for the products of mass production: cars, washing machines, refrigerators, lawn mowers, television sets and more.

DAVID BROOKS: No, listen. In times of war... snafus are invented in times of warfare. I'm not going to defend and say they were prepared or they're armored up as well as they can be, but the idea where we've never had a war where the equipment hasn't been unbelievably ill prepared in some way or another, that's just part of warfare. And surprises happen. This is something the U.S. military was unprepared for.

What Donald Rumsfeld is doing, by the way, and most of his life, is not running this war. It's not like the secretary of defense sits there and runs a war. What the secretary of defense spends most of his time this thing called the quadrennial review, which is planning for next war. What do we need? And I think one of the things Rumsfeld is doing and probably the reason he stayed is

Rumsfeld's exchange with the troops

MARK SHIELDS: Jim, you remember John Kerry's answer on the $87 bill appropriation: First I voted for it then I voted against it?

JIM LEHRER: I do remember that.

MARK SHIELDS: Okay. I think John Kerry does, too. As you know, you go to war not with the army you might wish to have but with the army you have -- might want to have at a future date. This war, Donald Rumsfeld knows and the president knows and everybody else knows, was not in response to firing at Fort Sumter or the invasion across the 38th Parallel in Korea or Pearl Harbor.

This was a war of the timing and location of which was totally a choice of the administration. They'd been planning it, according to Bob Woodward, from September 2001. The idea that today barely over half of American military vehicles in Iraq are armored when one half of all the people you saw listed first at the head of the show, almost 1300 dead Americans, close to 10,000 wounded, one half of them have been wounded by improvised explosive devices, all right, but set off first by a radio signal, a phone signal, and the only thing that stops them are two: One is armor and two is a radio scanner.

Kerik Withdraws Name for Homeland Security Chief
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik abruptly withdrew his nomination as President Bush's choice to be homeland security secretary Friday night, saying questions have arisen about the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny he employed.

The decision caught the White House off guard and sent Bush in search of a new candidate to run the sprawling bureaucracy of more than 180,000 employees melded together from 22 disparate federal agencies in 2003.

Kerik informed Bush of his decision to withdraw in a telephone call at 8:30 p.m. EST. "I am convinced that, for personal reasons, moving forward would not be in the best interests of your administration, the Department of Homeland Security or the American people," Kerik said in a letter to the president.

You know Claude Steele brought the "stereotype threat" theory to light (I'd give you a link to the excellent article he wrote on the topic for The Atlantic Monthly, but after all these years they've decided to disappear their archives behind a financial firewall). It's a useful explanatory tool, though some would like to discredit the idea. It has been found applicable to women and mathematics, men and athletics, everyone, it seems, has some area in which they can be vulnerable to stereotype threat.

I believe the National Institute of Mental Health just documented the physical mechanism by which stereotype threat operates.

In the course of looking for something else which now slips my mind I ran across the American Journal of Public Health. I learned some things from the abstracts (the abstracts, mind you) of the December 2004 issue that made my jaw drop,

The Health Impact of Resolving Racial Disparities: An Analysis of US Mortality Data

Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, Robert E. Johnson, PhD, George E. Fryer, Jr, PhD, MSW, George Rust, MD, MPH and David Satcher, MD, PhD

The US health system spends far more on the "technology" of care (e.g., drugs, devices) than on achieving equity in its delivery. For 1991 to 2000, we contrasted the number of lives saved by medical advances with the number of deaths attributable to excess mortality among African Americans. Medical advances averted 176,633 deaths, but equalizing the mortality rates of Whites and African Americans would have averted 886,202 deaths. Achieving equity may do more for health than perfecting the technology of care.

More states roll back mandatory drug sentences
The move this week by New York, the pioneer of tough laws, reflects concern about prison overcrowding and 'fairness.'
By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

NEW YORK - New York's dramatic move this week to roll back its mandatory drug laws is symbolic of a growing movement in dozens of states to rethink how they deal with nonviolent drug offenders.

From California to New Jersey, lawmakers either are considering or have already taken steps to reduce sentences, replace prison time with drug treatment, and return some discretion to judges.

The movement is being driven by the desire to ease overcrowding in prisons and concern about the fairness of mandatory sentences. While not everyone agrees with the tilt, even some conservatives have joined the reformers, arguing that more needs to be done than just being tough on crime.

Pervasiveness of pills dulls outrage against steroid-using stars
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

OAKLAND, CALIF. – Amid the talk on the message boards of 4-lane.com about slugger Barry Bonds and what his hitting records should or should not mean, someone known as T_Rex paused:
"One thing that I find amusing is that the problem ... most people seem to have with steroids is that they're 'performance enhancing' drugs. Doesn't Creatine enhance performance by allowing athletes to build additional muscle mass? Creatine is legal and sold over the counter."

In his moment of reflection, T_Rex hit upon what is perhaps one of the most fundamental - and overlooked - aspects of the drug scandal now vexing American sports. For the past decade in particular, America's growing reliance on drugs may have blurred the line between what is cheating and what is simply an attempt to build a better body through chemistry.

Quote of note:

The booklet's other author, Steve Wilkins, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.

"Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

Potok said people who argue that the South should secede again have latched onto the writings of Wilson and Wilkins, which portray the Confederacy as the last true Christian civilization.

School defends slavery booklet
Critic says text is 'window dressing'

Here's some excerpts from a book that was, until yesterday being used by Cary Christian School to teach about American slavery.

'SOUTHERN SLAVERY, AS IT WAS'
Here are some excerpts from the booklet:

* "To say the least, it is strange that the thing the Bible condemns (slave-trading) brings very little opprobrium upon the North, yet that which the Bible allows (slave-ownership) has brought down all manner of condemnation upon the South." (page 22)

* "As we have already mentioned, the 'peculiar institution' of slavery was not perfect or sinless, but the reality was a far cry from the horrific descriptions given to us in modern histories." (page 22)

* "Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." (page 24)

* "There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world." (page 24)

* "Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." (page 25)

* "But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends." (page 27)

* "Nearly every slave in the South enjoyed a higher standard of living than the poor whites of the South -- and had a much easier existence." (page 30)

But this

And what about the issues specific to African Americans? Well, there are varying opinions on what Social Security means to blacks because of life span, education, access to financial support, etc. These questions and concerns need to be addressed, but when it comes down to it, I've got to stand on the side of privatization. I believe it is completely in line with American values for people who want more personal responsibility to be able to have it. To control my destiny is my right and I shouldn't be denied that right because guarantees can't be attached to it for myself or others.

is a total strawman.

Please, yes, control your destiny. No on prevents you from investing for your retirement.

via The Corsair I found this Drudge report:

RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!

When reached Thursday morning, various Chattanooga Times Free Press staffers offered 'no comment' on the development.

From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers

Subject: RE: Way to go

I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

Blogdigger, a blog search engine, has a media search engine.

That page also has links to RSS feeds listing their latest finds by media type. I understand they allow for enclosures. Not sure how that plays with dialup users but they'll be a rare species in the next few years, I suspect. And I'm not sure the BitTorrent feed is a good idea…it will be tagged as a piracy enabler. But it is (or can be) a useful service.

Zimbabwe to Outlaw Groups That Promote Human Rights
By MICHAEL WINES

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 9 - Zimbabwe's Parliament approved legislation on Thursday that would effectively outlaw foreign or foreign-supported nongovernmental organizations, groups that have pressed for broader human-rights guarantees in President Robert G. Mugabe's authoritarian government.

This legislation and a sheaf of other proposals restricting domestic freedoms have been denounced by human-rights activists, who say the measures are part of a broader plan to suppress opposition political activity before elections in March.

But Mr. Mugabe, who has railed against what he calls a Western plot to restore colonial rule, has accused foreign-backed civic groups of being "conduits of interference in our national efforts."

Inverted quote of note:

"Extreme special-interest groups supported my nomination primarily due to their hostility to any nominee with strong convictions on religious tolerance, who personally disagrees with them on abortion, marriage and references to God at public ceremonies and institutions," Judge Pickering wrote in a statement, issued late Wednesday. "These far-right groups cowed Republican leadership into opposing my nomination. In doing so, they pushed those senators out of the American mainstream, some out of their Senate seats, and the Republican Party out of entire regions of the country."

Just as true, no?

Anyway…

A Judge Appointed by Bush After Impasse in Senate Retires

Yeah, it's really Paul Krugman.

Borrow, Speculate and Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN

The National Association of Securities Dealers," The Wall Street Journal reports, "is investigating whether some brokerage houses are inappropriately pushing individuals to borrow large sums on their houses to invest in the stock market." Can we persuade the association to investigate would-be privatizers of Social Security?

For it is now apparent that the Bush administration's privatization proposal will amount to the same thing: borrow trillions, put the money in the stock market and hope.

Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government, already deep in deficit, would have to borrow to make up the shortfall.

Nuns group dismisses plan for drawing out abuse victims
Activist decries 'hurtful' response
By Caryle Murphy, Washington Post | December 10, 2004

WASHINGTON -- An association representing 75,000 Roman Catholic nuns has rejected a proposal from a victims advocacy group designed to encourage people who were sexually molested by nuns to come forward and get help.

The proposal was presented to officials of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a Silver Spring, Md., umbrella group of women's religious orders, by representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, when the two sides met privately in Chicago on Oct. 3.

Consumer Reports turns focus to prescription drugs
By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff | December 10, 2004

What Consumer Reports does for dishwashers, digital cameras, and automobiles, it now plans to do for prescription drugs.

Publishers of the nonprofit magazine yesterday launched an initiative to compare the effectiveness and cost of prescription drugs to help patients navigate in a world of skyrocketing costs, heavy advertising, and occasionally dangerous side effects.

The move is part of a broad trend toward putting more responsibility for healthcare in the hands of consumers. If successful, it will help bridge the gap between the information provided in dense medical journals and the 60-second television spots aired by drug makers.

US stance on armor disputed
Company says vehicle orders waiting for OK
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | December 10, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Despite Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's assertion that the military is outfitting Humvees with armor as quickly as possible, the company providing the vehicles said it has been waiting since September for approval from the Pentagon to increase monthly production by as many as 100 of the all-terrain vehicles, intended to protect against roadside bombs in Iraq.

Army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged yesterday that they have not approved new purchase orders for armored trucks, despite the company's readiness to produce more. They said the Pentagon has been debating how many more armored Humvees are needed.

Quote of note:

Twenty-five years after rap emerged as the musical creed of the inner city, it is the nation's fastest-growing musical genre. Nearly 70% of its sales are to white and suburban listeners.

The New Rap on Jesus
December 10, 2004

Moral values are turning up in the strangest places these days.

Among the songs most honored in this year's Grammy nominations is a rap tribute to Jesus Christ — a catchy, beat-driven rhyme that has garnered unexpected critical and commercial success in a genre best known for its profane promotion of sex, money, drugs and lawlessness.

Music critics are hailing the author of "Jesus Walks," songwriter and producer Kanye West, as the hottest new voice in rap and suggesting that his in-your-face embrace of religion signifies a break with tradition and the maturation of a musical form that has been narrowly defined by its outlaw culture.

OPEC May Act to Hold Cost of Oil Above $40
The cartel is expected to call for a production trim next year. The news helps send crude futures up in New York.
By Elizabeth Douglass
Times Staff Writer

December 10, 2004

A key OPEC minister said Thursday that the group would cut output next year in a bid to keep prices from sliding, and his comments had an effect, helping push oil above $42 a barrel in New York trading.

Sheik Ahmed Fahd al Ahmed al Sabah of Kuwait said ministers had decided to trim excess production to bring the group's actual output in line with its official ceiling of 27 million barrels a day. That would remove more than 1.5 million barrels a day from the world market.

D.A. Won't Retry Officers
The decision disposes of the last criminal case in the LAPD's Rampart scandal. A judge had overturned the three convictions in 2000.
By Matt Lait and Scott Glover
Times Staff Writers

December 10, 2004

The district attorney's office announced Thursday that it would not retry three Los Angeles Police Department officers who had been convicted of conspiring to frame gang members during the Rampart scandal but later had their convictions overturned by the trial judge.

The development, which disposes of the last remaining criminal case that had stemmed from the scandal, was applauded by attorneys for Sgts. Brian Liddy and Edward Ortiz and Officer Michael Buchanan, who saw it as a vindication of their clients' claims of innocence.

I've mentioned the need for two incomes is a bigger drag on the ability to raise kids the way Americans want them to be than any lack of interest or ability on the part of the parents. There are other, more fundamental challenges to tradition that aren't being looked at. I decided to write a bit about one when Janine at startle the echoes mentioned that her daughter has reached a milestone.

My daughter is not alone. Girls are getting their periods at eight and nine. Ten has become a norm. I don't know how everyone deals with it, especially with the stress of school and work. There's no time to talk. There's no real continuity. Out in the morning and see you again in the evening, hurry up and finish your homework so you can eat and head to bed. Argh.

Bush, Rumsfeld Try to Soothe Angry U.S. Troops
Thu Dec 9, 2004 12:53 PM ET
By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Thursday U.S. troop concerns about inadequate equipment for Iraq combat are being addressed and he did not blame soldiers for raising the issue with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A day after he was bombarded with criticism from U.S. soldiers based in Kuwait, Rumsfeld promised more would be done to protect forces and that steps were being taken to deal with explosive devices, a lead cause of death in Iraq, where more than 1,000 American soldiers have been killed in action.

The troop complaints put the administration on the defensive after Bush had rejected charges from Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry in the campaign for last month's election that military forces in Iraq did not have sufficient protection.

I think marriage should be defined as "a religious ritual affirming a civil union."

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada gave the federal government the go-ahead on Thursday to legalize gay marriage, prompting Prime Minister Paul Martin to announce plans to introduce a redefinition of marriage early next year.

But the court refused a government request to say the constitution required the legalization of gay marriage, stripping away a political weapon that would have made it easier to push its draft bill through Parliament.

It did rule that the constitution allowed the proposed redefinition of marriage as "the lawful union of two persons," while protecting the right of religious organizations to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

Strange-Voiced Whale at Large in the Ocean -Study
Wed Dec 8, 2004 02:01 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A lone whale, with a voice unlike any other, has been wandering the Pacific for the past 12 years, American marine biologists said Wednesday.

Using signals recorded by the US navy to track submarines, they traced the movement of whales in the Northern Pacific and found that a lone whale singing at a frequency of around 52 hertz has cruised the ocean since 1992.

Its calls, despite being clearly those of a baleen, do not match those of any known species of whale, which usually call at frequencies of between 15 and 20 hertz.

The mammal does not follow the migration patterns of any other species either, according to team leader Mary Anne Daher.

White House Backing Bolsters Snow's Credibility
Wed Dec 8, 2004 07:55 PM ET
By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House's tardy backing for Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose job future seemed in peril until Wednesday, may restore some lost luster to the post of top U.S. economic spokesman, analysts said.

But an untidy situation that was allowed to fester over the past week after a newspaper report quoted an unnamed White House official saying Snow could stay "provided it is not very long" has left bruises that will take time to fade.

The unheralded mid-afternoon announcement that Bush "asked Secretary Snow to continue serving in his second term" caught financial markets off guard, since speculation already had turned to who would replace him at Treasury's helm.

Quote of note:

Instead of assigning a five- or 10-year price tag, as Congress normally does, supporters of reform say Social Security should be viewed in the context of a 30-, 40- or 75-year budget window that takes into account the program’s impact over a lifetime.

“To look at this in short segments is shortsighted,” said Shaw, who is outgoing chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security. “You need to look at the overall liquidity of Social Security over a long period of time.”

I'm hoping every real economist in the world steps up to point out the impossibility of ten year forecast, much less a thirty year one.

You know, people need to start wondering what it will be like to live in the world our Conservative brethern are building…I'm not sure at all it's the one they envision.

Anyway…
Social Security numbers game
GOP ponders 30-year scoring rather than 10
By Peter Savodnik

'Retired' Rapper Finds a Job Atop Def Jam
By JEFF LEEDS and LOLA OGUNNAIKE

Proving yet again that he is the hardest-working retiree in the music industry, the rap star Jay-Z has agreed to become the president of Universal Music Group's Def Jam Recordings label.

The appointment, announced yesterday, puts Def Jam, the hip-hop label, in the hands of one of rap's biggest-selling artists. Universal, part of Vivendi Universal, will give Jay-Z, who has little corporate experience, the vacant top job at one of its biggest divisions, granting him authority over everything from album production to marketing strategies, and an artist roster that includes stars like LL Cool J and Ludacris.

Check this AP story, published last night at 8:30 pm

Sharpton got $86,715 in travel, consulting fees to campaign for Kerry
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

December 8, 2004, 6:12 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- All of John Kerry's one-time rivals in the Democratic presidential primary eventually lined up to support him as the nominee, but only one got paid for it _ Al Sharpton.

The Democratic National Committee paid Sharpton $86,715 in travel and consulting fees to compensate for his campaigning for Kerry and other Democratic candidates, according to reports to the Federal Election Commission.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sharpton said he was paid for travel and he didn't know how much he had been reimbursed.

"They asked me to travel to 20 or 30 cities to campaign, and I did that," Sharpton said. "What am I supposed to do, donate the cost of air fare?"

Now check this one, published two hours later

Why Can't the IRS Do It?
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A32

AFTER YEARS of prodding by the Bush administration and a heap of campaign contributions from debt collection companies, Congress has given the Internal Revenue Service clearance to have private debt collectors go after delinquent taxpayers. The temptation is understandable, but it should have been resisted. The IRS -- if it had the resources -- could recover far more money for the Treasury by doing this work itself. And privatizing tax collection, a quintessentially governmental function, could subject taxpayers to abuse and invasion of privacy, no matter how carefully the IRS oversees the program.

The government has a few hundred billion dollars in unpaid back taxes on its books, of which it estimates about $80 billion could be collected. In a sensible world, the IRS would be given enough money to do this job, since the average collection officer brings in about $900,000 annually -- far more than he or she costs the government. But this is not a sensible world, or at least not a sensible government; under perverse budget rules, adding IRS employees shows up only as an outlay. So there's scant prospect that the IRS will get the resources. Should private debt collection agencies fill the void?

Intelligence Bill Clears Congress
Bush Expected to Approve Post-9/11 Reforms Next Week
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A04

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the intelligence restructuring bill yesterday and sent it to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week, setting in motion the first major changes in the U.S. intelligence community since the CIA was established in 1947.

"We are rebuilding a structure that was designed for a different enemy at a different time, a structure that was designed for the Cold War and has not proved agile enough to deal with the threats of the 21st century," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee and a prime mover of the measure.

Solomon at Solotude has practical reflections on No Child Left Behind, from the perspective of an involved parent.

I scheduled a time to meet with both teachers. When I met both of them, I asked them the following:

1. Why are my daughters doing math homework that isn't explained to them by you?
2. Why is the level so much higher than their current math level?
3. What is the point of having them do this math when we (the parents) damn near do it for them?

They told me this is part of the No Child Left Behind program and that the State Of Michigan is pushing this. They also say this kind of work forces parents to work with their children. And they left it at that.

That's scary.

Okay, not really. You deal with issues that are actually of concern to Black folks, you look at it like a Black person and I have no issues with you. A conservative spin on the analysis or offered solution isn't a problem. The problem only arises when you try to solve someone else's problems using Black folks.

Bilingual Education Legislation Expected to Shape African-American Progress and State’s Future For the Next 50 Years, Leader says.
By Darwin Campbell
African-American News&Issues
Dallas-FortWorth, TX

The push to ensure African-American children are bilingual and able to compete for future job opportunities moved forward this week with State Sen. Royce West filed a bill in Austin promoting dual language instruction in all Texas public schools by 2007.

“We are aware of the demographic and ethnic changes that our state demographer Steve Murdoch has forecast for Texas in the 21st Century,” West said after filing Senate Bill 61. “By 2026, the Hispanic population is projected to become a majority of the state’s population. This legislation will create incentives for our teachers to learn Spanish so they can better prepare our students in public schools where a majority of the kids are of Hispanic descent.”

Quote of note:

He said all organizations had equipment, materials and spare parts of different vintages, but he expressed confidence that Army leaders were assigning the newest and best equipment to the troops headed for combat who needed it most.

You guys going into combat unprepared don't need the equipment most, I guess.

Nonetheless, he warned that equipment shortages would probably continue to bedevil some American forces entering combat zones like Iraq. "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

Well, if you had prepared for your invasion properly you would have had the army you might wish.

Moreover, he said, adding more armor to trucks and battle equipment did not make them impervious to enemy attack. "If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up," he said. "And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."

So obviously there's no point is equipping them properly.

This is the guy who keeps his job.

Assholes.

Iraq-Bound Troops Confront Rumsfeld Over Lack of Armor
By ERIC SCHMITT

Queens Landlord Convicted in Plot to Kill Two Tenants
By COREY KILGANNON

A Queens landlord was found guilty yesterday of trying to plot the murder of two tenants paying $400 a month for an apartment in his building, so that he could rent out their apartment to new tenants for at least $1,500 a month.

A jury in State Supreme Court in Queens found the landlord, Juan Basagoitia, 50, guilty of hiring two other tenants in the building to kill William Lavery, 35, and his brother, David Lavery, 40, who had lived in the three-bedroom apartment on the third floor since childhood.

The brothers, who were badly injured in the attack but survived, legally assumed the lease in recent years from their father, George Lavery, who first took the apartment in 1964 at the same rent.

Industry Distortion of the F.D.A.

Twelve years ago, the White House and Congress made an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry that seemed eminently reasonable at the time. The industry would supply substantial sums - reaching $200 million a year at latest count - to help the Food and Drug Administration hire more reviewers to speed the approval process for new drugs that might otherwise be held up solely by administrative logjams. The quid pro quo was that the government had to meet tight deadlines for reviewing drugs and had to keep steady its own financing for new-drug reviews, adjusted for inflation.

That seemed a reasonable way to ensure that the government did not cut back on its own funds and use the industry money to pay for reviewers already on the staff. But as an article by Gardiner Harris in The Times on Monday made clear, this 1992 deal - negotiated under the first President George Bush and updated under President Bill Clinton and again under the current president - has grievously distorted the agency's drug safety programs in unforeseen ways.

It's everyone that believed him.

Anyway…

Congress Cops Out on Gun Violence

When President Bush signs off on Congress's fecklessness and approves the $388 billion omnibus spending bill, he will be ratifying the way his fellow Republicans used their juggernaut budget process to undermine one of his most touted programs: special aid to state and local governments to prosecute black-market gun crimes. Mr. Bush had earmarked $45 million for local grants next year, but Congress saw fit to erase these funds in the frenzy of passing the take-it-or-leave-it bill. Congress also erased an additional $106 million the administration wanted for tracking illegal gun purchases by children.

Make your statement and move on to your next project because two-three weeks isn't worth the agita.

Quote of note:

"Given that the conclusion of my tenure is only a few weeks away, a legal challenge would be an unwise expenditure of resources," she wrote. "Therefore, I am resigning my position as commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights effective immediately."

Adviser on Civil Rights Quits, Declining Legal Fight for Job
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: December 8, 2004

Ending speculation that she would put up one last fight with a president, Mary Frances Berry, the chairwoman of the United States Civil Rights Commission, resigned yesterday, a day after President Bush appointed a new head of the advisory agency.

via The Real Deal

Morris Day and the Time
Apollo Theater, New York, NY
Thu, Feb 17, 2005 08:00 PM

Man, I should post 777-9311. That jam is still too hot. And yeah, it's on the official schedule now.

I love reading about things like this.

I set up a more specialized Amazon.com search page. You can still do the general search but the Black book search page focuses the search on books relating to or of special interest to Black folks.

Later this week I'll add a search page for Black literature specifically.

Quote of note:

The 18th annual governor's conference, an event chaired by Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, drew an audience primarily of women to hear high-profile speakers including Oprah Winfrey and Queen Noor of Jordan talk about improving the lives of women at home and in the workplace.

The governor's opening speech was interrupted when about 15 nurses -- who had paid the $125 entrance fee to the one-day conference -- unfurled a banner inside the Long Beach Convention Center, held up signs and chanted "Safe Staffing Saves Lives.''

As the group was escorted out and continued to chant, Schwarzenegger tried to continue his talk about the contributions of California women.

"Pay no attention to those voices over there," he said. "They are the special interests. Special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I kick their butt."

At tribute for women, governor derides protesting nurses
He dismisses group opposing his policy as 'special interests'
- Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Quote of note:

That hypothesis was tested by analyzing 928 abstracts, published in refereed scientific journals between 1993 and 2003, and listed in the ISI database with the keywords "climate change" (9).

The 928 papers were divided into six categories: explicit endorsement of the consensus position, evaluation of impacts, mitigation proposals, methods, paleoclimate analysis, and rejection of the consensus position. Of all the papers, 75% fell into the first three categories, either explicitly or implicitly accepting the consensus view; 25% dealt with methods or paleoclimate, taking no position on current anthropogenic climate change. Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position.

Admittedly, authors evaluating impacts, developing methods, or studying paleoclimatic change might believe that current climate change is natural. However, none of these papers argued that point.

The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change
Naomi Oreskes*

Quote of note:

During those elections, residents of east Jerusalem were allowed to vote at five polling stations in the region, but their ballots were officially classified as absentee ballots.

There's got to be some significance to officially classifying the ballots as absentee ballots, but I can't figure it out.

Anyway…

Israel, Palestinians Reach Election Plan
By RAVI NESSMAN
Associated Press Writer

1:36 AM PST, December 8, 2004

JERUSALEM — Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on the logistics of the upcoming election to replace Yasser Arafat, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, but he denied reports that the two sides had worked out a broader deal to end their decades-old conflict.

Not that I'm a fan of Malone or anything, but you DO need a wide body down low and without Shaq…well, I like a more balanced league anyway.
Bryant Gets Irate Mail
Malone says he won't return to Lakers because of remarks made publicly and privately by star player. 'I want to be there but he doesn't want me there.'
By Mike Bresnahan
Times Staff Writer

December 8, 2004

Karl Malone, the second-leading scorer in NBA history, will not play for the Lakers if he decides to play again because he is infuriated by comments made publicly and privately to him by Kobe Bryant.

Malone had been favoring a return to the Lakers, but that was before Bryant's comments Monday in a radio interview that his Newport Beach neighbor would retire.

Quote of note:

On Tuesday, city officials said the shopping center attack was an isolated incident.

So is the level of concern.

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said the incident was caused by "a couple of kids with too much time on their hands," and called on their parents to discipline them.

"What they need is for their parents to put them over a knee and give them a good spanking," Williamson said. "I'm talking as a mother, and if they were my kids, that's exactly what I'd do."

And what would you do if it were four Black kids that jacked a white kid selling newspapers for no reason? Or if it were your kid that got jacked?

I'm not looking for perfect foresight. I'm looking for white folks to face the same repercussions for their actions as Black folks do.

Inquiring minds want to know…

Calvin Henry is the President of the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs. I've known him for a while; we have different delivery styles but if I were political rather than personal in my approach to Black folks I sound similar to him.

The other day he let me check out a few articles he's working and let me post one. Interestingly enough I played editor for a minute…tightened this phrase and that one, and he said I changed the meaning of what he wrote entirely. Looking back, he was right. Locally it was all the same, but I changed the flow of it

Being an editor is harder than it looks.

She's on the trail Clarence Thomas blazed.

Quote of note:

The newly named commissioners are Gerald A. Reynolds, former assistant secretary for the office of civil rights in the Education Department, and lawyer Ashley L. Taylor of Richmond. President Bush intends to designate Reynolds the commission chairman, succeeding Berry, and to name Abigail Thernstrom, already a commission member, as vice chairman.

Civil Rights Chairman Resists Ouster by Bush
Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A05

President Bush moved yesterday to replace Mary Frances Berry, the outspoken chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission who has argued with every president since Jimmy Carter appointed her to the panel a quarter-century ago.

Quote of note:

Hardships like this are becoming more common in the military as high-cost easy-money lenders increasingly make service members a target market. As a result, many military people have become trapped in a spiral of borrowing at sky-high rates that can ruin their finances, distract them from their duties and even destroy their careers. The military, for its part, has done little to deny these lenders access to the troops, relying instead on consumer education.

Seeking Quick Loans, Soldiers Race Into High-Interest Traps
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: December 7, 2004

From Puget Sound in the Northwest to the Virginia coast, the landscape is the same: the main gate of a large military base opens onto a highway lined with shops eager to make small, fast and remarkably expensive loans, no questions asked.

When you recreate old entries on a new system, you're likely to be sending trackback pings all over hell and back. I probably look like a spammer to a couple of folks...

Quote of note:

Shewmaker encouraged the task force to think about creating an environment where students learn how the rest of the world functions, instead of focusing on potential lawsuits.

"Whether or not the law approves, that's the second step, not the first step," Shewmaker said.

Diversity criteria debated at UGA
By KELLY SIMMONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/06/04

ATHENS — A University of Georgia task force on Monday began discussing ways to reintroduce race as a criterion for freshman admissions without getting sued.

The group, which includes faculty and administrators, is charged with defining the university's need for a more diverse student body and determining at what point UGA will have fulfilled that need.

Quote of note:

"It is striking that Senator Reid chose to blast Justice Thomas, even while complimenting Justice Scalia, who largely shares the same judicial philosophy," said Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, which lobbies in favor of conservative judicial nominees. "A lot of people on the conservative side were pretty steamed up by the senator's remarks."

I guess he should have insulted both of them.

Anyway…

Reid Says He Could Back Scalia for Chief Justice
Comments Anger Liberals And Thomas Supporters

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A04

Partisans on both sides of the debate over judicial nominees voiced displeasure yesterday with incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid's comments indicating that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could make an acceptable nominee for chief justice.

Get Along? Get Real.
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A25

The power of negative thinking is greatly underestimated, especially in politics.

…Remember the 1993-94 battle over Clinton's health care plan? William Kristol, the Republican strategist and editor, wrote a series of memos urging his party to do all it could to block Clinton's plan and not dare think of compromise.

If Clinton got something like universal health coverage, Kristol warned, "it will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will, at the same time, strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class by restraining government."

Price of Global Hawk Surveillance Program Rises
Purchase Order Scaled Back as Cost of Air Force Plan Increases to $6.3 Billion

By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A17

The cost of a program to build high-profile unmanned surveillance aircraft, known as Global Hawks, has increased by nearly $900 million since 2001, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday.

…Most of the increased cost is related to the development of a second, heavier version of the unmanned plane with enhanced sensors. The Air Force decided to buy the aircraft before all of the technology has been developed, raising concerns that costs will inevitably increase, the report said. The GAO recommended delaying the purchase of more aircraft, except for those needed for testing, until a new strategy can be developed.

Arson Destroys 12 New Md. Homes
30 Empty Houses Damaged in Subdivision That Is Subject of Environmental Dispute
By Joshua Partlow and Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A01

A dozen empty houses in a new Maryland subdivision that is the focus of a long-running environmental dispute were destroyed and numerous others were damaged yesterday in what officials said were more than 20 coordinated, methodically planned arsons.

No one was hurt, but the attack left the Hunters Brooke subdivision, near Indian Head in Charles County, scarred with blackened, gutted houses and terrified residents in the quiet community near the Potomac River about 25 miles downstream from the District.

It's nice to see a Supreme Court judgment I'm in total agreement with.

Quote of note:

Roe sued, claiming that he had been fired for expressing his point of view. The 9th Circuit upheld his claim, ruling that the videos amounted to a form of free speech.

In an unsigned opinion without recorded dissent, the Supreme Court said it had "no difficulty" summarily ruling otherwise, without briefing or oral argument.

San Diego v. Roe, No. 03-1669.

A San Diego police officer known only as John Roe was fired from the police force for making videotapes of himself masturbating in uniform and selling them on eBay, the online auction site.

Roe sued, claiming that he had been fired for expressing his point of view. The 9th Circuit upheld his claim, ruling that the videos amounted to a form of free speech.

Quote of note:

Justice Stephen G. Breyer read Texas Assistant Attorney General Gena Bunn an extensive summary of the case, noting that prosecutors had used their right under Texas law to "shuffle" the jury pool to move blacks away from the front of the line in jury selection. Breyer quoted from seemingly identical answers to questions about the death penalty from two potential jurors, white and black, and then noted that prosecutors objected only to the black person.

"I think that's the whole story there," Breyer said. "I look at those two in context and I say, 'My goodness.' "

Bunn replied that there were other, race-neutral reasons for blocking the black prospective juror. Pointing out that prosecutors were looking for jurors who would embrace the death penalty, she noted that the black juror had said that any criminal could be rehabilitated.

Apparently there's beef between the DNC and DLC branches of the Democratic blogosphere. This is as close as I'm getting to all that noise.

Frankly, I wouldn't get that close had Liza of Culture Kitchen not spotted a comment from Hal at Hellblazer that sums up the whole problem with the discussion. And let me say this, because I do it at least quarterly: Hal rocks. Liza says "read the whole thing." I don't. You got all you need from Hal.

Watt to Lead Congressional Black Caucus
Tuesday December 7, 2004 5:01 AM
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Mel Watt, a North Carolina Democrat whose document condemning the war with Iraq became policy for the Congressional Black Caucus, was elected the group's leader Monday. He pledged to pursue more frequent meetings with the White House.

"My attitude would be to treat this new election as a possibility of a new beginning and to aggressively say to the president, 'We would like to reinstate our regular meetings with you if you would be willing to do that,'" Watt said.
[P6; Oh, yeah, that sounds aggressive…]

Despite that olive branch to the Republican White House, Watt gave little signal the all-Democratic group of black lawmakers would change its historically left-leaning policies.

One of the Most Prominent African-American Public Relations Professionals Targets Hispanic Consumers

BLH Consulting, Inc. Launches Hispanic Marketing Specialty

ATLANTA, GA--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2004--Betsy Helgager, through her public relations and marketing communications firm, BLH Consulting, Inc., announced today the formation of the company’s Hispanic specialty that is dedicated to creating meaningful programs towards Hispanic consumers in the United States. Alejandra Cádiz-Gómez leaves Ketchum Inc. and joins BLH with more than 8 years of public relations and marketing experience toward the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American consumers. In addition to implementing media relations and holistic communications strategies, she’ll also be providing translation services for websites, brochures, advertising and other marketing materials.

…you'll love Wayne Barrett's article in the Village Voice. It's all chock full of smarmy personal stuff—and in the end, isn't smarmy personal stuff what politics is all about?

Owners did the right thing at this point.

DETROIT -- Rosa Parks' landlord has offered to let her stay in her apartment rent-free, two years after threatening to evict her when the owners said her caretakers missed rental payments.

Parks' doctors say the 91-year-old civil rights pioneer has dementia and is in poor health. Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit had been paying Parks' rent, which had been as high as $1,800 a month, since August 2003, the Rev. Charles Adams said.

"We did not want her set out in the street," Adams said. "We didn't want to make a big noise out of it. ... It was a simple act of kindness."

This is from BET.com, so that closing question is just shit-starting. But notice EYE did not assign the "race and identy" category to this post.

Thomas called 'an embarrassment'
By Tracy L. Scott, BET.com Staff Writer

December 6, 2004 – Clarence Thomas was criticized by incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) who, during an appearance on “Meet the Press” Sunday, referred to the Supreme Court justice as “an embarrassment.”

Reid’s message focused on the need for Democrats to resist the conservative agenda. “We have to work toward the middle,” he said. “We have a situation where, during the past four years . . . we have approved 207 federal judges and turned down 10. The president should be happy with what he’s gotten.”

Hat tip to State of the Qusan

You Are an Old Soul

You are an experience soul who appreciates tradition. Mellow and wise, you like to be with others but also to be alone. Down to earth, you are sensible and impatient. A creature of habit, it takes you a while to warm up to new people. You hate injustice, and you're very protective of family and friends A bit demanding, you expect proper behavior from others. Extremely independent you don't mind living or being alone. But when you find love, you tend to want marriage right away. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul and Visionary Soul

This is foul but funny as hell. Hat tip to Soul Photo.net

A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says, “Hi…You know, I just HATE drawing welfare. I’d really rather have a job.”

The social worker behind the counter says, “Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur/bodyguard for his nymphomaniac daughter.

You’ll have to drive around in his Mercedes, but he’ll supply all of your clothes.

Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You’ll be expected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips. You’ll have a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The starting salary is $200,000 a year.”

The guy says, “You’re bullshiting me!”

The social worker says, “Yeah, well, you started it .”

My first reaction to this was, if we get back from the federal government the same proportion of services as the proportion of taxes we pay, it's a deal.

A little later…you know, sometimes it looks like what the so-called leaders of the Conservative movement really want isn't secession but discorporation.

Quote of note:

Supporters of the change insist the disproportionate effect on blue states is a coincidence, but they acknowledge that the proposal could hurt most in states that voted against Bush.

"Let me put it like this: It certainly isn't something that's a discouragement," said one prominent conservative. "Yes, we talked about this. The fact that it hits blue states is not something that's been missed among Republicans."

Proposal Would Hit Blue State Taxpayers

The Niggerati Network is back. There's a long-ass overview of what the point of it all is, and this:

As terabytes of Internet flames will attest to, sometimes things are easier to present through an alter ego. Derrick Bell has Geneva Crenshaw. I have…or had…Alim Ra. I used this persona to express social, philosophical and religious explorations I was making in my thirties.

I still have all that stuff and they are still accurate representations of my views, though I've picked up more than a few nuances since then. So periodically I'll post one of his pieces. Today I give you an introduction. It WILL get hairier later.

It's Oliver Willis' birfday!

Will the AME Church Let Tom Joyner Buy Morris Brown College?

With fresh green in his pocket ($56.1 million from the sale of Reach Media to Radio One), nationally syndicated morning-drive radio jock Tom Joyner wants to buy Atlanta’s Morris Brown College. During an on-air interview last week with the president of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Council of Bishops, Vashti Murphy McKenzie, Joyner offered to buy the school which is affiliated with the AME church. Weakened by decades of bad debt, Morris Brown lost its accreditation last year. Joyner says it’s his second time making the bid to buy the school. He believes his investment can turn the school around.

Supreme Court Rejects KKK Mask Case
By GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer

December 6, 2004, 11:14 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court passed up a chance Monday to consider if states can ban members of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups from wearing masks at public gatherings.

Justices without comment rejected an appeal from an offshoot of the KKK whose members wear white robes, hoods and masks.

The Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had challenged as unconstitutional a New York law that allows loitering charges against someone who is "masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration."

Quote of note:

Want to talk real power? If the faculty clubs are blue, corporate management offices are red. In the name of diversity, let's trade some liberal sociologists for conservative oil executives.

Those Poor College Conservatives
By Ellen Goodman
Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A23

…The authors of the faculty survey put it this way: "The social sciences are pretty much a one-party system." They add, "A campus that had six males to one female would be universally recognized as very lopsided." So, they infer, is a campus that's 7-to-1 Democratic.

Well, let us not forget that campuses are still lacking in the old-fashioned kind of diversity. As for lopsided? Among full professors, 87 percent are white and 77 percent are male.

Quote of note:

They say Commerce One told industry groups that it wanted businesses to be able to use the technologies for free. And once a promise is made that a patent is royalty-free, any future owner of that patent has to honor that promise, they say.

But those selling off Commerce One's assets don't agree.

"The company has not given up any of their patent rights," said John Amster, an investment banker with Ocean Tomo, which is helping Commerce One in its bankruptcy. "Presumably, if they wanted to do so, they would have."

Auction of Web patents could be a royalty pain
By Deborah Lohse
Mercury News

An obscure auction scheduled for this morning in San Francisco's financial district threatens to make life mighty uncomfortable for many companies that conduct business with one another over the Internet.

It seems Java is getting its butt kicked on the web by LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/Perl|PHP|Python) on the open source side and ASP.NET on the proprietary side.

However, there still a lot of it out there. So you might be interested to know Borland is giving away JBuilder 2005 Foundation. I can't find a press release for it but here's the download page.

JBuilder is a quality product and was the bulk of Borland's revenue for quite a while. They had a previous free "Foundation" version some two-three releases ago that was so compelling some corporations standardized on it, losing them sales. They gave up on that, trying a non-commercial license first (and how are you going to enforce that?) then dropping the Foundation thing altogether. This free version, which doesn't even require registration, says to me Java has lost the "big mo" to .NET, Mono on Linux and C#.

Usenet news groups, at least the technical ones, still have value.

Today I went looking for examples of something I pretty much know how to do but have never done yet. So I went to Google Groups and found they're working a beta version that looks surprisingly functional.

I think they are working on the Network Computer.

I need to review all the blog registration sites in the world.

Blogshares, with which I was never impressed because even when I first started blogging the idea of monetizing linkage struck me as a bizarre fantasy, has turned around and impressed me with what they've done with their immense database.

Blood transfusion therapy must be as bad as dialysis. It would have been really good if it had worked.

Quote of note:

The original Stop study, which started in 1995, was halted two years later because transfusions were found to be so effective that researchers recommended all sickle cell children be given the treatment to prevent strokes.

The latest study involved 79 children, ages 2 to 18, all of whom had once had a high risk of stroke but whose risk was diminished after years of blood transfusion therapy.

Risk of Strokes Halts Sickle Cell Study
By Daniel Yee
Associated Press
Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A02

ATLANTA, Dec. 5 -- A study aimed at determining whether some children with sickle cell anemia could be weaned off blood transfusion therapy has been halted because two young patients who stopped getting the procedure suffered strokes and others developed a high chance of strokes.

Quote of note:

Anderson said he didn't agonize over ethics when he was thrashing around last spring for a new way to bring attention to the increasing burden class action lawsuits place on companies.

Advocacy Groups Blur Media Lines
Some Push Agendas By Producing Movies, Owning Newspapers
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A01

The Madison County Record, an Illinois weekly newspaper launched in September that bills itself as the county's legal journal, reports on one subject: the state courts in southern Illinois. A recent front page carried an assortment of stories about lawsuits against businesses. In one, a woman sought $15,000 in damages for breaking her nose at a haunted house. In another, a woman sued a restaurant for $50,000 after she hurt her teeth on a chicken breast.

Opening Bell In Battle for Top D.C. Job
Mayoral Scramble Poised To Be City's Costliest Ever

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A01

One morning last week, nearly 500 Washington business leaders, community activists and senior citizens gathered in a chandeliered ballroom at the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel for a lavish, $20,000 breakfast featuring eggs on brioche, honey yogurt and the first big speech of the 2006 race for D.C. mayor.

The size of the crowd and the size of the tab were impressive. And the affair quickly established the host -- D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) -- as a credible contender in a campaign that is starting earlier, attracting a larger crowd of potential candidates and shaping up to be more expensive than any in city history.

I love the whole idea of NASA. Have loved it since the Gemini program. NASA is at least partly responsible for my reading habits (science fiction and science), the technology developed by NASA has literally changed the world for the better (and note, please, it was not and never would have been the product of a market-based effort).

But dammit, we should not still be getting surprises of this magnitude from this damned appropriations bill. It's frightening to think you can just write a paragraph funding a $16 billion dollar expenditure and

• It passes!
• Everyone is unaware it was in there
• Knowing it was added without consulting the rest of the world it will still be dealt with as valid

DeLay's Push Helps Deliver NASA Funds

Yeah justice and all that, I really do understand.

But they're going to wind up in segregated barracks like Black folks were, and for the same reason: the segregators have issues. And no, much respect but I'd not have been a Tuskeegee airman.

Pentagon Policy on Gays Is Challenged
Associated Press
Monday, December 6, 2004; Page A09

The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is being challenged by 12 gays who have been separated from the military because of their homosexuality.

They planned to file a federal lawsuit today in Boston that would cite last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws making gay sex a crime as grounds for overturning the policy.

Why does this sound familiar?

Millions of stunned Americans mourned his death last April 22 and embraced his sacrifice as a rare example of courage and national service. But the full story of how Tillman ended up on that Afghan ridge and why he died at the hands of his own comrades has never been told.

Dozens of witness statements, e-mails, investigation findings, logbooks, maps and photographs obtained by The Washington Post show that Tillman died unnecessarily after botched communications, a mistaken decision to split his platoon over the objections of its leader, and negligent shooting by pumped-up young Rangers -- some in their first firefight -- who failed to identify their targets as they blasted their way out of a frightening ambush.

Attackers strike U.S. consulate in Saudi port city
Associated Press
Published on: 12/06/04

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded U.S. consulate in Jiddah, then forced their way into the building, prompting a gunbattle in a bold assault that left seven people dead and several injured before the three-hour long crisis was brought under control.

Three attackers were among those killed, while two others were injured and arrested, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced. Saudi security officials also said four of their forces were killed. The ministry statement didn't mention hostages, though Saudi security officials said some had been taken.

Beyond the link dialog not working, it reload the page multiple times to set up the editor. Makes backing up a page really problematic.

It's pissing me off and I don't have enough interest in Javascript to delay my next project. So it goes.

And I said it again. And again. And again:

Novak. I want Novak. Where the HELL is Novak's subpoena?

Quote of note:

Al Hunt's tweak on “The Capital Gang” was the closest any of Novak's colleagues have ever come to asking him about the case on the air. Even Hunt's challenge was more of a reportorial reflex than anything else. He told me recently that he has “conspicuously avoided the topic” because Novak is “a close friend…it's uncomfortable.”

Bob in Paradise

I just happened to overhear the roundtable on This Week.

David Brooks has no idea what an average human's life is like. I say this because of his justifications for uncreating Social Security: that it's a "New Deal" program, and most people can afford to fund their own retirement.

How many of you can fund your own retirement? Myopia of the elites is a problem with everyone's elite.

And George Will said (in a way which leaves me unclear whether he shares the position or is merely reporting it) that the argument for this uncreation will be that it helps poor folks save, gives them a vested interest in the economy and is a good idea even if Social Security is not going broke.

I think we should reconsider the urgency with which this is being pursued.

First, let's look at the official figures on when, barring any change, Social Security is projected to become insolvent.

The maximum projected trust fund ratios for the OASI, DI, and combined funds appear in table II.D1. The year in which the maximum projected trust fund ratio is attained and the year in which the assets are projected to be exhausted are shown as well.

This is from the NY Times article I linked in the previous post.

Noted quote:

Instead of considering much of the evidence recited by the Supreme Court majority, the appeals court engaged in something akin to plagiarism. In February, it again rejected Mr. Miller-El's claims, in a decision that reproduced, virtually verbatim and without attribution, several paragraphs from the sole dissenting opinion in last year's Supreme Court decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas.

I want to call this ironic or something nicer than what it is: a lust for death.

There's a very well reasoned theory that lynching in the South was an act of human sacrifice (there's an excellent overview of the concept available online, though the seminal work is Orlando Patterson's Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries). It seems Texas still has that ol' time religion.

Quote of note:

Is so significant it will be its own post

Death Sentences in Texas Cases Try Supreme Court's Patience
By ADAM LIPTAK and RALPH BLUMENTHAL

In the past year, the Supreme Court has heard three appeals from inmates on death row in Texas, and in each case the prosecutors and the lower courts suffered stinging reversals.

In a case to be argued on Monday, the court appears poised to deliver another rebuke.

Lawyers for a Texas death row inmate, Thomas Miller-El, will appear before the justices for the second time in two years. To legal experts, the Supreme Court's decision to hear his case yet again is a sign of its growing impatience with two of the courts that handle death penalty cases from Texas: its highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans.

The project:

We need to break the code by building a Republican dictionary. Here's a small list I've put together to get us started. Please feel free to add your own contributions by clicking here. I'll be publishing more examples in the coming weeks.

The first follow-up was quite successful:

…Toward that end, I'm publishing a small sample of the new dictionary entires I've received below. We may even create a small book or extended pamphlet using the most creative examples submitted. Many thanks to those who took the time to write and apologies to those whose ideas we weren't able to include in this post. But watch this space. We're going to continue posting additional entries in the weeks ahead. And please click here to suggest your own contributions.

Check the whole cartoon. Trust me, I did NOT present the whole picture.

Quote of note:

More than two-thirds of retirees right now rely mainly on Social Security for their living expenses. Private pensions are drying up, just when baby boomers need them. Of those currently aged 45 to 54, according to the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute, 39 percent have saved less than $50,000 for retirement. This amount will pay out less than $4,000 a year. Who will make up the shortfall? Probably not the government.

Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
by Anya Kamenetz
Social Insecurity
Attention recent grads: Your parents are charging your future.
November 30th, 2004 10:30 AM

…Jacob Hall, not his real name, has changed his entire life course because of his parents' financial situation. The 25-year-old graduated from a prestigious university, where he studied engineering and neuroscience. But instead of exploring either of his passions—a Ph.D. in neuroscience or photography and fine arts—he moved across the country to take a job in finance that pays over $100,000 a year. "There's a lot of things that I would probably be doing instead of working in New York on Wall Street if I didn't feel the imminency of a large financial crisis in my family in the near future," he says. "My parents have not been out of heavy debt for most of my life. I feel an immediate need to make money now. I don't want to be in a position where I can't help them."

That about sums it up.