I missed most of "Do You Speak American," which is embarrassing since I pointed it out a while back. But they're repeating it tonight, and there's streaming video on their website. Just don't expect great response time between, like, 6 pm and midnight.

If you miss the show entirely, there's one bit of streaming video, Real Player format, that you should check out. They show an artificial face using an artificial voice, a real face using a real voice, and discuss people's reactions when they are confronted with a face/voice combination that doesn't match their expectations...like, for instance, when a Black person has a voice and/or way of expressing themselves that isn't what they expect from a Black person (and I am not the one that made up that example...Robert McNeil did).

Black Baptist leaders put demands to Bush
Groups unite on opposition agenda

By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 29, 2005

NASHVILLE -- Leaders of 15 million black Baptists on Friday called on President Bush to pay as much attention to democracy at home as democracy abroad, issuing a list of demands that they say better defines America's moral values.

After an unprecedented assembly of four historically divided Baptist groups, presidents of each denomination declared their opposition to the war in Iraq and to the nomination and expected confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

They also called for a higher minimum wage, discontinuation of recent tax cuts, investment in public education and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, some provisions of which are up for review in 2007.

"We have power in terms of black registered voters across the country to impact who sits in the White House," said Rev. Stephen Thurston, president of the 3 million-member National Baptist Convention of America and pastor of the New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side.

I'm pleased these folks could get together and agree on something and don't want to discourage them at all. I like their statement, their goals.

There are two books that embody my concerns about the direction American society is headed in...Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut is the one I'm thinking about today. If you're familiar with the book you know of its somewhat science fiction theme: an independent man fights the machines that dominate human society (if you're not familiar with the book, you should know he loses).

When I read the book years ago, I took it to be a battle with the machinery of society rather than the machines themselves. It was a society I knew at 14 years old was

1. possible
2. scary as hell to me by the end of the book

Production was maximally automated, therefore employment was unavailable for most because they couldn't compete with the machinery. There were still management and management support jobs though, and the base requirement for any of them was a doctorate degree...Doctor of Secretarial Services, Doctor of Pastry Production, Doctor of Dress Design. And, of course, the education was priced beyond the reach of your average worker (supply and demand, as vulgarly understood).

Economic Conference Focuses on Africa's Plight
In Davos, Switzerland, Tony Blair, Bill Gates and Bono Join in Urging Aid for the Impoverished Continent

By Paul Haven
Associated Press
Thursday, January 27, 2005; 11:10 AM

DAVOS, Switzerland -- The world's richest man, one of its most visible social activists and Britain's leader put a sharp focus on the horrors facing Africa's poor on Thursday, saying the planet's indifference to the suffering has been scandalous.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made Africa a focus of his leadership of the G-8 this year, said the continent's plight is "a scar on the conscience of the world" and questioned whether the global community would allow such poverty to persist anywhere else in the world.

Quote of note:

...it's not every day that the likes of Abshire; Max Kampelman, the former chief negotiator on strategic arms reduction with the Soviet Union; Togo West Jr., president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser; Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's U.N. ambassador; Thomas "Mack" McLarty, Bill Clinton's former chief of staff; and Jane Dixon, former bishop pro tempore of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, can come together on a single subject.

Bridging the Great Divide

By Colbert I. King

Saturday, January 29, 2005; Page A25

District Health System Faulted
Critical Shortages Cited by Report

By Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 29, 2005; Page B01

Nearly half of District residents, many with chronic diseases, live in neighborhoods with a critical shortage of doctors to provide even basic care, a public health failure that a new report links to significant health consequences and costs.

Despite the abundance of major medical centers and specialist physicians in the nation's capital, the analysis released yesterday by the District of Columbia Primary Care Association found that entire communities lack adequate access to routine medical services, much less to the ongoing treatment needed for problems such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension.

Bush Pledges to Take the Lead on Social Security Changes

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 29, 2005; Page A08

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va., Jan. 28 -- President Bush on Friday promised House and Senate Republicans gathered here that he will provide them with political cover as he campaigns this year for passage of profound but politically risky changes in Social Security.

"I'm ready to lead, to take on a tough issue," Bush told lawmakers in a 45-minute private session, attendees said. "I'm confident I will sign a bill."

On my right is a DVD+-R drive. On my left is a pile of DVD-R discs and a video capture card.

I install tonight, pour ALL my archives, images and such onto 4.7 gig disks (it's going to take ten or more of them and a LOT of time) tomorrow. All in preparation for Black History Month.

This is going to be a seriously deep episode. They are getting into the economic reasons everyone in government is pretending there's no problem on any side (keeps prices down), and the bigotry that's increasing because of the competition for work and the cost of providing social support.

It opened up with something like "Seemingly necessary for the American economy..." And right now they're talking about how employers knowingly bypass the law.

NOW has streaming video of past episodes. I hope they make this one available.

There was the standard Shields/Brooks discussion on The News Hour, and the closing comments were about the difference between Gen. Powell's term as Secretary of State and Dr. Rice's upcoming term. The closing question was, does Powell leave office weaker than he entered it?

I would say yes, definitely.

This "part three" is only a part of part three because it NEEDS attention. There are several links in the paragraph that presents the problem, and if you don't see it as a serious issue that needs addressing (though I personally am not clear on what, if anything, can be done about it) you have no clue about how the US Economy works.

I've decided to go to the source. You can pick up the rest of the links on the topic here.

China has lost faith in stability of U.S. dollar, top Chinese economist says
Edith Lederer
Canadian Press

Bye Bye Base

As the White House pushes its right-wing economic agenda into overdrive, opposition is coming from the most unlikely of places: conservatives. In Congress, in state capitals, and among socially conservative activist groups, President Bush is finding that his plans to privatize Social Security and enact more tax cuts while gutting funding for priorities like veterans' health care are running up against voices of conscience on the right. The result is that just a week after being inaugurated, the president's legislative agenda is in jeopardy.

SENATE CONSERVATIVES BUCK WHITE HOUSE ON SOCIAL SECURITY: Under the headline "Republicans Skeptical of Bush Social Security Plan," the Los Angeles Times reports that various conservative senators are raising questions about the White House plan to privatize Social Security. For instance, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) now says she is "certainly not going to support diverting $ 2 trillion from Social Security into creating personal savings accounts." Bloomberg reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) "says Bush should consider raising the $90,000 cap on yearly income subject to Social Security taxes." The administration is so concerned with the disarray among its conservative ranks that, according to the Washington Post, the president held a special meeting at the White House to "plead for patience" from conservative lawmakers as they make the case for dismantling Social Security.

Because the whole damn thing is fascinating today.

Payola Part Three

Drip. Drip. Drip. Yesterday, Salon revealed that a third conservative syndicated columnist has been paid off by the Bush administration. Michael McManus was paid $10,000 to promote President Bush's marriage initiative, the same program Maggie Gallagher was paid to promote. Like Gallagher and Armstrong Williams, McManus failed to disclose that he was on the administration's payroll in his column, which appears in 50 newspapers nationwide, including the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News and the Charlotte Observer.

Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till
Michael McManus, conservative author of the syndicated column "Ethics & Religion," received $10,000 to promote a marriage initiative. - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert

Jan. 27, 2005  |  And three makes a trend.

U. of Mich Plaintiffs Awarded $672,000

By BREE FOWLER
Associated Press Writer

DETROIT   A federal judge on Thursday ordered the University of Michigan to pay $672,000 in legal fees and costs to attorneys for students who sued the school over its use of affirmative action in undergraduate admissions policies.

The university had maintained it wasn't responsible for the legal bills. U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan disagreed, but ruled that the $2.1 million originally sought by the attorneys was excessive.

In June 2003, the Supreme Court upheld a general affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan law school but struck down the university's undergraduate formula as too rigid because it awarded admission points based on race.

via Slashdot:

Eallonardo, et al. v MGM, et al., Claims Administration Website

Welcome to the MGM DVD Settlement Website

You are a member of the proposed settlement class if between December 1, 1998 to September 8, 2003, you purchased certain MGM widescreen DVDs (DVDs for films shot in the aspect ratio of 1.85 to 1 or 1.66 to 1). To view the Eligible DVD List, please click here. To view the detailed Notice of Class Action and Proposed Settlement, please click here.

If the proposed settlement is approved by the Court, Class Members who submit timely and valid Claim Forms may exchange each Eligible DVD for (i) a new MGM DVD from a list of 325 titles or (ii) $7.10. To request a Claim Form, call 1-800-285-2168 (toll free). Before requesting a Claim Form, please verify that your DVD is an Eligible DVD by reviewing the Eligible DVD List. To view the Eligible DVD List, please click here. Claim Forms must be returned to the Claims Administrator postmarked on or before March 31, 2005.

Quote of note:

"This plan would cost taxpayers $2 trillion," said the automated calls, according to a transcript provided by the office of Rep. Clay E. Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.). "It would also decrease future benefits to retirees by 47% . Tell Congressman Shaw that we want real Social Security reform, not a risky Wall Street gamble. Call him."

Bush put the discussion out there so everyone can raise all the objections they can think of. Then the language of the plan will be constructed to counter the objections. But I see no reason to play by Bush's rules...because he really has no rules.

ANyway.

Ominous Ring to Calls About Social Security
Automated messages to constituents in dozens of districts accuse several Republicans in Congress of trying to jeopardize the retirement program.
By Richard Simon and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers

January 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   In a sign of the political dangers surrounding President Bush's plans for Social Security, a number of congressional Republicans said Thursday that their constituents had received anonymous, automated phone calls accusing the lawmakers of trying to damage the government retirement program by "privatizing" it.

Putting a Price on Pain
It's Matt Garretson's job to divide $3 million among 132 victims of sexual abuse. But he fears there is no way to quantify their anguish.
By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer

January 28, 2005

CINCINNATI   For four months, lawyer Matt Garretson has immersed himself in halting accounts of rape and crude seduction, frenzied groping, terror and shame. He has come to understand the pain of sexual abuse.

Now he must put a price on it.

Garretson administers a fund set up by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to compensate victims of clergy abuse. In the next few weeks, he will divide $3 million among the 132 men and women who have trusted him with their anguish.

Quote of note:

Last fall, Union Pacific Corp., an Omaha-based transportation company, stopped hiring smokers in seven states. Company executives said the move was made to help quell employee health costs, which have jumped more than 10% each of the last three years. Weyco Inc., an employee benefits firm with 200 employees in Okemos, Mich., began random drug tests for nicotine on Jan. 1, saying it would fire workers who failed the test or refused to quit smoking. (Four Weyco employees resigned rather than take the test, says the company's president, Howard Weyers.) The Riverside County Sheriff's Department plans soon to require applicants for deputy sheriff positions to sign a no-smoking agreement.

In most cases, employers are asking workers to report their smoking habits voluntarily or adding disclaimers such as "nonsmokers only" to job postings. Others are requiring workers to take breathalyzer tests that can catch traces of carbon monoxide in their lungs or submit to urine tests to detect nicotine.

A sheriff's office in Florida is asking job applicants who have a recent history of smoking to pass a polygraph test proving they no longer smoke outside of work.

Quote of note:

Mendoza said she has asked prison officials to release her son from custody and move him to a hospital close to her Ventura home. It pains her, she said, to watch him lie —  ankles shackled  — in an intensive care unit crowded with prison guards, who watch him and another ailing inmate around the clock.

"If he's dead, why are they keeping him?" Mendoza said. "How does a dead man do time?"

Prison authorities declined to discuss Provencio's condition, citing privacy rules. But Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said officials were exploring a possible compromise that might allow for an early parole.

"We want to find a compromise that works for the family and everyone else," Slosek said. Otherwise, Provencio will continue to be cared for by the Corrections Department   and to be watched by officers despite his comatose state — until the end of his sentence.

But this guy handled an obnoxious person rather well.

Bow Nigger

"Bow, nigger." he typed.

I kind of hunched uncomfortably over the keyboard at that point. Not that I should've taken offence, really.

For one thing, my screen name has nothing to do with my ethnicity and for another, it's only a game and the fascist doing the typing is probably hundreds of miles away and far beyond anything you could call an actual influence on my life.

But still... It's not very nice is it?

What to do?

I circled around him warily.

Plus he writes well.

FCC won t appeal media ownership decision
WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters)

The US Federal Communications Commission has decided against appealing to the Supreme Court a ruling that put on hold regulations that would have allowed media conglomerates to grow even bigger, an agency official said on Thursday.

The FCC had tried to ease media ownership restrictions. But the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the agency failed to sufficiently justify the limits it set.

Newspapers planned to challenge whether the rules were constitutional, the FCC official said, and thus the agency did not want to join in that effort and potentially undermine all of its regulations limiting media ownership.

O'Reilly, Again
 
One of my commenters has pointed out to me that the transcript of the O'Reilly segment I discussed yesterday is available online here. So now I can give you the exact quotes from the segment. We consider it in full:

O REILLY: Top Story Tonight. Spurred on by the ACLU and other so-called freedom groups, a nationwide controversy has erupted over teaching Intelligent Design in public school biology classes. Intelligent Design is the belief that a higher power created the universe. Some Americans want it taught alongside evolution. In the Dover, Pennsylvania school district, teachers wouldn t even mention Intelligent Design, so today the District Superintendent had to do it. Lawsuits are flyin . Joining us today is Michael Grant, a Professor of Biology at the University of Colorado.

See, I can t understand, as a former high school teacher myself, why you can t just say  Well, some people believe there s a deity and the deity formed the universe and things progressed from there?  What would be wrong with that, Professor?

This is the standard equivocation about the meaning of the term  Intelligent Design.  O'Reilly is using the term for the minimalist claim that there is some designing intelligence behind the universe. This allows him to paint his opposition as a bunch of crazy atheists. Of course, this minimalist claim has nothing to do with evolution at all.

I'm sure O'Reilly would not approve of telling students, say in a discussion of the geological causes of the recent tsunami, that some people conclude from events like this that the world is not superintended by a loving God.

'Make or break' year for nuclear non-proliferation
15 January 2005

From New Scientist Print Edition.

THIS year will be "make or break" for the international treaty designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, as the gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" grows ever wider.

So says a report by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) based in London and Washington and the UK-based Oxford Research Group. They warn that without a breakthrough in May, when the 188 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are due to meet "the NPT may be declared bust".

Non-nuclear states argue that the weapons states, particularly the US, have failed to live up to their commitment to disarm. Last year's preparatory meeting ended in disarray without even agreeing an agenda for reviewing the treaty (New Scientist, 15 May 2004, p 5).

Syphilis cycles not driven by risky sex
12:11 27 January 2005
NewScientist.com news service

Kelly Young

The rise and fall of syphilis on a decade-long cycle in the US is due to the interaction of infection and the immunity that it induces - not changes in sexual behaviour, a new study shows.

Researchers also found that cycles of syphilis epidemics in US cities have synchronised since the second world war, suggesting an increasingly connected sexual network across the country.

The mechanism underlying the syphilis cycle also occurs in other parasite-host relationships. People infected by the syphilis bacterium often become immune to later infections, meaning infections fall. But when infections reach a low level, less of the sexually active population has immunity and so infections begin to rise again.

Climate Change Desiccating the Planet, Researchers Conclude

The portion of our planet affected by serious drought has doubled in the last three decades, a new study suggests. Findings to be presented today at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in San Diego, Calif., indicate that the fraction of global land characterized as "very dry" has increased from 10 to 15 percent in the 1970s to nearly 30 percent in 2002.

...The results reveal that widespread drying has occurred in large regions of Canada, Europe and Asia, as well as western and southern Africa, and eastern Australia. The U.S. experienced the opposite trend, exhibiting increased wetness over the past 50 years. By controlling for rain and snowfall, the scientists determined the amount of drying caused by increasing global temperatures, which lead to elevated rates of evaporation. They found that about half of the change is a result of rising temperatures, particularly in areas at northern middle and high latitudes. "Global climate models predict increased drying over most land areas during their warm season, as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase," says Dai. "Our analyses suggest that this drying may have already begun." --Sarah Graham

Chile's Retirees Find Shortfall in Private Plan
By LARRY ROHTER

SANTIAGO, Chile - Nearly 25 years ago, Chile embarked on a sweeping experiment that has since been emulated, in one way or another, in a score of other countries. Rather than finance pensions through a system to which workers, employers and the government all contributed, millions of people began to pay 10 percent of their salaries to private investment accounts that they controlled.

Under the Chilean program - which President Bush has cited as a model for his plans to overhaul Social Security - the promise was that such investments, by helping to spur economic growth and generating higher returns, would deliver monthly pension benefits larger than what the traditional system could offer.

Civil Service System on Way Out at DHS
White House Wants All Agencies to Have Option of Setting Own Personnel Policies
By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 27, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration unveiled a new personnel system for the Department of Homeland Security yesterday that will dramatically change the way workers are paid, promoted, deployed and disciplined -- and soon the White House will ask Congress to grant all federal agencies similar authority to rewrite civil service rules governing their employees.

The new system will replace the half-century-old General Schedule, with its familiar 15 pay grades and raises based on time in a job, and install a system that more directly bases pay on occupation and annual performance evaluations, officials said. The new system has taken two years to develop and will require at least four more to implement, they said.

Quote of note:

Last month the Scientific Alliance published a joint report with the George C Marshall Institute in Washington that claimed to "undermine" climate change claims. The Marshall institute received £51,000 from ExxonMobil for its "global climate change programme" in 2003 and an undisclosed sum this month.

Oil firms fund climate change 'denial'
David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday January 27, 2005
The Guardian

Lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, leading scientists have warned.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, is SUCH a bullshit artist.

I'm watching Washington Journal on C-SPAN ad she's just toeing the party line. And the call-ins are special. I was giving her (and C-SPAN) the benefit of the doubt...until a caller said "I'm a Democrat and a Vietnam War veteran, and I never criticize my President, no matter who he is."

You need to have some "Republicans" call in when you guys get on the show.

Report: PR spending doubled under Bush

By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON   The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.

The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton between 1997 and 2000. The analysis did not examine what the Clinton administration spent during its first term.

Quote of note:

Many organizations insist they do not belong on a list of faith-based organizations, even though they may have religious roots. White House officials said the list included groups that had identified themselves as faith-based and groups that officials thought were religious, based on their names.

More common: groups with a religious perspective that steer clear of proselytization.

"We intentionally avoid references to God and his works in our educational material so that no one will feel intimidated or avoid our services because they're of a different religion," said Sue Ortiz, a home ownership counselor at Inner City Christian Federation in Grand Rapids, Mich., which got $65,000 in 2003 and $150,000 in 2004.

But religion inspires their work, she said: "We do what we do because of God's love."

Incident date: 5/11/04 DIA personnel observed prisoners arriving at the Temporary Detention Facility with burn marks on their backs. Some had bruises and complained of kidney pain. One interrogator/debriefer witnessed TF 62-6 officers punch a prisoner in the face to the point where the prisoner needed medical attention. TF 62-6 personnel did not record treatment. Debriefer ordered to leave room. One DIA debriefer took pictures of the injuries, showed to TF 62-6 supervisor, who confiscated them. TF 62-6 personnel have done the following to DIA interrogators/debriefers: threatened them, confined them to the compound, ordered them not to talk to anyone in the US and informed them that their emails are being screened.

via MemoryBlog

Quote of note:

Officials said Monday they differentiated between a suicide attempt in which a detainee could have died without intervention and a "gesture" they considered aimed only at getting attention.

Army Gen. Jay Hood, who succeeded Miller as the detention mission's commander last year, has said the number of incidents has decreased since 2003, when the military set up a psychiatric ward.

In 2003, there were 350 "self-harm" incidents, including 120 "hanging gestures," according to Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman for the detention mission.

Last year, there were 110 self-harm incidents, he said.

Homeland Security may not see more money

By Lara Jakes Jordan, Associated Press Writer  |  January 27, 2005

WASHINGTON --An influential Senate Republican is admonishing Homeland Security Department officials not to count on an increase in the agency's $32 billion budget.

"I don't think there's going to be more money," Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Wednesday "In fact, I know there's not going to be more money. I would urge a review of your situation as to how to get the job done better with the money that's there now."

Stevens is the immediate past chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

...it is the sort of thing you'd expect from a Black man silly enough to name himself after an Italian mobster.

Quote of note:

"This investigation focused on drug dealing, murder and money laundering. It is not an investigation of the rap industry," said Mauskopf. "Ja Rule, Ashanti and none of the other artists affiliated with Murder Inc. are implicated in any way in this case."

Hip-Hop Music Boss Accused of Laundering Cash in NY

By Jeanne King  |  January 27, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The head of the hip-hop music label behind top-selling artists Ashanti and Ja Rule was charged on Wednesday with laundering more than $1 million in drug money through his record company, The Inc.

Ask yourself who Bush would benefit from acknowledging, much less adopting, these position.

Right. Not at all. We are in the phase of the cycle wherein the mainstream has decided Black folks interests clash with its own. Stupid as that is...

Black lawmakers ask Bush to adopt agenda

By Associated Press  |  January 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Its relationship with the White House strained over the last four years, the all-Democratic group of black congressional members used its long-awaited meeting with President Bush to ask him to adopt its agenda for closing racial disparities.

Quote of note:

British researchers selected 1,172 Type 1 patients throughout Europe and monitored their smoking habits, body weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol and triglyceride levels over seven years. Nearly a quarter of them developed nerve damage during that time. After adjusting for how well patients' blood-sugar levels were controlled, scientists found an apparent connection between nerve damage and risk factors for heart disease. For example, patients who had high blood pressure were twice as likely to develop nerve problems.

Tie seen on heart risks, diabetes complications

May help predict nerve problems

As Texas judge, Gonzales heard donors' cases

Practice legal, but still faces criticism

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff  |  January 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- When White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was a Texas Supreme Court justice running to stay in office in 2000, he took thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from companies that had business before him and he did not recuse himself from voting on their cases.

The practice is legal in Texas, and Gonzales was not the only judge to benefit from it. But his record in 2000 -- when he raised $539,000 for the Republican primary, outraising his opponent by a 1,047-to-1 ratio -- drew special criticism from an Austin-based group that tracks the influence of money on government.

To be honest, just grabbing stuff isn't the final answer. But until the final answer, I'm grabbing stuff.

Eyes on the Prize is the most important documentary ever made about the Civil Rights Movement--but copyright restrictions have kept it from the public for the past 10 years. We can't let that continue. On February 8th help us bring this film back to a nationwide audience. Download the film today and organize a screening in your city or town.

Quote of note:

The report said that the global recovery may have reached its zenith, with the world's economy growing by 4 percent in 2004, compared with 2.8 percent in 2003. The report estimated that the global economy will grow by 3.25 percent this year.

U.N. Report Calls for Help to Ease U.S. Budget and Trade Deficits

By ELIZABETH BECKER

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - The United Nations on Tuesday urged all the major industrial countries, especially Japan and the nations of Europe, to help the United States reduce its deficits by spurring their own economies to grow faster.

In a report, "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2005," the United Nations said that the budget and trade deficits of the United States were putting the global economy off balance.

Bush Sets Stage for Spending Fight With Higher Deficit Forecast

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's release of a record deficit forecast may give him an edge in his effort to limit congressional spending in the fiscal year 2006 budget.

The White House released its $427 billion budget deficit forecast for this year two weeks before it is to present its 2006 budget proposal to Congress on Feb. 7. The Congressional Budget Office yesterday projected a lower deficit of $368 billion.

"There's an advantage to projecting a higher number, because it gives you more leverage with Congress if you want to press for tighter spending," said Robert Hormats, a vice chairman at Goldman Sachs International in New York.

The Quote of note comes from Derek Bell's Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform:

Given their history of racial subordination, how have black people gained any protection against the multifacteted forms of discrimination that threaten their well-being and undermins their rights? The answer can be stated simply: Black rights are recognized and protected when and only so long as policymakers perceive that such advances will further interests that are their primary concern.

Bush Shifts Focus to Race in Debate on Social Security
By Peter Wallsten and Richard Simon
Times Staff Writers
January 26, 2005

WASHINGTON   Race became a significant factor in the debate over Social Security on Tuesday as President Bush told African American leaders that the government retirement program shortchanged blacks, whose relatively shorter lifespan meant that they paid more in payroll taxes than they eventually received in benefits.

Israel Halting Targeted Killings of Palestinians, Officials Say
From Associated Press
January 26, 2005

JERUSALEM   Israel has stopped targeting Palestinian militants for death, Israeli security officials said early today, fulfilling one Palestinian condition for a truce.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said Israel informed the Palestinians of the decision. It came after generals from the two sides met Tuesday to plan the deployment of Palestinian police in the central and southern Gaza Strip to prevent militants from attacking Israelis.

The security officials said Israel would not act on its current target list of militants, but they warned that if Palestinians resumed hostile activity, they would respond with force.

Quote of note:

And we look at such people and we shake our heads and sigh, trying to understand how excruciating it must be to go through life feeling as though you're stuck like a pinned bug to a perverted universe that can't be trusted, one that they desperately hope will be over real soon now, just like the "Left Behind" books promise, so they can forget how miserable and lost and distressed they feel and so they may finally leave their not-so-secret homosexual fantasies behind and drive their big manly SUVs to the Promised Land.

SpongeBob, Evil Gay Heathen
How sad to be a right-wing Christian in a world full of homo cartoons and scary nipples
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Quote of note:

Migliaccio said her husband already had an annuity with Conseco Inc. A sales agent for Midland National, she said, persuaded him to cash in that policy and to shift the nearly $43,000 in proceeds to the Midland National account in January 2003. Critics say that for most investors, there are cheaper ways to accomplish the investment and insurance goals served by annuities. But many people are unaware of these other options and are pushed into annuities by sales agents who earn hefty commissions on the products.

Annuities Coming Under Increased Scrutiny
One woman files a suit after learning that her late husband's policy wouldn't make payments until 2045.
By Josh Friedman
Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2005

Carmen Migliaccio said her husband thought he was ensuring their financial well-being when he shifted the bulk of their savings into a Midland National Life Insurance Co. annuity.

The problem, she said, became apparent only after he died in May: The annuity wasn't scheduled to begin making payments until Jan. 27, 2045   when John G. Migliaccio would have been 115 years old.

On Tuesday, his widow sued Midland National, accusing the company of unfair sales practices and failure to comply with state disclosure rules governing annuities.

She said that when her husband bought the annuity, "he was a sick man and he wanted to do it, so I said OK. Now I feel like they took advantage of us."

Annuity sales practices have drawn increasing scrutiny from state and federal regulators. In fact, Migliaccio's attorneys are seeking class-action status for what they claim are about 10,000 people who bought similarly flawed policies.

Bo Phillips, an attorney for Des Moines-based Midland National, declined to comment, saying company executives hadn't reviewed the lawsuit.

John Migliaccio had purchased what's known as a deferred annuity —  an investment contract that pays out a set monthly amount on maturity. Deferred annuities have become popular savings vehicles for the elderly. They are commonly sold by insurance companies and include death benefits to survivors.

China's Economic Growth Sizzles
Unexpectedly big gain has major bearing on U.S. Beijing likely to be pressured on currency.
By Don Lee and Evelyn Iritani
Times Staff Writers

January 26, 2005

SHANGHAI   China's economy grew at a surprisingly breakneck pace at the end of last year, the government said Tuesday in a report sure to increase pressure on Beijing to address its burgeoning trade imbalance with the United States and other countries.

At a sizzling 9.5%, growth in the fourth quarter was nearly a full percentage point higher than most economists had expected. What's more, the report comes as China is trying to slow its growth to a more sustainable pace.

Bill seeks to fill in paternity blanks
By ANNA VARELA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/26/05

If a state lawmaker gets his way, unmarried women who give birth in Georgia will face a question from hospital staff: Who's the daddy?

Rep. Ben Bridges (R-Cleveland) on Tuesday introduced the Baby's Right to Know Act, which would require hospitals to ask the question. Bridges said his goal is to give children access to their full medical history by identifying the biological father and getting his name on the birth certificate. It would not legally require the new mother to name the man.

Quote of note:

"This is the New South and not the message we want to send to our children," said Bruce Van Camp, whose son Christian was one of the protesters. "Wasn't the [state] flag just changed last year, but yet we want to go back in time?"

Not everyone agrees. Cherokee resident Dave Henson, a self-described "history geek" who considered running for the school board last year, suggested the name to the board. Henson described the former governor as "Cherokee County's most accomplished and respected public official."

The Cherokee County Historical Society also has backed the school board's action.

School name doesn't sit well in Cherokee
Confederate roots trip up efforts behind a new high school
By CHRIS REINOLDS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/26/05

Quote of note:

After a 2003 trial, a jury ruled in favor of defendant Juvenile, finding that D.J. Jubilee failed to prove that his version of "Back That Ass Up" was substantially similar to Jubilee's version of "Back That Azz Up."

5th Circuit Rules in Rappers' Battle Over Phrase 'Back That Ass Up']
Tuesday January 25, 3:02 am ET
John Council, Texas Lawyer

As often happens in the hip-hop world, two rappers became embroiled in a dispute over who owned the rights to a song that utilized a popular phrase. And it took the musical ear of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to settle the matter.

You didn't go into denial when you got caught. At you were smart enough not to sell out cheap...you knew from the different treatment Jason Blair and Stephen Glass received, from Mike Barnicle writing...today...for the NY Daily News after getting fired by the Boston Globe for plagiarism while Patricia Smith writes for no one after resigning from the same newspaper for the same crime, that if you got caught like so many others have you'd be out of journalism.

Quote of note:

"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me."

Fine, I'll tell you.

Yes. (See how easy that was?) But apparently it's not a violation of Republican political operative ethics.

And I gotta raise up offa Howie Kurtz for 15-20 minutes for reporting this.

Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 26, 2005; Page C01

I thought the best way to protect your car was to get A Big Black Guy Named Ben (who may be modeled on a friend of mine).

Now, though, I believe there's a better way.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Upcoming Conference in Celebration of Black History Month Montreal, Quebec January 23, 2005 Ebony Roots, Northern Soil: Perspectives on Blackness in Canada is a unique and exciting event planned for Black History Month, Friday February 4th and Saturday, February 5th 2005. Organized by Prof. Charmaine Nelson, this ambitious event will include 30 established participants—academics, scholars, professionals, celebrities and community leaders—in 5 roundtable sessions. This diverse group will convene around theme-driven dialogues about issues of importance to the black populations of Canada—past, present and future! Unlike a traditional conference, ERNS will be a series of dynamic and unscripted roundtable discussions, on topics such as the arts, culture, politics, society and national identity. Each of the 90 minute sessions will be held in English and will include 6 participants—1 chair, 4 discussants, and 1 respondent—and will include 15 minutes of audience question and participation. ERNS is an exciting interdisciplinary, academic and entertainment event, which brings together university, popular and community interests. It is the first of its scale to be sponsored by McGill University. Free for all! All are welcome!

GLOBAL WARMING   THE POINT OF NO RETURN: A new report co-published by the Center for American Progress warns that global warming is quickly approaching the point of no return, after which "widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of forests" will become irreversible. The findings were a product of a taskforce co-chaired by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Stephen Byers, a close confidant of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called on world leaders "to recognize that climate change is the single most important long-term issue that the planet faces." The task force urges G-8 countries "to agree to generate a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and shift agricultural subsidies from food crops to biofuels."

Summary and link to the full report in pdf format below the fold.

Quote of note:

The new study finds that more than 70 percent of patients prescribed the COX-2 drugs in the first three years they were available were at low or very low risk of developing ulcers and gastrointestinal problems -- the conditions that the COX-2 class of drugs was designed to prevent.

"The fast growth of the COX-2 market took place to a significant extent with patients who could have used" nonprescription alternatives, said study author G. Caleb Alexander of the University of Chicago. "In fact, there are clinical reasons to say they should have been using the alternatives."

New Study Criticizes Painkiller Marketing
Arthritis Drug Ads A Factor in Overuse
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A01

The Assault on Liberty

Yesterday, President Bush addressed a gathering of tens of thousands of people who want Roe v. Wade to be overturned and reaffirmed his support for criminalizing abortion. Bush told the crowd they were "making progress" toward their goal. The organizers of the rally, March for Life, favor criminalizing abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Bush's hostile views towards women's rights are of even greater concern because he could "make several Supreme Court appointments in his second term" who oppose Roe. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, at least 21 states would quickly outlaw abortion. That's why it's so important for progressives not to abandon their commitment to reproductive rights.

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University Presents "Rethinking Women-in-Jazz Historiography:" Panel and Screening Featuring a special showing of the latest "rough-cut of "Lady Be Good: Instrumental Women in Jazz", a forthcoming film by Kay D. Ray. When: Tuesday January 25, 2005 Time: 7pm Where: 301 Philosophy Hall on the Columbia University main campus 116th Street and Broadway It has been twenty years since the publication of book-length histories of women in jazz by Sally Placksin, Linda Dahl, and D. Antoinette Handy--yet jazz history continues to be commonly told as a history of musical men. What makes it possible for women musicians, especially instrumentalists, to disappear from historical memory? How might jazz history be told and remembered differently? Some scholars believe that it is important to analyze gender in all areas of jazz history, not just when women appear on the scene. Others believe that historical memory may be transformed through increased visibility of women musicians, increased accessibility of media to women musicians, and through education. This panel and screening addresses these questions, and raises suggestions for future jazz historiography that accounts for women and gender.

Thought I'd leave you with some non-bitchy stuff to look at before I head into the cold.

Kevin Hayden, without even asking me to plug his spot, directed me to the companion web site for Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941-1963. There's another volume in the set which doesn't seem to be available yet...while I'm indulging paranoia I will note it covers the same timeframe that the producers of the second half of Eyes on the Prize had such trouble raising funds for.

This site, a companion to The Library of America's Reporting Civil Rights, presents the reporters and journalism of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Timeline 1941-1973 is an overview of the Civil Rights Movement, with information about media coverage of key events. For detailed portraits of reporters and writers who covered the Civil Rights Movement, visit Reporters and Writers. In Perspectives on Reporting, reporters remember and reflect on the experience of reporting the Movement. Reporting Civil Rights: The LOA Anthology contains the full table of contents and other details about The Library of America's Reporting Civil Rights.

Mind you, there's pluggable stuff at The American Street. Like David Neiwert's link to this lovely bit:

Quote of note:

The logging permits sought by the company are particularly controversial because dozens of local residents contend that for years, they have been subjected to flooding caused by Pacific Lumber's logging. The residents say that as rivers and streams fill with silt from freshly logged hillsides, homes and belongings have been damaged, wells have been fouled and sediment has piled up in pastures and orchards. Some homeowners say rising waters have stranded them during severe rainstorms.

Bankruptcy Threat With an Edge
Lumber firm says environmental safeguards are at risk if it can't cut more trees.
By Tim Reiterman
Times Staff Writer

January 25, 2005

SACRAMENTO Timber giant Pacific Lumber Co. has told the Schwarzenegger administration that unless it is allowed to cut more trees, the firm may file for bankruptcy, which it says would likely terminate environmental safeguards promised as part of a $480-million deal struck more than five years ago.

FCC Dismisses 36 Indecency Complaints as Not 'Patently Offensive'

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page E01

It's generally okay to use a common nickname for "Richard" as an insult on network television, the Federal Communications Commission ruled yesterday, in a denial of several indecency complaints brought to the agency.

The complaints covered 25 television shows and a movie broadcast between 2001 and 2004 and were brought by the Parents Television Council, the Los Angeles media watchdog responsible for flooding the FCC with hundreds of thousands of e-mailed indecency complaints in 2004.

Once I considered this a plausible scenario:

Step 1:

Pres. Carter: What are we going to do about all this immorality?
NIH: Well, we have these two things we dreamed up...sexually transmitted, no cure. It ought to scare people into acting moral again.
Pres. Carter: What's the difference between the two?
NIH: One makes you scratch your balls every three-four weeks. Looks even worse than The Heartbreak of Psoriasis. The other makes you sick as shit. Might kill you.
Pres. Carter: Jesus, we don't want to kill anyone over this! Use the scratchy balls stuff and put that other crap away for good.

Step 2:

Pres. Reagan: My Conservative backers want something done about all this immorality. What do we got?
NIH: I don't know...we tried making everyone's balls itch. The only other thing will have has a really strong chance of killing you slowly and painfully.
Pres. Reagan: Hm...it would set an example...lowers the burden on Social Security and keeps them off welfare at the same time...

Do I still consider it plausible? Actually, I just don't consider it. Prevention is the issue at this point.

Quote of note:

"This is not a bunch of crazy people running around saying they're out to get us," Akbar said. The belief "comes from the reality of 300 years of slavery and 100 years of post-slavery exploitation."

Akbar cited the Tuskegee experiment conducted by the federal government between 1932 and 1972. In it, scientists told black men they were being treated for syphilis but actually withheld treatment so they could study the course of the disease.

Today, he said, African Americans are more likely to live in communities near pollution sources, such as freeways and oil refineries, and far from health care centers. "There are a lot of indicators that our lives are not valued," Akbar said.

Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy
Prevention Efforts Hurt, Activists Say
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A02

$1 Billion Donated to Vaccinate Poor Children
Gates Foundation, Norway Team Up to Fight Preventable Diseases in Asia, Africa
By Shankar Vedantam

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A04

Microsoft founder Bill Gates's foundation and the government of Norway yesterday gave grants of more than $1 billion to immunize children in poor countries against common diseases -- a blockbuster philanthropic gesture intended to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa and Asia.

The grant of $750 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation matches a similar contribution made by the software mogul's foundation five years ago. By guaranteeing large amounts of money over several years, the foundation has sought to build public health infrastructure around the world, encourage poor countries to come up with innovative long-range plans, and give incentives to vaccine manufacturers to develop vaccines that help the world's poor.

That way we can claim the ensuing chaos was cause by our being forced to leave before we "finish the job."

Anyway...

Army Plans To Keep Iraq Troop Level Through '06
Year-Long Active-Duty Stints Likely to Continue

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A01

The U.S. Army expects to keep its troop strength in Iraq at the current level of about 120,000 for at least two more years, according to the Army's top operations officer.

While allowing for the possibility that the levels could decrease or increase depending on security conditions and other factors, Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace Jr. told reporters yesterday that the assumption of little change through 2006 represents "the most probable case."

Quote of note:

The arrests occurred Sept. 27, 2002, during demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. With Ramsey's approval, Assistant Police Chief Peter J. Newsham ordered officers to corral demonstrators and anyone else within the boundaries of the park, on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and to charge them with failing to obey police. Those arrested were put in plastic handcuffs, taken away on buses and detained on floors for as long as 36 hours.

A subsequent internal investigation by police, made public by a federal judge in September 2003, found that Newsham never gave an order for the crowd to disperse and that police, therefore, had no justification for making the arrests.

D.C. Settles With Mass Arrest Victims
7 Rounded Up in 2002 IMF Protest to Get $425,000 and an Apology
By Carol D. Leonnig and Del Quentin Wilber

Approved stem cell lines contaminated, new report says
Mouse molecule blamed for peril in UC San Diego study
- Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times
Monday, January 24, 2005

All human embryonic stem cell lines approved for use in federally funded research are contaminated with a foreign molecule from mice that may make them risky for use in medical therapies, according to a study released Sunday.

Researchers at the UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla report that if the stem cells are transplanted into people, the cells could provoke an immune system attack that would wipe out their ability to deliver cures for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

Quote of note:

"After six weeks of product use, a 26% reduction in skin roughness/dryness was observed, a 29% reduction in fine lines and wrinkles was obtained, a 33% overall global improvement in the appearance of the skin and up to a 37% increase in skin hydration was observed," according to Allergan marketers.

Neither study has been published in a scientific journal, a common yardstick that doctors use to weigh the validity of medical research.

Also, the clinical trial did not compare Prevage with any other product. Joseph A. Lewis II, Pharma Cosmetix's president and chief executive, said the company planned further tests.

"We compared antioxidants," said Lewis. "Now we will compare Prevage against other well-known products in the marketplace."

Forget Botox; there's a new star in the wrinkle war
Allergan claims Prevage helps diminish wrinkles. But some doctors say its effectiveness has not been proven.
By Hilary E. MacGregor

From God and Darwin, and editorial in the Washington Post:

...a startling 55 percent of Americans -- and 67 percent of those who voted for President Bush -- do not, according to a recent CBS poll, believe in evolution at all.

The Eve of Destruction
George Bush is getting four more years to remake the world in his image. (Too bad for us, he already started.)

You might wonder were you someone unfamiliar with or in denial about the ways of the Karl Rove Mafia how George W. Bush could blunder into nominating someone as attorney general so obviously implicated in the most legally questionable and morally indefensible practices of his administration. You might wonder, too, how the administration seemed to be caught unawares by the bottomless pit of scandal in the past of its initial nominee for Homeland Security secretary.

Or you could realize that such nominations were not blunders, but intentional: that they were made not in spite of Alberto Gonzales's and Bernard Kerik's unsuitability for high office but precisely because of them. Keeping embarrassing facts on file about confederates is the best way to grip them into loyalty like a vise.

Quote of note:

One result is the striking emergence of Mexicans as the fifth largest immigrant group in the city. Their census numbers quadrupled to 122,550 in the decade since 1990, when they ranked 17th with 32,689. City demographers said the true growth was still higher, possibly to a total of 200,000, and not expected to slow. Births to the city's Mexican-born mothers - 6,408 in 2000 - are second only to births to foreign-born Dominicans, who remained the most numerous of the city's foreign-born groups at 369,000 residents, followed by the Chinese, the Jamaicans, and the Guyanese.

Record Immigration Is Changing the Face of New York's Neighborhoods

Overstating of Assets Is Seen to Cost U.S. Billions in Taxes

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Investors, entrepreneurs and landlords annually avoid paying at least $29 billion in taxes by overstating the price of stocks, businesses and real estate, two professors say in an article being published today in Tax Notes, an influential tax policy journal.

Claiming to have paid more than the actual price for a stock, business, apartment building or piece of art results in a smaller profit being reported when the asset is sold, and a lower tax on that profit.

"An unpublicized problem of crisis proportions is plaguing" the tax system, one that will cost the government at least $250 billion in the coming decade, the professors wrote.

Screened Out
By KRISTAL BRENT ZOOK

Published: January 23, 2005

...In contrast to stereotypes about what black people watch -- i.e., gum-smacking UPN sitcoms -- it is a little discussed fact that ''60 Minutes'' ranks No. 18 among upper-income African-Americans. (It falls to No. 41 in the total American market for 18- to 49-year-olds.) And yet, this well-to-do subgroup within the black demographic is one that virtually no one understands.

One year ago, a new cable network was created to change all that. TV One, a joint venture between Radio One, the nation's largest black-oriented radio broadcaster, and Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, began broadcasting on Martin Luther King's Birthday last year. And while its 19 million or so cable subscribers remain modest in number, the network is well positioned to be the first real competitor that Black Entertainment Television (BET) has faced in its 25-year history.

Quote of note:

After last year's Republican convention, the editor of The New Republic, Peter Beinart, noted the tendency of speakers to praise President Bush's war in Iraq not as a wise effort but as a sign of personal "inner strength." They insisted that we were safer after the Iraq invasion -- not because of anything it accomplished, but because it showed we were led by the kind of person who invaded Iraq.

The Triumph of Gesture Politics

By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

The world's governments, churches and even terrorist-affiliated groups have thrown themselves into the tsunami relief effort. You would expect that passing judgment about which kinds of aid and which modes of delivery work best would be a complicated matter.

When Peggy Noonan disapproves.

The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars.

A short and self-conscious preamble led quickly to the meat of the speech: the president's evolving thoughts on freedom in the world. Those thoughts seemed marked by deep moral seriousness and no moral modesty.

No one will remember what the president said about domestic policy, which was the subject of the last third of the text. This may prove to have been a miscalculation.

It was a foreign-policy speech. To the extent our foreign policy is marked by a division that has been (crudely but serviceably) defined as a division between moralists and realists--the moralists taken with a romantic longing to carry democracy and justice to foreign fields, the realists motivated by what might be called cynicism and an acknowledgment of the limits of governmental power--President Bush sided strongly with the moralists, which was not a surprise. But he did it in a way that left this Bush supporter yearning for something she does not normally yearn for, and that is: nuance.

I must say, though, that her admission that she doesn't even want nuance on the whole strikes me as typical of the typical Bush supporter.

They discussed that book that speculates Abe Lincoln was gay. Andrew Sullivan found it convincing. And Joe Klein, when asked why it matters said it doesn't matter to him, but it will matter to those who think homosexuality is a sin. I think Klein is right, but I don't think that will be a good thing.

The guy with the long head, I forget his name, suggested we're going to start outsourcing our aggressive wars. Mentioned Israel in connection with our interests in the Middle East. Interesting speculation in connection with the recent strengthening of our alliance with Australia...a politically Eurasian nation in the heart of Eastasia.

We're all blizzarded in here in NYC, I'm trying to figure out how to recover from a couple of rather unfortunate shortcomings in the HTML editor code I've been using, and I feel physically...well, not like shit...more like doo-doo. The blizzard has preempted This Week anyway.

Operating the brain in output mode is more energy consuming than doing so in input mode so I'll not be real creative today, though I'll keep up with comments. Right now I have an mp3 classical music stream working and I'm looking into whether I can get my spell checker to work with an embedded MSHTML editor. Maybe look into some PHP hackery later.