Couple May Sue Over Discarded Embryo

CHICAGO - A couple whose frozen embryo was accidentally destroyed at a fertility clinic has the right in Illinois to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, a judge has ruled in a case that some legal experts say could have implications in the debate over embryonic stem cell research.

In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb."

He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.

The suit was filed by Alison Miller and Todd Parrish, who stored nine embryos in January 2000 at the Center for Human Reproduction in Chicago. Their doctor said one embryo looked particularly promising, but the Chicago couple were told six months later the embryos had been accidentally discarded.

Many black speakers shun February spotlight

By Associated Press  |  February 5, 2005

NEW YORK -- The only black county commissioner in Dallas, John Wiley Price spoke Monday to 100 mostly black middle school students about history, responsibility and their futures. If he had been invited the following day -- Feb. 1 -- he would have refused.

That's not because of a scheduling conflict. Price no longer makes public appearances during Black History Month. Like some other top speakers, Price has grown weary of being in high demand for just a few weeks and then often ignored.

''I'm not going to be, as the kids say, 'pimped' during the month of February," Price said.

Social Security Poker: It's Time for Liberals to Ante Up

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Liberals are making a historic mistake by lining up so adamantly against Social Security reform.

It's impolite to say so in a blue state, but President Bush has a point: there is a genuine problem with paying for Social Security, even if it isn't as dire as Mr. Bush suggests.

As Bill Clinton declared in 1998 about Social Security reform: "We all know a demographic crisis is looming. ... If we act now it will be easier and less painful than if we wait until later." Mr. Clinton then made Social Security reform a central theme of his 1999 State of the Union address, saying, "Above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st century."

Kristof goes on to accuse Democrats of not having a plan to save Social Security. But he's wrong.

You really have to start watching Now on PBS. Constance Rice is going to be a regular contributor. Sister is direct and correct.

Rice is a co-founder of The Advancement Project, a public policy and legal action group that supports organizations working to end community problems and address racial, class and other barriers to opportunity.

More from Constance Rice:

• Commentaries by Constance Rice on THE TAVIS SMILEY SHOW
• The Advancement Project
• View Constance Rice's 2004 appearance on NOW.

Articles referred to in the February 2005 discussion:

• "The New Deal: How Just a Handful of Setbacks Sent the Ryans Tumbling Out of Prosperity," Peter G. Gosselin, LOS ANGELES TIMES, December 30, 2004
• "The New Deal: The Poor Have More Things Today -- Including Wild Income Swings," Peter G. Gosselin, LOS ANGELES TIMES, December 12, 2004

On The News Hour, David Brooks ran the standard line: "The Democrats don't want privatization...they don't have a counter proposal..."

The Republicans don't have a proposal...why should there be a counter-proposal?

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas. Their hopeful journeys changed not only their world and the fabric of the African Diaspora but also the Western Hemisphere.

The Progress Report:

NEVER MIND THE GAP: In a "significant shift in his rationale for the accounts," President Bush has apparently dropped his claim that private accounts would help solve Social Security's fiscal problems   "a link he made during last year's presidential campaign." A Bush aide, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, admitted "the individual accounts would do nothing to solve the system's long-term financial problems." The aide's admission is backed up by the details of the plan revealed so far; the Washington Post reports the plan would not "close the projected $3.7 trillion gap between Social Security benefits promised over the next 75 years and taxes expected to be collected. That gap would have to be closed through benefit cuts that have yet to be detailed."

NOT A BETTER DEAL: Having dropped the rationale that private accounts will help finance Social Security, President Bush now says the accounts are desirable "because they would be 'a better deal'" for workers. But analysis of the plan so far does not prove the accounts would be a better deal for anyone not working on Wall Street. Workers who opt for the private accounts would recover forfeited benefits through their accounts only "if their investments realized a return equal to or greater than the 3 percent earned by Treasury bonds currently held by the Social Security system." But CBO factors out stock market risks to assume a 3.3 percent rate of return. With 0.3 percent subtracted for expected administrative costs on the account, "the full amount in a worker's account would be reduced dollar for dollar from his Social Security checks, for a net gain of zero."

Can I add something?

From Talking Points Memo:

As usually happens when a bit more hard data comes in and replaces pessimistic prognostication, the Social Security gotterdammerung gets pushed back even further. So says the CBO today. This time from 2018 to 2020, as the date that Social Security will begin drawing on its accumulated Trust Fund money.

It's a small nudge, but a telling one.

The program is in such a dire state of crisis, it would seem, that every time the bean counters run the numbers, its solvency seems assured even further into the future.

Cobb evolution case draws offers of help
By KRISTINA TORRES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/04/05

The Cobb County school board has a standing offer of help and money from a powerful Christian legal group as it appeals a federal court ruling banning its textbook disclaimers about evolution.

The Alliance Defense Fund, founded 11 years ago by leaders of nationally known ministries such as Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ, made the offer as late as Jan. 20 in a letter to Cobb school board attorney Linwood Gunn.

Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform by Derreick Bell, pg 55 and thereabouts:

The prevailing view in the North was that the Civil War was intended to preserve the Union, not to end slavery. But when, during the Civil War field commanders issued orders on their own initiative freeing slaves in the area of their military operations, Lincoln vetoed their actions. In his view, the question of emancipation was political and not military. Abolitionists, who had been urging Lincoln to end slavery, denounced his overruling of the field commanders. In a famous response to one of them, Horace Greeley, the editor of New York Tribune, Lincoln indicated his primary goal was to win the war and preserve the Union. He wrote Greeley:

I saw an article the other day discussing the impact of adding $2-3 trillion dollars to the equity markets (the very goal of privatization). I know that's vague but anyway I forgot to bookmark it. If anyone runs up on it or something similar, I'd appreciate a link.

AARP has this faq called Ten Facts to Remember About Social Security that put the most interesting (to me, anyway) point next to last. I guess because it's wonky and factual...

9. Trust fund assets earned 6.7 percent in 2001, and the cost of administering Social Security is minimal.

The trust funds are invested in special U.S. Treasury securities that earn market-based returns (6.7 percent in 2001). In addition, the trust funds' holdings of government bonds are not subject to the risk of price losses if they are redeemed early, unlike other bond investments. The trust funds will continue to grow until 2017. Under the Social Security actuaries' mid-range assumptions, assets will total nearly $3.3 trillion by 2010. In 2001, the Social Security trust funds had administrative costs of about 7/10 of 1 cent of every dollar of income. Social Security can achieve these low administrative costs because all Social Security tax dollars are reserved solely to pay benefits and administer the program. Social Security's administrative costs are appreciably lower than the average administrative cost of a mutual fund, which is about 1.5 percent of the account balance.

Steady Leadership
President Bush's cognitive dissonance.
By William Saletan
Updated Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005, at 10:27 PM PT

Listen to this story on NPR's Day to Day.

Tonight's State of the Union Address demonstrated again that President Bush is a man of very clear principles. He's just flexible about when to apply them.

He's for historical reflection when a Democratic program has lost the context that initially justified it: "Social Security was created decades ago, for a very different era. In those days, people did not live as long. Benefits were much lower   Our society has changed in ways the founders of Social Security could not have foreseen."

He's against historical reflection when a Republican war has lost the context that initially justified it. All that matters is the new rationale: "The victory of freedom in Iraq will strengthen a new ally in the war on terror, inspire democratic reformers from Damascus to Tehran, bring more hope and progress to a troubled region  "

One more thing I'd like to point out: fixing ANYTHING forever, much less Social Security, is impossible.

Raw Story has acquired a copy of Saving Social Security: A Guide to Social Security Reform, printed by the House and Senate Republican Conferences as a guide for Senators and Representatives to market private accounts for the Social Security system.

The document is filled with suggestions for communicating with constituents such as, "Talk in simple language: Your audience doesn't understand financial jargon," and "Offer an alternate reality." The first several pages of the 103-page document are posted here.

The playbook, first reported on by Raw Story, has been subsequently reproduced by various liberal weblogs. View the entire document in PDF format here (2mb).

The Revolution Will Be Visualized: Emory Douglas in the Black Panther

...

On the back of each Black Panther weekly tabloid paper was a poster, usually created by Douglas. Like rap lyrics that layer "rhymes" to create images, Douglas's densely packed layered images told detailed stories.

In this back page poster, Douglas spanned a range of issues and condensed the anguish in American black communities into one mixed media collage.

When The Black Panther newspaper was first published, African Americans were virtually absent from the mainstream (white) American media landscape. Public images of black people were almost exclusively limited to roles of servants or cultural stereotypes. The black press, influential in African American communities because of segregation, followed the pattern of mainstream media in concentrating on the middle class. Black Panther Party leaders profoundly understood that an essential key to black liberation was creating and controlling images used to represent black people.

No one is here to read about my life. I know that because I don't much write about it, and you're here. But sometimes...and due to a lack of decent social reflexes (maaaaybe I'll write about that too) there's rarely anyone I can vent on.

Recently Mayor Bloomberg appeared on Staten Island to tell folks all the wonderful things he has in mind for us. One thing he promised was to increase police presence around here, and damned if he didn't do it...it looks like the whole graduating class of the Police Academy has been assigned to my neighborhood and that is NOT hyperbole.

Frankly, I'm a bit tired of them. Cops expect you to react to their mere presence (I will never forget my encounter with the now officially disbanded Street Crimes Unit). I am quite aware of them, just as I am any other street character but I pay about the same amount of attention to them and that seems to twist their nipples a bit. I suppose they're trying to do the community policing thing so they're staring at me in the hope of being friendly. They aren't giving people grief of any sort as far as I can see but that is because everyone responds as they expect them to...except me. When a knot of them are blocking the sidewalk I'll walk down the middle of the crowd rather than walking into the street to get around them. That sort of thing.

Quote of note:

About a dozen minority students gathered Wednesday afternoon in Myers Hall to discuss the mural. They agreed it was a beautiful display but were upset by the racist word.

"I don't think that quote was necessary," said Stephanie Reyes, a second-year student from Augusta. "Of all the things for them to highlight, why that?"

Tribute to UGA integrator draws fire
By KELLY SIMMONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/03/05

Quote of note:

The residents' insistence that Nagapattinam's orphans, mostly Hindus, not be sent away partially stems from fear that the children will be converted to other religions. Locals think religious organizations, especially those associated with the West, are on a conversion spree. The fear, which religious groups say is unfounded, is magnified with the influx of international relief organizations into a largely insular community.

Rumors of evangelizing priests picking up children are readily believed, although they are unconfirmed. Two weeks ago in Akkarapettai, two Indian Christian nuns helping in relief work were surrounded by angry villagers and left fearing for their lives.

Fears of child trafficking also have made Nagapattinam residents suspicious. The relatively handsome government compensation -- children who lost one or both parents will receive $11,700 when they turn 18 -- has created another level of distrust. Announcing the compensation package so soon, activists say, raises the risk that unscrupulous people would be more concerned with the money than the children's welfare.

Communities fearful of outside adoptions of disaster orphans

White House notes plan lacks solutions for shortfall

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff  |  February 3, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Social Security plan outlined last night by President Bush does not include any direct means of dealing with the projected $10.4 trillion shortfall that he and his advisers say is driving his desire to overhaul the system, and it leaves unsaid whether Bush thinks a cut in future benefits is necessary, White House officials acknowledged.

Bush did provide new details about the size of what he calls "voluntary personal retirement accounts." One-third of Social Security taxes could be invested in the private accounts and the plan would apply only to those younger than 55. Those and other details tracked what Bush and his aides have said for months, and build on a similar proposal put forward by Bush's handpicked Social Security Commission in 2001.

Quote of note:

The House this year also voted to change its rules to make it harder for the committee to investigate its members. It now requires a majority of the committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, to approve a probe.

and

Hefley, who had predicted his own removal, said in a statement Wednesday that it was "somewhat of a relief" to be free of the responsibility of being chairman.

...Many Republicans were angry with Hefley for admonishing DeLay last year on the hardball political tactics that DeLay's backers credited with strengthening the GOP's majority in the House and advancing the Republican legislative agenda.

So popular is DeLay that current and former members of Congress and their PACs contributed $174,500 to DeLay's legal defense fund in the last quarter of 2004, according to Public Citizen, a watchdog group.

DeLay Critic Removed From Ethics Committee
Doc Hastings replaces Joel Hefley, who had rebuked the majority leader three times.
By Richard Simon
Times Staff Writer

February 3, 2005

WASHINGTON   The House ethics committee chairman who presided over three rebukes of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was bounced from the job Wednesday and replaced by a Republican congressman from Washington state.

The new chairman is Rep. Doc Hastings, the committee's second-ranking Republican. He was named by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to take the gavel from Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.).

In addition, Hastert appointed three new members to the panel, including two   Reps. Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.)   whose political action committees have contributed to DeLay's legal defense fund. Smith's PAC contributed $5,000 in 2001 and an additional $5,000 between July and September 2004; Cole's gave $5,000 between July and September 2004.

The third new Republican member is Rep. Melissa A. Hart of Pennsylvania.

Martha Stewart to star in new `Apprentice'
- DERRIK J. LANG, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 2, 2005

(02-02) 13:57 PST NEW YORK (AP) --

Martha Stewart, you're hired.

The masterminds behind "The Apprentice" -- Donald Trump and Mark Burnett_ and NBC announced Wednesday that Stewart will host "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart."

"Mark and I have always admired her," Trump said. "She's a very brave woman. She's built a multimillion-dollar empire. It was an easy decision. We think this will be an absolutely tremendous success."

Canada to counter Patriot Act

By JIM BRONSKILL

OTTAWA (CP)   The government will revamp the wording of future federal contracts with the aim of countering U.S. powers, granted under anti-terrorism laws, to tap into personal information about Canadians.

The move is intended to prevent the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation from seeing sensitive Canadian data the government supplies to American firms doing business with federal departments in Ottawa.

The government has also asked all agencies and departments to conduct a  comprehensive assessment of risks  to Canadian information they release to U.S. companies carrying out work under contract.

All Players Gained From 'Oil-for-Food'
On the U.N. Security Council, competing national interests and economic stakes in Iraq chilled willingness to scrutinize the program.
By Maggie Farley
Times Staff Writer

...The 15 members of the U.N. Security Council, including the United States, were at best complacent and at times complicit in Hussein's exploitation of the program, diplomats and U.N. officials say. Competing national interests and economic stakes in one of the world's biggest oil producers chilled the council's willingness to scrutinize the program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil in exchange for cash intended to be used only to buy food, medicine and other essentials.

Study: Southern Blacks Die at Higher Rate
- By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
Wednesday, February 2, 2005

(02-02) 17:32 PST New Orleans, LA (AP) --

Blacks in the South apparently get a double whammy of stroke risk: They die at much higher rates than either Southern whites or blacks who live elsewhere.

Researchers have long known that stroke deaths are greater among blacks and people in the "Stroke Belt" across the eastern part of the nation's midsection. But they thought the combined risk posed by race and geography was small.

I remember why I was going to skip it.

The State of the Union address, at it's best, actually tells you the state on the union. All it is now is a stump speech.

I'll watch the damn State of the Union Address.

Big Board Report Says Ex-Chief Was Overpaid by $144 Million

By LANDON THOMAS Jr.

Richard A. Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, received $144 million to $156 million in excess compensation during his time at the Big Board, taking deliberate steps to keep his high-profile board in the dark about his soaring pay and get the money out early, according to a stinging internal report released today by the exchange.

Authorized by Mr. Grasso's successor, John S. Reed, the 128-page report was compiled by Dan K. Webb, the exchange's lawyer, and delivered to Mr. Grasso's lawyers today in response to an order from a New York state judge.

When did we stop talking about means testing as a part of working out any Social Security issues that may (or may not) exist?

WHY did we stop talking about means testing as a part of working out any Social Security issues that may (or may not) exist?

Could it be...because it would negatively affect rich folks?

Because he points out things like

In other words, to believe in a privatization-friendly rate of return, you have to believe that half a century from now, the average stock will be priced like technology stocks at the height of the Internet bubble - and that stock prices will nonetheless keep on rising.

and says things like

They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.

Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.

It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.

Many Unhappy Returns

By PAUL KRUGMAN

The fight over Social Security is, above all, about what kind of society we want to have. But it's also about numbers. And the numbers the privatizers use just don't add up.

Let me inflict some of those numbers on you. Sorry, but this is important.

Quote of note:

In a confidential letter to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political adviser, the group said it was disappointed with the White House's decision to put Social Security and other economic issues ahead of its paramount interest: opposition to same-sex marriage.

Backers of Gay Marriage Ban Use Social Security as Cudgel

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - A coalition of major conservative Christian groups is threatening to withhold support for President Bush's plans to remake Social Security unless Mr. Bush vigorously champions a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Quote of note:

"It's confusing to me and my mom why they are constantly invoking him without presenting his position on Social Security," said Maura Moynihan, the senator's daughter, referring as well to his widow, Elizabeth.

"I think it's odd or strange or unsettling that the Democrat being invoked here is dead and not able to defend or explain his position, which we all know he would have done with eloquence and passion," said Ms. Moynihan, who described herself as a liberal who supported Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the presidential race.

Bush Finds a Backer in Moynihan, Who's Not Talking

Quote of note:

All 103 issues of the Freedom's Journal have been digitized and placed into Adobe Acrobat format. PLEASE NOTE: Each file is over 1 megabyte in size, refer to the file size information next to the link before clicking on the link.

Volume 1 (March, 1827-March, 1828)
Volume 2 (April, 1828-March, 1829)

African-American Newspapers and Periodicals

Freedom's Journal

OCLC#: 1570144
LC card #: sn83-30455

Never-ending penalty
OUR OPINION: PUNISHMENT AFTER TIME SERVED IS WRONG

Gov. Jeb Bush has the constitutional power to automatically restore civil rights to people who have fully completed their criminal sentences. Two powerful Republicans are urging him to end the felon-rights ban. The governor can, and should, do so as soon as possible. It's past time to end an antiquated provision that permanently bars ex-felons from voting, serving on juries and other rights despite having paid their debt to society.

Gov. Bush should end the state's cumbersome clemency process, currently the only hope for ex-felons regaining their rights. A Herald investigative series last year described a backlogged, bureaucratic gantlet that denies or delays eight in 10 offenders who seek to have their rights restored. To his credit, Gov. Bush has recommended a number of improvements, but these simply won't fix the system's basic flaws.

Quote of note:

SCLC/Women has placed eight markers in all, many of them continually vandalized.

"Racism is still alive and well in Alabama," the Rev. James Orange, tour transportation director, said at a news conference. "When we leave a monument, they shoot it up still."

Tour to trace 'Bloody Sunday' route
By MARCIA LANGHENRY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/02/05

Three monuments to pioneers of the civil rights movement will be unveiled as part of a tour marking the 40th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights that ended in violence.

via HungryBlues

Bush tells CBC he's 'unfamiliar' with Voting Rights Act

by Roland S. Martin, Chicago Defender
January 27, 2005

President George W. Bush met with the Congressional Black Caucus Wednesday for the first time as a group in nearly four years, but what CBC members said stood out the most was the president's declaration that he was "unfamiliar" with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant pieces of legislation passed in the history of the United States.

Tests Said to Tie Deal on Uranium to North Korea

By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: February 2, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Scientific tests have led American intelligence agencies and government scientists to conclude with near certainty that North Korea sold processed uranium to Libya, bolstering earlier indications that the reclusive state exported sensitive fuel for atomic weapons, according to officials with access to the intelligence.

They've already screwed us all royally with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The banks got what they wanted in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They got permanent limits on state authority to enact stronger laws in some areas of credit reporting. Credit reports are financial résumés collected by third-party companies that are used for credit decision making. In the 1996 Congress, the law was strengthened because of a lot of mistakes the companies were making. And for eight years after 1996, states were limited in some ways. Last year Congress limited the states permanently from enacting stronger laws in a number of areas. ... It was a major, major campaign by every bank, every trade association, every car finance company, every mortgage company, every insurance company. The entire financial industry, not only the credit card companies, lobbied for permanent limits on state authority to enact stronger credit reporting laws.

Class-Action Lawsuits

Don't commit war crimes. But that may be asking too much at this point.

Anyway...

Why Should We Shield the Killers?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Two weeks ago, President Bush gave an impassioned speech to the world about the need to stand for human freedom.

But this week, administration officials are skulking in the corridors of the United Nations, trying desperately to block a prosecution of Sudanese officials for crimes against humanity.

It's not that Mr. Bush sympathizes with the slaughter in Darfur. In fact, I take my hat off to Mr. Bush for doing more than most other world leaders to address ethnic cleansing there - even if it's not nearly enough. Mr. Bush has certainly done far more than Bill Clinton did during the Rwandan genocide.

Health Secretary Calls for Medicaid Changes

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 - Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, called Tuesday for sweeping changes in Medicaid that would cut payments for prescription drugs and give states new power to reduce or reconfigure benefits for millions of low-income people.

In his first speech as secretary, Mr. Leavitt also said it should be more difficult for elderly people to qualify for Medicaid by transferring assets to their children.

"Medicaid must not become an inheritance protection plan," Mr. Leavitt said at a convention of health care executives here. "Right now, many older Americans take advantage of Medicaid loopholes to become eligible for Medicaid by giving away assets to their children. There is a whole industry that actually helps people shift costs to the taxpayer."

Yeah, Africa needs to get in the mix somehow. And since they're doing the call center thing even cheaper than prison labor would maybe the need to jail so many Americans will be reduced.

Cynical, I know.

Anyway...

Accents of Africa: A New Outsourcing Frontier

By MARC LACEY

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan. 30 - Susan Mina, a Kenyan who has never stepped foot out of Africa, speaks English like the haughtiest of Britons. She can also put on a fair imitation of an American accent by swallowing all her words. Still, every once in a while, some Swahili slips out of her and that is not at all helpful as she tries to enhance Africa's role in the global explosion of outsourcing.

Study Ties Bankruptcy to Medical Bills

By REED ABELSON

Sometimes, all it takes is one bad fall for a working person with health insurance to be pushed into bankruptcy.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans file for personal bankruptcy each year because of medical bills - even though they have health insurance, according to a new study by Harvard University legal and medical researchers.

"It doesn't take a medical catastrophe to create a financial catastrophe," said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor who studies bankruptcy and is one of the authors of the study.

The study, which is scheduled to appear today on the Web site of Health Affairs, an academic journal, provides a glimpse into a little-researched area connecting bankruptcy and medical costs. About 30 percent of people said they filed for bankruptcy because of an illness or injury, even though most of them had health insurance when they first got sick.

Quote of note:

After all, African Americans did not abandon the Republican Party; the Republican Party abandoned African Americans.

I couldn't have said it better...or even as well...myself

Why blacks shy away from the GOP

By OSCAR EASON JR.
GUEST COLUMNIST

In his farewell speech in 1901, Rep. George White, a Republican and the last African American to leave the U.S. Congress following the Reconstruction period, said, "Phoenixlike, he (the African American citizen) will rise up some day and come again."

There were 22 African Americans serving in Congress from 1870 to 1901; two were senators and most, if not all, were Republicans. Today, there are 39 African Americans in Congress and they're all Democrats.

Anyone who is politically curious has seen present-day Republican pundits proclaim their party to be historically "the party of Lincoln"; what is unfailingly left out of this declaration is the historical metamorphosis of the Republican Party after Reconstruction. Anyone who does not understand this genealogy cannot hope to understand the predominately white face of today's GOP.

Sadly, it's necessary because of this asininity:

Recasting Republicans as the Party of Civil Rights
Strategists reach back to GOP's antislavery roots in an attempt to lure black voters.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer

January 29, 2005

WASHINGTON   Condoleezza Rice took the oath Friday as the first black woman to be secretary of State, then immediately reached back into history to invoke the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

Her words were the latest example of President Bush and his top aides citing the Republican Party's often-forgotten 19th century antislavery roots   a strategy that GOP leaders believe will help them make inroads among black voters in the 21st century.

And if it reminds voters that the Democrats once embraced slavery, that's not such a bad byproduct, strategists say.

The absurdity of this posture can be revealed by the answer to a single question: Did Republicans of the time embrace slavery?

But let's go a bit deeper. Let's nail it down...it will be a multi-day process.

I was pretty sure "No, there's too much to read already" was an option someone would take. I actually think it will wind up the most popular option.

Quote of note:

The Economic Policy Institute found that all but two states Hawaii and Wyoming failed to make the projections put forth by the administration. Twenty-nine states both blue and red states have fewer jobs than when the recession started in March 2001. The other states experienced job growth so anemic that the added jobs could not keep up with the expansion of the workforce as a whole. Overall, the promise of 5.5 million jobs fell 3.1 million jobs short one of the worst job-creation records in the past century (the president s best chance to burnish his record is to compare himself to Herbert Hoover).

As important, wages are stagnating which explains why people remain very nervous about the economy. As EPI reports in a related analysis:  Since the recovery s start in the fourth quarter of 2001, (real) private wage and salary income is up only 3.9 percent. The average for all economic recoveries that lasted 11 quarters or more from 1947 to1982 is 18.2 percent, and even the  jobless recovery  of the early 1990s saw 7.4 percent growth. 

In the wake of the "I'm lovin' it" campaign, McDonalds creates the stupidest marketing blunder since Chevrolet tried introduced the Nova into South America's Spanish speaking market ("no va" means "doesn't go").

Quote of note:

The administration has already thrown open millions of acres of the American West to energy exploitation and more millions in the former national petroleum reserve west of the Arctic plain and Prudhoe Bay. Some of the openings make sense, others don't. The latest ruckus is over allowing oil and gas wells on desert grassland in New Mexico, putting water supplies at risk. State officials solidly opposed the drilling but got a brushoff at the Interior Department.

A Sneaky Bid for Arctic Oil
February 1, 2005

Drill for oil in Yosemite Valley? A geothermal steam plant near Old Faithful? A hydroelectric dam on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon? Even the Bush administration would not go that far in search of energy sources because law bans such exploitation in the national parks. But its zeal for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is nearly as dumb. The refuge should have been made a national park in 1980, when Congress considered the designation. But for the oil industry, it would have been.

Quote of note:

The jurors determined that Glendale-based Nestle should have paid Christoff $330,000 for the use of his likeness. They also voted to hand Christoff damages equal to 5% of the profit from Taster's Choice sales during the six-year period, or $15.3 million.

Nestle USA executives declined to comment. Lawrence Heller, the company's lawyer, said the food and beverage giant would appeal the verdict.

"The employee that pulled the photo thought they had consent to use the picture," Heller said.

Verdict Creates Instant Millionaire
Nestle must pay a model $15.6 million for using his image without his consent. It will appeal.
By Meg James
Times Staff Writer

February 1, 2005

Russell Christoff was standing in line at a Home Depot in the spring of 2002 when a woman leaned over and said, "You look like the guy on my coffee jar."

Christoff smiled. The Northern California model had been recognized before after appearing in corporate training films and landing a few movie and TV roles. He had even hosted his own program for public television, "Traveling California State Parks."

But Christoff had never appeared on a coffee jar   or so he thought until several weeks later.

That's when Christoff, shopping for bloody mary mix at a Rite-Aid store, happened to come face to face with himself on a label for Nestle's Taster's Choice.

Quote of note:

One parent who pulled her son from Oak Grove and sent him to Sequoia Middle School in Pleasant Hill called it "The Great White Flight."

Kristy Caldwell's two children, who attend the high-performing Bancroft Elementary in Walnut Creek, would attend Oak Grove, and that deeply concerns her.

"I'm not prejudiced, (but) the school became English-as-a-second-language, " she said. "You would be taking my kids from a great environment to a ghetto environment where they're struggling with other needs ... The test scores at Oak Grove are terrible."

Families flee school's sinking scores
'Underperforming' label exacerbates problem in Concord
- Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Well, the military is giving away free tits...

Medicare to Cover Drugs for Impotence
The prescription benefit will take effect next year. The decision to include pharmaceuticals that enhance the quality of life is a matter of debate.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Denise Gellene
Times Staff Writers

February 1, 2005

WASHINGTON   Medicare's new prescription benefit will cover sexual performance drugs, like Viagra, in addition to medications for such ailments as high blood pressure and heart disease, program officials confirmed Monday.

The move into what some consider "lifestyle"   rather than life-saving   pharmaceuticals is being criticized by conservatives, who see it as an unnecessary frill for a program that already is projected to cost at least $400 billion over its first decade.

"Ordinary Americans are going to be surprised," said Robert E. Moffit, a healthcare analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research and educational institution in Washington. "But this should not be a shock . Once you create a universal entitlement, the tendency is for the entitlement to expand."

Clinical experts said that from a medical perspective, the decision made sense and followed the practices of private insurance plans and other government healthcare programs.

"These are drugs that treat a condition that compromises the quality of life but doesn't threaten life," said Dr. Ira Sharlip, a professor of urology at UC San Francisco. "But there are many drugs that are approved for quality-of-life indications. It wouldn't be right to single out [impotence drugs] as frivolous when there are so many others in the same category"   such as prescription drugs for indigestion or mild pain, he said.

NIH to Ban Deals With Drug Firms
Federal researchers will no longer be able to accept fees to consult for companies, officials say. The lucrative pacts have sparked ethics probes.
By David Willman
Times Staff Writer

February 1, 2005

WASHINGTON   Under a far-reaching reform to be announced today, all staff scientists at the National Institutes of Health will be banned from accepting any consulting fees or other income from drug companies, and the employees must also divest industry stock holdings, officials said.

The new regulations   drawn up by administrators from the NIH, the Office of Government Ethics and the Department of Health and Human Services   are aimed at halting lucrative deals that have led to conflict-of-interest inquiries at the government's premier agency for medical research.

The changes exceed the partial and temporary curbs on outside income proposed earlier by the NIH director, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. Although the new rules could be reassessed after one year, officials familiar with the matter said they viewed the changes as permanent.

For the last decade, government scientists at the NIH have quietly been allowed to consult for biomedical companies under policies that defenders have said helped attract talented personnel to the agency. Hundreds of scientists took millions of dollars in fees and stock from industry. Most of the payments were hidden from public view, raising questions about the scientists' impartiality in overseeing clinical trials and in making recommendations to doctors for treating patients.

Tonight at 10 pm on most PBS stations:

Independent Lens
February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four
Tuesday, February 1, 10:00pm

CHANNEL 13 (Thirteen/WNET New York)

On February 1, 1960, four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. In this intimate portrait, viewers learn what led these four friends to protest   and how their lives have been affected. Producers: Steven Channing and Rebecca Cerese. Co-presentation with South Carolina ETV

CC TVPG Educational Taping Rights: 1 year

Again, PBS set up an excellent supporting web site for this show. And this is critical: What "Education taping rights" means is you can record and distribute this episode of Independent Lens for educational purposes for a year after the broadcast is aired. So get your recorders, people.

Bush's Unprecedented Attack on African Americans
by James Ridgeway
January 27th, 2005 4:21 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. For four years Bush didn't meet with the Congressional Black Caucus and paid no heed to African Americans, except, of course, to repeat the Republican mantra of how terribly concerned we all are and how we just want to include you under the big Republican tent. But yesterday, reinvigorated by his election mandate, Bush called the caucus and fed them a line of bullshit.

...Social Security reform that turns over substantial hunks of a person's account to Wall Street, where the vicissitudes of the marketplace can yo-yo it up and down, is little help to anyone, let alone blacks. The only source of retirement for 40 percent of all African Americans is Social Security, according to Melvin Watt, a Democratic rep from North Carolina. Without it, poverty rates among blacks would double.

Adam at The Questions to your Answers:

February is Black History Month. It is my goal in the next twenty-eight days to write at least four well thought out entries about African American history, and I am urging each of my readers to do the same.

This entry will stay on top the entire month of February and will list all of my writing as well as yours. Hit this entry with a trackback, or leave me a comment, and I will list your writing. At the end of February I will pick one entry that stands out among all the rest and give that author a gift of my choosing. Most likely it will be a book dealing with Black history.

So get the message out to all your readers. If you see somebody writing about Black History month, send them my way so they can have a chance to win a prize. These next few weeks are about celebrating cultural diversity, educating others on that beauty, and learning new things yourself. Please join with me this whole month as we celebrate Black History Month.

Obviously I'll be writing relevant stuff so I'll trackback a couple of times, but I'm disqualifying myself for two reasons:

And although he took way too long to say:

"hate crime laws are conceptually no different than tax incentives in being an incentive to act as society needs you to"

David Neiwert at Orcinus gets it.

via Michael at Public Domain Progress:

Joshua Mc George	Crystal Swain	Meiissa [sic] Smith	Ralph Parr	Michael Swain

Check Michaels page to find out why I ask. Writing about it will make my keyboard all tacky and smell bad.

It's hard to think of a more disturbing story.

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far
By GREG TOPPO
USA TODAY

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released Monday.

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36 percent believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51 percent say they should be able to publish freely; 13 percent have no opinion.

Hillary Clinton collapses during speech in New York
Senator declines hospitalization; reportedly will appear at second event

NBC News and news services

Updated: 1:57 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2005

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton collapsed Monday during during a speech but aides said the former first lady quickly recovered from what they described as a fainting spell triggered by a 24-hour flu and planned to appear at a second public engagement.

Or, "The Real Reason Social Security Must Change."

Quote of note:

In the early years of Social Security, when many people received full benefits without contributing into the program for their entire working life, they typically took out twice as much money as they put in.

But since 1980, the ratio of benefits to contributions has begun to decline for many reasons. One is that more workers live to collect the benefits. Another is that payroll taxes have been raised to keep the program solvent.

According to C. Eugene Steuerle, an economist at the Urban Institute, most baby boomers will continue to take more money out of the system than they put in; the exception will be those with high lifetime earnings.

But by the time the Generation Xers, those aged 25 to 34, retire beginning in 2030, Steuerle warns that the only positive returns will be enjoyed by one-earner couples and two-earner couples with moderate or low lifetime earnings.

Debate Has Many Sides— and Myths

By Steven Pearlstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 7, 1997; Page A01

Quote of note:

"There is really no strong evidence to suggest any positive aspects of moving Social Security funds into equities," Greenspan, the chief architect of the government's last major revisions to Social Security 16 years ago, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Greenspan Wary of Market Role in Social Security Rescue
By Amy Goldstein and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 21, 1999; Page A1

President Clinton's surprise proposal to link the fate of Social Security more closely to the stock market began to stir doubts yesterday about how his initiative would affect the U.S. economy and prompted potent criticism from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Congressional Republicans Agree to Launch Social Security Campaign
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 31, 2005; Page A04

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Congressional Republicans, after three months of internal debate, this weekend launched a months-long campaign to try to convince constituents that rewriting the Social Security law would be cheaper and less risky than leaving it alone, as the White House opened a campaign to pressure several Senate Democrats to support the changes.

The Republicans left an annual retreat in the Allegheny Mountains with a 104-page playbook titled "Saving Social Security," a deliberate echo of the language President Bill Clinton used to argue that the retirement system's trust fund should be built up in anticipation of the baby boomers' retirement.

Though I've never suggested it before, it may be time to get ol' Bill back in the public debate.

Quote of note:

In the final rules, the administration said it had tried to balance two "potentially competing objectives": maximizing the number of employers who qualify for subsidies and "providing greater protection to beneficiaries."

Employers Can Get Medicare Subsidies for Lower Benefits
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 31, 2005

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 - The Bush administration has touched off a furious debate with new rules allowing employers to collect billions of dollars in federal subsidies for prescription drug benefits less generous than what many retirees were expecting under the new Medicare law.

OPEC Ministers Leave Production Unchanged

By JAD MOUAWAD

VIENNA, Jan. 30 - OPEC ministers, whose efforts failed to contain rising oil prices last year, decided to leave their production unchanged after meeting here today, as they become increasingly convinced that current high prices are not hurting global economic growth.

Oil ministers with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept the group's production at 27 million barrels a day. Sheik Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah, OPEC's president, said producers would cut their output before the group's next meeting in seven weeks if prices tumbled because of a seasonally weaker second quarter.

U.S. Property Prices Too High? Some Funds Look Abroad

By J. ALEX TARQUINIO

INVESTORS who worry that the American property market may be peaking have another option: putting money into real estate abroad.

Such moves have become more attractive, thanks to the export of an American form of real estate ownership, the real estate investment trust. REIT's, which generally own commercial properties like office towers, shopping malls or apartment buildings, are required to distribute most of their profits as dividends each year. Within the last four years, France, Japan and Hong Kong have allowed real estate companies to operate like American REIT's, and lawmakers in Britain and Germany are taking steps in that direction.

Quote of note:

The evidence thus far, however, indicates that Muslims living in America haven't constituted a social base for Al Qaeda. It is striking, in fact, that so little illegality has been uncovered in a population so thoroughly investigated. Prosecutions of alleged terrorist-related activities, which should represent the most definitive picture of the internal threat, have established very little - if any - evidence of domestic Al Qaeda cells. Nothing else in the public record of this massive law enforcement and intelligence effort suggests that a conspiracy exists - a remarkably clean bill for these communities.

Notably, the 9/11 commission itself found no evidence of a domestic social base knowingly aiding the hijackers prior to their attack. Some of the 19 conspirators received minor assistance from an individual or two, but those individuals haven't been identified, described, or prosecuted; if they existed, they were very likely not rooted in local communities, and indeed the hijackers stayed clear of such attachments as well.

...So it can scarcely come as a surprise that in surveys in the Muslim world, even in friendly places like Turkey and Jordan, the US is viewed as a menace, at war with Islam. The great danger here is that with years of suspicion, innuendo, and harassment, buttressed by a new culture of internal security, Muslims in America will feel increasing isolation and hostility, beyond even what they sense today. This could even result in a strain of radicalism among their youth.

A focus on facts ought to dispel mistrust of US Muslims

By JOHN TIRMAN

Okay, it's more like "I'm sorry these folks are opportunistic bastards."

Quote of note:

...since 2000, Evangelical Christians across the globe have mounted a missionary effort targeting the "10/40 Window" - the Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist nations between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude. East Asians, such as Koreans, as well as Westerners are active in several countries.

But now the tsunami has drawn a host of smaller Christian groups to the region. They see the tragedy as an opportunity to present their spiritual message along with material aid.

Disaster aid furthers fears of proselytizing

Quote of note:

Journalists recognize the techniques in the program as "spinning" - in this case enlisting peer-reviewed science in making the case for an idea that hasn't been submitted to the intense rigor of that same peer-review process. Intelligent design so far has failed to meet the most basic of scientific standards.

Another notable quote:

All of this is not to say that intelligent design, as a religious belief or philosophy, has no place on public television. If the program honestly presented the idea in the context of religion - not claiming it is science but that it does seek standing as science - it might well have been worthy of a public TV broadcast, as would differing or competing religious or philosophical beliefs about creation.

Editorial: KNME did right thing to pull 'science' show

Bush Urges Parents to Turn Off Indecent TV
Fri Jan 28, 2005 04:07 PM ET

By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said parents should turn off their televisions if they feel the programs being broadcast violate their standards of decency.

In a taped interview to be aired on the public affairs channel C-SPAN on Sunday, Bush waded into the thorny debate over how far the government should go to clamp down on indecent antics on radio and TV.

"As a free-speech advocate, I often told parents who were complaining about content, you're the first line of responsibility; they put an off button (on) the TV for a reason. Turn it off," Bush told C-SPAN interviewer Brian Lamb.

Nope.

Officials: U.S. Rebuffs Europe on Iran Nuke Talks
Sun Jan 30, 2005 01:06 PM ET
By Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has rebuffed pleas to join a European diplomatic drive to persuade Iran to give up any ambitions to add nuclear bombs to its arsenal, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats say.

For months, Britain, France and Germany have hoped to improve their bargaining power with the Islamic republic by involving Washington in a proposed accord over an end to its uranium enrichment activities.

That effort has intensified since President Bush's re-election in November, culminating last week with ministerial visits to Condoleezza Rice days before she took up her new post as secretary of state, they said.

via Politopics

Looking Black and talking white
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
Special to the AmNews
Originally posted 1/26/2005

Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for two days. With Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry dissenting, sixteen members of the Committee, including Sen. Barack Obama, sent her nomination to the floor of the Senate for confirmation.

I watched the hearings. If I were without any prior knowledge of Rice and Obama and had been blindfolded, I would have never been able to sense that either Rice or Obama had ever shared the African experience. Ebonics was out of the question.

White legislators, on the other hand, never forget to mention the "Founding Fathers."  They respect the  Founding Fathers  for making them who they are. Blacks have their own Founding Mothers and Fathers. Usually, they are kept in storage while Blacks adopt the "Founding Fathers." 

Rice's family lived in "Bombingham" during Dixie's bloody days of the 1960's, but they were far removed from the civil rights movement. Obama also had no connection with the Black struggle. Obama, Rice and their ilk have hijacked the goals of the movement.

Ms. Winters of Politopics feels this is "unfair" (regular quotes, not sneer quotes):

I must admit, though,

Conservatives judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. Or did I get that in the wrong order?

Charles Krauthammer, a psychologist, learned man, writer of presidential speeches, and failed admitter of the aforementioned fact when it's relevant, engages in such blatant white paternalism that it surprises me he didn't rename himself "Boss" for the article.

Because of her race, her symbolism and her personal story, Rice is not a run-of-the-mill appointment but a historic one. Which makes some of the more vitriolic charges against the first African American woman ever chosen for the office once held by Thomas Jefferson particularly wounding and politically risky.

Mark Dayton of Minnesota accused her of lying in order to persuade the American people to go to war -- a charge that is not just false but that most Americans don't believe. Rice was not a generator of intelligence. She was a consumer -- of a highly defective product.

Ms. Black Rice, who is black, was blackily blacking along when...

WHEN TO OPPOSE A CABINET NOMINEE?

Washington - In the opening weeks of the new legislative session, Democrats on Capitol Hill have vigorously disputed the fitness of Condoleezza Rice, a black woman, to become secretary of state, and promised to raise tough objections to a Hispanic nominee, Alberto R. Gonzales, the president's choice for attorney general.

What's the point of even making that observation, like anyone on the damn planet that might possibly read your article doesn't know?

Republicans expressed surprise that their adversaries have aimed such intense fire at two Cabinet nominees who are seen by many as exemplary members of two groups whose votes are crucial to Democratic political success. And they wondered whether such tactics would come back to haunt the Democrats in the next election.

Oh. Race card.

Bush and Brown head for showdown on debt relief
US likely to block Britain's 'Marshall Plan for Africa' at G7 summit
Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
Sunday January 30, 2005
The Observer

George W Bush will emerge as the major obstacle to Britain's ambitious proposals for a new 'Marshall Plan' for Africa this week as the world's finance ministers converge on London for the G7 summit.

With troops mired in Iraq, and Bush under pressure to reduce his vast budget deficit, Washington is reluctant to commit extra cash to relieve the plight of Africa.

Social Security Semantics, Continued

Earlier this week CJR Daily wrote about the war of words that has broken out over the terminology reporters are using to describe the investment accounts central to President Bush's plans for a Social Security overhaul. So far the battle has been fought out between "private accounts" -- the longtime favorite of investment account proponents -- and "personal accounts" -- the new favorite of investment account proponents. The plan's proponents prefer "personal accounts" because polling has shown the public more receptive to those words than to "private accounts. "

Over the last couple of days a third phrase -- "individual accounts" -- has emerged. In yesterday's Washington Post Mike Allen labeled the accounts, "individual stock and bond accounts," and today the New York Times' David Rosenbaum used the term, "individual investment accounts."

Quote of note:

Scalia has launched a "charm initiative," said Ralph G. Neas, president of the liberal organization People for the American Way, which would strongly oppose a Scalia promotion.

To Some, 'Chief Justice Scalia' Has a Certain Ring

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 30, 2005; Page A07

Justice Antonin Scalia struck a pessimistic note when he spoke at the right-of-center Ethics and Public Policy Center here last Sept. 20. Lamenting his inability to stop the Supreme Court's slide away from the principles of judicial restraint he espouses, Scalia said he felt like "Frodo in 'The Lord of the Rings,' soldiering on."

Quote of note:

All presidents weigh the political implications of their agendas, and hope that policies that prove popular will strengthen a party's claims on particular constituencies. What is notable about the Bush White House, some analysts believe, is the extent to which its agenda is crafted with an eye toward the long-term partisan implications.

"I've been assuming all along that creating the basis for a durable Republican majority was one of the major purposes of the administration's policy agenda," said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego. "Indeed, I don't think these guys do anything without weighing the potential partisan consequences and are particularly attracted to policies that might increase the Republican coalition."

This is something you should keep in mind when judging the Bush agenda...yes, motivation is something you need to take into account.

We know spin is a major element of all political speech, so we know what is said is not the true reason anything is done. What you need to look at is impact.

Anyway...

Bush Aims To Forge A GOP Legacy
Second-Term Plans Look to Undercut Democratic Pillars

By Thomas B. Edsall and John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 30, 2005; Page A01

This is from Nick Bradbury, the guy that wrote my RSS reader, FeedDemon.

Get the Film

For more than 10 years Eyes on the Prize has been unavailable on video and blocked from television-- it is still available in many libraries. UPDATE: we have taken down the torrent links to these videos at the request of lawyers for Blackside, Inc. This sucks!

Like I said, just ganking shit ain't the way to go.

Confession: I have my copies. I am not having any "showings" outside my nieces and grandnieces...and that won't even be me, it will be my sisters. I'm not spreading it broadly though. It would interfere with Blackside, Inc.'s efforts to renew the licensing...and it's going to be hard enough.

What's to say?

The inability to identify most of the candidates basically means people must vote party or ethnicity (same thing in Iraq, for the most part). And those who are known and inaccessible to the insurgents have a huge advantage. Functionally, that means those who are already working with the USofA, like Allawi.

With 7000 candidates, most of whom deliberately kept their identities hidden, what are Iraqis voting for? They're voting for the right to vote...a symbolic gesture to which I can relate. And with a solid majority making that gesture the turnout would be high. Going back to when Black folks' in America first got the vote shows that you aren't necessarily going to benefit from that theoretical right. I've known people that felt if voting could actually change things it would be illegal. But regardless of the outcome, this election is important to the USofA because regardless of any claims to the contrary about intent it is the first necessary step to taking the target off of American asses.