Though it seems a serious diversion, I'm asking you to bear with me and run this thought experiment. It's not mine, it's Albert Einstein's. He used it to explain the repercussions of relativity to non-technical folks. He used light because its speed is fundamental and he was looking for the fundamental. I'm going to use sound because I want you to feel this understanding in your bones. It may seem more quantum mechanical than ballistic, but no one said ballistics was a piece of cake either.

Here's the set up: You're in a train, dead center of a box car. You have a box that emits a selected tone when you push a button and four sound activated switches. You mount the switches at either end of the box car along the axis you'll be traveling along and the axis perpendicular to the center of that axis and the tone generator at the intersection of the two axises (is that plural for 'axis'?). The switches are programmed to mark the time it receives the selected tone.

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Mr. Livingstone told Mr. Finegold that he was behaving like a German war criminal, according to the reporter's tape-recording of the incident. When Mr. Finegold said he was Jewish, the mayor said: "Well, you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard."

The mayor wrote that his differences with Mr. Grunwald related to "the policies of successive Israeli governments," not anti-Semitism.

"Israel's expansion has included ethnic cleansing," he wrote. "Palestinians who had lived in that land for centuries were driven out by systematic violence and terror aimed at ethnically cleansing what became a large part of the Israeli state."

Oof! That had to leave a mark...

Marijuana really shouldn't be illegal. It wouldn't be nearly profitable enough to fund these major criminal activities, a lot of cancer patients would be more comfortable, and when people realize what Republicans have done to the USofA they're going to want everyone sedated.

Anyway...

Violent New Front in Drug War Opens on the Canadian Border
By SARAH KERSHAW

SEATTLE, March 2 - The drugs move across the Canadian border inside huge tractor-trailer rigs, pounds and pounds stashed in drums of frozen raspberries, tucked in shipments of crushed glass, wood chips and sawdust, or crammed into hollowed-out logs, in secret compartments that agents refer to as "coffins."

...which, in fact, is a pretty sad statement.

Anyway...

Electronic Arts Expands Turf with 'Godfather' Saga
Thu Mar 3, 2005 07:01 AM ET

By John Gaudiosi

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Hours before actors James Caan and Robert Duvall walked down the red carpet, press and retailer VIPs lined up in the frigid air of New York's Little Italy recently to get a first look at Electronic Arts' "The Godfather" video game.

As locals gathered to see what all the fuss was about, the message was clear: EA was unveiling its new title like Hollywood opens a movie.

The game publisher, which has made a mint from such Hollywood-licensed film franchises as "Harry Potter," James Bond and "The Lord of the Rings," is utilizing next-generation technology to bring Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar-winning film to the interactive realm.

U.S. Must Address Global Warming, Bush Ally Says
Thu Mar 3, 2005 08:20 PM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State James Baker, a close ally of the Bush family, broke ranks with the Bush administration on Thursday and called for the United States to get serious about global warming.

Baker, in a speech to an audience that included a number of oil company executives, said "orderly" change to alternative energy was needed.

"It may surprise you a little bit, but maybe it's because I'm a hunter and a fisherman, but I think we need to a pay a little more attention to what we need to do to protect our environment," he told the Houston Forum Club.

Quote of note:

Fifty years after its publication, Black Bourgeoisie reads as both overstated and prescient. Frazier exaggerated black middle-class capitulation to the Jim Crow racial order, and underestimated the black bourgeoisie s willingness to join with black working class people to bring down that order in the face of violent white resistance. Yet his attention to the ways that some successful African Americans put limits on the black freedom agenda holds important lessons for how historians might trace the roots of black class divisions, and how contemporary commentators might begin to make sense of figures such as Condoleezza Rice or Bill Cosby.Black Bourgeoisie, seen in its Cold War context, also reminds us of the extent to which the moment of antiracist promise at the victory over fascism in 1945 has receded in recent history into burgeoning prison construction expanding racialized poverty on a global scale.

Title:  BLACK BOURGEOISIE
Author:  Franklin Frazier
ASIN:  0684832410
Format:  Paperback
List Price:  $13.00
Amazon.com Price:  $9.75

With last year's semicentennial commemoration of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, we have entered the season of 50-year anniversaries of the African American civil rights movement. 2005 marks 50 years since the Montgomery bus boycott projected the black freedom movement onto the national consciousness. Perhaps less noteworthy, 1955 is also when E. Franklin Frazier published the original edition of his notorious Black Bourgeoisie. It s not obvious what we should make of the concurrence of these two events, nor is any connection between the two immediately apparent. As everyone knows, Rosa Parks s refusal to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery bus galvanized all classes in the black community to work together to set in motion the beginning of the end of American apartheid. In light of this manifestation of racial unity against segregation, Frazier s brief against the black middle class appears ill timed and rather out of touch. But read with its Cold War context in mind, Black Bourgeoisie   Frazier's indulgences in caricature notwithstanding   serves as an important reminder that at mid century, while pathways in the struggle against racism were being cleared, other routes to liberation were being sealed off. Half a century later, we are still living with the consequences of that paradox.

Quote of note:

If lawmakers raise the cap and use the money to help pay for private accounts, that's when you'll know for sure that fiscal discipline is dead.

Greenspan Talks Tax Increases

It's a sad thing, really, that it has taken this long for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to finally suggest that Congress consider tax increases to close the nation's gargantuan budget deficit. That should be a no-brainer, especially since the deficit - now at $412 billion - is largely due to tax cuts that President Bush and Congress have lavished on the most affluent over the past four years.

The recognition of the obvious by the Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, followed much waffling and was accompanied by oracular talk of spending cuts and his familiar act of fealty to Mr. Bush: a vague endorsement of private accounts in Social Security. In the end, all the huffing and puffing is testament to the strength of the anti-tax fixation of the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress, which has produced reckless tax cuts during wartime and a weak dollar in place of budgetary discipline. But as Mr. Greenspan has now made clear, the profligacy must end. "Unless we do something to ameliorate" rising debt levels, he told the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, "we will be in a state of stagnation."

Deficits and Deceit

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Four years ago, Alan Greenspan urged Congress to cut taxes, asserting that the federal government was in imminent danger of paying off too much debt.

On Wednesday the Fed chairman warned Congress of the opposite fiscal danger: he asserted that there would be large budget deficits for the foreseeable future, leading to an unsustainable rise in federal debt. But he counseled against reversing the tax cuts, calling instead for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Does anyone still take Mr. Greenspan's pose as a nonpartisan font of wisdom seriously?

When Mr. Greenspan made his contorted argument for tax cuts back in 2001, his reputation made it hard for many observers to admit the obvious: he was mainly looking for some way to do the Bush administration a political favor. But there's no reason to be taken in by his equally weak, contorted argument against reversing those cuts today.

Iraq's New Government May Take Weeks to Be Formed
Fri Mar 4, 2005 02:46 PM ET
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than a month after Iraq's historic election, ethnic and sectarian divisions have stymied efforts to form a government, deepening political uncertainty and delaying badly needed reconstruction.

The divisions and political horse-trading among Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims and Kurds have prevented a new 275-member national assembly from meeting and a prime minister from being chosen.

The parliament elected in a Jan. 30 vote is supposed to name a government and write a constitution before dissolving and new elections being held by the end of the year.

Quote of note:

Earlier Friday, Sauerbrey said the United States was dropping its demand that the document be amended to say that abortion is a matter of national sovereignty and not a human right delineated by the 1995 conference in Beijing.

US Draws Jeers for Abortion Comments at UN
Fri Mar 4, 2005 08:35 PM ET

By Deborah Zabarenko

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Jeers and catcalls greeted the top U.S. delegate to a global women's conference on Friday as she stressed Washington's opposition to abortion and support for sexual abstinence and fidelity.

After withdrawing an unpopular anti-abortion amendment from a key U.N. document, the United States joined in approving the declaration that reaffirmed a 150-page platform agreed 10 years ago at a landmark U.N. women's conference in Beijing.

No Separate Agenda for Black Americans, Conservative Says
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
March 3, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- An outspoken black conservative says he is offended by black liberals who suggest there is a separate agenda for black Americans.

The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the founder of a group that "rebuilds the family by rebuilding the man," has emerged as a national spokesman on conservative issues; and he is blasting a recent gathering of black liberals who presumed to "define the African-American agenda."

"There is no separate 'African American' agenda," Peterson insists. "The agenda for black Americans is the same as the one for whites and other Americans: Love of God, country, and family; lower taxes, a good education, and a good environment to raise a family."

And since different things separate Black people from that goal than white people, there are specific issues Black people need addressed.

I spotted this lovely headline and had to investigate a bit.

Black Americans rather chance the lottery instead of saving
Category: uk Dated: 04/03/2005
A survey in the United States reveals black Americans feel they are more likely to become rich through playing the lottery, rather than by topping up their savings.

As you know, surveys are very sensitive to the phrasing of the questions. According to the article, the survey by Minority Wealth Magazine was very simple.

When asked whether saving in a retirement plan, saving outside a retirement plan or playing the state lottery would provide better opportunities to build wealth; taking a chance in the lottery won hands down.

The magazine's press release says

Social Security was a warm-up for Medicare and Medicaid. Newt is trolling now because they don't have a successful example of dropping the government's responsibility on individuals as they thought they would.

You don't have to have a big discussion about it right now. Just keep it in mind.

Transform It, Don't Reform It
Medicaid Needs a New Structure and the Ability to Tap Technology
By Newt Gingrich
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A17

...A 21st Century Responsible Citizen Medicaid Act would divide Medicaid into three distinct areas, each administered separately with its own rules and structures.

First, the act should establish a Capabilities Program to help both Americans with disabilities and those with work-related or other injuries lead the fullest possible lives. The program should provide incentives to people with disabilities to be productive, rather than threatening them with a loss in benefits if they get a job. The program should also allow participants to capitalize on technologies and therapies that maximize their abilities, and that emphasize integration into social, family and work life.

What does this have to do with Medicaid?

And so it begins...again

I think I need to start over. Not that I've written anything here that is incorrect, it's that I want to use the correct metaphors at the correct levels. That's what I meant the other day about working in mythic mode.

A mythos, to me, provides a framework, a set of assumptions, from which you can reason or on which you can base your decisions or within which your decisions make sense. A myth is a specific story or narrative that communicates or supports specific elements of a mythos. Unsupported elements of the mythos I call beliefs. Now, I could tell you about the unsupported elements of my personal mythos because there are very, very few. And I could tell you my personal mythology is organized around metaphors of physics and geometry. But my mythos...that's a tough one. It would sound like the recitation of a set of rules.

Here's a rarely used category.

Couple of days ago I told cnulan in the comments he was looking at something on the quantum mechanics level when ballistics would be the right level. He responded

Alrighty then, break it down for me in plain and simple terms that I can understand.

Never has such a simple and fair sounding question thrown me into such turmoil.

I've mentioned before (in a post at The Niggerati Network that got blown away when I screwed up the site in December; I'll repost it here when I'm done with this thing) I use a physics metaphor for society. Well, I use that metaphor for sociology, psychology, politics, you name it. When reasoning I use my (totally qualitative) understanding of physics the same way an evangelical uses his (adjective of your choice) understanding of his Bible...to suggest paths to useful information, patterns by which solutions can be found and against which suggestions can be measured.

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The Fourth Circuit is considered one of the most conservative circuits in the entire country and even it has repeatedly found Boyle to be too radical in his judgments. The Fourth Circuit has had to reverse Boyle's decisions a whopping 150 times for errors in judgment and fundamental legal mistakes.

This is the guy Bush wants to review other judges' work?

In Godon v. North Carolina Crime Control & Pub. Safety, "a boot camp counselor claimed that her supervisors violated her First Amendment rights when they fired her for complaining about the treatment of black and female cadets." Boyle dismissed the case because he found the counselor's speech was not protected by the First Amendment, "but rather merely a personal expression of dissatisfaction." A unanimous Fourth Circuit reversed him.

This is the guy Bush wants to add to the Fourth Circuit?

Let's see how this one does.

By the way, this is a good spot for topic suggestions.

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Two-thirds of the estimated 4 million annual deaths of newborns occur in India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Tanzania, the study found.

Most of the deaths are caused by preterm births, infections, breathing problems from a variety of complications, and tetanus, afflictions rarely fatal to newborns in developed countries. The authors said that 16 simple measures -- including widespread tetanus shots, access to antibiotics, breastfeeding education, and sanitary delivery rooms -- could prevent most of the deaths. Also needed were readily accessible basic emergency services, for caesarean sections and blood transfusions, the report said.

Simple changes urged to save newborns
Study says $4b could keep 3 million alive
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff  |  March 4, 2005

Conviction overturned in rape-order case

MULTAN -- A Pakistani court yesterday overturned the conviction of a village elder and four other men sentenced to death for allegedly ordering a woman gang-raped as punishment for her brother's illicit sex with a woman from another family, a defense lawyer said. The 2002 rape in a mud-brick house in central Pakistan made world headlines, and led the government to promise sweeping changes to end centuries of so-called ''honor" killings and attacks. Six men, including village council chief Faiz Mastoi, were later convicted and sentenced to death. But the court overturned the sentences yesterday, citing a lack of evidence. Mastoi and four others were ordered released and the sixth man's death sentence was reduced to life in prison, said Ramzan Joya, a lawyer for the woman. The woman was in court and wept at the decision. (AP)

Convict denies role in deaths of judge's kin

By Mike Robinson, Associated Press  |  March 4, 2005

CHICAGO -- Jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale said yesterday that the slaying of a federal judge's husband and elderly mother was a ''heinous crime" that ''only an idiot" would think he ordered, according to a statement released by his mother.

''There is no way that any supporter of mine could commit such a heinous crime," Hale said in the statement, released through his mother after her weekly telephone call to him at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. ''I totally condemn it, and I want the perpetrator caught and prosecuted."

Two part quote of note:

1 . Two days ago, Frist noted intense Democratic opposition and suggested he might not be able to move a bill to the Senate floor this year, as Bush has pushed for. "I want to be realistic," Frist said on Tuesday.

2. Yesterday, Frist said he would work to move the legislation forward.

Well, that shoots being realistic all to hell, doesn't it?

You know what the problem is, don't you?

His comments come as Bush tries to navigate a challenging political landscape.

Bush is playing politics with our money. And everyone knows that now.

Senate leader, in shift, urges swift action on Social Security
Vows to advance key legislation
By Laura Meckler, Associated Press  |  March 4, 2005

Microsoft Loses Key Windows Architect to Google
By Mary Jo Foley

Mark Lucovsky, a former Microsoft distinguished engineer, has quietly abandoned the Redmond ship for one of Microsoft's archrivals.

One of Microsoft's key Windows architects has defected to Google. But at least so far, no one is talking about what Marc Lucovsky's new role will be at one of Microsoft's major rivals.

A 16-year Microsoft veteran, Lucovsky was one of a handful of "Distinguished Engineers" at Microsoft. He is credited as one of the core dozen engineers that came from Digital Equipment Corp. to Microsoft and built the Windows NT operating system. He was charged with building the Windows NT executive, kernel, Win32 run-time and other key elements of the operating system. NT was the precursor to Windows Server.

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Finally, how can the president continue to escalate the rhetoric against Iran given that his invasion of neighboring Iraq has handed control of the country to Shiites trained in Tehran, like Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, as well as Kurds who have enjoyed significant Iranian support over the years?

So, tangled history aside, what should the U.S. do now about a repressive and potentially threatening government in Iran? The one thing Bush strangely has refused to do throughout the world: practice the principles of capitalism.

The Force Bush Won't Use on Iran
Robert Scheer
March 1, 2005

U.S. policy toward Iran is now a big, dangerous mess. President Bush again has backed us into a corner with his confrontational framing of every dispute as one of pristine virtue versus stark evil, putting us out of sync with our allies in Europe and probably giving the ayatollahs in Tehran a public relations boost at home.

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The law is littered with abuses like the bankruptcy bill: measures that benefit a narrow economic interest at the expense of the broader public good. Most Democrats, like Biden, are smart enough to oppose most of them. But there's almost always a Democratic senator or two willing to shill for their home state industry's favorite abusive privilege.

When Democrats Join the Dark Side
Their kowtowing to home-state industries props up the Republicans.
JONATHAN CHAIT
March 4, 2005

Not long ago, I was listening to Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) being interviewed, and I was struck at how intelligent and morally serious he was. Biden is justly viewed as a smart foreign policy hawk, but he also expressed his opposition to Social Security privatization in a particularly lucid way.

Gung-Ho, but What Do They Know of Death?
By Nancy Y. Bekavac
Nancy Y. Bekavac is president of Scripps College in Claremont.
March 4, 2005

Every morning at sunrise, I walk my large mixed-breed dogs through my small college town. There's a dreamlike quality to most mornings, and not just because I walk before I have coffee. I've gotten to know my neighbors' gardens and trees. Sometimes I pick the route for specific reasons. One recent day, it was for the flowering cherry that had just opened up, and the last of the crab apple blossoms. The dogs were snuffling in the ivy when I heard a group of strong young voices calling out a marching cadence.

via The Republic of T

The coming crackdown on blogging
March 3, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Smith should know. He's one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission, which is beginning the perilous process of extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet.

WTO Upholds Brazil's Cotton Complaint
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 3, 2005; 12:25 PM

GENEVA - The World Trade Organization on Thursday upheld a ruling condemning government help for cotton producers in the United States, saying that many U.S. programs include illegal export subsidies or domestic payments that are higher than permitted by WTO rules.

The WTO appeals body rejected a U.S. attempt to overturn a September 2004 ruling by an independent panel of trade experts, which acted on a complaint from Brazil.

Brazil had alleged that the United States kept its place as the planet's second-largest cotton grower and largest exporter because the U.S. government paid $12.5 billion in subsidies to American farmers between August 1999 and July 2003.

The joke is:

Q: President Bush, why are you so sure Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?
A: We still have the receipts.

Looking the Other Way

The Bush administration enthusiastically congratulated itself this week for including abuses by Iraqi authorities in its annual report on human rights violations. One State Department official called it proof that "we don't look the other way." But the report did look away - from American involvement in the mistreatment it decried. In the end it was another sad reminder of the heavy price the nation has paid for ignoring fundamental human rights in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo; in the secret cells where the C.I.A. holds its unaccounted-for prisoners; and at home, where President Bush continues to claim the power to hold Americans in jail indefinitely without the right to trial.

Quote of note:

The Fed chairman's tone, as he addressed the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, was noticeably more urgent than it was last year or even in Congressional hearings just a few weeks ago.

"When you begin to do the arithmetic of what the rising debt level implied by the deficits tells you, and you add interest costs to that ever-rising debt, at ever-higher interest rates, the system becomes fiscally destabilizing," he told lawmakers. "Unless we do something to ameliorate it in a very significant manner," he added, "we will be in a state of stagnation."

Gee, ya think? And now that you can't artificially drive interest rates any lower than you have, we're back to standard financial physics. Our fiscal policy reminds me of all the plans to manufacture high tech materials in low gravity...you get the results you're looking for only in a situation that can't sustain itself.

Y'all know how I divided people whose job title is "Economist" into two groups, right?

The discussion of Class War Strategies on The NewsHour feature an economist and a salesman posing as an economist....Long term readers know I refer to these professions as Type One and Type Two Economists, respectively. And they know I have no respect for Type Two economics pronouncements, and that I love folks that come to the same conclusions I have.

Greenspan is like a Type 1.5 economist.

Anyway...

Greenspan Says Federal Budget Deficits Are 'Unsustainable'
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: March 3, 2005

A while back Spelman College was to host a charity event featuring Nelly that got canceled because the sisters at Spelman took exception to an image in his video for Tip Drill. I don't know whether they approached Essence or vice versa, but the two have gotten together for a promotion called Take Back the Music.

I was supportive of the Spelman sisters' initial reaction. Qusan became more supportive just recently.

I found the link to that column on Steve Guilliard's site. I was actually a little surprised by his assessment of the article and even more appalled by many of the comments. It seems some people feel that a) Spelman women are just a bunch of uppity black women and b) they should find something other than music to worry about. I posted a comment too but by this afternoon, I was more convinced that the campaign against this type of music needs to continue.

(The column she mentioned is by Stanley Crouch)

lynne d johnson popped up long enough to share some links to aggregations of Black bloggers...some share blogging space and some are literal aggregators.

Try new stuff. It's good for you.

Quote of note:

...Krakauer has watched how groups of wild turkeys band together to back up one of their brothers -- the dominant one within the brotherhood -- as he displays his attributes to attract a mate.

The male, approaching a female in a courtship ritual with two or more of his brothers, will blush brilliantly red and blue about his face and throat, fan his broad brown and white tail, lower his outspread wings and emit loud thrumming noises through his air sacks as he prances in a shuffling strut.

And while he engages in his display, his brothers do so, too -- but silently and without the strut, in a kind of cooperative semi-courtship -- and they also turn to ward off any hostile interlopers seeking to court the same female.

Ultimately, Krakauer found, only the dominant male successfully copulates with the female, while his brothers never get the satisfaction.

Turkey mating games challenge theory of 'survival of the fittest'
UC biologist finds young males help top tom get sex
- David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Thursday, March 3, 2005

Is Justice Done in 2 Versions?
A California murder case in which two juries were told differing accounts of events raises concerns about fairness, ethics and tactics.
By Maura Dolan
Times Staff Writer
March 3, 2005

Los Angeles prosecutor Steven J. Ipsen, arguing his first murder case in 1990, told a jury that Tauno Waidla had used a hatchet to inflict "the death blow" that killed a woman in her North Hollywood living room. Waidla was sentenced to die.

Several months later, the same prosecutor told a different jury that Waidla's accomplice, Peter Sakarias, had "finally ended" the life of the victim, Viivi Piirisild. Sakarias also was sentenced to die for the murder.

And what have you learned children, if nothing else?

Gov. Softens Pension Stance
His finance director says Schwarzenegger is willing to bend on a proposal to shift state workers to private retirement accounts.
By Evan Halper
Times Staff Writer
March 3, 2005

SACRAMENTO   The Schwarzenegger administration is backing away from its demand that the state employees' pension system be replaced with private retirement accounts.

Finance Director Tom Campbell said Wednesday at a legislative hearing that the governor is open to changing the pension system in other ways, provided there are savings for taxpayers and predictable costs for the state.

Hopefully you've learned that reality + understanding > rhetoric. This is exactly what has happened in the Social Security debate as well. Hesiod, writing at The American Street, doesn't feel this is necessarily good news.

Contacts:
Cate Brandon | (202) 365-0352 | [email protected]
Hans Riemer | (202) 213-1072 | [email protected]

[download the poll findings pdf]

POLL OF YOUNG ADULTS FINDS
SUPPORT FOR PRIVATE ACCOUNTS PLUMMETS
IN FACE OF BENEFIT CUTS, BORROWING

The more young people learn about private accounts, the less they like them

Washington, DC - Feb. 03, 2005
A new poll shows young voters may not be the political base that some politicians expect for phasing out Social Security in favor of private investments. Released by Rock the Vote, AARP, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the poll finds that nearly sixty percent of 18-39 year olds oppose private accounts if it would mean  a lower guaranteed benefit in retirement. 

Quote of note:

Rev. Jackson proceeded to take a survey of the audience, asking us how important to us was it to have jobs that paid livable wages, a healthy environment, universal health care, affordable housing, quality public education?  Nearly every hand in the room went up.

Then he asked us who would be affected by gay marriage?  No hands went up in the air.

"So why do we tell the President that the most important issue in the Black Community is gay marriage?" he asked us.  "We have been taken out by a Weapon of Mass Distraction!" Rev. Jackson told us.  And to the ministers on the panel, Bishop Eddie Long and Rev. Harry Jackson, Rev. Jackson told them, "Shame on you for going to the House of the most Powerful Leader of the Free World and telling him that first, YOU speak for all African-Americans, and while you had the opportunity to talk to the President about the issues that are most important to African-Americans, the only things that came out of your mouths were abortion and gay marriage!"  The crowd went wild with applause and a standing ovation, while these two Pastors hung their heads in shame.

Now you see why the right has a problem with Rev. Jackson.

If I knew everything I would understand how you can fuck up like these two did and get promoted for it. I mean, how do you even get in a position where that's possible?

Come to think of it. Wolfowitz didn't really fuck up. He did fucked-up things.

Fiorina Called Candidate for World Bank
By ELIZABETH BECKER

WASHINGTON, March 1 - Carleton S. Fiorina, who lost her job as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard almost three weeks ago, has emerged as a strong candidate to become president of the World Bank, according to an official in the Bush administration.

Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, was also under serious consideration, according to the official, who refused to be identified because discussion about the candidates is continuing.

Quote of note:

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, a Democrat, said: "Governors are very willing to come to the table to discuss a comprehensive solution but are very leery of the budget number proposed by the president. If the flexibility comes with $60 billion worth of cuts, that will give us the flexibility to cut people off health care that they desperately need."

Governors and Officials Step Up Talks on Medicaid

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, March 1 - Governors and the Bush administration agreed on Tuesday to intensify negotiations on ways to clamp down on Medicaid costs after four days of talks sputtered to an inconclusive end.

Picture Dr. Rice, wearing Italy's latest and a pair of bright, fuck-me red pumps with the same pictures of "mobile labs" General Powell showed them.

Anyway...

U.S. Accuses Iran of Deceiving U.N. Inspectors

By RICHARD BERNSTEIN

VIENNA, March 2 - The United States and other members of the board of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency intensified the pressure on Iran today, accusing the nation of numerous failures to abide by its own promise to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities.

In a toughly worded statement to the trimonthly board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is based in Vienna, the American representative, Jackie W. Sanders, denounced Iran for what she called its willingness "to cynically manipulate the nuclear nonproliferation regime in the pursuit of nuclear weapons."

Proposed Law on Bankruptcy Has Loophole

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

The bankruptcy legislation being debated by the Senate is intended to make it harder for people to walk away from their credit card and other debts. But legal specialists say the proposed law leaves open an increasingly popular loophole that lets wealthy people protect substantial assets from creditors even after filing for bankruptcy.

The loophole involves the use of so-called asset protection trusts. For years, wealthy people looking to keep their money out of the reach of domestic creditors have set up these trusts offshore. But since 1997, lawmakers in five states - Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah - have passed legislation exempting assets held domestically in such trusts from the federal bankruptcy code. People who want to establish trusts do not have to reside the five states; they need only set their trust up through an institution in one of them.

If America Is Richer, Why Are Its Families So Much Less Secure?

Los Angeles Times reporter Peter G. Gosselin has spent the last year examining an American paradox: Why so many families report being financially less secure even as the nation has grown more prosperous. The answer lies in a quarter-century-long shift of economic risks from the broad shoulders of business and government to the backs of working families. Safety nets that once protected Americans from economic turbulence   safeguards like unemployment compensation and employer loyalty   have eroded or vanished. Familes are more vulnerable to sudden shifts in the economy than any time since the Great Depression. The result is a daunting "New Deal" for many working Americans   one that compels them to cope, largely on their own, with financial forces far beyond their control.

PART 1: If America Is Richer, Why Are Its Families So Much Less Secure?

PART 2: The Poor Have More Things Today -- Including Wild Income Swings

PART 3: How Just a Handful of Setbacks Sent the Ryans Tumbling Out of Prosperity

President Highlights Faith-Based Initiative at Leadership Conference

...You know, one of the tests of character for America is how we treat the weakest of our citizens. Interesting test, isn't it? What are we doing in government to help people who need help? Part of the test of government is to understand the limitations of government. Government -- when I think about government, I think about law and justice, I really don't think about love. Government has got to find ways to empower those whose mission is based upon love in order to help those who need love find love in society. That's really what we're here to talk about.

Finding ways to help those who need love find love in society, eh?

Momentum by Runaways UK. Something cool to listen to while I'm thinking about a couple of things.

Quote of note:

Indeed, by not ensuring that these detainees have work permits, housing and other essential services upon release, ICE sets them up for failure and burdens the communities they go to with multiple social headaches. Intended or not, it appears that ICE has decided that it is payback time for those who rightly argued that indefinite detention was inhumane and unconstitutional.

DHS dodges its obligation
OUR OPINION: AGENCY SHOULD FUND TRANSITION COSTS FOR FREED CUBAN MARIEL DETAINEES

A Cuban detainee recently was released by the Department of Homeland Security in Colorado, given a bus ticket to Miami, some sweets -- and no money. Arriving three days later, he was weak and famished from the cross-country, 1,700-mile ordeal. Camillus Health Concern has treated at least five recently released Cuban detainees found homeless on the streets of Miami; three men arrived via Greyhound Bus with nothing more than their corrections ID and in need of social services. How shameful and wrong of DHS to shirk its responsibilities.

Messages rated plus-good or better will be available whenever you watch any channel.

Senator Bids to Extend Indecency Rules to Cable
Industry Defends Its Self-Policing Activities as Sufficient

By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page E01

Cable television shows packed with sex and profanity, such as HBO's "Deadwood," FX's "Nip/Tuck" and Comedy Central's "South Park," would be subject to the same indecency regulations that govern over-the-air broadcasts if the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee has his way.

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to fine only over-the-air radio and television broadcasters for violating its indecency regulations, which forbid airing sexual or excretory material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely watching.

Relatives of U.S. Judge Slain in Chicago Home
White Supremacist Had Ordered Judge Killed

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A03

CHICAGO, March 1 -- Last year U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow spent weeks under federal protection after a white supremacist in her court threatened to have her killed. But when the suspect was behind bars, Lefkow felt safe enough to drop the security detail provided her by the U.S. Marshals Service.

On Monday night, Lefkow returned from work to discover the bodies of her husband and her elderly mother in the basement of her home on Chicago's North Side. Both had been shot. On Tuesday, as marshals were again providing Lefkow with around-the-clock protection, and dozens of detectives and FBI agents began searching for a motive and suspect in the homicides, speculation centered on the followers of Matthew Hale, convicted last year of obstruction of justice and ordering Lefkow's killing.

Same interview.

JIM LEHRER: As you know, the Democrats say if you in fact do that, they will use rules like using the unanimous consent rule, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, in other words, not going along with unanimous consent, and essentially shut down the business of the United States Senate.

SEN. BILL FRIST: Jim, I just have to keep coming back to the Constitution of the United States. Last week or last month when thirty-three, thirty-four senators took an oath, they didn't take an oath of government overall; they took an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America and it come back -- the other side of the aisle really believes that they ought to stop the nation's business when we have to make health care more available and more affordable; we're fighting a war on terror today.

Isn't that like worshipping a bible instead of God?

Last night, in discussing The Nuclear Option with Jim Lehrer, Bill Frist said some things that make me glad so many shows have transcripts on the net.

Democrats' nuclear option

JIM LEHRER: Are you prepared to use what's called a nuclear option

SEN. BILL FRIST: Jim, I'd like not to have to and I hope by allowing these nominees, even like today, who've already had a hearing, that we're having them go back, have another hearing, the same sort of questions chose to sort of balance common sense restraint that I am showing.

I tell you what I cannot -- or we're showing - I tell you what I cannot tolerate and that is to throw away 220 years of history in this country where it's never been done before, never been done before. It was done last Congress. We can't let that stand as a precedent and I will do everything within my power as Republican leader, Majority Leader, to get an up or down vote. And there are a whole range of things that can be done.

First it was filled with a degree of restraint on our side and their side just to allow them to a vote. But, yes, everything is on the table, and we may well have to use either a constitutional option, if we have no choice, and I hope that we don't have to though.

Let me draw attention to that one more time:

Social Security Vote May Be Delayed
Critics Could Force Proposal to Change

By Mike Allen and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A01

The Senate's top Republican said yesterday that President Bush's bid to restructure Social Security may have to wait until next year and might not involve the individual accounts the White House has been pushing hard.

The comments of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), made as GOP lawmakers returned from a week of trying to sell the plan to voters, underscored the challenge facing the White House, especially in light of unbroken Democratic opposition.

Not hating, but I must admit my first thought on reading the headline was along these lines.

Anyway...

Middle Class Drives Soaring Purchases of Second Homes

By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page E01

Sales of second homes soared last year and accounted for more than a third of all residential sales transactions, according to a study released yesterday.

The study, conducted by the Washington-based National Association of Realtors, showed that nearly one in four U.S. homes bought in 2004 was purchased for investment purposes; 13 percent were bought as vacation homes.

Quote of note:

Ronald J. Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action who met with Bush to talk about the initiative after the 2000 election, said the program is important "and maybe even historic." But he said Bush has failed to tackle the fundamental causes of poverty while emphasizing only the value of spiritual renewal. "The result is they tend to exaggerate the importance of that and ignore the structural part of it," Sider said. "In my more cynical moments, I wonder if he cares about the poor at all."

Bush Stresses Support for 'Faith-Based' Agenda
By Peter Baker and Alan Cooperman
Washington post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page A04

Democrats have never said there's no problem with Social Security. They say there's no crisis. And here's the difference.

You have a problem that can kill you in five years. But you have everything you need in knowledge and material to fix the problem long before your health is affected. So...no problem.

vs.

You have a problem that can kill you in five years. And you've signed a contract giving away all the material you need to cure yourself in exchange for a job that keeps you too busy to see the doctor anyway. So...crisis.

And Frist says "everything is on the table," which apparently means we've already shown you everything we're willing to offer because when asked if that means he'll give up private accounts tro get a deal made, the good Doctor said, "Oh, no, I didn't say that..." This gives us a third parallel:

...is asserting as though it were fact "the only way we can advise and consent on a nominee is to vote up or down on the Senate floor."

The nuclear option threat is a reminder that the Senate can arrange its own procedures. They could legally decide to leave it up to a committee of freshmen.

Now, this concedes Frist could legally silence the Democrats. And it disturbs me that stating a fact disturbs me to this degree.

Scholars Debunk Attack on Affirmative Action

Updated Feb. 14, 2005: EJS co-authored a rebuttal to Richard Sander's new study in the Stanford Law Review, in which he argues that affirmative action decreases the number of African American attorneys nationwide. This critique was an invited submission to the Stanford Law Review by David Chambers and Richard Lempert of the University of Michigan Law School, EJS researcher William Kidder, and Tim Clydesdale, sociologist at the College of New Jersey, and it demonstrates that Sander's forecasts are untenable.

We show that available data on law school admissions, law school performance, and bar exam performance indicate that Sander's article is premised upon a series of statistical errors, oversights, and implausible assumptions. We conclude that if affirmative action in law school admissions were eliminated tomorrow, there would probably be a 30-40 percent decline in the numbers of African Americans entering the legal profession, not the rosy 7.9 percent improvement that Sander forecasts.

Download the Feb. 2005 draft essay as a PDF
Note: A longer version will be posted in March or April

MEDIA   COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO SHILL: Arnold Schwarzenegger is starring in another horrible sequel, though this one is straight-to-T.V. The Los Angeles Times reports that California Gov. Schwarzenegger's administration used taxpayer dollars to produce a "mock news story" that pushes a government-backed, corporation-friendly proposal that would kill mandatory lunch hours. The report comes days after the Government Accountability Office sharply warned federal agencies against producing similar propaganda videos, which the Bush administration was caught doing twice in the last two years. Eighteen stations ran the Schwarzenegger spots as news reports, complete with a positive promo text for the local anchors which read: "If approved, the changes would clear up uncertainty in the business community and create a better working environment throughout the state." Never mentioned was the fact that organized labor opposes the rule change, nor that the proposal is backed by the California Restaurant Assn., "which donated $21,000 to one of Schwarzenegger's campaign funds last year and provided food for his 2003 inauguration."

Quote of note:

The 1st Amendment lobby would howl in protest if any version of the British system were considered here. But I would argue that the 1st Amendment right to free speech should never trump the 6th Amendment right to "a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury."

High Cost of Media Circuses
By R. Foster Winans
R. Foster Winans is the author of "Trading Secrets" (St. Martin's Press, 1986).
March 1, 2005

When Martha Stewart leaves prison this weekend, she will walk into the arms of a media circus and a commercial juggernaut that promises to turn what would be a shameful moment for anyone else into a triumph of marketing. There's something terribly wrong with this picture, and what it says about our culture's ethics and sense of fair play is deeply disturbing.

Quote of note:

Several governors complimented Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, a former Utah governor, as an ally inside the White House on the Medicaid issue.

Not Schweitzer, who likened the secretary to ranch hands who "ride a brand."

"Once they come in and work for your ranch, they toe the company line," Schweitzer said. "He seemed to be riding for the president's brand right now."

Montana Governor Isn't Cowed by Bush
Democrat likens pitch for Social Security plan to livestock auction that fails to tempt buyers.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2005

WASHINGTON —  President Bush often quips that the aura of the White House intimidates visitors, leaving would-be critics to express only niceties.

And it sound like resisting Chicago's plan will be as successful as resisting San Francisco's plan was.

Quote of note:

The lawsuit says that housing officials don't have a firm plan for what will be built in place of the run-down buildings. They don't know when residents would be able to return, or how many would be accommodated in the new housing.

The complaint also highlights evidence   including an independent report commissioned by the Chicago Housing Authority   that the agency has moved residents from Cabrini and other projects into poor neighborhoods to the south and west such as Englewood and Roseland, which have some of the city's highest crime and poverty rates.

"Why should we go, if the alternatives aren't much better?" asked Carol Steele, 53, one of the leaders of the lawsuit. Steele has spent her whole life in the Cabrini neighborhood and wants to rebuild a way of life she remembers with fondness.

It's Bleak but It's Home
Chicago is tearing down the notorious Cabrini-Green projects. Some tenants refuse to go, saying the city won't provide anything better.
By P.J. Huffstutter
Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2005

CHICAGO — For 24 years, Gladys Franklin has called the Cabrini-Green projects home.

The high-rise where she lives is decaying, and nearly a third of the doors and windows are boarded up. Squatters have broken into some of the apartments. Other units sit empty.

Lakers Are Cut Off at Overpass
They fail to take a shot at end of 117-115 overtime loss to Knicks, as Walton declines an open look and throws the ball to Bryant, who fumbles it.
By Mike Bresnahan
Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2005

NEW YORK   Slowly, but ever more surely, the Lakers and the playoffs are distancing themselves from each other, amid a defense that bends and breaks, and a shaky offense that can't quite figure out what to do when the ball is not in the hands of Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers lost for the second time in as many days against a lower-echelon Eastern Conference team, this time surrendering a bad quarter instead of a bad half and, when it counted, making one pass too many in a 117-115 overtime loss to the New York Knicks before 19,763 Monday at Madison Square Garden.

Quotes of note:

Ask former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, whose son has spent his adult life cycling in and out of jail for drug-related crimes that began when he was a teenager. Or former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, whose son is now on trial for participating in an alleged gang rape when he was 16.

The graffiti that recently appeared on bus benches and trash bins near my home in Northridge was not the handiwork of gang members motoring up from Compton but bored, belligerent teenage boys from a nearby gated community. Where were the parents? Probably in bed.

Ask Bernard Melekian, the Pasadena police chief. He has three sons, now adults. "As a dad, I was very involved," he says. "Went everywhere with them, did everything, talked to them about values. They did everything a parent would want   went to college, turned out great." But listening to them reminisce about high school, he learned things he still finds hard to believe.

As teens, they'd sneak out after Dad went to sleep, go party-hopping, run the streets with friends, congregate in a nearby canyon and drink. "The things I didn't know," he says now, "are mind-boggling to me."

Control Our Kids, You Say? We Can Only Do So Much
By Sandy Banks
Sandy Banks is a Times editorial writer.
February 20, 2005

It's easy to agree that 13-year-old Devin Brown should not have been riding around South-Central Los Angeles in a stolen car at 4 a.m. on the Sunday morning he was shot to death by police.

It's easy to blame his family, and that's exactly what people are doing in letters to editors, calls to talk shows and conversations over vanilla lattes. "What kind of mother lets her kid run the streets in the middle of the night?" goes the radio talk show refrain. As if a 13-year-old asks Mom for permission before he slips out to steal a car. We might feel better if it were that simple, if we could hold that neglectful mother to account for her young son's tragedy. That would let "good" parents off the hook, allow us to look in the mirror and say, "Not me."

But how much control, really, does any parent have over a reckless, willful, impetuous teen?

Bush Seeking Ways to Reward Allies on Iran
By Sonni Efron and Alissa J. Rubin
Times Staff Writers
3:58 PM PST, February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   In what could herald an important shift in U.S. policy, President Bush is considering ways to support the European allies who are offering Iran incentives in exchange for Tehran halting its nuclear programs, the White House said today.

But U.S. officials were noncommittal about how far the president was prepared to go to engage the theocratic Iranian regime that Bush once labeled part of an "axis of evil."

"The president is considering ideas that were discussed last week in Europe for moving forward on our efforts to get Iran to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons and abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Go here and scroll up like one screen.

Q: Has the President ever issued an order against torture of prisoners? And do we still send prisoners to Syria to be tortured?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President has stated publicly that we do not condone torture and that he would never authorize the use of torture. He has made that --

Q: But has he issued an order?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- statement very publicly, and he's made it clear to everybody in the government that we do not torture.

Q: Well, why do we still hear these stories then?

MR. McCLELLAN: If there are allegations of wrongdoing, then the President expects those allegations to be fully investigated and if there is actual wrongdoing that occurs, then people need to be held to account. The President has made that very clear.

Q: Well, do you deny that we still send prisoners to other countries to be tortured? Is that a denial?

MR. McCLELLAN: Judge Gonzales testified previously that we have an obligation not to render people to countries that we know would torture them.

Q: He did not rule out torture.

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, David.

All non-answers. ALL of them.

[caught In between]

Looking over the past winners, it's easy to slap one of the labels on each of the roles that won the top, or supporting Oscars. Since there are so few winners, I will go right ahead and do it: a struggling wife of a death row inmate who falls for the white racist cop who executed her spouse (tragic mulattoe), a crooked cop (buck), a phony psychic (coon), an insubordinate army private (buck), a hardassed drill sargeant (buck), an out-of-work construction worker (buck), and an all-knowing housekeeper named "Mammy" (yeah, that one's easy: mammy). While all of these performances are to be praised as fine examples of thespian artistry, and I'm not saying the actors should have turned down these roles (because heads have got to eat and a paying job is a good thing) I can't really say that any of the actual roles are inspiring, at least not to me. Art imitates life, and it also gives sheep cues for how to think. Since we're looking at patterns here that are well-defined and long-lasting, it isn't very difficult to me to figure out how America is supposed to feel about the bruthas and sistas.

Unfunded mandate of note:

The governors are especially angered by President Bush's proposal to cut federal payments to the states for administrative costs of Medicaid, costs that will soon increase as a result of the new Medicare drug law, which directs the states to help the federal government identify low-income people who qualify for extra assistance with their drug costs.

Bush Tries to Reassure Governors on Medicaid Costs
By DAVID STOUT
Published: February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 - President Bush sought today to calm governors worried about soaring Medicaid costs, telling them that he empathizes with them and wants to work with them to find solutions.

Santorum Puts Rate Hike on Table
The senator says he's willing to discuss a tax increase for Democratic aid on Social Security.
By Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer
February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   Sen. Rick Santorum, the conservative from Pennsylvania who ranks third in the Senate Republican leadership, said Sunday that he was willing to discuss increasing the Social Security tax rate as a way of helping to assure the program's solvency.

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that raising the Social Security payroll tax might be the price Republicans have to pay for Democratic support for diverting some of the tax revenue to private retirement accounts, as President Bush has proposed.

Santorum's comments on raising the Social Security payroll tax rate come at a time when the public appears to be reacting negatively to Bush's private accounts. In holding out an olive branch to Democrats, Santorum's position went one step further than the president's.

Quote of note:

Such "add-on" accounts have been widely considered a potential compromise on the Social Security issues, since Democrats are strongly opposed to diverting payroll taxes for such accounts. Mr. Shaw said in an interview on Sunday that he was shopping his plan on his own, without the blessing of the Republican leadership or the White House.

What they're supposed to be working on is the solvency of the Social Security program. Because it's so important, I think any suggestion that doesn't directly improve solvency needs thorough explanation and justification.

Given that it's now acknowledged private accounts will not improve Social Security's solvency...that, in fact, their effect will make it harder to pay for Social Security...I see no reason to assume private accounts must be, as Santorum says, "a part of the solution." Leaving private accounts our of any Social Security legislation doesn't mean they can't be pursued. Rep. Shaw's suggestion is, indeed one way to approach establishing them. But objectively speaking, Social Security solvency is easier to achieve without the cost of private accounts being added in.

The private accounts proposal represents a large change in out economic system. It should be pursued separately so we can truly see the costs vs. the benefits of private accounts by looking at the proposal in isolation.

Anyway...

An Early Call for Compromise on Social Security
By ROBIN TONER
Published: February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 - With the two parties seemingly at a stalemate over President Bush's proposal for private accounts in Social Security, Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr., Republican of Florida, says he hopes to promote his own Social Security plan as a potential compromise.

Quote of note:

It's not at all clear how that crime is linked in particular to late-term abortions, which just happen to be the current target of Republican anti-abortion activists across the country.

What's Secretly Wrong With Kansas

In a shocking abuse of office, the attorney general of Kansas is conducting a stealth campaign to violate the privacy of about 90 women who obtained late-term abortions, offering the flimsy claim that he's looking for evidence of crime.

Protected by a sweeping gag order from a local judge, Attorney General Phill Kline has been demanding the women's records from two clinics that have been unable to even warn clients that their intimate histories are being sought. When the inquiry finally came to light through a court brief, Mr. Kline maintained that he needed all the women's records - including their identities, sexual histories, clinical profiles and birth control methods - to prosecute statutory rape and other suspected sexual crimes.

Quote of note:

Mr. Arar was the victim of an American policy that is known as extraordinary rendition. That's a euphemism. What it means is that the United States seizes individuals, presumably terror suspects, and sends them off without even a nod in the direction of due process to countries known to practice torture.

It's Called Torture

By BOB HERBERT

As a nation, does the United States have a conscience? Or is anything and everything O.K. in post-9/11 America? If torture and the denial of due process are O.K., why not murder? When the government can just make people vanish - which it can, and which it does - where is the line that we, as a nation, dare not cross?

Quote of note:

To defend the Commandments as a historical or legal document is "to desacralize a sacred text, to rip it out of context and distort its meaning and significance," he said. "It ought to be unconvincing to people outside the religious tradition and insulting to those within it."

The Ten Commandments Reach the Supreme Court

By LINDA GREENHOUSE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 - One federal court upheld them as a symbol of the country's devotion to its legal heritage. Another federal court ordered them removed as an illicit message of religious endorsement. Fifteen months ago, Alabama's chief justice lost his job over them, and the two-ton granite monument that once sat in the rotunda of the state courthouse is now the star of a national tour. The profile of the Ten Commandments, it seems, has rarely been higher, or their ability to attract lawsuits greater.

Now, as with all great controversies in American life, this one has finally reached the Supreme Court. In two cases to be argued on Wednesday, the basic question for the justices will be: what does it mean for the government to display a copy of the Ten Commandments?

Keep in mind this dramatic admission takes place during discussions about their existing nuclear program and the entire article can be abbreviated to three letters.

D'oh!

(Punctuation doesn't count.)

Pressed, Iran Admits It Discussed Acquiring Nuclear Technology
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and DAVID E. SANGER

As the International Atomic Energy Agency prepares to open a meeting today to review Tehran's nuclear program, Iranian officials have reluctantly turned over new evidence strongly suggesting that Iran discussed acquiring technologies central to making nuclear arms and hid that fact for 18 years, according to American and European officials.

There's an editorial about Warner Bros. "reimagining" their cartoon characters, which I'd say nothing about but for the closing paragraph:

See the dangers of re-imagining cartoons? If Wile E. Coyote spent half his money on real food instead of spending it all on Acme products, he could eat well and never chase again. But don't tell him.

Take a lesson.

Quote of note:

In fast-growing Riverside County, experts and law enforcement officials say, rising racial hostility has been triggered by increasing racial diversity among newcomers.

Although the county's white population rose 7% from 1990 to 2000, the number of blacks grew 61%, and Latinos and Asians increased 82% and 62% respectively, said James P. Allen, a Cal State Northridge professor who analyzes racial and ethnic data.

"Any kind of major demographic change has the potential to spark racial turbulence and hate crimes," said Mark Potok, who monitors hate crimes nationally for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Birmingham, Ala. "Very often, hate crimes are someone acting out in response to some kind of real pressure, including sprawl and economic pressures."

Inland Empire Sees Rise in Hate Crimes, Bucking Trend in State
The tally stands out in regions where violations have declined. Authorities say the stimulus is an influx of racial minorities.
By Lance Pugmire and Janet Wilson
Times Staff Writers
February 28, 2005

When a teen lifted his baggy shorts and flashed a swastika and German army tattoos at Kenny Turner outside his high school last June, the popular black Lake Elsinore senior just kept walking.

Mexico Stubbornly Denies Its Dark Past
By Denise Dresser
Denise Dresser is a professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico and a former member of Mexico's Citizens' Advisory Committee to the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of the Past.
February 27, 2005

While many countries seek to uncover the truth about their history, Mexico seems intent on burying it. Although more than 20 countries have established effective mechanisms for dealing with their troubled pasts, Mexico's isn't working. Rwanda and Kosovo and Chile have recognized the criminal behavior of their former leaders, but Mexico isn't prepared to do so. Argentina is jailing former generals, and Mexico still can't. Today, Mexico faces the real possibility of obligatory amnesia, of forced forgetting.

Quote of note:

The proposed law would make it more difficult for Americans, especially wealthy ones, to have their debts erased by filing for bankruptcy. The bill has been a priority for banks and credit card companies since 1998, when it started to wend its way through Capitol Hill.

Abortion Debate Still Tangled in Bankruptcy Bill
The proposed law, which would make it harder for people to have their debts erased, may again have a provision aimed at clinic protesters.
By Maura Reynolds
Times Staff Writer
February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   When Randall Terry filed for bankruptcy in 1998, he probably had little idea he was setting in motion a series of events that years later would entangle a congressional push to rewrite bankruptcy laws with a seemingly unrelated issue: abortion.

No summary of the Heritage-sponsored performance art piece that was the Jesse Lee Show...

Lively Meeting of the Minds Is of Two Minds
A rift between African American conservatives and liberals, evident in the election, reemerges at the State of the Black Union conference.
By Ellen Barry
Times Staff Writer

February 27, 2005

LITHONIA, Ga.   At a passionate discussion of the African American political agenda Saturday, few sparring partners better personified the fallout from the last election than the two preachers, Jackson and Jackson.

The first Jackson was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, liberal war horse, civil rights veteran and two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, who delivered a stirring declamation on social justice.

The second   and lesser-known   was Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., a Democrat who supported President Bush in the last election. He announced the dawn of a new black agenda based on the Bible and emanating from megachurches.

"My concern is: Have we allowed one party to take the black agenda and hold it hostage at gunpoint to the issue of gay rights?" asked Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church in suburban Washington, D.C.

The role of socially conservative black pastors in politics was a recurrent theme at the sixth State of the Black Union, an annual event hosted by journalist and political commentator Tavis Smiley.

Smiley invited the panelists   among them Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, civil rights leader Joseph Lowery and the Rev. Al Sharpton   to consider what planks might appear in a "Contract With Black America on Moral Values," which could be used to hold politicians accountable.

The interesting this is, I was thinking "The State of the Black Union" overstated our condition somewhat, I've decided the name is cool if you consider this the first report.

It seems they're trying the same thing Ben Chavis wanted to do...but where Chavis went after the raw activist edge of the Black community this covenant thing is focusing on the mainstream of the Black communities. Black folks in general weren't that special combination of mad, scared and stubborn you need to be activist in Chavis' day. That may have changed.

He done took over. And no one knows how to stop him because he's got the strongest response from the audience.

But he's got an old nationalist, back to the earth line that isn't going to work.

Ah, my people.

The meeting is pretty amusing. They've hit the best point and missed one or two and they're preaching now.

I think I'll keep it running for a while.

In general, positive while reflecting that we need to get together as a people...which, I think, needs clarification already but basically true.

Rev. Lowry: We should call this a "covenant" rather than a contract.

Min. Farrakhan sounds like a born-again minister...and got off a great line: "A contract is between people that intend to keep their word."

Jehmu Greene Rock the Vote: Young folks are ready to get in the mix.

Ozzie Davis was scheduled to be at the State of the Black Union meeting. They're leaving his spot there, empty, as a gesture.

Okay, I'm having fun with my new Delphi 2005 Professional installation...a clean install for some reason makes me feel better about abandoning old code. And I'm having MUCH fun writing a new and improved Drupal module for interfacing with Amazon.com. So I'm going to do that instead of a whole lot more news.

But I'm also playing The State of the Black Union. And I'll be commenting. For instance, Tavis just made a comment that will be key in pursuing the written agenda he suggests: when we make Black America better we make all America better.

The mainstream will support that which they feel helps them. AFTER (I repeat, AFTER) deciding what will benefit the Black community, we must examine how those suggestions will affect the mainstream. We must identify that which benefits them and in discussions with the mainstream those are the reasons with which we must lead.

Quote of note:

Reform of these major entitlement programs is the pressing need to avoid a budget train wreck in the next generation, but Bush has offered little leadership on that. His Social Security plan -- for individual savings accounts -- does nothing to address the shortfall in that system. And his "contribution" to solving the more pressing crisis in Medicare has been to add an unaffordable prescription drug benefit to the program.

Stealthy Budget Cuts
By David S. Broder
Sunday, February 27, 2005; Page B07

Back-to-back briefings last week put a harsh spotlight on the deep hole left by the budget policies of George Bush's first term. Millions of Americans will be paying the price for the fiscal profligacy of this misnamed conservative government.

Quotes of note:

Housing costs contribute to malnutrition, and malnutrition affects school performance and cognitive capacity. It weakens immune systems and makes children susceptible to illness, which diminishes appetites and thereby increases vulnerability to the next infection. The downward spiral can lead to frequent absences from school and expensive hospitalization.

What is not visible may be more serious. Inadequate nutrition is a stealthy threat, because its hidden effects on the brain occur long before the outward symptoms of retarded growth. Several decades of neuroscience have documented the impact of iron deficiency, for example, on the size of the brain and the creation and maturation of neurons and other key components. If the deficiencies occur during the last trimester of pregnancy or the first two or three years of life, the results may last a lifetime.

Long after malnutrition ends, such children have lower IQs. In adolescence, they score worse than their peers on arithmetic, writing, spatial memory and other cognitive tests. Parents and teachers see in them "more anxiety or depression, social problems, and attention problems," according to a volume of studies compiled in 2000 by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.

Children Going Hungry
By David K. Shipler
Sunday, February 27, 2005; Page B07

Heavy Over All Our Heads
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Sunday, February 27, 2005; Page F01

With the Bush administration, one never knows what is intentional and what isn't, but the president's proposal to introduce private investment accounts into Social Security has certainly served to divert attention from whether the whole federal government is headed for a fiscal train wreck.

That's probably a good idea, from the administration's point of view, because both it and many private employers are asking people to pin their retirement and other hopes for the future on financial assets. And they are asking this at a time when the government is promising benefits and services it can't come close to affording without taxing the fillings out of our teeth or going to banana republic-style inflation -- or both.

Quote of note:

"The president could claim a real victory just by getting personal accounts," said Shaw, who has shared his ideas with Vice President Cheney and White House senior adviser Karl Rove.

I like how Bush's "real victory" does nothing to resolve the problem he drew attention to. With it being so widely known, it would indeed be a real victory. And it would be the end of even pretending the truth matters in the public debate.

David Gergen, who served in Clinton's White House and in the administrations of several Republican predecessors, does not believe Democrats will ever give Bush the compromise victory Ickes is worried about.

"Why would they put their head in that noose?" he asked.

Indeed.

Quote of note:

...three decades of impassioned, interminable argument have somehow congealed into a collective fantasy about what the reversal of Roe would mean - how the American abortion brawl would be over, lost or won, depending on one's point of view, but over. Wrong.

Imagine a Nation Without Roe v. Wade
By CYNTHIA GORNEY

FOR anyone interested in dodging partisan rhetoric long enough to think seriously about the coming decade in the American abortion battle, some of the most illuminating reading right now can be found on a chart. It's a partisans' chart, to be sure; the information that fills its tables was compiled by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, whose lawyers have been arguing abortion cases for more than two decades.