I'm going to suggest you get The Nazis: Warning from History from England because it's cheaper, and on DVD. All the US sources I found only have the VHS version. BBC has a DVD/book set which I this I'll go for at £22.99. I think that's like $40 (this week).

This is from The History Channel's description of the VHS set

The rise of Hitler was inevitable. The Gestapo received little help from ordinary Germans. The Nazi government was organized and efficient. There was widespread German resistance to the Nazis. Many people believe these statements. They are all false.

THE NAZIS: A WARNING FROM HISTORY is the definitive history of the Third Reich, exposing many widely-held myths. Extensive commentary from world-renowned scholars like Ian Kershaw, bestselling author of Hitler and The Hitler Myth, recently discovered documents and archival footage from former Soviet-Bloc nations and riveting eyewitness testimony combine in this landmark series.

The critical piece is the first segment:

Oliver Willis and Dave Sirota have been playing tag over NARAL's endorsement of Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) for Senator. You can follow the links or just accept my summary: Mr. Willis said progressive organizations that endorse Republicans are stupid, Mr. Sirota says you reward and punish with endorsements on an individual basis. Mr. Sirota goes into a whole "this is how Conservatives did it" thing and sounds very DLC.

We got audio because my notes went on longer than I intended and I don't want to type all that.

You can skip, like, the last minute if you like.

Quote of note:

FPPC chairwoman Liane Randolph said the donations should have been disclosed before the election because voters were entitled to know who was giving money to the Proposition 54 campaign.

But Connerly disagreed, saying the contributions where solicited for the ACRC's "national activities of ending (racial) preferences," not to support Proposition 54, although that's how most of the money was used.

He said he decided to settle the lawsuit because he didn't have the money to fight it.

Affirmative Action Foe to Pay $95G
Date: Thursday, May 19, 2005
By: Associated Press

SACRAMENTO -- Affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly has agreed to pay $95,000 to settle a state lawsuit that accused him and his American Civil Rights Coalition of violating campaign laws by failing to reveal the source of $1.7 million in contributions.

Uncle Tom's Children
Why has Uncle Tom's Cabin survived and thrived?
By Stephen Metcalf
Posted Friday, May 20, 2005, at 11:40 AM PT

...The main characters of Uncle Tom's Cabin Simon Legree, Sambo, Little Eva, and, of course, Uncle Tom himself constitute such a familiar American typology it's easy to feel as though you've read the novel even when you haven't. I hadn't, but in honor of Slate's History Week, I finally did and threw in some of the major critical essays about the book, by James Baldwin, Alfred Kazin, Ann Douglas, Jane Tompkins, and Jane Smiley. Uncle Tom's Cabin is, along with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of the key battleground books in American literature. The use of the N-word on the part of its characters is liberal, to say the least, and some of the author's own attitudes toward race are plainly antiquated; at one point Stowe informs us that the African is "naturally patient, timid and unenterprising," a sentiment she feels compelled to echo as the story progresses. Nonetheless, Stowe earned the respect of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois (and Tolstoy and Dickens) because her goal was as simple as it was righteous: to depict slavery as a uniquely depraving institution "accursed," as she often put it whose taint spared no one, Northerners included, and with which no compromise could ever be possible. The living tongue of a Puritan hellfire still lies behind the book's concluding paragraph:

Partners Bill Is Vetoed by Governor in Maryland

By JAMES DAO

WASHINGTON, May 20 - Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland vetoed legislation on Friday that would have given unmarried couples, including same-sex ones, an array of health care decision-making powers and hospital visiting rights involving their partners.

In his veto message, Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, said that although he was "sympathetic to the needs of mutually dependent couples," he objected to the bill because it would have created a new legal category of "life partners" with some of the same rights as married couples.

"Instead of addressing the mechanics of expediting health care decisions," Mr. Ehrlich said, the bill "could lead to the erosion of the sanctity of traditional marriage as already codified in Maryland law."

Up Against the Plastic Wall
By ERIC DASH

EVER since Heather Hartman and her husband, Zach Hall, had to visit 20 car dealerships just to find one that would grant them a loan, she has been careful not to overspend and diligent about paying her bills on time.

But last fall, American Express rejected her credit card application, catching Ms. Hartman off guard. The reason was even more surprising: a little-known quirk in the reporting system had been holding her credit score down.

"I found out later that Capital One was not reporting my credit limit, " said Ms. Hartman, 24, a paralegal student at California State University, Turlock, who says her credit limit is $200.

Quote of note:

Greenspan's remarks, during a question-and-answer session after a speech in New York, were reminiscent of his statement in 1996 that the then-hot stock market was afflicted with "irrational exuberance."

Greenspan Sees Bubbles in Housing
The Fed chief perceives extreme overpricing in many local markets, but not nationwide.
By Annette Haddad
Times Staff Writer
May 21, 2005

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that some regional housing markets were showing signs of unsustainable speculation and "froth" and that there were "a lot" of local housing bubbles.

Misrepresentation of note:

Senators are locked in a fierce fight over what is required to approve the more controversial federal court nominees. Republicans want them approved by a simple majority, while the Democrats want to require the 60 votes needed to override a blocking filibuster.

The AP is confusing the nomination and approval process with the process to force an end to debate on the Senate floor. These two processes interact but are separate things.

Imagine Senator Frist gets his way. The Senate will still have to do the voting on the candidates themselves, won't they? And those votes will be decided by a simple majority, won't they?

Republicans need this sort of confusion. Arguing the case honestly, they wind up saying things like

The audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule. It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me, how dare you bomb my city? It's mine."

Poll: Most Want Thorough Check of Judges
By WILL LESTER
Associated Press Writer
2:50 AM PDT, May 21, 2005

The Quote of note comes from elsewhere

Perusing some Linux Today talkbacks today, I was reminded of the "Tar Pit From Hell" theory of discussion boards which I expounded to my co-workers many months ago. It is basically the following: when you add a public discussion forum to your site you are placing your site on a big slab of plexiglass which floats around on the Tar Pit From Hell. As long as no one actually uses the discussion forum, you are safe. But the more people pile on to use the discussion forum, the deeper your site sinks into the Tar Pit From Hell. There are various measures you can take to slow your descent into the Tar Pit From Hell, but none of them deal with the fundamental problem, which is the fact that your site is sinking into a damn tar pit.

Then there's the concise Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

Newspaper Shuts Down Controversial Feedback Platform
By Fred Alvarez
Times Staff Writer
1:40 PM PDT, May 20, 2005

U.S. Moves to Reassert Itself in Iraq Affairs
As insurgent attacks grow, American officials are returning to a more active role to improve services and foster an inclusive government.
By Paul Richter and Ashraf Khalil
Times Staff Writers
May 20, 2005

WASHINGTON   Facing an intensifying insurgency and a frail government in Baghdad, the Bush administration has reluctantly changed course to deepen its involvement in the process of running Iraq.

U.S. officials are taking a more central and visible role in mediating among political factions, pushing for the government to be more inclusive and helping resuscitate public services. At the same time, Washington is maintaining pressure on Iraqi officials to upgrade the nation's fledgling security forces.

Democrats Nuke Party Beliefs To Stop Women
The battle over Bolton and judges started with Bush v. Gore.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, May 20, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Surveying the Senate's nuclear-missile silos, Court TV's Fred Graham said that of course the Republican majority had the power to change the filibuster rule, and the Democrats would have to lump it: "What are they going to do," he asked, "appeal to the Supreme Court?" They didn't much enjoy their last visit to the high court after the 2000 election. But the nightmare lingers on.

The death-struggle in the Senate over the Bush judges is best understood as a re-fighting of the post-2000 Florida election challenge. Democratic logic, premised on the famous 5-4 Bush v. Gore decision, runs like this: Bush stole the 2000 election with a Republican-dominated Supreme Court. The resulting presidency, as they've often said, is "illegitimate." Because "justice" failed in 2000, Karl Rove got four years to brilliantly manufacture a bare, popular-vote majority of social conservatives in 2004, extending the illegitimate Bush presidency another four years. Ergo, obstruction is justified.

As I turn and look back to Election 2000...I can't even see it. My view is blocked by all the stupid, arrogant, socially and economically destructive things the Bushistas have done since then.

Quote of note:

The Republican Jewish Coalition applauded the statement. "Sen. Santorum is sensitive to the effect of his words and the inappropriateness of the analogy," Executive Director Matthew Brooks said.

If that were the case he never would have made the statement.

Anyway...

Santorum Regrets Making Hitler Comment
Senate Leaders Prepare to Start Countdown to Vote Over Whether to Stop Judicial Filibusters
By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

May. 20, 2005 - Sen. Rick Santorum says he "meant no offense" by referring to Adolf Hitler while defending the GOP's right to ban judicial filibusters as Senate leaders prepared to start a countdown Friday to a vote over whether to stop minority senators from blocking President Bush's judicial nominees.

Quote of note:

Fox was onto something, however botched his message. We are teaching our children to be very picky about work, with inflated notions of its worth. One day, our children just might get picked off by the global economy, beaten out by the children of immigrants. We might ironically discover that children who started at the bottom and grew up knowing that work was not an option actually had a head start in life.

Vicente Fox's half-truth

By Derrick Z. Jackson  |  May 20, 2005

ON STATISTICS alone, it was ludicrous for President Vicente Fox of Mexico to say that Mexicans do the menial work in America ''that not even blacks want to do."

If Fox were to tool around our cities and rural regions he would discover that 26 percent of African-American men and 34 percent of African-American women worked at poverty-level wages in 2003, according to the ''State of Working America, 2004-2005," published by the progressive Economic Policy Institute.

I think a little clarification is in order.

Approving a judicial nominee does not take a supermajority. Forcing an end to debate or changing the Senate rules takes a supermajority. It may feel like the same thing right now, but it's not. It's a mistake even folks on the side of the angels make.

Republicans can get their up-or-down vote in the face of a filibuster the same way civil rights proponents did in the 60s...I mean, since the civil rights movement seems to be what's inspiring them and all...

Quote of note:

Republicans may argue that judicial nominees should not be subject to the filibuster, but it is clear that they are now under the rules, and that those rules can only be changed with a two-thirds vote.

Ignoring the rules

An Architect of Bush Plan on Retirement Urges Retreat

By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM and EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, May 19 - Robert C. Pozen, the business executive who developed the theory behind President Bush's plan to trim Social Security benefits in the future, urged the president on Thursday to drop his insistence on using part of workers' taxes to pay for individual investment accounts.

This was one of two blows during the day to Mr. Bush's policies on Social Security and retirement saving. In the House, Representative Bill Thomas, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, disregarded the methods favored by the president to encourage workers to save for retirement - mostly tax incentives for the affluent - and offered completely different proposals of his own.

...and Texas as a whole would probably thank me for it.

Quote of note:

In open court, the juror affirmed that his affidavit reflected how he thought of blacks during Sterling's trial and admitted that he knew blacks "highly resented" the phrase he had used for them. Needless to say, he also affirmed that he was not a racist and had plenty of black friends.

In our legal system, it is primarily the role of the defense lawyer to spot and remove such biased jurors. In an appeal hearing, Sterling's trial defense lawyer, a white man and prominent local lawyer, was asked whether he had reason to suspect the juror had racist views. In a stunning admission, the lawyer acknowledged he had known of this juror's racist views long before the trial. Nevertheless, he never told his client or the court about the juror's racist views. Defending his decisions, the lawyer said he had thought the juror could be fair despite his prejudice. In addition, he said he had thought his own long acquaintance with the juror might even work to Sterling's advantage.

An even better Quote of note:

The attorney general of Texas, vigorously defending Sterling's death sentence, resorted to arguing that the "mere use of the word 'nigger' " does not make one a racist.

A Black Defendant, a Racist Juror
A new trial is crucial in death sentence case.
By Timothy K. Lewis
Timothy K. Lewis, a Washington lawyer, is a former judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
May 19, 2005

Quote of note:

According to The Sun, U.S. "military sources said they handed over the photos in the hope of dealing a body blow to the resistance in Iraq."

British tabloid publishes photos of detained Saddam
U.S. military vows aggressive probe into release of images

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. military officials are condemning the release of photographs -- published in a popular British tabloid -- showing Saddam Hussein in prison, promising an aggressive investigation and steps to assure the breach never happens again.

The Sun trumpeted the pictures of the former Iraqi leader's life in captivity, with a cover photo that showed the ousted Iraqi leader wearing only his underwear with the headline "The Tyrant's in his pants."

"Doing the same thing and expecting different results."

Bush Continues Social Security Campaign
Polls Show President's Roadshow Failing to Drive Up Support for His Plan
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 20, 2005; Page A04

MILWAUKEE, May 19 -- The obligatory campaign-style signs were hung behind the stage, the familiar hand-selected "conversation participants" seated next to him. The friendly, invitation-only audience cheered with appropriate enthusiasm. And when President Bush took the microphone, he spun out more or less the same speech he has given dozens of times before.

On the 78th day of a 60-day roadshow, the president's nationwide Social Security tour, even to some of his own aides, has the feel of a past-its-prime Broadway production that has been held over while other, newer shows steal the spotlight.

A Break From the Third Rail
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, May 20, 2005; Page A21

Why would comedian Dave Chappelle run away from mega-fame and mega-fortune to seek anonymity on an Indian Ocean beach, about as far from Hollywood as he could get? It's really not so hard to imagine. The genius that makes Chappelle the hottest comic in the country is being able to grab the electric third rail of American life and transmit its energy in a way that makes people laugh. Do that long enough and one of two things happens: You let go, or you get burned.

...According to Time, Chappelle became unsure about his material for the new season when a white visitor at a taping laughed especially hard and long over a sketch Chappelle performed in blackface. "When he laughed, it made me uncomfortable," Time quotes Chappelle as saying. His longtime writing partner is quoted as confirming that Chappelle had decided some of his material was not funny but "racist."

Jury Finds N.C. Agency Allowed Racially Hostile Work Environment
Associated Press
Thursday, May 19, 2005; A02

RALEIGH, N.C., May 18 -- North Carolina's Transportation Department allowed a racially hostile workplace but will not have to pay damages to black workers who sued after a white co-worker hung a noose in a maintenance shop, a federal jury decided Wednesday.

Seven black workers alleged in the civil rights suit that white supervisors did nothing about the situation even after learning of the noose. They said the rope remained on display for 35 days in 2002 beginning Feb. 1, the start of Black History Month.

Quote of note:

...Tattersall, a leading opponent of the interbreeding theory, said the Mladec remains were "perfectly routine Homo sapiens [modern humans]. The only people who believe otherwise are those with an ax to grind."

Fossils Rekindle Neanderthal Debate
Age of Bones Calls Into Question How Early Humans Died
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2005; A03

For decades, scientists have argued over the disappearance of Neanderthals from prehistoric Europe about 30,000 years ago. Did they die from some mysterious disease? Or did modern humans simply supplant them, either by obliterating them or by interbreeding?

Quote of note:

The breakdown in trust within his inner circle seems to have led him to question the material they were producing. He seems obsessed with making sure the material is good and honest and something that he will be proud. "I want to make sure I'm dancing and not shuffling," he says. "What ever decisions I make right now I'm going to have live with. Your soul is priceless." The first two seasons of his show "had a real spirit to them," he says. "I want to make sure whatever I do has spirit."

On the Beach With Dave Chappelle

...The first thing Chappelle wants is to dispel rumors that he's got a drug problem, that he's checked into a mental institution in Durban that have been flying around the U.S. for the past week. He says he is staying with a friend, Salim, and not in a mental institution, as has been widely reported in America. Chappelle says he is in South Africa to find "a quiet place" for a while. "Let me tell you the things I can do here which I can't at home: think, eat, sleep, laugh. I'm an introspective dude. I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes. And I've been doing a lot of thinking here."

Oliver Willis has audio and video clips showing Rick "Man-on-Dog-Sex" Santorum claiming Democrats are like Nazis because they want to respect the Senate rules.

The audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule. It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me, how dare you bomb my city? It's mine."

Yes, Republicans are bombing the city.

But they own the city. It's more like Hitler bombing himself.

Or, it's like a hypocrite being...a hypocrite.

"Senator Byrd's inappropriate remarks comparing his Republican colleagues with Nazis are inexcusable," Santorum said in a statement yesterday. "These comments lessen the credibility of the senator and the decorum of the Senate. He should retract his statement and ask for pardon."

Professor Kim:

I meant to write about this

Last Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. I had promised myself long before last Friday that I would write about it, that I would find a way to revisit that horror, to find flowers in those ashes.

If you are not from Philadelphia, or if you were not old enough to watch the news in 1985, you may not know what happened on Osage Avenue that Mother's Day. If do know, you may understand why I missed my self-imposed deadline.

What happened in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985 made no sense. Then, the only response I could muster was tears. To speak now is an act of excavation.

A cheaper America doesn't make it a 'must see'
Fears about security hassles and poor image keep foreign tourists away.
By Stephen Humphries | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

When Alison Fisher and Chris Whitehouse stepped off their London-New York flight two weeks ago, they were delighted to find that the money in their pockets stretched a whole lot further than two years ago.

The British couple had considered Australia but found the United States cheaper. "It certainly helped looking at exchange rates before we came out, figuring out how far our money would go with hotels and food and everything," says Mr. Whitehouse, who had just toured Boston and the Charles River on an amphibious vehicle. But the couple's tour was full of American - not foreign - tourists.

Measuring wind potential

If only 20 percent of the Earth's "wind-power potential" were tapped, humanity could meet all of its electricity demand seven times over, according to a new study.

Two researchers at Stanford University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering set out to provide the first hard estimate of the number of sites with commercially exploitable wind flows. The team used data from more than 8,000 weather stations and balloon-sounding sites around the world to estimate the number of places that could host stands of turbines 260 feet tall and generate enough electricity to be cost-effective.

At least 13 percent of the sites had annual average wind speeds faster than 15 miles per hour at the height of a turbine blade's hub - enough to make a commercial go of wind power.

Minutemen Are People, Too
Arizona rednecks win a round against the ACLU.
BY LEO W. BANKS
Thursday, May 19, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

TUCSON, Ariz.--Anybody who appreciates a good yuck was sad to see the Minutemen pack up their pickups and go home. After all, it wasn't every day that we got to enjoy the spectacle of sunscreen-lathered ACLU observers chasing volunteer border-watchers through the desert. But in the media bonfire accompanying Arizona's Redneck Revolt, we saw the cultural divide separating media elites from ordinary people--those with BlackBerries and $150 hairdos versus folks with tobacco bulges in their cheeks.

Are ordinary people required to have tobacco bulges in their cheeks?

Those Who Outgrow Foster Care Still Struggle, Study Finds
By MONICA DAVEY

CHICAGO, May 18 - As the definition of adulthood has shifted in this country and young people are living with their parents even into their 20's, one group has been mostly left behind in this phenomenon: thousands of people who grow up in foster care.

Nationally each year, some 20,000 youths who were once removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect leave their second home - the child welfare system - because they get too old for it. In some states, they are allowed to stay on until they turn 21, but in many more places, they "age out" when they turn 18.

Quote of note:

Bitterness, like that felt by Ms. Hayes, often is not the prevailing emotion. Often a person feels deep ties to a former husband or wife, or feels a responsibility borne of common experience and child-rearing.

"They are acting more like a brother or sister, or cousin or extended family member, or sometimes they have the joy of being grandparents together," said J. Donald Schumacher, chief executive of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, a public policy group representing hospices. He said the presence of former spouses at the hospital or deathbed, isn't uncommon anymore.

Past Divorce, Compassion at the End
By MATT RICHTEL

Quote of note:

Last fall, Joseph H. Beasley of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and local Scout troop leaders accused the Scouts of inflating African-American membership in metro Atlanta and creating phantom troops to boost charitable donations. They claimed the misrepresentations have occurred for more than a decade and helped generate as much as $10 million in donations to the Scouts.

Beasley said he supports United Way's decision to withhold the funds. "When you deal with the money," he said, "then the board has to pay attention."

United Way President Mark O'Connell questioned membership figures that claim nearly half the 46,000 Scouts in metro Atlanta are black. The Atlanta Area Council oversees 18 Scouting districts in 13 counties.

Boy Scouts' funds held back
United Way awaits probe on minority numbers
By S.A. REID
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/19/05

GOP Targets Spending Limit
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2005; A16

House Republicans are gearing up to push campaign finance legislation that would scrap post-Watergate restrictions on the total amount of money individuals can donate and parties can spend on candidates.

House Democratic leaders, who see the GOP gaining a huge financial advantage, yesterday protested the bill, as did campaign finance advocacy groups.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the bill's chief sponsor, said the measure makes a "a few modest changes" in the 2002 campaign finance law that "will restore freedom and fairness to the political economy of our nation."

Not that I believe the original language was anything less than intentional...

Quote of note:

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, Kevin W. Keane, said last night that the posting of the CDC document was "a misunderstanding." The language "hadn't been fully reviewed and cleared," he said. "We are removing that language."

U.S. Backs Off Stipulation on AIDS Funds
Plan Had Called for Overseas Groups to Publicly Denounce Sex Trafficking
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 18, 2005; A09

The Bush administration pulled back yesterday from a plan that would have required thousands of grass-roots AIDS organizations working overseas and partly funded by U.S. money to publicly declare their opposition to prostitution and sex trafficking.

Howard Fineman

That spirit [of connectedness, almost of family] seems on the verge of extinction as the grinding reality of Red-Versus-Blue America crashes through the tall Senate doors in the form of the nasty confrontation over judicial nominations.

I'll leave it to others to weigh the exact measure of blame for this; I would say that both parties are at fault. The real culprits are zealots on both sides of cultural issues pro-and-anti abortion activists, marriage traditionalists versus gay-rights activists, august academics versus "intelligent design" creationists, to name a few who see every debate in public life as a "Star Wars" battle over the fate of the universe.

I assume I would be counted among the zealots.

P6 is the first Google listing for relativity of perception. I think that quite appropriate.

And out of curiosity I hit the related pages link. I have no idea how Karen Ann Quinlan, CNN's listing of 9/11 Pentagon victims and Jesus' General wound up on the second page of that...

I don't think this nuclear option thing will fly if Democrats hew closely to the rules. They need to make clear "judicial filibusters" are not a special case. They need to simply do what they said they would. Reject every unanimous consent request raised in connection with these unacceptable nominees. Every Democratic Senator should speak at great length, even if the substance of each statement is largely the same.

And make it clear that there are accepted rules by which changes can be made in the rules of the Senate. Insist those rules be followed.

Thing is, I'm not sure at all what the net result of this particular clump of events will be. We're all jumping up and down about the possible abandonment of all pretence at respect for the rule of law whenever it becomes inconvenient for Republicans. Meanwhile, Bush hasn't made "religion-based groups" eligible for federal funds (because they were already eligible if they didn't discriminate), he's directing the funds in such a way as to manipulate the field...

Medicare to pay $2 bln for impotence drugs - study
16 May 2005 23:28:18 GMT
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will spend nearly $2 billion over the next decade to pay for impotence drugs for elderly and disabled patients under Medicare, according to a congressional estimate released on Monday.

Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has written legislation to outlaw Medicare coverage for "recreational sex drugs," said the Congressional Budget Office had tallied the costs of Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra and other medicines to enhance sexual performance. Medicare will start broad prescription drug coverage in January.

Quote of note:

Lane...cites a study revealing that 88 percent of women on welfare who manage to earn a B.A. end up self-supporting, with a living-wage job. "Access to education, making people able to get a degree that connects them to a job that has benefits, is, like, enlightened social policy," she says in mock wonderment.

Poor Students, Fast Learners
Welfare moms fight for a right they have to stay in school
by Anya Kamenetz
May 16th, 2005 6:06 PM

Roxy (Roxanna Henry) and Ginger (Mayzabeth Lopez) have more in common than nicknames that make them sound like cast members in Chicago. Both are young women of color in their twenties, with composed demeanors and glasses. Both have been studying at Hunter College. Both are, or have been, on welfare. And both work for the Welfare Rights Initiative, a nearly unique player in the acrimonious debate over welfare reform.

Old Pills Finding New Medicine Cabinets
By STEPHANIE STROM

As the cost of prescription drugs climbs, more of the nation's officials and consumers are weighing how to salvage at least $1 billion worth of unused drugs that are being flushed down the toilet each year.

Though the Food and Drug Administration generally forbids the redistribution of prescription drugs once they are dispensed to consumers, states are free to set their own policies for drugs controlled by nursing homes, long-term-care centers and other pharmacies.

"They seem content to let the states be laboratories, and that works out rather well because the dollars the states are saving are in a lot of cases federal dollars," said James Cooley, chief of staff for Diane Delisi, a Texas state representative and the author of legislation to expand Texas's limited drug recovery program, which may pass within a week.

Quote of note:

He noted that he received an unsatisfactory performance review this year and no raises, even though his unit's sales rose 35 percent and profit rose 162 percent in the first quarter compared with the period last year.

Chief of Unit Files Lawsuit Accusing G.E. of Racial Bias
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH

A chief executive of a unit of General Electric filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing G.E. of underpaying African-American managers, denying them promotions and retaliating when they raise objections. He is seeking $450 million in damages.

...Mr. Thomas, who joined G.E. in 2001, said in the interview that he received glowing evaluations and hefty bonuses his first three years. His problems, he said, began in early 2004, when he took the top job at GE Aviation Materials. He said that he was not only paid less than his white predecessor, but also less than one of his white subordinates.

Personal Data for the Taking
By TOM ZELLER Jr.

Senator Ted Stevens wanted to know just how much the Internet had turned private lives into open books. So the senator, a Republican from Alaska and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, instructed his staff to steal his identity.

"I regret to say they were successful," the senator reported at a hearing he held last week on data theft.

His staff, Mr. Stevens reported, had come back not just with digital breadcrumbs on the senator, but also with insights on his daughter's rental property and some of the comings and goings of his son, a student in California. "For $65 they were told they could get my Social Security number," he said.

 Quote of note:

But the transcript now in the possession of the F.B.I. does presumably capture one of the trial's most electrifying moments: Moses Wright, Emmett's great-uncle, when asked to identify the men who had taken the boy from Mr. Wright's home, pointed to one defendant and said, "There he is; that's the man," and then immediately identified the other.

Mr. Wright fled Mississippi that night.

Click the picture to get a clear view of these wonderful examples of humanity. 

F.B.I. Discovers Trial Transcript in Emmett Till Case

By SHAILA DEWAN and ARIEL HART

The F.B.I. said yesterday that it had obtained a copy of the long-lost transcript from the 1955 trial of two men in the murder of Emmett Till, the black teenager whose killing galvanized the civil rights movement and is the subject of a new inquiry.

The copy, described as faint and barely legible, is the only publicly known record of the trial, in which an all-white jury in Tallahatchie County, Miss., acquitted the defendants. Both men, who later confessed the crime to Look magazine, are now dead. The investigation seeks to determine whether anyone still living may also have been involved.

Emmett was a 14-year-old Chicagoan who was visiting relatives in the town of Money when, accused of whistling at a white woman, he was dragged from his bed, beaten beyond recognition and shot, his body dumped into the Tallahatchie River. A photograph of his grotesquely misshapen face at his funeral became emblematic of Jim Crow horror.

WORLD VIEWS: U.S. snubbed at first South American-Arab summit; tourism down in U.S. as border controls discourage visitors; Taiwanese president pressured to deal with Beijing
- Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

"The symbolic message of the snub couldn't be huger," observed Larry Birns, head of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, a nonpartisan Washington think tank specializing in Latin America. "[M]ind-boggling in its significance," as Birns put it, the big snub came at the Bush administration's expense. The offending event: the first-ever Summit of South American and Arab Countries, which brought together representatives from 34 countries in Latin America and the Arab world to discuss trade and foreign-policy issues, completely bypassing the United States.

Who Needs Ethics When You've Got Guidelines?
The new Journalism 101.
By Crispin Sartwell
Crispin Sartwell teaches political philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. Website: eyeofthestorm.blogs.com.
May 18, 2005

To the staff:

Our beloved publication   the Daily Gerbil   has fallen inadvertently into a few minor apparent ethical lapses in recent months. We strongly reject the widespread characterization of our attempts to fix the last presidential election and send the Middle East into a chaos of bloody rioting as "sociopathic." Nevertheless, in order to retain the naive trust of our last few readers, and to try to stop people blogging about us, we are yet again issuing an entirely new set of ethical guidelines for our staff.

We're Partners in This Crime
Yes, illegal immigrants break the law. But who's hiring them?
ANDRÉS MARTINEZ
May 18, 2005

I made the caller whoop with joy, but I soon felt cheap. He'd asked, in the exasperated tone of someone who'd long given up on getting the right answer from a Los Angeles Times editor, whether illegal immigrants are criminals. And I, oh so eager to show that I don't inhabit a different universe from these talk-radio listeners who are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore, conceded that they'd committed "a crime." Hence the celebratory outburst.

So far, so good. What still bothers me nearly a week after this exchange on John Ziegler's show on KFI is that I didn't address the other half of the equation. I wasn't quick enough to ask the caller whether our neighbors who hire these illegals are also criminals. He might have paused, as I did, and measured his words carefully, as I had, before grudgingly conceding that they'd committed "a crime."

And what about the rest of society? The United States claims it doesn't want people crossing the border illegally, but relies heavily on the cheap labor of those who do make it across. Consider that desert gantlet the equivalent of a tough job interview. We are all in denial about the nature of our dysfunctional but flirtatious relationship with Mexicans considering a move across the border.

Nuke It, Already

We usually like it when centrist senators like John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) try to galvanize the sensible center on behalf of some compromise, but we sincerely hope they fail in their attempt to preserve the Senate's filibuster. Count this page on the side of conservative social activists who are pushing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to "nuke" the filibuster.

We don't share these activists' enthusiasm for the White House judicial nominees triggering the current showdown. But we do believe that nominees are entitled to a vote on the floor of the Senate. The filibuster, an arcane if venerable parliamentary tactic that empowers a minority of 41 senators to block a vote, goes above and beyond those checks on majority power legitimately written into the Constitution.

People who do not bother to read the rules shouldn't comment on them...or even play the game.

This clip is symbolic of everything that's wrong with American politics.

Quote of note:

"It's gotten progressively more offensive," said Wilson, who moved into the upscale subdivision.

"The monkey went up in April, the flag cape was added in May and the first of last week, the black paint was put on its hands and face."

Businessman bows to rage over display
By DON PLUMMER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/17/05

A larger-than-life stuffed monkey dangling from a crane outside a Cobb County business was removed Monday after it sparked protests by neighbors and civil rights groups.

The monkey, draped in a Confederate flag with its face and hands painted black, had been suspended from a crane outside Johnson Drilling in Mableton for "about two or three months," said owner Hubert Johnson.

MASSACRE —  BUSH ALLY KILLS HUNDREDS: Uzbekistan's dictator Islam Karimov —  a staunch ally of the Bush administration  — is the focus of growing international outrage. On Friday, Karimov ordered his military to forcibly suppress a series of demonstrations in the country's restive eastern region. In one city, Uzbek soldiers fired directly into the crowd of thousands, killing more than three hundred, according to news accounts. "They shot at us like rabbits," one survivor said of the neo-Tiananmen. Now, after three days of "increasingly untenable silence," the White House has voiced its "first implicit criticism of the repressive regime." Whether it follows through with action is another story altogether.

A member of the production team sent this out by email to the H-AFRO-AM mailing list. It's a bvit more detailed than the description on The History Channel's web site.

Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters is a two-hour History Channel documentary that depicts the system of slave policing -- enforced by militia, armed community slave patrols, paid slave catchers, and federal law. Produced by Northern Light Productions of Boston, it will premiere on the History Channel on Thursday, May 26th, 8:00 - 10:00 pm.

The stories are set in both the South and the North, from the mid-1700's colonial era through the end of the Civil War and its aftermath, and told through archival material, scholar interviews and recreations.

This shit continued waaaaaaaay beyond WW II.

Here. In the good ol' US of A.

Quote of note:

Riddick went on to earn a college degree and raise the son she had at 14. He now is an engineering consultant.

State Secret: Thousands Secretly Sterilized
N.C. Woman Among 65,000 Sterilized by Gov't., Often Without Their Knowledge, in 20th Century

May. 15, 2005 - Beneath the surface of this Southern town, with its lush evergreens and winding riverbanks, is a largely forgotten legacy of pain, secrecy and human indignity.

"My heart still bleeds, and it will forever bleed, because of what had happened to me," local resident Elaine Riddick said.

Riddick was one of thousands of people secretly sterilized by the state between 1929 and 1974.

I thought they were talking about these robots...

Now There Are Many: Robots That Reproduce
By KENNETH CHANG

Perhaps one day scientists will turn the Michael Crichton nightmare of "Prey" into reality and unleash tiny robots that multiply like rabbits and overwhelm biological life into oblivion.

But for now, what passes for a state-of-the-art, self-reproducing robot looks like a stack of blocks. Actually, it is a stack of blocks, one with the ability to pick up other blocks and clone itself into a second identical stack.

"We really want to make something that can adapt and can have a lot of different configurations and change its morphology as needed," said Dr. Hod Lipson, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell, who led the research. "Self-replication is the ultimate form of self-repair."

from School Boards Want to 'Teach the Controversy.' What Controversy? by Lawrence M. Krauss

As a cosmologist, I am reminded of a controversy that arose from the development of a consistent mathematical solution of Einstein's equations, devised in 1931 by Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest and physicist.

The solution required what today we call the Big Bang. By confronting the conventional scientific wisdom that the universe was eternal, and instead demonstrating that it was likely to have had a beginning in the finite past - indeed, one that could certainly be said to be born in light - Lemaître was hailed by many, including 20 years later by Pope Pius XII himself, as having scientifically proved Genesis.

Lemaître, however, became convinced that it was inappropriate to use the Big Bang as a basis for theological pronouncements. He initially inserted, then ultimately removed, a paragraph in the draft of his 1931 paper on the Big Bang remarking on the possible theological consequences of his discovery. In the end, he said, "As far as I can see, such a theory remains entirely outside of any metaphysical or religious question."

While this argument may seem strange, Lemaître was grasping something that is missed in the current public debates about evolution. The Big Bang is not a metaphysical theory, but a scientific one: namely one that derives from equations that have been measured to describe the universe, and that makes predictions that one can test.

It is certainly true that one can reflect on the existence of the Big Bang to validate the notion of creation, and with that the notion of God. But such a metaphysical speculation lies outside of the theory itself.

This is why the Catholic Church can confidently believe that God created humans, and at the same time accept the overwhelming scientific evidence in favor of common evolutionary ancestry of life on earth.

One can choose to view chance selection as obvious evidence that there is no God, as Dr. Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and uncompromising atheist, might argue, or to conclude instead that God chooses to work through natural means. In the latter case, the overwhelming evidence that natural selection has determined the evolution of life on earth would simply imply that God is "the cause of causes," as Cardinal Ratzinger's document describes it.

The very fact that two such diametrically opposed views can be applied to the same scientific theory demonstrates that the fact of evolution need not dictate theology. In other words, the apparently contentious questions are not scientific ones. It is possible for profoundly atheist evolutionary biologists like Dr. Dawkins and deeply spiritual ones like Dr. Kenneth Miller of Brown University, who writes extensively on evolution, to be in complete agreement about the scientific mechanism governing biological evolution, and the fact that life has evolved via natural selection.

Okay, that errand was a quick one.

Jeffrey at Three Bad Fingers cites two more witnesses to challenge my proof that there is no "nuclear option."

Lastly, the Harvard Law Review recently published this masterpiece outlining why the Constitutional Option is a valid option:

[T]he current Senate could alter the application of the Senate s Standing Rules and precedents by adopting a Standing Order. A majority could thereby override Rule XXII  Regardless, the effect would be the same   to alter Senate procedures governing debate by majority vote.

This "masterpiece" is shockingly easy to dismiss. I quote from said masterpiece:

Jeffrey King of Three Bad Fingers wrote up a response to insistence that Vice President Cheney can't simply declare that cloture requires a simple majority.

His logic is sound, save one fatal error: the Senate has no constitutional ability to encumber future Senates with their procedural rules. As such, the Senate Rules Prometheus 6 cites are invalid and unenforceable.

This is wrong on so many levels...Let's see how many level I have time to deal.

Jeffrey cites Erwin Chemerinsky (with whom he seems impressed enough to provide six-seven links to his bonafides...you may get said links from Three Bad Fingers if that's the sort of thing you need to see).

I'll be paying for online access to the NY Times come September.

China to Fight U.S. Limit on Textile Imports
By CHRIS BUCKLEY

BEIJING, May 16 - Chinese trade officials say they will fight limits imposed on Chinese clothing exports by the Bush administration, while Chinese manufacturers are calling for tit-for-tat restrictions on American businesses.

The move toward new quotas on Chinese clothing exports is a "betrayal of the fundamental spirit of trade liberalization espoused by the W.T.O.," a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, Chong Quan, said in a statement Sunday in China's state-run press in response to Washington's decision. The limits, he said, would "seriously damage the confidence of Chinese businesses and people in the international trade environment since China joined the W.T.O."

The Perils of Bribery Meet the Open Palm
By PAUL BURNHAM FINNEY

Martin R. Morrison, president of Fare Audits, a travel-consulting firm far removed from the murky world of payola that plagues international business, heard that bribes were tax-deductible in Germany. "Am I the only one who's naïve about what goes on during foreign business trips?" he asked.

Probably not, but American business executives do walk a fine line in doing deals overseas. On the one hand, both the United States and Europe are cracking down on corporations that make illegal payments to foreign officials. On the other, companies that do not play along in the estimated $1 trillion-a-year game of oiling the wheels of contract negotiations can put themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Harvard Will Spend $50 Million to Make Faculty More Diverse
By ALAN FINDER

Lawrence H. Summers, the embattled president of Harvard University, announced yesterday that the university would spend at least $50 million over the next decade to recruit, support and promote women and members of underrepresented minority groups on its faculty.

Dr. Summers said the money would be spent on a range of initiatives, including the creation of a new senior vice provost post to focus on diversity issues, improved recruitment, subsidies for salaries, mentoring of junior faculty members and extending the clock on tenure for professors who go on maternity or parental leave.

Quote of note:

Expulsion rates were lowest in preschool classrooms in public schools and Head Start, and highest in faith-affiliated centers, for-profit child care and other community-based child-care settings.

Keep this in mind as you think about school vouchers.

Research Finds a High Rate of Expulsions in Preschool
By TAMAR LEWIN

So what if typical 3-year-olds are just out of diapers, still take a daily nap and can't tie their shoes? They are plenty old enough to be expelled, the first national study of expulsion rates in prekindergarten programs has found.

In fact, preschool children are three times as likely to be expelled as children in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the new study, by researchers from the Yale Child Study Center.

Chappelle: I'm not crazy

Comedian Dave Chappelle wants to set things straight: ''I'm not crazy, I'm not smoking crack,'' he told Time magazine in an interview more than a week after his hit Comedy Central show was suspended and the rumors started to fly.

''I'm definitely stressed out,'' said Chappelle, who took off last month to South Africa for a ''spiritual retreat,'' leaving his fans and even his agent and publicist wondering where he went.

''You hear so many voices jockeying for position in your mind that you want to make sure that you hear your own voice,'' he said. ``So I figured, let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone -- stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as the brakes.''

F.B.I. Said to Misuse Funds for Health Fraud Cases
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, May 15 - Money earmarked by Congress for investigating health care fraud appears to have been shifted improperly to other purposes, like fighting terrorism, Congressional auditors say in a new report.

The report, to be issued this week by the Government Accountability Office, says health care cases got short shrift from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was supposed to use the money exclusively to investigate fraud against Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs. The money came from an account in the Medicare trust fund.

The bureau was unable to show that it had used the money for the intended purpose, the report said, noting that F.B.I. agents "previously devoted to health care fraud investigations were shifted to counterterrorism activities" in the last three years.

Did you see the special Class Matters section in the NY Times this weekend?

ABOUT THE SERIES
A team of reporters spent more than a year exploring ways that class - defined as a combination of income, education, wealth and occupation - influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of unbounded opportunity.

Sounds like the approach they took to their How Race is Lived series back in 2000. THAT was an excellent series.

And you can still get to it at the NY Times site. I'll give you the links later. I think I want to suck it into my personal archives first.

I read OpinionJournal's opinion on Why Republicans can't let the judicial filibuster succeed.

Barring a surprise last-minute deal, this week Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will ask for a ruling from the chair--Vice President Dick Cheney presiding--that ending debate on a judicial nominee requires a vote of a simple majority of 51 Senators, not a super-majority of 60. The nuclear option--aka the "constitutional option"--will have been detonated. Judicial filibusters, R.I.P.

Okay, first of all, "judicial filibusters are not a special case. If there is debate taking place on the floor of the Senate, each Senator is entitled to speak to the issue without interruption until done. That the topic is whether to consent to an appointment is beside the point.

Politicians Know Not Every Vote Matters
By Cynthia Corona
Cynthia Corona is a veteran L.A. political strategist who has worked on campaigns for governor, Congress and the City Council. E-mail: [email protected]

May 16, 2005

In the city of Los Angeles, there are 1.4 million people registered to vote for mayor on Tuesday. Yet the city clerk estimates that only 30% of registered voters will actually vote in the runoff.

Why? Well, conventional wisdom would have us believe that voter apathy is responsible for low voter turnout. But that tells only a part of the story. In many cases, it is not that people do not care enough to vote, but that they are oblivious of the election. The average Jane and Joe are too busy getting the kids to school, punching the clock, trying to make ends meet and maintaining some semblance of social order.

For all the noise about environmental regulations hurting businesses, in the final analysis they just become one more condition the market adjusts to. Just like changes in the minimum wage.

Though there is a point you should consider. We could easily become a dumping ground for goods no other country will accept.

Quote of note:

Today, the United States is no longer the vanguard. Instead, the planet's most stringent chemical policies, with far-reaching impacts on global trade, are often born in Stockholm and codified in Brussels.

...Europe has imposed many pioneering and aggressive   some say foolish and extreme   bans meant to protect people from exposure to hundreds of industrial compounds that have been linked to cancer, reproductive harm and other health effects. Recent measures adopted by the European Union have taken aim at chemicals called phthalates, which make nail polishes chip-resistant, and compounds added to foam cushions that slow the spread of fires in furniture.

Europe's Rules Forcing U.S. Firms to Clean Up
Unwilling to surrender sales, companies struggle to meet the EU's tough stand on toxics.
By Marla Cone
Times Staff Writer
May 16, 2005

Quote of note:

"He threatened me with his finger, poking it toward me," said Berman, who is also an assistant coach for the Alameda High "Riptide" girls. "I asked him again to move back, and he came back to the line. I had made a call he wasn't happy about, and he came back and punched me in the face. Then things simply spiraled out of control."

Girls rugby game turns violent
2 coaches and referee beaten in melee, police say
- Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 16, 2005

Rohnert Park police are seeking criminal charges against as many as 10 people following a bloody melee over the weekend at a girls rugby tournament during which two coaches and a referee were beaten so badly that one was knocked unconscious in fighting that spread from adults to the teenage players.

Priest Denies Gays' Supporters Communion
- By JOSHUA FREED, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 15, 2005
(05-15) 19:48 PDT Saint Paul, Minn. (AP) --

A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people Sunday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics.

Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive wine and bread.

A group called the Rainbow Sash Alliance has encouraged supporters to wear the multicolored fabric bands since 2001 on each Pentecost Sunday, the day Catholics believe the Holy Spirit came to give power to Christians soon after Jesus ascended to heaven. But Sunday's service was the first time they had been denied communion at the altar.

Quote of note:

The 34-year-old Kiblinger says he makes more money selling nonexistent merchandise than he did as a chemist at Procter & Gamble, where his research yielded two patents. His six-figure salary àhe declined to be more specific àis enough to support his wife and toddler son and a house in a gated community in Daniels, W.Va.

Virtual Power Brokers
There's real money to be made selling unreal stuff, such as digital weapons and land, to online gamers. It's a controversial market.
By Alex Pham
Times Staff Writer
May 16, 2005

Robert Kiblinger's online shop does brisk business in items fantastic.

They will not give up their right to practice human sacrifice.

Texas plans in retrial to seek death penalty
By Matt Curry, Associated Press  |  August 15, 2005

DALLAS -- The US Supreme Court decision that overturned the murder conviction of a black man accused of killing a white hotel clerk during a robbery cited a manual that instructed prosecutors on how to exclude minorities from Texas juries.

But the county prosecutor said the ruling didn't call into question the guilt of the inmate, Thomas Miller-El, and the state plans to seek the death penalty again in a new trial.

''His guilt of this heinous crime is not in question," Dallas District Attorney Bill Hill said. Prosecutors have until late November to set a trial date or Miller-El could be released.

Fox: Mexicans take jobs in U.S. 'not even blacks want'
May 15, 2005

BY MORGAN LEE
MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox came under criticism Saturday after saying Mexicans were willing to take jobs ''that not even blacks want to do in the United States.''

Fox's remark Friday came a day after Mexico announced it would formally protest recent U.S. immigration reforms, including the decision to extend walls along the border and make it harder for illegal migrants to get driver's licenses.

''There's no doubt that the Mexican men and women -- full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work -- are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States,'' Fox said in Puerto Vallarta on Friday.

Quote of note:

"We started getting all these complaints from children of seniors who found out that their stock portfolios or other investments had been transferred into these annuities," said Joseph A. Ragazzo, deputy attorney general of California. "We see this investment abuse as a real problem. These cases are metastasizing all over the country."

Who's Preying on Your Grandparents?
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

BACK in February, Jose and Gloria Aquino received a flier in the mail inviting them to a free seminar on one of their favorite topics: protecting their financial assets. As retirees, they were always on the lookout for safe investment strategies as well as tips on how to make sure they didn't outlive their savings. Besides, the flier promised a free lunch for anyone attending the workshop, so what did they have to lose?

Gay Marriage Overreaction
Saturday, May 14, 2005; Page A20

WHEN A FEDERAL court in Nebraska this week struck down the state's constitutional ban on recognition of gay relationships, opponents of gay marriage claimed vindication for their noxious proposal to define marriage in the U.S. Constitution. The decision makes clear that "Congress must pass, and the people of this country must ratify, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as being between one man and one woman," Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said in a statement. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) noted that when Congress debated the federal marriage amendment last year, "opponents claimed that no state laws were threatened. . . . After today's ruling, they can no longer make that claim." From all the hysteria, you might think that a federal court had just mandated that Nebraska begin licensing gay marriages. But that's not what happened.

Hey, we got conversation! Three Bad Fingers challenges my conclusion, and I defend here and here. This post is also relevant.

In Newsweek, Howard Fineman writes:

If there is no last-minute deal, Frist has vowed to set a vote on the nuclear option as soon this week. The "nuclear" part isn't changing the filibuster rule, but a decision by the presiding officer presumably Vice President Dick Cheney, acting in his role of Senate president that only a majority vote is needed to do so. (Normally a two-thirds "supermajority" is required to change Senate rules.) Republicans then will need just 50 votes, since Cheney can break a tie.

Thing is, there's no filibuster rule to change.

Let's just not use that word "filibuster" for a few minutes.

Standing Rules of The Senate
RULE XIX
DEBATE

1. (a) When a Senator desires to speak, he shall rise and address the Presiding Officer, and shall not proceed until he is recognized, and the Presiding Officer shall recognize the Senator who shall first address him. No Senator shall interrupt another Senator in debate without his consent, and to obtain such consent he shall first address the Presiding Officer, and no Senator shall speak more than twice upon any one question in debate on the same legislative day without leave of the Senate, which shall be determined without debate.

(b) At the conclusion of the morning hour at the beginning of a new legislative day or after the unfinished business or any pending business has first been laid before the Senate on any calendar day, and until after the duration of three hours of actual session after such business is laid down except as determined to the contrary by unanimous consent or on motion without debate, all debate shall be germane and confined to the specific question then pending before the Senate.

The very first of the standing rules of the Senate on debate says the Presiding Officer shall recognize the first Senator to address him (and so must let each and any Senator speak) and no one shall interrupt any Senator without that Senator's permission.

The roundtable discussion on ThisWeek is one of my favorite chunks of Sunday morning agitprop.

After George Will (who, if he ever retires from punditry, has a great second career as a sit-down comic open to him) explains quite concisely how airlines will see bankruptcy as a competitive tactic and how that will spread through the economy like ebola:

CR: This is a fundamental contract that's been breached. And these are people who have taken reduction after reduction to try to save the airline, and they've negotiated for pensions versus pay,and now they're finding out they're not getting their pensions. I think the anger is obviously well justified, and you're going to see that across the corporate spectrum as well.

GW: I dissent. (colleagues chuckle) I believe this strengthens the case for the President's plan for Social Security reform. (colleagues chuckle)

GS: You're going to have to explain that, George.

GW: I should be glad to do so. It strengthens it because this shows that risk is a factor of life no matter what system you have, and the question is which would be riskier. This was supposed to be the most secure thing in the world, a great corporation's pension plan. It's not secured.

We've already decided Social Security will be changed, we've decided the solvency is the standard by which we will judge suggested solutions. This still leaves a lot of options. Using a corporation as an example, it is possible to keep your books balanced while selling off the place piece at a time...it is, in fact, the entire investment strategy of a number of institutional investors.

Quote of note:

"Is a story in GQ next?" asks an exasperated Sherry Sylvester, former communications director of the state GOP. "Ronnie Earle is the most powerful Democrat in Texas. He is a partisan who uses his position as district attorney and works with the media. He simply is not credible."

Sounds like George W. Bush.

In the ease with which he conveys authenticity, Earle resembles another politician who rose to prominence in Austin and talks a lot about democracy: George W. Bush.

Yup. Sounds like George W. Bush.

The Lone Ranger

Some say Democratic Texas Dist. Atty. Ronnie Earle is out to get Republican Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful men in Congress. Earle says he's after something even bigger.

New fuel cell opens way for artificial hearts

Tokyo - A Japanese research team has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs.

The biological fuel cell uses glucose, a sugar in blood, with a non-toxic substance used to draw electrons from glucose, said the team led by Matsuhiko Nishizawa, bio-engineering professor at the graduate school of state-run Tohoku University.

"Since the electron mediator is based on Vitamin K3, which exists in human bodies, it excels in safety and could in the future generate power from blood as an implant-type fuel cell," the group said in a statement.

Most other bio-fuel cells under study use a metal complex, spawning concern about harm if used for implants.

The newly developed cell in the size of a tiny coin is able to generate 0,2 milliwatts of electricity, enough to power a device that measures blood sugar level and transmits data elsewhere, the group said.

Long years ago I opined the most selfish thing white folks could do would be to support Black folks because they are guaranteed to get anything we do. We now have objective proof. Y'all bought into the "personal responsibility" riff. It is now being turned on the mainstream.

Thank you very much for participating in our clinical study. We would give you the promised stipend but we've filed for bankruptcy...

Quote of note:

"People like to think of employers as social welfare organizations, but they're not," said Sylvester Scheiber, a partner with the financial consulting firm of Watson-Wyatt and a member of President Bush's 2001 Social Security Commission. "In an increasingly competitive world, they don't have room to do much else but focus on the competition."

Corporate America Pulling Back Pension Safety Net
By Peter G. Gosselin
Times Staff Writer
May 15, 2005