It's not like they learned anything from the tax cuts that have driven us into deficit...

Surplus Floated to Fund Social Security Accounts
Aiming to revitalize Bush's idea, supporters in Congress propose an alternative source for individuals' retirement investment.
By Joel Havemann and Richard Simon
Times Staff Writers
June 18, 2005

WASHINGTON  — Congress' most enthusiastic supporters of individual Social Security accounts have hit upon a formula that they hope will keep the foundering idea alive, and the White House said Friday it was willing to take a look.

The accounts, which could be invested in stocks or bonds, would be financed with the Social Security trust fund's annual surplus. President Bush, by contrast, has proposed funding individual accounts with money diverted from each worker's payroll taxes.

Quote of note:

Mr. Hostettler's amendment would throw out this brilliant structure, and 200 years of constitutional history, and make Congress the final interpreter of the Constitution. If the amendment succeeded, Congress would no doubt begin designating other cases and constitutional doctrines the courts would be barred from enforcing.

There is little doubt that if the amendment became law it would itself be held unconstitutional, but it should not reach that point.

Congress Assaults the Courts, Again

The House of Representatives took a little- noticed but dangerous swipe at the power of the courts this week. It passed an amendment to a budget bill that would bar money from being spent to enforce a federal court ruling regarding the Ten Commandments. The vote threatens the judiciary's long-acknowledged position as the final arbiter of the Constitution. It is important that this amendment be removed before the bill becomes law.

Quote of note:

...Tashnuba says that she opposes suicide bombing, that her interest in the cleric was casual, and that the government treated her like a criminal simply for exercising the freedoms of speech and religion that America had taught her.

Questions, Bitterness and Exile for Queens Girl in Terror Case
By NINA BERNSTEIN

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Slumped at the edge of the bed she would have to share with four relatives that night, the 16-year-old girl from Queens looked stunned.

On the hot, dusty road from the airport, she had watched rickshaws surge past women sweeping the streets, bone-thin in their bright saris. Now, in a language she barely understood, unfamiliar aunts and uncles lamented her fate: to be forced to leave the United States, her home since kindergarten, because the F.B.I. had mysteriously identified her as a potential suicide bomber.

Racial Discrimination in Labor Markets with Posted Wage Offers
by Kevin Lang, Michael Manove and William T. Dickens

We analyze race discrimination in labor markets in which wage offers are posted. If employers with job vacancies receive multiple applicants, they choose the most qualified but may choose arbitrarily among equally qualified applicants. In the model, firms post wages, workers choose where to apply, and firms decide which workers to hire. Labor-market frictions greatly amplify racial disparities, so mild discriminatory tastes or small productivity differences can produce large wage differentials between the races. Compared with the nondiscriminatory equilibrium, the discriminatory equilibrium features lower net output, lower wages for both white and black workers and greater profits for firms.

Sounds like plantation days.

Quote of note:

White job applicants with criminal records seeking entry level work were more likely to receive an offer of employment than blacks with no prison record, a landmark audit of 1,500 employers in New York City has found.

References of note:

The paper referred to in the press release
NY Times story summarizing the issue: Race a Factor in Job Offers for Ex-Convicts

White Job Applicants With a Record Do Better Than Blacks With None
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The City University of New York
899 Tenth Ave., New York, N.Y., 10019

Joe Calderone, Director of Communications
Phone: 212-237-8628; Fax: 212-237-8610

Doreen Vinas, Public Relations
Phone: 212-237-8645

Communications Department

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6/16/2005, 10:30:00 AM

White job applicants with criminal records seeking entry level work were more likely to receive an offer of employment than blacks with no prison record, a landmark audit of 1,500 employers in New York City has found.

Security Breach Could Expose 40M to Fraud
By JOE BEL BRUNO
AP Business Writer

3:08 AM PDT, June 18, 2005

NEW YORK — A computer hacker may have accessed more than 40 million credit card accounts in what could be the largest in a series of recent security breaches involving consumer data, officials said.

MasterCard International Inc. announced Friday that the breach was traced to Atlanta-based CardSystems Solutions Inc., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants. All brands of credit cards could be affected.

The compromised data did not include addresses or Social Security numbers, said MasterCard spokeswoman Sharon Gamsin. The data that may have been viewed -- names, banks and account numbers -- could be used to steal funds, but not identities.

PUBLIC SAFETY AND POLICY
Doubt Is Their Product
Industry groups are fighting government regulation by fomenting scientific uncertainty
By David Michaels

Few scientific challenges are more complex than understanding the health risks of a chemical or drug. Investigators cannot feed toxic compounds to people to see what doses cause cancer. Instead laboratory researchers rely on animal tests, and epidemiologists examine the human exposures that have already happened in the field. Both types of studies have many uncertainties, and scientists must extrapolate from the evidence to make causal inferences and recommend protective measures. Because absolute certainty is rarely an option, regulatory programs would not be effective if such proof were required. Government officials have to use the best available evidence to set limits for harmful chemicals and determine the safety of pharmaceuticals.

Uncertainty is an inherent problem of science, but manufactured uncertainty is another matter entirely. Over the past three decades, industry groups have frequently become involved in the investigative process when their interests are threatened. If, for example, studies show that a company is exposing its workers to dangerous levels of a certain chemical, the business typically responds by hiring its own researchers to cast doubt on the studies. Or if a pharmaceutical firm faces questions about the safety of one of its drugs, its executives trumpet company-sponsored trials that show no significant health risks while ignoring or hiding other studies that are much less reassuring. The vilification of threatening research as "junk science" and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as "sound science" has become nothing less than standard operating procedure in some parts of corporate America.

Do you know how they freeze embryos?

They replace enough of the water in the cell with a cryoprotectant...like anti-freeze...to keep it from rupturing. I assume they replace the cryoprotectant with water after they thaw one out.

Now, the question must be asked...after having a significant fraction of the water it contains replaced with ethylene glycol or glycerol and being frozen, after having their fundamental physical nature altered, are they alive? Are they cells?

Now, thaw and implant one of those embryos. Bring it to term.

Is the offspring alive?

Two questions with yes/no answers. Let's build a little truth table to see what the repercussions of all possible answers to these questions might be.

But this is like guns...if anyone knows this exists, everyone should.

Hormone Spray Elicits Trust in Humans

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have discovered that a whiff of a certain hormone makes people more willing to trust others with their money.

The hormone is oxytocin, which in nonhuman mammals is associated with social attachment, as well as a number of physiological functions related to reproduction. As such, it is believed to help animals overcome their natural tendency to avoid proximity and allow others to approach them. Hypothesizing that oxytocin might have a comparable role in human prosocial approach behaviors, such as trust, Michael Kosfeld of the University of Zurich and his colleagues devised a double-blind study to compare trusting tendencies in subjects given an oxytocin nasal spray and those given a placebo. After receiving either a single dose of the hormone or the placebo, participants played a trust game in which an investor chooses how much money to fork over to a trustee, who then decides how much to return after the amount is quadrupled. Subjects played the game using monetary units, which were exchanged for real money at the end of the experiment.

I had a run-in with a racist on the bus, and an interesting set of observations thereof. But that can wait.

I just saw a newsbrief on PBS that said MasterCard reported they found a computer virus in the software that processes transactions for banks and merchants. Credit card and personal information for 40 million folks is at risk.

Quote of note:

A lawyer for Michael Schiavo called the governor's comments "disgusting"

Yup, Jeb is a Bush scion, without doubt.

Gov. Bush calls for Schiavo probe
Gov. Jeb Bush, who unsuccessfully tried to keep Terri Schiavo alive, now says that an investigation is needed into what happened the night in 1990 that she collapsed and her heart stopped beating.
BY GARY FINEOUT

One day after an exhaustive autopsy sought to end much of the controversy over Terri Schiavo's life, and eventual death, Gov. Jeb Bush said he plans to ask prosecutors to investigate whether her husband took too long to call for help on the night she collapsed in 1990.

Quote of note:

Corporation officials said the two lobbyists did not approach lawmakers but provided strategic advice on handling a bill last year that would have given public radio and television stations more representation on the corporation's board. [P6: 'the lobbyists did not approach the lawmakers' means the lawmakers...curious term to apply in this case...approached them.] The measure, which died, was opposed by the White House and Mr. Tomlinson but was supported by stations.

One of the lobbyists, Brian Darling, was paid $10,000 for his insights into Senator Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican who sponsored the provision. This year, he briefly served as a top aide to Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, but resigned after the disclosure that he had written a memorandum describing how to exploit politically the life-support case of Terri Schiavo.

Lobbyists' Role for Public TV Is Investigated
By STEPHEN LABATON

psywar.org presents: The Aerial Propaganda Leaflet Database.

Quote of note:

Lilyquist said the first true glass appeared in Mesopotamia between 1600 B.C. and 1550 B.C. Ancient Egyptian texts describe how a pharaoh brought home skilled glassworkers, along with buckets of glass ingots, after a Mesopotamian expedition in 1500 B.C.

...Glass was highly prized, not because it was inherently expensive but because "not that many people knew how to do it," Lilyquist said.

Evidence of Glassmaking In Ancient Egypt Found
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; A03

Scientists said yesterday that they have unearthed the first conclusive evidence of a glass factory in ancient Egypt, offering new insights into production techniques for a commodity so highly prized that nobles used it interchangeably with gemstones.

Where in this article is there anything about Democrats citing the Downing Street Memo to oppose John Bolton? (I'm assuming you know what that is)

Feh.

It would be the wrong target to point that political weapon at. That memo and the more recently released one, strongly imply impeachable offenses.

Quote of note:

...those who supported an extraordinary use of federal power to force their own conclusion against the judgment of state courts knew that philosophical arguments would not be enough. Most Americans were uneasy about compelling Schiavo's husband, Michael, to keep his wife alive if -- as the state courts had concluded and as the autopsy confirmed on Wednesday -- she had suffered irreversible brain damage and was incapable of recovering.

So the big-government conservatives had to invent a story. They had to insist that they knew, just knew , more about Terri Schiavo's condition than the doctors on the scene. They had to question Michael Schiavo's motives and imply that he wanted to, well, get rid of her.

Where's The Apology?
Bending the Facts on Schiavo
By E. J. Dionne Jr.

...will be the bacteria that mutates so that its's not just immune, but feeds on antibiotics.

FDA Approves New Antibiotic for Resistant Bacteria
Hospital-Acquired Infections Targeted
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; A14

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment yesterday for hospital patients with serious bacterial infections, including those resistant to most other antibiotics.

The new drug, called Tygacil, is from the first new class of antibiotics to be marketed in several years. The manufacturer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, said the intravenous drug will be used as a first-line treatment for stomach and skin infections and is effective against enough different bacteria to be used before doctors know which ones are causing the infection.

The Quote of note is from the FBI:

Our questions relate to the instruction in the EC to report abuse. The EC states that if "an FBI employee knows or suspects non-FBI personnel has abused or is abusing or is mistreating a detainee, the FBI employee must report the incident."

This instruction begs the question of what constitutes "abuse." We assume this does not include lawful interrogation techniques authorized by Executive Order. We are aware that prior to a revision in policy last week, an Executive Order signed by President Bush authorized the following interrogation techniques among others[:] sleep "management," used of MWDs (military working dogs), "stress positions" such as half-squats, "environmental manipulation" such as the use of loud music, sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc. We assume the OCG instruction does not include the reporting of these authorized interrogation techniques, and that the use of these techniques does not constitute "abuse."

Medics Are Ordered to Report Abuse
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A07

Quote of note:

Among those criticizing Frist's actions were 31 of his Harvard Medical School classmates, who sent him a letter saying he had used his medical degree improperly.

...and we know for a fact they saw him do it and they weren't reversing previous testimony,

(don't mind me, I'm just practicing for when this bastard runs for preznit)

Frist Defends Remarks on Schiavo Case
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A17

Mr. Will writes

Marijuana's price has fallen and its potency has doubled in the past eight years. So say David Boyum and Peter Reuter in their new book, "An Analytic Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy," from the American Enterprise Institute. They say that although the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses on any given day has increased from 50,000 in 1980 to 450,000 in 2003, the inflation-adjusted prices for cocaine and heroin are half of what they were 25 years ago

Yes, that is a link to a page where you can download a pdf of the book for free. And I provide it because I've developed something of a feel for when Mr. Will dissembles in major fashion.

In this case he's saying "This War Is Worth Fighting," said war being The War on Black...um, Drugs. And he rants quite a bit about the evil weed...gives cocaine a paragraph and you see the only mention of heroin in the above quote.

But you know what the American Enterprise Institute says about marijuana in particular?

A little history:

Last year, the House leadership barely staved off the amendment with a 210 to 210 tie, engineered by holding the vote open to pressure some Republicans to switch their votes.

And they staved it off this year too, despite the wide margin by which the bill containing the curbs passed. Because, you see, the bill containing the curbs has nothing to do with the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.

The vote -- on an amendment to limit spending in a huge bill covering appropriations for science as well as the departments of Justice, State and Commerce -- came as Bush is traveling the country to build support for reauthorizing 15 provisions of the Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire at year's end.

House Republican leadership aides said they plan to have the provision removed when a conference committee meets to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. "The administration has threatened to veto the bill over this extraneous rider, and there are too many important initiatives in the bill for that to happen," said Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield.

So it was quite safe to vote for the "extraneous rider." You can tell your constituents you did the right thing...it's not like "extraneous riders" aren't the standard operating procedure, after all. You get to tell folks you're a centrist, you even voted with the Democrats on this one.

And you KNOW no one is going to force Bush to issue a veto.

House Votes To Curb Patriot Act
FBI's Power to Seize Library Records Would Be Halted
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005; A01

The House handed President Bush the first defeat in his effort to preserve the broad powers of the USA Patriot Act, voting yesterday to curtail the FBI's ability to seize library and bookstore records for terrorism investigations.

See all the emailed testimony (pdf)

...Given the calculation base provided by RUPA (Retired United Pilot's Assoc.) my wife and I will lose 56.3% of our pension if calculated according to PC-3 and 72.2% if using the PC-4 method. This is a disaster for us (and all other retired United pilots) and will require at minimum bankruptcy [P6: See the Bank Bonanza Bankruptcy Bill] and a return to some form of work; in worst case, we will probably have to sell our home in addition.

...Make no mistake...what is on the horizon for United's retirees is a genuine tragedy that will likely impact us for the remainder of our lives.

Respectfully, James V. Allen Mesquite, NV

Greetings. My name is Elenor Barcsak and I worked for United Airlines as a Flight Attendant for 37 years. My date of hire was May 23, 1965. When I turned 60 years old I was told that it would be totally safe to retire as my pension that I had paid into as a Union Member for all those years was totally protected. I am a home owner in Marin County since 1972 and but still have mortgage payments. Am assisting my family financial as my mother is in a Nursing home in Canada and my younger sister has been on welfare. The impact of my pension check being reduced by as much as half will be devastating. It seems like only yesterday that I had Senator Barbara Boxer on one of my flights. She may remember me as she came to the galley predeparture in need of a cup of coffee and although we were prepping for departure, I honored her request. We need help in order to stay in our homes!

Human Toll of a Pension Default
By Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 13, 2005; A01

Ellen Saracini lost her husband, United Airlines Capt. Victor J. Saracini, when his Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Now she stands to lose more than half of her widow's pension in a very different kind of crash -- United's default of its $9 billion pension obligations.

The scale of the default, the largest in U.S. history, has received more attention than the toll on the lives of the bankrupt airline's 120,000 employees and pensioners. Saracini discussed its impact on her and her two daughters in an interview yesterday, saying she hopes her story will help shift the focus to the laws and policies that allow such defaults.

Budget Tricks
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page B08

WE DON'T KID ourselves: A Congressional Budget Office report titled "Third-Party Financing of Federal Projects" isn't apt to go flying off the shelves. But for anyone who pays taxes -- and, more important, for anyone who spends tax dollars -- it is worth a look. The title refers to a technique, increasingly tempting in tough budgetary times, by which government agencies arrange to pay for programs through creative financing arrangements that make costs look lower but end up higher. The most infamous such proposal is the ill-advised and mercifully ill-fated Boeing tanker lease deal, now back in the news with the release of a damning report by the Defense Department's inspector general.

Quote of note:

If we fail to identify the varying degree of danger posed by different substances, we undermine the credibility of our legislation and hinder its effectiveness at preventing drug abuse. Any young person who has smoked marijuana and seen a friend ravaged by heroin can tell the difference between these drugs. Why can't we?

Actually we can -- at least at a scientific level.

Scientifically Speaking, This Drug's on the Wrong List
By Daniele Piomelli
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page B03

...Despite these negative points, marijuana and THC also appear to have significant medical benefits. As drugs go, THC is a very safe compound: It would take about 70 pure grams of it -- about the weight of a chocolate bar -- to seriously harm a 150-pound adult. [P6: emphasis added] Indeed, it has satisfied the strict requirements of the Food and Drug Administration for approval as a human medicine and is currently used in the United States, under the trade name of Marinol (manufactured by Unimed), to reduce nausea and stimulate appetite in patients suffering from HIV/AIDS, or undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. A manmade derivative of THC called Cesamet (manufactured by Eli Lilly) is prescribed in Europe for the same conditions.

I just realized that the intensity of a significant item in my list of personal stressors varies inversely with the number of monthly windowed envelopes I receive from banks. I just eliminated one from the list permanently and saw myself relax at the thought of one less bill.

Learn.

Okay, maybe typical is a better term.

Quote of note:

...majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.

"I'm sitting here watching your  forum  on C-SPAN," McLaughlin wrote. "Just to let you know, it was your last. Don t bother asking [for a room] again." 

Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'
By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour

If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst.

Developers Plan to Exclude Sex Offenders From Homes

LUBBOCK, Tex. -- The sales pitch for the planned Milwaukee Ridge subdivision goes beyond the usual vision of attractive homes and amenities: Homebuyers will be required to pass criminal background checks, and no convicted sex offenders will be allowed.

The idea was inspired by the killings of two Florida girls -- Jessica Lunsford, 9, and Sarah Lunde, 13 -- allegedly by registered sex offenders, partner Clayton Isom said.

Isom and the other two developers own a 213-acre parcel and plan to subdivide it for 665 houses that will be priced from $100,000 to $150,000.

Builders agreeing to the terms will run background checks on buyers and any juveniles expected to live in the homes. They could be penalized if they sell, even unknowingly, to a convicted sex offender.

Limits on Media Ownership Stand
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 14, 2005; D01

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday let stand an appeals court ruling that limits the number of television stations, radio stations and newspapers a media company can own in a single market.

In issuing its decision, the court declined to enter the debate over whether the explosion in telecommunications, the Internet and cable television warrants an overhaul of ownership rules crafted in an era when news was dominated by daily newspapers and broadcast television and radio.

Rather, the high court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that the Federal Communications Commission had not adequately justified a set of rules that it issued in June 2003 that relaxed several of the ownership restrictions.

What Crosses Our Minds When Danger's Afoot

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 13, 2005; A08

One of the more mysterious and less-explored observations about human anatomy is also one of the oldest, going all the way back to the Father of Medicine.

"If the wound be situated on the left side [of the head], the convulsion attacks the right side of the body," Hippocrates noted in the 4th century B.C. The Greek physician recognized that trauma on one side of the head could cause a seizure limited to or, more likely, starting in the limbs on the opposite side of the body.

Quote of note:

A federal judge criticized the government for waiting until after Sept. 11 to file any charges, saying he found the delay "unsettling" and noting the defendants' ethnic backgrounds. "This case had no connection to terrorism," said Michael Pedicini, a lawyer for one of the men, "unless you consider cornflakes weapons of mass destruction."

Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said cases on the list are properly categorized as anti-terrorism.

"In a lot of these cases, there was no terrorism charge because no terrorism connection was found," he said. "That doesn't change the fact that we treated them as terrorism investigations out of an abundance of caution and to prevent another terrorist attack."

It certainly doesn't change those facts.

Anyway...

Post-9/11 Probe Revived Stolen-Cereal Incident
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; A19

NEWARK

More than a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI nabbed two Arab grocers loading boxes onto a tractor-trailer outside a drab gray apartment building here. The cargo: stolen Kellogg's cereal.

Agents did not charge the men that day, and set them free. But 16 months later, soon after hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI was back. This time, agents arrested the pair and a third Arab grocer. After they were grilled about the terrorist attacks, the men were charged and pleaded guilty -- to conspiracy to possess the pilfered cornflakes.

In Newsweek, I read

America's official policy is not to associate or talk with terrorist organizations. And Hamas and Hizbullah are both on the U.S. terrorism list, which bars them from receiving aid money. Bush also spent much of his first term pressing European governments to cut off funding to Hamas and withdraw recognition of Hizbullah's political wing in Lebanon. When asked, U.S. officials insist they will have no dealings with Hamas.

In private, however, the president has been gingerly laying out what one senior European official described as Bush's "theory of redemption." (The official spoke only on condition that his name and nationality not be revealed.) Administration officials have pointed to reform in groups like Sinn Fein the political wing of the Irish Republican Army and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which in the '90s officially renounced terror. "The president has a sort of reflexive view that democratic politics is indeed a healing politics," says Robert Satloff, head of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They are grappling with how you translate it into a policy."

The preznit has missed the commonality that allowed the USofA to work with both the IRA and the PLO...though the USofA supports the governments both organizations oppose, WE DIDN'T BOMB THEY ASSES.

Laying Down a Challenge
June 15, 2005

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing in overturning the murder convictions of black defendants in California and Texas after determining that, in both cases, racial discrimination played a role in jury selection. But the court could have done itself, and the judicial system, a service by taking an additional step and embracing Justice Stephen G. Breyer's concurring opinion, in which he called for the abolition of so-called peremptory challenges, which allow lawyers to strike a number of otherwise qualified jurors.

Some jurors can be struck "for cause" —  bias, say  — by a judge. But peremptory challenges, which allow lawyers to remove prospective jurors without stating a reason, turn jury selection into a classic game that is supported by a massive industry of consultants peddling dubious theories (jurors who wear green favor defendants, etc.). Since 1986, however, a serious constitutional principle has been at stake. In that year, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Batson vs. Kentucky that potential jurors could not be excluded on account of their race.

The Republican policy group titled its report: "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the International Committee of the Red Cross?"

Neocon interests? Republican interests? Maybe...

Recent polls show those are NOT congruent with interests of American citizens.

GWEN IFILL: And what about the trade-off? The president has said, and Americans have believed in past surveys that going to war in Iraq made the United States more secure.

ANDREW KOHUT: That was the point of view in most of the polls until very recently. The latest ABC/Washington Post poll now has a majority saying no, it hasn't enhanced American security, the forceful removal of Saddam Hussein. So this idea of this being part of the war on terrorism, which kept up support for some time, is that, too, a crucial component of American support, has begun to be eroded.

GWEN IFILL: And so it's had its effect on the president's approval rating?

ANDREW KOHUT: It sure has. We have about the lowest approval rating of the presidency, 42 percent approve, 49 percent approve. By comparison, President Clinton at this time, in his second term, had a 54 percent rating; President Reagan had a 58 percent rating in 1985. Only Richard Nixon in 1973 had a lower rating at 40 percent, and he was being bogged down by Watergate.

GWEN IFILL: So this isn't second term-itis?

ANDREW KOHUT: No, it is not second term-itis. It's, this problem, which is the real drain and then lack of good news in other realms. The public is still discontented with the economy. They were appalled by the Schiavo incident, big measures of disapproval for the Congress, for the president. They see the filibuster argument, nothing getting done, large percentages saying we're losing ground on a whole range of issues from healthcare to the economy. The public is still complaining about lack of good jobs in their communities.

GWEN IFILL: What are Americans optimistic about?

ANDREW KOHUT: Well they still think the president's doing a good job of protecting us from another terrorist attack, but there's not much good news, and that's -- that's the president's problem. That's the Congress' problem. Congressional approval ratings are at a very low point -- 34 percent in the latest Gallup poll -- and we've even seen the percentage of people saying that perhaps their own member of Congress doesn't deserve re-election, go up in the Wall Street Journal poll.

GOP Committee Targets International Red Cross
Senators ask Bush to reconsider financial support for the agency after its criticism of how U.S. forces treat their detainees abroad.
By Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2005

WASHINGTON   Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.

Well, sorta...

The pastors hope to draw at least 1,000 of their peers to sign the letter, but so far the signatories represent only a fraction of the black pastors who met with Rice and have been heavily courted by Bush and his advisors since the 2000 election.

Quote of note:

The letter was initiated by Bishop Charles E. Blake of the 24,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles. It was also signed by Rivers, Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potter's House ministry in Dallas, Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta and the Rev. Frank Madison Reid III of Bethel AME Church in Baltimore.

Former Atlanta mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, a longtime Democrat who stunned some pastors last month when he attended the State Department meeting and offered an emotional tribute to Rice, also signed the letter.

Black Pastors Criticize Bush on Aid to Africa
A letter from prominent clergy urges the White House to back a plan to double assistance.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2005

WASHINGTON   Several influential black pastors who were recently courted by Bush administration officials as potential partners in crafting African relief policies are now questioning the White House commitment to the continent.

Black women's HIV rates lopsided, researcher says
By DAVID WAHLBERG
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/05

Only a quarter of Americans newly diagnosed with HIV are women, researchers said Tuesday, but a significant majority of women who are diagnosed are black, living in the South and facing entrenched social ills: poverty, racism, segregation and the imprisonment of many black men.

"The social and economic environment influences sexual behaviors," said Dr. Adaora Adimora of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who spoke at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, which continues today.

The Republican Southern Strategy in action. Instead of extracting a "Quote of note" I'm going to "embolden" the notable stuff.

[LATER: I changed my mind, I want you to see this first]

Bob Stevenson, Frist's chief spokesman, said Tuesday evening the procedure the majority leader established was "requested by the sponsors."

The chief sponsors of the resolution, Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and George Allen (R-Va.), disputed that assertion.

Landrieu said Monday before the resolution was adopted she would have preferred a roll call vote but had to accept the conditions set by Senate leaders.

When Stevenson was informed of Landrieu's statement, he amended his comments to say "at least one of the sponsors" had requested adoption on a voice vote and in combination with a resolution related to Black History Month.

Allen press secretary David Snepp took issue with Stevenson. "I don't know why Bob Stevenson would characterize it that way," he said.

Snepp said Allen, since agreeing to sponsor the resolution, had insisted that he preferred a roll call vote.

Anti-lynching vote

Critics: Frist vetoed roll call
Senators were not required to go on record on issue
By SCOTT SHEPARD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/05

Daily Kos is this huge open-air market where everyone gets issued a soapbox. A huge digital agora that I avoid because plumbing its depths wouldn't leave me time to write or program or nothin'. Kos himself is a guy who wound up standing at the confluence of forces and adapted pretty well. Apparently he bugged out a little and the feminist bloggers are incensed...I'm linking to this one because a friend asked my opinion of the inclusion of a bit of Black Panther history, and because it's a bunch of links to other commentary over there.

Short response to my homie: Sorry, dawg. All true.

Under normal circumstances I get cranky when folks use our history to leverage their issues. But this time it's understandable. The gender relations within the Black Panther Party at the time were pretty much like those in every other organization in the world.

COMMUNITY ART JAM
Juneteenth Celebration
Saturday, June 18th, 11AM-3PM
at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza
125th Street between 7th and Lenox Avenues

Families! Friends! Neighbors! Start the summer with The Studio Museum in Harlem by celebrating Juneteenth--the name given to emancipation day by African Americans in Texas more than 100 years ago!  Commemorate this historic moment with special exhibition tours, games, hands-on projects, performances, and learn about other community-based organizations.
 

BOOKS + AUTHORS, KIDS!
Saturday, June 18, 11AM-1AM
Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa is a wonderful new children's book by Veronica Chambers, and a great
addition to any child's library.  Meet the author and illustrator, learn salsa dancing and have your book

The 34th Annual International African Arts Festival (IAAF) will be held on Friday, July 1 through Monday July 4 from 10 am to 9 pm.

Welcoming old friends and new visitors from across the globe, the Festival will celebrate its second year at a new location, the spacious Commodore Barry Park, located in Downtown Brooklyn. The IAAF has an exciting line up of family entertainment featuring Arts & Crafts Zone, Children's Play Area, Pony Rides, Youth Chess Tournament, Live Street Theatre, and the Children's Village with fun, games, face painting, clowns and much more. High on the list of pleasures is the world-famous African Marketplace, featuring the best in wearable art, crafts of every description and a variety of mouth-watering foods to be enjoyed.

The Festival's outdoor Food Court offers a range of food from traditional soul food to flavorful Caribbean dishes, to African, Latin, Asian, vegetarian food, seafood and even gourmet style raw foods. Presented to the community in the spirit of love and unity, the International African Arts Festival is hailed as one of the safest and most harmonious celebrations in the nation.

***For more information, send an email to: [email protected] ***

Quote of note:

"As I've often said, this is not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing,"

He has?

But the fact that Mr. Greenspan speaks about this topic at all may show how much the growing concentration of national wealth at the top, combined with the uncertainties of increased globalization, worries economic policymakers as they peer into the future.

Rich-poor gap gaining attention
A remark by Greenspan symbolizes concern that wealth disparities may destabilize the economy.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself.

FOR MORE CORPORATE PROFITS: Though President Bush did not take the time to look out for workers from the United States or Central America, the usual players will be doing just fine under CAFTA. The pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries would be "some of the biggest winners if the pact is approved." With public health an issue of concern, there is reason for worry over CAFTA. The Bush administration's insistence that CAFTA contain various protective provisions for the drug industry "could increase the cost of much-needed drugs in the region." The Costa Rican pharmaceutical industry estimates that the cost of medicines will increase by 800 percent "under CAFTA intellectual property provisions." One would think "workers' rights would enjoy the same guaranteed protections as CAFTA provides to prescription drug companies. Environmental and food safety laws deserve the same legal standing that CAFTA extends to CDs and Hollywood films."

Here's the list of co-sponsors of the lynching apology bill.

From this you can figure out who voted nay...just subtract these folks from the list of all Senators.

Oh, hell, here's the list of Senators who do not denounce lynching, courtesy of AmericaBlog.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)

How to Get Rid of a Gun
By MIKE KESSLER

...Since the L.A.P.D. hadn't been that helpful, I decided to drive to Glendale, which has its own police force. This time, I hauled the guns in a cardboard box. As I entered the police station, the cop there put a hand on his side arm and told me to drop the box. I did. After I explained my situation, he ran a background check on the firearms: clean. He checked my record: squeaky clean. Then he lightened up -- and tried to talk me into selling him the Glock and the Smith & Wesson, which he told me were worth a bundle.

''But they're not even registered in my name,'' I said, ''and the owner is dead.''

Man, this patent holding company is working Research in Motion to death.

Among other things, one person said, it wanted partial compensation for the increase in value of R.I.M.'s stock after the March settlement announcement.

Last Tuesday, however, appeared to bring the final sticking point for Research in Motion. NTP indicated at the meeting that the deal did not cover any wireless e-mail technologies R.I.M. had developed and introduced after the start of its lawsuit. That, according to one person, would mean payments from R.I.M. of $100 million to $200 million a year.

For BlackBerry Maker, Anxiety Rises as a Deal Unravels
By IAN AUSTEN

The reason I'm not impressed by the Senate:

Although the Senate garnered praise on Monday for acting to erase that stain, some critics said lawmakers had a long way to go. Of the 100 senators, 80 were co-sponsors of the resolution, and because it passed by voice vote, senators escaped putting themselves on record.

"It's a statement in itself that there aren't 100 co-sponsors," Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said.

As for the article, I do not want to minimize Mr. Cameron's story but it's the typical "Black man accused of rape is lynched" story, except someone stepped up and cleared him before he was hanged.

I'd rather you listed to the story of Anthony Crawford...lynched for refusing to be cheated.

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: Yes. Grandpa Crawford was able to accumulate 427 acres of prime cotton land. In addition to that, he was president of the Black Masons of South Carolina. He started a school on his land, called the Abbeville School, for black children. He was a voter. He served on the federal jury and started a union of black farmers; so he was just a very prosperous man. He also had 13 children who all lived on his property and worked for him and had their own homes.

Well, Oct. 21, 1916, Grandpa Crawford went to downtown Abbeville, South Carolina, to sell his cotton seed. He stood in line with the rest of the farmers. But when he got to the front of the line, W.D. Barksdale, who was the storekeeper, offered Grandpa Crawford 85 cents for his cotton seed when it was really worth 90 cents.

GWEN IFILL: This was a white man.

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: It was. Grandpa Crawford told Mr. Barksdale that he was cheating him, and Mr. Barksdale called Grandpa Crawford a liar. At that point someone else in the store came in after Grandpa Crawford. He fought them; in fact, he fought with 12 people backing out of his store and towards the square. But a sheriff had arrested him for cursing a white man; he was taken to jail.

GWEN IFILL: We've heard so much about lynchings that usually arise out of a black man whistling at a white woman, in the case of Emmett Till or other cases. In this case, this was about property; this was about land; this was about resources.

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: Yes.

GWEN IFILL: Very different.

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: Well, no. I don't think so. I think that if you really do the research you're going to find that a lot of people who were lynched were community leaders, business owners, people who threatened the ethos of white supremacy, people who were going to be respected. And these are the people that were lynched.

GWEN IFILL: So how many people were involved in this lynching and how did it occur?

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: The governor's report says 400 people. But what they did was probably it gotten up to be about 200 people and Grandpa Crawford was finally taken from the jail. The jail was overtaken from the sheriff. He was drug down the stairs to the back of a buggy.

GWEN IFILL: And he was killed. He was hanged. He was shot.

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: He was stabbed, beaten and hung from a tree. And his children were ordered to leave town. And they had to start all over again wherever they ended up. Sorry.

GWEN IFILL: So all the land that he owned went away. The family inherited nothing. How did the community...

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: That's right.

GWEN IFILL: How did the community react of Abbeville?

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: A lot of blacks of Abbeville left.

GWEN IFILL: Because they felt unsafe there?

DORIA DEE JOHNSON: That's right. If Mr. Crawford were lynched like that, then how safe are the rest of us?

Senate Issues Apology Over Failure on Lynching Law
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Quote of note:

One couple, Ms. Crockin said, who had had two children through in vitro fertilization, wanted to donate their extra embryos to friends in their neighborhood. "They came in to me to do what they thought at the outset was a simple legal task of 'make it happen,' " Ms. Crockin said. "Instead, after really exploring what this might mean to their existing children, what it might mean for the resulting child, how would they deal with the children they were raising and this child who was going to be raised down the street, they couldn't reach a comfort level. The wife called me in tears: 'We want to do this, we want to be generous, I feel selfish, but I can't do this.' "

It's Not So Easy to Adopt an Embryo
By PAM BELLUCK

Quote of note:

If the elderly were willing to work longer, there would be lower taxes on everyone and fewer struggling young families. There would be more national wealth and tax revenue available to help the needy, including people no longer able to work as well as the many elderly below the poverty line because they get so little Social Security.

Is anyone thinking what raising the retirement age would do to the job market?

The result is a system that burdens the young and creates perverse incentives for people to retire when they're still middle-aged. Once you've worked 35 years, more work often yields only a tiny increase in your benefits (sometimes none at all), but you still have to keep paying the onerous Social Security tax, which has more than doubled over the last half century.

Welcome to EuroAmerican Capitalism. The whole trick of EuroAmerican Capitalism is summed up in the term net present value. We leverage the future with every financial decision made.

Anyway...

The Old and the Rested
By JOHN TIERNEY

Quote of note:

Of the 75 terrorists we investigated, only nine had attended madrassas, and all of those played a role in one attack - the Bali bombing. Even in this instance, however, five college-educated "masterminds" - including two university lecturers - helped to shape the Bali plot.

The Madrassa Myth

By PETER BERGEN and SWATI PANDEY

Washington

IT is one of the widespread assumptions of the war on terrorism that the Muslim religious schools known as madrassas, catering to families that are often poor, are graduating students who become terrorists. Last year, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell denounced madrassas in Pakistan and several other countries as breeding grounds for "fundamentalists and terrorists." A year earlier, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had queried in a leaked memorandum, "Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"

Quote of note:

The question is not just philosophical: where psychiatrists draw the line may determine not only the willingness of insurers to pay for services, but the future of research on moderate and mild mental disorders. Directly and indirectly, it will also shape the decisions of millions of people who agonize over whether they or their loved ones are in need of help, merely eccentric or dealing with ordinary life struggles.

"This argument is heating up right now," said Dr. Darrel Regier, director of research at the American Psychiatric Association, "because we're in the process of revising the diagnostic manual," the catalog of mental disorders on which research, treatment and the profession itself are based.

Snake Phobias, Moodiness and a Battle in Psychiatry
By BENEDICT CAREY

Walk Inside, Have Surgery. But Is It Safe?
By ANDRÉE BROOKS

Tucked invisibly in high-rise office buildings, sprawling commercial structures and shopping malls across the country are an exploding number of free-standing surgical centers that, according to one estimate, now account for almost one surgical procedure in five performed nationwide.

Compared with the early 1970's, when such centers first opened, the procedures that they perform have vastly expanded, from simple breast biopsies and cataract removals to more complex orthopedic, gastroenterological or gynecological surgeries. Cosmetic surgeons now use the centers for virtually all procedures not performed in a doctor's office.

How long before some geek figures out how to get the video and reset the camera at home?

Once you've shot your 20 minutes of video, take the camera back to the store, which has computers to extract the video and burn the clips onto a DVD for you to take home. The process takes about 30 minutes. CVS charges $29.95 for the camera and another $12.99 for processing, so you're paying $42.89 for a 20-minute DVD.

Testing out disposable camcorder
S.F. firm makes it easy to e-mail clips made on tiny device
- Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, June 13, 2005
Disposable photo cameras have been around for years and have carved out a healthy niche in the overall photography market. But nobody has come up with a disposable video camcorder -- until now.

Prior to this I have made exactly one post on Mr. Jackson's legal issues, and that was to say I'd be posting nothing about it.

Now that it's over, I have a suggestion for Mr. Jackson. Give up on fame. No more albums or videos. Instead, you should focus on producing.

Meanwhile, over at the L.A.Times I see they have a Michael Jackson Verdict Blog. Runs on Movable Type.

"Why am I not surprised?" of note:

Justice Clarence Thomas, the only black member of the high court, voted against the defendants in both cases.

Justices Target Race Bias in Juries
By David G. Savage
Times Staff Writer
June 14, 2005

WASHINGTON   The Supreme Court, overturning the murder convictions of a black man in California and another in Texas by nearly all-white juries, warned judges and prosecutors Monday that they must put an end to racial discrimination in the selection of jurors.

The California ruling is likely to have an immediate effect on the way juries are selected in the state, and will give some other recently convicted criminals a claim to a new trial.

I just feel like shit today...like a 180 lb soap bubble. Might be food poisoning.

I have two or three mandatory communications and I'm out.

I saw the Puerto Rican Day Parade today. It's sort of become the Latino Day Parade.

I like the parade. I like the Columbus Day Parade too, and St. Patrick's Day one as well.

No, I'm not angling for a Martin Luther King Day parade. I'm just noticing a touch of cultural nationalism seems, I dunno...normal.

Question of note:

But what does it mean when more than half of a society may suffer "mental illness"?

Who's Mentally Ill? Deciding Is Often All in the Mind
By BENEDICT CAREY

THE release last week of a government-sponsored survey, the most comprehensive to date, suggests that more than half of Americans will develop a mental disorder in their lives.

The study was the third, beginning in 1984, to suggest a significant increase in mental illness since the middle of the 20th century, when estimates of lifetime prevalence ranged closer 20 or 30 percent.

But what does it mean when more than half of a society may suffer "mental illness"? Is it an indictment of modern life or a sign of greater willingness to deal openly with a once-taboo subject? Or is it another example of the American mania to give every problem a name, a set of symptoms and a treatment - a trend, medical historians say, accentuated by drug marketing to doctors and patients?

Quote of note:

just as generations of rock stars have posed as rebels, and rappers try to "keep it real" while flaunting their wealth, country stars try to defend or reconcile their success with their roots.

Down Home in the High Cotton
By HENRY FOUNTAIN

FAITH HILL'S new song, "Mississippi Girl," was one of the hottest songs in the nation last week, rising four spots to No. 9 on the Billboard country singles chart. It's a paean to Ms. Hill herself, juxtaposing her humble roots with her considerable celebrity.

In the chorus she tries to reconcile the two. And just as John Denver once thanked God he was a country boy, Ms. Hill appeals directly to fans to treat her as one of their own. "A Mississippi girl don't change her ways, just 'cause everybody knows her name," she sings. "Ain't big-headed from a little bit of fame."

Another brilliant mind narrowly escapes being lost

Over the decades, Ms. Mamitu has gradually become one of the world's most experienced fistula surgeons. Gynecologists from around the world go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to train in fistula repair, and typically their teacher is Ms. Mamitu.

Not bad for an illiterate Ethiopian peasant who as a child never went to a day of school.

A few years ago, Ms. Mamitu tired of being an illiterate master surgeon, and so she began night school. She's now in the third grade.

And hundreds of thousands of lives lost for lack of an operation that cost governmental pocket change.

The Illiterate Surgeon
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

I think I'll check Pambazuka News and AllAfrica.com next week.

See, these debts weren't just dropped. I'm interested in the conditions that must be attached.

Quote of note:

The deal on Saturday was expected to ease the 18 poorest countries' annual debt burden by $1.5 billion. They are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. All must take anticorruption measures.

Finance Chiefs Cancel Debt of 18 Nations
By ALAN COWELL

Quote of note:

Pathmark's shareholders were not being asked to choose among various offers that had come in after Yucaipa made its offer; they were simply asked to vote up or down on the $7-a-share deal. Pathmark's board even agreed to what is known as a "force the vote" provision in its purchase agreement with Yucaipa, which required that even if Pathmark's directors changed their minds and recommended that shareholders vote against the deal, the vote would still take place.

As it turned out, there were other offers: one from an unidentified bidder proposing to pay $7.50 a share for the entire company, and finally the $8.75 bid from another unidentified firm; that was the offer Pathmark disclosed just before the vote.

What? You Don't Trust The Company?

Quote of note:

"Hamilton Naki had better technical skills than I did," Dr. Barnard said in an interview quoted in The Daily Telegraph of London this week. "He was a better craftsman than me, especially when it came to stitching, and had very good hands."

But because of his race, Mr. Naki's role in the world's first heart transplant remained unknown for years.

"If Hamilton had had the opportunity to perform, he would have probably become a brilliant surgeon," Dr. Barnard told The Associated Press in 1993.

Hamilton Naki, 78, Self-Taught Surgeon, Dies
By MARGALIT FOX

Rot your mouth until you can't eat.

Grisly Effect of One Drug: 'Meth Mouth'
By MONICA DAVEY

From the moment on Thursday when the young man sat down in Dr. Richard Stein's dental chair in southwestern Kansas and opened his mouth, Dr. Stein was certain he recognized the enemy. This had to be the work, he concluded, of methamphetamine, a drug that is leaving its mark, especially in the rural regions of the Midwest and the South, on families, crime rates, economies, legislatures - and teeth.

Quite distinct from the oral damage done by other drugs, sugar and smoking, methamphetamine seems to be taking a unique, and horrific, toll inside its users' mouths. In short stretches of time, sometimes just months, a perfectly healthy set of teeth can turn a grayish-brown, twist and begin to fall out, and take on a peculiar texture less like that of hard enamel and more like that of a piece of ripened fruit.

Heh hehe heee....

This is coming from a Republican.

U.S. Asks Others to Pressure Iraq to Be Inclusive

BWAAAAHAAAHAhAHAHAhhaahahahahaha!

Thanks, I needed to hear a good joke this morning...

Quote of note:

...Sensenbrenner, one of the authors of the Patriot Act, was "rather rude, cutting everybody off in mid-sentence with an attitude of total hostility."

And what started the mess?

Tempers flared when Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., accused Amnesty International of endangering the lives of Americans in uniform by referring to the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a "gulag." Sensenbrenner didn't allow the Amnesty representative, Chip Pitts, to respond until Nadler raised a "point of decency."

GOP Chairman Walks Out of Raucous Hearing
GOP Chairman Walks Off, Bringing Patriot Act Hearing to an Abrupt End
By JIM ABRAMS
The Associated Press