Quote of note:

Novak appears to have made some kind of arrangement with the special prosecutor, and other journalists who reported on the Plame story have talked to prosecutors with the permission of their sources.

The Rove Factor?
Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

July 11 issue - Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an undercover CIA agent's identity. The case has been the subject of press controversy for two years. Saying "we are not above the law," Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine decided to comply with a grand-jury subpoena to turn over documents related to the leak. But Cooper (and a New York Times reporter, Judith Miller) is still refusing to testify and faces jail this week.

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If those raids exceeded the need to maintain security in the no-fly zones of southern and northern Iraq, they would leave President George W Bush and Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they had acted illegally.

General admits to secret air war
Michael Smith

THE American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.

Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391  carefully selected targets  before the war officially started.

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"Welcome" creates strange bedfellows, but it does not really reveal anything about Americans we didn't already know. (Tattoos are only skin deep.) Instead, it says a lot about the unspoken rules of seemingly lawless reality shows. Bad taste, ritual humiliation and shameless bathos are all permissible, but there is a sense of fair play; even on shows like "Wife Swap," rich families are ridiculed just as much as poor ones - usually, in fact, a little more.

'Welcome': Whatever Was ABC Thinking?
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

"Welcome to the Neighborhood," the reality show that ABC dropped under pressure from civil rights groups, is fascinatingly wrongheaded: a ghastly social experiment tricked up as a fluffy summer reality show.

Senate Leader Calls for Limits on Drug Ads
By STEPHANIE SAUL

The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, called yesterday on the pharmaceutical industry to limit drug advertising directed at consumers, increasing the pressure on companies to curb such marketing.

Senator Frist, a Tennessee Republican, embraced an increasingly popular idea, a delay in advertising after a drug is introduced. He called for a two-year restriction.

Proponents of a delay say it will give doctors time to understand how drugs work before patients begin asking for them, sometimes based on inflated claims.

"This advertising can lead to inappropriate prescribing and fuel prescription drug spending," Senator Frist said. "It can also oversell benefits and minimize risks."

In Mississippi, Soaring Costs Force Deep Medicaid Cuts
By SHAILA DEWAN

HAZLEHURST, Miss., July 1 - Starting Friday, most Medicaid recipients in Mississippi will be limited to five prescription drugs at a time, with no process for appeal. The cap appears to be the most restrictive in the nation, but is just one of many measures being taken by states seeking to rein in soaring Medicaid costs.

It will hit hard for people like Erainna Johnson, 42, left legally blind by a stroke in 1997. She takes 19 medications - already more than the previous Medicaid limit of seven - relying on family members, her church and free samples from doctors to make up the difference. "Sometimes I just crack my pills in half, honestly," she said, sitting in the living room of her trailer here.

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We do insist on one thing: Bush should not nominate Justice Clarence Thomas for chief justice. Thomas purposely misled the Senate at his original confirmation hearing 14 years ago, insisting he had no opinion on the hot-button Roe vs. Wade decision. Since then he has repeatedly shown his deep opposition to Roe. For the Senate to confirm him as chief justice now would say to the world that the contempt Thomas showed for that institution was fully justified.

The L.A. Times shows good judgment in their editorial on the upcoming judicial nomination...I hate to call it a battle when it hasn't officially even started yet but yeah...battle.

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These people are, as you might imagine, deeply pissed and frustrated and wishing they could all be living anywhere but Canada or Spain (or Belgium, or the Netherlands, the only other nations that have legalized gay marriage to date), and many are possibly right now praying they could be magically transported straight to that glorious nexus of sexless homophobia and rabid religious sanctimony, Colorado Springs, a.k.a. "the evangelical Vatican," "the Mecca o' Intolerance," "Jerusalem for Dummies."

Alas, they are stuck in mellow, war-free, healthy, gay-happy Canada and sunny, friendly, party-riffic Spain. Poor dears.

Burn, Canada And Spain, Burn!
Look to the skies, see the wrath of God rain down on married gays! Will hockey and tapas survive?
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, July 1, 2005

Quote of note:

Law enforcement authorities and those who counsel women rescued from sexual slavery say the sex trade smuggles 18,000 to 20,000 undocumented sex  workers into the United States each year. Typically, sex slave victims pay tens of thousands of dollars to get here, only to be forced into prostitution to pay off their debts. In some cases, the girls or women have been kidnapped from their home countries.

SF massage parlors raided as part of smuggling probe
- Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 1, 2005

Hundreds of state and federal law officers descended on massage parlors in San Francisco and other California cities Thursday night in a wide-ranging investigation into immigrant smuggling, authorities said today.

Quote of note:

Several cardiologists and lupus specialists say that the benefits of BiDil appear to clearly outweigh its risks, since heart failure is much more serious than lupus. But some of them question why FDA-approved prescribing information for BiDil fails to recommend that patients taking the drug get routine blood tests for lupus.

Such tests are recommended for patients taking the generic form of the ingredient in BiDil, hydralazine, when it is prescribed separately.

The prescribing information must be changed. They know of this risk.

Remember, BiDil was rejected for general use...only for Black folks. Now if you can protect white folks from a known risk of the drug you can damn sure protect Black women. What's it going to cost? How many labels with these few additional words will you have to print before your costs increase by a penny? Couple of thousand?

Have you leaned nothing from the Cox-2 debacle and Viagra blindness?

Heart Drug Targeted at African Americans Carries Lupus Risk
A key ingredient in BiDil is linked to a disease that afflicts a disproportionate number of black women.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Times Staff Writer
July 2, 2005

Luther Vandross Passes
By Nolan Strong
Date: 7/1/2005 6:40 pm
R&B crooner Luther Vandross passed away today (July 1), due to complications brought on by a stroke the singer suffered in 2003.

Quote of note:

One of the liberal groups expected to be active in the looming confirmation battle, People for the American Way, said the choice of Justice O'Connor's successor would represent a critical moment. "Justice O'Connor has been the most important figure on the court in recent years," said Ralph G. Neas, president of the group. "Her replacement will have a monumental impact on the lives and freedoms of Americans for decades to come."

O'Connor, First Woman on High Court, Resigns After 24 Years
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
and DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, July 1 -Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, announced today that she was resigning, setting off what is expected to be a tumultuous fight over confirming her successor.

Quote of note:

The second measure, giving a fuller picture, was expanded income, which also includes money from sources like tax-exempt interest and untaxed Social Security benefits. By this measure, 5,650 well-to-do individuals and married couples paid no federal income tax in 2002 , up from 4,910 in 2001 and 2,766 in 2000. There were 85 such examples in 1977.

Worldwide on this basis, there were 4,922 individuals and couples who lived tax free in 2002, up from 4,119 in 2001 and 2,320 in 2000. There were 64 such examples in 1977.

The Nontaxpaying Affluent Grew by 15% in One Year
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Quote of note:

"This is a very challenging moment for the Democrats," said Donna Brazile, chairwoman of the party's Voting Rights Institute and one of the Democrats' leading strategists on black voters. "For the first time in my history, they are in my community. And that's not a pleasant feeling."

Challenging, you say?

Now why would that be? What have Republicans done for Black people in the last, oh, two generations that you should be so concerned?

Here is a fact: Republicans aren't going to change what they pitch. All that changes is they will have a Black guy talking to Black folks about it. If this worries the Democratic Party, it can only be because they see these thin Republican efforts will look entirely too much like Democratic "efforts" since 1992.

Anyway...

G.O.P., Democrats in Its Sights, Is Grooming Black Candidates
By JAMES DAO

T-Steel ain't hanging with Solomon anymore. Got his own joint, Palm Trees in the Ghetto.

Seriously, this ought to have theological implications. Or do we just change the definition of death?

Boffins create zombie dogs
By Nick Buchan of NEWS.com.au
27-06-2005

SCIENTISTS have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

Saddam's secrets
By Robert Weiner and Alexis Leventhal  |  June 30, 2005

THERE IS AN assumption that Saddam Hussein's upcoming trial will validate the Iraq war -- but watch out.

The trial -- starting as soon as next month -- may not be great news for the United States. In fact, it may allow the former Iraqi dictator to publicize some obscure but extremely sordid aspects of the US relationship with him and make a very public defense against the validity of the constantly changing reasons for the current Iraq war. The trial could easily backfire and go haywire from the US government's point of view.

Illegal use of the hands
June 30, 2005

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY is truffled with misunderstandings, but it's been a long time since there has been anything to match the moment last Saturday when Russia's President Vladimir Putin, after admiring the Super Bowl ring shown him by Patriots owner Robert Kraft, plopped it into his pocket.

Lincoln Memorial video gets redo to add conservative view
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press  |  July 1, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The National Park Service sought out footage of ''conservative right-wing demonstrations" to revise the video shown to visitors at the Lincoln Memorial after being pressured by conservatives who contended that the display implied that Abraham Lincoln supported abortion, homosexuality, and liberal causes.

Park Service documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show officials purchased video of President Bush, pro-gun advocates, and pro-Iraq war rallies, and also considered the removal of images of Bill Clinton at the memorial.

Students lagging in American history
Senate panel hears from advocates of assessment testing
By Kaitlin Bell, Globe Correspondent  |  July 1, 2005

WASHINGTON -- American students may lag behind their peers abroad in math and science, but their knowledge of their own country's past is just plain pathetic, leading educators and historians told a Senate panel considering legislation that would expand national testing in US history.

National history and civics assessments show that most fourth-graders can't identify the opening passage of the Declaration of Independence, and that most high school seniors can't explain the checks-and-balances theory behind the three branches of the US government. Testifying in favor of proposed legislation, the history specialists -- including renowned historian David McCullough -- told a Senate education subcommittee that most of the country's schoolchildren lack sufficient knowledge to become informed voters and don't understand why they enjoy rights like free speech and freedom of religion.

Quote of note:

Most Republicans opposed the bill, saying it would create incentive to drag the budget debate deeper into the summer.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, the Legislature's leading Republican, indicated he would not allow a House vote on the stopgap bill unless legislative leaders first reached a tentative deal on the full budget.

"The Senate wanted to shut down government from the beginning," Sviggum said.

Minn. Government Shuts Down; 9,000 Jobless
By BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press Writer
4:22 AM PDT, July 1, 2005

ST. PAUL, Minn.   Minnesota's government shut down Friday for the first time in state history after lawmakers failed to pass a temporary spending plan and left 9,000 employees jobless and highway rest stops unattended for the July Fourth weekend.

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The latest dispute flared into public view on June 16 when the Clearing House Association, an industry group representing Wells and other major national banks, sued to stop Spitzer's probe. The same day, the comptroller's office filed its own lawsuit challenging Spitzer. Hearings are scheduled in July in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a critic of banks' mortgage-lending practices, said Wells' prominence in the home-loan market and its big role in providing credit to the lower-income subprime market obligate it to share information more fully than it has.

Mortgage lending face-off
Wells Fargo, other banks rebuff inquiries on racial bias
- Jenny Strasburg, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 30, 2005

US won't let go of master domain servers
Declan McCullagh, Special to ZDNet
July 01, 2005

The Bush administration announced that the U.S. government will not hand over control of the Internet to any other organisation, a surprise move that could presage an international flap.

At the moment, the U.S. government maintains control of the Internet's "root"--the master file that lists what top-level domains are authorised--but has indicated in the past that it would transfer that responsibility to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Quote of note:

Minucci's attorney claims that the victim, Glen Moore, had attempted to rob the suspect earlier while threatening him with a screwdriver.

By the way, Rev.Sharpton said on TV he would NOT march in Howard Beach. I believe he was almost killed last time he was there...

No Bail For Baseball Bat Hate Crime Suspect
Police Say Wednesday Attack Was A Hate Crime
Jun 30, 2005 5:35 pm US/Eastern

A white man was arraigned on a hate crime charge today for allegedly menacing three black men, critically injuring one with a baseball bat, in Howard Beach, Queens.

Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Minucci, was charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. He's now being held without bail. His friend, 22-year-old Anthony Ench, was arrested today and a third man is being sought.

Links are over there.

The Daily Show and The Last Throes

Yes you knew it would happen. A little word game between John Stewart and the administration over the "last throes" of the insurgency.

Quote of note:

Laveaga, the embassy spokesman, countered that "if you look closely at many of the cartoon characters in U.S. pop culture, those who try will be able to find something offensive."

This too...

Ben Vinson, a black professor of Latin American history at Penn State University, said he has been called "Memin Pinguin" by some people in Mexico. He also noted that the character's mother is drawn to look like an old version of the U.S. advertising character Aunt Jemima.

Stamps Renew Racial Tensions With Mexico
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

Medicaid Overpaying for Drugs, U.S. Auditors Say
The joint federal and state health insurance plan is wasting as much as billions of dollars a year, reports being released today say.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2005

WASHINGTON   The Medicaid health insurance program for low-income and disabled people is overpaying for prescription drugs by hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars a year, according to three inspector general reports to be released today.

Government pricing formulas intended to keep prescription costs in check have had the opposite effect, the reports found, resulting in payments that exceeded the market prices for thousands of prescriptions.

For example, when the government used generic drugs to save money, it still paid more for them than it had to. Eliminating overpayment for generics could save as much as $1.2 billion a year, one of the reports estimated.

House G.O.P. Promises Vote on Social Security
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

WASHINGTON, June 29 - Republican leaders said Wednesday for the first time that they would put Social Security legislation to a vote in the House this year even if the measure stood no chance in the Senate. [P6: ...because they have ALL that time and so little of importance to do.]

Until now, the House leaders had been wary of forcing rank-and-file Republicans to cast a futile and politically perilous vote to reduce Social Security benefits if the bill was sure to be blocked by Democratic opposition in the Senate.

But the bill the Republicans are advocating, unlike President Bush's proposal, would not reduce retirement benefits - and would do nothing else to address the problem of eventual Social Security insolvency.

Quote of note:

One Republican who warned of the problem - Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey - lost his chairmanship of the Veterans Affairs Committee after pressing his plea too boldly before the House leadership.

The True Cost of War

In anger and embarrassment, Congressional Republicans are scrambling to repair a budget shortfall in veterans' medical care now that the Bush administration has admitted it vastly underestimated the number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan personnel needing treatment. The $1 billion-plus gaffe is considerable, with the original budget estimate of 23,553 returned veterans needing care this year now ballooning to 103,000. American taxpayers should be even more furious than Congress.

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"We want to destroy the central system that connects the entire country to the capital," said Bakr al-Yasseen, a former foe of Mr. Hussein who spent years in exile in Syria. He is one of the chief organizers of the autonomy campaign, which is supported by Ahmad Chalabi, the one-time Pentagon favorite and scion of a prominent Shiite family from the south, among others.

Secular Shiites in Iraq Seek Autonomy in Oil-Rich South
By EDWARD WONG

BASRA, Iraq, June 27 - With the Aug. 15 deadline for writing a new constitution bearing down, a cadre of powerful, mostly secular Shiite politicians is pushing for the creation of an autonomous region in the oil-rich south of Iraq, posing a direct challenge to the nation's central authority.

Quote of note

Consider the case of the 90-year-old bachelor who was asked why he was still single. He replied that he was looking for the perfect woman.

"Never found her, eh," the interviewer asked.

"Oh, I found her all right," said the bachelor, "but she was looking for the perfect man."

People demanding perfection should tattoo this on the inside of their eyelids so they are reminded of it whenever they blink.

Online Dating? Thin and Rich Works Here, Too
By HAL R. VARIAN

...Recently, three economists - Günter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortaçsu (both from the University of Chicago) and Dan Ariely (from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) - examined the experiences of a sample of users of a major online dating service and subjected it to empirical scrutiny. Their paper, "What Makes You Click," is available on Mr. Hortaçsu's Web page.

Did you realize how bad this show would have made all white folks in the country look? And if you don't, you need to do some serious self-examination.

Quote of note:

In the first two episodes, some members of the voting families are seen making disparaging remarks about the gay family (two white men with a black child), questioning whether a Korean family was foreign-born and rejecting a white family who practiced Wicca, a pagan religion. One family was to be rejected each week until the last remaining family won the house.

..."I'm elated," Ms. Smith said of the cancellation. "There'll be no copycat shows by the other networks. Also, ABC understands there are civil rights issues and understands the implications."

ABC Drops Show After Complaints by Civil Rights Groups
By FELICIA R. LEE

Quote of note:

Gov. Donald L. Carcieri vetoed the bill Wednesday evening, saying it would encourage marijuana use, sanction criminal activity and make the drug more available to children.

Spare me.

I want every basically healthy person that

1. wants to smoke ganja
2. can't get ganja

...to raise their hand.

You see any hands in the air? I didn't think so.

In Rhode Island, Uncertainty About Medical Marijuana Law
By KATIE ZEZIMA

BOSTON, June 29 - Hearing that the Rhode Island legislature approved the use of medical marijuana Tuesday night, Rhonda O'Donnell sat in her Warwick, R.I., living room and giddily thought about legally sautéing the drug in some butter and putting it into a cake mix.

Case of Mad Cow in Texas Is First to Originate in U.S.
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

The cow that was found last week to have mad cow disease spent its whole life in Texas, making it the first domestic case of the disease, the United States Department of Agriculture said yesterday.

Dr. John Clifford, chief veterinary officer for the department's animal health inspection service, said DNA tests had traced the herd the cow was born in. The animal was about 12 years old and did not leave the ranch where it had been born until it was taken, near death, to a pet food plant in Waco, Dr. Clifford said.

The animal's age made it likely that it was infected before the 1997 ban on feeding protein from ruminants like cows and sheep to other cattle, he said.

Quote of note:

"Three years on, the people are still hoping that things are going to work out, but they have become suspicious about why the Americans came, and why the Americans are treating the local people badly," said Jandad Spinghar, leader of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Nangarhar Province in the east, just across the Khyber Pass from Pakistan.

Poverty, joblessness, frustrated expectations and the culture of 25 years of war make for a volatile mix in which American military raids, shootings and imprisonments can inflame public opinion, many here say.

"Generally people are not against the Americans," Mr. Spinghar said. "But in areas where there are no human rights, where they do not have good relations and where there is bad treatment of villagers or prisoners, this will hand a free area to the Taliban. It's very important that the Americans understand how the Afghan people feel."

Mood of Anxiety Engulfs Afghans as Violence Rises
By CARLOTTA GALL

I'm watching "Beauty and the Geek" instead of reading Start Making Sense.

Quote of note

Two other businessmen who, like Mr. Jesson, stopped withholding taxes, stopped filing returns and sought refunds are now serving prison sentences. They are Walter Thompson of Redding, Calif., and Richard M. Simkanin, who says he is a citizen of the Republic of Texas and not of the United States.

Tax Protester Pleads Guilty to Filing False Claim
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

A California businessman who boasted that he paid no income taxes because no law required him to do so has pleaded guilty to filing a false refund claim, the latest blow to the tax protest movement.

George H. Jesson, 54, of the Orange County town of Fountain Valley, admitted in Federal District Court in Los Angeles on Monday that he committed a felony in obtaining a $215,000 tax refund from the Internal Revenue Service.

ABC's website for the show has been pulled, apparently.

Welcome to the Neighborhood is a new television reality show that ABC intends to air on July 10, 2005.  According to promotional materials, ABC's website, and a viewing of the first two episodes, this show asks seven families of diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds to complete against each other to secure the approval of three white neighbors to win a four bedroom house in Austin Texas. The judges are three white families who say the neighborhoods "supports the President, traditional Christian values and wants people like themselves" to live in neighborhood.

The premise of the show is that the white neighbors living in his "picture perfect" community will have the right to select their new neighbors.  The families competing for their approval include African American, Hispanic, Asian American, a white gay couple with a African American child, and a family with non-traditional religious beliefs--all groups protected by federal or state fair housing laws.  ABC is sponsoring a program that contradicts these families' legal rights under federal and state Fair Housing Act.

According to Shanna Smith, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, "This show violates the spirit and intent of the federal Fair Housing Act.  In America, residents of neighborhoods or homeowners associations do not get to choose their new neighbors based on their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or the fact that they have children.  In fourteen states and the District of Columbia, fair housing laws protect gays and lesbians from discriminatory housing practices."

Medical Marijuana? Rhode Island Says Yes
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Rhode Island legislature passed a bill yesterday allowing the use of medical marijuana, three weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute those who use the drug for medicinal purposes, even in states with laws allowing it.

The bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 33 to 1 last evening and will head to the desk of Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, who is likely to reject it. Supporters of the bill, which passed the House 52 to 10 last week, are confident they have the necessary three-fifths majority to override a veto and make Rhode Island the 11th state to authorize patients to use the drug.

The failure to plan for repercussions extends to domestic matters as well.

VA Faces $2.6 Billion Shortfall in Medical Care
Agency Undercounted Size of Returning Force
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 29, 2005; Page A19

The Bush administration disclosed yesterday that it had vastly underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and warned that the health care programs will be short at least $2.6 billion next year unless Congress approves additional funds.

Veterans Affairs budget documents projected that 23,553 veterans would return this year from Iraq and Afghanistan and seek medical treatment. However, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson told a Senate committee that the number has been revised upward to 103,000 for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. He said the original estimates were based on outdated assumptions from 2002.

I looked up the Latin phrase in the title; it means "for whose advantage?" I felt it the appropriate question to ask, as that energy bill passed by the Senate yesterday is quite a piece of work.

The Senate yesterday overwhelmingly approved a broad-based energy bill that would provide tax breaks and incentives to encourage domestic oil and natural gas production but billions more to boost renewable energy sources, nuclear power and conservation.

Who owns the result of this federally supported research? Certainly not the people who are paying for it.

Cablevision's Advanced Network Delivers 100 Megabit Dedicated Access Services Over Existing Network Facilities

BETHPAGE, N.Y. and WESTFORD, Mass., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cablevision Systems Corp., (NYSE:CVC) and Narad Networks, Inc., a provider of business class broadband access solutions using switched Ethernet over cable, today announced the completion of a successful trial and targeted deployment of a new 100 megabit-per-second (Mbps) data service using the Narad Broadband Access Network (NBAN) and Cablevision's existing network facilities that pass more than 4.4 million homes and hundreds of thousands of businesses in the New York metropolitan area.

Presidential Disconnect
June 29, 2005

President Bush's pep talk to the nation Tuesday night was a major disappointment. He again rewrote history by lumping together the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the need for war in Iraq, when, in fact, Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. Bush spoke of "difficult and dangerous" work in Iraq that produces "images of violence and bloodshed," but he glossed over the reality of how bad the situation is. He offered no benchmarks to measure the war's progress, falling back on exhortations to "complete the mission" with a goal of withdrawing troops "as soon as possible."

Quote of note:

In World War II, the Italians lost civilians at about the same rate as Iraq is losing Iraqis now. The war there lasted just over six years. Waging it, on the part of the Allies, was a key element in a strategy that succeeded in unseating three dictators, among them Hitler. The war in Iraq will lead to no comparable world victory and so will never have been worth the lives   civilian and military   that it is taking.

Only Death Will Win
The Iraqi war will never be worth the lives lost.
By Jack Miles
Jack Miles is senior fellow with the Pacific Council for International Policy.
June 29, 2005

May it never happen, but let us suppose that at some point the United States falls into the grip of a cruel tyrant, an American Stalin who slaughters millions to keep himself in power. And let us further suppose that some uninvited foreign power sees fit to liberate us at the price of one American life in every thousand —  a mere 400,000 American lives, fewer by far than our tyrant has slain during the decades of his ghastly reign. Would we welcome this liberator?

In Iraq, those slain by Saddam Hussein during his years in power may well number in the hundreds of thousands. The price of the uninvited U.S.-led liberation of Iraq is at this point far lower, a mere 26,000 dead   or one Iraqi life in every thousand. To be sure, the price is far higher if account is taken of combatants killed. But consider for now only the 26,000 civilian dead. Should the Iraqis consider this price worth paying? Should the U.S., their liberator, consider this price worth exacting?

The U.S. government keeps no count of civilian war dead in Iraq. The figure 26,000, out of a population of 26 million, is the running tally   maintained by http://www.iraqbodycount.com  ; reported by at least two on-the-scene foreign correspondents. (The Lancet, the British medical journal, has estimated 100,000.)

China Scolds U.S. for Blocking Israeli Arms Sale
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; A08

BEIJING, June 27 -- Accusing the Bush administration of "carping" and "outside interference," China issued a sharp complaint Monday after Israel cancelled a controversial Israeli-Chinese arms deal under pressure from the United States.

The Israeli decision halted the sale of drone aircraft capable of seeking out radar installations. It was the result of a U.S. campaign to block China from obtaining advanced military technology that could be used against Taiwan and U.S. forces supporting the island in any confrontation.

Though I suppose they'd rather fuck her...

Quote of note:

In an episode that has become a focal point for concerns about violence against women in Pakistan, Mai was attacked in Meerwala, her village in southern Punjab province. The council allegedly ordered the rape to settle a score with Mai's brother, 13, who had been accused of an improper relationship with the sister of one of those accused.

Mai, who now runs two primary schools in her village with help from the government and private donors, was barred from traveling to the United States this month, because Musharraf said he feared she would project a "bad image" of Pakistan

Pakistani Rape Case Goes to High Court
Victim Says Movement, Speech Restricted
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; A08

Quote of note:

Fortunately, in Albuquerque, where Jennifer Wilbanks finally ran out of money in her desperate flight from matrimony [P6: and where the Governor is a Democrat], the police didn't waste a lot of time and effort looking for her phantom Hispanic rapist or his imaginary blue van. Before she even finished telling them her story, they had a pretty good idea she was making the whole thing up.

Maybe they knew the odds.

Runaway Racism
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A15

"A man and a woman had me," a sobbing Runaway Bride, Jennifer Wilbanks, told her jilted fiance when she finally phoned home. But not just any man: It was specifically a Hispanic man -- abetted by a white woman -- who supposedly had snatched her from the mean streets of Duluth, Ga., on the eve of her wedding. She told police a graphic tale of horrifying sexual abuse at the hands of this Hispanic beast, whose mobile den of iniquity was a blue van.

Congress Modifies FCC Ruling on Faxes
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; 1:29 PM

WASHINGTON -- Congress approved junk fax legislation Tuesday that allows businesses to send out unsolicited faxes in certain circumstances while protecting the rights of consumers to stop receiving them.

The legislation, passed by the House on a voice vote and now headed for President Bush's signature, reinstates a 1992 Federal Communications Commission ruling that permits businesses and associations to send unsolicited faxes to those with whom they have an "established business relationship."

It would eliminate a new FCC ruling, first drawn up in 2003, that required businesses and organizations to obtain prior written approval before sending a commercial fax.

Quote of note:

Under the draft rule, the EPA could still accept some studies involving children, pregnant women and newborns, and it would not establish an independent ethics review board to scrutinize human studies on the grounds that this would "unnecessarily confine EPA's discretion."...This could include tests on prisoners even though they might be "vulnerable to coercion or undue influence," the draft rule states.

EPA Proposal Would Allow Human Tests Of Pesticides
Draft Rule Omits Some Recommended Safeguards
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A13

Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Energy Bill
By Justin Blum

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; 1:00 PM

The Senate today overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging energy bill that provides billions in tax breaks to encourage domestic energy production, incentives for conservation and more federal authority for approving new liquefied natural gas terminals and electric transmission lines.

While the Senate measure provides some incentives for the oil and natural gas industry, it focuses heavily on promoting cleaner and renewable sources of energy and includes a non-binding resolution calling for mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions -- a first for lawmakers. The legislation was approved 85 to 12 after floor debate that took place over the past two weeks.

The Quote of note comes from a related story:

The city has added hundreds of agents to issue summonses for parking violations. It counts on them to generate more than $500 million for its budget. And it has definite "expectations" for how many tickets they write.

Watch Those Changing Rules: Finish Sodas on the Platform
By SEWELL CHAN

Subway riders afflicted by broken air-conditioning, foul odors, children selling candy bars for occasionally dubious causes and even the random groper have long sought relief by quickly switching cars.

Keeping the vultures in a holding pattern

Anticipation of a Vacancy, but Silence Says Not Yet
By TODD S. PURDUM

WASHINGTON, June 27 - Article III of the Constitution specifies that justices of the Supreme Court "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour," and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's was punctilious on Monday as he adjourned the court for the summer. He kidded his colleagues about a raft of dissents. He thanked court employees for "outstanding work and dedication to duty."

But he said not a word - at least in public - about one of the day's most anticipated potential decisions: whether he plans to be on the bench when the court reconvenes on the first Monday in October.

Quote of note:

"We are heading in the right direction and we are winning," the federal drug czar, John P. Walters, told Congress last month.

"Plan Colombia"   a six-year effort by Washington and Bogota to eliminate drug trafficking, end more than 40 years of armed conflict with rebels and promote economic and legal reform in Colombia   expires this year. The Bush administration wants to continue it, a senior State Department official said.

"You adjust your tactics and you adjust your resources," the official said. "There's no inclination on the part of our administration to give up just because it's tough."

Obviously Bush's speech writers get loaned out on occasion.

Anyway...

Drug War Fails to Dent U.S. Supply
Despite $5.4 billion spent since 2000, coca growth in the Andes is high and prices in America low. More money is on the table.
By Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and congressional allies are gearing up to renew a plan for drug eradication in Latin America despite some grim news: The $5.4 billion spent on the plan since 2000 has made no dent in the availability of cocaine on American streets and prices are at all-time lows.

Process to Beatify John Paul II Opens
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer
1:03 AM PDT, June 28, 2005

ROME —  The process to beatify Pope John Paul II officially opens Tuesday with a solemn ceremony in which all the clerics involved take an oath of secrecy and promise not to accept any gifts that might sway their decisions.

But even before that opening ritual, it seemed that virtually all the key players were in favor of sainthood for the late pope, including the official whose job it is to play "devil's advocate," the one who investigates any doubts about John Paul's saintliness.

In an interview Monday, the Rev. Giuseppe D'Alonzo, promoter of justice for the Diocese of Rome, said he was neither for nor against beatification for John Paul, who was viewed as a saint by many even before his April 2 death.

But when asked his personal opinion about John Paul's merits, he conceded: "It's the opinion that ordinary people have, simple people who we all saw in St. Peter's Square when there was the funeral Mass."

Quote of note:

His assessment comes on the heels of a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll that showed public doubts about the war reaching a high point -- with more than half saying that invading Iraq was a mistake.

We don't actually have any doubt the invasion of Iraq is not worth a decade of blood and treasure.

Bush Tries to Ease Doubts Over Iraq War
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
4:50 AM PDT, June 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   President Bush is using the first anniversary of Iraq's sovereignty to try to ease Americans' doubts about the mission and outline a winning strategy for a violent conflict that has cost the lives of more than 1,740 U.S. troops and has no end in sight.

In a prime-time address from Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division, Bush was to argue that there is no need to change course in Iraq despite the upsetting images produced by daily insurgent attacks.

And that's the other thing.

Bush (more like his political strategists and handlers) doesn't really think "images" are more upsetting than the 1700 dead. Come on, after all the Abu Ghraib (however you spell that shit) pictures you've GOT to see those images have no power unless there are Americans dying in them.

It's evidence of American deaths that is costing Bush support, American deaths in an unnecessary invasion of exactly the type Bush 1 fought off for the benefit of Kuwait and its customers.

And death isn't something you can hide beneath a barrage of word for very long.

All he needs is a flight suit.

A critical moment for Bush Iraq policy
As war support ebbs, president expected to rally nation tonight
- Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Washington -- The best clue to what President Bush wants to tell the American people about Iraq today can probably be found in his selection of the nation's largest Army base as a backdrop for his prime-time address.

Even as he tries to rally a nation increasingly skeptical about the war's progress, there is no signal from the White House that Bush plans to offer a new direction, acknowledge missteps or reach out to critics.

If past speeches at military bases are any guide, Bush's nationally televised address before troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., will feature soaring words about the accomplishments of the U.S. armed forces, the political achievements in Iraq, and the high stakes for America's security.

I'll be watching, and specifically listening for something new...something that hasn't already been said, that hasn't already been taken into account.

Maybe it's this particular character's name.

Quote of note:

The girl wrote that because her grandmother and police seemed to believe that she and Wilson had engaged in sex, "it would get the pressure off me" if she told them that they had.

"She thought something happen [sic], so I went along with her," she wrote of her grandmother. She added: "I never got this much attention from my family but I like it."

The girl did not believe the accusation would harm Wilson, she wrote, because "he is a grown man and he can take the pressure."

She wrote of Wilson: "Dr. Wilson wouldn't hurt me or any of his students. He is the one person who treated us with kindness."

A Good Name Vanishes
A false accusation can sully a reputation in an instant, as a popular principal can attest. Sometimes the stain can never be fully cleansed.
By David Zucchino
Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2005

Bush Exaggerates Increase in U.S. Aid
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jun 27 (IPS) - U.S. President George W. Bush has been significantly exaggerating the amount of money his administration has provided in aid to sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study released here Monday.

Instead of a tripling of U.S. aid to Africa between 2000 and 2005, as Bush has frequently insisted, Washington has increased aid by only 56 percent in real terms, according to the report by the Brookings Institution.

The report, entitled "U.S. Foreign Assistance to Africa: Claims and Reality", is almost certain to increase pressure on Bush to announce a major new initiative to bolster development in the world's poorest continent in the run-up to the Group of Eight (G8) summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, to be hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair Jul. 6-8.

Quote of note:

Zion, MC of the independent rap group Zion-I, agrees the similarities to jazz are striking: "Jazz went white, then Black, then white again. At this point African Americans aren't the ones supporting live jazz [performances]. It's the same in many ways with independent hip-hop. I've been to shows where the only Black people in the place are onstage. It's kind of surreal."

"I love Boots Riley's music, but in general people in the 'hood are not checking for the Coup," says Brother Ali, part owner of the Minneapolis-based hip-hop collective Rhymesayers Entertainment. "It's hard enough to get some of our people to go to a Kweli show. It has a lot to do with the fact that the emphasis on the culture has been taken away. It's just the industry now and it's sold back to us it's not ours anymore. It used to be anti-establishment, off the radar, counterculture. People in the streets are now being told what hip-hop is and what it looks like by TV."

The Cotton Club
Black-conscious hip-hop deals with an overwhelmingly white live audience
by Bakari Kitwana
June 24th, 2005 3:57 PM

If White America Had a Bill Cosby
By Jonathan Scott

This hallmark of the African American tradition, evident in Dr. Cosby s critique, is the surest sign that a democratic culture and a healthy collective are alive and still flourishing. Praise God.

But it got me thinking. When was the last time you heard a big white celebrity with moral authority raining down critical bombs on white people s heads? For instance, Barbara Streisand taking the bully pulpit to chastise white Jews for members of their tribes  betrayal of the civil rights agenda, and, no less immoral and directly related to civil rights, for their unconditional support of the Israeli apartheid state?

How about the Reverend Billy Graham? I don t recall him ever blasting white Christians for making a disgrace of Jesus  name by continuing to support racist leaders and reactionary social policies such as war, capital punishment, the Crime Bill, de-funding public education and U.S. cities in general, de-unionizing the workforce, repealing welfare, the aggressive assault on Affirmative Action, the upward redistribution of wealth in the form of tax cuts for multi-millionaires —  each a different cause of racial segregation, widening socioeconomic inequalities, and the moral debasement of our society.

We know the answer: it s called  white race  solidarity. For as soon as any prominent white leader starts criticizing white people s bad behavior, the white identity falls apart and then the doors are pushed wide open for a new multiethnic U.S. populist movement, which remains the ruling class  absolute worst nightmare. In this spirit, I have written the sermon that Reverend Billy Graham would have delivered on to the heads of white America had he forgotten, for just a day or two, his own whiteness —  if he had been a white Bill Cosby.

Quote of note:

The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the "journalism" of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.

The Armstrong Williams NewsHour
By FRANK RICH

HERE'S the difference between this year's battle over public broadcasting and the one that blew up in Newt Gingrich's face a decade ago: this one isn't really about the survival of public broadcasting. So don't be distracted by any premature obituaries for Big Bird. Far from being an endangered species, he's the ornithological equivalent of a red herring.

Parties Gear Up for High Court Battle

By most accounts, it would rival a presidential campaign, complete with extensive television advertising, mass e-mails, special Internet sites, opposition research, public rallies and news conferences. Both Democrats and Republicans have been raising money for this moment for years. The president's allies have promised to bankroll an $18 million public relations blitz, and administration opponents have set up a war room and enlisted veterans of the campaigns of Bill Clinton and Al Gore to devise strategy

Don't get crazy over the first conservative judge that gets replaced. Bush will nominate someone at least as conservative as Janice Rodgers Brown...you already bought that. Just make sure there's a proper understanding of stare decis and let every Democratic senator gives his or her opinion once.

Look, I can see compelling folks to give up sources that compromise national security. The problem here is that the information these two is unnecessary.

This is the Valerie Plame leak, remember that? The story that was published by Robert Novak. If the goal is to find the leak, the only one that need be deposed is Novak.

I think...and not being a recognized constitutional scholar this is just my uninformed opinion...I think constitutional rights are fundamental enough that they should only be denied when there is no other way to insure the physical security of the nation. Striking back at political enemies in the media doesn't rise to that standard.

Anyway...

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Reporters' Appeal in Leak Case
By ADAM LIPTAK

The United States Supreme Court declined today to hear the cases of two reporters facing jail time for refusing to testify about conversations with their confidential sources.

The case now returns to the federal district court in Washington, where its chief judge, Thomas F. Hogan, is expected to hear arguments this week about when and where the reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, will begin to serve their time.

via George at Negrophile. Go ahead, take the survey.

Quote of note:

...the broad consensus is that none, alone or in combination, will do much to cut government spending or provide older Americans an affordable and ethical way to pay for long-term care.

In Effort to Pare Medicaid, Long-Term Care Is Focus
By JANE GROSS

Congress is holding hearings. The governors have a plan. The Bush administration has named a commission. Insurance companies have weighed in, and so have lawyers and the AARP.

The idea is to restrain the explosive growth in the taxpayers' contribution to the cost of long-term care for middle-class Americans in frail old age by making it harder to qualify for government benefits and shifting costs to individuals and private insurers.

Quote of note:

Jeffrey Holmstead, the agency's assistant administrator for air and radiation, said the court "recognized the value of common sense reforms" included in the new rules. Mr. Holmstead noted that the panel "simply did not buy" the argument made by the states and other critics that allowing the rules' provisions to remain intact would cause "environmental devastation."

I agree the EPA was within its rights to change the regs. The problem is, the regs suck. There's now a perverse incentive not to make substantial changes.

Oh, well...

U.S. Court Backs Bush's Changes on Clean Air Act
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY

Then

U.S. rejects private tests for mad cow
Kansas firm's proposal isn't 'warranted,' USDA says
By Jon Bonné

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has rejected one meatpacker's plan to test all its cattle for mad cow disease, signaling that it won't allow private tests for the deadly affliction.

... Bill Hawks, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, said in a statement Friday that the government's public testing program is intended only to check for other cases and that "use of the test as proposed by Creekstone would have implied a consumer safety aspect that is not scientifically warranted."

Now

Testing Changes Ordered After U.S. Mad Cow Case
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Substantial changes in the nation's mad cow testing system were ordered yesterday after British tests on a cow slaughtered in November confirmed that it had the disease even though the American "gold standard" test said it did not.

Quote of note:

President Hu Jintao has traveled to Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa on missions focused largely on securing energy supplies that will not pass through American or European companies before reaching China.

Later this month, he will make his third trip to Russia as president to continue a lobbying campaign for a pipeline to ferry Siberian crude to Daqing, China's northeastern oil hub. China hopes the pipeline will reduce its reliance on American-dominated markets for Middle East oil.

Behind China's Bid for Unocal: A Costly Quest for Energy Control
By JOSEPH KAHN

U.S. Has Plans to Again Make Own Plutonium
By WILLIAM J. BROAD

The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the cold war, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive that a speck can cause cancer.

Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Officials say the program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste.

Quote of note:

"He was reading his press clippings from foreign policy, where he could get away with just about everything, and thought he could make that leap to domestic policy," said Michael A. Genovese, director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University. "That was a political miscalculation that is unusual for a team that doesn't make that many mistakes."

Not many political mistakes. Military, diplomatic and economic mistakes abound.

Each blow struck against poor red-staters has been well disguised until this point: they either damaged a group those red-staters did not identify with or benefited someone they thought was an ally. This affects his base directly and can't be spun otherwise.

Social Security Plan Hits Shoals
Bush's unyielding style collides with politics, leaving the GOP with fading hope for a bill.
By Janet Hook
Times Staff Writer
June 27, 2005

WASHINGTON — After six months of presidential speeches, town meetings and maneuvering over White House plans to overhaul Social Security, Republicans are coming to grips with an unpleasant reality: The central pillars of President Bush's proposal have crumbled on Capitol Hill.

Epilogue for 'Stella' author: a messy divorce
- Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Sunday, June 26, 2005

In a tale rich in lost love, closeted secrets and acrimonious divorce, it turns out that famed local writer Terry McMillan -- whose celebrated romance and subsequent marriage to a man 23 years her junior became the subject of her fictionized best-seller "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" -- actually got her groove back with a man who now says he's gay.

The story is spilling out in made-for-Hollywood detail in Contra Costa County Superior Court, where McMillan has filed for divorce from her Jamaican- born husband of six years, Jonathan Plummer.

Quote of note:

"The psychology of the market is that once US$60 is breached, then there is tendency to test how much higher it can go, or how long US$60 can be sustained," said Victor Shum, petroleum analyst at Texas-headquartered energy consultants Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

"There's a lot of speculative activity. It is a red-hot market," said Shum.

Crude Smashes Record $60 Per Barrel
- By EN-LAI YEOH, Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 27, 2005

(06-27) 01:33 PDT SINGAPORE, (AP) --

The price of crude vaulted to a new high Monday, breaking through the psychologically important US$60 a barrel threshold as concerns mounted that supply would not meet demand, especially in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer.

Yahoo finalizes Wikipedia hardware order
Sunday, June 26, 2005

According to an e-mail from Yahoo passed on by Jimmy Wales, they have made a significant hardware purchase, totalling 23 servers, for the Wikimedia Foundation.

The order includes 3 HP ProLiant DL385 servers, each with "dual CPU, 8GB RAM and 6 x 146GB 15k RAID 10.". While not as beefy as the current two main database servers, purchased earlier this year when utilizing a portion of the $100,000 dollars gained during the first-quarter fundraiser, they will certainly make a nice addition to the Wikimedia cluster, which now has more than 100 servers including the order.

U.S., Rebels in Iraq Talking
Amid reports of direct contacts with militants and on a day of more deadly suicide attacks, American officials seek to quell doubts at home.

By Borzou Daragahi

Times Staff Writer

June 27, 2005

BAGHDAD — Insurgents killed nearly three dozen Iraqis with suicide bombings and gun and mortar fire Sunday as a newly published report detailed direct contacts between leaders of violent rebel groups and high-level U.S. officials attempting to end the attacks.

U.S. officials did not confirm or deny reports that American diplomats had recently met with insurgent commanders, the majority of whom are Sunni Arabs. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. John P. Abizaid, who commands U.S. forces in the region, acknowledged that U.S. and Iraqi officials had met with Sunni leaders, but insisted that they were not prepared to compromise with those who have killed Americans and Iraqis.