Quote of note:

Clifton's revelation that the PD was holding two investigative projects was actually first published in a column he wrote June 30 about the Miller and Cooper case. While the column garnered positive reaction, he said, almost nobody picked up on the disclosure tucked into the end of the piece.

"As I write this, two stories of profound importance languish in our hands," Clifton wrote. "The public would be well served to know them, but both are based on documents leaked to us by people who would face deep trouble for having leaked them. Publishing the stories would almost certainly lead to a leak investigation and the ultimate choice: talk or go to jail. Because talking isn't an option and jail is too high a price to pay, these two stories will go untold for now. How many more are out there?"

'Plain Dealer': We're Holding Big Stories Because of Fear of Jail
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: July 08, 2005 5:02 PM ET

I got Tony Brown's Journal recorded.

Medicaid Commission Formed to Tame Program's Growth
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, July 8 - The Bush administration named a commission on Friday to find ways to rein in the rapid growth of Medicaid, and it said the panel would be headed by a former governor of Tennessee, where the program has been plagued with fiscal problems for a decade.

The chairman of the new Medicaid Commission, Don Sundquist, a Republican, was governor from 1995 to 2003 and was a Tennessee congressman for 12 years before that. A former governor of Maine, Angus King, an independent, was named vice chairman.

Problem with the legislation of note:

Because "partial-birth" abortion is a nonmedical term coined by opponents of reproductive rights, the crux of the confusion has to do with what the measures aim to outlaw, and when. Largely as a result of ban proponents' literature and rhetoric, the phrase "partial-birth" was initially understood to be tantamount to "intact dilation and extraction" (D&X), a medically accepted term that describes a specific clinical abortion procedure used during the late second and third trimesters of pregnancy. However, the definition of D&X abortion in the Ohio law does not correspond to the procedure as defined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and the term "partial-birth" abortion as used in the Michigan law and subsequent state and federal measures does not incorporate medical terminology at all.

Quote of note:

I got Tony Brown's Journal running in the background. They're talking about BiDil.

Real interesting. I set the PVR back to the beginning of the show and am trying to record it all because there's some details about the testing and marketing of BiDil that I think should be shared. I'm recording it because I want to get it right...but I don't know if I can record it when it's time shifted some 15 minutes to begin with.

Just to let you know, they're blowing up the concept that it's a Black-specific thing beyond marketing. This combination of known drugs is being marketed as a new thing so they can get a patent for more than two years. But I want the quote...I think there's checkable stuff in there.

I don't like this game, or the trend it represents. And I have no doubt Rockstar Games knew this porn is on the shipping DVD. (LATER: follow up here)

Quote of note:

The mod's author —  Patrick Wildenborg of Deventer, Netherlands —  told The Associated Press Friday that his code merely unlocks content that is already included in the code of each off-the-shelf game, the latest edition of the top-selling "Grand Theft Auto" series.

...Within the game's official storyline, the main character earns the chance to have "coffee" with "girlfriends." Wildenborg says his "hot coffee" patch merely toggles a single value in the game's main script   a "censor flag," he calls it, that appears to have locked up several hot and heavy scenes.

..."If Rockstar Games denies that, then they're lying and I will be able to prove that," Wildenborg, 36, wrote in an e-mail. "My mod does not introduce anything to the game. All the content that is shown was already present on the DVD."

Investigation, denials and outcry over video game's sex scenes
- By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
Friday, July 8, 2005
(07-08) 16:49 PDT San Francisco (AP) --

Lotta discussion about this one.

There's always a lot of discussion in financial circles when two large, serious competitor merge. This one has public policy implications though, so we're getting public discussion on this one.

First, I want to bitch about newpaper articles in general.

At this point I'm some 10-15 minutes into writing this thing. I've deleted an opening about spin in the linked article because it opens like this:

The acquisition of PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. by industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. would mean more competition in the health insurance business  — not less, the companies' chief executives said Friday.

Now, if you really want to annoy me, you can try to convince me increasing competition in their own field is a part of any business plan. The only good thing about the general acceptance of anti-government rhetoric is I don't have to

Iraq and Iran to co-operate over defence
By Neil MacDonald in Baghdad and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: July 7 2005 19:01 | Last updated: July 7 2005 19:01

Former foes Iraq and Iran announced  a new chapter  in their relations on Thursday, including cross-border military co-operation, dismissing US concerns about Iranian regional meddling.

On his first official visit to Tehran, Iraqi minister of defence Saadoun al-Dulaimi asserted his country's sovereign right to seek help from wherever it sees fit in rebuilding its defence capabilities.

"Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries," Mr Dulaimi said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Admiral Ali Shamkhani.

Bush has to review strategy, say US experts
By Guy Dinmore and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

...Last September, at the peak of his re-election campaign, Mr Bush told the Republican national convention:  We are staying on the offensive striking terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. Our strategy is succeeding. We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer. 

John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former deputy secretary of defence, said:  Clearly [the world] is not safer. I think this highlights the complexity of the problem.

 We must defend a vast infrastructure constantly while extremists get to pick the time and place with very limited tools. Obviously we must try to intercept the terrorists. But we must also address the broader socio-political context. We can t solve this with a relatively limited dimensional model of counterforce. Being mighty is one thing. Being effective is another. This is a much more complex problem 

I like verbal archaicisms so the word "Blackamoor" is one I'll use on occasion. It came up in a web search today, so in honor of the broad popularity of the Blackmoor Mimin Pinguin:

In addition to Mexico, Memín remains a popular magazine in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Colombia, the Philippines and other countries. At its peak, it had a weekly circulation of one and a half million issues in Mexico; as of mid-2005 it sells over 100,000 issues a week.

The story
While Memín suffers a degree of racist taunting, especially in the first issues, the characters mocking him are depicted as either cruel or ignorant. As the story progresses, his race becomes less of an issue.

In one famous issue, Memín, having read that Cleopatra took milk baths to lighten her skin, tries the same treatment. His mother weeps with sorrow that her son would want to change his skin color. A repentant Memín decides to be proud of his race and color to honor his good mother.

In another, Memín decides not to commune, after a cruel boy tells him blacks aren't allowed in Heaven, pointing to the lack of black angels in religious paintings as proof. Memín reasons that, since he's going to Hell anyway, he can do any mischief he wants. This prompted some Roman Catholic priests to boycott the magazine, and after sales plummeted an issue in which Memín communes and dreams of becoming an angel was published.

In yet another adventure called "Líos Gordos", Memín and his friends travel to Texas to play soccer. They go for a chocolate milkshake, but the place refuses to sell to Memín, because it doesn't serve "blacks, Mexicans or dogs". His friends stand up for him, get into a fight, and end up in jail.

I thought I'd serve up a few (blacka)more.

Quote of note:

Included with McCabe's letter to Bush was a lengthy report by Crow and Lewis, in which the prosecutors wrote that this was not the first time McCabe's office had been asked to consider accusations against Michael Schiavo. But each time, they wrote, they had "found insufficient evidence of any prosecutable offense to justify a criminal investigation."

The prosecutors stated that the 'past decade of increasingly venomous litigation and the family members' disparate and irreconcilable beliefs as to Terri's wishes"' made it "unrealistic to expect" that their office could resolve the dispute

They added that "despite extended litigation and a detailed autopsy, we have no proof to suggest that a crime has occurred." They also noted that Michael Schiavo was not the only witness who has given conflicting testimony as to when events occurred the night Terri Schiavo collapsed.

Bush agrees to end Schiavo inquiry
Gov. Jeb Bush agreed to close an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the collapse of Terri Schiavo after a state prosecutor said there is no evidence of any crime.
BY GARY FINEOUT

Quote of note:

Dr. Gregg Bloche, a medical ethicist at Georgetown University Law Center, said the charity program was a way to blunt criticism about the drug's cost.

"It's a vent, a kind of steam vent, to protect you against pressure building up," Dr. Bloche said.

Another one:

The higher pricing strategy for the drug, which the company said it would fully explain in an investor conference next week, has led other analysts to revise their sales estimates for BiDil, with many forecasting higher revenues than before.

Maker of Heart Drug Intended for Blacks Bases Price on Patients' Wealth
By STEPHANIE SAUL

The company that recently broke new ground by winning federal approval for the first drug intended for African-Americans could now be entering new territory with a controversial pricing system for the medicine.

The maker, NitroMed, has set the price of its heart-failure drug BiDil at $1.80 a pill, significantly higher than what analysts had expected and nearly twice as much as some other heart-failure treatments. Depending on the dosage, that would make the cost of taking BiDil at least $5.40 and maybe as much as $10.80 a day.

Quote of note:

Mr. Factor accused the club of betraying its free-market principles by turning to regulators to squelch a competitor. "This country was built on competition," he said. "The only people who get threatened by competition are the ones without new ideas," who, instead of building a better mousetrap, "have lawyers and the government shut down the other guy's mousetrap."

...In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Toomey, the new president of the Club for Growth, said the organization was dropping its accusations about the mailing lists and defended its initial vigilance. "We simply sent the letter asking, 'How did you obtain this list?' " he said. "We have an obligation to defend the privacy of our members." He contended that the suggestion that the Club for Growth resented competition was "ridiculous."

Leadership Dispute Causes a Split in a Powerhouse of Fund-Raising for Conservative Causes
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Live in fear of something less likely than being struck by lightning. You can use the physical stress, right? You WANT your blood pressure elevated over something you can't affect...something that affects you only by making you decide it affects you.

Like you flyover people that are so knowledgeable about Black people without knowing any. Yew hoo tawk abawt Ebonics widdout a wuhd a da King's English evuh passin thru yo lips. Who as SOOOO SCARED terrorists from Iraq are goingto blow up all your cows and wheat and corn.

You're used to paranoia. You obviously LIKE it. So go for it...go, go, go! Just keep a sponge around to clean up the mess when you periodically pee your pants and I'm cool with it.

In Americans, Lurking Fears Rise to Surface
By PAUL VITELLO

Quote of note:

While Mr. Chappelle's show helped increase the channel's black audience to 20 percent from 7 percent, both Mr. Mencia and Comedy Central executives say that he was not given a show to increase Hispanic viewership; that would be a bonus, they said.

"The fact that he could potentially bring in a more diverse audience for us is part of the appeal," said Lauren Corrao, executive vice president of original programming and development for the channel, "but when you see the kind of comedy he's doing, it really does appeal to a broad range of people, even though he comes at it from that very specific point of view."

Sharpening Ethnic Barbs and Hoping for a Hit
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE

Quote of note:

"The leaders will stand firm against this evil," said President Vicente Fox of Mexico, adding that the bombings had stirred them all to work harder at coming to agreement on a wide variety of issues, including trade and global warming.

Demonstration that Mr.Fox is out of the loop. Of note:

Mr. Bush and the American delegation were clearly focused on the terrorist threat. The American president left a meeting during the middle of the morning and, sitting outside his hotel suite, held a videoconference over a secure line with his national security team in Washington to discuss the possible threat to the United States.

Bombings Rewrite G-8 Agenda
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

LAPD Hid Claims, Judge Says
Bratton denies, however, that an informant's statements linking officers to Notorious B.I.G.'s slaying were concealed on purpose.
By Andrew Blankstein
Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2005

The LAPD deliberately hid witness statements tying corrupt police to the slaying of Notorious B.I.G., a federal judge said Thursday in granting a mistrial and potentially lucrative attorney fees to the rapper's family.

U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, in a written order upholding an earlier oral ruling, said the family's wrongful-death case had been hopelessly disrupted by the Los Angeles Police Department's concealment of a jailhouse informant's statements. The informant, cellmate to then-Officer Rafael Perez, the central figure in the Rampart police scandal, said Perez and rogue officer David Mack were involved in the slaying of the rapper, born Christopher Wallace.

Quote of note:

Mr. Duncan began his online journal in January of last year. It was called "Blogging the Fifth Nail," an allegorical reference to a fifth nail intended to end Christ's suffering on the cross.

Chris Magnus, the police chief in Fargo, the suspect's hometown, said officers learned of the blog when they questioned friends and neighbors after Mr. Duncan failed to check in with his probation officer in May.

A Kidnapping-Murder Suspect Blogged About His Demons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOISE, Idaho, July 7 (AP) - A convicted sex offender spent months on the Internet documenting his internal struggle with right and wrong. Then, four days before two children he is accused of kidnapping disappeared, he wrote, "The demons have taken over."

Sometimes the deepest accidents...

I checked my referral logs and found a link from an .edu site. Those always interest me, so I checked it out and found one of the better personal link collections I've stumbled into for quite a while...belongs to this guy, whose blog ain't bad either.

Anyway, being nosy I scanned the list. Ran into a journal called Mind. Fascinating stuff...I really wish these journals were priced within mortal (or even Chaos Lord) reach. There's some things I REALLY WANT TO READ...one or two that I will, because I found the PDF online.

Check this:

The Role of Language Development in Understanding That “Beliefs” Can Be Faulty

Our research yielded three main findings. First, language was a necessary condition for young children to make progress in false belief understanding. Simply experiencing deceptive objects was not enough: children needed to have that experience structured by some language from others, such as, different nouns showing different perspectives on these objects. Second, training in the grammar used to describe belief situations was sufficient by itself to facilitate children’s false belief understanding, even if children had no experience with deceptive objects or situations in the training. Third, these two effects - of perspective-taking and grammar - seem to be relatively independent of one another. Children showed the most improvement in a condition using both factors, suggesting that each of these types of linguistic experience play an independent role in the development of false belief understanding. Thus, the results of the study point to the relevance of language acquisition for the development of fundamental social cognitive skills. These findings are of special importance for populations with difficulties in language development, (e.g. deaf children or children with Specific language impairments) as well as for populations with specific deficits in developing a Theory of Mind, like autistic children, by offering new research as well as treatment strategies.

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 74, Issue 4, The Role of Language in the Development of False Belief Understanding: A Training Study by H. Lohmann and M. Tomasello. Copyright 2003 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

And there's Linguistic Understanding and Belief. And check out the abstracts from the April 2005 issue...I might be willing to trample someone to death to get to Are there Genuine Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena?

In his book (which you can dig out the title of, if you wish) Rick "Man-on-Dog-Sex" Santorum says:

"This was tried once before in America," Santorum writes. "But unlike abortion today, in most states even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave."

Wrong.

First of all, no one has the unlimited right to an abortion. Just try calling the clinic and telling them you're 100 days into the pregnancy, totally healthy and want an abortion. Go on, I dare you.

Secondly, slaveowners DID have the unlimited right to kill their slaves.

They had the unlimited right to kill free Blacks. They killed them with impunity after slavery was restricted to convicted prisoners (bet you thought slavery was illegal in the USofA, didn't you?).

Quote of note:

"...this governor has a blind spot when it comes to the constitutional requirement on separation of church and state. He's completely uncritical. He doesn't believe that reading the Bible and strengthening your relationship with God is a faith-based message."

...which is a fascinating observation.

Incidentally, I must report...almost sadly...that celebrity has value; the Huffington Post is useful. Onward...

Gov. Bush touts Christian-based program for schools
By Dara Kam
Special to The Palm Beach Post
Wednesday, July 06, 2005

TALLAHASSEE —  Just before Father's Day, Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he wanted every public school in Florida to host a Christian-based program designed to increase fathers' participation in their children's lives.

The program, All Pro Dad, combines a biblical foundation with the draw of popular professional athletes to promote the belief that "the father is the head of the household" and that men should rely on God to help them be better parents and keep their marriages intact. It also encourages Bible reading.

Now you KNOW this is wrong.

Identical Twins Exhibit Differences in Gene Expression

At first glance identical twins seem, well, identical. In fact many of these sibling pairs show minor physical variations and differences in characteristics such as susceptibility to disease. Just what causes these dissimilarities is unclear. But a new report further suggests that epigenetic factors--that is, differences in how the genome is expressed--could be responsible.

Mario F. Fraga of the Spanish National Cancer Center and his colleagues studied 160 monozygous twins ranging from three to 74 years of age. They analyzed two epigenetic phenomena along the entire genome and compared the results for each set of twins. The processes, DNA methylation and histone acetylation, both govern gene expression and can amplify or dampen the effects of particular genes. The team determined that early in life, twins were indistinguishable in the manner in which their genes were expressed. Among older sets of twins, however, significant differences in the gene-expression portraits were apparent for 35 percent of the study group. (The image above shows methylation patterns for three-year-old twins (left) and 50-year-old twins (right), with the differences highlighted in red.) In addition, twins who had spent the most time apart and had more divergent medical histories exhibited the greatest epigenetic differences.

Climate Change Could Set Dunes in Motion, Study Suggests

Immense sand dunes hardly seem like nimble objects, but they can meander over time. In fact, researchers report that the dunes of Africa's Kalahari Desert may soon be on the move once more as a result of climate change. The results indicate that by the end of the century the changes could have drastic environmental and social consequences in the region.

Dunes shift when winds pick up sand grains and deposit them some distance away. How much movement occurs depends on a number of factors including wind strength, the amount of vegetation cover and moisture levels. David Thomas of the University of Oxford and his colleagues investigated what might happen to the immense dune fields in southern Africa over the coming years using three global climate models. They first calibrated the models using data collected between 1961 and 1990 and found it agreed well with observed dune activity. All three models predicted that the erodibility of the dunes was likely to increase. By 2040, sands in Botswana and Namibia could start to move, the team reports, with dunes in Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia beginning to shift by 2070.

Fox News' Brian Kilmeade: London terror attack near G8 summit "works to ... Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together"

KILMEADE: And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened.

Quote of note:

In brief, the president's claim that tax cuts to the owners of small businesses will stimulate them to hire more workers flies in the face of bedrock principles outlined in every introductory economics textbook.

Credentials of note:

Robert H. Frank, an economist at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, is the author of "Luxury Fever."

Do Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Stimulate Employment?
By ROBERT H. FRANK

THE centerpiece of the Bush administration's economic policy has been large federal income tax cuts aimed mainly at top earners. These tax cuts account for much of the $2 trillion increase in the national debt projected to occur during the Bush presidency. They prompted a large group of Nobel laureates in economics to issue a statement last year condemning the administration's "reckless and extreme course that endangers the long-term economic health of our nation."

The question of whether to make the tax cuts permanent is still on the Congressional agenda. So it is an opportune moment to examine the president's argument in support of them.

Unequalled innovation in today s smallest, lightest Tablet PC
The LS800 is a revolutionary addition to Motion Computing s award-winning Tablet PC series with its unique size and remarkable power. About the size of a paperback, the LS800 Tablet PC comes equipped with Intel® Centrino  Mobile Technology for outstanding mobile performance and productivity.

The LS800 Tablet PC measures just 8.94  by 6.69  by 0.87 , and it weighs only 2.2 pounds. It s easier to use, stow or transport than any Tablet PC available today and will easily fit in a lab coat pocket or purse.

God help me if they ever add Sharp's 3D displays to these things.

Odd Man Out
July 7, 2005

President Bush conceded Wednesday that global warming is a real environmental problem and that human-caused pollution worsens it. "Listen, I recognize the surface of the Earth is warmer," Bush told reporters in Denmark, "and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem."

Finally, in the hours before the G-8 summit, he grudgingly joined the other leaders of developed nations in showing respect for the research on climate change instead of calling for more studies and appointing oil-industry lobbyists who soft-pedal scientific reports.

But the president's new stance throws into even starker relief his refusal to join with other nations in taking substantive steps against climate change. The potential for long-term disaster, as Bush's strange equation adds it up, isn't equal to the importance of short-term economic protection.

Instead of capping carbon dioxide emissions, Bush wants the G-8 nations to invest in alternatives to fossil fuels. He should do both; companies under regulatory mandate to stem environmental damage typically respond with technological breakthroughs.

...and there he is, on The Huffington Post, talking about the high standard that would have to be met to indict Karl Rove...and why he thinks that standard has been met.

Other than being up to his neck in it anyway...

In February, Circuit Judge David Tatel joined his colleagues  order to Cooper and Miller despite his own, very lonely finding that indeed there is a federal privilege for reporters that can shield them from being compelled to testify to grand juries and give up sources. He based his finding on Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which authorizes federal courts to develop new privileges  in the light of reason and experience.  Tatel actually found that reason and experience support recognition of a privilege for reporters  confidential sources.  But Tatel still ordered Cooper and Miller to testify because he found that the privilege had to give way to  the gravity of the suspected crime. 

Judge Tatel's opinion has eight blank pages in the middle of it where he discusses the secret information the prosecutor has supplied only to the judges to convince them that the testimony he is demanding is worth sending reporters to jail to get. The gravity of the suspected crime is presumably very well developed in those redacted pages. Later, Tatel refers to "[h]aving carefully scrutinized [the prosecutor's] voluminous classified filings." 

Some of us have theorized that the prosecutor may have given up the leak case in favor of a perjury case, but Tatel still refers to it simply as a case  which involves the alleged exposure of a covert agent.  Tatel wrote a 41-page opinion in which he seemed eager to make new law -- a federal reporters  shield law -- but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to do it in this particular case. In his final paragraph, he says he  might have  let Cooper and Miller off the hook "[w]ere the leak at issue in this case less harmful to national security." 

Tatel's colleagues are at least as impressed with the prosecutor's secret filings as he is. One simply said "Special Counsel's showing decides the case." 

All the judges who have seen the prosecutor s secret evidence firmly believe he is pursuing a very serious crime, and they have done everything they can to help him get an indictment.

My opinion of the law in this case hasn't changed...but my opinion of the case is being opened for reinterpretation.

A Different Shortlist
How about an old-style conservative Supreme Court nominee?
By Emily Bazelon and David Newman
Posted Wednesday, July 6, 2005, at 4:14 PM PT

Most of the shortlists for the Supreme Court being bandied about (including ours) are predicated on the assumption that Bush is most interested in appointing a radical right-wing justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas. That idea is supported by the names most often mentioned by the White House and people close to it. But what if the president decided to look instead for a conservative in the traditional sense of the word, a distinguished jurist who believes in moderation, judicial restraint, and deference to Congress? A shortlist that emphasized those qualities might include the following:

But if you hear hysterical laughter coming from NYC later this week, it's probably me/

Rove To Be Indicted?
by Joshua Frank
www.dissidentvoice.org
July 5, 2005

Occasionally I get e-mails from Washington folks who work on the Hill claiming to possess juicy insider digs on our public servants and their corporate paymasters. I usually delete said e-mails, as I don't want to be responsible for propagating dirty rumors or false information that can't be corroborated. I'd rather let Judith Miller and the New York Times do that. Nonetheless, in the past 24 hours I have been contacted by three separate congressional Democrats in Washington, and a Justice Department official, first by e-mail and later phone, who all say the same thing: Karl Rove is about to be indicted.

Found a sample of AfricaWoman magazine, via ColdType. The article link, below, will take you to a page where you can get pdfs of the special G8 Summit issues.

Eight Women Who Could Change The Face Of Africa
By Leslie Riddoch
Editor-in-Chief, G8 Editions

If the world leaders at Gleneagles want inspiring practical examples of what can be achieved against all odds, they will not hear it from one another. Or even from the African leaders to be shipped in under wraps halfway through their deliberations.

The real change agents are absent from the official proceedings. As usual.

That s why eight women who together could change the face of Africa make up the front page of Africawoman   a tabloid paper which hit buses and trains across Scotland two weeks ago.

The Crystal Meth Epidemic

Ice. Crank. Glass. Meth. Chalk. Crystal. No matter what you call it, methamphetamine abuse is sweeping across the United States, leaving a devastating wake. Twelve million Americans have tried the drug; its effects are being felt in both urban and rural areas. Ten years ago, there were 912 meth lab seizures; last year there were nearly 16,000 seizures. More addictive than crack, crystal meth gives users a 12-hour euphoric high along with severe psychotic delusions, paranoia, random violence and extreme weight loss. Its side effects include upticks in violent crime, strained prison systems, and thousands children thrust into foster care. A new survey of the nation's sheriffs by the National Association of Counties found meth was "the nation's leading drug problem affecting local law enforcement agencies."

Quote of note:

In the declaration, the alliance noted that it had provided access to air space and ground territory to assist counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, and said it continued to support those efforts. But it noted that its members now "regard it as essential that the relevant members of the antiterrorist coalition set final deadlines for the temporary use of said infrastructure facilities and for the presence of military contingents of the member countries."

Central Asians Call on U.S. to Set a Timetable for Closing Bases
By C. J. CHIVERS

MOSCOW, July 5 -Russia, China and four Central Asian states called Tuesday for the United States to set a deadline for withdrawing from military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Seems most people don't need that simple explanation of global warming after all. Except maybe for public debate purposes...

US citizens back action to curb greenhouse emissions
By Scott Heiser in Washington
Published: July 5 2005 18:46 | Last updated: July 5 2005 18:46

Americans overwhelmingly support the US joining other members of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations in limiting greenhouse gas emissions, according to an opinion survey.

The poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa), the Washington-based research group, found that 94 per cent of respondents said the US should make efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions, in line with other developed nations.

Three-quarters of respondents said that global warming was a problem that should be addressed by world governments.

This is a common pattern among Americans in this debate,  said Steven Kull, Pipa director.  They want the US to do its share. 

...that what is needed is a simple, clear, "compelling" statement explaining the nature of global warming. This is what I keep in my head:

Much like dissolving salt into water changes its electrical conductivity, dissolving our industrial output in the atmosphere makes it conduct heat differently.

Since our weather is driven by heat differentials in the atmosphere this affects both long and short term weather patterns.

[LATER: I think that last edit achieves optimum clarity]

Quote of note:

The operations manager of Botswana's treatment program, Segolame Ramotlhwa, called the U.S. figures "a gross misrepresentation of the facts." His boss, Patson Mazonde, who as deputy permanent secretary for health services had overseen the program since its inception in 2002, called the Bush claim "false" but suggested it was merely a mistake.

They agreed on the number of patients in Botswana who had been put on treatment because of the Bush program: zero.

Botswana's Gains Against AIDS Put U.S. Claims to Test
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 1, 2005; Page A01

They seem to have figured out The Game.

. . . And a Test of Values
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; Page A17

In this week when we commemorate the first proclamation of American ideals to the wider world, we should pause to contemplate which of our ideals are taking root today. Consider, for instance, the very self-interested testimony of Fu Chengyu, the chief executive of CNOOC Ltd., the oil company owned by the Chinese government, which is currently endeavoring to buy Unocal Corp.

"The Chinese people and government are learning from the U.S.," Fu told the Los Angeles Times last Friday. "We are adopting the free-trade system very quickly. . . . We are using U.S. bankers, advisors, exactly meeting the processes of U.S. market requirements" for mergers and acquisitions. On Monday China's foreign ministry warned U.S. politicians to "stop interfering in the normal commercial exchanges between enterprises of the two countries."

Now, there's a statement of American values for our time. And we may even forgive the Chinese just a bit if they are confused over which values we Americans take seriously. Freedom of religion? Speech? Assembly? If those really matter to Americans, why are all these American companies building factories in China to take advantage of workers whose labor comes cheap partly because they lack the freedom to better their lot?

I had to link this because of the title.

Why Foot the Bill for White Kids' Teletubbies?

Yes, you love Big Bird. When the Republicans threatened to cut $200 million from the PBS budget, you wrote so many letters to your representatives that they changed their minds. In polls you always say you want the government to give PBS all the money it can. I get it. You're good, smart people. Not good or smart enough to actually watch public television, but good and smart enough to vaguely want it to be there, like libraries and churches and democracy in the Middle East.

The reason you don't watch PBS isn't just that you're stupid. It's that PBS isn't good. Or even that smart. Sitcoms from Britain are still sitcoms. When I was young, PBS was so Anglophile it actually aired "The Benny Hill Show." Until I was 12 I assumed that old bald guys trying to molest topless women in fast motion was some kind of Shakespearean pun I was missing.

Ah, the bitter taste of a failed attempt to manipulate. Brings out the extremist in the best of us, doesn't it?

You heard about that space probe that intercepted the comet, right? The LA Times coverage includes a link to an AP video report (wmf).

About half way though, said video includes a little movie of what the lander "saw" as it approached, then impacted the comet nucleus.

Yes it is cool.

UC May End Its National Merit Grant Program
By Stuart Silverstein
Times Staff Writer
July 6, 2005

Much like star quarterbacks and point guards, the select group of high school seniors who win the annual National Merit Scholarship competition are recruited by major universities around the country.

But six University of California campuses that have courted these high-scoring students in past years are considering pulling out of the program, a move that could reverberate nationally.

The issue, scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of UC chancellors in Oakland today, echoes debates over the validity of the SAT college entrance exam in assessing students.

Quote of note:

A copy of the circulated version of the redistricting measure was not immediately available to The Times. But, according to backers of the initiative, it gives legislative leaders one day more than the Lockyer-approved version to select the retired judges who would draw the districts. In addition, the preamble of the initiative is condensed from five paragraphs to four in versions displayed by signature-gatherers on the street, they said.

..."I would suppose that anyone who doesn't like redistricting would probably think this is serious," he said. But "if you look at all the legal precedents, they're all on the side of" allowing "a small legal error in an initiative."

Initiative Is Under Review
Version of redistricting measure on petitions was different from the officially approved one.
By Robert Salladay and Nancy Vogel
Times Staff Writers
July 6, 2005

"Not so fast there, buddy" of note:

Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said the affair was exaggerated by "specific groups in the United States who make a living from this kind of scandal."

Quote of note:

The letter marks the first official complaint from a Mexican group over the stamps

Mexican blacks demand stamp apology

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Mexico's tiny black community demanded Monday that President Vicente Fox apologize for a set of stamps featuring a black comic book figure that U.S. civil rights groups have slammed as racist.

The Asociacion Mexico Negro, which represents some 50,000 blacks living on the Pacific coast, said in a letter to Fox that Memin Pinguin, a 1940s comic book character drawn with thick lips and a flat nose, was stereotypical and racist.

The NY Times ran something on Bruce Gordon's assumption of the presidency of the N.A.A.C.P the other day.

At last year's convention, Julian Bond, the group's chairman, delivered a blistering attack on the Bush administration, asserting it encouraged racial division. Within months, the Internal Revenue Service said it would audit the group. N.A.A.C.P. officials have called the inquiry politically motivated and have refused to turn over documents.

The brother has work ahead of him.

I don't sound enthusiastic.

In the interview, Mr. Gordon said a priority would be to improve relations with the White House. "That is not because I think the organization needs to move to the right," he said. "It's because I think there have to be issues that are of common interest between the N.A.A.C.P. and the current administration."

That is the statement of a man whose job it is to preserve the organization. Because I'm pretty confident the Black folks that identify the interests of Black folks with those of the N.A.A.C.P. are pretty much limited to N.A.A.C.P. members, this doesn't precisely equate to serving the best interests of Black folks.

The things you miss by skipping the news on a holiday.

In an editorial about obesity, Paul Krugman pointed out an Astroturf organization run by a bunch of fast food corporations. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell and the Republican Party, it's called the Center for Consumer Freedom.

Fun, Fireworks, And Food Cops?

Far too few Americans remember that the Founding Fathers, authors of modern liberty, greatly enjoyed their food and drink -- from drafting the Declaration of Independence over pints to serving French fries in the White House. Now it seems that food liberty -- just one of the many important areas of personal choice fought for by the original American patriots -- is constantly under attack. Don't let the tyrants rule your food choices -- this Fourth of July, remember your food freedoms, and sign our Declaration of Food Independence.

"Food liberty"???

My site was unavailable from at least 7:30pm NY time yesterday to like 3am this morning. Hope y'all didn't find it as frustrating as I.

I wound up watching a year or so worth of Stargate SG-1 episodes and going through a big chunk of Start Making Sense, billed as "An Alternet Book." I'll tell you about it when I'm done. The book, I mean...if you're not already up on Stargate SG-1 there's not much hope for you on that front...

Quote of note

But why has the White House pursued this nonsensical approach over the loud objections of the country's most experienced counterterrorism and Islamic experts? Because it allows the administration all the political benefits the Cold War afforded its predecessors: political capital, pork-barrel defense contracts and a grandiose sense of purpose.

And because the war on terror has no standard of victory, it can never end —  thus neatly replacing the Cold War as a black-and-white, us-against-them worldview that generations of American (and Soviet) politicians found so useful for keeping the plebes in line. It's a one-size-fits-all bludgeon.

Direct, to the point and best of all, accurate.

Bush Is Serving Up the Cold War Warmed Over
Robert Scheer
July 5, 2005

Quote of note:

If the administration wants to make industry-boosting federal policy, it should at least do so without the science fiction. Bush could have acknowledged that the grazing study found significant problems but said he felt the needs of a troubled industry outweighed those concerns ænbsp; all without altering the findings. He would have been roundly criticized, but he will be anyway.

Science Fiction
The altering of reports to fit policies is dismaying.
July 5, 2005

Once again a scientific report has been recast for the sake of political expediency and used as the basis for a federal rule that puts industry profit over the health of people and the environment. If that sounds familiar, it's because it has been happening regularly throughout President Bush's tenure.

You know who's the best at using new technology? Criminals.

I'm not talking hackers, in either the current or original understanding of the word. I'm talking about low crawling, skank-ass, cheating appropriators and providers of all that is created in the shadows of society.

And I'm not talking just the Internet either. Anyone remember what the "killer app" was for video tape? Pornography. And the first money-making application for the Internet? Pornography.

This works for criminals because they don't confuse means with intent. Much technical mischief starts with a stroll through someone's garbage can. And the best have focus...they miss few opportunities but don't overreach. For example, it seems organized crime had absolute access to and control of the telephone system in Las Vegas for a decade or so.

Okay, so there's too much drama in the title.

Quote of note:

Resumes provide fertile ground for finding plum identity theft victims because they contain so much information about a person's work history, Dixon said.

"Most of the people who are targeted are midcareer, with at least five to 10 years of experience. It gives ID thieves more background to work with so they can pose as you, and it ensures that you have some money," she said.

Career-search Web sites have stepped up their countermeasures to fight fraud. Monster.com, which reports that fraud attempts grew from a trickle two years ago to a more frequent occurrence now, hired more screeners to check for phony job postings and created a new position: vice president for compliance and anti-fraud.

Online resumes turn risky
Job seekers post data that can be used by identity thieves
- Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, July 4, 2005

No one.

Quote of note:

In the early 1970s, the denomination became the first major Christian church to ordain an openly gay minister. The church declared itself to be "open and affirming" of gays and lesbians 20 years ago.

...which is why THIS guy:

The Rev. Brett Becker, who represents a group of more conservative churches, said it is possible his congregation at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Cibolo, Texas, will leave over the resolution.

"I would like to see us stay in the denomination and network for positive change," Becker said. "However, many of my members have expressed very clearly that this decision would cause great consternation and that, if this happened, they would want to see us leave."

...can be safely ignored. I understand we're going to have to saw off Texas and push it into the Gulf anyway.

Bush Tries to Remake Image as Team Player
G-8 conference offers a chance to change critical views of the U.S. in allied nations. So far, his plan for African aid has drawn mixed reviews.
By Warren Vieth
Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2005

WASHINGTON —  President Bush, whose foreign policy is viewed in some countries as ill-conceived and arrogant, heads to an international summit this week intent on convincing the world that he knows the meaning of consensus.

Bush departs Tuesday on a four-day trip highlighted by the annual gathering of the Group of 8 heads of state and government   arguably the world's most powerful elected leaders, representing Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Really interesting article in The New Scientist.

It starts out silly, saying the rate of innovation (defined as the number of "important technological developments" per billion people per year) has fallen to rates last seen in the Dark Ages.

The global rate of innovation today, which is running at seven "important technological developments" per billion people per year, matches the rate in 1600. Despite far higher standards of education and massive R&D funding "it is more difficult now for people to develop new technology", Huebner says.

Extrapolating Huebner's global innovation curve just two decades into the future, the innovation rate plummets to medieval levels. "We are approaching the 'dark ages point', when the rate of innovation is the same as it was during the Dark Ages," Huebner says. "We'll reach that in 2024."

... But today's much larger population means that the number of innovations per year will still be far higher than in medieval times. "I'm certainly not predicting that the dark ages will reoccur in 2024, if at all," he says. Nevertheless, the point at which an extrapolation of his global innovation curve hits zero suggests we have already made 85 per cent of the technologies that are economically feasible.

The article gets interesting when they bring in the opposing camp. John Smart [sic] at the Acceleration Studies Foundation sort of agrees.

Disaster Losses Lead Insurers to Global Warming Debate
By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer
July 3, 2005

As head of the "geo risks" division at Munich Re, the world's largest insurer of insurance companies, Peter Hoeppe sizes up the threat of tropical cyclones, floods and tsunamis like a Las Vegas oddsmaker tries to pick the winner of the Super Bowl.

And increasingly, Hoeppe's biggest worry is not when the fabled big one will shake California, or the next Hurricane Andrew will steamroll Florida. It's global warming, which he believes is already costing the $3-trillion insurance industry.

Worldwide disaster losses have been rising for the last half a century, even when inflation is factored in — and Munich Re asserts that climate change is at least partly to blame.

Cutting the Losses From Outsourcing
By WILLIAM J. HOLSTEIN

OUTSOURCING will inevitably eliminate many more American jobs, says Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

It's time for the federal government to take action to limit the damage, says Professor Hira, co-author with Anil Hira of "Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs" (American Management Association, $22). Here are excerpts from a conversation.

Q. Will more jobs be lost offshore?

A. We're just at the beginning of this trend, particularly in the services area. The manufacturing sector is much more mature, but in the services area we're just scratching the surface.

Quote of note:

Bringing a drug to market cost more than $900 million on average in 2003, compared with $230 million in 1987, according to estimates from Lilly and industry groups. But the public's willingness to accept side effects is shrinking, and some drug-safety experts and lawmakers want even larger and longer clinical trials for new drugs, increasing development costs. If nothing changes, Lilly expects that by 2010, the cost of finding a single new drug may reach $2 billion by 2010, an unsustainable amount, Dr. Paul said.

"We've got to do something to reduce the costs," he added.

The fastest way to reduce the cost of developing drug is to report it accurately. Beyond that, it's an interesting concept.

This audio from Face The Nation (they thought they could hide from me behind a tennis match).

Quote of note:

Changes in technology and business strategy are raising fundamental questions about the future of the valley, the nation's high technology heartland. In part, the change is driven by the very automation that Silicon Valley has largely made possible, allowing companies to create more value with fewer workers.

Some economists are wondering if a larger transformation is at work - accelerating a trend in which the region's big employers keep a brain trust of creative people and engineers here but hire workers for lower-level tasks elsewhere.

Profits, Not Jobs, on the Rebound in Silicon Valley
By JOHN MARKOFF and MATT RICHTEL

Quote of note:

"They told us in Kentucky they were bringing us to the Promised Land," said Ernestine Van Duvall in an oral history. "I wouldn't ask no one to come here like it is. I just blown here; I just come here, and this is home."

And yet the city blossomed, rising to more than 700 people over the next decade, with a bank, four general stores, four hotels, a bakery and a meat market. A newspaper, The Western Cyclone, urged residents to flatten their dugouts and build homes and plant trees around them: "Don't put the matter off."

But in 1888, the Union Pacific Railroad bypassed Nicodemus and stopped instead in Bogue, a small town nearby, but not close enough. Businesses closed, people moved, and Nicodemus has not grown since. Surrounding towns have not fared much better: In Graham County, which includes Nicodemus as well as Bogue, there were 484 black people in 1880, about one in 10; in 2000 there were 102, about one in 30, according to census figures.

A Legacy of Freedom Is Teetering With Age
By MICHAEL WILSON