Drugmakers Balk at Rebates
Firms Say Pentagon Isn't Owed Discounts on Individual Purchases
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 13, 2005; Page A10

The nation's leading drug manufacturers are refusing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in pharmacy rebates that Pentagon officials say they have been counting on to help control soaring medical costs.

The rebate program was designed in late 2002 to ensure that prescription drugs purchased at retail pharmacies by military personnel and their families would be sold at the same discount given to the Department of Defense for use in its hospitals, clinics and mail-order program. Rebates are based on the difference between the retail price and the bulk discount.

Quote of note:

This elite conflict has serious implications for average citizens as well: a sharp reduction in the estate tax would deprive the federal government of tens of billions of tax dollars each year. "Wealthy people will get tax cuts they don't need at the expense of important public services like food stamps and health care," said Matthew W. Gardner of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal research group.

The 1% Split Over Estate Taxes
The Few at the Top of the Heap Disagree on How to Keep the Most
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page D01

John McWhorter says

I was born two months after Watts

...which explains a lot. He might have had a better understanding of what happened there if he'd been around a bit longer.

In 1965, black Americans had been dealing with the short end of the stick for almost 400 years. If black American history from the early 1600s to 2005 could be condensed to 24 hours, then these riots took place at 10 p.m. Why not before?

Well, you see, at 9:57 p.m., Brown vs Board of Education became the law of the land. Black folks suddenly believed change was possible. Suddenly, bigots weren't standing just beyond your reach but between you and your goal. WHOLE different mindset.

Quote of note:

On Friday, the judge, L. Phillips Runyon III of Jaffrey/Peterborough District Court, said the towns' actions could not be upheld because such immigration matters must be left to federal authorities.

"The criminal charges against the defendants are unconstitutional attempts to regulate in the area of enforcement of immigration violations, an area where Congress must be deemed to have regulated with such civil sanctions and criminal penalties as it feels are sufficient," Justice Runyon wrote.

Towns Lose Tool Against Illegal Immigrants
By PAM BELLUCK

BOSTON, Aug. 12 - A New Hampshire judge on Friday threw out a novel strategy that two police departments had tried to use to combat illegal immigration.

Iraqi Leaders Reach Tentative Deal on Oil, Removing One Obstacle to a Constitution
By DEXTER FILKINS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 12 - Iraq's leaders said Friday that they had reached a tentative deal to divide the country's vast oil wealth between the central government and the provinces, a potentially significant break in the negotiations over a new constitution.

Under the agreement, oil revenue would be shared by the central government and Iraq's 18 provinces, and split roughly according to their populations. It was unclear which entity would control the money, though one Iraqi leader said it would be the central government.

Quote of note:

Instead of simply going to buyers of cars that get the best gas mileage, the tax credits are divided among manufacturers and allocated according to a complicated formula.

... Worse, it sets a quota for each manufacturer, with credits phasing out after 60,000 cars. Buyers will snap up the popular and gas-miserly Toyota Prius and certain Honda models, but as the credits for those dry up, consumers will be forced to turn to other manufacturers and cars. It sounds more like a business boost for Detroit than an effort to encourage the most fuel-efficient cars.

Hybrids don't need a push
August 13, 2005

AFTER SIGNING THE ENERGY BILL, it must have been a challenge for President Bush to come up with good things to tell the public about it. The package, after all, contains so much good news for industry, but so little for a nation addicted to foreign oil.

Cleverly, the president seized on two phrases everybody can love and put them together: "tax credit" and "hybrid vehicle." "The way the tax credit works," Bush said of the legislation's incentive to buy gas-electric hybrids, "is that the more efficient the vehicle is, the more money you will save."

Well, sort of.

This is what it's about.

Quote of note:

American officials, though, have raised serious concerns for months about what they say is a spike in trafficking through Venezuela, which does not produce cocaine but is considered a major conduit country.

U.S. Revokes Visas for 3 Top-Ranking Venezuelan Officers Suspected of Drug Trafficking
By JUAN FORERO

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Aug. 12 - The United States said on Friday that it had revoked the visas for three high-ranking Venezuelan military officers suspected of drug trafficking, prompting President Hugo Chávez's government to retaliate by promising to withdraw diplomatic immunity for American narcotics agents in Venezuela.

Unconventional Success : A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment asin: 0743228383 binding: Hardcover list price: $27.50 USD amazon price: $18.15 USD

Quote of note:

His new book has given Mr. Swensen a greater appreciation of the enormous advantages he has as an institutional money manager, starting with the obvious fact that he has a staff that spends full-time researching investment possibilities. Thus, he takes it as a given that individuals shouldn't pick stocks themselves. "I see every day how competitive the markets are, and how tough. So the idea that you can do this yourself, that's out the window."

Pro Tells Why the Little Guy Just Can't Win

WHEN I started out on this new book," David F. Swensen was saying the other day, "I thought I was going to take what we do at Yale and make it accessible to the individual investor." Oh, lucky day! Mr. Swensen, the chief investment officer of the Yale endowment - and to my mind, the best manager of institutional money in the United States - was going to show you and me how to invest the way he does.

To his surprise, however, the book Mr. Swensen eventually wrote, "Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment," published this last Tuesday, turned out to be the opposite of what he intended. Its title notwithstanding, it doesn't show the little guy how to invest like Yale. Instead, it shows why the little guy will never be able to invest the way Yale does.

You probably had no idea it was this easy to manipulate humans.

Maybe I was, in other words, the subject of experiments like those just completed by a team of psychologists from UC Irvine, whereby researchers figured out ways to subtly manipulate the minds of happily naive subjects so as to actually implant -- wait for it -- positive or negative food associations. False memories. Bogus likings. A distaste for strawberry ice cream and a deep love of asparagus. And so forth.

This is true. This just happened. And the reason they did it? Get this -- they did it, ostensibly, to help people diet. Right.

I forget when I first heard Stanford University's origin story.

The Founding Grant

The Stanfords returned to America in May and, before proceeding to Palo Alto, visited Cornell, Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked with President Eliot of Harvard about three ideas: a university at Palo Alto, a large institution in San Francisco combining a lecture hall and a museum, and a technical school. Asked which of these seemed most desirable, Eliot answered, a university. Mrs. Stanford inquired how much the endowment should be, in addition to land and buildings, and he replied, not less than $5 million. A silence followed. Finally, Mr. Stanford said with a smile, "Well, Jane, we could manage that, couldn't we?" and a grave Mrs. Stanford nodded her assent.

It pops into my head occasionally. And I wonder about the possibility of Bill and Oprah convincing as many Black folks whose annual income exceeds a million bucks to direct their full charitable contribution for one year to endow something institutional for the benefit of Black folks.

Quote of note:

It's the first criminal charges against Abramoff, who is also under investigation for his lobbying activities on behalf of Indian tribes and for his role in paying for overseas trips for DeLay, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House.

DeLay, R-Texas, was not mentioned in any lawsuits involved in the SunCruz deal.

Key Figure in DeLay Investigation Indicted
Washington Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Key Figure in DeLay Probe, Charged in Federal Fraud Indictment
By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press

Aug. 12, 2005 - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on fraud charges arising from a deal to buy casino boats.

from Afro-Netizen

So how long must African Americans endure a white media hegemony where the range of voices are limited by the decreasing ownership stakes, control and autonomy Black media outlets are experiencing? And when will we summon the ambition, imagination and historic communal values to create autonomous entities and institutions whose news-oriented content is unmediated by white editors, producers, executives and other exogenous stakeholders.

We must first and foremost demand of ourselves a heightened level of imagination and collaboration. We must confront our collective technophobia from which our youngest generation is, fortunately, immune. Toward this end, African Americans must regain control over Black media. We should do this by turning to new media ventures that leverage the power and creative possibilities of the Internet and related technologies. These don t require vast sums of money, nor are they reliant upon the permission or involvement of media conglomerates.

Presently, we have not embraced the type of innovative organizational models we need to make better, Black-oriented new media versions of Associated Press, CNN and History Channel. There are progressive young people- activists, artists, entrepreneurs and technologists, who are breaking through these walls of technophobia. They have the requisite skills, creativity and values to help lead us to freer and broader self-expression.

Our community leaders, institutions   both commercial and civic   and our public servants and other influential figures must recognize, listen to, teach, learn from and support them. By harnessing new media, African Americans can amplify our authentic voices.

The case for imperialism
Posted: August 11, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Erik Rush
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

As Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish informed T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 film "Lawrence of Arabia": There are no Arabs, and there never have been. From the outside looking in, there appears to be a race commonly referred to as "Arabs"; they are in truth multitudinous tribes and clans who have been struggling for preeminence in the region for many centuries.

There are no Christians, and there never has been. From the outside looking in, there appears to be a religion commonly referred to as "Christians"; they are in truth multitudinous denominations and churches who have been struggling for preeminence in the USofA for several centuries.

via The Colorblind Society

Quote of note:

...Baldwin suggested the airline should not let blacks travel in first class.

Though kicking this guy's ass would be the more satisfying resolution, I suppose having him arrested is acceptable.

Pa. man accused of harassing black couple
ASSOCIATED PRESS
08/03/2005

PHILADELPHIA -- An airplane passenger who allegedly used racial slurs, kicked the back of a black couple's seats, put his bare feet on a headrest, and then put his feet on the couple's armrest has been charged with a felony and two misdemeanors, authorities said.

One Peter Rubin said on PBS' The Newshour tonight:

PETER RUBIN: But the question is: Why does he -- why does he say this? And in the Roe context does he not believe that there are unenumerated rights -- I know Doug, for example, has spoken about the Ninth Amendment as a possible locus or a rule for courts finding rights like the right to abortion, which aren't listed in the Bill of Rights but which are long recognized in our law and important in our culture, and he has suggested in some of these early writings a real antipathy to that, and I think we're going to have to see exactly how that plays out.

I have been complaining about the way the ninth amendment has been ignored almost from the inception of P6. The first time, in fact, was within two weeks or so of the very first post. So of course I raise it in connection with the nomination of Justice Roberts.

The Checkered Past

Beginning today, I don't want to hear another word about the 'checkered past' of the Republican Party. I'm so sick to death of the excuse-making and whinging and fear and distrust. I'm fed up with the conspiracy theories and demonization. I've had it up to here with the empty threats and loudmouth posturing.

... The Republican Party's checkered past is *spit* compared to the checkered past of Mississippi and Alabama. I don't want to hear another word about the Republican's chekered past until you can convince every black person in Mississippi and Alabama to leave. Republicans aren't the problem. The problem is Alabama.

I'll stop bringing up the Republican Party's "checkered past" when it stops denying it.

Brain Region Tied to Regret Identified

It's human nature to sometimes regret a decision. Now scientists have identified the brain region that mediates that feeling of remorse: the medial orbitofrontal cortex.

Giorgio Coricelli of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences at the National Science Research Center in Bron, France, and his colleagues designed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to monitor how people make decisions and feel about them after the fact. The team presented volunteers with two choices, one of which carried higher risk than the other, but had the potential for greater reward as well. After indicating their choices, the subjects were told the outcome of their decision. In some cases, however, the researchers also revealed what would have happened if they had chosen differently. Choosing the less lucrative option and learning the other one was better was strongly correlated with activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which sits above the orbits of the eyes in the brain's frontal lobe. The amount of activity observed was also tied to the level of regret, which corresponded to the difference between the result of the choice made and that of the alternative outcome

Warming trend linked to fiercer hurricanes
But some meteorologists question researchers  analysis
By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:16 p.m. ET July 31, 2005

Is global warming making hurricanes more ferocious? New research suggests the answer is yes.

Scientists call the findings both surprising and  alarming  because they suggest global warming is influencing storms now   rather than in the distant future.

However, the research doesn t suggest global warming is generating more hurricanes and typhoons.

The analysis by climatologist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows for the first time that major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and the Pacific since the 1970s have increased in duration and intensity by about 50 percent.

Quote of note:

As nine named storms, including two major hurricanes, have already surfaced in the Atlantic, all signs point to a busy 2005 hurricane season. The National Weather Service has already increased its outlook to include 21 tropical storms, nine to 11 of which are expected to become hurricanes.

For Immediate Release
Release 05-014
August 10, 2005

NYC OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT UNVEILS 2005 HURRICANE AWARENESS AD CAMPAIGN

Contrary to popular belief among many New Yorkers, hurricanes can and do affect New York City. To remind residents about the coastal storm hazards they face and the importance of taking steps to prepare for the hurricane season, the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) today unveiled a new hurricane awareness ad campaign (in PDF).

Climate argument solved?
Technical errors blamed for mismatch in temperature readings.
Jenny Hogan

The end may be in sight for a 15-year argument over a discrepancy in the data on global warming.

Three papers published in Science today say that temperature trends in the lower atmosphere are consistent with a warming world, countering earlier claims to the contrary.

One study deals with satellite measurements, the second with data from weather balloons and the third with predictions of climate models. "Taken together, these three results are a major step forward," says Carl Mears of Remote Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, California, an author of one of the papers.

Quote of note:

But how crazy is this? The Caribbean-born manager, stung by racism in the past, hurt by Krueger's hurtful statement, becomes the villain in the piece, and Krueger becomes the martyr.

Everybody looks bad in Kruegergate
- Scott Ostler
Thursday, August 11, 2005

These are confusing times.

Kenny Rogers, whose angry rampage sent a TV cameraman to the hospital, is back on the mound, having had his light suspension further lightened.

Rafael Palmeiro, who cheated by using steroids, then lied about cheating, will soon be digging into the batter's box after a brief timeout.

No misdeed goes punished. Even Karl Rove and Robert Novak are still in power and riding high. Hey, it's Treason Lite.

Yet here in our little city, three KNBR employees are fired over something stupid one of them said, and Felipe Alou, baseball's most dignified manager, is under attack for being under attack.

A new Republican organization has its official startup on August 15th.

I have little expectation of anything new.

MISSION:  The mission of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) is to be a resource for the black community on Republican ideals and support the principles of the Republican Party.

GOAL:  The goal of the Association is to increase the number of black Americans who vote for Republicans and are active in the Republican Party.

OBJECTIVES:  The objectives of the Association are to provide networking opportunities and resources for black Republicans nationwide.

The Republican Party runs the media, so we know their ideals and principles. Their goal is increasing the number of Black folks that vote Republican, not the improvement of Black folks' situation in America.

I don't write it, I just report it.

The LA Times has been remembering the Watts riots of forty years ago.

A truth buried in the ruins of Watts
What we forget about Watts
We only burned ourselves, baby
The yelp that burned L.A.
Watts Riots Remembered

Quote of note:

The deeper causes, as documented by the McCone Commission, which investigated the riots, were poverty, inequality, racial discrimination and the passage, in November 1964, of Proposition 14 on the California ballot. That initiative had overturned the Rumford Fair Housing Act, which established equality of opportunity for black home buyers.

Watts Riots, 40 Years Later
Nine people who were in the midst of the turmoil recall how six days of violence changed lives -- and L.A. itself.
By Valerie Reitman and Mitchell Landsberg
Times Staff Writers
August 11, 2005

The divisions are still there, 40 years later.

To many, the events that began in Watts on Aug. 11, 1965, remain a riot, pure and simple   a social breakdown into mob rule and criminality. To others, they were a revolt, a rebellion, an uprising   a violent but justified leap into a future of black self-empowerment.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the riots, The Times asked nine people, all of whom witnessed the events firsthand, to recount their memories of six days that changed their lives and the course of the city. They include a rioter, a business owner, a Highway Patrol officer, a National Guardsman, ordinary residents and a newspaper reporter.

Quote of note:

In 1997, the New School for Social Research became New School University to reflect its growth into a collection of eight colleges, offering a list of majors that includes psychology, music, urban studies and management. But New Yorkers continued to call it the New School.

Now, after spending an undisclosed sum on an online survey and a marketing consultant's creation of "naming structures," "brand architecture" and "identity systems," the university has come up with a new name: the New School. Beginning Monday, it will phase in new logos, stationery, banners, business cards and even new names for the individual colleges, all to include the words "the New School."

"My view is that you never argue with the customer about your name," said Bob Kerrey, the university's president.

To Woo Students, Colleges Choose Names That Sell
By ALAN FINDER

Quote of note:

This is why a group of us, modern democratic Muslims, have decided to start a movement. It is at an embryonic stage, but many have already come onboard. Within a few months it will be launched in Westminster.

Living with the Bombs
Rethinking what it means to be a British Muslim
BY YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN

London is still anxious and jumpy after the July 7 and 21 terrorist attacks. Last week, a bus on Gray's Inn Road began smoking and a huge chunk of the city center was immediately cordoned off. (It turned out to be a mechanical fault.) I saw five tube passengers flee the carriage when a young Sudanese schoolboy boarded a train. Raza, an old Muslim colleague of mine, was pushed off a bus by the conductor, who didn't like the look of his briefcase. As a British Muslim political columnist, I receive a steady torrent of ugly e-mail invective, quite a lot of it threatening my private parts — e-mail rape used in a war I don't comprehend.

Since VOIP is no different than any other traffic, when they solve this problem they will solve the problem of identifying and locating any computer working with any service on the net. It will just be a matter of requiring the appropriate monitoring software at the major ISPs...which, due to recent regulatory changes will be few enough in number to be quite manageable.

Psst! The FBI Is Having Trouble on the Line
By BRIAN BENNETT
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005

The FBI is aware of the massive technological blind spot that allows criminals and terrorists to communicate undetected on American soil. But so far, it can't figure out what to do about VOIP--short for voice over Internet protocol, the dirt-cheap phone service that lets users make calls via their cable or DSL modems. Law-enforcement snoops can't tap into conversations or identify the location of callers, even with court orders authorizing surveillance. Given that the number of Internet phone users is expected to triple this year, to 2.8 million, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week responded to a petition from the FBI and other agencies by requiring most VOIP providers to install within 18 months software that allows authorized law enforcement to wiretap conversations. Industry leader Vonage, which controls a majority of the VOIP market, is on track to enable such wiretaps by the end of the year, a process it started before the government ruling. "From our standpoint," says Vonage senior V.P. Brooke Schulz, "it is an important thing to do and a right thing to do."

I need to take a break...I swear, that was my first thought when I saw this headline.

Rice Genome Fully Mapped

Scientists are reporting this afternoon that they have completed a genetic map of the rice plant, a scientific milestone that they hope will accelerate efforts to feed the hungry by improving the world's most important food.

The fallout from Felipe Alou's very public reaction to some very public racism

Tony Salvadore, KNBR's vice president and general manager, said the firings were related to "inappropriate comedy sound bytes" played Tuesday morning during a discussion of Alou's recent interview with ESPN, in which he roundly criticized KNBR and Krueger.

Alou resigned from his regular radio show with the station and warned his players to be on the lookout for racial prejudice in San Francisco.

"I want people to understand that it's a social issue," Alou said. "I want to make people aware of that so they will know that in the United States, it won't be tolerated."

...has been intense and educational.

When they were shouting "The South shall rise again!," they didn't see all those folks on the other side of the Rio Grande smiling and nodding their heads.

Texas Now a Majority-Minority State
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer

EL PASO, Texas -- Texas has become the fourth state to have a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday, a trend driven by a surging number of Hispanics moving to the state.

According to the population estimates based on the 2000 Census, about 50.2 percent of Texans are now minorities. In the 2000 Census, minorities made up about 47 percent of the population in the second-largest state.

I just posted this at the Niggerati Network

There has always been a number of things I wanted to do with this space. After spending way too much time thinking, testing and planning, I've decided to start phasing in the changes I've been working on.

The first thing I want to get in place is a way to help people find Black bloggers and bloggers who speak constructively to Black issues. The first step is to get as many of you to register with this site as possible. During the registration process (or by editing your account, if you're already registered) you can enter your web site name, url and syndication feed address - RSS or Atom. You can assign it to one or more of the following categories:

It's interesting to watch the media build Ms. Pirro's bid for the Senate into a story.

Part of the story is Senator Clinton simply not responding to questions about her new "opponent," which is amusing since Ms. Pirro hasn't won the Republican primary for the position.

When she announced, I was looking at her and thinking, "you know, this Pirro chick reminds me of Hillary." But it's not actually Hillary she reminds me of.

Pirro reminds me of Alan Keyes.

It's like they know they have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Senator Clinton, but they can't let her run unopposed so (in the tradition of confusing the issue) they found someone as much like Hillary as they could, only Republican.

They got a lot closer with Pirro than they did with Keyes...but all you have to do is run a sane candidate to surpass that standard.

Keep it in mind when you see Bush talking about how his tax cuts have boosted the economy.

Mark Morford answers the musical question,

Where is your supposed progressive openness? Your liberal generosity of spirit? I thought you Lefties were all mushy and passive and live-and-let-live?

In other words, where is that famous so-called tolerance I thought all you libs were supposed to possess like some sort of gentle polyamorous smiling hug for the world?

...delivering thereby what I believe should become the standard rant of what the Right lovingly refers to as the "Deaniac crowd."

To which I reply: You cannot be serious. Does the answer really need to be articulated? Is it not painfully obvious? Can I have a shot of Patrón and a long nap before I answer? Here goes ...

You, hate-mailers from the sanctimonious Right and even some of you morally paralyzed middle-grounders from the Left, are correct. I am, in fact, deeply intolerant. It is true. I can hide my deep biases and predispositions no longer.

I cannot, for example, tolerate the dark and violent road down which this nation seems intent on careening like an Escalade on meth. I cannot tolerate brutal never-ending unnecessary wars and I cannot allow gay rights to be bashed and I truly loathe watching women's rights be slammed back to 1952. Or 1852.

...Enough. Basta. Let's refashion the old, stagnant definition of tolerance and make it less about merely enduring, merely putting up with the existence of other narrow-minded beliefs no matter how devastating and embarrassing they obviously are to the nation's health.

Rather, let's flip that sucker over and baste it with raw goat butter and sear it on the open flames of divine justice and bliss and intellectual fire and white-hot orgasm and burn it new.

Let us take the rather flaccid word tolerance and pump it full of Ecstasy and medical marijuana and sake and real divine love and fancy book learnin', turn it on its head and spin it like a bottle and reclaim it from the neocon Right and turn it into, say, giddy outrage. Or radical reconsideration. Or ecstatic rebellion. Or wet conscious electric pointed awareness. Is this not a better way?

Let us explode those dead meanings, correct the mistaken neocon dictionary. Let us hurl that dying and mealy and abused term back at their powerful and often bigoted scowl. Here is your weak, ineffectual tolerance. We cannot swallow it anymore. In fact, we are choking on it.

Despite Illegal Status, Buyers Get Home Loans
Mortgage lenders are designing programs aimed at undocumented immigrants. Real estate agents also see a huge untapped market.
By Anna Gorman
Times Staff Writer
August 9, 2005

Each week, Pedro Morlet knocks on doors in the Bay Area, looking for illegal immigrants.

Morlet isn't an immigration agent. He's a real estate agent, and he's scouting for business.

"Do you want a house, work and pay taxes but don't have a Social Security number?" reads his flier, written in Spanish and tailored to his potential customers. "We can help you LEGALLY!"

Across the country, particularly in Texas and parts of the Midwest, hundreds of illegal immigrants have bought homes using special lending programs that bypass the need for a Social Security number. Now, with backing from some of the country's largest financial institutions, this newest effort to tap customers for the real estate market is moving to the nation's largest concentration of illegal immigrants — California.

President Bush Calls for Permanent Tax Cuts
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 9, 2005; 7:42 PM

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush on Tuesday called on Congress to make permanent tax cuts enacted over the past five years and restructure the U.S. tax code soon to keep the economy growing at healthy pace.

After meeting with economic advisers and members of his cabinet at his ranch here, Bush said the economy is humming in large part because Republicans cut taxes aggressively during his first term in office and are ahead of pace to cut the deficit in half by 2009. "The economy of the United States is strong and the foundation for sustained growth is in place," Bush told reporters.

Let's look at what drives the statistics that Bush uses as evidence to support extending his class war.

I just lost a longish post for the second time. I am annoyed.

They're Not Stupid They're Lazy
The real reason American high-schoolers have such dismal test scores.
By Alexandra Starr
Posted Monday, Aug. 8, 2005, at 11:19 AM PT

If you believe in test scores and education policymakers seem to believe in little else these days American high-school students are a pathetic bunch. Witness the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP) the "nation's report card" which were released last month. While younger students broke records in both math and reading, 17-year olds' scores as a whole showed no improvement from the early 1970s.

Older students fail globally, too. When high-school seniors were last ranked internationally, in 1995, American students placed at the bottom, trounced by kids from countries like Slovenia and Cyprus. U.S. high-school sophomores have continued to sit international exams every three years, and their performance hasn't been much better. On the 2003 global exam that evaluates the reading, math, science, and problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds, for example, the Americans scored below average in every category except reading literacy.

If they were REALLY smart, they'd have bought a bag of 50mm rifles here in the USofA. It's easy enough.

Rumsfeld Says Weapons From Iran Found in Iraq
By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 9, 2005; 3:09 PM

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons have been found in Iraq that were "clearly, unambiguously" from Iran and that the weapons would ultimately become a problem for Tehran.

Speaking at a Pentagon briefing with Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Rumsfeld said it was unclear whether the weapons were coming from elements of the Iranian government or from other parties in that country.

"What you do know is that the Iranians did not stop them from coming in," he told reporters. "It's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to cross the border," said Rumsfeld. He offered no further specifics on the weapons.

Bush Vows To Eliminate U.S. Dependence On Oil By 4920

WASHINGTON, DC President Bush unveiled an aggressive initiative Monday that would make the U.S. free of petroleum dependence by the year 4920, less than three millennia from now.

"Our mission is clear," Bush said in a speech delivered at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. "We must free ourselves from dependence on fossil fuels within 85 generations. A cleaner, safer America is my vision. And it is our great, great great-times-80 grandchildren who will realize that vision."

Bush promised a legislative package that would mandate severe cuts in oil-production subsidies and provide new funding for alternative-energy research and development. According to the timetable he presented, these bills could be introduced as early as 3219, and U.S. energy consumers could start to see radical changes by the early 42nd century.

Up from the comments

If black people are going to understand the big picture, we must understand three systems and how they relate to each other:

#1. Net energy (which we presently do not collectively understand).

#2. Human nature (which - from the endless culturo-political discussions - I assume we DO NOT understand).

#3. Realpolitik (which I know we DO NOT understand). Liberal economics and conservative economics are in fact "political systems".

We must go further and faster in adapting to the reality just around the signpost up ahead, and, we must exemplify a tangible civilizing alternative to the overshot American civilization that is about to experience radical destabilization.

I just tried to write about net energy in symbols we generally share.

You know, if someone were to describe the motion of one of Saturn's moons with enough precision to let you figure out where it will be, say, two days from now, it would be a complex description. But that moon, it just moves. That describes the difficulty I'm having. But I'm having a problem letting it go (obviously, or I wouldn't even write this), and I got programming to do, so I'm going to postthis thing I wrote before and you prolly seen it but so what.

...than someone being brilliant before I am.

LATER: You have to read the replies...yes, he really did send it.

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

Our first nominee for "Blindingly Obvious Statement" is

Snow Concedes Economic Surge Is Not Benefiting People Equally
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 9, 2005; Page A03

And even though:

The idea there is to explore the things that produce broad-based prosperity," he said of the meeting's purpose. "One of the things we know is that less educated people have seen their incomes and wages grow more slowly. That's what the numbers tell us.

"So that points you in the direction of greater emphasis on education," he told reporters, adding that savings rates among low-income Americans are also lagging.

...sounds nice, I have to wonder what those educated folk are going to do for a living.

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The experiences of the six workers "simply are not common or typical of the experiences of millions of women who work for Wal-Mart," Mr. Boutrous said in court.

Isn't that exactly what the suit is about?

Wal-Mart Asks Court to Narrow Bias Suit
By BLOOMBERG NEWS

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8 (Bloomberg News) - Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, asked a federal appeals court Monday to overturn a ruling that could allow as many as 1.6 million female workers to seek damages for discrimination.

At a hearing, a lawyer for Wal-Mart, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., urged three judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse a ruling that granted the case class-action status.

I would be fine with John Tierney's call for sanity in drug laws.

With the help of the press, they're once again frightening the public with tales of a drug so seductive it instantly turns masses of upstanding citizens into addicts who ruin their health, their lives and their families.

I just wish people could stop being stupid before it threatens white folks.

Mr. Tierney not only lets you know crank ain't all that bad...

The percentage of high school seniors using amphetamines has remained fairly constant in the past decade, and actually declined slightly the past two years.

Nor is meth diabolically addictive. If an addict is someone who has used a drug in the previous month (a commonly used, if overly broad, definition), then only 5 percent of Americans who have sampled meth would be called addicts, according to the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

...he waxes lyrical about the benefits of speed.

Voracious Snakehead Fish Discovered in a Queens Lake
By ANTHONY DePALMA

New York welcomes all, as the big green lady in the harbor says, no matter how poor, how tired, how hungry or how wretched. But Lady Liberty never mentioned anything about ugly, or freaky, or downright devilish, and even she might have a hard time getting at all gushy about some of the most recent immigrants to the city.

They are snakehead fish, the nightmarish creatures from Asia that made news when they were discovered living in a Maryland pond in 2002. They were said to be able to breathe air and walk on their fins, devouring everything in their path.

Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton called them "something from a bad horror movie" before ordering a federal ban. And to guarantee that they could not escape, the whole Maryland pond was poisoned.

Pizza billboard causes a stir
Decision on appropriateness of billboard which features US president being made today
8 August 2005

A decision is due to be made today whether a billboard labelling President Bush an 'evil bastard' is appropriate.

The Hell Pizza billboards have been erected around Auckland and Wellington. Half of the poster is taken up with a photo of the president and the other half has the phrase 'Hell: Too Good For Some Evil Bastards.'

Outdoor Advertising New Zealand is reviewing who is behind the boards and whether the Advertising Standards Authority needs to become involved.

Hell's media manager, Matthew Blomfield, says they expected to cause a bit of a stir. He says it is meant to provoke discussion and be a little edgy, instead of bland, boring advertising.

Mr Blomfield is hoping reaction will be balanced between those who find it funny and those who are upset by it.

Before the Voting Rights Act was passed, people could pass laws restricting the right to vote of loyal citizens.

The Voting Rights Act made that illegal.

When the Voting Rights Act expires, so does everything that stopped people from restricting the right of loyal citizens to vote.

Founder of Ebony Magazine dead at 87
By Herbert G. McCann
The Associated Press
Published August 8, 2005, 4:29 PM CDT

Pioneering black publisher John H. Johnson, whose Ebony magazine countered stereotypical coverage of blacks, died Monday. He was 87.

LaTrina Blair, promotions manager with Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co., confirmed Johnson's death and said the company would release a formal statement later Monday afternoon.

Born into an impoverished family in Arkansas, Johnson went into business with a $500 loan secured by his mother's furniture and built a publishing and cosmetics empire that made him one of the wealthiest and most influential black men in the United States.

Beyond his own economic stature, Johnson broke new ground by bringing positive portrayals of blacks into a mass-market publication and encouraging corporations to use black models in advertising aimed at black consumers.

Johnson built Ebony from a circulation of 25,000 on its first press run in November 1945 to a monthly circulation of 1.9 million in 1997. Jet magazine, a newsweekly, was founded in 1951 and a third magazine, Ebony Man, a monthly men's magazine, was started in 1985.

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Daddy Rice, the original Jim Crow, became rich and famous because of his skills as a minstrel. However, he lived an extravagant lifestyle, and when he died in New York on September 19, 1860, he was in poverty.

Who Was Jim Crow?

The name Jim Crow is often used to describe the segregation laws, rules, and customs which arose after Reconstruction ended in 1877 and continued until the mid-1960s. How did the name become associated with these "Black Codes" which took away many of the rights which had been granted to Blacks through the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments?

"Come listen all you galls and boys,
I'm going to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."

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Isn't there something wrong when firms profit so richly from the misfortune of the U.S. economy and American consumers?

How Those Big Bucks End Up in Big Oil's Pockets
By Steven Mufson
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page B02

When oil prices spiked -- and oil profits soared -- 26 years ago, virtually every newspaper intern in America (including me) was dispatched to gasoline stations to collect quotes from irate motorists. Big Oil was viewed as public enemy number one: Congress convened hearings to skewer oil industry execs, regulatory agencies investigated pricing, and some news organizations rented helicopters to scour the waters (in vain) for signs of oil tankers floating offshore just waiting for prices to climb higher.

A Court Too Supreme For Our Good
By Robert F. Bauer
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page B03

As Congress prepares to probe Supreme Court nominee John Roberts's leanings on this or that constitutional question, it should not overlook a larger concern about the Supreme Court as an institution. The court is in desperate need of reform; it has become increasingly isolated, imperious and opaque.

This is no accident. It follows largely from the assumption, nurtured by the media and embraced by the justices, that they hold "lifetime" appointments. But it is time to rethink this assumption. And there is some reason for optimism that Roberts himself might agree and make a unique personal contribution to bringing about overdue change.

Rethink all the assumptions you want to...federal justices hold their positions "on good behavior" because that is what the Constitution says. The very discussion of the issue is a side-track, a diversion...bullshit in and of itself.

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One of the key incentives -- extending patent protection on the most profitable drugs of companies that develop new defenses against biological weapons -- has set off sharp protests.

As well it should.

Bioterrorism Response Hampered by Problem of Profit
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page A05

In 2000, the Pentagon's Defense Science Board concluded that to successfully respond to a bioterrorist attack, the United States would need 57 specific drugs, diagnostic tools and vaccines. At the time, only one was available.

Five years later, officials say that number has increased to two.

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...Sanders, brothers Jerry and Don, and their father, Carlton Sanders, are dead, according to relatives.

The 315 pages show the investigation started after a source told police that Sanders said the KKK "was creating an uprising among the blacks, that they were killing the children, that they are going to do one each month until things blow up."

The source also told police that Sanders had threatened to strangle one of the children, Lubie Geter, because Geter ran into Sanders's car with a go-cart. Geter was later strangled, and Williams was blamed for his death though never charged.

...Former GBI director Robbie Hamrick, who worked on the case, said he believes Williams is guilty, though he would not say Williams committed all the killings.

"I'm convinced he was responsible for the two cases he was convicted on," Hamrick said. "The others -- that's something the courts would have to decide."

Klan Was Probed in Child Killings In Atlanta
By Harry R. Weber
Associated Press
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page A09

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But the new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks that could quickly overwhelm civilian resources.

"In my estimation, [in the event of] a biological, a chemical or nuclear attack in any of the 50 states, the Department of Defense is best positioned -- of the various eight federal agencies that would be involved -- to take the lead," said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of Northcom, which coordinates military involvement in homeland security operations.

Okay, but...how close would the military have to be to actually have an impact on stabilizing the situation? Or does "take the lead" mean "give orders to the locals?"

Newsweek discusses Great Britain's proposed parallel P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.

It is, in its own polite and oh-so-British way, a declaration of war. But also a wrenching reassessment of centuries of British history.

As the article says, Great Britain has a history of much greater openness than the USofA...has something to do with the culture having grown up in its home nation, I think...as well as much more experience in dealing with terrorism. Add in the fact that I don't live there and I'd be inclined not to worry a lot about their handling of things.

Of course, if that were the extent of my considerations I wouldn't be writing this.

We in the USofA think our society is the most open and liberty respecting one on the planet. I would disagree.

Messrs. Dubner and Levitt, of Freakonomics. And their fascination with crack continues.

Measuring the use and impact of a drug like crack isn't easy. There is no government Web site to provide crack data, and surveying dealers is bound to be pretty unreliable. So how can you get to the truth of crack use? One way is to look at a variety of imperfect but plausible proxies, including cocaine arrests, emergency-room visits and deaths. Unlike the volume of news coverage, the rates for all of these remain shockingly high. Cocaine arrests, for instance, have fallen only about 15 percent since the crack boom of the late 1980's. Cocaine-related deaths are actually higher now; so are the number of emergency-room visits due to cocaine. When combined in a sensible way, these proxies can be used to construct a useful index of crack.

And what does this index reveal? That crack use was nonexistent until the early 1980's and spiked like mad in 1985, peaking in 1989. That it arrived early on the West Coast, but became most prevalent in the cities of the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States. And that it produced a remarkable level of gun violence, particularly among young black men, who made up the bulk of street-level crack dealers. During the crack boom, the homicide rate among 13- to 17-year-old blacks nearly quintupled. But perhaps the biggest surprise in the crack index is the fact that, as of 2000 -- the most recent year for which the index data are available -- Americans were still smoking about 70 percent as much crack as they smoked when consumption was at its peak.

And it's all nicely explained...the drop in crack-related violence is explained, that the current volume is composed of fewer users smoking more crack because it cost less, that it's the old head that survived the first wave, not new users, keeping volume at its current levels.

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More fundamentally, these two systems for dealing with data arise from a cultural divide over privacy itself. In broad terms, the United States looks at privacy largely as a consumer and an economic issue; in the rest of the developed world, it is regarded as a fundamental right.

In the United States, said Trevor Hughes, executive director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, debates over the privacy of personal data generally occurs piecemeal, when a particular abuse causes harm. "In Europe, " Mr. Hughes said. "data is just protected because it is data - information about you."

Europe Zips Lips; U.S. Sells ZIPs
By ERIC DASH

Why God's in a class by himself
By Michael Shermer

...One magazine reporter asked for my opinion about whether one can believe in God and the theory of evolution.

I replied that, empirically speaking, yes, you can   the proof being that 40% of American scientists profess a belief in God and also accept the theory of evolution, not to mention that most of the world's 1 billion Catholics believe in God and accept the theory of evolution. But then this reporter wanted to know if it is logically consistent to believe in God and the theory of evolution. That is, does the theory of evolution   if carried out to its logical conclusion   preclude belief in God? This is a different question. Here is my answer.

I've always education about religion is fine in public schools. I feel all this "intelligent design" nonsense should be discussed in religious classes.

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Still, though everyone at the Kabbalah Centre seemed smart and friendly, and the Scientology Centre felt like the Friars Club in the '50s, I'm going to hold off. They both involved too much self-improvement for me. Sure, a prime-time show would be nice, but I'm too lazy to sit through a bunch of lectures to get it.

Not with the kinds of ratings networks pull in nowadays.

A celeb-seeker's quest: Scientology brunch vs. hot Kabbalah women

I THOUGHT BEING A JEW was going to carry me. But after two seasons of making sitcom pilots that didn't land on the fall schedule, I needed a new religion to further my Hollywood career. I was going to have to choose between Scientology and Kabbalah.

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The flat tax is a game of three-card monte that deliberately confuses the issues of simplicity, fairness and the total tax burden on society. A simpler tax system would be a very good thing: good for the economy, and good for everyone's sanity. But contrary to what Forbes would have you believe, progressive tax rates  — higher taxes on higher incomes  — aren't what make the current system so complicated. It's as easy to multiply by 40% as it is to multiply by 17%. Even Republicans can easily do it   or hire someone to do it for them, if necessary.

The complications come in defining and calculating income. Some of the complications are unavoidable because people and companies have complicated affairs. The day may come when you can file your income tax on a postcard (millions come close even today, with the sorta-simple 1040EZ), but that day will never arrive for Steve Forbes. As for the unnecessary complications, most of them were not put there by people or interest groups pushing for higher taxes and bigger government. Quite the opposite: The complications are mostly special rules for people or companies trying to lower their taxes.

Poking holes in the flat tax
The right is resurrecting another one of its hot-button ideas that go nowhere. This one's still a game of three-card monte.
August 7, 2005