My Face Is Black Is True : Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations asin: 1400040035 binding: Hardcover list price: $26.95 USD amazon price: $17.79 USD

I got C-Span's Book TV going, and Juan Williams is interviewing her. After going into the book (and Callie House also rocks), Juan is trying his best to discredit the idea of reparations...see, Ms. House had a legitimate reparations movement that the Feds just ignored. Apparently tens of thousands of ex-slaves signed up. They are documented...and because Mr. Williams pushed her, Prof. Berry mentioned that reparations claims from documented descendants would present an interesting moral problem...

As I sit here, I'm not happy with Juan; not so much for his opposition to reparations as the nature of his arguments. But it's not like Prof. Berry can't hang.

Editorials from Hell's leading daily newspaper

Let's play a little game shall we? I have my big steaming mug of metjuizy before me and I hope you have whatever libation you wish on such a fine morning. I am going to present an argument that Colbert I King is more qualified to serve the American people's interests as Deputy White House Chief of Staff than Karl Rove is.

Now I am what you humans would call a smart ass. But being a smart ass even for the demon in charge of getting out the largest circulating paper in the Known Universe is not enough. We need for you right wing acolytes facts from solid sources YOU trust.

I'm Hoping Bush Can Finish What Lincoln Started
By Sophia A. Nelson
Sunday, October 23, 2005; B03 

Know why?

...make no mistake: He raised these issues at great peril to his standing with his own conservative base.

Oh. You do know.

When Bush spoke that night, I think he was being the compassionate conservative he campaigned as in the 2000 election. 

Come now, child. Five years, and the first sign is a speech he was compelled by circumstances (which circumstances include his own blunders) to make. And you get thrilled.

He didn't have to bring race into that particular speech.

Oh, yes he did. When almost one in three white people responded to the question "Does Bush care about black people?" with a definitive NO...which is to say they think he's a racist, largely based on what they themselves saw...He damn sure did have to bring race into that particular speech.

Reading this:

It's a Change, Not a Conspiracy
The City Is Gentrifying. Live With It
By David Nicholson
Sunday, October 23, 2005; B01

...I suddenly remember Mr. Nicholson. He was on a mailing list both Darkstar and I are still members of. Darkstar, I don't know if you remember, but Bianca invited him after he had a quote in a TNR about Volunteer Slavery by Jill Nelson that was more obnoxious than he intended (though IMO it would have been obnoxious anyway)

 

And he made one statement when he left the list that sticks with me to this day, in response to one of those "what do Black folks want" questions. He said most Black folks want a benevolent dictator rather than a democracy. And it sticks because he was right.

You know what?

That is one reason journalists and some government officials are so wary of what might happen next in the C.I.A. leak case, which could conclude with indictments within a week. What began as a narrow case on a specific leak, many fear, has morphed into a broader threat to the way business is done here, a system that often benefits both sides.

I really don't care. I been ragging the Conservative commentators, talking about how their big concern is for those lunches and exclusives.

Tough titty. Declaring everything secret and releasing just enough to hint that your policies might be right, and fucking lying is no way to run a Republic. When you need stealth candidates and spin, it's obvious you're working against the desires of the majority. If you can't convince people to support your war with the truth maybe you shouldn't go to war. Just on the practical, need-your-people-behind-you tip.

The Washington Secret Often Isn't
By DAVID E. SANGER

What Democrats Can Learn From Howard Stern
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: October 22, 2005

Instead of denouncing Republicans, Democrats should look for an escape hatch like Howard Stern did.

I rather think denouncing Republicans is still a good idea. And between Harriette (only the second SCOTUS nominee I feel no compunction to respect) and the trembling before a potential set of indictments, I think Republicans are looking for the escape hatch. or maybe they like this crap, I dunno...

By the way, that's a TimesSelect link. I've let the TimesSelect thing lapse. I like Herbert and Krugman, but not +$50/year worth, and there's really no other editorialist at the Times I'm willing to pay for at all.

Quote of note:

"It's something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past. It's information that was used very widely after his attack on the Kurds. I believe it was close to 300,000," Hughes said when questioned the first time. She added, "That's something I said every day in the course of the campaign. That's information that we talked about a great deal in America."

Hughes Misreports Iraqi History
Envoy Vastly Overstates Fact in Justifying War to Indonesian Students
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 22, 2005; A15

Could someone explain to me how this editorial came to inspire invective like this:

Some folks are really touchy these days. Take, for instance, these four readers: D.G., J., W.T. and D.L. They didn't care for my column on Harriet Miers ["The Right, on Fire Over Miers," Oct. 8] and thus availed themselves of the opportunity to tell me so by e-mail.

Wrote D.G.: "Some portly Episcopalian [an indelicate reference to moi ] who condones the systemic elimination of the helpless Unborn styles himself a good heart because he happens to be black and benefiting from the Graham family's quota mania. What a joke!!!"

From J.: "If you weren't Black, you wouldn't get a job in journalism. You are in due to a tacit quota system."

And W.T.: "Reading your article is like watching a black minstrel doing his song and dance with words. Pure buffoonery! Affirmative action writer in action."

Finally, D.L.: "king...your article was biased and fulla[expletive] . . . so pack it up your liberal [expletive] sideways."

Quote of note:

"It sure doesn't look like he's folding up his tent and going home without some charges," said one lawyer involved in the case who asked not to be identified.

Special Prosecutor in CIA Leak Case Starts Web Site
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 22, 2005; A06

The prosecutor investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity put up an official Web site for making public announcements yesterday, fueling the belief of lawyers involved in the case that he will announce charges against some administration officials next week.

Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald told attorneys for administration officials late last week that he was nearing decisions about possible charges. Without fanfare, the office put up a site at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc .

Bias Ruled in Law On Same-Sex Rape
Court Cites Inequities in Kansas Statute
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 22, 2005; A03

The Kansas Supreme Court yesterday struck down a state law that penalized same-sex statutory rapes by 18-year-olds much more harshly than heterosexual cases, ruling that the law unconstitutionally discriminated against gays.

In a 6 to 0 opinion, the court said its decision was required by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas , a landmark victory for gay rights that abolished all state laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults.

Yesterday's ruling was the first time after several attempts that gay rights advocates had managed to translate their Lawrence victory into a favorable ruling on another issue in the lower courts. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court established same-sex marriage, based on the state's constitution, not Lawrence.

Quote of note:

White House officials say the term "proportional representation" is "amenable to different meanings." They say Miers was referring to the requirement that election districts have roughly the same number of voters.

Miers' Answer Raises Questions
Legal experts find a misuse of terms in her Senate questionnaire 'terrible' and 'shocking.'
By David G. Savage
rTimes Staff Writer
October 22, 2005

WASHINGTON — Asked to describe the constitutional issues she had worked on during her legal career, Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers had relatively little to say on the questionnaire she sent to the Senate this week.

Totally appropriate quote:

Unfortunately, she has also become the poster child in the push for a national reporter's shield law, and this week she went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify for the Free Flow of Information Act. There, she didn't even blush when she told the lawmakers: "Confidential sources are the life's blood of journalism. Without them ... people like me would be out of business."

Probably so, but there's still a case to be made for this legislation. 

How Miller was used by source
Tim Rutten
Regarding Media
October 22, 2005

Quote of note:

She contended that dictators could potentially use it to control what their citizens read.

You don't need a dictator for that. You just need Rupert Murdoch. 

Anyway... 

U.N. Body Endorses Cultural Protection
U.S. Objections Are Turned Aside
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 21, 2005; A14

PARIS, Oct. 20 -- In a vote cast as a battle of global conformity vs. cultural diversity, delegates to a U.N. agency turned aside strong U.S. objections Thursday and overwhelmingly approved the first international treaty designed to protect movies, music and other cultural treasures from foreign competition.

Can we use Judith Miller to cast aspersions on a broad class of humans? 

The Exorcism of the New York Times
In the name of journalism, the paper must cast out the unclean spirits.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005, at 3:52 PM PT

The ongoing Judith Miller scandal—like Jayson Blair's journalistic malfeasance and the embarrassments of the Wen Ho Lee episode before it—has sent the old gray palooka down to the mat once again, where we find it wheezing, bleeding, and struggling to find its feet.

Quote of note:

"This is a problem in your stupid head," Rivers told Howe, and then accused him of abandoning his responsibilities as a father. "Where were you when he was growing up?"

Purves again tried to smooth the waters.

"I have great sympathy with both sides," Purves said, "but I am starting to feel like Oprah."

"Both sides? Then you're a racist," Rivers said, stunning the host into momentary silence as Rivers continued, calling Howe a "son of a bitch."

The exchange can be heard on the program's website, www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/midweek.shtml. Look for the Oct 19^th show.

Joan Rivers Gets Into Shouting Match Over Race
By Scott Martelle
Times Staff Writer
5:53 PM PDT, October 19, 2005

U.S. Fears Fallout Over Reported Abuse of Bodies
Diplomats try to shield America's image after a video appears to show troops in Afghanistan setting fire to corpses of slain Taliban fighters.
By Richard A. Serrano and John Hendren
Times Staff Writers
October 21, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration moved swiftly Thursday to curb international outrage over a report that U.S. troops in Afghanistan desecrated the bodies of Taliban fighters, setting them ablaze to taunt militants.

U.S. embassies around the world have been given "instructions to engage" their host governments to head off anger provoked by a videotape showing Americans torching the remains of two militants, and Assistant Secretary of State Karen P. Hughes will address the issue during a trip to Muslim areas of South Asia, a State Department official said.

Jackson Finds a New Home in Bahrain
Santa Ynez Valley residents speculate about the future of Neverland now that the singer resides in the Persian Gulf.
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
October 21, 2005

Does anyone know a good mover in the Santa Ynez Valley that can handle a Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round and zoo animals?

Michael Jackson's attorney said Thursday the pop singer has made the Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain, not Neverland ranch, his permanent home.

Attorney Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. declined to comment on local speculation that Jackson planned to sell Neverland ranch, but said the singer is very happy in his new home.

Not really, but...

Most times when I use a graphic around here I link back to the source, especially if the wole graphic is used in it original resolution and all that. But when I posted this story

Photos Show Climate Change; Ministers Meet in UK
Mon Mar 14, 2005 08:54 AM ET
By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - A photo of Mount Kilimanjaro stripped of its snowcap for the first time in 11,000 years will be used as dramatic testimony for action against global warming as ministers from the world's biggest polluters meet Tuesday.

Quote of note:

"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld," he said. By cutting out the bureaucracy that had to carry out those decisions, "we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, and generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina." If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic, Wilkerson continued, "you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence."

Colonel Finally Saw Whites of Their Eyes
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, October 20, 2005; A04

Legacies of a Leak Case
By Jim Hoagland
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A27

When historians write about the Weimarization of Washington in the Bush years, they will highlight the tawdry and divisive case involving the publication of Valerie Plame's CIA association and the unjust incarceration of reporter Judith Miller.

I was like, "Weimarization, nice word," only to be crushed to earth before the sentence even ended. Still, nice word. I'll be looking for an opportunity to use it.

Crucial details of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's two-year investigation -- such as whether anyone in the Bush administration will be indicted for naming Plame or for lying under oath -- remain unclear.

Quote of note:

"When the day comes when I cannot pay an American for an hour's worth of work for making their voices heard, it's a sad day," 

Homeless paid $10 to attend immigration rally
By NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution>
Published on: 10/20/05

For some people, it pays to oppose illegal immigration.

Fourteen homeless people made $10 each Monday to hold signs in a crowd of several dozenpeople who gathered for an anti-illegal immigrant rally at the state Capitol.

D.A. King, an anti-illegal immigration activist from Marietta who spoke at the protest, acknowledged Wednesday that he paid "14 willing American workers to let their voices be heard about illegal immigration."

Urban Renaissance Meets the Middle Ages
Steve Lopez
Points West
October 20, 2005

They're yours for the taking: Luxury lofts in downtown Los Angeles, with rooftop pools, swanky cabanas, and views of Porta Potti brothels on skid row.

Evelyn, Eduardo and Thomas live within two blocks of each other, caught in the middle of this head-on collision between economic growth and social disintegration. One is on the street, one in recovery, one in a grandly appointed loft overlooking the place he calls Dante's Inferno.

"I wanted to be a part of the downtown renaissance," says Thomas Reid, an RN who moved out of West Hollywood and into his skid-row-adjacent apartment six weeks ago and was immediately "blown away" by the depth of despair at his doorstep. His windows offer "front-row seats to Skid Row Theater," with a soundtrack of screams and sirens.

Cosby Takes a Stand in Compton
The comedian urges residents at a community meeting to 'work toward something' in fixing the city's problems.
By Megan Garvey
Times Staff Writer
October 20, 2005

Bill Cosby didn't come to Compton High School on Wednesday night to sugarcoat reality.

He began with a story about both hope and tragedy.

The city, he said, needs to honor Venus and Serena Williams — the tennis superstars who rose from the public courts of Compton to the top of the world rankings.

"How difficult is it for Compton to have a parade so that parents can bring the children and hold them up and say: 'They're from here'?" he asked the hundreds of residents who came to talk about turning things around in their violence-plagued city.

First the church missionaries, then Coca-Cola. Now, Microsoft.

Microsoft: Africa doesn't need free software
Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK
October 17, 2005, 16:30 BST

Microsoft has claimed the cost of software is not an important issue in the developing world.

In response to a question on the role of open source software in Africa, Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160 (£91).

Quote of note:

She said she learned a great deal by doing Laurie's class work.

Wal-Mart heiress returns degree to USC
(10-19) 15:58 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --

Wal-Mart heiress Elizabeth Paige Laurie, accused of paying a fellow college student $20,000 to do her homework, has returned her University of Southern California degree, officials said.

The move came nearly a year after Laurie's freshman-year roommate, Elena Martinez, told the ABC newsmagazine "20/20" that she had written term papers and done assignments for the heiress for 3 1/2 years.

"Paige Laurie voluntarily has surrendered her degree and returned her diploma to the university. She is not a graduate of USC," the school said in a statement dated Sept. 30. "This concludes the university's review of the allegations concerning Ms. Laurie."

You must see the whole cartoon. Seriously.

via The American Street.

The previous post was supposed to be saved as a draft, i.e., it's not finished.

This is the last modification I intend to make of this chart.

In the second purple box from the right, I changed "superiority" to "hegemony" so as not to shut off anyone's brain. And I felt that odd-colored crew needed to be on the same board as the other two because we're talking about strategies Black folks use to keep intact whatever it is folks need to feel secure about.

Also, it lets me tell you why some folks have a snowball's chance in hell of achieving what may me quite laudable goal.

First, there's something every would-be revolutionary must understand and accept. No revolution, even such a chickenshit revolution as Newt Gingrich's,  no revolution has ever succeeded without the support of the middle class. I'm not talking about swing voters...anyone that can't choose between Bush and not-Bush is such an ass...

1 - Note this is an open thread. It may take a couple of days for you guys to use it but I've noticed you do, so you get one periodically. And fact is, several of the most popular threads started this way.

2 - We got changes coming...you probably noticed the title... 

Two things I've realized: I need a mission to run a web site, and since P6 is the center of my activities any major move I make will have to branch out from here. I'm not really thrilled by that realization because my major plans involve being more...open than I am here. P6 started as my personal blog and I really wanted it to stay that way but my major plans are more important.

Bet you want a hint...

Okay. Go to Negrophile and check out the blogroll. And if you like what I do (no guarantees, y'all) thank George (but don't we all?).

We're trying another bioethics lecture today. My schedule got twisted over the lsummer lecture layoff, so I'm not free Fridays as early as I'd need to be to get to most of them. I caught a break today, and I'm hoping to get in even though I didn't do the RSVP thing. If not, I'll be ranting again early this afternoon.

BUT

There's this book review in OpinionJournal that needs a minor spanking.

Fractions and Free Men
The Founding Fathers didn't solve the slavery problem. Could they have done better?
BY ALAN PELL CRAWFORD

The problem is the last two paragraphs.

Quote of note:

Among other facts, the Complaint cites the creation by UBSFS of two so-called “diversity” branches based on a “separate but unequal” model, staffed nearly entirely of minority brokers and focused nearly entirely on obtaining business from minority clientele. UBSFS failed to provide these segregated branch offices with proper support and they were eventually closed. Most of the minority brokers who worked there, including two of the plaintiffs, were eventually terminated. The Complaint also cites company-wide racially disparate staffing statistics, including the nearly total absence of African Americans in branch office management positions. The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief to end UBSFS’s discriminatory practices as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

NATIONWIDE CLASS ACTION FILED AGAINST UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC. ALLEGING A COMPANY-WIDE PRACTICE OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
October 18, 2005
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

On Tuesday, October 18, 2005, three African American former employees of UBS Financial Services, Inc. (“UBSFS”), filed a class action lawsuit against the company in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging racial discrimination in hiring, promotion and other employment practices. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all African Americans who were, are, or will be employed, or who sought employment at UBSFS, as brokers, non-broker officers, and other professional positions. The lawsuit seeks to put an end to years of racial discrimination at UBSFS. Information concerning the lawsuit can be obtained at www.ubsfsdiscrimination.com.

So far The Boston Globe has the best spin-to-fact ratio.

The committee proposes to cut the cap on interest deductions for home mortgages; taxpayers could deduct interest for only the first $350,000 of their mortgages, rather than the first $1 million. The panel also proposes that employer-provided family healthcare plans valued above $11,000 and individual plans worth more than $5,000 be treated as taxable income. Currently, healthcare benefits aren't subject to taxation.

The panel would collapse the current six tax brackets into four, with the top rate remaining at 35 percent and threequarters of taxpayers in the bottom bracket of 15 percent.

I decided to get a little random this morning and stumbled into The Assimilated Negro. And this ain't the post that brought me to his site, but it's the one that made me laugh and nod knowingly.

The Benefits Of Converting From A Negro To An Assimilated Negro

All the Negroes in the house say, “Yeah!”

All the Negroes in the house say, “hell yeah!!”

Word up.

In this episode we’re going to go over the primary reasons why any Negro should want to convert to being an Assimilated Negro

Improve your image and your bottom line without doing a damn thing for the workers. I have to admit, it's clever.

Wal-Mart to Start Equity Fund to Help Diversify Its Suppliers
By MICHAEL BARBARO

Wal-Mart Stores, which is fighting the nation's largest sex discrimination lawsuit, will set up a $25 million private equity fund to support businesses owned by women and members of minority groups over the next five years, the retailer said yesterday.

The fund will invest in businesses that offer merchandise and services to retailers with the goal of diversifying the industry's suppliers. Of Wal-Mart's 61,000 United States suppliers, 5,200 are owned by women and minority group members, the company said.

Quote of note:

...no sleep medication has been approved for use in children under 18. Still, doctors commonly use medications for patients and disorders for which the drugs have never received formal approval, particularly when those patients are children.

Sleeping Pill Use by Youths Soars, Study Says
By GARDINER HARRIS

The use of sleeping pills among children and very young adults rose 85 percent from 2000 to 2004, in yet another sign that parents and doctors are increasingly turning to prescription medications to solve childhood health and behavioral problems.

And about 15 percent of people under age 20 who received sleeping pills were also being given drugs to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, according to the study by Medco Health Solutions, a managed-care company that makes estimates about medication use in the whole population based on extrapolations from its own data. Drugs used to treat attention disorders can cause insomnia.

Number Overstated for Storm Evacuees in Hotels
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The Red Cross and federal government said Tuesday that they had been significantly overreporting the number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels. Instead of 600,000 people, 200,000 remain in hotels, the charity said.

Although the lower number means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cities receiving evacuees will find new housing for far fewer people, the count shows the lack of knowledge that FEMA has about the relocations and its limited oversight over the money it is committed to spend on such housing.

Hurricane Builds to a Category 5
From Associated Press
12:19 AM PDT, October 19, 2005

Hurricane Wilma strengthened into a Category 5 monster early today with 175-mph winds, and forecasters said a key reading of the storm's pressure showed it to be the most powerful of the year.

Wilma was on course to sideswipe Central America and Mexico, and forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend.

The storm's power multiplied greatly over the last day. It was only Tuesday morning that Wilma grew from a tropical storm into a weak hurricane with 80 mph winds.

Forecasters warned that Wilma was likely to rake Honduras and the Cayman Islands before turning toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region -- then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

Quote of note:

Last season's melee at the Piston-Pacer game at Auburn Hills, Mich., took the urban myth to new heights. A story in this newspaper asked whether the NBA was a "thug league."

Because the NFL had recently had two players on trial for murder at once, this might have been a distinction the NBA hadn't really earned yet.

...Last spring, word got out that the NBA had hired former Republican campaign strategist Matthew Dowd, Karl Rove's old lieutenant, to run focus groups to see how the league played in the red states.

Linking Dress With Success
Mark Heisler
The NBA
October 19, 2005

The NBA's real battle is not the one that's fought each spring over its championship, but the one for the hearts and minds of a national audience it dazzled, then lost and now yearns for.

NBA Lists Fashion Do's and Don'ts
It will no longer allow players to wear sloppy garb and gaudy jewelry at official events.
By Jerry Crowe and Valli Herman
Times Staff Writers
October 19, 2005

Still smarting from image problems nearly a year after players and fans attacked one another during a game at Auburn Hills, Mich., the National Basketball Assn. has cracked down on … apparel.

The NBA says it will require players to wear "business casual attire" when they are on league or team business and not in uniform — apparently the first attempt by a major U.S. pro league to regulate how its millionaire athletes dress when not competing.

I wasn't going to watch it, but I got Frontline's The Torture Question running in the background. I believe they have documented war crimes.

If you missed it, tomorrow, around noon, the show will be available as streaming video on the other side of that link up there. You'll understand well why the USofA refuses to be a part of that international court. When they say they're concerned about the court indicting Americans, they have damn good reason to be. Especially Rumsfeld.

Quote of note:

The rumor spread so fast that some Republicans by late morning were already drawing up reasons why Rice couldn't get the job or run for president in 2008. "Isn't she pro-choice?" asked a key Senate Republican aide.

White House Watch: Cheney resignation rumors fly
Posted 10/18/05
By Paul Bedard

Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Quote of note:

Murphy, in a 123-page order, said he had great respect for the Georgia Legislature, which passed the law earlier this year. "The court, however, simply has more respect for the Constitution," Murphy added.

Federal judge grants voter ID injunction
Order suspends law requiring photo identification at polls
By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/18/05

A federal judge in Rome today issued an order suspending a new state law requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls for the upcoming November municipal elections throughout Georgia.

U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy granted the injunction to lawyers for Common Cause of Georgia, the ACLU, the NAACP and other groups who challenged the law that requires Georgians to purchase a state-issued photo identification before voting.

US firms 'misuse' tax break windfalls
By Gabriel Rozenberg, Economics Reporter

A TAX break intended to create thousands of American jobs from billions of dollars made abroad by US companies could end up in shareholders’ pockets, leading economists say.

A year after the Jobs Creation Act was signed into law by President Bush, an estimated $206 billion (£116 billion) earned overseas by US multinationals has returned to America to take advantage of a one-off reduction in the rate of corporation tax.

Normally, companies face a 35 per cent tax on dividends when they repatriate their profits. But the Act reduces the levy to just 5.25 per cent on the profits of foreign subsidiaries.

Quote of note:

In his next column, to be published on Wednesday, Mr. Bartlett wrote that it is dawning on many conservatives "that George W. Bush is not one of them and never has been," citing the administration's positions on education, campaign finance, immigration, government spending and regulation. The choice "of a patently unqualified crony for a critical position on the Supreme Court was the final straw," he wrote.

In Sign of Conservative Split, a Commentator Is Dismissed
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - In the latest sign of the deepening split among conservatives over how far to go in challenging President Bush, Bruce Bartlett, a Republican commentator who has been increasingly critical of the White House, was dismissed on Monday as a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research group based in Dallas.

I don't even have to read this one.

[TS] A Very Special Scandal
JOHN TIERNEY  | New York Times: Opinion

The outing of Valerie Wilson was done by officials who didn't think it was illegal. Hardball politics isn't pretty, but it's not criminal, either.

Hardball politics is criminal when you commit a crime in the name of politics.

WTF? of note:

 "The lesson of both Katrina and Miers is that the system of decision making in the White House no longer meets the needs of the president," said David Frum, a former speechwriter for Mr. Bush who has been critical of the Miers choice.

So,,,we're admitting Bush isn't making the decisions. About damn time that went public. 

I've never seen such an organizational implosion. It's really remarkable. 

Bush Crises Raise Criticism of Chief of Staff's Management Style
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - With Karl Rove distracted by the intensifying C.I.A. leak scandal, some of the Bush administration's other challenges in recent months have cast a longer shadow on Andrew H. Card Jr., for years a guiding force as the White House chief of staff.

Quote of note:

"Darfur is no longer under control," said Eltayeb Hag Ateya, head of the Peace Studies Institute at the University of Khartoum. "It's not just the government against the rebels anymore. There's this armed group and that armed group. It's getting more complicated by the day."

Chaos Grows in Darfur Conflict as Militias Turn on Government
By MARC LACEY

ZAM ZAM, Sudan, Oct. 17 - The outlaws who rode into Geneina on camelback one recent afternoon represent the latest grim chapter in the desert war in western Sudan.

Quote of note: 

"A civil settlement is supposed to sting like a bee, not annoy like a gnat. Letting companies deduct settlement payments from their income taxes takes away the sting," Grassley said.

Baucus called the GAO findings "galling," adding that "companies punished for wrongdoing should not be able to subsidize their government settlements through a tax deduction that effectively passes on the costs" to taxpayers.

Firms Deduct Settlement Fees On Tax Returns, GAO Finds
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; Page D02

They mean you. And here we are, the richest nation in the world, run by folks who intend to do nothing to mitigate the situation. Isn't collectively responding to forces no single individual can impact the whole point of a nation?

U.S. Labor Is in Retreat as Global Forces Squeeze Pay and Benefits
By David Streitfeld
Times Staff Writer
October 18, 2005

Workers at auto parts maker Delphi Corp. will be asked this week to take a two-thirds pay cut. It's one of the most drastic wage concessions ever sought from unionized employees.

Workers at General Motors Corp., meanwhile, tentatively agreed on Monday to absorb billions of dollars in healthcare costs. Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler employees are certain to face similar demands.

Quote of note:

"In their meeting this afternoon Sen. Specter thought Ms. Harriet Miers said she agreed with Griswold v. Connecticut and there was a right to privacy in the Constitution," Specter spokesman William Reynolds wrote in an e-mail to reporters. "After Sen. Specter commented on that to the news media, Ms. Miers called him to say that he misunderstood her and that she had not taken a position on Griswold or the privacy issue. Sen. Specter accepts Ms. Miers' statement that he misunderstood what she said."

Interpretations Differ After Talks With Miers
Specter reports that the high court nominee believes in the right to privacy. But later the White House says he misunderstood her.
By Maura Reynolds and Edwin Chen
Times Staff Writers
October 18, 2005

Quote of note:

The polling found widespread recognition long before Katrina that poverty is a severe problem in this country, said pollster Celinda Lake, who conducted the second wave of polling.

"The conventional wisdom was that Katrina was catalytic to these attitudes about poverty," Lake said. "But these attitudes were evident before Katrina."

Rich, Poor See Poverty Very Differently
- By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
Monday, October 17, 2005

Oliver Willis said:

I think it’s past time for there to be a changing of the guard in black leadership in America. People like Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson are no better than hustlers, bigots, and crooks. There are hundreds of black leaders who believe in improving the lives of black Americans, and America in general, but the media keeps giving time to the Axis of Irrelevancy.

It’s time that stopped.

First, read Steve Gilliard's response to you. Second, I have to warn you, take a step back from the media. If it had the puissant force necessary to "change the guard," with all that's been published about these three gentlemen it would be a done deal.

Quote of note:

The charges could range from a broad conspiracy case to more narrowly drawn indictments for obstruction of justice or perjury, according to lawyers involved in the case. Charges are considered less likely on the law that initially triggered Fitzgerald's probe, which makes it illegal to deliberately unmask an undercover intelligence agent, because of the difficulty in meeting that statute's exacting standards for prosecution.

Cheney May Be Entangled in CIA Leak Investigation, People Say

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A special counsel is focusing on whether Vice President Dick Cheney played a role in leaking a covert CIA agent's name, according to people familiar with the probe that already threatens top White House aides Karl Rove and Lewis Libby.

Kelly G isn't a registered member, but caught my interest by pointing to this via email

In the Face of Diversity

All diversity programs are not created equal. Whether you're working to show that different is better, that even companies can be remixed, or that who you hire matters, diversity programs can fail for any number of reasons.

A recent report issued by Novations and J. Howard & Associates, a global consulting and training firm, suggest the following red flags to watch for:

• Confusion between diversity and inclusion initiatives Diversity metrics center mostly on representation, whereas inclusion metrics are more likely to reflect organizational health factors, including employee engagement. A diverse company is not necessarily inclusive, and an inclusive company may be just that, with little impact on representation.
• Isolated diversity function Time and again directors or vice presidents of diversity are siloed and disconnected from other areas of the business. Successful companies insure that diversity initiatives are owned by the business units and held accountable.
• Focusing just on compliance Metrics driven by compliance do not necessarily translate into changed behavior. Successful organizations seek to internalize the commitment to inclusion and look for evidence in decision-making, promotion criteria, strategic direction and professional development.
• Blurred vision A new diversity director may want to start fresh and blanket the organization with trainings, cultural awareness events, and activities that look like diversity work. Such a scattershot approach may miss critical targets.

What have you experienced in terms of diversity programs? What helped or hindered their success?

Caught this by way of Waveflux. The reason it's only symbolic:

Besides, Laine noted, the senior class still has a four-day trip to Disney World scheduled for April.

"We go to all the parks with our friends," Laine said just before hopping into his jet-black Infiniti and driving off to meet friends for an after-school snack.

"We fly down together and stay in the same hotel and so it's not like we're totally losing everything."

I totally think the principal was right. But if you read the article you'll see he's spitting into the wind.

Long Island principal cancels prom
Principal: School 'willing to sponsor a prom, but not an orgy'

UNIONDALE, New York (AP) -- Brother Kenneth M. Hoagland had heard all the stories about prom-night debauchery at his Long Island high school:

Students putting down $10,000 to rent a party house in the Hamptons.

Pre-prom cocktail parties followed by a trip to the dance in a liquor-loaded limo.

Fathers chartering a boat for their children's late-night "booze cruise." [P6: talk about parenting skills...]

Enough was enough, Hoagland said. So the principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School canceled the spring prom in a 2,000-word letter to parents this fall.

"It is not primarily the sex/booze/drugs that surround this event, as problematic as they might be; it is rather the flaunting of affluence, assuming exaggerated expenses, a pursuit of vanity for vanity's sake -- in a word, financial decadence," Hoagland said, fed up with what he called the "bacchanalian aspects."

"Each year it gets worse -- becomes more exaggerated, more expensive, more emotionally traumatic," he said.

"We are withdrawing from the battle and allowing the parents full responsibility. [Kellenberg] is willing to sponsor a prom, but not an orgy."

Quote of note:

Educators across the country have placed harsher penalties on students who bring guns and other dangerous weapons to school.

''There has been an increase in zero-tolerance measures and we make no excuses for it. We're entrusted with the safety of students when they're in our care,'' Garcia said.

But the report showed that less than 15 percent of the 2,500 Miami-Dade students arrested last year were charged with weapons- or drug-related offenses. About 10 percent of those arrested were under age 12.

Judith Browne, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, said teachers are overreacting to minor offenses, especially with black males, who are viewed as a threat.

''They're seen as a criminal waiting to happen,'' she said.

Schools discipline blacks more than others
Black students are arrested, suspended and expelled at a higher rate than are other students, a study found.
BY PETER BAILEY

Racial profiling permeates South Florida classrooms, as black students face suspension, expulsion and arrest at the hands of color-coded justice, a study says.

Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Robinson, meet Mr. Raspberry 

The Price of Low Expectations
By William Raspberry
Monday, October 17, 2005; Page A15

In one recent year, just under half of all young black men in the District of Columbia were in prison, on parole or probation, awaiting trial or sentencing, or being sought on a warrant. In Baltimore, one in five black men aged 20 to 30 was in custody. Numbers like these no longer surprise.

This may: "High levels of incarceration concentrated in impoverished communities have a destabilizing effect on community life, so that the most basic underpinnings of informal social control are damaged. This, in turn, reproduces the very dynamics that sustain crime." The quote, from Todd Clear, a professor of criminal justice at the City University of New York, was called to my attention by Eric Lotke, who has expanded on Clear's work.

Most of the race riots in this country's history have been white folks attacking Black folks. That only stopped when Black folks rioted back.

Calls for Calm at Nazi March Went Unheeded
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOLEDO, Ohio, Oct. 16 (AP) - In the days leading up to a white supremacist march here on Saturday, ministers pleaded with residents to stay calm and community leaders organized peace rallies.

The authorities delayed releasing the route so protesters would not know where the group planned to march.

But the precautions were not enough to stop people angry about the march from looting and burning a neighborhood bar, smashing the windows of a gas station, and hurling rocks and bottles at the police on Saturday. Twelve officers were injured, with one suffering a concussion when a brick flew through the window of her cruiser.

Virginia Theater Takes a New Name: August Wilson
By JESSE McKINLEY

On a blustery night when most of Broadway was dark, August Wilson's name was finally ablaze in lights, as the Virginia Theater was officially renamed yesterday evening for the playwright amid cheers along West 52nd Street.

The man of the hour, however, was sadly not on hand. Considered the nation's greatest African-American playwright and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Mr. Wilson died of liver cancer on Oct. 2. He was 60.

Weeks before his death, the Jujamcyn theater chain had decided to rename the Virginia, at 245 West 52nd Street, in honor of Mr. Wilson, whose inoperable cancer was diagnosed over the summer. Last night, the new marquee - the playwright's signature, fashioned in blazing neon - was unveiled before about 400 friends and fans.

If you're not guilty, you have nothing to fear.

Criminalizing Conservatives
Fall of 2005 will be remembered as a time when it became clear that a strategy of criminalization had been implemented to inflict defeat on conservatives.
by William Kristol
10/24/2005, Volume 011, Issue 06

THE MOST EFFECTIVE CONSERVATIVE LEGISLATOR of--oh--the last century or so, Congressman Tom DeLay, was indicted last month for allegedly violating Texas campaign finance laws, and has vacated his position as House majority leader. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, is under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for his sale of stock in the medical company his family started.

Premortem? I don't know how you'd conjugate that, but barring the occasional statement made to mitigate the 2% approval of Bush (and hence, Republicans and Conservatives) in the Black communities

They knew, as well, that he did not share their opposition to race-conscious affirmative action

...overheated criticisms of Mr. Bush, especially those that portrayed him as indifferent to the suffering of blacks.

Ramesh Ponnuru has a decent one at the NY Times.

Why Conservatives Are Divided
By RAMESH PONNURU

...To see where the fault lines really lie, it helps to review the history of conservatives' relationship with President Bush.

That percentage is kinda high. I think it's because I rated Reagan and Hitler the same way.

I am: 40% Republican.

"Congratulations, you're a swing voter. When they say 'Soccer Mom', they mean you. Every Democratic ad on the TV set was made just for your viewing enjoyment. Don't you feel special?"

Are You A Republican?

One strike against the Millions More Movement was the last-minute denial of National Black Justice Coalition turn on the stage. Beyond the foolishness of continuing an unnecessary divide in the Black communities, it makes the ministers involved look petty and mean-spirited.

Give your word, keep your word.

Here's the speech Mr. Boykin was to give. 

Remarks Prepared for Delivery
The Millions More March
Saturday, October 15, 2005
By Keith Boykin

Good Afternoon. Today I am honored to stand here at the Millions More Movement March as a representative of the National Black Justice Coalition, the country’s only national civil rights organization for Black lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. The National Black Justice Coalition strongly supports the goals of the Millions More Movement for unity and inclusion of our entire community.

Jay Leno is continuing with "white guys and FEMA" jokes.

Quote of note:

That was the essential triumph of the Million Man March. The black man, everyone knew, was a problem -- criminal, violent, irresponsible, hot-headed, predatory. Yet a million of us came together in a spirit of perfect fellowship. You saw young brothers in baggy jeans helping elegant old men in threadbare suits find a place to rest their weary bones. You saw beautifully educated men from the suburbs holding hands in prayer with regular guys from the 'hood.

...When Millions More strikes its tents, will the myriad problems facing black America be solved? Of course not. It took many decades for our left-behind black communities to fall; it will take time for them to rise. One feel-good rally could never be enough.

But yesterday, on the Mall, you could once again behold that better world that we all saw 10 years ago. Tell me how that can hurt. Tell me how that can do anything but help.

On the Mall: A Vision of Community
By Eugene Robinson
Sunday, October 16, 2005; B07

Sparring Between McClellan and Reporters Escalates
Bush's Press Secretary Says His Role Is To 'Mix It Up a Little Bit' With Media
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 16, 2005; A06

When CBS correspondent John Roberts asked about the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers at a White House briefing last week, he expected a boilerplate answer.

Instead, press secretary Scott McClellan lectured the reporter: "Let's talk about the way you're approaching things . . . I would encourage you -- I know you don't necessarily want to do this -- but to look at her qualifications and record." Moments later, Roberts accused McClellan of "attacking me."

Quote of note:

My notes indicate that well before Mr. Wilson published his critique, Mr. Libby told me that Mr. Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the C.I.A.

My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room
By JUDITH MILLER

In July 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, created a firestorm by publishing an essay in The New York Times that accused the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The administration, he charged, ignored findings of a secret mission he had undertaken for the Central Intelligence Agency - findings, he said, that undermined claims that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb.