Powell raps Europe on CIA flights

A number of countries where flights allegedly stopped have said they were unaware of their land being used.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that Europeans are being disingenuous when they deny knowledge of the rendition of terror suspects.

Mr Powell said the recently highlighted practice of moving people to places where they are not covered by US law was neither "new or unknown" to Europe.

The Confusing Cost of Medicare's Drug Plan
Some seniors wrestling with the government's confusing new prescription plan now must also contend with misleading price quotes
By DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

Signing up for Medicare's new prescription drug benefit has been challenging enough for the nation's 43 million eligible seniors. In most states they must wade through 40 different insurance plans, and the best way to compare prices and enroll is through the Internet — unfamiliar territory for many elderly. The government has also been so slow in confirming applicants' eligibility that some enrollees may not have their necessary ID cards when the program begins next month. Now, as the initial December 31 enrollment deadline fast approaches, comes another headache: Consumer groups say they're getting an increasing number of complaints from seniors that drug plan prices listed on Medicare's website differ from prices quoted by the private insurers running the plans. "There have been a lot of instances of huge discrepancies," says Hilary Dalin, counseling director for one of those consumer groups, Health Assistance Partnership.

Quote of note:

James Bamford, author of two books on the NSA, said the program could be problematic because it bypasses a special court set up by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to authorize eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.

"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense," Bamford said in an interview. "Today, what Bush said is he went around the law, which is a violation of the law — which is illegal."

Bush: Eavesdropping Helps Save U.S. Lives
- By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 17, 2005
(12-17) 15:42 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as "critical to saving American lives."

Quote of note:

"Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it."

Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

We like to think all citizens of the United States of America are guaranteed certain civil and human rights. Unfortunately, that guarantee is subject to the vagaries of human judgment. At times of national crisis this nation has always reduced the protections we are "guaranteed" by law. In fact Justice Scalia has said in wartime, "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum. I won't let it go beyond the constitutional minimum."

It is expected. There is historical precedent for it. Unfortunately, in every case the historic precedent has been that the impositions were deemed unnecessary and, in most cases, unconstitutional after the fact. The first such case was the Alien and Sedition Acts which passed in 1798. The threat was a French-backed navy of privateers operating in the area around the West Indies which was threatening the expanding U.S. merchant shipping force. The Act allowed the President to order

I'm watching the discussion of the defense appropriation bill on the floor of the Senate. It doesn't appear they will go along with shoehorning authorization to drill in ANWR into it. They don't like the fact that the provision was added after they signed off on a compromise, without a single Senator's (official) review.

They're not happy about campaign finance reform being slotted into a defense authorization bill, either. 

My Americhristian Conservates to poor: "Drop dead" post got a little attention.

I don't think John at Blogotional got past the title, unfortunately...

Can't Hold My Tongue On This One

The Washington Post had piece yesterday on the role of Christians in the current congressional debate on poverty relief cuts, particularly liberal Christians including my own PCUSA. Despite quoting both sides, it clearly tries to paint those of us that support the cuts as less than charitable. Ally Cheat Seeking Missles had some intersting thoughts particularly when it comes to Christian liberal spokesperson Jim Wallis. Wallis is a good target here because he creates avenues for stuff like this.

..."stuff like this" being my post. Unfortunately, Jim Wallis' quote had nothing to do with the analysis I did. It had everything to do the priorities of the Conservative Americhristian Church. Furthe explanation coming up, but let's see what bothers John so much about Mr. Wallis that John ties him to my post.

Is there any accusation, any dire prediction made by progressives against the Bush regime that turned out to be untrue?

Taking Liberties With the Nation's Security
By RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI

YESTERDAY the Senate failed to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, as a Democratic-led filibuster prevented a vote. This action - which leaves the act, key elements of which are due to expire on Dec. 31, in limbo - represents a grave potential threat to the nation's security. I support the extension of the Patriot Act for one simple reason: Americans must use every legal and constitutional tool in their arsenal to fight terrorism and protect their lives and liberties.

Never, if it's up to France. 

Law on Teaching Rosy View of Past Is Dividing France
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 17, 2005; A14

PARIS, Dec. 16 -- As a great maritime and colonial power in centuries past, France relished its role in taking its culture to the far corners of the globe -- French schools, language, trade, modern medicine and various other trappings of its civilization.

But people in those places were not always happy with what accompanied the French largess, including war, slavery, torture and the eradication of their cultures.

Those competing views of history have set off an emotional debate in France and places it colonized, following passage of a law here mandating that French schools give more emphasis to the positive aspects of French colonization.

Ask Tookie. 

2nd Senator to Return Abramoff Funds; Lobbyist Paid Columnist
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 17, 2005; A02

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) said he plans to return $150,000 in campaign contributions he collected from controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates, reversing a position his office had taken days earlier.

Also yesterday Copley News Service syndicated columnist Doug Bandow admitted accepting money from Abramoff for writing as many as 24 op-ed articles favorable to some of Abramoff's clients. Copley suspended the column pending a review and Bandow resigned as a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.

African Nations Call for U.S. to Eliminate Cotton Subsidies
At WTO talks, trade officials blame funding given to American farmers for holding down global prices and depressing economies.
By Don Lee
Times Staff Writer
December 17, 2005

HONG KONG — One after another, Africa's trade ministers rose to the podium and made their pleas to the World Trade Organization.

"Our countries cannot be bled at this rate for a long time," said Fatiou Akplogan of the West African nation of Benin.

Ngarmbatina Odjimbeyee Soukate, wearing the traditional clothing of Chad, said hers was "an appeal to the human conscience."

Come guys, didn't you see that movie?

Japan hopes to predict 'Big One' with journey to center of Earth

An ambitious Japanese-led project to dig deeper into the Earth's surface than ever before will be a breakthrough in detecting earthquakes including Tokyo's dreaded "Big One," officials said Thursday.

The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu made a port call Thursday in Yokohama after ending its first training mission at sea since being built in July at a cost of 500 million dollars.

The 57,500-ton Chikyu, which means the Earth in Japanese, is scheduled to embark in September 2007 on a voyage to collect the first samples of the Earth's mantle in human history.

The project, led by Japan and the United States with the participation of China and the European Union, seeks clues on primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life and on the tectonic plates that shake the planet's foundations.

"This is like an Apollo project under the Earth," staff scientist Kan Aoike said, referring to the landmark US lunar missions. 

Every Who down in Who-ville Loved the Consti-Who-tion a lot.
But the O'Reilly, who lived up in Fox-ville, Did NOT!

The O'Reilly DETESTED the Who Consti-Who-tion,
He thought it was some sort of liberal pollution.

Now, please don't ask why, for I really don't know.
Perhaps it had something to do with his show.

It could be that his head wasn't screwed on quite right.
Or it could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his RATINGS Were two sizes too

(...to be continued)

The New School responds to the article in NYC Indymedia accusing it of racism and censorship. They say there have been no charges filed, the INS contact was to clear up paperwork problems that would interfere with Ms. Tapaoan's student visa, and she's graduating with a Master's degree in January.

Like the my original post on the issue, I have to lead with an "if," but it sure sounds more likely than the blatant racism necessary for the Indymedia report to be true.

Either someone is bullshitting or there's a deeeeep misunderstanding. That the original date of the response is a day earlier than the Indymedia post and it was fed to one of my more reliable sources weeks later disturbs me. Anyway, the New School's response follows.

The NY Times is linking blogs that link their editorials.

What do you think should be the general goals of an effective Black partisan organization?

Do you have any ideas on methods that would be useful to approach those goals?

I have my own ideas, of course, but I want other people's ideas for consideration. All (and I mean all) anonymous comments will be approved on this one.

Quote of note:

The test also found steep declines in the English literacy of Hispanics in the United States, and significant increases among blacks and Asians.

Emphasis added, of course...

Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds
By SAM DILLON

The average American college graduate's literacy in English declined significantly over the past decade, according to results of a nationwide test released yesterday.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy, given in 2003 by the Department of Education, is the nation's most important test of how well adult Americans can read.

[TS] Drugs, Devices and Doctors
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, is under siege. And one side effect of that siege is a public relations crisis for the Cleveland Clinic, a celebrated hospital and health care organization.

But the real story is bigger than either the company or the clinic. It's the story of how growing conflicts of interest may be distorting both medical research and health care in general.

I just ran across this joke at random. 

A young chap is walking down the street when he hears a girl's voice coming from the direction of the gutter. When he looks down he sees a frog.

The frog looks up at him and says "Good sir, I am a beautiful princess who has been trapped in the body of a frog by a wicked witch. If a young man kisses me I will turn back into a princess. If you kiss me and release me from my curse I'll do anything you desire."

The young chap considers this, picks the frog up and puts it in his pocket.

"Please help me!" says the frog. "Kiss me and I will do anything your heart desires. I will be yours until the end of time!"

The young man takes the frog out of his pocket and says "I'm afraid I'm a computer programmer so I haven't got time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog - now, that's cool."

...over this:

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; A01

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

Over at Alas, A Blog, in response to this:

Many surveys show that people are more “tolerant” but there are deeper analysis that people are just as prejudice: They are just getting better at learning to hide it.

I said:

They don’t hide it. People’s beliefs about race are postulates. All other knowledge is organized to take it into account.

The opening paragraph of the article is a marvelous demonstration of my point.

...I was almost hoping this would be Bush's first veto. I mean, torture is a pretty bright red line to cross.

Then I thought about how many people were already over that line.

Obviously, morality has as little impact here as anywhere else in the administration, and torture has no economic impact; only political considerations could stop it...in this case, the need for a Presidential candidate in 2008 that has a little deniability.

President Relents, Backs Torture Ban
McCain Proposal Had Veto-Proof Support
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; A01

President Bush reversed position yesterday and endorsed a torture ban crafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) after months of White House attempts to weaken the measure, which would prohibit the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any detainee in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.

Instead of that nonsense by the old broad at the New York Press, read stuff at Rachels Tavern instead.

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
By JAMES RISEN
and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

White guys are scared enough of me as it is. 

Quote of note:

Even in a time when nearly 40 percent of single Americans have dated outside their race, that deliberate seeking of the specific other makes some people, especially black women, damned mad.

We are what they denigrate and castigate: white women and black men who choose one another because of our racial differences. They resent our taking their men. Black men are two and a half times more likely to marry a white woman than a black woman is to marry a white man. Black women can point to that statistic in justifying their wrath. But in truth, black sisters, we're after the sex, not the ring—and these guys aren't the marrying kind anyway.

Yes, the sex!

A WHITE WOMAN EXPLAINS WHY SHE PREFERS BLACK MEN
“How many white men can treat a woman like a lady and ravish her too?”
By Susan Crain Bakos

Black skin is thick and lush, sensuous to the touch, like satin and velvet made flesh. There's only one patch of skin on a white man's body that remotely compares to nearly every inch of a black man's skin. The first time I caressed black skin, it felt like a luxury I shouldn't be able to afford. I craved it more strongly than Carrie Bradshaw craved Manolo Blahnik shoes. That phrase, "Once you go black, you never go back" is all about the feeling of the skin.

Seeing the Forest:

Dropping the Code-Word "Liberals" and Accusing Jews Directly

There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about "mainstreaming extremism" lately. That is Republicans injecting hard KKK stuff, disguised to sound more moderate, into mainstream outlets. The Republican charge that there is a "war on Christmas" is a prime example of this. Now we find out who they have been implying is behind this war - because they're dropping the code words and saying it out loud. Townhall.com :: Columns :: The Jewish Grinch who stole Christmas by Burt Prelutsky,

You do now understand why I don't read those Conservative sites, right?

So The Daou Report linked to P6 for the first time the other day (then-que, then-que), and in the process of checking to see what they linked and what they quoted I ran across this bit of bullshit (notes added so you can

1. avoid that shit if you want
2. fact-check me if you want

) 

Katrina Killed Whitey

So said the black community, its leaders, and Democrats, that the response to Hurricane Katrina was dismal because the Bush Administration ordered the hurricane machine to create a hurricane that targeted black people. Well, maybe not all said that, but some did, while others still suggest the response to Hurricane Katrina was marred by the administration's lack of concern for the black community.

Illegal Immigration Could Be a Felony
House Republicans push legislation that defies Bush's guest-worker plan, under which criminals are not eligible for legal status.
By Nicole Gaouette
Times Staff Writer
December 15, 2005

WASHINGTON — Under immigration legislation being considered in the House, living illegally in the United States would no longer be a violation of civil immigration law. It would be a federal crime.

But making the nation's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants into felons could deal a fatal blow to the proposed guest-worker program that is a cornerstone of President Bush's immigration overhaul, because immigrants who have committed crimes are not eligible for legal status in the United States.

Nice book folks. Although, I had the feeling of listening to Kenny G or watching Elvis Presley when reading the book. I'll explain later. I don't want to write too much out of the gate, until I'm sure this process works properly...then we can have at it.

Quote of note: 

Slavery was no less brutal in New York than in the South - and just as pervasive. At one point, about four in 10 New York households owned human beings. The free human labor that ran the city's most gracious homes also helped to build its early infrastructure and supplied the muscle needed by the beef, grain and shipping interests, which forestalled emancipation until 1827 - making New York among the last Northern states to abolish slavery.

Judging from the videotaped responses of visitors to the historical society, people who thought they knew New York's history well have been badly shaken to learn about the depth and breadth of human bondage in the city. As one distraught patron put it, "The ground we touch, every institution, is affected by slavery."

A Convenient Amnesia About Slavery
By BRENT STAPLES

Americans typically grow up believing that slavery was confined to the cotton fields of the South and that the North was always made up of free states. The fact that slavery was practiced all over the early United States often comes as a shock to people in places like New York, where the myth of the free North has been surprisingly durable. The truth is that New York was at one time a center of the slave trade, with more black people enslaved than any other city in the country, with the possible exception of Charleston, S.C.

ZUMA Press photojournalist James Edward Bates grew up in Southern Mississippi, in an area that reluctantly abandoned segregation and where African American churches were burned to the ground as recently as the mid 1990s. Although the South has come a long way toward reconciling its diverse communities, underlying racial tensions still exist.

Bates began documenting the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in 1998, recording their words and actions accurately and honestly, as they exist before his camera. Over time, his lens repeatedly focused on the children Klan members. His resulting reportage illustrates how youngsters are indoctrinated into the beliefs and traditions of this organization.

The photographic exhibition "Generation KKK: Passing the Torch" is part of Bates' lifelong commitment to document not only racial challenges in the U.S. but throughout the world.

Remaining objective throughout this project is important to Bates. "It is not my place to judge either side of this or any issue. Certainly, I have an opinion, but it is my responsibility as a photojournalist to document life as it happens before me. The work should speak for itself. These images stir emotions from which comes awareness," he says.

In the words of his agent, ZUMA Press Director and Founder Scott Mc Kiernan, "James' courage and tenacity is epic. On more than one occasion, James risked his life to bring the world a glimpse of what many thought was a bygone era of extremism. His perseverance has resulted in a very powerful body of work. The problem is far from gone or dead. Generation KKK is here!"

President Says DeLay Is Not Guilty of Money Laundering
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; A07

President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of money-laundering charges, as he offered strong support for several top Republicans who have been battered by investigations or by rumors of fading clout inside the White House.

In an interview with Fox News, Bush said he hopes DeLay will be cleared of charges that he illegally steered corporate money into campaigns for the Texas legislature and will reclaim his powerful leadership position in Congress.

"I hope that he will, 'cause I like him, and plus, when he's over there, we get our votes through the House," Bush told Fox News's Brit Hume.

Hm. That last paragraph sounds familiar...

"Absolute justification of UC's policy" of note:

From the introduction to a 10th-grade biology textbook published by the Bob Jones University Press: "Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of God ... this book is not for them." And "if the conclusions contradict the word of God, the conclusions are wrong, no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them."

This beats the hell out of Lysenkoism...even the Bush version of it. 

God and admission requirements
Patt Morrison
December 15, 2005

I WAS MAYBE 8 years old the day I got kicked out of Sunday school. We were learning about Moses miraculously parting the Red Sea, when I piped up and asked, "Was it really and truly a miracle? What if it was just low tide? Did anyone ever think of that? Huh?"

It was my first and only expulsion, and it stayed with me, along with the compound unfairness that it happened before the milk and cookies. Why wouldn't the teacher answer? Religion, I realized, wasn't about question marks, it was about periods — about faith, not about proof. As the scary bumper sticker out there warns me, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."

Quote of note:

At such times, it's worth remembering the Park Service's mission statement: "The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world."

Nothing in there about mining or giving whole islands over to the military.

Land grab
December 15, 2005

SUDDENLY IT'S OPEN SEASON on our national parks. Not on the animals, though the Interior Department did move last month to take the Yellowstone grizzly off the endangered species list. It's open season on the parks themselves.

Quote of note:

Woodward declined to comment yesterday. Novak's attorney, James Hamilton, declined to comment on why Novak is now discussing the case.

For the record, the choice of illustration here is totally mine. 

Columnist Says Bush Knows Who Leaked Name
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; A07

Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who has repeatedly declined to discuss his role in disclosing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, said in a speech this week that he is certain President Bush knows who his mystery administration source is.

Novak said Tuesday that the public and press should be asking the president about the official rather than pressing journalists who received the information.

Novak also suggested that the administration official who gave him the information is the same person who mentioned Plame and her CIA role to Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward in the summer of 2003.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, according to an account published yesterday in the Raleigh News & Observer. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."

Quote of note:

It’s important to understand that George W. Bush and Karl Rove never have had the goal of winning over the bulk of independent voters, let alone self-identified Democrats, on any issue—let alone an issue as controversial as the war in Iraq. Rather, the Bush-Rove aim always is to create or keep a critical mass of operational support. And that, in turn, means keeping the “base” —the Republican Party—together and in line. With both chambers of Congress in GOP hands, with the “Mainstream Media” divided into warring camps, the Bush White House can pursue its my-way-or-the-highway theory of leadership.

But the key is keeping the GOP base together. And that’s what the Philly event was all about.

Say Cheese, Senator Santorum
Why the White House is arm-twisting and sweet-talking all the president's 'friends.'
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Updated: 4:27 p.m. ET Dec. 14, 2005

Dec. 14, 2005 - President George W. Bush has spoken thousands of words in recent weeks in an effort to resell the Iraq war to Americans as Iraqis go to the polls. But one photo op from Bush’s sales campaign spoke louder than all the words: a picture of him with Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

One Faith Fits All -- or Else
A rise in Protestantism has drawn a backlash from Mexican Catholics. Some use their positions of authority to enforce religious traditions.
By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer
December 15, 2005

SAN NICOLAS IXMIQUILPAN, Mexico — In the rural hamlet of San Nicolas, there are people who use a bulldozer and a backhoe as instruments of God.

Angry Catholics used the backhoe to cut off Nicolasa Vargas' water after she and her farmworker husband were conspicuously absent from the fiesta honoring the village's patron saint, St. Nicolas of Tolentino, whose cherubic statue smiles down from a perch in the town's whitewashed chapel.

Quote of note: 

The vow to "settle for nothing less than complete victory" satisfies Bush's desire to project Churchillian resolve, a strategy in keeping with White House theory that public support for a war depends on whether Americans believe they will win. The "stand up, stand down" formulation, by contrast, is intended to signal that the United States will not remain forever enmeshed in a bloody overseas conflict fueled by sectarian enmity.

The twin messages stem from a conclusion by White House advisers that they needed to counter the growing calls to begin pulling out of Iraq, or at least set a timetable for doing so.

"[N]othing less than complete victory" means we might as well start setting up Century 21  branches.

In Four Speeches, Two Answers on War's End
As Bush Tries to Recast Debate, Definitions of Victory and Iraqi Security Diverge
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 15, 2005; A01

Strange new object found at edge of Solar System
14:05 13 December 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Maggie McKee

A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the object's orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular.

Researchers led by Lynne Allen at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, first spotted the object in observations made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in December 2004. Since October 2005, they have made follow-up observations that have revealed the object's perplexing path.

Quote of note:

For now, TPM-equipped computers are primarily sold to big corporations for securing their networks, but starting next year TPMs will be installed in many consumer models as well.

Let’s see some ID, please
The end of anonymity on the Internet?
By Michael Rogers
Columnist
Special to MSNBC
Updated: 7:53 a.m. ET Dec. 13, 2005

As the joke goes, on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog. But although anonymity has been part of Internet culture since the first browser, it’s also a major obstacle to making the Web a safe place to conduct business: Internet fraud and identity theft cost consumers and merchants several billion dollars last year. And many of the other more troubling aspects of the Internet, from spam emails to sexual predators, also have their roots in the ease of masking one’s identity in the online world.

Quote of note:

They informed her that the letter wrritten by these students, which had been printed in the School Newspaper, had stirred up a lot of controversy, and that she would have to pay for it.

They told her that because of the controversial nature of the program and because of the letter, they were going to bring her up on charges with the Office of Student Services for technical reasons relating to the application for the event's venue. They also said that they would be filing a report with Homeland Security/INS.

Now, her residency (she is here in the land of the free on a student visa) and her academic career are at stake because she organized a meeting with Black speakers on a topic that an Academic bureaucrat considers "too controversial."

Stop Racism & Censorship at New School

New School Administrators are threatening the status and residency of a student because of a meeting

By E Simpson

New School Administrators are targeting a graduate student because she organized an all-black panel to speak on topics they consider "controversial."

Given that no one got shot... 

Police Dept. video scandal quietly slipping into Phase B
- Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Wednesday, December 14, 2005

A funny thing happened over the weekend to the big "Cops Gone Wild" video scandal in San Francisco -- it started getting very quiet.

By Sunday, the message was going out that Newsom -- having made his point and formed a "blue-ribbon" commission to look into the department's culture -- was now ready to get as many of the 24 suspended cops back to work in the Bayview Station as possible, as soon as possible.

On Monday, Newsom also met with about a half dozen of the suspended cops at the police union headquarters.

 

Two, actually.

Blacks Number One Problem: Racism?

Going around the 'net, or reading opinion pieces, or listening to talk shows, I often read/hear people say something like, "Despite what Blacks think, racism is NOT the number one problem facing Black America.

OK, for me that's a no brainer; it isn't Black America's number one problem. What I want to know is, what percentage of Blacks believe it IS Blacks number one problem?

I suspect that most Blacks will say that it's not, and if that's the case, it's another issue of critics of the Black community setting up a straw man for them to defeat.

The other good question came in the comments, asked by Bomani Jones:

 

Quote of note:

Around that time, conservatives such as William Bennett and James Q. Wilson began attaching the label of "super-predator" to all the Tookie wannabes. Their notion seemed to be that a fixed percentage of kids were natural-born killers who just couldn't be helped by better schools or jobs — a neo-Darwinian philosophy that fit neatly with the de-industrialization and budget cuts that swept across inner cities like chain saws through old-growth forests.

The super-predator thesis justified the most massive prison expansion in American history, with its epicenter in California, where there were about 150,000 inmates in any given year, two-thirds of them reputed gang members. Prosecutors and politicians pursued the vertical model of the 1920s, going after the alleged godfathers, but in fact the new gangs were replenishing themselves from the outcast underclass. Last year in Los Angeles, there were 93,000 youths between 18 and 24 who were out of school and out of work. Statewide, the number was 638,000.

"First, I was going to become a citizen," he said. "Then I was just going to apply for my little girl and for [my wife]. I know a lot of people that have done it that way, and it's functioned."

But Carbajal did not wait. A year ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents caught her attempting to cross the Rio Grande near Hidalgo, Texas, with Anett in tow. That triggered reinstatement of her old deportation order, and she was told to return to Honduras.

Maldonado says he knew nothing about Carbajal's plans to try to enter illegally until border agents called, telling him his wife and child were in their custody. He says he flew to Texas immediately.

It was then that the couple made a fateful decision that tangled the baby's residency issue. At the border patrol office, Maldonado says an agent told him and his wife that Anett stood a better chance of gaining legal status if she stayed behind with her father. In the hours before her departure, Carbajal then reluctantly signed over legal custody of Anett to her husband.

INS wants toddler deported
By TERESA BORDEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/14/05

Anett Michell Maldonado-Carbajal was born in Guatemala, but she uttered her first word, "Papa," in Georgia.

And that, according to the U.S. government, is a problem, because although her father, Edgar Maldonado, is a legal U.S. resident, 2-year-old Anett is an illegal immigrant. The government wants her out of the country.

Here's the ad.

Here's the detailed reaction. 

for hundreds of licence payers, the clip has proved eye-catching for all the wrong reasons – inspiring only their fears and thoughts on the BBC website.

“As a registered psychotherapist, I wish to protest that this image is disturbingly psychotic,” reads one recent entry. “Its unacknowledged aggression could make a fragile viewer ill”.

Another writes: “I was having my dinner when the advert came on and it was all I could do to keep my food down. The images actually made my skin crawl.”

Other viewers said the symbolism of the ad combined with a bouncing head that eventually collapses was just too much too bear.

“My youngest child was most distressed when Postman Pat’s head disappeared,” said one.

“In accordance with other viewers I was strongly offended by the BBC’s promotion for digital TV,” explained another.

“To have people’s heads bouncing about the countryside must be hugely disturbing…I feel it would upset some younger and more squeamish viewers.”

What would Jesus do about this?

Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities, and their priorities are abortion, same-sex marriage and seating judges who will back their position against those practices.

"It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important," said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. "But whether or not a baby is killed in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, that is less important than help for the poor? We would respectfully disagree with that."

Well, let's see. In 2001 (the latest year a linkable web page is available for) of 853,458 abortions , some 12,000 were performed nationwide where the pregnancy was more than 20 weeks along...that's 1.4%, by the way...and 32,907,000 people (11.7%) below the poverty level. Almost 40 times more poor people than there were abortions performed at all. And yes, tha's a comparison that makes as little sense as the one Mr. Hetrick makes.

But how many abortions were done solely for economic reasons? How many were NOT done for economic reasons, and how do those children suffer because of their poverty?

Truthfully, helping the poor is more important than opposing abortions after seven or eight months of gestation.

A Religious Protest Largely From the Left
Conservative Christians Say Fighting Cuts in Poverty Programs Is Not a Priority
By Jonathan Weisman and Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A08

Frist Says AMT Fix May Be Deferred
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; A09

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Congress may postpone until next year a measure to prevent 15 million households from paying $30 billion under the alternative minimum tax, indicating that extending tax cuts on capital gains and dividends was a higher priority.

"I feel strongly that capital gains and dividends should be in the bill when it comes back to the Senate floor," Frist told reporters. Of the minimum tax, he said that "in all likelihood, we'll not be able to finalize that until we get back" in 2006.

The Senate will likely take up the tax-cut extensions either before it adjourns at the end of this week or early next year. Frist's comments signaled that the Senate may remove the AMT measure from budget legislation it passed in November, adopting instead a measure passed by the House last week to extend the 15 percent rate on dividends and most capital gains until 2010.

I'm not sure I've seen a real interest in getting this right.

Marshals To Patrol Land, Sea Transport
TSA Test Includes Surveillance Teams On Metro System
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A01

Teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers will fan out to bus and train stations, ferries, and mass transit facilities across the country this week in a new test program to conduct surveillance and "counter potential criminal terrorist activity in all modes of transportation," according to internal federal documents.

According to internal Transportation Security Administration documents, the program calls for newly created "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" teams -- called "Viper" teams -- to take positions in public areas along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Viper teams will also patrol the Washington Metro system.

Diebold shares rally on CEO resignation

DEC. 13 12:07 P.M. ET The resignation of Diebold Inc. Chief Executive Walden W. O'Dell was cheered on by Wall Street Tuesday as a move seen giving the company a fresh start from leadership marred by controversy.

The company was thrust into the center of controversy during the 2004 presidential election campaign, after O'Dell wrote in a Republican Party fundraising letter that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." The Canton, Ohio-based company is among the nation's biggest suppliers of paperless, touch-screen voting machines.

The commitment continues, and seems to have recruited California's Secretary of State in its efforts.

Some idiot is Gooling for

black male masters punish white slaves

Said idiot found a link to a page here that must have severely disappointed him or her...nine pages into the search.

This means said idiot is serious about researching it. Look for something really stupid...I'm hoping it will be on VDare (however you capitalize it). I'm afraid it will be an editorial by some nice respectable Black Conservative®.

Seriously... 

Spence Leaves, Moves to Blacksmythe.com

I'm making it official.

I'm leaving Vision Circle.

...Oh. Where to now? Here's where you'll find me if you're looking. I don't imagine I'll be doing anything more than putting up content--my academic papers, my commentaries from Africana.com and Blackvoices.com, my radio commentaries, probably my blog entries from here. But we'll see.

I need to use that quickness as inspiration.

I got this in my RSS reader...I would give a link, but the writer deleted the post for some reason. I will respect that as far as not identifying the crew but what was written is too on point to let it disappear into the ether.

As I watched on television the very last minutes of Mr. William's life, I realized how depraved and sick the idea of awaiting a man's death at the hands of the government actually was. Guilty or not, black or white, looking at the clock as a man's last breaths are taken is simply barbaric. Prior to this execution, I did not care either way. However, once I realized what was going on, it made me think of the times where blacks were being lynched as a crowds chanted "nigger" and pictures were taken to make postcards. The comparison may be drastic but the principle is the same; watching a powerless man dying as if we are euthanizing an animal. I hope that the families who wanted to execution to take place find some closure. However, after 25 years what type of closure can there be? In my opinion, the type of closure at hand is a form of revenge which may be only defined as an irrational act based solely upon emotion. If citizens are not allowed to engage in revenge killings, why should the government be?

via Negro, Please: 

I want to talk about the original story of Kong and the prejudices of the time that it had no problem with. The "savages" who are savage for no reason other than because they are dark and savage. The white actors in black face. The "ooga boogah" jungle bunny caricatures. I understood while watching this contemporary Kong that Peter Jackson was serious about staying true to a lot of the original elements of the film which, apparently, not only meant keeping in the scary spider scene that was excised from the original but also keeping in those ugly stereotypes without adding any explanation.

Oh sure, he adds a benevolent negro (1st cousin to the magic negro) to the crew of sailors who keeps track of a young stowaway white boy and pops in to save the day at key moments throughout the film (and then promptly meets the end that all benevolent negroes meet on screen) but my frustration with films like this one is that even in this cartoony, stylized world where giant apes and dinosaurs roam, we get lots of different white characters with varying motivations and moralities at least some of whom will get some resolution to their key plot points by the end of the film. Far too often for dark skinned characters, there are too few of them in the world to present anything other than one point of view and even if there are many "colored" roles, they are all singularly focused or singularly motivated.

via Professor Kim:

Late on the night of December 26, 2001, Cory Maye, 21, laid asleep in his Prentiss, Mississippi duplex apartment, with his 1-year-old daughter in a crib nearby. A armed man entered his bedroom. Maye shot the man, who turned out to Ronald Jones, 29, part of a police SWAT team searching for drugs. Jones, the son of the local police chief, died from his wound. No drugs were found in Maye's apartment, although a search of the grounds and the adjoining property produced evidence leading to the arrest Maye's neighbor, Jamie Smith, for drug possession and trafficking. Despite Maye's contention that the shooting was in self-defense, a jury convicted him of murder in January, 2004, and he was sentenced to die by lethal injection.

The reason that the world knows about the case at all is because Radley Balko, of The Agitator did some investigative reporting on his own (and be sure to read more here and here and here. He posts an e-mail from the prosecutor here. Battlepanda reports that bloggers are lining up across the red-blue divide to denounce the government's actions in the case.

We should all keep an eye on this one.

Quote of note:

As proposed by Malaysia and championed by China, the summit was conceived as a new way for the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to cooperate with China, Japan and South Korea -- but not the United States -- on security, social and economic problems. Given China's preponderant size and growing economy, many officials viewed it as a vehicle for Chinese leadership, making Beijing the motor of an Asian bloc with a voice distinct from that of other Asia-Pacific groupings that include Washington.

A senior Chinese official said that one goal was to begin a gradual realignment between Asian nations, particularly China, and the overwhelming military and political role played by the United States in Asia since World War II. While China has no desire to contest the strong U.S. presence in Asia, he said, the time has come to consider a greater role for Asia's own governments, and China in particular.

Although it's possible the quote of note should be China is the world's largest IT exporter...

Asian Leaders Hold Summit Without U.S. Presence
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 13, 2005; 12:03 PM

...was last night, when she said "Some of these people want to take the Christ out of Christmas."

I had to remind her how little Christ has been in Christmas from the very beginning. 

It takes a special kind of sickness to live-blog an execution.

BBC drops 'digital face' trails  
Some viewers complained about the ad to the BBC's Points of View

A promotional trailer for digital TV - which some viewers complained was "horrific" and "disturbingly psychotic" - has been dropped by the BBC.

The Faces campaign, which featured a giant animated head made up of smaller heads, generated 1,300 complaints.

The BBC had defended the images, saying they represented the viewers who are able to watch digital TV.

A spokesman for the BBC said the trailer had "finished slightly early", after it "achieved its goal".

Quote of note:

The more relevant finding was that about 39 percent of the pharmacists felt they should be able to refuse to fill a legal prescription, apart from another 37 percent who felt they should be able to refuse with a referral to a more cooperative pharmacist. (Only 23 percent said that a patient's legal rights should prevail over the pharmacist's misgivings.)

So at least when it comes to emergency contraception, almost 4 out of 10 pharmacists would consider it appropriate to brush off a woman's legal request for services. I would have expected to see a larger portion of the pharmacist population putting the welfare of their patients before their own moral judgments. If nothing else, there seems to be a vast difference of opinion between pharmacists and physicians--a previous survey of doctors by HCD Research found that 78 percent of physicians thought that pharmacists should be obliged to provide emergency contraception.

Quote of note:

The federal budget is in crisis thanks to unwarranted tax cuts, unbounded entitlements, and open-ended commitments for hurricanes and homeland defense. But the budget does not recognize assets; it recognizes only expenditures and liabilities. Under the rules as we have them, the Louisiana Purchase would have been accounted for on the basis of the debt issued to Napoleon, with no recognition of the astounding value created.

It's Time to Rebuild America
A Plan for Spending More -- and Wisely -- on Our Decaying Infrastructure
By Felix G. Rohatyn and Warren Rudman
Tuesday, December 13, 2005; A27

My first thought was, "Like AOL, the wall around this garden will either dissolve in chaos that is the Internet, or starve the growth inside the wall." But opening their own search api to external engines and giving greater access to those who search directly from the HarperCollins site, they changed my mind in a few paragraphs.

HarperCollins Will Create a Searchable Digital Library
By EDWARD WYATT

In the latest move in the battle between publishers and search engines, HarperCollins Publishers said yesterday it would create its own digital library of all of its book and audio content and make it searchable by consumers on the Internet. Web users will be able to search the HarperCollins archive via search engines like Google and Yahoo or the specialized programs of retailers like Amazon.com.

After all, one does not want the Secret Service paying one a visit, and this administration has already demonstrated a decided lack of appreciation for disagreement. And for all the issues that are important to the middle class. And any effort to address the systemic damage willfully inflicted on Black folks.

Race Not Factor in Aid, Bush Says
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - President Bush said Monday that the failures of the government in responding to Hurricane Katrina had nothing to do with race or class and repeated his promise to rebuild the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in particular.

Asked in an interview with NBC News whether the response would have been the same had the destruction occurred on Nantucket or in Chicago or Houston, Mr. Bush said he was aware of criticism that the government acted slowly because he was a racist, and he said such criticism was absolutely wrong.

The problem:

The question of whether the Texas redistricting violated either the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution has ramifications well beyond the boundaries of that state. The mid-decade redistricting was so successful for the Texas Republicans that if it is upheld, it could well become the norm any time a single party gains control of a state legislature and wants to entrench its power in the state's Congressional delegation.

Supreme Court to Hear Dispute on Texas Redistricting
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would decide the validity of the much-disputed Congressional map that Texas Republicans pushed through the State Legislature two years ago in a highly unusual mid-decade redistricting that led to the loss of five Democratic Congressional seats.

Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Williams
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday refused to spare the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the founder of the murderous Crips gang who awaited execution after midnight in a case that stirred debate over capital punishment and the possibility of redemption on death row.

Schwarzenegger was unswayed by pleas from Hollywood stars and petitions from more than 50,000 people who said that Williams had made amends during more than two decades in prison by writing a memoir and children's books about the dangers of gangs.

"After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no justification for granting clemency," Schwarzenegger said, less than 12 hours before the execution. "The facts do not justify overturning the jury's verdict or the decisions of the courts in this case."

Quote of note:

In its suit, the association and its co-plaintiffs objected "to government officials ... dictating and censoring the viewpoints that may and may not be taught ... (in) private schools. ... (They) have rejected textbooks and courses based on a viewpoint of religious faith, for the first time in the University of California's history." The rejections, the suit asserted, "violate the freedom of speech of Christian schools, students and teachers."

On Oct. 28, UC asked U.S. District Judge S. James Otero to dismiss the suit. The university was not "stopping plaintiffs from teaching or studying anything," it argued. "This lawsuit is really an attempt to control the regents' educational choices. Plaintiffs seek to constrain the regents' exercise of its First Amendment-protected right of academic freedom to establish admissions criteria."

A hearing is scheduled today on the motion to dismiss.

"I think there's a good chance the judge may take (the suit) very seriously," Haynes said. "The implication is now all religious schools have to clean up their act if they want their students to get into the university."

Culture war pits UC vs. Christian way of teaching
Religious schools challenge admission standards in court
- Mike Weiss, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 12, 2005

In a small room at the University of California's headquarters in downtown Oakland, UC counsel Christopher Patti sat beside a stack of textbooks proposed for use by Calvary Chapel Christian School in Riverside County -- books UC rejected as failing to meet freshmen admission requirements.

Biology and physics textbooks [P6: YES!!!!!!] from Christian publishers were found wanting, as were three Calvary humanities courses.

Quote of note:

About 65% of the address changes were turned in by evacuees from the New Orleans area. Of that group, most came from densely populated Orleans Parish, one of the poorest areas in the nation, whose population was about two-thirds black. Many of these evacuees settled in areas where the populations on average were two-thirds white.

Nearly 15% of the Orleans Parish evacuees scattered to such distant cities as Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Boston.

By contrast, the displaced population of New Orleans' suburban counties, which were about two-thirds white, evacuated to areas similar in racial demographics. The suburban group largely settled nearby, with 10% staying within the same ZIP Code and more than 90% relocating within the region.

Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina Resettle Along a Racial Divide
Hurricane Katrina may have emptied whole sections of New Orleans, but it hasn't set in motion the great national diaspora that was widely foreseen. Instead, the vast majority of displaced households are staying close to their former homes.
By Tomas Alex Tizon and Doug Smith
Times Staff Writers
December 12, 2005

Quote of note:

Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence, but said he did not believe racism was widespread in Australia.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics," Howard said.

But he added: "I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community."

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a day after thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach in the same area in one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence.

Sunday's attack - apparently prompted by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards - sparked retaliation by young men of Arab descent in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested in hours of violence.

Abuse Cited In 2nd Jail Operated by Iraqi Ministry
Official Says 12 Prisoners Subjected to 'Severe Torture'
By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 12, 2005; A01

BAGHDAD, Dec. 11 -- An Iraqi government search of a detention center in Baghdad operated by Interior Ministry special commandos found 13 prisoners who had suffered abuse serious enough to require medical treatment, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Sunday night.

An Iraqi official with firsthand knowledge of the search said that at least 12 of the 13 prisoners had been subjected to "severe torture," including sessions of electric shock and episodes that left them with broken bones.

Quote of note:

http://www.prometheus6.org/node/9838

Frist Cautions Senators Against Stalling Alito Vote
Democrats Don't Plan Filibuster
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 12, 2005; A05

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) threatened yesterday to strip Democrats of the power to filibuster if they block the vote on Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.

"It would be against the intent of the Founding Fathers and our Constitution to deny Sam Alito an up-or-down vote on the floor of the United States Senate," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

To be fair, that's what Ms. Seigal suggests. She just nice about it...

Psychoanalysts, for instance, have interpreted "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as Dorothy's quest for a penis - that is, retrieving the witch's broomstick. Does that symbolism - if you buy it - make Dorothy a pervert? No, because it's hidden. That's the point. Overt and covert meaning can exist independently.

Those with a fiduciary, rather than phallic bent, might prefer the theory that L. Frank Baum's Oz stories are a Populist manifesto, with the yellow brick road as the gold standard, the Tin Man as alienated labor, Scarecrow as oppressed farmers, and so on. (And surely some Jungian theory about the collective unconscious explains why both Oz and Narnia are populated by four heroic characters fighting an evil witch.)

The Lion, the Witch and the Metaphor
By JESSICA SEIGEL

THOUGH it's fashionable nowadays to come out of the closet, lately folks are piling in - into the wardrobe, that is, to battle over who owns Narnia: secular or Christian lovers of C. S. Lewis's stories.

Quote of note: 

The sticking point in talks between Mr. McCain and Stephen J. Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, hinges on narrow language the White House is seeking that could make it harder to prosecute intelligence officers charged with violating torture standards.

Mr. McCain is balking at agreeing to any exemption for intelligence officials, members of his staff say. Instead, he has offered to include some language, modeled after military standards, under which a soldier can provide a defense if a "reasonable" person could have concluded that he was following a lawful order about how to treat prisoners.

...which would lead to no change at all.  

Negotiators Say Differences Over Ban on Abuse Remain
By CARL HULSE and ERIC SCHMITT

Attention Christmas warriors:

And marketers say the trend toward using the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas" is indicative of more than a desire to include non-Christians in a sales pitch. Products with the word "Christmas" often lose value after Dec. 25, while generic holiday themes with snowflakes and candy canes can sell well into January.

"That is definitely part of the strategy," Mrs. Semrau said. "You want to make sure you have the appropriate amount of inventory, but also that you don't have to worry about having a lot left over that's useless after Christmas. Doing things for the holiday is an inventive, masterful piece of marketing."

You know what that means, right? Your crusade is doomed, because Capitalism is America's religion. Even Americhristianity pales in comparison...basically because it's no fun.

"This time of year is all about indulgence, and this gives people permission to enjoy different flavors," said Kim Peddle, a spokeswoman for Coffee-mate, which is owned by Nestlé. "Americans are just so into flavor, variety and customization."

Holiday Themes Sell Everyday Items
By JULIE BOSMAN

If the player is disposable and can load media files from any computer, this could put Burger King® out of business. Maybe even Wendy's®.

And they may well  be able to do it. Computing power is cheap...soon we're going to use computers the way we now use plastic. We'll use more computing power to flip jps in a picture frame on the wall than it took to land men on the moon. We'll use it to differentiate products, to make silly things no one really needs.

Would You Like Some Fries With That Download?
By JULIE BOSMAN

If the Walt Disney Company has its way, McDonald's Happy Meal toys could be replaced with portable media players that hold Disney movies, music, games or photos, according to a pending patent application. Users could add files to the devices by earning points with food purchases.

Quote of note:

Has the public been taught, movie by movie, to loathe and suspect the press? Maybe not, but the movies in which the press is seen as holding business and government to account - how the press likes to think of itself - are far outnumbered by the films in which the news media come off as entirely unaccountable.

If that's how the press likes to think of itself (and it just occurred to me how deep the idea of the press thinking anything is) it should act that way. And it hasn't for at least a decade.

Hollywood Gives the Press a Bad Name

PEOPLE may not be keen on consuming the fruits of journalism - ratings, circulation and polling numbers make that plain - but put them in a darkened movie house and the craft suddenly becomes riveting.

The Republican Calendar.

 

Quote of note:

Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent commitment.

If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.

Death of an American City

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.

Quote of note:

"It would kill the black psyche if New Orleans East wasn't rebuilt," said Talmadge Wall, an interior designer who for 15 years has lived with her husband and children in New Orleans East. "Think of what it would mean if the city successfully chased off so many African-Americans who had money, its doctors and successful businesspeople and lawyers and such. People who were aspiring to attain that kind of success would no longer feel like they have a chance."

Wealthy Blacks Oppose Plans for Their Property
By GARY RIVLIN

BATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 9 - True Light Baptist Church is located in a down-and-out part of town here, but on Monday nights its parking lot fills with BMW's, Mercedes-Benzes and other late-model sedans that shine with a new-car sparkle.

Wasn't this clown once known as a Liberal...like, when Liberals ran the government?

Spin, Or Worse?
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 9, 2005; 11:24 AM

When people accuse the Bush White House of excessive spinning--the harshest critics use the L-word--I sometimes wonder if they remember anything that happened before 2001.

Some Clinton White House aides could spin faster than a top, especially in the face of multiple scandals. Bush I reneged on no new taxes. The Reagan White House was state-of-the-art when it came to message management, creative use of visuals and explaining away factual blunders by the president. Each administration builds on the news-manipulation techniques of its predecessors.

Quote of note:

The bottom line here, for retirees of all income levels -- and their caregivers -- is to pay attention to all the notices you get concerning Medicare or Medicaid, keep them, and make sure you understand them. If you aren't sure what something means, contact your former employer or talk to an expert, such as an elder-law attorney.

Remember, every action you take, or don't take, has potential consequences now or later. Don't dismiss anything you get concerning the program as "just paper."

Read the Fine Print Before Signing Up for Medicare's Drug Benefit
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Sunday, December 11, 2005; F05

Beyond the complexity of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, health care experts have now identified another potential booby trap.

Although company-provided medical insurance has been declining -- a fact much reported in the press -- millions of retirees still have it, including drug coverage.

But some 60 percent of large employers are now saying that if a retiree 65 or older signs up for Medicare Part D, they will terminate that person's drug coverage -- and in many cases all of his health care coverage. The findings are from a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates, a big benefits consulting firm.

Specifically, the survey of 300 companies with 1,000 or more employees found that of the companies continuing to provide prescription drug coverage (and taking a government subsidy that will be provided by Medicare), 31 percent said retirees who sign up for Part D will lose the company's drug coverage, and 29 percent said such retirees will lose all retiree medical coverage from the company.

U.S. Won't Join in Binding Climate Talks
Administration Agrees to Separate Dialogue
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 11, 2005; Page A01

MONTREAL, Dec. 10 -- Despite the Bush administration's adamant resistance, nearly every industrialized nation agreed early Saturday to engage in talks aimed at producing a new set of binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions that would take effect beginning in 2012.

In a separate accord, a broader coalition of nearly 200 nations -- including the United States -- agreed to a much more modest "open and nonbinding" dialogue that would not lead to any "new commitments" to reduce carbon dioxide emissions associated with climate change.

I'm stealing this...might Photoshop my own hand into it later...and since it's stolen I have to link the picture to the CafePress.com store that sells the t-shirts.