Quote of note:

"This was a South Texas hunt," says one White House aide. "Of course there was drinking. There's always drinking. Lots of it."

Secret Service agents say Cheney was drunk when he shot lawyer
By DOUG THOMPSON
Feb 22, 2006, 07:35

Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Dick Cheney when he shot Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on a hunting outing two weeks ago say Cheney was "clearly inebriated" at the time of the shooting.

Agents observed several members of the hunting party, including the Vice President, consuming alcohol before and during the hunting expedition, the report notes, and Cheney exhibited "visible signs" of impairment, including slurred speech and erratic actions.

Blast Destroys Golden Dome of Sacred Shiite Shrine in Iraq
By EDWARD WONG

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 22 - Insurgents dressed as police commandos detonated powerful explosives this morning inside one of Shiite Islam's most sacred shrines, destroying most of the building, located in the volatile town of Samarra, and prompting thousands of Shiites to flood into streets across the country in protest.

The golden-domed shrine housed the tombs of two revered leaders of Shiite Islam and symbolized the place where the Imam Mahdi, a mythical, messianic figure, disappeared from this earth. Believers in the imam say he will return when the apocalypse is near, to cleanse the world of its evils.

The blast took place at about 7 a.m. and shook the city of Samarra, a Sunni-dominated area that is nevertheless sacred to Shiites. The gunmen entered the shrine and handcuffed guards in the building, then set about planting the explosives, an official of the provincial governorate said. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the golden dome was entirely destroyed, as well as three-quarters of the structure.

I saw this yesterday

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review
By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians.

The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 previously declassified pages began in 1999, when the Central Intelligence Agency and five other agencies objected to what they saw as a hasty release of sensitive information after a 1995 declassification order signed by President Bill Clinton. It accelerated after the Bush administration took office and especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to archives records.

But because the reclassification program is itself shrouded in secrecy — governed by a still-classified memorandum that prohibits the National Archives even from saying which agencies are involved — it continued virtually without outside notice until December. That was when an intelligence historian, Matthew M. Aid, noticed that dozens of documents he had copied years ago had been withdrawn from the archives' open shelves.

...remembered previous complaints along these lines and filed it.

Somehow this makes it take on new urgency.

Quote of note:

The proposed legislation, which states that "life begins at the time of conception," would prohibit abortion except in cases where the pregnant woman's life was at risk. Felony charges could be placed against doctors, but not against those seeking abortions, the measure says.

Some states have similarly broad abortion bans, but they either pre-date Roe or are "trigger laws," which would only take effect if Roe were overturned.

Vote Due on South Dakota Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions
By MONICA DAVEY

PIERRE, S.D., Feb. 21 — Lawmakers here are preparing to vote on a bill that would outlaw nearly all abortions in South Dakota, a measure that could become the most sweeping ban approved by any state in more than a decade, those on both sides of the abortion debate say.

Quote of note:

The increase in foreclosures could be the first of a wave of financial distress for many minority homeowners, experts say, because they are twice as likely as whites to have taken out expensive subprime mortgages, most of which will jump to higher interest rates in the next two years, according to an analysis of data that lenders disclose under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

For Minorities, Signs of Trouble in Foreclosures
By VIKAS BAJAJ and RON NIXON

CLEVELAND — Catrina V. Roberts, a single mother of four, joined a new, growing class of minority homeowners when she moved from her subsidized apartment to a two-story house in 1999.

I am really, REALLY enjoying Glen Greenwald

Are Bush critics labeled "liberal"?

As most readers here will recall, there were numerous responses -- not all of them friendly -- to the post I wrote a week ago (entitled "Do Bush Followers have a Political Ideology?")

...Since that time, replies to my original argument have continued to be posted, including from Ramesh Ponnuru at The Corner, James Taranto at Opinion Journal, and the former Religious Right-activist-turned-ostensible-Democrat Bull Moose. I haven't replied to any of those posts because none of them said anything particularly new that wasn't already subsumed by the other posts to which I did reply.

...But an odd and somewhat alarming development is now prompting me to address a couple of these arguments. The generally well-behaved adult Tom Maguire has spent the last several days frantically jumping up and down, throwing food and crying out for attention -- both on his blog and via e-mail to me -- because he seems to think he has a really impressive reply to my post which I have ignored. For each of the last three days, he has written a series of increasingly childish, amazingly shrill, and attention-demanding rants which purport to reply both to my original post and to a post written about my argument by Peter Daou.

...Based on this premise, Tom has issued what he boldly calls his "challenge" -- the "challenge" that he's been claiming I (along with Daou) have been evading. It's this:

OS - if Messrs. Greenwald and Daou, or their supporters, could find real evidence of Cult leaders actually re-labeling Bush critics as "liberal", that would advance this seminal effort and deepen our understanding of this important work.

Let’s see how intellectually honest Maguire and Taranto are.

Copyright Criminals Remix Contest extended; New Chuck D and George Clinton samples added!
Great news for all you producers, DJs, and remixers: the Copyright Criminals Remix Contest over at ccMixter has been extended by two weeks, ending on March 14. Additionally, new vocal samples from influential rapper Chuck D (of Public Enemy) and pioneering funk musician George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic) have been made available for use in the competition.

Winners will be chosen according to the same criteria as originally announced; no other contest details are changed.

The Copyright Criminals Remix Contest encourages producers, DJs, and remixers from around the world to use audio snippets from the upcoming documentary film Copyright Criminals in new, original songs. One winner will have his/her music featured prominently in the final edit of Copyright Criminals.

The winning track, along with 11 runners-up, will be included on the film's companion CD.

Drawing from more than fifty interviews with prominent musicians, artists, scholars, lawyers, and music industry representatives, Copyright Criminals looks at the development of sound collage (also known as sampling). It features artists like QBert, Pete Rock, Miho Hattori, Matt Black of Coldcut, Saul Williams, Bobbito Garcia, and Paul Miller, and commentators like Greg Tate and Harry Allen.

The film explores the complicated impact that copyright law has had on the creative practice of sampling and studies the conflicting opinions artists and others have about appropriation. Check the trailer here/

Samples of dialogue by artists like De La Soul, DJ Qbert, Matmos, Coldcut, and members of Negativland – all taken from interviews conducted for Copyright Criminals – are available online at the popular remix community ccMixter.org for use as source material to be included in entrants' songs. Entries will be judged by McLeod, Franzen, and your boy right here.

The question now hovering over Haiti is what lay behind the confusion over the count: fraud, or just chaotic inexperience in a failed state with an almost non-existent democratic tradition?

In earlier talks with UN officials, Mr Préval had insisted on a thorough, internationally verified review of the count. In response, the government offered an inquiry, but one which excluded outsiders. [P6: emphasis added] That added to suspicions. The secretary-general of the Organisation of American States flew in to try to resolve the dispute. Brazil, which heads the UN peacekeeping mission, pressed for Mr Préval to be declared the winner. Diplomats at the Security Council in New York insisted that UN officials be involved in the review. 

Quote of note:

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.

37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty
Americans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their bills even with two or three jobs. More than one in 10 citizens live below the poverty line, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening
Paul Harris in Kentucky
Sunday February 19, 2006
The Observer

Quote of note:

"It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was," the president of Sidney Coal, Charlie Bearse, wrote to the Kentucky Mining Board. "Attitudes have changed among the existing workforce, which affects attendance, drug use and, ultimately, productivity."

Latinos Sought as Mining's Next Generation
The industry is lobbying in Kentucky to bring in non-English speakers to fill jobs. Miners fear the move may degrade safety and wages.
By Jenny Jarvie
Times Staff Writer
February 20, 2006

SIDNEY, Ky. — At age 15, Ricky Mullins followed his father and his grandfather into the mines. For years, they scraped and shoveled coal to put food on the table. But Mullins, now 48, fears that the family tradition will end with his son.

I do not believe I have ever before linked to an OpinionJournal editorial in a fit of unadulterated agreement.

To begin with, there is abundant evidence that extreme political opinions lead to the personal demonization of fellow citizens. Consider, for example, how those on the far left and far right respond when asked for a zero-to-100 score of their feelings toward people with whom they disagree politically. Political scientists find that scores below 20 on these so-called feeling thermometers are very unusual--except on the political fringes. Indeed, according to the 2004 National Election Study, one in five "extremely liberal" people gave conservatives a score of zero, a temperature you or I might reserve for Osama bin Laden. The same percentage of "extremely conservative" people gave liberals a zero.

Quote of note:

Although there are no comprehensive statistics, actions filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act -- most of which are overtime cases -- shot up 86 percent between 2000 and 2004, to 3,617, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. In contrast, labor cases in general rose 30 percent over the same period, the most recent for which figures are available

Not that a 30% increase is a wonderful thing...

Suits on Overtime Hitting Big Firms
Employers Paying to Settle Many Cases
By Brooke A. Masters and Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 21, 2006; D01

Mr. Robinson takes note of this year's Mardi Gras.

Down in New Orleans they're having Mardi Gras, and I don't know whether the rest of us are supposed to laugh or cry.

For my part, I couldn't personally get into it. But hey, they're doing disaster tours of NOLA, so what  the hell?

Mr. Robinson has a general grip on why Margi Gras must go on.

I found this show-must-go-on consensus jarring, but I should have thought back to my time as a correspondent for The Post covering South America, specifically Brazil, and remembered how important the tradition of pre-Lenten carnival can be to a society. Carnival in Brazil is more than an officially sanctioned bacchanal, it's like a national birthright -- a guaranteed, weeklong interlude during which inhibiting rules are suspended, most societal barriers are ignored and all manner of oppressive problems are deferred.

the agency bought computer systems, hired 2,500 employees, participated in 65,000 informational meetings and sent at least one letter to each of 19 million retirees who might qualify for the subsidized coverage. The goal, said Hinkle, was to cast as wide a net as possible.

The trouble is, said James Firman, president of the National Council on the Aging, it looks as though that net pulled in so many ineligible people that Social Security spent an enormous amount of time and money to process them. It has rejected close to 70 percent of applicants.

Millions Not Joining Medicare Drug Plan
Despite Outreach, Poor Seniors Miss Out On Low-Cost Coverage
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 21, 2006; A01

Quote of note:

Trying to downplay the havoc Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile will wreak on the mobile telecoms industry, Ballmer chose a topical Valentine’s Day theme for his announcement. “I love the mobile industry and I love our operator partners, and I want to have that message precede all we’re about to show,” Ballmer said in Barcelona. He went on to demonstrate how a mobile phone running Windows Mobile can be used to make a free voice call over the internet. Ballmer told the audience: “That was a VoIP call.”

But Ballmer’s announcement may be closer to a St Valentine’s Day massacre than a love letter for the mobile operators concerned.

Microsoft free internet voice service challenges Vodafone
By Tony Glover - Technology Editor
19 February 2006

Yeah, I think so.

Mr. Preval could make a start at overcoming the country's polarization by reaching out to the opposition in forming his cabinet, and perhaps in his choice of a prime minister. He must also keep his distance from exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, his former mentor, whose return to the country would probably trigger another rebellion of the sort that forced his departure two years ago.

Aristede doesn't have to come back for the well-armed gangs to return. All that has to happen is for those who opposed his to the degree of bringing down his government to remain unhappy...

Haiti's deep divide remains: Mr. Preval's two leading opponents, who won 11 and 8 percent of the recorded vote to his 51, refused to admit defeat.

...and they do not seem easy to satisfy.

The memo is a chronological account, submitted on July 7, 2004, to Vice Admiral Albert Church, who led a Pentagon investigation into abuses at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It reveals that Mora’s criticisms of Administration policy were unequivocal, wide-ranging, and persistent. Well before the exposure of prisoner abuse in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, in April, 2004, Mora warned his superiors at the Pentagon about the consequences of President Bush’s decision, in February, 2002, to circumvent the Geneva conventions, which prohibit both torture and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” He argued that a refusal to outlaw cruelty toward U.S.-held terrorist suspects was an implicit invitation to abuse. Mora also challenged the legal framework that the Bush Administration has constructed to justify an expansion of executive power, in matters ranging from interrogations to wiretapping. He described as “unlawful,” “dangerous,” and “erroneous” novel legal theories granting the President the right to authorize abuse. Mora warned that these precepts could leave U.S. personnel open to criminal prosecution.

When New York State allowed Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield to convert into a profit-making company in 2002, it set aside 5 percent of the proceeds for a foundation to continue the insurer's core mission — providing health care to those who could not afford coverage.

Now Gov. George E. Pataki is proposing that more than half of the foundation's $260 million endowment be redirected into biomedical research. And his plan to use that amount, $160 million, held by the fledgling New York Charitable Asset Foundation, has the support of the state's other top Republican, Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader in the State Senate.