Quote of note:

Guilty or innocent, Cantu could not have been executed if he were prosecuted now. According to this year's Supreme Court ruling, he was too young at the time of the crime.

More in U.S. Expressing Doubts About Death Penalty
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 2, 2005; 4:06 AM

AUSTIN, Dec. 1 -- Ruben Cantu is long gone, executed by Texas authorities in 1993 after he was convicted of murdering a man during a San Antonio robbery when he was 17 years old. To the end, Cantu insisted he had been framed, and now his co-defendant and the sole surviving witness both say he was telling the truth.

Tight summary of note:

the biggest shock was that he took bribes personally. Most corruption in the contracting world is legal, alas, because most politicians take their handouts in the form of campaign contributions, not tangible goodies.

Covering their cash
December 3, 2005

THE UNITED STATES IS A VERY far cry from Kazakhstan or Nigeria, countries where corruption and bribery infiltrate every contact with government. But while gossiping at the water cooler about Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's shocking bribery story (whose yacht was he living on, and what was up with that sleigh bed?), it's good to remember that the San Diego Republican got caught mostly because he was amazingly careless.

Chess Players Getting Chucked Out of Mall  
Thursday, December 1, 2005
(12-01) 14:14 PST IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. (AP)

They're too loud. They hog the seats at the food court. Often they don't even buy anything. So now they're being kicked out of the mall. Teenagers? Try chess players.

The new owners of the Medley Center have banned chess and card games, effectively removing a group that has been playing chess at the suburban Rochester mall for years. They can play only from 8 to 10 a.m., when the mall is open to walkers.

"I really feel we've gotten jilted," 70-year-old retired salesman Ray Licata said in Thursday's Democrat and Chronicle.

Mall owner Adam Bersin said food-court seats full of people who aren't eating don't fit with his vision.

And that ain't all...

Secret Program May Have Erred, Pentagon Says
Officials say they'll look into any violations in placement of pro-U.S. articles in Iraqi papers.
By Mark Mazzetti
Times Staff Writer
December 3, 2005

WASHINGTON — A top Pentagon official said Friday that "transgressions" may have occurred in a secret military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish information favorable to the U.S. mission, and American military commanders in Baghdad said that any "improprieties" by defense contractors would be investigated.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was told by Pentagon officials that articles and advertisements placed in Iraqi news outlets by a defense contractor are supposed to be identified as U.S. government products, but that in some cases omissions may have occurred.

Ampersand gave four sound rules on How Not To Be Insane When Accused Of Racism (A Guide For White People). 

 Prometheus 6 wrote something that has stuck in my head ever since:

Not to put too fine a point on it, but "racist" is the only word that makes white people as crazy as "nigger" makes Black people.

It's true - a lot of white people, hell, most white people turn ten different colors of pissed off and shoot steam out their ears if someone suggests they've said something racist. And if you make a point of talking about race and racism, sooner or later someone will accuse you of being racist, fairly or unfairly.

Frankly, I think we whites - especially, we whites who think of ourselves as against racism - have to get over it. So here it is, in honor of "blog against racism day" (okay, it's now the morning after blog against racism day, so I'm slow):

Amp's Guide to Not Being an Insane-O White Person When Accused of Racism.

Here's a confession: I don't read a lot of political blogs at this point. And I don't really have a scheduled tour I follow. This causes me to miss some stuff.

Via a post at Alas, A Blog that I'm going to talk about next I found Creek Running North's Blog Against Racism day was yesterday. A whole bag of people linked back to the discussion, and I believe I'm going to read the majority of them and link to the most interesting.

I expect it to turn out like the Identity Blogging thread did, but different. Stay tuned. 

LATER: Oh, this has potential...I can't touch this one.

Quote of note:

...an Aug. 25 staff memo obtained by The Washington Post recommended blocking the program because Georgia failed to show that the measure would not dilute the votes of minority residents, as required under the Voting Rights Act.

The memo, endorsed by four of the team's five members, also said the state had provided flawed and incomplete data. The team found significant evidence that the plan would be "retrogressive," meaning that it would reduce blacks' access to the polls.

A day later, on Aug. 26, the chief of the department's voting rights section, John Tanner, told Georgia officials that the program could go forward. "The Attorney General does not interpose any objection to the specified changes," he said in a letter to them.

Criticism of Voting Law Was Overruled
Justice Dept. Backed Georgia Measure Despite Fears of Discrimination
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 17, 2005; A01

A team of Justice Department lawyers and analysts who reviewed a Georgia voter-identification law recommended rejecting it because it was likely to discriminate against black voters, but they were overruled the next day by higher-ranking officials at Justice, according to department documents.

Quote of note:

The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.

But the Texas legislature proceeded with the new map anyway because it would maximize the number of Republican federal lawmakers in the state, the memo said. The redistricting was approved in 2003, and Texas Republicans gained five seats in the U.S. House in the 2004 elections, solidifying GOP control of Congress.

Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal
Voting Rights Finding On Map Pushed by DeLay Was Overruled
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 2, 2005; A01<

The difference between this and the escapades of our friend in Detroit? This was better organized, better connected and a LOT more profitable for all concerned.

Quote of note: 

What began as an inquiry into Mr. Scanlon and Mr. Abramoff's lobbying has widened to a corruption investigation centering mainly on Republican lawmakers who came to power as part of the conservative revolution of the 1990's. At least six members of Congress are in the scope of the inquiry, with an additional 12 or so former aides being examined to determine whether they gave Mr. Abramoff legislative help in exchange for campaign donations, lavish trips and gifts.

Lobbyist's Role in Hiring Aides Is Investigated
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT

Quote of note: 

Nearly 50 Asians, blacks, Caucasians and other people of color died in racially motivated violence last year, mainly in savage street attacks by gangs of young Slavic hooligans. That's more than double the number the previous year. At least 40 foreign students have been attacked this year in the city of Voronezh alone, NTV television reported last month.

"The impoverished masses from the outskirts of town, they perceive people from the Caucasus as the root cause of all their problems, so they beat them as a way of getting back at them," said Said Bitsoyev, a native of Chechnya, a Russian republic in the Caucasus, and editor at a major Moscow newspaper. Bitsoyev's 17-year-old son was stabbed 20 times and left for dead by skinheads last month, but survived.

Racial Split Seen in Russian Politics
Attacks on minorities are rising. In Moscow, nationalists run an anti-migrant campaign.
By Kim Murphy
Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2005

MOSCOW — On the television screen, three dark-skinned men from the Caucasus sit sullenly munching watermelon in a Moscow courtyard, then brazenly toss the chewed rinds into the path of a young blond woman pushing a baby carriage.

Two ethnic Russians glare at the watermelon thugs. "Clean it up," one of them says menacingly.

The words "Let's clean our city of trash" flash across the screen.

These guys MUST have another planet they're ready to relocate tp.

EPA Seeks to Cut Toxics Reporting — Move Endangers Public Health
Analysis: Nearly 1,000 Communities Across U.S. Would Lose All Toxics Information
Updated December 1, 2005

The latest: NET hosted a press briefing today on EPA's proposed TRI changes. Listen to the briefing [mp3, 4.56 megs], or see the list of participants.

Background: The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed changes to the Toxics Release Inventory reporting thresholds that will affect communities throughout the U.S. As many as 10 percent of communities that currently have a facility reporting to TRI could lose all reported data under the proposal. Read a fact sheet about TRI and the proposed changes or our press release. The proposed cuts pose a risk to communities and to first responders such as police and firefighters.

This is DAVID GELERNTER's final weekly column for The Times.

Corzine pick could signal commitment to black voters

In choosing someone to fill the vacancy created by his move from Washington to Trenton, Corzine will disappoint many of the hopefuls who are unabashedly pursuing the job. He also could make history — and at the same time keep his party from repeating it.

Bomani Jones: 

The problem here is the system, not this one case. These folks at the courthouse steps protesting for Williams should be out every day. A few of them should jump in their cars and head to Huntsville, TX, where my home state kills more niggaz than cancer. The problem is this penalty. I don't think that Williams is the most worthy of this support. After Williams is executed or not, where will these people be?

(for the record, I've never approved of fucked up death sentences) 

Quote of note:

Ogilvie sees the current situation as part of a larger pattern of administrators’ disdain for liberal groups. For instance, a campus chapter of Amnesty International, he says, has had trouble gaining formal recognition from the university — recognition that would have allowed members of the group to hand out fliers in compliance with the university’s policies. For the past three years, the former director of student activities “lost our paperwork,” he reports. Local Amnesty officials have contacted the university regarding this situation.

Students interviewed Tuesday said that pro-business and conservative groups seem to have an easier time being recognized on campus.

Hampered at Hampton U.

US to pull out most of National Guard
From David Charter in Washington

THE US National Guard is planning to cut the number of its troops in Iraq by 75 per cent over the next year in a dramatic change of approach by the American military, The Times has learnt.

The substantial reduction in part-time troops — from eight combat brigades to two — follows growing evidence that the National Guard’s supply of equipment is becoming exhausted, leaving it unable to cope with domestic emergencies, such as Hurricane Katrina.

There has also been speculation that the force is simply running out of troops for deployment and that recruitment is suffering as a result of high casualty rates and unexpectedly long tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I thought yesterday's verbal arguments on New Hampshire's parental notification requirement in the Supreme Court were interesting, and I really have no problems with the way any of the justices handled the issue.

In fact, I'm finding this business of forcing the Legislature to very specifically set out their intent to be a good idea. That's why the whole law should be thrown out. As Justice Souter said, they very specifically set out NOT to have a health exception in the bill. That intent is unconstitutional.

The Court can tell them what would bring the law in line with the Constitution. As Justice Ginsburg said, the did't do enough...and if the Solicitor General arguing the case for Bush is to be believed, the Court can legally issue orders correcting the problem...but the real problem is a Legislature intent on hiding its hands after throwing the stone.

Bush Is Now in Step With His Generals
By Tyler Marshall and Mark Mazzetti, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Much of the rhetoric was familiar. But in his U.S. Naval Academy speech Wednesday, President Bush seemed to accept the hard realities both on the ground in Iraq and politically in the United States by pledging a smaller American force.

After months of a lingering disconnect between the White House and senior military commanders, Bush's comments at the academy in Annapolis, Md., seemed to bring him into line not just with America's military but with much of his administration.

I like the fact that a partial audio recording...about an hour...of the Supreme Court deliberations on New Hampshire's abortion restriction laws was made available. I think it's worth a general listen... one finds constitutional law isn't that difficult to follow.

The argument presented by Solicitor General Paul D. Clement for the Bush administration had real, obvious problems. I isolated it and broke it into three exchanges that are rather interesting when examined through an originalist's lens, largely because the justices all put the lie to the "legislating from the bench" accusation. Here they are, in order, in context and complete.

Have you heard about Henry Brown, a slave that mailed himself north to freedom? Well, the story has become the anchor of a series of childrens' stories on DVD published by Sweet Blackberry.

At Sweet Blackberry, our series of educational DVDs is central to our mission on behalf of parents and children of color. Sweet Blackberry was established to share the stories you may recall from your childhood…or even stories that are new to you!

These are tales about African American culture, about our history, about the many fascinating and often unrecognized men and women whose legends are brought back to life in the stories we tell. Borrowing from the tradition of folk and fairy tales, these fact-based stories are complimented by eclectic music , from conga to classical, and include narration by acclaimed actors from film, television and stage. The Sweet Blackberry DVDs not only stimulate a child’s imagination and knowledge of their culture, but also give parents the confidence that they’re sharing stories that will stay with their child for a lifetime.

Stories from our culture…Stories for the soul!

As a Black Partisan I approve. Check a sample from The Journey of Henry Box Brown. It's handled all cute 'n thangs, white kids might like them if you don't tell them they're learning stuff. And Alfre Woodard narrates...damn near enough reason to get the thing in and of itself.

via Boing Boing:

Discovery disproves simple concept of memory as 'storage space'
Scientists achieve first measurements of selectivity mechanism

Even if you could get more RAM for your brain, the extra storage probably wouldn't make it easier for you to find where you left your car keys.

What may help, according to a discovery published Nov. 24 in the journal Nature, is a better bouncer – as in the type of bouncer who manages crowd control for nightclubs. The study by Edward Vogel, an assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oregon, is the first to demonstrate that awareness, or "visual working memory," depends on your ability to filter out irrelevant information.

"Until now, it's been assumed that people with high capacity visual working memory had greater storage but actually, it's about the bouncer – a neural mechanism that controls what information gets into awareness," Vogel said.

The findings turn upside down the popular concept that a person's memory capacity, which is strongly related to intelligence, is solely dependent upon the amount of information you can cram into your head at one time. These results have broad implications and may lead to developing more effective ways to optimize memory as well as improved diagnosis and treatment of cognitive deficits associated with attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia.

Why the Murtha Gambit Will Backfire
By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, AlterNet
Posted on November 30, 2005, Printed on November 30, 2005

On the surface, it seemed like a brilliant political strategy for the Democrats. Send out a decorated war veteran (Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts), a former Marine with an impeccable pro-military record -- the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, in fact -- to be the point man for the bring-the-troops-home-now assault.

And it seems to have worked brilliantly.

...The Murtha gambit sets a dangerous precedent for what kind of person can take the lead in criticizing the nation on matters of war and security. It concedes that the only moral voice who can oppose a war is someone who supported and/or participated in a past war. The flaw in the argument is that the Bush Administration and much of the national Republican leadership couldn't care less about distinguished past service; their strategy is to kneecap the opposition, using whatever methods, fair or foul, that come to mind.

Quote of note:

Although the plea agreement does not refer to the co-conspirators by name, they are widely believed to be Mitchell Wade, the former president of defense intelligence firm MZM Inc., Brent Wilkes, president of defense contractor ADCS Inc., Tom Kontogiannis, a New York real-estate developer, and an unnamed family member of Kontogiannis.

Wade and Wilkes gave heavily to congressional Republicans in recent years, and now lawmakers must decide whether to keep the campaign largesse.

Wade, Wilkes, Kontogiannis and others remain under investigation, according to a statement made by the lead federal prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.

Co-conspirators’ largesse extended to many
By Josephine Hearn

In the wake of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s (R-Calif.) stunning resignation and tearful admission that he had accepted some $2.4 million in bribes Monday, many of his former colleagues are mulling what to do with tens of thousands of dollars they received in campaign contributions from Cunningham’s co-conspirators.

When I read this:

White House Releases Outline of Its Strategy for Iraq
By DAVID E. SANGER
and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - President Bush today is putting forward for the first time a public version of what the White House calls a comprehensive strategy for victory in Iraq.

In a 35-page document released by the White House this morning, the administration produced what it called its "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which it said articulates "the broad strategy the president set forth in 2003 and provides an update on our progress as well as the challenges remaining."

Quote of note:

It was not the first time the defense secretary sought to reorder the world according to his tastes. Also not for the first time, the world wasn't following his plan. This summer Rumsfeld tried to change the "war on terror" to the "global struggle against violent extremism," or GSAVE. President Bush ended that plan.

Rumsfeld's War On 'Insurgents'
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; A18

Last weekend, while other Americans were watching football and eating leftover turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ended the Iraqi insurgency.

It was easy, really: He declared that the insurgents would, henceforth, no longer be called insurgents.

Quote of note:

Jordan said the suspects were not affiliated with the Nation of Islam, a national organization led by Louis Farrakhan. Police earlier indicated that the suspects were wearing suits and bow ties consistent with Nation of Islam dress.

...When he turned himself in Tuesday afternoon, Yusuf Bey IV was accompanied by his mother, Daulet Bey, who said, "We don't condone what happened. We want to resolve this as quickly as possible."

Black Muslims arrested in store attacks
Oakland police have urged 4 others to surrender on vandalism charges
- Henry K. Lee, Demian Bulwa and Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

N.C. judge refuses to shield voting machines
Diebold says it may pull out of state after software disclosure ruling
The Associated Press
Updated: 12:41 p.m. ET Nov. 29, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. - One of the nation's leading suppliers of electronic voting machines may decide against selling new equipment in North Carolina after a judge declined Monday to protect it from criminal prosecution should it fail to disclose software code as required by state law.

Diebold Inc., which makes automated teller machines and security and voting equipment, is worried it could be charged with a felony if officials determine the company failed to make all of its code —some of which is owned by third-party software firms, including Microsoft Corp. —available for examination by election officials in case of a voting mishap.

Quote of note:

The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is taking place even as U.S. officials are pledging to promote democratic principles, political transparency and freedom of speech in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption.

It comes as the State Department is training Iraqi reporters in basic journalism skills and Western media ethics, including one workshop titled "The Role of Press in a Democratic Society."

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice. By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou DaragahiTimes Staff WritersNovember 30, 2005

grmblgrmblgrmblgrmblgrmblgrmbl

Anyway, let's see how much of my audience I lost.