Quote of note:

The fiscal 2007 survey budget would drop to $9.2 million, of which $5.6 million would be spent to plan the replacement program. It would combine a survey with data from government records of people enrolled in social programs, Hogan said, and begin collecting information by 2009. He said it would cost less, but he did not know how much.

Census Bureau Survey Falling on Hard Times
Possible Loss of Data on Needy Protested
By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; A15

A Commerce Department proposal to eliminate a Census Bureau survey on the economic well-being of U.S. residents is drawing fire from researchers and lawmakers concerned about losing a source of information about the impact of government social programs on needy families.

Check this: Pictures of the 1950-60s civil rights struggle that you have not seen before.

April 19, 1956: During sentencing for the 1956 beating of entertainer Nat “King” Cole at Municipal Auditorium, Jesse Mabry, E.L. Vinson, Mike Fox and Orliss Clevenger cover their faces inside a Birmingham courtroom.

Historic pictures of US civil rights struggle published after 40 years
Tuesday February 28, 2006
The Guardian

Dozens of never-before-released photos from the US civil rights era came to light at the weekend after an intern discovered them buried in an equipment cupboard at the Birmingham News in Alabama.

The photos had been in a box marked: "Keep. Do Not Sell." At the time they were taken, the newspaper did not want to draw attention to the racial discord of the 1950s and 60s, photographers from the period said.

"The editors thought if you didn't publish it, much of this would go away," said Ed Jones, 81, a photographer at the News from 1942 to 1987.

On Sunday, the photos finally went to print in a special eight-page section called "Unseen. Unforgotten." Others are on the newspaper's website at http://www.al.com/unseen.

Quote of note:

Despite some gains, the United States still lags far behind most industrialized nations in reducing abortion and teenage pregnancy. In 2002, 21 in 1,000 American women age 15 to 44 had an abortion. Although that is the lowest abortion rate since 1974, the decline has stalled, prompting fears that individuals and policymakers have lost focus on the underlying problem of unintended pregnancies, said Guttmacher President Sharon L. Camp.

"Unintended pregnancy in the United States is twice as high as in most of Western Europe," she said in an interview. "As a direct result, abortion rates are twice or three times as high as European countries. There is no reason why abortion rates need to be as high as they are."

The problem is particularly acute for the nation's estimated 17 million adolescent girls and low-income women, because a lack of education and money are often barriers to practicing abstinence or effective birth control.

You know what the problem is? The problem is, birth control pill cost about $100 per month. Basically, it's cheaper to pay for abortions.

Unintended Pregnancy Linked to State Funding Cuts
First-of-Its-Kind Study Cites Impact On Teenage Girls and Poor Women
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; A06

At a time when policymakers have made reducing unintended pregnancies a national priority, 33 states have made it more difficult or more expensive for poor women and teenagers to obtain contraceptives and related medical services, according to an analysis released yesterday by the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute.

Online Colleges Receive a Boost From Congress
By SAM DILLON

It took just a few paragraphs in a budget bill for Congress to open a new frontier in education: Colleges will no longer be required to deliver at least half their courses on a campus instead of online to qualify for federal student aid.

That change is expected to be of enormous value to the commercial education industry. Although both for-profit colleges and traditional ones have expanded their Internet and online offerings in recent years, only a few dozen universities are fully Internet-based, and most of them are for-profit ones.

via ThinkProgress

GOP CD accumulates data, but data is not secured
Posted by Bob Collins

Let's suppose I got the Republican CD advocating the marriage amendment in the mail. And let's assume -- and remember this is a hypothetical here -- I had enough intelligence to decompile the program and figure out what data is being captured and sent. Could I do it?

YOU can't have it both ways, is what America's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, is telling Arab audiences during a tour of friendly capitals to rally sagging support for American policy in the Middle East. You can't preach violence and expect international aid, she says of Hamas, the Islamist party that recently swept Palestinian elections. No one will respect you if you signal reform but act repressively, she advises Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. You can't say in private that you fear Iran going nuclear but do nothing to stop it happening, she will tell Gulf leaders.

Yet Ms Rice is hearing much the same refrain in response. America cannot preach democracy in Palestine, then chastise the winners, just as it cannot demand concessions from Hamas without Israel budging, too. It cannot bully dictatorial allies to reform, then always expect their support. And America cannot single out Iran on the nuclear issue, while ignoring Israel's nearby arsenal. It's like Dick Cheney hunting quail but shooting his friend instead, joked a Saudi columnist.

...And All For One?

"We will move forward with this team that we have been dealt instead of the team of our own choosing as past sheriffs have been allowed to do," Hill said in a statement Monday. "We will continue to focus on vigorously fighting crime in this county and we will continue to follow our policy of not settling frivolous lawsuits that come before us."

Hill became Clayton's first African-American sheriff when he defeated Tuggle in September 2004.

Bush's promises to the middle class have been like waving pictures of water at marathon runners as you drive past. Sooner or later, though...

Quote of note:

Americans in February also became less optimistic about the overall economy, especially the short-term prospects for the job market, sending a widely followed barometer of consumer sentiment below analysts' estimates.

Home sales down 2.8% in January

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing homes fell for a fifth month in January as the once-sizzling housing market cooled further.

The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that sales of previously owned homes dropped 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.56 million units, slowest pace in two years.

The Bush regime purposely peed in the pool, scaring The American People to death to justify invading Iraq.. You can't just shut that stuff off, though. And once you've frightened people enough they simply aren't going to accept promises from those they fear. That's not specific to American politics either...it's so human, it was just stooopit in our global economy and society to foster limitless fear against those you KNOW you're going to do business with.

Beyond that, the article makes another point that needs far broader consideration...a point that should be considered across the board.

The real issue is that we are relying on commercial companies largely to police themselves.

A Port in the Storm Over Dubai
By STEPHEN E. FLYNN and JAMES M. LOY

I KNEW I wrote something about this...took a while to find it though.

You realize people are shitting themselves because BushCo has convinced them the A-Rabs are evil destroyers, the very troops of the Apocalypse against whom the righteous shall triumph at the End of Days.

War Rhetoric Blows Back in Port Furor
Ronald Brownstein
Washington Outlook

February 26, 2006

President Bush may not like the arguments that critics are raising against the Dubai company attempting to take over cargo and cruise operations at ports in six U.S. cities. But he should recognize them. The arguments marshaled against Bush closely echoed the ones he deployed to defend the Iraq war.

The president, in other words, is stewing in a pot he brought to boil.

Quote of note:

By a two-to-one ratio, the troops said that "to control the insurgency we need to double the level of ground troops and bombing missions." And since there is zero chance of that happening, a majority of troops seemed to be saying that they believe this war to be unwinnable.

This first systematic look at the views of the U.S. troops on the ground suggests that our present strategy in Iraq is failing badly. The troops overwhelmingly don't want to "stay the course," and they don't seem to think the American strategy can succeed.

[TS] The Soldiers Speak. Will President Bush Listen?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Quote of note

Bush's 2007 budget submission would support a Guard of about 333,000 citizen soldiers — the current level — rather than the 350,000 authorized by Congress. It also proposes to pay for 188,000 Army Reserve troops rather than the 205,000 authorized by Congress.

..."I trust Peter Pace and I trust the president of the United States. They said they'd find the money and I think you can take that to the bank," said Republican Jeb Bush of Florida.

You're safe now...Jeb will give George a noogie if he lies again.

Bush Calms Some Governors on Nat'l Guard
By ROBERT TANNER
AP National Writer

You can't tear down the master's house by adding a new wing