I got John Hope Franklin on in the background, talking about himself and his book, "Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin." It's on Book-TV on C-Span2. Caught it late, but it's being rebroadcast at 1am EST.

McCain's Media Unmasking
By George F. Will
Sunday, April 9, 2006; B07

First Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, now John McCain and the media. Even torrid relationships are perishable. It was only a matter of time before the media turned on their pin-up, and that time has arrived. A rivulet, soon to be a river, of journalism is reporting -- as a mystery deciphered, even a scandal unearthed -- that McCain, who occupies the Senate seat once held by Barry Goldwater, is a conservative Republican.

Hey, you can't even say McCain didn't warn you.

I'm only briefly passing by McCain here because the most important thing Mr. Will says has nothing to do with Sen. McCain:

From the March 31 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

CALLER 1: Why is it, do you think, that you haven't heard hardly anything from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton about the whole immigration thing? I mean, the silence is deafening from --

LIMBAUGH: Well, they're busy.

CALLER 1: -- the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and the --

LIMBAUGH: They're -- they're busy. They're busy. The Reverend Jackson is in New Orleans. He's leading a big march there tomorrow. The march is -- what is it called? The -- the march for the right to return a protected vote and reconstruction. He's trying to -- they got problems down in New Orleans. They don't have voter base, and Sharpton's working on a New Orleans deal, too. He's trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team --

CALLER 1: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: -- uh, supposedly, you know, raped, some, uh, hos.

CALLER 1: But I don't think they're very happy about all of this.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, well, but, the problem -- that -- that has a possibility down -- that Duke thing's got a possibility of being a Tawana Brawley situation. That -- and Sharpton's got a balance -- can he afford another one of those as -- as his life's going on? New Orleans is a big deal to him, and I -- I'm gonna tell you something. You'll -- you'll see these guys -- at some point, they will get involved, be-because when Ted Kennedy calls it the new civil rights movement, that's Jesse Jackson's turf. He owns it. So --

Notifications of new comments is suspended for a while.

Quote of note:

While acknowledging disagreements among officials over the monitoring efforts, Gonzales disputed published reports that have detailed the arguments.

"They did not relate to the program the president disclosed," Gonzales testified. "They related to something else, and I can't get into that."

..."The Attorney General's comments today should not be interpreted to suggest the existence or non-existence of a domestic program or whether any such program would be lawful under the existing legal analysis," Scolinos said in a statement.

Warrantless Wiretaps Possible in U.S.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales left open the possibility yesterday that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on telephone calls occurring solely within the United States -- a move that would dramatically expand the reach of a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

I got issues.

US Commission on Civil Rights Says Jews Targeted on Campuses
By Amihai Zippor

(IHC News, 06 April 2006) The US Commission on Civil Rights, an independent bipartisan federal agency, announced that anti-Israel bias is rampant on America’s college campuses and leads to antisemitic harassment.

In a report in USA Today on Tuesday 04 April 2006, the commission urged university leaders to “set a moral example by denouncing antisemitic and other hate speech.”

It recommended Middle East studies departments protect the rights of all students, that the US Department of Education “vigorously” enforce the federal law barring discrimination based on “race, color or national origin” and that Congress clarify that “national origin” can refer to Jewish heritage.

You feel threatened, act. I expect it of you, will use you as an inspirational example.

But Jewish heritage as national origin? Come on...

You're already covered as a religion. More than covered...the Bush Administration has made it legal for religious organizations to discriminate in favor of those who share their religious views almost two years ago.

Perhaps that's the problem? Perhaps in the process of advancing the theocracy your Bushian allies have stripped your cover. So now you need nation status.

Yeah. Right. Get your Bush boys to come correct.

Quote of note:

In Longmont, Colo., about 25 miles north of Denver, the principal of Skyline High School last week banned temporarily the display of Mexican and U.S. flags by students. Principal Tom Stumpf said some students used the U.S. flag to express hostility to Hispanic students by waving it in their faces.

Schools ban flags as immigration debate gets tense
Posted 4/6/2006 1:17 AM
By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY

DENVER — Several schools in Colorado, Arizona and California recently banned the display of national flags and the wearing of clothing with patriotic symbols as the divisive national debate over immigration has brought angry confrontations between Latino and Anglo students.

Remember, coompromise is that state of ambiguity in which everyone can claim a victory. This is the case here. The xenophobe wing is fighting for its constituency, the business wing is fighting for its constituency and the law remains unchanged.

Brilliant manuever, if you ask me.

Senate Vote Shelves Immigration Bill
By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press
Friday, April 7, 2006; 10:53 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.

A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.

As I said in response to LaShawn's February Challenge:

Your mother’s diet has as much to do with the final state of your adult brain as your genetics. Not to mention yours. And the richness of the environment in which it developed. And the amount of stress hormones washing over the neurons.

Fast language learners boast more white matter
00:01 07 April 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

The sound processing centre in the left hemisphere (L) of the fast learners’ brains is larger than that in the right hemisphere (R), and also larger than that in the left hemisphere of the slow learners’ brains (Image: Narly Golestani)Fast language learners have more white matter and less symmetrical brains, a new scanning study has revealed.

Bush's control of the unitary executive function gives him absolute control over what is classified and what is not. He can classify and declassify on a whim, authorize anyone he wishes to exercise that power and never tell YOU a damn thing about it. And Dick Cheney, when acting as Vice President, has the same power.

By this, it is within either executive's authorized power to declassify Valarie Plame's identity, and never tell even the CIA. So if either man instructed Libby to leak classified information it is, ipso facto, not classified information and hence not a crime to leak.

Libby will walk, regardless of the fact that he's charged with perjury, not leaking classified inf

Quote of note:

As the findings have trickled down to churches and universities, they have produced a new generation of Christians who now regard the Bible not as the literal word of God, but as a product of historical and political forces that determined which texts should be included in the canon, and which edited out.

For that reason, the discoveries have proved deeply troubling for many believers. The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus, but as his most favored disciple and willing collaborator.

An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of what is known as the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years. The text gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him, scholars reported today. In this version, Jesus asked Judas, as a close friend, to sell him out to the authorities, telling Judas he will "exceed" the other disciples by doing so.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 5 — A top adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Wednesday that the visit this week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain had backfired, prolonging a deadlock over a new government and strengthening Mr. Jaafari's resolve to keep his post.

"Pressure from outside is not helping to speed up any solution," said the adviser, Haider al-Abadi. "All it's doing is hardening the position of people who are supporting Jaafari."

He added, "They shouldn't have come to Baghdad."

How's that for national security?

Mr. Libby is said to have testified that "at first" he rebuffed Mr. Cheney's suggestion to release the information because the estimate was classified. However, according to the vice presidential aide, Mr. Cheney subsequently said he got permission for the release directly from Mr. Bush. "Defendant testified that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE," the prosecution filing said.

Mr. Libby told the grand jury that he also sought the advice of the legal counsel to the vice president, David Addington, who indicated that Mr. Bush's permission to disclose the estimate "amounted to a declassification of the document," according to the new court papers.

Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury
New York Sun Web Exclusive
By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 6, 2006 updated 9:02 am EDT

Rep. McKinney has apologozed on the floor of the House, said she'd vote for the commendation of the Capital police someone or other introduced yesterday.

She said there "should have been no physical contact" in the incident. This is true compromise: ambiguity sufficient to allow all sides to claim victory. The Representatives on the floor applauded...

"People of Color" Yay or Nay?

These are questions that touch on the immigration issue and also on identity and political strategy.

Is "People of Color" a political identity the way "Black" is? Should it be? Is there a line defining who should be in and who is out? Should there be? Is there any group that Black people should presumptively consider allies? Should "Whites" as a political identity presumptively be considered adversaries? Just our adversaries or the adversaries of all "people of color"?

---

Also: The registration method at Intrapolitics.org has changed. You can now sign up, choose a password and jump onto the site without waiting for the email. You will be able to post a comment right away, but it will not be visible until I approve it.

When you get the email, click the link in it to validate it's really you and you'll be promoted so your comments post immediately without my intervention. You can also submit stories, posts, etc. for me to review. And at the moment you can get a blog by asking after you register...I'll be rigging something to offer folks blogs based on their activity on the site, but that'll be a little while coming.

Quote of note:

Egan also found that blacks in San Francisco made on average 40 percent as much as whites in 2004. Asian Americans made 46 percent as much as whites, and Latinos 38 percent. Nationally, blacks made 60 percent as much as whites, Asians 91 percent and Latinos 51 percent.

As a side note, some time in May I'm going to the Bay Area for a week or so for absolutely no reason.

SAN FRANCISCO
Education, race drive incomes
Wide disparities seen in new study
- Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2006

Asian American, African American and Latino residents of San Francisco make even less money compared with whites than they do elsewhere in the country, and middle-income residents are abandoning the city, a new study released Wednesday by the city shows.

Quote of note:

Aunt Maude has three choices. She can check "YES!" she wants to help defend the Republican Senate Majority with a contribution of $500, or several lesser alternatives. She can check "No," she does not wish to participate in "this vital Republican Senate Leadership Survey," but she does want to give a generous donation of $500, or several lesser alternatives, to "help build Republican grassroots support for President Bush and his agenda."

Or she can claim membership in the group below the lowest common denominator by checking No: "I do not wish to participate in the Survey, nor do I wish to make a donation to help the Republican Party. I am returning my Survey Document, along with a contribution of $11 to help cover the cost of tabulating and redistributing my Survey."

Grand Old Preying
By David S. Holland
Thursday, April 6, 2006; A29

Political fundraising solicitations cater to the lowest common denominator, a fact with which everyone other than those in the lowest common denominator will probably agree. Recently, however, I received a solicitation that might give pause to even the lowest common denominator.

The solicitation was from the Republican side of the aisle, but Democrats should not feel too superior: Their communications are certainly not aimed at rocket scientists. Still, this particular Republican effort sets a new low.

North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School, was, in her capacity as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the signatory of the covering letter. I hope her signature was nominal only and not indicative of any actual awareness of the contents of the solicitation.

Have Your Mac and Windows XP, Too
By Rob Pegoraro
Thursday, April 6, 2006; D01

Good news for Microsoft: It's just gained access to a new base of customers who need to pick up their own copy of Windows XP.

Bad news for Apple: A Mac can now get any of the viruses, worms and spyware that afflict Windows machines.

Terrific news for indecisive computer shoppers: They no longer have to choose between getting a Mac or a Windows machine, because an Intel-based Mac can be both.

All these developments come courtesy of a new, free program Apple released yesterday. Boot Camp makes what was once impossible, then mind-numbingly difficult, easy: You can put a copy of Windows XP on a Mac, then choose to run either XP or Apple's Mac OS X at each start-up.

Quote of note:

Last year, parents appeared lukewarm toward the program, which was put in place by Congressional Republicans as a five-year pilot program, But this year, it is attracting more participation, illustrating how school-choice programs are winning over minority parents, traditionally a Democratic constituency.