Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 2, 2006 - 4:19pm. on The Environment
The low-latitude inversions have crept upward, appearing in the more northerly flies in 21 of 22 sites that have experienced warming, but not in four nonwarmed sites, they find. Flies in the warmed sites have the pattern of inversions that would previously have been found in their brethren one degree, or 70 miles, closer to the equator.
Climate warming over the last quarter century is writ large in tiny fruit flies, according to a genetic analysis. In a species of fruit fly, the frequencies of so-called inversions, in which a piece of chromosome is flipped around, were observed decades ago to correspond to the latitude at which the flies were found. In nearly all the sites where the flies have recently been sampled--a span of three continents--the frequency of specific inversions has increased hand in hand with climbing temperatures. "It's a very clear signal that climate warming is going to have a big impact on our environment," says Raymond Huey of the University of Washington, co-author of a report in the September 1 Science that documents the change.
Hiring was tepid in August, bringing average job creation in the private sector to 102,000 jobs a month since April. That is nowhere near the level of labor demand that’s needed to give employees the clout to bargain for raises. Accordingly, hourly wages weakened in August, up only one-tenth of a percent, all of which is most likely to be eaten up by inflation. (In 26 of the last 28 months, annual hourly wage growth has failed to outpace inflation.)
Sounds depressing — if you rely on your job to get by. But it was good news for investors. Their biggest hope these days is that the economy will slow just enough to curb inflation, but not enough to provoke recession. They took August’s jobs report, released yesterday by the Labor Department, as evidence that their wish was coming true.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 2, 2006 - 7:51am. on Culture wars | Health
With methamphetamine ravaging small towns, Wyoming and other rural states have also been fighting a persistent drug problem.
And while it may be a mystery to some why the least-populated part of the country leads the nation in the percentage of young people drinking to excess, it is no surprise to many people in Wyoming or Montana. Teenagers, police officers and counselors offer the same reason: the boredom of the big empty.
CODY, Wyo. — Barely five people per square mile live on the high, wind-raked ground of Wyoming; the entire state is a small town with long streets, as they say. The open space means room to roam and a sense of frontier freedom.
It also means that on any given night, an unusually high percentage of young people here are drinking alcohol until they vomit, pass out or do something that lands them in jail or nearly gets them killed.
“Had a kid, drunk, flipped his car going 80 miles an hour, and that killed him; and another kid, drunk, smashed his boat up against the rock just a couple months ago, killing two; and then there was this beating after a kegger — they clubbed this kid to death,” said Scott Steward, the sheriff here in Park County, recounting casualties that followed long nights of hard drinking by high school students.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 2, 2006 - 7:42am. on Justice | Politics
Sought-after items named in the search include hats or other garments bearing the phrases "CBC," "Corrupt Bastards Club" or "Corrupt Bastards Caucus." What the names referred to was unclear, and authorities would not comment.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The offices of at least six Alaska legislators, including the son of Sen. Ted Stevens, were raided by federal agents searching for possible ties between the lawmakers and a large oil field services company, officials and aides said.
Department of Justice spokeswoman Jaclyn Lesch said Friday the searches began Thursday and were continuing Friday. FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said a total of 20 search warrants were being executed across Alaska, but would not say where.
"The economy is growing, and someone is getting the growth," said Sharon Parrott, a senior analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "So now we know who it is."
President Bush and the Republican Congress, take a bow: You took power to make the well-off even better off, and you have succeeded brilliantly.
As for the poor and the middle class, maybe they'll do better after the next hurricane, or the one after that.
Perfect Storm for the Poor In Income Data, Something More Damaging Than Katrina By E. J. Dionne Jr. Friday, September 1, 2006; A21
After a week of remembering the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the most depressing realization is how easily our leaders forgot their fervent promises to lift up our nation's poorest citizens.
All manner of politicians and columnists said in Katrina's wake that this was the time to revisit the problems of the destitute. The anguish of the people of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward would have at least some redemptive power if the country took poverty seriously again.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 2, 2006 - 6:39am. on War
The Pentagon report, though consistent with what news media have reported for months, is significant because it represents an official acknowledgment of trends that are widely believed to be driving the country toward full-scale civil war.
Insurgency, sectarian violence, civil war, full-scale civil war, all-out civil war...
Split hairs as finely as you like. And keep pretending the truth isn't true, that your names determine what actually happens.
Rising sectarian bloodshed has pushed violence in Iraq to its highest level in more than two years, and preventing civil war is now the most urgent mission of the growing contingent of 140,000 U.S. troops in the country, according to a new Pentagon report released yesterday.
Executions, kidnappings and other sectarian attacks targeting Iraqi civilians have soared over the past three months, contributing to a 51 percent rise in casualties among the population and Iraqi security forces, the report said. More than 3,000 Iraqis are killed or wounded each month, and by July, 2,000 of the casualties were the result of sectarian incidents, it showed.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 2, 2006 - 6:11am. on Politics | War
"Thought and careful preparation went into what I said," Rumsfeld wrote in the letter.
Rumsfeld Reaches Out to Democrats In Letter, Secretary Says Recent Speech Was Misconstrued By Anne Plummer Flaherty Associated Press Saturday, September 2, 2006; A12
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reached out to Democrats yesterday, opening the door for them to retract their stinging indictment of him as Pentagon chief.
In a letter to Congress's top Democrats, Rumsfeld said remarks he made Tuesday during a speech in Salt Lake City were misrepresented by the news media. Rumsfeld said he was "concerned" by the reaction of Democrats, many of whom called for his resignation and said he was treading on dangerous territory.
What bothers me is that your comfort is supported by your discomforting Black folks both unnecessarily and counterproductively.
Fine, you gotta be twice as good, but don't demonize people for being merely human. Be clear you are not talking about solving the problems of the world. You can improve your thing without improving things by one iota, and this is the approach you suggest.
Be clear about that, I have little beef with The Cosbyites. Continue to confuse the issues and you do no one any favors.
Your rhetoric is damaging, and it's not necessary to spur the improvements you're looking for.
African-American schoolchildren who completed a brief writing assignment designed to reaffirm their sense of self-worth received higher grades at the end of the semester than those given a control intervention, a new study finds. These better-performing children closed the grade gap with their white peers by 40 percent, apparently because the assignment interrupted the harmful effects of declining performance early in the semester.
BALTIMORE - There is a direct correlation between income level and SAT scores nationally — results that matched locally with the new U.S. census findings, according to newly released data released from the College Board.
The overall SAT results were broken into 10 family-income blocks, beginning at less than $10,000. They increase in $10,000 increments to students with family income levels greater than $100,000. Students from families with less than a $10,000 income scored a mean of 429 in critical reading, which improved to 445 in the $10,000 to $20,000 income range. That score jumped in each of the next eight income groups, peaking at 549 with students from families earning more than $100,000. The same trend occurred in math: Students at the lowest-end income level had a mean score of 457, which crept to 465, 474, 488, 501 and then 509 in the $50,000-$60,000 range. The numbers kept improving to a mean score of 564 at the $100,000 and above level.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 1, 2006 - 1:04pm. on Economics | Politics
Secretary Gutierrez gives a luncheon address at the Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2006. For some reason he found it the proper place for some revealing misrepresentations of the estate tax.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on September 1, 2006 - 11:03am. on Religion | Tech
The first post tagged with both Religion and Tech. I think that's a notable event.
I seriously invite you to consider exactly what you've done when you confess anonymously over the Internet. You may well find the Internet, anonymity and confession to all be tools to accomplish effects attainable by other means.
Perhaps the most important activity the Web site has is letting people know that they are not alone in their suffering, Professor Thumma said. It harkens to the now rare practice of “testimony time” at evangelical churches, he said, when “you could hear stories about people overcoming problems, stories of hope, so that you felt you weren’t the only one struggling.”
Among those changed by the confessions is Mr. Groeschel himself.
“Knowing that so many people I see every week on the outside look so normal, and yet inside there is so much pain, that has been surprising,” he said. “When you hear about it in their own words, it’s hard to bear.”
“We are at a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, not a cease-fire,” Ms. Eisin said.
...represents a whole new level of hypocrisy. They are as mutually hostile as ever. Maybe more so...embarrassment does that sometimes. So what does "cessation of hostilities" mean?
The shooting — and occasional mortar fire — goes on regularly around this village, a Hezbollah stronghold near the border.
To local people, it is sheer provocation, and a flagrant breach of the cease-fire that ended the fighting on Aug. 14.
To the Israelis, it is legitimate self-defense. Aita al Shaab “still has many Hezbollah fighters in it,” said Miri Eisin, an Israeli government spokeswoman.
I'm tired of reading this ignorant self-help bullshit. Because poverty in America is not a personal failing. It is a economic condition causes by a declining wage base, the increasing power of employers and the decreasing unionization of work. It isn't because Peanut didn't finish the 12th grade.
Black economists and socioligists need to jump down the throat of these half-assed analyses of black America. It isn't "racism", but specific racist acts, which magnify poverty. All the GOP ever had to do to win black votes is simply go after redlining. But they won't. Just like they won't go after porn in hotels, because their friends make money from it.
...What we have watched unfold for a few decades, I have argued, is a broad reversion to 19th-century political form, with free-market economics understood as the state of nature, plutocracy as the default social condition, and, enthroned as the nation’s necessary vice, an institutionalized corruption surpassing anything we have seen for 80 years. All that is missing is a return to the gold standard and a war to Christianize the Philippines.
There you are.
Now, fact is we've never wandered too far from that condition.
One of the reasons I've hesistated to give out rhetoric lessons and such in the past was the fear that people would mistake rhetorical technique to support one's position for reasoning methods to establish one's position. Rhetoric produces a line drawing of the photograph that is our reasoned (or chosen!) position. We can agree the line drawing looks like our photograph but the impact of each image is different; the impact of the line drawing dependsas much on what you leave out as what you include.
A YEAR ago this week, the entire nation caught a chilling look in the mirror. We watched as the citizens of New Orleans, clutching their essential belongings in plastic trash bags, struggled through fetid flood waters in search of shelter. But even with all that’s been said and written on this painful anniversary, one of the real issues remains unaddressed.
The approximately 1,200 images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery. This collection is envisioned as a tool and a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers, students, and the general public - in brief, anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World.
We would like to emphasize that little effort is made to interpret the images and establish the historical authenticity or accuracy of what they display. To accomplish this would constitute a major and different research effort. Individual users of this collection must decide such issues for themselves. However, we have made every effort to ensure bibliographic accuracy and the correct identification of both primary and secondary sources from which the images have been obtained, as well as correct identification of the area, country, or region to which the image refers. The dates we assign may refer to the date an image was published, at other times to when an author visited an area; in other cases, we could only assign a general time period. Despite our efforts at bibliographical and chronological accuracy, errors remain, and we welcome any comments, suggestions, or corrections.
Gulf Coast Economic Issues Dept. of Commerce Sec. Carlos Gutierrez gives a luncheon address at the Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2006. He talks about the Commerce Department's efforts to bring economic development to the Gulf Coast region and to assist small and minority-owned businesses.
I just watched this thing. Mr. Gutierrez dropped a load of bullshit about the "death tax" at the end. You WILL get to see it later. In the meanwhile you can see the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hold a press conference on the IRS tax investigation. It's 45 minutes of C-SPAN...or you can take my word for it that they're still a tax exempt organization.
Jonah Goldberg: Give Bush a Break The president's most stubborn critics won't stop beating the Iraq and Katrina drums despite much success elsewhere. Jonah Goldberg August 31, 2006
LORD KNOWS I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study. Some of his sentences give me the same sensation as falling backward in one of those "trust" exercises, in which you just have to hope things work out. Yes, the Iraq invasion has gone badly, and to deny this is to suggest that Bush meant for things to turn out this way, which is even crueler than saying he failed to get it right.
But you know what? It's time to cut the guy some slack.
IN HIS MOST recent justification of his Pentagon stewardship, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reached back to the 1930s, comparing the Bush administration's critics to those who, like US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, favored appeasing Adolf Hitler. Rumsfeld avoided a more recent comparison: the appeasement of Saddam Hussein by the Reagan and first Bush administrations. The reasons for selectivity are obvious, since so many of Hussein's appeasers in the 1980s were principals in the 2003 Iraq war, including Rumsfeld.
[O]ne of the ironies of current politics is that a swing in only 15 House seats would result in a huge ideological shift in the legislative agenda. Most of the House seats in play are "swing" districts held by political moderates. The most [liberal|conservative] seats also tend to be the safest and thus are held by Members who can stay around for the decades needed to become chairmen. Their agenda is not the one those "swing" voters would be endorsing.
I installed the toggle. I hope it make the projection clear...it will for progressives and thinking conservatives. But if I must put so fine a point on it, the "Conservative Revolution" (a greater non-sequitur does not exist) left over 95% of incumbents in place.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on August 31, 2006 - 7:46am. on Culture wars | War
I confess the title has more than a touch of cynicism.
These cliched allusions -- whether from anti war activists or from official Washington -- only cheapen the memory of the Holocaust and hasten the degradation of political discourse. The history of European fascism ought not be hijacked for cheap political effect.
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has gone on the offensive this week to shore up collapsing support for its policies in Iraq. The latest effort -- transparent as it is inaccurate -- tries to draw parallels between Iraq and World War II. It's a misuse of history and the kind of propaganda that should have gone out with Liberty Bonds.
Of COURSE Republicans and Conservatives are going to twist your history, use it as a cudgel against you.
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on August 31, 2006 - 7:30am. on Race and Identity
By Any Means Necessary A federal judge plays politics in Michigan. BY TERRENCE PELL Thursday, August 31, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
...Just a few weeks before the deadline for Proposal 2 to get onto the state ballot, the "Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary" (BAMN, loosely) argued that the signature gathering process used to qualify the referendum was tainted by racially targeted fraud. From the beginning, BAMN has claimed the initiative disguised an anti-black and racist agenda. But because many black individuals had signed the petition, BAMN had to show they'd been duped.
Fact: Witnesses testified in Federal Court they were lied to. And you really have to be concerned about any plan that can only be approved if you lie.
DETROIT --Witnesses testified in federal court Thursday that they were tricked into signing or collecting signatures on petitions to put a proposal to ban some affirmative action programs on the November ballot.
State courts so far have sided with the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, whose proposal to ban race and gender preferences in government hiring and public-university admissions is to be put to voters Nov. 7.
Joseph Reed of Detroit testified that when he applied as a petition circulator, "I was told it was for keeping affirmative action, that they were trying to get rid of it and this was a way to keep it."
Reed collected signatures and told voters, "You're signing to keep affirmative action," he said. But after a few weeks, people began accusing him of deceiving petition signers, and he learned the proposal's true goal.
Doyle O'Connor, a lawyer, testified that he overheard a petition circulator tell a shopper that voting for the proposal would "help black kids get into college."
After confronting them about the misrepresentation, he said, "They finally said they were getting paid, and they didn't care what they did as long as they got paid."
Still, those senators have ways to stymie things. One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.
“He’s the only senator blocking it,” Coburn said of Stevens.
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism By Dr. Lawrence Britt [P6: This is an abbrieviated form. The original article is still online.]
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
WASHINGTON, DC - A majority of working Americans now believe their children are going to be worse off economically than they are, according to a poll of 800 non-supervisory workers released today by Change to Win (CtW). This, along with other striking results, reveals that on Labor Day 2006, the American Dream is slipping away. Among the key findings:
A majority of workers say the number one issue they face is that the wages they are paid are not keeping up with the cost of living.
More than half expect to have to work longer before retiring than they thought they would five years ago.
More than a third have been forced to go into debt in the last year just to pay for basic necessities like food, utilities, and gasoline.
The survey also found a substantial majority believe that by joining together with other workers in unions, workers can help restore the American Dream.
Properly speaking, though, it'a a coalition, not an alliance. Anyway, here's a link to an hour of C-SPAN video.
NAACP & NAHB State of Minority Housing The National Association for Advancement for Colored People & the National Association of Home Builders have joined together to address the issue of affordable housing for minorities. The associations have authored a report that examines barriers to housing affordability and includes recommendations and action items to address these problems. 1:00. Washington, DC
It's pretty easy for me to shift into other folks' viewpoints. I'm talking on a macro level, not detail like "how will my girl react if..."
So I wind up shaking my head sadly when I hear Real Amurrikans screaming in terror about how "Islamofascist" want to destroy our way of life when
they proselytize for universal Christianity
want to destroy those who proselytize for universal (fill-in-the-blank)
I can't help but note they look to their enemies exactly as their enemies look to them. Which makes me everyone's enemy or everyone's friend because they all look alike to me.
I love it when Mammon worshippers install a petard and, like, ask you to hoist them upon it.
Few people know that Focus on the Family—the powerful evangelical Christian para-church based in Colorado Springs—will give you, absolutely free of charge, books, CDs, and DVDs. Usually people pay for these products, and the millions of dollars raised helps Focus on the Family produce yet more books and CDs featuring Dr. James Dobson and other Focus "experts." (Focus on the Family's experts, when they're not chatting on the phone with Karl Rove, run around the country teaching people how to stop being so gay and when it's appropriate to kick their kids' asses.)
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on August 30, 2006 - 8:46am. on Economics | War
On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws Ex-Lockheed Worker Takes Concerns Over Coast Guard Ships to the Web By Griff Witte Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 29, 2006; D01
Michael De Kort was frustrated.
The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen.
But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.
