More than a dozen families have publicly said they were misled or overtly lied to about the cause of their loved one’s death in Afghanistan or Iraq. These families — about half from the Marines and half from the Army — said the military was slow to investigate or take possible violations seriously, or that the information they did receive was riddled with contradictions. What should be the military’s most careful duty, these families say, has for them been a painful ordeal.

The best known such case was in 2004, when Cpl. Pat Tillman, the former professional football player, died in what the Army first said was a heroic firefight. A month later, officials told the family that he had actually been accidentally shot by members of his own platoon. The Defense Department is now completing the fourth investigation of his death, this time examining the possibility that a cover-up followed.

Contractors Rarely Held Responsible for Misdeeds in Iraq
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A12

The list of alleged contractor misdeeds in Iraq has grown long in the past 3 1/2 years. Yet when it comes to holding companies accountable, the charges seldom stick.

Critics say that because of legal loopholes, flaws in the contracting process, a lack of interest from Congress and uneven oversight by investigative agencies, errant contractors have faced few sanctions for their work in Iraq.

And the inspector general's office credited with doing the most to root out waste and fraud is scheduled to go out of business by next October.

Kings criticize civil rights museum site
© 2006 The Associated Press

ATLANTA — Two of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children say a proposed civil rights museum should be near their father's grave instead of in the city's tourism hub.

The 2.5-acre site that Coca-Cola Co. offered two weeks ago for the museum is near the Georgia Aquarium, the CNN Center and the future World of Coca-Cola Museum. Some city leaders say the civil rights museum should be less than two miles away near Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached, and the King Center, where he and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are buried.

"I would hope that we as a community and a city, if we were going to erect a civil rights museum, it would be in the King historic district," Martin Luther King III said told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Think I'm joking?

KKK backing welcomed
Prop 2 leader says he'll take support wherever he can get it to end affirmative action.
Ronald J. Hansen / The Detroit News

Ward Connerly, the California man leading a ballot measure to end most affirmative action in Michigan, accepts Ku Klux Klan support for his position in a video clip posted this week on the Internet.

Connerly on Friday defended his remark in a statement, saying he accepts support for banning affirmative action wherever he finds it.

He said he does not support hateful activities.

But opponents of Connerly's Proposal 2 immediately seized on the clip as a sign that it would satisfy hate groups, not ensure equality.

Perle's prominent advocacy of invasion after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and his close relationship with the war's top architects, including Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy Defense secretary, and Douglas J. Feith, the former Pentagon policy chief — makes his reversal particularly noteworthy.

Perle says he should not have backed Iraq war
By Peter Spiegel
Times Staff Writer
November 4, 2006

WASHINGTON — Richard N. Perle, the former Pentagon advisor regarded as the intellectual godfather of the Iraq war, now believes he should not have backed the U.S.-led invasion, and he holds President Bush responsible for failing to make timely decisions to stem the rising violence, according to excerpts from a magazine interview.

I said

All he had to say was, "I didn't say that's the only way into the military." He could add, "But it's a sure way to the most dangerous, least attractive MOS available."

Economists say

"the Selective Service Board will draft young people who are potentially brilliant brain surgeons, inventors and economists -- young people with high opportunity costs of entering the service -- and will leave undrafted some young people with much lower opportunity costs. The social loss is avoided under a voluntary system, in which precisely those with the lowest costs will volunteer."

Kerry Trips Over an Economic Truth
By Uwe E. Reinhardt
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A23

There is no question that Sen. John F. Kerry owed our men and women in the military and their families the apology he offered this week. Even in clumsy jest, if that is what his remarks were, they could not have come across as anything but insulting.

Truth be told, however, economics professors routinely instruct their students on the virtue of the all-volunteer army in language that comes dangerously close to Kerry's uncouth remark.

In the past two days, Rice has appeared on four radio shows, including that of Ingraham, a best-selling author for her books that attack liberal "elites"; Bill Cunningham, a Cincinnati conservative; and Glenn Beck, another conservative, who appears on nearly 200 stations.

Rice also appeared in the past week on CNBC's "Kudlow and Company," hosted by conservative economic commentator Lawrence Kudlow, and "Morning in America," a radio show hosted by prominent Republican William Bennett. During this 12-day period, the only outlets Rice spoke to that did not have conservative leanings were Bloomberg TV, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and the New York Times.

Rice Bucks Tradition With Pre-Election Appearances
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A03

It was an unusual question for a secretary of state.

"Did you dress up as a liberal" for Halloween, conservative commentator Laura Ingraham asked on her radio show yesterday. "No, no, no," Condoleezza Rice replied. "I didn't dress up as anything."

Two weeks before crucial midterm elections that could tip the balance of power in Congress, Rice has been on a media blitz that appears aimed mainly at conservative media outlets, particularly radio talk shows. Secretary of state is traditionally a nonpartisan position, and Rice's media itinerary differs sharply from the practice of her predecessors during election campaigns, according to State Department records.

Black Men And Women Of Their Words
Franklin, Rawles Among Literary Award Winners
By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; C01

Literary awards were bestowed on a new generation of black writers last night, heavy awards given in the heavy names of Zora and Richard.

Nancy Rawles won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in the fiction category for "My Jim," a first-person account of Sadie, the wife of the runaway slave in Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn."

Historian John Hope Franklin won in nonfiction category for his autobiography, "Mirror to America."

Scientists Track Effects of Negative Ads
By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
Friday, November 3, 2006; 6:34 PM

WASHINGTON -- The grainy black-and-white images appear on television, while ominous music plays in the background. It's another in a blizzard of negative political ads and before you consciously know it, the message takes hold of your brain. You may not want it to, but it works just about instantly.

In fact, the ad's effects on the brain "are actually shocking," says UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Marco Iacoboni.

Iacoboni's brain imaging research from the 2004 presidential campaign revealed that viewers lost empathy for their own candidate once he was attacked.

And what is in a phrasing? "Stay the course," expressed in other words, still smells as foul.

Cheney Vows 'Full Speed Ahead' on Iraq War
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 4, 2006; A08

COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 3 -- The Bush administration is determined to continue "full speed ahead" with its policy in Iraq, regardless of Tuesday's midterm elections, Vice President Cheney said Friday.

Cheney said in an interview with ABC News that the administration is convinced that it is pursuing the right path in Iraq.

"It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter, in the sense that we have to continue what we think is right," Cheney said. "That's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right."

Education has widened income inequality, too. Americans with college degrees earn nearly twice as much as those without them.

But education hasn't been a ticket to income growth lately. 

Between 2000 and 2005, workers with four-year college degrees saw their wages fall 3.1 percent, adjusted for inflation. Only two groups, who together make up just 3.4 percent of the workforce, saw inflation-adjusted wages rise. They were workers with doctoral degrees or specialty degrees, such as medicine or law, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [P6: emphasis added]

The rich are getting much richer, much faster than everyone else
By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Over the past quarter-century, and especially in the last 10 years, America's very rich have grown much richer. No one else fared as well. 

In 2004, the richest 1 percent of households - 719,910 of them, with an average annual income of $326,720 - had 19.8 percent of the entire nation's pretax income. That's up from 17.8 percent a year earlier, according to a study by University of California-Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez.

The study, titled "The Evolution of Top Incomes," also found that the richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans - 129,584 households in 2004 - reported income equal to 9.5 percent of national pretax income.

The study is the latest of many to document that the United States lags on some measures of health and care despite spending more on medical care than any other nation. Annual U.S. medical spending was $5,635 per person in 2003.

U.S. Lags in Several Areas of Health Care, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; A14

Americans have a harder time than residents of several other countries getting after-hours appointments with a nurse or primary care physician without going to an emergency room, a study released yesterday found.

Forty percent of U.S. primary care doctors said they had arrangements for after-hours care, according to the survey of more than 6,000 physicians in seven countries. That compared with 95 percent in the Netherlands, 90 percent in New Zealand, 87 percent in the United Kingdom, 76 percent in Germany and 47 percent in Canada.

"Chávez was not able to turn his world tours and anti-American rhetoric into enough votes to win the Council seat. But neither could the US impose its candidate, and it got bruised fighting Chávez off," says Miguel Tinker Salas, a specialist in Latin American issues at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.

"It's like the lightweight boxer who can hold off the heavyweight for rounds and rounds," he adds. "It ends up saying more about the limits of the heavyweight."

United Nations compromise shows limits to US power
With the preferred US plan out, Panama emerges as the choice for a Security Council seat.
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON

(Joseph will deliver a public reading from the book at on Tuesday, November 7, at 4:00 pm in the Melville Library’s Javits Room.)

Not Just Black and White:
Peniel Joseph's acclaimed new book recaptures the nuances of Black Power

The complex realities of the Civil Rights struggle are rapidly fading into myth. While real-life heroes like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks are repackaged as cardboard saints, the fiery radicals of the Black Power movement — Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Stony Brook's own Amiri Baraka — are routinely denigrated, ridiculed, or ignored.

Peniel Joseph wants to change that. "We're fed a conventional version of the period that's preachy and unthreatening," says Joseph, an assistant professor in Stony Brook's Africana Studies department. "Students realize it's supposed to be good for them, so naturally it's dull — like spinach or broccoli."

Ignore this

The documentation requirements took effect in July, but some states have been slow to enforce them, and many doctors are only now becoming aware of the effects on newborns.

...for one more week. As the article says, it's been going on since July [P6: does that still count as new?] and in the end, the child's being born in a U.S. hospital is absolute proof of citizenship. Like it or not, that's the law.

Medicaid Wants Citizenship Proof for Infant Care
By ROBERT PEAR

Mother fuckers don't want you to vote.

The GOP poll-watcher program, outlined in a 13-page document, states: "Your most important duty as a poll worker is to challenge people who present themselves to vote but who are not authorized to vote."...

Jonah H. Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, said the program "raises serious concerns."

"When you have a political party telling people their Number 1 responsibility is to challenge voters, our ears certainly perk up," Goldman said. "This could either be intended to challenge voters in a discriminatory way or in a disruptive way. A lot of times, they just try to cause chaos and long lines."

The manual provides a range of scenarios in which the volunteer should phone complaints to the party's legal headquarters or fill out "incident reports." The scenarios include voters who can't readily supply their full name, address or date of birth -- or who are assisted by election judges. [P6: emphasis added] 

Md. Democrats Say GOP Plans to Block Voters
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006; B06

A recently distributed guide for Republican poll watchers in Maryland spells out how to aggressively challenge the credentials of voters and urges these volunteers to tell election judges they could face jail time if a challenge is ignored.

Democrats said yesterday they consider the handbook, obtained by The Washington Post, evidence of a Republican effort to block people from voting Tuesday.

Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, from Project Gutenberg.

Why you should read it, from Wikipedia.

It Can't Happen Here is a satirical political novel by Sinclair Lewis published in 1935. It features newspaperman Doremus Jessup struggling against the fascist regime of President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, who was modeled either on the flamboyantly dictatorial Huey Long of Louisiana, or on Gerald B. Winrod, the Kansas evangelist whose far-right views earned him the nickname "The Jayhawk Nazi". It serves as a warning that political movements akin to Nazism can come to power in countries such as the United States when people blindly support their leaders

I just saw this at Professor Kim's News Notes. The young lady's picture is linked to the Flikr page so you don't have to host the picture if you want to spread the word.

Yes. That is a hint. 

My Niece is Missing: Please help us find her

Shanice Beckham-Day “Shay”
Missing Since October 31

Age Now: 16 DOB: November 25, 1989
Race: Black
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 160 lbs
Hair Color: Reddish Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Circumstances: Shanice was last seen on October 31, 2006 in the area of Germantown Avenue and Wyneva Street in Philadelphia around midnight; she may still be in the local area.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION
PLEASE CALL 9-1-1 OR 215-686-3353

They got video on the other side of the link!

(It's a news program, not gay sex...get your mind out of the gutter...)

Church Leader Says Haggard Admits To Some Indiscretions
Colorado Springs
Updated: 12:26 AM Nov 3, 2006
11 News

A sudden about-face in the scandal facing New Life Church's pastor.

After Pastor Ted Haggard went public Wednesday night denying allegations of a homosexual affair, senior church officials told KKTV 11News Thursday evening, Pastor Ted Haggard has admitted to some of the claims made by a former male escort. The church's Acting Senior Pastor, Ross Parsley, tells KKTV 11 News that Pastor Haggard has admitted to some of the indiscretions claimed by Mike Jones, but not all of them.

Thursday morning, Jones went on a Denver radio talk show and said Pastor Haggard paid him for sex over the past 3 years. Jones also claims Haggard used drugs with him.

Oh my god, it's BET On Blast!

Allow me to be a sexist pig an say the video is worth watching just because the sister doing the talking is so fine. Other than that, it's a topic we actually touched on already.

I have not read the forum discussion. I'm afraid to. 

Thought I'd get them out of the way in one shot.

I don't use eBay. Ever. Any email I get from "eBay" is a phishing scam. I get the feeling they are VERY successful on the whole, though...they're sending out a full cycle of notifications all the way down to requests for comments on the quality of the transactions. The PayPal scams are even better...they show you a bill for a laptop or something purportedly being charged against your account, with a link to cancel/dispute the charge. Stealing your identity by convincing you someone stole your identity. Such skillful time-binding and conceptual recursion...I'm almost not annoyed.

Another nice letter, coincidentally found at the same url as the previous one...go figure!

The Oct. 31 Metro article "Black Democrats Cross Party Lines to Back Steele for U.S. Senate" reported that many of Prince George's County's most prominent politicians have endorsed Republican Michael S. Steele over Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin in the Maryland Senate race. I found the article quite disturbing.

The rationale given by these black Democrats for supporting Mr. Steele was that they feel the Democratic Party has taken black voters for granted. But the record of the Democrats in Congress, especially when compared with that of the Republicans, does not support this conclusion. The Democrats have consistently been in favor of laws and policies that appeal directly to the black electorate. If leading black Democrats think supporting a Republican for the Senate is a way to help black voters, they are seriously mistaken.

I also find it offensive that they would expect voters to choose a candidate based on race instead of on issues. It leads to a disturbing question that I'm sure these politicians do not want to hear: Should white voters vote for Mr. Cardin simply because he is white?

LEO J. VIDAL
Millersville

That last emphasized bit is a hard question Black folks must be prepared to answer as they work this tactic (I'm starting to figure out which bits I need to explain right up front, as opposed to waiting for a question).

Let's see what's interesting...Oh, here's something that undermines certain Black Democrat's claims...

Two articles that appeared in the Metro section on Oct. 31, "Chronic Troubles at Youth Jails Haunt Campaign," about Maryland's shameful juvenile justice system, and "Black Democrats Cross Party Lines to Back Steele for U.S. Senate," about the defection of African American Democrats in Prince George's County, show again that people of color are terribly overrepresented in jails but woefully underrepresented in statewide office.

The five Prince George's leaders who endorsed Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele are not only dismissing distinguished candidates such as Del. Anthony G. Brown, who is running for lieutenant governor, but are also ignoring the overwhelming diversity of Democrats in the General Assembly and local offices.

Moreover, they are excusing the worsening travesty in juvenile justice under Mr. Steele and Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr., both of whom are African American. Where is their outrage at the disproportionate number of African American youths denied their civil and constitutional rights when they are subjected to appalling services and horrific abuse?

Leaders in both parties need to be honest and vocal about the subtle forms of racism that cause too many people of color to be incarcerated and too few to be elected.

STACEY GURIAN-SHERMAN
Director
Juvenile Justice Family Advocacy
Initiative and Resources
Silver Spring

How the fuck do you miscount five votes? It's REALLY not a good sign...

Mr. TSU is chosen by four faculty members and Miss Black Tennessee. 

Recount Results in White Student Being Crowned Mr. TSU
Date: Thursday, November 02, 2006
By: Eddie R. Cole Jr. and Brittini Barnes,

Tennessee State University has its first white Mr. TSU in Stephen Morrison, a senior from Memphis, after a recalculation of the votes displaced an African American student, Darrius Brooks, who had held the position for three days.

Morrison, a senior health sciences major, had been first runner-up in the Mr. TSU pageant held Oct. 24. After an emergency meeting among university student affairs officials three days later, however, Morrison was told he had won the title.

Man, with all the ranting Thomas Sowell's been doing, Michael Steele running as a Democrat-Not-Even-In-Name-Only, Ken Blackwell just losing...the Black conservative with the best chance of winning is a Democrat!

It's affecting some of their minds. I saw one woman describe John McWhorter as a "moderate-liberal commentator." And now...it's finally happened.

Lynn Swann...that most gentlemanly of contenders...pulled a switchblade the race card.

Swann spokesman Leonardo Alcivar said in an interview yesterday that the commercial, running on WHAT, WURD and WDAS, was a response to an ad that Rendell aired last month on black radio stations across the state. That ad accused Swann of siding with President Bush on a number of economic and social issues.

via Oliver

Because mother fuckers don't want you to.

Vote to spite their asses. Vote to make them fail. It won't take much of your energy and they really will take it as a failure of their plans.

Inspired By The Bible Experience: New Testament author: Zondervan asin: 0310926319 binding: Audio CD list price: $49.99 USD amazon price: $29.99 USD

I’m going to review The Bible.

That’s what this is. It’s not a dramatization, it’s a dramatic reading of the New Testament, New International version. The list of performers is deep and broad, but I don’t think you’ll notice. They get into it but it is still, in the end, The Bible.

This particular bible ships on 19 CDs, all in a little wallet. The Old Testament will be out by Fall 2007. I understand why they published the New Testament first, but American Christianity is an Old Testament religion. Reward in exchange for humble forbearance. I think the Old Testament reading will be more dynamic.

I haven’t listened to the whole set yet, and there’s no branch of American Christianity I can think of that I will ever participate in. Those are the grains of salt you should keep handy as I explain why I think Christians, and American Christians in particular should have something like this.

But Republicans have made some inroads with black voters. President George W. Bush won 11 percent of the black vote in 2004, up from 8 percent in 2000.

ahem

Two (2) percent, post Katrina.

Beyond that, your typical conservative Black person will look at where he or she differs with the Democratic Party and with the Republican Party. Said conservative Black person will see there's a MUCH greater chance of getting Democrats to move in his direction (which will generally be about business, and actually be a disagreement on degree rather than kind) than of getting Republicans to move on issues (which will generally be racial, and absolute).

It's not so much loyalty as intelligence.

Many conservative blacks still vote for Democrats
By Ed Stoddard
Reuters
Wednesday, November 1, 2006; 8:21 AM

DALLAS (Reuters) - For many black Americans, loyalty trumps policy when it comes to casting what could be their decisive votes in U.S. congressional races next week.

Even black voters who support the death penalty, oppose gay marriage and abortion and consider themselves religious activists generally resist conservative Republicans in favor of Democrats who led the civil rights struggle that guaranteed them the vote more than four decades ago.