Lester at Vision Circle analyzed:

However there is a trick bag that we can't get out of. That Rice can't get out of. Plainly put, she's black. What this means is that every single editorial cartoon she appears in is going to look like a racist lampoon. And that every attempt to praise/condemn her is going to fall victim to one of two stereotypes: 1. The Superwoman stereotype--look at this strong black woman who can do everything AND lift weights too! 2. The Black Aid stereotype--made famous by Thomas Jefferson's behind the back comments about Benjamin Banneker. Everything black people do cannot possibly be a product of their own agency--particularly if they go against the black grain. She's GOT to be somebody's agent.

Racism Studies Find Rational Part of Brain Can Override Prejudice Associated Press When scientists theorize about why racism is pervasive - so much so that some have suggested it is hard-wired into us - they come up with something like this: Back when humans were venturing out of the species' birthplace in east Africa, each little band mostly kept to itself. But occasionally someone, searching for food or territory or maybe adventure, came upon someone unfamiliar, from a different band. He could wait for the thoughtful, cognitive part of his brain to assess the stranger. Or he could follow the instincts of the primitive, vigilance and wariness-inducing part of his brain, instantly identifying the guy as an outsider and then either running like heck or assaulting him. With this reaction, he was more likely to live and reproduce. We, the descendants of such people, inherited their genetically based brain modules, which reflexively classify people as "like me" or "unlike me." And thus was racism wired into humankind.

Boi from Troy wants to be practical about a gay agenda for 2005:

I am more interested in a 2005 Gay Agenda. That is, given a Republican President and a Republican House and a Republican Senate, what legislation can we get passed that will benefit gays and lesbians? What bills are they talking about that help us and how can we benefit from their posturing on the marriage issue?

Sadly, what he suggests doesn't bring gay folks up to the level of rights we straight folks have. Instead there's more of a crabs in a basket effect. He has four points: federal recognition of civil unions is the only positive position taken. He argues for the other three by saying they will put straight folks on the same footing as gay folks.

via Afro-Nteizen

White radio host calls Rice 'Aunt Jemima' By JAMES A. CARLSON ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER MILWAUKEE -- A radio talk show host drew criticism Thursday after calling Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima" and saying she isn't competent to be secretary of state. John Sylvester, the program director and morning personality on WTDY-AM in Madison, said in a phone interview Thursday that he used the term on Wednesday's show to describe Rice and other blacks as having only a subservient role in the Bush administration. Rice has served as President Bush's national security adviser and was named this week to replace the departing Colin Powell as secretary of state. Sylvester, who is white, also referred to Powell as an "Uncle Tom" - a contemptuous term for a black whose behavior toward whites is regarded as fawning or servile.

Foe of DeLay Rebuked by House Ethics Panel By CARL HULSE WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 - The House ethics committee has ruled that a Democratic lawmaker exaggerated in the accusations he brought in June against the majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay. Mr. DeLay invoked the finding to claim vindication Friday despite having been admonished by the committee after its inquiry into the complaint. In a letter issued Thursday night, the two leaders of the bipartisan ethics panel told the accuser, Representative Chris Bell, like Mr. DeLay a Texan, that his charges violated a committee rule that prohibits "innuendo, speculative assertions or conclusory statements'' in accusations against a colleague.

Violence Surges Through Central and Northern Iraq By EDWARD WONG BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 20 - Violence surged through central and northern Iraq on Saturday as a tenacious insurgency led by Sunni Arabs kept up relentless assaults in a string of major cities, from Ramadi to Falluja to Baghdad. At dawn, insurgents armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades tried storming a police station in the northwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Amariya, where American and Iraqi soldiers had engaged in a bloody mosque shootout on Friday. The gun battle at the station left three Iraqi policemen dead and two others injured, Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said.

Germans Weigh Taking Stocks Off Wall Street By MARK LANDLER FRANKFURT, Nov. 19 - Add another entry to the list of how Americans and Europeans are parting ways. Several German companies, which rushed to have their shares traded on exchanges in the United States during the bull market of the late 1990's, are now seriously thinking about abandoning the market. The Germans are disenchanted by the United States as a source of capital, and offended by what they view as oppressive new regulations adopted in the aftermath of Enron and other corporate scandals. With trading volumes in New York that are, in most cases, a small fraction of their turnover in Europe, the companies are less willing to bear the legal costs, liability and the bureaucracy of complying with the rules.

Quote of note:

"In this country, rich as it is, people shouldn't have to choose whether their child will live or die," said Angela Ray, the mother of a severely ill 12-year-old girl in Lawrenceburg. "It's amazing to me that it's come down to this."

Once a Model, a Health Plan Is Endangered By RICK LYMAN NASHVILLE, Nov. 19 - A decade after Tennessee inaugurated a health care plan for the state's most vulnerable residents that was hailed as a model for the nation, the program is once more being held up as a model - of failure in an era of soaring medical costs and voters' aversion to higher taxes. Today the plan, TennCare, which sought to improve health care for Medicaid recipients while covering those who fall through the federal program's cracks, is on the ropes.

Negotiators Add Abortion Clause to Spending Bill By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and CARL HULSE WASHINGTON, Saturday, Nov. 20 - House and Senate negotiators have tucked a potentially far-reaching anti-abortion provision into a $388 billion must-pass spending bill, complicating plans for Congress to wrap up its business and adjourn for the year. The provision may be an early indication of the growing political muscle of social conservatives who provided crucial support for Republican candidates, including President Bush, in the election. House officials said Saturday morning that the final details of the spending measure were worked out before midnight and that the bill was filed for the House vote on Saturday.

Black Men Outraged At Racist Rice-Bashing November 17, 2004 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Gino in Chicago. Gino, welcome to the EIB Network. Nice to have you with us. CALLER: How you doing? Rush, I enjoy your show. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: You know, I can't say how back I am taken at the New York Times and the article, the cartoon. I'm waiting for black leadership to stand up and say "Hey, you know what? This is wrong." I'm waiting to hear Jesse Jackson; I'm waiting to hear from the leaders of the Nation of Islam; I'm waiting to hear from Jesse Jackson, Jr.; I'm waiting to hear from Al Sharpton, but I'm waiting to hear from them. But you know what I'm going to hear, Rush? I'm going to hear silence. Do you know why? It's not, "Well, I'm up for the black man." They're more Democratic than they are black. That's the only way I can put it. They are more Democratic than they are black, and I have to say --

Share prices pressured by Greenspan warning on trade gap; Dow down 115 - MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ, AP Business Writer Friday, November 19, 2004 Click to View (11-19) 16:56 PST NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fell sharply Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrials losing more than 115 points, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan sounded a warning over the nation's spiraling trade deficit. Crude oil futures rose more than $2 per barrel, further pressuring stocks. Greenspan's unusually frank assessment of the trade imbalance and its effect on the U.S. economy worried many investors. The Fed chairman said the economy was resilient thus far, but foreign investment could wane should the deficits continue to build and the U.S. dollar remain weak.

The quote of note comes from The Skeptic's Dictionary

Under Lysenko's guidance, science was guided not by the most likely theories, backed by appropriately controlled experiments, but by the desired ideology. Science was practiced in the service of the State, or more precisely, in the service of ideology. The results were predictable: the steady deterioration of Soviet biology. Lysenko's methods were not condemned by the Soviet scientific community until 1965, more than a decade after Stalin's death.

See Scientific American for more.

Genesis Through the Back Door

November 20, 2004

American high school seniors rank 16th among 21 industrialized nations when it comes to achievement in science, and you can bet a frozen mastodon that the leaders — Sweden, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway — got there with a stronger curriculum and better-trained teachers, not with endless court fights over creationism.

Yet fighting creationism has evolved into a booming business for the American Civil Liberties Union. It is awaiting a ruling in Georgia in a suit it brought against the Cobb County school board. Seeking to mollify religious parents who take the creation story in Genesis literally and believe that their religion should intrude into their public schools, the board decided to paste a sticker inside the cover of high school biology textbooks, saying in part, "Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things." Caveat homo sapiens. What next? A back-cover sticker to American history texts wondering if ending slavery was really such a great idea?

…Far more troubling was last month's decision by the Dover, Pa., school board to mandate the teaching of "intelligent design" alongside evolution. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that the required teaching of creationism as science violated the 1st Amendment. Trying to disguise creationism with the label of "intelligent design" (which sounds like an IKEA marketing pitch) doesn't pass the smell test — or any valid science test.

Ending Hunger Today and Into the Future Aid agencies plan for those in need. By Michael Flood Michael Flood is the executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Website: www.lafoodbank.org November 20, 2004 …There are two main fronts in the fight against hunger: programs that fight hunger today and public policies that can end hunger in the future. Food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and other charities are on the front lines providing food to adults, children and senior citizens who need assistance today. Federal nutrition programs, such as food stamps and the school lunch and breakfast programs, are also crucial in the fight against hunger. Support for all of these programs is critical to help the people who require food assistance today.

Not All Spiritual E-Mail Is Sent With Divine Intentions By Chris Gaither Times Staff Writer November 20, 2004 Sometimes that junk e-mail in your computer inbox isn't trying to sell you something — it's trying to save your soul. Get ready for spiritual spam. An e-mail security company Friday reported an uptick in evangelical missives crusading across the Internet. While religious spam makes up less than 2% of the billions of junk e-mail messages sent each day, its numbers have grown in recent weeks, according to MessageLabs, a New York-based anti-spam company. "With the recent right-wing swing in elections, maybe they're trying to ride that wave," said Paul Wood, the firm's chief analyst.

PLAYERS VS. FANS Palace Revolt In one of the ugliest moments in NBA history, Artest leads charge into the stands and punches fans, who fire back at players, before Pacer-Piston game is called off From Associated Press November 20, 2004 AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Fists were flying. So were cups, plastic bottles and even a chair in one of the ugliest NBA brawls ever — and Indiana's Ron Artest was right in the middle of it. Artest and Stephen Jackson charged into the stands and fought with fans in the final minute of their game against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night, and the brawl forced an early end to the Pacers' 97-82 victory at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Officials stopped the game with 45.9 seconds remaining after pushing and shoving between the teams spilled into the stands once fans got involved by throwing things at the players near the scorer's table.

The thing that annoys me most is ignoring the obvious. So people that claim affirmative action programs are prima facie violations of the 14th amendment are very annoying.

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

They get stuck on Section 1 and forget all about Section 5:

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

China eyes new turf: S. America
Bush visits Friday, but President Hu Jintao has been striking business deals for two weeks.
By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

SANTIAGO, CHILE - When President Bush arrives here Friday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, he's likely to be met by student protesters already in the streets chanting against "globalization," "colonialism," and the US occupation of Iraq.

But China's President Hu Jintao is getting quite a different reception. For two weeks now, he's been cutting ribbons at new factories in Argentina, enjoying beef barbecues in Brazil, addressing congresses, and announcing investment projects as he and 150 Chinese businessmen make their way across South America and on to Cuba.

New low-cost HIV treatment hailed

The World Health Organization has recommended a new treatment for HIV-positive children which researchers say can dramatically cut death rates.

The drug - a common antibiotic called co-trimoxazole - costs less than 10 cents per person a day.

A trial on children in Zambia suggests it can nearly halve mortality rates for infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, often caused by HIV.

Every day about 1,300 children die from HIV/Aids illnesses across the world.

The Zambia trial was carried out by doctors from the UK's Medical Research Council.
The study ended early when they realised how effective of the treatment was.

After about 19 months, a quarter of the children who had been taking co-trimoxazole had died, compared with more than 40% of the children who had been given a placebo.

A guide to future U.S.ofA. military campaigns.

Jesus and the FDA
By KAREN TUMULTY
Saturday, Oct. 05, 2002

A quiet battle is raging over the Bush Administration's plan to appoint a scantily credentialed doctor, whose writings include a book titled As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now, to head an influential Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel on women's health policy. Sources tell Time that the agency's choice for the advisory panel is Dr. W. David Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist who also wrote, with his wife Linda, Stress and the Woman's Body, which puts "an emphasis on the restorative power of Jesus Christ in one's life" and recommends specific Scripture readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and premenstrual syndrome. Though his resume describes Hager as a University of Kentucky professor, a university official says Hager's appointment is part time and voluntary and involves working with interns at Lexington's Central Baptist Hospital, not the university itself. In his private practice, two sources familiar with it say, Hager refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. Hager did not return several calls for comment.

Talking Points Memo:
Florida's Adam Putnam voted for the DeLay Rule on Wednesday. And here in the local paper he's explaining how he stood up for principle by voting for the 'compromise' ...

U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, said he voted for the compromise in
Republican House rules covering suspension of House GOP leaders, who
are indicted in state courts, but that he would not have voted for the
proposal that would have totally exempted committee chairs and other
leaders from state indictments.

The issue has arisen because of a potential Texas grand jury
indictment on political corruption against Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

It would have been to me rather hypocritical to have said that we
are above state law, but not above federal law," Putnam said. "The
initial package stated that House Republican leaders would be excluded
from state courts, but not federal courts. But there is total agreement
on the final package (with the compromise)," he said.

Children Left Behind
Friday, November 19, 2004; Page A28

DEFICIT SPENDING didn't bother the Bush administration when the issue was tax cuts. Congress had no trouble finding "savings" to supposedly offset new costs when the costs were in a corporate tax bill stuffed with special-interest provisions. But when it comes to health care for poor children, different, stricter rules seem to apply. This week's lame-duck Congress is poised to leave town without taking any action to restore $1 billion in federal funding for children's health care that wasn't used before its Sept. 30 expiration and therefore reverted to the Treasury. Republican lawmakers say they don't oppose renewing the funding but insist that it has to be paid for with cuts elsewhere. The result is that some 200,000 low-income children will be at risk of losing health coverage in the next three years.

If an effective treatm,ent for, say, Alzheimer;s disease, was developed via stem cell research using therapeutic cloning, would a U.S. law banning such research prevent us from buying and using such a drug?

UN Short-Circuits U.S.-Led Drive to Ban Cloning
Thu Nov 18, 2004 09:11 PM ET

By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to secure a global treaty banning the cloning of human embryos, including for stem cell research, were dealt a major setback on Thursday when U.N. diplomats agreed to work for a political declaration on the issue instead.

"This is a done deal. We resume consideration in February on a declaration," said one envoy involved in last-minute negotiations before a showdown on the issue which had been expected at a United Nations committee on Friday.

Wal-Mart is an economic force of nature, but one that…for now…can still be affected.

---

Lawsuits and Change at Wal-Mart
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest retailer, but also a magnet for employee complaints about off-the-clock work. It faces lawsuits in more than 30 states.

Wal-Mart says its deep pockets have made it an attractive target. Plaintiffs' lawyers counter that off-the-clock work is endemic at Wal-Mart because of the company's emphasis on keeping its costs low.

Wal-Mart settled one case involving 69,000 workers in Colorado for $50 million four years ago. In Oregon, a federal jury found in 2002 that the company had required off-the-clock work, but the court awarded back pay to only 83 workers.

Quote of note:

Software developer SCO Group Inc., which claims that Linux is based on its Unix software, is suing companies including International Business Machines Corp..

It is to laugh. Ha ha ha!

Singapore's Ministry of Defense last month switched 20,000 personal computers to run on open-source software instead of the Microsoft operating platform.

Other governments in the region are also looking to use more open-source software. China, Japan and South Korea this year agreed to jointly develop applications running on Linux.

It is NOT to laugh.

Someone's been studying the history of European imperialism, with a particular focus on economic spheres of influence.

Anyway…

Microsoft Warns Asian Governments of Linux Suits

D.C. Water Test Finds Toxic Substance
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 19, 2004; Page B01

A more refined test of the water in the Washington Aqueduct has revealed the presence of perchlorate, a toxic chemical typically found in weapons and explosives, federal officials said yesterday.

The discovery of the chemical in the water supply challenges the prevailing theory of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has argued that contamination from buried World War I munitions in the Spring Valley neighborhood to the north poses no threat to Dalecarlia Reservoir along MacArthur Avenue NW.

Thomas P. Jacobus, chief of the Washington Aqueduct, said perchlorate in the reservoir measured between 1.2 and 1.8 parts per billion (ppb) and did not pose a health risk. He said he has ordered weekly tests of the water and is recommending that the corps accelerate its search for the source of perchlorate contamination.

Nuclear Disclosures on Iran Unverified
U.S. Officials Checking Evidence Cited by Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 19, 2004; Page A01

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell shared information with reporters Wednesday about Iran's nuclear program that was classified and based on an unvetted, single source who provided information that two U.S. officials said yesterday was highly significant if true but has not yet been verified.

Powell and other senior Cabinet members were briefed last week on the sensitive intelligence. The material was stamped "No Foreign," meaning it was not to be shared with allies, although President Bush decided that portions could be shared last week with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, officials said.

Bush Confronts New Challenge on Issue of Iran
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: November 19, 2004

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 18 - While assembling a new national security team, President Bush is confronting what could become the biggest challenge of his second term: how to contain Iran's nuclear program and what some in the administration believe to be Tehran's support of violence in Israel and insurgents in Iraq.

In an eerie repetition of the prelude to the Iraq war, hawks in the administration and Congress are trumpeting ominous disclosures about Iran's nuclear capacities to make the case that Iran is a threat that must be confronted, either by economic sanctions, military action, or "regime change."

via MetaFilter
Florida is the New Florida
Although many discussions of voting anomalies focused on Ohio, a statistical analysis of Florida voting patterns performed by sociologists at University of California, Berkeley suggests that electronic touch screen voting

in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade may have credited George Bush

Quote of note:

In his testimony, Graham said the FDA's Office of New Drugs unrealistically maintains a drug is safe unless reviewers establish with 95 percent certainty that it is not.

That rule does not protect consumers, Graham told the Senate committee. "What it does is it protects the drug," he said.

FDA reviewer says five drugs now on market are so worrisome they deserve another look
- DIEDTRA HENDERSON, AP Science Writer
Thursday, November 18, 2004
(11-18) 17:31 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

At least five medications now sold to consumers pose such risks that their sale should be limited or stopped, said a government drug reviewer who raised safety questions earlier about the arthritis drug Vioxx.