Cindy Sheehan Arrested

Well at least SOMEONE has some fucking backbone. Hopefully this will garner some press attention and energize the disenfranchised majority in this country.

"Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D- Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Sheehan was taken in handcuffs from the Capitol to police headquarters a few blocks away. Her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said."

10 Dumbest Moments In Business

Here goes the grand prize winner (thanks to Jenn):

"William McLaughlin, an executive with AvalonBay Communities, which is converting boarded-up Massachusetts mental institution Danvers State Hospital into a 497-unit complex of high-end apartments and condos. That sound you hear? Not the ghosts of mental patients, but loud hissing from the wildly inflated housing bubble."

Want some more?

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/101dumbest/

Davos 

WHAT HAPPENED IN DAVOS?

Some of us recall Scott McClellan's snide remark last week that Kerry had to phone in from a 5-star ski resort in Switzerland to start his campaign for a filibuster of the Alito nomination. That was Davos, of course, host to the 2006 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. And where he was, was a bit more than a ski resort. Here were gathered the movers and shakers of the world. The WEF's members are the "one thousand foremost global enterprises," not to mention the array of political figures, if you can imagine the distinction. To give you some idea of the players at this stratified altitude, here is an excerpt from the summary of one session (one of 130+ "events" conducted during the week):

"A Financial Architecture for the 21st Century
28.01.2006
...Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, Stern School of Business, New York University, USA, put forward a case for major reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 'The IMF is in something of a funk and its current malaise has been described by some like a rudderless ship adrift in a sea of liquidity.' Roubini summarized several recommendations for reform, including flexibility in exchange rate systems and changes to IMF governance. He called for shifting voting weights in the IMF to increase representation by emerging Asian economies, a reduction of European voting rights, and an extra vote for Africa, giving it a more meaningful function. He suggested the IMF assume a 'different role as a lender of last resort and a referee for exchange rates.' There was consensus among the panellists that the IMF could also boost its surveillance of global imbalances. They concluded that 'evolution, not a revolution is needed.'

"Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington DC, noted that the IMF's primary objective is surveillance. He opened the floor to a debate on conditionality, which is 'not always popular, but is necessary.' Panellists agreed there should be more conditionality, but did not want a special body set up to oversee it.

"One of the strengths of the IMF is its commitment to transparency, with 80 countries reporting statistics, Rato y Figaredo observed: 'We don't have to view Asian integration and collaboration as antagonistic.' The IMF is well engaged in regionalization.

"Referring to the establishment of the IMF and World Bank following World War II, Timothy F. Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, USA, said the basic structure is still viable today. 'Success and failures depend on leadership at the national level. National decisions are more important than the architecture we reflect.' He added that the US supports an evolutionary structure, but is reluctant to give up its veto power in the IMF."

Othe panelists included Mssrs. Tricket, President, European Central Bank, and Crockett, President, JP Morgan Chase International.

http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Events+subhome

What did they have to say about Iran?


"ANALYSIS
For Mahmood Sariolghalam, Professor of International Relations, National University of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian leaders are driven by an historic sense of their country's humiliation by outside powers and by its current isolation. So they feel 'there is an alliance of powers both regionally and internationally to keep Iran weak.'

"'Right now, no one knows if Iran is trying to cross the weapons threshold,' said Kenneth M. Pollack, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution, USA. But some elements of the regime want weapons for defensive purposes, some want them for prestige, and some want them as a tool to achieve foreign policy goals.

"There is no certainty about Tehran's intentions, said Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom. 'But it is prudent to believe that they are developing a nuclear weapons capability.' Humiliation in the past, inflicted among others by Britain and the US, and a sense that the West supported Iraq in its war against Iran, are key factors. 'At the emotional level, it is about power.'

"The current situation 'is totally unacceptable.' said Saxby Chambliss, Senator from Georgia (Republican), USA. Neither the US nor the rest of the world can afford to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons and for these to then 'fall in the hands of the terrorists.'

"PRESCRIPTION
Haas (President, Council on Foreign Relations, USA) set out four possible responses: (1) EU-style diplomacy; (2) deciding not to deal with Tehran and promote regime change – 'the US approach'; (3) a military option; (4) living with the situation, as with North Korea. A diplomatic carrot-and-stick approach is the way ahead, with Europe now wielding the stick in the form of a threat of sanctions and the US offering the carrots...'I don't see that there is enough on the table at the moment.'"

(What? nothing about the Iranian bourse which is supposed 1, to destroy the dollar when it opens in March, or 2, trigger bush's (or Israel's) attack before then? Petroeuros, oh my, oh my:

http://antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=8426 )

So those are two brief glimpses (with an intermission) into what was happening at Davos. You may want to explore further; everybody's favorite geek, Bill Gates, had his hands in it too, or maybe he just likes to ski. Now consider what is coming out of the UN:

"The most potent threats to life on earth - global warming, health pandemics, poverty and armed conflict - could be ended by moves that would unlock $7 trillion - $7,000,000,000,000 (£3.9trn) - of previously untapped wealth, the United Nations claims today.
The price? An admission that the nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world where financial markets have to be harnessed rather than simply condemned."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article341967.ece

Get the picture? Having secured a virtually unrestricted framework of global commerce, the movers and shakers have to work on the geopolitik, which, to the rest of the world, if not to the immediate American sensibility, includes addressing climate change as well, since that threatens the supply of us drones and our Asian and African and Latin American fellow drones, who supply the labor and do the consuming that power the financial engines of the superrich. It is an old story. The rulers exploit us, but they have to calculate to what extent, and they have to optimize the conditions of our thralldom to the extent that these optimize their profits. Now they are viewing us in comprehensive global terms, animals in the planetary barnyard, calories in, calories out. . . And in the short term too, of course, we thralls bear the cost of the transformation.

2005 Worst Savings Year Since Depression

Here we go. Couple this with the likelihood of overvalued real estate in the housing bubble, and the prospects loom for a real roller coaster ride, aggravated by the higher requirements for personal bankruptcy filings your friendly Congressman enacted this year. The near future could deliver a terrifying blow to American home ownership, second only to the devastating sell-out of small farms under Reagan.

"Americans spent $42bn (£24bn) more than they earned last year, turning the annual US savings ratio negative for the first time since the Great Depression.

"...The savings ratio fell to minus 0.5 per cent last year, meaning Americans not only spent all of their after-tax income but also had to increase their borrowings or plunder their savings. This is the first time theratio has gone negative for an entire year since 1932 and 1933, when the US was struggling to cope with the Great Depression.

"...The savings ratio is seen as a key economic indicator as it shows how vulnerable households are to a sudden shock such as a surge in interest rates or unexpected redundancy."

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article342157.ece

One Option: Draft MDs For A Stint In Primary Care. We Have A Model. 

Doctors Warn Primary Care On Verge Of Collapse

On top of all the other problems accruing to a health care non-system designed to enrich the rich, we didn't need this:

"'Primary care is on the verge of collapse,' said the organization, a professional group that certifies internists, in a statement. 'Very few young physicians are going into primary care and those already in practice are under such stress that they are looking for an exit strategy.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001585.html?referrer=email

Equal Opportunity Postal Slayings

This is scary. No details yet; dare we guess?

"LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A female former employee opened fire at a 24-hour postal service sorting facility in Goleta, California, killing six people and critically wounding another, before turning the gun on herself, authorities said early Tuesday."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/31/postal.shooting/index.html

Tiffany Suing EBay

The oge notes two interesting developments in connection with the large number of knockoffs and counterfeits selling on EBay: one, their low prices tend to depress the value of the originals, and two, sellers of counterfeits tend to have positive feedback posts. Caveat emptor.

"In 2004, Tiffany secretly purchased about 200 items from eBay in its investigation of how the company was dealing with the thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry. The jeweler found that three out of four pieces were fakes.

"The case will go to trial by the end of this year, said James B. Swire, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, a law firm representing Tiffany. The legal question — whether eBay is a facilitator of fraud — is a critical issue that could affect not only eBay's future but Internet commerce generally, said Thomas Hemnes, a lawyer in Boston who specializes in intellectual property.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/technology/29ebay.html?th&emc=th

Murtha And The War...And Hillary

Here's the latest pronouncement:

"'Our troops are the target,' Murtha told the newspaper. 'We're not fighting terrorism in Iraq. We're fighting a civil war in Iraq. We've got to give them an incentive. We fought our Civil War. Let them fight their civil war.'

"Murtha, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations defense panel, said many Iraqis think 'it's all right to kill Americans' and that most Iraqis want U.S. troops out of the country.

"...Murtha also weighed in on other topics during the meeting, saying the United States should use diplomacy in combating the threats Iran poses to Mideast stability."

And here's his postscript on 2008:

"He also said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., could win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, but that she would lose in the general election."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1548346

Sectarian Violence In Iraq: A Review

Gareth Porter reviews the scale and scope of sectarian violence, and the US role in aggravating it.

"...In recent months, that 'standing up' of Iraqi security forces to gradually replace American occupation troops has become even more important in administration pronouncements on the war. The objective is now accepted as self-evident wisdom in the mainstream media and among the punditocracy, the only question being whether it can be successfully accomplished. The Democratic Party leadership has not challenged this goal in any way, even as Democrats complain that it is simply not being done fast enough or effectively enough.

"Given Iraq's well documented descent into sectarian violence in 2005, however, the question that should be asked is not whether the United States can put enough Iraqi troops into the field with enough training; it is whether, in arming and deploying Shi'ites and Kurds to fight Sunnis, it is actually stoking the fires of sectarian and ethnic civil war.'

http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=8453

Happy 250th Birthday, Mozart

 

Hamas is credited with perfecting the tactic of suicide-bombing mass transit 

Democracy Spreading In MidEast

Why isn't bush crowing?

"The armed Hamas movement, which is officially committed to Israel's destruction, was declared the winner Thursday of Palestinian parliamentary elections, a stunning turn that gives the radical religious group authority to shape a new government and injects a host of new problems into the troubled region.

"Near-final election results late Thursday placed Hamas in control of 76 of 132 legislative seats, a majority that would allow the group to form a Cabinet without the approval of other lawmakers."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-palvote27jan27,0,5966461.story?track=tottext,0,7820424.story?track=tothtml

And a little history on the origins of Hamas:

"In a conscious effort to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization and the leadership of Yasser Arafat, in 1978 the government of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the application of Sheik Ahmad Yassin to start a "humanitarian" organization known as the Islamic Association, or Mujama. The roots of this Islamist group were in the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, and this was the seed that eventually grew into Hamas – but not before it was amply fertilized and nurtured with Israeli funding and political support."

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8449

Be careful what you wish for.

SCOTUS Succombs To the Lobbies

And they are supposed to be above politics:

"Justice Scalia was apparently unchastened by the criticism of his 2004 duck-hunting excursion with Vice President Dick Cheney, one of that term's most prominent Supreme Court litigants. Last September, he skipped the swearing-in of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. because of another ethically dubious trip, this time to the posh Ritz-Carlton at the Beaver Creek ski resort in Colorado.

"He was there to teach a 10-hour seminar over a couple of days for a conservative group, the Federalist Society. "Nightline" recently reported that the gig had left Justice Scalia plenty of time for tennis, fly-fishing and socializing with seminar participants, some of whom may have business before the Supreme Court. One Federalist Society cocktail reception was sponsored in part by the lobbying and law firm that used to employ Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay's convicted pal and benefactor for golf trips."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/opinion/27fri4.html?th&emc=th

NYTimes Calls For Senate Spines And Alito Filibuster, 99%

In their second powerful editorial this month, the Times sounds the alarm on how momentous the issues are. Any odds on when they will call for impeachment? The oge says, within the year.

"Senate Democrats, who presented a united front against the nomination of Judge Alito in the Judiciary Committee, seem unwilling to risk the public criticism that might come with a filibuster — particularly since there is very little chance it would work. Judge Alito's supporters would almost certainly be able to muster the 60 senators necessary to put the nomination to a final vote.

"A filibuster is a radical tool. It's easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/opinion/26thur1.html?_r=2&hp

Net Neutrality

How big is the threat? Why should the big companies control what Al Gore invented? Send your ISP a reminder (and your Congressmen).

http://www.freepress.net/action/neutrality

The Repeating Rifle, c 1894 

Winchester Rifles Moving Overseas

The gun that won the West is closing down shop stateside.

"After years of losses and dwindling sales, U.S. Repeating Arms Co. announced last week that it would close its New Haven factory by March 31, idling 186 workers.

"The Winchester brand will continue, but the firearms will be made in Japan and Europe.In New Haven, an old-line industrial city, the main surprise is that the ax didn't fall sooner. The low-slung, modern Winchester plant, built with state, city and bonding support in 1994, produced no more than 80,000 guns last year, about one-fourth of its capacity, according to Mayor John DeStefano Jr."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-winchester23jan23,0,4954661.story?track=tottext,0,5295345.story?track=tothtml

Geometry Is Intuitive

So they say:

"The conceptual principles of geometry are inherent to the brain, according to their study. They found that children belonging to an Amazonian indigenous group called the Munduruku, who had little exposure to schools and mathematics, were just as competent at solving geometric puzzles as American children.

"The Munduruku youngsters proved to be intuitively skilled in concepts such as topology, Euclidean geometry and basic geometrical figures, such as lines, parallels and right angles. However, Munduruku adults were outperformed on similar tests by American adults, a difference that the predominantly French researchers attributed to the advantage of education.

"Geometrical knowledge arises in humans independently of instruction..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200768.html?referrer=email

Do Peace Activists Influence Policy?

You might be surprised by one historian's answer. Posted on LewRockwell.com, an essay by SUNY Albany's Lawrence Wittner assays a preliminary review.

"Let me begin by examining the provocative comment by some observers that, rather than peace movements putting an end to wars, wars put an end to peace movements. This is sometimes the case, for – given the strength of nationalism – many people tend to rally 'round the flag of their nation once war is declared. Thus, not surprisingly, substantial U.S. peace movements largely collapsed with the entry of the United States into the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. In more recent years, polls indicate that U.S. peace sentiment declined significantly (albeit temporarily) after the entry of the United States into the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War. Furthermore, direct government repression in wartime – for example, during World War I – has sometimes dramatically undermined or destroyed peace movements.

"...On the other hand, there are instances in which the peace movement brought an end to U.S. wars. The Mexican War of the 1840s provides us with one example. Condemned from the start as a war of aggression and as a war for slavery, the Mexican War stirred up remarkably strong opposition. Thus, although the war went very well for the United States on a military level and President Polk pressed for the annexation of all of Mexico to the United States, when Nicholas Trist, Polk's diplomatic negotiator, disobeyed his instructions and signed a treaty providing for the annexation of only about a third of Mexico, Polk felt trapped. In the face of fierce public opposition to the conflict, he did not believe it possible to prolong the war to secure his goal of taking all of Mexico. And so Polk reluctantly backed Trist's peace treaty, and the war came to an end."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/wittner/wittner17.html

So yes, your instincts are correct. Renew your commitment to ending the fraudulent war in Iraq.

US Inserting Funds In Palestinian Elections

Here we go again, meddling, meddling. Anyone want to give odds on whether the nitwits get it right? Hamas has admittedly done well with its social programs; any clues there?

"The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas.

"The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work."

Sweeney Vs. Corporate Suicide

He's got a hell of a point here.

"Wounded workers aren't the only casualties of the corporate job-killing strategy," Sweeney said. "It is also a self-destructive strategy because it leaves businesses with consumers who don't have enough money to spend or save. It leaves government with more demand for public services and subsidies - and fewer taxpayers to pay for them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5554588,00.html

Lawrence Franklin Sentenced To 12 Years

Hopefully the worm will keep on squirming.

"A former Pentagon analyst was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison on Friday for passing U.S. defense information to two pro-Israel lobbyists and for sharing classified information with an Israeli diplomat.

"Lawrence Franklin, 59, who had worked as an analyst in the office of the secretary of defense, pleaded guilty in October to sharing the information and also to illegally having classified documents at his home.

"Franklin had faced up to 25 years in prison. U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis reduced his sentence because of his cooperation and it could be cut further as he helps the government which is still prosecuting the two remaining defendants in the case -- former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-pentagon.html

Ameriquest Settles: 325M

The oge has been ranting about these thieves since forever. Where is even the smallest degree of oversight or regulation? Why did it take law suits in practically every state in the nation to get this far? Did the Rolling Stones have their heads up their collective arse when they sold out to 'Quest commercials?

"Accused of misleading borrowers with credit problems, the mortgage company will overhaul its lending practices and pay $325 million.

"In a deal that could change how millions of credit-strapped Americans get their home loans, Ameriquest Mortgage Co. has finalized a $325-million settlement of allegations that it deceived borrowers, falsified loan documents and pressured appraisers to overstate home values.

"A task force of 49 states and the District of Columbia plans to announce Monday that the Orange-based company and two affiliates — all specialists in higher-cost mortgages to borrowers unable to qualify for bank loans — had agreed to overhaul their lending practices."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ameriquest21jan21,0,2791695.story?track=tottext,0,7157346.story?track=tothtml

Google Vs. The Gov

So Google is holding out on this one. Not terrorism. Pornography. Your friendly elected officials are so interested in your welfare, they want to protect you and your minors from online porn. By monitoring traffic on the search engines. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. The government's motives, that is.

"The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law.

"Google has been refusing the request since a subpoena was first issued last August, even as three of its competitors agreed to provide information, according to court documents made public this week. Google asserts that the request is unnecessary, overly broad, would be onerous to comply with, would jeopardize its trade secrets and could expose identifying information about its users.

"...The government's move in the Google case, however, is different in its aims. Rather than seeking data on individuals, it says it is trying to establish a profile of Internet use that will help it defend the Child Online Protection Act, a 1998 law that would impose tough criminal penalties on individuals whose Web sites carried material deemed harmful to minors."

"...Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said on Thursday that three Google competitors in Internet search technology - America Online, Yahoo and MSN, Microsoft's online service - had complied with subpoenas in the case."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/technology/20google.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

We did not see the face we hoped not to see again, but we heard the voice we hoped not to hear again. Or so it is represented. Read the message. The claim at the end, that the Afghan campaign exhausted Russian resources and caused the collapse of the USSR, is pathetic and risks throwing everything else into the realm of the dubious. Or is it only acceptable hyperbole in a language and ideology I don't understand? What is the threat of the bogeyman? 

AP Translation Of Bin Laden AudioTape

The AP has published a new translation of the full text of the Bin Laden audiotape broadcast this week by Al Jazeera. A copy is available at Forbes.com:

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/01/19/ap2462598.html

Ashes And Snow

One critic called it mass-produced enlightenment, tent-city shtick, referring to the images as fetishistic and industrial-strength greeting cards. He's right, but a good greeting card poet would never accept "Ashes and Snow;" he would insist, understanding euphony of language and impact of imagery, that the more effective name were "Snow and Ashes." After taking the tour, I also wonder why snow, and not sand, why ashes? My own remote sense is that the motion pictures are the best of this extravagantly stylized and commercial project, and he should have focused on and stopped with them. Still, it is an excellent on-line presentation. Click on Portfolio when you go there:

http://www.ashesandsnow.org/

Your Tax Dollars AT Work: The Cisneros Affair

Anybody remember him? Anybody care? The guy lied about how much money he gave his mistress. She lied about him. Her family got involved in some more tawdry dumb stuff. It was all personal. But the Pukes hated the Clintons so much they had to use tax dollars to run this one in the ground too. Maybe it's over now.

"After about 10 years and $21 million spent investigating former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, the last independent counsel from the Clinton era officially ended his probe Thursday, complaining he needed more time to unravel what might have been a massive 'coverup at high levels of our government.'

"David M. Barrett, a former Republican lawyer and lobbyist who was appointed in 1995 to investigate the Democrat, issued a 474-page 'Final Report of the Independent Counsel.' With it, he released a one-page statement to the media that alleged a coverup. 'An accurate title for the report could be "What We Were Prevented From Investigating,"' Barrett said in his statement."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cisneros20jan20,0,2349274.story?track=tottext,0,144592.story?track=tothtml

Text Of The Gore Speech

It really is worth reading. It is probably worth engraving, a la Kafka, in the hide of despotic criminals.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html

Exquisite Contemplations: Alito And The Lie

Try this one by Doug Giebel, abundant in simplicity:

"Apologists for Alito imply he may also have been advised to disrecall his purported membership because the C.A.P. agenda is no longer politically correct.

"As one with some experience at exposing frauds, let me propose that it is very possible Samuel Alito was never a member of C.A.P. Instead, he could easily have padded his credentials to impress potential employers, especially those from the Republican right. Unfortunately, no committee member raised this possibility, even though it would have been both appropriate and a way to elicit more specific responses from Judge Alito on the subject.

"Judge Alito should be challenged on this issue. Did he lie on his resume? If so, did he lie to the Senate committee regarding his faulty memory? The lie? The cover-up? The lady or the tiger?"

http://www.counterpunch.org/giebel01172006.html

AIDS Or West Nile?

Sorry, you don't get to choose. It's in your genes.

"A genetic mutation that protects some people from AIDS may make them more susceptible to the West Nile virus.

"A study, published yesterday in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, underscores the theory that any genetic mutation that offers an advantage in one area usually has some drawback.

"The mutation causes people to have blood cells lacking a receptor, a kind of molecular doorway, called CCR5. The receptor is used by the AIDS virus to dock onto immune-system cells and infect them.

"About 1 percent of North American whites have two copies of the mutated gene and do not produce CCR5."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011701640.html?referrer=email

In a related story, the mistress of televangelist Pat Robertson, who in an elite brotherhood with other fundamentalists has been praying fervently to be delivered personally from the ungodly heresies of evolution and genetics, gave birth Tuesday to a two-headed green monkey with the tail of a caelocanth.

Japan's Hikikomori 1M Strong

Teens can seem withdrawn, as most parents know, but these guys. . .

"...a young man sat on the couch wearing small wire-frame glasses and a shy smile. He ducked his head as he spoke, and his voice was so quiet that I had to lean in to hear him. After years of being bullied at school and having no friends, Y.S., who asked to be identified by his initials, retreated to his room at age 14, and proceeded to watch TV, surf the Internet and build model cars - for 13 years. When he finally left his room one April afternoon last year, he had spent half of his life as a shut-in...Y.S. suffered from a problem known in Japan as hikikomori, which translates as 'withdrawal' and refers to a person sequestered in his room for six months or longer with no social life beyond his home. (The word is a noun that describes both the problem and the person suffering from it and is also an adjective, like 'alcoholic.') Some hikikomori do occasionally emerge from their rooms for meals with their parents, late-night runs to convenience stores or, in Takeshi's case, once-a-month trips to buy CD's. And though female hikikomori exist and may be undercounted, experts estimate that about 80 percent of the hikikomori are male, some as young as 13 or 14 and some who live in their rooms for 15 years or more."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/magazine/15japanese.html?th&emc=th

First known Humpback kill was off Nantucket in1608. By 1966 250,000 were recorded killed, reducing the population to 1/10th its natural size. 

Epic Wondrous Whale Of A Tale

Thanks to Mary for pointing out this story:

"The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.

"...By 2:30 p.m., the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.

"...I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with 'Great White Adventures,' a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. 'I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it.'

"The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.

"At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow-hole out of the water.

"Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.

"When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.

"'It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you,' Moskito said. 'I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience.'"

"...'You hate to anthropomorphize too much, but the whale was doing little dives and the guys were rubbing shoulders with it,' Menigoz said. 'I don't know for sure what it was thinking, but it's something that I will always remember.'"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/14/MNGNKG7Q0V1.DTL&hw=humpback+whale&sn=001&sc=1000

Imam Ali Mosque

Restoration Of The Caliphate?

The Washington Post's Foreign Service surveys the range of Islamic attitudes.

"The goal of reuniting Muslims under a single flag stands at the heart of the radical Islamic ideology Bush has warned of repeatedly in recent major speeches on terrorism. In language evoking the Cold War, Bush has cast the conflict in Iraq as the pivotal battleground in a larger contest between advocates of freedom and those who seek to establish 'a totalitarian Islamic empire reaching from Spain to Indonesia.'

"The enthusiasm of the extremists for that vision is not disputed. However unlikely its realization, the ambition may help explain terrorist acts that often appear beyond understanding.

"...Yet the caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims. For most, its revival is not an urgent concern. Public opinion polls show immediate issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discrimination rank as more pressing. But Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma , or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/13/AR2006011301816.html?referrer=email

The Destruction Of Government: bush's Medicaid

How do you introduce a new dimension of privateering to benefit the drug and insurance industries, overwhelm a government bureaucracy, and drive the states into further obligations of taxpayer dollars at the same time?

"Two weeks into the new Medicare prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their life-saving medicines.

"...Yesterday, Ohio and Wisconsin announced that they will cover the drug costs of low-income seniors who would otherwise go without, joining every state in New England as well as California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Jersey."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/13/AR2006011301738.html?referrer=email

Where's Cerberus?

 

Maryland Puts StrongArm On WalMart

What's especially gratifying is that the legislature overrode the veto.

"Last night, the nation's eyes were on Maryland as Fair Share Health Care became that state's law and the first of its kind in the country.

"A bill originally vetoed by Republican Governor Ehrlich in 2005, the Fair Share Health Care Act now requires Maryland's largest employers - those with over 10,000 employees - to live up to an employers' responsibility to make healthcare affordable to all employees.

"The Fair Share Health Care bill didn't target Wal-Mart, as its opponents claimed. Instead, Wal-Mart's negligence forced it into the bull's-eye. Of Maryland's five largest employers, only Wal-Mart failed to meet the minimal standards set for healthcare expenditures for its more than 17,000 Maryland workers.

"News of yesterday's victory in Annapolis is spreading to state houses across the country like wild fire. The message? -- That citizens everywhere are ready to fight! Wal-Mart's deep pockets, expensive New York PR firms, and high-powered Washington lobbyists have met their match.

Click here to help lay the groundwork for action in your state.

"...we will continue to support local communities and states who believe the health care crisis must be solved now.
Click here to join the fight now."

http://walmartwatch.com/getlocal

Tasini Running Against Hillary

This is the oge's initial reaction to the meeting with Jonathan Tasini in Oneonta last night.

Briefly: He's there, close enough, on all the big issues. Apparently clued that the group of 40 or so with whom he met was already in tune, he didn't spend much time wooing us. He made the point that Hillary is too close to the Bush camp to lead an opposition party. In addition to her pro-war stance, he mentioned her corporate-friendly positions, including her WalMart affiliation and promotion of NAFTA (he sketched his idea of fair trade), and dispelled any notion that she supported a single-payer health program. The candidate emphasized that he was intent on forging a viable progressive alternative on which to build.

He related his first-hand experience of the MidEast, having lived in Israel, and justified his position for immediate withdrawl from Iraq. In countering a question about our withdrawal enabling a civil war, he emphasized that our presence is fueling the insurgency and indicated a belief in the Iraqis' ability to overcome factionalism. He offered a 2-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

He explained his approach to a single-payer health program as one of universal Medicare coverage, this being comprehensible to most voters.

He spoke of the corporate lock on politics and the problem of the redistribution of wealth to the wealthiest, indicating a strategy to rectify these problems by reforming unfair corporate and personal taxation. In this area he described a belief that he could have an impact even as a freshman senator.

He described his background as an environmentalist, his commitment to conservation and alternate energy, and a strategy to refocus war production in line with the goals of a new economy. Throughout, he reminded us of the wealth of the country, which, despite the amount of debt owned by China, he deemed sufficient for progressive purposes.

He called for impeaching Bush-Cheney.

He seemed receptive to suggestions regarding the special circumstances of rural upstate New York, and entertained discussion of small farm and small business needs.

It was overall a warm reception. The candidate advised that he needed volunteers and of course cash; campaign paraphernalia should be available soon. In these connections, you may visit his website: http://www.tasinifornewyork.org/ Link to the Oneonta Daily Star's coverage: http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2006/01/13/speak3.html

From his website:

"Jonathan Tasini is running in the Democratic primary on a platform of an immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, Medicare For All and a new vision for the economy...

"Even if you are not a New York resident, your support for this campaign is important: you can help financially, as well as let other friends and colleagues in New York and around the country know about a campaign that will change the political landscape. You can visit the campaign's website at www.tasinifornewyork.org."

Quote For The Day

You never know where the true light of liberty may shine:

"It might reasonably be concluded that those properties, so beneficial in the economic sphere, pose special dangers in the political sphere...Furthermore, it might be argued that liberties of political expression are not at all necessary to effectuate the purposes for which States permit commercial corporations to exist."

---Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, dissenting in the 1978 case, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, wherein the Court decided, 5 to 4, that business corporations -- just as flesh and blood like you and me -- have a First Amendment right to spend their money to influence elections.

ALITO: MEEK, MILD, AND MENACING

That's how Sidney Blumenthal characterizes him in Salon. I certainly agree. In the oge's diatribes he has portrayed other men who share this profile of veiled arrogance and disdain, persons who, whatever their socioeconomic backgrounds, achieve positions of some privilege and seem to delight in grinding into further misery the lives of the relatively powerless---or adding to the ranks of the powerless. Occasionally, I have recalled the marginal youngsters in school, often overweight, slight, or slow to develop puberty, who were ridiculed by peers, the stereotypical kids who dreaded the group showers, who kept their underwear on.

Pubescent interactions can seem terrible, and peers torment one another through cliques, gangs, and groups that rival alley cats for cruelty. But these are not deep relationships, nor ironclad, and they do not last for long; and most normal adolescents, whether receiving or inflicting the torment, or both, have some sense that these behaviors are not quite honest or fair, that the reassurance they may bring to the collusive participants comes at a cost, and that there are limits. Most of us suffer a bit, get through it with some regrets and relief, and go on.

Occasionally, however, someone does not survive this stage of life well. If he perceives himself as additionally disadvantaged or betrayed by some circumstance of parentage, ethnicity or class, his reaction may be more severe. He may succomb to depression. He may get a gun and shoot people. He may kill himself. Or---especially if he is gifted, bright, or feral---he may internalize these experiences in the structure of his personality in any of a number of ways, so that as he matures and discovers or creates an adult social identity, he can exercise the pain, resentments, and fears that he continues to harbor. He will embrace a role where he can control or punish---intimately or remotely---in socially acceptable or disguised ways. He may teach, or preach, confine or treat, coach, police, or judge, among the cohorts of the more emotionally healthy, but inflicting some measure of harm in satisfaction of his needs, enduring or not, in proportion to his compensating skills. He may adopt or create ideologies of justification, religious orientations, or personal philosophies that enable his indulgence.

I am not talking about sociopathic people, not about the rapist down the street and around the corner, who with somewhat more savagery and far less intellect and control, acts out his ritual of objectification and power, but those who fall within the parameters of normal functioning, although in many cases their intimates---if they can support intimate relationships---might have doubts. I am talking about the dens of vipers who sometimes find and reinforce each other, at particularly unfortunate times in history, the neos of the moment, and every Alito, who sees, clearly or dimly, in virtually every individual case that has the bad fortune to enter his sphere and spark his personal engine idling at the speed of resentment, some ancient author of his accumulated unhappiness, who, in contrast with the benevolent appearance of a nurturing authority, must be repaid for the provocation of his vulnerability. . .

"... His interest in constitutional law, he wrote, was 'motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren Court decisions,' 'particularly' in the area of 'reapportionment.' In fact, the Warren Court decisions in that area established the principle of 'one person, one vote.' Alito's career in the law has been a long effort to reverse the liberalism of the Warren Court.

"When Alito served in the Justice Department, he argued that the federal government had no responsibility for the 'health, safety and welfare' of the American people (a view rejected by President Reagan); that 'the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion'; that the executive branch should be immune from liability for illegal domestic wiretapping; that illegal immigrants have no fundamental rights'; and that police had a right to kill an unarmed 15-year-old boy accused of stealing $10, a view rejected by the Supreme Court and every police group that filed briefs in the case. He also wrote a memo arguing that it would be legal for employers to fire and for the federal government to exclude from any of its funded programs people afflicted with AIDS because of 'fear of contagion whether reasonable or not.'

"As a judge, he has ruled consistently for employers against individual and civil rights, and for unbridled executive and police power. Against the majority of his court and six other federal courts, he argued that regulation of machine guns by the federal government was unconstitutional. He approved the strip search of a mother and her 10-year-old daughter although they were not named in a warrant, a decision denounced by then federal Judge Michael Chertoff, now secretary of homeland security, as a 'cliché rubber stamp.' Alito ruled in favor of a law requiring women to notify their husbands if they plan to have an abortion, which was overturned by the Supreme Court on the vote of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who stated, 'A State may not give to a man the kind of dominion over his wife that parents exercise over their children.'

"Alito's decisions and dissents predictably flow from his politics. On the Supreme Court, as O'Connor's replacement, he will codify the authoritarianism of the Bush presidency even after it is gone."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/01/12/alito_bush/

And in this devastating scenario the useless Democrats once more have failed in a mission they could hardly articulate. Unlike the conservatives, who knew with no more certainty but with far more commitment, that they could not abide Miers, the Democrats have failed to align themselves in a coherent way to represent Alito as an unconscionable enemy of the average American---for which they have the overwhelming evidence of his judicial history---and a proponent of unlawful, unconstitutional executive empowerment, a key player in the drama of the treasonous presidential signing statements, an invention for which there is no precedent, no theory, and no justification other than a perverted attraction to the romance of a totalitarian state.

Can such a group yet muster the courage for a filibuster? Write your senators now.

An Analysis: Politics Of Iran

Shake, rattle, and roll.

"In fact, Iran has serious domestic frailties, including a shaky economy and its attendant unemployment and popular resentment, not to mention soaring levels of drug abuse and a brain drain. But President Ahmadinejad no doubt takes comfort not only in his belief in divine protection but also in the knowledge that Shiite religious parties aligned with Iran are now the dominant political forces in Iraq, while the American public hardly seems amenable to waging another war in the region. Moreover, Mr. Ahmadinejad very likely believes that the best way to guard against regime change from without is to emulate North Korea by swiftly advancing Iran's nuclear capacity."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/opinion/12MemarianZahedi.html?th&emc=th

Assault On Iran Imminent?

The rumors are all over:

"The wires have been humming since before the New Year with reports that the Bush administration is planning an attack on Iran. 'The Bush administration is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media,' reported UPI on December 30th."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010906I.shtml

"Multiple pieces of independent evidence suggest that America is embarked in a premeditated path that will lead inexorably to the use of nuclear weapons against Iran in the very near future. Facing clear evidence of this peril, we cannot wait for the final proof – the smoking gun – in the form of a mushroom cloud. Whether you are liberal or conservative, antiwar or pro-war, if you believe this would be catastrophic for America and the world, the time to act to derail it is now!"

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8359

Diabetes Projection: 1 in 3 New Yorkers

Incredible: the corn syrup generations.

"An estimated 800,000 adult New Yorkers - more than one in every eight - now have diabetes, and city health officials describe the problem as a bona fide epidemic. Diabetes is the only major disease in the city that is growing, both in the number of new cases and the number of people it kills. And it is growing quickly, even as other scourges like heart disease and cancers are stable or in decline.

"...One in three children born in the United States five years ago are expected to become diabetic in their lifetimes, according to a projection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The forecast is even bleaker for Latinos: one in every two.

"New York, perhaps more than any other big city, harbors all the ingredients for a continued epidemic. It has large numbers of the poor and obese, who are at higher risk. It has a growing population of Latinos, who get the disease in disproportionate numbers, and of Asians, who can develop it at much lower weights than people of other races."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/nyregion/nyregionspecial5/09diabetes.html?th&emc=th

 

Burning Mouse Torches House

Thanks to Lucy for this item, from the Associated Press, Sun Jan 8, 11:51:

"FORT SUMNER, N.M. - A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and set it on fire.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.

"'I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house,' Mares said from a motel room Saturday."

Pass on the questions this raises.

Two Degrees Of Separation: Terrorism And Spying

"NBC's Andrea Mitchell - based on some information she clearly hasn't yet made public - is asking if Bush specifically wiretapped CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"2. That means anyone Christiane has conversed with in the past four years, at least by phone or email, could have had their conversation taped by the US government.

"3. That also means that anyone who uses any of Christiane's telephones or computers (work or home) could also have had their conversation bugged.

"4. This includes Christiane's husband, former Clinton administration senior official Jamie Rubin, who was spokesman for the State Department.

"5. Jamie Rubin was also chief foreign policy adviser to General Wesley Clark's presidential campaign, and then worked as a senior national security adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign.

"6. Did Jamie Rubin ever use his home phone, his wife's work phone, his wife's cell phone, her home computer or her work computer to communicate with John Kerry or Wesley Clark? If so, those conversations would have been bugged if Bush was tapping Amanpour.

"7. Did Jamie Rubin ever in the past four years communicate with any elected officials in Washington, DC - any Senators or members of the US House? Any senior members of the Democratic party?

"8. Has Rubin spoken with Bill Clinton, his former boss, in the past 4 years?"

Etc etc. etc.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/01/what-it-means-to-john-kerry-wesley.html

More Frightening Bullshit! Your Cell Phone REcords Are For Sale

Sorry if a repeat OGE.

The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.Suspicious spouses can see if their husband or wife is calling a certain someone a bit too often.
And employers can check whether a worker is regularly calling a psychologist -- or a competing company.

Some online services might be skirting the law to obtain these phone lists, according to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has called for legislation to criminalize phone record theft and use. Schumer has called for legislation to criminalize the "stealing and selling" of cell phone logs. He also urged the Federal Trade Commission to set up a unit to stop it.

He said a common method for obtaining cell phone records is "pretexting," involving a data broker pretending to be a phone's owner and duping the phone company into providing the information.

"Pretexting for financial data is illegal, but it does not include phone records," Schumer said. "We already have protections for our financial information. We ought to have it for the very personal information that can be gleaned from telephone records."

Well at least Schumer is doing something about this....

Cunningham Was Wired

You got to love this. Like our dutiful elected officials weren't jittery enough already.

"Sources familiar with the situation say Cunningham, a California Republican who pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to taking $2.4 million in bribes - including a yacht, a Rolls Royce and a 19th-century Louis-Philippe commode - from a defense contractor, wore a wire at some point during the short interval between the moment he began cooperating with the feds and the announcement of his guilty plea on Nov. 28."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010706B.shtml

Hugh Thompson, My Lai Hero Dies, 62

Sad, sad.

"Mr Thompson and his crew came upon US troops killing civilians at the village of My Lai on 16 March 1968.

"He put his helicopter down between the soldiers and villagers, ordering his men to shoot their fellow Americans if they attacked the civilians.

"'There was no way I could turn my back on them,' he later said of the victims."

Seymour Hersh, one of today's few outstanding investigative reporters, was awarded a Pulitzer for covering the massacre; more recently, he blasted the myth of the WMDs and broke the Abu Grahab scandal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4589486.stm

Third Child Dies Of Bird Flu In Turkey

The three victims were children in the same family with extensive poultry contact.

"Specialists from the United Nations and the European Union were en route to the village of Dogubayazit, near Mount Ararat and Turkey's borders with Armenia and Iran. The disease was diagnosed last month among chickens in the village in Agri province, about 800 miles east of Istanbul.

"...According to the World Health Organization, 142 people have been diagnosed with bird flu in Southeast Asia and China and 74 have died in that region since January 2004. Scientists have said that in most cases, those who contracted the disease had direct contact with infected poultry."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601018.html

Link To Impeach bush

https://secure2.convio.net/pepib/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=105

Fla Court Rules Against StateWide School Vouchers

About time.

"TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the nation's first statewide voucher program, arguing that it violates the state constitution by diverting money into private schools.

"The 5-2 ruling applies only to one of three voucher programs offered by the state of Florida, but the ruling's sweeping nature could also jeopardize vouchers now offered to thousands of students.

"...Thursday's decision is a massive blow to Gov. Jeb Bush, who made vouchers, or 'opportunity scholarships,' the centerpiece of his A+ education reforms that were enacted by the Florida Legislature in 1999.

"A coalition of groups, including the Florida Education Association and the NAACP, challenged the voucher program shortly after Bush signed it into law, but it took seven years for the case to finally reach the state's highest court."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/13557029.htm

Faith-Based Society: Cui Bono?

We could title this, Old Time Religion, or God Helps Those...

"(The Sago mine disaster) was a sign of changing times. These families were in a church praying for deliverance. In an earlier era, they would have been in a union hall fighting for their rights."

---Danny Schechter, News Dissector 01.05.06

Link To MoveOn's Petition Opposing Alito

http://www.moveonpac.org/alitoletters/?+=&id=6603-3194229-Ys2syd.AqOdMMGIQK4P1zg&t=2

 

Abramoff, DeLay, The IMF, And The Russian Bribes

Russ Baker highlights a Washington Post article that most of us missed Saturday. As he sees it,

"DeLay was essentially being bribed by Russians. Specifically, a phony nonprofit set up by DeLay’s former top aide was used to transfer monies from powerful Russians to DeLay, in return for his influencing legislation that could direct U.S. taxpayer money into their pockets. The Russians, working through super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, put up most of the $2.5 million 'contributions' that funneled through the outfit.

"DeLay got free international trips and fancy free office space in a secret townhouse, and his wife got paid a sizable monthly salary for doing nothing. Meantime, the nonprofit presented itself to the public as devoted to promoting family values, and ran ads attacking Democrats.

"Monies were passed from Russian oil and gas executives working with Abramoff through a now-defunct London law firm and an obscure Bahamian company into an outfit, set up by former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham, masquerading as a grassroots advocacy group on family values. The group, the U.S. Family Network, existed for five years, but apparently did little or nothing on family issues, though it actually had the temerity to send out fundraising letters to the public, warning that 'the American family is under attack from all sides: crime, drugs, pornography, and… gambling.' It also paid for ads attacking vulnerable Democratic candidates.

"But what it was really doing, according to the article, was influencing DeLay to support legislation favorable to wealthy Russians—with the bill paid for by American taxpayers. DeLay traveled to Moscow in 1997 and spent time with the Russians, though he claimed to the House clerk that another nonprofit paid for it and that he was in that country to 'meet with religious leaders there.'

"Probably the most incendiary material in the Post story was buried, beginning in paragraph 32. The former president of the U.S. Family Network, a pastor no less, actually says that Buckham explained to him in 1999 that a $1 million payment passed through to the organization was intended specifically to influence DeLay's 1998 vote on a bill that enabled the International Monetary Fund to use U.S. taxpayer monies, in part, to bail out the Russian economy and specific wealthy Russian investors involved with the scheme.

'"Ed told me, "This is the way things work in Washington," [Pastor Christopher] Geeslin said...'"

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060104/to_russia_love_tom_delay.php

Abramoff Tidbits

“Abramoff and his wife each gave $5,000 to Bush's 2000 recount fund and the maximum $1,000 to his 2000 campaign. By mid-2003, Abramoff had raised at least $100,000 for Bush's re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush's famed 'pioneers.' Š Money also flowed from the Marianas to Bush's re-election campaign: It took in at least $36,000 from island donors, much of it from members of the Tan family, whose clothing factories were a routine stop for lawmakers and their aides visiting the islands on Abramoff-organized trips." [ABC, 4/6/05; AP, 5/7/05]

(Note: At about 12:50pm CNN broadcast a note that the bush campaign is giving back a fraction of their Abramoff booty.)

Abramoff Tidbits

That title is somewhat sarcastic, since Abramoff rarely dealt in scraps; so these will be bits of news, highlighting the ongoing saga of greed and corruption.

CNN reports: "Speaker Dennis Hastert became the latest lawmaker to dump campaign contributions from clients of high-flying lobbyist Jack Abramoff, giving about $70,000 to charity Tuesday….

"'The speaker believes that while these contributions were legal, it is appropriate to donate the money to charity,' a spokesman for the Illinois Republican, Ron Bonjean, said. Bonjean did not specify which group or groups would receive the money."

Link To AAUW Petition Opposing Alito

http://capwiz.com/aauw/issues/alert/?alertid=8347156&type=TA

US Loses First Place To France In IL's Quality Of Life

"For the first time in International Living history, the U.S. has been toppled from its premier position of First Place in the Quality of Life Index.

"Every year, without exception, the U.S. trumped all competitors. What can we say? Living is easy in America. But in the 2006 Quality of Life Index…the champion has fallen to #7.

"Since 1979...The annual Quality of Life Index has become the gold standard by which to measure the most interesting, most appealing, and most potentially rewarding of these places on Earth to live.

"For the 2006 index, 193 countries were researched and rated to uncover the absolute best places to live...

"International Living considers nine important criteria: cost of living, leisure and culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and risk, and, of course, climate.
Countries jockey for position every year. Situations vary. Economies rise and fall. Disasters strike. Governments change. Progress comes…and goes.

"This year, to our surprise…France took the grand prix.

"...But that's not all. Five other countries passed the U.S. It was a tough year for the U.S. economy…and increasing infringements on personal freedom took the perennial favorite down a few notches.

"...It came as no surprise that Iraq offers the worst quality of life on the planet.
But who would have guessed that Uruguay would capture the top spot in South America? Croatia took honors in Central Europe. And Namibia beat all African contenders. Nicaragua beat Costa Rica in Central America, but Ecuador bested both of them."

http://www.internationalliving.com/

Broken Iraq: What We Will Leave

It's no surprise that the wicked little nitwit is giving up on fixing the country he broke. When has he ever done anything except break stuff up and make messes?

"The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.

"Just under 20 percent of the reconstruction package remains unallocated. When the last of the $18.4 billion is spent, U.S. officials in Baghdad have made clear, other foreign donors and the fledgling Iraqi government will have to take up what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people...

"But the insurgency has set back efforts across the board. In two of the most crucial areas, electricity and oil production, relentless sabotage has kept output at or below prewar levels despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of American dollars and countless man-hours. Oil production stands at roughly 2 billion barrels a day, compared with 2.6 billion before U.S. troops entered Iraq in March 2003, according to U.S. government statistics.

"The national electrical grid has an average daily output of 4,000 megawatts, about 400 megawatts less than its prewar level.

"Iraqis nationwide receive on average less than 12 hours of power a day. For residents of Baghdad, it was six hours a day last month, according to a U.S. count, though many residents say that figure is high.

"The Americans, said Zaid Saleem, 26, who works at a market in Baghdad, 'are the best in destroying things but they are the worst in rebuilding.'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/01/AR2006010101072.html?referrer=email

Federal Tax Theory 101

It doesn't boil down much more than this:

"In July 2003, Mr. Bolten (bush's Budget Director) said this at a press conference: 'All economists, I think, will agree very strongly that when you reduce taxes, put more money back into the economy, that has a feedback effect in the economy that causes growth and in turn 'increases receipts.' He added that he wanted 'to see how much better the government's fiscal situation is as a result of the tax cuts.'

"The recent analysis by Mr. Page at the Congressional Budget Office dismisses the idea that tax cuts may actually improve the government's fiscal situation. Even in his most generous scenario, only 28 percent of lost tax revenue is recouped over a 10-year period. The United States, it seems, is firmly planted on the left side of the Laffer Curve."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/business/yourmoney/01view.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

1793 Illustration Of Quagga In Menagerie Of Louis XVI At Versailles 

(D)evolving The Quagga

An obssessed South African taxidermist pursues extinction.

"The quagga was a horselike animal native to southern Africa that went extinct in 1883. Its head, neck and shoulders and sometimes the forward part of its flank were covered with stripes; the back part of its torso, its rump and legs were unstriped... Rau's goal, which he has been working toward for three decades, is to breed the quagga back into existence. His approach is to take zebras that look more quaggalike than the norm and mate them with one another, generation after generation, progressively erasing the stripes from the back part of their bodies."

The oge knows where he could make a start toward Neanderthal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/magazine/01taxidermy.html?th&emc=th

Justice Sqirmed At Bush Surveillance

Ashcroft was in the hospital, and his acting, James Comey, would not sign off. Right, Gonzy and Card trekked to the hospital. . .

"A top Justice Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and refused to sign on to its continued use amid concerns about its legality and oversight, according to officials with knowledge of the tense internal debate. The concerns appear to have played a part in the temporary suspension of the secret program.

"The concerns prompted two of President Bush's most senior aides - Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff, and Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House counsel and now attorney general - to make an emergency visit to a Washington hospital in March 2004 to discuss the program's future and try to win the needed approval from Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery, the officials said.

"The unusual meeting was prompted because Mr. Ashcroft's top deputy, James B. Comey, who was acting as attorney general in his absence, had indicated he was unwilling to give his approval to certifying central aspects of the program, as required under the White House procedures set up to oversee it."

Let's hope the Times has found its genitals for the moment and continues to push this story, despite the impending leak investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/politics/01spy.html?th&emc=th