-After The Rock Music Ended-

-and before the video died

-Hanging By The Numbers-

Cornelius Burley, 1830, London, Ontario, first and second hanging in the town (the rope broke on the first attempt). His skull was widely toured by phrenologists to the enlightenment of absolutely no one.

-Hanged Sans Hood-

Rummy handshake 1983; hanged 6 am this morning local time.

Denver Snow Storms A Century Phenomenon

"...From his office at the University of Colorado in Boulder, (climatologist Klaus) Wolter tried to explain where his forecast had gone wrong.

"'I wish I could say I was misquoted,' he said. Instead, he could only conclude that Mother Nature had pulled a fast one. Scouring meteorological records, Wolter found that it's been at least a century since the region has been hit with back-to-back storms of this intensity. 'It's unprecedented,' he said..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-snow30dec30,0,3853141.story?track=tothtml

-More Hanging-

Prozac or autoerotic asphyxiation, 1997?

-And Another Hanging-

Subject of Israel's only hanging, 1962.

Ma Bell Eats Her Children, Pledges Net Neutrality

"After intense public pressure, AT&T executives agreed to adhere to Network Neutrality conditions in order to secure FCC approval for their mega-merger with BellSouth.

"While the merger itself raises serious concerns, this agreement sets a crucial precedent for Internet freedom. It's now up to the new Congress to finish the work of the FCC and make Net Neutrality permanent under the law..."

http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2006/12/28/att-yields-to-neutrality-paves-path-to-congress/

-Another Hanging-

Ochs hanged himself in 1976. That's the simple version.

Saddam Doomed?

Here's how to supercharge the civil war:

"After upholding the death sentence against Mr. Hussein on Tuesday for the execution of 148 Shiite men and boys in 1982, an Iraqi appeals court ruled that he must be sent to the gallows within 30 days. But Mr. Hussein may not have even that long to live, officials said.

"A senior administration official said that the execution would probably not take place in the next 24 hours, but that the timing would be swift. 'It may be another day or so,' the official said.

Now all we have to do is jump on Maliki's dumb plan for US troops to target Sunnis exclusively...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/world/middleeast/29saddam.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Why We Are In Iraq

OK, so there is no single reason why we got into Iraq. But why are we still there, why is there this feeling that some force like gravity keeps us there, why is there this feeling that some force keeps sending us into these nightmare scenarios?

Because there is such a force, enshrined in our economic and political establishments.

Nothing new here, but a reminder from Robert Scheer of the real face of evil:

"...The big prize here for Bush’s foreign policy is not the acquisition of natural resources or the enhancement of U.S. security, but rather the lining of the pockets of the defense contractors, the merchants of death who mine our treasury. But because the arms industry is coddled by political parties and the mass media, their antics go largely unnoticed. Our politicians and pundits argue endlessly about a couple of billion dollars that may be spent on improving education or ending poverty, but they casually waste that amount in a few days in Iraq.

"As Eisenhower warned: 'We should take nothing for granted, only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ...We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.'

"Too bad we no longer have leading Republicans, or Democrats, warning of that danger."

Alert? Knowledgeable?

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061226_robert_scheer_ike_was_right/

-Pine Ridge Reservation, 1891-

Where Is Geraldine Blue Bird?

"...the woman who became a symbol of enduring, desperate poverty in the United States now bunks in a jail cell in Rapid City, some 90 miles to the northwest. In October, a federal jury convicted her of running a multimillion-dollar drug ring out of her double-wide. The ring supplied cocaine throughout the hills and valleys of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is the size of Connecticut..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/us/28dakota.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Better Read When Dead

Not that I am suggesting that Ford's customary political temerity resembles wisdom or even conscionable discretion, or that he doesn't stink from the company he kept, but these days any increase in the published opposition to the war in Iraq is welcome, if only to pressure the new feebs in congress toward doing the right thing:

"Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.

"In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford 'very strongly' disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558.html?referrer=email

Ford's Death Eclipsed

Gerald Ford has died at 93, but this was eclipsed by the far greater loss of the Godfather, Betty Ford quietly confided to doting friends. Not.

More Jewish Settlements Approved For West Bank

After a 10-year pause, the illegal settlements may begin again:

"Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the United States to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories.

"Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the construction and urged the government to revoke its authorization, saying it violated the spirit of cooperation inaugurated by a meeting Saturday between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600829.html?referrer=email

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Markets: Locusts Swarming

"Some top private-equity funds have joined to form a lobbying organization to head off potential regulation.

"The funds have become some of the most active purchasers of U.S. corporations, pooling money from private investors and companies and augmenting those sums with loads of debt. More than 28 percent of the dollar value of acquisitions announced in the United States this year involved private-equity firms, up from 3 percent five years ago, according to Dealogic.

"...In late spring, several of the nation's largest private-equity firms started to discuss creating a lobby group. The decision was precipitated by recognition that they were becoming the target of tough criticism in the United States and in Europe; in Germany, for instance, a state governor referred to private-equity firms as 'locusts...'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600864.html?referrer=email

Rest In Peace

James Brown, The Godfather, Dead At 73

"James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured 'Godfather of Soul,' whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

"Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

"Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. 'We really don't know at this point what he died of..."'

Murtha And The Lobbies

If you turn over enough stones, you are bound to find a crime. Murtha's coziness with defense industries is an open secret, but can it withstand the current degree of scrutiny?

"For a quarter of a century, Carmen Scialabba labored for Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), helping parcel out the billions of dollars that came through the House Appropriations Committee, so when the disabled aide needed a favor, Murtha was there.

"In 2001, Murtha announced the creation of Scialabba's nonprofit agency for the disabled in Johnstown, Pa. The next year, with Scialabba still on his staff, Murtha secured a half-million dollars for the group, the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals With Disabilities (PAID), and put another $150,000 in the pipeline for 2003, according to appropriations committee records and former committee aides. Since then, the group has helped hundreds of disabled people find work.

"But the group serves another function as well. PAID has become a gathering point for defense contractors and lobbyists with business before Murtha's defense appropriations subcommittee, and for Pennsylvania businesses and universities that have thrived on federal money obtained by Murtha..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/24/AR2006122400919.html?referrer=email

Grandma Sends Infant Through LAX Xray Machine

It's a good thing for the little duffer that she didn't go to the butcher shop instead...

"A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine.

"The early Saturday accident — bizarre but not unprecedented — caught airport workers by surprise, even though the security line was not busy at the time, officials said.

"A screener watching the machine's monitor immediately noticed the outline of a baby and pulled the bin backward on the conveyor belt..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-baby20dec20,0,6460373.story?track=tothtml

Dumbest Con Of The Day

" Iraq's Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has created a two-pronged security plan for Baghdad in which U.S. forces would aggressively target Sunni Arab insurgents instead of Shiite militias. At the same time, Maliki would intensify his efforts to weaken Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and contain his Mahdi Army militia, Iraqi officials said Tuesday.

"Under these conditions, Maliki would accept a surge in U.S. troops in Baghdad, according to two Maliki advisers with knowledge of the plan. Maliki plans to discuss his proposal with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and senior U.S. commanders during a meeting in Baghdad on Thursday, the officials said. The Bush administration is contemplating a temporary increase in troops to help stem the highest levels of violence since 2003..."

Yeah, that'll do it. Let's surge some troops for this reptile's dumb little con job.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901601.html?referrer=email

$40M Bonus For Morgan Stanley CEO

From another perspective, one CEO's Christmas bonus could finance 20 congressional campaigns (OK, maybe only 14 after taxes). And that, on top of the moral outrage of income disparity, guarantees thorough political corruption.

CEO competence is as much culture myth as is political competence. Despite the exceptions, much of our society is dominated by nepotism and closed clubhouses. We have a president who couldn't turn a nickle profit if you gave him a gold rush whorehouse.

There is nothing natural or free-market about the modern corporation. It is an artificial construct created and supported by government at the urging of entrenched wealth for the purpose of generating more wealth. Like the presidency or an airliner on auto pilot, it hardly matters who occupies the head seat. It will coast for years on the energy of its own vampyric bulk, and even when it fails, the politicians we elect are as likely to sustain it.

We are ruled by morons and monsters.

"On Wall Street, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Morgan Stanley Chief Executive John Mack got his present this week — grants of stock and options valued at $40 million.

"That's a record for a Wall Street chief executive, but it's the same story all over town.

"At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., employees will earn an average of $622,000 this year, thanks to record profit of $9.4 billion..."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bonus16dec16,0,2138481.story?track=tothtml

Swift Boat, MoveOn, Leagues Of Conservation fined For Violations

All three 527's---which can raise cash for the nonpartisan purpose of issue-awareness---have settled in violation of the campaign finance laws---in the 2004 election. MoveOn was even more partisan in its 2006 activities, but had reorganized its campaign activity through its political action committee.

"...The Swift Boat group was fined $299,500, the MoveOn group $150,000, and both League of Conservation Voters groups $180,000. Campaign watchdog organizations scorned the action as 'too little, too late' and an example of a broken campaign finance system.

"'Effective enforcement of the campaign finance laws cannot be established through a case-by-case approach that resolves massive violations of campaign finance laws more than two years after a presidential election with a fine that is a small fraction of the millions of dollars illegally spent to influence the election,' officials of Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center said in a statement. They had joined a third watchdog organization, the Center for Responsive Politics, in filing a complaint against the Swift Boat group in 2004..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-swiftboat14dec14,0,897147.story?track=tothtml

Also:

http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/political-groups-to-pay-campaign-fines/20061213144809990001

-Aurochs Of Lascaux-

Mama, don't let your sons mutate into cowboys.

Big Doh! Award Of The Day: NYTimes Editorial

On very rare occasions you can find some of today's best expository writing in the rag's editorials. But not usually, and not today, and not when the editors take on science.

A big doh! to the idiot who is enthralled by the obviously true and the fallaciously opaque:

"...A team of scientists has now discovered that an important human genetic trait — a tolerance in adults for the milk sugar called lactose — might have developed in several East African ethnic groups 2,700 to 6,800 years ago. That is astonishingly recent.

"It may also be the first genetic example of what researchers call convergent evolution in humans. In other words, lactose tolerance among African raisers of livestock arose independently of the same adaptive trait in northern European pastoralists. But there is something still more surprising about this discovery. The genetic change came about because of cultural change. The shift to cattle raising some 9,000 years ago gave an immediate survival advantage to adults who could digest milk, an ability infants usually lost as they aged..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/opinion/14thu4.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Bloomberg's RNC Tactics Revisited

Bloomberg's pre-emptive detentions and bogus arrests from the 2004 RNC continue to challenge the big apple's CEO as litigants seek records of the most massive violation of civil liberties in recent years:

"Faced with lawsuits from hundreds of people arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention, the Bloomberg administration is fighting to keep secret a vast array of records, testimony and videotapes collected that week.

"The city contends the materials could be embarrassing to people who were arrested, disclose police intelligence, or reveal environmental conditions that may hurt commercial development on the West Side waterfront or be useful to terrorists.

"In addition, the city lawyers said that medical reports from police officers who complained of getting sick after working at a temporary holding pen were “unreliable” and “likely to contain misinformation.”

"...More people were arrested during the 2004 gathering — 1,806 — than at any other convention in history, records show. Charges were ultimately dropped against 90 percent of them..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1213-11.htm

Rich Get Richer: Goldman Sachs Bonuses To Average $623K Per Employee

"...(Goldman Sachs) reported earnings yesterday that left jaws agape on Wall Street. Quarterly profits soared 93 percent... The figures were certainly good news to the scores of Goldman bankers and traders who will find out, starting today, what their bonuses will be. Chances are good they will be impressive: the bank is paying $16.5 billion in compensation this year, or roughly $623,418 for every employee.

"Wealth on Wall Street is not distributed evenly, of course. Rainmakers in investment banking can expect to see $20 million to $25 million each while traders who booked big profits will take home a chunk of those profits, up to $50 million apiece, according to senior executives at leading Wall Street banks.

"...Stock markets have been on a tear for months, while credit markets — far bigger than the equity markets — have continued to be robust. Credit derivatives continue to grow at a geometric pace, with $27 trillion outstanding. Opportunities abound to invest in companies, trade securities or advise clients in markets around the world, including China, Russia and the Middle East..."

The sound you hear is me losing my lunch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/business/13place.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Big Who Cares Dept

"Retired and almost blind at 88, the evangelist is sitting in his modest log house on an isolated mountaintop in western North Carolina and listening to a family friend describe where Franklin Graham, heir to his father's worldwide ministry, wants to bury his parents.

"...Ruth Graham has told her children that she doesn't want to be buried in Charlotte. She has a burial spot picked out in the mountains where she raised five children, and she hopes her husband will join her there.

"...The burial issue threatens to tear asunder what some have called the royal family of American religion, and Billy is being asked to make a Solomon-like choice between the wishes of his heir and his wife of 63 years..."

Give me a freakin' break.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/12/AR2006121201338.html?referrer=email

Quote For The Day

"...Concerned Women for America and the Christian Coalition and Mitt Romney and Pat Robertson have all made it clear that they think it's wrong for lesbians to have children. Would someone in the media please ask them the obvious follow-up question: How the fuck do they propose to stop lesbians from having children? Post two members of the National Guard at the entrance to every lesbian vagina in the country?"

---Dan Savage

http://villagevoice.com/people/0650,savage,75273,24.html

-Baptism Of Pocahontas-

Resurrecting Virginia Algonquian

More on the reconstruction of native language for Malick's film:

"...But now, in a story with starring roles for a university linguist, sloppy 17th-century scribes and a perfectionist Hollywood director making a movie about Jamestown, the language that scholars call Virginia Algonquian has come back from the dead..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101474.html?referrer=email

-Massing In Beirut-

The Backfire In Lebanon

Now the Christians have joined with Hezbellah in seeking the downfall of the pro-Western Siniora government. Israel's really dumb invasion of Lebanon, you may recall, was encouraged by almost all of our House and unanimously by our Senate, in their usual rush to protect campaign contributions. So we have another backfire against both American and Israeli interests in the area, whether it was Israel, the US neos, or both, who instigated the folly.

If the warmongers who dominate Israeli politics much the same as ours do ours, truly had the interests of that nation's people at heart, securing normal relations with Lebanon had been a piece of cake. Instead, we face the real prospect of radical nationalism under Hezbellah, whom we still characterize as a terrorist group.

It is beginning to look like the neo dream of setting a cleansing fire to the whole region may have a chance, despite the last-minute efforts of GOP realists. Of course, the fire will not cleanse in the way the neos hoped, and the regime changes they sought will more likely be those of our nominal partners; as Afghanistan reestablishes its feudal origins, fed by arms and drug dealers, shaking off the fleas of foreign interventionism, keep an eye on the fragile regime in Pakistan. You can only throw scraps to the wolves at the door for so long.

“'...We are today at the last phase of our struggle before we consolidate our independence, freedom and sovereignty, because the government has proven to be a failure at all levels,' said Michel Aoun, a former general and a Christian leader, in a live video broadcast to the demonstrators in Beirut. 'They have failed to isolate the Lebanese people from one another and we are here today to represent unity and we are leading this struggle together.' He has aligned his Christian party, the Free Patriotic Movement, with Hezbollah..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/world/middleeast/11beirut.html?th&emc=th

And more here:

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10144

Rabbi Lerner Defends Carter

"Jimmy Carter is speaking the truth as he knows it, and doing a great service to the Jews.

"Unfortunately, this peace is impeded by the powerful voices of AIPAC and the mainstream of the organized Jewish community, who manage to terrify even the most liberal elected officials into blind support of whatever policy the current government of Israel advocates. Ironically, this blind support has had the consequence of pushing many morally sensitive Christians and Jews to distance themselves from the Jewish world, which makes blind support for Israeli policies the litmus test of anti-Semitism. Younger Jews cannot safely express criticisms of Israeli policy without being told that they are disloyal or 'self-hating,' and elected officials tell me privately that they agree with Tikkun’s more balanced 'progressive Middle Path' which is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. But we’ve found that even Jews in the mainstream media have ignored or condemned our new organization, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, which is, among other things, trying to be an interfaith alternative to AIPAC.

"It’s time to create a new openness to criticism and a new debate. Jimmy Carter has shown courage in trying to open that kind of space with his new book, and he deserves our warm thanks and support."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/06/thank_you_jimmy_carter.php

"Big Box Swindle"

"... when the big chains win, they do so by getting people to assume the familiar and narrow role of consumer and to view their relentless expansion and radical restructuring of the economy as simply a matter of shopping options.

"Although pervasive in its influence today, this consumer identity is a relatively recent invention. It only became a powerful force in U.S. politics in the years after World War II. To a large degree, it was created and propagated by the first generation of chain retailers-companies like A&P, Kroger, and Woolworth-which encountered such strong public opposition in the 1920s and 30s as to call into doubt their continued existence. The chains responded with a massive PR campaign that managed to transform American citizens into consumers-a sharply circumscribed identity that corporations have used to augment their power ever since..."

http://www.alternet.org/stories/45166/

Raimondo Does The ISG

There are no surprises in Raimondo's once-over of the Baker report, but his points are worth a reading. Some excerpts:

"As an attempt to clean up the mess created by President Bush and his neocon advisors, the report [.pdf] of the Baker-Hamilton commission is an admirable effort. Yet, in the end, it is too little, too late.

"...The irony is that all the negative outcomes they list – 'a significant power vacuum, greater human suffering, regional destabilization, and a threat to the global economy' – are the consequences of the war the U.S. government initiated.

"In spite of its flaws, however, the Baker commission report is a giant leap forward in more ways than one: to begin with, it breaks the long-standing taboo against talking to the Iranians and the Syrians. Secondly, it links the question of Palestine to the broader issue of maintaining peace in the Middle East, and, not only that, it also acknowledges the centrality of the Palestinian problem. Our Israel-centric policy in the region has ruled out dealing with either of these aged sore spots: the great value of the Baker-Hamilton report is that it reasserts the necessity of pursuing American interests, as opposed to purely Israeli interests. As such, what John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt call "the Lobby" is already screaming bloody murder at this aspect of the report...

"Getting back to the immediate question of how we get out of Iraq, however, the Baker report was out of date before it was even published: the reality is that we've already been defeated, and the only remaining task before us is to devise a face-saving orderly retreat.

"...In any event, we can't wait for 2008 to get the troops out of Iraq, for the simple reason that it's too dangerous to keep them there. The primary destabilizing factor in the region is the presence of American troops in Iraq. As long as they are there, the insurgents have a cause to rally around, as does Sadr's Mahdi Army. Every day the conflict comes closer to spilling over Iraq's porous borders, into Syria, Iran – and beyond. The longer we stay, the more chances there are of a regional conflagration breaking out."

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10129

Huffington Does Hillary

Huffington is sometimes a bit silly, and she is probably (and unfortunately) reflecting the feeling of a more limited number of Democrats than she thinks, but she nails Hillary here.

Nothing would please my less noble side more than to see her and Obama duke it out---and preferably knock each other out of the ring. While he may have his share of gushing liberals, the audacity of his public ruminations over a profoundly premature run for the presidency betrays his enthrallment to power. I personally believe that a number of minority legislators see the nature of our society far more clearly, and have far more to offer, than most of the majority, but Obama is not one of them. He seems too comfortable in his political skin.

Still, if his common sense surrenders to ambition, we are in for a guilty treat:

"On Iraq, (Hillary) remains a captive of her and her consultants' belief that the country isn't ready for a female commander in chief who isn't a hawk. Unfortunately, she's misreading the zeitgeist. Democrats are fed up with fence-straddling and triangulation. But that has become Clinton's brand. Smiling photo ops with Bill Frist, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Backing a bill criminalizing flag burning. Coming out against violent video games. Signing on to President Bush's missile defense plan. Shifting her language on abortion. Refusing to level with Americans on Iraq.

"Such moves may have worked in the 1990s, but these are different times — times of war and terrorist threats, times in which the longing for strong, authentic leadership is paramount. As a result, Clinton's strategy for the presidency is threatening to become a cautionary tale about a perfect little girl who had a perfect little plan that went perfectly astray. After joining the Senate, the world's most exclusive club, she set out to do everything her head — and her consultants — told her was right. She sharpened the points of her triangulation strategy, decorating her rhetoric in red state-friendly shades.

"...With Democrats on the rise, her perfect plan seemed to be working out perfectly.And then, suddenly, came a rumbling in the distance. A rumbling caused by Barack Obama. Indications are that before the year is out, he will officially be in the race..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-huffington7dec07,1,318903.story

7 Million Behind Bars, On Probation/Parole

One more in the Statistical Hall Of Shame:

"A record 7 million people -- one in every 32 U.S. adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, a Justice Department report released yesterday shows.

"Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to the report.

"More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000912.html

War On Middle Class Housing

Close on the heel of the sale of Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, another huge hunk of real estate seems headed upscale and private.

"Starrett City, a 140-acre apartment complex built 30 years ago on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn as an enclave for working-class New Yorkers, is on the auction block, the owner confirmed yesterday.

"The complex, whose owner changed its name in recent years to the more chic-sounding Spring Creek Towers, is the largest federally subsidized rental complex in the country. Its approximately 14,000 residents live in 46 towers surrounded by well-manicured lawns. They have their own schools, churches, synagogues, shopping center, post office and power plant.

"The sale by the owner, Starrett City Associates, a group of investors, is the latest indication that even bland brick buildings are a sought-after commodity in a booming real estate market that has driven prices skyward for everything from condominiums to tenements in New York City..."

Thanks to D for this item.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/nyregion/01starrett.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=094e62d7a66617ff&hp&ex=1165035600&partner=homepage

-Precarious Lebanon-

Lebanon On The Edge

Practically all of the House and 100% of the Senate cheered Israel on as our regional proxy shamelessly invaded Lebanon. The congress is so thoroughly corrupt that it can no longer operate in the interest of the US or the Israeli people, too busy gobbling lobby dollars.

So within the year, we are already facing a fundamental challenge to the frail pro-Western Lebanese government, as an emboldened Hezbellah rallies the masses---all due to the repeated stupidity and short-sighted policies of violence that characterize Washington and Jerusalem.

We may see yet another nation fall (or rise) to militant Islamism.

"Hezbollah and its allies escalated Lebanon's month-long political crisis into a popular confrontation Friday, sending hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets, parking lots and sidewalks of downtown Beirut, vowing to topple the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and reorient the country.

"The city's stylish downtown, to some a symbol of recovery from the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, was awash in red-white-and-green Lebanese flags, interspersed with banners in the colors of various sectarian and political leaders. The winter sun glinted off coils of wire and barricades encircling the colonnaded government headquarters nearby, where Siniora and other ministers have taken up residence. But the crowd was more festive than angry, more celebratory than militant, as the theater of the moment intersected, perhaps a little dissonantly, with the drama of a struggle as decisive as any in Lebanon's history..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/01/AR2006120100129.html?referrer=email

Why Was Rummy Canned?

He may not have been viewed by the little fraud in the white house as a sacrificial scapegoat so much as an emerging obstructionist:

"U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the White House before he resigned last month the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq was not working and he proposed changes, including possible troop reductions, The New York Times reported Saturday.

'"In my view it is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough,' Rumsfeld said in the classified memo, dated Nov. 6. The Times posted a copy of the memo along with an article about it on its Web site.
The memo's authenticity was confirmed by NBC News and the Pentagon, which declined further comment..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16008286/

The Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/world/middleeast/03military.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Gridlock: New Dem Congress Reneges On 9/11 Pledge

The vote over Hoyer/Murtha for majority leader was variously represented as a contest among various Dem factions, a message to Pelosi, payback, loyalty, ethics, a renege on the antiwar stance, and so on. But its implications for meaningful change in the House are broader, and in many respects, the vote (supported overwhelmingly by the incoming fershmen, including Gillibrand and Arcuri) will serve to maintain the status quo.

Take, for example, this analysis of reneging on the Dem pledge to enact the key 9/11 recommendation for intelligence oversight :

"...Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies.

"...Democratic leadership dust-ups this month severely limited the ability of House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) to implement the commission's recommendations, according to Democratic aides. Pelosi strongly backed Murtha for House majority leader, only to see him soundly defeated by Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.). That chain of events made it difficult for her to ask Murtha, a longtime ally, to relinquish control of the intelligence budget from his consolation prize, the chairmanship of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, according to Democratic sources.

"Likewise, a controversy over the choice of a new chairman of the House intelligence committee proved to be a factor in the decision. The Sept. 11 commission urged Congress to do away with traditional term limits on the intelligence committees to preserve continuity and expertise, a recommendation the House implemented in 2003. But in her search for a reason to drop the committee's most senior Democrat, Jane Harman (Calif.), from the panel, Pelosi fell back on the tradition of term limits. She has decided to pass over the intelligence committee's second-ranking Democrat, Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), as well."

And so it goes: gridlock within the party itself, rewarding voters with status quo on one of the nation's essential security issues.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901317_2.html?referrer=email

Quote For The Day

Regarding hopes for the Iraq Study Group:

"The United States has lost its capacity to shape the events on the ground, regardless of what's recommended by the commission, regardless of what's done by the U.S. military and the president."

---Richard C. Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Pharmaceuticals Keep Killing You?

"Drug-coated stents raise the risk of potentially lethal blood clots in heart patients as much as fivefold compared with bare-metal devices, a study found.

"The researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation analyzed 14 studies involving 6,675 heart patients who received the two stent models sold in the United States. Concerns about clotting first drew attention in September.

"The study, published yesterday in the American Journal of Medicine, highlights the biggest threat to the $6 billion-a-year global market for drug-coated stents dominated by Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific Corp..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901385.html?referrer=email

-Antikythera Device-

It is certain that Archimedes designed geared instruments long before the Kythera device. As Plutarch reminds us, however, any form of applied science or technology was considered an inferior enterprise, and Archimedes would have been the last to advertise this class of achievement.

New Descriptions Of The Antikythera Device

Modern analysis now discloses the device included 37 gears, of which 30 survive, and suggests it is the one described by Cicero:

"After a century of study, scientists have unlocked the secrets of a mysterious 2,100-year-old device known as the Antikythera mechanism, showing it to be a complex and uncannily accurate astronomical computer.The bronze-and-iron mechanism, recovered in more than 80 highly corroded fragments from a sunken Roman ship in 1901, could predict the positions of the sun and planets, show the location of the moon and even forecast eclipses.

"The international team of scientists reported today that the 1st century BC Greek device, the earliest known example of an arrangement of gear wheels, shows a technological sophistication that was not seen again until clockwork mechanisms were introduced in the 14th century.

"...the astronomical information incorporated in the gears clearly is based on the calculations of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who worked on Rhodes from about 140 BC to about 120 BC.Subsequently, the philosopher Posidonius established an astronomy school incorporating Hipparchus' ideas..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-calculator30nov30,0,2912566.story?track=tothtml