Judge resigns seat on spy court

In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration's covert domestic wiretap program, a federal judge who has been one of the judiciary's most intrusive and feisty critics of the Guantánamo Bay detention center quit a secret court that oversees U.S. intelligence wiretaps.


....''Apparently Judge Robertson did not want to aid and abet criminal NSA electronic surveillance,'' said a statement from the New York Center for Constitutional Rights, which has for four years alleged that the administration is overstepping its war powers -- in both its Guantánamo court and enemy combatant practices.

Bush Misses the Point on Spying...Again

"The Bush administration formally defended its domestic spying program in a letter to Congress late Thursday saying the nation's security outweighs privacy concerns of individuals who are monitored.

In a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committees, the Justice Department said
President Bush authorized electronic surveillance without first obtaining a warrant in an effort to thwart terrorist acts against the United States."

This threadbare argument distorts the facts. Within the law, the Administration can tap phones for 72 hours while they seek a warrant from the secret FISA courts. These courts have NEVER denied a warrant. So what is the problem that led the Administration to refuse to even apply for warrants as required by the law? There are no delays under the current system, and the issuing of warrants has never been mentioned as a problem.

If the administration was worried that the warrants wouldn't be granted, then it suggests that there was precious little evidence that these wire taps were really directed at Al Qaida as the administration claims. Or was it simply that this Administration is addicted to operating outside the law?

Army aims to coax back former troops

Reuters reports that the U.S. Army, fresh off missing its latest annual recruiting goal, has launched an unprecedented effort to coax former troops to sign up again for active-duty military service. But it's not a sign of desperation.

The Army this month began contacting 78,000 people who previously served in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps to pitch them on the idea of leaving behind their civilian lives and returning for another stint in uniform, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

Unlike in the past, they now can return to the Army without giving up their previous rank or undergo the rigors of basic training, said Hilferty, who described it as the first program of its kind for the Army.

The Army fell about 7,000 short of its goal of sending 80,000 recruits into basic training in fiscal 2005, which ended September 30. Officials attributed the shortfall to the Iraq war and other factors. The fiscal 2006 recruiting goal again is set at 80,000.

Hilferty said the new program, which targets people who left the military within the past five years and particularly those who were in branches other than the Army, is not a sign of recruiting desperation."

Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel

Bush knew that Saddam wasn't tied in with Al Qaida, from the very beginning. No suprise to those who have followed this closely. Cheney's claiming otherwise only continues his misconstruction of reality.

"Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.

The September 21, 2001, briefing was prepared at the request of the president, who was eager in the days following the terrorist attacks to learn all that he could about any possible connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. "

Cheney Continues Attacks on War Critics

It's interesting that Cheney has given up claiming that the Congress had the same information that the Whitehouse did, and has shifted to basically saying "trust us". Interesting too is his claim that the onus on Saddam was to prove that he didn't have weapons of mass destruction, as if the Whitehouse had no obligation to the American people to ensure that the reasons given for going to war actually had merit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President
Dick Cheney denied on Monday that the administration was trying to stifle dissent by lashing out at
Iraq war critics, but said he drew the line at what he called shameless charges by some Democrats that the president distorted prewar intelligence.

"This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate," Cheney said.

Cheney, who was a leading voice in the run-up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion in warning of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda, said the administration presented the best available intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs.

Cheney said it had not been Washington's responsibility to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before launching the 2003 Iraq invasion but it was up to Saddam to show that he did not have them.

Cheney acknowledged that "flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight." But Cheney added: "Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false."

Cheney's comments were the latest in an acrimonious political debate in Washington over the progress and origins of the war at a time when President George W. Bush's popularity rating is at its lowest.

Lie detectors may be next step in airline security | Tech News on ZDNet

Tech News on ZDNet

A new walk-through airport lie detector made in Israel may prove to be the toughest challenge yet for potential hijackers or drug smugglers.

Tested in Russia, the two-stage GK-1 voice analyzer requires that passengers don headphones at a console and answer 'yes' or 'no' into a microphone to questions about whether they are planning something illicit.

The software will almost always pick up uncontrollable tremors in the voice that give away liars or those with something to hide, say its designers at Israeli firm Nemesysco.

'In our trial, 500 passengers went through the test, and then each was subjected to full traditional searches,' said Chief Executive Officer Amir Liberman. 'The one person found to be planning something illegal was the one who failed our test.'

The GK-1 is expected to cost between $10,000-$30,000 when marketed. A spokesman for Moscow's Domodyedevo airport, which is using a prototype, said 'the tester (lie detector) has proved to be effective and we are in principle ready to use it.'

Cheney says war critics 'dishonest, reprehensible' - He's at it again.

Cheney says war critics 'dishonest, reprehensible' - Yahoo! News: "Cheney said the suggestion Bush or any member of the administration misled Americans before the war 'is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.'"

When is Dick Cheney going to come back to earth, or at least develop some semblance of integrity? I remember clearly yelling at my TV during a Cheney interview when he maintainedthat Al Quaida and Saddam had 9/11 ties even after the 9/11 Commission and President Bush had admitted they didn't exist.

Why is his Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, talking with every member of the press he can dial about Valerie Plame after her husband outted the Niger Yellow Cake story?

Why did Cheney set up his own intelligence group to second guess the CIA intelligence reports to the President. Why did senior CIA personnel quit the CIA saying that their views of Iraq had been ignored by the White House?

The is no kettle that Dick Cheney can fairly call black.

CIA "Black" Prisons Uncovered

No wonder the Bush Administration is fearful of the Senate bill to limit torture.

"According to the Washington Post, the prisons are referred to as "black sites" in classified U.S. documents and virtually nothing is known about who the detainees are, how they are interrogated or about decisions on how long they will be held.

About 30 major terrorism suspects have been held at black sites while more than 70 other detainees, considered less important, were delivered to foreign intelligence services under rendition, the paper said, citing U.S. and foreign intelligence sources.

The top 30 al Qaeda prisoners are isolated from the outside world, have no recognized legal rights and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or see them, the sources told the newspaper."

Experts say US is losing war on terror

Two U.S. terrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have have concluded the United States is losing the war on terrorism.

"Despite an early victory over the Taliban and al Qaeda in
Afghanistan, the two former Clinton administration officials say
President George W. Bush's policies have created a new haven for terrorism in Iraq that escalates the potential for Islamic violence against Europe and the United States.

America's badly damaged image in the Muslim world could take more than a generation to set right. And Bush's mounting political woes at home have undermined the chance for any bold U.S. initiatives to address the grim social realities that feed Islamic radicalism, they say."

Your Tax $ at Work

This spring, Republicans and Democrats voiced outrage over the news that independent counsel David M. Barrett was still pursuing a decade-long, $21 million investigation into a crime long confessed and paid for. Without debate, the Senate unanimously agreed to strip Barrett of further funding for his inquiry on former housing secretary Henry G. Cisneros.

But, prodded by conservative commentators, House Republican leaders grew convinced that Democrats were trying to suppress embarrassing revelations about the Clinton administration. The Senate provision was ditched behind closed doors, and Barrett and his staff continue to work -- at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $2 million a year -- on an inquiry that seemingly ended 13 months ago."

Pat Tillman Opposed the War in Iraq

An article in the SF Chronicle ( "FAMILY DEMANDS THE TRUTH
New inquiry may expose events that led to Pat Tillman’s death") describes the continuing efforts of Pat Tillman's family to get the truth about Pat's life and the circumstances of his death from the military. A fascinating article with some suprises including Tillman's belief that the war was illegal.

Does Bush believe in a role for government?

Looking at Dubya's performance in office can lead one to conclude that the President is seriously inept or just not very smart. The other possible conclusion is that the current administraton doesn't believe that government has a role in many of the areas for which it responsible. The result is an administraton that focuses on law and order or national defense but lets privatization and "free enterprise" pick up the pieces or that repays its political debts by awarding key positions in depleted agencies such as FEMA or HUD.

Bush: 'I take responsibility'

George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for failures in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

Just what does taking repsonsbility mean to an administration that so highly prized 'accountability' during it's campaigns for office? How will this affect the constant reference to the 'blame game' by members of the administration?

Today's thoughts

'Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO, what a ride!'

Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference."

Surprise? FBI spies on Bush critics

Those who remember when the CIA and FBI engaged in spying on left wing groups, Martin Luthur King Jr., ordinary citizens, and Nixon's "enemies list" may not be surprised to learn that the FBI is up to the same old tricks. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the FBI is again armed with expanded powers to collect information on ordinary citizens. And it has been doing so.

That is what the FBI itself disclosed in federal court yesterday. It acknowledged that it has collected 1,173 pages of files on the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 2,383 on Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group, and an undetermined number of files on an organisation called United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), a coalition of more than 1,000 antiwar groups. The coalition allegedly was planning protests at the time of the Republican Party National Convention in New York.

...Beau Grosscup, a professor of international relations at California State University and author of ”The Newest Explosions of Terrorism: Latest Sites of Terrorism in the 90s and Beyond”, told IPS, ”All one has to do is look at the annual FBI report on terrorism to discover that as they watch the ACLU, Earth First, Greenpeace and the peace movement, they refuse to apply their political attention to the violence of the rightwing and in particular anti-environmental groups.”

Alcohol and driving don't mix, even in the tank

We knew it was too good to be true....

A study released from University of California-Berkeley finds that for every unit of energy yielded by ethanol, it takes 1.3 units to produce it from corn, and is nearly 3 times more expensive than gasoline per unit energy delivered. The study didn’t take into account the $3B in federal and state subsidies that are given out to ethanol producers every year, which means that the true cost of ethanol is likely even higher. Ethanol is widely used as a fuel additive across the country, and in some areas can be found as a blend where it’s the primary source of energy (so-called E85 is comprised of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, and must be used only in vehicles designed for it). Since ethanol can be made from corn or other sources of biomass, it’s attracting much attention as a source of renewable energy.

Additionally, ethanol might lead to more pollution than the highly toxic MTBE that it replaces. This is because bacteria in the soil prefer ethanol to gasoline (a choice that many of our readers will agree with), and therefore will break down less gasoline before it reaches underground water sources.

Fans of biodiesel will find that their fuels didn’t fair much better, with soybeans yielding similar results to corn-based ethanol, and sunflower-based biodiesel production requiring 2.2 times the amount of energy the fuel eventually yields.

Bullying the troops from the pulpit

Evidently the investigation of excessive recruiting and influence of evangelical chaplains at the US Air Force Academy was only one indication of the growing influence of evangelicals in the military. Here's an account of a weekend event sponsored by the Air Force:

"There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone. It was the opening ceremony of a four-day Spiritual Fitness Conference at a Hilton hotel here last month organized and paid for by the Air Force for many of its United States-based chaplains and their families, at a cost of $300,000. The chaplains, who pledge when they enter the military to minister to everyone, Methodist, Mormon or Muslim, attended workshops on "The Purpose Driven Life," the best seller by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and on how to improve their worship services."

See link for entire article from NY Times.

Pew Survey: U.S. Image Still Thumbs Down Overseas

Even China ranks higher than the US in a 16 nation survey conducted by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. While Americans score high as hardworking and inventive, we are also thought of as violent, greedy and immoral.

The magnitude of America's image problem is such that even popular U.S. policies have done little to repair it. President George W. Bush's calls for greater democracy in the Middle East and U.S. aid for tsunami victims in Asia have been well-received in many countries, but only in Indonesia, India and Russia has there been significant improvement in overall opinions of the U.S.

Head of Central Command Says Cheney Wrong on Iraq

While Rumsfeld was out supporting the contention that Iraq is not a quagmire, his own General was contradicting the rosy view of Iraq being painted by Vice President Cheney.

'During a tense Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who as head of Central Command is the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, declined to endorse Vice President Dick Cheney's assessment that Iraq's insurgency was in its "last throes."

Abizaid said insurgents' strength had not diminished and that more foreign fighters were coming into Iraq than six months ago. "There's a lot of work to be done against the insurgency," Abizaid said, adding: "I'm sure you'll forgive me from criticizing the vice president."'

Jack Kilby, inventor of integrated circuit, dead at 81 - Jun. 21, 2005

The man who made as big a contribution to American industry as Thomas Edison or Alexander Bell died on Tuesday. Too few people know his name.

"Kilby, 81, made the discovery 47 years ago, when, as a recently hired engineer at Texas Instruments Inc. (Research), he was left to work alone in a laboratory while most of his 7,500 colleagues were taking a company-wide summer vacation leave.

As a new hire, Kilby did not qualify to take a vacation in August 1958.

"It was a very quiet time and he got a lot done," said Pat Weber, 65, a long-time colleague and friend of Kilby's".

If you are making DVD's, you're probably breaking at least one law.

Exerpt of a meeting between an Intel Exec (Whiteside) and Senate staffers that highlights how pernicious the Digit Millineum Copyright Act (DCMA)is. It makes criminals of us all.

Darknet: Story: The tech exec who broke federal law (and why the law is broken): "Whiteside explained how the homemade DVD came to be. His nine-year-old son Timmy played on a Pop Warner team called the Typhoons, and Whiteside spent the better part of a football season capturing images of the action with his digital camcorder. At long last Whiteside culled together the highlights, imported them into his PC, and began creating his digital masterpiece.

“I used a program to copy a few seconds from the DVD of the movie Rudy,” he said. “It’s the scene showing the final game of the Notre Dame season with Rudy’s family in the stands cheering wildly when he got to play. I then spliced in some snippets of pro players doing a touchdown dance from NFL Films, and I overlaid it with audio from ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’

'I stitched this all together with video of my son, and it turned out to be the piece of home video that gets watched the most in our house. When relatives or members of the football team come over, we pop it in and we just laugh. The added scenes and music really bring it all to life.”

There was just one problem. “It turns out to do this, I violated the DMCA. I used the DeCSS program to circumvent the encryption and access the movie clips on the DVD that I own,” Whiteside told the aides. “The end product is a DVD that I don’t sell or distribute but is considered a derivative work under copyright law.”

To their credit, none of the congressional aides flipped open their cell phones to call the attorney general. (When I described Whiteside’s home movie to Jack Valenti, he said, “He’s committing a violation of federal law.”)

DeCSS, software devised largely by fifteen-year-old Norwegian Jon Lech Johansen in 1999 to circumvent the digital locks on a DVD, has been widely popular since it first appeared on the Net. (He wrote the code so he could play a DVD movie on his Linux computer. Johansen tells me his original DeCSS code may have been downloaded a million times over the years, and related ripper programs millions more.)

Authorities have brandished the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a club, threatening to use it against anyone who uses, distributes, or even links to a program like DeCSS. First-time offenders are subject to civil fines of up to $2,500, with penalties of up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine if the violation was willful and for profit. Whiteside said he didn’t know he was violating the law at the time and hasn’t done it since.

The point of his demonstration, Whiteside said, was not a mea culpa, but a real-world example of how Washington’s penchant for legislative solutions can hobble a new, flowering marketplace of innovation.

“This is precisely the kind of exciting consumer creativity that should be enabled,” he said. “I don’t claim to have all the answers. Should I have to go clear rights to use ten seconds from Rudy in my son’s video, or does it fall under fair use? Should I have to pay pennies for every second of a snippet? I don’t know. But I do know that we have to figure out a way for consumers to do something creative without breaking the law."

The Harris Poll - Partisanship is Not What Most of the American Public Desires

Sizable majorities of U.S. adults favor both moderate and Independent candidates for office and also believe that todays' politicians are more corrupt than those of 10 years ago.

"Regardless of ideology, when asked if they favor or oppose candidates who are conservative, moderate or liberal, over three-quarters (79%) of U.S. adults favor moderate candidates while only 48 percent favor conservative candidates and 41 percent favor liberal candidates."

"When examined by party ID, half or more of each party believes members of Congress are more corrupt today than they were 10 years ago – (50% of Republicans, 60% of Democrats and 55% of Independents)."

WEP cracking for dummies

"For those who still don’t think it’s a major problem to run WEP encryption on a wireless LAN, this is your final warning. Humphrey Cheung of Tomsnetworking has released a tutorial that can essentially be summed up as 'WEP cracking for dummies'. "

"Any WEP based wireless LAN can be cracked in a matter of minutes. The current set of attacks are all implemented in a simple all-in-one CD that is available for free download over the web and it employs the latest packet injection techniques and advanced statistical analysis tools to rapidly recover WEP keys. ...Corporations and homes must protect themselves with a minimum of WPA TKIP encryption but preferably use WPA2 AES encryption."

California bill would ban tracking chips in IDs

Leave it to California to take the lead in limiting abuses of the new REAL ID Federal legislation. "Consumer advocates also worry about the ability of data thieves to intercept RFID signals or break into databases storing the information collected by such systems. The RFID chips are designed to broadcast personal data, such as name, address and date of birth, to special receivers at close range."

National ID cards: Pretty Much a Done deal

National ID cards legislation will soon be passed for implementation within three years. The House of Representatives approved the package on Thursday by a vote of 368-58. Only three of the "nay" votes were Republicans; the rest were Democrats. The Senate is scheduled to vote on it next week and is expected to approve it as well.

When implemented there may well be a national data base that keeps track of every beer, bottle of wine, cigarette, train ticket, magazine you buy, doctor's office visit or everything you do. Big Brother is here.

IRS Flaws Expose Taxpayers to Snooping, Study Finds

Information on tax returns could expose millions of taxpayers to potential identity theft or illegal police snooping, according to a new congressional report.

The Internal Revenue Service also is unlikely to know if outsiders are browsing through citizens' tax returns because barriers between tax returns and money-laundering reports don't exist, the GAO found. Thus a police officer checking up on money-laundering reports can also read personal tax returns, in violation of federal law.

U.S. eliminates annual terrorism report

One way to deal with bad news is to simply sweep it under the rug which is what Condi Rice decided to do when the annual terrorism report revealed that terrorist incidents in 2004 were the highest since 1985.

"Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public," charged Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal.

Too Many Foreign Visitors Believe the US an Open Democracy

A Chinese man demanding to talk to President Bush who had suitcases authorities feared might contain explosives was tackled outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday and arrested. After tackling the man and blowing up one of hiis suitcases, Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said the bags contained no explosives or other dangerous materials and that the suspicious wires turned out to be part of a CD player.

The man drew the attention of a Capitol police officer in the early afternoon. When the man would not respond to police, they cleared the surrounding area and told people to stay away from the windows and asked staff to clear offices closest to the area.

Gainer said the man wanted to talk to Bush.

Several helmeted police officers tackled him and dragged him away by his arms before the hazardous materials response team moved in. He put up no resistance."

Spammer Sues Victim for $ 4 Mill

Cruise.com is suing its spamming victim for $3.8Million.

"Imagine asking a corporation to stop spamming you and instead of honoring your request, it sues you in federal court and continues to send the same unwanted, junk email you asked it to stop sending in the first place. This is precisely what happened to Mark W. Mumma, a web hosting and email service provider in Oklahoma City. A suit was filed against Mumma in the U.S. District Court's Eastern District of Virginia on Feb. 8 by suspected spammer cruise.com, its parent company and the parent's principals."

VoIP: Get Ready for Voice Spam

According to Internet News, "overseas telemarketers are quickly learning that they can use IP voice calls to "dial for dollars," getting around both traditional long-distance cost constraints and U.S. Do-Not-Call regulations to flood Internet traffic with phone calls that would make even the most egregious spammer blush."

Get ready for the deluge. The combination of reduced labor costs overseas and cheap phone cost that are a fraction of current costs could result in as many as 150 calls a day.

My favorite quote: "Technically, there is nothing you can do about it," Cohen said. "Pornography, gaming and spam are the biggest moneymakers on the Internet, and people who do marketing to reach customers and encourage them to spend money know this. So I don't see any way out."

Partisanship: The House Loses Its Ethics

In retaliation for the House Ethics Committee's three admonitions to Tom DeLay for violations of the House's own ethics rule, the Republican "leadership" replaced the Ethics Committee's chairman and two other Republicans on the Committee. Then they attempted to reduce the Committee's power by rewriting the rules. This was too far for even some Republican members, and now there is an impasse.

The Wall Street Journal published an article today pointing out that Bush's Social Security reform is going nowhere because Democrats who are philosophically aligned with private accounts simply do not trust Bush after his highly partisan first term.

The price of the partisanship practiced by this administration is becoming increasingly steep for all Americans. The House "Ethics Free Zone" is just the latest example.

Administration's Two Prongs of Media Management

Two articles today point out how withholding more and more information and the increasing use of providing prepackaged video press releases disguised as new reports are being used by the Bush administration to manage the news.

The AP reported that "the percentage of requested information that is eventually released in full has been declining since 1998 at the Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Interior, State, Transportation and Treasury departments. ........At the CIA , just 12 percent of the FOIA requests processed were granted in total in 2004, down from 44 percent in 1998. The FBI gave people asking for records everything they asked for just 1 percent of the time in 2004, compared to 5 percent in 1998."

Meanwhile today's NYTimes reports how at "least 20 federal agencies have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years." The PR releases use fake reporters to present positive spins on administration activities which are often aired on TV as legitimate, independent reporting.

U.S. to Back EU on Iran Incentives

The US has decided to join Europe in offering Iran incentives to abandon its suspected nuclear arms programs. The US believes that it made the policy shift in return for a European promise to turn Iran into the UN Security Council if Iran refuses to cooperate.

UK and US refuse to investigate Iraq casualties

An international group of public health experts have urged the US and UK to setup an independent investigation of war casaulties rated to the war in Iraq. Both government's have refused and will continue to use the figures produced by the Iraqi Ministry of Health which the experts contend vastly understate the number of caualties. The MoH lists less than 20,000 total casualties, while UK public health experts estimate that war has caused nearly 100,000 civilian deaths.

"Mr Straw told parliament, "The Lancet study suggests that there is an obligation deriving from article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the multinational force itself to have a reckoning of the number of civilian casualties it has caused. There is nothing in article 27, or elsewhere in the Fourth Geneva Convention, to support this suggestion.""

Biden and Lieberman help Republicans look after the rich

Joe Biden and Joe Leiberman helped the Republicans and credit card companies get the bankruptcy bill they wanted and paid for. Biden was reportedly encouraged by over $142K in campaign contributions by one credit card company alone; several are incorporated in his home state of Delaware.

Not only did 12 Democratic senators bravely defend the rights of credit card companies against the drepravations of the poor who held down credit profits to a mere 300% increase in recent years, but they also helped ensure that the rich would not have to suffer the same indignities. The bankruptcy bill ensures that Asset Protection Trusts will still be around to protect the assets of the rich from the invading hands of creditors and loosened the conflict of interest rules for investment banks over the protests of the SEC.

Credit card companies evidently know that the rich are too smart to pay their usurous interest rates and focused their attention on getting their pound of flesh from the poor.

Greenspan finally figures out there is "no free lunch."

Alan Greenspan is now worried about the budget but he is not 'overly' concerned about the record U.S. trade gap and heavy consumer debt loads.

'Has something fundamental happened to the U.S. economy that enables us to disregard all the time-tested criteria for assessing when economic imbalances become worrisome?' Greenspan asked rhetorically. 'Regrettably, the answer is no; the free luNews - nch has still to be invented.'"

Students Don't Have a Clue About Finance?

According to the NYTImes, "More states are requiring students to learn about managing money, but personal finance remains a fringe topic in schools and a major source of federal concern.

Seven states mandate that students take a course about basic finances to graduate high school, according to 2004 survey results released Thursday by the private National Council on Economic Education. That's up from 2002, when just four states required such courses."

Unfortunately, at a time when schools are overloaded with huge class sizes and shrinking budgets, the reality is that these programs are not being delivered. The pending bankruptcy legislation only highlights the risks of ignoring basic financial education.

World ready to fight new flu?

World not ready to fight flu pandemic, says study released in the UK. Even in the UK, the government estimates that it only has enough antiviral drugs to treat a quarter of the population.

"The WHO estimates that a flu outbreak could kill up to 8m people around the world, with another 30m being hospitalised."

Church of Critical Thinking

A recommended site. Nice essays and correspondence with various groups such as Scientology, Air America and others the founder suspects of shoddy thinking.

RIAA + Greed = Higher Online Music Prices?

Some leading music labels are in talks with online retailers to raise wholesale prices for digital music downloads, in an attempt to capture more profits from the burgeoning demand for legal online music.

"The moves, which suggest that the labels want a bigger slice in the fledgling market's spoils, has angered Steve Jobs, the Apple Computer chief executive who is behind the popular iTunes online music store."

Having passed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that criminalizes a wide range of activities plus adds huge monetary penalties to the new violations, the record labels are now attempting to raise prices for downloaded music. Greed, stupidity, and a compliant Congress continue to dominate this area of our culture.

36 Democratic Senators Sold Out for Bankruptcy 'Reform' in 2001

Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, Joe Biden, and a cast of other democrats sold out their constituency in 2001 by voting for the credit card industry's sponsored bankruptcy reform. The bill is back. Biden could be heard on NPR today smirking at the testimony of a Harvard professor who describing how the credit card company's fees were so high and onerous that the bankruptcies they were complaining about were "prepaid."

It's hard to understand when credit card companies and retailers spend billions of dollars to entice people into buying on credit and relying on debt to maintain a lifestyle that they and the lenders know they can't afford, why the credit card companies should be saved by Congress from their own excesses. Every senator who voted for this bill should be ashamed, especially these 36 who voted for it in 2001.

$8.8B: It's around here some place

A US audit can't find $8.8B in Iraqi oil revenue cash that was funneled from Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraqi ministries with little or no financial controls. It didn't take long for the US to develop its own version of the UN Iraqi oil scandal, only this one will be swept under the rug.

Don't forget that the NeoCon's man in Iraq, Salem Chalabi, has been convicted of bank fraud in Jordan and still faces 21 years in prison if he ever returns there. With friends like these, should a financial scandal be any surprise?

Iraq terrorist training ground about to graduate trainees?

Bin Laden Enlisting Al-Zarqawi for Attacks on the US. "New intelligence indicates that Osama bin Laden is enlisting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq, to plan potential attacks on the United States, federal officials said Monday." Once again we are reminded Iraq poses more problems for the US than just bombings inside Iraq.

Wonderfully Outrageous

Hunter S. Thompson: One editor recalls working with Hunter S. Thompson at the San Franciso Examiner.
"There just is no way to tell a story about Hunter S. Thompson without it sounding totally outrageous."

Europeans find frozen sea on Mars?

'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars. A European space craft has found what suggests to be a slew of "raft-like"structures on Mars that appear similar to ice formations near the Earth's poles.

New evidence that man causing global warming

The Times has published results from "a major study of rising temperatures in the world’s oceans.

The present trend of warmer sea temperatures, which have risen by an average of half a degree Celsius (0.9F) over the past 40 years, can be explained only if greenhouse gas emissions are responsible, new research has revealed.

The results are so compelling that they should end controversy about the causes of climate change, one of the scientists who led the study said yesterday."

Social Security and Iraq: the same sales strategy

Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times lays out the similarities between the successful Bush sales stragey for Iraq and the one now being used for Social Security. In both cases the Bush camp pointed to a dire problem requiring immediate action.

"Speeches about Iraq invariably included references to 9/11, leading much of the public to believe that invading Iraq somehow meant taking the war to the terrorists. When pressed, war supporters would admit they lacked evidence of any significant links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, let alone any Iraqi role in 9/11 - yet in their next sentence it would be 9/11 and Saddam, together again.

Similarly, calls for privatization invariably begin with ominous warnings about Social Security's financial future. When pressed, administration officials admit that private accounts would do nothing to improve that financial future. Yet in the next sentence, they once again link privatization to the problem posed by an aging population."

Movie body targets children's PCs in UK

Parents asked to join the movie Gestapo.
The US movie industry has launched a new offensive consisting of lawsuits and software than enables parents to check up on what files their children are downloading. Evidently the software is designed only to "protect" copyrights and makes no distinction between smut, G rated movies or music clips and is prone to identify "false positives."

A new spate of law suits has also been launched. In the US, the penalities for downloading music files or movies are so severe that if full awards were achieved by the lawsuits, they could exceed the industry's entire profits for a year. Clearly this is an area of legislation that has been hijacked by the existing media establishment at the expense of new media ventures and the public's rights in the pubic domain.

Gizmos under threat of extinction

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a list of technologies that will become extinct under the onslaught of new legislation and regulatory decisions passed at the behest of existing large media companies. As Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig points out in his new book, Free Culture, the reach of copyright law has been so expanded in recent years that the concept of the public domain is threatened. Beyond enriching media companies at the expense of the public good, it also makes the US creative industries less competitive.

Whitehouse: Gay's yes; Maureen no.

Maureen Dowd's funny column about how the Whitehouse has for years selectively admitted a gay porn site vendor to press conferences to ask soft ball questions of the President while denying access to legitimate members of the press. The difference? Their political persuasions.

Examing Greenspan's entrails

Economists seek Greenspan insights on monetary policy The test of a good oracle seems to be how many different interpretations can be divined from the oracle's utterances. Greenspan appears to have set new marks in the opening rounds of his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Major news papers have covered this story with radically differing headlines.

Ex-Aide Questions Bush Vow to Back Faith-Based Efforts

Ex-Aide Questions Bush Vow According to David Kuo, who was deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and responsible for overseeing efforts to assist religious groups help the poor and needy, "There was minimal senior White House commitment to the faith-based agenda." And..."From tax cuts to Medicare, the White House gets what the White House really wants. It never really wanted the 'poor people stuff.' "

States Mull Taxing Drivers by the Mile

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile Concerned that as drivers move to more fuel efficient cars revenues from gasoline taxes may fall, states such as California and Oregon are looking at alternate funding mechanisms based on the number of miles one drives. A GPS for every car?

Google Maps is here

Google Maps If you haven't played around with Google's latest offering: Google Maps, you should. It's a big step up from its competitors and third parties are working to add new features to it.

US Judge Concerned Over Abuse of Freedoms

Capitol Hill Blue: Judge Concerned Over U.S. Abuse of Freedoms OK. You are a parent living in Houston, Texas. Your son is a US citizen and valedictorian of his high school class who is imprisoned at US request while attending a university in Saudi Arabia. So you sue to have your son returned to the US where he can face charges, but you can't find out what the exact charges are, the "classified" evidence against him, nor are you allowed to see the motions to dismiss your lawsuit. What faith do you have in our judicial system?

What me worry? Bush budget makes his successor a patsy

The Seattle Times: Budget cost would hit next president The Bush economic strategy seems best summed up as "take the money and run." Not only have his tax cuts run up huge deficits to be paid off by later generations, but his social security plan doesn't phase in until his successor is about to take office, and his incredibly expensive medicare prescription plan doesn't take effect for several years either. The buget crisis that these plans will create will have to dealt with on someone else's watch.

Bigger government, bigger deficits.... who us?

The New York Times points out that since taking control of the Congress during the Clinton administration, the neo-con Republicans have failed to keep one of the central promises contained in Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America": the promise of smaller federal goverment. Instead we have seen an explosion in the size of the federal government and under the Bush administration a corresponding explosion in federal debt to record levels.

Right-wing conservative media?

An interesting article about the development of the 'conservative message machine." Worth a read.

Cows with Guns

Visit AlbinoBlackSheep’s site for an entertaining introduction to bovine freedom.

"an eerie similarity to ... Iraq"

 "There is an eerie similarity to the events preceding the Iraq war," David Kay, who led the search for banned weapons of mass destruction in postwar Iraq, said on Monday in an opinion piece in Sunday’s Washington Post.

 “Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran would be a grave danger to the world. That is not what is in doubt. What is in doubt is the ability to the U.S. government to honestly assess Iran's nuclear status and to craft a set of measures that will cope with that threat short of military action by the United States or Israel.”

 

Bush having trouble with budget math

President Bush’s proposed budget fudges the math in several areas in order to appear to be austere.  His pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009 does not use this year’s record deficit as a bench mark but rather a ficitious $521 billion implying a goal of $260.5 billion.  These calculations also omit the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan operations as well as any ‘transition costs’ for a revised social security plan.  According to one analyst the Bush budget cuts equal about 6% of the budget deficit, while the tax cuts are equal to about 50% of the budget deficit. 

Even these proposed cuts may be hard to deliver.   "With the deficits that we're now running, I'm glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on ABC's "This Week." "I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it."

Grinch of the Year Award goes to

Wanita Renea Young of Durango, Colorado who successfully sued two teenage neighborhood girls for baking and delivering cookies to her door at 10:30 PM as a surprise. While other neighbors wrote the judge saying they enjoyed the event, Ms. Young hopes the girls learned their lesson to the tune of $900. What was the judge thinking?

Coffee, Tea or Mercury?

EPA inspector criticizes mercury plan.  The Environmental Protection Agency ignored scientific evidence and agency protocols to set limits on mercury pollution that fits the needs of industry instead of protecting the environment.

Social Security: Private Accounts in Other Nations

A Wall Street Journal article describes the experience of other nations with government run private accounts.  If you want to understand some of specifics of the upcoming debate, don’t miss this article.

“Argentina and Bolivia show how heavy the cost of financing the transition to a save-for-yourself approach from a state-run system can be. Sweden and Poland illustrate the advantages of limiting workers' investment options. Singapore shows how workers' eagerness to tap their accounts before retirement -- to buy houses, for instance -- can leave them vulnerable when they reach retirement. And Britain shows how hard it is to regain taxpayer support for private accounts if the government bungles the overhaul.”

New Republican goal: Dominance

The L.A. Times published an outline of Republican goals which starts with something along the lines of  “First kill all the lawyers (er, well, plantiff’s attorneys)” to choke off a key source of Democratic financing.  The ultimate goal is political dominance similar to that achieved by FDR and the New Deal.

Transcript of White House staff briefing

Word for word transcript of the White House press briefing for tonight’s State of the Union address.

Driving and cell phone use causes aging

A University of Utah study reported that young drivers (18–25) who used cell phones while driving drove as if they were elderly or drunk.  Hands-free use also diminished driving capabilities.

Positive News for a change

Several web sites are devoted to publishing only positive news which can be relief to visit these days.  Two of these are Positive News and The Good News Network.  They may lack the sophisticated graphics of CNN or Fox, but they offer a pleasant change from the awful and the dreary.  

"Torture memos" defended by authors

 Two former Justice Department attorneys who in January 2002 wrote memos advising that the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war did not apply to the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban defend their  and the Bush administration's’s position in the L.A. Times.  Basically the argument is that the Geneva Conventions still make sense for hostilities between states or signatories, but that violators or terrorist groups don’t qualify.  Read for yourself.

Military Can't Afford Halliburton in Iraq?

The WSJ reported a $4 to $7 billion gap between the US Army budget and Halliburtons estimate of the costs to provide housing, food, and other services to US servicemen in Iraq. 

"The difference dramatizes the cost crunch facing the Pentagon as the bill for the U.S. involvement in Iraq continues to escalate well beyond initial White House estimates. Before the war began in March 2003, the administration said it would cost about $60 billion. The price tag is now more than three times that figure, and growing. President Bush is expected to soon send to Congress an $80 billion supplemental spending bill, largely to cover Iraqi operations, pushing the tab for the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, to $105 billion."

Housing Bubble Ready to Pop?

Barron's columnist Alan Abelson notes that the ratio of housing prices to median US income has risen from 2.25 in 1970 to a record 3.35 today which places US home prices well into the bubble category.  The housing bust of the 80's produced a ratio of just over 3.1 well below todays' inflated prices.  The difference may seem reasonable in view of today's extraordinarily low mortgage rates, but as rates go up, sellers and those with ARM's will be squeezed.

The same column notes several other supporting clues. 

"Our reader, a Miami resident, sent along a piece in a local business paper, the Daily Business Review, laying out in neat detail that, as he put it, the chief operating officer "talks like a bull but walks like a bear." Although said officer and his executive cohorts were brimming over with optimism in a conference call with analysts in mid-December, that didn't prevent him from selling 98,156 shares of Lennar common less than a month later. At $54-$55 a share, he pocketed more than $5 million. (He still owns 60,000 restricted shares and another nearly 71,000 through trusts.)

Insiders may have all kinds of good reasons for selling. But, as we've said before, anticipation that the stock will go up is not one of them."

Republican Social Security Playbook

The detailed Republican strategy for changing social security is laid out in this 106 page PDF.  Details include everything from strategy to talking points to points of Democratic support.

Students: 1st Amendment is not big deal

Three out of four high school students upon having the the exact text of the First Amendment explained to them think that it goes "too far" in protecting free speech. Just over half of students think that newspapers should be allowed to publish freely with government approval of stories.

"Schools don't do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don't know the rights it protects," Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. "This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment."

The partners in the project, including organizations of newspaper editors and radio and television news directors, share a clear advocacy for First Amendment issues."

WSJ editorial suggests humility over elections

The WSJ editorial page published a measured editorial by a professor from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) which suggests that we use the good news from Iraq as an opportunity to assess both the positives and negatives of US record in Iraq.   

".. If the war has had its great successes, it has also had more than its share of bungles, evident in the chaos and suffering in Iraq, heavy loss of American life, and a battered reputation for the United States abroad."

"...The U.S. government that had not provided the structure needed to administer postwar Iraq would not admit his deficiencies and replace him. Instead, he, like George Tenet and Gen. Tommy Franks -- equally able and patriotic men, who also failed in key aspects of the Iraq war -- received the Presidential Medal of Freedom."

".....Here came the second class of failures. For a very long time, the U.S. government would not even use the word insurgency. Until recently it insisted that we faced only 5,000 "former regime loyalists, jihadis, and released criminals."……In guerrilla war nothing matters more than raising and training indigenous forces; we passed that job off to Vinnell Corporation, and only belatedly realized that we needed our best general, supported by American soldiers and Marines, to do the job."

Cat and mouse games: Iran

The US Air Force is flying combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an effort to tempt Iranian defense forces into turning on their ground radars so that U.S. air crews can map their locations and develop an order of battle for possible future hostilities.

""We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack them," said one (administration official), speaking on condition of anonymity."

Meanwhile on the ground:

To collect badly needed intelligence on the ground about Iran's alleged nuclear program, the United States is depending heavily on Israeli-trained teams of Kurds in northern Iraq and on U.S.-trained teams of former Iranian exiles in the south to gather the intelligence needed for possible strikes against Iran's 13 or more suspected nuclear sites, according to serving and retired U.S. intelligence officials.

The US is also working with MEK, Kurdish group.  

The use of the MEK for U.S.-intelligence-gathering missions strikes some former U.S. intelligence officials as bizarre. The State Department's annual publication, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," lists them as a terrorist organization.

WSJ Poll: Bush's ratings on Iraq at all time low

60% of American's give President Bush a negative rating on his handling of the war in Iraq, a new high according to two years of constant polling reported in the Wall Street Journal.

"Since late March 2003, people were asked, "Overall, how would you rate the job Bush has done in handling the issue of Iraq over the last several months?"  When the poll began, only 40% of Americans gave Bush a negative rating.

What do these men have in common?

Brigadier General David M. Brahms (Ret. USMC), Brigadier General James Cullen (Ret. USA), Brigadier General Evelyn P. Foote (Ret. USA), Lieutenant General Robert Gard (Ret. USA), Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn (Ret. USN), Rear Admiral Don Guter (Ret. USN), General Joseph Hoar (Ret. USMC), Rear Admiral John D. Hutson (Ret. USN), Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy (Ret. USA), General Merrill McPeak (Ret. USAF), Major General Melvyn Montano (USA Nat. Guard), General John Shalikashvili (Ret. USA),

The all signed a letter expressing deep concern about the nomimation of Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General and urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to "explore in detail his views concerning the role of the Geneva Conventions in U.S. detention and interrogation policy and practice."  The letter goes on to outline the generals' opposition to positions taken by Gonzales in the his various memos and policy formulations.

No Increase in Iraqi forces in 2004

Condi Rice told the Senate that the US's ability to leave Iraq depended on increasing the number of Iraqi forces to provide security.  Unfortunately according to Global Security, a private intelligence service, "The US has made essentially no progress in increasing the number of Iraqi forces during the year 2004..."

"Even more striking are the changes between August 2004 and October 2004.....Over this three month period, the objective end-strength of Iraqi forces increased from 265,900 to 346,700, while the shortfall of troops increased from 30,100 to 165,500 over this same period."

Christine Todd Whitman: It's My Party Too

In her soon-to-be-released new book (It's My Party Too) Whitman, former governor of New Jersey and Bush cabinet member, challenges the Bush administration by arguing that moderates are important to the future of the Republican Party.

According to the Washington Post, "Whitman charges on Page 3 that Bush's three-percentage-point margin in the popular vote is the lowest of any incumbent president ever to win reelection.

"The numbers show that while the president certainly did energize his political base, the red state/blue state map changed barely at all -- suggesting that he had missed an opportunity to significantly broaden his support in the most populous areas of the country," Whitman writes. "The Karl Rove strategy to focus so rigorously on the narrow conservative base won the day, but we must ask at what price to governing and at what risk to the future of the party."

An Amazon review says that "Whitman refers to those on the far right as "social fundamentalists" whose "mission is to advance their narrow ideological agenda" by using the government to impose their views on everyone else. Though she admits that evangelicals may have helped to win the 2004 election, they have claimed much more credit than they deserve for Bush's success, and she warns that catering to this narrow group will have consequences."

Has the US become the "Dispensable Nation"?

The Financial Times (via the DailyKos) has written that becoming the world's only superpower militarily has had unintended effects under this administration. Faced with the prospect of bowing before US power or forging institutions to counter balance US influence, the rest of the world has set about forging the latter without US participation. The article lists example after example how the US is becoming irrelevant in many areas.

It's no suprise that while the US is wasting its wealth and youth fighting a misbegotten war in Iraq, that the rest of the world has moved ahead with building international networks without us. In doing so, it had become increasingly clear that US participation is not necessarily needed, much less US leadership.

"In other areas of global moral and institutional reform, the US today is a follower rather than a leader. Human rights? Europe has banned the death penalty and torture, while the US is a leading practitioner of execution. Under Mr Bush, the US has constructed an international military gulag in which the torture of suspects has frequently occurred. The international rule of law? For generations, promoting international law in collaboration with other nations was a US goal. But the neoconservatives who dominate Washington today mock the very idea of international law. The next US attorney general will be the White House counsel who scorned the Geneva Conventions as obsolete." Financial Times.

 

Chimeras: Part Man Part Beast

National Geographic is reporting that scientists in China have crossed rabbit and human cells which could eventually result in creatures that are part human and part animal.  The scientists at the Mayo Clinic are performing similar experiments.

"William Cheshire, associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville, Florida, branch, feels that combining human and animal neurons is problematic.

"This is unexplored biologic territory," he said. "Whatever moral threshold of human neural development we might choose to set as the limit for such an experiment, there would be a considerable risk of exceeding that limit before it could be recognized."

Next Up: Iran?

The current New Yorker contains an article by Seymore Hersh describing the Bush administration's commitment to taking down Iran, the next target.  Hersh was on the Daily Show last night, and his concerns came across in a much more palpable way.  We're really going to take them down.  Some other views.

For us old guys, there's an interesting parallel here. During early '60s the US thought it had learned its a lesson from Viet Nam: learn guerrilla tactics to be effective. So we got the Green Berets. Unfortunately the real lesson was that we were invaders opposing a popular movement because we were afraid of falling dominos; the 60's equivalent of WMD's in Iraq. We shouldn't have been there in the first place.

The parallel with our current situation is that the Neocon dominated Bush administration thinks that it has learned its lesson from Iraq: no nation building. In Iran the plan is to simply take the government down and let the populace rebuild the nation. 

The real lesson will be that the Neocon's imperialist dreams are just that: Dangerous dreams.

Required Reading

At a time when too many are defined by too few and misleading labels, Instapundit's first post should be something we all keep in mind.

What's a NeoCon?

According the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Neocon is a rather loosely defined term that is characterized by " an aggressive stance on foreign policy, a lesser social conservatism, and weaker dedication to a policy of minimal government." 

In distinguishing between neocons and traditional conservatives:

"Thus, according to Ryn, neoconservatism is analogous to Bolshevism: in the same way that the Bolsheviks wanted to destroy established ways of life throughout the world to replace them with communism, the neoconservatives want to do the same, only imposing free-market capitalism and American-style "liberal democracy" instead of socialism.

There is also conflict between neoconservatives and libertarian conservatives. Libertarian conservatives are distrustful of a large government and therefore regard neoconservative foreign policy ambitions with considerable distrust.

There has been considerable conflict between neoconservatives and business conservatives in some areas. Neoconservatives tend to see China as a looming threat to the United States and argue for harsh policies to contain that threat. Business conservatives see China as a business opportunity and see a tough policy against China as opposed to their desires for trade and economic progress."

Budget Deficit to Break New Record

The projected Bush budget deficit is up to record $427B or about 30% higher than projected before the election.  Analysts project decreased economic growth and a increased pressure on the dollar.  "Having racked up three of the largest deficits in history, the Bush administration is years away from reducing the deficit by half, or by any appreciable amount," said Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

"Indeed, America's massive federal budget and foreign-trade deficits are spawning global financial anxieties and driving down the value of the dollar. The United Nations yesterday warned that the U.S. deficits are pulling the world economy off balance.

Copyright Law Gone Wild: AOL Pulls the Plug on UseNet

In another example of the detrimental effects of the influence of the RIAA and other traditional media groups on the Internet, AOL decided to pull its connections to UseNet.

Last summer, the ISP settled a long-running lawsuit brought by author Harlan Ellison. The science fiction writer had complained that AOL was partly to blame when one of its users posted digital copies of his published work in Usenet newsgroups. AOL argued that, under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), its liability for the actions of members was limited.  

The RIAA and traditional media groups have lobbied hard to extend the concept of copyrights to new technologies in ways that have stagnated creativity and freedom of expression.  These same approaches once threated the VCR, cassette tapes, and other new forms of media that have only expanded the markets for creative works, but in the case of the internet, traditional industries been more successful in cutting their noses off to spite their face through aggressive lobbying and heavy handed legal tactics.  Unfortunately the effect is to stifle creativity and limit free access to information which will inevitably place the US at a disadvantage when competing with other countries.

BBC Starts Iraq Election Log

For the next two weeks the BBC will offer daily accounts from people inside Iraq about their lives as the election approaches.  The BBC suggests bookmarking the link and checking regularly as new material is posted.

Let a Thousand Googles Bloom

"Copyright reform is vital to the spread of culture and information. By Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig is a professor of law at Stanford and the founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. His latest book is "Free Culture" (Penguin, 2004).

Last month, Google announced a partnership with major research libraries to scan 20 million books for inclusion in Google's search database. For those works in the public domain, the full text will be available. For those works still possibly under copyright, only snippets will be seen. The potential of this project is only beginning to be understood  it is likely to bring about the most dramatic changes in the nature of research and the spread of culture since the birth of Google itself.

But the excitement around Google's extraordinary plan has obscured a dirty little secret: It is not at all clear that Google and these libraries have the legal right to do what is proposed." Let a Thousand Googles Bloom

Europe leads in environment scorecard

A recent ranking of 146 nation’s environmental records put seven North and Central European countries and three South American nations in the top 10 spots in the 2005 index of environmental sustainability. The ranking, prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities, placed United States 45th of the 146 countries studied, behind Japan, most West European countries, Botswana and the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

No Surprise: Washington Post Outs DoD Spy Operation

Using the logic that  we are engaged in endless war, the DoD has set up its own spy operation in an effort to become less dependent on the CIA.  An interesting move in light of the recent over haul of the nation’s spy apparatus which apparently did not include the DoD because the Senate and House did not know about its existence. 

“ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon, edging into foreign spy operations traditionally handled by the CIA, is now using its own intelligence support group to work directly with U.S. special forces troops in world trouble spots, defense officials said on Monday.

…One veteran private analyst told Reuters the Pentagon unit, which has been operating for nearly two years in Iraq and Afghanistan, made sense and apparently did not violate U.S. law.

"This is just a common sense way of getting more tactical intelligence value out of military deployments," said Loren Thompson of the private Lexington Institute.

"I don't see where they are breaking any rules. Rumsfeld's initiative is understandable, given the cautious and unreliable performance of the Central Intelligence Agency in similar operations," Thompson said.

Defense officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that the support unit in question -- including linguists, interrogators and case officers -- was for "tactical analysis" and had been operating with elite military units for nearly two years in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Washington Post, citing Pentagon documents and interviews with participants, reported on Sunday that Rumsfeld had created the Strategic Support Branch to end "near total dependence" on the CIA for human intelligence.

WHITE HOUSE DENIAL

"There is no unit that is directly reportable to the secretary of defense for clandestine operations as described in the Post article," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Monday.

He said the 9/11 Commission report on the attacks on America had stressed the need to expand and enhance human intelligence and that Rumsfeld and the Pentagon had moved to do so.”

Cutting the Deficit in Half? DoD will ask for $80B in new funds

 In its lastest step to balance the budget, the Bush administration is preparing to request an additional $80B in military spending to support the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Exactly how this request assists in balancing the budget is still unclear, but given this administrationâ€Â™s record for meeting its buget projections, it should come as no surprise.

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration plans to announce as early as Tuesday that it will seek about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total for both conflicts to almost $300 billion so far.

Administration and congressional officials said on Monday that the new request would come on top of the $25 billion in emergency spending already approved for this fiscal year.

That means funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will total nearly $105 billion in fiscal 2005 alone -- a record amount that shatters initial estimates of the cost.

In addition to money for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and for new Army equipment, up to $650 million is expected to be earmarked for U.S. humanitarian aid, reconstruction and military operations in Asian nations devastated by last month's tsunami, congressional aides said.”

Sex Trafficing in Cambodia - Nicholas Kristoff article

Kristoff's NYTimes coverage of the plight of teenage women in the developing worth is equal parts moving and frustrating.  Make sure you check out the multimedia section as well as the article.

Gonzales Covers Up Bush's DUI?

Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, Jan. 31 issue -

"Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the mistreatment of prisoners. But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in 1996.

The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for the dancer, about Gonzales's account."

Mozart, Our Newest Crime Fighter?

UK police have enlisted a new crime fighting method:  classical music.

"The approaches to three ((subway) stations on the eastern edge of the District Line were subjected for six months to bursts of Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel and Mussorgsky. The result was a one-third reduction in the number of robberies and a general diminution of other anti-social incidents.

Cheap, clean and classy, the method is now being broached at a further 35 stations. It works as a deterrent effect rather than a corrective one. Hooligans are not reformed by Mozart, so much as driven away by a noise that is as alien and hostile to their world as whale song to a camel herd.

Psychologists, jumping onto a moving carriage, hypothesise that symphonic music leaves youths feeling œuncool, disoriented and at risk of ridicule. Train managers on Tyneside in northeast England report that it eliminated low-level nuisances such as swearing, spitting and smoking. The second Rachmaninov piano concerto in C minor had the highest success rate (odd that this Brief Encounter soundtrack should still cling to the railways like lichen).

Bus termini in the East Riding of Yorkshire experienced similar benefits and Co-Op stores in the West Country have been fitted with subverted ghetto blasters to fire salvos of classical music at the approach of any hostile looking gang of layabouts. Travellers in musically protected areas say they feel reassured for their safety and culturally enhanced by the accompaniment to their waiting time."

The Future of Media

 A provocative portrayal of the end of the fourth estate.

Say Again?

"President Bush's inauguration rhetoric yesterday that the United States will promote the growth of democratic movements and institutions worldwide is at odds with the administration's increasingly close relations with repressive governments in every corner of the world.

Some of the administration's allies in the war against terrorism -- including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan -- are ranked by the State Department as among the worst human rights abusers. The president has proudly proclaimed his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin while remaining largely silent about Putin's dismantling of democratic institutions in the past four years. The administration, eager to enlist China as an ally in the effort to restrain North Korea's nuclear ambitions, has played down human rights concerns there, as well. "

Was it only a round about way of saying what Cheney was saying in private?  Iran is next?

Bush's First Term: By the numbers

Interesting numerical description of Bush’s first term. 

Air America Gaining Ground

Air America,the liberal antidote to the endless stream of conservative talk shows, is gaining ground nationally according to the Wall Street Journal today. Clear Channel has tested Air America programming on some of its stations with very positive increases in listeners. Air America is now available in Seattle on 1090 AM KPTK. A complete listing of stations is available at the Air America site.

Bush Approval Rating Lowest Since Nixon

 

Amid the most biggest security lockdown ever for an inauguration, a new CBS/New York Times poll shows that President Bush has the lowest approval rating at the start of a second term since Richard Nixon. Bush’s 49 percent approval is below Nixon’s rating of 51 percent in January 1973 and Bush trails Bill Clinton’s 60 percent and Ronald Reagan'€™s 62 percent at similar points.

The Wall Street Journal reported similar poll results today concluding that while Americans are leery of administration policies they are more approving of Bush's personal qualities, especially in a crisis.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Here's a link to the Capitol Steps site with numerous MP3 and RealAudio cuts from their performances.   "Lirty Dies: Kesidential Prandidates 2004" and "Enron-ron-ron" are favorites, and there's a link to their New Year's Eve Special.  If you haven't heard them, you owe it to yourself to visit the site.

Who Needs Harvard?

Why big corporations are hiring fewer Ivy Leaguers.

A Slate article discussing a recent paper by Peter Cappelli and Monika Hamori, both of the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that prestigious degrees aren't as valuable at America's largest corporations as they were a generation ago.  The numbers crunched by Cappelli and Hamori suggest that big-time corporate America is less interested in Ivy League students today than it was in the past. It could also be the other way around.

Humor: Atom Films "The Real Hussein 2: "Iraq Without Me"

 The real Hussein returns in new Slim Shady spoof. Hear him rap about Osama, prisoner abuse and WMDs. Are you down with this deposed dictator?  Nice beat and pretty funny. You might have to endure a short film commercial (Elektra?) before the Hussein video starts.

Speaking of Zen: Dai Bai Zan - Cho Bo Zen Ji

Located at 1811 20th Ave., Seattle, WA, 98122 this Zen temple is a the center of an active Zen community.

The abbot, Genjo Marinello Osho, is also a psychotherapist in private practice and a certificated spiritual director from a program affiliated with the Vancouver School of Theology. The temple is in the Rinzai Zen Dharma Line, and Genjo Marinello Osho trains under the tutelage of Ven. Eido T. Shimano Roshi, abbot of DaiBosatsu Monastery in New York.

SMiLE: A Zen Interpretation

A webpage based upon the idea that Brian Wilson's SMiLE album is in essence a Zen koan, or riddle, the solving of which is used by the Rinzai Zen sect as an aid to spiritual enlightenment. Can't wait to explore the album which I just received as a gift.

No Ad Left Behind.

Politics and the Law: Administration hypocrisy is even too much for George Will

"In communist East Berlin, one sign of the government's swollen self-regard was the cluttering of public spaces with propaganda banners by which the government praised itself for providing socialism. In Washington today, the Education Department building is an advertisement for its occupants.

Eight entrances are framed by make-believe little red schoolhouses labeled "No Child Left Behind." High on the building's front are two other advertisements for that 2002 law: Large banners hector passersby to visit www.nochildleftbehind.gov. ......

"...When conservatives break with their principles, they seem to become casual about breaking the law, too. "

Iraq War Report Card: Administration Earns another "F"

Not only has the administration ended its fruitless search for WMDs, a new report by the CIA's own National Intelligence Council describes Iraq as the new training ground for foreign (non-Iraqi) terrorists who will eventually become active around the world. The report also adds Iraq to the list of conflicts "that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology."

Ovio Bistro: Deserves its ranking in the Top 10

We had a ball last night at the Ovio Bistro in West Seattle.  We've never even eaten dinner in West Seattle before, and now we can't wait to return.  Relaxed with wonderful food.  Highly recommended.

Geography Quiz

Soneone once said that war is the way Americans learn geography. This link provides a more entertaining and less violent alternative.

Great Red Wine from Down Under

 Marquis Philips is a relatively new joint venture in Australian winemaking, but it is one that has received a lot of attention in the past couple of years, and as we found out last night, deservedly so.  At $9.99 a bottle the Shiraz is a steal.

Men Just Want Mommy?

Around here, one of the effects of this Maureen Dowd editorial has been to heighten concern among some mothers that down the line their  talented, accomplished daughters will have to make some hard choices between having a career and raising a family with an equally accomplished mate. The assumption behind Maureen's views about the role of mother have led to some interesting letters to the editor in the NY Times.

 

Quote:  "A few years ago at a White House Correspondents' dinner, I met a very beautiful actress. Within moments, she blurted out: "I can't believe I'm 46 and not married. Men only want to marry their personal assistants or P.R. women."

 

A similar theme is expressed in a December 14, 2004 NYTimes piece "Glass Ceilings at Altar as Well." about a controversial study of hypothetical choices made by college undergraduates conducted at the University of Michigan.  "...when asked about long-term relationships, the men showed a marked preference for the subordinates as opposed to the bosses."  Women did not evidence the same bias, nor did men when selecting a partner for a one night stand. 

Harrowing First Hand Description of Tsunami

Expat dive instructor in Thailand

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sitting around, day after Christmas, just staring at the TV, some movie we've seen before. Mid-morning, post-breakfast stupor controlling Karin and me. The power flickers and we moan. We'll have to get up and do something? Then we hear some yelling outside.

I look out the front door, still puffed up with pride about our new house, just 400 feet back from the beach. People are running up our street yelling. It looks like a fire at the large two story resort that effectively blocks our view of the beach. Smoke and dust coming up and all these people. (click on link to continue)

Texas Two Step or Republican Mis-direction

House Republicans gave with one hand and took back with the other today, although the focus was purely on the giving in most papers which covered only the first of two proposed rule changes.

Unlike former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who resigned in 1998 following a corruption probe and GOP losses in midterm elections, DeLay has never sought a big national name. He often avoids national media in favor of local radio networks. What Republicans learned from the Gingrich downfall is that a big name can mean a big target. Privately, some senior Republican leaders say that DeLay has lost a lot of ground in the reversal over ethics rules. "He spent all his capital on this," says one. "DeLay is becoming the issue," says another. "The visuals aren't good," says a senior GOP aide....

Even though GOP leaders dropped the most controversial features of their ethics overhaul, they did muscle through a rule change that scuttles an investigation if no action has been taken in 45 days or if the panel is tied. This enables a strictly party line vote to prevent an initial investigation.

Inflation Separates Bulls and Bears on Wall Street

WSJ.com - Wall Street's Crystal Ball Reveals an Overcast 2005

Question of the Day: How will the Dow industrials perform in 2005?

The Bull:

Oak Associates
Edward Yardeni, chief investment strategist
Akron, Ohio
S&P 500: 1385; DJIA: 11700
Fed-funds rate: 3%
10-year Treasury yield: 4.5%
Dollar: The euro at $1.45 in the first half
"The most critical element of my forecast is my very benign outlook for inflation," writes Mr. Yardeni, who predicts inflation as measured by the consumer price index will hold steady at around 2% -- for the rest of the decade.
That's some forecast; he offers several reasons to back it up. The end of the Cold War and China's admission to the World Trade Organization accelerated globalization, he argues, spurring the integration of national markets around the world. That development acts as a catalyst to free trade, which helps keep down inflation through increased open competition.
In other words, writes Mr. Yardeni: "Prosperity, like love, conquers all."
* * *

The Bear:

Bank of America Securities
Thomas McManus, chief investment strategist
New York
S&P 500: 1200
Mr. McManus, one of the few 2005 bears we surveyed, thinks stocks have gotten too pricey relative to earnings. That makes them a risky bet heading into a year that will likely see rising interest rates, he says. Today's stock valuations "overlook the significant rise in inflation expectations," writes Mr. McManus.
Inflation isn't going to creep -- it's going to jump right in our faces, he says, since "we're going to see a plethora of rising prices" in the first several weeks of the year.
Investors have become overconfident, says Mr. McManus, and are ignoring a number of risks. Part of that overconfidence stems from the fact that P/E ratios, while high by some accounts, are still well off their historic highs. The operating P/E ratio of the S&P 500 companies currently is at 21.02, compared with 46.05 in December 2001. But as inflation ramps up, companies will have trouble maintaining their profit margins, he says, and that could hurt P/Es.
Copyright WSJ 2005

Hanuman

Hanuman, the powerful monkey deity from Hindu mythology, befriended Prince Rama in his battle with the demonic Ravana in the epic stuggle between good and evil: The Ramayana.   Believed to be an avatar of Lord Shiva, Hanuman is worshipped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.

Senators denounce plan to jail suspects for life without trial

In the "Sort of undermines everything we stand for." category

Senators denounce plan to jail suspects for life without trial - Global Terrorism - www.smh.com.au

A reported US plan to keep Guantanamo Bay inmates locked up for life, even if the US Government lacks evidence to charge them in courts, has been condemned by a leading Republican senator, who has questioned whether it would breach the country's constitution.

The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it was unwilling to set free or turn over to US or foreign courts. 

Southeast Asia and Tsunami Relief - How to Help

American Red Cross - Credit Card Donation

Link to the Red Cross for collecting donations for assisting the more than 100,000 people affected by last week's earth quake and tsunami.