26 March 2005

Juan Cole at Informed Comment: 23 Dead in 4 Car Bombings, Other Violence

The guerrilla war in Iraq marched on, on Friday, with four big carbombs and other attacks that left a total of some 23 persons dead, including at least one US soldier in Anbar province. (This conclusion is reached on the basis of the report linked here as well as late news in the Arab press). Two of the car bombs were detonated by suicide bombers in Iskandariyah in Babil province south of Baghdad, and two more in the western city of Ramadi. At a checkpoint in Ramadi, a car bomb killed 11 Iraqi gendarmes. Another convoy was attacked just south of Baghdad with rocket fire.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment: Massive Protest in Bahrain

Reuters is estimating that 80,000 demonstrators came out in Bahrain on Friday to demand a new constitution. The demonstration, which was peaceful, had been forbidden by Minister of Interior Sheikh Rashed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, but he was ignored. He is now talking about trying to prosecute the leaders of the demonstration.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment: News Roundup

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee spy case is heating up again. The FBI clearly believes that AIPAC is at the center of an important political conspiracy, but may not be able to make the whole case in the legal system.

The Carpetbagger: Now He Tells Us

Now he tells us

Posted By Carpetbagger On 25th March 2005 @ 13:34

There's an annoying tendency of high-ranking Bush administration officials to grow bothered by the politics, road blocks, and ineffectiveness surrounding their work, only to have them talk about after they've left and it's too late. The latest in Tommy Thompson.

Yesterday, during a rambling question-and-answer session at the Kaiser Family Foundation, Thompson complained bitterly and broadly about his frustrations while working in the administration. But there was one complaint in particular that undermines Thompson's already-weak credibility.

25 March 2005

Digby at Hullabaloo: The New Front

The New Front

Andrew Kohut wrote in yesterdays' New York Times:
While there were probably more votes of conscience in Congress on the bill than the public thinks, it is also pretty clear that the Christian conservative movement now has the clout on life-and-death issues to do what the National Rifle Association has done for years on gun control. Strengthened by the results of the November elections, the movement can convey to legislators that the intensity of their constituents' beliefs is more important than the balance of national public opinion. Swayed by this reasoning, more than a few Democrats may be more interested in moving to the right on moral values than in staking out the middle of the political landscape.
One of the first big skirmishes in the culture wars was gun control. It seemed for a long time that the forces of progress and enlightened self interest would dictate that we would enact reasonable restrictions on the ownership of guns. Even the police backed such measures as a matter of self defense. I took it for granted for many years that common sense would prevail. But in the end the right won that battle hands down. It's over. There isn't even a discussion about it when a kid gets his hands on a bunch of guns and mows down ten people. Nothing. Just collateral damage, folks. The price we pay for the right to bear arms.

Bush Team Logic

...the logic that Team Bush has used to justify its decisions and dodge responsibility for their consequences is deeply troubling. It goes essentially like this: I believed something and I acted on it. Turns out I was wrong to believe it. But because I truly believed it, it was right to act on it, notwithstanding the damage it caused...

One-Way Planet

One-Way Planet

This post can be found at http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2284

Quote of the day: "I don't think that the world gives us the luxury of picking areas," [Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas] Feith said. "We have interests all over the world. I dare say that if anybody before September 11, 2001, was listing places that we would want to focus on as a matter of priority, Afghanistan would have been rather low on the list." (John Hedren, Policy OKs First Strike to Protect US, the Los Angeles Times)

At breakfast a couple of weeks back, having made my way through the sports section and chomping on the last of a morning bagel, I picked up the front-page of my hometown paper and a headline caught my eye -- Data Lacking on Iran's Arms, U.S. Panel Says. Not exactly a barnburner, but I was curious nonetheless. The piece by reporters Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt focused on a "nine-member bipartisan presidential panel, led by Laurence Silberman, a retired federal judge, and Charles S. Robb, a former governor and senator from Virginia." Appointed by the President, evidently to look into the state of American intelligence, the panel had been given "unrestricted access to the most senior people and the most sensitive documents of the intelligence agencies," and was soon due to report back to Bush. However, material from its report had been leaked to the two New York Times reporters, who led with what seemed the news of the second:

"A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work."

Accounts of Iraq Raid Rife With Discrepancies

Accounts of Iraq Raid Rife With Discrepancies

by Chris Shumway

Official descriptions of a clash between Iraqi forces and rebels somewhere northwest of Baghdad on Tuesday vary greatly; US military, Iraqi government and Western media sources nevertheless all cheer a “successful” assault.

Tell children racial prejudice is wrong

Public release date: 25-Mar-2005


Contact: Andrea Browning
abrowning@apa.org
202-336-5926
Society for Research in Child Development

Tell children racial prejudice is wrong: They'll be less likely to be prejudiced

When children under 10 are aware of the social norms towards racial prejudice, they are much more likely to suppress any exhibition of racial prejudice in their social group, according to a new study published in the March/April 2005 issue of the journal Child Development. However, researchers from the United Kingdom report, as children get older (between ages 10 and 12) they are less likely to suppress any tendencies towards a national prejudice, i.e., against another nationality.

The findings provide important implications for efforts to reduce children's racial prejudice early in life, researchers note.

"We wanted to examine whether social norms and children's concern with presenting themselves positively affected their racial and national attitudes," explained lead researcher Adam Rutland, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Kent in England. "The aim was to advance our theoretical understanding of childhood prejudice and so inform attempts to design effective interventions to reduce children's prejudice."

Together with another colleague from the University of Kent and colleagues from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Dr. Rutland conducted two studies. In both studies, some of the children were videotaped and some weren't. If they were videotaped, they were told other adults or teachers would see the tape. This varied the degree to which the children thought they would be accountable for their responses.

The first study, involving 155 white British children in three age groups (6 to 8, 10 to 12, and 14 to 16), examined whether children attempt to present a positive image of themselves by controlling their racial bias and prejudice. The second study included 134 white British children of the same ages. It was designed to test whether British children suppressed their explicit national intergroup bias towards Germans. Previous research has shown that British school children perceive Germans as a salient "out-group" and are willing to express bias towards them within a group.

Both studies showed that children below 10 years old were externally motivated to control their in-group bias when held accountable for their actions (i.e., the children in the videotaped groups). The first study also demonstrated that children who were not spontaneously aware of norms against expressing racial prejudice suppressed their racial prejudice when held accountable.

In contrast, children in the second study didn't suppress their explicit national prejudice under high accountability. In fact, the 10-to-12 year olds increased their national in-group bias when they were videotaped.

"These findings indicate that suppression of prejudice towards adults is closely related to social norms in the children's social environment," said Dr. Rutland. Thus, he notes, instead of facing the challenge of individually changing children's attitudes, these studies suggest that changing the normative climate in children's social environment can induce significant attitude change.

###

Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Social Norms And Self-Presentation: Children's Implicit And Explicit Intergroup Attitudes by Rutland A, Cameron L (University of Kent, UK) and Milne A and McGeorge P (University of Aberdeen, Scotland). Copyright 2005 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

In Re Rather: The Target Is Journalism

the liberal media by Eric Alterman
In Re Rather: The Target Is Journalism

[from the April 11, 2005 issue]

That the resignation of Dan Rather from his CBS News anchor job is a humiliation for the so-called liberal media (SCLM) is taken as a given across the conservative and mainstream press. An unsigned Wall Street Journal editorial crowed of "A Media Watershed," celebrating "the end of the liberal monopoly." In a piece headlined "It Is Watergate," New York Post pundit Eric Fettmann announced, "Those who have long been convinced of a liberal bias in journalism have found their smoking gun." But it's not merely right-wingers who've jumped on this bandwagon. Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff observed that "one consequence of the CBS debacle here is that it's going to take the sting out of the liberal charge that there's a conservative propaganda machine exemplified by Fox News." "Oh, absolutely," cooed an appreciative Bill O'Reilly in response.

Missing WMD Report

Missing WMD Report

by DAVID CORN

[from the April 11, 2005 issue]

When is a priority not a priority? When it's after the election.

Last July the Senate Intelligence Committee released a much-anticipated report on the prewar intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The study concluded that the intelligence community--led by the CIA--had "overstated" and "mischaracterized" the intelligence on Iraq's (nonexistent) WMDs. The massive report repeatedly detailed instances when the intelligence services botched the job by ignoring contrary evidence, embracing questionable sources and rushing to judgments that just happened to fit the preconceived notions of the Bush Administration. "What the President and the Congress used to send the country to war was information that was...flawed," declared Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the committee. Jay Rockefeller, the committee's senior Democrat, noted that the report outlined "one of the most devastating...intelligence failures in the history of the nation."

About Enron: CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS

March 24, 2005
BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS'
Untangling the Threads of the Enron Fraud
By CHARLES R. MORRIS

CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS
A True Story.
By Kurt Eichenwald.
742 pp. Broadway Books. $26.

In early 2000 Fortune magazine selected Enron as America's best-managed and most innovative company, and Enron's stock market valuation peaked at $73 billion that August. The following March the company announced that 2000 revenues had more than doubled, to $100 billion. The company paid its normal quarterly dividend in October 2001, announcing that regular earnings were up 26 percent and that it was "on track" to meet its full-year profit targets.

Daily Howler - March 25, 2005

BROKEN DISCOURSE! The AP’s bungling on Social Security defines the state of your “press corps:”
FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2005

THE HOWLER GETS RESULTS: Deftly linking to somebody else, Josh Marshall takes up our great challenge! But then, so does Media Matters. Isn't it great to see Saint McCain get skunked for his blatant, repeated misstatements? High praise to the St. Peterburg Times for skunking the sanctified Senator Self-Praise in the editorial to which Josh has linked.

BROKEN DISCOURSE: We’ve often told you: Your national “press corps” is so inept that, in effect, you don’t even have one. On Wednesday, the AP’s remarkable bungling about Social Security helped make that point all too clear.

Echidne of the Snakes: Freedom and Wingnuts

Freedom and Wingnuts


Freedom is one of the most common words coming out of George Bush's mouth, but what he means by it is not at all clear to me. Who, in particular, is supposed to enjoy freedom?

Take the Terri Schiavo case. Maureen Dowd commented on the rising theocracy in the United States in her most recent column:


The president and his ideological partners don't believe in separation of powers. They just believe in their own power. First they tried to circumvent the Florida courts; now they're trying to pack the federal bench with conservatives and even blow up the filibuster rule. But they may yet learn a lesson on checks and balances, as the federal courts rebuffed them in the Schiavo case.

Agency's Web Site Out of Sync With Bush Plan

March 25, 2005
Agency's Web Site Out of Sync With Bush Plan
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

WASHINGTON, March 24 - As President Bush and his allies travel the country to promote his Social Security plan, they say individual investment accounts are a no-brainer, bound to result in more money at retirement than workers could expect from Social Security.

But someone at the Social Security Administration did not get the word.

Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA aid

Consultant predicted a `huge mess'


By Megan O'Matz & Sally Kestin
Staff Writers
March 23, 2005

As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show.

24 March 2005

Digby at Hullabaloo: Too Far?

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Too Far?

I think it's important to give John Cole credit here for recognizing what a threat to freedom these religious zealots are. It appears that more than a few Republicans are a little bit stunned by the hideous overreaching of the congress and the president in this case.

The Carpetbagger Report: That 80's Show

March 24, 2005
That 80s Show
Posted 12:57 pm

To follow up on an item from last week, there's something about the Republican agenda that has a certain "Groundhog Day" quality to it. Despite all the talk that the GOP is the party of new and innovative ideas, Republican lawmakers keep unveiling agenda items that tend to generate a haven't-we-already-done-this response.

The Black Commentator: US as a 'failed state'

The US Is Becoming a "Failed State"

“Privatization of social security is a road to government abdication, the cause of failed statehood.” – Henry C.K. Liu, “The Business of Private Security,” AsiaTimes.

Too often lately in Black America, political discourse has become so parochial – so steeped in petty assessments of marginal advantages that might accrue to some portion of “The Race” through tactical slickness or posturing – that it sounds like a discussion of what to wear to the beach when the tsunami hits. The very fact that the question of Black alignment with Republicans is entertained under any circumstances at this historical juncture, is proof that much of the Black leadership class has lost its moorings. While African Americans are diverted by actuarial tables (falsely) purporting to show the merits of privatized Social Security, the Pirates at the helm of the GOP relentlessly pursue their larger agenda: to destroy every structure of government that has usefulness to the public – especially, Black people – in order to clear the way for corporate governance.

Capitol bill aims to control ‘leftist’ profs

Capitol bill aims to control ‘leftist’ profs
THE LAW COULD LET STUDENTS SUE FOR UNTOLERATED BELIEFS.

By JAMES VANLANDINGHAM
Alligator Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.

Daily Howler - March 24, 2005

GARDEN PARTY! Bob Novak describes a swish dinner party, the kind “liberal spokesmen” just luvv to attend: // link // print // previous // next //
THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2005

THERE IS A FREE LUNCH—AND WE’RE EATING TI: Free food has long been our favorite cuisine. And today, we munch free lunch from the Maryland Press Club as we take part in a panel discussion concerning a range of press issues. No, they couldn’t afford Wonkette. But we’ll struggle for Deep Insight anyway.

At any rate, before we head off to engage in these wars, we’ll let you visit an insider dinner party—the very kind of swish soiree “liberal spokesmen” just luvv to attend.

Echidne of the Snakes: Liberals Love Death?

Thursday, March 24, 2005
In Love With Death


Did you know that this is us? Us liberals and progressives, we are the pro-death party, the party that is in love with death. So Peggy Noonan tells us in her beautiful opinion column on the Terri Schiavo case:


The pull-the-tube people say, "She must hate being brain-damaged." Well, yes, she must. (This line of argument presumes she is to some degree or in some way thinking or experiencing emotions.) Who wouldn't feel extreme sadness at being extremely disabled? I'd weep every day, wouldn't you? But consider your life. Are there not facets of it, or facts of it, that make you feel extremely sad, pained, frustrated, angry? But you're still glad you're alive, aren't you? Me too. No one enjoys a deathbed. Very few want to leave.

Digby at Hullabaloo: Welcome to Gilead

Welcome To Gilead

Have you heard the scoop on "The Cause USA"? You know, the weirdos with the tape over their mouths that say "LIFE." Catch has the details.

The Cause USA is yet another organization churned out by the frothing evangelist Lou Engle, a man who has set up quite a cottage industry for himself by praying on teens (INTENTIONAL TYPO ALERT!) in the name of the you-know-who. I got dizzy googling all of the different organizations that have his name stamped on them, but he's behind The Call, Bound4LIFE and the Elijah Revolution (no, not that Elijah, silly bunny) for starters.

Go over there and read the whole thing. Unbelievable.

Digby at Hullabaloo: Michael Jackson, Urban Legends

Urban Legends

Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School, said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school's entrance, killing a guard.

Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan: "He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him."

*sigh*

Teresa Nielsen Hayden explains:

Thing is, Jeff Weise wasn’t imitating the actual Columbine shooters. He was imitating a pious urban legend (what back home we used to call a faith-promoting rumor) that sprang up in the wake of the Columbine shootings: that shooter Dylan Klebold asked Cassie Bernall whether she believed in God, and shot her when she said she did.

David Neiwert at Orcinus: The Succubus

The Succubus
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
There are many kinds of evils, but there is a truly unique and awful quality to the evil produced by naked racial and religious bigotry. People in Red Lake, Minnesota, can tell you all about it.

What the strange saga of Jeff Weise reveals is one of the more remarkable qualities of that evil: Even when consigned to the fringes and shadows, it retains a kind of vampiric half-life that has an ability to not only survive but adapt, finding fresh clawholds wherever it can, and then fester and grow -- almost inevitably exploding in violence.

Democracy's nasty surprises

Democracy's nasty surprises
Geoffrey Wheatcroft International Herald Tribune
Friday, March 25, 2005

Change in the Mideast I

BATH, England--Nearly 73 years ago one of the greatest democracies on earth held a general election under universal suffrage. None of several parties won an absolute majority, but one was the clear winner, doubling its vote to 37.4 percent to become the largest group in Parliament.

Too much for Mother Earth

Too much for Mother Earth
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Even if per capita income in China grows at only 8% per year - lower than the red-hot pace of 9.5% at which it has grown since 1978 - it will still overtake the current per capita US income in just over 25 years, according to the latest analysis by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).

23 March 2005

Atrios at Eschaton:

Crisis

We can debate whether this would be the best way to deal with long term funding issues for Social Security -- as long as Republicans are running around calling the trust fund a "myth" it quite clearly isn't. And, in any case, I'd prefer at least a modest increase in the income cap if we're going that way. However, here's the economy-destroying measure which would make the program able to pay fully promised benefits for the next 75 years:

Atrios at Eschaton: Let the Wonkery Begin

Let the Wonkery Begin

New trustee estimates are in, and they pushed the insolvency date up to 2041. Time to dive in and see what nonsense they pulled to get there...

first pass - significantly lowered mortality rates from previous year, lowered the already ridiculously low immigration rates...

Sin of the Month: Left-Wing Zealotry

Sin of the Month: Left-Wing Zealotry


I
admit it: in the words of a recent letter from a disgruntled reader, I am a left-wing zealot.

Ten years ago when I started writing for the Voice, I had no interest in politics whatsoever. At that time, I wrote about small, harmless sins such as "Bad Hair," and if someone were to talk to me about the workings of Congress, I yawned and prayed for her to finish. I regarded the Washington Post as a magazine called "Style" with a boring front section attached to it, and I read the headlines only when I had finished the important articles like book reviews and celebrity gossip.

Climate change poorly understood by US public, MIT survey finds

Public release date: 23-Mar-2005


Contact: Elizabeth Thomson
thomson@mit.edu
617-258-5402
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Climate change poorly understood by US public, MIT survey finds
Surveys for other countries underway

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Climate change and the threat of global warming are poorly understood by the U.S. public, and taking action to reduce their impact is not a high priority, according to a recent MIT survey.

These results suggest that change in U.S. climate policy will not be led by public opinion. Elected officials will have to provide leadership--a task they will find difficult because achieving significant reduction of the greenhouse gases linked to climate change may involve economic costs well above what the average consumer is willing to pay.

For more than a decade, Howard J. Herzog and his colleagues at MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment (LFEE) have been studying one approach to climate-change mitigation. In carbon-dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS), the CO2 emissions from large sources that contribute to global warming are captured and injected into geologic formations for long-term storage.

CCS has technologic and economic promise, but public acceptance could be a problem. As a result, the researchers wanted to find out what people thought about CCS in particular and about climate change and environmental issues in general.

So LFEE Principal Research Engineer Herzog, graduate student Thomas E. Curry, Professor David M. Reiner of the University of Cambridge and Stephen Ansolabehere, the Elting R. Morison Professor in MIT's Department of Political Science, developed a survey that included 17 questions about the environment, global warming and climate-change-mitigation technologies. They collaborated with Knowledge Networks, a company that specializes in Internet-based public opinion surveys.

The 1,200 respondents proved to be relatively unaware not only of CCS but also of other energy-related responses to climate change that were listed in the survey. The researchers were not surprised that CCS fell under the radar for the general public. It was more surprising that many of the respondents also had not recently heard or read about hydrogen cars, wind energy or nuclear energy.

Most striking: Fully 17 percent of the people had heard or read about none of the listed items during the past year.

Other questions demonstrated the public's lack of understanding. For example, when asked what concern CCS would address, well over half of the respondents said they were not sure. Of those that made a choice, 23 percent said (correctly) that CCS could reduce global warming, but 29 percent said (incorrectly) that it could reduce smog.

The survey further found that the environment and climate change are not high-priority issues for the public. The environment came out 13th on a list of 22 possibilities for "the most important issues facing the U.S. today." And on a list of 10 specific environmental problems, "global warming" came up sixth, well behind water pollution and toxic waste.

What do the survey results mean for public outreach on climate change issues? Researchers concluded that education is critical. Programs should start with the fundamentals, helping people to understand the links between burning fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions and the potential for climate change. Perhaps most important, researchers said discussions must include the relative costs of the various technology options, as cost differentials can profoundly influence people's preferences.

In continuing their work on CCS, the MIT researchers plan to administer the same survey in two or three years to measure the evolution of public awareness. In the meantime, they are working with their Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) partners to analyze similar surveys taken in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

###

This research was supported by the AGS and the Carbon Sequestration Initiative.

For more information, please go to http://lfee.mit.edu/publications/newsletter/ee200412.pdf#page=7.

Opponents of needle-exchange programs should think about their message to drug users

Public release date: 23-Mar-2005

Contact: B.J. Almond
balmond@rice.edu
713-348-6770
Rice University

Opponents of needle-exchange programs should think about their message to drug users
Researcher at Rice University's Baker Institute recommends good public policy
Many opponents of needle-exchange programs argue that supplying drug users with clean needles sends the wrong message. But a researcher at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy advises that they should be concerned about the message they're actually sending. Despite the overwhelming evidence that needle-exchange programs (NEPs) can help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, many legislators refuse to support such efforts and instead write off death and illness as "just deserts" for illegal behavior, said William Martin, senior fellow in religion and public policy at the Baker Institute.

In a research paper posted this month on the Baker Institute Web site, Martin paraphrases the message these opponents are really conveying to injecting drug users (IDUs): "We know a way to dramatically cut your chances of contracting a deadly disease, then spreading it to others, including your unborn children. It would also dramatically cut the amount of money society is going to have to spend on you and those you infect. But because we believe what you are doing is illegal, immoral and sinful, we are not going to do what we know works. You are social lepers and, as upright, moral, sincerely religious people, we prefer that you and others in your social orbit die."

Martin cites a number of alarming statistics to show the size of the drug problem. The number of IDUs is estimated to be between 1 million and 1.4 million. By mid-2000, 36 percent (270,721) of AIDS cases in the United States had occurred among IDUs, their sexual partners and their children, and these three categories of people accounted for half of all new HIV infections in the nation. In fact, 57 percent of children born with AIDS in the United States are the offspring of IDUs or their sexual partners. IDUs also risk exposure to various forms of hepatitis. Between 50 and 80 percent of IDUs contract hepatitis C – the most dangerous strain -- within their first year of needle use.

Martin also translates the problem into dollars. A 2005 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the lifetime treatment cost for a person with HIV is $155,000. With 40,000 people being infected with HIV each year, lifetime treatment for those infected in just the past five years is projected to cost $31 billion. "The CDC estimates that only 1,300 cases would need to be averted annually to make a full-scale program of syringe exchange and disposal for IDUs economically effective," Martin said.

Other countries, particularly the Netherlands and Australia, have demonstrated that supplying drug addicts with clean needles in exchange for their used ones is an effective means of reducing the incidence of blood-borne diseases. Addicts receive a clean needle for every used one they turn in; this limits careless and dangerous disposal of contaminated needles. A 2002 report from Australia estimates that over the decade of the 1990s, Australia's NEP helped avoid 25,000 cases of HIV and 21,000 cases of hepatitis C. In U.S. dollars, Australia's investment of more than $71.8 million for the NEP resulted in a savings of between $1.3 billion and $4.1 billion.

Martin noted that the contrast between Australia and the United States is "particularly striking," as evidenced by a presentation that physician Alex Wodak made during a 2002 Baker Institute conference on "Moving Beyond the War on Drugs." Wodak, who helped persuade the Australian government to support NEPs, reported that in 2000, the rate of 14.7 new AIDS cases for every 100,000 Americans was dramatically higher than the rate of 1.1 new AIDS case for every 100,000 Australians.

During the 1990s, a small number of U.S. cities experimented with NEPs. The most carefully studied program was in New Haven, Conn., where researchers estimated that the HIV and hepatitis B transmission rates dropped by approximately one-third during the first two years of the program.

Government-funded studies of NEPs and reports from such respectable organizations as the National Academy of Science, the American Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health and the CDC have endorsed access to clean needles as an effective measure for reducing the incidence of blood-borne diseases and increasing access to treatment for drug users, Martin said. "In addition, they have persuasively documented that access to sterile needles neither encourages people to start injecting drugs nor increases drug use by those who are already users."

Yet policy makers at the federal, state and local levels have resisted providing IDUs with easier access to clean needles from physicians, pharmacies, the police or other readily available sources. In 1997 Congress enacted Public Law 105-78, which prohibits federal funding of any program that distributes sterile needles for the injection of illegal drugs.

Consequently, only 120 NEPs current operate in the United States, with funding from state or city governments, private foundations and/or individuals. Martin noted in his research paper that Houston – the fourth largest city in the nation – has nearly 20,000 known cases of AIDS but no NEP. Dallas has a program run by four volunteers who reportedly distribute 250,000 needles a year from a pickup truck mainly in African-American neighborhoods. "Limited as it is, this effort surely plays some role in an AIDS rate 57 percent lower than that of Houston's," Martin said.

Although NEPS are consistently rejected by politicians and platforms of both major political parties, Martin said some lawmakers are starting to consider changes in policy as they learn more about studies confirming that NEPs can save lives and money without increasing drug abuse. Last year, for example, California became another state that allows pharmacy sales of up to 10 sterile syringes without a prescription, and the Texas legislature is currently considering a bill that will permit the operation of NEPs.

"No responsible person wants to encourage drug abuse," Martin said. "No fiscally prudent person wants to waste money simply to satisfy a sense of righteous indignation. No compassionate person wants to consign people unnecessarily to death or a living hell. Fortunately, providing IDUs with access to sterile syringes allows us to be responsible, prudent and compassionate – admirable criteria for good public policy."

###

Martin is the Harry and Hazel Chavanne Professor of Religion and Public Policy and professor of sociology at Rice University. The full text of his research paper is available at www.bakerinstitute.org.

NASA Study Finds Soot May be Changing the Arctic Environment

NASA Study Finds Soot May be Changing the Arctic Environment

NASA continues to explore the impact of black carbon or soot on the Earth's climate. NASA uses satellite data and computer models that recreate the climate. New findings show soot may be contributing to changes happening near the North Pole, such as accelerating melting of sea ice and snow and changing atmospheric temperatures.

Groups Urge Partial Lapse Of Patriot Act

Groups Urge Partial Lapse Of Patriot Act


Bloomberg News
Wednesday, March 23, 2005; Page A06

An unusual coalition of conservative groups and the American Civil Liberties Union opened a public campaign yesterday to scale back the enhanced surveillance powers granted to law enforcement after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The alliance, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, urged Congress to let sections of the USA Patriot Act expire at year's end and modify what it called other "extreme provisions" of the law. Sixteen provisions, all related to surveillance powers, will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress extends them.

Battle Ahead Over Social Security Report

Battle Ahead Over Social Security Report

By Martin Crutsinger
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 23, 2005; 7:53 AM

Both sides in the pitched battle over Social Security are getting ready to argue over a whole new set of numbers - the annual assessment of when Social Security and Medicare will go broke.

Even before the report was released Wednesday, critics complained that the administration might try to fudge the numbers.

Atrios at Eschaton:

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Whiners
Wow, some Democratic members of Congress sure are wimps.

In a March 9 e-mail, David Sirota, a fellow at CAP, accused 16 pro-business Democrats of supporting bankruptcy-reform legislation because they received political contributions from the commercial banks and credit-card companies that stand to benefit if the legislation becomes law.

The e-mail coursed through the blogosphere and generated angry phone calls from liberal activists to the offices of the 16 centrist Democrats. Sirota, a former minority spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, criticized 16 of the 20 Democrats who wrote Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) March 7 urging him to bring bankruptcy reform to the House floor.

Daily Howler - March 23, 2005

SENATOR BULLROAR WON’T STOP! John McCain just won’t stop lying. When will your brave “spokesmen” make him? // link // print // previous // next //
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2005

SENATOR BULLROAR WON’T STOP: Senator Bullroar (sorry—John McCain) just won’t stop his public lying about the Social Security program. Yesterday, the press corps darling appeared with George Bush at an Albuquerque town hall event. In this morning’s Washington Post, Michael Fletcher records Bullroar’s misconduct:
FLETCHER (3/23/05): McCain also challenged opponents of Bush's plan, including the advocacy group AARP, to enter negotiations on Social Security. He said they are recklessly minimizing the fiscal problems looming for the nation's retirement system.

"Some of our friends, who are opposing this idea, say, 'Oh, you don't have to worry until 2042.' We wait until 2042, when we stop paying people Social Security?" he asked.

GOP eats their own

G.O.P. Right Is Splintered on Schiavo Intervention
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: March 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, March 22 - The vote by Congress to allow the federal courts to take over the Terri Schiavo case has created distress among some conservatives who say that lawmakers violated a cornerstone of conservative philosophy by intervening in the ruling of a state court.

The emerging debate, carried out against a rush of court decisions and Congressional action, has highlighted a conflict of priorities among conservatives and signals tensions that Republicans are likely to face as Congressional leaders and President Bush push social issues over the next two years, party leaders say.

"This is a clash between the social conservatives and the process conservatives, and I would count myself a process conservative," said David Davenport of the Hoover Institute, a conservative research organization. "When a case like this has been heard by 19 judges in six courts and it's been appealed to the Supreme Court three times, the process has worked - even if it hasn't given the result that the social conservatives want. For Congress to step in really is a violation of federalism."

Stephen Moore, a conservative advocate who is president of the Free Enterprise Fund, said: "I don't normally like to see the federal government intervening in a situation like this, which I think should be resolved ultimately by the family: I think states' rights should take precedence over federal intervention. A lot of conservatives are really struggling with this case."

Some more moderate Republicans are also uneasy. Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the sole Republican to oppose the Schiavo bill in a voice vote in the Senate, said: "This senator has learned from many years you've got to separate your own emotions from the duty to support the Constitution of this country. These are fundamental principles of federalism."

"It looks as if it's a wholly Republican exercise," Mr. Warner said, "but in the ranks of the Republican Party, there is not a unanimous view that Congress should be taking this step."

In interviews over the past two days, conservatives who expressed concern about the turn of events in Congress stopped short of condemning the vote in which overwhelming majorities supported the Schiavo bill, and they generally applauded the goal of trying to keep Ms. Schiavo alive. But they said they were concerned about what precedent had been set and said the vote went against Republicans who were libertarian, advocates of states' rights or supporters of individual rights.

"My party is demonstrating that they are for states' rights unless they don't like what states are doing," said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill. "This couldn't be a more classic case of a state responsibility."

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," Mr. Shays said. "There are going to be repercussions from this vote. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them."

While the intensity of the dissent appears to be rising - Mr. Warner made a point Tuesday of calling attention to his little-noticed opposition in a nearly empty Senate chamber over the weekend - support for the measure among Republican and conservative leaders still appears strong. In interviews, some conservatives either dismissed the argument that the vote was a federal intrusion on states' rights or argued that their opposition to euthanasia as part of their support of the right-to-life movement trumped any aversion they might have to a dominant federal government.

"There's a larger issue in play," and Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, "and that is the whole issue of the definition of life. The issue of when is it a life is a broader issue than just a state defining that. I don't think we can have 50 different definitions of life."

Other Republicans who supported the Schiavo bill said they were wrestling conflicting beliefs. Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, a former governor and a strong advocate of states' rights, decided to support the bill after determining that his opposition to euthanasia outweighed his views on federalism, an aide said.

How to Turn Your Red State Blue

How to Turn Your Red State Blue

By Christopher Hayes

Last fall, I spent seven weeks in the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin, canvassing undecided voters for John Kerry. Driving back one day from a long session pounding the pavement, our car passed two young Mormon missionaries on bicycles. They were dressed in their standard garb: grim but oddly stylish black suits, white shirts, skinny ties and backpacks, all of which were getting soaked in the rain as they struggled up a hill, standing on their pedals for extra leverage.

“Now that,” said a fellow organizer sitting in the backseat, “is canvassing.”

Digby at Hullabaloo: Visual Aids

Visual Aids

Via Media Matters, here is a CNN chart showing the partisan differences in the Schiavo case.

Digby at Hullabaloo: Competing Realities

Competing Realities

Responding to Kevin Drum's post of the other night and mine which followed, Michael over at Reading A1 has posted an interesting piece extolling the virtues of partisan media and reminding us that this idea of a "objective media" is fairly new:

... to Kevin and Digby I say, stop worrying. A little historical perspective works wonders here. The simple truth is that, for most of its proper existence—from the beginnings of mass-distribution journalism in the mid-nineteenth century to roughly the start of World War II—the American press has been explicitly partisan. Newspapers were often the overt organs of political machines; when they weren't, they differentiated themselves for their audiences based on ideology and partisan identification. Competition was fierce, and was very often a competition over what facts were actually facts, and over what sorts of things ought to be reported. (Strangely enough, this situation was understood by no one during the period as some sort of "postmodern" hell. Nor was it considered a challenge to the very possibility of democratic self-government.) The neutral, "objective" press that we now think of as a natural property of democratic civil society is, broadly speaking, an invention of the corporate, managerial capitalism of the twentieth century, and tracks its growth.

Digby at Hullabaloo: The Big Baby

The Big Baby

Tom Delay breaks down and has a good old fashioned cry:

One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America," Mr. DeLay told a conference organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. A recording of the event was provided by the advocacy organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

30 Killed on Tuesday, Including US Soldier

Early on Monday, Iraqi troops supported by US forces fought a firefight in northern Baghdad, killing several guerrillas, according to US military sources as reported by the LBC satellite channel.

UPI reports that at least 30 persons died in violent incidents in Iraq on Tuesday.

The biggest such incident was a firefight in Mosul, sparked by an attempted assassination by guerrillas, to which US forces replied, killing 17 fighters and capturing 11.

David Neiwert at Orcinus: The fruits of hate

The fruits of hate
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Don't you think it's kind of funny that when the rabid right goes a-hunting for people with "a unique hostility toward Western traditional and commonsense attitudes," people whose "true raison d'etre is in practice nothing other than to destroy to destroy utterly whatever allegiance a young person might have to traditional conceptions in morality, religion, politics and culture," they only seem to cobble up relatively insignificant figures on the left?

Whose Securit? What Social Security Means to Children and Families

Whose Security? What Social Security Means to Children and Families

Social Security is the single largest program that provides support to American children. It is also the primary, if not the only, source of life and disability insurance for many U.S. families, especially those headed by younger workers. The program is responsible for keeping many middle- and low-income children from falling into poverty when a parent dies or becomes disabled. This policy brief describes the role that Social Security plays in protecting America’s children and argues that the current debate ignores how privatization and benefit cuts will impact our most vulnerable population—children.

What About Novak?

What About Novak?

For more than 40 years, Beltway pundit Robert Novak has been a scowling bundle of contradictions. Now the high-decibel conservative who exposed Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. agent is at the silent center of a Justice Department probe—and as unrepentant as ever
By DAVID MARGOLICK

Mary Mapes, CBS producer in "Rathergate," Inks Big Book Deal

Mary Mapes, CBS producer in "Rathergate," Inks Big Book Deal

By E&P Staff

Published: March 22, 2005 5:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer fired over "Rathergate,” has inked a deal to tell her side of the scandal, reportedly for a high six-figure sum.

The publisher, St. Martin's Press, beat out a reported half a dozen others. It announced today that the book would come out in the fall with a tentative title of “The Other Side of the Story.”

Phase 2 of Republican Schiavo Plan: Attack the judiciary

Phase 2 of Republican Schiavo Plan: Attack the judiciary, weaken it, consolidate power
by August Keso, March 22nd, 2005
According to Republican propagandist Rusty "Rush" Hudson Limbaugh the Third, the 70% of American people, which did not appreciate Congress getting involved in the Schiavo situation, and believed the reason for Republican involvement to be politically motivated well, they just don't know what they are talking about. That isn't all ladies and gentlemen, Rusty also played out the other half of the Republican political game, as it pertains to Terri Schiavo.

Karen Hughes' New Job

Noting a Wall Street Journal report that "Republicans and Democrats alike" privately question the Karen Hughes appointment at State, David Sarasohn writes that "for Hughes' skills to really apply, the Syrians would have to run in the New Hampshire primary." Or if not the Syrians, Condoleezza Rice, says Helen Thomas.

Hard-liners want evidence that Iran is up to no good.

The Front
Hard-liners want evidence that Iran is up to no good. And they’re turning to strange sources to get it.

By Laura Rozen and Jeet Heer
Issue Date: 04.08.05

Print Friendly | Email Article

For Iranians in exile -- and the Americans who become embroiled in their intrigues -- Paris has long been the city of shadows. This is where the Ayatollah Khomenei awaited the ominous victory of his Islamic revolution; and where the deposed ministers and brutal spies from the late shah’s government washed up in the 1979 revolution’s bloody aftermath.

For well over two decades now, dreamers and schemers who hope to overthrow the mullahs have been lurking along the banks of the Seine, passing secrets and lies through proxies, back channels, and middlemen. Among the Persian plotters marooned in the French capital is a former minister of commerce in the shah’s government, who has recently acquired the code name of “Ali.”

To the influential U.S. congressman who bestowed that somewhat unoriginal alias on him, the elderly bureaucrat is actually an oracle who passes along invaluable intelligence about terrorist conspiracies emanating from Tehran, and an important asset who should be cultivated by the CIA.

Yet “Ali” is actually a cipher for Manucher Ghorbanifar, the notorious Iranian arms dealer and accused intelligence fabricator -- and the potential instrument of another potentially dangerous manipulation of American policy in the Persian Gulf region.

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolfowitz

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolfowitz

By Jason Vest, Village Voice
Posted on March 22, 2005, Printed on March 23, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21559/

To some, Paul Wolfowitz's nomination to be president of the World Bank is yet another sign of neoconservative political hegemony; to others, it smacks of a setback for the neocons, as it means one of their top (though least doctrinaire) defense intellectuals will, for the first time in his career, be using balance sheets, not bullets, as instruments for realizing formidable political vision.

IRAQ: Focus on threats against progressive women

IRAQ: Focus on threats against progressive women

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BAGHDAD, 21 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - Pharmacist Zeena Qushtiny was dressed in the latest Western fashion and wearing a sparkling diamond necklace when she was taken at gunpoint from her pharmacy in Baghdad by insurgents.

Her body was found 10 days later with two bullet holes close to her eyes.

Undemocratic Media Overseas

Undemocratic Media Overseas

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet
Posted on March 21, 2005, Printed on March 23, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21553/

NEW YORK, March 21, 2005 – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Tokyo this weekend, bluntly if diplomatically suggesting democracy – or at least "some form of open, genuinely representative government" eventually be embraced by China.

Rice made no mention, however, of the need for democratic reform in another one-party state that has instead hugged capitalism, while divorcing itself from certain democratic principles such as freedom of the press.

That country, of course, is the one Secretary Rice was speaking from – Japan – where Big Media and Big Government have been in cahoots since before World War II, as detailed in a new book by Adam Gamble & Takesato Watanabe, A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West.

Clear Channel gets a little spanking

Clear Channel gets a little spanking


After years of well-documented bullying and backroom dealing, Clear Channel finally got a spanking. Some even suggest there's "blood in the water" encouraging others who have been -- and will be -- wronged to file suit in the future... a la Big Tobacco. Continue »
Posted on March 22, 2005 @ 7:44AM.

6-Day Old Tax-Exempt Group Run by High Level GOP Operatives!

Blogged by Brad on 3/22/2005 @ 7:01pm PT...

New 'Non-Partisan' 'Voting Rights' Org Appears Little More than Republican Front Group!
6-Day Old Tax-Exempt Group Run by High Level GOP Operatives!
(GOPUSA/Talon News, Anyone?)

Republicans seem to have a new found interest in the Electoral Reform movement. An article today from the extremist rightwing web publication WorldNetDaily attacks Sen. Hillary Clinton's election reform bill with quotes from several critics, but none from either Clinton or other supporters of the bill.

In Ohio, state Republican legislators are attempting to raise the cost for candidates seeking a recount after an election. While in Georgia, Republican legislators are trying to pass laws requiring voters to produce Photo ID at the polls.

Gas-Guzzler Sales May Be at Risk from China Rules

Gas-Guzzler Sales May Be at Risk from China Rules
Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:24 AM ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Most American cars and half of European models do not meet new fuel consumption standards that China will introduce at mid-year, a European Commission official said on Friday.

Justice Redacted Memo on Detainees

Justice Redacted Memo on Detainees

FBI Criticism Of Interrogations Was Deleted

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 22, 2005; Page A03

U.S. law enforcement agents working at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced intelligence information that was "suspect at best," an FBI agent told a superior in a memo in May last year.

Economists find deficit biggest threat


Economists find deficit biggest threat
WASHINGTON, (UPI) March 21, 2005

The U.S. budget deficit is a bigger threat than terrorism, a survey of top economists published Monday said.

Falling Off The Competitive Edge

Falling Off The Competitive Edge

Christian E. Weller and Tyler Tepfer

March 22, 2005

The United States' trade in advanced technology products used to be one of our economic high points. But in the last year, the United States dropped from number one to number five in the list of successful information technology economies—replaced by places like Singapore, Malaysia and Ireland. We're now running trade deficits in high-tech products—something that won't change without serious policy intervention, says economist Christian Weller.

Christian E. Weller is senior economist and Tyler Tepfer is economic policy intern at the Center for American Progress.

Mercurial Rulemaking

Mercurial Rulemaking

Frank O'Donnell

March 22, 2005

The Washington Post reported this morning that the EPA ignored an EPA-sponsored report saying that enforcing the existing mercury regulations would yield more than a 600 percent return on the cost of cleanup. Instead, they chose to relax the rules on mercury for another 20 years, condemning a new generation of children to this poison. Frank O'Donnell gives the behind-the-scenes story.

Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a 501 (c) 3 non-partisan, non-profit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act.

You almost have to pity Steve Johnson, recently tapped by President Bush to head the Environmental Protection Agency. A scientist and career EPA employee, Johnson was put in place to create the perception that major EPA actions were based on science instead of politics. But right out of the gate, Johnson was forced to swallow hard and do exactly what his Bush administration predecessors did—make a big decision based not on science, but on a White House dictate aimed at befriending political supporters.

Mercurial Rulemaking

Mercurial Rulemaking

Frank O'Donnell

March 22, 2005

The Washington Post reported this morning that the EPA ignored an EPA-sponsored report saying that enforcing the existing mercury regulations would yield more than a 600 percent return on the cost of cleanup. Instead, they chose to relax the rules on mercury for another 20 years, condemning a new generation of children to this poison. Frank O'Donnell gives the behind-the-scenes story.

Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a 501 (c) 3 non-partisan, non-profit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act.

You almost have to pity Steve Johnson, recently tapped by President Bush to head the Environmental Protection Agency. A scientist and career EPA employee, Johnson was put in place to create the perception that major EPA actions were based on science instead of politics. But right out of the gate, Johnson was forced to swallow hard and do exactly what his Bush administration predecessors did—make a big decision based not on science, but on a White House dictate aimed at befriending political supporters.

22 March 2005

On the Subject of Terry Schaivo

Congressional Record - House

March 20, 2005 (H1723)

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the legislation.

[Begin Insert]

Mr. Speaker, I rise first to extend my thoughts and prayers to the loved ones of Teresa Marie Schiavo at this extraordinarily difficult time.

America has seen the anguish in the faces of Ms. Schiavo's family members. The legislation we are considering will determine whether we will send to federal court one case that has been adjudicated in Florida's state courts for nearly a decade.

For the past seven years, this particular case has traveled through Florida's state court system. The Florida courts determined through a review of testimony that, as her husband has testified, Terri Schiavo would not have wanted her life continued by artificial means. This Congress has chosen to disregard the ruling of the state court, the appeals court and Florida's Supreme Court. This bill stands in stark contrast to the principles of federalism, and it is the wrong direction for this Congress to take.

But as this debate is carried out before the entire world, it is clear that the issue is far more fundamental than state versus federal jurisdiction. The issue before us involves one of the most personal and controversial matters we face as humans: how do we deal with end-of-life care decisions for patients who cannot speak for themselves? Certainly not through this unprecedented act of intrusion into a personal family matter.

I believe the authors of this bill know that this is not the correct approach. Section 9 of this bill includes a ``Sense of Congress that the 109th Congress should consider policies regarding the status and legal rights of incapacitated individuals who are incapable of making decisions concerning the provision, withholding or withdrawal of foods, fluids, or medical care.''

When to stop life support when a person has no chance of recovery is an arduous decision. It is for that reason that Congress passed in 1990 the Patient Self-Determination Act as part of OBRA '90, which requires all hospitals, long term care facilities, home health agencies, hospice programs and HMOs that receive Medicare and Medicaid dollars to recognize a patient's living will and power of attorney for health care as advance directives. Health care organizations must provide patients with written information about establishing an advance directive and document if the patient has an advance directive that is placed in the patient's medical record. Patients are then able to decide in advance what medical treatment they want to receive if they become physically or mentally unable to communicate their wishes.

This piece of legislation gives patients the right to make choices and decisions about the types and extent of medical care they wish for themselves. With this act, patients can specify if they want to accept or refuse specific medical care. They can also identify a legal representative for urgent health care decision purposes. Then if they become unable to make decisions due to illness, the patients' wishes have been clearly documented at an earlier point of time.

Unfortunately, Ms. Schiavo did not execute an advance directive. There is conflicting information as to her wishes as expressed by her husband and parents. That conflict was resolved by the appropriate Florida court. It is not appropriate for Congress to pass special legislation for this one case.

Fifteen years after the passage of the Patient Self-Determination Act, the vast majority of Americans have not completed an advance directive. My colleague in the Senate, Bill Nelson, has introduced legislation that would improve compliance with the 1990 legislation and provide a benefit under Medicare for end-of-life consultation. That is the bill Congress should move as we debate this complex issue, not the bill that's currently before us.

If we enact this bill, it could very well result in an avalanche of cases in federal court. According to medical experts, as many as 35,000 Americans--nearly one-third of them children--are in a condition similar to that of Terri Schiavo . Their families face the same difficult decision-making process that Ms. Schiavo's parents and husband are contending with. I believe most Americans would agree that the last thing we want to do is encourage more divisive court cases and bills of this nature.

Regardless of the outcome of this vote, there will be no clear winners at the conclusion of this debate. Our judicial system and the rights of patients and their next-of-kin to make end-of-life decisions with their providers will be clear losers. Congress should never have considered this legislation.

[End Insert]

March 22, 2005 Daily Howler

THE TWO AMERICAS! In Scarborough Country, viewers got worked by a brilliant “Nobel nominee:” // link // print // previous // next //
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2005

THE TWO AMERICAS: What are the two Americas? In this morning’s Washington Post, a front-page news story purports to list elementary facts in the Schiavo case. The reporter is Manuel Roig-Franzia:
ROIG-FRANZIA (3/22/05): Terri Schiavo, whose husband said she had bulimia, suffered severe brain damage after a potassium imbalance caused a heart attack in 1990. Her husband and her parents have been locked in a legal battle since 1998 that has bounced through at least a dozen and a half courtrooms... One America reads those facts. Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage as the result of a heart attack. But last night, visitors to Scarborough Country heard a different set of facts. Cable viewers live in one America, newspaper readers in another.

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian


The "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, who was long thought to have been the black sheep of Germany's scientists under the Nazi regime, was in fact supported by a network of elite researchers, new research has revealed.

African bishop spurns Aids cash from pro-gay diocese

I'm an agnostic because religious authorities often put dogma ahead of people, as in this case--Dictynna

African bishop spurns Aids cash from pro-gay diocese


Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian


An African bishop has announced that he will not accept more than $350,000 of funding to help Aids victims in his area because it comes from an American diocese that supported the election of a gay bishop two years ago.

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian


The "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, who was long thought to have been the black sheep of Germany's scientists under the Nazi regime, was in fact supported by a network of elite researchers, new research has revealed.

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian


The "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, who was long thought to have been the black sheep of Germany's scientists under the Nazi regime, was in fact supported by a network of elite researchers, new research has revealed.

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Network of top scientists helped 'Angel of Death' Mengele

Krysia Diver in Stuttgart
Tuesday March 22, 2005
The Guardian


The "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, who was long thought to have been the black sheep of Germany's scientists under the Nazi regime, was in fact supported by a network of elite researchers, new research has revealed.

I actually like this David Brooks column (horrors !)

March 22, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST

Masters of Sleaze

By DAVID BROOKS

Down in the depths of the netherworld, where Tammany Hall grafters and Chicago ward heelers gather amid spittoons and brass railings, a reverential silence now spreads across the communion. The sleazemasters of old look back into the land of the mortals and they see greatness in the form of Jack Abramoff.

Only a genius like Abramoff could make money lobbying against an Indian tribe's casino and then turn around and make money defending that tribe against himself. Only a giant like Abramoff would have the guts to use one tribe's casino money to finance a Focus on the Family crusade against gambling in order to shut down a rival tribe's casino.

The most fatuous argument for privatizing Social Security

A Harvard Fantasy
The most fatuous argument for privatizing Social Security.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Monday, March 21, 2005, at 11:30 AM PT

The arguments for privatizing Social Security are growing more fatuous by the day. Will Saletan last week flagged President Bush's odd pitch to Hispanics and African-Americans. An even odder—and more telling—non-argument has just been put forth by the man who was until recently President Bush's top economic adviser, N. Gregory Mankiw.

The Daily Howler, March 21, 2005

BUNGLING RATHER (PART 6)! “I haven’t discussed the insider press,” Josh said. Our analysts responded: “We’ve noticed!”
// link // print // previous // next //
MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2005

MILLION-DOLLAR LIGHTWEIGHT: The press corps’ alleged bias is constantly flogged. But often, it’s harder for people to comprehend how dumb the corps really is. How big a lightweight is the Post’s Dana Milbank? In Sunday’s Outlook section, Milbank confesses to what his headline calls a “bias for mainstream news.” The scribe’s worry? “Partisans on the left and right have formed cottage industries devoted to discrediting what they dismissively call the ‘mainstream media,’” he writes. “[T]he consequences are ominous for the country,” the troubled scribe quickly explains:

Atrios at Eschaton: Bases

Bases

Yglesias writes:

Speaking of Iraq policy, I seem to have misset my clock radio last night and instead of the usual NPR got what I think was C-SPAN Radio where they had Marina Ottaway on. She, unlike pretty much everyone else one ever hears talking on this subject, did an admirable job of raising the elephant in the corner of American Iraq policy, the fact that near as anybody can tell the administration is still trying to finagle some kind of permanent military basing agreement in Iraq. That the administration has managed to hew consistently to this agenda without ever stating that this is one of their major policy goals is astounding, and that the American media is consistently unwilling to discuss the point is appalling. What's even more astounding about it is that one regularly hears and reads in expert commentary that we ought to "make clear" that this isn't what we're doing. Apparently, it's impolitic to note that Bush isn't making it clear that we don't want permanent bases because we do, in fact, want permanent bases.

Atrios at Eschaton: 007

007

Kleiman:

Nonetheless, if the distinction among the cases is so fine-grained, it's hard to credit the sincerity of people who throw around terms such as "murder" and "Dachau" when talking about Schiavo but make no objection to the Texas law, especially since the Texas law specifically lists "artificial nutrition and hydration" as among the services that can be discontinued.

Digby at Hullabaloo: Taming the Beast Within

I don't recommend seeing the video; I didn't--'Dictynna'


Taming The Beast Within



The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England



Hi my name is M. D. formaly of A TRP 1-10 CAV 4ID and while in Iraq we had a sport of killing dogs whenever the Iraqis werent shooting us. So when I shot this one at about 50 yards with my M4 and it ran yelping to lower ground, we had to finish it so my friends and I went to it and started shooting it. I ve never seen a dog take as many shots to the head at least 4 as this one did and then after we thought it was dead we dug a hole and when I picked it up with the shovel it came back to life, so we shot it a couple more times....its pretty funny."

Digby at Hullabaloo: War Porn

War Porn

Following up the dog story below, here's another one about our new cineaste army in Iraq:

When Pfc. Chase McCollough went home on leave in November, he brought a movie made by fellow soldiers in Iraq. On his first night back at his parents' house in Texas, he showed the video to his fiancee, family and friends.

Amy Sullivan Guest Blogging on 'Political Animal'

STOP THIS MAN BEFORE HE DIAGNOSES AGAIN....I wasn't going to comment on the Terry Schiavo case, mostly because it seems that any attention just feeds directly into what conservatives are hoping to achieve: a trumped-up culture war. (See Ed Kilgore's comments for my general take on the issue.) But Senator Frist's recent diagnosis--via a home-made video, it's important to note--that Schiavo is not actually in a persistent vegetative state, compels me to write. To the extent that Frist's comments have been covered at all, it has been through the 2008 "Oh, he's just trying to suck up to the Christian Right" lens. (And by the way, Senator, if that's what you're doing, let me save you the effort and a few years of your life: the Christian Right favorites are Santorum and Brownback. No amount of false diagnosing is going to change that. Oh, and by the time the Social Security debacle is over, your political career will be as well.)

Sam Rosenfeld at Tapped: Dr. Hack

DR. HACK. Amy Sullivan nails Bill Frist to the wall for his Senate-career-spanning serial medical quackery on behalf of whatever right-wing cause celebre happens to come down the pipeline.

Digby at Hullabaloo: Check Their Affiliations

Check Their Affiliations

I've been thinking that I'm going to have to ask whether a doctor is a Republican or a Democrat before I trust my health to him or her from now on. Doctors who vote for Republicans obviously have no fealty to science or reason or they wouldn't vote for them. Some, like Bill Frist blatantly violate medical ethics for political reasons:

Digby at Hullaballo: Judgment Day

Judgment Day

What must underlie petitioners’ entire federal assault on the Florida election procedures is an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions if the vote count were to proceed. Otherwise, their position is wholly without merit. The endorsement of that position by the majority of this Court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land. It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law. Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today’s decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

From Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent in Bush v Gore

10 Killed in Iraq; Sistani Impatient

10 Killed in Iraq
Sistani Impatient


Ed Wong does his usual good job of reporting on developments in Iraq. The guerrilla war continued apace, with ten Iraqis killed in separate incidents. Guerrillas in Anbar Province killed a US Marine on Monday, as well.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is expressing impatience with the inability of the elected parliament to form a government. He appears to be pressuring the religious Shiite parties to make the compromises with the Kurdish Alliance that are necessary to form a government.

The Schiavo Case and the Islamization of the Republican Party

The Schiavo Case and the Islamization of the Republican Party

The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model.

Sharia: Iraq's Dark Cloud (Susan Jacoby op-ed)

Sharia: Iraq's Dark Cloud

An Islamic constitution is huge peril.

By Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby is the author of "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" (Metropolitan Books, 2004) and director of the Center for Inquiry-Metro New York.

21 March 2005

In a warped reality

In a warped reality

Two years on, the occupiers justify the war by embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient

Gary Younge
Monday March 21, 2005
The Guardian


This is a tale of one war, two anniversaries, three different demonstrations - and inconsistencies, contradictions and civilian deaths that are too numerous to count.

The impact of the Iraq war is now being felt across Middle East

The impact of the Iraq war is now being felt across Middle East
Monday, 21st March 2005, by Robert Fisk



SO now they have struck in Qatar. Nice, friendly, liberal Doha, with its massive US air base and its spiky, argumentative al-Jazeera television, its modern shops and expatriate compounds and luxury hotels. Ever since al-Qa’ida urged its supporters to strike around the maritime Arab kingdoms of the Gulf, the princes and emirs have been waiting to find out who’s first. Saturday’s suicide bomber - and the killing of a Briton - gave them their answer.

GOP talking points memo obtained by ABC News

S. 529, The Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act

Teri (sic) Schiavo is subject to an order that her feeding tubes will be disconnected on March 18, 2005 at 1p.m.

The Senate needs to act this week, before the Budget Act is pending business, or Terri's family will not have a remedy in federal court.

This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.

This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.

The bill is very limited and defines custody as "those parties authorized or directed by a court order to withdraw or withhold food, fluids, or medical treatment."

There is an exemption for a proceeding "which no party disputes, and the court finds, that the incapacitated person while having capacity, had executed a written advance directive valid under applicably law that clearly authorized the withholding or or (sic) withdrawl (sic) of food and fluids or medical treatment in the applicable circumstances."

Incapacitated persons are defined as those "presently incapable of making relevant decisions concerning the provision, withholding or withdrawl (sic) of food fluids or medical treatment under applicable state law."

This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy.

DFA Meetup 893

Opening Statement
Office of Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest
Monday, April 18, 2005 - 1:00 PM

Before we tell you about ourselves, we’d like to first thank you for your years of service to this district. In particular, we appreciate the legislative initiatives you have sponsored in areas affecting Maryland and the environment, such as your recent stated opposition to sewage blending, and sponsoring H.R. 705 increasing fuel standards.

We’re a group of citizens residing in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District. We come from east and west of the bay, from Severna Park, Severn, Salisbury, Delmar, Ocean City and Chestertown. Many of us have never in our lives been active in politics, but we have been thrust into action and have found each other due to the recent declining outlook for the future of our country under current management. We are educators, administrators, computer programmers, government workers, and retired. And there are many more who would be here, but for work and family obligations. We’re here because we wanted to give you, our representative in Congress, the benefit of hearing directly from your constituents.

Although there are many issues of concern, we’re here today to talk about Social Security. Our motivation in coming to your office stems from the large amount of news and reporting on this subject that is raging around Washington, within the media, at town hall meetings and elsewhere. No wonder it’s been referred to as the third rail of politics.

But for us, it’s no third rail, not a political football to be used for election year politicking, it’s an important part of our lives, and our family and friends’ lives.

With all that is being said, it is hard to cut through the noise and become accurately informed. So as responsible citizens, we decided to rely on ourselves, dig deeper, and find out as much as we could. What we found was that the essential facts are being misrepresented, that fear and distortion are being used to create the perception of a crisis that does not exist. We’d like to share our thoughts and findings with you today.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do so.

3/19/2005

3/19/2005

Bush Administration lied about North Korean link to nuclear arms trade

site admin @ 11:48 pm

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state, the Washington Post reports Sunday. Excerpts follow.


3/20/2005

3/20/2005

Twenty-three House members endorse vote-tabulation divestiture campaign

— site admin @ 11:35 pm

By Jesse Kanson-Benanav | RAW STORY Managing Editor

Twenty-three members of the United States House of Representatives will announce on Monday their support for the Velvet Revolution “Divestiture for Democracy” campaign. The initiative, launched in February by a coalition of more than 80 progressive organizations, seeks to ensure transparency and accountability in American elections by forcing companies that manufacture vote-tabulation systems to open their technology to greater public scrutiny.

3/21/2005

Video footage of the treatment of prisoners by the US military at Guantanamo Bay would reveal many cases of substantial abuse as “explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib", a lawyer says.

Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny, who represented Australian David Hicks during the early part of his detention at the military prison in Cuba, told a law conference 500 hours of videotape of prisoners at the US base existed.

Gambling on Luck-Based Benefits

Gambling on Luck-Based Benefits
  • The dangerous new deal: Take that long-awaited vacation and you may not have time left in the bank for getting sick.
  • Nonprofit Groups Question Motive for Federal Actions

    Nonprofit Groups Question Motive for Federal Actions

    By STEPHANIE STROM

    Published: March 21, 2005

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is locked in a standoff with the Internal Revenue Service, preferring to risk its tax exemption rather than hand over documents for an I.R.S. review that the civil rights group contends is politically motivated.

    Family files suit over teacher's religious lessons

    Published on: Sunday, March 20, 2005

    Family files suit over teacher's religious lessons

    RALEIGH - A Cumberland County fifth-grader's family sued the county school system in federal court because her teacher used a Christian text that preached creationism and encouraged children to proselytize for Jesus.

    The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh. The school system acknowledged in a separate filing that the allegations were true.

    Schiavo: 'Come down, President Bush'

    Schiavo: 'Come down, President Bush'

    By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
    Published March 20, 2005

    PINELLAS PARK - Angered by the latest political developments in Washington, Michael Schiavo said Saturday that it isn't just the Florida governor who should visit his wife to learn about the case.

    20 March 2005

    Mutating Terms in Evolution/Creation Argument

    An Argument's Mutating Terms
    Theory, n: 1 syn. theory is used in nontechnical contexts to mean an untested idea or opinion. 2 syn. theory is used in technical contexts to mean a more or less verified or established explana

    By Steve Olson Sunday, March 20, 2005; Page B01

    If you want to know one reason why the debate over teaching evolution remains so contentious, consider the stickers some school boards have wanted to paste in high school biology textbooks. They label evolution a "theory, not a fact," suggesting that an alternative explanation is possible.

    The Mideast Comes to Columbia (University)

    The Mideast Comes to Columbia

    by SCOTT SHERMAN

    [from the April 4, 2005 issue]

    In December 2003 Rabbi Charles Sheer, the director of the Columbia/Barnard chapter of Hillel, the Jewish campus organization, dispatched an e-bulletin to alumni, students and supporters. There was much to report: In 2002 a movement of students and professors had urged Columbia to divest from companies that manufactured and sold weaponry to Israel. In the end, Rabbi Sheer had vanquished the prodivestment forces with a well-executed campaign that garnered 33,000 signatures. "There have not been any major divestment campaigns on any US campus, and almost no anti-Israel student-initiated activity--speakers, films or demonstrations--on our campus," Sheer noted with pride. "That's the good news." The bad news? "The battleground regarding the Middle East at Columbia University has shifted to the classroom." Rabbi Sheer was mainly referring to classrooms in a single department--Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC)--and he hinted that a counterstrike against MEALAC was in the making: "A student group," he wrote, "is currently working on a video that records how intimidated students feel by advocacy teaching....

    The New PC

    The New PC

    by RUSSELL JACOBY

    [from the April 4, 2005 issue]

    The Yale student did not like what he heard. Sociologists derided religion and economists damned corporations. One professor pre-emptively rejected the suggestion that "workers on public relief be denied the franchise." "I propose, simply, to expose," wrote the young author in a booklong denunciation, one of "the most extraordinary incongruities of our time. Under the "protective label 'academic freedom,'" the institution that derives its "moral and financial support from Christian individualists then addresses itself to the task of persuading the sons of these supporters to be atheistic socialists."

    For William F. Buckley Jr., author of the 1951 polemic God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom" and a founder of modern American conservatism, the solution to this scandal was straightforward: Fire the wanton professors. No freedom would be abridged. The socialist professor could "seek employment at a college that was interested in propagating socialism." None around? No problem. The market has spoken. The good professor can retool or move on.

    Nation Comment: The 'Ownership' Swindle

    'Ownership' Swindle

    by DAVID MOBERG

    [from the April 4, 2005 issue]

    George W. Bush hasn't even spelled out the details of his plan to privatize Social Security and it's already in trouble, even among some Republican lawmakers--for good reason. There's mounting evidence that privatization won't solve any of the system's financial problems, which loom far in the future and can be easily fixed, but it will worsen the government's fiscal condition and reduce future benefits even below what would result if Congress did nothing at all.

    Nation Editorial: The Captive Mind

    The Captive Mind

    [from the April 4, 2005 issue]

    Since September 11, we've heard a lot about the "intelligence failures" that left the United States unprepared for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These failures were not simply the result of poor espionage or of bureaucratic incompetence. They reflected a deeper failure to understand a region and its historical wounds, a number of which--though not all--were inflicted by the Western powers. The future of America's profoundly strained relations with the Arab and Muslim world depends, to a great extent, on educating the public. Yet the very people who are in a position to perform this vital task have instead found themselves under siege from extremist pressure groups and craven politicians. Their crime? Challenging the nostrums of those formidable authorities on the Arab world, George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon.

    Invisible Women (Katha Pollitt column)

    subject to debate by Katha Pollitt

    Invisible Women

    [from the April 4, 2005 issue]

    Women don't shout. Women don't like politics. Women shrink from intellectual debate. Women don't try. It's time for another round of "What's Wrong with Women?" Last month's category was science. This month it's punditry, sparked by a testy (well, nasty) letter from syndicated columnist and FOX-TV commentator Susan Estrich to Michael Kinsley, the courtly editorial and opinion editor of the Los Angeles Times, pointing out the lack of female talent on his op-ed pages: In nine weeks, only 20 percent of pieces were written by women. Now everybody's jumping in: "Feminists Get Hysterical" (Heather MacDonald in City Journal) is a typical sentiment.